Londons Resurrection, Discourse 6
DISCOURSE. VI.
Of ill burnt Bricks, and that great care ſhould be taken to build the New City with good Materials.
WIll any traſh ſerve for the building of our new City? was London ſo lately deſtroyed by the burning of its materials, and ſhall it quickly be deſtroyed again for want of materials (that is Bricks) duly burnt? Do we look for another Fire to burn our Bricks over again? It is ſaid of Ephraim, Hoſ. 7.8. Ephraim is a Cake not turned, meaning not throughly baked; that was ſpoken in a myſterious, and ſhall the ſame be true of London in a mechanical ſenſe? Why do men make more haſt than good ſpeed? either build as may laſt, or not at all. If they that have Bricks to ſell have no more Conſcience than to offer ſuch as are ſtark naught, you that are to buy ſhould have more care and diſcretion than to accept of them.
Is it for cheapneſs ſake that you make uſe of ſuch unfit Commodities? then are you penny-wiſe and pound-fooliſh. I ſee no men are ſuch loſers as they that are over-ſaving, none ſo prodigal (though ſore againſt their wills) as are the greateſt miſers. So ſome men ſue at the Law for great things, which they juſtly claim, and loſe their cauſe by ſtarving it; and others, when ſick, neglect advice, and dye as it were to ſave charges. To ſuch our homely Proverb is but too applicable, They will loſe a ſheep to ſave a half-peny-worth of Tar; but that of Solomon is much better. There is that with-holdeth what is meet, and it turneth to poverty.
They ſay that Bricks were never worſe than they have bin of late, and yet never dearer. And it is an ordinary caſe, for things when they are of leaſt worth and value, to be of greateſt price. Thus ſome people who pay the moſt Tythes have the worſt Preaching, and ſome of the richeſt Benefices are worſt ſupplied; Yea, thus ſome give themſelves more coſt and pains to ruine ſouls, and conſequently their own, (Compaſſing Sea and Land to make men more the children of the Devil) than others do to ſave the Souls of themſelves and others. Alas that the worſt things ſhould coſt moſt, or that men ſhould give any thing for that which is ſtark naught (like unſavory Salt fit for nothing but the dunghill) and that men ſhould not rather ſay as one did in another caſe non emam tanti poenitere, They will not give ſo dear for what they ſhall afterwards repent of.
They that take bad Bricks, do in effect make them (or are as bad as them that do, as we ſay The receiver is as bad as the Thief) for if none would buy thoſe Bricks that were ſuch, no ſuch would be made for ſale. This were the way to make all traders honeſt, viz. to take nothing off their hands but what were good, and to that end to adviſe with thoſe that have judgment in ſuch things in caſe we have none our ſelves. Some things we ſay are good of the price, but other things are good at no price, becauſe good for nothing, and ſo are bad Bricks as for the purpoſes of Building.
Have Magiſtrates taken care to ſtop one leak by ordering we ſhould build with brick, and will we ſpring another? have they appointed us a good kind of Materials, and will we not take that which is good in its kind? Surely good timber is better to build with than bad brick (as Solomon ſaith, A living d…g is better than a dead Li…n), for the firſt will not preſently decay, without Fire befall it, but the other will of its own accord, and ſuffer as much injury from ſucceſſive Froſts, and thaws (which come of courſe) as the latter ſhall by fire it ſelf, which may not happen in an age.
I foreſee the fate of thoſe unhappy houſes that have been built with ill burnt bricks, that ſhortly they will molder away to duſt, (and ſo I hear that ſome of them have begun to do already.) The like (if my Prognoſticks fail me not) will likewiſe befall thoſe Societies both Eccleſiaſtical and Civil, which are conſtituted of ill members, (Principal ones eſpecially) which are as ſo many bad and unſerviceable bricks in houſes. Such Societies, like ſuch houſes, probably cannot ſtand long.
I much ſuſpect the ſame fate will befall a great part of the young Generation that is now ſpringing up, viz. that in a few years they will crumble away like houſes built with ill burnt bricks, (conſidering how vicious the preſent age is). For who can bring a ſound thing out of that which is unſound, any more than a clean thing out of that which is unclean? where the bones are rotten the Marrow will be filthy, and the product of it will be more of that which is rotten: which notion is more proper to be here inſerted, becauſe that Generation in Scripture, is called the building up of a houſe, and children are called Banim from an Hebrew root which ſignifieth to build.
Our ill burnt Bricks are methinks the ſad emblem of one thing more, and that is of all ſuch Profeſſors who have been meerly ſinged and ſcorched with the ſlender heat of ſome overly convictions, but were never brought to a due firmneſs or conſiſtence, by lying long enough in and under that Furnace which the Scripture calleth a Spirit of bondage. Such may be laid into the building of the Church, but will ſcarcely hold out.
But whilſt I caution againſt bad bricks, I would caution as much againſt bad timber, as namely ſuch as hath been ſeared and overdried by the fire; and no leſs againſt bad mortar. For to dawbe with untempered mortar, cannot be ſafe; mortar being that to a houſe, which love is to a ſociety, viz. That which binds, and cements all together.
Surely England doth not want for good materials within it ſelf, but if the daughters will not be kind to their mother (that is if other parts of England, will not be kind to London, their mother City) we being now at peace with many nations that can furniſh us for building purpoſes, and having ſtore of nimble meſſengers, that can fly about the world, upon the wings of the wind, and fetch home great burthens (as our ſhips are) ſhould for Londons uſe, have enough of brick, timber, and every thing elſe, and that good and cheap enough; if it be to be had in Chriſtendom.