multitudes of Instances This practice of theirs is one of the names of Blasphemy written in their foreheads and by such means as these they go beyond us But the mony which is given upon the two last accounts is certainly the result and product not of real bounty but of woful blindness and ignorance That which is such a kind of cheat in the receivers can hardly be called charity in the givers Then may we draw to this conclusion Papists have waies to cheat men of their mony which Protestants have not yet scorn to use but Papists have no Arguments truely deduced either from Scripture or sound reason wherewith to invite men to works of charity that Protestants have not and they alone well used and mannaged are and will be sufficient If Papists will take upon them to be wiser than God and to teach him who is only wise how to furnish the World with better motives to charity and good works than ever yet he hath done so will not Protestants It were better London should continue in ashes than have its foundation laid in such Blasphemous Impostures but that it need not do neither for want of Scriptural Arguments mighty through God to pull down the strong holds of mens unmercifulness and to bring into captivity every thought which exalteth it self against obedience thereunto We that are Protestants can tell men according to our Principles that the least work of true charity shall have a great reward that the reward of persons truely charitable shall be no less than eternal life that every such work shall follow good men when they dye and add to the weight of their Crown of Glory We can tell rich men that if they will not make to themselves friends of the unrighteous Mammon they shall not be received into everlasting habitations of glory that if they shut up their bowels against poor Lazaruses they shall fare no better than Dives did who denied his crumbs of bread and was himself denied a drop of water We can freely tell every man that it is as possible for him to get to Heaven without faith as without charity and as impossible for him to be saved without charity as without faith Then I appeal to every mans reason whether it be not an act of charity and piety to help up with this poor City and particularly with the Hospitals and Churches thereto belonging Though our Religion be by Papists reproached as Hannah was by Peninnah with barrenness namely in reference to good works it may hereafter come and I hope it will to sing as Hannah did in 1 Sam. 2.5 The barren hath born seven and she that hath many Children is waxed feeble DISCOURSE XV. Upon the looks and prospect of London whilst but some few houses are built here and there and others but building in the midst of many ruinous heaps O London what is thy present hue how many other things art thou like unto at this day but how unlike thy self unlike what thou wert yea unlike what thou art if we compare one part with another Mulier formosa supernè desinit in piscem what a motley linsey woolsey exchequered thing art thou at this day One while methinks thou lookest like a forrest in which are some tall trees some shrubs some meer stumps otherwhere all pluckt up by the roots or may I not liken thee to an old orchard in which are some trees that have ripe fruit upon them other have but buds others but meer blossoms but the greater part are dead and withered nor dost thou less resemble a great common field in which some early corn is at full growth elsewhere that which was latter sown hath yet but peept out of the ground and very many acres up and down lie quite fallow We read of the waters of the sanctuary how that some of them were but to the ancles others to the knees others up to the loins Ezek. 47.4 That it may be was successively but this all at once Thus in a family where are many children ordinarily there are some at the estate of men and women some boyes and girles some infants and some one or more that are yet but in the mothers womb Is London a village that I see the houses in it stand so scatteringly and at so great a distance one from another scarce enough together to make that number which is said to make a conventicle 1. Having been degraded for a while must it commence a village before it commence a City As in a through-fare village standing upon a great road most houses are Inns or Alehouses to entertain strangers so may we observe that the major part of houses built upon the ruines are let out to Alehouse-keepers and Victuallers to entertain workmen imployed about the City How easily doth the present condition of London bring France to mind where a middle sort of people are scarce to be found but all are said to be either Princes as it were or Peasants Gentlemen or slaves Our stately-houses may serve for an emblem of the former our ruinous heaps of the latter or one may represent the flourishing papists in that Country and the other the oppressed Hugonites they and their Churches lying together in ashes Would I give scope to phantasy I could adde that London now looks like Euclids Elements or some such books in which are all sorts of schemes and figures as straight lines crooked lines triangles quadrangles hexangles and what not or like a book of Anatomy full of cuts representing in one page the shape of a head in another of an arm in a third of a legg c. So in one place there is as it were the head or beginning of a street in another place the feet or end thereof by its self elsewhere the arm or breast or belly of a street the middle I mean standing all alone A goodly uniformity there is in so much of it as is built together but ruines and confusion round about it which represents it like a beautiful face stuck with black patches which is very lovely so far as it is seen but all the rest is ugliness and deformity manifest pride and concealed beauty Neither is London at this day unlike the month of April in which I am writing this consisting of quick vicissitudes of rain and sunshine one part of the Heavens smiling another frowning and lowring So one part of the street smiles upon us almost throughout the ruines but the rest of it frowneth and looks ghastly If we compare it to one that is rising out of his sepulchre it must be to one that hath his grave cloaths about him for so hath London But when all is said London at this day represents nothing more then our own divisions together with the ill effects and consequences thereof For first of all is it not unquoth and dolesome to live in houses that stand at such a distance one fom another Some of them like a cottage in a garden of cucumbers
own ruines and ashes I say that the means and causes thereof should be inquired into Nay how great a care did the Law of God take to satisfie those husbands one way or other upon whom the spirit of jealousie came though there were no witness to prove that against their wives which they were jealous of Yea if the husband were jealous of his wife and she were not defiled Numb 5.13 14. Though the thing he was jealous of could not be proved yea though the woman was not guilty nevertheless she was to offer the jealousy offering v. 18. to purg her self by an Oath v. 19. and to drink of the bitter water v. 18. and all this was no prejudice to the wife in case she were innocent nay it was an advantage to her for v. 28. it is said If the woman be not defiled but be clean then she shall be free viz. First from the curse or mischief which the bitter water would otherwise have brought upon her v. 19. If thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness be thou free from this bitter water which causeth the curse v. 19 Secondly from the jealousy and suspicion of her husband which would not otherwise have been taken off And one benefit more she was to have by it expressed v. 28. And shall conceive seed that is if she were barren before she should after that have a Child and if she had any formerly she should have more If so much were done to satisfie the jealousy of one private man may nothing reasonably be expected to satisfie and take off the jealousies of thousands if not millions of men and women in City and country in a matter of higher consequence than is that injury which a husband receiveth by the unchastness of his wife though that injury be very great yet this I say was greater For this was a fault not to be pardoned if proved whereas Joseph though a just man when he suspected his espous'd wife to have been unlawfully with Child thought to have past it by and not to have made her an example Mat. 1. How desirous were the Philistines that were smote with Emrods to know whither God had done them that great evil or whether it were not some chance that had hapned to them 1 Sam. 6.9 Was their Plague of Emrods greater than our plague of Fire If not why should we less inqure after this how it came than they after that To inform our selves how the Fire came to pass is not a point of curiosity but of great use For could it be made out at leastwise with great probability that it was the immediate hand of God and as it were Fire from Heaven that did consume our City that circumstance would so much promote our humiliation to think that rather than suffer us to go unpunished God should work a miracle to destroy us And then again upon other accounts it might make much for our comfort to know that men had no hand in the doing of it For if God himself did do it immediately we may hope the like will not be done again in many ages to come For as God after he had once drowned the world did presently promise he would do so no more so it is scarcely to be paraleld amongst the providences of God that he should burn the same City twice in a short time He useth to pause and as it were to deliberate long upon such strange acts of Judgment as those are expostulating with himself and with them as of old How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I make thee like Admah and like Zeboim my bowels are turned within me c. But they that suspect it was burnt by men till that jealousie be removed will always be in fear that they whom they mistrust to have destroyed it once if undiscovered will attempt to destroy it again as soon and as often as they can Now in case the bitter water of a through examination shall confirm the thing they were jealous of viz. that London was fired by Instruments and it shall come to light who those Instruments were it is all the reason in the world they should be made examples that others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly I reckon the danger would be over for one Age at least as to that sort of men that should once be proved and owned to have burnt the City so firmly as they would be bound to their good behaviour and so watchful an eye as would be held over them from that time forward All opposition made to the sifting out that business doth vehemently encrease the jealousies of men for he that doth well cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest but they that have done evil hate the light lest their deeds of darkness should be reproved One would think that whotsoever is suspected being indeed innocent should be more earnest than any other persons to come to a strict scrutiny that themselves might be vindicated Methinks the chast Wife that had a jealous Husband should and could not but long for the bitter water as knowing it would be so far from causing her belly to swell and her thigh to rot that it would keep her name from rotting and make her of a sorrowful suspected Wife to become a joyful Mother If all men can wash their hands in innocency as from the burning of London I heartily wish that God would bring forth their righteousness as the light and their judgement as the noon day It is pity they should suffer so much as in their names who had no hand in it and if any had besides that poor Hubart who was executed upon that accompt the strangest instance that ever was if he burnt such a City alone to suffer in their names only is not sufficient But now I think of it there lately came down a Command or Commission to the City to take examinations upon oath of all matters relating to the fire which was done accordingly and the injunction to do it was I know accepted with all humble thankfulness and as well resented by many as ever any thing was That considered I must excuse what I have said with that of the Poet He that recommends what is done already thereby commends him that did it Qui monet facias quod jam facis ille monendo laudat What Solomon saith in another case I shall allude to in this After so much enquiry as hath been made already upon the oaths of sufficient persons many of whose depositions are now extant and after all that are like to be hereafter made by vertue of the Authority then granted if there be any guilt at the bottom Whosoever hideth it hideth the wind and the oyntment of his right hand which bewrayeth it self Prov. 27.16 DISCOURSE XXI That the countenance of Rulers expressing much zeal and earnestness to have the City up again and a sad sense of its present ruines would put much life
or one that more needs it to receive part of your last kindness and of that estate which you cannot carry out of the world with you than is your dear mother the City of London who now fits as a widow who now cries out to them that go by pity me pity me all ye that pass by is there any sorrow like to mine Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fiery anger Lam. 1.12 A sacrifice well pleasing to God might do much for the poor desolate City and what is such the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased DISCOURSE XLIII That the promoting of Love and Amity throughout the whole nation would much conduce to the rebuilding of the City IF England were at unity with it self if all the inhabitants thereof were in charity with one another if fellow subjects had that love each for other that fellow members of the same body should and use to have or which the members of each body use to have for their head for so is London to the other Cities and Towns of England then might we confidently expect to see London up again in a very short time and like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber deckt and trimmed Whilst our heats and animosities continue whilst we bite and devour one another methinks the fire of London is not quite out but it doth reak and smoke still so far is it from being perfectly restored and compleatly rebuilt But were we all of one heart though not of one mind could we hit upon it to love as brethren from Dan to Bersheba I mean from one end of England to the other were all Englishmen compassionately affected with the loss of London and passionately desirous of its restauration London would spring up again like Jonah's gourd as it withered like that I mean in as short a time for a great City to spring up in as one night was for a gourd No grace like that of love for matter of building it builds up the body of Christ the best of fabricks From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self is love Eph. 4.16 and sith it doth do so what building is there that love cannot promote How much concerned were the Israelites to restore the tribe of Benjamin Judg. 23.6 They repented them â—â—r Benjamin and said there is one tribe cut of from Israel this day They destroyed the inhabitants of Jâ—besh-gilead for not coming up to Mizpeh and gave them their daughters to wives to the number of four hundred which proving not to be enough they put them upon taking every man of them a wife of the daughters of Shiloh when they came out to dance practices which I know not how to justifie and therefore propose to imitation no more but this that others would be as earnest for the restauration of London as they for the restauration of Benjamin though not in the use of indirect means and so it will be if that love be found amongst English men that ought to be They said There must be an inheritance for them that are escaped of Benjamin that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel Judg. 23 17. So would hearty and universal love each to others make all Englishmen to say there must be houses built for them that were burnt out of London there must be another London that a tribe or what is more than so may not be destroyed out of England the utter destruction whereof we will labour to prevent with our heads and hands and purses and prayers and with whatsoever else we can use and improve for that purpose Now if the whole nation would ingage it self one way or other in the restauration of London and put to its helping hand how quick a dispatch would be made as if Orpheus with his harp had made the timber and bricks and stones to come leaping together and orderly to dispose of themselves one by another as the Poets fained that he made the woods and mountains to dance after him But the great difficulty will be to shew how and by what means the people of England which are now so much at variance and enmity with one another may be brought first not to hate for that must be the first step and then to love and affect one another Loving parents cannot indure to see feuds and fallings out amongst their children to hear them wrangle one with another much less to see them fight nor if there be none of all that betwixt them are they sufficiently pleased unless they observe them to have a hearty kindness each for other and to love one another as brethren and sisters ought to do who sprang from the same loyns and lodged in the same womb and when they see that how great is their joy But as I said before the first step must be to take men off from hating one another a disease to epidemical in England at this day for which I would to God I could propound a sure certain remedy How and by what means the father of a private family may keep his children from hating and maligning one another from fighting or falling out each with other is within my sphere to discourse of and may be no presumption in one who hath been and is the father of so many children as God hath made my self to pretend experience in I shall therefore make bold to direct in that case though not to say what would destroy all or the most of that enmity which is between fellow subjects who have all one common and political Father and in that sence are brethren If parents would not have their children to hate one another they must carry an even hand towards them not manifesting much more of love and respect to one of them than to another least of all so carrying themselves as if some of them had all their love and they had none at all for the rest Parents should temper their love and respect to their children or the expressions of either though not ad pondus yet ad justitiam that is though not to shew so much respect to those that are but boies and girles as to those of them that are Men and Women yet as much to the younger in proportion to their years as to the elder in proportion to theirs and so to those that are of meaner rank and quality and apparently of less desert ought they according to their quality and desert to give a respect proportionable to what they give to the rest If this be not done and if some children of the same parents be used by them with too much respect and
vitae that is their guaiacum using that tree of Life as they call it as an antidote against the poison of that forbidden fruit which is too commonly tasted of England hath done wickedness as it could that is with all its might Profanness is come in upon us like a flood men glory now a daies in their shame and seem ashamed of that wherein they should glory I hear that some are ambitious to be thought more wicked than they have been or could be There are they say that will boast of those sins which they never did or had opportunity to commit There are that strive to bring vertue into disgrace and vice into request If men would learn to sin we can teach other nations those oaths and execrations which possibly they never heard else-where and will be afraid at first to make use of such as Dam them ram them sink them into Hell body and soul with several others yea we could teach them such profound blasphemy as would even astonish them at the first hearing and make their hair stand an end yea such as I dare not here recite Englishmen declare their sins like Sodom They that are drunk are drunk in the day time as well as in the night some are seldom sober night or day they sin with a whores forehead and with a brow of brass We have many Absaloms now a daies that do as it were spread a tent in the face of the Sun and there display their wickedness England hath all the sins of the seven Churches of Asia for which God hath long since destroyed them and given their land to the Turk Ephesus left its first love to God and Religion Rev. 2.4 and so hath England done Were there those in Smyrna who blasphemed saying they were Jews when they were of the Synagogue of Satan and are there not many such in England were there those in Pergamos who taught the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balaac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel viz. By setting fair women on work to tempt them to commit both fleshly and spiritual whoredom both Adultery and Idolatry Numb 25.1 And are there not such in England and as some in Pergamos held the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing saith God I hate namely the doctrine of wives being common for that is said to have bin the doct of the Nicolaitans and have we none that pretend it to be their opinion as well as make it their practise so to do Was Thyatira charged with suffering the woman Jezebel â—o seduce others to fornication and idolatry Rev. â— 20 And have we no Jezebels amongst us that do â—e same thing had many in Sardis but a name to â—ive whilst they were dead and is not that the case of many in England at this day Was Laodicea charged with lukewarmness That she was neither â—â—ld nor hot Rev. 3.14 and doth not that sin exceedingly abound amongst us Did the Laodiceans think themselves spiritually rich and to have need of nothing when they were poor and miserable c. And do not many amongst us do the same thing I find but one of all the seven Churches that did escape reproof and that was Philadelphia but it is scarce to be discerned that there is any such Church amongst us that from its love of the brethren or brotherhood or whole fraternity of Christians deserves the name of Philadelphia for as iniquity aboundeth so is the love of most men waxen cold I could proceed to higher things and say we have learnt to bring serious preaching and preachers upon the stage and to bring some thing like stage-plaiers now and then into the pulpit Had not his Majesty by his most excellent Proclamation against profanness discountenanced the attempt some were going about as one would think to make Religion the mark of a Rebel and profanness the test of loyalty vilifying such persons as no good subjects who would not swear and curse and health it and drink themselves drunk c. Now we have Hectors for Atheism for Popery and what not that is there are that will undertake openly to justifie and patronize atheism popery c. Our land is full of blood violence fraud oppression May it not be said O England England as of old O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. We are disjoynted both as to spirituals and temporals like one that is newly come off from the rack we have been smitten and yet have revolted more and more Hell is broke loose upon us I scarce forbear that homely proverb we have even raked Hell and scummed the Devil All flesh amongst us hath corrupted it self we have exceeded the line of the wicked Will God build a new City for us why should he our sins are out of measure sinful Some of us are an incouragement to evil doers and a terrour to them that do well We speak evil of those that run not with us into the same excess of riot he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey amongst some men We are full of envy and strife from whence cometh confusion and every evil work We love the worst men and things best and the best worst Some of us will neither be good our selves nor suffer others to be so as Christ said to the Scribes and Pharisees Ye shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men for ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in Mat. 23.13 The people of England are generally in extreams at this day some are almost mad with mirth and others almost dead with melancholy Some are all of a foam with anger and others all of a froth with lightness and drollery Atheism Idolatry Profane swearing Sabbath-breaking ill carriage in and towards relations Murther Adultery Theft Fals-witness Covetousness are the ten great sins the ten predicaments as I may call them which all sins are reduced to and these our land doth wofully abound with For matter of robbery we are even a den of Thieves for filthiness a cage of unclean birds for strife a Meribah or as Meshec and the tents of Kedar for blood an Aceldama Our Mosesses many of them break both the Tables of the Law of which by office they are keepers Our Aarons too often make Golden Calves there are many Achans that trouble us sore some by stealing the babylonish garment I mean by their propensions and stealing on towards Popery witness their own suspicious expressions in publick if not more than suspicious others again by stealing the shekels of silver and the wedg of gold alluding to Josh 7.21 I mean by their deceit and oppression both of which are perfect theft We are many of us more brutish than was Balaams Asse who seeing a sword drawn against him would not go forward and as bruitish as the Prophet his rider whose madness was rebated by the Asse for that he would switch and spur on nevertheless that is we will not see the hand of God which hath