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

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

LIV. Upon the burning down of Zion Colledge LOndon was an Epitome of England if not also of the whole World In it was something of almost every thing and amongst the rest Colledges erected or designed for most kinds and parts of good Learning only two of which I shall now instance in viz. Gresham and Zion-Colledges The former which was to be for Divinity and other Sciences yet standing the latter which was intended only for Divines and for Theology now lying in the dust Doubtless Learning is a great advantage and stay to Religion as the Apostle himself intimateth when he speaks of some who being ignorant and unlearned do wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction and if men as much as in them is would root Religion out of the world they could use no means more effectual than that which Julian applied himself to viz. the extinguishing of all good literature This came to mind when I remembred that Colledge to be yet standing where Divinity and other Sciences dwell together though I am far from assigning that as the reason why that Colledge rather than the other did escape the Fire But my work is to treat of those places that did not escape and now particularly of Zion-Colledge The place where that Colledge stood from the first time that I can receive any account of it was alwayes a seat of Charity first in the Oare as I may call it and afterwards refined By Charity in the Ore I mean that which was popish and superstitions For the first Foundation that I read of in that place was a Nunnery After that it was converted to an Hospital in the year 1332. for the relief of one hundred blind men and was called the Priory or Hospital of Saint Mary the Virgin founded by William Elsing the which VVilliam became the first Prior there In the same place where that Priory was situated was since erected the Colledge I am speaking of for the Clergy of London and Liberties thereof and for the sustentation of twenty poor people ten men and ten women An exemplary and well-contrived piece of Bounty and Charity was the founding of that Colledge and the Alms-houses thereunto belonging Which I must needs speak in praise of those it's worthy Founders whose Names should alwayes live though their Works be now demolished Of the Charity that built that Colledge and the Library belonging to it I can say no less than that i● was a Liberal a Living an Extensive an Humble and a Handsome respectful Charity and in all those respects greatly Exemplary That it was Liberal appeareth by the quality of those two Divines that were the Founders of it one of the Colledge its self viz. Doctor Thomas VVhite the other of the Library viz. Master John Sim●son All the prefe●●ent that I can find either of these Gentlemen had in and from the Church was that the former was Vicar of Saint Dunstans in the West and on● of the Canons residentiary of Saint Paul's Church London and the other viz. Mr. John Sim●s●● was onely Re●●or of Saint Olaves Hart-street London Some men do a great deal of good with a little the Church doth little for them and yet they do much for it others do but a little good with a great deal Many whose Titles and Ecclesiastical Revenues have swelled ten times higher than either of theirs did never were half so much Benefactors to the Church and world as was the least of them but have hoorded up their money as if they meant when they left the world to take it with them And as their Charity was liberal which I may call intensive so was it no lesse extensive Charity like seed should not all be sown in one surrow but scattered some here some there as the Scripture speaking of a good man saith He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor and his righteousness remaineth I say their Charity was extensive because first it did reach and extend to soul and body both yea I might have said in the Apostles phrase Soul Body and Spirit There was provision made for the bodies of so many poor there were helps 〈◊〉 Learning whereby to accommodate the mind● and souls of such as were lovers of it and lastly there was Religion or rather helps to Religion by the promoting of Divinity for the spirits of men by which I mean the sublimet faculties of men which are more especially the 〈◊〉 and subjects of Religion There was Charity shewed to both Sexes so much to one as to anothers whereas some Sensuallists have no charity but for that Sex which is not their own Pharaoh-like who took care to save the females though he gave charge to drown the males as if they had been so many Mice And certain Humorists on the other hand pretend to set their whole love upon their own Sex professing themselves to be Misogynists or haters of Women which whether in pretence or in reality is another sinful extreme Again That Colledge was kind and Charitable both to the Learned and Unlearned as Paul saith that he was a Doctor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish Whereas some meer Schollars themselves have no love for any but Learned men and others again have a kind of Antipathy to Schollars as such Lastly The extensiveness of the Charity that gave that Colledge appeareth in that it was a benefit both to Rich and Poor for as to some things those that are Rich may need help as truly as those that are poor Thither might Persons of Quality whose Libraries and usual Divellings were in the Country repair and be furnished with those Books they could not meet with elsewhere An extensive Charity ought much to be imi●ated because the Scripture saith Do good to all men And one great fault of this Age is That the Charity of men like their respects is consined in some only to Pauls in others to Cephas in others to Apollos as I may allude but the World will never be right till men have learnt to love all good People as such On Mr. Simpsons part who founded the Library it was as some call it a Living-Charity for he built it in his life-time at his own proper cost and charges whereas some others have in effect said That their Mony should go to good uses when they had nothing else to do with it then and not till then yea possibly repented of that too ere they died I have moreover called it an hurable-Charity a Charity that did not vaunt it self because the aforesaid Founder of the Library did not scorn to build upon another mans Foundation or to spend himself in adding to another mans Work who it was to be expected would bear the name of the Principal Founder Happy is he that can seek the good of others and not seek his own honour at the same time that so others be benefited doth not much care though himself be over lookt Lastly I said It

think God must over-turn the course of Nature if he would do this and that for us as he spake of Gods making windows in heaven Whereas himself who is only wise knows how to accomplish what we desire without using such violent extraordinary means Be consident the Lord knows how together with every danger and temp●●tion to make a way for escape and relie upon what is spoken Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and let the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of his wings MEDITATION LVIII Upon the Warning which other Places may and ought to take by the Burning of London LOndons downfall may Alarm all the World As many bad People as were in it let him that can point out that City in which there are more so far as men can judg that are truly good If ten righteous persons yea if fifty yea if ten times fifty to speak within compass could have saved it London had not been destroyed There were more than a few Names within that Sardis of such as had not defiled their garments like others Yet it should seem not enow to weigh against the sins of the rest Comparing London with other places we may call it a Green-Tree and If this were done to the green Tree What shall be done to the dry If Judgement begin at the House of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I doubt not but there were sins enow in London to deserve the Judgment that did befall it yea and a greater than that but by the same reason there is guilt enough in all other places to expose them to as great a desolation Job had sins enow of his own to acquit God in stripping him of all his earthly Comforts and setting him upon a Dunghill to scrape his sores with postheards yet Job had not at that time his fellow in all the East-Countrey for a man searing God and eschewing evil so that God might as justly have done the same thing to any man of that age as to him Sins comparatively small have sometimes been branded with great Punishments witness Davids numbering the People and the Bethshemites looking into the Ark possibly to show that little sins are commensurate with great Judgements in point of evill as a grain of some Poisons may be as hurtful as a dram of others so lesser sinners do sometimes fall under heavy Judgements to show that even they deserve such Scorpions as those and others greater punishments but that the patience of God extends to the reprieving of them for the present as Solomon said to Abiathar Thou art worthy to dye but I will not p●t thee to death at this time 1 King 2.26 Such as charge those sins upon London which it was never guilty of might have had more colour for so doing if the Judgement had not fallen upon all sorts of men as well those whom they think free from any such guilt as others who were really free though they do not think them so To speak of London as worse than indeed it was that is as worse than other places is no other than to bespeak security in other places and to prevent that warning which they ought to take and which is indeed given them by the destruction of London Who hath not reason to think that other places shall likewise perish if they repent not All my doubt concerning London is whether it were better than most other places proportionably to the mercies and means of grace which it enjoyed above them or whether those things considered its sins did not preponderate but whether absolutely considered it did not more abound with people of good and unblamable lives then most other places do I do not much question nor can I tell who doth Could I be heard beyond the Seas I would say Let Rome Vienna Venice Madrid and Paris take warning by the destruction of London and repent betimes as in dust and ashes and to keep within our own bounds Let Dublin and Edenborough do so likewise or to come nearer home Let York Bristol Norwich and all other Cities of England nwo in being meet the Lord in the way of his judgements and seek to turn away his wrath lest they drink of the same Cup of trembling whereof London hath drunk so deep lest God do unto them as he hath done unto it as he threatned of old to do to Jerusalem as unto Shiloh Jer. 7.14 lest he rain fire and an horrible tempest upon them as he hath done upon that famous City yea lest when London having humbled its self under the mighty hand of God shall be restored and lifted up again which we pray and hope for their doom should be to succeed it in the same Calamity under which it groaneth at this day Which thing we should all wish may be prevented as to each of them by a Sincere and seasonable Repentance FINIS Twenty Seven MEDITATIONS Consisting of COUNSEL and COMFORT TO DIRECT and SUPPORT CHRISTIANS Under outward troubles But especially calculated for the use of those that were and are great Sufferers by the Fire Part IV. By Samuel Rolle Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir THOMAS ADAMS Knight and Baronet TO Sir FRANCIS BICKLEY Knight and Baronet And to the rest of the wothy Citizens of the now desolate though not despairing City OF LONDON Especially such of them as either reside at Hackney or are Governours of Saint Thomas's Hospital in Southwark S. R. A Native of London and true Mourner for the Calamity thereof in gratitude to several of them and in true respect to all dedicateth this most Consolatory part of his Meditations wishing the reparation of all their losses in Gods due time and their compleat Assurance of an interest in those better things that cannot be lost Mixt Meditations and Discourses of Counsell and Comfort to such as were great sufferers by the firing of London DISCOURSE I. Of Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them TO say there is a Deliverance under L●sses and Troubles as well as another out of them must needs be good sense because it is good Divinity The holy Ghost in the Scripture speaks of such a thing to whom it is impossible to speak either untruly or improperly It were blasphemy and non-sense to charge him either with falshood or folly who is Truth and Wisdom its selfe and the fountain of all that Truth and Wisdom which is dispersed amongst all intelligent creatures He himself tels us how Christ was heard in the prayers which he made for Delive cance unto him that was able to save from death Heb. 5.8 Yet was he not saved from the Cross intimating thereby that there is a Deliverance properly enough so called under the cross as well as from under it

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