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. Counsels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...

MEDITATION XIII. Upon the Burning of Tombs, and Graves, and dead Bodies that were buried therein.

VVHere is rest to be had, either for the quick or dead, in this World? where may men be quiet and secure, if they cannot be so in their very Graves? One would have thought, nothing would have pluckt them from the horns of that Altar; But, the fire hath done it: That fire, which robb'd the Spittles, Hath it not also robb'd the Worms, and taken the meat out of their mouths? We expected, those Bodies would have turned Worms-meat and dust; but, in stead thereof, they are burnt to ashes. So Job, speaking of the grave, Job. 3.17. There the weary are at rest: So they are in one sense, but not alwayes so in another. The righ∣teous mans grave is called his bed, Isa. 57.2. They shall rost in their beds. How many dead bodies then were burnt in their beds? and, so might many li∣ving ones have been, if God had not been more merciful. Now, the fire hath turned many dead bodies to ashes: could those ashes (as some others) be made into glasse, which, they say, is the last re∣solution that bodies can undergo (Vitrificatio est ultima resolutio;) yet would the Resurrection find

them out, and not lose one grain belonging to them. We read, that Absalom had reared up a Pillar, or stately Sepulchre for himself, to preserve his name, because he had no children; but, it went by the name of A••salom's Place, or empty-Monument (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) as Tremellius renders it in the Margint; because he never (for ought we read) came to lie in it, but was buried in a pit in a wood, with a heap of stones ••••st upon him, 2 Sam. 18.18. So, in that great City, there were many that had provided noble burying-places for themselves, against the time they should be gathered to their fathers; yea, and they were possessed of them, (which A••salom never was of his:) but, How short a time had some of their bodies lain in those costly Sepulchres, before the sire came and turned them out of possession; or rather destroyed both their Carcasses and their stately Monuments!

I see, how vain a thing it is, for men to have their Names, and Titles, and Encomiums, graven upon Marble-Stones in Golden Letters, and set up in Churches: How easily they may be deceived, that think, with Absalom, out of those stones, to raise up to themselves (I cannot say children) but a Memorial in lien of Children. Every body will not believe all the Epitaphs they find inscri∣bed upon those Monuments-Stones can lie and not blush: But, besides that, if men were prone to be∣lieve all they read upon Tombs and Monuments, How soon may those Characters be so defaced and obliterated, as that they cannot be read? And, look how Absalom was buried under a heap of stones, in stead of being laid in that stately Pillar, or Pyramid, which he had built for that purpose: So, are not many at this day covered, but as it were

with a heap of stones, who had provided themselves of stately Sepulchres; those Sepulchres of theirs being by the fire converted, but into a rude and formless heaps of stones: She erected a more du∣rable Monument for her self, who did but pour out a box of precious ••i••tment upon the head of Christ, Matt. 26.17. for, Christ hath said, Wheresoever the Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall this be told for a memorial of her. How little doth it signifie, that our Names be written upon the Earth, or upon any part of it? Is it not all in all, that our Names are written in the Book of Life? I see, there is no reckoning upon those things which men leave behind them when they die; therefore hear, and receive it as a voice from hea∣ven, that which the Spirit saith, Rev. 14.1••. Bles∣sed are the dead which die in the Lord, and their works do follow them.