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
is done against God himself as the abuse offered to a Minister of State is more against his Prince than against himself Those Rebels had some pretence for their insurrection namely that they were brought into a miserable condition vers 14. Thou hast not brought us into a Land that sloweth with milk and honey or given us fields or Vineyards we will not come up meaning that Moses had brought them into a Wilderness and therefore they would not be subject to him But we see that excuse would not serve their turns Neither the vices nor the unhappiness of Rulers and of their subjects under them the latter of which was charged upon Moses though very unjustly can dispence with their obedience to them in lawful things The Israelites were as truly bound to obey Moses in the Wilderness as if he and they bad dwelt and flourished together in the Land of Canaan Had Moses been a bramble as they represented him from which they could receive neither fruit nor shelter yet might he have said as that bramble did in Jothams parable Judges 9.15 If in truth yee anoint me King over you or if God had done it then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon No Childe can lawfully deny his Parents the observance of their lawful commands because they are not so loving to him or careful of him as they ought to be neither have kept their own garments unspoted of the present World Though Noah discovered nakedness yet his Sons ought him reverence and were some of them cursed for not paying what they did owe. They might do no more than turn their backs upon him that their eâ—â—s might not behold his shame and yet themselves draw neer enough to cover it May I then live to see the day or may my Children see it if not I in which all and every the inhabitants of these three Kingdomes shall perfectly detest those sins which brought fire as it is called whatsoever fire it was upon Korah Dathan and those that were joyned with them and that as we read that not so much as a dog opened his mouth against the Israelites when they came out of Egypt so neither may man woman or childe either speak a word or dart a thought against those two great Ordinances of God Magistracy and Ministry which some of late years have greatlie vilified or against either of them but may reverence that stamp of God which is put upon them remembring that Ministers are called Angels in Scripture and Magistrates are there called Gods And wheras good Magistrates and good Ministers are in Gods account and therefore in deed and in truth more precious than the Gold of Ophir May I live to see all and every of them so esteemed and so dealt with and may none of Gods Elijahs ever in any future age be tempted to imprecate fire from Heaven as he of old did 2 King 1.10 upon any Officers comming towards them in a hostile way and with a bloody mind Nor may any man ever be so wicked and hardy as to come towards any such in any such way lest God who hath said Touch not mine aâ—ointed and do my Prophets no harm should send that curse which was not causeless and rain down fire upon them as he did once and again upon those Captaines that came to seize upon Elijah and once more may I live to see that â—â—â—our perfectly rooted out of the minds of men viz. that subjects may give a bill of divorce to their lawfull Soveraigns or at leastwise to their own due Allegiance if either they should prove vitious in their persons or unhappy and unsuccessful in their publique Administrations as those that told Moses he had not brought them into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and therefore they would not come up to him whereas it is unquestionably our duty to come up to our Governours in whatsoever lawfully we may whatsoever themselves or their ill successe be Let it suffice O Lord that so many fires have been formerly kindled in the world by mens following the way of Korah and let the example of thy severity upon him and his complices and on others that have trod in their steps for ever deter men from kindling new fires upon the like accounts or which is worse provoking thee to kindle a fire upon them as thou lately didst upon that once famous City of London which now lieth in ashes MEDITATION V. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture aâ— one great cause of Gods punishing a people by Fire TO them that shall carefully read what is spoken Jer. 17.28 nothing will more plainly appear than that God hath sometimes contended by Fire for the pollution and profanation of his Sabbaths which he hath bid us remember to keep holy The words are these But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden even entring at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the Pallaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched To this sin amongst others did Jerusalem owe its destruction by Fire which was afterwards accomplished It is one of the complaints which the Prophet makes Lam. 2.6 that God had caused their solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion They would not keep them when they might and afterwards such was their distraction and confusion they could hardly keep them if they would and had so discontinued the observation of them that they had almost forgotten that they had sometimes enjoyed such good daies and still ought to observe them It is said in Lam. 1.7 that the enemies saw her viz. Jerusalem and did mock at her Sabbaths which some expound of their deriding the cessation of their wonted publick and solemn services which the Temple being demolished they were forced to intermit I wish there lay no guilt upon England and upon London its self in reference to the profanation of Gods Sabbaths and forgetting to keep them holy as we are commanded to do when Saul told Samuel that he had performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.14 Samuel replied What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I hear Alluding to that I may answer such as shall pretend the Sabbath was strictly kept what then was the meaning of that poise of children and young folks that we saw and heard playing up and down the streets on the Lords day or what meant that vain and idle communication that we heard from the mouths of young and old both men and women as we passed along the streets on those daies how came the Fields adjacent to the City to be so crowded with company walking to and fro meerly for their pleasure on the Lords day yea why was it thus not only before and after the time of
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
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
as if they had Eagles wings as we observe fire to do Sith then it is clear to us that Fire is nothing else but a mighty stream of atomes which we shall prove anon to be sulphurious O my soul apply this ere thou proceed any further Surely this notion hath its use I see the great God can terrify the World yea and destroy it too with any thing yea with that which is next to nothing 2 Pet. 3.7 But the Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment vers 10. The Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up I cease to wonder at God his making Locusts yea flies yea lice so great a Plague to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians that Pharaoh himself began to relent whilst those Plagues were upon him Those Creatures were Giants if I may so speak in comparison of those motes of brimstone which the great God imployed to destroy our City and shall be his only Executioners at last in the destruction of the whole World as I proved but now How many parts do belong to each flie or flea For even all their parts were down in Gods Book head eyes eares legs intrails and now each of these parts and for ought I know count bones and all they may be some scores of them are I presume as big or bigger than any one of those sulphurious Atomes or Motes of which Fire consists A man would scarce believe till he had well considered it that swarâ—nes of Locasts Canker-wormes Cater-pillars and Palmet-wormes commissioned by God to introduce a Famine should be all that God intends by those amazing expressions which he is pleased to use in Joel 2. from verse 1 to the 11. Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh c. vers 1 and vers 2. A great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like nor shall be any more after it to many Generations vers 3. The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them The appearance of them it as horses and as hors-men so they shall run Read to the end of the eleventh verse Dreadful expressions yet were all verified in an Army of Locusts and such like despicable insects by which God did such execution upon them as did demonstrate those expressions not to have been so strange as true yea to have been no hyperbolies Joel 1.4 Now how easie is it for us to believe this might be so who have seen the great God working wonderfull desolations by far weaker instruments viz. by an army of little motes of brimstone all in an uproare and joint conspiracy to take their flight from those bodies in and with which they lately dwelt in a profitable peace and Amity Goliah in proportion did not more exceed David in strength and stature and dimensions every way than Locusts and such like insects do exceed those little Atomes whereof Fire consists Besides those Insects are living creatures which is a great matter but the sulphurious particles I am speaking of otherwise called fire are as we all know things without life and yet so nimble when God sets them on as if they had vigorous souls to actuate them or rather as if they themselves were all soul and spirit which are indeed some of the contemptiblest shreds or rather silings of meer matter I see then that the great God can make a formidable Army of any thing even of the dust of the earth for why not of that as well as of these I have therefore done wondring that such things should be spoken of Locusts and such like insects as are in Joel 2.11 The Lord shall utter his voice before his Army for his Camp is very great The words that follow in the same verse are a sufficient Comment For he is strong that executeth his word surely they do their work in his strength whose glory it is to make weak things confound the mighty and things that are not bring to naught things that are I further learn from hence the great danger of an enraged multitude though every one of that number fingly and by himself considered be very mean and despicable yet all put together may be terrible as an Army with Banners The Psalmist seems to speak of the tumult of the people as if it were so hard to still and pacifie as the very raging of the Sea Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas and the tumults of the people Multitudes of people are compared to great Waters or Inundations and they as well as Fire it self though each single person is but as one poor drop will bear down all before them It is God-like to still the Tumults of the people but to raise tempests and commotions amongst them as Jonas did upon the Sea is neither the part of a Christian nor of a wise man Who would conjure up those spirits which possibly he shall never be able to lay again Oh the strength of weak things united and combined by whole millions together oh the greatness of little things met in such infinite swarms what vast things are the Sands of the Sea-shore take them together What huge mountains do they make and how do they give Law to the Sea its self and say to it under God hitherto shalt thou go and no further Jer. 5.22 Fear ye not me saith the Lord which have placed the sands for the bounds of the Sea that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevaile though they roar yet can they not pass over Yea what smaller and more despicable thing than each of those by its self considered They have more passion than pollicy that stick not to inrage the body of a Nation without a just and enforcing cause though to humour them in every thing any more than children is not commendable or convenient What goodly ships have stuck fast in those heaps of dust called sands so as they could never get off again yea been swallowed up by them as Jonas was by the Whale or Corah and his complices by the earth when it opened its mouth upon them so that no discreet pilot ventures to come neer them or offers to say what hurt can so strong and stately a vessel receive from those sands which are but a heap of dust thousands of which run thorough a little pin-hole in an hour-glass in the space of one hour If an Ocean of Atomes did as we know to our cost bring greater and speedier ruine on our famous City than an hoast of men could have done for that they much exceeded any army in number though their power singly were next to nothing If so I say it appeareth that vast and innumerable multitudes at leastwise of people though of the weaker and more despicable
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
stand gazing on and not run to help The Fire hath now got such head and is so fierce would they say that there is no coming near it But why do they not pull down houses at a distance that is long work would some reply and seeing they cannot carry away the timber when they have done it will do but little good Do not the Magistrates would some say bestir themselves to put a stop to it It is like they do what they can but they are even at their wits ends or like men astonished They that stood and look't on would cry out See how it burns East and West at the same time not onely with the wind but against it Hear how it crackles like a Fire in thorns Hear what a rattling noise there is with the crackling and falling of timber Look you there saith another just now the Fire hath taken this or that Church which alas is full of goods now it is just come to the Royall Exchange by and by would they say See how presently such a stately house was gone it was but even now that it began to fire and it is consumed already Oh what a wind is here See how it is as bellows to the Fire or as the breath of the Almighty blowing it up You would wonder to see how far the sparks and coles doe sly It is strange they do not fire all the houses on the other side of the water where abundance of them do light I can think of nothing saith one but of Sodom and Gomorral when I see this sight Alas Alas cries one now do I see such a good friends house to take fire and by and by now do I see the house of another good friend of mine on fire in that house that you see now burning dwelt a Brother or Sâ—ster of mine or some other near Relation Others would come dropping in and say They had staid so long as to see their own houses on fire and then they came away and left them Such aâ— dwell near to London and to the Road would cry as they lay in their beds we hear the Carts rumbling and posting by continually Those that were within the City at that time would ever and anon say to one another Did you hear that noise There was a house blown up and by and by there was another house blown up Others would cry The fire is now come near the Tower and if the powder be not removed God knowes what mischief will be done with that One while the people would take an Alarm of Treachery and cry out that the French were coming to cut their throats Such whose houses the Fire had not yet seized but was hastâ—ing towards them you must suppose to have made this their discourse What shall we do for Carts to carry away our goods we have offered three four pounds a load for Carts to carry them but two or three miles off and cannot have them One while they cry there is an order to prevent the coming in of more Carts it being thought that whilst we mind the saving of our goods we neglect the putting out the fire and now will our houses and goods burn together and so we shall loose all Such as had the opportunity to convey their goods as far as the fields and no farther How did they discourse of the hardship they must undergoe if they should leave their goods they would be stollen if they should look to them themselves as many had no body else to do it for them they must have but little sleep and a cold open lodging and what if it should rain And some we may imagine were discoursing what they and theirs should do their houses and goods being burnt where they should put their heads as having neither money nor friends at leastwise so near that they knew how to get to them These were but some of those dreadfull stories that men and women talkt of I could tell you how women with child would say They had but a month or a week to reckon and this had frighted them almost out of their wits so that they found it would go very hard with them Others again would say They were but so many weekes gone but were so disturbed that they did never look to go out their full time Others it is like would say They were so ill with the fright they had taken that they thought verily it would kill them or that they should never come to themselves whilst they lived Would not others again report of some here and there who by venturing too much in the Fire or staying too long to bring away their goods had lost their lives and perished in the flames Neither were all sad discourses exstinguished with the fire For since that time it hath been the manner of Friends as they met to ask some accompt of the losses each of other Pray what lost you saith one by the Fire I lost the house I lived in saith one which was my own or as good as my own by virtue of a long Lease and a great Fine I lost my houses and goods saith another I lost to the value of two thousand pounds saith one I four I six saith another I have lost the one half of what I had saith one I have lost all saith another I am burnt to my very shirt I have lost more than all saith a third for I by this meanes am left in a great deal of debt that I shall never be able to pay I had many things belonging to other men committed to me which are swept away Saith another I am not only undone my self but so many of my Children and near Relations it may be all of them are undone by this Fire as well as my self But I need to say the less of this because every dayes converse will or may tell us what men talk since the dismall Fire of and concerning it O Lord I see thou who canst put a Song of deliverance into our mouths when thou pleasest canst also sill us with complaints and lamentations when thou wilt and make our own tongues as it were to fall upon us how thou canst make us out of the abundance of our hearts to speak such things as will terrifie both ourselves and others and cause both our own ears and theirs to tingle how easily thou canst find us other discourse than to ask and tell what newes is stirring for who regarded news whilst these things were in agitation who seemed to mind what became of affairs either by Sea or Land I see how easily thou canst imbitter our Converse one with another and make us speak so as to break each others hearts that use to delight and refresh each other by their pleasing conferences and communications so that solitude may become lesse afflictive than that good company which was wont to be very acceptable Would not our tongues rise up in judgement against us if we should ever forget the sad
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
the other to the end that man should find nothing after him Eccles 7.14 If it be the glory of God to conceal a matter as the Scripture saith it is why will men pretend to know what God intends to do Who can tell what the womb of a day much more of a year will bring forth If women that are with child know not what they go with whether male or female wise or foolish who can tell what is in the womb of Providence Such as pretend to foreknow future contingencies are not more admired for their wisdom before the time be expired than they are usually condemned for their folly and presumption when the event proves otherwise We read in Jer. 23.28 There were prophets of the deceit of their own hearts VVhich cause the people to forget the name of God by the dreams which they tell every one to his neighbour Therefore saith God The prophet which hath a dream let him tell a dream and he that hath my word let him speak my word saithfully VVhat is the chaff to the wheat We say proverbially Old Birds cannot be caught with chaff yet a great many are with such chaff as the prophet speaks of meaning false Predictions many of which should by right have been written in Hebrew Characters for that the event shews they were to be read backwards like the presages of Almanack-makers concerning weather who frequently tell us it will be fair when it proves foul and foul when it proves very fair The Devil himself is more tender of his credit than many men have bin of theirs for it was always his manner to deliver Oracles in Ambiguous expressions that whatsoever the event were he might not be charged with falshood whereas men that know less have ventur'd to speak as plainly and positively as could be touching things to come which falling out quite contrary have filled their faces with shame If that had been the worst it had been no great matter but alas men have not only wounded their own reputations by their daring false prophesies but by accustoming themselves and others to believe and disbelieve again have greatly propagated Atheism in the world and made the abused credulity of many to end in insidelity They that have been often deceived become always jealous and use to say Alas whom or what can we trust Though there be no reason in the world that men should suspect the Word of God because they have been frustrated by the dreams of men I cannot deny but that there are and have been strong impressions from God upon the minds of some men concerning future things but as the Apostle saith in another case Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God so in this case though they themselves cannot but believe the things which are so impressed upon them yet let them keep that faith to themselves and not expect others should believe the same things unless by miracles they could prove themselves to be Prophets sent of God or till such time as the event shall shew they were not mistaken A prophesie may indeed and in truth signifie much to him that utters it which yet may signifie nothing at all to them that hear it because he may have received it from God whereas others have received it but from himself As to all the prophecies concerning great good things which should befall England in Sixty six be it to themselves upon what grounds they have had such expectations sure I am nothing hath yet appeared that looks like a fulfilling of them though the year be almost expired He that foretold that Caesar should die upon such a day Caesar sending him word the day was come and he was yet alive made answer that day was come but it was not past gone and die he did upon that day So some it may be will tell us that Sixty six is come and far spent but not quite past and gone 'T is very true and so long as one day or hour of that year lasts let them lengthen out their hopes If it produce what they have foretold I shall not envy them the honor of proving true Prophets but if it end as it hath begun and held on hitherto give me leave to say that meer humane Predictions touching future Contingencies ought never to be trusted more and that the frustrations of Sixty six should abolish or prevent the credulitie of all after-ages There is a Text or two which I suppose many do build upon who have great regard to humane prophesies We read say they that the Secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psalm 25.14 But that must not be understood as if God did make them that fear him acquainted with all his Secrets for it is said of Christ himself considered as man that Of that day and hour speaking of the day of Judgment knows not the son of man himself Moreover say they in Amos 3.7 it is written Surely the Lord will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets Yea but where are such Prophets to be found in these dayes as were in those viz. Approved of God amongst men by miracles signs and wonders as is said of Christ Acts 2.22 Doth not Experience shew that the Gift of prophecying as thereby is meant the infallible predicting of things is either wholly or for the most part at an end as well as several other Gifts which were intended but for the infancy of the Church If it be said that it is written In the last dayes your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams your sons and daughters shall prophesie it is evident from Acts 3.16 that that was fulfilled in the Apostles time for saith Peter when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Disciples when they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spake with other Tongues This is that which was spoken by Joel I will poure out my spirit upon all flesh and they shall prophesie c. But it is further said that the predictions of some good men have come to passe they have hit right as they call it That may be too and yet such as they may be no Prophets to us that is no such Prophets as we are bound to believe till the Event have declared that they themselves were not deceived It may not be alwayes from Divine Revelation that men prophesie rightly concerning things to come A man may draw a Bow at an adventure and shoot at random and yet happen to hit the mark though he that shall do so will misse it much oftner Now as one saith Men mind when predictions hit not when they misse and that is the reason they give so much heed to them Whereas indeed as in predicting of weather when it shall be fair and when it shall be fowl so in other things though menspeak but what comes next it is almost as hard to be alwayes out as it is to be alwayes right How fain
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
yet it came like a thief in the night I doubt not but men went to their beds over-night as securely as ever they had done in their lives yea those that dwelt in the house where it first began and slept as soundly for the time as ever they used to do not questioning but the insuing-Sabbath would be like all the rest but when the early morning began to fall-in-travel with that un-lookt-for-evil which it was big with when it began to cry out with a very lowd and doleful out-cry How did it awaken them with a witnes and make them call all their Neighbours round about them and in a few hours give a dreadful Alarme to the whole City That Lords-Day was much more a representation of Hell than of Heaven though both the Work and Rest of the Sabbath at other times be a representation of Heaven not of Hell I see then how easily God can turn our Blessings into Curses and the Songs of the Temple into Howlings Aines 8.3 Not only the Jews of old had need to Pray but we also That our slight may not be upon the Lords Day For so it was at this time notwithout a real aggravation of the Judgment as they esteem'd it who did unfeignedly desire to have been at that time waiting upon God in his Ordinances and who know what it is in effect to lose a Sabbath MEDITATION XXIII Upon the Place where this dreadful fire began viz. at a Bakers House in Pudding-lane MEthinks the Burning of London by Means of that obscure Lane was like the killing of that great Giant Goliah by a Pibble-Stone slung from the Sling and Arm of little David or like the slaying of a thousand Philistims meerly with the Jaw-bone of an Ass Judg. 15.15 Or like the throwing down the walls of Jericho with the sound of Rams-horns It may be the great God did design nothing but Glory to himself in imploying so mean and inconsiderable an Instrument in the destruction of that great City but it looks like a Father's spitting in his Daughters face which would be a punishment carrying a shew of contempt with it When that poor Lane was on Fire I doubt not but many thought that other places of greater note and eminency would do well enough as did appear by removing their goods thither and no further as to Aldermanbury c. But it ought to be consideâ—ed that Judgments do many times ascend and though they begin at the lowest round of the Ladder yet they do not make an end till they have climbed up to the very top Though this Fire began with a Bakers-House yet its ambition if I may so phrase it was not satisfied till it had consumed the Houses of the Chief-Magistrates and the places of greatest eminency When God is Correcting Mean-Men Great-Ones should tremble and seek to make their Peace lest the Cup go round I am deceived if some Persons of Quality did not die of the last years Plague though it befel the Poor more generally who were not able to provide for their safety by slying But when the Judgment is by Fire great Houses go to rack as well as small for one can no more sly than can the other Houses have no wings but those which Fire gives them when they fly away for good and all once for all They easily fly by fire but can never fly from it But Will it vield us nothing of a profitable Meditation that this fire began in a Bakers-House Had the hazardousness of that Calling as to matter of fire or carelesness of the People been the cause of its beginning there when the Natural cause had been so plain the Moral ground of it had been less worth our inquiring But I find not any thing of that nature so much as suspected yea some to this day will not believe that it came to pass otherwise then by an immediate hand of Providence Whose Incredulousness in one thing is not so great but their Credulity in another is greater if they think it were fired from Heaven immediately That it came by any in the Family is not mistrusted that it was by His meanes that Confessed himself Guilty or by the Treachery of any other they will not believe And if neither of these two wayes there is but a third can be thought of and they must have a Faith of Miracles that believe it to have come that way and that is As Fire came upon Sodom viz. from heaven immediately But when I consider where it began not to dispute how or by whose means I cannot well over-look a passage or two in the Prophet Hoseah viz. Hos 7.4 They are all Adulterers as on Oven heated by the Baker who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneeded the dough untill it be leavened Those words contain a part of Gods controversie with Ephraim that is with the Ten Tribes viz. First for their eagerness in sin they were like a Fiery-Oven very hot upon their Whoredoms whether Corpoâ—al or Spiritual Secondly For their Security in sin They were like a Baker fast-asleep whilst his Oven is heating and his Dough taking Leaven Vers 6. Their Baker sleepeth all the night in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire Thirdly For their sliness and subtilty in carrying on their Wickedness making as if they minded no such thing like a Baker that seems not to regard either his Bread or his Oven whereas he hath put Leaven into the one and Fire into the other which is all that can be done for the present and by that time the Oven is hot enough and the Bread leavened enough he will be sure to wake and fall to his Business Moreover Vers 8. We read this passage Ephraim is a Cake not turned Meaning that as such a Cake is partly bak't and partly dough so Ephraim did halt betwixt God and Beal was of several Religious espousing the Religion of those divers People they lived amongst as the fore-going words imply Ephraim hath mixed himself amongst the People Seeing then the Holy Ghost seemeth to set forth these Four things I have mentioned by Similitudes taken from a Baker and the things he deals in it can be no wayes improper from the Circumstance of place where the Fire began viz. a Bakers-House to Meditate of those Expressions and to consider how far-forth they are applicable to our selves If we have been as a Cake but half-bak't if burning like a fiery-Oven with the heat of lust and in the mean time sleeping in security c. How just was it with God to send such a Fire as this upon us Came it not to awaken us Though Bakers can sleep quietly when they have put fire in the Oven yet if they know there be fire on the Hous-top they can take no rest Advertise them of that and they will start up presently and indeavour to quench it I thought fit to touch upon both these Circumstances not as pretending to know the end of God in either of
them though he who acteth all things according to the Counsel of his Will hath a wise end not onely in all his actings but in all the circumstances of them but rather to show that Meditatiâ—n is a Plant that may spring out of every Soil a Fruit that may grow upon every Tree which may evidence That it is not from the barreuness of things which are all big with matter of profitable meditation but from the naughtiness of our hearts that we are so much strangers to it MEDITATION XXII Upon the great pity that ought to be extended to Londoners since the fire PIty is an affection that should scarcely be withheld from any that are in great distress and misery but yet is much more due to some then to others Where no misery is there is no room for pity and where there is nothing but misery to bespeak it as in reference to that Prodigal who by riotous courses brought himself to husks there is no cause for much But where merit and misery go hand in hand the greatest yearnings of our most tender bowels are called for God will not take it ill that we pity those whom he thinks fit to punish because one of his great ends in punishing some is that he might excite pity and compassion in others towards them I have read that Sir Thomas Moor not long before his Execution was desired to cut his locks for no other end as is believed than lest his Venerable hoary Fleece should stir up too much compassion in those that were to be spectators at his death But so far is the great God from that that he had rather we should number the grey heirs of misery which are upon the heads of men in order to our pitying of them To tell Why the late Inhabitants of London are objects of Royal pity or to move to it were to discourse why children under great sufferings should be compassionated by their Parents For Kings are Fathers and Subjects their Sons and Daughters Whereas the Scripture saith Can a mother forget her child that she should not have compassion on the child of her womb and though it adds yea she may yet it insinuates that they seldom do or can What reason Courtiers have to pity Citizens were easie to alledge For Have not Citizens sometimes had so much pity for them as that they seemed to have none for themselves Why should not Citizens be a little in Courtiers books if some Courtiers have been and are a great deal in theirs It is but ingenuity to afford them pity who have given them credit As for those that lead a Countrey life they know full well that Citizens had wont to be their best Chapmen and to give them a good price for those commodities and provisions which they thought too good for themselves and withall to furnish them with the best things which they stood in need of Had Londoners been the worst of people the depth of their present misery compared with the height of their former prosperity had challenged pity and compassion from their very enemies but if it may be made appear that they were generally as Civil as Religious as Charitable and in many other respects as commendable as most people in the world none but ill natur'd persons can refrain commiserating them much more rejoyce and triumph in their sufferings The worst enemies they have in the world must needs confess that no people were generally more Civil and Moral then they As for Religion I know there are several standards by which men measure and judge of that though indeed and in truth there is but One whereby to judge of it to wit the Word of God but if conformity to the duties both of the first and second Table if love to God and to our neighbours so far as men can discern may denominate persons Religious as surely it is that must do it pure Religion and undefiled did as much abound in London as in any place whatsoever I meddle not with charity in point of judging Censuring is every where too common but as for Charity in giving and ministring to those that are in want both of one perswasion and of another if that be a virtue as doubtless it is London hath been as eminent for it in all times in which several parties have taken their turns in suffering as any place I know In the space of twenty years and upwards that England hath been dissetl'd by War it may be thousands that by the unhappines of the times have been brought to straits and exigences they and theirs had perished but for the charity of London more than of all other places whilst some have taken care of the Disciples of Paul others of Apollos others of Cephas others of Christ without respect to any of those distinctions which best became good Christians and so all have been taken care of more or less by those poor Citizens who are now many of them themselves become the objects of Charity London will not want for pity if it be pitied by no more then all and only those that first and last have been pitied and relieved by it and that now and hereafter will dearly miss it I would not it should grate upon the minds of honest Citizens undone by the fire to think or suspect that a great many have no pity for them All good people have and they that are otherwise have no pity so much as for their own souls I observe they use to have most pity from God who have least from men being withall such as deserve it When Penninah did sorely vex Hannah to make her fret because God had shut up her womb Hannah throve the better for it for God lookt upon her affliction and opened her womb when her Rival had shut up her bowels towards her 1 Sam. 1.5 When Shimei cursed David being at that time under trouble from Absalom David said It may be the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day 2 Sam. 16.13 Such as triumph in your miseries may do you a greater kindness then they are aware of according to that in Prov. 24.18 Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth lest the Lord see it and turn away his wrath from him They that will not look upon you as the objects of their pity are indeed the objects of yours For so are all they that shew themselves to be neither Christians nor Men and it is a good presage you shall not always want pity for that you cannot have it from a great many people whilst you want it Pity is that virtue which Englishmen are famous for and therefore every Englishman that is void of it wants the common virtue and character of his Countrey and he that hath none to bestow upon this occasion seems to have none at all I know not that man that would not be loath the world should think that he had no commiseration for the present case of London and why is it but
they dream of nothing less How comes it like a thief in the night when men are in a profound sleep of security It is like those People thought that seeing so many persons had gon that way with safety the self-same-day yea it may be the self-same-hour so might they as well as the rest But I see there is no Topick from which men argue for security how probable soever but fails them now and then neither is there any safety in probable immunity from sudden death but only in due preparation for it As for those who have often passed to and fro the Ruins and by the sides of tottering-Walls but never received any hurt I wish they may consider How infinitely they are bound to God for the gracious watchfulness of his good Providence over them and for putting so vast a difference betwixt them and others as not to let them lose one hair of their heads by ruinated-Buildings whereby others have lost their lives And may such as have occasion to pass-by such places from day to day duly consider That God hath created more dangers than were formerly and therefore ought they to walk with more circumspection than they had wont to do and to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and to be in readiness for the worst that can befall them as men that carry their lives in their hands and do walk in the midst of menacing-perils There is a Promise if I may so call it Job 5.23 that it were good for a man to have interest in especially at such a time as this Then shalt be in league with the stones as well as the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee MEDITATION XXXV Of the Fire it s not exceeding the Liberties of the City VVHen I consider the Compass this fire took how far it went and where it stopt I see cause to wonder at several things First That it did burn much-what about the Proportion of the whole City within the Walls that is to say look how much was left standing within the Walls as if it had been by way of exchange and compensation so much or thereabouts it burnt without Secondly That though it threw down the Gates and got without the Walls yet it no where went beyond the Liberties of the City of London as if the Bars had been a greater fence against it which indeed were no sence at all than the Gates and Walls could be Had the Cittizens gone in Procession or had the Lord Mayor and his Brethren took a Survey of the Bounds and Limits of their Jurisdiction they could not have kept much more within compass than the Fire did Did not he who sets bounds to the Sea and saith to the proud waves thereof â—hitherto shalt thou go and no further I say did not he say the same thing to those proud stames How admirable is the work of God in causing Creatures that are without Reason yea without Life to act as if they well understood what they did Doth he not cause the day-spring to know its place Job 38.12 and the Sun to know its gâ—ing down Psalm 104.19 The Storck in the heavens knoweth her appointed time and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallme observe the time of their comming Jer. 8.7 When I consider how the fire took just such a proportion as if it had been markt out it brings to mind that usual saying That God doth all things in weight and measure and makes me think of such passages of Scripture as where God saith Isaiah 28.16 that He would lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet Also where God speaks of a people meted out viz. for destruction Isâ— 18.2 and 7. and trvden under foâ—t Also where it is said of God that He weighed out a path to his anger Psalm 78.50 Which we translate that He made a way to his anger the meaning is He did proportion it as if he had dispensed it by weight How great a Mercy was it that the Suburbs were spared considering how great how populous and how poor they were Being so great and capacious they can contain all the exiles of the City but it had been impossible for the City if it had stood and they had been burnt to have contained all the out-casts of the more spacious Suburbs Considering their populousness if the fire had fallen to their lot possibly five times so many persons as now are had been undone and so many families had been reduced to utmost penury as all England had scarce been sufficient to relieve Lastly considering their Poverty they had much more generally been unable to bear their losses than Citizens or those within the Walls were Neither was the sparing of the Suburbs a thing more desirable than it was improbable when the fire was in its Meridian or Zenith if I may so call it For as the Sun which sets out in the East finisheth not its race till it come about to the West so did this dreadfull Fire threateâ— not to stop till it had run thorough the Suburbs as well as the City its self But God who causeth it to rain upon one City and not upon another and who kept that Storm of fire from falling upon Zoak which destroyed Sodom and three other Cities of that which was called Pentapolis He thus divided the flames of fire that most parts of the City should have their share but the Suburbs though in great danger should have none I think if men had designed to have burnt so farâ— and no further as easy as it was to kindle it was hard to extinguish such a fire when and where they would But if any malicious persons did conduct it so far and there leave it VVhat they have done secretly will one day be proclaimed upon the House-top MEDITATION XXXVI Upon the Suburbs coming into more request then ever since the fire HOw much more considerable are the Suburbs now than they lately were Some places of despicable termination and as mean account but a few moneths since such as Hounds-ditch and Shorditch do now contain not a few Citizens of very good fashion Philosophers say that Corruptiounius est generctio alterius so was the marring of the City the making of the Suburbs What rich commodities cannot the Suburbs now supply us with which heretofore could be had onely within the walls Time was that rich Citizens would almost have held their Noses if they had past by those places where now it may be they are constrained to dwell they would hardly have kept the dogs of their flâ—ck to use Jobs words with some variation where now they are forced to keep themselves Had London been standing in the places where some of them do now inhabit Zijim and Ochinâ— might have dwelt for them and the Satyrs might have danced there to allude to Isa 13.21 In how great request at this day is poor Piedmont as I may call it Southwark I mean which
which is said to be quick and powerful as fire its self The fires which God kindleth for the good of the world whereof his word is one of the chief woe be to any that shall go about to quench Quenching of prophecying is next unto quenching of the Spirit yea and is one way of doing it as Divines observe I see cause to blesse the God of heaven who hath created some fires as profitable as others are mischievous namely his word for one a fire that never doth hurt otherwise than by accident neither indeed would other fires kept within their due bounds but so much good as no tongue can express O Lord that through thine insinite goodness I might experiment in my self and others all those excellent properties of fire meeting in thy word of which I have now been speaking that my heart and theirs might burn within us at the hearing of it as did the hearts of thy Disciples that it may be mighty through thee to pull down all the strong-holds of Sin and Sathan that are within us that it might trye us as gold is tryed in the fire and at the same time resined and purisied that it might pierce unto the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow that the sin which is as it were bred in our bones may be gotten out of the very flesh May the fire of thy word have such influence as this upon us we shall then be sure to escape the fire of thy wrath and to arrive to that happiness which is called The inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 MEDITATION XL. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire ME-thinks the several Conduits that were in London stood like so many little but strong Forts to confront and give check to that great enemy Fire if any occasion should be There me-thinks the water was as it were intrenched and ingarrisoned The several Pipes and Vehicles of water that were within those Conduits all of them charged with water till by the turning of the Cocks they were discharged again were as so many Souldiers within those Forts with their Musquets charged and ready to be discharged upon the drawing of their several Cocks to keep and defend those places And look how Enemies are wont to deal with those Castles which they take to be impregnable and dispair of ever getting by storm viz. to attempt the starving of them by a close Siege intercepting all provision of Victuals from coming at them so went the fire to work with those little Castles of stone which were not easie for it to burn down witness their standing to this day spoiled them or almost spoiled them it hath for present by cutting off those supplies of water which had wont to slow to them melting those leaden Channels in which the water had wont to be conveyed to them and thereby as it were starving those Garrisons which they could not take by storm What the Scripture speaks of the Land of Jordan that it was well watered every where before the Lord destroyed Sodom even as the Garden of the Lord like the Land of Egypt made fruitful by the River Nilus the same might have been said of London before this fire It was watered like Paradise its self yea whereas Paradise had but one River though it parted into four heads Gen. 2.10 London had two at least deviding its self or rather devided into many branches and dispersing its self several wayes For besides the noble River of Thames gliding not only by the sides but thorow the bowels of London there was another called the New-River brought from Hartfordshire thither by the industry and ingenuity of that worthy and never to be forgotten Knight Sir Hugh Middleton the spring of whose deserved fame is such as the late Fire its self though the dreadfullest of all that we have known hath not nor will not be able to dry up but continue it will a Fountain of praise and honour bubling up to all posterity As nature by Veins and Arteries some great some small placed up and down all parts of the Body ministreth blood and nourishment to every member thereof and part of each member so was that wholsome Water which was as necessary for the good of London as blood is for the life and health of the body conveyed by Pipes wooden or metalline as by so many veins into all parts of that famous City If water were as we may call it the blood of London then were its several Conduits as it were the Liver and Spleen of that City which are reckoned as the Fountains of blood in humane bodies for that the great Trunks of veins conveying blood about the body are seated there as great Roots fixed in the Earth shooting out their branches divers and sundry wayes But alas how were those Livers inflamed and how unfit have they been since to do their wonted Office What pity it is to see those breasts of London for so I may also call them almost dryed up and the poor Citizens mean time so loth as they are to be weaned from their former place They were lovely streams indeed which did refresh that noble City one of which was alwayes at work pouring out its self when the rest lay still As if the Fire had been angry with the poor old Tankard-bearers both Men and Women for propagating that Element which was contrary to it and carrying it upon their shoulders as it were in State and Triumph it hath even destroyed their Trade and threatned to make them perish by fire who had wont to live by water Seeing there are few or none to suck those Breasts at this day the matter is not so great if they be almost empty and dry at present may they but sill again and their Milk be renewed so soon as the honest Citizens shall come again to their former scituations O Lord that it might be thy good pleasure to let London be first restor'd and ever after preserved from Fire and when once restored let it be as plentifully and commodiously supplied with water as ever it was formerly Make it once again as the Paradise of God but never suffer any destroying Serpent any more to come there MEDITATION XLI Upon the Retorts and Reproaches of Papists occasioned by this fire ME-thinks I hear some Reman-Catholicks as they are pleased to call themselves saying Some of your Protestants did confidently foretel That within this present year 1666 Rome should down Babylon should fall Antichrist should be destroyed But now your own City is destroyed in the self-same-year which according to you doth show that London was the true Babylon and that the true Antichrist is amongst your selves Yet upon due examination it will be found that there is as little strength in the Argument which they have brought as there is sense in the name whereby they are called viz. Roman-Catholicks which is as much as to say Members of the particular
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
neglects his own and neither can he himselfe do what he aimes at nor justly expect that God should doe it for him But he that makes it his onely businesse to carry himselfe under Affliction as he ought doth what he can and interesseth God to do that which himself cannot doe let us doe out part and God will not faile to doe his and so both will be done We need not trouble our selves about getting into another form let us but out-learn others that are in the same form viz. of Affliction with us or at least-wise keep pace with the best of them and our master which is in heaven will take care of our translation into another forme that is more to be desired when we shall be fit for it I find God very angry with those Jews that would think of nothing but comming out of captivity so soon almost as they were gone into it and would hearken to any lying Prophets that would sooth them up with such pleasing stories whereas their duty was to bring their spirits to be content with a captivity of seventy years long to learne the law of such a condition as that and to comply with it see Jer. 27.8 And it shall come to pass that the Nation and Kingdom which will not put their neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar that Nation will I punish with the Sword and Famine and Pestilence till I have consum'd them by his hand And verse 17. Hearken not to them namely who said that the vesselâ— of the Lords house should shortly be brought again from Rabylon verse 16. for they prophesie a lye to you serve the King of Babylon and live as if he had said Buckle your selves to the duty of your captive estate patiently beare the yoke which God hath put about your necks and it shall be better for you both at the present and for the future Apprentices that cast off the yoke before they have served out their time doe many of them never come to be free-men whilst they live Hananiah his diverting the Jewes from the duties incumbent upon them as designed for a long captivity by telling them that within two years God would bring again the captives of Judah Jer. 28.4 I say his so doing cost him his life verse 16. Thus saith the Lord this year thou shalt dye c. I cannot but observe how God commanded the Jews to provide for a lasting captivity Jer. 28.4 Thus saith the Lord to those whom I have caused to be carryed away from Jerusalem to Babylon build yee houses and dwell in them and plant Gardens and eat the fruit of them Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters And seek the peace of the City whether I have caused you to be carryed captives and pray to the Lord for it c. As if he had said expect not to come out from thence suddenly but make the best of that condition I have allotted for you and carry your selves under it as becomes you be satisfied and content with it and quietly wait till my time shall come even the set time for your Deliverance I can do no lesse than turn the advice I have given to my selfe and others into such petitions as follow Lord thou hast greatly Afflicted us teach us thereby so to call upon thee in this day of our trouble that thou mayst in due time deliver us Humble us under thy mighty hand that thou mayest lift us up give us so to submit to thee and accept our punishment that thou mayst remember our land Give us such patience as thou gavest to thy servant Job that thou mayst make such an issue for us as thou didst for him Cause us to fear thy great name that when we pour out our cryes to thee who canst deliver from death as Christ did in the dayes of his flesh we may be heard as he was in that he feared Cause us to order our conversations aright that thou mayest shew us thy Salvation Give us to redeem time in an evil day as Paul and Silas did that thou by thine outstretched arm mayst rescue us as thou didst them knocking off the chaines and fetters of our present troubles And above all things cause us to abound in faith as our fathers trusted in thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded We desire to say with the three children The God whom we serve is able to deliver us even out of a fiery furnace which hath been prepared for us but whither he will or no we will trust in him Whilst thou chastenest us O teach us out of thy Law and we shall not need to doubt but thou at length wilt give us rest from the daies of adversity DISCOURSE IV. Of being content with Food and Rayment HOw many would be wel satisfied with what the Fire hath left them if they could but take that excellent counsel which the Apostle gives them 1 Tim. 6.8 Having food and rayment let us be therewith content Statelie Houses noble shops full Trades vast Incomes some have not now as formerlie who yet have food and rayment for them and theirs Did Jacob indent with God for any more Gen. 28.20 If God will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on then shall the Lord be my God Did Agur ask any more of God as for the things of this world when he said Feed me with food convenient Yea did he not deprecare that which was much more when he said Give me not riches lest c. Dare we absolutely pray for more than daily bread and other things as necessarie for life whereof ravment is one and shall we peremptorilie desire more than we dare to pray for Can those desires be regular which we fear to make the matter of our prayers Or if God vouchsafe us as much as we think lawful and fit to pray for why should we not be content Turn your desires of greater things than these into the form of a prayer and hear how it will sound Lord give me riches though Agur were so unwise as to pray against them Lord give me with Dives to be cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen and to fare sumptuouslie every day or to have wherewithall so to do Lord give me so many hundreds by the Year more than I need to spend Lord give me one thousand pound at least but rather two or three for every childe I cannot be content with less as a portion for each of them Offer if you dare to put such Incense as this into Christ his Golden Cenfor Appear if you dare with such requests as these at the Throne of grace Expect if you can that as to such requests Jesus Christ should intercede for you So absurd prayers cannot be good desires nor can it be otherwise than absurd to be discontented for the want of those things which were absurd to pray for How many of our betters have barelie food and rayment and yet are very thankful for what
become our friends how much more friends to be friendly Though men be very hard he can as well make them succour us as fetch water out of a rock It is ordinary with God to make them shew his people most kindness in their extremity from whom they did little or least expect it Those whose hearts were shut towards us in the time of our plenty shall it may be be wide opened in and under our necessity A friend is said to be made for Adversity and God makes those friends for his people at such a time though at other times they were not such Elijah could lest expect to be sed by a Raven of all creatures from whose aptness to take rather than give comes our word ravenous neither did the Ravens do any thing for him till the famine came but then they were his good purveyors as God would have it that brought him all his provision We shall never know what friends God will raise us up till we stand in need of them God will be seen in the mount that is just in the time of extremity for then is his opportunity David tells us that he had never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread Psal 37.25 yet he saith he was an old man when he made that observation If his experience satisfie us not let us consult our own Have we seen that which David never saw in this kind Take but the seed of the righteous for their righteous seed and give instance if you can of any of them that have wanted bread or made a trade of begging it As for vain prodigals it is fiâ— they should be brought to huskes and not have a belly full of them neither nor is there any likelier way to bring them home But it is not Gods manner to deal so with others especially at a time when there is bread stirring in the world I mean when there is no publick famine or when the earth yields its increase as at other times If God bring famine upon a Nation if he turn a fruitful Land into barrenness I cannot say but in that case some truly righteous persons may die by famine as well as others by pestilence but there are several things to relieve us against that kind of fear First the case of famine is rare and extraordinary Few rich men torment themselves with fear of want though if a famine come such as was in Samaria they must want bread as well as others because it will not be to be had for love or money But think they God seldom visits a people with cleanness of teeth or comes riding to them upon his pale horse to kill with hunger as it is Rev. 6.8 and why should we torment our selves with fear that he will do so Again if good men perish in and by a common famine it is because they faile in some or other condition to which the promises of being kept alive in famine are made as namely they want faith to trust God for bread in a time of famine and so it comes to pass that they want bread but if that and other conditions on which the promises of supplies are suspended were performed by them God would sooner rain down bread from heaven than suffer them to starve So that you see good men have a conditional security for bread even in a time of famine But in case through their failing in some part of that condition any of them should come short of the promise here is this to comfort them that if God do bring them to huskes yea to want a belly-full of huskes who yet are no prodigals that is no unrighteous or ungodly persons as to the main it is for no worse an intent than to fetch them home so much the sooner to their Fathers house where is fulness of bread that is to heaven where is fulness of joy But methinks the extremity of Mens fear as to want might be taken off by considering that if they be but diligent frugal mercifully inclined but especially if the true fear of God be before their eyes they need not doubt of bread according to the experience of Gods dealing with others save only in time of Famine nor shall they want it then if they have but hearts to trust God for it If there be bread in the Land you shall have part of it If you can show no instances to the contrary why should you not believe it If there be no bread in the Land but an universal Famine rich men must want as well as you who yet fear no want because they perplex not themselves with the supposal of a Famine which they hope never to see A little more to shame our mistrust of Gods giving us food and raiment Let me quote one other Text and it is Rom. 8.32 He that spured not his only Son but delivered him up for us all how shall be not with him also freely give us all things Had we not a World of unbelief to deale withall many things I have said in this Chapter might have been spread but as the case stands with many all I doubt is little enough to shore up and to under-prop their tottering faith which knows not how to trust God no not for food and raiment We little think how we reproach and undervalue God whilst we suspect that he will not so much as feed and cloath us Doth not the Scripture say that our Maker 〈◊〉 our husband If a Woman marry a rich Maâ—able to maintain her liberally and yet vex her self with a conceipt that he will not finde her things necessary and think he can never give her promises and assurances enough that she shall never want cloathes and victuals whilst he lives what a wofull disparagement would he take it for you think me very cruel unnatural and sordid would he say and though that thought be without ground I know not how to perswade you otherwise It is not usual with Parents to promise their children over and over that they will not starve them the children that have honest and able Parents use to take that for granted 〈◊〉 only our unbelief that hath extorted from God so many promises of that nature whereby though we greatly dishonour him yet is he pleased to condiscend to our weakness Where shall we find faith to believe those words Luk. 12.32 It is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome if in the mean time we cannot trust God for so much as food and raiment possibly we shall have it but from hand to mouth to day shall take no care of to morrow but then to morrow shall take care of it self Sufficient for the day shall be the supply as well as the trouble thereof Lord sith then I have promises providences experience of thy dealing with others consideration of divine attributes and relations with several other things to secure me against the feare of absolute want let me never dishonour thee or perplex my self with
the thoughts of any such thing Let my only care be to live in my Fathers house and to carry my self alwayes as in his sight and I shall never want a belliful of huskes nor yet have meer husks for thou feedest not thy children like swine wherewith to fill my belly Every thing that is good is not good for me neither is the best of earthly things alwayes best for me no more than the best liquors are for him that is in a feaver Give me to walk in integrity before thee and then I know thou wilt give me every thing that is good for me for thy promise is to give grace and glory and that no good thing wilt thou with-hold from them that walk uprightly Can I expect to eat bread in the Kingdome of God as the phrase is Luke 14.15 and think that God will not give me bread to eat in this World can I believe I shall be one day cloathed upon with an house which it from heaven as it is called 2 Cor. 5.2 and yet think that God will deny me such cloathing as my body stands in need of he hath given life it not that more than meat a body is not that more than raiment Mat. 6.25 he that hath given the greater will he not give that which is less Our Heavenly Father knows we have need of food and raiment whilst we are in this World and cannot live without it vers 32. Lord give me but to trust in thee and to do good and as thou hast said so I believe verily I shall be fed DISCOURSE VI. Of a good conscience being a continual feast HOwever it comes to pass the vulgar and seemingly mistaken quotation of the close of that verse Prov. 15.15 viz. in these words A good conscience is a continual feast sounds much more spiritually and like a saying of the Holy Ghost than doth that translation which is usually given us viz. in these expressions He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast which they that know no mirth but that which Salomon calls madness will be apt to wrest to a very bad sense The word translated merry is in the Hebrew Tob which signifieth good which is a better word in common acceptation than is the word merry for that is but too liable to an ill construction may I take liberty to alter but that one word and render the Hebrew Text verbatim word for word A good heart a continual feast when we have compared it with the context it wil easily enough appear that the true sense and meaning is that which is generally understood by such a saying as this in that a good conscience is a continual feast For if I mistake not that Proverb is seldom used but by a good conscience is intended a conscience not accusing but excusing not testifying against us but with us and for us a conscience speaking peace and such as is a comfort and a rejoycing to us That Salomon by a good heart doth intend such a conscience as that the opposition in the foregoing words seemeth to imply All the daies of the afflicted are evil but a good heart c. intimating thereby as if good were here opposed to grieved wounded afflicted which interpretation is also countenanced by what followeth ver 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith probably meaning trouble of mind and conscience for the ill geting of it for other kind of trouble there may be where there is but a little and that both gotten and enjoyed in the fear of God And now we know what it is that Solomon here stileth a continual feast we may be able to speak to those who having with Dives fared deliciously every day which now they are not able to do as formerly think it cold comfort to be told of meer food and raiment and would be fain feasting again if they had wherewithall Feast we may and that not only now and then but every day in the year and every hour of the day and upon greater delicacies than any feast commonly so called consists of if we can but get that good conscience Solomon speaks of to feast withall Indeed there is no contentment but a good conscience our bodies admit not of a continual feast but our souls do A full stomack loathes the honey comb But there is no satiety in those dainties which conscience feeds upon much lesse can we surfeit with them As those that have but almost dined feel no troublesome sense of hunger and yet could eat more so a good conscience though it have that already which may suffice yet is alwaies left with a wholsome appetite What can be desired or what is ever enjoyed in a feast but good chear good company good discourse mirth musick now and then as an help to mirth and above all hearty welcome I am deceived if a good conscience do not afford all and every of these Good meats and good drinks are that we count good chear and if our meats and drinks be both for health and delight then do we account them good A good conscience affords both meats and drinks as they may properly enough be called as wholesome and as delightfull as can be wished Meats and drinks such as our bodies feed upon there are none in Heaven Yet something so called there is else why is there mention of eating bread in the kingdome of God Luke 14.15 or why doth Christ speak of drinking of the fruit of the Vine new in the kingdome of his father Mat. 26.29 The bread of comfort the Wine of joy is that which Saints and Angels feast upon in Heaven and the same for kind though not for degree is that of a good conscience It spreads a Table with first second and third course It s presenting us with a well-grounded perswasion of our being delivered from the wrath to come as the Apostle saith we are not appointed to wrath that is as it were the first course it 's witnessing that we are not only not children of wrath which alone would be a great comfort to be assured of but also that we are the children of God as the spirit of God is said to witness with the spirits of Gods children that is the second and then its telling us that it is our fathers pleasure to give us even us a kingdome and causing us to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God that is the third Nor is a good conscience better chear than it is good company As a bad conscience is the worst companion in the World so a good conscience is the very best unless it be God himself He that hath it is many times never less solitary than when he is most alone that is the best company that is both profitable and pleasant and so is a good conscience it hath that property of a good companion amongst others it will finde good and pleasant discourse What Solomon speaks
I have spoken to the great ends of life and the attainableness of them as well by persons of low as of high degree But alas how few in comparison of the lump of mankind or of Men called Christians have yet attained those end for which they live viz. have laid up a good foundation for eternity c. and they are yet fewer who are able to say they have done it For some may have attained thereunto and yet not know it How unsafely do they die who die before they have attained the ends for which they did live and how uncomfortably must they also die who die before they know they have attained them Therefore I say it is a great mercy to the greatest part of Men and Women to be reprieved from Death and from the Grave David as good a Man as he was beg'd hard for this Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more yet was his condition at that time very afflicted for he saith vers 10. Remove thy stroke from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand vers 11. when thou dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Which he seems to speak of as his own case at that time when he cried out O spare me before I go hence Is it not with most people in the World as with idle Boyes in a School at a time when their Master is absent when it is almost time to give over they have scarce lookt into their books or done any thing they came for but played all the while How necessary is it for such Men to live a little longer How sad would it be with them if God should say to them as to that secure fool This night shall thy soul be required of thee were they sensible of their own concernment would not such men prize a little time in the World as those poor Levellers did that were shot at Burford about ten years since Oh that they might live but one day or but one hour longer to enjoy those Ordinances of God which they had formerly despised or as she that in horrour cried out upon her death-bed Call time again call time again If life be necessary for thee as if thou hast not yet attained the ends of life I am sure it is more necessary for thee than any worldly thing by how much it is more necessary that thou shouldst be saved than that thou shouldst be rich or honourable I say if life be more necessary for thee than riches and honour and any thing of this World as it is because upon that moment eternity depends then hast thou cause to look upon it as a great mercy and to be very thankfull for it May it not be said of some men that are dead gone that if they had died but one year or one moneth sooner they had been damned The last year or the last moneth was more to them than all their life before for that they were born I mean born again not long before they died He that can cause the earth to bring forth in one day and a Nation to be born at once Isa 66.8 How great a change can he make in the souls of men in a very short time Yea I remember an excellent Divine of our own hath a passage to this purpose viz. That one day spent in serious meditation of God and Christ the joyes of Heaven the torments of Hell the evil of sin the excellency of grace the vanity of the creature the necessity of regeveration and such like things might contribute more to the conversion and salvation of a sinner than all that hath been done by him in all the time past of his life though possibly he hath lived many years in the world We shall never know what the worth of life and of time is till we come to improve it to those high ends and purposes for which God hath chiefly given it as namely unto making our calling and election sure c. but when we have done finding how great a pleasure a little time hath done us of what unspeakable use and advantage it hath been to us we shall reckon our selves more bound to God for it than for any other temporal enjoyment we shall think a little time to speak in the language of our Proverb to have been worth a Kings ransome Consider life as an estate of hope as Salomon saith Eccles 9.4 To all the living there is hope and death to the wicked as a hopeless state Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained when God taketh away his soul and then tell me if it be not a great mercy but to live But on the base heart of man that will not suffer him to know how great a mercy life is because it will not serve him to improve it A life so spent as multitudes of people do spend theirs will prove a curse rather than a blessing as having done little in it but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath Nor is it ever to be expected that they will bless God for life who have cause to curse the time that they have lived though all thorough their own default He that would comfort himself in the thoughts of his being yet alive and take it for a great mercy that his life though little else is left him for a prey let him sit down and confider what earnings he may make of that time which is left him in the world be it little or much If from henceforth he shall set his face towards Zion set out in the waies of godliness give up his name to Christ engage in the work he came into the world about enter upon the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom set himself to seek the Lord with all his heart or at leastwise repaire to the pool of Bethesdah and wait there for cure follow on to know the Lord that he may know him strive to enter in at the straight gate dig for wisdom as for silver and for knowledge as for hidden treasure make it his business that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord I say whosoever shall do so and persevere in so doing will finde so happy a product of that work whereunto he hath consecrated and devoted the remainder of his life as will make him prize and value one day so spent more than many daies and moneths â—n which all the comfort of his life as he accounted it came in by eating and drinking and company-keeping by hunting hawking diâ—ing carding and such like divertisements He will look upon that time as spent in damning his soul as much as in him lay but the other in saving it and therefore he must needs value this more than that One was a time of running into debt the other of getting old scores paid off or blotted out and therefore must
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