The Burning of London, Part 3 · Meditation 52
MEDITATION LII. Upon the Pillar …, and intended to be ſet up it remembrance of the burning of London.
IF London its ſelf be not the doleful Monument of its own deſtruction, by always lying in Aſhes (which God forbid it ſhould) it is provided for by Act of Parliament, that after its reſtauration a Pillar either of Braſs or Stone, ſhould be erected in perpetual memory of its late moſt diſmall conſlagration. Herein (for ought I know) hath the pious care of this age exceeded all former; For though Hiſtory telleth us, that London hath ſeveral times been burnt, yet that any ſuch Memorial was ſet up, whereby to inform and warn all after ages, I cannot call to mind that I ever read. May we uniformly tranſcend the piety of former ages, as well in all other things as we have done in this, then ſhall we not need to doubt, but as our greater ſins have of late years procured us greater judgements, (one in the neck of another) than have formerly been known in ſo quick a ſucceſſion (viz. of Sword, Peſtilence, and Fire;) ſo our tranſcendant Reformation will end in greater bleſſings than former ages have been acquainted with.
It is not without ſeveral Patterns and Preſidents in Scripture, that Memorials ſhould be erected, as well of Judgements, as of Mercies; For, not only did Jacob ſet up a Pillar of Stone in the place where God talked with him, and faſtened the name of Bethel upon it, Gen. 35.14. in remembrance of the great Favour there vouchſafed him; but, God himſelf, to commemorate his great diſpleaſure againſt Let's Wife, for looking back towards Sedom (which ſhe ought not to have done verſe 17.) turned her into a Pillar of Salt, (which may ſignifie a laſting Pillar, or a hard ſtiff Body of perpetual duration: (in which ſenſe, the Covenant of God is called, a Covenant of Salt, that is, of perpetuity,) to ſeaſon after-Ages with the remembrance of his judgment upon her: We read of the brazen-Cenſers of Kerah and his Company, thoſe ſinners againſt their own ſouls (as they are called); that they were made into broad-Plates for a covering of the Altar, to be a memorial to the children of Iſrael, that no ſtranger, that is, not of the ſeed of Aaron come near to offer incenſe before the Lord, that he be not as Korah and his company, Numb. 1.16.39. We read alſo of a great Stone called Abel, which word lignifieth Grief; and that name ſeemeth to have been given it becauſe of the Lamentation which the People made over thoſe Bethſhemites, that were ſlain for looking into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6.18. The Philiſtims themſelves, when ſmitten by God with Emereds, and plagued with Mice, are ſaid to have preſented the Lord with certain Monuments of thoſe judgments that were upon them, viz. with ſo many Golden Emerods (or figures of Emerods,) and ſo many Golden Mice, as a Treſpaſs-offering, 1 Sam. 6.4, 5. VVherefore ye ſhall make Images of their Emerods, and of your Mace, whichs mar the Land; and ſhall give glory to the God of Iſrael…: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you… from off your gods, and from off your Land: which plainly ſhowes, that even thoſe blind Heathen did look upon the due Commemoration of Judgments, as a thing well-pleaſing unto God; and we are aſſured it is ſo, by the complaint which God maketh of the Iſraelites, their forgetting the great things which God had done in Aegypt, and terrible things by the Red-Sea, (meaning the drowning of Pharaoh and all his Hoſt there, Pſal. 106.21.) And the Apoſtle writing of what had befallen the murmuring Iſraelites, 1 Cor. 10.6. ſaith, Theſe things are our examples, that we ſhould not luſt after evil things, as they alſo luſted; Therefore, remember them we muſt, or elſe we can take no warning by them.
He that queſtioneth the needfulneſs of erecting a Pillar, or ſome other Monument, to commemorate the late dreadful Fire, may ſee his Error, if he do but conſider, that London (though not ſuch a London then, as this was,) hath formerly been burnt ſeveral times, (and did once continue in aſhes fourſcore and five years together;) and yet the generality of men now living in theſe parts, were ſo far from conſidering and awing their hearts with the remembrance of it, that but here and there a man doth ſo much as know that any ſuch thing was ever done.
How vain a thing is it for Papiſts to bear us in hand, De … Hiſt. C…l. 114.8.131.161.213.263.That Orall-Tradition is ſufficient to tranſmit Religion to the World; and is the great thing we are to vely upon; when, but for the Writings of Hiſtorians, we had all been ignorant of ſo remarkable a thing, as was the burning of London five ſeveral times, viz. Anno Domini 798, and Anno 801; and again Anno 982, and again, Anno Domini 1087. and after that in the year 1133, which was little more than five hundred years agoe: Had our Parliament had any ſuch conſidence in Orall-Tradition, they had never deſigned a Pillar for the memorial of a Fire ſo hard to be forgotten.
How weakly do Papiſts Argue, that the Authority of the Scriptures is built upon the Church, and the Church its ſelf Infallible; becauſe it is called, The Pillar of Truth, 1 Tim. 3.15. Whereas Pillars are many times erected for other uſes, than to uphold and under-prop buildings; as the ſeveral Inſtances which I have brought from Scripture, of Pillars, ſet up only as Monuments and Memorials; and, the uſe to which the Pillar I am now treating of, is to be applied, do plainly prove: Such a Pillar is the Church, viz. to tranſmit the memory of Religion, or rather that Inſcription, (the Scriptures I mean,) which are the great memorial thereof from one Age to another.
But, Will the intended matter of that Pillar, which is appointed to be either Braſs or Stone, afford us nothing of a profitable Meditation? Methinks it ſhould. What Mettal is there that more reſembleth Fire than doth burniſhed-Braſs? therefore in Ezek. 1.7. we read, that the feet of the living Creatures there ſpoken of, did ſparkle like the colour of burniſhed-Braſs. It is but fit that the Memorials of things ſhould bear as lively a reſemblance as may be, of thoſe things of which they are intended Memorials: So the Philiſtims made choice of Artificial Mice and Emerods, in remembrance of thoſe that were true and natural: More over, if London were conſumed by Treachery, no mettal can be more fit to receive the Characters of their moſt Impudent Villany, who (as to that) had ſinned with a Brow of Braſs, and with a Whores Fore-head. Or, if Stone be choſen rather of the two, to make that Pillar of, be it a laſting Emblem of the Hardneſs of their hearts, (harder than the neither Milſtone,) that could burn ſuch a City, and ruin ſo many thouſand Families, both for the preſent, and for many years, if not Ages to come.
Where the Fire began, there, or as near as may be to that place, muſt the Pillar be erected, (if ever there be any ſuch.) If we commemorate the places where our Miſeries began, ſurely the cauſes whence they ſprang, (the meritorious cauſes, or ſins, are thoſe I now intend,) ſhould be thought of much more. If ſuch a Lane burnt London, Sin firſt burnt that Lane: Cauſa cauſa eſt cauſa …; Affliction ſprings not out of the duſt; not but that it may ſpring thence immeditely, (as if the duſt of the Earth ſhould be turned into Lice,) but primarily and originally it ſprings up elſewhere.
As for the Inſcription that ought to be upon that Pillar, (whether of Braſs or Stone,) I muſt leave it to their Piety and Prudence, to whom the Wiſdom of the Parliament hath left it: Only three things I 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, …as loſt and is ſound.