Londons Resurrection OR THE REBUILDING OF LONDON Encouraged Directed and Improved In Fifty Discourses Together with a Preface giving some account both of the Authour and Work By Samuel Rolls Minister of the Gospel and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg LONDON Printed by W. R. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Sign of the Golden Bible on London-Bridge under the Gate 1668. To the Right Worshipful Sr John Langham Knight and Baronet And Sir James Langham his Son KNIGHT To the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Player Chamberlain of the City of LONDON And Sir Thomas Player his Son KNIGHTS And to the Right Worshipful Sir Francis Rolle Sir Stephen White KNIGHTS To the Worshipful Francis Warner Nathaniel Barnardiston Thomas Bewly Henry Spurstow Robert Welden and Henry Ashurst ESQUIRES S. R. Humbly dedicateth all the insuing Discourses in testimony of his unfained respects as mean and unworthy as they are wishing to all and every of you his much honoured friends all needful blessings both for the Life that is and that which is to come THE PREFACE Christian Reader IF thou hast an affection for London or any particular concern in the rebuilding of it as very many have the title of this book and I will assure thee the drift and purport of it is such as the Title pretendeth to may invite thee to spend a few hours in the perusal of it and to cover a multitude of infirmities in the Author and this his work with respect to the goodness and usefulness of his design I know no secular design now on foot in this part of the world that is or seemeth to be of greater importance and that to thousands of families than is the rebuilding of London and yet no one English pen so far as I know hath been imployed in the directing and incouraging of it till the unworthy Author of this poor Treatise like Elihu who had waited for the words of others and did not answer to Job till his betters seemed resolved to be silent made bold to break the Ice and did redeem what time he could from a thousand cares and perplexities to signifie his great compassion and high respects to that once famous but now ruinous City in which he drew his first breath I dare not to speak in any such language as Deborah did Judg. 5.7 They ceased in Israel till I Deborah arose c. I shall not presume to compare with her though but a woman but rather confess my self to be as a worm and no man What the Apostle saith of himself 1 Cor. 2.3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and the expressions he useth concerning himself Acts 20.19 Serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befel me I say those expressions have been much what applicable to my case as they that have known my circumstances do understand I have been at the most but a bruised reed and smoking flax let the world judg of me as it pleaseth yet have I broke through all distractions and discouragements which have even laid me level with the City or that part of it which lieth in ashes to do what service I could for the place of my nativity to blot out the name of Icabod and to retrieve and recall that glory of England which for the present is departed Yet let me not affright my reader by what I have said with the expectation of a melancholy peice upon so joyful a subject as is the restauration of London for in treating thereof I have rather comported with the nature and quality of the subject which is pleasant and chearily than with the complexion of my own mind and those sad and dolorous resentments of things both my own and others which I have too much conversed with One had wont to say that he did love to drink his wine with his friends but to eat his vinegar by himself meaning to impart his joyes rather than his sorrows and as to that I am much of his mind I will rather hang my harp upon the willowes than play those doleful tunes to others which I do sometimes listen to my self What if now and then I say within my self that the age we live in is an unkind and an ill-natured age that all men now adaies do seek their own things and not the things of others that interest carrieth all before it and whatsoever is worthy and far more worthy than it self signifieth nothing in comparison of it so that they who are too honest to comply with this or that interest farther than they understand it to comport with religion and reason shall have leave to starve whilst they who boggle at nothing that is in pursuance of that interest they have fallen in with but follow it as if interest were the lamb spoken of Rev. 14.4 whithersoever it goeth though that their dishonest self-love for so it is be all they have to commend them shall ride upon the high places of the earth and have more than heart can wish I may sometimes think of it with regret that persons in no authority at all do usually take upon them to prescribe and give law to others in those things in and as to which they should only be a law to themselves I mean left to their own judgments and consciences and so it is that they who command the purse do seem to think that the consciences of men should be in subjection to them themselves assuming or challenging that power of imposing and that dominion over the faith of other men though really their equals which they condemn in others who are legally their superiours It goeth near to me sometimes to think how full of snares and temptations the present time is both on the right hand and on the left as if all the Devils in Hell were not tempters enough nor the wiles and methods of Satan sufficient to try us or as if to grapple not only with flesh and blood but also with principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places and with the rulers of the darkness of this world were not as much as one of us could well turn our hands to unless men turned Divels too tempters I mean and went about like roaring Lions seeking whom they could devour I freely confess I have had many black and gloomy thoughts upon the consideration of those things such as if others had been conscious to they might have expected I should have done like the madman spoken of Prov. 26.18 viz. have cast about firebrands arrowes and death but instead thereof I have been pleasant with my reader at several turnes yea oftner so than sowr and melancholy though there be something of both kinds wherewith to entertain those that are of different humours I have frequently piped to those that have a mind to dance alluding to Mat. 11.17 and elsewhere mourned unto them that are more disposed to lament as having been under various tempers
Ezek. 37.5 Thus saith the Lord God unto those bones behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and ye shall know that I am the Lord. DISCOURSE III. Of how great Consequence it is that the now wast and desolate City of London should be re-edified SUrely it was not without cause that London whilest standing hath always continued the Metropolis of England though no such promise were ever made to it as unto Judah of old that the scepter or principality should never depart from it and though an old prophecy hath been that London was and York should be Yea though London hath several times ceased to be its self for a while lying in ashes as now it doth once fourscore years together and other places have succeded in the Metropolitanship for that time yet no sooner was it raised again but other places as if but its Deputies and Viceroies did presently resign the preheminence to it and like to Nebuchadnezzar come from grass and turn'd man again it was presently re-inthroned and restored to its former dignity and Primacy This I say was not for nothing but did certainly imply there was something in the place the scituation I mean for sometimes little else hath been left that did render it much more fit then any other to be the Metropolis or head City of England so that as often as London was in being no other town or City would offer to come in competition with it It was the river Nilus made Egypt rich and fruitful and hath it not been the River of Thames hath alwayes under God made London what it was They that would utterly destroy London must dry up that River as the river Euphrates for the destroying of Babylon or set it at some greater distance from that City For whilst they two stand so near together London is like to be rich and fruitful like trees that are planted by the rivers of water or like meadow ground that is overflown What is said of Joseph is like to be verified of London Gen. 49.22 Joseph is a fruitful bough by a wall whose branches run over the wall By the side of London is planted that great trunk of the vena porta of the Nation I mean the great mouth and inlet of trade the river of Thames I mean which makes it so necessary for England that England cannot much better subsist without it that is to say in wealth and prosperity then a man can live whose mouth is sowed up and who can take no nourishment but as a glyster no breath but at his nostrils They are deceived that think England may be destroyed meerly and only by destroying London for a time for if England its self be not first destroyed it must and will God permitting always have another London let the former be burnt or demolished ever so often London is the heart of England and if it were not primum vivens it will be ultimum moriens at leastwise England if it do not die first must die not long after it for without a heart it cannot long live If London fall it must rise again or all England must fall too at leastwise into great misery disgrace and poverty London is the place to which those passages of the Prophet concerning Tyre are most applicable of any place I know Isa 23.4 Thou whom the Merchants that pass over sea have replenished the harvest of the river is her revenue and she is a mart of Nations c. v. 8. The crowning City whose merchants are Princes and whose trâ—ffiquers are the honourable of the earth At leastwise this she was fuimus troes nigens gloria and this with the blessing of God she is most capable to be again And is it not of great consequence that a City of so vast a concernment to the whole nation should be rebuilt Which of all our famous Cities is fit to make a Head for so vast and Noble a Body as England is London excepted There is much deformity and inconvenience in a Head that is much too little for the body as in one that is too big Besides if a head be not well scituated as suppose a mans head were placed upon his arm or back and not upon his shoulders such a posture would be not only inconvenient but monstrous And verily any other Metropolis for England besides London would be of like inconvenient positure and scituation the head would not stand in the right place either for commodiousness or decency I would know what great Kingdome there is in the world that hath not a Metropolis or Head City answerable to its self And why should England differ from all the rest should we be unlike all other Nations and become their scorn Is not some one City magnificent and splendid above all the rest like the Sun that out-shineth all the other stars greatly for the honor both of a King and Kingdome I had almost said England looks sneakingly whilst it is without a London it doth as it were hide its head in the dust and seemeth to be ashamed of its self if it have any head to hide Tell us not of the Suburbs Citizens know how inconvenient they are for their business over what the City is and besides both together are little enough for traders and other inhabitants else it might have saved them charge and trouble to have dwelt in houses built to their hands and well seasoned they durst not go after the declining Sun lest they themselves should decline also in their trade and business They found more warmth in the heart of London then ever they expect in the extreme parts as they say of arterial blood that is warmest for that it cometh immediately from the heart Cottages within the walls seem to please and accommodate them better then stately houses without He that thinks the rebuilding of London might well be spared if any man or woman can so think let him or her consider how many houses upon survey are said to have been consumed by the late fire viz. no less then thirteen thousand or thereabouts now many of those houses did contain two some three families apiece so that we may well suppose twenty thousand families most of them traders to have been by that fire dispossest now where shall so many thousand families of trading people be disposed of if London be not built again shall they go into the country and trade there how inconvenient and insignificant would that be besides that so to do were to eat the bread out of the mouths of country shop-keepers Whilst they live at a distance from them Citizens are helpful to tradesmen in the country as the sun when it is farthest removed from the moon shines full upon it and exhibits that which is called the full moon but when they two are in conjunction then doth the Moon disappear being
or one that more needs it to receive part of your last kindness and of that estate which you cannot carry out of the world with you than is your dear mother the City of London who now fits as a widow who now cries out to them that go by pity me pity me all ye that pass by is there any sorrow like to mine Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fiery anger Lam. 1.12 A sacrifice well pleasing to God might do much for the poor desolate City and what is such the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased DISCOURSE XLIII That the promoting of Love and Amity throughout the whole nation would much conduce to the rebuilding of the City IF England were at unity with it self if all the inhabitants thereof were in charity with one another if fellow subjects had that love each for other that fellow members of the same body should and use to have or which the members of each body use to have for their head for so is London to the other Cities and Towns of England then might we confidently expect to see London up again in a very short time and like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber deckt and trimmed Whilst our heats and animosities continue whilst we bite and devour one another methinks the fire of London is not quite out but it doth reak and smoke still so far is it from being perfectly restored and compleatly rebuilt But were we all of one heart though not of one mind could we hit upon it to love as brethren from Dan to Bersheba I mean from one end of England to the other were all Englishmen compassionately affected with the loss of London and passionately desirous of its restauration London would spring up again like Jonah's gourd as it withered like that I mean in as short a time for a great City to spring up in as one night was for a gourd No grace like that of love for matter of building it builds up the body of Christ the best of fabricks From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self is love Eph. 4.16 and sith it doth do so what building is there that love cannot promote How much concerned were the Israelites to restore the tribe of Benjamin Judg. 23.6 They repented them â—â—r Benjamin and said there is one tribe cut of from Israel this day They destroyed the inhabitants of Jâ—besh-gilead for not coming up to Mizpeh and gave them their daughters to wives to the number of four hundred which proving not to be enough they put them upon taking every man of them a wife of the daughters of Shiloh when they came out to dance practices which I know not how to justifie and therefore propose to imitation no more but this that others would be as earnest for the restauration of London as they for the restauration of Benjamin though not in the use of indirect means and so it will be if that love be found amongst English men that ought to be They said There must be an inheritance for them that are escaped of Benjamin that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel Judg. 23 17. So would hearty and universal love each to others make all Englishmen to say there must be houses built for them that were burnt out of London there must be another London that a tribe or what is more than so may not be destroyed out of England the utter destruction whereof we will labour to prevent with our heads and hands and purses and prayers and with whatsoever else we can use and improve for that purpose Now if the whole nation would ingage it self one way or other in the restauration of London and put to its helping hand how quick a dispatch would be made as if Orpheus with his harp had made the timber and bricks and stones to come leaping together and orderly to dispose of themselves one by another as the Poets fained that he made the woods and mountains to dance after him But the great difficulty will be to shew how and by what means the people of England which are now so much at variance and enmity with one another may be brought first not to hate for that must be the first step and then to love and affect one another Loving parents cannot indure to see feuds and fallings out amongst their children to hear them wrangle one with another much less to see them fight nor if there be none of all that betwixt them are they sufficiently pleased unless they observe them to have a hearty kindness each for other and to love one another as brethren and sisters ought to do who sprang from the same loyns and lodged in the same womb and when they see that how great is their joy But as I said before the first step must be to take men off from hating one another a disease to epidemical in England at this day for which I would to God I could propound a sure certain remedy How and by what means the father of a private family may keep his children from hating and maligning one another from fighting or falling out each with other is within my sphere to discourse of and may be no presumption in one who hath been and is the father of so many children as God hath made my self to pretend experience in I shall therefore make bold to direct in that case though not to say what would destroy all or the most of that enmity which is between fellow subjects who have all one common and political Father and in that sence are brethren If parents would not have their children to hate one another they must carry an even hand towards them not manifesting much more of love and respect to one of them than to another least of all so carrying themselves as if some of them had all their love and they had none at all for the rest Parents should temper their love and respect to their children or the expressions of either though not ad pondus yet ad justitiam that is though not to shew so much respect to those that are but boies and girles as to those of them that are Men and Women yet as much to the younger in proportion to their years as to the elder in proportion to theirs and so to those that are of meaner rank and quality and apparently of less desert ought they according to their quality and desert to give a respect proportionable to what they give to the rest If this be not done and if some children of the same parents be used by them with too much respect and
also acknowledg â—im the author of all the buildings which have been â—â—er since whether Cities Towns Villages or particular houses It is said we are Gods off-spring Acts 17.28 and why but because we are the children of Adam who was the Son of God Luk. 3.38 The â—ause of the cause is the cause of the effects By â—he same reason God having made men by whom â—ouses are built for every house is builded by some â—an Heb. 3.4 and given unto men all that wisdom which they have for building as for every other purpose Exod. 33.35 it being he that gives men leave to build when he could hinder it â—nd opportunity to build which he could easily with-hold and strength to build which he could â—ave denied and success in building which none â—ut himself could give these things considered we see great reason for what the Psalmist saith Psal 127.1 Except the Lord build the â—â—â—se they labour in vain that build it DISCOURSE L. Of the rebuilding of those houses of clay wherein we now dwell or of the Resurrection of our bodies OUr bodies are houses that must be demolished and it is as probable by fire as any how for feavers are a kind of fire and they destroy a great if not the greatest part of mankind Howsoever dust they are and to dust they must return Yet so surely as they shall fall so certain it is that they shall rise again there shall be a resurrection of the dead both of those just and unjust Acts 24.15 I doubt not of the possibility of a Resurrection sith I am sure of the truth of a Creation and to raise the bodies of men out of dust is not of more difficulty than to raise a world out of a Chaos and that Chaos out of nothing To say though such a thing as a Resurrection be possible yet it shall never be were to deny that principle which is common to most Religions in the world and which is the main foundation they are built upon viz. the doctrine of a future estate or of a life after this Christ told the Jewes that if they destroyed the temple of his body he would raise it up again in three daies and so he did and that he did so I say the evidence and assurance we have that he did do so is the great prop and pillar of our Christian faith therefore the scripture saith of Christ that he was declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 If Christ had not risen again the third day according to his promise his disciples had certainly renounced all confidence in him and taken him for an impostor and not for the Son of God and Saviour of the world but we are well assured that both they and many hundreds of others who lived about the same time or not long after them did strenuously assert that Christ did rise from the dead and did seal that truth with their blood that being the main article against them that they did so believe as S. Paul saith Act. 13.6 Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am â—alled in question and Acts 25.19 They had certain â—uestions against him of one Jesus which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive But if there be no resurrection of be dead then is Christ not risen as the Apostle arguâ—th 1 Cor. 15.13 but that Christ is risen the suffeings of so many near unto Christ his time I say â—eir suffering unto death for the seal of Christ â—hom they had not known to have been the true Messiah if he had not risen again according to his â—romise do abundantly witness Canst thou believe that all mankind must perish 〈◊〉 it must be if Christ be not risen for saith the Apostle v. 17. If Christ be not raised your faith is â—ain ye are yet in your sins Canst thou believe that God will suffer the best â—en in the world to be of all men most miserable from first to last Surely such as have hope in Christ are men of the best lâ—ves of any in the â—orld But if Christ be not risen then they that â—â—ve hope in Christ are of all men most miserable The â—ive arguments which I have given may convince â—ny man that is not obstinate both of the possiâ—ility and futurity of a resurrection that is both that 〈◊〉 may and shall be But some will say how are the dead raised up and â—ith what body do they come To which objection or â—estion stated by the Apostle in those very words 1 Cor. 15.35 I answer that it doth not appear that the houses of wicked men their bodies I mean shall be any thing more beautiful at the resurrection than they were before or freed from those deformities which they carried to the grave with them but as those trees fall so they shall rise or if they should what would it signifie when neither they nor others could see it for want of light Did goodly houses or Churches look beautifully in the midst of flames when nothing but the wall of fire that was round about them could be seen but sure I am the houses of good men that is their bodies shall all and every of them be beautified at the resurrection and whereas some of them were like houses that are low built others like rooms that are shelving or garret-wise others dark like dungeons others slight and thin like paper-walled houses those and all other inconveniences shall be removed for then shall their vile bodies be changed and fashioned like unto Christ his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.21 Now the souls of men go about like snails carrying their shels upon their backs which maketh their motion slow but their houses or bodies after the Resurrection shall be no more clogs or impediments to their souls than wings are to the flight of birds Here our earthly houses that is our bodies do soil and stain the souls that inhabit them as the bare walls of new buildings use to do the garments of those that dwell in them but at the resurrection they shall no more do that than those rooms defile our cloaths which are hung with the newest and neatest tapistry Those houses which have no filthiness in themselves and such will our bodies then be can convey none to others How glad would the wicked be that these their houses of clay might never be rebuilt how much rather could they wish they might be annihilated For in these very houses must they dwell with consuming fire and everlasting burnings Consider the bodies of good men as the Temple of God for so they are called 1 Cor. 3.16 and as the members of Christ 1 Cor. 6.15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ consider them as sleeping in Jesus for so the expression is 1 Thes 4.14 as if the bosome of Christ were the Urne in which those ashes