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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

fire There being such a likeness as is betwixt the Creator of all things and this creature I desire as oft as I behold fire to think of God whilst I admire the scarcely resistible power of Fire let me ever adore the utterly irresistible power of him that made and governs it Whilst it amuseth me to think what work and havock Fire can make in a few daies or hours Be amazed O my soul to consider what greater desolations God can make in the twinkling of an eye and with a word of his mouth If he will but speak concerning a Nation to pluck it up or pull it down it will be done presently Jer. 18. with him it is but a word and a fatal blow Methinks it doth not only help my meditation of but facilitate my belief concerning the greatness of the power of God Impartialness of his revenging Justice Severity and Fierceness of his anger Intolerableness of his displeasure when I see so much of such things as these in one of his creatures which in our houses we prefer to no better place than our chimneys and are unwilling even there to place it or suffer it to ascend too high May I think of Fire more frequently and solemnly than otherwise I should for those resemblances of God which are to be found in it I confess to think of God by the name of Love as he is called 1 John 4.8 16. is more pleasing and may better suit us under great dejections but to meditate of God as a consuming fire may profit us more when our hearts which is too usual want that due awe of God which should preserve them from sinning wilfully against him If God be Fire to sinners let us not dare to be as Tinder or as Gun-powder to Sin and Temptation If we come not neer a dismal Fire but with trembling hearts let us not approach God but with holy reverence and let us learn to tremble at his word which also is compared to fire Yet lest I dwell too long upon this one subject to the prejudice of others I will content my self with the addition of a few plain Corollaries so easie to be drawn from Gods being a consuming Fire in the sense given of it that he which runs may read them If God be Fire woe to them that are bria●s and thorns Isa 27. he will consume them If God be Fire it concerns us to prove our selves and our work for the Fire shall make all things manifest 1 Cor. 3.12 If we lay chaff and stubble though upon a good foundation our work will be burnt up and our selves saved but so as by Fire that is with great difficulty and much ado What impunity can great ones promise themselves if God be as impartial towards all sorts of sinners as Fire is towards all combustible things If the wrath of God be more intollerable than Fire who would not fear to offend him If the power of God be more irresistible than Fire it self who would set himself against him or who can do it and prosp●r yea who would not labour to have God on his side For who can be against us that is to any purpose if God be for us Is God so able to destroy let me be none of his enemies Is he Fire then O that I might be Gold for if so though he may purge me yet he will not consume me In a word is God a consuming Fire then knowing the terror of the Lord Let us consider what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and godlyness Meditations and Discourses of the Reasons that are found in Scripture of Gods bringing the Judgment of Fire upon a person or people MEDITATION I. Of the sins for which God sent Fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah THe first pernicious Fire of which we read in Scripture was that which fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 19.24 The general cause of it was that which was told Abraham Gen. 18.20 And the Lord said because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous But their particular crimes are set down Ezek. 16.49 where God upbraiding Jerusalem saith Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters neither did she s●rengthen the hand of the poor and needy v. 50. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me therefore I took them away as I saw good Now what that abomination was which they committed I think St. Jude tells us most plainly Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them giving themselves over to Fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternalsire Now the three first crimes charged upon them viz. Pride Idleness and Fulness of bread did make way for the last viz. their being given up to Fornication Pride prepares for uncleanness as it disposeth persons to those habits and gestures which tempt others to tempt them to wantonness witness the great pride which some take in going extreamly naked whence it often happens to them as to Hezekiah after that he had shown the King of Babylons messengers more of his treasure than was fit for them to see Isa 39. it was not long after that the Babylonians came and took away all he had from his children and carried both them and theirs into captivity One meeting a boy with a basket of chickens wide open askt him how he would sell them who answering him they were not to be sold he replied to the boy again Then fool shut thy Basket But that by the way It comes to pass by the judgment of God that proud persons often prove unclean because uncleanness is a disgraceful sin and so the more fit for proud persons to be left unto in order to making them more humble For of him that committeth Adultery Salomon saith Prov. 6.33 A wound and a dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away Persons by that sin are said to dishonour their own bodies Rom. 1.24 Also that very complexion which is most samed for proud is generally observed as most prone to uncleanness and 't is too commonly seen that a fantastical which is a proud habit and a filthy heart go together and those places are generally most notorious for lust that are most infamous for pride as if those two weeds delighted to grow in the same soil proud spirits and proud flesh go usually hand in hand And as for Fulness of bread by which we are to understand Gluttony and Luxuriousness in the use of meats that is as great a hand-maid to Lust as Pride can be Jer. 5.7 When I fed them to the full then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses v. 8. They were as fed horses in the morning ever one neighed after his neighbours wife He adds v. 9. Shall I not

in the Whales belly or Daniel whilst he was in the Lions Den or the three Children in the midst of the fiery Furnace I wish some of our greatest sins had not been committed in the time of our greatest dangers as is spoken to the shame of the Israelites that they provoked God at the Sea even at the red Sea God having threatned that if great judgments do not reform a people he will send yet greater it is no wonder that it is with London as it is but rather that the execution of this punishment was defer'd so long Concerning Gods heating his Furnace seven times hotter for a people when a more gentle Fire hath not consumed their dross we read Levit. 26.24 If yee will not be reformed by these things I will punish you yet seven times for your sins Also ver 18.21 24 28. I will bring seven times more Plagues upon you according to your sins How justly may God complain of us as he did of the Jewes in old time Jer. 5.3 Thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return God hath made us as a boiling Pot but our s●●● is not gone forth of us Ezek. 24.10 As some Children though their Parents are severe enough are so bad that one would think they were never corrected but suffered to do what they list so hath it been with England Such as is the way of a Ship in the Sea which leaves no foot-steps behind it whereby it may be seen which way it went when it is out of sight So hath it been with the Plague and Sword and other judgments in England they have left little or no impression behind them whereby it might be discerned that God hath attempted to reform us by such terrible judgments We have cause to admire that God hath not in wrath ceased to punish us at the present intending to reserve us to the day of judgment and of the perdition of ungodly men to be punished It is one of the greatest punishments for God in wrath to give over punishing and to say as concerning Ephraim He is joyned to Idols let him alone or why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more It would kill the heart of an understanding patient when very ill to hear his Physician say let him have what he will and do what he will for then would he conclude he takes his condition to be desperate and hath no hope of his recovery O Lord sith thou art pleased to condescend so far as yet to chosten us For what is man that thou shouldst magnify him that thou shouldst visit him every morning and try him every moment Job 7.18 intimating thereby that thou hast not utterly cast us off but art in a way of reclaiming us be pleased to bless and sanctifie those thy chastisements and do us good by them as we would do by our Children if we knew how or if it were in our power Thou canst make less correction if thou so please to work a greater reformation in us One twig of thy rod and one lash of that twig being sanctified will do us more good than a Scorpion that is not Suffer us no longer by our incorrigibleness under judgments to add contempt and contumacy to all our other sins which is able to swell a small crime into a hainous offence When Christ who is compared to a refiners fire Mal. 3.2 Shall sit as a refiner and purifier of Silver let him purifie thy people and purge them as Gold and Silver that they may offer to the Lord in righteousness Then shall their Offerings be pleasant to the Lord v. 3 4. Do not thou alwaies correct us for our beeing incorrigible but vouchsafe to correct and cure our incorrigibleness its self so shalt thou receive more glory and we shall henceforth need less correction MEDITATION XIII Of the Aggravations of the sins of London O London how were thy sins out of measure sinful Consider thy sins without their aggravations and I doubt not but there were many places in England proportionably to their bigness more wicked than London was particularly many Sea-towns and some Inland most consisting of Innes and Ale-houses But how few of those places that equallized or possibly exceeded London in wickedness did ever come neer it as in reference to means of grace and other mercies I have heard of a Papist who in a storm did vow in case he were delivered that he would give to the Virgin Mary a ' Taper no less than the Main-mast of the Ship he was in but when the storm was over persideously said that he would make a Farthing-candle serve her turn Were not the means thou didst enjoy like the Taper he promised whilst those which other places enjoyed were but like the Candle which he performed Some wicked Towns have been like Aegypt for darkness whilst London was like Goshen for light Capernaum it self was not more truly lifted up to Heaven in the abundance of means than London had been For gifts and knowledge thou wert another Church of Corinth Had the mighty things which have been done in thee been done in other places who knows how they might have proved To be sure thou hast had line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little In thee an excellent Sermon might have been heard every day of the week and oft times more than one in a day The men that inhabited thee any long time for their time might have been all of them teachers though all did not profit accordingly They could not but know their masters will if they cared to know it and therefore if they did it not were worthy of many stripes I am loath to say what course fare the souls of men had in other places and what short commons whilst thou wert fed to the full Thou hadst Quailes whilst they had scarcely Mannah Thy Ministers spake like the Oracles of God whilst some of theirs could hardly speak sense Paul and Apollos and Cephas were yours whilst amongst them the blind lead the blind and no wonder if both fall into the ditch O London it is impossible thou shouldst sin so cheap as other places might do considering those words of Christ John 15.22 If I had not spoken to them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin Had thy sins been but motes there was that sun-shine would have made them all to appear but alas how many of them were beams I know not those sins that were found else-where that were not to be found in the midst of thee Though thou hadst the Prophets of God crying to thee early and late O do not this abominable thing which my soul hateth Some body spake long since by way of admiration or aggravation rather what go to hell out of London England is presumed to have more knowledge in the things

dream Gen 28.13 see v. 16. and 17. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place And he was afraid and said How dreadful is this place This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven The gate of Heaven and yet dreadful as God was in that place God at that time spake nothing but promises and encouragments yet did Jacob tremble at his presence Our God is fearful even in praises If Jacob did but dream of God he was filled with awe and that not only whilst the dream lasted but when he aw●ke and knew he had but dreampt If God be so terrible when he is pleased what is he when he is angry Psal 76.7 Who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry God was friends with Moses when he told him Gon. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live And v. 22. whilst my glory passeth by I will put thee in a clift of the rock and will cover thee with my hand whilst I pass by v. 23. And thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen Much of the terribleness of God is insinuated in that strange passage Exod. 33.3 I will send an Angel before thee for I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume thee Here we read of God wishing the Israelites to let him go from amongst them because his terrour was such but elsewhere concerning the men of Bethshemesh sending God from amongst them like those Gadarens that besought Christ to depart their coast 1 Sam. 6.20 Who is able say they to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he go up from us v. 21. And they sent to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim saying Come ye and fetch the Ark of the Lord up to you Namely because God had slain fifty thousand three score and ten of the Bethshemites for looking into the Ark. Much like to this were the words of Peter to Christ Luke 5.8 Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. Let the Prophet Isaiah tell you how awful the presence of God is whom you finde thus crying out Wo is me for I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts How full is the 18. Psalm of expressions setting forth the awful Majesty of Gods presence from v. 7. Then the earth shook and trembled the foundations of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth But to quote all that might be quoted to that purpose were to transcribe a great part of the Bible Of the Anger of God represented by Fire Therefore O my soul pass on and think of something else in which the parallel holds betwixt such Fire as that whereby our famous City was lately burnt to ashes and God himself who is stiled a consuming Fire Once again As the power and awfull presence of God are livelily represented to us by this material Fire so also is his anger and that both as to the essence and nature of it as also to several attributes if I may so call them of that attribute of God viz. his wrath As namely the impartialness of it like fire that spareth neither one thing nor another as also the fierceness of it and its consuming destroying nature to which might be added the intollerableness of it c. First we know it is the nature and property of Fire to act as if it were in a great passion and yet it never is in any nor is it capable of any Thus saith God of himself Isa 27.4 Fury is not in me that is I am in no passion neither can he be yet adds who will set the briars and thorns against me in battle I would go thorough them I would burn them together Such things as are the usual effects of anger are frequently done by God but such an affection as wrath in Man is can no wayes consist with those perfections which are in God no more than with the nature of fire upon other accounts I must not forget that I was even now speaking of the impartiality of Fire as one property of that Element by which it resembleth God Fire is no respecter of persons or things so their nature be but combustible it spares neither one nor the other May I not allude to those words 1 Cor. 3.12 If any Man build upon this foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble Here are variety of superstructures mentioned but the Fire buries all in one common heape layes the gold and precious stones amongst the rubbish as well as the wood hay and stubble It mingles Flint stones and Diamonds Pibbles and Jewels in one and the same Grave As is said of Death Eque pulsat pauperam Tabernas Regu●●que turres the like may be said of fire It as soon takes hold on the Pallaces of Princes as on the Cottages of Peasants And is there not the like impartiality in the great God His anger knowes no difference betwixt small and great high and low Psal 76.12 He cutteth off the Spirits of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the Earth Did he not sink rebellious Pharaoh as low in the red Sea as any of his common Souldiers 〈◊〉 did he not give his carkass in common with theirs to be meat to the fishes of that Sea See Isa 9.14 15. The Lord will cut off from Israel head and taile The ancient and honourable he is the head c. Isa 10.12 I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks vers 26. And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the Rock of Oreb Judg. 7.25 and the Psalmist speaking of Sisera and Jabin the latter of which was the King of Ca●●●● and had 9000 Chariots of Iron Judg. 4.3 〈◊〉 Sisera was his General saith of them that they perished at Endor and that they became as 〈◊〉 for the Earth Psal 83.10 See what God did to Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 5.21 He was driven from Men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wilde Asses they fed him with Grass like Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of Heaven till he knew that the most high God ruleth in the Kingdome of Men and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will Must Jehojakim needs be buried in state because he was the Son of Josiah King of Judah and did succeed him in the Throne No saith God Jer. 22.19 He shall be buried with the burial of an Ass drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem Thus the anger of the great God like fire puts no difference betwixt them that sit on Thrones and those that go from door to door Hence that in Psal 2.10 Be wise oh ye Princes c. Serve the Lord

Church and State And now O Lord thou who art only wise cause Rulers every where to know what liberty may and what may not be given what liberty would truly make for them and what against them what would tend to kindle greater Fires than yet have been in the midst of us and what might help to extinguish those fire of contention which are amongst us already and to prevent others for the future Such things as quietly would breathe themselves and do themselves good and the world no hurt by their insensible exhalations suffer them to evaporate let them not be so pent in and shut up as thereby to become needlesly exasperated unavoidably united both in miserings discontents and will they ●●l they to fall on fire like a move of ●●lay laid too moistly and close together which otherwise had never fired in and of its self but now is forced to flame though its self must be both the fire and fuel all for want of vent And now O Lord thou who hast made me the father of many children grant I beseech thee to me and other parents that wise behaviour to wards them that we may neither like old Eli spoil and undo them with too much lenity nor like Saul enraged against his son Jonathan endanger them by overmuch severity but may so carry towards them and have so much comfort in them that we may be able to say concerning our children as good old Jacob that father of the Patriarks did concerning his These are the children which God hath graciously given us and to think of them as the Psalmist represents them Psal 127.3 Lo children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward CONTEMPLATION VIII Of Fire kindled by pouring on Water as in Lime IT is famously known that Fire is sometimes kindled otherwhiles encreased even by the pouring on of water By that means Lime is made to burn which though it flame not our yet both by its hissing and smoaking as also by its ability to burn other things doth appear it self to be set on fire And we may daily observe that Smiths do sprinkle water upon their forges thereby causing the Fire therein to burn so much the more eagerly The reason of the former viz. of Lime its burning when it meets with Water seems to be this Some particles of Fire do remain in Lime after it hath been burnt in the Furnace though cooled again but closely united with certain particles of Salt and by them moderated and kept quiet But when water is poured upon it then is the association that was betwixt the particles of Fire and of Salt dissolved and the earthy parts separated which before lay betwixt the fiery particles keeping them from joyning each with other which being done they all flock together and rendezvouz by themselves and so violently sally out together and forcibly take their flight in a considerable body or party and thence comes that Fire which is kindled in Lime which is true Fire though it flame not by reason of those watery parts which are commixed therewith which cause smoak instead of flame Now when I think of Fire kindled by water its known opposite in Lime as aforesaid me thinks the corrupt nature of man is just like Lime for when it meets with the holy Law of God which is as contrary to it as water to Fire I mean to the lusts and corruptions that are in it how is it inkindled and enflamed thereby Hence that complaint of Paul Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the commandement wrought in me all manner of concupiscence For without the Law sin was dead and v. 13. But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which was good that sin by the Commandement might become exceeding sinful Moreover whereas those particles of Fire which are in Lime are as it were so many forraigners or forraign guests that get into it when the Lime-stones were burning within the Furnace for in Lime it self there is little Sulphur as appeareth by the difficulty of burning all or most of it away and these forraign particles are they that do expose it unto being set onfire whenwater is put to it I cannot but thence think of the danger of Kingdoms and Countries which are over-stocked with forraigners especially if of a forraign Religion as well as Nation especially if men of fiery principles and spirits for though such persons may lie still and make no noise for a time so long as there are other parties to ballance and tie their hands as the particles of Salt doth that of Fire and whilst they are not suffered to imbody and flock together yet let an enemy come like water upon lime presently they hiss and smoak and reak and heard together and are ready to burn up all that comes neer them May the Popish party never verifie what I have now hinted from the nature of Lime Neither is it unapt to be significantly applyed that Smiths do intend the heat of their fires by ever and anon sprinkling on them small quantities of water Did they throw on much water it would extinguish it but that little they use now and then makes it to burn more fiercely What better resemblance can there be of the over-mild rebukes of parents towards obstinate and dissolute children As good or better not chide or not correct them at all as do it over-gently and Eli like who only said It is not a good report I heare of you my sons c. 1 Sam. 2.24 Were such deeds as theirs to be corrected only with words especially with such soft words as those v. 25. Why do you such things Nay my sons for it is no good report that I hear Did they lie with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle and is this all he hath to say to them He had even as good have held his peace This was but water sprinkled upon the forge this was but like an over-gentle purge that stirs and troubles humors but brings them not away Thus to whip as it were with a fan of Feathers is but to make an offenders remedy which is correction contemptible and himself thereby more incorrigible When the water of rebuke or correction must be used take enough to quench the Fire though not to drown or sink the offender Lastly Lime that kindles at the approach of water which one would think should rather quench it if kindled before is methinks a good embleme of Christian zeale and a good pattern for us in that behalf Should not our zeal be heightned by opposition like flouds that swell when they come at banks that hinder them So did the zeal of David when Michal derided him for dancing before the Ark. 2 Sam. 3.22 I will yet be more vile than thus said he viz. if that were to be vile to rejoyce before the Ark of God So Paul when some perswaded him not to goe to Jerusalem

vindicate the honour of particular Nations How hard is it for Nations to recede from the very punctillio's of their honour Now if God hath disgraced us and weakned our reputation as certainly he hath done by taking away the great City surely it should be for a Lamentation If our Father hath spit in our face as Moses said to Mariam ought we not to be ashamed seven dayes yea seven years we had need for such a spitting of fire in our face as hath befallen us Jeremy puts it amongst his Lamentations Lam. 1.6 From the Daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed We proceed Whose heart would it not grieve to think what precious fuel went to feed that pernicious fire Goodly Houses noble Halls belonging to several Companies ancient and worthy Hospitals affording relief to multitudes of poor and distressed people magnificent Churches built and some of them but lately repaired at a very great charge places of Judicature and for the honourable reception of Magistrates as Guild-hall and others Common places as I may call them of Trade and Tradesmen such as Blackwell-hall and the Royal Exchange the onely sanctuary that I hear of to it 's own Founder useful and eminent Schools as Pauls and others one famous receptacle of Divines by the name of Zion Colledge another for Civilians one Cathedral for largeness and stateliness of building exceeding all that I have before mentioned All these are well known to have been fuel to that fire yea all these were but a part of it's fuel There were other things which though they did not as to bulk equalize those I have mentioned yet in worth and value did far exceed them In some places you might have seen rich wines it may be Sack and Hippocras burning for no bodies use elswhere costly Oils swimming about the streets and afterwards converted into flames Was not the fire fed in some places with rich housholdstuffe and dear furniture in others with shop-goods and wares of great value as fine clothes and such like which their owners wanted opportunity to send away How many precious druggs and odoriferous spices went up in those flames as so much incense How many wholsome Medicines and powerfull Antidotes and great Cordials such as Mithridate Treacle Spirituous Liquors Bezoardick Powders Confection of Alchermies Chymical Oils and Spirits were in great quantities consumed by that fire as if they had been good for nothing or as if nothing had been too good for it And above all other losses What Scholler that is so indeed can with drie eyes mention the inestimable losse of books that was sustained by that mercilesse fire to the undoing of many Booksellers in one sence and of many more Schollers in another How many learned and usefull Authors in several Languages Arts and Sciences Divines both Pol●mical and Practical Fathers Schoolmen Phylicians Phylosophers Lawyers Historians Antiquaries Mathematicians and others besides many precious manuscripts till then preserved like so many leaves of the Sybils were then burnt to ashes as if our enemies the Papists had been then disarming us of some of our best weapons wherewith we should defend our selves against them Yea the very Sword of the Spirit which ●s the word of God the Bible it 's self as to many hundred Copies of it was then taken from us and burnt as if it had been a piece of heresie or had fallen into Popish hands who brook it not in our genuine translations And this were more to be lamented than all the rest if that sacred book that book of books might not more easily be reprinted than many others that are of greater volume and of which there are but few Copies extant But as for our Biblia Polyglotta midwived into the world at a vast charge and by the unspeakable industry of many learned and famous men to the great renown of themselves and of this Nation how many of them were consumed as if they had been so much waste paper and who is able to repair the losse These things as I said before were the fuel that fed the flames of London Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis Who can think of such things as these and not draw waters and poure out before the Lord as the Israelites did at Mizpah To have made or fed as many bonefires as are usuall upon great solemnities with meer Musk and Ambergrease if so much could have been had had not been so great a charge and losse as were all those materials which went to foment the dismall fire of London Those flames were higher fed all things considered than Cleopatra was when as it is storied of her she drank dissolved Pearls How angry was the Almighty with us when he would rather fling all this treasure into the fire than suffer us to enjoy it How unworthy did he proclaim us when in fact he said better the fire should have it than we But where did all this losse light Was it upon LONDON only Were few or none sufferers but the Inhabitants of that City Yea doubtless it was a terrible blow to the whole Nation or to the greatest part of it Who had any considerable interest in England and none in London more or lesse As all Rivers run into the Sea and all the lines of a Circumference meet in one Center so did the interest of most considerable Englishmen in London Who had not some share in that great ship as I may call it which is now blown up They that had no immediate and personall interest in London Had they not Relations Brothers or Sisters yea it may be Sons or Daughters or if not so Kindred more remote that were great sufferers by this fire and whose losses they should lay to heart Nero is said to have wished that Rome had had but one Neck that he might cut it off at a blow In reference to England London was next to that one Neck and hath not this fire cut it off at one blow His Majesty hath told us that his losse in the City was greater than any other mans and what good Subject would not bewail that But surely Reader it is thy losse if thou art an English Protestant as truely though not as much as his The losse was Catholick that is universall in the consequences as well as Roman Catholick in the Causes of it But is this all that can be said of the losse of London Surely no Read but the Book of Lamentations and you will find many more expressions applicable to the Case of London besides those which I have taken notice of already Lam. 1.4 There saith the Prophet The wayes of Sion mourn because none come to the Solemn feasts her gates are desolate All these their calamities are come upon us at once Our Gates are laid waste our selemn Assemblies both Religious and Civil in most places of that which was called London are unavoidably at an end and if our wayes do not mourn that is if they have not a sad

and a ghastly appearance let all that passe by them Judge Surely London is now the saddest spectacle that is this day in England Doth the circumstance of time in which this fire befel us add nothing to our affliction Had we at the same time had many friends and enemies but few or none our misery had been less For then should we have been much pitied which had been some mitigation of our loss but did it not befal us at a time when we had few friends but many forreign enemies round about us This Jeremy lamented in reference to Jerusalem Lam. 1.2 Amongst all her lovers she hath none to comfort her all her friends have dealt treacherously with her they are become her enemies Is it no aggravation of our misery surely it cannot be otherwise to think how wretchedly our many enemies will triumph and insult because of it and cry Ah ah so would they have it Lam. 1.21 All mine enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad that thou hast done it And Lam. 2.25 All that pass by clap their hands they hiss and wag their head for the daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole earth vers 16. All thine enemies say This is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it vers 17. The Lord hath caused thine enemies to rejoyce over thee he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries Also in Lam. 3.14 45. You may see how much stress the prophet Jeremy did lay upon the insultings of enemies and how humbling a consideration he took it for When enemies congratulate our miseries in stead of condoling them it adds much Surely France but for shame had rung bells and made bonfires when the tidings of our fire did arrive there God would that a people should lay it to heart when he exposeth them to contempt Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed so is London all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness He loves not his countrey that cares not how it is slighted or who insults over it What if it can be made out that there is no parallel at this day for London's calamity should not that be for a lamentation that God should so punish us as if he would make us an example to all the world or as if we had been the worst people in the world Ieremy took that circumstance to heart in Jerusalem's case Lam. 2.13 What thing shall I liken to thee Oh daughter of Ierusalem What shall I equal to thee that thou maist be comforted So Daniel 9.12 For under the whole heaven hath not been done so great evil as hath been done upon Ierusalem If the like may be said of London and indeed I have heard no man pretend the contrary at this day its misery must needs be great If it be an unparallel'd stroke it must needs carry a great face of Divine wrath and displeasure with it and that doth add much Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his Anger and remembred not his footstool in the day of his Anger Ver. 3. He hath cut off in his fierce Anger all the horns of Israel Many things in this judgement seemed to carry with them a great face of Divine Anger as namely for that the Lord seemed to destroy London so far as he went without any pity Such a thing as this is bewailed Lam. 2.2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Iacob and hath not pitied And verse 17. The Lord hath thrown down and hath not pitied If God had taken away the houses of rich men that could have born their loss and mean time spared the houses of such as were poor there had been pity in that but he was pleased to take all before him and with the same besome of destruction to sweep away the habitious of the poorest as well as of the most rich And did not God's turning a deaf ear to all the prayers and intercessions that were made as for the greatest part of London whilst the fire was and going on to destroy notwithstanding though they cried unto him day and night that he would stay his hand and spare the remainder I say did not that speak God exceeding angry This was one of Ieremies complaints L●m. 3.8 Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer and verse 44. Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not p●ss thorough God did in effect say that Though Noch Daniel and Ioh stood before him yet would he not be intreated for the City When prayers can prevail no longer in such a case as that was it is a sign God is exceeding angry Moreover the fierceness of the judgement and the mighty force it came with and the quick dispatch it made intimates as if God for that time had abandoned all pity towards London For may not these words of Ieremy be applied to us Lam. 3.10 He was unto me as a Bear or as a Lion he hath pulled me in pieces he hath made me desolate If any man that reads these things be yet insensible of the heaviness of Gods hand in this stroke let him beside all that hath been said consider how unexpected and how Incredible a thing it was that London should be almost totally consumed by fire ere this year were at an end Now what but the greatness of this judgement made it so incredible till it came That some few houses might have been fired in a short time we could easily have believed but not that so many as the Prophet speaks Lam. 4.12 The kings of the earth and the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the enemy should have entred into the gates of Jerusalem To think a judgement too great to be inflicted and yet when it is inflicted to make light of it are very inconsistant things and mighty self-contradictions He that should have come to a man worth eight or ten thousand pound a week before the fire and told him that within ten days he should not be worth so many hundreds would he not have laugh'd at him and said in his heart How can that be Had all his estate been in houses some in one street some in another he would never have dream'd that they should be all sired together or within a few days of one another And yet it is well known to have been the case of many to have been worth a good estate one day and the next day by the fire to have been reduced almost to nothing How are the words of Jeremy upon this occasion revived Lam. 4 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet imbrace dunghils Great and sudden downfalls cannot but move compassion in any man that hath bowels As Jeremy speaks of the Nazarites Lam. 4.6 7. That they who

and succour you therefore say not You are undone though all be lost for the present How many have from a fair Estate been brought to a morsel of Bread not by Casualty but by Crimes such as God might have left you to as by that fire which Job saith will consume to destruction and root out all a mans increase Job 31.12 Now consider how much better your condition is than theirs Are you as those that have nothing think of the Apostles words a Cor. 6.10 As having nothing yet possessing all things If either you are true Believers or shall hereafter be such those words of the same Apostle will be verified in you 1 Cor. 3.21 All things are yours ye are Christs and Christ is Gods MEDITATION XXIV Upon those that have lost but half their Estates by this Fire or some such proportion VVHat a mercy is it that you have lost but half when so many others have lost all How much better is half a Loaf as our Proverb speaks than no Bread As David said to Mephibosheth Thou and Zibah divide so hath God decided the case betwixt the fire and you You are at most but like David's Servants the one half of whose Beards were shaven by Hanan and their Garments cut in the middle How much better is it to have one Arm than none to have but one Eye than to be stark blind The man that was wounded and left but half dead recovered again by the help and favour of the good Samaritan and so may you Possibly that half or part which is left you is more than many mens All Your Gleanings better than the Vintage of many others The Ancients ran much upon such a saying as this Dimidium plus toto that half was better then the whole meaning the former with quietness and contentment was much better then the latter without it God can give you twice so much contentment with half so much Estate If you say and say truly that you had scarce enough before and now have but half so much as you had then there are that have more by half then they needed and how knowest thou but God may incline them to consider thee who hast scarce half enough But Oh! the miserable world in which many whose cup overflows will let others have nothing of theirs if they have but something of their own though that something be next to nothing If men that have ten children have but enough to maintain one are they no objects of pity and charity If a man have doublet and breeches such as may serve his turn but neither hat to his head nor shoos to his feet will you not commiserate him Did the good Samaritane overlook the man he met because he was but half dead did he stay till he were ready to give up the ghost before he would do any thing for him This is the manner of but too many men but the comfort is your heavenly Father he knows whereof you stand in need Whether the moiety of what thou sometimes hadst be or be not enough for thy occasions Bless God for it That will be the way to have it multiplied as those loaves were with which Christ fed five thousand to the full Try what double industry double frugality will do towards ●eaking out that allowance that seems to fall short and above all conclusions try if doubling thy faith and confidence in God will not double thy maintenance if need require Learn to think that God did not grudge thee the whole but hath therefore retrencht thee as thou art retrencht because he knew that but half was better for thee MEDITATION XXV Upon those that lost nothing by the Fire HOw well came you off not so much as a hair of your head sindged not so much as the smell of fire about you I cannot call you brands snatcht out of the fire for you were better than so brands are partly burnt so were not you Fall down and adore that distinguishing-mercy which hath so preserved you and made a hedge about you Alas if all had been great losers how should one have been able to help another whereas now some are able to succor others if they be but as willing God is trying you what good Stewards you will be of those Talents which he hath continued to you full and whole whilest others are either totally deprived of theirs or at leastwise much diminished He expects you should make yourselves poorer for the present by your Charity though he hath not made you so by the Fire and woe be to you if you do it not He could have forced all your Estates from you as he did from others but he thought fit to prove you as to what you would part with freely He would see what influence that Text hath upon you He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother in want and shuts up his loads of compassion How dwelleth the love of God in him Think not that all that is left you is lest you for yourselves for it is no such matter It is that you should disperse and give to the poor that your righteousness may remain You are but Feoffees in trust for others as to some good proportion of what is continued with you I expect God will cast fire upon your houses next if you cast not your bread upon the waters Charity may secure what you enjoy and the want of it may hazard all It might have been your lot to have stood in need of receiving and now you are left able to give which is a more blessed thing will you not do it All that was saved from the fire was given you again and will you not lend God a part who hath given you the whole and what is that lending to God but giving to the Poor God hath been tender of your Tabernacles and will not you be kind to his living Temples They that were sent to fetch the Ass that Christ was to ride upon were bid to say The Lord had need of him Now if ever hath Christ need to borrow of those that are able as in reference to his poor members and woe to them that can and will not lend to their Lord and Saviour He could supply them otherwise without being beholden to you but it is your love he values more than your liberality and the latter but as an Expression of the former It is not so much A gift which he desireth as fruit that may abound to your own account as the Apostle speaks Phil. 4.17 You may pretend you are thankful for the great Deliverance vouchsafed you but neither God nor Men will believe you are so unless you be also Charitable to them that were not Delivered MEDITATION XXVI Upon those that were Gainers by the late Fire VVE say It is an evil wind that blows no body any good Some were honest gainers and much good may it do them others dishonest Some could not let their Tenements before the fire who

else how was Christ heard and delivered as to the cup which he beg'd might pass from him Luke 22.42 Which nevertheless he was made to drink unless his being strengthened to undergoe it as the next verse tells us that then there appeared an Angel from heaven strengthening him as also his being inabled to triumph over principallities upon the Cross as is said Cor. 2.15 might be interpreted an eminent Deliverance vouchsafed him in and upon the Cross I am mistaken if the Apostle Paul in Rom. 7.25 doth not give thanks to God thorough Jesus Christ for delivering him as to the body of Death which yet he carryed about with him and therefore was not delivered from but under it as the foregoing words do shew O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death And in 1 Cor. 10.13 the Apostle saith God is faithful who will with the temptation also make a way to escape or to be delivered that ye may be able to beat it seeming thereby to insinuate that Deliverance and Temptation may stand together and do so when a man is not tempted above what he is able but together with the temptation hath assistance to bear it Were not the Israelites delivered in the red Sea Jonas in the great deep and Whales belly Daniel in the Lions den the three children in the fiery furnace I say were they not first truly delivered in each of these as afterwards from and out of them To be kept under water from drowning and in the midst of fire from being burnt is Deliverance with a witness Had the bush that did burn and was not consumed been presently quencht or snatcht out of the fire it had not been so eminently delivered as it was Deliverances under great troubles though least observed by many are of all others most oblervable and Emphaticall what more admirable promise than that Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorough the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorough the fire thou halt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee No place can be more pertinent than that is to prove there is such a thing as Deliverance under trouble the notion is worth our pursuing because it is full of Comfort it opens as it were a new spring of consolation to those that are under trouble which many did overlook before as Hagar did those wells of water which were nearest to her Many people have no more joy and comfort than they have hopes of having their losses repaired in kind and their temporal troubles removed and God knows whether that may ever be when they themselves despair of it their hearts faile within them he that thinks himself utterly undone and that it will not be worth while for him to live if London be not suddenly rebuilt trading speedily restored when these things appear unlikely will be at his wits ends but he that knows and believes that God who is onely wise can make him and his happy though London should still lye in ashes and trade not revive in many years to come that God can work a Deliverance for him in and under all publick calamities and in despight of all and every of them he I say will in patience possesse his soul St. Pauls words 1 Cor. 1.4 are much to be heeded where he saith Blessed be God who comforteth us in all our Tribulations he doth not say who delivereth us out of all but who comforteth us in all our Tribulations and what is that but a Deliverance under trouble when God doth comfort us in it If there be such a thing as Deliverance under trouble many may and will rejoyce in the hopes of that who are past all hope though I think that should not be neither of ever seeing an end of their present troubles They look upon Deliverance out of the present calamities to be at so great a distance that they think the steed will starve whilst the grass grows and their carkasses will fall in the wilderness ere the time come for entring into Canaan But now by virtue of the notion I am speaking of though I should grant men of misgiving minds there are as great unlikelyhoods as they can suppose that they should ever re-enjoy such houses trades estates conveniencies as formerly or any thing comparable thereunto yet may they live in a dayly expectation of a comfortable Deliverance with and under those calamities which are like to continue upon them that God together with their temptations will make a way for their escape men so perswaded will be able to say with Habakkuk though the fig-tree blossome not and the labour of the Olive faile yet will or may they rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of their Salvation When Paul praved that the Messenger of Sathan which buffetted him might depart God gave him no assurance of that at least-wise for the present but yet told him that which satisfied him though that evil messenger were likely to continue namely that his Grace should be sufficient for him The Israelites knew that their captivity in Babylon would certainly last seventy years Therefore it was not thehopes of a speedy Deliverance from thence that did bear up the hearts of believers amongst them but the hopes they had that God would be good to them in and under their captivity and show them mercy in a strange land If the Israelites knew as it is like they did that they must wander no lesse than sorry years in the wilderness ere they came to Canaan it was the Mercy and Deliverance which they did expect in the wilderness not out of it during all that time that did support them as hoping that in that howling desert God would be no wilderness or Land of Darkness to them If God spread a table for his people in the wilderness if he give them water out of the Rock and Manna from heaven are not those things to be reckoned Deliverances namely from the evils that in such a place they might expect though Quailes should be with-held Though the famine were not removed yet seeing Elijah was sed the mean time though but by Ravens it must be acknowledged that he was delivered in and under famine If to the righteous there arise light in darkness as is promise there shall is not that Deliverance Though Paul and Silas were in prison and their feet in the stocks yet if they were so chearful there as to sing praises to God at midnight Acts 16.25 was not that a grea● Deliverance Surely Paul and others of whom he speakes were greatly delivered even under chastisement sorrow poverty and a kind of Death yea Deaths often or else he could ever say as he doth 2 Cor. 6.9.10 As dying and behold we live as sorrowfull yet alwaies rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things as if he had but the shadowes of evill but the reallity and substance of good things He is delivered from