saying is it time for you O yee to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lie wast v. 8. Thus saith the Lord go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it v. 13. Then spake Haggai in the Lords message to the people saying I am with you saith the Lord. And Haggai 2.4 Be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and be strong O Jeshua the high priest and be strong all ye people of the land for I am with you saith the Lord. In like manner we find the prophet Zechariah incouraging the people Zech 8. from v. 7. to 15. and Zech. 12.2 3. Now as it is in war they that beat the drums and sound the trumpets thereby animating those that ingage in the battle and drowning those doleful noises of shriekes and groans which would otherwise dishearten the Souldiers do or may do as much service though themselves do not strike one stroke as those that fight most skilfully and valiantly yea each of them is or seemeth to be of greater use than any one single souldier because what they do hath an influence upon the whole company or regiment putting heart and spirit into every man even so may it fall out in building and every other undertaking of great consequence viz. that Gods Prophets or Ministers though it be not proper for them to be mechannically imployed therein yet may each of them more advance and promote the business than any ten men that are so imployed They if I may so allude are the greatest builders of all who as is said of God do build without hands Tongues may either help or hinder more than hands help if united and ingaged for the work but hinder if divided as in the case of Babel There was a prophet Jeremy who lived a great while since Haggaies time and much nearer to ours whose influence upon the people was so great for the exceeding veneration they had both for his life and doctrine that I verily think that the interest of ten such prophets as he were enough to build such a City as London if all England could but afford men and monies wherewithall to do it Doubtless Haggai and Zechariah were men of eminent holiness and that brought them into so much esteem with the people It was not meerely as they were prophets nor yet as men of good abilities that they were so much had in honour Hophni and Phineas were priests and able men it is like being the sons of Eli but yet the people had no respects for them yea for the greatness of their sin men abherred the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2.17 Sanctity is so essential to a prophet to a minister that where it is not in truth or in appearance at leastwise where at leastwise it is not thought to be it is as it were natural to men to withold from such persons that veneration and esteem which as prophets is fit for them both to deserve and have not men of the greatest parts and abilities but men of the greatest zeal and holiness or reputed for such are generally they who carry the greatest stroke with the people as if they thought that such Elijah's could take up others to Heaven in the same chariot with themselves or that the Ship in which those Pauls do sail must needs come safe to land at leastwise all the passengers be spared and therefore would chuse to imbarque with them The very semblance of sanctimony where it may be it hath not been in truth hath made a greater interest for some men and made them greater leaders of the people than the substance and manifest reality of parts and gifts could ever make others But then suppose a Minister to have the true Thummim the truth of grace and holiness I mean which one would think should be more universally owned than the meer shew or shadow thereof and besides that to have the Urim also I mean a fair proportion of parts and gifts as for his work a man so qualified would compel a very Herod to pay him reverence and to be much perswaded by him as he was by John the Baptist for the very reason Mark 6.20 For Herod feared John knowing that he was a just man and a holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly We read that John was a shining light as well as a burning light John 5.35 but it was for his burning and not so much for his shining light that Herod did reverence him and do many things by his direction Herod was no less than a Prince John but a mean man to see too The same John had his raiment of Camels haire and a leathern girdle about his loins Mat. 3.4 Yet for that he was a just and a holy man Herod feared him who doubtless would not have feared a loose unholy prophet one that he had known to be such no not in all his pontificalibus if for the gravity majesty and glory of his habit he had outvied the most reverend Pope A holy prophet commands more respect in a hairy garment and a leathern girdle and his word shall go farther than shall the word and authority of an unholy one were his habit as rich as a very Prince and his titles of honour more than are the grand Seigniors I see then if a Zerubbabel would have his word to prosper he must have holy prophets about him as was Haggai and Zechariah or those that are generally esteemed and reputed such For otherwise it is little service that can be done for Princes by those that serve them in the capacity of Ministers or Prophets unless those prophets of theirs are generally in request as good and holy men whose lips the people are willing should preserve knowledg for them and to receive the law from their mouths Now every such prophet as Haggai and Zechariah was is able to do a Prince more than knight service whether he have a City to build or any other great design to carry on The hands of Moses had flagged and so Amaleck prevailed if Aaron Exod. 17.12 had not held them up and what is Aaron called but the Saint of the Lord. They must be Aarons or such as he in point of repute viz. Saints who shall be found able to bear up the hand of Moses whilst he is conflicting with Amaleck I mean with any great opposition or difficulty nor can our Aaron be well spared whilst Amaieck is yet unabdued No persons more able to make the people for any good purpose than those prophets for whom they have great respects which can be only such as are generally owned and accounted of as good and holy men Therefore they that are such ought in Point of prudence as well as upon other considerations to be obliged and incouraged when any great work is in hand that by their means and by virtue of their interest others may be brought in even the
tongue that is not in word and tongue only which yet is more than many do but in deed and in truth He often warns men and how needful is it he should do so of biting and devouring one another lest they be consumed one of another Gal. 5.15 and comes in like Mercury with his Caduceus or white wand with which they say that Heathen God had wont to lay the strifes of men and make their contentions fall whence they called his wand Caduceus By this time thou knowest enough of the Author or mayest know by that time thou hast read this book over if it be such as he hath told thee and for that matter he appealeth to thy self and to as many more as shall vouchsafe to read it I say to read it carefully candidly thorowly For this I presume that some things in this Book will displease at the first that will not displease at the second reading and part of a Chapter read singly and by it self may give offence when the whole one thing being compared with another will give no offence at all And here those words of Solomon would be thought of Prov. 18.13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it that is heareth it out it is folly and shame unto him Now a more brief account of the book may serve the turn because thou hast the book it self before thee and mayest soon read it over The true design of it is to promote the building and prosperity of London which cannot be effected but by such wayes and means as would tend as much to the welfare of all England yea of all the three Kingdoms Physicians say Non curatur pars nisi curetur totum meaning if you would cure any unsound part you must cleanse the whole body If any such thing have befallen us in this work viz. that we have hapned to prescribe what is as good for all England as for London and would cure the whole if duly applied as it somtimes falls out that the whole body is cured by what is applied but to one part namely when all the rest of the body is ill but only by simpathy and consent I say if this Book should contain any such panacea's or universal remedies as that it may serve not only for the Meridian of London but of all his Majesties Dominions as if calculated for the whole I see no reason why any body should be troubled at that In order to the rebuilding and reflourishing of London I have considered first what are the hindrances both of one and of the other viz. Discouragement of several kinds Divisions Discontents about Religion and otherwise the Dearness of Commodities the badness of materials as ill burnt Bricks seared Timber c. the dishonesty of Workmen the poverty of many that are concerned to build if they had wherewithal the ill method that is or hath been used in building viz. building altogether scatteringly and not every where joyning the new building to the old nor finishing any one whole street the fears and jealousies of people in reference to the former burning in reference to Papists and their designs and in reference to the many lesser burnings which have been since the great Conflagration of London particularly the burning of a stately new house in Mincing Lane all these and it may be some other impediments of Londons rebuilding and reflourishing I have considered as well as I could and prescribed such remedies as I was able for every one of those grievous maladies of most of which not only London but all England is sick I have discoursed of the Builders and assistants in building who they must be viz. first the great God who is the maker and builder of all things next to him those that are called Gods that is Magistrates by affording countenance to the work and improving their Authority on the behalf of it Next to them good Ministers for in all great works Moses and Aaron had need go hand in hand as that Text saith God led his people like a Flock by the hand of Moses and of Aaron and elswhere it s said They builded and prospered through the Prophecying of Haggai c. Next to them men of able purses and good estates though in no publick Offices or Employments either Sacred or Civil And lastly Men of Art and skill as for matter of building and whose proper work and occupation is in and about Architecture c. Of or to all of these I have said what I thought fit I have in the next place shewed how the help and assistance of all the forementioned may be gained and procured as namely how the great God may be prevailed with to bless and prosper the Building in which sense he is said to be the builder viz. by our keeping his Sabbaths relieving his Servants reforming our wayes and doings that are not good rebuilding places for his Worship out of love to Publick Ordinances seeking of his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof in the first place propounding good and pious ends to our selves in that great undertaking humbling our selves under his mighty hand seeking his face and favour by Prayer and Fasting walking humbly with God and by thankfully acknowledging what God hath done for the City already How we may engage the Gods that are upon earth Magistrates I mean to put their helping hand to this work I have shewed Chap. 23. As for Ministers if they be good they will be forward enough to quicken and encourage such a work as is the building of the City and their interest may go very far and contribute very much To rich men I have spoken Chap. 42. where I have pressed them to the exercise of mercy and Charity towards an undone City for so it is at present and all its undone Citizens also in the Chapter of Rebuilding Churches I have again called upon the bowels and compassions of all rich people throughout England As for all Tradesmen and Artificers whose ware or work belongs to building I have adjured them to be honest and to do their best for and towards the rebuilding of London and to use that Mother of theirs kindly in all respects and upon all accounts Chap. 8. As for the old Inhabitants I have wished them to replant themselves within the Walls that London may flourish again Chap. 36. For and in order to the rebuilding of London I have further propounded in distinct Discourses that good Magistrates may be chosen into those places of power which are conveyed by Election that such Ministers may be incouraged as can do much by their interest in the esteem and affections of the people that trading may be encouraged and advanced that the burthens of Londoners may be eased for the present that a general content and satisfaction may be given so far as is possible whilst this work is in hand that they would build the New City contiguous with the old and continuous with it self that is to say that they
free-will-offering Moreover they are to make such Laws as all or the generality of men may be able to observe Now all men are not in a capacity to fast frequently yea some it may be so much greater is their leasure can better keep one fast every week than others can keep two in a whole year So that though it may be no fault in our Magistrates to injoyn but one fast in a year in order to imploring mercy for the desolate City yet it may be a great fault in the people to whom it is as lawful to fast as it is to pray without special command from their superiors as having a command for him that is supreme to pray always that is at all opportunities and fasting is but a necessary concomitant of prayer as the case may be to observe no more than one day of religious fasting throughout the whole year upon so great an accompt We read that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah four daies in a year Judg 11.40 Now what was the loss of Jephthahs daughter to the loss of such a City as London was though she were made a sacrifice but if that perpetual virginity whereto she was consigned over by her fathers vow as some understand it from v. 39. Who did with her according to his vow and she knew no man were all they went to bewail four daies in a year one would think that the loss of such a City as London might better deserve four weeks or moneths every year to lament it and which is more to implore mercy for it whereas the condition of Jephthahs daughter was irretrievable whether she were put to death or whether it were only that by her fathers vow and her own superadded consent she was obliged to continue single all the daies of her life Now Davids example may tell us that when our fasting and mourning can do good as he thought it might for his child whilst it lived and we believe it may to our desolate City then chiefly if not only ought we to give way to it How often men should fast upon the loss and for the recovery of such a City as London was can be brought within no rule that will take in every man only so often as God shall afford them real opportunities of which some have ten times as many within the compass of one year as some others have But this may incourage us to be as frequent in prayer and fasting as we can namely that no such service rightly performed shall ever be in vain Physicians need not be farther invited to make frequent visits to their patients that need it than by finding they are always welcom come as oft as they will and do never lose their labour This is just the case let us make as frequent applications as we will or can to the throne of grace for our selves or others in such manner as becometh us we shall be always welcom and not lose our labour once For God is nigh to all that call upon him in truth in all things that they call upon him for Deut. 4.7 What better or more sutable examples of praying and fasting and of the good success thereof in such a case as that of our City I say what better examples can we desire than are afforded us in those two famous men viz. Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra 8.21 Then I proclaimed a fast that we might afflict our selves before our God to seek of him a right way for us Namely when he and others were going from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of God there v. 23. So we fasted and besought our God for this and he was intreated of us Se also Nehemiah 1.4 And when I heard these words I sat down and mourned certain daies and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven viz. when he heard that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates thereof burnt with fire v. 3. The thing he prayed for was that he might find favour in the Kings eyes to go up to Jerusalem every way furnished to build that desolate City Now v. 8. it is said And the King granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me Now I wish that upon all that I have said the resolution of men may be to keep that Anniversary fast which the Magistrate hath appointed for the City in the most solemn way that can be and over and above that to keep as many more such dayes in private though in publick they cannot without publick leave as they shall have opportunity to do For as Israel prevailed against Amaleck as much by Moses lifting up his hands viz. in prayer as by the peoples brandishing their swords in war Exod. 17.11 for when he let down his hand Amaleck prevailed so it is a real truth how few soever do believe it that those who are builders in the common acceptation of that word viz. Carpenters Bricklayers and other artificers do not more truly contribute to the building of such a City as London is in which religion as having been long known and professed there doth claim a great interest than they do who with tender regard to its recovery do earnestly apply themselves to prayer and fasting The bridegroom of England as in a civil sense I may call London though in a spiritual sense Christ himself likewise is so called being taken away fasting is now in season for saith Christ to which we only allude when the bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they fast As the mother of Augustin comforted her self with this concerning him viz. That a son of so many prayers and tears should not miscarry so may we comfort our selves concerning London if it be a City as he was a son of many prayers and tears that it shall not miscarry but go out its full time and be brought to its intended perfection DISCOURSE XXXII On Ezra 6.14 And the elders of the Jews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah INtending to treat of all the helps we can think upon as for the rebuilding of London that of good Prophets who in former ages have been very serviceable even to the purposes of building witness the text above mentioned may at no hand be omitted I have shewed before that good Magistrates may contribute very much to such a work as is in hand viz the restoring of the City and now I shall make it as evident that good Ministers also might much contribute thereunto It is said in express terms that the Jews builded and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai It is like that Haggai did not lay one stone in the building of the Temple and yet all things considered no man was more instrumental in that work than he for he it was who in the name of God put them upon it and incouraged them in it Haggai 1.4 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai
that the hope and expectation of a greater profit may rationally induce men to make an adventure that is proportionably greater So they say when interest was at ten in the hundred money had wont to be lent upon more slender security than now it is when it yieldeth but six per cent You see how hard David ventured to be the Kings son in law even upon the foreskins of two hundred Philistines by whose hands Saul did hope to have made him fall 1 Sam. 18.25 but doubtless he would have made no such venture to have been son in law to an ordinary subject where the advantage had not been so great though he had liked his daughter well He that expects a great return from beyond the seas must make a proportionable adventure Purchasing of lands may prove more dangerous than building of houses in London for the title of lands may be naught and so all may be lost not only the crop but the soil but for such as shall build in London at this time all titles are decided all controversies determined before they enter upon their work so that their title is and will be past dispute Moreover if fire should burn these houses which are as it were the crop upon the soil to the ground again which God forbid yet the soil would still be your own and that is generally said to be a third so that your thirds as I may call them in London the fire cannot take from you Now admit you have ten in the hundred for all you lay out upon building in London if that City or your houses in it stand but ten years to an end as we hope with the blessing of God they may ten times ten you will in that short time be repaied your principal Then as for Farms in the country how frequently are they thrown up upon the landlords hands and no body can be found to hold them without great abatement of rents so that they often stand untenanted and unoccupied But houses in London cannot lightly want for tenants neither is their rent like to fall but rather to rise as the City riseth and as trading increaseth There have been often whisperings as if the interest of money were like to be brought lower and motions made to that purpose viz. to four or five per cent If it should do so money would yield but half so much as would the rent of houses and besides the principal would be in as much or more danger of being lost as our houses could be of being fired for men do oftner lose their principal by bad debtors than their houses by fire The necessariness of houses within the walls for the use of Citizens is a consideration outweighing all the rest as to matter of profit for that amounts to so much as cannot be well computed Having then proved in these three last Chapters that the building of London is Bonum honestum jucundum utile that is both for the honour pleasure and profit of those that have wherewithal to assist in it let him be thought a person that understands neither one nor the other that is a perfect stranger to his own interest in every kind and such are counted none of the wisest who having estate enough otherwise could with the monies which lye by him or are at his command contribute much towards the rebuilding of London and purchase to himself a great interest there and yet will not do it DISCOURSE XLI That the burning of a new and stately house in Mincing-Lane should not deter Londoners from going on with their building but admonish them to build whole streets together c. LEt me take things as they come to hand I have been lately advertised and was but yesterday fully satisfied in it that building upon the ruines of London doth begin to slacken and that for several weeks past scarce a fourth part so many have entred themselves into the list of builders as have done formerly which some impute to the great discouragement taken by the late burning of a merchants house in Mincing Lane which some are very confident was done on purpose and merely in design to dishearten and discourage builders Whether it were so or no God knows and time will discover I have heard the reasons of that conjecture or some of them but hearing that one is committed upon suspicion of having been an actor in it shall not presume to rehearse them or to interpose my private sentiment be it what it will who made me a judg or a determiner in the case But admit it were clearly proved as ever any thing was that that new and noble structure did receive its fatal blow from treacherous and malicious hands I see no reason at all why Londoners should be so far affrighted at it as to desist from building taking it for granted if they did proceed their houses should all in like manner perish and be destroyed by fire first or last The burning of that house howsoever it was intended if it were intentional was as it proved but a warning piece to caution others not against building but against the occasions and opportunities of burning and may for ought I know prevent the burning of many more Some it may be thought that a new house could secure it self and was like green wood that will not take fire and if I mistake not the remedies against another burning of the City were not to take place till several months hence as if for present we had been out of all danger defying all that fire could do to us partly with our bricks and partly with the newness of our buildings But those things we have found to be a refuge of lies and that in despight of them we were more secure than safe When men find that robberies are committed at noon day which they expected not but in the night or dusk of the evening they will soon agree to keep a perpetual watch Supposing that house to have been wilfully and designedly burnt it may be some body had a particular grudg at the owner of it which yet is more than I know and seeing it stand alone thought they might take reveng on him and his without damage to any body else and if that were the cause all have not the same reason to fear for some may presume they have no enemy in the world so malicious at least so desperate as to set fire upon their houses If some one or more had malice enough to prompt them to the burning of that goodly house yet peradventure they had never made the attempt if it had not stood by it self partly out of unwillingness to indanger the neighbourhood against whom they had no controversie and partly from an apprehension that their design could not so easily have taken effect by reason of one or other that would soon have espied the fire and given notice of it to such as were at hand to aid and assist the extinguishing it And now
fearing I have not said enough to prevail with Londoners to build whole streets together upon which I have spent one Chapter already I shall take this occasion to supply what was therein omitted Some of my arguments may look like a digression from what the title of this Chapter pretends to but if I step out of my way to do my fellow Citizens a kindness it is I hope but a venial fault I may go to far in the discourse of building alone but I am sure by the instance forementioned I am fairly lead into it How much easier is it to burn those houses which stand scattering here and there and which may be past quenching ere help can come to them yea burnt to the ground ere any body discern them to be on fire than to do like execution upon those houses which stand in the midst of neighbours one or other of which will probably espy the danger ere it be past remedy and all of them be ready to the utmost of their power to put a stop to it If that be not argument enough for building whole streets together I could easily produce many more That it were so agreed upon were best for them that desire to sell their ground best for them that resolve to build and best for them that would fain build but fear their money will not hold out First I say it will be best for them that desire to sell their ground and have no thoughts to build because in streets that are intended to be forthwith built intirely and consequently soon inhabited and customed for matter of trade the soil is like to yield double that value that can be expected for it in such places where those few houses that are built for want of neighbours are like to stand no body knows how long without tenants or which is almost as bad without a trade As for those that shall build where a whole street is building together they will not be afraid to live in their houses when they have done as others are that have built in solitary places nor can they want for tenants if they have a mind to let them of better quality than Victuallers and Alehouse-keepers the usual seasoners of solitary houses with smoak and what is worse nor is it like they should want a trade such as other places do afford whilst solitary houses are like to want customers as much as neighbours unless the powerful attractive of good liquor or the desirableness of obscurity for works of darkness shall draw them thither They that have soil of their own in places that are out of hand to be intirely built need not want for money to build their houses though they have but little of their own For surely the soil it self and the rent of such houses which we presume will presently be tenanted will be a sufficient security for so much money as went to the building of them and who that hath money to spare as doubtless there are some such will not lend upon good security and upon so good an occasion Whilest men build successively and not together in one and the same street they give a continual annoyance to one another and to all that pass by like them that would be in an house in which were several families and one or other of them were washing or scouring every day one after another by which means the house would never lie clean Now the streets cannot be paved the wayes cannot be made good filth and rubbish cannot be all removed because the streets are yet unfinished We can hardly come at those that have built in some places for the lets and impediments we meet with from them that are yet to build Houses that stand alone are like people in a single condition from whom it is not to be expected they should multiply but where whole streets are built together there is as it were a numerous family of married persons from whom we may look for a second and third generation and who may quickly make their present number manifold what it is Hundreds will be desirous to build near unto those streets be it but in by-lanes and alleys where is a neighbourhood and a trade having an eye to safety and that there will be something to do One goodly street would quickly be invironed and incircled with neighbouring houses on every side of it as if that were the mother and these the children the Olive plants round about her table that the hen and these the chickens gathering about her Who cannot easily perswade himself that if the building of any whole streets together and at once one or more were agreed upon that those Honourable persons who are to decide all controversies betwixt man and man as to the present building would so far incourage so good a work as to vouchsafe those whole sale Builders if I may so call them the first hearing and determining of all their Titles and post pone the retailers till they had done with them Now that by many would be accounted no small priviledg viz. To have the precedency of buildâ—ng whilst others must wait several moneths longer if not years ere they can begin to build for want of a hearing before the Commissioners Now these five last paragraphs you may call a digression if you please but I shall never repent of it if it may attain its end viz. to prevail with Londoners to build whole streets together some especially that are of most consideration and are the greatest roads and through-fares which till it be done London will neither have the conntenance nor the convenience nor the credit nor the cleanliness nor the trade nor the safety of a City neither will any thing or very little be done to those inferiour places alleys and such like which are but appendices to more noble streets and like their hand-maids will wait to see them go up first But to return to what I spake of at the first viz. that Citizens should not desist from building because of that one house that was burnt in Mincing Lane First what will all the houses they have built already signifie if they shall build no more Is London yet any thing like a City is it fit for the purpose of trade Though possibly more than a thousand houses are finished and three times so many foundations laid will you lose all the cost and pains which you have been at hitherto shall your new houses stand untenanted and go to ruine shall they have leave to burn them that will because no body will dwell in them for want of neighbourhood and a trade Is the fine City you had begun upon come to this or is this all it is like to come to here a fine house or two in a dirty street and and there another Think of that text Luke 14.30 Least all that behold it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish What is a mother the