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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	abraham_n	david_n	49	3	5.8067	4	false

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

when he called him to it Are we better than Moses then Aaron the Saint of the Lord than David than Hezekiah than Job yea than Christ himself who had all learn'd to stoop to God in very difficult cases Can we be too good to do it if they were not When God told Moses he should go up to Pisgah and take a view of Canaan but that he should never enter into it Deut. 3.27 We finde not one word that he replyed after he had once made his request and God had said speak no more of this matter When God had by fire consumed Nadab and Abihu the two Sons of Aaron Moses did but say to him The Lord will be sanctified in them that come nigh to him and be glorified before all the people and Aaron held his peace Levit. 10.3 When old Eli had received a dreadfull message from God by a Child for so Samuel then was 1 Sam. 3.18 How meekly did he resent it saying It is the Lord let him do as seemeth him good When David was flying from the face of his rebellious Son Absalom and taking leave of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 15.26 If the Lord say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me what seemeth him good At another time when David was even consumed by the blow of Gods hand Psal 39.10 he saith I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it vers 9. And as for Hezekiah though a King also as well as David yet see how his spirit buckled to God when the Prophet brought him word that God had taken away the fee-simple of all he had from his children who should be Eunuches to the King of Babylon Isa 39.7 And left him but his life in it Good is the Word of the Lord saith he which thou hast spoken vers 8. As for Job who had been the greatest of all the Men of the East when he had lost all but a vexatious Wife prompting him to curse God vet cried he out Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1.21 Behold a greater instance of patience and submission than any of these both for that his person was more excellent and his sufferings far greater having been a Man of sorrowes all his time Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before the Shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.23 Was not this written for our imitation vers 21. Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example Did he who is God equal with the father submit even to the painfull and shamefull and cursed death of the cross and shall we think our selves too good to stoop to lesser sufferings and humiliations he that can submit to God may be happy in any condition he that cannot will be happy in no condition this World can afford him in which all our roses are full of prickles and all our wayes strowed and hedged up with thornes more or less Yea not only the Church militant upon Earth but even the Church triumphant in heaven could not be free from misery if the will of glorious Saints were not melted into the will of God Abraham would be ever and anon grieving to think of Dives and others in his case if his will were not perfectly conformed to the will of God Many things fall out in this life which we would not for a World should be if we could and might prevent them but when the pleasure of God is once declared by events even in those cases ought we to sit down satisfied Abraham would not have sacrificed Isaac for the whole World but that God made as if he would have him so to do and then he yielded presently If blinde fortune did govern the World whose heart would it not break to think of so famous a City in a few dayes laid in ashes but sith it was the will of God it should be so who ordereth all things according to the counsel of his will let all the Earth be silent before him let us be still and know that he is God Who should rule the World but he that made it and that upholds it by the Word of his Power He can do us no wrong if he would such is his essential holiness which also makes it impossible for him to lie he would do us no wrong if he could such is his infinite justice He can do nothing but what is consistent with infinite wisdome patience goodness mercy and every perfection and how unreasonable is it not to submit to that which is consistent with all of these so doubtless was the burning of our renowned City as ghastly a spectacle as it is to behold else it had never come to pass O Lord I am sensible that I have need of line upon line precept upon precept and example upon example to teach me this hard lesson of submission to thee though the object of that submission seem to be only my condition in this life for I no where finde that thou requirest me and others to be willing to perish everlastingly Thou knowest how much thy glory and the comfort of thy poor Creatures are concerned in it that we should know how to resign up our selves to thee inable us to be contented with whatsoever thy will hath been or shall be concerning us and then be pleased to do with us as to this World what thou wilt DISCOURSE XXIV Of taking occasion by this to study the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things IF a glorious City turned into a ruinous heap in four dayes time when no visible enemy was at hand to do it if the reducing hundreds of Families to almost beggery that liv'd in good fashion in less than one week before by an unexpected meanes and in a way not possible to be foreseen if knocking a Nation out of joynt all of a sudden like a body that had been tortured upon a Rack be not loud Sermons of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things surely there will be none such till that time shall come that St. Peter speaks of 2 Pet. 3.10 When the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with servent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up What a Comment was this providence upon that Text Psal 39.5 Verily every Man at his best state is altogether vanity How did it evince the Psalmist to speak right Psal 62.9 Not only when he saith Men of low degree are vanity which most people do believe but also when he saith Men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity which few assent unto If things are called vanity as most properly they are from

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

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 Hat●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 qua●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 ●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

lay submissively at the feet of London like an humble valley at the foot of a high mountain What multitudes of Citizens have flockt to it as glad to be free amongst those that were not free themselves the fire having as it were broken down the partition-wall betwixt those that were Free-men of London and those that were not If the Suburbs had been burnt VVhither would the Inhabitants have sled Trade within the VValls they might not as Citizens may without which liberty they having now taken as it is their due What are the Suburbs now becon● but as it were the in-side of the late-Famous City carried and placed without the Walls London its self by a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul of the City being now translated into the Body of the Suburbs So that he who would now look for London must look for most of it not within but without the Walls How easie is it with God to pull down one and set up another To pluck the mighty from their seat and to exalt the poor and needy VVe read though in another sense that every Valley shall be exalted and every Mountain and Hill shall be made low VVho can but think of ●●ann●h's words shewing how God turns the VVorld up-side-down like a VVheel the uppermost Spoke whereof is quickly down and the lowest at the top 1 Sam. 2.5 They that were full have hired out themseives for bread and they that were hungry have ceased So that the barren have ●orn seven and she that hath many children is waxen fe●ble And Vers 7. The 〈◊〉 makes p●or and maketh rich he bringeth low and listeth up It is good counsel that an excellent man gives viz. That we should despise no mans present condition seeing we do not know his Destiny It should seem the poor despised Suburbs were destin'd to hold up their heads more than ever when the noble City should lie in dust and ashes as now it doth Let L●ndoners not think much of it that the providence of God hath cast them without the Gates and VValls of London but rather consider of such expressions as those Heb. 13.12 13 14. How that Christ suffered without the Gate Let us go therefore to him without the Camp bearing his reproach For here we have no continuing City I say Let them think of those words and prepare for another-guise suffering without the Gate than as now they do and bearing another-guise reproach than now they bear for this is next to none it being more proper to say and think That they have made the Suburbs honourable than That the Suburbs have made them despicable MEDITATION XXXVII Upon the Tongue being a Fire c. James 3.6 VVHen the Scripture would express how mischievous a Member an evil Tongue is it saith It is a Fire Fire hath done a world of mischief one time or other and so have evil Tongues whereupon it is added That the Tongue is a world of iniquity There is a fire that is called Ignis fatuus quod efficit tales because it makes fools of men leading them out of their way So Solomon speaking concerning a young man seduced by a Harlot saith With her much fair speech she caused him to yield Prov. 7.21 Fire from small beglnnings spreads it self very far so do the evils of mens Tongues So Solomon speaking of a Fool faith The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness and the end of his talk is mischievous madness Eccles 10.13 They are high expressions which St. James useth concerning the Tongue telling us that it desileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of Hell By setting on fire the course of nature we may understand those great Combustions which the tongues of men have made in the VVorld of which there are three famous Instances that come to mind sufficient to demonstrate that so as men may use and imploy their Tongues by means thereof the whole VVorld may be put into a flame How did the Princes of Succoth fire Gideon by that upbraiding Question mentioned Judg. 8.5 Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunnah now in thy hands that we should give bread unto thine Army To which he replyed VVhen the Lord shall give Zeba and Zalmunnah into mine hands then will I te●r your flesh with the briars of the wilderness and with thorns And we know he was as good as his word Did not Nabals churlish Tongue kindle such a fire in Davids breast as might have consumed all his family if the greater prudence of Abigail his wife had not seasonably extinguisht it 1 Sam. 25.10 It was gone so far that David had sworn He would not leave of them that did pertain to Nabal by the morning-light any that pissed against a wall Vers 22. And all this because of a provoking Answer he sent him saying VVho is David Many servants nowadayes break away from their Masters c. Yea the Tongue of David himself at what time he came with a lie in his mouth to Abimelech proved no otherwise than a fire which did consume at once four-score and five of the Lords Priests 1 Sam. 22.19 By the same reason that so great Combustions were raised by a few sparks falling from the Tongues of particular men may the whole VVorld be destroyed by the fire of mens Tongues such and so great as it may be which may give us an accompt of what the Text saith concerning the Tongue its setting on fire the whole course of nature Now whereas he adds that he Tongue it's self is set on fire of hell me-thinks he speaks of a wicked Tongue as if it were a sacrifice a Holocaust to the Devil as the Apostle saith in another case The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they s●crifice to Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10.20 For whereas the sacrifices which God did accept were kindled by sire from heaven a depraved Tongue is said to be kindled by a fire worse then that which is common viz. by fire from hell as if it were in token of the Devils preparing and challenging of it for himself Yet as ill a construction as calling the tongue a fire may bear in one sense yet in another acceptation of that Metaphor the Tongue ought to be a Fire and it is its excellency so to be The holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles in the form of fiery cl●ven tongues Act. 2.3 God did touch the mouth of his prophet with a coal from his altar in token that his iniquity was taken away and his sin purged Isa 6.7 There are words that may be used to enemies which would be like heaping coals of fire upon their heads in that good sense that S●l●mon wisheth us so to do May my tongue be such a sire as one of these may it be a flame breaking forth to vent and express a fire of God that burns within may it be a fire consuming the vices of others by faithful

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 Israel● peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you● 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 C●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

glutton shall come to poverty It is a fault in those that gain by it to let their customers have as much wine as they will call for when they have had enough already A greater fault in Parents to let them have money at will knowing they will spend it upon their lusts It is not then to be expected that God who hates to see men make provision for the flesh should bind himself to give them wherewithall to do it As therefore we would be sure of food and raiment let us wisely consider what must be spent and what may be spared Frustra fit per plura He that requires superfluities is like to want necessaries but he may build upon a supply of necessaries who hath learnt to pare off all superfluities They are desires of Gods own creating and in such a measure which do call but for necessaries as food and raiment and therefore he that made these desires we may expect will satisfie them But when we crave supersluities it is sin that opens its mouth wide yea which inlargeth it like hell and what reason is there that God should fill it And as we must be frugal in case we would be sure of food and raiment so one good way is to be mercifull and ready to distribute to the necessities of others so long as we have wherewith Frugality and charity may well stand together It is no ill husbandry to lend what we can spare upon infallible securitie and for great advantage He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord. And if the principal be but a cup of cold water he shall have consideration for it Matth 10.43 He shall in no wise lose his reward See Pro. 11.24 There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth Can a man reap unless he first sow or reap liberallie if he sow but sparinglie Who so shall read Psal 41.1 2 3. will finde that one of the best waies never to want our selves is not to let others want if we can help it He that considereth the poor God will consider him though he have neither strength nor certaintie of friends or money to help him or hardly one that he can promise himself will make his bed for him Where the three last mentioned qualifications do meet in Diligence Frugalitie and merciful disposition it is seldom if ever seen that God doth suffer such persons to want necessaries though saving grace and the true fear of God be not found in them But if any desire yet further securitie as for matter of food and rayment let them consider what is spoken Psal 104.27 These wait all upon thee that thou mayst give them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand they are filled with good viz. Those innumerable creeping things both great and small which are in the Sea spoken of v. 25. also The young Lions which roar after their prey and seek their meat from God spoken of v. 21. also Psal 145.15 The eyes of all wait on thee thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Here we shall do well to remember what the Apostle saith Doth God take care for Oxen that is doth he not take more care for Mankind than for Oxen If then he feed them and creatures of less use than they may we not conclude he will much more feed us may not these words of David Psal 23.1 afford us some reliefe The Lord is my shepheard I shall not want Is not God a shepheard to other of his people as well as he was to David Yea are we not in some sense his sheep as we are meerlie his creatures Psal 100.3 It is he that made us and not we our selves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture Should not the extraordinarie waies which God hath taken to supplie men with food and rayment when ordinarie means have failed be some stay to us When the Israelites wanted bread in the Wilderness did not God rain down Manna from heaven and when they wanted water did he not give it them out of the rock and whereas there was no cloathing to be had there did he not keep their garments from waxing old and make them serve them forty years Did not God say to Elijah 1 King 17.4 I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee and accordingly they brought him bread and flesh in the morning and likewise in the evening v. 6. The widdow of Zarephath had but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oile in a cruse for her self and her son when there was yet three years famine to come so that she reckoned but upon one good meal and so she and her son to lie down and die and out of that the Prophet did demand a cake for himselfe v. 13. 〈◊〉 yet did he assure her that the barrel of meal should not waste nor the cruse of oyle faile till the Lord sent rain upon the earth and accordingly it came to pass v 16. Who knows not the storie of Christ his seeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes Mat. 14.19 and yet there was enough and to spare I have somewhere read of a good man who in the time of the siege and famine at Rochel was kept alive by a Hen that came every day and laid one egge one or more in the place where he ledged Nor do I doubt but there are many true stories of as remarkable supplies vouchsafed to such as were destitute of ordinarie means Is not God the great housholder of the world from whom the whole familie in heaven and earth is named and do you think he will starve those that are of his familie howbeit he hath told us that he who provides not for his own houshold is worse than an Infidel Is not the earth the Lords and the fulness thereof Are not all the beasts of the forrest his and the cattel upon a thousand hills Psal 50.10 And will he starve us think you either by the want of food or raiment whilst he hath such an overplus of all needful things wherewith to supply us What father would see his childe want whilst he had more than enough to give him If we then that are evil will not let our children want whilst we abound shall we think so hardly of God what if God hath put the world into other mens hands and not into ours hath he not the hearts of those men in his own hands and can he not inlarge them towards us when and as far as he pleaseth He can make enemies not only to 〈◊〉 peace with us but to be kind to us Psal ●● 46 He made them also to be pittied of all them that carried them captives The barbarous people shewed us no little kindness saith Paul Acts 28 2. How easily can God perswade even Egyptians to part with their Jewels Earings to his people how much more Israelites to one another He that can make enemies to

senses even as to draw water out of a deep well with a heavie bucket is nothing like so easie as to fetch it out of a cistern where 't is but turning the cock and the work is done The objects of faith are things remote and the eye of faith is in its kind more weak than that of sense and to a weak eye it is much more difficult to view things that are at a great distance than those that are neer at hand The advantage of a high place a clear day and it may be of a prospective-glass to boot may be all little enough to make us discerne those things which are afar off but without any such helps we can easily espie those things which are close by us as are the objects of sense compared with those of saith Why did that good man cry out Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Mark 9.24 but that he found difficulty in the exercise of faith How come it to pass that Christ upbraided his eleven Disciples all at once for their unbelief Mark 16.14 but for the same reason They did not believe those that said they had seen Christ after he was risen though he had told them he would rise again the third day but had they seen him themselves they would not have doubted of it The exercise of our faith is opposed by sin and sathan so is not the use of our senses Now men finding it no easie thing to set faith on work and to keep that hand in ure and in action without which they cannot fetch in the comfort of their spiritual priviledges for the Scripture speaking of Christ saith In whom believing we rejoyce intimating that without faith there can be no true rejoycing in Christ and speaking of faith Heb. 11.1 saith that Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen implying that such things are no otherwise reallized and evidenced to us than by faith and consequently no otherwise the matter of our joy than as faith makes them so I say men finding it so hard a work to believe and to fetch in their comfort that way too often content themselves with that meaner and lower kind of comfort which more easily flows in upon them and which doth as it were follow them as the rock meaning the waters out of the rock are said to have followed the Israelites in the wilderness Hence it is that whilst the world smiles upon them they are apt like the fool in the Gospel to sing requiems to their souls because they have laid up in store for many years and their barns are full And hence it is that when God doth strip such men of earthly enjoyments and as it were dry up that breast even many good men are for the present at a very great loss not that they want interest in better things than are taken from them but because they have disused themselves from sucking at that harder but sweeter breast which God hath provided for them and doth alwayes continue to them They have not accustomed themselves to live by faith and now they are to seek how to do it These men of might for the present cannot finde their hands As we grow up we forget to suck because we have not used it of a long time and so in this case How necessary is it then for Christians even whilst earthly enjoyments last to inure themselves to live upon the hopes and expectations of heavenly good things As Popish Priests put off the Laity with but one element giving them the bread in the Sacrament but denying them the Cup which is as due to them and rather more refreshing so do many serve themselves feeding upon the bread of their temporal possessions whilst they refrain the wine of those blessed hopes and expectations as to another world which belong unto them But how much better were it for them to receive in both kinds It is good as our Proverb saith for men to have two strings to their bowe What great heire contents himself with thinking only of that small allowance which he enjoys being under age and doth not please himself with musing how much greater things he is like to enjoy hereafter who that hath both Viol and Lute and can play excellently upon both would let his Lute which is the sweeter instrument of the two hang by the walls and use his Viol only because that is easier to be played upon of the two Who would pluck only the sowrish grapes which are at the bottom of his Vine because they are next at hand and mean time neglect those ripe clusters which are at the top because he cannot reach them without a ladder and the pains of climbing he enjoyes not the one half of what he might who lives only or mostly upon the worser half of his enjoyments like a man that should alwayes live in one of his houses every way less convenient and pleasant and suffer another that doth far transcend it to stand alwayes empty To what end hath the spirit of God made any of us to know the things that are freely given us of God if we solace not our selves with the remembrance and consideration thereof even then when God hath filled our cup with worldly good things if not made it to run over Should we draw waters from those upper Springs whilst the neather flow plentifully and are we not as much or more concerned to do it when the neather springs are dried up when the Fig-tree blossomes not and there is no herd in the stall woe unto us if we know not then at leastwise then how to rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of our salvation hast thou interest in better things and wilt thou not live upon the comfort of them no not at a time when thou hast nothing else in effect to live upon what had become of David at Ziglag if he had not encouraged himself in the Lord his God So elsewhere when David saw his house declining which made him say though may house be not so with God did he not comfort himself with this that yet God had made with him an everlasting Covenant who brings not out his old gold and precious Jewels to help himself withall when all he had besides is spent or taken away shall all creatures be wiser than we Dogs know their remedies when surfeited viz. that they call Dog-grass and Toades when poisoned theirs viz. Plantane and fall to them if they be to be had Is not an interest in spiritual things if we have that the only relief we have in the loss of all our temporal comforts and shall we not make use of it if a man have white bread to eat would he suffer himself to be starved because he hath no brown will he keep it up in his Cup-board when he hath nothing else to eat if you have a sort of comforts to live upon besides those which are taken from you live

prayed against riches Prov. 30.9 Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord David himself saith Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Believe these passages of Scripture and judge afflictions needless if you can Wind to which actions may be compared may do some hurt but if there were no winds the aire would putrifie and there would be no living in it Standing waters as some moats and lakes and such like to which persons alwaies in prosperity may be compared how unwholsome and unuseful are they As it is necessary that the Sea and some other waters should ebbe as well as flow and that the Moon should sometimes decrease or wane as well as wax and increase at other times so for us to have our ebbs as well as our tides our wanes as well as our waxings It is a hard thought of God that he should make us drink bitter and loathsome potions when we need them not We cannot finde in our hearts to use our children so nor yet to correct them so much as gently when we think there is no occasion for it Oh that we should think more meanly of God than of our selves or more highly of our selves than of the great and ever blessed God Do we hear him crying out Hos 11.8 How shall I deliver thee up Ephraim how shall I make thee as Admah and Zeboim my heart is turned within me c. And shall we think he will do such things where there is no need Take heed of charging God with hypocrisie who is truth it self Far be it from us to say Afflictions are not needful because our partial selves do not see how needful they are When will our children confess that they want whipping spare them till then and you shall never correct them Had Paul no need yea he saith he had of a messenger of Sathan to buffet him lest he should be lifted up with the abundance of revelations we have not his revelations yet are we not as proud as he either was or was in danger to have been Some humble servants of God have said they never had that affliction in all their lives which they did not first or last finde they had need of He that wants no correction is better than any of those worthies we read of in Scripture and he that thinks himself so I am sure hath need of it to humble him Read the third chapter and see how many lessons afflictions do teach us and then judge if there be none of them you have yet to learn at leastwise better and more perfectly than you have yet done Can nothing profit us but that which pleaseth us Physicians know that bitter drinks in many cases are more profitable though loathsome than those which are most pleasant O Lord why am I so childishly averse to that which is so needful for me If those to whom I commit the care of my body do counsel me to bleed or purge or to be cupt or scarified and do advise me to it as necessary for my health I submit to it and why do I not submit to thee when thou orderest me unpleasant things which yet are more needful for me Are not frosts and nipping weather as necessary to kill the weeds as warm Sun-shine to ripen the corn Though no chastening be jo●ous for the present but grievous yet if it worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12.11 I desire not only to be patient under it but also thankful for it DISCOURSE XX. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments NO man hath truly either a heaven or a hell in this world For as all our wine here is mixt with water so all our water is mixt with wine God in this life doth still in judgment remember mercy God hath set the one over against the other Prov. 7.14 meaning mercy over against judgment It is not for nothing that the Apostle exhorteth us in every thing to be thankful and saith that is the will of God concerning us But therefore it is because there is a mixture of mercies with all the afflictions of this life Some may sit in so much darkness as to see no light at all but some light there is in their condition only they see it not Our late Fire was as great a temporal judgment as most have been yet he seeth nothing that discerns not a mixture of mercy with it Was it not great mercy that when God burnt the City yet he spared the Suburbs that when mens houses were consumed yet their persons were delivered yea and much of their goods and substance was snatched as a firebrand out of the fire your flight was on the Sabbath-day but it was not in the winter in which the shortness of daies and badness of the waies had scarce permi●ted you to have conveied away the one half of what you did not only by day but by night It was no small mercy that the Plague was gone before the Fire came For had it been otherwise who that fled into the Countrey to save his life durst have come into the City to have saved his goods Yea were not many fled so far from the face of that destroying Angel that they could not have returned till it had been too late Would the Countrey-men have brought their Carts and ventured their persons if the plague had still been raging Where could you have bestowed your goods yea where could you have bestowed your selves if the pestilence had bin then amongst you who would have received them yea who would have received you if you had come from thence The City could not dread the fire more than the Countrey would have done the pestilence and such as had come from the place where it was So far would they have been from putting your goods into their houses that they would not have received your persons into their barns and stables which in the height of the plague they refused to do When the fire burnt your City there was no more it could do but had an invading enemy set the City on fire would they not also have rifled your goods ravished your wives deslowred your daughters and put your selves to the sword Was it no mercy that God by sparing a remnant of the City kept it from being like to Sodom and to Gomorrah that there is something left out of which to make a little of every thing Some places for affemblies yet to worship God in some for Magistrates to dispence justice in some for Merchants and traders to meet and hold commerce in some houses for persons yet to dwell in who cannot convenicutly dwell any where else though now men crowd together as in the winter-time three or four might do into one bed or the most in a family into some little warm parlour which in the heat of weather had wont to keep in spacious rooms Archimedes had wont to say Give him but a place to stand in

home to God and to himself For when the Lord chastned him then and not till then did he open his eares and seale his instruction Job 33.16 19. When I consider these things I cannot but break out and say Lord never restore prosperity to me unless thou wilt give me a heart to use it yea I rather implore affliction whilst need requires so thou wilt but sanctifie it If my dross may not otherwise be melted away put me into thy Furnace only when I am tried let me come forth like gold DISCOURSE XXII Of the gracious ends and intendments of God in afflicting his people COuld we take any thing ill from God's hand if we did believe he meant well would we receive with our left hand what we thought that God did offer us with his right all those things in which God hath good ends towards us must needs end in our good for the Almighty cannot be frustrated Our Proverb saith All is well that ends well why then should we take on as if all those things were against us which shall in the event make for us and work together for our good Wherefore did God lead the Israelites about in the Wilderness 40. yeares together was it not meerly to humble them and prove them and do them good in their latter end Deut. 8.2 16. God speaking of debating with his people viz. by correction Isa 27.8 saith By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin vers 9. And the Apostle saith Heb. 12.10 That God chastneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness To think that God would correct his children but for some good end what is it but to think more hardly of God than we do of our selves who use to say but that we think it for their good we would never strike a Childe whilst we lived nor should it feel the weight of our finger Is not God as unwilling to strike as you can be if fair meanes would serve the turn how shall I give thee up oh Ephraim but either he must take such a course with us or it will be worse for us Even then when the meanes which God useth are the fruits of justice and displeasure the end which he propoundeth in so doing is the result of his mercy Though the Husband-man break up the ground plow upon its back and make long furrowes he intends no hurt all is to prepare it for the seec Whatsoever the face of Gods actions or actings towards his people may be to be sure he hath alwayes good intentions as towards them for he is tender of them as of the apple of his eye Zach. 2.8 And give me leave to say there is a great deale more comfort in the good meanings of God than of men because men may meane well when yet they may do very ill yea that very thing which they designed for much good may do much hurt The Amalekite that told David he had killed Saul designed to get a reward for himself 2 Sam. 1.2 but we see it cost him his life But the designes of God cannot be defeated Prov. 19.21 The counsell of the Lord that shall stand Job 23.13 He is of one minde and who can turn him and what his soul desireth that he doth It is yet a further comfort that we may not only know in the general that God intends the good of his people in afflicting them but also in particular that he intends our good thereby For first of all If it be so that God hath created in us hungrings and thirstings after a sanctified use of our afflictions so that we more long to be brought out of sin by affliction than to be brought out of affliction by deliverance we may be consident he that created those hungrings and thirstings after learning righteousness by the judgments that are upon us and obedience by our sufferings will satisfie them Mat. 5.6 Moreover If God hath given us a sanctified use of mercies time after time if mercies have done us good afflictions shall do so likewise We sometimes give out children delightful things only to please them but not distastful things unless it be to profit them neither will God do otherwise by his children Again If afflictions actually do us good and make us better we may be sure they were sent of God for that end and purpose for it is not by accident but by divine appointment that evil things should do us good though it is true they may do us hurt thorough our own default how be it God had made them capable of doing us good if we had not abused them We can bring evil out of good and darkness out of light but it is God only that can bring good out of evil and light out of darkness God sometimes sends afflictions to do his enemies good as Manass●h for instance and will he send them to do his friends hurt O Lord how usual is it with us to double and treble our miseries by misinterpreting the ends of God in inflicting them as if thou didst it only to wreak thine anger upon us and to wreak thy wrath from heaven against us as if thou didst whet thy glittering sword that thou mightest render vengeance when yet thou chastenest us only as a Man chastneth his Son Deut. 8.5 how oft do we think that thou hast laid thy Axe to our Root when it is but thy Pruning-hook to our superfluous branches Doth it not grieve thy spirit to be thus misconstrued and hardly thought of as it would cut us to the heart to be mistaken for enemies when we have done and spoken as true friends Lord open thy heart to us as Joseph opened his to his brethren when after angry looks and threatnings he comforted them with saying I am your brother Joseph which before they knew not Lord it shal suffice let our troubles be what they will be if we may but read thy love in them and if thou wilt but say to us as to thy people of old Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end DISCOURSE XXIII Of Resignation to God and acquiescing in his good pleasure HOw good is it to be willing to be at God's dispose how meet is it to be said to God not as I will but as thou wilt shall we pray as Christ hath taught us that the will of God may be done and yet be impatient of Gods doing his own will Is it fit that Gods will should take place or ours who are we that we should set our selves to contradict and oppose the good pleasure of God be it that our houses shall be fired our goods burnt our head City laid wast Did Abraham withstand God when he bid him to sacrifice his dear Isaac the heire of promise with his own hand Did he not as to that lie at Gods foot