in comparison of Himself was but of yesterday for what is six thousand years to Eternity and He will Be still when the world shall be no more He was Light to himself when as yet there were no Sun Moon and Stars yea he was Light it's self so he is and so he will be when all those lights shall be put out We cannot better afford to burn a Rush-candle till we have burnt it out or when that is done misse it lesse than he can to burn up the Sun it 's self and to disfurnish all the Stars of their borrowed light God looks upon this world as that which is too good for wicked men alwayes to enjoy but not good enough for his Children alwayes to continue in Of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11. and so being not fit to be the eternal Mansion either of the one or of the other hath resolved that when it hath served to the end for which it was made it shall be burnt His Friends shall have better Mansions his Enemies shall not have so good How soon the Conflagration of the World shall be Who can tell God prefixed the time in which he would destroy the first World viz. within a hundred and twenty years after warning given but hath not done so by this Of that day and hour knows no man no not the Son of man viz. as man It may be nearer at hand than we are aware of The ends of the world seem to be upon us If Saint John and others contemporary with him called the time wherein they lived The lâ—st time 1 John 2.18 Heb. 1.2 2 Pet. â— â— What may this be called Well might the Psalmist say This their way is their folly of them whose inward thought was that their House and Lands should continue for ever Psalm 49.11 whereas alas the world it self shall not do so Were they secure that were told The world should be drowned at the end of a hundred and twenty years and would not regard and are not we that know the world shall be burnt and that for ought we know within half that time or less and yet are not affected with it Ought not the very thoughts of that burning to be as a fiery Chariot to convey our minds from earth to heaven Ought it not to quench our affections to the world as one heat puts out another so the heat of the Sun puts out the Fire I observe Saint Peter to say that The earth and the works that are thereof shall be burnt by which I suppose he means the works of Art because he speaks of none of the works of heaven which are all natural such as are strong Towers stately Pallaces famous Cities and such like Now the day in which that shall be done saith he shall come upon the world as a thief in the night that is suddenly and unexpectedly Nor know I what better use can be made of the doctrine of the Worlds intended Destruction by fire than that which we read 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness MEDITATION XX. Upon the Fire of Hell VVHo can think on the late dreadfull fire without some serious reflections on the more dreadful fire of hell If that Tophet which is spoken of Isa 30.33 be the same with Hell methinks the description of it is such as doth not a little agree with our late fire The pile thereof saith the Prophet is much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Was not the pile of our late fire much wood of Churches Houses and other Structures and did not the wind which may be called the breath of the Lord so kindle it or rather increase it as if it had been a mighty stream of Brimstone poured in upon it Some are not more hard to believe there is a Hell a Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is The second death than they would have been to believe that any such fire should or could have fallen upon London as that which lately did If more dreadful things than we could imagine do happen unforetold as the late Judgement for one Why should we think those incredible which the Scripture plainly speaks of though they far transcend our imagination and what we should otherwise expect Nothing can make the burning of London and the misery attending it seem small but to consider the fire of Hell and the misery of the damned and that considered this doth even vanish and disappear before it For What is a fire of four days continuance to that which shall last more millions of millions of Ages than there are minutes in the space of four dayes and nights Or What is a fire preying upon Houses and Goods to that which shall prey upon Bodies and Souls as Christ hath commanded us to Fear him who can cast sâ—ul and body into hell If one Soul be as it is more worth than many worlds how much lesse is one City worth than many thousand souls Neither is Hel an uncompounded torment consisting of fire onely but there are other ingredients to make the misery of it more unsufferable There is the worm that shall never die there it the darknesse that shall never end There is the heat of fire to Torment but not the light of fire to Refresh Oh the demerit of sin that fire which of it's self is so intolerable a torment should not be thought sufficient to punish it Shall I dread fire alone such as that which befell the City and shall I not dread more scorching flames than those accompanied with a gnawing worm and a perpetual night I can heartily say with that good man Hic ure hic seeâ— Domine sed in aeternum pâ—rce Here O Lord cut and burn and do what thou wilt with me onely spare in Eternity May the consideration of hell-Hell-fire not onely deterr me from sin but also kindle love to Christ within me who is therefore called Jesus because he shall save his people from the wrath to come MEDITATION XXI Upon the coming of that most dreadful fire in so Idolized a year as 1666. VVHen will men give over groundlesse prophecying When will they learn not to be wise above what is written Did not Christ say to his Disciples It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own hands One said That an Itch of disputing was in his time the scab of the Church and in our time an Itch of prophecying hath been the same thing According to the manifold prophesies which have been concerning it -66. should have been a year of Jubilee I had almost said a time of the Restitution of all things but alas Whilst men lookt for light behold darkness whilst they cried Peace peace greater destruction then ever was coming upon them It is said that God hath set one over against
and is ready to say Is there any sorrow like to mine But it is otherwise at this day God having cast multitudes both of persons and families at one and the same time into one and the same furnace that none might say others were corrected but with rods but we with scorpions Now this being so there are the more to pitty you the fewer to insult over you though when all this is said I honour them that say from their hearts They wish they had suffered more than they did if more could have been if it had been the will of God that none might have been sufferers but they But seeing such was the good will and pleasure of God that thousands should be involved in the same calamity with our selves and many of them our betters who is not ashamed yea who is not afraid to contend with God for what hath befallen himself who seeth not reason to stand before God like a sheep dumb before the shearer Who would not lay his mouth in the dust if there may yet be hope What art thou and what was thy fathers house that the destroying Angel shall passe over thee and thy doors be as it were sprinkled when he entred into the houses of so many not only Egyptians but Israelites If our betters have been equal shaters in this calamity as who is so proud as not to think so how can we but think of those words Jer. 49.12 Behold they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have drunken and art thou he that shalt altogether go unpunished To have escaped had been a miracle of mercy but to have been involved with so many that deserved it less was no wonder at all Lord as for all those whose houses and substance this Fire hath consumed give them much more to admire that their persons did escape the common calamity of the Plague than that their possessions were taken away by the common calamity of the Fire and as for those who have escaped both Plague and Fire they and their dwellings let them be ravished with the remembrance of thy distinguisting goodness and so answer the law of thy kindness that thou maist not reserve them to a greater judgment than either that of the Plague or that other of the late dismall Fire DISCOURSE XVII Of the lightness of all temporal afflictions IT is well I have Scripture to back me else I foresee I might possibly have been esteemed both hard-hearted and heretical for saying that all temporal afflictions are but light Whereas some would oppose their experience to such an assertion I may comply with that and yet do the Scripture right All your experience can contend for is only this that some temporal afflictions and this in particular absolutely and in themselves considered are not light but heavie as Job speaks like the sands of the sea That I can afford to grant I but yet those very afflictions relatively considered and compared with miseries of another nature namely with internal and eternal torments give me leave to say are but as so many flea-bitings Say who dare that utmost poverty is comparable either to the pains of hell or pangs of conscience Who is so desperate as to be willing to exchange meer beggery or famine its self with either of those Doth not Salomon say and is it not most true That the spirit meaning the conscience of a man if that be sound and in peace can bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear That is none can bear If Job sitting upon the dunghill can then and there say he knows that his redeemer liveth and he shall one day see him with these eyes he that thinks him half so miserable whilst he can so say as one that sits upon a throne and mean time seeth the hand-writing of God upon the wall as Belteshazzar did telling him that he is weighed and found too light or cries out with Spira and others in the like case that he is damned he is damned or but as David sometimes did that God hath forgotten to be gracious to him and shut up his loving kindness towards him in displeasure I say he that thinks the latter of these though upon a Throne the less misetable of the two knows not what he saith not whereof he affirms Should he be translated from a dunghill to a throne with such different circumstances as these oh how would he long to be upon his dunghill again with such language in his mouth and heart as was that of Job I know my redeemer lives If thy affliction be but temporal and external fear to say no sorrow like to thine no not that of a wounded conscience lest God hear it and be angry and should either exchange thy other misery for a wounded conscience or add that to all the rest that by woful experience thou maist learn neither to overvalue the one nor to undervalue the other And do the pangs of a wounded conscience far exceed the miseries of an impoverished condition what then do the pains of hell which far exceed the pangs of conscience The worm that never dies by which is meant a gnawing conscience is but one part of the torments of hell Besides that there is the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone the smoak whereof ascendeth continually What is it to have fire consume our dwellings in comparison of dwelling our selves with consuming fire and with everstasting burnings who believes hell to be what it is and doth not think one year or moneth in the torments of that place to be more unsufferable than all the vexations of a long and afflicted life were it not less misery to be as Lazarus that beggar full of sores and craving of the crumbs that fell from the rich mans table and glad of dogs to lick his fores yea to be so for many years together than for the space of one year to be as Dives in hell carnestly begging for a little water to cool his tongue tormented in flames and could by no means obtain it Add the circumstance of eternity to the greatness of hell torments and see if all the troubles of this life do not even vanish before it and appear as nothing If then thou art convinced as I hope thou art there is a hell and hast reason to believe that multitudes are there for all are there that have lived and died in their sins let me suppose thee the greatest susterer this fire hath made if there be any one greater than any of the rest and when that is done compare thy condition with that of the damned in hell and then say if thy affliction when laid in the ballance be not found altogether lighter than vanity If God will assure thee that thou shalt flie from the wrath to come all that hath yet befaln thee may be born It is not for want of pitty and commiseration towards you that I write this I hope my bowels yearn towards you but I would justifie
with his earnest prayers that assisted by the spirit of God they may kindly co-operate together with the late judgment and all others upon the heart both of the writer and readers The Author doubts not but there is a great deale of hay and stubble in the superstructure of this work of his as in and with all other his performances and it may be thine too though not so much Pray for the pardon of his defects and miscarriages as he would do of thine cover them with love which covereth a multitude of infirmities if there be any passage in this work one or more that God shall make to thee as Gold Silver or precious Stones give God the glory of it for he it is must make it so and take to thy self these following words on the unworthy Author his behalf viz. that though all that hay and stubble which is found upon him or upon any service of his must be burnt up yet himself may be saved though as by Fire in which and all other needfull requests he desireth heartily to reciprocate â—â—â—h thee who is Yet an unprofitable Servant to Christ and his Church but desirous to be otherwise S. R. THE Heads of the ensuing Discourses Meditations and Contemplations PART I. Discourses 1. OF the great duty of Considering in an evil time Discourses 2. Of Gods being a consuming Fire Meditations 1. Of the sins for which God sent Fire upon Sodâ—m and Gomorrah Meditations 2. Of destroying Fire procured by offering strange Fire Meditations 3. Of Fire enkindled by murmuring Meditations 4. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb â—6 Meditations 5. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture as one great 〈…〉 God 's punishing a people by Fire Meditations 6. Of Gods 〈…〉 by Fire for the sins of Idolatry and Sâ—â—â—r 〈…〉 Meditations 7. Of 〈…〉 Theft Deceit false Ballances mention◠〈…〉 Scripture as causes of Gods contending by Fire Meditations 8. Of lying sâ—â—aring and for-swearing as further causes of Gods contending by Fire Meditations 9. Of the abounding of Drunkenness as one cause of the Fire Meditations 10 Of Gods punishing a People by Fire for their great unprofitableness Meditations 11. Of the universall Corruption and Debauchery of a people punished by God with Fire Meditations 12. Of Gods bringing Fire upon a people for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments Meditations 13. Of the Aggravations of the sins of London PART II. Contemplations 1. COncerning the Nature of Fire and the use that may be made of that Contemplation Contemplations 2. Touching the Nature of Sulphur which is the principal matter and cause of Fire and how it comes to be so mischeivous in the World Contemplations 3. Concerning the true cause of Combustibility or what it is that doth make Bodies obnoxious to fire together with the improvement of that consideration Contemplations 4. Of Fire kindled by Fire Contemplations 5. Of Fire kindled by Putrefaction Contemplations 6. Of Fire kindled by the collision of two hard bodies Contemplations 7. Of Fire kindled for want of vent as in Hay c. Contemplations 8. Of Fire kindled by pouring on Water as in Lime PART III. Meditations 1. OF the weight of Gods hand in the destruction of London by fire Meditations 2. Upon sight of the weekly Bill since the fire Meditations 3. Vpon the discourses occasioned by the late fire both then and since Meditations 4. Upon the dishonest Carters that exacted excessive rates Meditations 5. Upon those that stole what they could in the time of the fire Meditations 6. Upon unconscionable Land-lords demanding excessive Fines and Rents since the Fire Meditations 7. Upon the burning down of many Churches Meditations 8. Upon the burning multitudes of Books of all sorts Meditations 9. Upon the burning of the Royal Exchange Meditations 10. Vpon the burning of Hospitals and Rents thereunto belonging Meditations 11. Vpon the burning of publick Halls Meditations 12. Of the burning of publick Schools Meditations 13. Vpon the burning of Tombs and Graves and dead bodies that were buried therein Meditations 14. Upon the burning of Writings as Bils Bonds c. Meditations 15. On the burning of St. Pauls Church and the unconsumed body of Bishop Brabrooke Meditations 16. Upon the visibleness of Gods hand in the destruction of London Meditations 17. Upon burning of the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily Meditations 18. On the Gates and Prisons of London that were burnt Meditations 19. Upon the Conflagration of the Universe Meditations 20. Upon the Fire of Hell Meditations 21. Upon the coming of that most dreadful Fire in so idolized a year as 1666. Meditations 22. Upon the Fire its beginning on the Lords day Meditations 23. Upon the place where this dreadful Fire began viz. at a Bakers-house in Pudding-lane Meditations 24. Upon the great pitty that ought to be extended to Londoners since the Fire Meditations 25. Upon those that have lost all by the Fire Meditations 26. On those that have lost but half their Estates by this Fire or some such proportion Meditations 25. Vpon those that have lost nothing by the Fire Meditations 26. Vpon those that were gainers by the late Fire Meditations 27. Upon the enducements unto rebuilding of London and some waies of promoting it Meditations 28. Upon the Wines and Oileâ— that swaâ—â— in the streets and did augment the flames Meditations 29. Upon the water running down hill so fast as that they could not stop it for their use Meditations 30. Upon mens being unwilling there should be no Fire though Fire hath done so much hurt Meditations 31. Upon the usefulness of Fire in its proper place and the danger of it elsewhere Meditations 32. Upon the blowing up of houses Meditations 31. Upon preventing the beginning of evils Meditations 32. Upon the City Ministers whose Churches were saved from the fire Meditations 33. Upon those Ministers whose Churches were burned Meditations 34. Upon the killing of several people by the fall of some parts of ruinous Churches Meditations 35. Upon the Fire it s not exceeding the Liberties of the City Meditations 36. Upon the Suburbs comming into more request than ever since the Fire Meditations 37. Upon the Tongue its being a Fire c. Meditations 38. Upon the Angels their being called flames of fire Meditations 39. Upon the Word of God its being compared to Fire Meditations 40. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire Meditations 41. Upon the retorts and reproaches of Papists occasioned by this Fire Meditations 42. On the pains which the Kings Majesty is said to have taken in helping to extinguish the Fire Meditations 43. Upon meer Worldlings who lost their All by this Fire Meditations 44. Upon that forbearance which it becometh Citizens to use one towards another since the Fire Meditations 45. Upon such as are said or supposed to have rejoyced at the comming and consequences of this Fire Meditations 46. Of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah compared with the burning of London Meditations 47 Of
so great an embleme or so lively a picture of the power of God Yet did they very ill to worship it sith the power of fire though great is but finite and as much transcended by the power of God as it self transcends the power of other things Of the Power of God transcending the power of Fire If a little Fire one single Fire taking its rise it may be but from a spark or two can do such great things what cannot he do who made all the Fires in the World and that of Tophet or Hell to boot which is greater than all the rest the Pile whereof is much wood and the breath of the Lord like a mighty streame of brimstone kindleth it Isa 30.33 How powerfull is he that hath all the Fires in the World at his beck ready to execute his pleasure Psal 148.8 Fire and haile fulfilling his Word He that hath an host of fires wherewith to fight his battles and avenge his quarrel can easily incounter all his enemies if all the World were such If it be made appear that the power of God be far beyond that of all the fires in the World who then can deny his power to be incomparably great and that it is so we may plainly see for that God suspends the influence of fire at his pleasure Witness the three Children who though in midst of a burning fiery furnace yet not so much as a haire of their heads was singed nor had the smell of fire passed upon them Dan. 3.27 He can do more than fire who can so limit fire its self that it can do just nothing God forbid I should adore fire as the heathen did but he that can do what he will by fire or without fire yea against Fire it self he I say must needs be worthy of humblest adoration and that in reference to his power Of the dreadfulness and terribleness of fire Neither do we see in Fire a representation of the power of God only but also of his awfull and terrifying presence If we do but hear people crying out either by day or night Fire Fire how doth it affright us as if a potent enemy were at out Gates but if we come and see it is so indeed and that we are not abused with a false alarme how much more terrour doth that strike us with our eyes then affecting our hearts and causing them even to sink and die within us how ghastly did men and women look how distractedly did they run about how did their haire even stand an end how little did they know what they said or did whilst with safety enough to their persons they did at a sufficient distance gaze at the Fire consuming their own and other mens houses had they themselves been in their houses at the same time as at other times they might have been burnt in their Beds some fast asleep others but newly awake the fire might possibly have had only dead Carcasses to consume as having been first killed by the greatness of their feares Read Heb. 12.21 where it is said so terrible was the sight of Mount Sinai that burned vers 18 that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake even that Moses that did not fear the wrath of Pharaoh could not without trembling stand and behold Mount Sinai all on fire And yet what is it to see the most dreadful Fires in comparison of what it is to feel or live amidst the smallest flames To lie or think of lying one hour in a fiery Oven were much more terrible than to have stood at a distance and beheld Sodom or any other City all in flames Wonder not then that sinners in Zion are afraid whilst they say who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings No execution so terrible to men as that which is performed by fire and therefore that is reserved for the greatest of malefactors as wizards witches and such like unless when bloody Papists have had the dispensinâ— of it and then it was the portion of the choicest Christians Saints and Martyrs They forsooth will provide fiery Chariots for Gods Elijah's to ascend up to heaven in But we know that kind of punishment is due only to the worst of men because the greatest of earthly punishments and the most like to hell If Fire be not exceeding terrible why did the generality of men flie before it as fast as they could and leave all that was near it to its mercy or rather cruelty yea it is commonly reported that some of the strongest and most undaunted bruits as Wolves and Bears and Lions are kept in awe by Fire and dare not approach it So that Fire is as it were a wall of defence to Men against those salvage enemies If the Lion roare saith the Scripture shall not all the â—easts of the Forrest tremble and yet himself trembles at the sight of Fire In a word if it be the professed opinion of Papists as I think it is that all persons and consequently themselves must abide for some time more or less in the Fire of Purgatory I wonder that every person so believing should not live in continual horrour crying out as those finners in Zion Isa 32.14 Who can dwell with devouring fire were it but for the space of a few moneths or daies much more for many years together and in a smaller time few of them seem to expech a release from that place of torment though they have advantages for that purpose above most other persons If it were possible for a man to lie but one day in fire unconsumed and he did know and believe he should do so would not the expectation thereof anticipate the comfort of hiâ— whole life From that natural dread of fire that is in men and every mans apprehensiveness of that kind of torment being intollerable I am led to think that all Papists are either miserable or hypocritical miscrable in believing an uncomfortable lie viz. the doctrine of Purgatory or hypocritical in not believing that which they profess to own as a great and necessary truth But enough as concerning the terribleness of our material Fire Of the terribleness of God Consider we now whether the great God be not also exceeding terrible in that respect fitly stiled a consuming fire Deut. 7.2 The Lord thy God is amongst you a mighty God and terrible also Deut. 10.17 and Nehom. 1.5 The great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant And Job 37.22 With God is terrible Majesty And Psal 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God c. and Psal 66.3 Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy works Psal 68.15 O God thou art terrible out of thy holy places Psal 76.12 He is terrible to the Kings of the earth Jacob had a great dread of God when God spake no other than good and comfortable words to him when he saw God standing above the ladder which was shewed him in his
heart-burnings against God himself discontent is a Fire within that flies and flames up against the great God as Ahaz said who with his tongue did speak but the language of the hearts of many others This evill is of the Lord why should I wait on him any longer wonder not then if the anger of God have burnt against those that did burn against him if he hath given us fire for fire We were alwayes murmuring when we had no such cause as now we have and now God hath given us as it were something to murmur for and yet let me recall my self that was spoken but vulgarly For though God should punish us with Scorpions in stead of Rods he will no tallow us to murmur but commands us to filence our selves with such a question and answer as this Why doth the living man complain man for the punishment of his sin Who so considers how unthankfull we were for what we had before the fire will see no cause to wonder at what we have lost but rather to wonder at this that such as have lost but a part did not lose all For with Parents nothing is more common than to take away those things from their Children quite and clean for which they will not so much as give them thanks as not being satisfied with them Then say Parents give them us again you shal have none of them they shal be given to them that will be thankfull for them yea say they not sometimes in their anger we will throw such a thing in the fire before such unthankful Children shall have it I see London full of open Cellars and Vaults as it were so many open Graves and Earth lying by ready to cover them How unwilling am I to say that Kiberoth Hatâ—aavah might justly be written upon them that is the graves of those that lusted after more and by that meanes lost what they had If I were one of the murmurers as there were few exempted from that guilt O Lord I have cause to own thy justice in whatsoever this Fire hath or shall contribute to my loss and prejudice and also to adore thy mercy if my share in this loss were not proportionably so great as that of many others and those my betters MEDITATION IV. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb 16. THe sixteenth Chapter of the Book called Numbers in the 35 verse thereof tells us how that a Fire came down from the Lord and consumed no less then 250 Men that offered Incense not their Houses but their very Persons Some would hardly think that so small a crime as opposition to Magistracy and Ministry are in their account should have been the only causes of so heavy a judgment And yet we finde that alledged as the main if not the only reason of Corah and his Complices being consumed by fire The Confederates of Korah Dathan and Abiram are said to have been 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown Yet when such as they who one would think might better afford to do such a thing than meaner men gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron saying why lift ye up your selves above the Cougregation of the Lord and they themselves would be Priests and Princes as well as they verse 10. Seek ye the Priesthood also said Moses to them yee Sons of Levi. And in the 13 verse they quaâ—rel with Moses for making himself which was false for it was God that had made him so altogether a Prince over them as who shall say they would have no body above themselves either in Church or State I say when they shewed this kinde of spirit and principle you see how God punished it These were right Levellers if I mistake not they pretend they would have all to be alike vers 3. ye take too much upon you all the Congregation are holy every one of them wherefore then say they to Moses and Aaron lift ye up your selves above others But to pretend they would have none inferiour to them surely was but a stratagem to bring to pass that they might have no Superiors or rather that themselves might be superiour to all others This was like to come to good they would have neither head nor taile in Church or State or else it should be all head or all taile But from these principles of Anarchy and Ataxy set at work I say from the displeasure of God against them upon that account sprang the fire which we there read of Much of this spirit hath been in England within a few years past when not a few gloried in the name of Levellers at leastwise in the character and principles of men so called If any of those embers be still raked up under ashes I should fear least a Fire of tumult and confusion might break out from thence and by their meanes as soon as any way nor do I question at all but that the sin and guilt of such vile and antiscriptural tenets might help to kindle that fire which lately devoured the City God will not suffer two such great Ordinances as Magistracy and Ministry which so greatly concern the good of the World nor either of them to be trampled upon St. Jude speaks sharply of such men calling them filthy dreamers who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities they who would level these the God of order will level them for such are said to perish in the gain-saying of Korah Jude 11. Of such it is said in 2 Pet. 2.12 That as bruit Boasts they are made to be taken and to be destroyed and that they shall utterly perish in their own corruption But then if we consider Moses and Aaron one as a holy Magistrate the other as a holy Minister that did greatly aggravate the sin of Korah and his Complices in rising up against and seeking to depose them for as such they had a double â—tamp of God upon them viz. both as Magistrates and as good For as such they were not only called Gods but also partakers of the divine nature and if we must be subject to Superiours that are naught and froward 1 Pet. 2.18 much more to them that are good and gentle the destruction of usefull Magistrates and Ministers is one of the greatest disservices that can be done to the World and will as soon kindle the wrath of God as almost any sin that men commit 2 Chron. 36.16 But they mocked the messengers of God and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy Mat. 23.36 There we finde these words O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee c. Behold your house is left unto you desolate in Numb 16.11 Moses told Corah and his Company that they were gathered together against the Lord. For what is done against Magistrates and Ministers either as Officers ordained of God or as good in their places
and a ghastly appearance let all that passe by them Judge Surely London is now the saddest spectacle that is this day in England Doth the circumstance of time in which this fire befel us add nothing to our affliction Had we at the same time had many friends and enemies but few or none our misery had been less For then should we have been much pitied which had been some mitigation of our loss but did it not befal us at a time when we had few friends but many forreign enemies round about us This Jeremy lamented in reference to Jerusalem Lam. 1.2 Amongst all her lovers she hath none to comfort her all her friends have dealt treacherously with her they are become her enemies Is it no aggravation of our misery surely it cannot be otherwise to think how wretchedly our many enemies will triumph and insult because of it and cry Ah ah so would they have it Lam. 1.21 All mine enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad that thou hast done it And Lam. 2.25 All that pass by clap their hands they hiss and wag their head for the daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole earth vers 16. All thine enemies say This is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it vers 17. The Lord hath caused thine enemies to rejoyce over thee he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries Also in Lam. 3.14 45. You may see how much stress the prophet Jeremy did lay upon the insultings of enemies and how humbling a consideration he took it for When enemies congratulate our miseries in stead of condoling them it adds much Surely France but for shame had rung bells and made bonfires when the tidings of our fire did arrive there God would that a people should lay it to heart when he exposeth them to contempt Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed so is London all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness He loves not his countrey that cares not how it is slighted or who insults over it What if it can be made out that there is no parallel at this day for London's calamity should not that be for a lamentation that God should so punish us as if he would make us an example to all the world or as if we had been the worst people in the world Ieremy took that circumstance to heart in Jerusalem's case Lam. 2.13 What thing shall I liken to thee Oh daughter of Ierusalem What shall I equal to thee that thou maist be comforted So Daniel 9.12 For under the whole heaven hath not been done so great evil as hath been done upon Ierusalem If the like may be said of London and indeed I have heard no man pretend the contrary at this day its misery must needs be great If it be an unparallel'd stroke it must needs carry a great face of Divine wrath and displeasure with it and that doth add much Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his Anger and remembred not his footstool in the day of his Anger Ver. 3. He hath cut off in his fierce Anger all the horns of Israel Many things in this judgement seemed to carry with them a great face of Divine Anger as namely for that the Lord seemed to destroy London so far as he went without any pity Such a thing as this is bewailed Lam. 2.2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Iacob and hath not pitied And verse 17. The Lord hath thrown down and hath not pitied If God had taken away the houses of rich men that could have born their loss and mean time spared the houses of such as were poor there had been pity in that but he was pleased to take all before him and with the same besome of destruction to sweep away the habitious of the poorest as well as of the most rich And did not God's turning a deaf ear to all the prayers and intercessions that were made as for the greatest part of London whilst the fire was and going on to destroy notwithstanding though they cried unto him day and night that he would stay his hand and spare the remainder I say did not that speak God exceeding angry This was one of Ieremies complaints Lâ—m. 3.8 Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer and verse 44. Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pâ—ss thorough God did in effect say that Though Noch Daniel and Ioh stood before him yet would he not be intreated for the City When prayers can prevail no longer in such a case as that was it is a sign God is exceeding angry Moreover the fierceness of the judgement and the mighty force it came with and the quick dispatch it made intimates as if God for that time had abandoned all pity towards London For may not these words of Ieremy be applied to us Lam. 3.10 He was unto me as a Bear or as a Lion he hath pulled me in pieces he hath made me desolate If any man that reads these things be yet insensible of the heaviness of Gods hand in this stroke let him beside all that hath been said consider how unexpected and how Incredible a thing it was that London should be almost totally consumed by fire ere this year were at an end Now what but the greatness of this judgement made it so incredible till it came That some few houses might have been fired in a short time we could easily have believed but not that so many as the Prophet speaks Lam. 4.12 The kings of the earth and the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the enemy should have entred into the gates of Jerusalem To think a judgement too great to be inflicted and yet when it is inflicted to make light of it are very inconsistant things and mighty self-contradictions He that should have come to a man worth eight or ten thousand pound a week before the fire and told him that within ten days he should not be worth so many hundreds would he not have laugh'd at him and said in his heart How can that be Had all his estate been in houses some in one street some in another he would never have dream'd that they should be all sired together or within a few days of one another And yet it is well known to have been the case of many to have been worth a good estate one day and the next day by the fire to have been reduced almost to nothing How are the words of Jeremy upon this occasion revived Lam. 4 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet imbrace dunghils Great and sudden downfalls cannot but move compassion in any man that hath bowels As Jeremy speaks of the Nazarites Lam. 4.6 7. That they who
have since let them for moderate Rents such are honest gainers Others have let their houses at most excessive Rates and such have loaded themselves with dishonest gain But be their gains one way or another I think no man ought for the present to pocket the money which he hath clearly gotten by the fire if it be so they can spare it David would not drink of the waters of Bethlehem which were brought to him because as he said They were the price of Blood meaning his Souldiers had ventured their lives for it What men have gotten by this fire is little lesse than the price of Blood considering how many were impoverished that a few might be inriched or rather that the inriching of but a very few is by the undoing of many thousands Men may look upon their gains by this fire as Deodates Let as many as are able be their own Almoners and give it back to God Is it not a Sabbatical year in a doleful sense for that the poor City now injoyeth it's Sabbath and in a Sabbatical year that did bear a better interpretation the rich were not suffered to reap but were to leave the Crop to the poor as appeareth by comparing Exod. 23.11 with Levit. 25.5 If men who have only saved what they had before ought to contribute to them that have lost how much more ought they who have received an Addition by this very means To Build upon the Ruines of others is one of the worst Foundations that can be Let it never be said The fire hath made you rich whilst such multitudes continue poor miserably poor whom meerly the fire hath made so We use to say Men have gotten those things out of the fire which they came hardly by But what men got by or out of the late fire was easily come by well may it go leightly for it leightly came yet neither doth that go leightly which goes to the use of Charity When I consider how this fire which hath ruined many hath raised some it brings to mind what is said Luke 1.52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away How strangely and by seeming contraries doth the providence of God bring things to pass that when a dismall fire hapned some men should be made by it So a Prison made way for Joseph's preferment and Onesimus his running away from his Master for his returning to God and to himself and a better Servant to his Master than ever And Estate cast upon men by the desolating Fire sounds like such a Riddle as that of Sampson Out of the eater came meat and out the strong came sweetness Is it not as a Honey-comb found in the Carcase of a Lion You whom God by this fire hath unexpectedly enabled more than ever to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet you know what I allude to see that you send portion to them for whom nothing is provided MEDITATION XXVII Upon the Inducements unto re-building of London and some wayes of promoting it THat London should be re-built is so much the concern of England both in point of Honour and of Trade as hardly any thing can be more Whilst that lieth in the dust our Glory lieth with it Our Enemies rejoice to see it where it is but should we let it lie there long Oh! how would they scorn us for it and conclude it were because we had not wherewithall to build it up again They know as well as we that there is no part of England situate so commodiously for Trade as London is which name is said to signifie in the Language of the Britains it's first Inhabitants Shipton or a Town of Ships in regard that the famous River which runs by the side of it is able to entertain the greatest Ships that can ride upon the Sea which thing hath made it so famous a Mart those Ships bringing in all the rich commodities the world can afford Hence London for so many Ages past hath held it's Primacy over all other parts of England and none hath been thought fit to succeed it in that dignity though the shifting of Trade from one City to another and an alternate Superlativeness hath been frequent in other parts of the world where one place hath been as commodious as another But London never had rival that did or could pretend it's self as fit to make the great Emporium and Metropolis of England as was it's self The River of Thames made it so at first and that under God will and must make it so again It perished by fire and must be saved by water for that if any thing will make it once again what it was before as Job saith of a Tree onely the Root whereof is left in the ground that thorough the scent of water it will sprout again How venerable is London were it but for its Antiquity of which Ammianus Marcellinus reports that it was called an ancient City in his time which was above twelve hundreds years ago and Cornelius Tacitus seems to do the like three hundred years before him telling us that for multitudes of Merchants and Commerce London was very renowned fifteen hundred years ago nor can we suppose it to have presently arrived at that perfection Who would not assist the building of another City in that place hoping it may continue as many Ages as the other did and longer too if God be pleased to prevent the like disaster I confess I love not to hear men boast at such a time as this what they will do or what shall be done as to the building of London more glorious than ever The Inhabitants of Samaria are blamed for saying The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars We are but putting on our harness as to re-building let us not boast as if we were putting of it off This is not a time in which to say much though it becomes us to do all we can If we may see but such another City it will be a great mercy but one more glorious than that we may scarce expect till we see it Alas how many difficulties is that work clogg'd with How scarce and dear are all materials How poor are many that desire to build How hard and almost impossible will it be to satisfie the Interest of all proprietors Amongst all the Models that are presented for that purpose How hard will it be to know how to pitch upon that which may be most convenient If we build every where as before it will be incommodious for Passage dangerous for Fire if by a new Platform it is hard not to be injuxious to multitudes of People whose Houses stood inconveniently as to the Publick Lord Give our Senators double and treble wisdom that they may be satisfactory-Repairers of so great breaches But
which is said to be quick and powerful as fire its self The fires which God kindleth for the good of the world whereof his word is one of the chief woe be to any that shall go about to quench Quenching of prophecying is next unto quenching of the Spirit yea and is one way of doing it as Divines observe I see cause to blesse the God of heaven who hath created some fires as profitable as others are mischievous namely his word for one a fire that never doth hurt otherwise than by accident neither indeed would other fires kept within their due bounds but so much good as no tongue can express O Lord that through thine insinite goodness I might experiment in my self and others all those excellent properties of fire meeting in thy word of which I have now been speaking that my heart and theirs might burn within us at the hearing of it as did the hearts of thy Disciples that it may be mighty through thee to pull down all the strong-holds of Sin and Sathan that are within us that it might trye us as gold is tryed in the fire and at the same time resined and purisied that it might pierce unto the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow that the sin which is as it were bred in our bones may be gotten out of the very flesh May the fire of thy word have such influence as this upon us we shall then be sure to escape the fire of thy wrath and to arrive to that happiness which is called The inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 MEDITATION XL. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire ME-thinks the several Conduits that were in London stood like so many little but strong Forts to confront and give check to that great enemy Fire if any occasion should be There me-thinks the water was as it were intrenched and ingarrisoned The several Pipes and Vehicles of water that were within those Conduits all of them charged with water till by the turning of the Cocks they were discharged again were as so many Souldiers within those Forts with their Musquets charged and ready to be discharged upon the drawing of their several Cocks to keep and defend those places And look how Enemies are wont to deal with those Castles which they take to be impregnable and dispair of ever getting by storm viz. to attempt the starving of them by a close Siege intercepting all provision of Victuals from coming at them so went the fire to work with those little Castles of stone which were not easie for it to burn down witness their standing to this day spoiled them or almost spoiled them it hath for present by cutting off those supplies of water which had wont to slow to them melting those leaden Channels in which the water had wont to be conveyed to them and thereby as it were starving those Garrisons which they could not take by storm What the Scripture speaks of the Land of Jordan that it was well watered every where before the Lord destroyed Sodom even as the Garden of the Lord like the Land of Egypt made fruitful by the River Nilus the same might have been said of London before this fire It was watered like Paradise its self yea whereas Paradise had but one River though it parted into four heads Gen. 2.10 London had two at least deviding its self or rather devided into many branches and dispersing its self several wayes For besides the noble River of Thames gliding not only by the sides but thorow the bowels of London there was another called the New-River brought from Hartfordshire thither by the industry and ingenuity of that worthy and never to be forgotten Knight Sir Hugh Middleton the spring of whose deserved fame is such as the late Fire its self though the dreadfullest of all that we have known hath not nor will not be able to dry up but continue it will a Fountain of praise and honour bubling up to all posterity As nature by Veins and Arteries some great some small placed up and down all parts of the Body ministreth blood and nourishment to every member thereof and part of each member so was that wholsome Water which was as necessary for the good of London as blood is for the life and health of the body conveyed by Pipes wooden or metalline as by so many veins into all parts of that famous City If water were as we may call it the blood of London then were its several Conduits as it were the Liver and Spleen of that City which are reckoned as the Fountains of blood in humane bodies for that the great Trunks of veins conveying blood about the body are seated there as great Roots fixed in the Earth shooting out their branches divers and sundry wayes But alas how were those Livers inflamed and how unfit have they been since to do their wonted Office What pity it is to see those breasts of London for so I may also call them almost dryed up and the poor Citizens mean time so loth as they are to be weaned from their former place They were lovely streams indeed which did refresh that noble City one of which was alwayes at work pouring out its self when the rest lay still As if the Fire had been angry with the poor old Tankard-bearers both Men and Women for propagating that Element which was contrary to it and carrying it upon their shoulders as it were in State and Triumph it hath even destroyed their Trade and threatned to make them perish by fire who had wont to live by water Seeing there are few or none to suck those Breasts at this day the matter is not so great if they be almost empty and dry at present may they but sill again and their Milk be renewed so soon as the honest Citizens shall come again to their former scituations O Lord that it might be thy good pleasure to let London be first restor'd and ever after preserved from Fire and when once restored let it be as plentifully and commodiously supplied with water as ever it was formerly Make it once again as the Paradise of God but never suffer any destroying Serpent any more to come there MEDITATION XLI Upon the Retorts and Reproaches of Papists occasioned by this fire ME-thinks I hear some Reman-Catholicks as they are pleased to call themselves saying Some of your Protestants did confidently foretel That within this present year 1666 Rome should down Babylon should fall Antichrist should be destroyed But now your own City is destroyed in the self-same-year which according to you doth show that London was the true Babylon and that the true Antichrist is amongst your selves Yet upon due examination it will be found that there is as little strength in the Argument which they have brought as there is sense in the name whereby they are called viz. Roman-Catholicks which is as much as to say Members of the particular
three things Troy could never be destroyed One was they must get the Palladium or image of Pallas out of the City which Virgil saith they did by means of Ulysses Pallas was counted the Goddess of wisdom Had not the Pallâ—dâ—um been taken away for the time or had those that were concern'd been so wise at first as they were at last London had scarcely been burnt to the ground in spight of all the treachery that was suspected or could have been used Another thing was If they would destroy Troy they must provide a great Wodden-horse which accordingly they did putting some of their choifest men into the belly of it which pretending to dedicate to Mâ—â—crva they left before the City having made it higher than the gates hoping as it proved that the Troâ—â—s would pull down part of the wall to take it in whilst they had withdrawn themselves to the 〈◊〉 Teâ—â—dot The Trâ—jans brake down the wall took in the horse placed it in the Castle but in the night Sinon who was one of those Greâ—â—â—â— that were in the Horse's belly giving notice by sire the Greeks came from Tenedos who finding the Trojans had drunk themselves fast asleep sackt the City and burnt it Thus Troy perished partly by the Credulity Security Weakness and Intemperance of it's Inhabitants in a little time after it had for ten years together withstood the fruitless attempts of its adversaries Was there not some such thing went to the destruction of London Were there not a sort of men within that City as is vehemently suspected who might not unsitly be compared to the Greeks that were hid in the Belly of the forementioned Wodden-horse people of a concealed Religion and therefore I call them hid and amongst the rest was there not one Sinon as I may call him because he was the first that kindled the fire witness his own confession Had not the Gates of London been set too wide open for such treacherous Greeks to enter in possibly that famous City had been standing to this very day But what was a Proverb concerning Trojans Sero sapiunt Phryges The Trojans use to be wise when it is too late was too applicable to our selves We begin to wish the gates of London had been shut against such dangerous Persons when alass in some places it hath no Gates to shut It is likely the Gentlemen that lay Couchant before in the Belly of the Woodden-horse are now not without greater hopes than ever that they shall get up and ride But he that sits in heaven can make the second of September produce them as little good as did their infamous fifth of November But why was it that London was destroyed by the same means as was old Troy Will any say that the old Proverb that such a one is a trusty Trojan was as applicable to the new Trojans as to the old I do not think that was the reason For though there might be some faithless men in London as there are in all places yet I doubt not but Londoners take one with another might and may safely be trusted as far as any sort of men and have as much Faith and Conscience amongst them as is elsewhere to be sound But that God who found sin enough in Job to justifie all that he did against him all the evil he brought upon him could not but have a sufficient controversie with London which absolutely considered was bad enough though if compared with other places and People it was certainly one of the best MEDITATION XLVIII Upon the burning of Jerusalem compared with the Burning of London MAny Prodigies there were as Josephus tells us that went before the destruction of Jerusalem by Fire namely that a great Gate of the Temple which twenty men could hardly pull open opened of its own accord and that an Oxe brought forth a Lamb in the Temple with several others which I forbear to mention These were dark Texts for men to expound yet some did venture to give the sense and meaning of them as if each of them had been a token for good whereas the event did manifest the quite contrary So was the destruction of London ushered in with several Prodigies Blazing-Stars and others which did precede it at no such distance of time but that it was probable enough they might veâ—er to the fire as well as to the foregoing-Pestilence Neither may we doubt but there weâ—e some who did put a good construction upon those ill-Signes as if they had been fore-runners of the good things which they themselves expected in the year -66 though as to their enemies they might have an ill-aspect and ominous signification Thus far some involved themselves in the same practise with the Jews of old and God hath involved them in the same kind of calamity It is dangerous doing as Jews lest we suffer as they But besides Prodigies there were also sundry Prophesies which did precede the destruction of Jerusalem Christ fore-told it at large as is reported by several Evangelists Mat. 24. Mark 13. Luk. 21.5 Luk. 19.44 with the several antecedents and concomitants of it how That the Sun should be darkned and the Moon not give her light Matt. 24.29 There were also humane Prophesies concerning it as particularly by that Man who ran thorough the Streets of Jerusalem and cried Woe to it several dayes together which considering what Christ himself had said was at no hand to be slighted We find no Text in Scripture Prophesying the burning of London and in such a year but I have heard that some did considently assert before any thing of the Fire did happen that London would be burnt in the year -66 as others had done that it would be visited with a great Plague in -65 VVhich things coming to pass accordingly may reasonably incline us to believe that God though by what way and means we know not had imparted the fore-knowledg of that Event to such as did peremptorily Prophesie concerning it For though it be too much credulousness to believe a Human Prophesie before it be fulfilled yet to dis-believe that it was a real Prophesie when it is fulfilled is on the other hand too much moroseness and incredulity It is not unusual with God to reveal to one or other those great and strange things which he is about to do in the VVorld though because there are many false pretenders to Revelations we ought to suspend our belief of such things delivered to us by others till the event do attest them The burning of Jerusalem at leastwise of the Temple is said to have been begun by one of Vespatian's Souldiers contrary to his known will and pleasure but when it was once begun there were many more that did help it forward with an eye to gain and plunder So the burning of London seems to have taken its first rise from one hand viz. His that suffered for it but is vehemently presumed to have been earried on by many more of the same
stamp Before Jerusalem was set on fire it had indured a close Siege and a terrible Fire of which thousands yea millions of People died No Siege or Famine blessed be God! but a very terrible Plague is well known to have preâ—eded the burning of London One judgment going off without its deligned effect doth not exempt men from but transmit them to another as where one of Pharaoh's Plagues ended another began he still refusing to let Israel go Some part of Jerusalem was left standing viz. the West-end of the Wall and three Towers for their strength and beauty preserved by the command of Titus to bear testimony of the stateliness of the City to posterity So by the Providence of God was and is a tenth part of London or thereabouts preserved to this day as it were in memorial of what London was It must needs be confessed that the destruction of Jerusalem was far greater than that of London all things considered because millions of Jews were put to the sword besides several other cruelties that were inflicted upon others of them one where of was that upon a mistrust that some of them had swallowed gold two thousand of them were ript up by the Souldiers hoping to have rob'd those Mines which made them Goldsinders but not in such a sense as they expected to have been These were aggravations of misery which Londoners were exempted from thanks to His infinite goodness who in judgement was pleased to remember mercy But it is not so much the disparity as the parallel betwixt the destruction of Jerusalem and of London that I aim to speak of whereof I shall adde two instances one is this Jerusalem and London were both fired in the same moneth viz. Septemter which moneth history informs us to have been fatal to many other Cities and as I take it to Jerusalem more then once Lastly Jerusalem was set on fire by Romans and as is strongly suspected By Romanists too was London burnt If it were otherwise may their Innocency appear and may those worthy Patriots who had the matter under examination acquit them before all the world MEDITATION XLIX Vpon People's taking the first and greatest care to save those things from the Fire which they did most value VVHo knows not that the method which men used in removing was first to send away their VVifes and Children as being their greatest treasure next to them their Writings of consequence such as Books of accompt Bills Bonds and others of great moment and after them their first and greatest care was to secure their Jewels such as had any their Cash their Plate and such like precious things Next to them their care was for their Shop-goods and first for those that were of greatest price In a word what things men did most value those they did labour in the first place to secure deferring the removal of their lumber to the very last so that for want of time much of that was consumed So Jacob prizing Rachel and her Children above the rest of his family took the greatest care to secure them by putting them in the rear of his Company when he went out to meet his Brother Esau coming against him in a hostile way but the handmaids and their Children he put in the front and as it were in the forlorn-hope exposing them to most danger for whom he had least love and respect Gen. 33.2 Alas that men should use a worse method in reserence to spiritual things than they naturally fall into in relation to temporals For how ordinary is it with men in matters of Religion to commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English Proverb doth phrase Setting the Cart before the Herse or setting that first which should be last How many take care to save the lumber of Religion as I may call it whilst mean time that better part of it which is like Plate and Jewels is in danger to be â—ost So did those Scribes and Pharisees who â—ook great care to pay tithe of mint anise and cummin and omitted the weightier matters of the Law viz. Judgment Mercy and Faith Mat. 23.23 There are some Truths unspeakably greater and of more consequence than others Those should most of all be contended for There are some enemies to our Religion which would not onely build with hay and stubble but even lay another Foundation besides that which is laid viz. The Lord Jesus Christ though other Foundation that will bear can no man lay 1 Cor. 3.11 Such should most of all be contended against For others are but disparately opposite to us as Green to Yellow and other intermediate colours are to White but such are as quite contrary to us as Black can be to White Some Duties there are the performance whereof are as it were the very Pillars of a Church which it cannot stand without Others again are for their nature more disputable for their use more indifferent and lesse necessary God forbid but the first of these should alwayes take place of the last and that we may more regard those things of which Christ saith These things ought you to have done and then those other of which he speaketh more diminutively saying And the other you should not have left undone There are certain sins which Sâ—mpson-like do take hold upon the Pillars of the House I mean Church and State and threaten to pull it down How preposterous would it be to punish peccadillo's with Scorpions and let such crimes of the first magnitude scarce be punished with Rods What men did in relation to the Fire may ever teach them to mind those things in the first place which are of greatest consequence If men had Iron-ware and Gun-powder in the same Shop did they not strive to remove their Gun-powder before their Iron because that would do most hurt It is the Apostle's rule that all things should be done decently and in order To begin with those things which are most necessary and then proceed gradually to those which are of less consequence is one of the most necessary pieces of Order that can be observed It is a good rule that we should first do those things that must be done and afterwards those that may be done Joseph was overseen in presenting Ephraim to his Father 's left hand and Manasseh to his right and Jacob observing it laid his right hand upon Ephraim and his left upon Manasseh Gen. 48.14 In like manner there is frequent cause for us to cross our hands and place our right where we are moved to place our left nothing being more incident to us than to mind those things in the last which we ought to regard in the first place By as good reason as men secured their Wives and Children before their goods their Gold and Silver before their lumber ought men who know their souls to be more worth than all other things first of all to secure them from that worm that never-dyes from that fire that never will
go out MEDITATION L. Upon some who sâ—on after the Fire could hardly tell whereabouts their own houses did stand SO it was that some who attempted to visit the Ruines and Reliques of those Houses in which they dwelt not above a week before though they found the Street in which they stood yet had much ado to be certain which was the ground they stood upon He that should have told them but one day before the Fire began that within five or six dayes they being in London and in the same Street where their dwelling was should not be able to find the way to their own Houses where they had lived it may be twenty years and upwards would have been lookt upon as mad or replied to in some such language as this What should aile us Shall we be out of our wits within that time or Shall we be struck with blindness as the Sodomites were that sought for Lots door or if so we think we could find our own Houses blindfold or in the darkest night at so small a distance or Shall London be changed as much as Sodom and Gomorrah which were fair Cities but are now a filthy Lake Or how and by what means should it be so much altered He did not more express his admiration and disbelief of what was foretold in another case who said If God would make Windows in Heaven how could this be than most men would have expressed theirs as to this Yet do we see the thing which could enter into no mans heart to conceive till he saw it is come to pass Methinks it is sad to hear men that knew London well enough before as they walk along the Ruins asking at every turn Which is the way to such a place and What street is this and What Street is that But yet more sad to think of men that have sought their own Houses not far from the place where they had wont to stand and could not easily find them There is a phrase in Scripture of Mens places knowing them no more but in this case that phrase was inversed viz. Men for the time knew their places no more Oh stupendious Judgment I see it is easie for God to do such things as are hardly possible for men to believe till they see them done So true is it that the wayes of God are above our wayes and his thoughts above our thoughts as much as the Heaveris are above the Harth How good is it then to be armed against all sorts of evil not only such as are likely and probable but even those which are no more than possible and What evil is there which he cannot inslict to whom all things are possible For ought I see no man is secured against any kind of Judgment but he that is secured against all in some sense by vertue of that promise Prov. 12.21 Wo evil shall happen to the just with others of the same import Nothing could be more improbable than that so many Calamities of different kinds should befall Job not successively but at one and the same time viz. The Sabaeâ—ms taking away his Cattel and killing his servants Job 1.14 And that whilest the first Messenger was yet speaking another should come and tell him that fire falling from Heaven 〈…〉 up his sheep and his servants and that before the words were out of his mouth another should come and inform him That the Caldeans had â—â—rried away his Camels and slain others of his servants and that before he had made an end of his story another should come and tell him That a great Wind had killed his Sons and Daughters by throwing down the house upon them where they were eating and drinking together and that only one person should escape each of these dangers being reserved as it were on purpose to bring him the tidings of it Such a conspiracy of Providences as I may call it to strip a man of all his Comforts at once could scarce have been imagined till the event did declare it Unexpected and unimaginable miseries are not much more rare than unexpected and unlookt-for Mercies Upon this occasion I cannot but think of three other sorts of houses as we may term them which men have or may seek for and not be able to find First our bodies they are the Houses or Tabernacles in which our souls dwell as he said Anima Galbre male habitat Galba's soul dwelt in an ill-body when those houses shall be crumbled away to dust or devoured of worms who will be able to find them or to say Which were they The Graves of men they are the Houses or Receptacles of their dead bodies Job 17.13 If I wait the grave is my house and the grave is called the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 How many such houses as those could not be found if they should never so carefully be sought for How ordinarily are the dead turned out of possession and the living come in their room that is Charnel-houses have been turned into dwelling-houses and many more such instances are like to be so that it hath and will become impossible not only to know the bodies of dead men again but their very graves And the then Earth it 's self that is as it were the house of all graves the great Golgotha or place of skulls Now when that time shall come which is spoken of 2 Pet. 3.10 in which the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up that great House of houses and graves if it be sought for will be found no more MEDITATION LI. On the Statue of Sir Thomas Gresham left standing at the Old-Exchange HOw great and particular a respect did the Fire shew to the Essigies of that worthy Knight the honourable Founder of that which was the Royal-Exchange and doner of Gresham-Colledge which for present succeeds in the room of it I say how great a respect by the appointment of Divine Providence without which not a hair falleth from our heads did that Fire shew to his Effigies in particular which it left standing and undefaced whilst mean time the Statues of all the Kings and Queens of England since the Conquest were demolished and thrown down by it No man could have answered it to have put more honour upon a fellow-Subject than upon his lawful Prince much lesse upon one Subject than upon many that had swayed the Scepter within his native Soil for certainly there is an honour which Kings as Kings may challenge from their own people greater than is due to any of their Subjects but God who is the King of Kings may do what he please He may pull down the mighty from their seats and exalt them of low degree as it is Luke 1.52 Men must have regard to political claimes and rights in dispensing their respects and give honour to whom honour is due upon that account but moral considerations are those which the Great God takes notice of who is otherwise no respecter
uniformly transcend the piety of former ages as well in all other things as we have done in this then shall we not need to doubt but as our greater sins have of late years procured us greater judgements one in the neck of another than have formerly been known in so quick a succession viz. of Sword Pestilence and Fire so our transcendant Reformation will end in greater blessings than former ages have been acquainted with It is not without several Patterns and Presidents in Scripture that Memorials should be erected as well of Judgements as of Mercies For not only did Jacob set up a Pillar of Stone in the place where God talked with him and fastened the name of Bethel upon it Gen. 35.14 in remembrance of the great Favour there vouchsafed him but God himself to commemorate his great displeasure against Let 's Wife for looking back towards Sedom which she ought not to have done verse 17. turned her into a Pillar of Salt which may signifie a lasting Pillar or a hard stiff Body of perpetual duration in which sense the Covenant of God is called a Covenant of Salt that is of perpetuity to season after-Ages with the remembrance of his judgment upon her We read of the brazen-Censers of Kerah and his Company those sinners against their own souls as they are called that they were made into broad-Plates for a covering of the Altar to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no stranger that is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Korah and his company Numb 1.16.39 We read also of a great Stone called Abel which word lignifieth Grief and that name seemeth to have been given it because of the Lamentation which the People made over those Bethshemites that were slain for looking into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6.18 The Philistims themselves when smitten by God with Emereds and plagued with Mice are said to have presented the Lord with certain Monuments of those judgments that were upon them viz. with so many Golden Emerods or figures of Emerods and so many Golden Mice as a Trespass-offering 1 Sam. 6.4 5. VVherefore ye shall make Images of their Emerods and of your Mace whichs mar the Land and shall give glory to the God of Israelâ— peradventure he will lighten his hand from off youâ— from off your gods and from off your Land which plainly showes that even those blind Heathen did look upon the due Commemoration of Judgments as a thing well-pleasing unto God and we are assured it is so by the complaint which God maketh of the Israelites their forgetting the great things which God had done in Aegypt and terrible things by the Red-Sea meaning the drowning of Pharaoh and all his Host there Psal 106.21 And the Apostle writing of what had befallen the murmuring Israelites 1 Cor. 10.6 saith These things are our examples that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Therefore remember them we must or else we can take no warning by them He that questioneth the needfulness of erecting a Pillar or some other Monument to commemorate the late dreadful Fire may see his Error if he do but consider that London though not such a London then as this was hath formerly been burnt several times and did once continue in ashes fourscore and five years together and yet the generality of men now living in these parts were so far from considering and awing their hearts with the remembrance of it that but here and there a man doth so much as know that any such thing was ever done How vain a thing is it for Papists to bear us in hand De 〈◊〉 Hist Câ—l 114.8.131.161.213.263 That Orall-Tradition is sufficient to transmit Religion to the World and is the great thing we are to vely upon when but for the Writings of Historians we had all been ignorant of so remarkable a thing as was the burning of London five several times viz. Anno Domini 798 and Anno 801 and again Anno 982 and again Anno Domini 1087. and after that in the year 1133 which was little more than five hundred years agoe Had our Parliament had any such considence in Orall-Tradition they had never designed a Pillar for the memorial of a Fire so hard to be forgotten How weakly do Papists Argue that the Authority of the Scriptures is built upon the Church and the Church its self Infallible because it is called The Pillar of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 Whereas Pillars are many times erected for other uses than to uphold and under-prop buildings as the several Instances which I have brought from Scripture of Pillars set up only as Monuments and Memorials and the use to which the Pillar I am now treating of is to be applied do plainly prove Such a Pillar is the Church viz. to transmit the memory of Religion or rather that Inscription the Scriptures I mean which are the great memorial thereof from one Age to another But Will the intended matter of that Pillar which is appointed to be either Brass or Stone afford us nothing of a profitable Meditation Methinks it should What Mettal is there that more resembleth Fire than doth burnished-Brass therefore in Ezek. 1.7 we read that the feet of the living Creatures there spoken of did sparkle like the colour of burnished-Brass It is but fit that the Memorials of things should bear as lively a resemblance as may be of those things of which they are intended Memorials So the Philistims made choice of Artificial Mice and Emerods in remembrance of those that were true and natural More over if London were consumed by Treachery no mettal can be more fit to receive the Characters of their most Impudent Villany who as to that had sinned with a Brow of Brass and with a Whores Fore-head Or if Stone be chosen rather of the two to make that Pillar of be it a lasting Emblem of the Hardness of their hearts harder than the neither Milstone that could burn such a City and ruin so many thousand Families both for the present and for many years if not Ages to come Where the Fire began there or as near as may be to that place must the Pillar be erected if ever there be any such If we commemorate the places where our Miseries began surely the causes whence they sprang the meritorious causes or sins are those I now intend should be thought of much more If such a Lane burnt London Sin first burnt that Lane Causa causa est causa 〈◊〉 Affliction springs not out of the dust not but that it may spring thence immeditely as if the dust of the Earth should be turned into Lice but primarily and originally it springs up elsewhere As for the Inscription that ought to be upon that Pillar whether of Brass or Stone I must leave it to their Piety and Prudence to whom the Wisdom of the Parliament hath left it Only three things I
season When God hath humbled the City to the very dust should not Citizens in like manner humble their selves under his mighty hand Neither is it without reasâ—n and scripture that a perpetual Fast should be kept upon accompt of a transient judgement if I may call this transient or that the Ages to come should confesse and lament the sins and miseries of former times or of the Ages that were before them Neh. 9.2 They confessed their sins and the iniquities of their Fathers and Dan. 9.16 For our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers thy people are become a reproach There being Scripture for such a practice doubtless there is reason enough for it yet I question not but a man may lawfully ask What the reason is or what cause can be assigned for our so doing The most obvious Reasons seem to result from the Love we owe to God the Relation in which we stand to our Ancestors and Forefathers the Reverence which is due to the Judgements of God and the bad influence which the sins of our Ancestors and Predecessors may have upon ourselves in case we lay them not to heart We are sorry that those whom we dearly love have been injured by others and not then only when we have injured them ourselves yea if we hear of any great wrong that was done them many years ago we are troubled at it and affected with it though possibly not so much as if it were but yesterday And will not true love to God cause us in like manner to resent the known injuries that have been done to him and such are all the great violations of his Law yea though by others and many years since If those that have wronged the persons we love were such as were nearly related to ourselves as when Saul that was Jonathan's Father was very unkind to David whom himself had a great affection for it troubleth us so much the more So would love to God cause us to do when those from whose Loins we sprang or who are otherwise near to us have greatly provok'd him to wâ—om all by past things though even worn out of the memory of men are alwayes as present By this Rule though successors ought to mourn over the sins of their predecessors yet Children more especially over the sins of their Parents or Pro-parents and other Relations one of another We reverence not the Judgements of God as we ought if hearing what God hath done to others for the same sins whereof ourselves are guilty more or less we do not both mourn and tremble and humble ourselves before the Lord lest he should do as much to us as God saith to the Israelites Jer. 7.12 14. Go and see what I did to Shiloh I will do unto this house as I did to Siloh If such considerations as these affect us not with the Sins and Judgements which have gone over the heads of our Ancestors in former times then do we ourselves become partakers of their sins and their sins help to fill up the measure of ours at we read of the sins of the Amorites not being yet full implying that the sins of the time present and time past were thrown as it were into one measure and as Christ spake to the persecuting Jews Mat. 23.35 saying That upon them might come all the righteous blood from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias We read of God's visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation and that he doth when they make them theirs as by other means so particularly by not mourning over them But if after-ages will not weep over the miseries of this which History will not suffer them to be ignorant of let them weep over their own losses by this Fire for I doubt not but some may smart under the consequences of it hundreds of years hence forasmuch as some Estates were consumed by it which might otherwise have been transmitted from Generation to Generation throughout several Ages to come For ought I know the fourth and fifth Generation from hence to speak within bounds may have just cause even from the influence this Judgment may have upon themselves to observe the second of September as a solemne Fast As for the good ends we may propound to ourselves in observing that day as a Religious Fast they are so plain and visible as that nothing can be more Solemnly to humble ourselves time after time under this mighty hand of God that may be one To beg that God would build up the waste places in his good time that may be another as also that he would make a gracious provision for his impoverished Servants And lastly To deprecate the like Judgement for time to come several of which ends if I mistake not are hinted to us in the Act of Parliament But when I further consider it how ghastly are the thoughts of another Fast and that for Anniversary perpetuity Alas how do Fasts multiply upon us and the causes of them much more Sixty five gave us just occasion for one perpetual Fast with reference to the dreadful Plague that was in that year and sixty six by a no lesse dreadful Fire hath given us another Thus sin upon sin hath made work for Fast after Fast And the truth is so many and so great are our sins at this day that if God should punish each of them with a particular and proportionable Judgement and every such Judgement should be commemorated with an Anniversary Fast the whole year might consist of little else but Fasting-dayes at leastwise all our Festivals be justled out and all those Letters be cloathed with Mourning that were wont to be clad as it were in Scarlet Admit that London should be built again and swell to as great a bigness as it did before the latter of which no person now living is like to see yet even then there wil be found just cause of Fasting Mourning and Lamentation for the burning of London in 1666. the prints and footsteps whereof will even then be visible though not by an outward desolation yet by an inward and less perceptible decay Though London may in process of time come to look as well in the face as ever it did yet it's inwards and vital parts will go nigh to remain greatly wasted and consumed But after I have insisted so long upon the Sutableness Congruity and Reasonableness of a yearly Fast in Relation to the Fire It is sit I declare my self as to the nature and manner of the Fast I wish for and which only will stead us viz. Such 〈◊〉 Fast as is spoken of Isa 58.6 7. then may we hope to see such a promise fulfilled as that of which we read ver 12. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach the restorer of paths to dwel in MEDITATION
be ONe of the best waies that I know for the great loss sustained by the late Fire and all other temporal losses to be made up to us is by promoting a Brief as it were amongst relations and friends if it may take to contribute to the reparation each of other which may seem a great paradox that those who have been mutual and joynt-sufferers should be recruited by a collection made amongst themselves But so it is the wives may greatly help to repair what their husbands have lost husbands what their wives children the losses of their parents and parents the losses of their children servants the losses of their masters c. My meaning is let each of these give themselves to be more useful and comfortable each to other in the relation in which they stand one to another and the contribution they shall make in so doing will be very considerable even in proportion to so great a loss The comfort or discomfort of a relation such as it may be may signifie more than the gaining or losing a great part of an estate if not the whole How many good parents would chearfully part with more than half of their estates on condition they might be able to say of some one or more of their bad children as that father of his returning prodigal Luke 15.24 This my son was dead and is alive was lost and is found The miserable consequences of this dolefullest of fears never cost some parents half those sighs and tears that the miscarriages of some one childe hath done nor would it refresh them so much to see London once again in its former glory as to see their children brought into an estate of grace When parents have been for several years together as it were in the pangs of a travelling woman which is the Apostles metaphor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What would they not give to be delivered and to see the travel of their souls Let children that were formerly otherwise but become humble serious contented diligent dutiful and above all truly religious evidencing the power of godliness to be in them their parents that are such will easily acknowledge that God hath given them more in their children than he took from them out of their estates though they lost many thousands by the fire If ever children that have almost broke their parents hearts may so time their Reformation and Repentance as to do their parents as much good as they have done them hurt now is the time if they shall labour to comfort them after so great a loss by giving them occasion to celebrate their birth-day I mean the day of their new birth whilst they are yet in mourning for the destruction of London Surely the soul of a childe to a religious parent is more than the glory of a City Can yoke fellows do nothing towards repairing the losses each of other What if husbands and wives should more study and practice the duties of their respective relations what if they should please each other more for their good to edification what if there should be a mutuall contention between them which should love and oblige the other most and no contention but that what if they should bear more with each others infirmities and seek the comfort of each others lives as of their own what if they should strive which of them should bear the loss most patiently and most Christian-like and should most comply with the law of their new and mean condition what if bad husbands should henceforth become good and good husbands better and wives the like would it no waies compensate the loss which hath been sustained Surely it would very much yea those that know how great a cross some masters have had and have in their servants what with stubbornness negligence unfaithfulness other ill qualities especially those that have matters of great trust to employ them in cannot but think it would greatly comfort them after their losses if those servants of theirs Onesimus-like should of unprofitable become profitable and of rebels converts If every family were furnished with loving yoke-fellows carrying as it were one soul in two bodies dutiful and gracious children diligent and faithful servants should they weare and fare much more meanly than they did heretofore yet would their lives be much more happie than they had wont to be If there be any Relations so bad they cannot mend as I hope there is not or any so good they need not mend which I very much doubt this counsel doth not concern them but if neither then is it a good expedient for every family in some measure to repaire their losses by and how do I wish it may be put in practice Lord thou hast told us that a brother is born for adversity Prov. 17.17 so is a husband a wife a parent a childe Grant Lord that we may all walk in the several relations in which we stand so like persons born or cut out for such a time of adversitie as this that we may help to make up that breach each for other which thy righteous hand hath made upon us all DISCOURSE XII Of training up children in Religion that they may come to have God for their portion HAve we not heard some parents since this Fire bitterly crying out Alas what shall they do for their poor children They are grown up and ready for portions to dispose in the world and their portions the fruit of many years care and sore travel were not long since as ready for them but in came the Fire like a giant refreshed with wine mighty to run his race and swept them all away And now where shall they have stocks for their sons that were about to set up for themselves where shall they have portions for their daughters to bestow them in marriage wherewithall shall they breed their younger children like themselves as they have done the rest To them that ask these questions give me leave to answer thus If your children want nothing else but hansome breeding as to curious works Musick Dancing and such like if your sons want nothing but great stocks to set up their Trades and your daughters nothing but so many hundreds to prefer them to rich husbands you are happy parents For if that be all they want they must needs be possessed of the one thing necessary of that better part which Mary chose for her self that can never be taken away from them If so though your affliction be great yet the mercy shewed you in reference to them is so much greater that it is a shame for you to make any great complaint But if you say that your children are some of them stark naught manifestly in the gall of bitterness and band of iniquity others of them towardly yet but slenderly hopeful for matter of grace I am sure by your own confession there is something incomparablie more needful than stocks and portions to be sought out for them as to