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
desire to poure forth his mercy neuer Nurse when her breasts were full of milke was in greater paine for children to sucke them than God is in paine to haue children to draw his mercy from him Iustice commeth from God as a sting from a Bee constrainedly Mercy floweth from him as honey from a Bee most willingly Mercy is as essentiall to him as light is to the sunne or as heate is to the fire hee delights in mercy as any sense or faculty of our soules doe in their actions the eye in seeing or the eare in hearing or the memory in remembring Patience and clemency and mercy and compassion and peace are the fruits of his bowels the off-spring which the diuine nature doth produce fury and rage and anger and affliction and warre and flaming fire are forced into him by the prouoking exorbitances of the world God doth all along the Scripture euen court sinners to turne from their vicious courses the omnipotent Creatour doth euen turne begger to beseech his creatures to walke in his wayes not that t is any aduantage to him if all the world should worship him with a holy worship Can a man be profitable to God as he that is wise is profitable to himselfe Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous or is it gaine to him that thou makest thy wayes perfect saith Eliphaz the Temanite to holy Iob. Our goodnesse extendeth not to him Non eget ipsâ iustitiâ hominis He hath no need no not of mans righteousnesse Neque fonti se quisquam dixerit profuisse si biberit neque luci si viderit A man cannot say he doth the fountain good by drinking of it or the light by seeing by it nor that he doth God good by seruing of him all the worship man performes to God is for mans profit not Gods wherefore a man duely pondering of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long suffering which is in God that beareth with many millions of misdemeanours mortall men commit whereby hee is infinitely dishonoured and of that free loue that doth prouoke him to desire mans loue whereby he is in no respect benefited if hee be not reprobate siluer if hee haue any reliques of Religion left in him how can it choose but inflame his soule to loue the Almighty Many a great dishonour did God put vp before hee drowned the old world 1500. years and odde he patiently waited they should amend their manners before hee began to affright them with any mention of a floud yea and after hee had threatned a deluge hee gaue them 120. yeares respit to change their courses afforded them all that time Noah to preach righteousnesse vnto them After all this when the 1500. yeares were ended and the 120. were exspired when the Arke was builded and Noah and his family were aboard in her yet hee prolong'd the time seuen dayes before he broke open the fountaines of the great deepe and opened the floud-gates of Heauen And so for the Sodomites Ipsi extorserunt vt perirent They themselues wrested from God their owne destruction their iniquities like rebels make a head as if they would bid Heauen a battell and dare God and his Angels to doe their worst and God for many yeares carried himselfe patiently at last when no forbearance could beget repentance no procrastination of their affliction in him could procure an alteration of manners in them Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen Or you may if you please let this Then in my Text answer to the When in the Verse next before it When Lot was entered into Zoar Then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen And from thence you may make an obseruation how deare in the sight of the Lord a righteous man is Sodome could not bee burnt before Lot was departed Haste thee escape to Zoar for I cannot doe any thing till thou be come thither saith the Angell to Lot the Angell had giuen him in commission to be as prouident in Lots preseruation as to bee diligent in the Sodomites destruction Haste thee escape thither for I cannot doe any thing till thou come thither A speech the more I meditate vpon it the more I am amazed at it St. Augustine saith a certain Platonist as Simplitianus told him said those words of St. Iohns Gospell In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God were fit to be written in letters of gold and to be set vp to be read in the highest places of all Churches and the reason of this his high commendation of that saying is because t is such a strong text to confirme Christs diuinity For as Ambrose well noteth erat erat erat erat ecce quater erat vbi inuenit Arrianus quod non erat the word was it was it was it was behold St. Iohn saith foure times it was in the beginning and where doth Arrius finde that it was not in the beginning Verily this Scripture Haste thee escape thither for I can do nothing til thou be come thither deserueth to be inscribed vpon euery mans heart that God should so tender the welfare of his seruant as to professe plainly hee could not vindicate himselfe vpon his foes vntill hee had taken order for his safety I am rapt to reade it pray you all to take speciall notice of it When Lot was entered into Zoar Then and not before then the Lord rained vpon Sodome and vpon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen And to say continually as the Psalmist doth Blessed is the Lord which hath alwaies pleasure in the prosperity of his seruant Wicked men may likewise make to themselues aduantage by this obseruation and learne to respect the righteous because they fare the better for it Mundus est magna homilli domus The world is the great house of little man and faithfull men are the buttresses and pillars to vphold it from ruine and confusion they stand in the gappe betwixt the world and Gods wrath as Moses his chosen did in the breach betwixt the Israelites and Gods anger when they had vext him at the waters of strife to turne away his indignation from them lest hee should destroy them The Nurse fareth the better oftentimes for the Childs sake and so doe the wicked for the children of Gods sake Abraham could haue compounded with God for tenne righteous men for Sodomes sinnes and so haue saued the place and the inhabitants from destruction Yea Ierusalem iam iamque peritura euen now vpon the push of being destroyed is offered to Ieremiah to be spared if there could but a man bee found in it that executed righteousnesse At such a high rate doth God value one righteous man that his holinesse