THE DESTRVCTION OF SODOME A SERMON PREACHED at a publicke Fast before the honourable Assembly of the Commons House of Parliament At St. MARGARETS Church in Westminster By IOHN HARRIS Preacher there Feb. 18. 1628. LONDON Printed by H. L. and R. Y. for G. Lathum dwelling in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Bishops head THE DESTRVCTION Of SODOME GEN. 19. 24. Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen ABout fiue hundred yeares after Christ when the Romans vast Dominion began to decline there was great affliction and trouble thoroughout the world plagues and famines and warres and earth-quakes and other euils conspir'd together to vexe all places so that the people of God euery where both in the Greeke and Latine Churches fearing their turne might be next to come vnder the scourge had formes of holy Prayers composed by their Prelates which the Greeke Church termed Litanies the Latine Rogations to be spoken often into the eares of the Lord of heauen and earth to preuent imminent iudgements so godlily wise were the Christians of old time that those calamities which they knew being present all people would bewaile with teares being absent they laboured by their prayers to keep away And if I take not my marke amisse that 's the intention of this meeting Gods troupes of afflictions as holy Iob cals them are abroad in the Christian world making hauocke of men and countries and wee conscious to our selues that our sinnes deserue to haue them come and to encampe about our tabernacles are met here together to make prayers to our God to keepe them away from vs and to set a greater edge vpon our deuotion and the more to testifie our humiliation to the World and to Angels a Fast is proclaimed which is to bee obserued by vs in a strict manner all the time is to bee spent in confession of sinnes in bitter lamentations in deiection and humiliation for transgressions in abstinence from meates and drinkes and all other corporall delights that may cheare the heart and so hinder it from being truely sorrowfull and afflicted in almes deedes and visiting the sicke in mourning and weeping for angring God and in crying mightily vnto the Lord to diuert iudgements approaching And to helpe to these exercises of repentance the Word of God must be preached the sinnes of a Nation must bee ript vp Gods iudgements against sinne must be denounced for nothing doth further more to humiliation and compunction than a serious consideration how infinitely iniquity doth anger God and how seuerely he hath and doth and will punish it It was the course which God himselfe directed the Prophet Ieremiah to runne when Israel and Iudah were vpon the point of destruction This word came vnto Ieremiah from the Lord saying Take thee a roule of a booke and write therein all the words that I haue spoken vnto thee against Israel and against Iudah and against all the Nations from the day I spake vnto thee from the dayes of king Iosiah euen vnto this day it may be that the house of Iudah will heare all the euill which I purpose to doe vnto them that they may returne euery man from his euill way that I may forgiue their iniquity and their sinne And in that roule of the booke the Rabbins say was written the booke of Lamentations in which booke Ieremiah the Prophet doth in a most mournfull Elegie lament the miserable condition which Ierusalem because of sinne was to come vnto I haue resolued to follow that tract to speake vnto you of a people whose damnable impiety brought vpon them such a misery the relation whereof may make all that worke vnrighteousnesse with greedinesse to tremble to heare it and so to abhorre and auoide crying sinnes lest they should proue likewise their ruine and confusion Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen You may please to obserue in the Text these particulars 1. An act It rained 2. The agent The Lord rained from the Lord Dominus Filius pluit à Domino Patre The Lord the Sonne rained from the Lord the Father that interpretation is giuen of the words at a Councell held at Ierusalem in the time of Constantius the Emperour 3. The matter it rained Brimstone and fire The Lord rained from the Lord brimstone and fire 4. The place from whence it rained Out of Heauen The Lord rained from the Lord brimstone and fire out of Heauen Super impium populum Gehennam misit è Coelo The Lord from the Lord sent vpon a wicked people Hell out of Heauen 5. The patients vpon whom it rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah in the Text Vpon Sodome and Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim in Deut. 29. 23. Vpon Sodome Gomorrah Admah Zeboim and Segor in lib. 1. St. Aug. de mirab Script Vpon all the plaine vpon all the inhabitants of the Cities vpon that which grew vpon the ground in Gen. 19. 25. 6. The time when it rained Then Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen The time administreth occasion to discourse of the Agents longanimity and of the Patients iniquity The act and the materials giue way to treate of Gods seuerity and of Sodome and Gomorrah's misery Thus then wee will proceed Gods grace assisting First speake of Gods clemency and of Sodom and Gomorrah's impiety Secondly declare Gods fury and Sodom and Gomorrah's calamity Thirdly conclude with an application of such vses as may be made by the story First of Gods clemency and of Sodome and Gomorrah's impiety There is not a greater antipathy betwixt any two natures in the world than there is betwixt the nature of God and sinne You may sooner reconcile fire and water heate and cold light and darknesse than God and Mammon Christ and Belial the holy Ghost and Dagon God hates sinne wheresoeuer he findes it be it in Heauen or Earth in Men or Angels in Elect or Reprobates Indeed his Mercy his sweet blessed Mercy to which mankinde hath beene euer much bound neuer ceaseth solliciting him to treat Adams children with all the fauour hee may and like to an importunate suitor neuer giueth ouer crauing of him vntill he make her a promise that hee will not execute the fiercenesse of his anger otherwise the world should heare oftner from him than it doth Howsoeuer though mercy doth much with God yet mercy doth not all iustice may bee heard if the suspension of iudgement worke no remorse in sinners hearts to take pitie vpon their owne soules and to please God iustice will procure that God shall render indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish vpon euery soule of man that doth euill to the Iew first and also to the Gentile Misericordia Deo attribuitur secundum effectum non secundum passionis affectum Mercy is attributed vnto God according to the effect
wrought this act and that the fire issued out of the earth which consumed these cities but Strabo vnderstood not the Scriptures nor the power of God he is but a prophane author and we are not to credit his report Wee haue Moses and the Prophets and we must heare them and they say The Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen Fearfull raine Tertullian saith that the City called Vulsinium in Italy was destroyed with fire from heauen Histories say that in the yeare of our Lord 717. when the Arabians and Saracens lay at the siege of Constantinople fiery haile fell from heauen and burnt their Nauie In Exodus 9. 24. It rained haile and fire mingled with the haile very grieuous such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a Nation Here it rained brimstone and fire mingled with the brimstone very grieuous such as there was none in all the world since it was a world From whence came it from the Lord out of heauen Indeed the Philosophers say there is an element of fire aboue and though the elementary fire bee of its owne nature vncapable to moue downward vnlesse it be forced as also vncapable of voracity vnlesse a consuming faculty be supernaturally added to it yet wee know God can and it may be at this time did indue that simple fire with those qualities to make the miracle the greater Iobs cattell and his seruants were burnt with fire from Heauen the fire of God So likewise fire came downe from heauen at Eliah's call and burnt the two Captaines and their fifties But there are no veines of brimstone aloft what though it may be God borrowed brimstone of the earth it may be he did command the Sunne to exhale vp some to intermingle with his potion which he administred to diseased Sodome it may be he turned ayre into brimstone as hee did water into wine Whatsoeuer fire it was simple or compound and wheresoeuer he had the brimstone it matters not much to dispute sure I am it was the Lords doing raine it he did and though it be maruellous in our eyes because supernaturall the Heauens not vsing to poure downe brimstone drops yet to him it was no more difficult to say to the brimstone Burne thou Sodome than to say to the snow Be thou vpon the earth Alas what became of the inhabitants What became of them naught became of them they were all euery mothers childe fried in brimstone flames a terrible iudgement take it into your consideration and wonder at it The same morning the sunne did arise in his wonted manner deckt all the plaine of Iordan with his glorious raies and before it was climb'd vp to the meridian tota rogus regio est Sodome is all in a flame her citizens bee all in a fire her soile is poyson'd with sulphur her vines and oliue trees bee blasted with filthy fume the earth yawn'd and denounced the ruines of the buildings that were not of combustible matter together with the ashes of the inhabitants those that whilere did boile in lust doe now boile with fire God meeteth their strange lust with strange fire quencheth the heate of their concupiscence with the heate of brimstone fils their swallowes that were accustomed to bee fill'd with sauorie meates with stifling smoke consumeth all their bodies their goods their cattell yea their whole territory with a shoure of fire from heauen Infamem vitam famosa poena consumit A famous punishment finisheth an infamous life Some were smitten with blindnesse and rather run into than from the scorching flames Others no sooner cry Fire fire but their tongues burne with fire to stop their clamour A third scuds out of the City and a sheete of fire like to a swift Herauld maketh after him arrests him and executeth the will of God vpon him Some leape into the water hoping thereby to be rescued from the fire because of the naturall contrariety that is betwixt those two elements and as in the Egyptian plagues I shall now tell you a wonder fire and water were made friends together for that day the fire had power in the water forgetting his owne vertue and the water forgot her owne quenching nature In one streete the hote tiles spring from off the flaming roofes braining those that passed vnder in another lane the scalding lead drops downe out of the gutters and lights vpon the hairy scalph of such as had gone on in their wickednesse Here is a hideous noise heard with the downefals of houses there is a piteous cry to be heard made by people sorely tormented in that flame The heauens thunder fearfully the lightning flasheth dismally the brimstone burnes inquenchably the people shreek vniuersally the cattell bellow miserably God is angry terribly because they had sinn'd abominably The flakes of fire like Sampsons foxes with fire-brands at their tailes in the fields of Philistia scoure thorough the fields of Sodom and Gomorrah and the adiacent Cities and burne vp the standing corne with the vineyards and oliues For all this Gods anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still As Christ cursed the fig-tree and said Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for euer so God cursed the land of Sodome and said Let neuer inhabitant dwell in thee more henceforward for euer the children were burnt with their parents that not a remnant of the bloud of Sodomites might remaine Iosephus writes that all that huge Army which Pharaoh led forth against the Israelites consisting of 50000. horsemen and 200000. footmen was so vtterly defeated that there was not one left aliue to carry home newes of the ouerthrow and the Psalmist iustifieth it The waters couered their enemies there was not one of them left A fearfull destruction that not one should be able to come off of such a multitude yet t was not like this of Sodomes though they lost many of their people yet there were more Egyptians left behinde Proletarij to increase and multiply here was an vtter extirpation an euerlasting extinction of the whole race of Sodomites The nurse burnt with the childe at her breast the mother melted with her babe in her belly the father fryed with his posterity in his loynes young men were dissolued to ashes young maidens were consumed to cinders and not one only of a sort but all of euery sort all that gaue sucke all that were great with childe all that had beene that were or might be fit for procreation of both sexes male and female of all ages young and old dyed in that dreadfull fire Quos vna impietas prophanauit vna sententia deleuit So saith St. Ambrose of those that perished by the floud and so say I of those that perished by this fire For all this Gods anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still
no man any thing but to loue one another The Aduocates and Pleaders at the barre as in Pope Eugenius his dayes greedy of filthy lucre looke their Honorarium should be of such a value that a man had better take our Sauiour Christs counsell litterally vnderstood If any sue him at the law and take away his coate let him haue his cloake also than contend for his coate againe neuer remembring that speech of our Sauiour to the Publicans Exact no more than that which is appointed you Aedificabant plantabant They planted they builded Ecce peccatum securitatis Behold the sin of security And did security make her nest within that for euer cursed countrey Examine all that euer breath'd out of English ayre and let them speake the truth from their hearts and verily they must certifie none that euer were sprinkled with the water of Baptisme nuzzle themselues more in security than wee Stratonicus told the Rodes they builded as if they would liue euer and eate as if they would dye presently For Gluttons those Epicures that desired of the gods neckes so long as Cranes that the delicious rellish of meats and drinkes might remaine long were not more to be blamed than some among vs And for builders Nimrod that was a prime agent in Babels building was not more ambitious of eternizing his name than we non Absolon that built a tower in the valley of Sauch to keepe his name in remembrance calling it Absolons plane Nay we are not cleare of that sinne of Sodom which cryed to Heauen for brimstone with that which cried lowdest of reioycing in doing euill A sin not greater than can bee forgiuen for what sinne can bee so deadly that the death of Christ will not salue but I dare say t is a sinne that must haue an infinite measure of mercy and an abundant measure of teares to wash it away and yet t is among vs an vsuall sinne and very vsuall sinne Marke it when you please when two humours meet that loue sinne alike you shall heare the one vaunting to the other of his wickednesse and then laugh himselfe at his owne beastlinesse cheere vp his heart at the repetition of his owne vngodlinesse O Lord looke downe from heauen behold and visite the world and restraine the sons of men from this most grieuous iniquity Ephraim and Manasses are in our land fulnesse of bread and forgetfulnesse of God Gog and Magog are in our mother City pride and plenty Bloud maketh a clamour at the gates of heauen for vengeance oppression presseth him to poure downe the vials of his wrath blasphemy and swearing challenge him for his long suffering Vsury a sinne that maketh a man worse than a theefe worse than death worse than hell worse than Iudas worse than a theefe because the theefe robbeth onely in the night the Vsurer robs both day and night worse than death because death kils onely the body the Vsurer kils both body and soule worse than hell because in hell onely the bad shall bee punished the Vsurer punisheth both good and bad lastly worse than Iudas for Iudas restored the money againe which hee had vniustly taken but the Vsurer seldome makes restitution is had in more execration among Turkes than Christians for Viri boni Deum timete foenerari praetermittite qui enim Vsurarij vivunt Daemoniaci resurgunt Yee that be good men feare God and put no money to vsury for they that liue Vsurers doe rise Deuils are the words in their Alcoran The times are growne monstrous there is discord in societies fraud in merchants corruption in officers conniuency in magistrates symonie in ministers euery night brings forth a theefe euery day a deceiuer euery minute a drunkard and euery weeke a murtherer we are fallen into such times the Prophet speakes of Our hands are defiled with bloud and our fingers with iniquity our lips doe speake lies and our tongues matter peruersnesse There was neuer that vice reign'd but now t is rife yea I thinke I may say it and not belye the world there bee many new vices reigne now which Sodome and Gomorrah neuer heard of there be new deuices to cousin with new fashions to be proud with new oaths to blaspheme with new merits to iustifie by new Articles of Faith to beleeue new Sacraments to receiue new gods found out to worship and new Mediatours to intercede Fall to your prayers and beg feruently of God to send that new heauen and new earth of which St. Peter speaketh wherein dwelleth righteousnesse for this whole world lyeth in wickednesse as St. Iohn saith And for my part I despaire of it doubt t will neuer be better before it be purged with fire Nulla aetas erat culpae immunis No age was free from wickednesse in Sodome the infants whom nature yet denied strength to perpetrate actuall iniquity had desire and the old men that were decayed in strength had eyes full of adultery Omnes omni malo replerentur They were all fil'd with euery euill The men of Sodome compassed Lots house round both old and young all the people from euery quarter not ten righteous persons could be found among many thousand soules I cannot say so of this Nation for I doe resolue my selfe I may confidently speake as the Lord did to Saint Paul in a vision by night concerning Corinth God hath much people in this City more in this Land and daily may he adde to the number of them And as he did to Ezechiel the Prophet in a vision concerning Ierusalem There are some that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst of vs and daily may he adde to the number of those likewise But withall when I make an estimate of the multitude of people that are contained within our borders and obserue so many marching furiously after their own lusts for so few following of Iesus Christ I am affraid of some vengeance approching because I doe not know what the will of the Lord is whether he will spare the place for their sakes I doe lay as much vpon Gods mercy as I may without wronging his iustice hee will not be moued to poure forth his vengeance vnlesse sinners superabound in vices neuerthelesse when and where you find all iniquity planted all rebellion against God reigning all the crying sinnes rousting you may take liberty to proclaime what you feare saluation stept aside and destruction wing'd ready to seize vpon that people for a prey Eduardus the Confessor one of the last of the Saxon Kings said vpon his death bed that the wickednesse of the English was complete and growne to the height and the reuenge and punishment thereof would shortly follow Loth I am to presage vnluckily of any grieuous calamitie likely to betide my natiue Countrey I had rather promise the lengthning of tranquillity were it not that your selues and your sinnes would cry out vpon me for
liues Decet Sacerdotes cum templis intâ—rire It is meet the Priests perish together with the Temples that shall driue you of the Laity in whole droues away captiue forbidding you vpon paine of death to looke backe vpon the places where you dwelt as the Romanes forbade the conquered Iewes to looke backe vpon Ierusalem and if they spare any at home make them to pay an annuall tribute for their heads as the Italians doe the Iewes at this day and imploy their children to murther them that begat them and to the rooting out of that faith wherein they were borne and baptized as the Turke doth his Ianizaries the children of the Grecians An vnrighteous man will not consider this neyther will a foole vnderstand it like as the Lord vpon whose hand the King of Israel leaned answered the man of God when he fore-told him of plenty Behold if the Lord would make windowes in heauen might this thing be so some one incredulous spirit or other may obiect If the Lord should cast vs altogether out of his protection might this thing be Are we not walled about with seas Haue we not ammunition and weapons of warre Haue wee not men of magnanimous resolutions and may wee feare forreine inuasion My beloued the Kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not haue beleeued that the aduersary and the enemy should haue entred into the gates of Ierusalem and yet Ierusalem is a heap of stones Let mee say vnto thee O thou Merchant City that art a mart for Nations as the voice did to Phocas the Emperour Though thou build the wals of thy palaces as high as heauen yet if sin dwell in them they may easily be entered by an enemy And giue me leaue to say vnto thee O thou carelesse Nation as Nahum the Prophet doth to Niniueh to that great City Niniueh Art thou better than populous No that was situate among the riuers that had the waters round about it whose rampart was the sea and her wals were from the sea Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite Put and Lubin were her helpers yet was shee carried away shee went into captiuity her young children also were dash'd in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for their honourable men and all her great men were bound in chaines Tremble therefore thou secure Nation and amend thy manners lest God to raze thee and to lay thine honour in the dust doe call for Lucifer the sonne of the morning doe hisse for the Bee of Ashur do call for a rauenous bird out of the East doe plant the Syrians before and the Philistins behinde giue them that charge hee gaue those whom hee pressed to destroy Babylon Put your selues in array against Britany round about all yee that bend the bow shoote at her spare no arrowes for shee hath sinned against the Lord Take vengeance vpon her as she hath done doe vnto her And vpon that set all your inhabitants in such a hurry and an vp-roare as the Citizens of Rome were in when Martius Coriolanus approached neare it with an Army make the murmuring multitude to flocke about the streets and you that are Magistrates to be at your wits end to send post after post and messenger after messenger to shew the King that his country is taken at one end as the Babylonians did to their King when the King of the Medes had entered the City and when men shall say O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put vp thy selfe into thy scabberd rest and be still as t is Ier. 47. 9. when the Priests the Ministers of the Lord shall weep betweene the porch and the altar and say Spare thy people O Lord and giue not thy heritage to reproach that strangers should rule ouer them as t is Ioel 2 1 7. he sit in heauen laugh Priest and People all to scorn couer himselfe with a cloud that our prayer should not passe thorough as t is Lament 3. 44. To conclude all the way to keep vs from these fearfull punishments are fasting prayer godly sorrow for sins past and the amendment of our sinfull liues in the time to come Not a day for a man to afflict his soule to bow downe his head as a bulrush to spread sackcloth and ashes vnder him it is not such a fast that the Lord hath chosen Opus est perpetuâ poenitentiâ quia perpetuò peccamus We sin perpetually wherefore we had need to repent perpetually though wee doe draine our hearts dry of water to day wee shall haue need againe to morrow to water our couches with our teares Our griefe for our sins must be equiualent it must hold proportion with the delight we haue taken in our sins our sins haue been wonderous great and our mourning must be maruellous deep we haue bin out of measure sinfull and we must be out of measure sorrowfull we haue sinned with greedinesse and we must repent with bitternesse we haue bin transported with delight in the commission of our sins and wee must be swallowed vp with heauinesse in our submission for our sins Qui culpam exaggerauit exaggeret etiam poenitentiam maiora enim crimina maioribus abluuntur fletibm He that hath augmented his sin must augment his repentance greater crimes are to be washt away with greater lamentations Some run abominable races act such iniquities the Angels of God wonder at and when they haue done will say each man for his owne particular Miserere mei Deus Lord haue mercy on mee and that too ex more magis quà m ex animo rather out of custome than heartily as Saul said to Dauid when hee was going to combate with Goliah Goe and the Lord bee with thee and thinke then they haue repented compleatly O Lord God that a man should dare to sinne so damnably and dreame to quit himselfe of the guilt of it so eastly t is not bare Lord haue mercy vpon vs will doe it there belongs more to repentance than so the faculties of our soules must bee griped with griefe and wearied with groaning and tired with supplications we must double our words as Daniel doth and say O Lord heare O Lord forgiue O Lord hearken and deferre not for thine owne sake O our God We must renue our complaints with Dauid euening and morning and at noone day we must pray and make a noise and God will hear our voice We must weep and wipe our eyes and weep againe and wipe our eyes againe if we haue loued many sinnes before many sins can be forgiuen vs. We must draw a conclusion in our owne bosomes that no Nation hath bin more bound to God than we no Nation hath sinned against God with a higher hand than wee and therfore no Nation hath greater cause to fast and weepe mourne and lament for their