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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	aaron_n	altar_n	lord_n	62	3	3.5948	3	false

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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

lavished them upon their pride exhausted them by their luxury spent them upon their uncleanness which as so many Cormorants devoured that which might and ought to have been given to the poor I see then there are moral causes of evil as well as natural and these are some of them He is bruitish that thinks otherwise Do not the ends and interests of men sway the World next to God himself and what are they but moral causes and if such be to be taken notice of why not sin which is more considerable than all the rest Then O yee late Inhabitants of that famous City which is now in ashes as ever you desire it should flourish again repent of your pride fulness of bread abundance of idleness neglect of the poor and abominable uncleanness so many of you as were guilty of all or any of these for all were not and let others mourne over them that have sinned and have not repented that God may repent of the evil which he hath brought upon you and may build up your waste places in his good time Continue not in the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah lest their punishment be either not removed from you or if so again revived upon you MEDITATION II. Of destroying Fire procured by offering strange fire WE read concerning Nadab and Abihu that there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord Lev. 10.2 Why that heavy judgment befell those two Sons of Aaron the Saints of the Lord the preceding verse will tell us viz. because they took their censers put incense therein and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Their fault was this God had sent down fire from heaven upon his Altar Levit. 9.24 It should seem it was the pleasure of God and doubtless they knew it that his sacrifice which one calls his meat as the Altar his Table should be kindled and prepared with that fire only which by continual adding of suel as need required was to be kept from ever going out as is supposed Levit. 16.10 There 't is said Aaron shall take a censer full of Coales of fire from off the Altar and his hands full of incense and bring it within the vaile Now they presumed to offer incense to God with common fire which came not from the Altar before the Lord and for this they were burnt to death Upon this passage Bishop Hall worthily called our English Seneca reflects thus It is a dangerous thing saith he in the service of God to decline from his own institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his own worship just to require what he hath prescribed powerful to revenge that which he hath not required MEDITATION III. Of fire enkindled by murmuring IN Numb 11. the first and third verses I read these words When the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt amongst them and consumed them that were in the utmost parts of the Camp And he called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the Lord burnt among them It doth not much concern our present purpose to enquire what the cause of this their murr●uring was which yet is thought to have been want of meat in the Wilderness and thence the place where they were punished to have been called the graves of lust as our Margents do English kiberoth hattaavah neither need we be infallibly resolved what kind of fire it was that God sent amongst them for their murmuring it is all we need observe at the present that they were punished by fire and that murmuring was the sin they were punished for Our punishment I am sure hath been by fire as well as theirs ought we not then to examine whether cur provocation was not much-what by murmuring even as theirs was were we contented when the City was standing yea did we not grumble and repine at one thing or other every day and yet we think we should be more than contented that is to say very thankfull and joyfull if we had but London again if that great City Phenix-like might but rise out of the ashes and our places know us once more It should seem then we had enough then to be contented with and thankfull for but we knew it not as it is said of husbandmen Faelices nimium sua si bona norant If some were in worse condition than formerly would that justify their murmuring were not the Israelites in the Wilderness when they were punished for murmuring and had they not enjoyed a better condition than that in former times Do we murmurers think that men are to blame and was not Shimei to blame when he cursed Daivd and yet David looking higher viz. unto God submissively replied it may be the Lord hath bid him curse me The Robbers and spoilers of Israel were in fault Yet seeing it was God that gave Jacob to the spoile and Israel to the robbers that was reason enough why they should be dumb as a sheep before the Shearer and not open their mouths in any way of murmuring If we so remember our miseries as to forget our mercies if we aggravate our evil things and extenuate our good if we be so vexed and displeased with men as if they were sole authors of all our troubles and as if God who owes and payes us such chastisements had no hand in them If in our hearts we quarrel with God as if he were a hard master and had done us wrong if when we had food and raiment we were not content if when we had something and that considerable and how could our loss have been considerable if our enjoyment had not been so we were as unsatisfied as if we had just nothing If so do not these things plainly prove that we were murmurets many of us and whose experience doth not tell him that these things were so how many things have we repined at that men could not help as namely the pestilence now in such cases it is evident that we have not murmured against men but against the Lord Exod. 16.8 Nay if men be punished far less than their sin● deserve and yet will not accept of that their punishment but fret at him that inflicted it what must we call that but murmuring And was not that our case I had almost said that England even before this fire was so full of discontent whatsoever the cause were as if all the plagues of Egypt had been upon it and how after this i● can swell more without bursting is hard to conceive So little had we learn'd good Eli's note It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good to him Now if the Law of retaliation be burning for ●urning as we read it was Exod. 21.25 How just was it with the great God to send a Fire upon us for our grievous discontents and murmurings Murmurers are full of

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

needs be the happier time of the two One was a time of provoking his adversarie the other a time of agreeing with his adversarie whilst he is yet in the way Matth. 5.25 or of kissing the Son lest his wrath be kindled and he should perish in the mid-way When thou shalt begin to take acquaintance with thy closet with thy Bible with thy own heart with the duties of meditation prayer self-examination contemplation of heavenly things to which thou hast forme●ly been a stranger thou wilt confess thou didst but then begin to live and that all thy time before thou were but like a dead body assumed and carried about by an evil spirit wert altogether like the voluptuous widdow of whom the Apostle saith that she is dead whilst she lives I know but one sort of men that may reasonably look upon life to be less desireable as to them than death and that may justly reckon it a greater priviledge to die presently than to live any longer and they are those that can say with Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the Heavens Such only may with good reason have mortem in desiderio that is long to be dissolved But yet they also must have vitam in patientiâ that is be content to live though in the midst of trouble But alas how few of these are there in the Christian world how rarely doth this flower of assurance grow even in the garden of the Church yea and amongst those that are no weeds themselves Then bless the Lord O my soul and let all that is within me bless his holy name yea let others praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together that we are yet alive though haply stript of many mercies and comforts of life which we have formerly enjoyed O Life thou art sweet though full of care and feare and hardship and trouble on ever side because thou art a day of grace a time of making our peace with God and getting the assurances of his love Art thou yet dead in sins and trespasses go to Jesus Christ for soulquicknings and thou maist come to live spiritually ere thou die temporally and be secured withall from dying eternally Hath God hid his face from thee hitherto take a right course and yet before thou diest maiest thou see his face with joy Hath he concealed himself from thee hitherto and spoken roughly to thee as Joseph to his brethren when he called them Spies yet as he at last said to them I am your brother Joseph so may God to us I am your father I am he that blotteth out your sins for mine own names sake though thou hast all this while sate in darkness and as it were in the region of death yet may the Lord be hence-forward a light to thee Some render those words Deut. 34.5 Moses died upon the mouth of God as one descants God did as it were kiss him into heaven so may he do by thee when thou commest to die Maiest thou not yet hear him saying to thee as to his Church Isa 54.11 Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted I will lay thy stones with fair colours and thy foundation with Saphires Lord thou knowest how to make me more thankful for life without health wealth ease honour liberty friends than ever I was for life in conjunction with all of these Cause me to improve life to those ends for which thou hast given it and give me a blessed fruit of that improvement then shall I casily acknowledge that meerly to live with such a heart and for such a purpose is more valuable than without this to live and swim in all the profits pleasures and honours of this world DISCOURSE IX Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever A Man may do more good at a time when he receives less No man ever received less good from the world or more evil than Christ did yet no man ever did more good in it nor yet so much He went about doing good Acts 10.38 yea and it was meat and drink to him John 4.34 that is it was matter of great delight and comfort to him There is a real pleasure in doing as well as receiving good Psal 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them It is surely a peace which passeth all understanding that can guard the heart and mind against all that might otherwise offend David had said but just before Seven times a day do I praise thee which shews how well he imployed himself and then he presently adds Great peace have they that love thy Law I have pitched upon this consideration because there are some who since the Fire do even despaire of ever receiving so much good in and from the world as they have formerly done from their trades because they are lessned their estates because they are impaired their friends because they are impoverished Now to such it may be a great relief to think they may receive as much comfort by doing as ever they have formerly done by receiving good yea and they may do as much good as ever they did I do not say as ever they could when yet they receive nothing like so much Some Stars receive less light from the Sun which yet give more light to the world some smaller lights are greater luminaries so may the world be better by us and for us than it had wont to be when yet it was never so bad that is so unkind and so unpleasant to us and so straight-handed as now it is There are more waies of doing good than with a mans purse onely though that is one way in which all must do good that have it Men may do good with their heads hearts tongues pens lives by their prayers parts graces precepts examples most men have one talent or other wherewith to do good though many have no hearts to use their talents though they be many and great Men of great estates do not alwaies keep the best houses or give the most relief to their poor neighbours neither are the ablest men in any kinde alwaies the most useful and serviceable to the publick Some persons as able it may be as those that write Volumes have never once appeared in print yea some of meaner gifts have furnished the world with many useful Treatises which shews that they who have received less may do more for God more for themselves more for the good of the Church and of the world than those who have received a great deal more who it may be are either over idle or over-bashful or too much awed by that Proverb That he that comes in print lies down and suffers every one that will to have a blow at him being over-tender of their reputations like the delicate woman that for delicacie will not set the sole of her foot to

in darkness Add those words of God by his Prophet concerning his Church Hoseab 2.14 I will allure her and bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably to her vers 15. And I will give her Vineyards from thence viz. from the Wilderness and the Valley of Acor which signifies trouble for a door of hope and she shall sing there as in the dayes of her youth and as in the day when she came up from Egypt And 2 Cor. 1.5 Blessed be God who comforteth us in all our tribulation For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 8.2 Speaking of the Churches of Macedonia he saith that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy abounded to the riches of their liberality and 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory resteth on you What do all these passages seem to imply but that God is wont to reserve the strongest cordials I mean comforts for his people to the time of their deepest sufferings Job 22.29 When Men are cast down then thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble person As our greatest elevations do usually precede our greatest temptations and desertions as Paul his rapture into the third heaven was not long before his being buffeted and Christ himself had received his baptisme and been honoured by a voice from Heaven not long before he was led into the Wilderness to be tempted so our greatest temptations and dejections are usually succeeded by our greatest elevations and comforts So it was with Christ after he had been tempted Angels came and ministred to him When Christ was either in his agony or neer unto it we read in Luke 22.49 That there appeared an Angel to him strengthning him If then it be true in a spiritual as well as in a natural sense that it is usually most dark but a little before break of day and that the bright face of heaven is better discerned under ground than above where the reflection of beames dazle●h our eyes and if it be so that when the Bricks are doubled than God useth to send Moses that is deliverance if God never speak more kindly to his people then he useth to do when he hath drawn them into a Wilderness if God smile upon his people then especially when the World frowns upon them and when their outward sufferings abound cause their inward consolations to do so likewise and make light arise to them in darkness why should I not then say as David did Psal 49.5 Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about supposing him to mean the punishment or fruit of his iniquities If when I sit in darkness Mich 7.8 the Lord will be a light to me if when I have more trouble in the World I may have more peace in Christ if I be in a Prison and God will there give me Songs in the night as he did to Paul and Silas Acts 16. if I were at a stake and might there feel greater joyes in my soul than ever I was acquainted with before as some holy Martyrs did who could say I were miserable and not do me wrong or how could I possibly think my self so to be Lord Psal 23 4. though I walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil if thou wilt be with me and wilt cause thy Rod and thy Staff to comfort me Though deep call upon deep at the noise of thy Water-spouts and though all thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me Yet if thou Lord wilt command thy loving kindness in the day time and cause thy Songs to be with me in the night I will not fear though an Host of evils should encamp against me Psal 142.8 DISCOURSE XVI Of that relief and support which the commonness of the Case of affliction may afford us IT is a sign that Men walk in a vain shew as the Scripture speaks Psal 39.6 for that they are apt to be disquieted at those things which should comfort them so was Peter at the approach of Christ crying out depart from me O Lord and on the other hand to be comforted with those things which one would think would rather disquier them as namely with others being under the same or other as great calamities as themselves Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris Though we may not say the more in sufferings together the merrier yet according to the course of men so it is that the more fellow-sufferers the less sad are they that suffer Neither may we impute this wholly to the weakness and envirousness of men sith the Apostle from that very consideration doth labour to comfort Christians 1 Cor. 10.13 No temptation hath take you but what is common to men and in 1 Pet. 5.9 The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the World Therefore doubtless there is some reason why men should not be so much dejected when they consider themselves not to be alone in misery though upon other accompts again we should be never less sad and solitary than when none are in trouble but our selves then if they were as David speaks of himself Psal 102.7 Like a Sparrow alone upon the House top or like a Pellican in the wilderness or like an Owle in the Desart For in that case we might be apt to think that God had some particular controversie with us more than with all other men that he had singled us out to make examples of us that he had set us like beacons upon a hill to warn and alarm others or that our sufferings were such as could not be borne because we have no instances of those that do or ever did bear the like Now the commouness of sufferings and those of the same kind to others with our selves doth much take off from all those suspicions and prejudices especially if they be such as we doubt not but have interest in the love and favour of God for thence may we conclude that hatred is not to be known by such dispensations as those Afflictions in one kind or other are common to men yea to good men or the generality of them at all times but some have them in one way some in another some in body some in minde some in estate some in relations some in all but all in some For Man is born to sorrow as the sparks she upward and whomsoever God loves he rebukes and chast●eth yea every son whom he receive h● but there are times in which the afflictions of many are invisible only their own hearts know their own sorrow and wherein they are so various that as we say so many Men ●●●many mindes so may it almost be said so many men so many several sorts of miseries and usually every one thinks his own the greatest

the Scripture when it saith that temporal afflictions are but light 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction saith Paul which is but for a moment c. Read but St. Pauls perils 2 Cor. 11.26 27. and his sufferings v. 23. In stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft thrice stoned c. and then tell me if his temporal afflictions were light whose can be called heavie Add to what I have said that the pangs of conscience and the pains of hell which I have made appear do so infinitely outweigh all the troubles of this life are no other than what our sins have deserved and therefore our outward afflictions may be said to be light not only if compar'd with what is come upon others but also with what might justly have been inflicted upon our selves So that we may here take up those words of Ezra chap. 9.13 Thou Lord hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve If one that deserves to be put to a painful and shameless death comes off with a burn in the hand who saith not his punishment is light compared with his offence I am deceived if by this time I have not plainly proved all temporal afflictions to be but light though some are nothing like so light as others Now Lord what I have proved by Scriptural arguments let not me or others ever seem to disprove by anti-scriptural practices whilst we affirm Temporal afflictions to be but light let us not groan under them as if they were unsupportable or to be overwhelmed by them Oh mix not Spiritual afflictions with temporal If thou wilt rebuke me seem not to do it in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy sore displeasure Let me ready thy love in and with my temporal afflictions and I shall ever acknowledge that in comparison not only of eternal torments but even of inward and spiritual troubles they are but light DISCOURSE XVIII Of the shortness of Temporal Afflictions THough afflictions be not sweet in themselves yet it is one comfort they are but short And how can the troubles of this life be otherwise than short when this life it self is not long Paul exhorting Christians to weep as if they wept not 1 Cor. 7.29 promiseth this Brethren the time is short v. 28. and to shew the exceeding shortness of it he calls it a moment 2 Cor. 4.17 Our affliction which is but for a moment Persons under affliction are apt to think the time long as those that are in great pain be it but for a day or a piece of a day In the morning they cry Would to God it were evening Deut. 28.67 and in the evening would to God it were morning They are ready to exp●●st●late with the Sun saying why stay the wheels of his chariot so long though he be as a mighty giant that runs a race They would make morning and evening meet if they knew how and have it night so soon as it is day and day again so soon as it is night But is time long because men think it so is a Summer-day short because they that spend it in pleasure think it is night quickly and wish it were twice so long shall we say the time is long when God saith it is short Let God be true and ever man a liar We our selves shall say the same thing if we compare time with eternity as the Apostle did when he said Our affliction which is but for a moment is not worthy to be compared with the eternal weight of glory A thousand years with God because eternal are but as one day or as a watch in the night what then is fourscore years which few exceed yea few arrive to There are eternal sufferings how long are they and how short are these if compared with them If our miseries may end with our lives we shall have no cause to complain they have been long God hath made our daies as a span and our years are as nothing before him Why should we think that we are long deprived of those things that we could not have long enjoyed Do not persons that have the world at will bemoan themselves to think how soon their souls will be required of them and then whos 's all these things will be Had the City been standing had trade been flourishing had waters of a full cup been wrung out to you and had God given you a lease of all that mercy during life how soon would that life expire how soon must you be gathered to your fathers and go the way of all flesh how close doth eternity follow you at the heeles how suddenly will it swallow you up They that had but a little time to come in their leases and no hopes of renewing them count not their loss so great Thou hast but a little time to come in thy life which is without hope of being renewed and therefore what great matter is it that thou hast lost within a few years they that have great estates yet left will enjoy no more of them than thou dost of thine which the fire hath consumed Is it an eternity of ●●●piness that thou believest to be reserved for thee wait but a little while and thou wilt be in possession of it and then thou wilt have no more need of those things O Lord I shall not presume to ask how many daies or moneths or years my sufferings must last or whether all the residue of my life only be pleased to say that they shall be but temporal then shall I thankfully acknowledge that the sufferings of Time are mercifully short if compared with the joyes of eternity DISCOURSE XIX Of the needfulness and usefulness of Affliction VVE commonly say that a rod now and then is as good for children as their meat and God knows that it is so for his should he spate his rod and should his soul spare them for their crying he should spoil his children 1 Pet. 1.6 For a season if need be ye are in heavinass If God do not correct us for his own pleasure as it is certain he doth not for judgment is his strange act neither doth he willingly afflict the children of men then surely it is for our profit We read in Psa 55.19 Because men have no changes viz. from prosperity to adversity but the mountain of their bappiness stands strong therefore they fear not God And another Text saith Put them in fear that they may know themselves to be but men As if men but for Gods terrifying them by affliction would conceit themselves to be more than men It is tendered as a reason why the Moabites were so wicked because they had no affliction at leastwise of a long time Jer. 48.11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth and he hath setled on his ●ees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel neither hath he gone into captivity therefore his ●aste remained in him and his sent is not changed Agur gives this reason why he

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