sent Deaths Bayliffe to arrest the house for Rent And turn the dwellers out and sure I am But few could live long there after he came Now Knells of death continually do ring And that same doleful sound of Buryers bring Your dead out mortal Ears with terror pierce And now a Cart becomes the only Hearse To bear a heap of bodies to their Grave Which neither Obsequies nor Rites can have Of Christian burial the best of all Have now no Friends attend their Funeral No cost of Heirs no Mourners to be seen But driven in a Cart as they had been From hanging carry'd thrown into a pit No Priest to say Earth to Earth I commit Now might you see all faces blackness gather The Son lamenting for his dying Father The Wife for her deceased Husband crying And Parents mourning for their Children dying Now might you hear some from their windows cry Bread for the Lords sake or we starved die Groaning at once under two dismal woes The Plague and Famine both their deadly foes Now Friends and Neighbours keep at distance fear T' approach their nearest Kindred for life's dear The Father dreads to see his only Son The Son to see his Father too doth shun The Husband dreads his Wife whom he with dear Embraces us'd to hold durst not draw near The Wife 's afraid her Husband to behold Whom in kind Arms she used to infold Now such as yet do dwell in health and ease Know not how soon the Plague on them may seise Where lately by our Kings happy return All joy and triumph was and then to mourn It was piacular behold and see How sad now there and mournful all things be And now it were ridiculous to laugh Yet some bold sinners now game sing and quaffe Nay as 't is told some by dead Corps do play Away the remnant of their lives short day Poor London this thy sad condition is Yet who bemoans thee and who weeps for this Thou sit'st disconsolate of joys bereft In thy distress by friends and lovers left Such as to satisfie their Pride and Lust Spend here their wanton Summers yearly must When they have helpt to bring the Plague upon thee Now in thy woe and misery fly from thee But let them go if they mend not no doubt Gods Judgments in due time will find them out Though it begins with thee and you must bear The Almighty's wrath for that you sinful were A wrath so killing that your dead do come Unto nine Thousand in the Weekly sum And 't is reported though Bills speak no more Fourteen might be some weeks upon the score Hath God forgotten to be gracious Is His mercy gone for ever and your bliss O spare thy people Lord thy people spare Who with thy precious Bloud redeemed are Will God his anger evermore retain Will he still frown and never smile again No he is gracious and his mercies sure His pity doth from age to age endure Humble thy self and hope well London for God will not cast off his for ever nor Be always wrath slouds at the highest fall So now his over-flowing Judgments shall He will consult his bowels and have pity For mercy sake upon an humbled City And ere the year went round the Plague was so Abated folk a pace did thither go Theirs ended now began the Countrey 's woe And as provoking Sin its course hath run Avenging Judgment after that hath gone As London like the Fountain sent forth streams Of evil through the Land so now the gleams Of wrath dart thence the Plague abroad and thus Sent Death into the Countrey among us Colchester for two years her Thousands paid For tribute unto Death poor Braintry's made To give her Hundreds Chelmford scapes not free And Mousham long hath worn Deaths Liverie In Easterford Kelv'don upon the way Death took into an Inne and made some stay But blessed be the God of Heav'n slaughter Was here no dweller but a sojourner As once the year before he here was sent Into a Cottage but no further went But in most Market-Towns about us slays And by his terror puts down Market-days Whereby the Poor want work the Farmer vent For his Commodities his Landlord Rent And such whom God doth in their persons spare Deep in their Purses now afflicted are Money is dead as well as People Trade Is low yet Payments high must needs be made For Sickness and the War do both require Though things we sell are low our Rates be higher This is our woe this is our great distress The more 's our sorrow Is our sin the less 'T were well if so our loss would be our gain Nor would I doubt to see good days remain But this I cannot see and therefore fear No end of these but a third woe is near Gods knows what will be next but sure unless We better prove for these God will not cease To punish us he hath more Plagues in store And can for sin afflict us seven times more Since both the War and Sickness still endure And once to know the Cause is half the Cure Let us reflect on that and throughly try To search the Cause and find a Remedy For these Calamities which make so long Have mercy Lord the burthen of our Song Let 's see what hinders mercy and what sure Course we must take his mercy to procure But while I was about to think on this Another woe befell The City is All on a flame the Countrey in a fright Our thoughts distracted business put to flight All stand i' th' way to hear what news from thence As men astonisht even bereft of sense But when my Muse her self could recollect On this third Woe began she to reflect Resolv'd at last by light of th' Fire to see The cause of all these woes and remedie On the BVRNING OF LONDON JER 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them c. THe War still slaughters the Plague destroys And England mournful sits berest of joys Abandoned to sorrow yet Gods Hand Is stretched out against this sinful Land And as the City London still hath been The Spring and Fountain of the Nations sin Another wrathful Vial God doth spill On them and thence the Land with terror fill Heav'n from the former with provoked ire Shed death among them but from this a Fire A wasting fire scarce had that Vial done Dropping down sickness ere this woe begun And all at once in flaming fury thrown On this great City quickly burnt it down God seem'd to slack his wrath the Pestilence Was in a manner quite removed thence And having swept the City thence did come And all about the Countrey strangely roame And those who hither fled for safety fly For danger hence and
like a Snake chang'd skin and hew Nor did it alwayes scape the fire before But in the Conquerours twentieth year it bore Such marks of wasting Flames as at this day The greatest part in ruines then did lay Saint Paul's which Ethelbert of Saxon men First Christian King did build was burnt down then This Erkenwald its Bishop had enlarg'd Adorn'd Enricht all which this fire discharg'd But the next year Mauritius piouslie Another Prelate of this Ancient See Laid the foundation of a far more fair Magnificent and stately Structure there Which in process of time by bounteous hand Of pious Benefactors late did stand This Nations glory others envy and Not to be paralel'd in Christian Land The boasted of fair Church of Nostre Dame In Paris might be Handmaid to this same When our St. Paul was in his pomp I trow Their Lady set by him would make no show Until the Steeples Heav'n assaulting Spire By Lightning sent from Heav'n was set on fire As if this seem'd to imitate the pride Of Babel builders whom God did deride This lofty Pyramis he burned down Which fire seis'd on Paul's roof sing'd his crown And with its smutty beams scorched his head Black't and defac't the whole Structure and made Paul look more like to such as did him mark An Ethiopian than an English Clark The marks of which he for a long time bore Nor could regain his beauty as before Till to the Land of God and his own praise The Reverend Archbishop Land did raise Paul's to its pristine glory till late times When Sacriledge Rebellion no crimes But Vertues were accounted Some mens zeal Could devour whole Cathedrals at a meal Christ's zeal for Gods House eat him up more odd Was this their zeal eat up the House of God The holy Tribe and service they cast out Brought Horses in the more beasts they no doubt Thus these Phanaticks O abominable Turned the House of God into a Stable And Reformation was there never stranger Where Altars stood to set up Rack and Manger Temple profaners must on the sacred sloore Your Horses dung What could the Turks do more The Jews indeed did less they to a Den Turned Gods Temple but it was of men Though thieves but these more brutish for the nonce Make it a den of thieves and beasts at once And by such usage Paul declin'd a pace The Souldiers gave him deep scars on his face His Walls lookt sadly and his Gates did mourn Until the late miraculous return Of King and Bishops who remov'd th' abuse And Paul's restor'd unto its pristine use And daily did re-edifie repair All parts about it which lately ruin'd were But by this raging fire which now befell The City sparing neither Church nor Cell Paul 'mong the rest into his Grave is thrown Whence we expect his Resurrection In King and Bishops to good works inclin'd We Ethelbert and Erkenwalds to find And generous Mauritus too do trust Who will redeem Paul's once more from its dust Nor do I doubt did we but lay to heart The causes of our woes by which we smart Or would this stubborn Nation but endure The means of their Recovery and Cure Th' Almighty would in mercy soon restore The City to its beauty or to more It should not long as now in ruines lie Nor noise of War our borders terrifie The killing Plague should in all places cease Our Land enjoy Prosperity and Peace Let us consider then of all our woe The Cause the Cure we shall the better know The Cause of our Calamities THE Cause of all in highest Heav'ns I seek And in our sinful bosomes which do reek With boiling lust whence sinful deeds do rise As vapours from the Earth above the Skies Ascend and make those clouds of Gods just ire Which thunder'd forth the War lightned the Fire And did on this provoking people pour Of mortal sickness a contagious showr Not for the causes meerly natural Of all these woes or means instrumental Search I but for the prime efficient And inward moving cause were our hearts rent With due contrition this we soon might spy Deep in our brests for that we must look high God is the Author and our Sins the Spring Which on us all these dreadful Plagues do bring How many Atheists in this Land do dwell Even Owles at Athens blind in Israel There is no God say some fools in their heart VVhom war nor Plague would from their Atheism start Sure by the light of the late dreadful fire They 'le see their folly and the light that 's higher How many with corporeal fancies serve That God who is all Spirit others swerve From his prescription after their own will Do worship him and are devoutly ill Many a swearing cursing miscreant As Devils upon Earth each place doth haunt And do blaspheme Gods sacred Name in spight Of all Plagues wish a Plague and take delight To tear Christs wounds afresh make him bleed Pray to be damn'd but sure they shall not need When neither war nor plague would these affright God fir'd their Houses 'bout their ears to light Them to Repentance and thus let them see An Embleme of the Worlds Catastrophe And an Epitome of that Hell Infernal In which the wicked after death must burn all How many do neglect contemn profane All holy times consecrate to God's Name And service now How is the zeal grown cold Which thronged Christian Churches so of old Scarce the tenth part will in some places come To Church but most do idley stay at home Or to Schismatical Assemblies run Or make an halt until the Pray'rs be done Of those who in our Churches do appear How few with reverence and godly fear Behave themselves some do in Taverns wast Those precious hours when here their souls should feast And one would think when such a Plague God sent All Christians now would fast pray and repent But on the Fasting days Good Lord how few Will come before thee and for mercy sue All Holy-days are mere Play-days now are made Or consecrate to drunken Baechus trade Church doors are open'd bells ring for fashion But th' Alehouse hath the greater Congregation Gods House indeed is styl'd the House of Pray'r But if no Preaching be few will come there They think 't not worth the while to call on God Even when they groan under his scourging Rod They hear and hear but never learn to do Those duties which all Preaching tendeth to Others whose lusts and sins the Word controuls Nauseate all Preaching Physick for their Souls And the seduced people whose blind eyes See not of Christ the saving mysteries Yet wholesome Chatechizing wont endure For their Souls blindness though the only cure Thus is Gods Service crucified between Two thieves like him and in his House is seen A den of thieves one sort rob of him of Pray'r The other rob their souls of his Word there And for the blessed Sacrament so full Of
in which they go What ware they sell and some do strive by paint To make the ugly Devil seem a Saint Some have their faces with black Patches drest As thinking dapled Ladies will sell best Methinks it seems as if some Feind did place The print of Hell burnt fingers on their face Born with such spots should you your children see You 'd call 't no beauty but deformitie God now sends spots as he would theirs deride And note to all that theirs is plaguie Pride And now adays because within there rests So little Vertue in most womens brests Which of old won them Husbands that would give Dowries to get a vertuous Wife to live With them as helps most meet and comforts sure Friends in both fortunes till death to endure Naked they expose them to youthful eyes Hoping if not true Love yet Lust may rise At such a sight and seizing on the heart Betray it unto them and the fond smart Of Cupid's flames while these do now deny What they would fainest grant and only try By sprinkling water to increase the fire By their denyal to augment desire Thus hunt they for their dear and use some wile To bring the simple heart within their toil Vertue can only it a subject make Beauty a wandring heart may captive take And now our Ladies vanity and pride And their neglect of Huswifery beside Affright all sober men who fear to woo Lest they should court their woe in doing so Or with their wives will now some thousands have To keep them in the fashion fine and brave What a fine life our Gallants live and yet 'T were fine indeed if 't were the way to get To Heav'n and its immortal happiness But they 're beside the way I more than guess Whose days and years are always vainly spent In Dressing Mistressing and Complement Who rise and dress by noon come down and dine Then to a Play thence to the House of wine And so to bed it may be drunk before Perhaps all night embracing of an whore If these be Christians where 's their Masters badge The Cross and Self-denyal they can't fadge With these If such go hence to glory Hell and the Devil sure are but a story The way to Heav'n is broadest sure if they Who wander thus can thither find the way Pride doth usurp on God provoke him thus To plague us for 't that he might humble us And that proud City which lift up her hand Above the rest in pride full low is laid The parent nurse spring stage of pride and vain Fashions and tricks which our Religion stain And whose proud Dames out-vied in garishness Our modest Ladies in their Countrey dress To all these sins wherewith this sinful Land Before the Lord of Heav'n doth guilty stand May many aggravations urged be From Gospel light whereby men clearly see The evil of these evils yet do they The works of darkness in the brightest day From great Ingratitude so plainly shown When God miraculously poured down Incomparable mercies on us those Who late opprest under their cruel foes Could own their sins the cause of all their woes Now freed from these return again to those A King a Parliament a Church regain'd Peace Liberty Religion maintain'd Some desperate God-dammes do begin To war with Heav'n by their Gigantine sin The roaring blades aloud do quickly call For thundring Vengeance on their heads to fall When health and plenty joy and triumph crown'd Our Land our hainous sins apace abound Swearing Carowsing Cheating Briberie Oppression Sacriledge and Simonie Pride lust and all the rout of sins o're-run Our Countrey so our joy and triumph's done We first forsook the God of mercies and God makes his mercies to forsake our Land And now to mercy judgment doth succeed VVe surfeited and God doth make us bleed Abundance of corruption sickness brings And heat of lust hath fir'd our pleasant things Yet under all these Judgments are we still Incorrigible and perverse in ill God may say I have sent the Pestilence That I might bring you to an humble sense Of sin your young men with the Sword I slew Your City I as Sodom overthrew Yet have ye not returned unto me Therefore yet seven times more I 'le punish ye And thus of all our woes we see the cause Transgression is against Gods holy Laws A Gospel unbecoming Conversation Provoketh God thus to afflict our Nation And in the ripping up our sins to see The root and spring of all our miserie I would not have men think to any one Or sin or party I impute alone Our woes and judgments but to one and t'other To all and ev'ry one I would not smother My own or Friends but do desire that all Would think for their sins these things us befal And each apply the Plaister to his wound Which healing ev'ry one will make all sound Nor need we doubt to have a perfect Cure If all will but the Remedy endure Which now I shall consider of and try For all these woes to find a remedy The Cure ANd 't is half wrought already since we see The inward cause of our sad maladie Now to remove the cause is the most sure Way to effect a safe and speedy cure And had I but good Patients then I might Promise a cure and lose no credit by 't But I must first the Patients court to let The Physick be apply'd for they as yet How sick soever scorn our Ministry Who would the healing Remedies apply In bodily Diseases they will hie Them quickly to Physicians lest they die Send pray and pay take what 's prescrib'd endure All pains and tortures for a speedy cure But in their Soul distempers will not give An ear to sound advice nor seek to live And when we freely offer do disgust Our wholsom Physick such needs perish must Is Earth less worth than Heav'n or is the Soul Less to be valued than the Body soul No reason can you thus preposterous make We keep the Casket for the Jewels sake Or if this transitory life now is In more esteem than Heav'ns immortal bliss Yet take our counsel and our medicines seeing They 're for the welfare of your present being Receive apply and let them work they health Temporal and eternal peace and wealth Do bring And now these Remedies so rare Repentance Faith and true Obedience are Repentance takes away the cause of woe Faith reconciles us unto God and so Future Obedience will our bliss secure From age to age for ever to endure Go mourning and hold up your guilty hand Before Gods bar there self-condemned stand The way here to be sav'd is to confess Your sins cloak not excuse not nor make less But aggravate them all mercy implore From him who keepeth mercy still in store For penitent offenders ever will Exalt the humble and the mournful fill VVith Oyl of gladness never will despise But with delight accepts the Sacrifice Of broken-hearts and binds them up and
heals The wounded Spirit which compunction feels Before Gods foot-stool therefore prostrate lie Cry guilty Lord confess or else you die Judge and condemn your selves if you would save Your selves with God such only pardon have Relent repent reform and throughly purge Away your sins and God will take his scourge And Plague away with him make but your peace And he will make your VVars with men to cease Or us Victor quench but the flames of lust And he will raise the City from the dust That kindled first Gods wrath and this the flame VVhich sit'd the City of so ancient fame For this bow down before Gods Throne and kneel This fire might melt you if you were all steel Into some godly sorrow lie as low As doth your City and bemone your woe Repent in dust and ashes as that lies And God will make it Phoenix like to rise From Funeral ashes London then shall yee More glorious in its Resurrection see Might this fire be the Cities Purgatory God would restore it with far greater glory Thus if Repentance make our peace with God VVe may believe he 'l throw away his Rod VVithout Repencance Faith presumption is And finds no mercy but when mixt with this It never fails to find and sure ground hath For hope and trust and then indeed 't is faith If we repent it 's the Condition still Imply'd in every Promise that God will Prevent or take away his Judgments but Th' impenitent the door of mercy shut Against themselves and lock themselves in woe Keep then your sorrows or your sins forgoe But if we do repent we then may trust God will forgive us because he is just Then pray in faith with hearty Supplication That God would pardon this our sinful Nation Remove his heavy hand send peace and health Repair our ruines and restore our wealth Go sin no more but henceforth him obey So shall our Kingdom flourish and all they VVho seek its ruine shall confounded be And snar'd in their subtile iniquitie No force nor fraud shall hurt a righteous Cause Manag'd by such as keep th' Almighty's Laws But we oft see the juster cause o'rethrown In sinners hands who hardly God will own The stronger party to the weak a prey When they will not the Lord of Hosts obey If God be for us who can us defeat If he against us where shall we retreat For refuge If we him against us arm Whom all the creatures serve what cannot harm And ruine us The Angels take Gods pay And one of them a mighty Host can slay The Stars in their swift course do slyly fight Gods battels against sinners day and night Clouds are his Canons swift destruction fling By Thunder and their Lightnings vengeance bring By fire on sinful mortals and the wind Brings on its wings oft ruine to mankind The calmer air convey the Pestilence Whereby death steals into us without sense The Earth is iron and the Heav'ns are brass When threatned Famine God will bring to pass Earth once did open and take Rebels in Alive as if it could not bear that sin The Seas do pass their bounds and us o'reflow With mischeif when God bids them further go Frogs Locusts Caterpillars creeping things Will take the Palaces of mighty Kings When God doth arm them and their persons seise And in a Land devour all when God doth please That 's fair and fruitful Even our breath infects Our very dust turns Lice or some Insects To infest sinful men A Fly 't is spoke Ventur'd a Pope infallibly to choke Could he Souls out of Purgatory vote And yet not keep a Fly out of his throat But thus we see when God gives them Commission The feeblest Creatures give us expedition Into another world who God not fears Hath all the world in Arms about his ears While Man his Maker serves he 's Lord of these But when he sins they are his Enemies When we provoke our God where e're we go Each creature looks upon us as a foe God will protect and bless his servants but They who rebel no confidence can put In him Since to believe and not obey Self flatt'ry is no faith henceforth I pray Le ts lay the sure foundation of our trust In purposes to keep his Laws most just Then may we trust he will our Plagues remove And showr down blessings on us from above When we do purpose to endeavour and Do strive to purpose to keep his command Begin a new course then and never cease To walk in Gods ways for his ways are peace And pleasantness to bear Christs yoke delight His yoke is easie and his burthen light To sin is no light thing did it not press Legions of Angels to the bottomless Infernal pit from highest glory hath Not man by weight of sin been prest to death Look upon worldly wealth and count it dross Deny your selves take up your Saviours Cross The worlds crown hath its cross his cross a Crown Her smiles betray more safety's in her frown Give unto Caesar and to God their due Fear God honour the King to both be true Since God is one so let your heart be and Serve him with one heart after his command Think not your wit a better way can find To worship God than what is his own mind Take not his Sacred Name in vain nor swear Profanely but with reverence and fear Mention Gods holy Name in Justice Truth And Judgment when call'd to it take an Oath Observe the holy Times grudge not to spare Some time each day for holy thoughts and pray'r But on the days to worship consecrate Divide not betwixt God and Mammon hate To rob God and your Souls be wholly given To holy Service grudge not one in seven To him that made them all nor yet refuse The Churches holy days as such to use Nor count to pray scarce worth your coming there Since God doth style his House the house of Pray'r Honour your Parents of all sorts and show To Prince and Priest the rev'rence that you owe Their nakedness when spy'd lament and bide And not like Cham discover and deride Hate not your brother have no murtherous thought Remember what dire Vengeance murther brought On Cain and under no pretence be killing Religion cannot justifie blood-spilling Make clean your hearts and keep your bodies free From Fornication and Adulterie They are the Temples of the Lord be sure The holy Spirit hath a mansion pure In you That Dove likes not a cage unclean You 'l be th' unclean Spirits den if obscaene Be just and honest and do no man wrong Nor cheat and cosen with a double tongue Ill gotten goods do not increase your wealth But are the rust that wasts by secret stealth Think not you gain when you a curse do get This is a Canker and will surely fret Accuse thou no man falsely nor defame Thy neighbour tender as thine own his Name The Angel durst not on the Devil rail And shall we