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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

is like to be will scarce pay for the houses they live in and if so wherewithall shall they and theirs subsist Men must have meat to eat and clothes to wear as well houses to dwell in but your rack-Rents and more than rack Fines do eat the very bread out of their mouthes When I think of the Fire the Carters the Pilferers and you extorting Landlords I cannot but recount what is said Ioel 1.4 That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten How contrary have you been to Jesus Christ who impoverishell himself to make others rich 2 Cor. 8.9 whereas you have inricht your selves by making others poor You have handled the poor City as the Sybils are said to have done their Prophecies when they had burnt the greatest part of them asking as great a price for the Remains as they did at first for the whole Book what ever reason they had for that I am sure you have none for this Ruminate I beseech you upon one Text I shall name to you with others of like nature and then if you think fit to keep all the Fines you have taken and to take all the Rent you have contracted for give me leave to think that your hearts do stand in no awe of Gods Word The place I mean is Zach. 2.9 10 11. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house that he may set his ●●st on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil Thou hast consulted shame to thy self thou hast sinned against thy soul For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it If you will not believe try at your peril if that saying of Christ be not true viz. that It will profit a man nothing to gain the world and lese his own soul MEDITATION VII Upon the burning down of many Churches VVHen men are better informed and lesse under the power of prejudice they will not be offended at calling those places by the name of Churches where people meet together for the publick worship and service of God though the living Temples of God or the faithful meeting together for such ends and purposes are in greatest strictnesse and propriety of speech called the Church or some part of the Church of Christ which is his Body each Believer a member of it and himself the Head There is a Figure in Rhetorick and such as we can hardly speak without which puts things containing for the things contained and if the Holy Ghost himself do use that Figure I am sure we ought not to quarrel with it I know not who can assure us that the Scripture doth not speak by that Figure when it saith 1 Cor. 11.22 Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God But not to contend about words I look upon it as a great misery that the places called by that name are so generally demolished He that shall look upon them but as great ornaments to the places where they stood or as strong and stately buildings that might have been employed to many good uses or at most but as places where first and last many fervent prayers have been offered to God many religious assemblies have met together many excellent and converting Sermons have been preached if he be consistent with himself cannot but bewail that they are now made a ruinous heap Most sober men do think there were some good and useful lights shining to the very last in those Candlesticks and for their sakes I wish if the will of God had been so that those Candlesticks might yet have stood as also for the hope I had that God in his good time might have thrust forth many more faithful labourers into those Vineyards if I may so call them Where now within the walls of that sometimes famous City can hundreds and thousands meet together to reap the benefit of one and the same Sermon I say in how few places can it now be done as formerly with convenience and safety We read of three thousand souls added to the Church by one of Peters Sermons Acts 2.14 But where now could a fifth part of that number with freedome and allowance converse together in order to such a purpose How many idle persons are there like to be in fields and alehouses on the Lords day under pretence they have no Churches to go to What a vast charge and trouble will it be to rebuild those Churches or many of them which if ever London come to be it's self again and Religion in any request as God forbid it should be otherwise must and will be done How forlo●n would London have lookt if all its Churches had been burnt though all private houses had been yet standing I dare not give those reasons that some would do why those Churches were burnt I dare not say we may do as well without them as with them What reformed Church is there in the whole world that hath not such places as those for publick worship and that is not careful to maintain and uphold them I wish every private house were a Church as P●ul Salities the Church that was in their house viz. in the house of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16.5 and yet I wish there were Churches every where besides those in private houses What if the blind zeal of Papists did build many of those Churches were they not converted to a better use I think they could no more infuse evil into those places than others can real and intrinsical holiness The Censers of Korah and Dathan howsoever they abused them were not cast out of the Sanctuary but made into broad plates as are vering for the Altar Numb 16.38 The destruction of Churches is pleasing to few men but those who have outrun the sobriety of Religion and who have made such haste out of Balylon that as one saith they are run beyond Jerusalem If some Ministers by the fire of their passion or other provoking sins have helpt to burn the Churches they did or should have preacht in over their heads and if some that were or should have been hearers have done the like the Lord forgive them they know not what they have done But may I or mine if God so please live to see London rebuilt Churches re-edified by the zeal and piety of Protestants every Congregation furnished with 〈◊〉 faithful Pastor every Candlestick filled with a burning and shining light all divine Ordinances purely administred all places for publick worship greatly and cheerfully frequented all good Christians united in the service of God then though our new structures should never be so great and magnificent as our old ones were we shall easily acknowledge that the glory of our second Temples is far greater than was that of our first MEDITATION VIII Upon the

famish those lusts which you have idolized cut off those right hands that they may grasp no more of your money for time to come and let the poor receive it in their stead Is it not better lending to the Lord than giving to the Devil Why will you buy repentance so dear when you might put your money to so much better uses Some that have fallen into very hainous sins have built Hospitals for the relief of their own Consciences God may please to leave you to the same sins and so extort that out of you by the same means if it will not come freely Some though free from notorious vices yet do manifestly exceed in diet and in apparel What if you should lessen your Table by one or two dishes every day What if you should spare something of that superfluous cost which you use to give yourselves in every garment and resolving so to do should contribute all that to the rebuilding and reindowing the consumed Hospitals which you reckon that good husbandry would save you every year What if Gentlemen should keep fewer hounds and hawks or none at all in order to so good a work Yea What if you should put two horses lesse into your Coaches which had wont to be drawn with four or six You may think yourselves at liberty in this case but pardon me if I think you are bound It is not matter of choice but duty to minister to the necessities of others out of our superfluities and to their extremities out of our very conveniences He that is unmercifull or uncharitable is also unjust because he doth not use the talent wherewith his Lord hath intrusted him for those ends for which it was put into his hands He doth not fulfill the just will of the Donor Let it never be said that God gave you Estates to do good with but you spent them upon your lusts that you can find so many pounds or hundreds of pounds to consume in Taverns and Tippling-houses so much treasure wherewith to keep Mistresses otherwise called whores so much gold and silver wherewith to treasure up to yourselves wrath against the day of wrath but nothing wherewithal to rebuild or help forward the rebuilding of ruinated Hospitals Break off your sins by repentance and your iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor as Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar All the good you do sincerely will be your own another day Therefore said Paul Phil. 4.17 I desire fruit that may abound to your account The same Apostle speaking of the Churches of Macedonia saith That their deep poverty had abounded to the riches of their liberality 2 Cor. 8.2 and Shall not your riches amount to as much as did their poverty Christ became poor to make u●rich and Shall we think much to be somewhat lesse rich that we may relieve those that are extreamly poor Look not to receive that joyfull Sentence from Christ Come ye blessed c. unlesse he may say of you For you saw me hungry and fed me naked and clothed me meaning his Members which are himself mystically so the Church is called Christ Let not the ashes of sometimes greatly usefull Hospitals cry to Heaven against your want of bowels He that hath this worlds goods and shutteth up his bowels against those that are in want How dwelleth the love of God in him The worse uses that any have formerly put their money to the greater obligation lies upon them to put it to good uses as they are called for time to come Not onely the ill getting of money calls for extraordinary charity which made Zacch●us say The one half of my Estate I give to the poor but also our having ill spent it in times past for it is with money as with time by how much the worse we spent it formerly by so much the better we should spend it for the future Princes have laid these foundations and will it not be an honour for Subjects to build upon them your work may possibly stand hundreds of years as some of those houses yet in being have done whereas theirs is fallen to the ground In a word next unto the honor of building a Temple for Gods house as Solomon did and David was ambitious to have done is that of building a house for Gods Temples and such are all true believers how poor and mean soever MEDITATION XI Upon the Burning of Publick Halls If any think those Halls were built meerly for feasting and entertainment or at the most but for pompe they are much deceived Certainly they were both intended and improved to higher and better uses All great Bodies and Societies of men must needs for order sake be divided and subdivided So Armies are divided into several Regiments Regiments into several Troopes or Companies so Navies divide themselves into several Squadrons Upon the same accompt the Citizens of London being a great Body of Traders and those of severall Professions it was but necessary they should be parcelled into several Companies having each of them their peculiar Officers which made them as it were an entire body by themselves fitted with head and members of all sorts the respective Masters being as it were the head the subordinate Officers the Essential parts and the ordinary members the integral Both decency and conveniency required there should be a handsome place for each of those Societies to meet in which was as it were a little Parliament House belonging to them in which the Representatives of each Company I mean their Officers did meet together to consult and Parley what might be for the good of the whole Here the grievances of each Society falling within their cognizance where complained of and redressed Here they advised and agreed together what to do and what to petition their Superiors for that might be for the benefit of their respective trades and Professions how they might prevent encroachments and abuses how they might maintain their priviledges how they might take all advantages for the best improvement of their respective Trades In all of these a common stock was kept on foot and carefully lookt after for divers needful purposes as namely for the relief of such of their own Society as should fall to decay for helping young beginners who had little to set up with and might there borrow upon good security for improving the Estates of Widowes as in the Book-sellers Company and for many other good purposes one of which Schollars ought never to forget and that is for encouraging young Students by liberall exhibitions wherewith to increase their maintainance at the University There were in severall Halls though not in each of them Stocks going for all these purposes and it is like for many more which may sufficiently evidence that they were places of great use which I mention to shew what cause we have to bewail the losse of them To say they were most of them noble Structures even those that did belong to the meaner Trades as who should say

persons I have described are past all question useless and meer cumber-grounds like dead trees fit for nothing but to burn I shall not take the boldness to say that England doth and London did abound with such persons as these or that such walking carkasses carried about by that evil spirit that possessed them and did as it were assume them were to be seen every day but whether it were so or no they better know that know London know all England better than I pretend to do And if it were so indeed it is not so much wonder that the houses of such men were burnt as that their persons did escape or that God did not rather consume their persons and spare their houses like Lightning that spares the Scabbard and melts the Sword Sin had made a great part of the inhabitants as much dry wood in one sense as want of rain had made their houses such I marvel not then that so great a Fire approaching such prepared fewel both within and without did so much execution but rather that it did no more May the issue of that dismal Fire which was lately amongst us be the same that husbandmen effect or design in burning their Lands viz. that we as they which before were barren and unprofitable may become useful and fruitful which Lord grant for Christ his sake MEDITATION XI Of the universal Corruption and Debauchery of a people punished by God with Fire I Need not go far from that Text on which I grafted the next preceding meditation To finde another that will plainly prove the universal corruption and degeneration of a people to have as it were inforced God though he be slow to anger and rich in mercy to contend with them by Fire yea and consume them The same Prophet furnisheth me with a large instance in that kind too large to transcribe and therefore I shall rehearse but part of it and refer to the rest For it reacheth from Ezek. 22.19 to the end of the 31 verse Thus saith the Lord because ye are all become dross therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem v. 20. as silver into the midst of a furnace and I will leave you there and melt you v. 22. And ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you That they were all become Dross signifies no more but this that they were universally depraved and debauched as appeareth plainly by that Indictment which is given in against their Priests and Prophets and Princes and common people that is against persons of all ranks and conditions in the sequel of the Chapter The like charge there is to be found Isa 9.27 For every one is an hypocrite and an evil doer and every mouth speaketh folly v. 14. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and rush in one day v. 18. For wickedness burneth as the fire it shall devour the briars and the thorns That is the wicked amongst them the best of which was as a briar or as a thorny hedg It is sad to consider that there have been certain times in which no sort of men have kept themselves pure and unspotted but all have defiled their garments in which the fire of sin hath spread as much more than in other ages as the late Fire upon London spread it self beyond all the Fires that City had known formerly Some time before the destruction of the old world by water it is said that All flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6.11 and when God was about to rain Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom not ten righteous persons could be found to stand in the gap And a strange challenge it is which God makes Jerem. 5.1 Run through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know if ye can finde a man if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will pardon it Is it so with us at this day or is it not Are we universally corrupt and degenerate and debauched or are we not Have all sorts of men corrupted their waies and done abominably or have they not Possibly in this our Sardis there are some few names that have not defiled their garments but alas how few are they and what are so few names to the generality and body of a Nation Are those words of Isaiah applicable to us or not There is no soundness but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores from the sole of the foot even to the head Isa 1.7 and then followeth your Country is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire Might I take leave to be particular I would say that City and Countrey and Court and Inns of Court and Universities all have exceedingly corrupted their waies what a corruption in judgment hath over-spread us some turning to Socinianism others to Popery others to Atheism yea great and Leviathan-like Atheism How great a corruption is there at this day in the habits gates and gestures of men and women which I would not trouble my self to speak of but that as little a thing as it may seem it is a symptome of great evil within for many times the habits of the mind are signified by those of the body A proud habit and a proud heart a wanton habit and a wanton heart do often if not alwaies meet For what modest woman would put on the attire of an harlot or who cares to make shew of more evil than is really in them and not rather to conceale that which is A modest habit is not so sure a sign of a chaste heart for that may be worn for a cloak of dis-honesty as an immodest habit is of one that is unchaste For what wo●an that is conscious to her own chastity would render her self suspected for a whore It may seem a small matter for sick people to play with feathers and to make babies with their sheets but it is an usual fore-runner and consequently a sign of death So the habits of men and women when they carry with them a great appearance of Pride Levity Wantonness Inconsistency of mind Prodigality Fantastickness Inconstancy do give great jealousie to wise men who can discern much light sometimes through small crevices that the Age or rather persons of this Age do abound with such kind of vices and that there is some kind of Fatallity belonging to it because people use such antick postures and gestures as dying persons are wont to use I wish the fore-mentioned vices had get no neerer men than their skins that they were but skin-deep but as the Itch and such like diseases are first within and then strike out first insect the mass of blood and not till af●erwards the habit and surface of the body ye● and often strike in again and corrupt the blood a second time so it is to be feared that men and women are generally proud and wanton in heart before they are so in habit and become so in habit because they were

first so in heart Now if the hearts of many be such as their most fantastick and garish habits make show of those words of Solomon Eccles 9.3 Must needs be verified in them The heart of the Sons of Men is full of evil madness is in their heart whilst they live c. Yet for all this I would exercise charity concerning the habits of men and women though that be hard to do did not the common practise and course of this Age assure me that it is universally corrupt and degenerate and as it were expound the meaning of such suspicious habits It is no difficult thing to prove the sins of this Age because men now adayes declare their sins like Sodom and do as it were spread a Tent in the face of the Sun as did Absalom I am much mistaken and so are many more if the gross sins of swearing cursing Sabbath breaking drunkenness whoredome together with too great a connivance at and impunity to these and some others be not more chargable upon England at this day than they had wont to be Are not these the things which male-contents do alledge to justify their murmurings though neither are they or can they be thereby justified as I have plainly shewed in that Chapter in which I have discoursed of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron We must keep our stations and do our duties though other men should refuse to do theirs If a Wise play the harlot may her Husband in requital commit adultery no such matter This premised I may the more boldly say whatsoever the matter is and whence so ever it comes a very general corruption there is amongst us What is said of the soul viz. that it is Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte wholly in the whole body and wholly in every part may be applied to sin as if it were become the very soul that did animate and inform the Nation I was about to say I fear good men are generally not so good as they had wont to be and bad men are become a great deale worse the former having suffered like strong constitutions that have been impaired by bad aire and the other like unsound bodies which are almost brought to the Grave thereby And now let me say with Jeremy O that my head were a fountain of teares that I could weep day and night for the corruption as he said for the destruction of the daughter of my people and O that I could say with David mine eyes run down Rivers of teares because men keep not thy Laws at leastwise that with righteous Lot of whom it is said without the least hyperbole that he did vex his righteous soul with the conversation of the Sodomites so could I mine with the sins of England mine own and others O Lord thou seest how even the whole Mass of English blood is wofully corrupted by sin as it fareth with those that have had a Dart struck thorough their Liver in that sense Solomon is by some supposed to intend it viz. as a periphrasis of the fowle disease so that there is hardly any good blood in all our ●●ines and arteries outward applications whether of judgments or mercies of themselves cannot cure us Inwardly cleanse us we beseech thee by the inspiration of thy spirit and purge our Consciences from dead works to serve thee that thy wrath may no more burn against us as Fire but that at length thou maist call us Heptzibah a people in whom thy soul may delight MEDITATION XII Of God's bringing Fire upon a People for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments WE have already spoken of twelve several causes of God's contending with a people by Fire and yet there is one behind as much in fault as any of all the rest and that is the sin of incorrigibleness I could presently produce three sufficient witnesses as it were to depose what I say One is that text in Isaiah Chap. 1. vers 5 7. Compared together Why should yee be smitten any more yee will revolt more and more your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire The next is Isa 9.13 compared with the 19. The People turneth not to him that smiteth them Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts shall the People be as the Fewel of the Fire But Amos speaks out yet more plainly if that can be Amos 4.6 I have given you cleanness of teeth yet have you not returned to me saith the Lord vers 8. I have with-holden the Rain from you vers 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. vers 10. I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt Now the burthen of all the Indictment is Yet have yee not returned to me saith the Lord. Then in the next verse he brings in God speaking thus I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah vers 11. And how was that but by fire So that you see the judgment of fire came as it were to avenge the quarrel of other abused judgments when Famine and Pestilence had done no good upon them then God used Fire which as being the worst was reserved to the last Most of the judgments denounced by Amos go under the notion of Fire Chap. ● 2. and incorrigibleness you see is one main reason rendered of Gods inflicting those judgment Now England hold up thy hand at the Bar and answer Art thou guilty or not guilty of the great sin of incorrigibleness and you dispersed inhabitants of that once famous City which now lieth in the dust little did I ever think to have called you by that name speak out and say were you guilty or not guilty of much incorrigibleness under other judgments before such time as God began to contend with you by that Fire which hath now almost consumed you Plead your innocency if you can Either prove you were never warned or sufficiently warned by preceding judgments or make it appear that you took warning and mended upon it That war by Sea which hath been as a bloody issue upon the Nation for several yeares past and is not yet stanched was that no warning piece That impoverishing decay of trade which hath made so many murmur was it no warning to us to repent and reform If it were a great judgment did it not call upon us to reform and if but a small one why did we so much repine at it That devouring pestilence which in one years time swept away above a hundred thousand in and about London was it not a sufficient warning to us from heaven Yet after all this how few did smite upon their thighs and said what have I done I doubt few have been the better for all these and many the worse who since God hath so smitten us have revolted more and more which is such a thing as if Jonah should have presumed to provoke God more than ever even then when he was in the great deep and

likewise Now where shall I begin my discourse of Londons calamity Or how can I do it without premising those words of the Prophet Jerem. 9.11 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears c. If my eyes be not a fountain my heart must needs be a Rock and Lord smite thou that Rock that waters may gush out whil'st I mention those things that should be bewailed even with tears of blood That which first presents its self is the consideration of what London was nor can it be better expressed than in those words Lam. 1.1 The City that was Great amongst the Nations and Princesse amongst the Provinces Sure I am London was the glory of England yea the glory of Great Britain yea the glory of these three Nations if not in some sense the glory of the whole World But as the Prophet speaks of Ierusalem ver 9. She came down wonderfully the same may be said of London But alas What is London now but another Sodome lying in ashes What is it but a heap of dust and rubbish The greatest part of it seems to be convered into so many Church-yards as consisting of nothing but the Reliques of Churches with waste ground round about them full of open Vaults or Cellers like so many uncovered Graves and fragments of houses like so many dead mens bones scattered on every side of them I had almost called it another Smithfield ●alluding to the use that place was put to in the Marian dayes for that every house was a kind of Martyr sacrificed to the flames and that as is vehemently suspected by men of the same Religion with those that burnt the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes Witness that Frenchman that was convicted and executed upon his own acknowledgement of having begun the Fire in London whose confession tels us that he was instigated by Papists one or more and the choice of his Confessor that he was one himself We can now no longer say of London Here it stands but Hie jacet as we say of one that is dead and buried Here it lies not that here it is but that here it was May we not go on with those words of Ieremy Lam. 1.1 How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a Widow Where are those multitudes that inhabited London a few moneths since How are they dispersed and scatte●ed into corners some crowded into the Suburbs others gone into the Country disabled in all likely hood from ever returning again to settle as before Who complains not that they scarce know where to find any body even those that they had wont to converse and trade with for that their former places know them no more yea they hardly know the places again where they dwelt formerly or can find where those houses stood which they inhabited many years together To see a populous City so wofully depopulated in a few dayes time and the late Inhabitants driven away as stubble before the wind Whose heart would it not cause to bleed How oft have I heard men say since the Fire we have occasion to use such and such tradesmen that use to work to us but know not were to find them we should speak with such and such Friends but know not what is become of them or whether they are gone How many thousand houses that were lately such do not now contain one Inhabitant nor are sit to do it This also should be for a lamentation Did the Egyptians mourn when but one was missing in every house and shall not we when multitudes of whole housholds and houses are swept away all at once Why should I doubt to say that a great part of the strength and defence of all England yea of all the three Kingdomes is lost and taken away in and by the destruction of London Was not that great City able to have raised a mighty force in a short time wherewith to have opposed an invading Forreigner Was it not a Mine of Treasure able to supply vast summes of monie for the use of King and Kingdome at a short warning and found as willing as able to do it If a vast and stately Ship as most that swim in the Ocean had been lost how soon could and did that famous City build such another Surely London was the sinews and the very right hand of all great and publick undertakings and that they knew full well that said in their hearts Rase it Rase it to the very ground Are we not now like Sampson when his hair was cut and should we go out to shake our selves as he did Judg. 16.20 should we not presently find it Yea are we not become like the men of Sechem when they were fore presently after their being circumcised whom Simeon and Levi flew Gen. ●4 25 Who can be a friend to England or have any true English blood running in his veins and not lament to see so much of the strength of the Nation taken away at once As Jerem● speaking of what God had done to Jerusalem as in his own person saith He hath made my strength to fall Lament 1.14 and then adds He hath delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up That is not our case as yet but how soon may it be our present weaknesse and obnoxiousness considered Is it not worth taking notice of that the beauty and splendor of England is defaced and lost by the destruction of London How deformed is a body without a head and was not London the head of England in that sence that Damascus is said to have been the head of Syria and the head of Ephraim to have been Samaria Isa 7.8 That is the head City for we acknowledge a head Superiour to that yea Supreme under God viz. our Sovereign as it is ver 9. the head of Ephraim is Remaliahs Son As the face is to the body so was London to England viz. the beautifullest part of it and look how men reckon it a great prejudice to their bodies when their faces are marred by any great deformity so is it to the whole Land which is to be considered as one body and all the parts of it as members of each other when scarce any thing of that is left which was the very face of it They that saw only the other parts of England saw as I may allude with reverence but it 's back parts Was not London as it were the Throne of the Kings of England successively and other places in comparison of it but as it were their Footstool you know to what I allude Now London is gone may we not write Icabod upon the Nation for that the honour of it is departed Now who can be a true Englishman and unconcerned for the honour of his Nation and not troubled to see it lie in the dust How is the honour of a Nation insisted on How many wars are commenced and continued in the world to

stand gazing on and not run to help The Fire hath now got such head and is so fierce would they say that there is no coming near it But why do they not pull down houses at a distance that is long work would some reply and seeing they cannot carry away the timber when they have done it will do but little good Do not the Magistrates would some say bestir themselves to put a stop to it It is like they do what they can but they are even at their wits ends or like men astonished They that stood and look't on would cry out See how it burns East and West at the same time not onely with the wind but against it Hear how it crackles like a Fire in thorns Hear what a rattling noise there is with the crackling and falling of timber Look you there saith another just now the Fire hath taken this or that Church which alas is full of goods now it is just come to the Royall Exchange by and by would they say See how presently such a stately house was gone it was but even now that it began to fire and it is consumed already Oh what a wind is here See how it is as bellows to the Fire or as the breath of the Almighty blowing it up You would wonder to see how far the sparks and coles doe sly It is strange they do not fire all the houses on the other side of the water where abundance of them do light I can think of nothing saith one but of Sodom and Gomorral when I see this sight Alas Alas cries one now do I see such a good friends house to take fire and by and by now do I see the house of another good friend of mine on fire in that house that you see now burning dwelt a Brother or S●ster of mine or some other near Relation Others would come dropping in and say They had staid so long as to see their own houses on fire and then they came away and left them Such a● dwell near to London and to the Road would cry as they lay in their beds we hear the Carts rumbling and posting by continually Those that were within the City at that time would ever and anon say to one another Did you hear that noise There was a house blown up and by and by there was another house blown up Others would cry The fire is now come near the Tower and if the powder be not removed God knowes what mischief will be done with that One while the people would take an Alarm of Treachery and cry out that the French were coming to cut their throats Such whose houses the Fire had not yet seized but was hast●ing towards them you must suppose to have made this their discourse What shall we do for Carts to carry away our goods we have offered three four pounds a load for Carts to carry them but two or three miles off and cannot have them One while they cry there is an order to prevent the coming in of more Carts it being thought that whilst we mind the saving of our goods we neglect the putting out the fire and now will our houses and goods burn together and so we shall loose all Such as had the opportunity to convey their goods as far as the fields and no farther How did they discourse of the hardship they must undergoe if they should leave their goods they would be stollen if they should look to them themselves as many had no body else to do it for them they must have but little sleep and a cold open lodging and what if it should rain And some we may imagine were discoursing what they and theirs should do their houses and goods being burnt where they should put their heads as having neither money nor friends at leastwise so near that they knew how to get to them These were but some of those dreadfull stories that men and women talkt of I could tell you how women with child would say They had but a month or a week to reckon and this had frighted them almost out of their wits so that they found it would go very hard with them Others again would say They were but so many weekes gone but were so disturbed that they did never look to go out their full time Others it is like would say They were so ill with the fright they had taken that they thought verily it would kill them or that they should never come to themselves whilst they lived Would not others again report of some here and there who by venturing too much in the Fire or staying too long to bring away their goods had lost their lives and perished in the flames Neither were all sad discourses exstinguished with the fire For since that time it hath been the manner of Friends as they met to ask some accompt of the losses each of other Pray what lost you saith one by the Fire I lost the house I lived in saith one which was my own or as good as my own by virtue of a long Lease and a great Fine I lost my houses and goods saith another I lost to the value of two thousand pounds saith one I four I six saith another I have lost the one half of what I had saith one I have lost all saith another I am burnt to my very shirt I have lost more than all saith a third for I by this meanes am left in a great deal of debt that I shall never be able to pay I had many things belonging to other men committed to me which are swept away Saith another I am not only undone my self but so many of my Children and near Relations it may be all of them are undone by this Fire as well as my self But I need to say the less of this because every dayes converse will or may tell us what men talk since the dismall Fire of and concerning it O Lord I see thou who canst put a Song of deliverance into our mouths when thou pleasest canst also sill us with complaints and lamentations when thou wilt and make our own tongues as it were to fall upon us how thou canst make us out of the abundance of our hearts to speak such things as will terrifie both ourselves and others and cause both our own ears and theirs to tingle how easily thou canst find us other discourse than to ask and tell what newes is stirring for who regarded news whilst these things were in agitation who seemed to mind what became of affairs either by Sea or Land I see how easily thou canst imbitter our Converse one with another and make us speak so as to break each others hearts that use to delight and refresh each other by their pleasing conferences and communications so that solitude may become lesse afflictive than that good company which was wont to be very acceptable Would not our tongues rise up in judgement against us if we should ever forget the sad

Universal-Church or of that part of the Church which is the whole or of Rome which is all the World VVe read of Names of blasphemy which were upon the heads of the Beast Rev. 13.1 But as if that were not sufficient they have added a Name which is perfect non-sense for the reason aforesaid but that by the way Their design is to prove that Antichrist is amongst us and that London was that Mystical Balylon so often spoken of according to what was lately found in a Seditious Libel Do to South-Babel c. meaning to the Southern-part of London yet standing c. But alass How weak are the Premisses from which they have drawn these conclusions Their Argument put into a Syllogism is this If London were destroyed the self-same-year in which some did Prophesie that Babylon and Antichrist should be destroyed then is London that which the Scripture calls Babylon and Anti-christ amongst the Protestants But London was c. E●go If the VVorld mistake not some of you have proved the Minor so strongly viz. the destruction of London and in such a year that no body can disprove it But the consequence of the Major-Proposition hath no force at all in it For what if some did Prophesie the destruction of Babylon and Antichrist in 66 and London only was destroyed that year from what Principle of Scripture or Reason can you thence infer that London is Mystical Babylon For first of all VVho were they that did Prophesie such a thing VVere they not a few inconsiderable Enthusiastical Men to whom not one Protestant of a thousand gave credit For believe me Enthusiasts and Protestants are no convertible terms forasmuch as not every hundredth or thousandth Protestant is any thing of an Enthusiast VVe do not use to charge upon your Church the Extravagant Bablings of one or a few particular Papists but the professed Doctrines and Tenets of that which yourselves call the Church of Rome Do us the same right and forbear to charge upon Protestants as such what the Protestant Church doth disavow Possibly they were some of your own Religion some Romanists putting on the mask of Protestants as hath bin usual with them to do for sinister ends who foreknowing that London would be burnt this year as nothing is more easy than for men to know what themselves intend to do gave out that Babylon and Anti-christ would be destroyed in sixty six for that very end that when they had once effected the burying of London in ashes they might have some pretence to write this Epitaph Here lies Babylon here lies that which was the feat of the true Anti-christ thereby rolling away the reproach of Babylon and Anti-christ from themselves to whom it belongs upon the Protestants whom it concerns not But take heed how you deny Anti-christ to be amongst you for by that means you quit one Argument Sir Edw. Sand. Spec. Europ which some of your writers have used to prove Rome to be a true Church for that it is said that Anti-christ sitteth in the Temple of God 2 Thes 2.4 But if upon further consideration you would not be known to have Anti-christ amongst you let me tell you that the Beast spoken of in Scripture is so thoroughly markt that it is easy to distinguish him from the Protestant Church and from Rome heathenish and whatsoever else he would turn over his name to Me-thinks that one Text 2 Thes 2.4 would plainly enough decipher Anti-christ if there were none but that Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God The Emperours of Rome-heathenish sate not in the Temple of God they were not within the pales of the professedly Christian Church therefore they were not the man of sin and Anti-christ there spoken of but he is to be sought and found amongst those that are called Christians Now amongst Christians there are none that exalt themselves above all that are called God that is above all Magistrates which are called Gods challenging a Primacy and Supremacy to themselvs over all Christians both Subjects and Princes I say there are none that do so but the Popes of Rome successively whence it comes to pass that Papists are wont to refuse the Oath of Supremacy to their Native Prince as believing not their own Prince to be Supream under God over his own Subjects but the Pope of Rome over both him and them Moreover who is it that fitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself to be God that is assumeth to himself those things which are proper and particuliar to God onely as namely To forgive sins For none can forgive sins but God onely I say who but the respective Popes of Rome do take upon them by their own power and in their own name to forgive sin the grossness of which practice did first provoke Luther of a staff Monk to become a zealous Protestant Yea who amognst those that were called Christians did ever exalt himself above all that is worshipped by which may be meant the true God saving the respective Popes of Rome And they have done it time after time in taking upon them to dispense with the Commission of sin as with the taking of unlawful Oaths and such like Now God himself though he remit sin to such as truly believe and repent yet he never did nor by reason of the holiness of his nature ever could give men free leave and licence to do that which is sinful It is true that God gave the Israelites Commission to borrow the Jewels and Earings of the Egyptians and never to return them again but that was not a liberty to steal for God Whose all those things were and whose are all things was pleased to alienate the propriety to take those things from the Egyptians and give them to the Israelites A fourth Character of Anti-christ is that his Coming is with lying wonders vers 9. that is with feigned miracles Now who amongst all that are called Christians trade so much if at all in those things as doth the Church of Rome How do the Romanists they and only they abound with miracles and all fictitious and no other then gross imposture Tell those people that have no Bibles to consult but what are in an unknown language or else perverted by a false translation or a corrupt gloss I say tell them the Anti-christ is amongst the protestants and that London was the Mystical Babylon of which the Scripture speaks Sic notus Ulysses Is Anti-christ no better known think you to them that have seen his Picture and Description in holy Writ Alas such coarse Wares as is the ridiculous asserting of London to be Babylon will go off no where but in a dark shop or by a false light Your blinded Moses that live as it were under ground may be made to believe that Rome is the new Jerusalem spoken of Rev. 21.1

concerning the Law of God taught by parents to their children Prov. 6.22 When thou goesh it shall lead thee when thou awakest it shall talk with thee So will a good conscience An evil conscience findes such discourse as men have not patience to hear like Micaiah it never prophesieth good but a good conscience commends without flattery and tells those stories than would not be grievous to a man to listen to from morning to night It speaks like God in his sentence of Absolution well done good and faithful Servant No man can frame a discourse so delightful as are the whispers of a good conscience speaking peace and pardon to us in the name of God Where such company and such discourse is there can want no mirth taking mirth in the soberest sense for comfort and refreshment yea it will make the heart more glad than they whose wine and oile increase And as for musick all the voices and instruments in the World cannot make such melody as a good conscience If a man had all those Men-singers and Women-singers that Solomon had Eccles 2.8 their best notes were not comparable to this Nor is it hard to make out how a good conscience can and doth give a man hearty welcome For as Christ in several senses is both Priest Altar and Sacrifice so is that both our feast and our Host our entertainer and our entertainment Conscience doth as it were grudge a wicked man both his meat and his mirth but to a good man it saith eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the Lord accepteth thy person Conscience bids much good may do him with all he hath and tells him in the name of God he is as welcome to it as his heart can wish and hath it with as good a will We count those men best able to feast that have as we say every thing about them and within themselves Corne Cattel Poultry all of their own Dove-houses Warrens Parks all within their own grounds Ponds affording several sorts of fish Trees yielding all sorts of fruits c. Such is he that hath a good conscience he hath all materials for feasting within himself and therefore may afford to do it Prov. 14.14 A good Man shall be satisfied from himself Viz. from the consciousness of his own integrity As Paul saith this is our rejoycing viz. the testimony of our conscience c. He that hath this hath meat to eat that the World knows not of and such meat as he would not exchange for all the rarities and varieties that are at Emperors Tables He blesseth himself or rather God when he thinks how much happeir he is than the World takes him for and how much better he fares than the World knows of whereas they do or may blush and inwardly bleed to think how much happier they are thought to be than indeed they are I might add he that feasts upon a good conscience hath that kinde of meat which is also sawce for every thing whereas others have the same sawce that spoiles all their sweet meat But possibly I cannot say more of the happiness of a good conscience than many can easily believe from the experience of a bad one and the misery they have felt by meanes of it A good conscience think they were an excellent feast indeed if we had it There is none like that but as Saul said the Philistims were come up against him and God was departed so they The Fire is come up against them and hath taken away what they feasted on before and as for a good conscience they wish they had it but they have it not Such a sound spirit would bear their infirmities but for want of it they are not able to bear them Were I sure such men were in good earnest to look after that good conscience which they confess and complain they want I would tell them for their encouragement that there is a way for a bad yea a very bad conscience to be made good as well as a good one to be made better Who can think that Paul had alwaies a good conscience the Scripture telling us that he was sometimes a persecutor an injurious person and a blasphemer yea that he did compell others to blaspheme Acts 26.12 considering that he had his hand in the death of many of Gods Saints Acts 26.12 Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them But manifest it is that he had a good conscience afterwards therefore I say there is a way for a very bad conscience to be made very good and blessed be God there is so It is against Scripture to say that a conscience once deflowred can never recover its virginity He who himself was born of a virgin can reduce that conscience to a virgin state which hath been the mother of many hainous sins Hab. 9.14 If the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling the ashes of an heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ sanctifie your conscience from dead works to serve the living God It is sin alone that defiles the conscience and makes it evil Now sin is either immediately against God or immediately against our neighbour that is against men and that also is against God ultimately though not firstly and only Therefore David confessing his sin in the matter of Vriah saith to God Against thee have I sinned He that would have a good that is a pure and peaceable conscience must if he be able satisfie men for the wrongs and injuries done to them as Zacheus resolved to do or if he be not able he must be sincerely willing and desirous so to do and fully purpose it in his heart if God shall ever make him able For nisi●restitutur oblatum is an old and a true rule that is either actually or intentionally non remittitur peccatum But as for the injury done to God by sin either immediately or mediately that no meere man is able to satisfie for though he could give thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oile or would give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul Therefore as to that there is no way to get our sins carried into the land of forgetfulness but by laying them by faith upon the head of Christ who was tipified by the Scape-goat under the Law no satisfaction to be tendered for them but that which Christ our surety hath made and intended for the use and benefit of them and them only who do or shall believe in him and by repentance turn from dead works to serve the living Go● Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins When these things are once done namely when care hath been taken to satisfie men so far as we are able for the wrongs done to them when we have looked upon him whom