Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	air_n	earth_n	element_n	11,896	5	9.9757	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53837	Observations, both historical and moral, upon the burning of London, September 1666 with an account of the losses, and a most remarkable parallel between London and Mosco, both as to the plague and fire : also an essay touching the easterly-winde : vvritten by way of narrative, for satisfaction of the present and future ages / by Rege Sincera.	Rege Sincera.	1667 (1667)	Wing O92; ESTC R1890	16,912	39

sulphureous fire was evidently seen in the melting of Bells Iron Pots Glasses and other metallique things and in the calcining of stones and bricks which no other single fire of wood coals or other vulgar matter could have done I remember that some four or five years ago the Lightning fell in Herefordshire without doing any harm in the Country but being extinguished of it self the exhalation of it did mix it self with a strong Westerly wind that came as far as London beating down houses plucking up trees by the roots and to shew its nitrous and sulphureous Nature did as it were neglect to touch wood but did chiefly stick upon metal and either broke or bended it the tokens of it are seen to this day upon the Steeples of Bowchurch St. Andrew St. Giles Cripplegate the May-Pole and other places These sulphureous matters were also the cause of another inconveniency which is that the fire being corporified in them did extend the sphaere of his activity at a further distance then ordinary and cast his burning beams furthest off mixing more exactly his Atomes in the Air which he turneth almost into his own Nature which was the cause that no body could come neerer that fire then a hundred or two hundred paces VI. The foregoing Summer that was extraordinaryly hot and dry had also disposed the matter of the buildings to admit the fire more quickly and easily by sucking not only the intrinsecal moisture that was in them but also that of the Air which might have moistned them for though there be no rain falling nevertheless there is a certain evapourish moisture in the Air which if it be not dried up doth moisten all porous things intrinsecally and doth condense it self upon the solid ones in the form of an Oleaginous moisture as doth appear upon Marbles and Glasses VII In cometh now the East-wind to play his part in this Tragedy That unfortunate wind of which it is commonly said that it is neither good for man nor beast did blow with such a wonderful fierceness all the time of the conflagration that it did not only quicken the fire as Bellows do the Furnaces but also getting into the streets and among the houses when it found any let or hinderance that did recoil it back it blew equally both to the right and to the left and caused the fire to burn on all sides which hath perswaded many that this fire was miraculous I my self remember that going into some streets at that time and having the wind impetuously in my face I was in hope that at my return I should have it in my back but it was all one for the reason aforesaid It would be here too tedious to speak of the nature of winds and to shew many reasons why this wind is so dry in England as to burn the flowers and leafs of the trees more then the hottest Sun can do one which I think satisfactory will serve for all It is therefore to be observed that winds do not only participate of the nature of the places where they are begot but also of that of the Countries thorough which they pass Now all the Southern Western and Northern winds must pass thorough the great Ocean to come into England in which passage there mixes with them abundance of vapours which cause their moisture except the North-wind wherein the moisture is condensed by the cold but the East-wind to come to us must pass over the greatest Continent of the world France Germany Hungary Greece Persia c. even to China so that in perusing such a tract of Land it not only droppeth down by the way his moist Effluviums the earth as it were sucking them for its irroration but also carrieth along all the hot and dry exhalations that perpetually arise out of the earth which is the cause of his dry and burning quality I had formerly a little Garden where I did bestow as much pains and cares as I could to bring up some young Fruit-trees that were in 't having the advantage of a very good mould but being seated Eastward and closed narrowly by a Brick-wall on either side this wind that raigneth constantly here in England in the moneths of March April and beginning of May did in their budding so burn the leaves and the flowers that the hottest Sun could not do the like so that I was fain to give it over having been two or three years before I could understand that mystery and the nature of that wind in this countrey for there is some other countreys where this wind is salubrious and fruitful enough VIII It was also a great contributing to this misfortune that the Thames Water-house was out of order so that the Conduits and Pipes were almost all dry as also that the Engines had no liberty to play for the narrowness of the place and crowd of the people but some of them were tumbled down in the river and among the rest that of Clearken-well esteemed one of the best And thus courteous Reader thou seest an admirable concurrence of several causes for the putting of Gods will in execution in other Cities that are not subject to conflagrations as Paris which is all built of Free-stone the innundations have several times played their pranks other Towns as in Italy that think themselves exempted from fi●e and water come to their periods by fearful Earthquakes others that escape Fire Water and Earth do perish by the Meteors of the Air and are calcined by the Lightening so that God Almighty never wanteth instruments to compass his will and it seemeth that the four Elements of which this world is compounded do conspire against the happiness and quietness of man when by their daily prevarications they go about to confirm the disobedience of our first Parents Cur Why SECT V. HEre it is that we must wholly stoop and humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and answer with the Apostle O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Rom. 11.33 let it suffice thee O man to know that whether he hath done it to punish thee for thy sins or to try thy Faith and exercise thy Patience if thou canst make benefit of this affliction and sanctify it to thy use We know that all things work together for good to them that love God

Two thousand years inhabited by Citizens whose courage was equal to their fortunes in a word a City of which it might be said more truly then of Ormus Si terrarum orbis quaqua patet annulus esset Londinum illius gemma decusque foret This circumstance which we tread over so slightly that we may not be suspected of flattery is not the least that aggravateth the enormity of this accident there is none of those characters we have given it but is very true and might be the worthy employment of a better penn then mine and the subject of a full volume Quibus auxiliis By whose help SECT IV. HEre we must have recourse to what we have said before in the first Paragrapht when we spoke of the second causes and say that God hath made use chiefly of eight things to accomplish this work The negligence of the Master or his Servants in whose house the fire did first begin the solitariness of the night the narrowness of the place the weakness of the buildings the quantity of combustible and bituminous matters gathered thereabout the preceding Summer which was extraordinarily hot and dry the East wind that blew violently all that while and the want of Engines and water to quench the fire we shall give every one his little Section to satisfie the curiosity of these who inquire so much of the causes that have made this conflagration so violent dismal and irremediable I. Though there be some accidents which no humane prudence can prevent as when a man either in his own house or going through the street is crashed by a sudden ruine nevertheless the Philosophers are not to blame when they say that every one may be the author of his own fortune for it is certain that if a man neglecteth or forsaketh that providence given him by nature he doth together forsake the instrument and the means which his good genius maketh use of to make him avoid the ill accidents that may befall him for as our soul doth only act by the Organs of our body so our Genius either good or bad cannot act but by the means of our soul now if our soul enjoyeth a sound and temperate body and doth her functions with purity and facility that Genius which is always neer hand and as it were whispering at our ear doth move and stirr her to the preservation of whatsoever belongeth or concerneth her if on the contrary this soul inhabiteth a body dyscratiated melanchollick full of obstructions or drowned in the excesses of eating and drinking or passions its nature being igneous and never ceasing from action it necessarily followeth that according to the disposition of the Organes she turneth to the wrong way and neglecteth those things wherein she is meerly concerned Now in things that might be prevented or remedied it is an invalid excuse to say I would never have thought that such thing should happen For who can attribute it to a meer accident to put fire in an Oven and to leave quantity of dry wood and some flitches of Bacon by it within the sphaere of its activity and so go to bed in leaving his providence with his slippers I remember that some 36 years ago in a Town of Brie a Province of France called Sezane upon a Sunday morning a Woman that kept a Chandlers shop having occasion to snuff a Candle threw the snuff into a corner of her shop among some old rags and papers and so shutting the door went to Mass but within the space of half an hour and before she could come back again not only her house but those of her Neighbours were all in a flame which being helped by an East-wind which blew at that time and which is the most dangerous of all the Winds for Incendies as we shall shew hereafter did in the space of a day and a night consume the whole Town consisting of about four hundred houses Can this be called a meer accident since there is no body so void of common sense but might have either foreseen or prevented so calamitous a consequence II. The second cause of this misfortune is the time wherein it did happen to wit about one of the clock in the night when every one is buried in his first sleep when some for weariness others by deboistness have given leave to their cares to retire when slothfulness and the heat of the bed have riveted a man to his Pillow and made him almost incapable of waking much less of acting and helping his Neighbours III. The narrowness of the place did also much contribute to this Conflagration for the Street where it did happen as also most of those about it were the narrowest of the City insomuch that in some a Cart could scarce go along and in others not at all The danger I did once run of my life thereabouts by the crowd of Carts hath caused me many times to make reflexion on the covetousness of the Citizens and connivency of Magistrates who have suffered them from time to time to encroach upon the streets and so to jet the top of their houses so as from one side of the street to touch the other which as it doth facilitate a conflagration so doth it also hinder the remedy and besides taketh away the liberty of the air making it unwholesome and disfigureth the Beauty and Symmetry of the City I hope that for the future his Majesty his Councel and that of the City will take care that such disorder happen no more and will cause this City to be as commodious in its Buildings as it is happy in its Scituation IV. Now followeth the weakness of the buildings which were almost all of wood which by age was grown as dry as a chip This inconvenient will easily be remedied in building the houses with Stone or Brick according to the Statutes and Ordinances of Parliament provided and Enacted long ago in that behalf though for the most part ill observed V. The quantity of combustible and bituminous matter hath given the greatest encouragement to this devouring Fire for as the place where the fire begun was not far from the Thames and from those Wharfes where most Merchandises are landed so Thames-street and others thereabout were almost nothing else but Magazines of combustible and sulphurous Merchandises Thereabout were a prodigious quantity of Oyl Butter Brandy Pitch Brimstone Saltpeter Cables c. and by the Thames side were almost all Wharfes full of Coals and Wood. Now as fire of it self is nothing but light which corporifieth it self in the matter and acteth more or less according to the disposition of it as we see that a fire of Straw is less violent than that of Coals it followeth that this fire having lighted upon these sulphureous and bituminous matters did feed upon them as in his proper Element and not only devoured them with ease but imparts to the next combustible matters a disposition more fitting and apt to receive him The Nature of this