publick worship but in the very season of it in so much that there was more company sometimes in the fields on the Lords day than in the Churches was it for want of Churches to repair to how could that be when there were so many within the City it self that now the Fire hath destroyed above fourscore yet some remain It could not be for want of room in Churches for many were almost empty and some of those in which I doubt not but the sincere milk of Gods Word might have been enjoyed Why were Taverns and Ale-houses that stood in the fields so frequented on the Lords daies more than on working daies as if they had been the Churches and Bacchus the God that men ought to worship yea it is vehemently suspected that Stewes and Baudy-houses were not without their customers on that day as well as on any others Oh the wanton carriages that mine eyes have seen on that day in the open fields The greatest part of those I met seemed to be on the merry pin laughing jesting and disporting themselves one with another both young men and maidens By their behaviour one would have took it for some jovial time rather than for a day holy to the Lord in which men are enjoyned not to think their own thoughts speak their own words or finde their own pleasures How few have I heard taking the name of God into their months on that day otherwise than in vain and by cursed oaths as I have walked some miles an end I verily think that many people had wont to spend the Lords day worse generally than any day in the whole week Many did spend other daies in honest labour who mis-spent the Lords day in dishonest recreations So far were most from preparing for it before it came that few kept it holy when it was come Jews will not omit the preparations to their Sabbaths but Christians did not only so but pollute the Lords day its self I might speak of such as did take the boldness to work on the Lords day notwithstanding that they read to the contrary in Neh. 13.15 Jer. 17.21 and expresly in the fourth Commandement in which it is said Exod. 20.10 In it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy servant and yet did not some hard masters exact all their labours of their servants on those daies when they had hast of work Have we not others set their wits on work to dispute against that day and to write against it witness many ill Treatises extant to that purpose And why might they not as well have written against the other nine Commandements as against the fourth Why must that only be thought Ceremonial when all the rest are confessed to be Morral If God have seemed to change it from the last to the first day of the Week can we take a just occasion from thence to abrogate it I doubt not but the day we now keep by the name of the Lords day was intended in the second Commandement as well as that which they under the Old Testament kept which was called the Sabbath A seventh day or one day in every seven is provided for by that Commandment to be kept holy but not alwaies the seventh day from the creation For it is not said that God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it but that he blessed the sabbath-Sabbath-day or that day which himself had or should appoint to be kept as a Sabbath or time of holy rest which under the Old Testament was the last but under the New is the first day of the week called the Lords day for that Christ rose again as on that day Although the first administration of the Lords Supper was in unleavenned bread yet the institution of it is for the use of bread not of that which is unleavenned So though God rested on the seventh day from the Creation yet his legal Ordinance doth not precisely require the observation of that day but of one day in seven Who doubts but baptisme and the Lords Supper are now as much in force by vertue of the second Commandment as Circumcision the Passover were of old that Commandment referring to such Ordinances as God should appoint as well as to those which he had appointed and so the fourth Commandement to any day in seven that God should enjoyn as well as to that which he had enjoyned Why should not the practice of the Apostles be a sufficient warrant for changing of the day 1 Cor. 16.2 On the first day of the week let every of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him It appeareth that was their day of meeting for worship because on that day they made their Collections for the poor and in Act. 20.7 it is said that on the first day of the week when the disciples met to break bread Paul preached to them intimating that was their day for partaking of the Lords Supper and therefore in all likelihood for other religious services Now would the Apostles have ventured to change the day without leave and command from God so to do But if any man be not convinced by these arguments that the day ought to be so changed yet let him shew me the least colour of reason for abrogating of the fourth Commandment and observing no day in the week as a Sabbath to the Lord. Most men if they must keep one day in the week holy had as lieve it should be the first day of the week as the last Most of those that quarrel at the observation of the first day or Christian Sabbath I fear do it because they would observe none at all but as for those that conscientiously observe a seventh-day Sabbath I dare not call them Jews for Judaizing in that one thing but think they may be better Christians than many that are more Orthodox as to the Time and Day But as for those profane persons that have and do refuse to dedicate either the last or first day of the week to God as a Sabbath or holy rest I must be bold to tell them if they be English-men they had a great hand in setting London on fire which was a vast loss to the whole Nation and came doubtless for the sins of the whole Nation as well as for the sins of its inhabitants I say you had a great hand in it and particularly by your prophanation of the Lords day as the Text I quoted from Jer. 17.21 leads me to think I had almost said that was become a National sin as by the general practice of it so for want of due endeavours to restrain it such as Nehemiah used Nehem. 13.16 and therefore no wonder if God have punished with that which was is and will be a sore stroke upon the body of the Nation But besides the gross prophanation of the Lords day whereof wicked men were guilty viz. by working playing and doing more wickedness then than at other times I fear few of the better
sort can wash their hands in innocency as from finding their own pleasure and speaking their own words on Gods holy day which is forbidden Isa 58.13 or have called the Sabbath their delight holy and honourable of the Lord as became us Or with John have been in the Spirit so as we ought on the Lords day Few of us have kept any one Sabbath as a Sabbath should be kept Under pretence that we fear to act like Jews it is well if we forget not to act like Christians as to the Lords day We took Gods day from him and now he hath taken our City from us we robd him of the best day in the week for all daies are his but this more especially he hath deprived us of the best City in the three Kingdoms We committed Sacriledge in robbing God of his daies which he had set apart for himself and it prospered with us no better than that Coale did which the Eagle stole from the Altar and therewith fired her own Nest And now poor London if I may still call thee London thou enjoyest thy Sabbaths in that doleful sense as was threatned Levit. 26.34 Then shall the Land enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate And the same reason may be given now as then v. 35. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it MEDITATION VI. Of Gods contending by Fire for the sins of Idolatry and Superstition I Dolatry is plainly and properly enough defined to be the worshipping of a false God one or more or else of the true God in a false manner The former is expresly forbidden in the first Commandment which is in these words Thou shalt have no other Gods before me but the latter in the second which saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. that is Thou shalt not worship or pretend to worship me in the use of Images or of any thing else which I my self have not instituted and appointed Now whereas some may think that the worshipping of graven Images for Gods or as if they were Gods themselves and not the worshipping of the true God in the use of them is the sin forbidden in the second Commandment because it is said Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them The contrary is evident enough For the worshipping of any other besides the true God is that which the first Commandment doth directly forbid and is the sum and substance of it now we must not make the first and second Commandments one and the same Therefore the sin forbidden in the second Commandment is the worshipping of God in or by the use of Images and other things which he never appointed as means methods and parts of his worship Now this latter branch of Idolatry is the same thing with that which is called Superstition which is as much as supra statutum or a being devout and religious or rather seeming to be so above what is written or was ever commanded by God Of the first sort of Idolatry which consists in professedly worshipping any other besides the true God I shall need to say nothing because that is the Idolatry of Heathen only all Christians profess to abhor it But alas how many calling themselves Christians are not ashamed to own and defend their worshipping of Images relatively as they term it though not absolutely mediately though not ultimately But if we can prove that this was all that many did whom God was pleased to charge with Idolatry and to punish grievously even with Fire for so doing that will be to the point in hand See for this Levit. 26.31 I will make your Cities waste aâ—d bring your Sanctuaries to desolation which was afterwards done by Fire when themselves were carried into captivity their City and Temple burnt Now in what case doth God threaten so to do viz. in case they should offer to set up any Images to bow down to them v. 1. and should not repent of their so doing after they had been warned by lesser judgments If so saith God I will make your Cities waste and so he did by Fire for that very sin Now the people thus threatned were the Israelites who had so much knowledge of the true God that it was impossible for them to think that those stocks and stones which they did bow to were God himself but only they made them as representations and memorials of God or little Temples for God to repair to if he pleased or as sures to draw God to them as one calleth them and yet for this they are charged with Idolatry for those very Images are called their Idols v. 1. Ye shall make ye no Idols or graven Images and by the greatness of that punishment which God inflicted for the same we may gather he reckoned it as Idolatrie for it was that â—in if any Moreover that they intended no more by their Images than only pictures and resemblances of God is intimated to us by those words Deut. 4.15 Take heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of Similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the Fire v. 16. Lest you make you an Image the similitude of any figure As if he had said that God did therefore forbear at that time to assume any visible shape because he would not have any representations made of him which to doe were Idolatrie at leastwise if done in order to religious worship Were not Aaron and the Israeliâ—es charged with Idolatrie for making and causing to be made a Golden call Exod. 32.4 and sacrificing to it v. 5. c. yet that people were far from thinking the Calf they had made to be the true God that brought them out of Egyptâ— No they had made it for a representation and a memorial of him For so they are to be understood v. 4. Could any of them so far renounce reason and common sense least of all could Aaron do so as to think that Image brought them out of Egypt which was no Image till after their comming out of Egypt which had not been what it was but that they made a Calf of it which they knew of its self was neither able to do good nor evil No surely their intent was to set up that only as a memorial of God and to worship God in and by it For this Moses was so angry with them and with the puppet which they had made that as we read v. 20. He took the Calf burnt it in the fire ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and made them drink of it The Apostle calls them Idolaters 1 Cor. 10.6 Neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them which is quoted out of Exod. 32.6 If there were no Idolatry in the Golden-calf so intended why was Moses so angry with it yea why was God so angry with them as by Moses to give
and a ghastly appearance let all that passe by them Judge Surely London is now the saddest spectacle that is this day in England Doth the circumstance of time in which this fire befel us add nothing to our affliction Had we at the same time had many friends and enemies but few or none our misery had been less For then should we have been much pitied which had been some mitigation of our loss but did it not befal us at a time when we had few friends but many forreign enemies round about us This Jeremy lamented in reference to Jerusalem Lam. 1.2 Amongst all her lovers she hath none to comfort her all her friends have dealt treacherously with her they are become her enemies Is it no aggravation of our misery surely it cannot be otherwise to think how wretchedly our many enemies will triumph and insult because of it and cry Ah ah so would they have it Lam. 1.21 All mine enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad that thou hast done it And Lam. 2.25 All that pass by clap their hands they hiss and wag their head for the daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole earth vers 16. All thine enemies say This is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it vers 17. The Lord hath caused thine enemies to rejoyce over thee he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries Also in Lam. 3.14 45. You may see how much stress the prophet Jeremy did lay upon the insultings of enemies and how humbling a consideration he took it for When enemies congratulate our miseries in stead of condoling them it adds much Surely France but for shame had rung bells and made bonfires when the tidings of our fire did arrive there God would that a people should lay it to heart when he exposeth them to contempt Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed so is London all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness He loves not his countrey that cares not how it is slighted or who insults over it What if it can be made out that there is no parallel at this day for London's calamity should not that be for a lamentation that God should so punish us as if he would make us an example to all the world or as if we had been the worst people in the world Ieremy took that circumstance to heart in Jerusalem's case Lam. 2.13 What thing shall I liken to thee Oh daughter of Ierusalem What shall I equal to thee that thou maist be comforted So Daniel 9.12 For under the whole heaven hath not been done so great evil as hath been done upon Ierusalem If the like may be said of London and indeed I have heard no man pretend the contrary at this day its misery must needs be great If it be an unparallel'd stroke it must needs carry a great face of Divine wrath and displeasure with it and that doth add much Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his Anger and remembred not his footstool in the day of his Anger Ver. 3. He hath cut off in his fierce Anger all the horns of Israel Many things in this judgement seemed to carry with them a great face of Divine Anger as namely for that the Lord seemed to destroy London so far as he went without any pity Such a thing as this is bewailed Lam. 2.2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Iacob and hath not pitied And verse 17. The Lord hath thrown down and hath not pitied If God had taken away the houses of rich men that could have born their loss and mean time spared the houses of such as were poor there had been pity in that but he was pleased to take all before him and with the same besome of destruction to sweep away the habitious of the poorest as well as of the most rich And did not God's turning a deaf ear to all the prayers and intercessions that were made as for the greatest part of London whilst the fire was and going on to destroy notwithstanding though they cried unto him day and night that he would stay his hand and spare the remainder I say did not that speak God exceeding angry This was one of Ieremies complaints Lâ—m. 3.8 Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer and verse 44. Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pâ—ss thorough God did in effect say that Though Noch Daniel and Ioh stood before him yet would he not be intreated for the City When prayers can prevail no longer in such a case as that was it is a sign God is exceeding angry Moreover the fierceness of the judgement and the mighty force it came with and the quick dispatch it made intimates as if God for that time had abandoned all pity towards London For may not these words of Ieremy be applied to us Lam. 3.10 He was unto me as a Bear or as a Lion he hath pulled me in pieces he hath made me desolate If any man that reads these things be yet insensible of the heaviness of Gods hand in this stroke let him beside all that hath been said consider how unexpected and how Incredible a thing it was that London should be almost totally consumed by fire ere this year were at an end Now what but the greatness of this judgement made it so incredible till it came That some few houses might have been fired in a short time we could easily have believed but not that so many as the Prophet speaks Lam. 4.12 The kings of the earth and the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the enemy should have entred into the gates of Jerusalem To think a judgement too great to be inflicted and yet when it is inflicted to make light of it are very inconsistant things and mighty self-contradictions He that should have come to a man worth eight or ten thousand pound a week before the fire and told him that within ten days he should not be worth so many hundreds would he not have laugh'd at him and said in his heart How can that be Had all his estate been in houses some in one street some in another he would never have dream'd that they should be all sired together or within a few days of one another And yet it is well known to have been the case of many to have been worth a good estate one day and the next day by the fire to have been reduced almost to nothing How are the words of Jeremy upon this occasion revived Lam. 4 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet imbrace dunghils Great and sudden downfalls cannot but move compassion in any man that hath bowels As Jeremy speaks of the Nazarites Lam. 4.6 7. That they who
they assumed some grandeur to themselves as they were a Society whatsoever their condition might be â—ngly and apart Or to say that the meeting together of the members of those Companies in their severall Halls upon many great solemnities was a probable means to increase love and friendship amongst them were to defcend to lower considerations about them then I have yet taken notice of and yet those things are not altogether contemptible and therefore I scarce care to mention them But put all I have said together though possibly I know not half the uses they were put to it will appear a doleful thing that they were burnt and that in their destruction we lost not onely great Splendor but great conveniences helps and advantages and that in several kinds If men did there decree righteous things amongst themselves as I hope they did I know no Crime those places were chargeable with unless it were too much Feasting which the sadness of Times for many years past might put an aggravation upon And if that were all their Crime I see how necessary it is to shun not only greater but also lesser sins which may expose Places and if Places Why not Persons also to ruin and destruction One Hall there was of something a different use from the rest and of greater spendor Guild-Hall I mean in which one Author tells me no less than nine several Courts had wont to be kept whereof one was called The Court of Conscience If any of the rest did not deserve the same name which I cannot charge those or that which did not should be lookt upon as the Acan's which troubled that place and brought a curse upon it One sinner destroyeth much good saith Solomon Eccles 9.18 What then may not an unrighteous Court do which consists of many sinners When I consider the Largeness the Strength and yet the Antiquity the Majesty and the daily-Usefulness of that same Guild-Hall methinks it is not enough to weep over the Ruines of it As firm as it stood it was founded no less than upward of 360 years agoe and to see it confounded as I may call it in one day Whose heart would it not cause to bleed Other Halls were like Parliament-Houses to particular Companies but this to the whole City where the Assembling together of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councill had some resemblance of a King Lords and Commons There seemed to be an awfulness in the very place methinks it had a Majestick look with it and such as made the Magistrates there convened though very venerable in themselves yet something more considerable than they would have appeared elsewhere It was surely that place which did more contribute to make London look like it self that is like the Head-City of these three Kingdomes than any one Structure thereunto belonging London had not been its self if it had lost nothing but that one Hall I wonder That all the Wise Heads that were concerned in it could not save that stately Hall our English Capitol as I may call it from burning Methinks it speaks our Provocations-high that we have sinned away so great an Ornament so vast an Accommodation as that Hall was and to think that almost all the rest are gone with it might make our joynts tremble and our knees smite together as Belshazzar's did when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall I see there is no building certainly durable but that which Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 5.1 and Lord let that be mine as well as his That building of God that house not mâ—de with hands eternal in the heavens MEDITATION XII Of the Burning of Publick Schools as Pauls School and others IS Learning taking it's leave of England Is that Sun about to set in our Horizon that Schollars have received two such terrible blows Young ones have lost their Schools and both young and old have lost their Books Nevertheless for ever Renowned be Reverend Doctor Colet and the rest of the Founders and Benefactors of all those noble Free-Schools that now lie in the dust I say Let their Memory be ever precious though their Gift hath not continued so long as they and we did hope it might Yet the youngest of the three Publick Schools that are now demolished viz. that which was founded by the Merchant-Taylers had lasted above a hundred years and the eldest of the three viz. Paul's half as long again and many Centuries more they might have stood had not this fire brought them to an untimely end I cannot but muse to what a plunge Parents are now put to get good Schools for their Children especially those who cannot endure their Children should live at a distance from them considering that honest and able School-masters are but here and there to be found A good School-master must in the first place be a good man It is to a wonder what notice Children will take of their Master's Religion and what a lasting impression that will make upon them and how apt they are to take after them because of the veneration they have for them If their Masters be profane they think they have leave to be so and should not take upon them to be more religious than they A Master must consider that his Scholars have souls to save as well as minds to inform and he is not to be trusted with Youth that will not consider it Nextly A good Master must be a good Scholar at least wise for some kind of Learning a good Grammarian a good Linguist and one that is not only so himself but also able to make others such that is one that knows how in an easie and familiar way to communicate Knowledge to Children to make hard things plain c. He must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle saith a Minister should be that is Apt to teach Again A good Master must be a wise man no antick no mimmick as too many are which hath made the word Pedant and Pedantical to sound very ridiculously though the work of a good School-master be very honourable Wise he ought to be that he may set his Scholars the Example of a wise behavior and teach Children to carry themselves like Men whereas some seem to learn of their Scholars to carry themselves like Children that is Conceiptedly Humorsomely Phantastically It requires no small Wisedom to judge of the different parts and tempers of Children where their excellency lies whether in Memory or Invention or otherwise that they may put them upon those pieces of Learning in which they are like most of all to excell and whilest they find them to have an excellency in one kind work upon that and bear with their defects in another kind He may have a great Memory that hath but mean Fancy he may be long in retaining who is slow in getting things into his memory one can make his exercise of a sudden as well as if he had more time another can do nothing of a sudden but
would I prevail with men not to lean upon the broken Reed of uncertain Prophecies Whereon if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce him as was said of Egypt Isa 36.6 Pierce you they will more wayes than one as namely With shame when you see your considence disappointed With forrow when you see your hopes frustrated With reproach when others shall deride you and say Is this the good time you lookt for Is this the Deliverance you expected What now is become of all your Prophecies touching what would be such and such a year All this Reproach you might save if you would believe no more than what the Scripture warrants you to believe Where doth that speak of the glorious things that shall be in the year 1666 or give you to expect more from that than from any other year Are not Divine-Promises sufficient for your comfort unless you eake them out with human Prophecies as the Papists do the Counsels of Scripture with the Traditions of men It is well if some do not derive more comfort from fallible Predictions than from the infallible Word Is not the Name of the Lord a strong Tower Why then will you betake your selves to a refuge of lies It is enough for poor deluded Jews to be alwayes comforting themselves with one vain Prophecy or other as they are observed to be seldom without but it is below Christians so to do who have a sure Word of Prophecy which they should take heed to as to a light shining in a dark place Be consident Faith and Credulity are very different things The first builds upon a Rock the last upon Quick-sands Believe but be not Credulous many credulous people make many false Prophets as they say Receivers make Thieves There will never want people to make Prophesies so long as there are enough to entertain them and to trust upon them Jer. 5.31 The Prophets prophesie falsely and the People love to have it so There are too many that say in their hearts Si populus vult decipi decipietur If People will be deceived they shall Many small Prophets in this and other ages seem Merchant-adventurers for a little credit They will be the Authors of a Prediction right or wrong it is fit it be pleasing whether it be true or no If it come to pass they shall have a great deal of credit by it and in the mean time it makes them to be somewhat more taken notice of and if it be frustrated they are not the first that were mistaken there have been and are many false Prophets besides themselves When shall I see men so modest as to tell their uncertain Predictions as their Dreams not as heavenly Dictates in their own names and not in the Name of God saying Thus saith the Lord but rather My mind bodes me so and so Thus saith my imagination and I cannot withstand it At leastwise when shall I see others so wise as to hearken to them only as such and upon no other account till experience have proved them to be more than to It is time enough to believe a humane Prophesie when you see it fulfilled and you pay it a sufficient respect if in the mean time you suspend your judgment and forbear to censure it O Sixty-six Thou center of human Prophesies Thou Ocean into which all the Rivers of Conjectural Predictions did run If I live to see thee end as thou hast continued hitherto for thy sake if for nothing else yet upon other considerations too if men will find confidence to make a thousand Prophecies no wayes countenanced by Scripture I shall not find Faith to believe one of them MEDITATION XXII Upon the fire it 's beginning on the Lords-Day in the Morning VVAs there nothing in the Circumstance of Time in which that fire began viz. upon the Lords-Day Doth not Providence determine the times before-appointed as well as the bounds of our habitations Acts 17.26 Might not Herod read his sin in the time in which the Angel of God smote him and the Worms received a commission to eat him up which was immediately after he had received that Acclamation from the People saying It is the voice of God and not of man Acts 12.23 Neither can I think it was without its signification that London began to burn upon the Lords-Day Were not the Sabbath-Dayes-sins of London greater than its sins upon other dayes it being a certain truth that if mens actions be evil the better day the worse action as in case they be good The better day we say the better deed Justly might such a fire have hapned had it been only to punish the usual profanations of the Lords Day How many had been playing on that very day if by this sad providence they had not been set at work How many had been then imployed in servile and at that time unlawful Works if such a work of Mercy and Charity as was delivering themselves and their substance from the fire had not been put upon them How many had then been exercising themselves in Gluttony and Drunkenness in Rioting and Chambering in Filthiness and Uncleanness if the care of preserving themselves and their Goods had not diverted them How many that followed their honest Labours all the Week had wont to find their sinful pleasures on the Lords-Day Alass That the Day which God at first blessed as well as sanctified should then be cursed if I may so call it above any other dayes that went before it That Londoners should have the most restless Day that ever they had generally had both as to Body and Mind of that which was at first appointed for a Day of Rest On that Day in which God began to Create the World in the first Day of the Week did he begin to destroy that great City Yea The Day of Christ his Resurrection was the first Day of London's Death and Burial Did not good Men hope to have been Praying Hearing Singing of Psalms Eating and Drinking in remembrance of Christ on that very day in which they were forced to be quenching of Houses carrying out of Goods conveying away their Wives and Children How sadly were Churches filled on that Day not with Men and Women as upon other such Dayes but with Wares and Houshold-stuff And How much more sadly were they emptied some of them on that very Day not by exportation but by conflagration Poor Londoners carried their Goods to several Churches to sacrifice them to slames as it proved though with an intention to have secured them those places proving Sepulchres which they repaired to as Sanctuaries O fatal and never to be forgotten Sabbath No emblem as other of those dayes of that rest which glorious Saints injoy in Heaven but rather of the day of Judgment which is called The great and terrible day of the Lord Black-Sunday some will call it as formerly there was much discourse of a Black-Monday That was expected and came not this was not expected and
both wish and hope concerning it The first is That it may be very humble giving God the glory of his righteous Judgements and taking to our selves the shame of our great demerits Secondly That the Confession which shall be there Ingraven may be as impartial as the judgement its self was not charging the guilt for which that fire came upon a few only but acknowledging that all have sinned as all have been punished Far be it from any man to say that his sins did not help to burn London that cannot also say and who that is know not that neither he nor any of his either is or are ever like to be any thing the worse for that dreadful fire Lastly whereas some of the same Religion with those that did hatch the Powder-plot are and have been vehemently suspected to have been the Incendiaries by whose means London was burned I earnestly desire that if time and further discovery be able to acquit them from any such guilt that Pillar may record their Innocency and may make themselves as an Iron Pillar or Brazen Wall as I may allude to Jer. 1.18 against all the accusations of those that suspect them but if indeed and in truth that Fire either came or was carried on and continued by their treachery that the Inscription of the Pillar may consigne over their names to perpetual hatred and infamy Though I have thought too long already upon this subject yet me-thinks I cannot but muse yet a little further How men will or ought to be affected with seeing that Pillar and reading such an Inscription as I presume will be made upon it Will they not reflect and say Alas Is the greatest part of a famous City come to this or rather was it brought to this What nothing but a brazen Pillar in lieu of the major part of a renowned City Doleful exchange As the Angel we read of Matth. 28.6 told the Women that came to Christs Sepulchre He is not here for he is risen So this Pillar stands but to tell men that a glorious City that sometimes stood hereabouts is not here now for it or most of it is burnt and gone How uncomfortable is this in comparison of the two Pillars we read of viz. a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire Numb 14.14 Those were Pillars for direction but this was in token of destruction In those God went before his people by day and by night but in the Fire which occasioned this Pillar he came against us Then was God to his people as a Shadow from the heat of the rage of their enemies as a Wall of fire for their protection but this Pillar calls that time to remembrance in which God covered himself as with a cloud that the prayers of Londoners should not passe unto him and came forth not as a conserving but a consuming fire not for but against poor London Surely the place where that Pillar shall stand will be made a Bochim for who will be able to passe by it and not shed some tears Yet as woful tidings as that Pillar is to be charged with How do I long to see it once erected which if I never do God grant that others may for surely that will never be done till men can say of London as the Prodigals Father of his converted Son It as he was dead and is alive again â—as lost and is sound MEDITATION LIII Upon the Anniversary Fast appointed to be kept in remembrance of the Fire HOw do we play an after-game Yet better late than never What Epimethâ—usses are we Now the City is burnt we design to keep a perpetual yearly Fast whereas there is little doubt but the burning of it might have been prevented if before that judgement came we had set ourselves to keep such a fast as is spoken of Isa 58.6 Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoke c. The Ninivites were wiser then we for when Jonah preach't to them that within forty dayes Nineveh should be overthrown They took that short warning proclaimed a Fast yea and turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them Jonah 3.10 We have now and then fasted after a sort but was it not so that God might justly expostulate with us as with the Jews of old Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a day for a man 〈◊〉 â—fflict his Soul Wilt thou call this a Fâ—st and an acceptable day to the Lord But have we turned from our evil wayes as the Ninevites are said to have done Preventing Fasts like preventing Physick are much the best but when they have been omitted or not observed as they ought to be which surely hath been our case then curing or restoring Fasts as I may call them are exceeding necessary as therapeutical or healing Physick is where prophylactical or preventing remedies have not taken place A Fast both Anniversary and Perpetual is not without its president in scripture The Jewes had such a Fast by Gods appointment Lev. 16.24 This shall be a statute for ever to you that in the seventh mâ—nth ye shall afflict your sâ—uls ver 34. This shall be an everlasting Statute to you to make an attonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year So it is that the Jews their Anniversary Fast or day of Atonements I say theirs and ours were and are both in the seventh month of the Year reckoning March the first as it is upon a civil accompt and this we know came to passe not by humane designation but by the determination of divine Providence which brought the Fire in September and it was but meet that the Fast in relation to it should be in the same month and on the same day the Fire was Yea possibly the zeal of Esther if such a thing had hapned in her time would have continued the Fast as many dayes together as the Fire it self did continue for we read that She fasted three dayes and three nights together Esther 4.16 and it is probable would have held out one day longer if so solemn an occasion had called her to it How suitable it is that a Fast should be proclaimed upon such an occasion as this were easie to make appear Fasts are a kind of Sabbaths for Moses speaking of the Jews their Anniversary Fast Lev. 16.31 saith It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you and ye shall afflict your soules by a Statue for ever Now the City resteth and injoyeth her Sabbaths in that doleful if not ironicall sense in which that phrase is used Lev. 26.34 viz. for a place that lieth desolate reason good that Citizens should keep a Sabbath too at leastwise every year as that doth every day When London lieth in ashes why should not Londoners do so to at leastwise for a
learnt their making way for prosperity to insue THe best waie to gaine or regaine prosperitie is to learne apace in the schoole of Adversitie Affliction is a teaching thing for we read of Christ himselfe that he did learne obedience by the things he suffered Heb. 5.8 As the Law is said to be a School-master to bring us to Christ so is misery a School-master to bring us to happiness in case we give our selves to be taught by it As parents will keep their children at schoole no longer when once they are fit for the Universitie but send them thither so will God translate his people to the Academy of a more pleasing condition when they are dulie ripened and prepared for it by the schoole of adversitie witnesse these words of the Psalmist Psal 94.12.13 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law that thou mayest give him rest from the dayes of Adversity Affliction is Gods plow with which he breaketh up the fallow ground of mens hearts and when that is done he is most ready to sow the seedes of peace and comfort as it is written light is sowne for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Now sowing presupposeth plowing nor would the husbandman doe the former viz. to plow but that he intends the latter viz. to cast in his seed and would thereby prepare for it Now there are several Lessons which God doth or would teach men by his speaking rod in affliction if men doe oâ— would hear the voice of that rod and him that hath appointed it First God by affliction would teach men to praie Is any man afflicted let him praie Ja. 5. Affliction quickens men unto praier As Absolom fetcht Joab to him by setting his corne on fire in their affliction they will seek me earlie saith God yea and it also quickens men in praier Christ in his Agonie prayed yet more ferventlie Christ offered up prayers with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death intimating that the approach of death did help to quicken him Heb. 5.7 It is a Proverb he that cannot pray send him to Sea affliction is a dangerous Sea and God sends many men thither that they may learne how to pray Aâ—â—â— Paul was struck down to the earth and terrifyed with a voice from heaven we quicklie hear of him Behold he prayeth Acts 16.11 so he had wont to doe in former times for that he was a Pharisee but now he so prayed and to so good purpose as he never did before And is not prayer such as it may be a good means to get on of affliction is it not said call upon me in the day of affliction and I will deliver thee Psal 50.15 and in Psal 107.17.19 We read Fools because of their Transgressions are afflicted then they cry to the Lord in their trouble he saveth them out of their Distresses also verse 13. If our affliction do not cause us to restraine prayer from the Almighty like him that said this evill is of the Lord why should I wait on him any longer our prayers will prevaile with God to restraine affliction in his due time and manner Secondly Another Lesson which affliction teacheth us or rather God by it is to walk humbly and to be humble I am sure is the ready way to be exalted In Deut. 8.2 We read how God lead the Israelites 40. years in the wilderness to humble them implying that a wilderness condition tends to humble men Earthly good things are the fuel of prides and the refore pride of life is spoken of as if it were a third part of all the things that are in the world 1 John 2.16 All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life that is fuel to these now when the fuel is abated it may be expected that the fire will slake And will not humility make way for our Deliverance Surely it will witnesse that promise Lev. 26.41 42. If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and I will remember the land If God humble us he wil doe us good in our latter end Deut. 8.2 See the promise James 4.10 humble your selves in the fight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Doth not God by his Prophet tell us Isa 57.15 That he dwelleth with the humble contrite to revive them Thus you see affliction doth as it were prepare Antidotes to expell its self as some of our best Antidotes for expulsion of poyson are taken from the bodies of poysonous creatures as Serpents Vipers And affliction sanctified works humility and humility exercised works out affliction Thirdly A third Lesson which God by affliction teacheth man is to be patient and to submit to his divâ—â—â— will And this also will be found an excellent means to remove affliction and recover prosperity in due time We read Rom. 5.3 How that Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience that hope which maketh not ashamed Now that which produceth an unslattering hope doth surely contribute to deliverance both as it is a kind of cause in which hope foreseeth such an issue as deliverance is as also for that hope is as it were deliverance anticipated for we are saved by hope saith the text Rom. 8.24 But more plainly James 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job saith he and have seen the end of the Lord. Job was patient and God afterwards gave him double in lieu of what he had taken from him it is good that a man should quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Jam. 3.26 and verse 25. The Lord is good to them that wait for him God sometimes hath all his end in afflicting when he hath but made us humbly to stoop and submit Levit. 26.41 If then they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity that is if they did patiently bear the indignation of the Lord as having sinned against him and submit to the rod then God promiseth that he would remember their land c. it is Gods manner to withdraw afflictions when he hath once accomplished the end for which he sent them Esa 10.12 God saith that when he had performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem then would he punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria who was their oppressor If then the design of God in afflicting be only to make us submit to his will as sometimes it is when we have learnt to do that like Abraham that was become willing to sacrifice his Isaac which was all God intended to put him to then is deliverance in one kind or other not far off God doth not intend to make some men always poor and despicable though they are so for the present but yet the copy of his countenance towards them is as if he meant they should always be in adversity
whereas all he stands upon is to make them contented so to be if such be his will concerning them and when they have quietly laid themselves down at Gods feet bound their Isaac to the altar with a true intent to sacrifice him to the good pleasure of God and stretch forth their hand to do it then comes as it were a voice from heaven saying let it alone it is enough that thou hast done already Behold I will accept a Ram for a burnt offering instead of thy son as God dealt with Abraham Gen. 22.13 God doth many things but to try us and make us believe he will take all from us when he means onely to wean us from all that he may say of us as of Abraham Gen. 22.12 Now I know thou fearest God for thou hast not withheld thy Son thy onely Son from me To be content always to be in trouble if God will have it so is the way to come out is one good way to escape Fourthly Affliction teacheth us to live under an awful sense of God It is a Schoole of fear as to God Psal 119.120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements saith David to God If God appear as a consuming fire one maine use we are to make of it is to serve him with Godly fear Heb. 12. Now it is evident that a due fear of God doth make way for Deliverance out of trouble When God saw that Abraham was so fearful to offend him that he durst not withhold his son Isaac whom God had commanded him to sacrifice with his own hands he gave him Isaac again and accepted a Ram in his stead Gen. 22.12 When God had brought Manasseh to know that the Lord was God that is to fear and reverence God as became him and to humble himself before him then saith the text the Lord heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdome 2 Chron. 33.13 Fifthly Affliction is a Schoole of obedience and circumspect walking Eph. 5.15 16. See then that yee walk circumspectly because the dayes are evil Those that walke in the dark take more than ordinary care lest they stumble and fall new dayes of evill or affliction are called dayes of darknesse Prosperity hath hardly more Temptations on one hand than great affliction hath on the other hand hence Agur deprecates poverty Prov. 30.9 Lest I be poor and Steale and take the name of the Lord in vaine The Apostle was afraid lest the incestuous Corinthian if not timely comforted might be swallowed up of two much sorrow 2. Cor. 2.7 and lest Sathan should get an advantage against him verse 11. affliction is a tempest and therefore we must do like Pilots who steer with greatest circumspection in a storm the hard frost of adversity though it be apt to kill certain weeds as pride security and such like yet if care be not taken it may also nip many hopefull blossomes as unseasonable frosts use to do If such eminent worthyes as Elijah Job Jonas Jeremy were between whiles worse for those afflictions which should have made them better as we know they were we had need look to our selves and walk circumspectly at such a time Now that our so doing will make way for our deliverance David tels us Psal 50.23 To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God And the Prophet Isa 59.20 The Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turne from transgressions in Jacob. Sixthly Another Lesson which affliction teacheth men is to redeem time Eph. 5.16 Redeeming the time because the dayes are evill Young Scholars are not more ordinarily whipt for any thing than for losing their time and in order to making them spend their time better We have never lesse time to lose than when the rod of the Almighty is upon our backs Affliction makes work wheresoever it comes as Sicknesse in a Family useth to do and time is then most precious when we have most work upon our hands when we have most to do yea it also indisposeth for work and when the iron is blunt we had need put to the more streng Travellers make the best of their time in the depth of winter and will hardly draw bit till night because the shortnesse of the dayes and badnesse both of the wayes and weather are great hindrances When we look for the greatest impediments we had need take the most time before us neither is the Redeeming of time more a duty in Affliction than a direct means to get out of it Take one instance for all in Paul and Silas who being in prison were redeeming their midnight time from rest and sleepe for singing and praising of God Acts 16. And the next news we have of them is they were both miraculously set at liberty Lastly Affliction is a Schoole of Faith and Affiance in God David saith Psal 63.3 At what time he was afraid he would put his trust in God and when he was overwhelmed he would fly to the rock that was higher than he meaning to God and upon the wing of faith And it is said that she who is a widdow indeed trusteth in God and why she that is a widdow rather than she who is a wife but because the condition of a widdow is ordinarily more afflicted and disconsolate Moreover Afflictions are called the tryal of our Faith All which passages prove that affliction is a Schoole of Faith as well as of patience Now withall it is famously known that the exercise of Faith and dependance upon God is a notable expedient for the removal of Affliction What miracles of Deliverance are attributed to Faith Heb. 11.33 By Faith they stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword turned to flight the armies of the aliens and passed theâ—ed Sea as upon dry land which the Egyptians essaying to doe were drown'd ver 29. And if you will have it from the mouths of two witnesses let that of the Psalmist be added Psal 22.4 Our father 's trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them they trusted in thee and were not confounded Thus have I mentioned seven doors belonging to the valley of Acor which signifies trouble or so many wayes of escape out of Affliction which are also dutyes in and under it I see then in this case there are two gaps may be stopt with one hedge a man may una fideliâ duos dealbare parietes there are two intentions may be answered with one and the same medicine two questions may be equally satisfied with one and the same answer namely these two how ought I to carry my selfe under Affliction and what course should I take to get out of Affliction He that studieth the latter onely shall be able to do neither he that minds the former well shall doe both under one He that considers onely how to get out of Affliction troubles himselfe with Gods work and
the burning of Troy compared with the burning of London Meditations 48. Upon the burning of Jerusalem compared with that of London Meditations 49. Upon people taking the first and greatest care to save those things from the Fire which they did most value Meditations 50. Of people scarce knowing whâ—re their houses stood soon after the Fire Meditations 51. Of the Statue of Sir Thomas Gresham left standing after the Fire in the Old Exchange Meditations 52. Of the Pillar of Brass or Stone appointed to be erected in remembrance of the Fire Meditations 53. Of the Anniversary Fast perpetually to be observed in remembrance of the Fire Meditations 54. Of the burning of Sion-Colledge Meditations 55. Of Citizens dwelling in Booths or House like Booths as in Moor-fields c. Meditations 56. Of certain Timber-houses and other sleight buildings at which the Fire stopt as in Smith-field c. Meditations 57. Upon the warning which other places may and ought to take by the burning of London Reader take notice that through mistake the Numbers 25 26 31 32. in the third part are twice printed which makes them end with 57. instead of 61. PART IV. Discourses 1. OF Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them Discourses 2. Of this that the life of man consists not in the abundance of what he possesseth Discourses 3. Of the Lessons of an afflicted estate well learnt their making way for prosperity to ensue Discourses 4. Of being content with Food and Rayment Discourses 5. Of the way to be assured of Food and Rayment Discourses 6. Of a good conscience being a continual feast Discourses 7. Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comfort Discourses 8. Of its being a great mercy to most Men that their lives are continued though their livelihoods are greatly impaired Discourses 9. Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever Discourses 10. Of abstracting from fancy and looking at those that are below our selves rather than at others Discourses 11. Of neer Relations and Friends being greater comforts each to other than they had wont to be Discourses 12. Of training up children in Religion that they may come to have God for their portion Discourses 13. Of that comfort under trouble which may be drawn from the consideration of Gods nature Discourses 14. Of drawing the waters of comfort under affliction out of the Wells of Gods Promises Discourses 15. Of fetching comfort from the usual proceedings of God with his people in and under affliction Discourses 16. Of that relief and support which the commonness of the case of affliction may afford us Discourses 17. Of the lightness of all temporal afflictions Discourses 18. Of the shortness of temporal Afflictions Discourses 19. Of the needfulness and usefulness of Affliction Discourses 20. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments Discourses 21. Of the Discommodities of Prosperity and Benefits of Affliction Discourses 22. Of the gracious ends and intendments of God in afflicting his people Discourses 23. Of Resignation to God and acquiescing in his good pleasure Discourses 24. Of taking occasion by this to study the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things Discourses 25. Of not being too eager upon the world after this great loss Discourses 26. Of chusing rather to continue under affliction than to escape by sin Discourses 27. Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London Next to this place the Title Part I. and the Epistle to the Earl of Northumberland PRELIMINARY DISCOURSES AND Meditations OF THE SINS FOR Which God hath first and last brought THE JUDGMENT OF FIRE PART I. By SAMVEL ROLLE Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by R. I. for Tho. Parkhurst Nath. Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. To the Right Honorable ALGERNOON Earl of Northumberland Baron Percy Poinings Fitz-pain and Bryan Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel To the Right Honorable EDWARD Earl of Manchester Baron of Kimbolton Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel AND To the Right Honourable Sir THOMAS INGRAM Chancellor of the Dutchy and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel S. R. Sometime Minister of Thistleworth and your Honours much obliged Servant humbly dedicateth the ensuing Discourses and Meditations with Apprecation of all Grace and Happiness Preliminary Discourses DISCOURSE I. Of the great duty of Considering in an evil time HE that would see my Commission for engaging in the work of meditation at such a time as this in which few men know what to do or say or think may read it in those words of Salomon Eccles 7.14 But in the day of Adversity consider Times of extraordinary trouble as they afford most matter to the Pen of an Historian so likewise to the mind and heart of an observing Christian Not considering in such times is called not seeing the hand of God when it is lifted up or refusing to see it For the word translated here consider is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is see Now saith the Prophet They will not see when thy hand is lifted up but they shall see and be ashamed c. Yea thâ— fire of thine enemies shall devour them Isa 26.11 Wherefore is it that God doth call upon his people to enter into their chambers shut their doors upon them hide themselves till the indignation be overpast for the Lord commeth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquities Isa 26.20 Is it not that men might then and there consider what God hath done and is doing He can do little in his chamber as a christian that might not be done elsewhere that knows not how to meditate and pray there nor can the latter be well performed without the former Therefore the Psalmist doth well joyn those two together Psal 19.14 saying Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord. Sure I am Affliction calls for a great deal of seriousness even to a degree of sadness James 5.1 Go to now you rich men weep and houl for your miseries which shall come upon you And should they not weep as much for those that are come upon them already and can no waies be prevented Now great seriousness there cannot be where there is no musing and considering and wheresoever considering is such as ought to be there must needs be seriousness I shall think that man despiseth the chastening of the Lord which is strictly forbidden Heb. 12.5 who is not thereby put upon considering such things as are behooveful for him and suteable to the circumstances under which he is So much is hinted to us by these words Isa 5.12 They regarded not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation
of his hands Methinks the punishment threatned in that case seems to speak that there is contempt of God in the sin said I only threatned yea executed For there is not only a woe to such v. 11. but in the 13. verse is added Therefore my people are gone into captivity And v. 14. Therefore hell hath inlarged her self and their glory and their multitude shall descend into it Doubtless it is a great sin in Gods account that procures so great a punishment Who can perform the grand duties of an afflicted state without considering who must not of necessity consider and as the Poet calls it in sese descendere go down into himself if he will search and try his wales and turn to the Lord as that afflicted Church is exhorted to do Lam. 3.40 But surely that proof is ex abundanti which is more than the express command in the first cited text and in others parallel with it Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt consider that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord chasteneth thee where both the matter and manner of their chastisement seemeth to be proposed to their consideration viz. that God had punished them and how But I have produced these proofs rather as motives to excite our wills and affections to so hard a work than as arguments to prove so easie and manifest a truth If the question be put what are the things we should consider of in an evil day it must here receive but a general answer for to answer it particularly and with reference to that amazing judgment by fire which lately befell the great City will be the drift and substance of all our ensuing Meditations and Discourses Yet I shall venture so far forth to prevent my self and anticipate what is behind as to say that it is our duty in an evil day to consider first what may make for our own humiliation and principally these two things viz. the greatness of our own sins Lam. 3.8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed Also the greatness of the judgments of God that are upon us For as sins so judgments ought not to be extenuated Lam. 4.6 The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment Secondly what may make for the vindication of God as just and righteous in all that he hath done against us To that purpose are the ensuing expressions of Scripture Job 34.23 God will not lay upon man more than is right that he should enter into judgment with him Pharaoh himself could say The Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked And this was when God rained down baile and fire upon him Exod. 9.27 and so said Rehoboam when Shishak came against him 2 Chron. 12.2 Shall such as they justifie God and shall not we saying with the Prophet Jeremy Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled c. And as he elsewhere Man for the punishment of his sin And then the causes of our Afflictions those we should also consider of remembring that trouble springs not out of the dust We should look at God as the efficient cause of all out miseries Lam. 2.17 The Lord hath done that which he hath devised he hath thrown down and hath not pitied and in that Chapter we finde the hand of God owned in every verse for ten verses together Neither is it less needful to consider what are the meritorious and procuring causes of all our miseries So Lam. 3.42 We have transgressed and rebelled thou hast not pardoned And Lam. 1.6 Jerusalem remembred not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully Nor may we forget the final cause or Gods primary end in sending them which is of all the rest most comfortable to consider So saith Moses to the Israelites Deut 8.2 Thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee this forty years in the Wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee c. Also Heb. 12.10 But he chasteneth us for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness Again we ought to consider what are the duties that are incumbent on us in a time of Adversity what is the Law and the Decorum of that condition and how we ought to behave our selves under the rod of the Almighty viz. Humbly Patiently Circumspectly c. of which we shall have occasion to discourse more fully hereafter The next thing to be considered at such a time is how and wherewithall we may be able to support and bear up our own hearts and the hearts of others in an evil day David saith Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickned me Which may be thus construed that it was a comfort to him in his afflictions to think that the Word of God had been a quickning and inlivening word to him which to many others is but as a dead letter One end of Gods vouchsafing us his Word is said to be that we through patience and comfort in the Scripture might have hope Rom 15.4 and that we should endeavour to comfort others is evident from 2 Cor. 1.4 where God is said to comfort his people in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort others that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith themselves are comforted of God One thing more I think of that should be considered by us in a time of adversity but shall not presume to say that and the rest I have mentioned are all and that is how and by what means we may in Gods way and without sin in Gods due time obtain deliverance as Paul in another case cries out who shall deliver we read in 1 Cor. 10.13 that God will together with the temptation also make a way to escape How to finde out a way of escaping is the care of all men or of the most but how to finde out that way which God hath made for our escape which is alwaies a lawful and a regular way that should fall under our consideration as also how to avoid and shun all other waies of escaping though ever so easie to us Now have we so many things to consider of in an evil day then O my soul here is work for thee as much as ever thou canst turn thy self to Gird up thy loines and set about it Now if ever is a time for serious consideration for who knows not that it is a time of great adversity and rebuke and needs it must when the most famous City in these three Kingdoms that was lately such is become a very ruinous heap Now London the glory of three renowned Kingdoms is made almost like unto Sodom and to Gomorrah Surely that man hath lost his thinking faculty that cannot think of this and he that is not sensible of it is past all feeling and seared as with a hot Iron O my soul I scarce know what to think of thee that
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 murrâ—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 sinâ— 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 iâ— 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 â—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 Hatâ—aavah might justly be written upon them that is the graves of those that lusted after more and by that meanes lost what they had If I were one of the murmurers as there were few exempted from that guilt O Lord I have cause to own thy justice in whatsoever this Fire hath or shall contribute to my loss and prejudice and also to adore thy mercy if my share in this loss were not proportionably so great as that of many others and those my betters MEDITATION IV. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb 16. THe sixteenth Chapter of the Book called Numbers in the 35 verse thereof tells us how that a Fire came down from the Lord and consumed no less then 250 Men that offered Incense not their Houses but their very Persons Some would hardly think that so small a crime as opposition to Magistracy and Ministry are in their account should have been the only causes of so heavy a judgment And yet we finde that alledged as the main if not the only reason of Corah and his Complices being consumed by fire The Confederates of Korah Dathan and Abiram are said to have been 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown Yet when such as they who one would think might better afford to do such a thing than meaner men gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron saying why lift ye up your selves above the Cougregation of the Lord and they themselves would be Priests and Princes as well as they verse 10. Seek ye the Priesthood also said Moses to them yee Sons of Levi. And in the 13 verse they quaâ—rel with Moses for making himself which was false for it was God that had made him so altogether a Prince over them as who shall say they would have no body above themselves either in Church or State I say when they shewed this kinde of spirit and principle you see how God punished it These were right Levellers if I mistake not they pretend they would have all to be alike vers 3. ye take too much upon you all the Congregation are holy every one of them wherefore then say they to Moses and Aaron lift ye up your selves above others But to pretend they would have none inferiour to them surely was but a stratagem to bring to pass that they might have no Superiors or rather that themselves might be superiour to all others This was like to come to good they would have neither head nor taile in Church or State or else it should be all head or all taile But from these principles of Anarchy and Ataxy set at work I say from the displeasure of God against them upon that account sprang the fire which we there read of Much of this spirit hath been in England within a few years past when not a few gloried in the name of Levellers at leastwise in the character and principles of men so called If any of those embers be still raked up under ashes I should fear least a Fire of tumult and confusion might break out from thence and by their meanes as soon as any way nor do I question at all but that the sin and guilt of such vile and antiscriptural tenets might help to kindle that fire which lately devoured the City God will not suffer two such great Ordinances as Magistracy and Ministry which so greatly concern the good of the World nor either of them to be trampled upon St. Jude speaks sharply of such men calling them filthy dreamers who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities they who would level these the God of order will level them for such are said to perish in the gain-saying of Korah Jude 11. Of such it is said in 2 Pet. 2.12 That as bruit Boasts they are made to be taken and to be destroyed and that they shall utterly perish in their own corruption But then if we consider Moses and Aaron one as a holy Magistrate the other as a holy Minister that did greatly aggravate the sin of Korah and his Complices in rising up against and seeking to depose them for as such they had a double â—tamp of God upon them viz. both as Magistrates and as good For as such they were not only called Gods but also partakers of the divine nature and if we must be subject to Superiours that are naught and froward 1 Pet. 2.18 much more to them that are good and gentle the destruction of usefull Magistrates and Ministers is one of the greatest disservices that can be done to the World and will as soon kindle the wrath of God as almost any sin that men commit 2 Chron. 36.16 But they mocked the messengers of God and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy Mat. 23.36 There we finde these words O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee c. Behold your house is left unto you desolate in Numb 16.11 Moses told Corah and his Company that they were gathered together against the Lord. For what is done against Magistrates and Ministers either as Officers ordained of God or as good in their places
charge to the sons of Levi to slay every man his brother and his companion and his neighbour v. 27. and all for their sin in reference to that Golden-calf and in v. 10. said God to Moses Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them By which we may plainly see that the Idolatrie I have been speaking of which is against the second Commandment kindleth fires as well as that which is against the first Commandment Therefore a Caveat is entred against Graven images Deut. 4.23 upon the account of Gods being a consuming fire and a jealous God a fire that can burn and full of jealousie which is the rage of God as well as of man so that he will not spare in the day of his anger Now if any should think it harsh to call that which is intended as the worship of the true God by the name of worshipping Idols when Idols are made use of only as memorials of God and helps to worship let them consider that if such worship any thing really and truly it is the Idol that is before them for it must be either that or God it is not God they worship for he accepts it no more than if they had cut off a dogs neck or offered swines blood Isa 66.3 See Acts 7.43 O ye house of Israel have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years yea ye took up the Tabernacle of Moleck He denies they offered to him because they corrupted his worship and so in effect he was not worshipped at all Amot 5.25 and Isa 1.11 Sring no more vain Oblations Therefore such persons doing that which God accounts now orship to himself are said to worship the Idol they pretend to worship by and so to bless an Idol Isa 66.3 and in 1 Cor. 10.20 The things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed to devils not to God not that they intended their Sacrifices for the service of devils least of all when they offered their sons and daughters Psal 106.37 Yet because it was a sacrifice acceptable to the devil and abominable to God it is said that they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils That is to the Idols of Canaan which they took for their Gods and not for devils v. 38. But moreover God punished worshipping by Idols as if it were worshipping of Idols because the former leads to the latter and will introduce it in time and presently too amongst a great many Many that are taught to worship before Images cannot distinguish of doing it Relatively not Absolutely mediately and not ultimately and so they do it absolutely and not relatively ultimately and not mediately Idols are brought in by the help of distinctions but when once brought in the distinctions are forgotten and the Idols only are remembred and the more ignorant sort of people will turn perfect heathens that is worshippers of stocks and stones The jealous God fore-seeing this forbids all use of Images in and about his worship seeing that kind of dalliance and kissing the calves will end at last in going a whoring from him by such Idolatrie as was amongst the blindest Heathens Now God would prevent the in-lets of evil and therefore he would not permit the Nazarites so much as to eat the stones of Grapes lest it should bring them by degrees to drink Wine which they had vowed against so neither will he suffer men to worship by or in the use of Images lest they come at last to worship Images themselves And to the end the worship of God might be kept pure care is taken in the second Commandment that men should present God with nothing as either medium or pars cultus but what himself hath prescribed for by the same reason that worshipping by Graven-images is forbidden are we prohibited the use of every other thing as any means or part of divine worship which Gâ—d hath not instituted Hence those words Mark 7.7 In vain do you worship me teaching for doctrine the traditions of men For the Pharisees to place Religion in washing before they eat whereas it was no more but cleanliness Mark 7.3 was very displeasing to our Saviour Christ Paul was very angry with those that pretended to a voluntarie humilitie in worshipping Angels Col. 2.18 that is they gave out that men ought to go to God by the mediation of Angels as being the more reverent way of addressing to God but Paul saith they were vainly puft up with their fleshly mind for that they intruded into those things which they had not seen any warrant for in Gods Word And as for those Galathians that did observe daies and moneths and times and years the Apostle saith plainly he was afraid he had bestowed upon them labour in vain namely because they thought to please and to worship God in and by those things which were never of his own appointment I wish then that whosoever shall read this Chapter may become convinced if not so before how greatly the sins of Idolattie and superstition do provoke God and kindle the fire of his wrath Saul gave Samuel a superstitious reason why the people took of the Sheep and Oxen the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroied namely that it was to sacrifice to the Lord in Gilgal Yet this their devotion besides and contrarie to Gods command is called Rebellion and said to be as the sin of witchcraft and as for Idolatrie if Idolaters do in Gods account sacrifice to devils how just is it for Idolatrie to be reckoned as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 Witches are burnt by the Laws of our Land Now if that which God calls Witchcraft should grow common amongst us viz. Idolatrie so called also in 2 Kings 9.22 which God forbid and the wisdome of our Governours will I hope seek to prevent we may expect more burning yet behind and such a fire of judgment to ensue as will consume us to utter and endless destruction Now Lord if those men whose Religion teacheth them to insist upon their merits and if others have merited also to flie to their works of supererogation as their manner is to idolize themselves and their own works if such shall attempt to break in upon us like a flood grant that thy Spirit poured out upon our Rulers may lift up its self as a standard against them MEDITATION VII Of Oppression Theft Deceit false Ballances mentioned in Scripture as causes of God's contending by Fire I Am forced to put several sins together that have affinity each with other because there are so many to which the judgment of fire is attributed or against which it is threatned that to consider them singlely would take up too much time and room I finde God threatning the Jews Ezek. 22.20 That he would put them into a Furnace leave them there and melt them And the cause thereof is assigned vers 29. The people of the Land have
sort ought not to be bad in contempt or to be needlesly put into a combustion Alas were it not that God had put a divine stamp upon Magistrates as he hath been pleased to call them Gods surely they could no more rule the people when in the calmest temper that ever they are in some being alwaies too rough then they could rule the Sea What wisdom can it then be to put so unruly a body into agroundless commotion If this Sea once become troubled work and rage and foam and swell how much is it to be feared it may overflow all its banks and invade us with a ruining inundation It was not cowardize but prudence in Herod to decline putting of John to death for fear of the people because they accounted him a Prophet Matth. 14.15 Likewise in the chief Priests and Elders of the people not to reply unto Christ that the Baptism of John was of men because of the people who all held him as a Prophet Matth. 21.26 For my own part I dread the Insurrection of people no less than the consequences of Fire it self the beginnings whereof have appeared very contemptible so that it hath been said as is reported that such a fire as that was at the first might be pissed out but the conclusion fatal beyond all imagination Now do I long to be at the end of this Meditation but having promised to shew what the matter of those particles is whereof Fire consists and considering with my self that some good morall may be gathered and infer'd from thence as I have already hinted that sulphurious or oily particles are those whereof Fire doth altogether or mostly consist so I shall now undertake to prove that so it is and consider how we may improve it It is manifest that all mixt bodies here below are compounded of five Elements or principles viz. Spirit otherwise called Mercury Water or Phlegme Sulphur or an Oily kind of substance Salt and Earth For each natural body be it of vegitables Animals or Minerals is by chymical art reduced or resolved into these five From any such bodie may be drawn a spirit or generous subtile liquor an Oile a Water a Salt and a kind of Earth saving that the two last are rather said to stay behind than to be drawn now if each body that is burning be as it is both its own fire and its own fuell both that which burns and that which is burnt then one or more of the fore-mentioned principles so modified must be the matter and form of fire As for the Watery and Phlegmatick part of each body no man will so confound two Elements so contrary each to other as to say that is the Fire which consumes Then as for that Salt and Earth which belongs to bodies they are not the Fire that burns them up for that which burns so far forth consumes and flies away but Salt and Earth they remain after the greatest burnings under the form of Ashes True it is that spirit or spiritous Liquor which is in Bodies is capable of taking Fire as we see spirit of Wine will burn and Feavers arise in the bodies of men by vertue of their spirits being inflamed but then we must consider that there is but little of that which is called Spirit or Spirits in Timber and such like materials of houses as are destroyed by Fire neither is the Fire of any great duration which hath only Spirits for its fuell as we see in the bodies of men that those Feavers which only fire the Spirits never last above three or four daies and many times not above one day and are therefore called Ephemeral Having therefore quitted Water Salt and Earth from being the causes of Fire and also proved that the Spirits of such kind of bodies which have but little of Spirits in them cannot contribute much to the maintenance of a desolating Fire Sulphur or the oyly part of each body will appear to be the great Incendiary and to be more the matter fuell and fomenter of Fire than any thing else And that it is so doth yet further appear in that such bodies of all others are most apt to take Fire and to burn fiercely when they have so done in which there is most of a sulphurious or oily substance as Oile it self Pitch Tarre c. Moreover we see that when any body is thoroughly burnt the sulphurious parts are all or most of them gone as if conscious of what they bad done they had fled for it and which is most of all demonstrative when those parts are once gone all or most of them what remains will burn no longer as you see we cannot make a fire with Ashes for that they consist only of Salt and Earth with little or no commixture of Sulphur Sith then Sulphur or Brimstone though in an acceptation somewhat different from that which in commonly called by that name is the great matter of Fire and the Agitation Commotion and Flight of it is the very Form of Fire I shall the less wonder hereafter to finde the Scripture still joyning Brimstone and Fire together So Gen. 19 24. The Lord rained upon Sodom Brimstone and Fire Psal 11.6 On the wicked he shalt rain Fire and Brimstone And Isa 30.33 The Pile whereof is Fire much Wood. The breath of the Lord like astream of Brimstone kindleth it viz. Tophet Fire most usually kindleth Fire A stream of Brimstone in violent motion is Fire and here you see the breath of the Lord is said like a mighty stream of Brimstone to kindle Tophet which kinde of expression is more genuine and philosophical than most men know it to be and may hint unto us that thorough our ignorance it comes to pass that many expressions in Scripture seem to us no more proper and significant than they do it faring with us in the reading of holy Writ as with those that ignorantly walk or ride over precions Mines little do they think what a world of Treasure they tread upon nor if they did could they be content till they had gotten within the bowels of that ground which now they flightly trample upon But I have been too long in this Philosophical contemplation because it was such and must endeavour to compensate my prolixity in this with greater Brevity in the rest at leastwise of that sort if any such shall occur CONTEMPLATION II. Touching the Nature of Sulphur which is the principal matter and cause of Fire and how it comes to be so mischievous in the World BEing credibly informed that the Element called Sulphur hath had the greatest hand under God in the late dismal Fire as it hath had in all other whereby Towns and Cities have been laid waste it is but fit we should take him under serious examination and strictly enquire what he is by what waies and means he brings such great desolations to pass Sulphur that is Brimstone so called by Chymists because it hath some assinity with that which
Lord hast done it If thou hadst so pleased London might have been like the Bush which did burn but was not consumed but thou didst give it up to the flames Lord at what a rate hath London yea England sinneâ— that thou hast thus punished it Thou dost manâ— times punish men lesse than their sins deserve but never more Which of us have not contributed by our iniquities to this as well as to other judgements Which of us have not cause to say Lord forgive us that by our sins we have infected London and England with a devouring Plague that we have helpt to embroil it in a consuming War yea that we have had our hands as by way of demerit in kindling the late Fire which burnt London to the ground MEDITATION II. Upon sight of the Weekly Bill for London since the Fire VVIth how sad a heart have I read that Bill finding but sixteen Parishes within the wals now pretended to and considering with my self by how great a Synecdoche some of those Parishes do at this day go by their former names It is that figure which puts a part for the whole yea a small part too the compounding Figure as I may call it that takes as it were five shillings or half a Crown for a pound which alone warranteth us to call London London still and severall parishes said to be now standing by the names which they did bear formerly The unjust Steward Luke 16.7 used substraction onely where a hundred was owing he bid them set down fifty but we as if that were to be more just proceed by way of multiplication setting down a a hundred for ten or twenty We view our City as it were through a microscope which represents the leg of a Flea so big as if it were the leg of some creature far bigger than its whole Body So might we call a sometimes great and samous Inne the Crown or Miter as it was formerly called though burnt down to the proportion of a Cottage because the sign and sign post are still to be seen and there is yet some small part of the old Building Is it not rather the Epitomâ— of London which we now have than London it self as if the abridgement of a Book in Folio be it Aquinas his Summes or any other such should go by the name of Aquinas his Sums or what other name it bore in Folio when contracted into a smal Manual or Pocket-Book It is London in short hand such as might contain the Decalogue within the compasse of a single penny rather than so at length if yet we may call it London Is it not rather Londons Remains and Ruins its â—â—rn and Ashes than London it self So a Burgesse or two in Parliament stands for a whole Town a Knight or two for a whole Shire so Lords Spiâ—ual and Temporal write themselves London Yorke Lincoln Canterbury as if they were whole Cities or Towns being indeed but single and individual persons Methinks it is as if Judah and Benjamin were called Israel being indeed but two Tribes of Twelve Nor am I lesse affected with that dolefull parenthesis in two short words viz. Now standing How am I pusht with the two horns of that parenthesis putting me upon this dilemma that I know not whether more to be thankfull that all London is not fallen or more to lament that so small a part of it is yet standing The late Plague gave us to see and expect London without many Inhabitants at leastwise for a time but to see London with but a few habitations was that we never lookt for We have lately known a Plague that laid thousands of Citizens under ground but who dreamt of a Fire that would lay the City it self upon the ground Hear O Heavens and be astonished O earth I find as many sorts of diseases in the Bill now as ever They find men out go whither they will they crowd into Families that have scarce room enough to turn themselves in Death will not spaâ—e as if it pitied those whom the fire hath not spared Mens tabernacles must go to wrack as well as their houses But to confine my self to the business of the sire Methinks London at this day is a lively Emblem of a Professor fallen from his first Love or rather a backsliding Professor is just in such a condition as London is at this day He goes by the same name as formerly but How far is he from being the same person he was How like is he to those Churches the outsides whereof are yet standing their walls and steeples make such a fair show that they who should view them at a distance would think they were just as before but alas Their insides are gone they are fit for no use yea their very out-sides are so frail and brittle that in a windy day men are loth to pass by them for fear of being knockt on the head What havock hath sin made in all the faculties of such men which if the Soul may be compared to a City may be called the several streets of that City How hath error destroyed their understandings ill habits their wills and inclinations to good the World consumed their spiritual affections all these things conspired to desolate and lay waste their Consciences and now those men though called Christians still and glorying in that name lie just like London in dust and rubbish and ashes O Lord Give England to meet thee in the way of thy judgements by a timely repentance yea give these three Kingdomes so to do lest it come to pass that hereafter England should be called England and Great Britain Great Britain and the three Kingdomes so by as great a Synecdoche as the poor Remains of London are now called London and the Reliques of some streets said to be now standing by the name those streets had when in their beauty and glory MEDITATION III. Upon the Discourses occasioned by the late Fire both thâ—n and since SOme came to London in the time of the Fire having heard of it but not seen it and probably their first question was Is the Fire out Alas no would they say that answered them It is so far from being out that it rageth more and more They that heard it was not out would be asking how far it was gotten whereabouts it was Then would men begin to reckon up the Streets and Churches that were burnt down already Thames street is gone and Fish street is gone and Gracious Street is down and now it is at such a place and such a place and so they would proceed Is the Fire abated would others say Is there any hope of extinguishing it We see little sign of it would some reply It is seared it will consume the whole City and Suburbs too Why do they not play their Engines would some cry Alas they are broken and out of Kelter we little expecting such a sad time as this Some it may be would say Why do so many people
stories we have told of thy most heavy hand upon us Seeing thou hast thus seasoned our communication as it were with salt and salted it as it were with fire shall that which is rotten and unsavoury proceed out of our mouths from henceforth Let us remember what we said to others and what others said to us that we may never be unmindfull of what thou hast done both to us and them we have spoken with sad countenances and with aking hearts Oh that by the sadnesse of our countenances our hearts might be made better MEDITATION IV. Upon the dishonest Carters who exacted excessive Rates IS there a Conscience in men or is there none Or is there some such thing in Pagans and Infidels but no such thing in Christians or is there a Conscience in the Christians of other parts but none in Englishmen Or is there some in other Englishmen but none in plow-men and Carters at leastwise in the most of them who came to help the Londoners away with their goods in the time of the Fire Whatsoever there be in other men there seems to have been no such thing in them witness their plowing as they did upon the backs of poor Citizens and making long furrowes in the time of their utmost Calamity Londoners have been glad sometimes if they could get but one in ten of their broken Chapmen but you when you saw a fire that was like to break hundreds of Citizens would have ten for one five pound for so little work as ten shillings if not five would have been taken for at another time Let it not be known in Gath never let Papist or Turk or Jew read this paper whereby to know what you have done They would think it were never possible to go to heaven in your Religion Who can believe you to be so much or so good as meer men For can there be a man without humanity The Apostle saith He is not a Jew that is a Jew outwardly and may I not say He is not a Man that is a Man outwardly but he that hath the tender heart and bowels of a man As there are VVolves in Sheeps cloathing as our Saviour speaks so Are there not evil Angels appearing in the shape of Men Did you do as you would be done by which is the Rule of Justice when you seemed to vie with the fire it 's self which should be most cruel you or it It gave most men space to carry away their goods you might have given them opportunity to have done it and would not but upon most unreasonable tearms such as many were not able to come up to Should Landlords knowing you cannot live without ground to work upon make you pay ten times so much Rent as it is worth How would you curse them and be ready to call them Baptized Jews Uncircumcised Turks or other names as bad as those and such as I dare not call you whatsoever you deserve as remembring how the Arch-angel durst not bring a railing accusation against the Devil himself but only said The Lord rebuke thee Jude the 9th Were any of you dangerously sick and in great extremity and being so should send for the only Physician near at hand and he should refuse to come though it were to save your life unless you would give him ten Fees for one would you not go nigh to use that rude Proverb concerning him viz. That he would get the Devil and all and would you not think that one good angel might be better to him than ten evil ones and such are all that are ill gotten Were your Wives in sore Travail and but one Midwife to be had that were able to deliver them and she knowing their necessity to make use of her should so far work upon it as to capitulate for as many pounds as she used to have shillings or else give out that for her mother and child should both perish together How would you make the Countrey ring of the savage cruelty of so extorting a Midwife If you had urgent occasion for money and some biting Usurer knowing of it should make you directly or indirectly to pay twenty or thirty pound per Cent. how would you take on at him and clamour upon him Such was your dealing with poor Londoners in the day of their distress As the raging Sea when men are in danger of being cast away will have a great part of their lading cast into her lap or not suffer them to ride safe or as Thieves do make men buy their lives at a great rate which they ought neverthelesse to save and suffer them to enjoy free-cost or as the Devil himself when he osters his assistance to men in their great straights exacts that of them for his pains which is more worth than the whole world viz. Their Souls requiring to be paid manifold more than his work comes to Such was the equity you used towards distressed Citizens in the time of the fire as if you had been Jews and they Samaritans There was a Samaritan himself who when he saw a stranger that had been robb'd and wounded and half-dead had compassion on him bound up his wounds paid for his lodging took care of him Luke 10 33. Surely you are no akin to that good Samaritan you took from them whom the fire had robbed before you made their wounds bleed afresh with your unkindness you even killed those outright with your cruelty whom fire and grief and fear had made half dead before Did you ever read that Text Acts 28.2 where Paul saith The barbarous people shewed us no little kindnesse for they kindled a fire and received us every one because of the present rain and because of the cold This did Barbarians to strangers when exposed but to rain and cold which is nothing like so dangerous as fire but what you Carters called Christians did to men of your own Nation and of your own Religion the world knows too well as if you indeed had been the Barbarians and they that Paul speaks of had been Christians Will not the Christian-like carriage of those Barbarians judge the barbarous carriage of you Christians if I may so call you Have you never read those words 1 Cor. 6.10 Extortioners shall not inherit the Kingdome of God nor those in 1 Thes 4.6 Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such Quit yourselves if you can from having been Extortioners and such as have defrauded and gone beyond others I doubt not in the least but this was a real theft in the sight of God You think it was not because they consented and contracted to give you so much But so may a man consent to deliver his purse to a high-way man that threatneth if he do not so he will have his life Doth that make it no theft on his part that takes it A man may consent to that which is a real injury to himself to
true that coppy of them which is within his own breast may be lost or missing at leastwise for a time but then there is a counter-part of them kept in heaven which can never be lost for The foundation of God stands sure and he knoweth who are his It is happy for us that uncertain things are those of less value but that those things which are most valuable though indeed only they may be ascertained and insured in heavenly things Sad was the loss of Writings as they were Evidences of mens Estates but methinks more sad as they were the Vouchers of mens honesty or if by this meanes either honest men become suspected or those that have been otherwise cannot be detected and discovered But methinks where alwayes heretofore found faithful it is but equal to admit no jealousie of them upon this occasion No doubt but he that was faithful till the fire will be faithfull after it and not be worse for that Purgatory if I may so call it O Lord Art not thou he that didst find out a way to acquit those chast Women that were suspected of Adultery Numb 5.28 Art not thou he who didst furnish Solomon with wisdom to know which was the true Mother of the living child to which two Women laid an equal claim 1 Kings 3 Art not thou he that didst direct Queen Emma and others to passe the hot plow-shares bare-foot and blind-fold without hurting her self when by that ardent fire proof was to be made of her unspotted chastity Clear up I beseech thee the integrity of thy innocent servants whose Accompts and Acquittances this fire hath destroyed but as for others search out their wickedness till thou find none or as thou saidst thou wouldst search Jerusalem with candles Zeph. 1.12 What work hath this burning of Writings made for greedy Lawyers What a barvest are they like to have by that means One sire I doubt will beget another viz. that of endless contention and Law-suits Now the sire hath gotten mens Vintage I wish unjust Claimers on one hand and Lawyers on the other do not sweep awar their Gleanings They are newly leapt out of the fire and Most they presently come into the frying-pan Can the wisdom of our Governors find out no way whereby to prevent vexations Suits that will otherwise arise upon this occasion to preserve the rights of honest men now their Writings are gone and to prevent the unjust claims of those that are dishonest If ever Magistrates needed a Priest one or more to ask Counsel for them after the Judgment of Urim before the Lord Numâ— â—7 20 as Eleazar did for Joshuâ— now is the time Howsoever thou O Lord who girdest up the wrath of men or so much of it as will not turn to thy praise vouchsafe to put such a restraint upon the spirits of men that those who were half-undone by the fire may not be utterly so either by merciless Lawyers or by unrighteous Adversaries and unjust Claimers MEDITATION XV. Upon the Burning of Saint Pauls Church the unconsumed Body of Bishop Brabrook HOw long was this goodly Cathedral in building How leasurely did it proceed Insomuch that it became a Proverb when men did any thing slowly That they made Pauls-work of it But so did not the fire when it came to destroy it but consumed it presently as if it had been but Jonas his gourd which sprang up in a night Dying Persons are oft-times very restless they shift from one side of their beds to the other and talk much of removing to other places So have I observed this noble Structure not long before its fatal period to have shifted often First it was a Church then a Stable as some were pleased to make it within these few years but the argument was far fetcht if they think that because Christ himself did sometimes lie in a Stable and in a Manger that therefore one and the same place might well serve both for brutish and for sacred uses Otherwhile if not at the very same time it was made a Court of Guard without any intention as I believe to make it an Emblem of the Church Militant or to exhibit any other religious mystery And then of late it wheel'd about again to its Primitive use to be a place appropriated to Divine Worship Few expected it would continue long a Stable or a Court of Guard for great alienations like strong sticks that are much bent do quickly start back again but when it became once more a Church they that considered it had stood above five hundred years from its first Erection yea and Conflagration which latter was in 1087. after which it was soon built again and did observe it to bear its years well as if it were at most but of a middle age saw no cause to doubt but it might last as much longer But alas How were they deceived and How was its destruction at the very door Surely Papists are deceived in thinking Crucifixes to carry a safeguard and protection with them considering that this Cathedral was built in the figure of a Cross and yet when Fire did appreach had no relief by it It had been a comfortable sight to have beheld the first erection of that stately Church considering the Scituation and Dedication of it that whereas before in the same place stood a Temple Dedicated to Diama and as is supposed a Wood and Grove about it devoted to her use there was then another in the room of it the name whereof might speak the place alienated from heathenism to Christianity from the service of a false goddesse to the service of the true God and of his Son Jesus Christ Twice hath that famous Structure been fired before at leastwise part of it both times by lightning and thereunto exposed by the transcendent height of its Steeple One of those times it burnt a great part of the City of London if I mistake not and now the City by a kind of unintended retaliation hath helpt to burn it Great pity it is to see so noble a building in the dust and yet it is likely some will but little pity it if not rejoyce in the ruins of it especially it s disaffected neighbours whose houses that had wont to lean to the sides of it like Vines climbing upon a wall had at leastwise received sentence to be pulled down But should not men regard the honor of their Nation whatsoever became of private interests One strange and remarkable passage that did relate to this Cathedral I cannot but reflect upon viz. The unheard of continuance of a certain dead Body viz. the Body of one Dr. Bâ—aybroâ—k sometimes Bishop of London and Lord Chancellor of England which was there interred above two hundred years ago and as several that have seen it do inform was taken up since this fire and found to retain much of it's manly shape and most of it's external parts to the amazement of such as beheld it and did withall believe it
Combustible Materials to wit Pitch Tar Oils Hemp and Powder it's self viz. Thames-street Moreover how near was it to the Water-houses the burning down of which places was just like a subtle Enemy his seizing upon some considerable Forts which might otherwise stand in his way and obstruct his design It makes me think of what is spoken Psal 78.50 how that God did make a way to his anger as if he would have nothing to hinder the passage of it And upon the whole I cannot but recount those words of God by his Prophet to the Jews Jer. 18.11 Behold I frame evil against you and devise a device against you for methinks it appeareth like a Destruction wisely framed and devised But as for such as think it came neither by Treachery nor by Casualty they must needs ascribe it to meer Providence and to nothing else not onely to God but to God alone like the burning of Nadab and Abihu or of Sodom and Gomorrah So that let men derive the pedigree of this fire whence they will as there are three conjectures about it they cannot exclude the Providence of God from having signally appeared in it It is a sign the great God is not ashamed of what he hath done and that he cares not who knows it For how easie had it been for him to have contrived the burning of London in such a way as that himself might scarce have been seen in it that men would generally have thought it had been the hand of Man and not of God any more than every thing else is But now methinks it is as if the great God had said If any man ask Who set London on fire let the Circumstances tell them it was I that did it Surely something is the matter that God should as it were glory in making known that he it was that set London on fire Was it not to show that he had a Controversie with us Might it not be also lest his governing of the World should be called in question if so great a thing should have hapned to all appearance by meer chance and fortune Was it not also to make us stoop and submit to so great a loss upon such an accompt as David did when he said I held my peace because thou Lord didst it Or Might it not be also to tell us That he challengeth to himself just Power and Authority to burn up great Cities at his pleasure and Who shall say unto him what doest thou As Lebanon is said not to be sufficient for him to burn so neither was London more than sufficient O London Disdain not to fall by that hand by which thou art fallen It was not that poor Miscreant that ended his dayes at Tyburn that did or could by his own power destroy thee though possibly he may be somewhere Canonized for the Saint that did it If God had not first dried thee he and a hundred more could never have burnt thee If he kindled the fire it would have gone out again if God had not blowed the coal It was he that saith Behold I shake heaven and earth It is he that can take hold of the Pillars of the Universe and tumble it down when he pleaseth It is he that in processe of time will serve the whole World as he served thee It was he I say that bid thee come down and lie in the dust Humble thy self under his mighty hand He can raise thee up again and make thee a Princesse among the Nations when Paris and Rome may chance to lie in Ashes MEDITATION XVII Upon the burning of the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily VVHat a rebuke is it to the Censoriousnesse of men who are ready to charge London with greater sins than other places are guilty of because this great Judgment fell upon it I say what a rebuke is it to them to behold the most eminent seat of Justice in all those parts consumed by the same fire Who dare or who truly can in this case apply those words of Solemon Eccles 3.16 I saw under the Sun the place of Judgment that Wickednesse was there and the place of Righteousnesse that Iniquity was there For amidst all the complaints of men about other matters and particular distastes they have taken at particular persons or passages I do not know that man that will deny that there is as much of Law and Conscience to be found amongst the Reverend Judges which are at this day as amongst the Judges of any Time and Age whatsoever The consideration whereof may be no small comfort to the poor Citizens whose difficult Cases relating to the fire are like to lie in their breasts and be subjected to their wise determination which I hope will be such as may abundantly confirm that honourable Character which I think but justice to give concerning them Yet was that honourable and most eminent place of their Sessions within the City burnt amongst the rest How commodious was that place for their work for that it was scituare near to the great Den of Theeves and Receptacle of Felons Newgate I mean it being requisite that Justice and Sin should not dwell far asunder but that the former should as it were tread upon the heels of the latter From thence had many Malefactors received sentence to be deservedly executed but now the place itself which for what cause we know not had received an unexpected sentence in heaven had it executed accordingly and came to an untimely end yet had it stood so long as to acquire the name of Old being called the Old-Baily and as one Author thinks was a Court of Justice for some purposes above three hundred years since viz. in the year 1356. And what more than Old or very Old can be attributed to any Creature upon earth in point of duration none of which in this world shall be perpetual for that is more than the world it self shall be The Apostle telling us that all these things shall be dissolved When places of Justice are destroyed perhaps Malefactors will rejoyce though they have little cause for change of place will no whit mitigate their punishment but all true and honest men will be sorry May there nere want a place in which to try and arraign Malefactors in case there be any such but much rather do I wish there might no more be any Malefactors deserving to be tried MEDITATION XVIII Upon the Gates and Prisons of London that were burnt COncerning those that use an after care and provide too late our Proverb is That when the Steed is stolen they shut the Stable door but the fire when it had stollen the Steed I mean destroyed the City slung open the Gates or rather demolished and ruinated severall of them Gates without a City being as insignificant and to as little purpose as a City without Gates is unsafe Yet had those Gates been standing which are not I mean in strength and perfection it might have carried a good Omen and Presage
in comparison of Himself was but of yesterday for what is six thousand years to Eternity and He will Be still when the world shall be no more He was Light to himself when as yet there were no Sun Moon and Stars yea he was Light it's self so he is and so he will be when all those lights shall be put out We cannot better afford to burn a Rush-candle till we have burnt it out or when that is done misse it lesse than he can to burn up the Sun it 's self and to disfurnish all the Stars of their borrowed light God looks upon this world as that which is too good for wicked men alwayes to enjoy but not good enough for his Children alwayes to continue in Of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11. and so being not fit to be the eternal Mansion either of the one or of the other hath resolved that when it hath served to the end for which it was made it shall be burnt His Friends shall have better Mansions his Enemies shall not have so good How soon the Conflagration of the World shall be Who can tell God prefixed the time in which he would destroy the first World viz. within a hundred and twenty years after warning given but hath not done so by this Of that day and hour knows no man no not the Son of man viz. as man It may be nearer at hand than we are aware of The ends of the world seem to be upon us If Saint John and others contemporary with him called the time wherein they lived The lâ—st time 1 John 2.18 Heb. 1.2 2 Pet. â— â— What may this be called Well might the Psalmist say This their way is their folly of them whose inward thought was that their House and Lands should continue for ever Psalm 49.11 whereas alas the world it self shall not do so Were they secure that were told The world should be drowned at the end of a hundred and twenty years and would not regard and are not we that know the world shall be burnt and that for ought we know within half that time or less and yet are not affected with it Ought not the very thoughts of that burning to be as a fiery Chariot to convey our minds from earth to heaven Ought it not to quench our affections to the world as one heat puts out another so the heat of the Sun puts out the Fire I observe Saint Peter to say that The earth and the works that are thereof shall be burnt by which I suppose he means the works of Art because he speaks of none of the works of heaven which are all natural such as are strong Towers stately Pallaces famous Cities and such like Now the day in which that shall be done saith he shall come upon the world as a thief in the night that is suddenly and unexpectedly Nor know I what better use can be made of the doctrine of the Worlds intended Destruction by fire than that which we read 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness MEDITATION XX. Upon the Fire of Hell VVHo can think on the late dreadfull fire without some serious reflections on the more dreadful fire of hell If that Tophet which is spoken of Isa 30.33 be the same with Hell methinks the description of it is such as doth not a little agree with our late fire The pile thereof saith the Prophet is much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Was not the pile of our late fire much wood of Churches Houses and other Structures and did not the wind which may be called the breath of the Lord so kindle it or rather increase it as if it had been a mighty stream of Brimstone poured in upon it Some are not more hard to believe there is a Hell a Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is The second death than they would have been to believe that any such fire should or could have fallen upon London as that which lately did If more dreadful things than we could imagine do happen unforetold as the late Judgement for one Why should we think those incredible which the Scripture plainly speaks of though they far transcend our imagination and what we should otherwise expect Nothing can make the burning of London and the misery attending it seem small but to consider the fire of Hell and the misery of the damned and that considered this doth even vanish and disappear before it For What is a fire of four days continuance to that which shall last more millions of millions of Ages than there are minutes in the space of four dayes and nights Or What is a fire preying upon Houses and Goods to that which shall prey upon Bodies and Souls as Christ hath commanded us to Fear him who can cast sâ—ul and body into hell If one Soul be as it is more worth than many worlds how much lesse is one City worth than many thousand souls Neither is Hel an uncompounded torment consisting of fire onely but there are other ingredients to make the misery of it more unsufferable There is the worm that shall never die there it the darknesse that shall never end There is the heat of fire to Torment but not the light of fire to Refresh Oh the demerit of sin that fire which of it's self is so intolerable a torment should not be thought sufficient to punish it Shall I dread fire alone such as that which befell the City and shall I not dread more scorching flames than those accompanied with a gnawing worm and a perpetual night I can heartily say with that good man Hic ure hic seeâ— Domine sed in aeternum pâ—rce Here O Lord cut and burn and do what thou wilt with me onely spare in Eternity May the consideration of Hell-fire not onely deterr me from sin but also kindle love to Christ within me who is therefore called Jesus because he shall save his people from the wrath to come MEDITATION XXI Upon the coming of that most dreadful fire in so Idolized a year as 1666. VVHen will men give over groundlesse prophecying When will they learn not to be wise above what is written Did not Christ say to his Disciples It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own hands One said That an Itch of disputing was in his time the scab of the Church and in our time an Itch of prophecying hath been the same thing According to the manifold prophesies which have been concerning it -66. should have been a year of Jubilee I had almost said a time of the Restitution of all things but alas Whilst men lookt for light behold darkness whilst they cried Peace peace greater destruction then ever was coming upon them It is said that God hath set one over against
and London what ever you please to call it or any thing else wherewith you shall think fit to delude them by those artifices which you call Pious-Frands which is as proper an expression as Pious-Devils but our people converse with the Sun I mean the light of Scripture They have read the book of the Revelations of Saint John and though they do not pretend to understand every thing therein conteined yet they doubt not what is meant by the beast's having seven heads and ten horns Rev. 13.1 because they find Saint John himself expounding it Rev. 17.9 The seven heads are seven mountains And there are seven Kings that is Forms of governments Five are fallen and one is and the other is not yet come c. These passages agree quadrate to Rome exactly It was built upon seven Hills yet to be seen though some of them be now without the walls of the City It had seven forms of Government whereof five were fallen in Saints John's time viz. Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemvir's Dictators one is saith he that is Emperors were then in being the other was not yet come viz. Popes But do these expressions all or any of them agree to London as they agree to Rome Doth that stand upon just seven hills Hath that had just seven forms of Government five whereof were fallen in Saint John's time and one other in being With what face then can you affirm London to be Babylon But I see Those men have impudence enough to assert any thing who have taught their followers to believe every thing they please to assert A faith of Legends and only that may be sufficient to assure men that London was Mystical-Babylon for that I take to be more than a faith of Miracles the latter being a saith of Possibles the other of Impossibilities and contradictions Therefore though some of the sillier sort of Papists may believe and others may boldly assert the same though they believe it not as they do in many other cases yet Protestants can never be perswaded to it whilst the world stands nor any other persons that are from under the power of gross Ignorance or Prejudice As for the name Antichrist Who knows not that it imports one that sets himself in the stead or place of Christ as well as against Christ the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both pro and con that is as well For as Against Now Who amongst those that are called Protestants can be charged with setting himself in the place of Christ as if he would be taken for Christ himself But that do the Popes of Rome successively whilst they affirm to themselves those things which are peculiar to Christ alone as namely Forgiveness of sin c. I had forborn this discourse but that I have been advertised of the reproaches of some of the Papists who after the Baptism of fire we have lately undergone go about to Baptize us and our City with their spittle by the names of Babylon and Anti-christ due only to Rome and Romanists and God forbid that whilst Papists do unjustly asperse Protestants whose Religion is that which the Laws of England doth establish Protestants should not have leave and take heart enough to vindicate themselves In a word if London be Mystical Babylon so confident am I it is not let it never rise again if Rome be not let it never fall and on the other hand let Rome so fall as it proves to be Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth Rev. 17.5 and let London so rise and flourish again and only so as it shall be found to be otherwise MEDITATION XLII Upon the Pains which the Kings Majesty is said to have taken in helping to extinguish the Fire I Was no eye-witness but have been informed that when the Fire came near to Cripplegaâ—t His Majesty being then and there present did in His own Person take great Pains no less as was told then if He had been a poor Labourer to promote the extinction of it Possibly some weak and inconsiderate persons that saw His Majesty at that time stooping so low might in their hearts despise Him for it as Michal did David for leaping and dancing before the Ark 2 Sam. 6.16 and 20. saying in derision How glorious was the King of England to day as she How glorious was the King of Israel c. But wise and religious persons that had seen David in that posture would have spoken the same words in good earnest which she spake in scorn meaning as they said How glorious indeed was the King of Israel whilst transported with holy zeal he leapt before the Ark which is called Dancing before the Lord The like can I say from mine heart of our Dread Soveraign How glorious was He in truth and in reality when He took upon Him the form or rather the work of a mean-man and vouchsafed His helping Hand to stop that dismal Fire when it was in its full carreer Had I seen Him with His Crown upon His Head His Scepter in His Hand His Noble Senators all waiting upon Him in their Parliament-Robes or in all the State in which He could have been seen Cant. 3.11 either on the day of His Coronation or of His Espousals I could not have reverenced Him more than I should have done if I had beheld Him with a Bucket in His Hand pouring water upon the Flames or than I do so often as I think of Him in some such posture of most kind and obliging condescension Me-thinks it was but equal that Christ should be more loved but not less honoured when he humbled himself so far as to take a Towel and therewith to wash and to wipe his Disciples feet John 13.4 Kings never act more like themselves than when they are doing good to their Subjects and are snatching them or their Concerns as fire-brands out of the Fire forasmuch as the Scripture saith That Magistrates are the Ministers of God to those that are under them for good Rom. 13.4 The Roman Emperors had wont to issue out their Commands to their Soldiers not in the third but in the first Person So Pertinax his Word and Motto was Militemus not March ye but Let us March on including himself So Septimius Severus his word was Laboremus Let us be doing In like manner our Gracious Soveraign is said to have stretcht forth His own Royal Hands to assist the putting out of those Aspiring Flames which seemed to expect a Princely Extinguisher That was such a kind of Royal Aid as all Subjects must needs be in love with and Why not more free to that other which goes by such a name in the remembrance of this One of the Ancients did wish to have seen Christ in the Flesh Paul in the Pulpit and Rome in its ancient Glory Much rather at lest-wise than the last of these would I have seen that sight I am now speaking of viz. His most Excellent Majesty
uniformly transcend the piety of former ages as well in all other things as we have done in this then shall we not need to doubt but as our greater sins have of late years procured us greater judgements one in the neck of another than have formerly been known in so quick a succession viz. of Sword Pestilence and Fire so our transcendant Reformation will end in greater blessings than former ages have been acquainted with It is not without several Patterns and Presidents in Scripture that Memorials should be erected as well of Judgements as of Mercies For not only did Jacob set up a Pillar of Stone in the place where God talked with him and fastened the name of Bethel upon it Gen. 35.14 in remembrance of the great Favour there vouchsafed him but God himself to commemorate his great displeasure against Let 's Wife for looking back towards Sedom which she ought not to have done verse 17. turned her into a Pillar of Salt which may signifie a lasting Pillar or a hard stiff Body of perpetual duration in which sense the Covenant of God is called a Covenant of Salt that is of perpetuity to season after-Ages with the remembrance of his judgment upon her We read of the brazen-Censers of Kerah and his Company those sinners against their own souls as they are called that they were made into broad-Plates for a covering of the Altar to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no stranger that is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Korah and his company Numb 1.16.39 We read also of a great Stone called Abel which word lignifieth Grief and that name seemeth to have been given it because of the Lamentation which the People made over those Bethshemites that were slain for looking into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6.18 The Philistims themselves when smitten by God with Emereds and plagued with Mice are said to have presented the Lord with certain Monuments of those judgments that were upon them viz. with so many Golden Emerods or figures of Emerods and so many Golden Mice as a Trespass-offering 1 Sam. 6.4 5. VVherefore ye shall make Images of their Emerods and of your Mace whichs mar the Land and shall give glory to the God of Israelâ— peradventure he will lighten his hand from off youâ— from off your gods and from off your Land which plainly showes that even those blind Heathen did look upon the due Commemoration of Judgments as a thing well-pleasing unto God and we are assured it is so by the complaint which God maketh of the Israelites their forgetting the great things which God had done in Aegypt and terrible things by the Red-Sea meaning the drowning of Pharaoh and all his Host there Psal 106.21 And the Apostle writing of what had befallen the murmuring Israelites 1 Cor. 10.6 saith These things are our examples that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Therefore remember them we must or else we can take no warning by them He that questioneth the needfulness of erecting a Pillar or some other Monument to commemorate the late dreadful Fire may see his Error if he do but consider that London though not such a London then as this was hath formerly been burnt several times and did once continue in ashes fourscore and five years together and yet the generality of men now living in these parts were so far from considering and awing their hearts with the remembrance of it that but here and there a man doth so much as know that any such thing was ever done How vain a thing is it for Papists to bear us in hand De 〈◊〉 Hist Câ—l 114.8.131.161.213.263 That Orall-Tradition is sufficient to transmit Religion to the World and is the great thing we are to vely upon when but for the Writings of Historians we had all been ignorant of so remarkable a thing as was the burning of London five several times viz. Anno Domini 798 and Anno 801 and again Anno 982 and again Anno Domini 1087. and after that in the year 1133 which was little more than five hundred years agoe Had our Parliament had any such considence in Orall-Tradition they had never designed a Pillar for the memorial of a Fire so hard to be forgotten How weakly do Papists Argue that the Authority of the Scriptures is built upon the Church and the Church its self Infallible because it is called The Pillar of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 Whereas Pillars are many times erected for other uses than to uphold and under-prop buildings as the several Instances which I have brought from Scripture of Pillars set up only as Monuments and Memorials and the use to which the Pillar I am now treating of is to be applied do plainly prove Such a Pillar is the Church viz. to transmit the memory of Religion or rather that Inscription the Scriptures I mean which are the great memorial thereof from one Age to another But Will the intended matter of that Pillar which is appointed to be either Brass or Stone afford us nothing of a profitable Meditation Methinks it should What Mettal is there that more resembleth Fire than doth burnished-Brass therefore in Ezek. 1.7 we read that the feet of the living Creatures there spoken of did sparkle like the colour of burnished-Brass It is but fit that the Memorials of things should bear as lively a resemblance as may be of those things of which they are intended Memorials So the Philistims made choice of Artificial Mice and Emerods in remembrance of those that were true and natural More over if London were consumed by Treachery no mettal can be more fit to receive the Characters of their most Impudent Villany who as to that had sinned with a Brow of Brass and with a Whores Fore-head Or if Stone be chosen rather of the two to make that Pillar of be it a lasting Emblem of the Hardness of their hearts harder than the neither Milstone that could burn such a City and ruin so many thousand Families both for the present and for many years if not Ages to come Where the Fire began there or as near as may be to that place must the Pillar be erected if ever there be any such If we commemorate the places where our Miseries began surely the causes whence they sprang the meritorious causes or sins are those I now intend should be thought of much more If such a Lane burnt London Sin first burnt that Lane Causa causa est causa 〈◊〉 Affliction springs not out of the dust not but that it may spring thence immeditely as if the dust of the Earth should be turned into Lice but primarily and originally it springs up elsewhere As for the Inscription that ought to be upon that Pillar whether of Brass or Stone I must leave it to their Piety and Prudence to whom the Wisdom of the Parliament hath left it Only three things I
was a handsome and a respectful piece of Charity and so it was For How noble a Treatment did the Founder provide quarterly for those Ministers successively for whose sake chiefly or for whose use he built that Noble Colledge Forasmuch as he was pleased to give forty Pounds yearly for four Dinners for the Clergy who were to Dine together in that Colledge after they had broke their Fast with a good Latin Sermon A scornfull Charity is as our Proverb phraseth it but a bit and a knock such as all ingenuous persons that can spare it had as lief go without but Charity confer'd with respect is like a Diamond well-set or a Picture placed in such a light as sheweth it to the best advantage It is good milk well sweetned whereas others like our Proverb of the red-Cow Give good milk and kick down part of it again All these things put together methinks the Founders of that Colledg and Library were noble Patterns of Charity and therefore pitty it is that their Colledge and their Names should lie in ashes together that the latter should not remain as famous as ever though the former be taken away The respect which Schollars owe to the memory of Sion-Colledge for the kindness intended to them in it as also for the good which many have received from it where some I presume got more Learning out of those publick Books than others did out of those that were properly and peculiarly their own Some throve upon the Common better than others did upon their own rich Inclosures some got more Learning for nothing than others did out of costly Libraries of their own purchasing would not permit me to say less of it than I have said neither will I say much more concerning it Only one thing I must not fail to Observe viz. That the Providence of God was pleased to watch over the greatest part of the Library belonging to that Colledge and to save it from the Fire At first there was a Colledge without a Library and afterwards a Library-House for some time without Books Now thanks be to God there are Books good store but neither Colledge nor Library to place them in But Shall it be alwayes so Are there no more VVhites and Simpsons to build another Sion-Colledge with a Library to it in the room of that which is burnt down Methinks the very name of Sion should invite some good man one or more to such a Work as that having wherewithal to accomplish it or if it were but in part to contribute towards it Doth the present Age afford no man equal in Estate and Charity to the two former Founders of that Colledge whereof one was but a Parson the other but a Vicar One would think there were a great many Persons that have double and treble yea ten-fold that preferment and Revenue that ever they had But if no body will do it as far be it from me to think the World is grown so bad as bad as it is I shall be prone to think that the generation that now is hath abandoned all care of Learning Religion and Charity or of any thing else but what men should not care for MEDITATION LVI Upon Cittizens dwelling in Brothes or Bâ—â—th like Houses since the Fire as in Moor-Fields c. VVHat Wooden-Houses are those that many Cittizens of good fashion are now forced yea glad to dwell in May we call than Houses or are they any thing but Sheds and Hovels or Boothes at most Such as had wont to be set up against Bartholomew-Fair and took down again when the Fair was ended But now it is as if some such Fair as that were continued all the year long How are the Cittizens in Moore-Fields like an Army incamped and lodging only within tents How doth it bring to mind that feast of Tabernacles Booths or Bowers which the Israelits were commanded to keep Lev. 23.34 and that in the seventh month it being also the seventh month according to our accompt beginning the year in March which brought Londoners to this The reason of observing the Feast of Tabernacles is set down Lev. 23.43 viz. That your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt I suppose it was in thankful acknowledgement that now they dwelt in houses they were much better accommodated than either themselves or their Ancestors were when they dwelt in Booths Far beit from us to despair that Londoners in Gods good time may keep a Feast of Tabernacles in thankful remembrance that God who sometimes as at this day made them to dwell in Booths hath brought them to Houses again mean time I wish they may be well contented with that small convenience they enjoy and may consider with themselves how much better it is to dwell in Tents as it were as now they do than to lie in the open fields with only the Canopy of Heaven over their Heads sub Dio sub save frigidâ— as in the time of the fire many of them were constrained to do Jacobs lodging was not so warm and so easy as is yours within those tents when he took stones for his pillows and slept upon them in the open air and yet no night ever pleased him better as to the Dreams and Visions of it nor yet so much as that From thence he said of the place where he lay That 't is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28.17 Of the Stones that were his Pillows he made a Pillar of Thankfulness and poured Oil upon the top of it I suppose by way of Thank-offering and vowed a Vow that if he came again in peace that Pillar should be God's House ver 22. meaning that he would build a House for God in that place How much better and more comfortable are such Booths than those mountains Dens and Caves of the Earth where the primitive Christians were forced to hide themselves Yea was not Christ himself worse accommodated when he lay but in a Manger nay doth not another Text say that The son of man sometime had not where to lay his head It was a long time that God himself dwelt amongst the Israelites but in a Tent or Tabernacle the Ark I mean which was the visible Symbol of Gods presence amongst the Jews and is somewhere called by the name of God For till Solomon's time there was no House or Temple for God to dwell in Shall men think much to dwell a few months or years in such a way as God himself dwelt amongst men for many ages together Is the servant greater than his Lord Bless God that you have weathered out a sharp Winter in which your cold lodging in those thin paper-houses not much better Fences against wind and weather than Moses his Ark of Bull rushes was against the water and now a warm Summer is before you in which those slender Tabernâ—cles may prove not only tolerable but pleasanâ— and serve as it were
in darkness Add those words of God by his Prophet concerning his Church Hoseab 2.14 I will allure her and bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably to her vers 15. And I will give her Vineyards from thence viz. from the Wilderness and the Valley of Acor which signifies trouble for a door of hope and she shall sing there as in the dayes of her youth and as in the day when she came up from Egypt And 2 Cor. 1.5 Blessed be God who comforteth us in all our tribulation For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 8.2 Speaking of the Churches of Macedonia he saith that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy abounded to the riches of their liberality and 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory resteth on you What do all these passages seem to imply but that God is wont to reserve the strongest cordials I mean comforts for his people to the time of their deepest sufferings Job 22.29 When Men are cast down then thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble person As our greatest elevations do usually precede our greatest temptations and desertions as Paul his rapture into the third heaven was not long before his being buffeted and Christ himself had received his baptisme and been honoured by a voice from Heaven not long before he was led into the Wilderness to be tempted so our greatest temptations and dejections are usually succeeded by our greatest elevations and comforts So it was with Christ after he had been tempted Angels came and ministred to him When Christ was either in his agony or neer unto it we read in Luke 22.49 That there appeared an Angel to him strengthning him If then it be true in a spiritual as well as in a natural sense that it is usually most dark but a little before break of day and that the bright face of heaven is better discerned under ground than above where the reflection of beames dazleâ—h our eyes and if it be so that when the Bricks are doubled than God useth to send Moses that is deliverance if God never speak more kindly to his people then he useth to do when he hath drawn them into a Wilderness if God smile upon his people then especially when the World frowns upon them and when their outward sufferings abound cause their inward consolations to do so likewise and make light arise to them in darkness why should I not then say as David did Psal 49.5 Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about supposing him to mean the punishment or fruit of his iniquities If when I sit in darkness Mich 7.8 the Lord will be a light to me if when I have more trouble in the World I may have more peace in Christ if I be in a Prison and God will there give me Songs in the night as he did to Paul and Silas Acts 16. if I were at a stake and might there feel greater joyes in my soul than ever I was acquainted with before as some holy Martyrs did who could say I were miserable and not do me wrong or how could I possibly think my self so to be Lord Psal 23 4. though I walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil if thou wilt be with me and wilt cause thy Rod and thy Staff to comfort me Though deep call upon deep at the noise of thy Water-spouts and though all thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me Yet if thou Lord wilt command thy loving kindness in the day time and cause thy Songs to be with me in the night I will not fear though an Host of evils should encamp against me Psal 142.8 DISCOURSE XVI Of that relief and support which the commonness of the Case of affliction may afford us IT is a sign that Men walk in a vain shew as the Scripture speaks Psal 39.6 for that they are apt to be disquieted at those things which should comfort them so was Peter at the approach of Christ crying out depart from me O Lord and on the other hand to be comforted with those things which one would think would rather disquier them as namely with others being under the same or other as great calamities as themselves Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris Though we may not say the more in sufferings together the merrier yet according to the course of men so it is that the more fellow-sufferers the less sad are they that suffer Neither may we impute this wholly to the weakness and envirousness of men sith the Apostle from that very consideration doth labour to comfort Christians 1 Cor. 10.13 No temptation hath take you but what is common to men and in 1 Pet. 5.9 The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the World Therefore doubtless there is some reason why men should not be so much dejected when they consider themselves not to be alone in misery though upon other accompts again we should be never less sad and solitary than when none are in trouble but our selves then if they were as David speaks of himself Psal 102.7 Like a Sparrow alone upon the House top or like a Pellican in the wilderness or like an Owle in the Desart For in that case we might be apt to think that God had some particular controversie with us more than with all other men that he had singled us out to make examples of us that he had set us like beacons upon a hill to warn and alarm others or that our sufferings were such as could not be borne because we have no instances of those that do or ever did bear the like Now the commouness of sufferings and those of the same kind to others with our selves doth much take off from all those suspicions and prejudices especially if they be such as we doubt not but have interest in the love and favour of God for thence may we conclude that hatred is not to be known by such dispensations as those Afflictions in one kind or other are common to men yea to good men or the generality of them at all times but some have them in one way some in another some in body some in minde some in estate some in relations some in all but all in some For Man is born to sorrow as the sparks she upward and whomsoever God loves he rebukes and chastâ—eth yea every son whom he receive hâ— but there are times in which the afflictions of many are invisible only their own hearts know their own sorrow and wherein they are so various that as we say so many Men â—â—â—many mindes so may it almost be said so many men so many several sorts of miseries and usually every one thinks his own the greatest
the mean time he would turn the world round You want not a place to stand in if that may enable you to turn and wind the world If then our condition be not all misery why should our posture be all mourning If we receive good things at the hands of God why should we not also receive evil Children can brook correction from their parents because they have all things else from them Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not good as well as evil Is it God that taketh away and is it not God that leaves also Job 2.10 and should we not therefore bless the name of the Lord Doth God create darkness and doth he not form light also Isa 45.7 See how God makes the scales to play one against another judgment in the one mercy in the other that it is hard to say which weighs heaviest Is it not of the Lords mercies that we are not utterly consumed because his compassions fail not Are we stung with the fiery serpents of misery may we not receive some cure by looking up to the brazen serpents of mercy if I may so call them How can we chuse but call to mind those words of God by his Prophet I will correct thee it measure yet will I not make a full end of thee Jer. 30.11 O Lord if thou hadst mixed no mercy with our misery what could we do more than utterly despond and cast away all our hopes and comfort Thou hast mixed thy dispensations let us also mixe our affections hope with our fear rejoycing with our trembling thanksgiving with our lamentations There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease if the root thereof be yet in the earth and the stock thereof in the ground Job 14.7 Thorough the sent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant v. 9. Thou hast left us a remnant to escape and given us a naile in the place of the great City that the Lord might lighter our eyes and give us a little reviving in our troubles Thou hast said concerning London as thou spakest to Daniel in vision Dan. 4.14 Hew down the tree cut off its branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit c. nevertheless leave the stump of its root in the carth and let it be wet with the dew of Heaven c. Lord I desire much more to wonder that any thing of London is left than that the greatest part of it is consumed DISCOURSE XXI Of the Discommodities of Prosperity and Benefits of Affliction PRosperity hath its evils and inconveniences as wel as Adversity yea deadly inconveniencies as some use that Epithite For saith Salomon Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall dastroy them And in Eccles 5.13 he saith he had seen a sore evil under the Sun viz. Riches kept for the owners thereof to their burt Most men are in love with prosperity and therefore cannot or will not see the discommodities of it as our Proverb saith Love is blinde But how often doth it prove a kinde of luscious poison which not only swels and puffs up them that have it but also frets eats into them like some deadly corosive inwardly taken James speaking to those that had more wealth than they knew what to do with saith The rust of their gold should eat their flesh as it were sire Jam. 5.5 Why went the young man from Christ so sorrowfully Luke 18.23 Mat. 19.22 was it not because he had great possessions as Matthew phraseth it or as Luke for that he was very rich Thereupon saith Christ A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of God and it is easier for a camel to go thorough the eye of a needle and Timothy must charge those that are rich not to be high minded nor yet to trust in uncertain riches implying they are apt to both How hard is it for those that have an arm of flesh not to make flesh their arm and so to incur the curse Jer. 17.5 How hard it is to be so good a Steward of a great estate as may enable a man to give up his account with joy How many that have resolved to be rich yea and have been as good as their resolution have pierced themselves thorough with divers sorrows yea been drowned in perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 When Jesurun waxed sat he kicked he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Deut. 32.15 What Salomon saith Prov. 3.23 30. Look not upon the Wine when it is red when it giveth its colour in the cup when it moves its self aright at the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder may too often be applied to prosperity which looks and tastes like sparkling wine but oft times proves a stinging serpent I doubt not but the time will come when many rich men will wish they had begd their bread rather than to have had so heavie an account to give for abused prosperity Few men have received that hurt by their povertie that others have done by their plentie as for one that is starved to death there are hundreds killed with surfeiting upon meates or drinks Yea adversity hath its conveniencies and its good things as well as prosperity its mixture of discommodities and evil things As one said he had received some hurt by his graces which innate corruption had abused to pride and some good by his sins which God had taken occasion to humble him by for so I understand him So have many received hurt by their prosperity and good by their adversity been losers by the forrner been gainers by the latter Many may take up the words of Themistocles and say They had perished if they had not perished They had been undone in one sense if they had not been undone in another or say as a Philosopher I have read of They never made a better voyage than at that time when they suffered shipwrack Solomon knew what he said Eccles 7.3 Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better Sweet things are commonly known to turn to choller which is a bitter humour and bitter things to cleanse and sweeten the blood If then I may be better by my affliction and might have been worse for my prosperity why should I think my self undone for the loss of that which might have been my undoing why should I stand and wonder at that passage James 1.10 Let the rich man rejoyce in that he is made low Had not Manasses more cause to bless God for those Iron fetters wherewith he was bound by his enemies the Assyrians than for his crown of Gold 2 Chron. 33.12 When he was in affliction he besought the Lord c. Prosperity had been his worst enemy and afterwards affliction under God became his greatest friend did most befriend him for it brought him
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