Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	day_n	observe_v	sabbath_n	4,146	5	9.8777	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

the burning of Troy compared with the burning of London Meditations 48. Upon the burning of Jerusalem compared with that of London Meditations 49. Upon people taking the first and greatest care to save those things from the Fire which they did most value Meditations 50. Of people scarce knowing wh●re their houses stood soon after the Fire Meditations 51. Of the Statue of Sir Thomas Gresham left standing after the Fire in the Old Exchange Meditations 52. Of the Pillar of Brass or Stone appointed to be erected in remembrance of the Fire Meditations 53. Of the Anniversary Fast perpetually to be observed in remembrance of the Fire Meditations 54. Of the burning of Sion-Colledge Meditations 55. Of Citizens dwelling in Booths or House like Booths as in Moor-fields c. Meditations 56. Of certain Timber-houses and other sleight buildings at which the Fire stopt as in Smith-field c. Meditations 57. Upon the warning which other places may and ought to take by the burning of London Reader take notice that through mistake the Numbers 25 26 31 32. in the third part are twice printed which makes them end with 57. instead of 61. PART IV. Discourses 1. OF Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them Discourses 2. Of this that the life of man consists not in the abundance of what he possesseth Discourses 3. Of the Lessons of an afflicted estate well learnt their making way for prosperity to ensue Discourses 4. Of being content with Food and Rayment Discourses 5. Of the way to be assured of Food and Rayment Discourses 6. Of a good conscience being a continual feast Discourses 7. Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comfort Discourses 8. Of its being a great mercy to most Men that their lives are continued though their livelihoods are greatly impaired Discourses 9. Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever Discourses 10. Of abstracting from fancy and looking at those that are below our selves rather than at others Discourses 11. Of neer Relations and Friends being greater comforts each to other than they had wont to be Discourses 12. Of training up children in Religion that they may come to have God for their portion Discourses 13. Of that comfort under trouble which may be drawn from the consideration of Gods nature Discourses 14. Of drawing the waters of comfort under affliction out of the Wells of Gods Promises Discourses 15. Of fetching comfort from the usual proceedings of God with his people in and under affliction Discourses 16. Of that relief and support which the commonness of the case of affliction may afford us Discourses 17. Of the lightness of all temporal afflictions Discourses 18. Of the shortness of temporal Afflictions Discourses 19. Of the needfulness and usefulness of Affliction Discourses 20. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments Discourses 21. Of the Discommodities of Prosperity and Benefits of Affliction Discourses 22. Of the gracious ends and intendments of God in afflicting his people Discourses 23. Of Resignation to God and acquiescing in his good pleasure Discourses 24. Of taking occasion by this to study the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things Discourses 25. Of not being too eager upon the world after this great loss Discourses 26. Of chusing rather to continue under affliction than to escape by sin Discourses 27. Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London Next to this place the Title Part I. and the Epistle to the Earl of Northumberland PRELIMINARY DISCOURSES AND Meditations OF THE SINS FOR Which God hath first and last brought THE JUDGMENT OF FIRE PART I. By SAMVEL ROLLE Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by R. I. for Tho. Parkhurst Nath. Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. To the Right Honorable ALGERNOON Earl of Northumberland Baron Percy Poinings Fitz-pain and Bryan Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel To the Right Honorable EDWARD Earl of Manchester Baron of Kimbolton Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel AND To the Right Honourable Sir THOMAS INGRAM Chancellor of the Dutchy and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel S. R. Sometime Minister of Thistleworth and your Honours much obliged Servant humbly dedicateth the ensuing Discourses and Meditations with Apprecation of all Grace and Happiness Preliminary Discourses DISCOURSE I. Of the great duty of Considering in an evil time HE that would see my Commission for engaging in the work of meditation at such a time as this in which few men know what to do or say or think may read it in those words of Salomon Eccles 7.14 But in the day of Adversity consider Times of extraordinary trouble as they afford most matter to the Pen of an Historian so likewise to the mind and heart of an observing Christian Not considering in such times is called not seeing the hand of God when it is lifted up or refusing to see it For the word translated here consider is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is see Now saith the Prophet They will not see when thy hand is lifted up but they shall see and be ashamed c. Yea th● fire of thine enemies shall devour them Isa 26.11 Wherefore is it that God doth call upon his people to enter into their chambers shut their doors upon them hide themselves till the indignation be overpast for the Lord commeth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquities Isa 26.20 Is it not that men might then and there consider what God hath done and is doing He can do little in his chamber as a christian that might not be done elsewhere that knows not how to meditate and pray there nor can the latter be well performed without the former Therefore the Psalmist doth well joyn those two together Psal 19.14 saying Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord. Sure I am Affliction calls for a great deal of seriousness even to a degree of sadness James 5.1 Go to now you rich men weep and houl for your miseries which shall come upon you And should they not weep as much for those that are come upon them already and can no waies be prevented Now great seriousness there cannot be where there is no musing and considering and wheresoever considering is such as ought to be there must needs be seriousness I shall think that man despiseth the chastening of the Lord which is strictly forbidden Heb. 12.5 who is not thereby put upon considering such things as are behooveful for him and suteable to the circumstances under which he is So much is hinted to us by these words Isa 5.12 They regarded not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation

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

for Countrey houses If men had had materials as at other 〈◊〉 wherewith to have built strong and 〈…〉 tations where their booths now stand 〈…〉 scarce have done it because they wait for a remove and expect the good time when they may have opportunity to dwell in or near the places where they dwelt before Is there nothing to be learnt from thence Why should not all the provision we make for this World be only such and so slender as may argue us mindful that We have here 〈◊〉 City but look for one to come a City that hath Foundations whose maker and builder is God MEDITATION LVII Upon certain slight Timber-houses that did escape the Fire though better Houses were burned on each side of them IT is plain this Fire had a Commission from above what to take and what to leave else it had never come to pass that those houses should escape that were in most danger viz. Slight Old Timber-houses that were like so much tinder and some such did escape whilst so many goodly Buildings and stately Fabricks of Brick and Stone that seemed able to have made their own Defence were cousumed by the Fire It makes me think of Gods words to the Prophet Jeremy 1.18 Behold I have made thee a defenced City and an iron pill●r and brazen walls against the whole 〈◊〉 They shalt sight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee ver 19. Alas What was one poor Prophet against so many Kings of Ju●oh Princes Priests and People as is there expressed yet God said He would make him as a brazen Wall against them all they should not be able to prevail against him So stood these poor Old-houses at a very small distance from that Fire which destroyed others at their right hand and at their left they stood I say so securely under the wing of Divine Providence as if they had been so many Iron Pillars or Walls of Brass It calls to mind that passage where the Prophet speaking of God saith That he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength Isa 40.29 To be sure those houses had no might or strength of their own against such a Fire had it seized them it would have made but a blaze of them it would have swallowed them up quick unless the great God had interposed as he did on behalf of the three Children in the fiery Furnace The preservation of those houses I reflect upon not as if it were a Miracle but as a very great wonder and demonstration of Divine Providence Mira Miracula that is Wonders and Miracles are usually distinguished Miracles put Nature out of its course as when the Sun was made to stand still the Red-sea dried up c. but I cannot say that in this case any such thing was done Possibly the wind say still or blew another way at what time the Fire came near those houses but Who was it that called the wind into his treasurie again at that very time or else appointed it to blow from another Coast Was it not that Great God who is said to ride upon the wings of the wind and to make the Clouds his Chariots and for that end as may be meet for us to conceive that he might convince the world that all Safety and Danger is as he pleaseth to make it that he can expose those things which seem to be most secure and secure those things which are most exposed Of this we have many Instances In the time of the last great Plague how many persons were there infected with it yea and died of it who to all appearance were out of harms way whereas others again who lived as it were in the mouth of danger and jaws of death as namely in infected families yea some in Pest-houses were preserved and are alive to this very day When the Arrows of God slew about some stood not knowing how to help it as it were at the very mark and yet it was the pleasure of him that had the bow in his hand not to shoot them others stood either wide of the Butt or far beyond it and yet a Dart struck thorow their Liver an invenomed Arrow took hold of them and drunk up their Spirits So it fals out in Spiritual things How great was Lot's danger in Sodom the very air of which place seemed to be infectious as to matter of filthiness yet there he continued chaste how safe would one have thought him upon the Mountains as for any such matter yet God leaving him there he became incestuous with his own Daughters The Almighty seemeth to take pleasure yea and to glory in doing unlikely things The Prophet Isa 64.3 ascribeth to God terrible things such as men looked not for Having the issues of life and death in his hands he so ordereth it many times for his own glory that persons notoriously weak and crazy should hold out a long siege of distempers yea and overcome them at last after several years of drooping whereas others of Sampson-like strength in comparison of them fall sick and die within a few days So weak Christians both as to grace and gifts are many times kept unspotted of the present world and enabled to quench all the fiery darts of Sathan whilst some that excell them both in gifts and graces are sometime left of God in order to their greater humbling to take shamefull falls and for a time to be overcome of the evil one witness David and others So the soft Scabbard much more in danger as one would think oft-times receiveth no hurt by lightning whilst the same lightning passing thorough it doth melt the Stee within Paul observed by himself that when he was weak then he was strong meaning stronger or more strengthned by God than at other times which words imply that when he was strongest to his own thinking then was he really weaker than at other times because then he had less of the presence of God with him All these Instances are such like things in effect as was the preservation of old timber-houses whilst newer Buildings of Brick or Stone that stood near to them were presently demolished It refresheth me so much the more to think that all this came to pass without any thing of a Miracle because the working of Miracles we ought not to expect in these dayes nor can we without presumption and tempting of God pray to him to supersede over-rule or invert the course of Nature for our sakes but to seek a wonder of God when need requires is no presumption or sin at all and the instance before us doth make evident that Wonders may sometime stead us as much as Miracles even as the Houses I am speaking of as near to danger as they were were as effectually secured by God's either stilling or diverting the Wind in the very nick of time as they could have been by the working of the greatest Miracle We

think God must over-turn the course of Nature if he would do this and that for us as he spake of Gods making windows in heaven Whereas himself who is only wise knows how to accomplish what we desire without using such violent extraordinary means Be consident the Lord knows how together with every danger and temp●●tion to make a way for escape and relie upon what is spoken Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and let the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of his wings MEDITATION LVIII Upon the Warning which other Places may and ought to take by the Burning of London LOndons downfall may Alarm all the World As many bad People as were in it let him that can point out that City in which there are more so far as men can judg that are truly good If ten righteous persons yea if fifty yea if ten times fifty to speak within compass could have saved it London had not been destroyed There were more than a few Names within that Sardis of such as had not defiled their garments like others Yet it should seem not enow to weigh against the sins of the rest Comparing London with other places we may call it a Green-Tree and If this were done to the green Tree What shall be done to the dry If Judgement begin at the House of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I doubt not but there were sins enow in London to deserve the Judgment that did befall it yea and a greater than that but by the same reason there is guilt enough in all other places to expose them to as great a desolation Job had sins enow of his own to acquit God in stripping him of all his earthly Comforts and setting him upon a Dunghill to scrape his sores with postheards yet Job had not at that time his fellow in all the East-Countrey for a man searing God and eschewing evil so that God might as justly have done the same thing to any man of that age as to him Sins comparatively small have sometimes been branded with great Punishments witness Davids numbering the People and the Bethshemites looking into the Ark possibly to show that little sins are commensurate with great Judgements in point of evill as a grain of some Poisons may be as hurtful as a dram of others so lesser sinners do sometimes fall under heavy Judgements to show that even they deserve such Scorpions as those and others greater punishments but that the patience of God extends to the reprieving of them for the present as Solomon said to Abiathar Thou art worthy to dye but I will not p●t thee to death at this time 1 King 2.26 Such as charge those sins upon London which it was never guilty of might have had more colour for so doing if the Judgement had not fallen upon all sorts of men as well those whom they think free from any such guilt as others who were really free though they do not think them so To speak of London as worse than indeed it was that is as worse than other places is no other than to bespeak security in other places and to prevent that warning which they ought to take and which is indeed given them by the destruction of London Who hath not reason to think that other places shall likewise perish if they repent not All my doubt concerning London is whether it were better than most other places proportionably to the mercies and means of grace which it enjoyed above them or whether those things considered its sins did not preponderate but whether absolutely considered it did not more abound with people of good and unblamable lives then most other places do I do not much question nor can I tell who doth Could I be heard beyond the Seas I would say Let Rome Vienna Venice Madrid and Paris take warning by the destruction of London and repent betimes as in dust and ashes and to keep within our own bounds Let Dublin and Edenborough do so likewise or to come nearer home Let York Bristol Norwich and all other Cities of England nwo in being meet the Lord in the way of his judgements and seek to turn away his wrath lest they drink of the same Cup of trembling whereof London hath drunk so deep lest God do unto them as he hath done unto it as he threatned of old to do to Jerusalem as unto Shiloh Jer. 7.14 lest he rain fire and an horrible tempest upon them as he hath done upon that famous City yea lest when London having humbled its self under the mighty hand of God shall be restored and lifted up again which we pray and hope for their doom should be to succeed it in the same Calamity under which it groaneth at this day Which thing we should all wish may be prevented as to each of them by a Sincere and seasonable Repentance FINIS Twenty Seven MEDITATIONS Consisting of COUNSEL and COMFORT TO DIRECT and SUPPORT CHRISTIANS Under outward troubles But especially calculated for the use of those that were and are great Sufferers by the Fire Part IV. By Samuel Rolle Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir THOMAS ADAMS Knight and Baronet TO Sir FRANCIS BICKLEY Knight and Baronet And to the rest of the wothy Citizens of the now desolate though not despairing City OF LONDON Especially such of them as either reside at Hackney or are Governours of Saint Thomas's Hospital in Southwark S. R. A Native of London and true Mourner for the Calamity thereof in gratitude to several of them and in true respect to all dedicateth this most Consolatory part of his Meditations wishing the reparation of all their losses in Gods due time and their compleat Assurance of an interest in those better things that cannot be lost Mixt Meditations and Discourses of Counsell and Comfort to such as were great sufferers by the firing of London DISCOURSE I. Of Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them TO say there is a Deliverance under L●sses and Troubles as well as another out of them must needs be good sense because it is good Divinity The holy Ghost in the Scripture speaks of such a thing to whom it is impossible to speak either untruly or improperly It were blasphemy and non-sense to charge him either with falshood or folly who is Truth and Wisdom its selfe and the fountain of all that Truth and Wisdom which is dispersed amongst all intelligent creatures He himself tels us how Christ was heard in the prayers which he made for Delive cance unto him that was able to save from death Heb. 5.8 Yet was he not saved from the Cross intimating thereby that there is a Deliverance properly enough so called under the cross as well as from under it

believe that thy blessing only so maketh rich as to add no sorrow therewith and let us never forget or misdoubt what thou saidst to thy servant Abraham I am God all-sufficiernt walk thou before me and be upright Doubtless a little which a righteous man hath is better than great treasures of the wicked Let me ever be perswaded as I hope I now am that innocent poverty is much more elegible than ill gotten prosperity DISCOURSE XXVII Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London O London art thou gone before us who thought to have seen thee in ashes first who thought that the stakes of his Tabernacle would not be removed and the cords thereof loosned whilst thou wert left standing like a strong tower not easie to be demolished and as like as any thing to endure till time its self shall be no more How much less difficult had it been for a burning seaver to have consumed me and thousands more such as I am than for such a fire as did that work to have consum'd London For is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass as Job speaks chap. 6.12 Such was the strength of that City and yet see where it lieth As for London its self it was a glorious City beautiful for scituation and I had almost called it the joy of the whole earth alluding to what was said of Mount Sion Psal 48.2 to be sure the joy of the three Kingdoms but the inhabitants of London as to their bodies what were they but dwellers in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which might be crusht before the moth Job 4.19 Who look not upon strong-built houses as things more durable than their inhabitants who did not hope if they were their own to transmit them to their children and childrens children to many generations And yet we see that they are in the dust before us And is not that a fair warning to us as it might be to an aged infirm person to follow a young lustie person to the grave If this were done to the green tree what may not the dry expect If the best houses in London were half a year since not really worth three years purchase how ever men did value them how small a purchase may our lives be worth for ought we know Many might reckon to lay their ruins their carcasses I mean in the bowels of London but who ever thought to have had his carcass interred in the ruins of London as some have had already A little time hath produced a greater change than our great change would be why then should we put the evil day of death far off why should we promise our selves length of daies as if the present year might not put a period to us as well as to a strong and stately City that was likely to have out-lasted a thousand of us How reasonable is it then for us whose lives are but a vapor to expect but a short continuance in this world at leastwise not to expect any long duration here to say with the Apostle The time is short Yea how needful is it we should take the counsel which Christ gives Luke 12.35 Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning And your selves like men that wait for the Lord that when he knocketh they may open to him immediately As there is no preparing for death without thinking of it so who can think of death and not desire to prepare for it if the destruction of London admonish us to number out dayes it doth no less to apply our hearts to wisdome Who would be willing to die unpreparedly that thinks at all of dying That you may know what I mean by preparedness for death take this account Then is a man fit to die when he is in a condition to die both safely and comfortably when he is translated from spiritual death to life and knowes himself so to be He that is not so translated hath no fitness at all to die he that is and knows it not is fit in one sense and unfit in another is partly fit but not so compleatly but he that both is so and knows himself to be so hath all the essentials of fitness for death though if a man be in the actual exercise of grace and discharge of his duty it must be confessed that doth give him somewhat more of an actual and accomplished fitness than the meer habits of grace and of assurance can do He that hath made his calling and election sure he that is sealed up to the day of redemption by the spirit of promise he that can say with Paul he knows in whom he hath trusted and as St. John we know that we are of God I say is fit to die He that hath not that fitness for death but yet desires to have it let him make it part of every daies work to get it let him be daily learning how to die Hath God afforded no meanes whereby to bring us to a fitness for death what is prayer reading the Scriptures hearing the word converse with Christians examining our selves serious meditation of spiritual and eternal things avoiding the occasions of evil keeping our hearts with all diligence Is it likely that a man should conscionably use all these meanes and not attain the end of them why then is faith said to come by hearing the word preached why is the word called the ministration of the spirit why saith Paul to the Galathians Received ye not the spirit by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 why did Christ counsel men to search the Scriptures seeming to approve their thinking that in them we have eternal life why doth Christ speak of our heavenly father giving his spirit to them that ask him why doth he say Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde knock and it shall be opened to you Mat. 7.7 For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened vers 8. why must all that come to God believe that God is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently Heb. 11.6 It seems to consist but ill with such texts as these for us to look upon the means which God hath appointed as insignificant and ineffectual And seeing they are not so let us diligently use them in order to our preparation for death now at leastwise that God hath spared us so long as to see London laid in the dust before us Now God hath fired your nests over your heads dear friends and much lamented Citizens will not each of you say as David Psal 55.6 O that I had wings like a Dove which is the embleme of innocency for then would I flie away and be at rest I see no great reason we now have to be fond of life if we were but fit to die May we not say with Solomon we have seen an end of all perfection Seeing we have brought forth an Icabod so far as concernes our selves only and in reference to this World what great matter had it been if with Eli's daughter in Law we had died in Childbed Now who would not long to be dissolved as Paul did if he could but say with him We know if our Earthly House were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 O see then as concerning Death there are three lessons to be learnt from this sad providence viz. to expect it to prepare for it and to be willing to it To expect it is the way to prepare for it and when once prepared for it we have no great reason after such a desolation to be unwilling to it O Lord I dare not say as Elijah did 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He might better say so than I. Possibly he foresaw by a spirit of prophesie that fiery Chariot which was intended to carry him to heaven 2 Kings 2.12 Yet neither he nor I may say so by way of discontent O Lord I have many things to desire as in reference to death let me not die till I am willing make me willing when I am fit let me know I am fit when I am really so that I may be willing make me early fit that I may be timely willing yea desirous to be dissolved and whensoever 〈◊〉 am desirous to dye let me also be contented to live if thou have any work to do for me Let me only desire that thou maist be glorified in me whether by life or death Lord what work do I and some others make of dying as if it were more for us to die than for London to be burnt to ashes Did Aaron make any such stir about it Up he went to Mount Hor. Moses stript him of his Garments and put them upon Eleazar his Son Numb 20.26 And me thinks he made no more of it than if he had put off his cloaths to go to Bed or than if with Enoch he had been about to have been translated rather than to have seen death or with Christ after his resurrection rather about to ascend than to die O Lord have not some of thy servants known the time of their approaching Death and knowing it called their friends about them prayed together suing Psalmes together chearfully confer'd about that better world they were going to took their solemn leave of all their relations and friends as if they had only been about to travel into some far Country from whence they were never like to return again and then composed themselves to die as if they had only laid themselves to sleep and commended their souls into thy hands with no less chearfulness and confidence than Men do their bags and bonds into the hands of faithful friends May I not with submission desire to die upon the same termes yet if it may stand with thy blessed will let me live to see London rebuilt in some competent measure thy people re-united England resetled Protestant Nations reconciled each to other thy Gospel every where spread this Land a Mountain of holiness and a valley of vision or if not all yea if none of these at leastwise clearly to see and read my own name written in the book of life then shall I say with good old Simeon Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation FINIS