LONDONS Remembrancer.

Wherein the Inhabitants thereof may review the Lords dealings with them in a few years last past.

Which is a warning to them to repent and not to persist in their wickedness, which brought down the Judgements of God upon them.

LONDON Printed in the Year, 1670.

OH ye the Inhabitants of the City of London, and of the parts ad­jacent the consideration of your conditon have been often with me and the dealings of the Lord God Almighty towards you I have often pondered in my heart, and at this time it is in my heart to set it before you; to that intent that you also may weigh it and lay it to heart, and therein shall I be clear and you left without excuse.

The Lord God Almighty out of the abundance of his mercy and loving kindness hath afforded unto your day of Visitation (yea I may say Years) and he hath sent his faithful Messengers to proclaim it in your ears, and by them you have been called to repentance and to amendment of life, yea they came amongst you with their lives ready offered up to him who had call them to dispose thereof as seemed good to him, and from you they did not wirk hold the de­termined will of God, but did faithfully declare it unto you and in the power and authority of him that sent them, they did declare and shew unto you the vanity and emptyness of the several sorts of vain professions and high Notions you then were in, and how that they were not accepted nor acceptable with the Lord God, and they declared his controversie that he had with the Sons and Daughters of Men because of the hipocrifie of their ways, and they were endued with divine wisdom, so that they did signifie unto you the rottenness and deceit of your hearts, and did signifie the displeasure of God against you because of your continuance in disobedience, and also shewed unto you the deceit of those which made a Trade of you who were instruments to keep you in darkness and ignorance, and they prophesied of their overturn; and that their nakedness should appear, & that your great airy building of vain profession should fall & come to nothing and that it could not stand in the day of Tryal.

In all these things they were faithful, yea were faithful, and as many of them as is yet in the body who many of them have felt your cruelty is faithful, and those who have departed have departed in peace, several of which being Prisoners in your Goals for the testi­mony of Jesus, have therein finished their course.

So your day of profession came to be tryed and you were con­founded and those that boasted of great things in a day of calm, was not able to stand in a day of tryal, so hear your great buildings came tumbling down, and your great heaps and gatherings came to be dis­persed, [Page 2] they not being gathered by the power of God, but still the continuance of the large love of God was towards you, but ye re­belled against him and hated reproof, and would have none of his counsel and evilly entreated his Messengers then he raised many Prophets to prophesie what he did intend to do, and it was signified unto you that Grass should grow in London streets, and the same sig­nified unto you the cause of Gods displeasure.

And also the Lord caused another to carry fire upon his head through your Fair in Smithfield even where there was so many wicked ungodly destructive meatings, viz. Stage-Plays and the like, held and tollerated where the Name of God was blasphemed. You still going on and acting despight against the spirit and the Messen­gers thereof throwing your Neighbours by hundreds and more in a day to your Goals even the Dens of destruction then you were warned again not to meddle with the Lords people, otherwise he would bring his Plague upon you and also the very Stars in the Fir­mament did signifie the fierce displeasure and wrath of the Almighty, and though the Majicians imaginations and Diviners inventions concerning the thing could be stopped yet the determined purpose of our God, no Man nor Men can hinder.

Ah but how have you answered all these with many more pretious and timely warnings which you have had which here to particula­rize would be too tedious, have not many of you rather hardned your selves against the Lord and his people, then otherwise, and that did cause the Lord to hasten upon you Those things which was foretold unto you, how did you fill your prisons with those your innocent Neighbors who had believed the report of the Servants of the Lord, and knew the arm of the Lord revealed to save them from the wrath to come, I say how cruelly and inhumanely have you behaved your selves towards them the Lord hath it in remembrance yea many of the dear Servants of God have been stifled to death under your cruel hands, then did the Lords Wrath break forth a­gainst you, and then was the Pestilence within and Sword without, even at that time when you went to rent Families assunder, then I say, the Lords hand manif [...]ly appear against you, then was the young men dragged to the slaughter of the Swords and Pest at home de­stroying thousands, oh how was your houses left desolate in that day and then many of you fled for your lives; and the Lord was pleased [Page 3] to add to your days when so many thousands fell both by Sword and Pestilence.

And of one of your acts of inhumanity amongst many I cannot o­mit to bring it back upon you and to put you in remembrance there­of, truly desiring that you may find a place of repentance and those your grievous sins remitted and that you may never do the like again. The thing was this there being many innocent sufferers in your Goal of Newgate; and had been there long before the sickness, and was preserved in bodily health also (as from the Pest) long after the beginning of the Sickness, and upon a third day of the week there did as at other times some of the people of the Lord (reproachfully called Quakers) meet at the Peal in Johns-street to wait upon the Lord, and then was their peaceable Godly meeting broke by rude Souldiers, and the next day illegally there was 15 sent to them at Newgate where they were much thronged for want of room before they being many in number, and also their being many Fellons and others, the Sessions being then from time to time adjourned. So as I said they had been in all this time preserved, that not one of these innocent sufferers had died in Prison, but out of the aforesaid 15 was brought in sick to them and their bodies being subject to the like infirmities, therein was your cruelty manifested, his distemper grew more upon him so that ho laid down his body by name Benjamin Lawrence then more sickned, and the next first day following was our peaceable Meeting at Mileend-green broke up by rude Souldiers and without having those that were there met before any Magistrate, they were carryed forthwith to Newgate and so thronged up with the former insomuch that the floor of the Rooms that they were confi­ned into was not sufficient enough for their bodies to lye on, there being sometimes 18 or 20 sick together and sometimes more so they were fain to hang up hammocks sometimes 3 one above another a very unfit place for sick Men or Women (as there was both) to be in. So that of those innocent sufferers that were there thronged to pri­son their died 52. and 27 which was shipped.

O horrible act that you who sought to fly from such a lamentable and sore day of distress as that was should act so inhumanely against your neighbours that instead of enlarging or seeking the enlarge­ment of your innocent peaceable neighbours did thus illegally throng them in order to destroy them, yea many was destroyed and [Page 4] it is the desire of my soul that you would lay these things to heart, you even you who are spared to this day from the Sword and from the Pestilence, oh that the remembrance thereof may not be for­gotten and looked upon as a common thing, but that you all may see wherefore it was; & prize the large mercy & loving kindness of our God to spare you to this day and to add thus much to your days and that which you were afraid of have not overtaken you, oh consider that you must dye and behold the largeness of Gods love unto you before his beesom of destruction sweeps you away which certainly will overtake the workers of iniquity.

Also your pretended rejoycing was (and is) wont to be by fires, alas alas; how hath the Lords anger manifestly appeared against you, you had forgotten your former warnings and had not repented of the evil of your ways how was your famous City consumed as it were in a moment even at that time when was wont to be the fore­mentioned ungodly destructive meetings in Smith field, though then forbidden by reason of the Sickness that year before, oh how was the Prophets words fulfilled and that in a short time, oh what thronging out at your Gates, and what confusion was amongst you, which to mention particularly would be tedious, oh the distress of many in that day, even to see all as it were consumed and they fain to flee to the open field, where the condition of many of your wo­men were very sad your City in heaps laid and all the wit of men could not prevent it untill the Lord God saw it good, and then you could save part of a house when the other was burned, an eminent demonstration of the mighty hand which before carried it on untill his determined purpose was finished, and let none slight it, and say it was done so and so, and by such and such, I say had not there been a cause which stirred the Wrath of God against you, men could not so have their wills of you, and if there was wicked instruments the Lord may make a Rod and burn it when he hath done. So bere also came to pass the fulfilling of the Prophesie, grass to grow in your streets, and not only so but also in the place of your delicate houses and also they became as draft houses.

Oh that a consideration of all these things might have place with you & that you would consider & weigh the dealings of the Almighty and how that now after all these storms and tempests as it were, he hath given you ease and fulness in abundance and your affairs go­eth [Page 5] on even beyord the reason of man so to think that it should when your City was in heaps; well the Lord God hath also afforded this unto you and he expects that you would give him the glory thereof.

And also he hath seen good to cause the red of persecution to cease from of the back of his Children who have stood in the Gap, and for whose sakes you have obtained many mere yes and now at the pre­sent a day of calm is come; and now oh ye Inhabitants of London and the parts adjacent, come behold your selves how are you now again a building and erecting that which God confounded and threw down (I mean not your houses although there is a great deal of the pride of your hearts manifested thereby) but I speak of those Hipocritical forts of empty protessions, which the Lord God loaths, did you not see their emptiness in that day when those blind leaders left you to these that had no health in them being miserable sinners; though formerly you had other belief concerning them when they told you of standing in the day of Tryal, but when the day of Tryal came how did they leave you to the forementioned to prey upon, and how ma­ny of them are become one with them, and how the rest have hidden themselves in holes expecting a day to prey upon you again, and now as I said the faithful through suffering having purchased their freedom even this calm, now like so many old Adders we can see them come out of their holes, and now (as formerly when in their prosperity) they hiss and cast out their venome at the truth, and speak evil of them that stood in the Gap in the power thereof.

So as I said behold your doings how that now after so many judgements wherewith the Lord hath visited you, you are now a­gain running a whoreing after mens inventions; and but a few a­mongst you that lays it truly to heart, and that considers his latter end. So that the cause instill remaining for which the wrath of God hath been so manifestly seen against you; and instead of seeking the removing thereof, you daily add thereunto; and so provoke the Lord to anger, have you not considered the hand of God in many things which hath hapned since you began to rebuild your City even the sudden death of many even by a strange distemper and also some houses that fell destroying others, and also the firing of a great new building do you look upon these things as chances, I tell you the hand of the Lord is seen in these things, end it were well if you could see it that you might escape the Wrath that it foretells for it may be told you as it was told a generation like you, think ye that they that [Page 6] died thus were greater sinners then your selves, except ye repent ye shall also perish.

The wild and the wanton, the proud and the haughty the extortio­ner and deceiver, the oppressor and covetous, the drunkard and a­duloever, the unreasonable and cruel. the sensual and devilish, the bruitish and beastly, the stubborn and rebellious, the disobedient and unholy, the murdered and destroyer is found within thee O London.

So you that would escape the wrath due to the forementioned and the like, you must come to that in you that reproves you for these things, and every particular, for what of them thou art guilty, thy way is to believe in the light which he reproveth thee in the secret of thy heart, and brings condemnation upon thee for that which no man outwardly perhaps can tax thee withall; but Christ knows it and his righteous judgement thou cannot escape what ever coverings thou maist make seeking thereby to cover thy deceit, so all you who have hitherto neglected your day of visitation and have been seeking the living among the dead, and hewing to your selves Cesterns; even broken Cesterns, that cannot hold water this is my counsel from the Lord to you even to turn to that of God in you and that speedily for your state is very desperate, but if you thus still go on and will not be reclaimed, then a day of distress will o­vertake you, even such as hitherto have not overtaken you; therefore be warned and seek the Lord God by true and unfeigned repentance.

E. Jones

All you who in the places aforesaid (or elsewhere) have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, my soul is one with you in the covenant of light, you have tasted of the judgements of the Lord; and have known his terrors because of sin and disobedience and by the effectual working of the word of life in you, you have been led to true repentance so you came to know the power of God to remit, and thus you came to witness the washing of your consciences from the defilements which did incur the anger and displeasure of God, and now you know the peace which passeth the understanding of the natural man, and you know the strong tower and therein you are preserved that the evil one cannot touch you, and now no evil tiding can make you affraid, dear and well beloved friends, let none go out of the tower which is the name of the Lord, the light the truth, the life, least thou be destroyed with the wicked, and you whose faces is as it were but turned to this way, look not back, abide the judgement, abide the indignation for through these you must come and herein you will [...] the mercy and see that judgement is expedient for you that the Prince of [...]

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