10 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
lenity and fidelity arc a safer and a stronj^er ,e;unrd to princes and people than rich mines, munitions of rock.s, mighty armies, powerful navies, or any warlike jircparations. It is very observable tliat Clirist is called but once the ' Lion of the tribe of Judah' in the book of the Revelation, and that is in chap. v. 5 ; but he is called a Lamb no less than nine-and-twenty times in tliat book. And what is this but to shew us the transcendent mercy, clemency, lenity, mildness, and sweetness that is in Jesus Christ, and to shew that he is infinitely more inclined to the exercise of mercy than he is to the exercise of justice. It is true, magistrates should be lions in the execution of justice, and it is as true that they should be lambs in the exercise of mercy and clemency, mildness and sweetness ; and the more ready and inclinable they are to the exercise of mercy, where mercy is to be shewed, the more like to Christ the Lamb they are. God is slow to anger, he abounds in pity, though he be great in power, Ps. Ixviii. 18, and ciii. 13, 14 ; Hosea xi. 8. Seneca hath long since observed, that the custom of anointing kings was to shew that kings, above all other men, should be men of the greatest sweetness and mildness, their anointing being a sign of that kingly sweetness and mildness that should be in them. Thetxlosius the emperor, by his loveliness and clemency, gained many kingdoms.^ The Goths, after the death of their own king, beholding his temperance, patience, and justice mixed with mercy and clemency, gave them- selves up to his government. When Cicero would claw Ccesar, he tells him that his valour and victories were common with the rest of his soldiers, but his clemency and goodness were wholly his own. Nero's speech hath great praise, who in the beginning of his reign, when he was to subscribe to the death of any condemned person, would say, Utinam nescireni literas, I wish I did not know how to write. I know there are a thousand thousand cases wherein severity is to be used ; but yet I must say that it is much safer to account for mercy than for cruelty ; it is best that the sword of justice should be always furbished with the oil of mercy. My Lord, in the manage- ment of your government you have been so assisted and helped from on high, that stoutness and mildness, justice and mercy, justice and clemency, hath like a silver thread run through all your mayoralty, and by this means you have very signally served the interest of the crown, the interest of the city, the interest of the nation, and that which is more than all the rest, the interest of your own soul. Rigour breeds rebellion. Rehoboam by his severity, by his cruelty, lost ten tribes in one day, 1 Kings xii. 16.
My Lord, your prudence, justice, and nioderation, your burning zeal against the horrid, hideous, heady vices of this day ; your punish- ing of oaths, drunkenness, and the fiilse balance ; your singular sobriety and temperance in the midst of all your high entertainments; your fidelity and activity, your eminent self-denial in respect of your perquisites ; your unwearied endeavours to sec London raised out of its ruins, and to see the top-stone laid ; your great readiness and willingness to spend and be spent for the public good : these are the things that have made your name as a precious ointment, and
^ Vide Aug. de civit. Dei, lib. v. cap. 26. Orosius, lib. vii. cap. 3i.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, 11
that have erected for you a noble living monument in the breasts and hearts of all sober, serious Christians : these are the things that have made you the darling of the people, i Let all succeeding lord mayors but manage their own persons, families, and government as you have done, by divine assistance, and without a peradventure they will have a proportionable interest in the hearts and affections of the people. For, my Lord, it is not barely the having of a sword of justice, a sword of power, but the well management of that sword, that makes most for the interest both of prince and people, and that gives the magistrate a standing interest in the hearts and affections of the people. My Lord, the generality of people never concern themselves about the particular persuasions of this or that magistrate in the matters of religion, their eyes are upon their examples, and upon the manage- ment of their trust and power for public good ; and they that do them most good shall be sure to have most of their hearts and voices, let their private opinions in the matters of religion be what they will.
My Lord, I have not so learned Christ as to give flattering titles to men. Job xxxii. 22. The little that I have written I have written in the plainness and singleness of my heart, and for your lordship's com- fort and encouragement in all well-doing, and to provoke all others that shall succeed in your chair to write after that fair copy that you have set them, which will be their honour, London's happiness, and England's interest. Plutarch said of Demosthenes, that he was ex- cellent at praising the worthy acts of his ancestors, but not so at imitating them. The Lord grant that this may never be made good of any that shall succeed your lordship ! Carus the emperor's motto was, Bonus dux, bonus comes, A good leader makes a good follower. The complaint is ancient in Seneca, that commonly men live not ad rationem, but ad similitudinem} Prcecepta docent, exempla movent. Precepts may instruct, but examples do persuade. Stories speak of some that could not sleep when they thought of the trophies of other worthies that went before them. The highest examples are very quickening and provoking. Oh that by all that shall succeed your lordship in the chair, we may yet behold our city rising more and more out of its ashes in greater splendour and glory than ever yet our eyes have seen it, that all sober citizens may have eminent cause to call them the repairers of the breaches and restorers of our city to dwell in ! 3 Concerning Jerusalem burned and laid waste by the Assyrians, Daniel foretold that the streets and the walls thereof should be re- builded, even in troublesome times, Dan. ix. 25. Though the Assj-r- ians have laid our Jerusalem waste, yet even to a wonder how have the buildings been carried on this last year !
My Lord, the following treatise, which I humbly dedicate to your lordship, has been drawn up some years. The reasons why it has been buried so long in oblivion are not here to be inserted. The dis- course is sober, and of great importance to all that have been burnt
' A self-seeking magistrate is one of the worst of plagues and judgments that can befall a people ; he is a gangrene in the head, which brings both a more speedy and a more certain ruin than if it were in some inferior and less noble part of the body.
^ Seneca de vita beata, cap. 1.
^ Isa. Iviii. 12, and Ixi. 4.; Amos ix. 14; Ezek. xxxvi. 33-36, 38.
12 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.