Commentary on 2 Peter

and he that denieth this, is an unjust man. That ministers do • each, it is Justice, even due debt. I am a debtor to the Grecians, &c. There is a woe to •• em that with-hold the truth in unrighteousness. Yet thus unrighteous is the Church • f Rome, to with-hold the Scriptures, and obtrude Traditions: as men put out the • ear candle, to light themselves to bed with the stinking snuff.

To help forward the truth is but Justice: it is the office, albeit also the honor • f good men to be God's fellow helpers. Curse ye Meroz: Why? because it did •• rt the Lord? No, but because it did not help the Lord in the day of battle. This • uestion will one day be asked, when didst thou help the truth? Every man by • rayer helps the hand of Moses. He that does not help forward the building of CHRIST, is unjust: and they that do help it even in the meanest degree, shall • ave part of the reward. As David would have the prey shared even among them • hat kept the stuff; they helped.

In contracts to fail willingly, is to be unjust. An oath or solemn promise is • o sooner made on earth, than registered in heaven. Indeed In malis non est malum •• scindere fidem: bad promises are better broken than kept. As David in breaking • f his vow concerning Nabal, was not unjust: and if Herod had done so for John Bap. • e had been more righteous. Yea, a just man will keep his oath with a very thief, 〈◊〉 compelled oath about pecuniary matters; but not when a sin or mischief fol •• wes. To give every man his due, this is just. A young Merchant being to choose • im a partner, by his mothers advice, at convenient time gave to one a Pomegranate: •• e receiver cutting it in two, kept the less moitie to himself, and returned the Mer • hant the greater half. He gave the like to another; and he dividing it, gave him • acke the less part, keeping the greater to himself. He thus tried a third; and he •• tting it into equal halfs, took the one himself, and gave him the other. This •• st was determined by his mother, to be the fittest man to make his partner. So • oung Cyrus being shown by his School-master, a great man with a little robe, and little man with a great robe; and having both the garments put into his hands to • istribute: he disposed the greater to the greater, and the less to the less. His Ma •• er replied; this was just in case of decency, but unjust in case of equity: for he was 〈◊〉 have given every man his own.

But if this be an argument of Justice, Lord, where shall we find a just man? • sal. 12.1. Help Lord, for the righteous man faileth: time to cry, Help LORD. • ache cresset light, and search narrowly all about Jerusalem, I had almost said, Lon • on. And find one that doth Justice: Ierem. 5.1. scarce a just man in this whole City. is to pay Tythes, to be just? O that just man is a miracle! Ignorant people on all occasions say of their Minister, I wonder he does not preach. They esteem it a matter, before it comes, of no labor: and when it comes of no thanks. Yet, who challengeth his own heart, of known unrighteousness, and confesseth, how •• just have I been in defrauding God and his Church? will the Lord be so liberal to give us the best of things, eternal life; that grudgeth him the worst of things, temporal trash? Or, that the Gospel should save our souls, which it promiseth: when we with-hold from it those trifles it requireth? Or, that God will not pinch them of spirituals, that pinch him of temporals? Will a man shut a bird fast into a cage, give her no meat, and yet bid her sing? Yet is this too universal an unrighteousness, and thus unjust are we. But let men read and tremble; If any man (notwithstanding these premonitions) will be unjust, let him be unjust still. The Lord with his infinite mercy swallow up this unrighteousness, that this infinite unrighteousness swallow not up this City.

Largely; He that doth righteousness, is righteous. The scope of whose life and actions is devoted to goodness; not without infirmity, but without irregularity. The best traveler may stumble in his journey; yet have his eye observant and his foot constant on his way. The interposition of some clouds doth not frustrate the regular motion of the Sun. And trees have more life at the root, than at all times appears in the branches. Notwithstanding some transient distempers, the he •• may be sound and upright. Some gravel will stick on the toes, even when the Ba •• of justification hath washed our souls. We are not perfectly just, except by anticipation, assuming the name before we possess the thing. We are now the sons of God: quid hoc est? Sumus, & non sumus; we are, and we are not: sumus in spe, •• mus in re: we are in hope, we shall be indeed.

There may be a time when this justice is not so operative, which yet shall not condemn us for unjust. The world is ever taxing the least fault in the best man: every man is borne a Cain; envying that good in another, which he wants in himself. They blame some ill in the Saints, not because they are evil, but because i • respect of themselves they are too good. One imaginary cloud in a just man, 〈◊〉 in their censure darken all the stars of his graces. The smallest spot in his face, shall excuse all the sores and ulcers in their bodies. But it is not so with God: he value men, Quomodo semper vadunt, non quomodo semel cadunt: respecting vitae commu •• cúrsum, rather than involuntarium currentis casum. Nor is his saving grace so fickle a thing, to be lost by every weakness. He goes into his Garden, to eat the fr ••• s, and gather the flowers: not like these buzzing Dorres, that fly over all these to a dunghill.

But now if we will be righteous, let us do it, and show our justice by our practice. The title of Righteous is often ill bestowed upon men: as the mistaking woman attributed to the blessed Virgins Wombe and dugs, that happiness which belonged to her faith. Or, as silly rural people salute a mean Gentlewoman in bea •• clothes, If it like your Lady-ship. Or, flattering Pamphleters ascribe to your loose • Patrons, noble and meriting titles. Truth calls him Just that is so. God ordained light for the eyes, language for the ears, the air for respiration, but righteousness for all parts. That the mind should think nothing but righteousness, the tongue speak, the hand do, nothing but righteousness. But alas; Aliud defiderium c •• dis, aliud desiderium carnis. There be reluctant motions in the heart, yet De ••• e cordis, in the heart of my heart, I serve the Lord. Bare theory may come 〈◊〉 righteousness, only practice apprehends it. To whom is that Enge at the great Day, but to the Doer? Well done good servant, that is the form. Not the b •••• and dead habit, but the living and fruitful exercises of Justice, shall have happiness. Rightly, a man knows no more than he practices. It is said of Christ that he 〈◊〉 no sin, because he did no sin: in that sense, he knows no good, that doth no good. One said of the Jesuits, that abroad call themselves Apostles; the old Apostles le •• earth to earthly men, shown others, and got heaven themselves: we are more be • olding to our new ones, they show us heaven and leave it for us to purchase; and 〈◊〉 mean time cozen us of earth and worldly possessions. It is as fearfully true of •• ose that point others the way to heaven by a righteous life, and will not move a •• ote in that path themselves. The Saints are all said to have white garments: the •• be of Justice that is not white, is not right: it must be visible to men, that it may 〈◊〉 acceptable to God.

3 I come to the exceptions against Lots Justice: the Scripture notes six great •• lts in this good man: three principal, and three less principal.

1 His contention with Abraham, his Uncle, elder and better. Before they •• ew rich, they dwelt lovingly together; poverty confirmed their society. When •• ither want, nor weary journeys, nor strange Countries could part; wealth di •• des. How poor a good was their opulency, in respect of their company and •• ternall love! Many an one is a loser by his gains; and finds that which mul •• plies his outward estate, to abate his inward. Who will esteem those things good, •• at make us worse? Abraham is the Uncle and worthier, Lot the Nephew and •• unger: yet is Abraham first in the deprecation of strife. I pray thee, &c. But he •• lds it no disparagement to begin the treaty of peace. He that is the son of Abra •• m will seek to win by love, not to force by power.

It had been Lots duty to offer, rather than to choose, to yield than contend; yet Abraham offers the choice to Lot. Take the left hand, or the right. From whence •• th one, the custom grew in parting an Inheritance, Vt major dividat, minor eligat, •• at the elder should divide the younger choose. Lot takes it, but mark the event: •• t was crossed in his election, Abraham blessed in his resignation. Never did man 〈◊〉 desire of peace yield of his own right, that God suffered to be a loser by it. Lot 〈◊〉 he thought chose the best ground, the goodly plains of Jordan: but while he re • ects the goodness of the soil, and not the badness of the people, he smarts for •• s choice, and is soon carried away captive. Abraham content with the worse, •• th a large amends. Lift up thine eyes, look East, West, North, and South: and all the •• d thou seest, I will give unto thee and to thy seed forever. Let us not desire to be our • wne carvers for this world: it is our surest happiness without ambition or avarice, 〈◊〉 rest at God's finding.

2 His incredulity, in doubting to be saved in the Mountain; as if the promise •• d direction of God could have failed. He had no charge to dwell in Sodom, he had • harge to fly to the Mountain: yet Sodom he affected, the Mountain he refu •• d, and was faulty in both. It is no small sin even to doubt, when we have God's •• mmand and warrant to serve us.

3 His fear to tarry in Zoar, which the Lord had given his word to spare for 〈◊〉 sake. But he that was so hasty to choose it, is now again as hasty to leave it. How •• riable is man, when he fixeth not his submission to God's ordinance? This fugi •• e inconstancy is by some thus qualified: that the loss of his wife at the entering of •• ar, put him quite out of heart to stay there. And the sight of the same sins in his •• e City, which so reigned in the greater, gave him cause to suspect it could not 〈◊〉 long forborne.

Here were three of his infirmities; Inconstancy, Incredulity, Ambition; to •• ew, that none is so righteous, but in some things offensive. None were more ho •• under the law than the Priests, yet were they bound to offer sacrifice for them •• ves and their own sins. None more holy under the Gospel, than the Apostles, 〈◊〉 were they taught to pray, Forgive us our trespasses. Merit-usurpers are the worst ••• vants: for how bountiful soever God be to them, they will never acknowledge •• eir master; all is their due. The most terrible Usurers; all God's blessings they •• nke but the interest of their own monies. But the least cloud in a Diamond •• ders the price; the least infirmity in a Saint keeps him from being perfectly ••• hteous. Yet no man puts away his horse, that hath carried him throughout his journey, for thrice tripping by the way. Nor do three Parentheses disgrace a good Oration. Three drops of poison are dangerous in a little cup of water: let them fall into a running spring, their malignity is soon dispersed to nothing. Wash a spotted robe, and it is clean again. Yet let us strive against all stains: Abraham going to sacrifice, left his two young serviters and the Ass behind him. Lots fear and dealting were like two timorous and cowardly servants; his covetousness like the Ass: leave 〈◊〉 all these three behind us in our devotion, that we may be welcome to the Lord.

4 He offers up his own daughters to the rage of the Sodomites, that he might deliver his guests: choosing rather to be a bad father, than a bad host. This fact ha •• found diverse excuses. 1. It was a less sin, Coire secundum naturam, than adverse •• naturam: and of two evils the less is to be chosen. Answ. This is true in pe ••• evils, not in criminalls: in corporal things, not in spiritual. There is no necessity that should compel a man to sin: he ought rather to die. Blessed is he that c •• demneth not himself in the thing that he alloweth: then he is not blessed that allow • the thing in act, which he condemns in Judgment. 2. Lot did not mean to p •• off one sin with another, but useth a seeming submission to qualify their rage: he knew his daughters espoused to some great men of the City, and that they durst 〈◊〉 attempt their constupration. Answ. But this had been to tempt God by a fo ••• presumption, to make such an unruly rabble this offer, in hope it would not be taken. 3. Though a man in himself must not do a less evil for avoidance of a greater: yet to stop another's precipice into some monstrous mischief, and to mo •••• his mind by insinuation to a less; this they hold tolerable. As if men by custom must swear, the oath is better by their head, than by God. He that is shut up i • 〈◊〉 walled fort, let him escape where the wall is lowest. Answ. This is true, where we are persuaders from evil, not actors of evil ourselves. So if Lot had persuade • them to the young maids of the town, and to forbear the men, it had been more sufferable. But no man is to sin himself, with the hazard of his own soul, for the prevention of another's wickedness. 4. His intent was good to preserve his gods. Answ. We must not do evil, that good may come thereof.

Indeed there is a necessity which comes à Posteriore. As when a man hath swo •• to undo his neighbor: if he break his oath, he commits perjury: if he keep hi • oath, he breaks charity. What now? rather in breaking it offend only God, th •• in keeping it offend both God and man. But this perplexity is not Ex parte 〈◊〉 , it is not necessary to swear falsely, or break charity: but Ex parte hominis, 〈◊〉 cannot revoke what he hath spoken and done. 5. He knew that if his daughters we forced against their wills, they did not sin; and if they sinned not, he sinned not. A • s. If the maidens should consent, facient cum Sodomitis, te author, nequitiam, Lot was 〈◊〉 author of their sin: if they should not consent, Patientur a Sodomitis, te author, volentiam, Lot was the author of their ravishment. There might have been uncertai • ty in their consenting, there had been none in his exposing. His purpose was go • d, his offer was faulty. If by his allowance the Sodomites had defiled his daugh ••• betrothed to others, it had been his sin. If through violence they had defiled hi • guests, it had been only their sin.

It is for God to prevent sin with judgment, not for man to prevent a great sin in possibility, with a less in present act. Thus it cannot be justified, only a 〈◊〉 qualified. 1. In respect of the times, wherein knowledge was not so clear. 2. By his charity, he did it to conserve intemerate his guests. 3. By his troubled mind, without any recollection or serious advise. The best minds troubled yield inconsiderate motions; as water violently stirred sends up bubbles. Thus Lot meant well, 〈◊〉 God meant better: he preferred the unknowen Angels before his children, and th •• Lord preserved them all.

But if this were such an error in Lot, though meant in charity: how horrible 〈◊〉 it in those that do it for iniquity? One would think there were no such mo •••• in nature, yea monsters against nature. The Sea-monsters are not so cruel, as 〈◊〉 land-monsters, to their young. A good father will not sell his child's body a sta •• 〈◊〉 man, shall any sell his child's soul a slave to the devil? O that the Sun should shine upon that woman, which will be a Bawd to her own daughter! That the body she brought forth w ^th pains to this earth, she should sell for gains unto hell. Let her lose the name of mother and be held a murderer: there is no woman ever more deserved to be called the devils Dam. Let all her sex be ashamed of her; and even the sinners that reward her, curse her. Parents admonish your children, dissuade them from sin, pray against their sin, do not teach them to sin. What is said of the child's eye despising the parent, let me say of the parents tongue tempting the child, Let the Ravens of the valley peck it out, and the young Eagles eat it.

5 His drunkenness. Lot fled from Sodom, yet he could not fly from sin: He that could not be tainted in the City, is overtaken in the Cave. It is not the place that amendeth manners. Si desit Spiritus, non adjuvat locus. Some places are more dangerous, none are secure from temptation. It is a Popish fancy, that a cloisturall life can make a man more holy. If drunkenness crept into Lots cave, who can excuse their Cels and Cloistures. Lot sinned in the Mountain, Adam in Paradise, the Angels in Heaven: are Nunneries and Monasteries safer than these?

Some wholly excuse his drunkenness, because he did not purpose to be drunk. But the Apostle faulteth all excess: the excess is a sin, what ever be the purpose before, or effect after. Other say for it, that he drank liberally to allay his sorrows, and mitigate his heaviness. Ans. It ill becomes a just man to make use of such a comfort: the remedy was worse than the disease. I deny not, but wine to a man afflicted with so many griefs, hath the allowable use. Give strong drink to the heavy heart. But he that shall think to enable his body, by disabling his soul, and to cure his sickness with his sin; runs into the fire to avoid the smoke.

Let there be no pretext found for drunkenness; it made a just Lot prostitute his body to beastly uncleanness. Sodom could not deceive him, but Wine did. Vritur aebrius flammis mulierum, quem sobrium sulphurea flamma non attigerat. The fire of wine within him, did more than fire and brimstone without him. Nor in him alone hath it prevailed: Who would think to find Noah, that father of the new world, lying drunken in his Tent? Or that a little Wine should do more than a whole deluge of water? That he who was not perverted by the bad examples of the old world, should now begin a new example of sin to the new world? Lord, what is man, if he be but himself? What living man, had more noble proofs of God's Mercy, and Justice: mercy on himself, justice on others? The Lord once said to him in the midst of innumerable apostates; Thee only have I found righteous. He that was purged when the world was unclean, proves now unclean when the world is purged. The Preacher of the former world, and Prince of the latter, is the first that renews the sins which he had reproved, and for which he saw it condemned.

There is no sin hath so strange an effect, it is worse than sin. Other sins procure shame, but seek to hide it, this displays it. Lot is thus made a fool to his daughters, Noah to his son: it is a common quality in this excess to disclose secrets. Adam had no sooner sinned, but he saw and abhorred his own nakedness, seeking concealment even in bushes. Lot and Noah discover their nakedness, and have not so much rule of themselves as to be ashamed. Drunkenness doth not only make vices, but make them manifest. So would God have it, that our shame might be double by it. Both a shame for those imperfections we discover, and of that imperfection which moved us to discover them. One hours drunkenness filthily discovered, what six hundred years sobriety had modestly concealed. He that gives himself to wine, is not his own man. How abhorrible is that vice, which shall rob a man of himself, and lay a beast in his room? He that resists that one sin, escapes many: as he that kills the pregnant damme, is sure to destroy all the brood.

Drunkenness commands all: the senses command the members, the affections command the senses, the heart commands the affections, the head commands the heart, and wine commands the head. As Themistocles boy said; I rule my mother, my mother rules my father, and my father rules the whole Senate. Wine is aspiring, and will get up to the crown, and then humbles the crown to the fee •• . If it once take the sconce, as Joab said of Rabba, all the rest will follow.

6 His Incest. Rather than Satan will leave Lot untempted out of Sodom, his own daughters shall prove Sodomites. They that should have been his comforters to succor him, became baits to betray him. So little are they moved with that grievous Judgment, the turning of Sodom to ashes, of their mother to a Pillar, both in their eye: that they dare think of lying with their own father. Yea, and one of them afterward, impudently calls that son Moab; My fathers son by me.

Some have excused their fact, that they did it to preserve seed: not out of intemperance, but love of their Name and posterity: not for lust, but pr • creation. Answer The end was commendable; but the means, by ince •• with their father, culpable: better for them never to have been mother, th •• to be so by their father. Yet their intent shall judge many: they affected commotion for fruit, diverse make that their last, and least end: lust of delectation is stronger with them, than desire of propagation. It seems, they sinned directly against their own consciences; because they did first intoxicate their father, to put him from his rectified memory. They thought he would not consent to them, unless he first did forget himself: that while Lot was sober he would not be unchaste. Drunkenness is the key that opens the door to all bestial affections and actions. Wine knows no difference, or of persons or sins. Their fact was more heinous than their fathers: his only drunkenness, theirs to make him so, and then to commit incest with him. Culpandus Lot, non quantum ill Incestus, sed qua • tum illa ebrietas merebatur.

For his Incest, he knew it not: he perceived not when they lay down, nor when they rose up. It is no incredible thing Nescientem cotre: not that it was done by nocturnal pollution, without the act of generation; as Tostatus out of Thomas. Now those sins condemn us, which we do knowingly: Et facinus facimus, qu •• do mala facta sciamus. The use of his reason was hindered by drink: for if he had remembered himself upon his awaking, he would never have done it the second time. Some say, the progressive faculty may be exercised in sleep, as some walk in their sleep and transport things from place to place. Certainly, the Devil was not absent in such a a fowl business, working fancies in his head. But in a word, Non tam illa turpitudo à vino quàm propter ebrietatem stupor inflictus à Domino: his unchastitie was the punishment of his ebriety.

Thus came his uncleanness from his drunkenness, but what is to be said for his drunkenness? Once, and a second time he admitted it Noah was drunk but once: one act cannot make a good heart unrighteous, as a trade of sin cannot stand with regeneration. So dangerous is it to give way to Satan's temptations: where he is once entertained, the next time he is confident. He that hath takes one sore fall, is the worse for it long after. I know it is true in some; Te d • c ••• lapsus, magis ut vestigia firmes, once to have stumbled, is always to be admonished: but this is above nature, a happiness only beholding to Divine grace.

These are the exceptions against Lots Justice, who (for all these) hath a testimony from the mouth of the Holy Ghost, that he was a Just man. Now whom God calls Just, let no man call unrighteous. Such is the difference, not of sins, but of men. He that sees Lot and Judah pardoned for Incest, while Zimri suffers for fornication; must confess, that God doth not so weigh the faults as the persons. It is a foolish proverb of man's partial indulgence; that one man may better steal a horse, than another look on. But the Lord is Justice, and hates all sin whatsoever, in all persons whatsoever: yet will he pardon their great sin, that are members of his good Son: and severely punish the least fault in them for whom he •• ffered not. He regards not so much, quid, as quis: remission goes not by the mea •• re of the sin, but by the quality of the sinner, yea, rather the mercy of the forgi • er. Not the man that hath done no sin, but whom the Lord will not charge with sin •• e is Blessed. From all that hath been said, I will draw certain useful conclusions.

1 Even a just Lot is suffered to fall: he that was a gracious Saint on earth, • nd is now a glorious Saint in heaven; had his aspersions. When God upholdes • s, no temptation can move us: if he let go his manutenencie, none is too weak • or us. Which of God's dear children have not once done that thing, whereof •• ey have afterward been ashamed? This the LORD suffers for diverse reasons. • . To humble us if: such excellent men have trode awry, how should we take • eed to our ways? Shall such Giants stumble, and we lame cripples be secure? • . To keep us from despair: the Scripture tells us of their infirmities, that in • heir pardon we may read God's mercies. Let their falling humble us, and their •• sing again comfort us. If we had not such patterns, how could we but despair 〈◊〉 the sight of our sins? But he will hope well of his wound, that hath so good • xperience of his Physician. 3. To magnify his own infinite goodness, that can • o good turn our evil: he lets us fall, knowing how to make as good use of our •• n, as of our obedience.

Lot might be ashamed of his Incestuous seed, and wish to have come from So • ome alone. Yet was this unnatural bed blessed with increase. Diverse good woe • en have failed of this fruit by the lawful rights of marriage as Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, Elizabet; all hardly conceived. Some with one unlawful copulation have • ecome pregnant: as Tamar by Judah, Bethshabe by David, Lots daughters by • heir own father. Not that God favors forbidden conjunctions: but in his Iu • tice to bring such secret sin to open shame; in the elect for their conversion, in the • eprobate for their further confusion.

Moab is derived from this Incest, one that might call his father, Grandfather; • nd his mother, Sister. One father begot both the mother and her child, and one man is both the brother and son of the same woman. Yet from this line came • one of our Savior's worthy Ancestors: of Moab came Ruth, married to Boaz, • he father of Jesse, the father of David, the progenitor of JESUS CHRIST ac • ording to the flesh. God's election is not tied to our means: we may beget children, we can neither traduce blessings nor curses to them. Holy parents from a chaste bed have sometimes bred a monstrous and impious generation. And the Lord sometimes raiseth a holy seed from the drunken bed of fornication. Whatsoever we do, God will be chuser; and serve himself, not according to our act, but his own purpose. Weightie ears of corn have sometimes grown out of • he compass of the tilled field: and sweet flowers been found out of the enclosed Garden, even in the wild forest. Thus will GOD keep his own liber • ie of election, by his grace, not our works; and let us know, that we are not borne, but made good.

2 Notwithstanding these infirmities, still Lot is a Just man: some particular • cts may be too light in the balance, without extinguishing his title before the Lord. A man is sanctified in four respects. 1. In the not imputation of his sins: and that which is not imputed, is as it were not committed. 2. In inchoation of holiness, begun in this life, perfected hereafter. 3. In acceptation; Num. 23.21. God seeth none iniquity in Jacob, he seeth no transgression in Israel: there is sin in us, but God will not see it. 4. In comparison; so they shine like stars in a dark night. Lots offenses were some blemish to his sanctification in earth, they could not nullefie his Justification in heaven: blemish his virtue they may, not frustrate his grace. For if still as the elect sin, they should lose their grace, and cease to be righteous; God's election were as mutable; as our condition. The frantic in his mad fits doth not exercise reason, yet he hath it: he loseth the use, not the habit, ration Principii. In a swoon the soul doth not excercise her functions: a ma • neither hears, nor sees, nor feels; yet she is still in the body. A suspend •• Priest cannot be put from his right in the Church, for Ministerium indelebilis ch • racter: he hath his ministry, though forbidden to excercise it. The out-Law is still a subject, albeit debarred of some privileges. The son angers his father, • e doth not strait disinherit him. Though the vessel reel, yet fear not, Caesar •• vehis, thou carriest Caesar; said that Emperor to the quaking Mariner: we are we •• of ourselves, but Christ is in us.

Lot fell six times in many days, the Just man falls seven times in one day; yet he is still Just in his Savior's righteousness. This concludes our comfort: he 〈◊〉 bad Peter forgive his repenting brother seven times, will forgive our repen ••• souls seven thousand times: he scorns that any Peter, Saint, or Angel, should outgoe him in showing mercy. In ourselves we are sinners; in CHRIST righteous. When the Philosopher in his own mean clothes could not be admitted 〈◊〉 the Court on a solemn day, he went and borrowed rich and gorgeous apparel, he was then let in with ease and respect. Being in the Presence, he was continually kissing his robe: the King noting it, wondered, and asked the cause: he answers, •• noro honorantem, I honor that which honored me. Nam quod virtus non pot ••• , vestitus obtinuit. My virtue could procure me no entrance, my garment did. We are too base, ragged, beggarly of ourselves, to be let into that glorious Court of heaven; by faith put we on the Princes embroidered garment, CHRIST'S righteousness; then shall we be admitted. Let us admire and honor that which honors us: Quod virtus nostra non potuit, vestitus ejus obtinet: what all our righteousness could never do, that his robe doth for us.

Now if the righteous shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Righteous, that's happy: but scarcely saved, that's hard: yet shall be saved, that's happy again. Let no believer fear, for he is righteous: let none presume, for he shall scarcely be saved: yet, let none despair, for he shall be saved. For all thy sin, yet thou (being faithful in Christ) art righteous: for all thy righteousness, thou shalt scarcely be saved: for all that difficulty, yet thou shalt be saved. Thus like those on the seas, they mount up to heaven, and down to the deep, and up again: or like the Heave-offering, that was heaved up, and down, and up again: or as CHRIST, the Anti-type of it, was heaved up to the Cross, down to the grave, and up again unto glory. So we are Justified by Christ, this lifts • s up to grace: we commit many sins, this humbles us with shame: yet we love righteousness, and endeavor to perfection, this shall advance us to everlasting Glory.

3 Just Lot was delivered, neither for his Justice, nor without it. Not for his own righteousness, but for God's mercy. I will deliver him, because I have a favor unto him. Nor doth the Apostle mean, that Lot was delivered for hi • own sake: nor the Prophet, that he was delivered for Abraham's sake; when he saith, The Lord remembered Abraham, and sent out Lot. He should have been saved, though he had not been a kin to Abraham. Yet is this repeated to testify God's love to Abraham, and his gracious answer to the prayers of the Sons of Abraham; which shall prevail with him. But indeed, God remembered Abraham, not so much because he prayed, but because himself had promised: the deliverance depended not upon any merit in Uncle or Nephew, but on the di •••• goodness.

The Pontificians say, there be two things in a good work: the Meritorio •• part, to get heaven: the satisfactory part, to escape hell. It cannot do the latter, Propter Inutilitatem, for the unprofitableness of it; being no more than we are bound to do. It cannot do the former, Propter Invaliditatem, for the insufficiency of it, being not so much as we are bound to do. If God judge by the Law moral, no work is good: for if by the Law evangelical, joined with the remission of sins, many works are good. Some have affirmed that all our works 〈◊〉 evil; as if truth and lying, covetousness and liberality, hatred and charity, •• ere all one. God never taught that doctrine. Indeed our best actions have their •• emishes and imperfections. The Egyptian midwives saved the Hebrew chil •• en by a lie: yet it is said, God prospered them, and made them houses. He rewar •• d not their lie, but their piety: he so regarded their mercy, that he regarded 〈◊〉 their infirmity. Prosperity belongs to their goodness, pardon to their dissi •• lation. The Lord forgave the obliquity, and blessed the honesty of the work. •• ere be three circumstances in every work, which Saint Bernard would have us •• ke unto. An liceat, an expediat, an deceat: the lawfulness, expedience, decency: •• e main is the licet. But man is so lame, that though he keeps the right way, yet he •• ts. Without our righteousness we cannot be saved, yet for our righteousness 〈◊〉 are not saved, but for his that came to save us.

4 The Just Saints are to be followed, but in their Justice and sanctity. • o many encourage themselves on their falls: Lot was incestuous and drunken, 〈◊〉 he is called Just; why for such sins am I held unrighteous? Am I better than 〈◊〉 ? better? No, would thou wert half so good. 1. He sinned and condemned •• mselfe, thou sinnest and defendest thyself. Thou likest that in him, which he •• sliked in himself. 2. They sinned and repented, thou showest thy sin, but no ••• e of repentance. Quos secutus es errantes, sequere paenitentes. Their weakness • eene in our hands, but their tears are not seen in our eyes. 3. Evil was never •• de to be imitated, but goodness. Lots faith and obedience is not such a sinners •• ject, but his Incest and drunkenness: as if Jacob's modest look, liberal hand, •• th-speaking tongue, devout knee, and humble heart, were not worth noting; •• t only his lameness and halting. He marks none of their graces, but their •• rres. 4. Their falls serve to raise us up when we are down, not to cast us •• wne when we are up: for our consolation afterward, not for our presumption •• ore. To think of their errors, should humble us with fear, not hearten us ••• h encouragement to evil. It is said of the wicked, They fear, where no fear 〈◊〉 here it may be said, where fear is they fear not. These examples are Paeniten •• us in solatium, not praesumentibus in refugium. To say, why should not I find m • r •• with David, this is the voice of faith: to say, why should not I venture to sin •• th David, this is the voice of folly. 5. Thy sin is greater by this bold imitati •• : a lie ventured on by the example of a Saints frailty, is of a more malicious •• ure in thee, than it was in him. Any transgression thus derived, is the argument 〈◊〉 a more ungracious soul, than that it seeks to imitate. What he hopes shall ex •• se him, doth more properly condemn him; because he had that warning be •• re him. 6. Thy repentance is doubtfuller.

He that tempted them to sin tempts also thee; that is Satan: but he that gave •• em repentance, is not bound to give it thee, that is God. Thou makest thy fall ••• taine, thy rising again is uncertain. Such a man hath been dangerously sick, •• d escaped; his Physician was skillful and diligent, his medicine proper and effe •• all. Wilt thou make thyself sick, on purpose to try the skill of the one, and ••• tue of the other? 7. For them, there was a cure behind, the sacrifice of the •• mbe no • then slain: but now if men willfully frustrate the price of that redem •• on Christ died no more: his next coming shall not be in the humility of a suf • er, but in the glory of his Father; not to redeem, but judge the world. 8. All •• ripture is for instruction, all is not for imitation. Lucerne pedibus meis; a light •• y feet, showing me the blocks whereat they stumbled, that I might keep my •• e upright. Commissum atque conscriptum est. It is so done and written: for our •• tation? No, that were an argument of two much violence, to draw on sin •• th the cart-ropes of examples: to take some stones from the Temple, that with •• em we might beat down the rest: and to spoil ourselves by the ruins of •• ods Saints.

This is fit to be urged against those that flesh themselves by the sins of God's children. Will any infer, what matter is it what manner of men we are, wh •• Paul a Blasphemer, a persecutor, an oppressor, was received to mercy? When 〈◊〉 coming a Wolf against the Lambes, is made Paul a Shepherd for the Lamb •• . This is true in him, but he did it ignorantly; thou having his example doest it maliciously. and God will not be merciful to them that off • nd him of set purpose. He that deliberately resolves to sin, doth what he can to make himself uncapable of forgiveness. Indeed it is true, that nemo bonus, nisi qui aliquando malus; the •• is none good, but he was once bad: Peter by experience of his own frailty, might learn with his keys to open heaven unto others. But though God forg •• our sins in his patience, let not us forget them in our penitence. God pardon • in Lot what was bad, and accepted what was good: let us follow his virtues, th •• we be never condemned for his sins.

5 If we will be delivered let us be just: but doth God deliver none but th • righteous? Yes, sometimes also the wicked, and that for diverse reasons. 1. Th •• they might be brought to repentance; for that is the scope and purpose of 〈◊〉 goodness and patience of God. But man is so given to pride, that if he speed we •• he thinks he deserves well: and so instead of humble thankfulness swells wi •• proud arrogance. 2. For some proginie to come from them: for good He ••• to be borne, his wicked father Ahaz is forborne. Why doth Amon draw o •• two years breath in Idolatry, but that good Josiah was to be fitted for a king? When I came into the Sanctuary of God, then understood I the ends of these men. The •• we find, that many sacrilegious, extortioners, idolaters, are delivered, because God hath some good fruit to come from their cursed loins. 3. To fill up the measure of their sins: they have alrady done so much, that they are suffered to do more: so sin is punished with sin, as drunkenness with thirst. 4. To magnify the Lord's patience, in giving them time and means of penitence: that as they make his labor without success, they might be left without excuse. Thus 〈◊〉 Cham delivered f • om that universal deluge, yet after he comes to deride his own father: twice had Noah given him life, yet he abuseth both his father and pr •••• ver. Even God's Ark may nourish Monsters: on the seats of the Temple 〈◊〉 sit contemners of their spiritual fathers, as often filthy Toads lie under the consecrated stones. Was this God's favor to preserve him to judgment? He 〈◊〉 better have perished in the waters, than live unto his fathers curse. It is not imply our deliverance, but our thankfulness for it, and obedience after it, that g ••• sufficient argument to our consciences, we are in the favor of God.

6 Never did man serve God for nothing: if Lot be just, he shall now 〈◊〉 the benefit of it, he is delivered. It is the speech of Atheism and Apostasy: 〈◊〉 is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his Commandments Most false, from God, Discedet nullus sine munere, munere dignus: he highly seem • to owe a man anything. Cyrus in the conquest of Lacedemonia, encouraged 〈◊〉 Soldiers: that the foot-man should have a horse-man's place; the horse-man 〈◊〉 chariot; the Lievetenant should be made a Captain; the Captain a Colo ••• and he that was President over a City, should be made a Vice-roy over a wic ••• Country. Whereas Christ, say they, for his Soldiers, speaks of nothing b •• taking a cross, and bearing a yoke: of persecution abroad, and affliction at ho •• . Here is not Labor muneratus honor, but honor mutilatus labor: it was better wi •• us before, we had more prosperity with less piety. They are miserably deceived, there is no honor like to his service, the fear of God rewards it self. 〈◊〉 have labored in vain, & spent my strength for naught; the earth is barren: but 〈◊〉 work is with the Lord, and my reward with my God; heaven is fruitful, there shall be a blessed harvest of recompense.

Then spake they that feared the Lord, and a book of remembrance was written, &c. They met together to serve God: for this purpose was their coming, and abo •• this business was their communing. What followed? A book of remembrance • as written for them: not one good work of theirs, but is there registered: the • reat Master of the Rols records them, and rewards them; here in a heaven of • eace, there in the peace of heaven. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord: When • hall say to the wicked, Depart from me; then I will acknowledge them for mine. • hen I make up my Jewels, setting all the trash and refuse on fire; I will gather up •• em into mine own treasury, as a man locks up his precious jewels in his Cabi •• t. And I will spare them, as a man spareth (not every son, but) his son that •• veth him.

This was the convinced devils acknowledgement; Doth Job fear God for •• ght? And Saul's insinuation to the Benjamites, disheartening their adherence 〈◊〉 David. Will the son of Jesse give you fields and vineyards? Will he make you • aptaines over hundreds and Captains over thousands? Reward is the encourage • ent of service. This was the ground and color of the angry sons exception. These many years have I served thee, without breaking thy commandment; yet thou • ver gavest me so much as a kid, to make merry with my friends. An unjust expostu •• ion of a son to a father, and such a father as had given him the inheritance. Ye •• ew that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Labor. Idleness shall do you no •• od, but labor. Your labor, the pains of another shall not profit you, but • ur own labor. Is not in vain; not like the Black-mores washing, a labor in •• ine: but if it miss your end, it reacheth God's: we see not the success, yet it • ospers. In the Lord, it may be in vain in the world, and men never requite it; •• t in the Lord it shall find recompense. Our labors end with our lives, but our •• wards end not with our labors. This we know: Divinity consists of certain •• ounds and infallible principles, a sure foundation, a knowledge. The Physician 〈◊〉 his medicine never so proper, knows not whether he shall recover his Patient. • ead the Lawyer never so learnedly, he knows not whether he shall regain his • lients right. The Soldier may fight valiantly, yet is not sure of the victory. • ut Divinity is a knowledge, making us know, that our pious endeavors shall • e rewarded.

7 The Lord first makes us just, and then saves us: as he first sanctified Lot, •• d then delivered him. So that our Justice is not Justice in proper and district •• rmes, but mercy. Ab luti estis, you are washed. What, have you washed your •• lves? No, ye are washed, ye are justified, ye are sanctified in the Name of the • ord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God. So Christ is made to us wisdom, and righte •• snesse, and sanct • fication, and redemption. Wisdom in the instruction of our •• ules, righteousness in the forgiveness of our sins, sanctification in the holy •• sse of our lives, and redemption in the deliverance from all our enemies. We •• e none of these in ourselves; that he who rejoiceth, might rejoice in the Lord. • rust not your arms of flesh, nor your hearts of ashes, nor your purest spirits • hile they are housed in corrupted walls. If you have stood a time, trust not your • gges, you may slide: if you have slip'd and recovered, trust not your recovery, • ou may fall again. Trust not your strength, it is infirmity: trust not your wis • ome, it is folly: trust not your holiness, it is blended with iniquity. Prophets •• ve fallen, Patriarchs have fallen, Apostles have fallen, Stars have fallen, An • else have fallen. But trust the mercy of God, which is of infinite perfection: •• d the merits of Christ, which are of perfect satisfaction. It is I, even I, that put •• th away thine iniquity for my own sake. It is not Abraham nor Moses; nor the Vir •• n Mary, nor the Virgin Martyr, not Peter at Rome, nor Paul at Jerusalem, that 〈◊〉 do this cure: hear the Physician; It is I, saith the Lord. Not with the pre •• ration of our own nature, nor with the cooperation of our own justice, nor •• sposi ion and liberty of our own will: hear him once again; It is I, even I, and 〈◊〉 mine own sake, and sons sake, that forgiveth your sins.

To conclude with application. God hath given us a gracious deliverance, which we may parallel with Lot's. We have been saved from the Fire; such a conflagration, as knows no comparison, but Sodom or hell. With a match it should have been done, without all Match, if it had been done. Some differences there are: that fire was in a just severity, this, in an unjust treachery. Sodom’s for came down from heaven, this gunpowder fire was fetched up from hell. That was inflicted by the Ministers of God, Angels: this was devised by the Ministers of Satan, Traitors. That was prepared for the nocent, this for the innocent. That was fire and brimstone, this fire and gunpowder; of a more sudden and dispatching violence; not reserving pause for a Lord have mercy on us. We were Titio ereptus, a brand plucked out of the burning. The Lord did not only deliver us from the burning, but he also kept the fire from kindling. He sent Lot o •• of Sodom, to save him; he prevented Sodom in England, to save us: he did not remove us from it, but he removed it from us.

He that sent that fire downward, kept this fire from mounting upward. He delivered Lot by visible Angels, and Angels were not wanting though invisibly, when he delivered us. He remembered Abraham, and sent out Lot: when he freed as from the fire, he remembered the Son of Abraham according to temporal birth and his own Son by eternal generation, Jesus Christ. He did reveal to Abraham this purposed destruction of Sodom: he did not conceal from our gracious Sovereign the notice of this intended destruction of his kingdom. Lot was sent out by break of day, and we delivered by four a clock in the morning: that very morning: there wanted but a little work of the morning, and then sufficient to the day, to the year, to all ages of the world, had the malice of that morning been; more accursed, than ever was read in the kalendar of any time. The l • cendiary a Faux, a fire-brand indeed, kept his vigils, but the Lord prevented his Jubilee. There was Titio infernalis, a hell-brand ready with his match, to make Communem rogum, a general bone-fire, both of mortal men and immortal Trophies and Charters: to make a whole burnt-offering of us all, and to pass us through the fire to that Moloch of Rome. Temples, sepulchers, monuments o • age and honor, should have been tossed into the air, then into the water, after they had been first spoiled by fire. Our river had been turned into a river of blood, and her carriages, instead of commodities, into dead corpses and discerpted limbs; her crystal streams died into rubies. Thus they meant us like Sodom but God delivered us like Lot. The danger was imminent and furious, their rage violent and monstrous, our deliverance strange and glorious; let our commemoration and thanks be solemn and generous, heroical and perpetual forever. Amen.

Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.] The next point is his place, which was sinful, fl • gitious, stigmaticall Sodom. It was worse than a Jail 〈◊〉 his just soul: and report lies, if our common Gaoles be not like to Sodom, the very dens of mischief, the Schools of wickedness. Thus God's ordinance for reformation, is made a means of further transgression: and the place built for discipline, breeds and feeds villainy. A malefactor learns more pestilent untowardness when he comes there, than ever he knew before. O that the Magistrate would look to this; that drunkenness and blasphemy might not usurp the place of mortification and humility!

But why would Lot stay in such a wicked City? Not as a neighbor affected with their customs, but as a Physician to cure their diseases. But he that looked for a Paradise, found a hell: and the cup of his prosperity was spiced with the bitter fruits of a cursed society. It was indeed Terra bona, but Gens mala; as it was once said of Ireland; nothing bad there but the people. Christ would not suffer his weak Disciple to go bury his Father; lest he should be perverted by some carnal friends at the funeral. I am life, tarry and live with me: let the dead •• one, lest thou die with them. How often doth God part his children from the • icked, by making them smart with the wicked! As Augustine speaks of the • eligious taken among the rest by the Goths: Iure amaram vitam sentiunt, quia • eccantibus amari esse noluerunt. Woe is me that I must remain in Meshech, and dwell 〈◊〉 the tents of Kedar.

• o live among the good is a great happiness, a little Image of heaven, a module • nd abridgement of the communion of Saints. Where one doth love another and • ll love God: one is at peace with another, and all at peace with their own con • cience: one doth honor another, and all honor their Maker. When the inha • itants of a Parish shine in the day, like a Firmament of bright Stars in the night; • ot one malevolent aspect among them. Like a Choir of tunable voices, every • ne keeping time and his own part, and in a sweet harmony, all singing the pray • es of the Lord. But O where shall we find such a neighbor-hood? how much • round shall we leave behind us, ere we arrive at this society? The Prophet once • ried, O ye heavens drop down righteousness; as if the earth had quite lost it, being •• ken up above the clouds. We may now cry and complain for want of this • eighbour-hood; O ye heavens drop down kindness and charity into our times, O love that art Alumna coeli, sis medicina soli; come down and help us.

Imagine with the fable, a City consisting of selected men, all peaceable, tra • table, charitable, humble; the Magistrate clemently ruling, the people meekly • beying. The enemy knows it invincible, while thus governed: therefore craf • ily resolves to shuffle in among them a pair of false brothers; a liar, and a thief. • ut because in their own forms they would soon be discovered and abhor • ed; he puts them in two disguises; the liar like a Lawyer, the thief like a Vsu • er. Their wealth procures them room and respect, they fall to work. The • yer with his forged weapons, whispers to the Magistrate how the people stomach • im: to the people, how the Magistrate tyrannizeth over them: to private persons, what hard language is given them, what wrong is done them, what right is kept • rom them, and that the law is ordained to render every man his own. First, there • s heart-burning, then brawling, then contesting at law: and now instead of peace • nd humility, there is pride and enmity. The Usurer, he so robs them by a legal • heft, that they become at once sensible of want and injury; covetousness gets in • o the heart, oppression fills the hand. Now far-well charity, every man for him • else, none for God, and God for none. Consider yourselves, and wish this were but a Parable: punish the devils instruments; hang up theevery, cut out the • ongue of lying, and so be shut of them: this were a fair riddance of them both, • s the proverb hath it, without a Session. There was a Mathematician in Con • tantinople, that in anger thus vexed his neighbor. He did set in his Cellar • reat Caldrons of boiling water, with heat multiplying the motions of the va • ours; and then turning them all into narrow pipes, gave them vent under his • eighbours floor: which made such an earthquake, that it shook all his house. • hen with fire-glasses and barrels he so thundered and lightened, that he forced • im to forsake his dwelling. The vapors of secret slanders, the earthquakes of • pen contentions, the thunders of blasphemy, the flashes of burning malice, do • o afflict us: that we cry, Our soul is among Lions; sons of men whose teeth are spears, • rouse and sharp swords.

But still what doth Lot in Sodom, a Saint among sinners? fishes may be fresh 〈◊〉 salt waters; live in the sea, and not partake the brinish quality: it is not so with • an. Rather, Aliquid mali propter vicinum malum; some evil for neighbor-hoods •• ke. Pure streams passing by a corrupt foil, contract some of the putrefacti • n: and springs running thorough the veins of the earth, savor of the mineral, • hich they last saluted. Inficitur terrae sordibus unda fluens. Commisti sunt inter Gen •• s: ^c They were mingled among the heathen. What followed? They learned their works. No wonder: can a man be clean among Lepers? or sleep with dogs, and not swarm with fleas? We certify ourselves of men's behavior, as the Lacedemonians inquired the carriage of their children: Of what sort are their companions: as they, Of what condition are their play-fellows? The mischiefs of Sodom and Babylon should forewarn our departure: as the swallows would not come near Thebes, because the walls had been so often besieged. The smitten Deere is presently forsaken of all his fellows. A great Tree never falls alone, but also spoils the under-wood, w ^ch otherwise would have thrived well enough. The reason why the Raven returned not unto the Ark, is given by some, because she met with dead carcases. The worlds carrion keeps many from their faithful adherence to the Church. Any thing taken from the proper place loseth the virtue: a coal of fire kept in the chimney, lives: separate it from the harth, leave it alone in the air, it presently dies. What Philosophy said of good, experience justifies of evil: Malum est sui diffusivum, evil is diffusive and spreading of it self; indeed more catching than goodness. Ask the Priest if a man carry holy flesh 〈◊〉 the skirt of his garment, and touch other things with that skirt, shall they be holy? No, saith the Priest. If one that is unclean by a dead body, touch anything, shall it not be unclean? Yes, it shall be unclean, saith the Priest. Sooner are the good corrupted by the bad, than the bad are bettered by the good. Why are we taught continually to pray, Deliver us from evil: but that it hath a dangerous power to make us evil? Yea, LORD, free us from Sodom, separate us from sin, alienate 〈◊〉 from the wicked, Deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.

Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.] The matter of his vexing was their sin; the evil of the place came from the persons, who were fully, foully, filthily, palpably wicked. Not by way of infirmity, or in any mean degree, but wicked, in the extent of sin. Not seldom, or by fits, but always; their conversation was wicked. Not secretly and in corners, but notoriously in the public view; their visible life was wholly wicked. And for specification, if any s •• were predominant above the rest, it was Filthiness, Sodom’s filthiness, a bestrality, yea worse. For Pejus est bestialiter vivere, quàm bestiam esse: it is not so bad to be a beast, as to live like a beast; a sin abhorred by nature it self. Therefore to put some method into this further discourse of their wickedness, three circumstances appear in the description. 1. The impudence of it, being notorious and open; Lots eye-sore. 2. The continuance of it, during their whole life: not an act or two, but their conversation. 3. The turpitude of it, being so obscene and nasty a fifthy conversation. Thus we have the fore-head, the heel, and the composition of the whole body.

1 The impudence; it was manifest wickedness, their faces did not blush at i • . The show of their countenance doth witness against them, they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. It is true, that nocturnal pollutions shall have public plagues: b •• they that dare sin God in the face, shall bear a heavier weight of his vengeance. The harlot doth bad enough, that wipes her lips, (as if the print of her sin could be seen there) and it was not she: though she commit it, she will conceal it. B •• Absalom worse; that spreads his incestuous pallet on the roof, and calls the S •••• a blushing witness to his filthiness. Pride compasseth them about as a chai • e: they wear their wickedness in pomp, as if they meant it should grace them. They glory in their shame: such as boast their quantities of drink, and varieties of uncleanness; (it is all one) how far into their hearts they have admitted the d ••••

Such are called Dogs: not only because they are as fawning as dogs, ••• tering their feeders: or as ravenous as dogs, insatiately devouring, canine appeti •• : or as malicious as dogs, barking out scandals at their lives that shine with goodness: but as unclean as dogs, and as shameless as dogs; noisome with imp • dence, and impudent with noisomeness; their place is without, The wicked b •• steth his hearts desire: he doth not cover it, nor excuse it, but boast it: nor shift it 〈◊〉 another, but makes it appear his own hearts desire. Mala admittunt, admissa •• ctant, jactata defendunt. Majoris est culpae manifest quàm occulte peccare: ill •• pliciter reus, quia & agit & docet. The Popish rule is safer, Caute si non caste: • ut these, vitia tam minime abscindunt, ut non abscondant. They prostitute their • oules as the Romans did the bankrupts houses, with, Who gives most? If their •• and hath been the Organ of unrighteousness, their mouth shall be the Trump • t • o proclaim it.

There is more modesty in them that seek concealment: if there be any bush 〈◊〉 Paradise, any tempter to be named by Adam; a woman of thy giving, Eve; • hereas it was a woman of his own seeking, concupiscence: Gehazi hath a lying co • er, Saul a pretending color; here is something to be alleged for mitigation. • ut to sin without shame, yea, to out-sin all shame, to publish the tenor of vil • ny in print; this is Sodom’s state. Uncleanness was not confined to the Cham • er, nor the every to the night, nor corruption blanched and skin'd over with hy • ocrisie: but borne aloft, justified by protection, and crowned with garlands of • onour and approbation. This sin abandons secrecy, scorns reproof: admoni •• on to it were but like goads to them that are mad already, or a pouring of oil • own the chimney.

It is said of ^b Tamar; that Judah took her for an harlot by her dressing. She •• kes upon her the habit of an harlot, because she means to be one: her attire de • lares her purpose. If she had not wished to seem a whore, she would have avoi • ed such a place and veil. The external monuments of immodesty bewray a • arnall heart: they that mean well, will never wish to seem ill. Nature (not too •• r perverted) is not more forward to commit sin, than willing to hide it: and we • ommonly affect to show better than we are. Not few harlots put on the sem • lance of chastity, and bitterly rail on them that appear naught. Moorish pas •• ges are dangerous for travellers, but the pits which the eye sees, the foot avoids. • et us never trust those that do not wish to appear good.

To conclude then, Sodom sought no cover, and she was not covered; fire • nd brimstone had free access to her; and her confusion no less than her corrup •• on, was palpable to the world. Opennesse of sin saves Justice a labor of inqui •• tion: there need no hew and cry after that thief which presents himself. Are •• ere no such public sinners amongst us? None that openly dis-hallow the Sab • aths; none that justify sacrilege; a sin now as manifest as Sodom’s: none that • ave so sworn away all grace, that they make it their grace to swear. Mark •• em that cause devisions and tumults among you, mark them with the black coal • f infamy: let them be to you, as Lepers among the Jews, or as men full of plague •• res among you; whom neither the fear of God nor man can work to peace, • nquietnesse must be their portion forever; the shame of the Gospel, malicious, • rangling Christians. Concerning these open sins, let me say to the Magistrate, 〈◊〉 David to Solomon of Shimei; we may not, you must punish.

2 The continuance: as their sins were extant, so constant; Their ways were •• ways grievous. Their ways, not some few steps; grievous, not meanly offen •• ve; and that without intermission, always. It is not so much sin, as the trade of • n that is damnable. They sin while they eat, sin while they walk, talk, even in • eepe they sin: their sportive, transportive mirth is full of obscenesse: their beds, • oards, chambers, and (if they dissemble any devotion) the very Churches are • itnesses of their impiety: such fluid souls, that no costive medicine can stay the •• ux of their sins: but the very remanent snuff of original goodness must lan • uish out in a stinking dissoluteness. Time, cummunis medicus, the remedy of • there evils, increaseth this. Other creatures grow up to their height, and then • ecay and die: only it is said of the Crocodile, that she grows to her last day. • o doth this man's sin; Plus senio confectus, plus malo infectus: corpore debilior, facinore fortior. It is said of the Moon; Crescit, senescit, evanescit, & reparat sua c •• nua Phoebe: she waxeth, and waneth, and vanisheth, and then appears again with repaired horns: but here is no change, except from evil to worse. They so habituate sins, Vt diu assueta, tandem putantur nulla: as the Friars dwindle their orders, from Minim's to Nullan's. Or as some owe debts so long, that they forget them to be debts. They think the Preacher does them over-hasty wrong to call them from their inveterate lusts: as when a creditor demanded his money long due; the debtor jested with his companion: See, I have ought him the money these ten years, and he is as earnest with me as if I had borrowed it but yesterday. Like men that have so often told a lie, that at last themselves think they speak true.

Lot may preach to them, but unless Lot could convert them, there is no reparation of their life. Resolute sinners love dissolute Teachers; such as cannot, or dare not speak the truth. That cannot, for insufficiency: their place hath set them to charge, but they have neither powder, nor shot. That dare not, for flattery: we may say of their Sermons, as it is reported of some harps: Oculos pascunt, 〈◊〉 onerant: it is better to see, than hear them: their fingering may please the eye, their melody is nothing worth. Yet as Saint Keywins harp is kept for a great relique: so flattering teachers are venerable monuments with these.

They sin because they will sin: Quare peccas? quia nescis quid facias? d • s • : quia cogeris ut facias? absit: sed quia placet ut sic facias. The cause is neither ignorance, nor compulsion, but willfulness. Though we must offend, yet for shame let there be some interruption and breaking off in our sins: let not men run head-long to hell, and never so much as look back. It is for the Devil only to do nothing else but sin: a sinner from the beginning, a sinner to the end. Who gives a penny to that merchant that rejoiceth in his shipwreck? or will confer an estate upon him that resolves to be a beggar? Saint Augustine confesseth a state of himself unconverted, bad enough; when he said, Petieram castitatem, sed nollem obtinere: but these will not so much as Petere, desire to be good.

While they are in Delilah's lap, they think themselves as safe as if they were in Abraham's bosom. As beggars get their living by showing their sores: let a Surgeon offer to heal them, they refuse it, because they live by them. We offer to cure men's maladies, their riot, rapine, uncleanness, lying, blasphemy: No, they thank us, and say, they live by them. This is that Babel which will not be cured. Yea, they are worse than those beggars; for they desire not ulcers, yet when they have them, they make use of them: but these by an unnatural lust conc ••• them, and make ulcers in their conscience. Perhaps the issue there hath continued so long, that if they offer to stop it, they die: the Devil hath hamper'd some so fast, that they dare not but sin, for fear they should anger him, for a Ne •• c •• : and their consciences would so pinch and torture them, that they dare not ad •••• conference. As they that have cursed and shrewish wives at home, love to stray abroad: so men molested with a scolding conscience, as the whore, drunkard, homicide; are fain continually to play, drink, riot; to go to bed with their heads full of wine, and no sooner wake, but to it again. So that their conscience and knock at the door a thousand times, and they are never within, or at leisure to be spoke withal. Yet must they at last be met and found, as Ahab was by E ••• , even by this enemy: stay they never so long, and stray they never so far, they must home at last. Sickness will waken them, conscience must speak wi •• them, as a Master with his truant Scholar after a long absence; and then there are no men under heaven who more need that prayer, LORD have mercy upon them!

[unspec 3] The uncleanness: their sin was not only palpable, and durable, but detestable: they were exposed to turpitude, their bodies prostituted to fleshly polluti ••• . By [filthy] understand all carnal defilements, the kinds whereof Saint Paul specifies to the Romans under their proper names, because they were familiarly known to them. But to the Galatians, he wraps them up in general terms, be • ause there they were more obscure: As our Apostle doth not name Sodom’s fil • hinesse to the Christian Jews, lest by specifying it he should in a manner teach • t. The degree of Pope Syricius involved marriage among the pollutions of the •• esh: and such was the over-sight of Saint Gregory upon, 1 Cor. 7.2. Concessit mi • imo, ut majus declinetur: a false gloss of a sincere Text, striving to prove by the Apostles words, that matrimony is by permission, not by commandment: and • herefore Sine vitio non esse, quod ignoscitur, & non praecipitur; that cannot be with. • ut sin, which is pardoned, and not imposed. But if it were a sin to marry, God • imselfe should be the Author of sin, for he was the author of marriage. Neither • oth God pardon it as a thing forbidden, but permit it as a thing lawful, though • he Apostle doth not there impose it as a thing necessary. And it is a forced inter • retation, to tax that of iniquity, which God hath ordained for a remedy. For •• e doth not forbid, but rectify our desire; Let every man have his own wife: Su • m, non alienam: Vxorem, non concubinam: vxorem, non uxores: a Wife, not a concubine: his own wife, not another man's: his Wife, not wives. Lamechs incongrui • ie, (Hear O ye wives of Lamech) was like false latin: for wives admit of no plu • alitie, when they be construed with one husband. God had abundance of Spirit, yet unus unam uni, he ordained but one woman for one man.

But let us abhor that doctrine, that shall at once cast out the aspersion of sin • pon marriage, and yet seek to vindicate uncleanness from sin by a toleration of • tewes. It was God's express prohibition; There shall be no whore of the daugh • ers of Israel. Many flatter themselves, that this is but a trick of youth: belike they are content to lose the kingdom of heaven with a trick: an unhappy trick, that costs a man his soul.

It is truly said, that a whore is the high way to the Devil: he that looks on her with lust, begins his voyage: he that stays to talk with her, is half his way: he that enjoys her, is at his journeys end. She is Mendax, out-lying a news-monger: fallax, her kisses be sweet poison: Vorax, her eye is on your face, while her heart is on your cash: Tenax, a deep ditch: what is wrack'd there, is lost forever: Curiosa, dressing her self all day, to provoke appetite at night: Impudica, others sins show like land-schip, a far off; hers like huge statutes: damnosa, damnable both to her self and others. She keeps her self a stranger to repen • ance, till they two meet at an hospital. She lives like Cain, a reprobate vagabond without any constant habitation. Her body is the common sewer, her soul a snuff which only Surgery keeps alive, and at last it goes out in everlasting stench.

For others; it is her misery and mischief not to be damned alone, she brings many to her own fire, and so does the Devil special service. She is a witch that hath wrought upon Saints, as Tamar (though otherwise a good woman) did once upon Judah. He esteems her by her habit, and the very sight of an harlot hath fired him with lust: the Devil knows that a fit object is half a victory. At the first sight he is enflamed, and (which is strange) caught with her love before he saw her face. Not examining whether she was fair or foul, sick or sound, friend or enemy, it was enough that she was a woman. The presence of the Adullamite does not restrain him: so had lust besotted him, that he could endure a witness. She was cunning, and would not trust him without a pawn: a pledge he leaves her, his staff and signet. O that the filthy affection should thus transport a son of Jacob! But in him let us see the easiest fruits of it, fear and shame. Fear he came to pay the hire of his lust, and she was gone: now he fears, lest his own signet should seal his reproach, and to be beaten with his own staff. Shame, purposing, if these evidences were produced, not to own them, and wishing that no other might know them. When the fact appears, and the author cannot lie hid, with that shame, yea horror must he look upon Thamars two sons, the monuments of his filthiness? It must needs cut off his soul to hear them call him Si •• and Grand-sire and Tamar both mother and sister. Shame is the surest and easiest wages of this sin, there is more belongs to it.

He that hath thus fallen, must go to the price of many a tear, it must cast him deep sighs, and the heavy groans of a broken heart. It is not a light and transient sorrow that can do it: the gates of heaven are shut, and every breath of a Miserere will not open them. Their state is dangerous, and there is but one way to help them: to repent what they have done and never more to do wh •• they have repented. If we have admitted such a prostitution of our bodies, let 〈◊〉 obtain by faithful penitence such a restitution of our honors. So shall the ga •• s of bliss be opened again to us: for God esteems not men as they have been, but as they are.

Vexed.] The last point is Lots case: he did burn in zeal, as Sodom did i • lust: there was fire in them both; his, a holy fire from the Altar of God, theirs, an unnatural fire blown into their veins by the bellows of hell.

Vexed.] this was no ordinary disturbance, nor common displeasure: but oppressed, excruciated, tormented; his senses, his very soul exceedingly afflicted. He was not an idle looker on, as if he minded not what they did: nor in a timorous observation of the Proverb: of little meddling comes great rest: but knowing it to be the cause of God, his heart was perplexed about it. He durst as freely expostulate, as they durst act; and took as full liberty of reproving, as they took licentiousness of offending. He was not vexed with them, but with their deeds: we are to hate none for their creation, but perverting the end of their creatio • let us love God's Image, not the filthy defacement of it. Pax cum viris, bellum c •• vitiis, peace with the person, not with the conditions.

Vexed.] that which is here passive, is in the next verse active; he vexed his righteous soul. He vexed his own soul: who bad him stay there to be vexed? He vexed himself, when he might have quitted himself. Yet because he was vexed, he is delivered. He was but a guest to Sodom, an Host to the Angels: • e liked well of their situation, not of their conversation, and found more bitterness in the one, than sweetness in the other. Yet because he avoided their sins, he escaped their judgments. And surely they were both miraculous: for his declining their sins, was no less a wonder than his deliverance from their flames. As the latter was God's gracious prevention, so the former was his prevenient grace: and he was not more bound to bless God for saving his body from the fire, than for saving his soul from their sin.

The nature and quality of this vexation I refer to the next verse. Conclude we with observing and admiring a wonder: a man environed with fire, and not burning; floating on the sea, and not drowning; dealing with dunghills, and not defiled; contemned and honored, made rich by being impoverished. If I should propound a riddle; what is the highest and the lowest: the fairest and the foulest: the strongest and the weakest: the richest and the poorest: the happiest and •• happiest: the safest and most in danger of anything in the world? I durst not promise with Sampson, new suits of apparel to all that can expound it. It is a true Lot, a good Christian.

He is the lowest of the world, De profundis clamavi? Out of the deeps have I called: so low a hedge that every son of fortune treads him down. Yet the highest, for his conversation is in heaven: let his feet stand upon earth, his head is in heaven.

He is the lowest in appearance to the world; for so disguised with weeping, watching, fasting, that he seems like a bottle dried in the smoke: so loden with reproaches, that he looks black as if he had lain among the pots. ^u There is no form, no beauty nor comliness desirable in him. Yet the fairest; black but comely; fairer than all the sons of nature; the delight of Angels, the love of God. Thou art all •• ire my love and there is no blemish in thee. Thus the face of Stephen appeared like • n Angel: the Sun, the Heavens, the Firmament of refulgent Stars are not • omparable.

He is the weakest, a Lamb among Wolves, afflicted on this side, oppressed • n that: a reed that bows at every gust. Elias under a Juniper-tree, weary of • is life: Job on the rack, broken with sores and sorrows. Yet the strongest, be •• g armed with faith, hope, and love, three invincible forces: faith being able to •• move mountains, to overcome the world: hope an immovable anchor, able • o stay the vessel in the greatest storms: love strong as death, undertaking death 〈◊〉 the terriblest form, that it may come to Christ. Thus Elias durst face a king, • nd tell him, Thou troublest Israel. Herodian writes of Plantiamus, the Emperor Se • erus his favourite, that he had such a terror in his countenance, men durst not look • im in the face. Therefore when he went abroad, he had his Ante-ambulones, • entlemen-ushers before him, to give warning, that men might cast their eyes to • e earth at his coming. It is said of St Benedict, that he had such a power of ter • or in his eye, that casting but a look upon Totilas, that warlike King of the gothes furious and audacious man; he made him tremble. Such a Majesty hath resulted •• om the face of diverse martyrs, that the tormentors were more afraid of them, • an they of their tormentors. They are built upon such a foundation, that all the • rdinance of hell can never batter them.

He is the poorest, not only in regard of superfluities, but even of necessaries. Moses must not think scorn to keep sheep, nor David to beg bread of Nabal, or Elias to be fed with ravens, nor Lazarus to be glad of crumbs, nor the Apo • les for pure hunger to pluck the ears of corn, nor Peter to confess, Silver, and •• ld have I none, not a penny in his purse; nor CHRIST himself to be so near • riven, as to look for figs from a tree in the way, and miss his purpose. Yet still •• e richest, without meat, not without Christ: sine domo, non sine Domino: what •• ever he wanteth, he wants not content. And it is no paradox, that a man may • e rich with little, and poor with much. Content is the poor man's riches, and • esire is the rich man's poverty. Discessâ avaritiâ, cessat indigentia: there is no want, • here is no wantonness.

He is the unhappiest, for his hands are tied from revenge, his eyes muf • ed that he must not look upon vanity, his lips sealed that he may not return •• buke for rebuke. He lives in the worldlings paradise, as the Poets feigned of Tan •• lus; up to the chin in pleasures, and is not suffered to taste them. Touch not, •• ste not, handle not; what a miserable life is this? Yet, is he the unhappiest; the • eace of conscience, being his everlasting Christmas: a joy he hath, which no man 〈◊〉 take from him. The African King in Charles the greats Court, offering to be •• prised, observed diverse poor men sitting on the ground, and served in mean • anner, demanded what they were: it was answered him, that they were the ser •• nts of CHRIST. Whereupon he replied, If the King keep his servants so •• th, and CHRIST'S servants so poor, I will be no servant of CHRIST'S. • hey that thus look on the outside of Christians, find small glory to please the •• e of sensual reason: it is the Inner man that is fair and rich and blessed, adorned • ith more Jewels than the eye of the world ever saw, or the treasure of the world 〈◊〉 self is worth.

He is in continual danger, his soul being the but for all Satan's darts, his bo • y the anvil for the worlds afflictions, he runs thorough many deaths, and is killed 〈◊〉 the day long. Thus was Christ himself served; Nec recessit à servo, quod prassit in Domino. When the Jews offered Jesus gall and vinegar; he tasted it but • old not drink; he left the rest for his Church, and they must pledge him. Yet • ill he is safe, under the shadow of God's wings; and when the whole world floats • n the waters, Noah shall sit dry in his Cabin. Let Sodom be all on a flame, not a hair of Lots head shall be sindged. All the assaults of flesh and blood agai •• t them, is but as if glass should encounter Adamant. The great King takes them into his protection, and woe unto all those that attempt their ruin.

This is the Christians estate: now every man would be partaker of the height, not the baseness, of the beauty, not deformity, of the strength, not infirmity, 〈◊〉 the riches, not poverty, of the happiness, not infelicity, of the safety, not the d •• ger that waits upon religion. But the comforts of Jesus be not for them tha • d •• claim his sorrows. Joseph had fair possessions in the land of Egypt, but he b • queathed none of these to his children, because they were to have Canaan. So God allows his children but little here, because he means to give them he • hereafter. Lord, whatsoever requisites be wanting, or troubles abounding, a • o •• journey: let our latter end be peace.