lusfs thai have burnt up your comforts before your eyes? Have you pleaded hard with God that a spirit of burning might rest upon you, even that spirit of burning which ak)ne can burn up your sins, your dross ? Isa. ix. 2, and iv. 4. Since London hath been laid in ashes, have you made it your great business to treat and trade with God about the destruction of those sins that have laid all desolate ? If so, then you have cause to hope that God will turn your captivity, and make np all your losses to you, Job xlii. 10. But,
[5.] Fifthly, Since God has turned you out of all, are you turned nearer and closer to himself? Tliongh you have been prodigals, yet have you in the light of London's flames seen and found your way to your Father's house? Luke xv. Then God will make up all your losses to you. When judgments are so sanctified as to bring a people nearer to' himself, then God will drop down mercies upon them, Hosea ii. 18, 20. But,
[6.] Sixthly, Has the fire of London been as a pillar of fire to lead you Canaan-wards, heaven-iuards ? Exod. xiii. 21, 22. Has God, by burning up the good things of this world, caused you to set your hearts and affections more than ever \\\)0\\ the great things of another world ? If so. then it is a hundred to teu but that the Lord will make up all your losses to you. But,
[7.] Seventhly, Are your hearts, under this fiery dispensation, hroufjld into such a quiet submission to the good iviU and jjlcasure of God, a^ that you can now he contented to be at God's finding, at God's allowance ? riiil. iv. 12-14. Can you now be contented to be rich or poor, to have much or little, to be high or low, to be something or nothing, to have all again or to have nothing but necessaries again ? Are you now willing that God shall choose for you ? Can you sit down satisfied with God's alloAvance, though it be far short of what once you had ? Content is the deputy of outward felicity, and sup- plies the })lace where it is absent. A contented frame of heart, as to all outwaid occurrences, is like ballast to a ship, which will help it to sail boldly and safely in all waters. When a man's mind is conform- able to his means, all is well. One [Augustine upon Ps. xii.J brings in God rebuking a discontented Christian thus : ' What is thy faith P Have I promised thee these things ? What ! wert thou made a Chris- tian that thou shouldst flourish here in this world?' It is an excel- lent expression tliat Bellarmino liath in his Catechism: 'Suppose,' saith he, 'a king, having many children of several ages, should apparel them in cloth of gold : now he that is sixteen years old hath more gold in his robe than the child that is but five or six years old, yet the child would rather have his own garment than his elder brother's, be- cause it is fitter for him.' Surely the fittest estate is the best estate for us. Look, as a great shoe fits not a little foot, nor a great sail a little ship, nor a great ring a little finger, so a great estate is not always the fittest for us. He that hath most, wants something; and he that liath least, wants nothing, if he wants not a contented spirit. O sirs ! let not heathens put you to a blush.
' He that can be content to be at God's finding, as a guest at a table, that takes what is carved for him, and no more, he needs not fawn upon any man, much less violate his conscience for the great
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 181
tilings of the world.' l When a man's heart is brought clown to his condition, he is then temptation-proof. When one told the philosopher, that if he would but please Dionysius, he need not feed upon green herbs ; the philosopher replied, ' If thou wert but content to feed upon herbs, thou needest not flatter Dionysius.' A man that can be con- tented with a little, will keep his ground in an hour of temptation.
Diogenes the cynic, housed in his tub, and making even with liis victuals and the day together, being invited to a great feast, could say, ' I had rather lick salt at Athens, than feast with Craterus.' Diogenes had more content with his tub to shelter him from the in- juries of the weather, and with his wooden dish to eat and drink in, than Alexander had with the conquest of half the world, and the fruition of all the honours, pomps, treasures, and pleasures of Asia.
' The way to true riches,' saith Plato, ' is not to increase our heaps, but to diminish the covetousness of our hearts.'
And saith Seneca, Cui cum paiqoertate bene conveiiit, pauper non est, A contented man cannot be a poor man.
I have read of another philosopher, who seeing a prince going by, with the greatest pomp and state imaginable, he said to some about him, ' See how many things I have no need of.'
And saith another, ' It were well for the world if there were no gold in it.' But since it is the fountain whence all things flow, it is to be desired, but only as a pass, to travel to our journey's end without begging.
When Croesus, king of Lydia, asked Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece, who in the whole world was more happy than he ? Solon answered, ' Tellus, who though he was a poor man, yet he was a good man, and content with that which he had.'
So Cato could say, as Aulus Gellius reports of him, ' I have neither house, nor plate, nor garments of price, in my hands ; what I have, I can use : if not, I can want it. Some blame me because I want many things ; and I blame them because they cannot want.' Now shall nature do more than grace ? Shall the poor blinded heathen outstrip the knowing Christian ? 0 sirs, he that can lose his will in the will of God, as to the things of this world ; he that is willing to be at God's allowance ; he that has had much, but can now be satisfied with a little ; he that can be contented to be at God's finding — he is of all men the most likely man to have all his losses made up to him. But,
[8.] Eighthly and lastly, Are your liearts more clrmni out to have this fiery dispensation sanctified to you, than to have your losses made up to you ? Do you strive more with God to get good by this dreadful judgment, than to recover your lost goods, and your lost estates ? Is this the daily language of your souls, Lord, let this fiery calamity be so sanctified as that it may eminently issue in the mortifying of our sins, in the increase of our graces, in the mending of our hearts, in the reforming of our lives, and in the weaning of our souls from every- thing below thee ; and in the fixing of them upon the great things of eternity ! If it be thus with you, it is ten to one but God even in this world will make up your losses to you. But,
^ Epictetus Enchirid., cap. 21.
182 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.