Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	call_v	earth_n	sea_n	3,957	5	6.9260	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

sort ought not to be bad in contempt or to be needlesly put into a combustion Alas were it not that God had put a divine stamp upon Magistrates as he hath been pleased to call them Gods surely they could no more rule the people when in the calmest temper that ever they are in some being alwaies too rough then they could rule the Sea What wisdom can it then be to put so unruly a body into agroundless commotion If this Sea once become troubled work and rage and foam and swell how much is it to be feared it may overflow all its banks and invade us with a ruining inundation It was not cowardize but prudence in Herod to decline putting of John to death for fear of the people because they accounted him a Prophet Matth. 14.15 Likewise in the chief Priests and Elders of the people not to reply unto Christ that the Baptism of John was of men because of the people who all held him as a Prophet Matth. 21.26 For my own part I dread the Insurrection of people no less than the consequences of Fire it self the beginnings whereof have appeared very contemptible so that it hath been said as is reported that such a fire as that was at the first might be pissed out but the conclusion fatal beyond all imagination Now do I long to be at the end of this Meditation but having promised to shew what the matter of those particles is whereof Fire consists and considering with my self that some good morall may be gathered and infer'd from thence as I have already hinted that sulphurious or oily particles are those whereof Fire doth altogether or mostly consist so I shall now undertake to prove that so it is and consider how we may improve it It is manifest that all mixt bodies here below are compounded of five Elements or principles viz. Spirit otherwise called Mercury Water or Phlegme Sulphur or an Oily kind of substance Salt and Earth For each natural body be it of vegitables Animals or Minerals is by chymical art reduced or resolved into these five From any such bodie may be drawn a spirit or generous subtile liquor an Oile a Water a Salt and a kind of Earth saving that the two last are rather said to stay behind than to be drawn now if each body that is burning be as it is both its own fire and its own fuell both that which burns and that which is burnt then one or more of the fore-mentioned principles so modified must be the matter and form of fire As for the Watery and Phlegmatick part of each body no man will so confound two Elements so contrary each to other as to say that is the Fire which consumes Then as for that Salt and Earth which belongs to bodies they are not the Fire that burns them up for that which burns so far forth consumes and flies away but Salt and Earth they remain after the greatest burnings under the form of Ashes True it is that spirit or spiritous Liquor which is in Bodies is capable of taking Fire as we see spirit of Wine will burn and Feavers arise in the bodies of men by vertue of their spirits being inflamed but then we must consider that there is but little of that which is called Spirit or Spirits in Timber and such like materials of houses as are destroyed by Fire neither is the Fire of any great duration which hath only Spirits for its fuell as we see in the bodies of men that those Feavers which only fire the Spirits never last above three or four daies and many times not above one day and are therefore called Ephemeral Having therefore quitted Water Salt and Earth from being the causes of Fire and also proved that the Spirits of such kind of bodies which have but little of Spirits in them cannot contribute much to the maintenance of a desolating Fire Sulphur or the oyly part of each body will appear to be the great Incendiary and to be more the matter fuell and fomenter of Fire than any thing else And that it is so doth yet further appear in that such bodies of all others are most apt to take Fire and to burn fiercely when they have so done in which there is most of a sulphurious or oily substance as Oile it self Pitch Tarre c. Moreover we see that when any body is thoroughly burnt the sulphurious parts are all or most of them gone as if conscious of what they bad done they had fled for it and which is most of all demonstrative when those parts are once gone all or most of them what remains will burn no longer as you see we cannot make a fire with Ashes for that they consist only of Salt and Earth with little or no commixture of Sulphur Sith then Sulphur or Brimstone though in an acceptation somewhat different from that which in commonly called by that name is the great matter of Fire and the Agitation Commotion and Flight of it is the very Form of Fire I shall the less wonder hereafter to finde the Scripture still joyning Brimstone and Fire together So Gen. 19 24. The Lord rained upon Sodom Brimstone and Fire Psal 11.6 On the wicked he shalt rain Fire and Brimstone And Isa 30.33 The Pile whereof is Fire much Wood. The breath of the Lord like astream of Brimstone kindleth it viz. Tophet Fire most usually kindleth Fire A stream of Brimstone in violent motion is Fire and here you see the breath of the Lord is said like a mighty stream of Brimstone to kindle Tophet which kinde of expression is more genuine and philosophical than most men know it to be and may hint unto us that thorough our ignorance it comes to pass that many expressions in Scripture seem to us no more proper and significant than they do it faring with us in the reading of holy Writ as with those that ignorantly walk or ride over precions Mines little do they think what a world of Treasure they tread upon nor if they did could they be content till they had gotten within the bowels of that ground which now they flightly trample upon But I have been too long in this Philosophical contemplation because it was such and must endeavour to compensate my prolixity in this with greater Brevity in the rest at leastwise of that sort if any such shall occur CONTEMPLATION II. Touching the Nature of Sulphur which is the principal matter and cause of Fire and how it comes to be so mischievous in the World BEing credibly informed that the Element called Sulphur hath had the greatest hand under God in the late dismal Fire as it hath had in all other whereby Towns and Cities have been laid waste it is but fit we should take him under serious examination and strictly enquire what he is by what waies and means he brings such great desolations to pass Sulphur that is Brimstone so called by Chymists because it hath some assinity with that which

we commonly call Brimstone though it be not the very same for our common Brimstone is a compounded body so is not that we treat of is one of those Elements or principles with which all terrestrial bodies are made up and whereof they consist It hath pleased the God of nature who is called Natura naturans that amongst all things here below even those which go by the name of Elements as Air and Water and Earth there should be no one pure and unmixed and which is more strange that the principles of which each body is compounded should be of different and contrary natures viz. hot cold moist and dry heavy and light active and unactive weak and strong Yea that contrariety which is betwixt those Elements of Fire and Water Earth and Air which are the Ingredients of each Sublunary makes for the good of each and for the benefit of the whole so long as they quietly draw together in that yoak of mixture in which God hath placed them So that as the Apostle speaks in another case 1 Cor. 12.21 The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee nor the head to the feet I have no need of you Fire cannot say to Water or Water to Fire or either of them to Earth I have no need of you Though some of them do curb and limit the Activity of others yea the more ignoble put some restraint upon those that are more noble than themselves yet in all this they do but what is necessary for the well-being if not also for the very being of the compositum Mercury and Sulphur would be too volatile and apt to vanish if Earth and water did not hold them in Water and Earth would be too dull and sluggish if Sulphur and Mercury did not put life into them Elements are said to abide in mixtion refractly that is brokenly not one of them being able so fully to execute its own pleasure and inclination as it might if it were all alone and it is best it should be so for if one of them get an absolute unlimited power and make vassals of all the rest presently all goes to wrack So in acute Feavers when either the spirits are too high or the sulphurious part of the blood and so in chronical Feavers or Agues when salt is become too predominant in the blood and hath sowred it like Ale in Summer you see what work it makes how it threatens no less than death and dissolution Yet give me leave to say though no one Element have unlimited power where there is a due mixtion yet neither is Anarchy or Ataxy to be found in mixt bodies no not in vegetables which have the lowest degree of life nor yet in minerals which have none For some one Element is still predominant over all the rest hence amongst men some are connted fanguine others phlegmatick c. there being no where found in bodies that which is called I empe●●mentum ad pondus that is just so much fire as water and air as earth weight for weight as if Nature were a Levelker but temperamentum ad justitiam as in a Medicine in which are scruples of gentle purgers to a few grains of those that are stronger and in each a basis which is supreme over all things in the medicine yet not put without its correctives lest it should work too violently You will see anon whether all this tends I said before that sulphur is one Element or Ingredient of all terrestrial bodies and now I shall add that it is one of the most active noble and useful amongst them all If that which is called the Spirit or mercurial part do excell the sulphur as it is said to do yet doth sulphur as much excel the other three Principles viz. Salt Water and Earth so long as it remains in a convenient mixture and dwels peaceably with all the rest It were casie to expatiate in the commendation of Sulphur so placed and qualified as God hath originally placed and qualified it in and with other Elements Sulphur say Chymists and truly is as it were the warm bosom in which the spirituous parts of all bodies do lodge the bond of union or copula betwixt spirits and more gross substances as Cartilages or gristles are betwixt hard bones and more tender parts It is that to which most bodies do chiefly owe their acceptable colour taste sent and amiable texture From thence most vegetables do derive their maturity sweetness and most other perfective qualities It doth such service in bodies as nothing doth more namely it curbs the sharpness of that salt which is in them it blunts the acrimony of the spirits by its supple oily quality it cements and sodres other elements which otherwise would never hold together being somewhat glutinous it contributes to the consistence of bodies which would be otherwise over flaid and volutile in a word it hath a faculty of resisting patrefaction more than any thing else in so much that by means thereof Ale may be kept from sowring in the midst of Summer and Juices of Plants from corrupting All this and much more may be truly affirmed of Sulphur whilst it keepes its proper place and station But when this noble and useful Element once becomes impatient of the Yoak of mixtion with other Elements and will no longer indure that water should allay it Salt should fix it Earth should clog and retard it nor yet that the spirits though more excellent than its self should govern it then doth it play the maddest pranks imaginable it breaks away from those other Elements that were joined with it like an unruly servant from his Master that flings open the doors that who will may come out or go in leaves all exposed to rapine and spoile and not content with that musters together all the debauched youth such as himself that he can come neer drawes them away from their respective Masters and engageth them in the same Rebellion with himself and by this meanes it not only ruines all that society whereof it was before a profitable member and those which it hath drawn into the same conspiracy but its self also For it can no more subsist without those Elements which it hath cast off than they can subsist without it and so it quickly vanisheth and comes to nothing I say not only the Elements which are left behinde do moulder and crumble to dust and ashes but by that meanes its sel● is quickly almost annihilated which is far worse Now methinks there should be some morality if not Divinity also to be learned from this discourse of sulphur which if I had despaired of I would never have dived so far into it How naturally then do the following considerations offer themselves from what hath been discoursed as touching sulphur viz. In the first place how useful many men of sulphurious tempers that is active subtle and vigorous might be could they but skill of it to be contented and peaceable

as if they had Eagles wings as we observe fire to do Sith then it is clear to us that Fire is nothing else but a mighty stream of atomes which we shall prove anon to be sulphurious O my soul apply this ere thou proceed any further Surely this notion hath its use I see the great God can terrify the World yea and destroy it too with any thing yea with that which is next to nothing 2 Pet. 3.7 But the Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment vers 10. The Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up I cease to wonder at God his making Locusts yea flies yea lice so great a Plague to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians that Pharaoh himself began to relent whilst those Plagues were upon him Those Creatures were Giants if I may so speak in comparison of those motes of brimstone which the great God imployed to destroy our City and shall be his only Executioners at last in the destruction of the whole World as I proved but now How many parts do belong to each flie or flea For even all their parts were down in Gods Book head eyes eares legs intrails and now each of these parts and for ought I know count bones and all they may be some scores of them are I presume as big or bigger than any one of those sulphurious Atomes or Motes of which Fire consists A man would scarce believe till he had well considered it that swar●nes of Locasts Canker-wormes Cater-pillars and Palmet-wormes commissioned by God to introduce a Famine should be all that God intends by those amazing expressions which he is pleased to use in Joel 2. from verse 1 to the 11. Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh c. vers 1 and vers 2. A great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like nor shall be any more after it to many Generations vers 3. The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them The appearance of them it as horses and as hors-men so they shall run Read to the end of the eleventh verse Dreadful expressions yet were all verified in an Army of Locusts and such like despicable insects by which God did such execution upon them as did demonstrate those expressions not to have been so strange as true yea to have been no hyperbolies Joel 1.4 Now how easie is it for us to believe this might be so who have seen the great God working wonderfull desolations by far weaker instruments viz. by an army of little motes of brimstone all in an uproare and joint conspiracy to take their flight from those bodies in and with which they lately dwelt in a profitable peace and Amity Goliah in proportion did not more exceed David in strength and stature and dimensions every way than Locusts and such like insects do exceed those little Atomes whereof Fire consists Besides those Insects are living creatures which is a great matter but the sulphurious particles I am speaking of otherwise called fire are as we all know things without life and yet so nimble when God sets them on as if they had vigorous souls to actuate them or rather as if they themselves were all soul and spirit which are indeed some of the contemptiblest shreds or rather silings of meer matter I see then that the great God can make a formidable Army of any thing even of the dust of the earth for why not of that as well as of these I have therefore done wondring that such things should be spoken of Locusts and such like insects as are in Joel 2.11 The Lord shall utter his voice before his Army for his Camp is very great The words that follow in the same verse are a sufficient Comment For he is strong that executeth his word surely they do their work in his strength whose glory it is to make weak things confound the mighty and things that are not bring to naught things that are I further learn from hence the great danger of an enraged multitude though every one of that number fingly and by himself considered be very mean and despicable yet all put together may be terrible as an Army with Banners The Psalmist seems to speak of the tumult of the people as if it were so hard to still and pacifie as the very raging of the Sea Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas and the tumults of the people Multitudes of people are compared to great Waters or Inundations and they as well as Fire it self though each single person is but as one poor drop will bear down all before them It is God-like to still the Tumults of the people but to raise tempests and commotions amongst them as Jonas did upon the Sea is neither the part of a Christian nor of a wise man Who would conjure up those spirits which possibly he shall never be able to lay again Oh the strength of weak things united and combined by whole millions together oh the greatness of little things met in such infinite swarms what vast things are the Sands of the Sea-shore take them together What huge mountains do they make and how do they give Law to the Sea its self and say to it under God hitherto shalt thou go and no further Jer. 5.22 Fear ye not me saith the Lord which have placed the sands for the bounds of the Sea that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevaile though they roar yet can they not pass over Yea what smaller and more despicable thing than each of those by its self considered They have more passion than pollicy that stick not to inrage the body of a Nation without a just and enforcing cause though to humour them in every thing any more than children is not commendable or convenient What goodly ships have stuck fast in those heaps of dust called sands so as they could never get off again yea been swallowed up by them as Jonas was by the Whale or Corah and his complices by the earth when it opened its mouth upon them so that no discreet pilot ventures to come neer them or offers to say what hurt can so strong and stately a vessel receive from those sands which are but a heap of dust thousands of which run thorough a little pin-hole in an hour-glass in the space of one hour If an Ocean of Atomes did as we know to our cost bring greater and speedier ruine on our famous City than an hoast of men could have done for that they much exceeded any army in number though their power singly were next to nothing If so I say it appeareth that vast and innumerable multitudes at leastwise of people though of the weaker and more despicable

Lord did rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven Those places were destroyed by a meer miracle which was no small aggravation of the judgement as it is of mercy when men are saved by miracle but so was not London conceived to have been Nextly the fire upon Sodom and the three other Cities consumed with it destroyed not only a major part of those Cities but the whole But the Beesom of destruction which swept London did not sweep so clean but God hath left some small remnant of City that it might not be like Sodom and like Gomornish Isai 1.9 Thirdly the fire upon Sedom and Gomorrah did consume not only places but persons not only four Cities but the greatest part of their inhabitants Gen. 19.25 But to the praise of distinguishing-mercy be it spoken the inhabitants of London were generally snatcht as fire-brands out of the fire and so was part of their substance Fourthly Sodom and Gomarah are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Which expression so far as it is refer'd to the places themselves doth signifie that they were irrecoverably destroyed by fire so as that they shall eternally lie wast But concerning London we hope and have reason to hope better things and that she may say to her insulting enemies Rejoyce not over me For though I fall yet shall I rise again c. Fifthly As if one destruction had been too little and that by sire too Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim were destroyed by water also that whole Countrey being turned into a standing stinking Lake which at this day is called the Dead Sea and in the Scripture the salt-sea Gen. 14.3 Though formerly it was even as the garden of God or as the land of Egypt for fruitfulness Gen. 14.10 The Salt-sea it is supposed to be called from the Sulphurous combustions first occasioning it and the Dead-sea because the Charnel-house of so many dead Carcasses then destroyed therein or because it is quickned by no visible motion or because it kills all creatures that come into it Several marks of God's curse it retains to this day Though it be a Sea yet neither can fishes live in it nor ships sail in it neither hath it intercourse with any other seas or communion with the Ocean lest it should infect other waters with its malignity neither doth any healthful thing grow thereon God having blasted it as it were as Christ did the barren fig-tree Solinus calls it a Melancholy Bay which the black-soil thereof being also turned into ashes witnesseth to have been blasted from heaven I read of nothing that appeareth good in about Sodom since its destruction but a certain Apple and that doth but appear so neither for though it appear fair to the eye yet within the rind of it is nothing but an Ember-like Soot which being lightly pressed evaporates into smoak and becomes dust Lastly I might adde that God would not permit Lot and his wife to testifie their respects and compassion towards Sodom when the smoak thereo● went up like a furnace by casting so much as one look back upon it which L●●'s wife presuming to do became a pillar of Salt Genesis 19.26 In all these respects was the destruction of Sodom greater than that of London Yet Who is able to say Their sins were greater all things considered London had wherewithal to make its sins more out of measure sinful than were those of the Sodomites It may be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of Judgment than for some Londoners though the Judgement upon London at the present be less intolerable of the two Mat. 10.15 For if the mighty works which have been done in London had been done in Sodom possibly it had remained to this day Matt. 11.23 If any should say It is but just that the place where Sodom stood should he turned into a standing-Lake in memorial of the great Idleness of the Inhabitants That it should be turned into a Dead-Sea● so called from its killing all creatures that come near it in remembrance how the Sodomites did or would have corrupted all persons that came near them even the Angels themselves that were L●ts guests That the place where those Cities stood should have no communion with any other place should be an exception from that rule that All Rivers run into the Sea viz. by way of punishment for that unlawful communion which they had wont to have one with another changing the natural use to that which is against nature or that it should be a Dead-Sea because the Inhabitants living in pleasures were dead whilst they live as is said of Widows that so live or that no good thing should grow there because so many good creatures of God had wont to be abused by them one of whose sins was fulness of bread meaning Luxury That the fair Apple which grows there having nothing within it but Soot and ashes was an emblem and signification of their being burnt to ashes for lusting after Beauty I say if any will so discant upon the destruction of Sodom how easie were it to assign as many and as strong Reasons why God might have dealt by London as he dealt with Sodom When Londoners are ready to say No misery like theirs let them think of Sodom and the Inhabitants thereof betwixt whom and themselves not their own merits but Gods great mercy hath made a very wide difference MEDITATION XLVII Of the burning of Troy and the circumstances thereof compared with that of London TIme was when that place which was since called London went by the name of new Troy and as it sometimes bore the same name so they both came to the same end viz. by fire Old Troy was fired not accidentally but wilfully and by Enemies and so some think was New Troy otherwise called London Admit the story of Troy be partly fictitious as things related by Poets are suspected to be yet give me leave to moralize it as followeth Is is reported that Priamus giving leave to his Son Paris to ravish Helena Wife to Menelaus King of Sparta was that which forced the Greeks who burnt Troy to renew their ancient quarrel against it I think there have been sew Tragedies acted in the world but the lust of the flesh hath born a share in and been one great occasion of them I cannot say it was that which did provoke men to burn London if it were done by wilfull ●nstruments but I doubt not but that was one of the sins which did provoke God to suffer that goodly City to be burnt Was not Paris his treacherous slaying of Achilles who was in treaty of Marriage with his sister Polyxena another incentive to the Grecians to destroy Troy The unrighteous shedding of blood is a sin that will as easily kindle a fire as most that can be mentioned The Greeks as is said had it revealed to them that unless they could do

of persons yet hath promised to honour those that horour him and is alwayes observant though not of mens secular dignities yet of their real worth and deserts Now it must needs be confessed that no person upon earth had deserved so well of the Royal-Exchange as that worshipful Knight had done who both made and maintained it Indeed it was called the Burse or 〈◊〉 of the Kings and Queen of England and theirs it was by Sovereignty and superintendency by confirmation and countenance but it was only his by cost and charge by creation and donation They allowed it 〈◊〉 an Exchange and protected it as such but he only built and upheld it for that use and purpose They were as I may say the God-fathers to that Noble Structure which put their own names upon it but he the Father which gave Being to it Now which of those two have most interest in a Child is easy to judge and that of the Poet may determine Et quae 〈◊〉 fecimus ipsi Hand ea nostro veco Things are principally theirs who made them Yet this must be acknowledged though he made it an Edifice yet they made it an Exchange by their Royal Sanction and designation but to do the former Hic labor hoc opus erat And is all that cost and labour lost which that generous Knight did bestow upon that noble Foundation Surely no For besides the great service which that well-intended Structure did to the Nation for a hundred years together such and so great was the fragrancy of that precious ointment which by him was poured out upon the head of London and of it's Inhabitants that the favour thereof will never be out of their nostrils nor shall they need the help of a standing Exchange to remember so worthy a Founder by Three signal marks of honour did the late desolating fire or rather God who is said to divide the flames of fire which may be meant of distributing them as he pleaseth put upon that renowned Benefactor One was that I have been writing of viz. the forbearance of his Effigies and of his alone as if the relation of a Founder and nobile Benefactor had put a peculiar sacredness into it You might have seen him his Statue I mean after the Fire safe and sound as Noah was after the flood the one having escaped a Deluge of Fire if I may so call it as the other did a deluge of Water Noah was preserved by the visible and probable means of an Ark in which himself and his family were imbarqued but all the Ark or means of preservation which this worthy Knight had was only the immediate Providence of God which seemed to intend a particular respect for and towards so great a Benefactor reserving him as we hope in Effigie I mean to see another Exchange as Noah was but he indeed in Person to see another World after the destruction of the first whom for that reason the ancient Poets are supposed to have meant by him they call Janus with two Faces for that he had faced two Worlds Another badg of Honour put upon him was the preservation of that other Famous-Building known by the name of Gresham-Colledge which that Noble Knight had long since given to a Publick-Use intimating that he wisht no better Successors than the Muses in that House in which himself did sometimes dwell A third Honour which befel him at this time was that his own Dwelling-House that was should for the time being and till the former can be built again be made the Royall Exchange as if no man could provide an Exchange fit to receive our Merchants but their old Founder Sir Thomas Gresham which thing is no small accession of dignity to that place which as a Colledge furnished with able Professors and good Lectures well indowed was very Honourable before Thus was the worthy Knight thrice dubbed if I may so call it after the first time and that by the fire Where then is the man that hath an estate commensurate with so great an undertakine that when he considers these things would not be ambitious to do as Sir Thomas Gresham had done before him I mean to build an Exchange in Lieu of that which now lieth in ashes What better way could he think of whereby to perpetuate his name to all Posterity or wherein could he better serve his Native-Countrey Is there never a rich Batchelor devoted to a single life Nor yet any Childless and almost kindred-less Widower that hath Gold and Silver enough to compass such a glorious work as that thereby he may acquire to himself a name and a memorial in the world better then that of sons and daughters How oft do great estates even sufficient for so great an enterprize as I am speaking of fall into the hands of men that neither know how to use them whilst they live nor yet how to dispose them when they die either for their own honour or for a publick good Is it not easier to find ten men with such estates as Sir Thomas Gresham had than one man with so Noble and generous a Spirit I wish some men do not bequeath their money to not much better purposes than if they had purchased Coals with it to send to New-castle or thrown it into the Sea rather then imploy it to so good and charitable a Use as is rebuilding of the Royal Exchange Brave ambition to leave a name justly renowned amongst men if it be any thing of a vice is in appearance so generous and so like a virtue that some low-spirited men were never capable of it nor can ever be made to feel the sharpest Spurrs of Honour so as thereby to be stimulated and quickned to Heroical Enterprizes I am amazed to think that some but ordinary men have parted with their very lives only to tell the world they were no Cowards or to leave a Name for valour behind them which would be but nine days wonder when others of better birth and quality will not part so much as with their estates to good uses no not when they come to die whereby to inform the world for ever that they were lovers of their Countrey as was said of that Centurion He hath loved our nation and built in a Synagogue MEDITATION LII Upon the Pillar 〈◊〉 and intended to be set up it remembrance of the burning of London IF London its self be not the doleful Monument of its own destruction by always lying in Ashes which God forbid it should it is provided for by Act of Parliament that after its restauration a Pillar either of Brass or Stone should be erected in perpetual memory of its late most dismall conslagration Herein for ought I know hath the pious care of this age exceeded all former For though History telleth us that London hath several times been burnt yet that any such Memorial was set up whereby to inform and warn all after ages I cannot call to mind that I ever read May we

prayed against riches Prov. 30.9 Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord David himself saith Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Believe these passages of Scripture and judge afflictions needless if you can Wind to which actions may be compared may do some hurt but if there were no winds the aire would putrifie and there would be no living in it Standing waters as some moats and lakes and such like to which persons alwaies in prosperity may be compared how unwholsome and unuseful are they As it is necessary that the Sea and some other waters should ebbe as well as flow and that the Moon should sometimes decrease or wane as well as wax and increase at other times so for us to have our ebbs as well as our tides our wanes as well as our waxings It is a hard thought of God that he should make us drink bitter and loathsome potions when we need them not We cannot finde in our hearts to use our children so nor yet to correct them so much as gently when we think there is no occasion for it Oh that we should think more meanly of God than of our selves or more highly of our selves than of the great and ever blessed God Do we hear him crying out Hos 11.8 How shall I deliver thee up Ephraim how shall I make thee as Admah and Zeboim my heart is turned within me c. And shall we think he will do such things where there is no need Take heed of charging God with hypocrisie who is truth it self Far be it from us to say Afflictions are not needful because our partial selves do not see how needful they are When will our children confess that they want whipping spare them till then and you shall never correct them Had Paul no need yea he saith he had of a messenger of Sathan to buffet him lest he should be lifted up with the abundance of revelations we have not his revelations yet are we not as proud as he either was or was in danger to have been Some humble servants of God have said they never had that affliction in all their lives which they did not first or last finde they had need of He that wants no correction is better than any of those worthies we read of in Scripture and he that thinks himself so I am sure hath need of it to humble him Read the third chapter and see how many lessons afflictions do teach us and then judge if there be none of them you have yet to learn at leastwise better and more perfectly than you have yet done Can nothing profit us but that which pleaseth us Physicians know that bitter drinks in many cases are more profitable though loathsome than those which are most pleasant O Lord why am I so childishly averse to that which is so needful for me If those to whom I commit the care of my body do counsel me to bleed or purge or to be cupt or scarified and do advise me to it as necessary for my health I submit to it and why do I not submit to thee when thou orderest me unpleasant things which yet are more needful for me Are not frosts and nipping weather as necessary to kill the weeds as warm Sun-shine to ripen the corn Though no chastening be jo●ous for the present but grievous yet if it worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12.11 I desire not only to be patient under it but also thankful for it DISCOURSE XX. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments NO man hath truly either a heaven or a hell in this world For as all our wine here is mixt with water so all our water is mixt with wine God in this life doth still in judgment remember mercy God hath set the one over against the other Prov. 7.14 meaning mercy over against judgment It is not for nothing that the Apostle exhorteth us in every thing to be thankful and saith that is the will of God concerning us But therefore it is because there is a mixture of mercies with all the afflictions of this life Some may sit in so much darkness as to see no light at all but some light there is in their condition only they see it not Our late Fire was as great a temporal judgment as most have been yet he seeth nothing that discerns not a mixture of mercy with it Was it not great mercy that when God burnt the City yet he spared the Suburbs that when mens houses were consumed yet their persons were delivered yea and much of their goods and substance was snatched as a firebrand out of the fire your flight was on the Sabbath-day but it was not in the winter in which the shortness of daies and badness of the waies had scarce permi●ted you to have conveied away the one half of what you did not only by day but by night It was no small mercy that the Plague was gone before the Fire came For had it been otherwise who that fled into the Countrey to save his life durst have come into the City to have saved his goods Yea were not many fled so far from the face of that destroying Angel that they could not have returned till it had been too late Would the Countrey-men have brought their Carts and ventured their persons if the plague had still been raging Where could you have bestowed your goods yea where could you have bestowed your selves if the pestilence had bin then amongst you who would have received them yea who would have received you if you had come from thence The City could not dread the fire more than the Countrey would have done the pestilence and such as had come from the place where it was So far would they have been from putting your goods into their houses that they would not have received your persons into their barns and stables which in the height of the plague they refused to do When the fire burnt your City there was no more it could do but had an invading enemy set the City on fire would they not also have rifled your goods ravished your wives deslowred your daughters and put your selves to the sword Was it no mercy that God by sparing a remnant of the City kept it from being like to Sodom and to Gomorrah that there is something left out of which to make a little of every thing Some places for affemblies yet to worship God in some for Magistrates to dispence justice in some for Merchants and traders to meet and hold commerce in some houses for persons yet to dwell in who cannot convenicutly dwell any where else though now men crowd together as in the winter-time three or four might do into one bed or the most in a family into some little warm parlour which in the heat of weather had wont to keep in spacious rooms Archimedes had wont to say Give him but a place to stand in