Londons Resurrection, Discourse 8
DISCOURSE VIII.
That all perſons imployed and made uſe of in, and in order to the rebuilding of London, ought therein more eſpecially to uſe all care and good conſcience.
WOrkmen do your office, and do it like workmen that need not to be aſhamed, and like honeſt men. If you take building by the great, make no more haſt with it then good ſpeed; but if you take it by the day, make as much haſt as will conſiſt with good ſpeed. Do by Londoners as you would be done by, build for them as you would build for your ſelves: we may have a noble City (God permitting) if you will but play your parts.
Make no more faults then you needs muſt, that you may make work for your ſelves to mend thoſe faults which you have wilfully made, and put thoſe you build for, to a greater charge and trouble. The fooliſh builder is a name of infamy in the ſcripture, and the knaviſh one is worſe: Be not you like ſmoak to the eyes of thoſe you build for, as Solomon ſpeaketh of a ſloathful meſſenger, that he is ſo to him that ſendeth him. Build with ſuch acurateneſs, as Apelles is ſaid to have painted, for which he gave this reaſon Pingo aeternitati, ſo do you build as it were once for all. Let London by the univerſal care, and honeſty of its builders, one and all; be made ſo excellent a ſtructure, that it may both now and hereafter be a praiſe, and a renown to any of you, to have had a hand in the raiſing of that Fabrick, or to have been any waies related to that work, as it is ſaid in reference to the Temple of Jeruſalem, Pſal. 74.5. A man was famous according as he had lifted Axes upon the thick Trees: viz. in order to the building of that Temple. Expreſſe your kindneſſe to London to like effect with what is written, in Cant. 8.9. If ſhe be a Wall we will build upon her a Palace of Silver, and if ſhe be a Door, we will incloſe her with Boards of Cedar; which are the Words of Chriſt, and of his Church, contriving ſome good for the uncalled Gentiles, ſet forth under Metaphors taken from ſuch improvements of ſmall and rude beginnings, as Builders are able to make. In this building aim not only at private gain, but at publique good; at the honour and welfare of the Nation, in which your ſelves will have a ſhare; get as little as may be either for work or ſtuff, of them that have loſt ſo much: take the over-ſight thereof not by conſtraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, which is the advice given to ſpiritual Builders in a higher caſe, but not unapplicable to this purpoſe.
As for thoſe, who ſhall have the cuſtom of Londoners for Bricks, Tiles, Timber, Glaſſe, Lead, Iron, and other materials which concern building, I conjure them by all that is worthy, as they pretend to any thing of Chriſtiantity, or of humanity, to uſe them kindly after ſo great a calamity as hath befallen them: Give them their full quantity of every thing they bargain for, and let them have that which is truely good, and at as low a price as you can afford: Rather wrong your ſelves, than wrong them who have ſuffered ſo many things already, rather loſe, than gain too much by them; and yet I would wiſh you not to do that neither; Let it never be ſaid that you were raiſed by the Ruines of London, or that the impoveriſhing of that City, was that which made you rich, unleſſe you can become rich, by a very ſmall, and ſlender profit out of each commodity.
If you be Engliſh-men London is your Mother, (as Jeruſalem was the Mother of the Jews, which are called the Daughters of Jeruſalem Cant. 1.5.) and conſequently Londoners are your Brethren, and will you not uſe them as ſuch.
Alas! many poor Citizens are laying out all they have in the world (yea poſſibly more than all they have of their own) upon that one houſe which they are building for their pure neceſſity, and will you diminiſh thoſe two mites, which are all the treaſure they have to lay out? We read in Nathan's Parable, of a poor man who had nothing ſave one little Ewe Lamb, 2 Sam. 12.3. which lay in his boſom, &c. Surely the houſe which ſome indigent Citizens are building, is to them, as that Ewe-lamb was to the poor man, and will you injure him in that one Lamb? Will you make him pay ſo much for his materials that he ſhall never be able to pay for his houſe: Did I know that man that had abuſed, or would abuſe a burnt-out Citizen, in relation to his houſe (whether as to materials or workmanſhip) I ſay to abuſe him (or ſuch a one) of all men elſe, I would diſcharge that Apoſtolical Canon in his face, and hereby I do diſcharge it, viz. That no man go beyond, or defraud his Brother in any matter, becauſe that the Lord is the avenger of all ſuch; as we have forewarned you and teſtified, 1 Theſ. 4.6.