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
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
shall ballance many a thousands wickednesse Good men are sanguis mundi the bloud of the world when they dye a man may feare the very world lyeth adying When Eliah the Prophet was taken from the head of his seruant Elisha and carried vp into Heauen Elisha cryed out My father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof As if he should haue said Eliah that good man that was the onely chariot and horsemen to defend Israel he had such power with God because of his holy life to hinder him from plaguing of it is taken from it If God goe out against a place to ouerthrow it one iust man is a better fort to defend it than a rocke of marble or a rampier of flint A good man hath a great deale of interest in God God will come to a parley with him and yeeld to him in any tolerable request that speech which God vsed to Moses on the Mount is proofe sufficient to informe wicked men how gracious a good man is with the great God Israel had trespassed greatly turned the glory of the inuisible God into the similitude of an Oxe that eateth grasse and by that Idolatry angred Iehouah so farre that hee hath a thought to confound them and yet before hee will proceed to execution knowing Moses loue to them was such he would be making intercession and knowing his owne nature to bee such that if Moses mediated hee could not choose but remit the omnipotent God doth petition fraile man not to interpose Now therefore let mee alone that my wrath may waxe hote against them and that I may consume them And when Moses would not bee perswaded from making supplication but fals vpon God for Abrahams sake to take compassion God offereth Moses composition to let him alone Let mee alone that my wrath may waxe hote against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great people When nothing would beat Moses off from being instant and earnest with God for their pardon the Text saith The Lord repented of the euill which he thought to do vnto the people An example that may moue a heart composed of hatred against Gods chosen and turne it into loue Nay an after generation fareth the better oftentimes for a good man of a former generation it was aboue too yeares by computation betwixt the reigne of King Dauid and King Ioram and yet though the impieties of Ioram deserued to haue his Kingdome rent away from him The Lord would not destroy Iudah for Dauid his seruants sake Two hundred seuenty and sixe men had their liues saued for St. Pauls sake from shipwracke God gaue him all that sailed with him as the Angell said Small reason therefore haue dissolute wretches to contemne good people if they consider it It was a base vnworthy speech of Haman when hee told King Ahashuerosh It was not for his profit to suffer the Iewes Himselfe and his kingdome fared the better for such inhabitants Make much of honest men my Beloued make much of honest men they are medulla mundi to the world as marrow is to the bones the strength and stay of it Thetares would quickly be weeded vp were it not for plucking vp the good corne also So long as there are good men possibly the world may endure when once there is a generall dearth of good men adue this present world for euermore No maruaile Laban was so loath to part with Iacob and would come to a new composition with him rather than he should quit his seruice he had learnt by experience that the Lord had blessed him for Iacobs sake Dauid cries out in the 12. Psalme Helpe Lord And why what is the matter with Dauid O the godly man ceaseth the faithfull faile from among the children of men And is that such a matter to bee transported at Yes it is a fatall signe when there is a decrease of good men Except the Lord of Hosts had left vnto vs a seed wee should haue been as Sodome and we should haue been like vnto Gomorrah The Dragon that is wroth with the woman maketh warre with the remnant of her seed that is the Diuell who is wroth with the Church in all ages hath plotted the ruines of those which keepe the commandements of God and haue the testimony of Iesus Christ and infused a strong conceit in the hearts of all his subiects that they were the causes of all calamities If Tiber ouerflowed her bankes if Nilus did not water the fields if the heauens were brasse or the earth quaked if there were a plague or famine in the Common-wealth of Rome the people cried To the Lyon with a Christian as if their being had beene the cause of all miseries St. Augustine saith it grew to a Prouerbe in Rome Pluuia defecit Christiani nominis gratiâ Raine hath failed because the name Christian is tolerated Alas blinde Heathen were it not for Christianity there would soone bee an end of Infidelity God blesseth the Egyptians house for Iosephs sake not Ioseph for the Egyptians sake God blest Sodome for Lots sake not Lot for Sodomes sake t is euident here in this Text for while Lot remained within her wals it went well with her when Lot was gone out of her Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen The same day that Lot went out of Sodome it rained fire and brimstone from Heauen and destroyed them all he that rained it beares record of it Luke 17. 29. And we know that his record is true Secondly of Gods fury and of Sodome and Gomorrahs misery God is no way so long suffering in bearing that he is not as iust in punishing If a man will not turne he will whet his sword God spun out the thread of his loue to an immeasurable length to try whether the men of Sodome would lay hold of it hee did angle for them sate in heauen let downe the line of his loue and baited it with his mercy to proue whether the men of Sodome would swallow it that hee might catch their soules T was long before he was prouoked he did smother indignation many yeares before it kindled and came to bee deuouring flame and when all would not preuaile Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen Here my Beloued I will giue you another obseruation As God is infinite in suffering vrged thoroughly vrged before he will breake out into fury so hee is violent and fierce in the execution of his iudgement when hee is resolued vpon it The longer the archer drawes before hee looses the sorer shot hee maketh the longer God is before he poureth forth his vengeance the more t will scorch I need not search other Chronicles for examples to verifie this collection Sodome and Gomorrah ratifie the truth of it Strabo saith nature
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
flattery if I should I wish with all my soule that peace may bee within your wals and plenteousnesse within your palaces Long may you wash your steps with butter and may the rockes poure you outriuers of oyle Long may your mouths be filled with laughter and your tongues with ioy God blesse your victuals with increase and satisfie your poore with bread Send that your sons may grow vp as the young plants and that your daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple That your garners may be full and abounding in all manner of store and that your sheepe may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in your streets that your oxen may be strong to labour that there may bee no inuasion no leading into captiuity no complaining in your streetes That you may dwell without feare euery man vnder his vine and euery man vnder his fig-tree hauing peace round about you as Iudah and Israel had God make the horne of our Dauid to bud clothe his enemies with shame but on him let his Crowne flourish make his seed to endure for euer and his throne as the dayes of Heauen All the good that euer was conferd of all Nations I wish heaped vpon you They were wont to say of Pericles that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suadela the goddesse of eloquence sate vpon his lips he did by his Rhetorique so winne the hearts of the Athenians to him From the bottome of my heart I wish our words were made so powerfull as to wooe all that heare vs to conuert from their sinnes and to turne vnto the Lord that so we might neuer need to fore-tell of anger and wrath ready to descend from heauen but the intolerable head sinne hath got kindleth in mee a strong iealousie that eyther the end of all things is at hand to make a cleane riddance of the wicked and their wickednesse or else that some bitter iudgement is neare it is neare and hasteth greatly to scourge vs for our iniquities I haue no skill in diuination yet let not my words seeme to you as the report the women made of Christs resurrection seemed to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an idle tale doe not sleight them altogether as Lots sons in-law did Lots counsell when hee told them God would destroy that Citie hee seemed to his sonnes in-law as though hee had mockt I doe not speake them out of any suddaine flash of vndigested zeale I haue made collection vpon collection and obseruation vpon obseruation and been at warre within my selfe in my meditations how to deliuer my minde discreetly and christianly to auoide the imputation of an Enthusiasticke and I find the times so out of measure sinfull vices of all sorts bloudy beastly vices so fowly committed and so little punished vertue so sincerely preached and so little practised that I doe looke eyther for a sudden amendment of all hands which I will bee plaine with you I misdoubt For can the Morian change his skinne or the Leopard his spots no more can they doe well that are accustomed to doe euill or else for some punishment suddenly and if it come not t is Gods extraordinary mercy because his compassions faile not We may say in our prosperity we shall neuer be remoued God of his goodnesse hath made our hill so strong our poore shall bee satisfied with bread and our children within vs our mowers shall continue filling of their hands and they that gather vp the sheaues their bosomes Yet heare me heare me ye great men of the people and hearken with your eare yee that be rulers of the congregation Husband your prouisions neuer so frugally replenish your store-houses neuer so aboundanly barter with forreine Nations for wine to store your cellars send into your owne vallies for wheate to fill your granaries and be not carefull of the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts to prune off her rotten branches if you doe not labour that the Lord of heauen and earth may haue a plentifull haruest if you doe not set iustice as a weeding hooke to the rootes of vices to crop them maturely so sure as Tabor is among the mountaines and as Carmel is by the sea Thistles shall grow in stead of wheate and cockles in stead of barley Your fruitfull land shall be made barren because of the wickednesse of those that dwell therein Againe Heare me heare me yee great men of the people and hearken with your eares yee that be rulers of the congregation Giue order to cleanse your open streetes from all annoyances that may breed an infection and to purge your priuate houses from all scum and filth that may proue contagious yet if you doe not exercise your authority to sweepe away sinne out of your countries and cities and villages and priuate families take heed a pestilence morbus incognitus medicis a disease the physitians know not what to make of such a one as kild in Israel 70000. people in three dayes doe not creep into your particular houses to kill your wiues out of your bosomes and your children in your cradles and make your merchant men to drop downe dead in your streetes as they are trotting to the Exchanges dung in your streetes will not breed a plague so soone as drunkennesse in your houses nor wil the il-fauoured serpent poyson a place so soon as the wel-fauoured harlot Finally Heare me heare me yee great men of the people and hearken with your eares yee that be rulers of the congregation Giue in charge to your Captaines of hundreds and Captaines of fifties to muster your fighting men yeare after yeare and to exercise them in the feates of armes prouide such horses as Iob speakes of that will mocke at feare not turne backe at the ratling of speares or glittering of swords Rigge vp your shipping and set out a Nauie to sea aduise one with another to make fortifications and impregnable bulwarkes impossible to be scaled for the safeguard of your Country vse all the art and cost and counsell your Nation can yeeld to entrench your selues from forreine foes and doe not take a course to quell the power of sinne and take heed God doe not bring vpon you an Armie of men bitter and hasty as those Caldeans the Prophet Habacuc talkes of fell as those Arabians whom Esdras cals the Nation of Dragons fierce as those Carnanians the same man saith rage in wrath like the wilde Boare of the wood hauing garments rolld in bloud that shall waste your Cities with miserie Ouerturne ouerturne ouerturne them rauish your wiues defloure your daughters take no pity of the fruit of your loines but euen bloud their swords in the bellies of women great with child that shall burne downe your Churches and when the Ministers of the Gospel begge for their liues shall answer them as Titus the Emperour did the Priests of the Iewes when they petition'd him for their