Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	call_v	day_n	sabbath_n	4,131	5	10.2944	5	true

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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

publick worship but in the very season of it in so much that there was more company sometimes in the fields on the Lords day than in the Churches was it for want of Churches to repair to how could that be when there were so many within the City it self that now the Fire hath destroyed above fourscore yet some remain It could not be for want of room in Churches for many were almost empty and some of those in which I doubt not but the sincere milk of Gods Word might have been enjoyed Why were Taverns and Ale-houses that stood in the fields so frequented on the Lords daies more than on working daies as if they had been the Churches and Bacchus the God that men ought to worship yea it is vehemently suspected that Stewes and Baudy-houses were not without their customers on that day as well as on any others Oh the wanton carriages that mine eyes have seen on that day in the open fields The greatest part of those I met seemed to be on the merry pin laughing jesting and disporting themselves one with another both young men and maidens By their behaviour one would have took it for some jovial time rather than for a day holy to the Lord in which men are enjoyned not to think their own thoughts speak their own words or finde their own pleasures How few have I heard taking the name of God into their months on that day otherwise than in vain and by cursed oaths as I have walked some miles an end I verily think that many people had wont to spend the Lords day worse generally than any day in the whole week Many did spend other daies in honest labour who mis-spent the Lords day in dishonest recreations So far were most from preparing for it before it came that few kept it holy when it was come Jews will not omit the preparations to their Sabbaths but Christians did not only so but pollute the Lords day its self I might speak of such as did take the boldness to work on the Lords day notwithstanding that they read to the contrary in Neh. 13.15 Jer. 17.21 and expresly in the fourth Commandement in which it is said Exod. 20.10 In it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy servant and yet did not some hard masters exact all their labours of their servants on those daies when they had hast of work Have we not others set their wits on work to dispute against that day and to write against it witness many ill Treatises extant to that purpose And why might they not as well have written against the other nine Commandements as against the fourth Why must that only be thought Ceremonial when all the rest are confessed to be Morral If God have seemed to change it from the last to the first day of the Week can we take a just occasion from thence to abrogate it I doubt not but the day we now keep by the name of the Lords day was intended in the second Commandement as well as that which they under the Old Testament kept which was called the Sabbath A seventh day or one day in every seven is provided for by that Commandment to be kept holy but not alwaies the seventh day from the creation For it is not said that God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it but that he blessed the Sabbath-day or that day which himself had or should appoint to be kept as a Sabbath or time of holy rest which under the Old Testament was the last but under the New is the first day of the week called the Lords day for that Christ rose again as on that day Although the first administration of the Lords Supper was in unleavenned bread yet the institution of it is for the use of bread not of that which is unleavenned So though God rested on the seventh day from the Creation yet his legal Ordinance doth not precisely require the observation of that day but of one day in seven Who doubts but baptisme and the Lords Supper are now as much in force by vertue of the second Commandment as Circumcision the Passover were of old that Commandment referring to such Ordinances as God should appoint as well as to those which he had appointed and so the fourth Commandement to any day in seven that God should enjoyn as well as to that which he had enjoyned Why should not the practice of the Apostles be a sufficient warrant for changing of the day 1 Cor. 16.2 On the first day of the week let every of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him It appeareth that was their day of meeting for worship because on that day they made their Collections for the poor and in Act. 20.7 it is said that on the first day of the week when the disciples met to break bread Paul preached to them intimating that was their day for partaking of the Lords Supper and therefore in all likelihood for other religious services Now would the Apostles have ventured to change the day without leave and command from God so to do But if any man be not convinced by these arguments that the day ought to be so changed yet let him shew me the least colour of reason for abrogating of the fourth Commandment and observing no day in the week as a Sabbath to the Lord. Most men if they must keep one day in the week holy had as lieve it should be the first day of the week as the last Most of those that quarrel at the observation of the first day or Christian Sabbath I fear do it because they would observe none at all but as for those that conscientiously observe a seventh-seventh-day Sabbath I dare not call them Jews for Judaizing in that one thing but think they may be better Christians than many that are more Orthodox as to the Time and Day But as for those profane persons that have and do refuse to dedicate either the last or first day of the week to God as a Sabbath or holy rest I must be bold to tell them if they be English-men they had a great hand in setting London on fire which was a vast loss to the whole Nation and came doubtless for the sins of the whole Nation as well as for the sins of its inhabitants I say you had a great hand in it and particularly by your prophanation of the Lords day as the Text I quoted from Jer. 17.21 leads me to think I had almost said that was become a National sin as by the general practice of it so for want of due endeavours to restrain it such as Nehemiah used Nehem. 13.16 and therefore no wonder if God have punished with that which was is and will be a sore stroke upon the body of the Nation But besides the gross prophanation of the Lords day whereof wicked men were guilty viz. by working playing and doing more wickedness then than at other times I fear few of the better

sort can wash their hands in innocency as from finding their own pleasure and speaking their own words on Gods holy day which is forbidden Isa 58.13 or have called the Sabbath their delight holy and honourable of the Lord as became us Or with John have been in the Spirit so as we ought on the Lords day Few of us have kept any one Sabbath as a Sabbath should be kept Under pretence that we fear to act like Jews it is well if we forget not to act like Christians as to the Lords day We took Gods day from him and now he hath taken our City from us we robd him of the best day in the week for all daies are his but this more especially he hath deprived us of the best City in the three Kingdoms We committed Sacriledge in robbing God of his daies which he had set apart for himself and it prospered with us no better than that Coale did which the Eagle stole from the Altar and therewith fired her own Nest And now poor London if I may still call thee London thou enjoyest thy Sabbaths in that doleful sense as was threatned Levit. 26.34 Then shall the Land enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate And the same reason may be given now as then v. 35. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it MEDITATION VI. Of Gods contending by Fire for the sins of Idolatry and Superstition I Dolatry is plainly and properly enough defined to be the worshipping of a false God one or more or else of the true God in a false manner The former is expresly forbidden in the first Commandment which is in these words Thou shalt have no other Gods before me but the latter in the second which saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. that is Thou shalt not worship or pretend to worship me in the use of Images or of any thing else which I my self have not instituted and appointed Now whereas some may think that the worshipping of graven Images for Gods or as if they were Gods themselves and not the worshipping of the true God in the use of them is the sin forbidden in the second Commandment because it is said Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them The contrary is evident enough For the worshipping of any other besides the true God is that which the first Commandment doth directly forbid and is the sum and substance of it now we must not make the first and second Commandments one and the same Therefore the sin forbidden in the second Commandment is the worshipping of God in or by the use of Images and other things which he never appointed as means methods and parts of his worship Now this latter branch of Idolatry is the same thing with that which is called Superstition which is as much as supra statutum or a being devout and religious or rather seeming to be so above what is written or was ever commanded by God Of the first sort of Idolatry which consists in professedly worshipping any other besides the true God I shall need to say nothing because that is the Idolatry of Heathen only all Christians profess to abhor it But alas how many calling themselves Christians are not ashamed to own and defend their worshipping of Images relatively as they term it though not absolutely mediately though not ultimately But if we can prove that this was all that many did whom God was pleased to charge with Idolatry and to punish grievously even with Fire for so doing that will be to the point in hand See for this Levit. 26.31 I will make your Cities waste a●d bring your Sanctuaries to desolation which was afterwards done by Fire when themselves were carried into captivity their City and Temple burnt Now in what case doth God threaten so to do viz. in case they should offer to set up any Images to bow down to them v. 1. and should not repent of their so doing after they had been warned by lesser judgments If so saith God I will make your Cities waste and so he did by Fire for that very sin Now the people thus threatned were the Israelites who had so much knowledge of the true God that it was impossible for them to think that those stocks and stones which they did bow to were God himself but only they made them as representations and memorials of God or little Temples for God to repair to if he pleased or as sures to draw God to them as one calleth them and yet for this they are charged with Idolatry for those very Images are called their Idols v. 1. Ye shall make ye no Idols or graven Images and by the greatness of that punishment which God inflicted for the same we may gather he reckoned it as Idolatrie for it was that ●in if any Moreover that they intended no more by their Images than only pictures and resemblances of God is intimated to us by those words Deut. 4.15 Take heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of Similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the Fire v. 16. Lest you make you an Image the similitude of any figure As if he had said that God did therefore forbear at that time to assume any visible shape because he would not have any representations made of him which to doe were Idolatrie at leastwise if done in order to religious worship Were not Aaron and the Israeli●es charged with Idolatrie for making and causing to be made a Golden call Exod. 32.4 and sacrificing to it v. 5. c. yet that people were far from thinking the Calf they had made to be the true God that brought them out of Egypt● No they had made it for a representation and a memorial of him For so they are to be understood v. 4. Could any of them so far renounce reason and common sense least of all could Aaron do so as to think that Image brought them out of Egypt which was no Image till after their comming out of Egypt which had not been what it was but that they made a Calf of it which they knew of its self was neither able to do good nor evil No surely their intent was to set up that only as a memorial of God and to worship God in and by it For this Moses was so angry with them and with the puppet which they had made that as we read v. 20. He took the Calf burnt it in the fire ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and made them drink of it The Apostle calls them Idolaters 1 Cor. 10.6 Neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them which is quoted out of Exod. 32.6 If there were no Idolatry in the Golden-calf so intended why was Moses so angry with it yea why was God so angry with them as by Moses to give

Lord hast done it If thou hadst so pleased London might have been like the Bush which did burn but was not consumed but thou didst give it up to the flames Lord at what a rate hath London yea England sinne● that thou hast thus punished it Thou dost man● times punish men lesse than their sins deserve but never more Which of us have not contributed by our iniquities to this as well as to other judgements Which of us have not cause to say Lord forgive us that by our sins we have infected London and England with a devouring Plague that we have helpt to embroil it in a consuming War yea that we have had our hands as by way of demerit in kindling the late Fire which burnt London to the ground MEDITATION II. Upon sight of the Weekly Bill for London since the Fire VVIth how sad a heart have I read that Bill finding but sixteen Parishes within the wals now pretended to and considering with my self by how great a Synecdoche some of those Parishes do at this day go by their former names It is that figure which puts a part for the whole yea a small part too the compounding Figure as I may call it that takes as it were five shillings or half a Crown for a pound which alone warranteth us to call London London still and severall parishes said to be now standing by the names which they did bear formerly The unjust Steward Luke 16.7 used substraction onely where a hundred was owing he bid them set down fifty but we as if that were to be more just proceed by way of multiplication setting down a a hundred for ten or twenty We view our City as it were through a microscope which represents the leg of a Flea so big as if it were the leg of some creature far bigger than its whole Body So might we call a sometimes great and samous Inne the Crown or Miter as it was formerly called though burnt down to the proportion of a Cottage because the sign and sign post are still to be seen and there is yet some small part of the old Building Is it not rather the Epitom● of London which we now have than London it self as if the abridgement of a Book in Folio be it Aquinas his Summes or any other such should go by the name of Aquinas his Sums or what other name it bore in Folio when contracted into a smal Manual or Pocket-Book It is London in short hand such as might contain the Decalogue within the compasse of a single penny rather than so at length if yet we may call it London Is it not rather Londons Remains and Ruins its ●●rn and Ashes than London it self So a Burgesse or two in Parliament stands for a whole Town a Knight or two for a whole Shire so Lords Spi●ual and Temporal write themselves London Yorke Lincoln Canterbury as if they were whole Cities or Towns being indeed but single and individual persons Methinks it is as if Judah and Benjamin were called Israel being indeed but two Tribes of Twelve Nor am I lesse affected with that dolefull parenthesis in two short words viz. Now standing How am I pusht with the two horns of that parenthesis putting me upon this dilemma that I know not whether more to be thankfull that all London is not fallen or more to lament that so small a part of it is yet standing The late Plague gave us to see and expect London without many Inhabitants at leastwise for a time but to see London with but a few habitations was that we never lookt for We have lately known a Plague that laid thousands of Citizens under ground but who dreamt of a Fire that would lay the City it self upon the ground Hear O Heavens and be astonished O earth I find as many sorts of diseases in the Bill now as ever They find men out go whither they will they crowd into Families that have scarce room enough to turn themselves in Death will not spa●e as if it pitied those whom the fire hath not spared Mens tabernacles must go to wrack as well as their houses But to confine my self to the business of the sire Methinks London at this day is a lively Emblem of a Professor fallen from his first Love or rather a backsliding Professor is just in such a condition as London is at this day He goes by the same name as formerly but How far is he from being the same person he was How like is he to those Churches the outsides whereof are yet standing their walls and steeples make such a fair show that they who should view them at a distance would think they were just as before but alas Their insides are gone they are fit for no use yea their very out-sides are so frail and brittle that in a windy day men are loth to pass by them for fear of being knockt on the head What havock hath sin made in all the faculties of such men which if the Soul may be compared to a City may be called the several streets of that City How hath error destroyed their understandings ill habits their wills and inclinations to good the World consumed their spiritual affections all these things conspired to desolate and lay waste their Consciences and now those men though called Christians still and glorying in that name lie just like London in dust and rubbish and ashes O Lord Give England to meet thee in the way of thy judgements by a timely repentance yea give these three Kingdomes so to do lest it come to pass that hereafter England should be called England and Great Britain Great Britain and the three Kingdomes so by as great a Synecdoche as the poor Remains of London are now called London and the Reliques of some streets said to be now standing by the name those streets had when in their beauty and glory MEDITATION III. Upon the Discourses occasioned by the late Fire both th●n and since SOme came to London in the time of the Fire having heard of it but not seen it and probably their first question was Is the Fire out Alas no would they say that answered them It is so far from being out that it rageth more and more They that heard it was not out would be asking how far it was gotten whereabouts it was Then would men begin to reckon up the Streets and Churches that were burnt down already Thames street is gone and Fish street is gone and Gracious Street is down and now it is at such a place and such a place and so they would proceed Is the Fire abated would others say Is there any hope of extinguishing it We see little sign of it would some reply It is seared it will consume the whole City and Suburbs too Why do they not play their Engines would some cry Alas they are broken and out of Kelter we little expecting such a sad time as this Some it may be would say Why do so many people

stories we have told of thy most heavy hand upon us Seeing thou hast thus seasoned our communication as it were with salt and salted it as it were with fire shall that which is rotten and unsavoury proceed out of our mouths from henceforth Let us remember what we said to others and what others said to us that we may never be unmindfull of what thou hast done both to us and them we have spoken with sad countenances and with aking hearts Oh that by the sadnesse of our countenances our hearts might be made better MEDITATION IV. Upon the dishonest Carters who exacted excessive Rates IS there a Conscience in men or is there none Or is there some such thing in Pagans and Infidels but no such thing in Christians or is there a Conscience in the Christians of other parts but none in Englishmen Or is there some in other Englishmen but none in plow-men and Carters at leastwise in the most of them who came to help the Londoners away with their goods in the time of the Fire Whatsoever there be in other men there seems to have been no such thing in them witness their plowing as they did upon the backs of poor Citizens and making long furrowes in the time of their utmost Calamity Londoners have been glad sometimes if they could get but one in ten of their broken Chapmen but you when you saw a fire that was like to break hundreds of Citizens would have ten for one five pound for so little work as ten shillings if not five would have been taken for at another time Let it not be known in Gath never let Papist or Turk or Jew read this paper whereby to know what you have done They would think it were never possible to go to heaven in your Religion Who can believe you to be so much or so good as meer men For can there be a man without humanity The Apostle saith He is not a Jew that is a Jew outwardly and may I not say He is not a Man that is a Man outwardly but he that hath the tender heart and bowels of a man As there are VVolves in Sheeps cloathing as our Saviour speaks so Are there not evil Angels appearing in the shape of Men Did you do as you would be done by which is the Rule of Justice when you seemed to vie with the fire it 's self which should be most cruel you or it It gave most men space to carry away their goods you might have given them opportunity to have done it and would not but upon most unreasonable tearms such as many were not able to come up to Should Landlords knowing you cannot live without ground to work upon make you pay ten times so much Rent as it is worth How would you curse them and be ready to call them Baptized Jews Uncircumcised Turks or other names as bad as those and such as I dare not call you whatsoever you deserve as remembring how the Arch-angel durst not bring a railing accusation against the Devil himself but only said The Lord rebuke thee Jude the 9th Were any of you dangerously sick and in great extremity and being so should send for the only Physician near at hand and he should refuse to come though it were to save your life unless you would give him ten Fees for one would you not go nigh to use that rude Proverb concerning him viz. That he would get the Devil and all and would you not think that one good angel might be better to him than ten evil ones and such are all that are ill gotten Were your Wives in sore Travail and but one Midwife to be had that were able to deliver them and she knowing their necessity to make use of her should so far work upon it as to capitulate for as many pounds as she used to have shillings or else give out that for her mother and child should both perish together How would you make the Countrey ring of the savage cruelty of so extorting a Midwife If you had urgent occasion for money and some biting Usurer knowing of it should make you directly or indirectly to pay twenty or thirty pound per Cent. how would you take on at him and clamour upon him Such was your dealing with poor Londoners in the day of their distress As the raging Sea when men are in danger of being cast away will have a great part of their lading cast into her lap or not suffer them to ride safe or as Thieves do make men buy their lives at a great rate which they ought neverthelesse to save and suffer them to enjoy free-cost or as the Devil himself when he osters his assistance to men in their great straights exacts that of them for his pains which is more worth than the whole world viz. Their Souls requiring to be paid manifold more than his work comes to Such was the equity you used towards distressed Citizens in the time of the fire as if you had been Jews and they Samaritans There was a Samaritan himself who when he saw a stranger that had been robb'd and wounded and half-dead had compassion on him bound up his wounds paid for his lodging took care of him Luke 10 33. Surely you are no akin to that good Samaritan you took from them whom the fire had robbed before you made their wounds bleed afresh with your unkindness you even killed those outright with your cruelty whom fire and grief and fear had made half dead before Did you ever read that Text Acts 28.2 where Paul saith The barbarous people shewed us no little kindnesse for they kindled a fire and received us every one because of the present rain and because of the cold This did Barbarians to strangers when exposed but to rain and cold which is nothing like so dangerous as fire but what you Carters called Christians did to men of your own Nation and of your own Religion the world knows too well as if you indeed had been the Barbarians and they that Paul speaks of had been Christians Will not the Christian-like carriage of those Barbarians judge the barbarous carriage of you Christians if I may so call you Have you never read those words 1 Cor. 6.10 Extortioners shall not inherit the Kingdome of God nor those in 1 Thes 4.6 Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such Quit yourselves if you can from having been Extortioners and such as have defrauded and gone beyond others I doubt not in the least but this was a real theft in the sight of God You think it was not because they consented and contracted to give you so much But so may a man consent to deliver his purse to a high-way man that threatneth if he do not so he will have his life Doth that make it no theft on his part that takes it A man may consent to that which is a real injury to himself to

because it would thence follow that he were of a marvellous ill nature and unworthy of any pity to be shewed to himself even in the greatest extremity that could befall him One saith the reason why they that have children are usually more affectionate than those that have none is because their bowels are often called upon By that reason they that have no pity now when that Affection in men is so much called upon are never like to have any But a pity like that charity which S. James speaks of J●m 2.15 Is not worth half the words I have used If a brother be naked and destitute of daily food and one say unto him Depart in peace be you warmed and filled Notwithstanding he gives him nothing c. I say a pity like that charity which yet is more then some men have is little worth But would men shew themselves truly compassionate toward that desolated City and the late miserable Inhabitants of it if they have interest in heaven let them pray for the reflourishing both of it them if they have interest on earth let them promote it if they have parts let them advise and contrive how it may be effected if they have Purses let them contribute towards it if they have all of these let them further it all and every of these ways Call your selves Papists Frenchmen Hectors any thing but true Englishmen true Christians true Protestants if you have no pity for the desolations of London I doubt not but there are some Turks and Jews that have or would have had if they had known London in it's prosperity and should now see it in it's ashes O Lord If men will not pity the miseries of London the matter is not great possibly if they did it might not signifie much onely let Thy bowels yearn towards and thy repentings be kindled within thee and Thou who hast spoken concerning it to pluck up and pull down speak in thy due time to build and to plant it MEDITATION XXV Upon those that have lost all by the Fire VVHat shall we say to them that have lost all who tell us that before the fire they were worth so many hundreds or so many thousands but since then they are worth nothing yea worse than nothing Surely they ought not to mourn as men without hope If they were sometimes as rich as Job was at first they cannot be poorer now than he was afterwards Hatred in God towards men cannot be known by such Events as those for Job who was in like case was a Person greatly beloved of God Do they fear that they and theirs shall perish Not so neither for rather than the Israelites should perish in the Wilderness God gave them bread from Heaven and waters out of the Rock Ravens shall feed them if they be such as put their trust in God rather than they shall famish Some have no Children they it is to be supposed may make a good shift others have bad Children and what should they do with Estates to spend upon their lusts Others have good Children and let not them doubt but God will provide for them Hath the onely wise God no wayes whereby to make up your losses Did he not give to Job double for all that which he had taken away from him and can he not do so by you Is it your great trouble that you have lost all at once I have heard of one who having a great number of costly Glasses did himself break them all at one time that he might not be disquieted time after time by the accidental breaking of them one by one Had your Estates been taken from you by piece-meals now a part and then a part till all had been consumed that might have proved more grievous to you and so it hath fared with many men Will you say All is lost because your Estates are gone Know he that is a Christian indeed cannot lose his All yea the best part of what he hath cannot be lost as is said of Mary that she had chosen that good part which could not be taken from her I have heard of a good Woman who when her Children died had wont to comfort herself with this to wit that The Lord liveth who being more than ordinarily dejected for the death of one of her Children that she had a more particular affection for a Child that had observed what she had wont to say and how full of heaviness she then was came to her and said Mother Is the Lord dead How may the words of that Child upbraid the carriage of those Christians who mourn over their losses as if they had not an Everliving God to rejoyce in Is it strange to you to be poor who have heretofore always enjoyed riches and plenty know that it is one point of a Christians Excellency and heavenly Skill to be able to act several and different parts well as Paul saith I have learned how to abound and how to want how to be full and how to be empty how in every Estate therewithall to be content They are unfound bodies that can onely bear the Summer but not also the Winter Spring and Autumne You say you have nothing now How many are there that never had any thing to speak of Is it no mercy or priviledge to have enjoyed good things for a long time past though we may not enjoy them alwayes If men have had good sight good hearing good health till they come to be old and then all of these begin to decay or be quite lost do they or ought they to reckon it no mercy that they have enjoyed these things so long If you say you cannot live upon nothing that is nothing certain how many hundreds yea thousands are thorough the goodness of God provided for from year to year who have no certainty to live upon Now you have lost the things you had possibly you will thereby be excited to look after the things which can never be lost which otherwise it may be you had never done Hath the sire consumed your money or money-worth as if it had all been but so much dross this peradventure may make you look after that gold tried in the fire which no sire can consume and then your unspeakable loss will prove inconceivable gain What great difference between the worlds leaving us and our leaving it You must shortly have left it if it had not first left you Trust God and doubt not but he will bear your charges thorough the world and more of this world you need not care for What a noise will this make in the world that you have lost all and who that hath any thing to spare if they know your case will not contribute to your relief You have yet the Love of relations and friends the Charity of men the Fruit of your own ingenuity and industry the Bounty of heaven the Result of Divine Promises all these things you have besides several others to help

Universal-Church or of that part of the Church which is the whole or of Rome which is all the World VVe read of Names of blasphemy which were upon the heads of the Beast Rev. 13.1 But as if that were not sufficient they have added a Name which is perfect non-sense for the reason aforesaid but that by the way Their design is to prove that Antichrist is amongst us and that London was that Mystical Balylon so often spoken of according to what was lately found in a Seditious Libel Do to South-Babel c. meaning to the Southern-part of London yet standing c. But alass How weak are the Premisses from which they have drawn these conclusions Their Argument put into a Syllogism is this If London were destroyed the self-same-year in which some did Prophesie that Babylon and Antichrist should be destroyed then is London that which the Scripture calls Babylon and Anti-christ amongst the Protestants But London was c. E●go If the VVorld mistake not some of you have proved the Minor so strongly viz. the destruction of London and in such a year that no body can disprove it But the consequence of the Major-Proposition hath no force at all in it For what if some did Prophesie the destruction of Babylon and Antichrist in 66 and London only was destroyed that year from what Principle of Scripture or Reason can you thence infer that London is Mystical Babylon For first of all VVho were they that did Prophesie such a thing VVere they not a few inconsiderable Enthusiastical Men to whom not one Protestant of a thousand gave credit For believe me Enthusiasts and Protestants are no convertible terms forasmuch as not every hundredth or thousandth Protestant is any thing of an Enthusiast VVe do not use to charge upon your Church the Extravagant Bablings of one or a few particular Papists but the professed Doctrines and Tenets of that which yourselves call the Church of Rome Do us the same right and forbear to charge upon Protestants as such what the Protestant Church doth disavow Possibly they were some of your own Religion some Romanists putting on the mask of Protestants as hath bin usual with them to do for sinister ends who foreknowing that London would be burnt this year as nothing is more easy than for men to know what themselves intend to do gave out that Babylon and Anti-christ would be destroyed in sixty six for that very end that when they had once effected the burying of London in ashes they might have some pretence to write this Epitaph Here lies Babylon here lies that which was the feat of the true Anti-christ thereby rolling away the reproach of Babylon and Anti-christ from themselves to whom it belongs upon the Protestants whom it concerns not But take heed how you deny Anti-christ to be amongst you for by that means you quit one Argument Sir Edw. Sand. Spec. Europ which some of your writers have used to prove Rome to be a true Church for that it is said that Anti-christ sitteth in the Temple of God 2 Thes 2.4 But if upon further consideration you would not be known to have Anti-christ amongst you let me tell you that the Beast spoken of in Scripture is so thoroughly markt that it is easy to distinguish him from the Protestant Church and from Rome heathenish and whatsoever else he would turn over his name to Me-thinks that one Text 2 Thes 2.4 would plainly enough decipher Anti-christ if there were none but that Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God The Emperours of Rome-heathenish sate not in the Temple of God they were not within the pales of the professedly Christian Church therefore they were not the man of sin and Anti-christ there spoken of but he is to be sought and found amongst those that are called Christians Now amongst Christians there are none that exalt themselves above all that are called God that is above all Magistrates which are called Gods challenging a Primacy and Supremacy to themselvs over all Christians both Subjects and Princes I say there are none that do so but the Popes of Rome successively whence it comes to pass that Papists are wont to refuse the Oath of Supremacy to their Native Prince as believing not their own Prince to be Supream under God over his own Subjects but the Pope of Rome over both him and them Moreover who is it that fitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself to be God that is assumeth to himself those things which are proper and particuliar to God onely as namely To forgive sins For none can forgive sins but God onely I say who but the respective Popes of Rome do take upon them by their own power and in their own name to forgive sin the grossness of which practice did first provoke Luther of a staff Monk to become a zealous Protestant Yea who amognst those that were called Christians did ever exalt himself above all that is worshipped by which may be meant the true God saving the respective Popes of Rome And they have done it time after time in taking upon them to dispense with the Commission of sin as with the taking of unlawful Oaths and such like Now God himself though he remit sin to such as truly believe and repent yet he never did nor by reason of the holiness of his nature ever could give men free leave and licence to do that which is sinful It is true that God gave the Israelites Commission to borrow the Jewels and Earings of the Egyptians and never to return them again but that was not a liberty to steal for God Whose all those things were and whose are all things was pleased to alienate the propriety to take those things from the Egyptians and give them to the Israelites A fourth Character of Anti-christ is that his Coming is with lying wonders vers 9. that is with feigned miracles Now who amongst all that are called Christians trade so much if at all in those things as doth the Church of Rome How do the Romanists they and only they abound with miracles and all fictitious and no other then gross imposture Tell those people that have no Bibles to consult but what are in an unknown language or else perverted by a false translation or a corrupt gloss I say tell them the Anti-christ is amongst the protestants and that London was the Mystical Babylon of which the Scripture speaks Sic notus Ulysses Is Anti-christ no better known think you to them that have seen his Picture and Description in holy Writ Alas such coarse Wares as is the ridiculous asserting of London to be Babylon will go off no where but in a dark shop or by a false light Your blinded Moses that live as it were under ground may be made to believe that Rome is the new Jerusalem spoken of Rev. 21.1

I have spoken to the great ends of life and the attainableness of them as well by persons of low as of high degree But alas how few in comparison of the lump of mankind or of Men called Christians have yet attained those end for which they live viz. have laid up a good foundation for eternity c. and they are yet fewer who are able to say they have done it For some may have attained thereunto and yet not know it How unsafely do they die who die before they have attained the ends for which they did live and how uncomfortably must they also die who die before they know they have attained them Therefore I say it is a great mercy to the greatest part of Men and Women to be reprieved from Death and from the Grave David as good a Man as he was beg'd hard for this Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more yet was his condition at that time very afflicted for he saith vers 10. Remove thy stroke from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand vers 11. when thou dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Which he seems to speak of as his own case at that time when he cried out O spare me before I go hence Is it not with most people in the World as with idle Boyes in a School at a time when their Master is absent when it is almost time to give over they have scarce lookt into their books or done any thing they came for but played all the while How necessary is it for such Men to live a little longer How sad would it be with them if God should say to them as to that secure fool This night shall thy soul be required of thee were they sensible of their own concernment would not such men prize a little time in the World as those poor Levellers did that were shot at Burford about ten years since Oh that they might live but one day or but one hour longer to enjoy those Ordinances of God which they had formerly despised or as she that in horrour cried out upon her death-bed Call time again call time again If life be necessary for thee as if thou hast not yet attained the ends of life I am sure it is more necessary for thee than any worldly thing by how much it is more necessary that thou shouldst be saved than that thou shouldst be rich or honourable I say if life be more necessary for thee than riches and honour and any thing of this World as it is because upon that moment eternity depends then hast thou cause to look upon it as a great mercy and to be very thankfull for it May it not be said of some men that are dead gone that if they had died but one year or one moneth sooner they had been damned The last year or the last moneth was more to them than all their life before for that they were born I mean born again not long before they died He that can cause the earth to bring forth in one day and a Nation to be born at once Isa 66.8 How great a change can he make in the souls of men in a very short time Yea I remember an excellent Divine of our own hath a passage to this purpose viz. That one day spent in serious meditation of God and Christ the joyes of Heaven the torments of Hell the evil of sin the excellency of grace the vanity of the creature the necessity of regeveration and such like things might contribute more to the conversion and salvation of a sinner than all that hath been done by him in all the time past of his life though possibly he hath lived many years in the world We shall never know what the worth of life and of time is till we come to improve it to those high ends and purposes for which God hath chiefly given it as namely unto making our calling and election sure c. but when we have done finding how great a pleasure a little time hath done us of what unspeakable use and advantage it hath been to us we shall reckon our selves more bound to God for it than for any other temporal enjoyment we shall think a little time to speak in the language of our Proverb to have been worth a Kings ransome Consider life as an estate of hope as Salomon saith Eccles 9.4 To all the living there is hope and death to the wicked as a hopeless state Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained when God taketh away his soul and then tell me if it be not a great mercy but to live But on the base heart of man that will not suffer him to know how great a mercy life is because it will not serve him to improve it A life so spent as multitudes of people do spend theirs will prove a curse rather than a blessing as having done little in it but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath Nor is it ever to be expected that they will bless God for life who have cause to curse the time that they have lived though all thorough their own default He that would comfort himself in the thoughts of his being yet alive and take it for a great mercy that his life though little else is left him for a prey let him sit down and confider what earnings he may make of that time which is left him in the world be it little or much If from henceforth he shall set his face towards Zion set out in the waies of godliness give up his name to Christ engage in the work he came into the world about enter upon the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom set himself to seek the Lord with all his heart or at leastwise repaire to the pool of Bethesdah and wait there for cure follow on to know the Lord that he may know him strive to enter in at the straight gate dig for wisdom as for silver and for knowledge as for hidden treasure make it his business that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord I say whosoever shall do so and persevere in so doing will finde so happy a product of that work whereunto he hath consecrated and devoted the remainder of his life as will make him prize and value one day so spent more than many daies and moneths ●n which all the comfort of his life as he accounted it came in by eating and drinking and company-keeping by hunting hawking di●ing carding and such like divertisements He will look upon that time as spent in damning his soul as much as in him lay but the other in saving it and therefore he must needs value this more than that One was a time of running into debt the other of getting old scores paid off or blotted out and therefore must