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 LVII. Upon certain slight Timber-houses that did escape the Fire, though better Houses were burned on each side of them.

IT is plain, this Fire had a Commission from a∣bove, what to take and what to leave, else it had never come to pass, that those houses should escape that were in most danger, viz. Slight, Old Timber-houses, that were like so much tinder, (and some such did escape) whilst so many goodly Buildings and stately Fabricks, of Brick and Stone, (that seemed able to have made their own Defence) were cousumed by the Fire. It makes me think of Gods words to the Prophet Jeremy, 1.18. Behold, I have made thee a defenced City, and an iron pill••r and brazen walls against the whole 〈◊〉〈◊〉. They shalt sight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, ver. 19. Alas! What was one poor Prophet against so many Kings of Ju••oh, Princes, Priests, and People (as is there expressed)? yet God said, He would make him as a brazen Wall against them all: they should not be able to prevail against him. So stood these poor Old-houses, at a very small distance from that Fire, which destroyed others at their right hand and at their left: they

stood, I say, so securely, under the wing of Divine Providence, as if they had been so many Iron Pillars or Walls of Brass.

It calls to mind that passage, where the Prophet speaking of God, saith, That he giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength, Isa. 40.29. To be sure, those houses had no might or strength of their own against such a Fire; had it seized them, it would have made but a blaze of them, it would have swallowed them up quick, unless the great God had interposed, as he did on behalf of the three Children in the fiery Furnace. The preservation of those houses, I re∣flect upon, not as if it were a Miracle, but as a very great wonder and demonstration of Divine Provi∣dence. Mira & Miracula, that is, Wonders and Miracles, are usually distinguished. Miracles put Nature out of its course; as when the Sun was made to stand still, the Red-sea dried up, &c. but I cannot say, that in this case any such thing was done. Possibly, the wind say still, or blew ano∣ther way, at what time the Fire came near those houses: but, Who was it that called the wind into his treasurie again, at that very time, or else ap∣pointed it to blow from another Coast? Was it not that Great God, who is said, to ride upon the wings of the wind, and to make the Clouds his Chariots? and for that end (as may be meet for us to conceive) that he might convince the world, that all Safety and Danger is as he pleaseth to make it, that he can expose those things which seem to be most secure, and secure those things which are most exposed: Of this we have many Instances. In the time of the last great Plague, how many per∣sons were there infected with it, yea, and died of it, who, to all appearance, were out of harms way?

whereas others again, who lived as it were in the mouth of danger, and jaws of death (as namely in in∣fected families, yea, some in Pest-houses) were pre∣served, and are alive to this very day.

When the Arrows of God slew about, some stood (not knowing how to help it) as it were at the very mark, and yet it was the pleasure of him that had the bow in his hand not to shoot them; others stood either wide of the Butt, or far beyond it, and yet a Dart struck thorow their Liver: an invenomed Ar∣row took hold of them, and drunk up their Spirits. So it fals out in Spiritual things. How great was Lot's danger in Sodom? (the very air of which place seem∣ed to be infectious, as to matter of filthiness) yet there he continued chaste, how safe would one have thought him upon the Mountains (as for any such matter); yet God leaving him there, he became in∣cestuous with his own Daughters. The Almighty seemeth to take pleasure, yea, and to glory in doing unlikely things. The Prophet, Isa. 64.3. ascribeth to God terrible things, such as men looked not for. Ha∣ving the issues of life and death in his hands, he so ordereth it many times for his own glory, that per∣sons notoriously weak and crazy should hold out a long siege of distempers, yea, and overcome them at last (after several years of drooping) whereas others of Sampson-like strength (in comparison of them) fall sick, and die within a few days; So, weak Christians (both as to grace and gifts) are many times kept un∣spotted of the present world, and enabled to quench all the fiery darts of Sathan, whilst some that excell them, both in gifts and graces, are sometime left of God (in order to their greater humbling) to take shamefull falls, and for a time to be overcome of the evil one: witness David and others. So the soft Scabbard (much more in danger as one would think)

oft-times receiveth no hurt by lightning, whilst the same lightning, passing thorough it, doth melt the Stee within. Paul observed by himself, that when he was weak, then he was strong, meaning stronger or more strengthned by God, than at other times: which words imply, that when he was strongest to his own thinking, then was he really weaker than at other times, because then he had less of the pre∣sence of God with him. All these Instances are such like things in effect, as was the preservation of old timber-houses, whilst newer Buildings of Brick or Stone that stood near to them, were presently de∣molished.

It refresheth me so much the more, to think, that all this came to pass, without any thing of a Mira∣cle; because the working of Miracles we ought not to expect in these dayes; nor can we, without pre∣sumption, and tempting of God, pray to him, to su∣persede, over-rule, or invert the course of Nature for our sakes; but, to seek a wonder of God when need requires, is no presumption or sin at all: and the instance before us doth make evident, that Wonders may sometime stead us as much as Mi∣racles, even as the Houses I am speaking of, (as near to danger as they were,) were as effe∣ctually secured by God's either stilling or di∣verting the Wind, (in the very nick of time,) as they could have been by the working of the greatest Miracle. We think, God must over-turn the course of Nature, if he would do this, and that, for us (as he spake of Gods making windows in heaven): Whereas himself, who is only wise, knows how to accomplish what we desire without using such vio∣lent, extraordinary means. Be consident, the Lord knows how, together with every danger and temp••••∣tion, to make a way for escape, and relie upon what

is spoken, Psal. 91.1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty: and let the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of his wings.