AN ALARM to England, Sounding the most fearful and terrible example of God's vengeance, that ever was inflicted in this world upon mankind for sin:  
Serving generally as a warning for all people to eschew sin, lest they partake of the like vengeance.  
By Robert Grace, Preacher of the Word of God.  Luke 13.3. 
Except ye amend your lives, ye shall all likewise perish.  
LONDON.  
Printed by S. S. for john Budge, and are to be sold at his shop, at the great South door of S. Paul's Church. 1609.   

 bookplate   

To the Right Worshipful Sir William Craven, Knight, one of the Aldermen of the Honourable and famous City of London, Grace, health, and prosperity in this world, and the perpetual favour and presence of God in the world to come.  
RIght Worshipful, 
M●r. 14.9.  it seemeth by the words of our Saviour Christ in the Gospel, that those actions do chiefly continue our name and memory in the world, which are performed upon Christ and his service: and that it is an injurious and malicious practice, to conceal and smother the bounty of those, who have been liberal in contributing to Christian and Religious exercises. Forasmuch therefore as you have powered your costly ointment upon Christ's head, more abundantly than many other of your place and order, you may persuade yourself, upon the ground of Christ's own rule, which is infallible, that you have laid a sure foundation for your name and memory, as long as the world endureth: and you have also given just occasion to those that have tasted your large benignity, to give the world knowledge thereof, to the end that others may be moved by your commendable example, to practise the like godly actions & they that are not able to imitate you in performance, may yet praise God for you, and pray unto God long to preserve you, for the further good of his Church, and the benefit of this government wherein you are a Magistrate.  
To imitate you in performance, is neither the will nor power of many: yet I freely profess myself to be one of those, which both praise God, and pray unto God for you, being obliged thereunto, by receiving some portion of my maintenance, from your large contribution to the Lecture at Saint Antholines, where I am one of the morning Lecturers. In which regard, I have presumed to present to your Worship's patronage, these my poor labours sometimes preached there. If they may carry acceptation from you, and bring profit to any soul, I shall be abundantly satisfied. Howsoever, I commend their success to GOD, their patronage to you, their use to the world, desiring every one, into whose hands this Book shall come, as to take knowledge of your goodness, so to pray for your everlasting happiness. Amen.  
Your Worships in all respectiveness, Robert Grace, one of the Morning Lectures at S. antholin's.   

To the Worshipful Master Boothby, Master jay, M. Venn, M. Moody, M. Dorington, M. Sprot, M. Moor, M. Washborne, M. White, M. Smith, of the Parish of S. antholin's London, and to all the devout and zealous hearers of the Morning Lectures there, Grace, mercy and peace be multiplied with God the Father, through JESUS CHRIST.  
SALOMON saith, that there is a time for all things. The wisdom of man therefore, is, to know his time, & for all such actions as he undertakes, to make choice of the fittest, & most commodious time, to effect and bring them to pass. In worldly things which are most agreeable to our nature, we account the Morning the best & most convenient time of all the day beside: for reason & experience do teach us, that in the morning our memory is the quickest, our senses the readiest, our natural powers the ablest, being revived, as it were, & having recovered fresh strength & liberty, by reason of that sweet sleep, and comfortable rest, wherewith they were reposed the night past. And therefore the Student for his study, the traveler for his journey, the labourer for his work, and every man in his place and calling, for such projects as he hath, chooseth the morning, as the fittest time, not only to begin, but also to further their enterprises.  
If therefore in things which are agreeable to nature, we use the morning, as an help to further us in our actions, much more should we make choice of the morning, for those things which are less agreeable to nature, or rather contrary to nature, yea indeed, above nature, of which kind is prayer, & hearing of the word of God: for nature doth not stir us up to prayer, neither doth nature waken us early in the morning to hear the word of God. Prayer, and hearing of the word, go with our nature, as against the stream: and therefore it is very necessary, that the first thing that comes to our eyes in the morning, should be the Temple, the first thing that comes to our ears, should be the word of God, and the first thing that comes to our mind, should be prayer and thanksgiving, that so we may walk with Eliah, all the day after, in the strength of those things which we have heard out of the word of God: and so we shall use our callings more carefully & conscionably, we shall be directed what to do, and what to leave undone, and whatsoever we do, we shall do all things the better to God's glory, and the possessing of our own souls continually in peace and patience.  
And truly, if we consider the practice of the Saints of God, we shall find, that they have observed the morning, as the fittest time for the exercises of their piety & devotion. 
Gen. 22.3 Psal. 119 147, 148. 1. Sam. 1.19.  Abraham rose very early to sacrifice his son. David prevented the morning light, & cried: his eyes also prevented the night watches, to meditate in God's word. Elkanah and his household arose up early, and worshipped before the Lord in Shiloh. 
Esay 56.9.  And the Prophet Esay in the person of the faithful, saying, With my spirit within me will I seek thee in the morning. Mary Magdalene came to visit the sepulchre of our Saviour Christ very early, while it was yet dark. And as this hath been the time, which the Saints of God have chiefly chosen for the practice of their piety & devotion: so we read in the Scriptures, that God hath powered his blessings upon men, more usually at this time than at any other time of the day. Manna, that heavenly food, 
Exod. 16 13. 2. Kings 3.20.  was by God given to the children of Israel in the morning. When the three kings of Israel, judah, and Edom made war upon the king of Moab, and were greatly distressed for water, in so much as the king of Israel cried out for fear of the present danger, it pleased God in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, to send the three king's plenty of water, both for the army and for all their cattle. 
Acts 2.15.  The holy Ghost came down on the Apostles in the morning: for it was the third hour, which was between 7. and 8. of the clock: so that it may be truly gathered, that they were before that hour exercised in hearing the word of God & prayer.  
Upon which grounds, you that are of the Parish of S. antholin's in London, & you 't are the hearers of the morning Lectures there, are worthily to be commended: the one, because you have founded a Lecture in that place, at the fittest time of the day, which, as hath been proved, is the morning; wherein appears your godly wisdom. The other, for repairing to hear the said Lecture; wherein appears your zeal and devotion.  
Many Congregations have done religiously in this kind, but you surmount them all: for howsoever the word is to be preached in season, and out of season, (and no time or season is unfit for the hearing of the same) yet they are to be commended above the rest, which make choice of the fittest time for this purpose. There be some, which dare deride and slander this morning exercise; but this ought not to derogate from the worthiness & excellency of it; for I never heard of any action, were it never so holy and virtuous, but it always had adversaries to impeach it. And this is a sure argument unto me, that it is a service acceptable unto God, above other of the same nature, because it is more depraved & slandered than any other: for the more divine that any action is, the more envy hath the devil at it. Let none therefore be discouraged, or take offence at this Lecture, if they hear it any way evil spoken of: but let this be my exhortation both to you that maintain it, & to you that repair to hear it▪ that you be not weary of well doing: for so is the will of God, 
1. Pet. 2.15.  that by continuing in well doing, you may put to silence the ignorance and malice of foolish men.  
Yours in the Lord, Robert Grace.   

AN Alarm to England.  Gen. 19.23, 24, 25. 
23. The Sun did rise upon the earth, when Lot entered into Zoar.  
24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorra brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,  
25. And overthrew those Cities, and all the plain, and all the Inhabitants of those Cities, and all that grew upon the earth.  
MAny and fearful have been the judgements, which Almighty God from time to time hath executed upon man for sin: But of all the examples of God's vengeance, this which he showed upon Sodom and Gomorrha for their impiety is most horrible and dreadful: for whose ears do not tingle, whose flesh doth not tremble, whose heart doth not melt, to hear of such a sudden, strange, and merciless fire as this was, 
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, the most fearful example of God's vengeance that ever was inflicted in this world upon mankind for sin.  which like a shower of rain fell upon these cities and destroyed them? We read of the torments of hell, that they are unspeakable, and as the heart of man cannot imagine the joys which are prepared for the godly, no more can the heart of man imagine the miseries which are reserved in hell for the wicked and ungodly. Now of all the judgements which God hath inflicted upon man in this world, there is none which doth more resemble the pains of hell, than this wherewith Sodom and Gomorrha were overthrown. Esay. 30.33. it is said, that in Tophet there is burning fire, and a river of brimstone is there said to kindle it: and Revel. 20.21. it is said, that the devil was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone; and Revel. 21.8. all the wicked and ungodly are threatened to have their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So that the torments of hell, and the judgement wherewith Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed, are fire and brimstone. As therefore the torments of hell are unspeakable, and pass all other torments: so this vengeance which the Lord inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrha, resembling hell torments, is the most grievous and fearful vengeance, which ever was executed upon any people in this world, & for this cause ought we more duly and seriously to consider it, to the end that the horror and dread thereof might strike and imprint a fear and trembling in our hearts, to offend so great and mighty a God, which is able to punish and destroy the ungodly, even in this world, with such horrible and fearful punishments.  
And surely, if ever we stood in need of precepts to admonish us, of counsel to forewarn us, or of examples to terrify us, we now stand in need of them in this hard and flinty-hearted age of the world, wherein neither precepts nor counsel, nor examples of other folks harms can any thing prevail with us to make us beware: what things soever were written before, were all written for our learning: all people before us have been made examples for us, yet nothing can move us or make us wise, but we are as inrespective of God's judgements, and as careless of his displeasure, as though we had never read or heard any thing, and so resolute are we in our impenitency, that if we should see Sodom and Gomorrah burning before our faces, the fearful beholding of so strange an object might happily breed admiration and wonderment in us, but repentance and amendment of life it would not.  
But Sodom lies in the ashes of her destruction, and we have raked by the remembrance of her in the ashes of oblivion: Sodom is not so much as heard of by report in the day of our pride: her destruction was a wonder indeed: but we confirm the old proverb, The greatest wonder lasts but nine days. And as the smoke of her and of her land sometimes ascended into the clouds, and so vanished: in like manner, the remembrance of her and of her destruction is perished like smoke, and forgotten as though it had never been: yet we practise her sins, and are corrupted more than she in all her abominations: she is a younger sister to us in iniquity, and we justify her in all our transgressions. What a madness is this to forget the judgement wherewith she was destroyed, and to practise her sins, which was the cause she was destroyed? This is to be penny wise & pound foolish; for we may be well assured, 
If we practise the sins of Sodom we shall taste of the judgements of Sodom.  that if we practise her sins, we shall taste of her judgements. Therefore in her name I have undertaken to give an Alarm to this City and this land, to eschew the sins of Sodom, lest they burn in the judgements of Sodom, and for the same purpose I have made choice of this parcel of Scripture, containing a true, plain, and perfect relation of that fearful overthrow, which Almighty God brought upon Sodom and her Cities for their abominations.  
In which overthrow we have four things especially to consider. 1. 
Five causes why Sodom was destroyed.  The suddenness of it: it was by sunrise. 2. The author of it, which was the Lord from the Lord out of heaven. 3. The manner of it, which was with fire & brimstone. 4. The generality of it, all the plain, and all the Inhabitants of the Cities, & all that grew upon the earth, were destroyed in this overthrow. Lastly, the cause of this sudden, fearful, general overthrow, which was sin and iniquity.  
The suddenness of Sodoms' destruction appears, in that the History reporteth, that it happened by the Sunne-rise in the morning: so that their destruction came upon them unawares. Overnight, they were all gathered together about Lot's house, to break open his doors; and in the morning their own houses crackle about their ears, & are burnt over their heads, and they themselves consumed in the same fire: They made Lot and his guests have an ill night; but now they themselves have a worse morning: for in their sinful beds did the fire take them, or if they were risen from their beds, a shower of fire and brimstone gave them a woeful good morrow: And though this fire and brimstone came down in a shower of rain, yet it was such a shower, as was not discerned, before it came: the Sky was not overcast, the Sun was not overshadowed with clouds, 
The suddenness of Sodons' destruction.  nor the firmament with gloomy and thick darkness, as usually it is before other showers: but the Sun did rise as fair and bright upon the earth, as at other times, so that there was no cause to expect or fear such a shower, and by reason it happened so soon in the Morning, it took some of them in their beds, some asleep some not thoroughly wakened, some appareling themselves, others preparing themselves to go about their sundry occasions, but none of them dreaming of such an hot service, as to have fire and brimstone to their breakfast.  
When Almighty God brought that universal flood upon the old world, Noah was a Preacher unto them of that age, and by preparing the Ark, he gave them warning what was intended towards them.  
In like manner, when jericho was laid level with the ground, the ruins of that City were in a manner made manifest unto the Inhabitants thereof, by the seven days compassing of it about, and the sound of the trumpets did, as it were, sound forth their destruction unto them: and even unto Pharaoh was Moses sent still the day before, to forewarn him, and give him knowledge of the plagues which should ensue the day after: but in this destruction of the Sodomites, there was no man to forewarn them of it, no prediction to foretell it, no sign to demonstrate it; so suddenly doth vengeance take them, even unawares, and when they little thought of any such matter.  

Doctrine.  From whence grows this instruction unto us, that such as continue and go on still in their wickedness without repentance, 
Vengeance shall suddenly overtake the unrepentant sinner. job 34.20.  shall suddenly be destroyed, before they be aware. God sendeth down his vengeance suddenly upon the wicked, even when they cry, Peace, Peace, and all is well, then doth vengeance come suddenly upon them, as sorrow cometh upon a woman travailing with child. This Elihu noted in his experience. They die suddenly (saith he) meaning the wicked, and the people shallbe troubled at midnight, that is, when they look not for it, and they shall pass forth, meaning, the judgements of God, and take away the mighty without hand, that is, quickly, or contrary to all expectation.  
Many and fearful are the examples which we have in the Scriptures concerning this matter: 
Gen. 19.26. Num. 25.8.  Lot's wife turning her head awry, was herself at that very instant turned into a pillar of salt. Zimry and Cozby were both slain amidst their filthiness. Belshazzar in the height of his feasting, reveling, and banqueting, had his judgement laid upon him. David being astonished at the sudden destruction of the wicked, maketh an exclamation by way of admiration concerning this matter, Psalm. 73.19. Oh how suddenly (saith he) are they destroyed, perished, & horribly consumed! And surely, the sudden destruction of the wicked is not only terrible to them 't are stricken with it, but it causeth as many to wonder, as either hear of it, or behold it: When the earth opened & swallowed up Corah, Dathan and Abiram with their wives and children, they themselves did not only send forth pitiful and rueful outcries at the suddenness of their own destruction, 
Numb. 19.34.  but all Israel that were about them, fled at the cry of them: death, come it never so gently, yet it is most terrible & dreadful to nature, because it destroys nature: 
Sudden death is one degree more fearful than death.  but sudden death is a degree more fearful than death, because death is the way of all flesh, and it is appointed for all men once to die: and therefore it is wisdom patiently to bear, and not to fear, that which cannot be avoided: but sudden death is neither common to all, nor necessary for any, but it is like a Kains mark, set upon some few for examples sake, to warn others to fear and live preparedly. In all worldly reason, it is better to die in a moment, then of a long languishing sickness. Therefore Caesar was wont to say, 
Suet. in vita Caesar.  Repentinus & inopinatus finis vitae est commodissimus. But howsoever a long languishing sickness is grievous to nature, and tedious to flesh and blood, yet therein a man hath time to compose and set himself in order, to dispose and set his house in order, to yield back his spirit to God which gave it, with old Simeon to sing that Swan-like song: Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word: to give testimony to the world, that he dies in the true faith of Christ, and in love and charity with all men; so that he leaves a good report behind him, which as Solomon saith, is better than a precious ointment: But as for him that dies suddenly, he can do none of these things, and therefore he leaves a suspicion behind him, neither can the judging Nature of man hardly believe charitably of him: For indeed, to say the truth, where God will have mercy, he commonly gives time to crave mercy: but when he strikes suddenly, it is a fearful sign that he means to have no mercy; for so he threatens to the ungodly: His destruction shall come suddenly, 
Pro. 6.15.  he shallbe destroyed speedily without recovery.  
These things being duly considered, we have just cause to pray with the Church in her Liturgy, From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us. But you will say, 
We ought to pray against sudden death.  that we ought continually to live so prepared and provided for death, that we should be ready at all times, steal it never so suddenly upon us. True it is, such in deed should be our readiness and preparation; But yet this is no good argument, that therefore we should not pray against sudden death: for thus I will instance against it: 
1. Tim. 5.8.  Every man is bound to provide for his family, things honest and necessary for their relief and maintenance, and he that doth not so, is worse than an Infidel: yet every man notwithstanding must pray Give us this day our daily bread. Our provision for bread must not hinder our prayer for bread, neither must our preparation for death hinder our praying against sudden death. But you will say unto me, Do you condemn all that die suddenly? or do you think that sudden death is always a spiritual judgement? What say you to good King josias, so much lamented by jeremy, 
Lam. per. tot.  and commended by the testimony of God's spirit in the Scriptures? What say you to many good men, some drowned at sea? 
How to judge of those which die suddenly.  some killed in fight? some going well to bed, and found dead in their beds? do you affirm, that sudden death to all these is a spiritual judgement? Surely, concerning josias, I answer, that he died not a sudden death: for he was wounded at Megiddo, 
2. Chron. 35.23.24.  and after he was wounded, he complained to his servants, that he was very sick: whereupon his servants removed him out of his own charet, into an other, and afterward carried him to jerusalem, and there he died. Can josias be said to die of a sudden death? They do but flatter the world, which countenance the sudden death of their friends, with the example of josias: for where it is said, that he was taken in there nets, 
Lam. 4.20.  the Prophet doth not mean by Nets, the suddenness of his destruction, but rather the cunning devices and stratagems which his enemies used to work his overthrow: and so is Net taken, job. 18.8. and in divers other places beside.  
And as for such as perish at sea, they cannot be said to die suddenly: for when a man sets his foot into a ship, he well knows, that there is but half a feet breadth at the most between him & death; so that a man's entrance into a ship to go to sea, is, as it were, an entrance into some dangerous sickness: and commonly there is some storm before a shipwreck, which is a good premonition of ensuing danger; & when a man is under water, he is not presently deprived of life, but there is some reluctation of Nature, in which time of reluctation, there may be many a deep sigh sent unto God for mercy and forgiveness; and as it is with those that go to sea, so it is with those that go to fight: who knoweth not, that the chance of war is uncertain? & therefore when a man goes into the field to fight, he should make account that he lies him down upon his sickbed. The Drums and Trumpets are to him as so many bells, that sound forth his doleful knell: The Arrows, the Pikes, the shot of all sort, are messengers of death unto him, so that he cannot be said to die suddenly: 
Who are said to die suddenly.  but that man dies suddenly, who being in perfect health, and free from all imminent danger, is so deprived of life, that there is no reluctation of Nature to be perceived. And what are we to judge of such? Surely, concerning such, we are not only to consider the present condition of their death, but also to look back to their lives formerly passed; and if we find them to have lived in all good conscience before God and men, and to have been busied in some holy or charitable action at the hour of their death, these men, doubtless, die in the favour of God; & sudden death is but a temporal judgement unto them; 
Sudden death not always a spiritual judgement. Amb. de obit. Val.  & it were against the rule of charity & piety, to judge otherwise of them: for of what kind of death soever a just man dies, it shall be well with him, & his soul shall be at rest: but if a man hath all his life time lived wickedly & unconscionably, and be also taken by death in some ungodly & uncharitable action, out of all question, sudden death is a spiritual judgement to such a man, as it was to the Sodomites here in this place, whom the Apostle S. Jude doth definitively condemn, saying, 
jude. 1.7.  that they suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. Let this therefore be the use of all that hath been said, even to pray against sudden death, & yet to live always so prepared for death, that we may be ready at all times with the five wise virgins in the Gospel, to go in with the bridegroom, 
Mat 25.10.  & be partakers with him of all his pleasures which endure for evermore. Now we are in the 2. 
The Author of Sodoms' overthrow.  place to consider the Author of this fearful overthrow, wherewith Sodom & Gomorra were destroyed; & that was the Lord: for the text saith, The Lord rained upon Sodom & Gomorrha brimstone & fire from the Lord out of heaven. The phrase of speech here used, seemeth somewhat strange, & therefore divers men have diversly interpreted it; some have thought it to be nothing else but a speech proper to the Hebrew tongue: others have thought it a redundancy of speech: some again have thought, that the holy Ghost would, by this form of speech, note unto us a miraculous and extraordinary action, above and beyond the course of nature: but in reading the ancient fathers, we may find, that they did urge this place against certain Heretics of their time, to prove the eternity of Christ. So Marcus Arethusus in the Sirinian Counsel alleged these words against Photinus, expounding them thus, The Lord Christ, to whom the Father hath committed all judgement, did rain from the Lord jehovah his Father, brimstone and fire out of heaven. So that Almighty God by his Son, did execute this fearful vengeance upon Sodom and her Cities.  
There was never any thing which happened in the world, either so miraculous or extraordinary, but there have been ever some, which have either doubted of the truth of it, or disputed about the true cause of it. 
●er●. fict.  Some have doubted upon the truth of Noah's flood: 
P●trusab Al●aco. Guil. Par.  Others have attributed the cause thereof to the constellation of the Stars, or to fatal necessity. Concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, there be that do attribute it to the nature of the soil: 
Strabo.  for the country (say they) being full of pitch & slime, and other combustible matter, the fire that destroyed these cities, 
Against those that ascribe strange accidents to natural causes.  did burst forth of the earth. Which assertion of theirs is clean contrary to the Scripture here in this place, which saith, that it came from heaven. And amongst us at this day, if any strange accidents do happen either in the Air or in the Earth, or in the Waters, we refer them to some natural cause or other, being unwilling (as it were) to acknowledge God to have a hand in them. And why should we be so willing to seek out causes in nature for such things as fall forth strangely in the world, and so unwilling to entitle the God of nature in them? God made the Stars, and the Planets, and the rest of the celestial bodies of that kind, to be for signs, and seasons, & days, and years: and this is the right and lawful use of them by their creation. Let them be for signs, 
Gen. 1.14.  saith Almighty God, but not for causes. Astra demonstrant, non necessitant: The Stars do sometimes foreshow such things as happen, 
Against the vanity and incertainty of judicial Astrology.  but they are not the enforcing causes of such things as happen. Most impious therefore and blasphemous it is, to ascribe these things to the influence and operation of the Stars: for it is to rob God of his honour, to derogate from his power, to overthrow his providence, and to tie God to secondary and subordinate causes, and in respect of ourselves, it extinguisheth the fear of God in us, it hinders our repentance and conversion unto God, it draws us to Atheism, and to a flat contempt both of God and his judgements. Pharaoh was not moved with all the miracles that Moses & Aaron could do, so long as he saw his Sorcerers could do the same; because he attributed, whatsoever was in those miracles to Art and Nature, and not to the power of God. The beasts of the field do not tremble at the braying of an Ass: but they are horrible afraid at the roaring of a Lyon. So we tremble not, we are nothing afraid, we are not moved with any thing, be it never so strange, so long as we are persuaded it comes from natural causes: but when we acknowledge the hand of God in such things as befall us, this breeds in us a fear of his Majesty, and we are the sooner moved to repentance and amendment of life.  
Origen is very bitter against these stargazing Naturalists, and saith of them, that Dum alias stellas beneficas, alias maleficas faciunt, os suum in coelum aperiuno: Whiles they make some Planets benevolent, and some malevolent, they open their mouth against heaven itself. And that ancient Counsel of Toledo, holden in the four hundredth year after Christ, 
In assert. fidei cap. ●lt.  decreed thus against them, Si quis Mathesi aut Astrologiae existimat credendum, Anathema sit: Let him be accursed, 't thinks there is any credit to be given to Astrology, or Mathematisme. What comfort, I pray you, can any man have, to think that the Planets are the causes of such things as happen in the world? Admit the Planets could hurt us: can they heal us, when they have hurt us? can they relieve us, when they have plagued us? can they help us, when they have crossed us? That man therefore must needs be comfortless in his afflictions, that attributes the cause of them to the influence of the Stars, or to Fortune, or to necessity, or to any other secondary cause whatsoever. But as the Lord jehovah did execute this terrible judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrha by the Lord Christ: so we must confess and acknowledge, that it is God, and not Nature, the Almighty, and not the Planets, the Lord of heaven and earth, and not Lady Fortune, that is the cause of all such things as happen here in the world, whether they be particular or general, whether they be cursings or blessings, safety or destruction, loss or gain, judgements or mercies, prosperity or adversity. This doth the Almighty himself witness of himself, Esay. 45.7. I make peace, and I make evil. And the Prophet Amos affirmeth the same thing of God, 
Amos 3.6.  Is there any evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it, saith the Prophet? Both which places do pregnantly prove unto us, that whether it be good or evil that happeneth unto us, God is the Author of it, and it cometh from him, as the true and only cause thereof. Therefore the Prophet jeremy demands this Question of these that do so curiously observe the rules of Nature, 
jere· 14.22.  Can the heavens give showers? is it not thou, O Lord our God, 
Ps. 147.4.  saith the Prophet? God being the God of nature, overrules nature, he calleth the stars by their names, and therefore disposeth them at his pleasure, & guides the Planets after his will. Let us not therefore employ our studies in such vain Arts, which have no certainty in them: Let us not believe, nor consent, nor consult with the rules thereof: 
Hierom. in Esay. cap. 27.  for as Hierome well saith, such Arts and the professors, practisers and inquirers after the same, do more harm in a city, than fire. 
Canon. 16.  And therefore the Council of Venice, holden in the four hundred and sixtieth year after Christ, decreed, that if any man did study Astrology, or gave credit to any such as did study that Art, if he were a minister, he should be deprived, & whatsoever he were, he should be excommunicate: For indeed, these inferior, though celestial creatures, were made to serve man, and not to rule man. Let us not therefore observe them, 
Deut. 4.19.  attribute any thing unto them, fear them, nor consult with them; for thereby we prove both injurious to God, to ourselves, & to the creatures.  
But this is our wisdom, 
Micah. 6.9. Doct. God the Author of all such things as befall man.  to follow the counsel of the prophet, which is, acknowledge the rod, & who hath appointed it: when any cross, affliction, judgement, loss, or tribulation doth befall us, we must confess & acknowledge, that by our sins we have justly deserved the same: & in the second place we must confess & acknowledge, that God hath appointed, ordained, inflicted & laid the same upon us, & not the stars, nor Fortune, nor Planets, nor Destiny, nor the devil, nor man, nor any other creature in heaven or earth; but as the Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven upon these cities, & this country of Sodom & Gomorrah, so all our crosses, losses, afflictions, and tribulations come from the Lord out of heaven. This job well understood, & acknowledged: for although the Chaldeans and Shabeans spoiled him of his Oxen, Asses, and Camels, yet job ascribes it all to God. 
job 1.21.  The Lord hath taken it away, saith he. So likewise Satan is said to have smitten job with sore biles, from the crown of the head, to the sole of his foot, & yet he lays it upon God: The hand of God hath touched me, 
job. 19▪ 21.  saith job. When Shemei cursed David, & threw stones at him, and railed upon him, howsoever the sons of Zaruiah took it to be the cursing of a dead dog, yet David ascribed it to God. The Lord, saith he, hath bidden Shemei to curse David. Whereby it is apparent, 
2. Sam. 16.10.  that there is no evil that happens unto us, I mean the evil of punishment, or affliction, but God is the Author of it, and lays the same upon us; and to know and acknowledge this, is great comfort unto us: 
Use. 1.  for as God woundeth us, so he is able to heal us; as he afflicteth us, so he can remove our afflictions from us: and therefore this breedeth in us a fervency in prayer, according to the counsel of the Apostle, 
james. 5.13.  Is any man afflicted amongst you, let him pray? But to whom should he pray in his afflictions? to the Stars and Planets? to Fortune and Chance? to Fate & Destiny? None of these can relieve us, they cannot heal us, they cannot help us. But here is our comfort, that God afflicting us, he can also comfort us; therefore this provoketh us to be instant with God by prayer. Again, 
Use. 2.  to acknowledge God to be the Author of our afflictions, it breedeth patience in us: Every one of us by Nature are wonderful impatient, even in the least crosses which can befall us: and the reason is, because we do not acknowledge from whence our crosses come; for it we did, we would never be found to strive against God. David confessing his infirmity in this case, teacheth every man his duty, and how to carry himself in his afflictions, I should have been dumb, 
Psal. 39.9.  and not have opened my mouth, saith he, because thou didst it. Seeing his troubles came from God, he confesseth, he should have endured them patiently. Let us therefore learn what to do in the same case, even to be patient in our greatest troubles, because God inflicts them and lays them upon us. The bird being caught in the limebush, and not knowing the true cause of her calamity, striveth and struggleth to enlarge herself, but the more she applieth herself to procure her freedom, the more she plungeth herself into thraldom, the more feathers she loseth, and the more unable she makes herself to make her escape, if she were at liberty. Even so the party afflicted, not knowing, or acknowledging from whence his afflictions come, the more he laboureth to recover and rid himself out of his troubles, the more he inwrappeth himself into troubles; the more means he useth of his own devising, to relieve himself, the less comfort doth he feel, and the heavier are his crosses unto him. But as the ship, which by the violent course of a springtide is driven upon the main, doth patiently abide, till the next springtide come and fetch her off, knowing that as she was driven upon the ground by the Tide, so she must be brought off with a Tide: so that person which is crossed or afflicted, knowing that his afflictions come from God, doth patiently endure them, knowing that he which laid his afflictions upon him, can also in his good time remove them from him. Lastly, to acknowledge God to be the author of our afflictions, 
Use. 3.  stirreth us up more duly & seriously to serve & please him according to his wil If there could have been found, but 10. righteous men in Sodom, the Lord would have spared the whole city for those Ten sake. So if the Lord find any thing in us, that is agreeable to his will, or acceptable in his sight, he will not punish us, nor afflict us, nor cross us further than may be for his glory, and our good: None can promise to himself, though he be never so righteous, that he shallbe free from afflictions: but the afflictions of God's children are gentle chastisements, they come from the love of a Father, and not from the rigour of a judge. We never read, that ever he rained down fire & brimstone upon the godly: but if at any time he do correct them, his corrections are mild, fatherly, and tending to amendment, and not to their destruction. If therefore thou wilt have God favourable, and kind, and good unto thee, serve him, fear him, & please him: so if he do chastise thee, it shallbe for thy good, and not for thy destruction.  

The manner of Sodoms' destruction.  Now in the third place, according to my first observations, let us consider the manner of this destruction which the Lord brought upon Sodom and Gomorrha, and that was fire and brimstone; fire, which as we say, hath no mercy, fire from heaven, which is more fierce & fearful than other fire, fire mingled with brimstone; whereby the fire became more furious, and terrible, and the whole Land made barren and fruitless for ever. And this merciless, fierce, & terrible fire mingled with brimstone, came from heaven in a shower of rain; but never was there such a shower of rain fell upon the earth. This was a rain, not to cool and refresh the earth, but to burn and consume the earth, and the Inhabitants thereof. This was a rain, not to make the Earth fruitful, but to make it fruitless for evermore. This was a rain, not to moisten the earth, nor to make it spring, and bring forth things necessary for man's use, but it was a rain, to skorch and parch the Earth, and to destroy both man and beast, from the face of the Earth; 
Gen. 7.12.  for it rained fire and brimstone from heaven. In the destruction of the old world, we read, that it rained upon the earth forty days and fortynights: but it was water simply, without any other mixture. 
Exod. 9.23.  Amongst the rest of the plagues of Egypt, rain was one, but it rained hailstones & fire mingled with the hail, and that rain hurt nothing but what was in the field: but this rain which fell upon Sodom, was not water, but fire, nor hail mingled with fire, but fire mingled with brimstone, and it did not only destroy that which was in the field, but whatsoever was either in field, or city, within the house, or without, at home, or abroad, was destroyed with this rain, man, woman, and child, beast, and cattle, trees, and herbs, all perished with this rain. And the more strange was the manner of this judgement, because it is said, that brimstone came from heaven. We often read of brimstone in hell; but it is very strange, that a thing of so stinking and odious a smell as brimstone is, should come from such a sweet and pleasant place as heaven is.  
Lamentable and rueful hath been the divastation & overthrow of divers cities in the world, as of Troy, Carthage, jerusalem, Thebes, and such like, insomuch as the very relation of their ruins hath moved men's hearts to pity the perplexed estate of all degrees, distressed with such desolation. But the manner of this destruction, wherewith Sodom and Gomorrha were overthrown, is without comparison: Never was there people so distressed. If the rude and barbarous soldier had entered these cities by force, and had put man, woman, & child to the sword, imbruing their hands in the reverend blood of the old men, ripping up the bodies of women great with child, taking the Infants & sucking babes out of their cradles upon the points of their spears, deflowering wives, ravishing maids, spoiling the widows and fatherless, sparing no age, sex or degree, but destroying all before them with fire & sword: this had been lamentable; but yet such is the condition of war, and no strange thing had happened to these Cities, but such as had been common to other cities in their overthrow. If the Lord had sent a famine upon the people of these cities of Sodom & Gomorrha, & broken their staff of bread, and diminished the oil in the cruse, and the meal in the barrel, and had dried up all their springs & fountains, so that they had been enforced to have eaten and drunk their own excrements, every man to have eaten the flesh of his own arm, and every mother the child of her own womb, this had been very miserable, yet such as divers other people beside have tasted of. But this people were otherwise surprised. It was no mortal enemy, but the immortal God, that fought against this people. The heavens sent down their forces against this people; and therefore in vain was it to lift up hands, head, or eyes towards heaven, because from thence came their destruction. If an enemy of the same mould that this people were of, had besieged them, there might have been some treaty, some parley, some conditions of peace, of departing with bag and baggage, of ransom, or tribute hoped for: but when they saw the heavens open above their heads, and sending down fire and brimstone upon them, when they saw their houses on fire about their ears, no place of refuge or safeguard to fly unto, no means to escape, when they felt the fire fall upon their soft and tender bodies, as thick as rain, when they felt it scourse their flesh, when they saw one another lie sprawling upon the ground, drawn to, like a scroll of parchment, with the scalding heat of the fire, none able to help another, none able to comfort another, what a miserable face of a city was there, think you?  
— quis talia fando  
temperet a lachrymis?  
For the Lord rained upon these city's brimstone & fire from the Lord out of heaven. 
Reason's why God brought this manner of destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrha. Reason. 1.  Now the reasons which moved the Lord to send this strange and terrible judgement upon these cities and people, were especially 3. This God so wonderful in power & might, and so fearful in his punishment, had before this time drowned the world, for sin; but the people of Sodom & Gomorrha were nothing terrified with that judgement, but were as wretched & wicked in their courses, as if they had heard of no example of God's wrath against sin; & therefore now God sends fire to destroy them, to let all the ungodly of the earth know, that all the Elements and all creatures in heaven, earth and hell, are ready, and priest to take vengeance upon man for his sin, when it pleaseth God to command & enjoin them: the Lord is not so bare of judgements, that he hath but one kind to revenge himself upon the ungodly, he hath more than one arrow of vengeance to the bow of his wrath, he hath water to drawn thee, fire to consume thee, plague & pestilence to destroy thee, dearth & famine to pine thee, a thousand grievous diseases to bring thee to thine end. The earth is at his beck, to open and swallow thee up quick: the Angels are at his commandment, to strike 〈…〉 sudden death: The devils wait upon his will, and if he bid them go, they have power to tempt thee to be thine own butcher and executioner, as to hang thyself, to throw thyself down headlong and break thy neck, to cut thine own throat. This God would have the sinner know. And therefore let all the ungodly of the world fear this God, tremble at his judgements, be careful & conscionable to serve & please him, & take heed how they offend him; for if they provoke him, he will not spare them. They have not so many ways to anger him withal, as he hath plagues & punishments to destroy them withal. And from hence an impenitent sinner may gather, that there is no place of safety nor security for him; a walled city is no place of defence for a sinner, his house is no castle unto him, his bed is no place of safeguard for him; for in all these places God hath messengers of death and destruction to attach him.  

Reason. 2.  The second 〈◊〉, why the Lord brought this kind of judgement upon these cities, & people, was, that the manner of their punishment might be suitable & correspondent to the manner of their sin: for whereas they burned in the filthy lust of concupiscence one towards another, against the order & course of nature, the Lord, to punish this unnatural heat of lust in them, brought a supernatural fire upon them: & as they delighted in the filthy & odious pleasure of sin, & defiled themselves with the hellish contagion of impiety: so the Lord punished them with brimstone mingled with fire, that as their sins made them stink in the nostrils of Almighty God: so they might be choked & stifled with the detestable stinking smell of brimstone: & as the Lord made the punishment of this people suitable to their sin: so he would have all sinners know, that wherewith a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished: for it was not unpossible to the Almighty hand of God, which made all the world of nought, to have drowned this people & their land with the overflowing streams of jordan, or to have delivered them into the hands of the four kings, as once before, or to have sent the infectious & noisome pestilence among them: but God chose rather to destroy than with fire & brimstone from heaven, 
Gen. 14.10.  to give notice to all posterities, that as they sin, so shall they be punished. Aaron's sons offered strange fire upon the Altar: & therefore a strange fire from heaven destroyed them. Samson suffering the eyes of his mind, 
Levit 10.2.  and the light of his reason to be extinguished, was for his punishment deprived of his bodily eyes, and lost the comfortable sight of this world. And as he suffered himself to be captivated and enthralled to the will of a woman, so was he made a slave to the will of his uncircumcised enemies, & compelled by them to grind in a mill like an horse, than which there could not be a more servile servitude. And it seemeth by the example of Dives, 
Luke 16.24.  that in hell there shall be some thing in the torments of the damned, which shall have some correspondency with their sins: for Dives being unmerciful in the world while he lived, can find no mercy nor compassion when he is dead, either in hell or heaven: he that would not give a crumb of bread to Lazarus in his life time, cannot now get a drop of water to cool the tip of his tongue. Howsoever therefore there be general torments in hell for the damned, yet it should seem that there shall be some particular thing in their torments, which shall have some semblance with their sins; & the reason is, because they might, to their greater grief, be put in mind of their sins, which were the cause of those torments.  
The third & last reason, 
Reason. 3. Gen. 19.13.  why the Lord from heaven sent down this strange & fearful judgement upon these cities & people, was, because their sins cried up to heaven, therefore God answered the cry of their sins, with a punishment from heaven. And this God doth, to let us see how sin turneth heaven into hell, and maketh the merciful Saviour of mankind, to be an unmerciful destroyer of mankind. God is by nature a preserver of men, The shepherd of Israel, 
job 7.20. Ps. 23.1. Ps. 18.2.  A refuge for men to fly unto for safeguard & succour: but such is the strong effects of sin, and so strangely worketh it with God that of a preserver of men, it makes him a destroyer of men▪ of a shepherd, it makes him a leopard, & of a lamb a lion. The heavens by nature give rain unto the earth in due season, 
Deut. 28.12. Hos. 2.21.  to make it fruitful and fertile, to bring forth things necessary for the use of man: But sin makes the heavens to be brass unto us, & causeth them to send down fire & brimstone, storm & tempest, to make the earth barren & fruitless, & destroy both man & beast from off the earth. Most miserable then is the estate and condition of a people or a land, when the sins of that people or land become to be crying sins: for in vain is it for a people or a land to cry for mercy unto God, when their sins cry for vengeance. In vain dost thou hold up thine hands, or lift up thine eyes to the heavens for favour, when thy sins with their cry have solicited against thee for judgement. When Ziba hath once accused Mephibosheth unto David, it is in vain for Mephibosheth to excuse himself: 
2. Sam. 16.3. 2. Sam. 29.16.  so if thou hast practised sin so long, that it now begins to cry unto heaven, God that is in heaven will hear the cry thereof, & he will send down some strange punishment or other upon thee to destroy thee. As Abigail therefore prevented the wrath of David, by meeting him before he came at her husband: so prevent thou the cry of thy sins, & meet God with thy repentance, before the cry of thy sins bring him down to take vengeance upon thee: cry thou for mercy, before thy sins cry for judgement: stop the mouth of thy sins with contrition & sorrow; still their cry with repentance & amendment of life; & as Pharaoh dealt with the children of the Israelites in Egypt, so deal thou with thy sins; kill them in the birth, never let them trouble the house with their cry: 
Exod. 1.16.  so shalt thou find God merciful unto thee, & the heavens favourable unto thee: otherwise, if thy sins send their cries before thee into heaven, look for some fearful judgement from heaven to light upon thee.  
The fourth thing we are to observe in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
The generality of Sodons' destruction.  is the generality of the destruction. Wherein we are to consider 3. things: First, that the whole country was destroyed. Secondly, the whole people, man, woman and child, old and young, were all taken away in this judgement. Thirdly, all that grew upon the earth, which Tremelius calls foetum terrae, the brood of the earth, whatsoever the earth brought forth or nourished, was all destroyed in the destruction of these cities. Concerning the country, we are to consider it in two respects. First, in regard of the largeness and greatness of the country: and secondly, in regard of the excellency of the country. 
The largeness of the country of Sodom. Gen. 14.2.  The largeness of the country may be considered, either in the number of cities which it contained, or in respect of the scite and circuit of the soil, within the compass and territories whereof it was bounded. Concerning the greatness of this country, in respect of the cities thereof; Moses describeth them to be five, Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah, Zeboim, Zoar, which was also called Bela: of these five cities, four were overthrown in this judgement of fire and brimstone, as you may read, Deut. 29.23. 
Gen. 19.22.  for Zoar was preserved at the entreaty of Lot. And the cause why Sodom & Gomorrha are only named in this place which we have now in hand, is, because these were the chief cities of this country, more populous than the rest, more abounding in wealth, and more abominable in their sins.  
The first thing then which we are to consider concerning the generality of this destruction, is, that not villages, but cities, not one or 2. cities, but 4. cities, not 4. poor, base, beggarly cities, but four great, populous, rich cities, were overthrown in this fearful overthrow, executed with fire & brimstone.  
The second thing to be considered in the largeness of this country, is the scite and circuit of it, which was, as Pliny reporteth, one hundred miles in length, & 25. miles in breadth. But josephus, whose report is thought more true and certain, describeth this country to be but threescore and twelve miles long, & nineteen miles broad.  
Whereby we gather, that not a few fields or acres of ground, not a small parcel or quantity of ground, but a large country was overthrown in this destruction.  

The excellency of the country of Sodom.  Concerning the excellency of this country, Moses sets it forth unto us, Gen. 13.10. by comparing it to the Garden of God, or to that part of the land of Egypt, which is watered with the overflowing streams of the river Nilus: so that out of all question, this country of Sodom & Gomorrah was a most goodly country, fertile, pleasant, & delightful; for as Paradise was watered with the sweet, fresh, wholesome waters of Euphrates, & Egypt with the fair, soft, sliding streams of Nilus: so this land of Sodom, lying alongst the overflowing banks of jordan, might well be compared to either of them for all ●ind of riches, pleasures and delights. And surely, the sins of this country declare, that it was a goodly, rich, pleasant country; 
Ezech. 16.49.  for as it is in the prophecy of Ezechiel, the sins of this country were pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. The pride of this people showed their riches; their fullness of bread, the fruitfulness and fertility of the soil; and the abundance of idleness in this people, showed the pleasures and delights of the country: but how populous soever this country was, by reason of the cities that were in it, how large and great soever this country was, in respect of the soil and circuit of it, how rich, fruitful, and pleasant soever this country was, the Lord overthrew those cities, and all the plain, even the whole country, with fire and brimstone, so that it is now as unpleasant as ever it was pleasant: for there arise such filthy, and foggy vapours and mists out of the ground, as none is able to abide the smell of them, and as Borchardus reporteth, the neighbour mountains are made barren with the contagion thereof: and how fruitful soever it was before the desolation of it, undoubtedly, it is now as fruitless and barren; the waters are so bitter and unsavoury, that nothing lives in them: for if any fish do happen to fall into the waters of this country, out of the river jordan, by reason of the inundation of the said river, they die presently: no grass grows in the country: Trees there be, which bear fruit, which outwardly seemeth very fair, but within the rind there is nothing but dust & ashes. And lastly, this country is now as desolate, as ever it was beautiful and goodly, for there is not a man inhabiting there, no creature abiding there, 
Doctrine. Nothing can privilege either place or person from God's vengeance against sin.  not a cottage or a hovel standing in all the country: for the Lord destroyed all the cities, and all the whole country, with fire and brimstone. Fron whence we for our instruction may learn and know, that when Almighty God takes vengeance upon any land or country for sin, he respects neither greatness, nor excellency, nor goodliness, nor beauty, nor any other outward thing whatsoever: A fruitful land maketh he barren, a populous country makes he waste, 
Ps. 107.34.  a beautiful country makes he desolate: and all this he doth, for the sin of the people that dwell therein. Though Babylon sit as a Queen, and saith she is no widow, neither shall see any mourning, yet her plagues shall come upon her in one day, death, sorrow, and famine, and she shall be burnt with fire. The disciples wonder at the fair and goodly building of the Temple: but our Saviour Christ tells them, that there should a time come, even the time when God should visit that people for their sins, at which time there should not one stone be left upon another of all that beautiful building, that should not be thrown down.  
We therefore of this land and city ought to take this Alarm, for a warning given us by Sodom & other places, most excellent & eminent in their times, yet all destroyed & overthrown for their sins and impieties: for though England be a Paradise for pleasure, a storehouse of wealth, and a rich Exchequer of all plenty and delights; And though London be the King's Chamber, the seat of the Nobles, the Mart of rich and worthy Merchants, & indeed the beauty of the whole land, yet if God once visit this land and city, for the sins of the inhabitants thereof, neither this nor that, neither the largeness of their territories, nor their beauty, excellency, riches, or multitude of people, shall excuse them, but he will make them as Sodom, and like unto Gomorrha. If God would have spared any place for the outward worthiness of it, 
Ps. 50.2.  he would have spared Zion, in which place the Lord appeared in perfect beauty, and of which place God gave this testimony, that he loved the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of jacob. And in another place the Lord hath chosen Zion, saying, 
Ps. 87.2. Ps. 132.13.14.  This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell: for I have a delight therein. And yet this place is so defaced, spoiled, and ruinated at this day, that it lies abhorred & desolate, being a cage of most unclean birds, and a filthy den of Turks, miscreants, and Infidels. And how can England or London secure themselves, or promise any immunity of God's judgements unto themselves, by reason of any outward worthiness or excellency, wherewith they seem to be blest above other Nations? for whensoever God shall visit this Land & City for their sins, nothing shall exempt us from his judgements, except we prevent them by repentance.  
Concerning the generality of this judgement which the Lord brought upon Sodom and Gomorrha, it is furthermore said, 
Man, woman & child destroyed in Sodoms' overthrow  that he destroyed all the Inhabitants of those Cities, the whole people of the Land, not men only, but women too, not men & women only, but men, women and children, even all the Inhabitants of those Cities perished in this overthrow, not the poor only, but poor and rich; not the base and inglorious Peasant, but the Noble and honourable amongst them; not the subject, but their Kings and Rulers; not those which were in the field, but all that were in the cities, even all the Inhabitants of those cities were overthrown in this destruction: So that as God spares no place, for any respect of outward excellency, no more doth he spare any person, for his own worthiness or eminency: but when he brings his judgements upon man for sin, the wise and the fool perish both together, the King that sits upon the Throne, and the beggar that sits upon the ground, they bear both a part, and drink of the same cup, when he is angry. This the Spirit of God doth testify unto us by the Prophet David, You shall die like men, 
Psal. 82.7.  and ye Princes shall fall like others. And the Prophet jeremy tells jeconiah King of juda, 
jer. 22.24.  that though he were the signet of the Lords right hand, yet he should be plucked from thence. No title of honour, eminency or excellency, can free a man from God's judgements. The plagues of Egypt were upon Pharaoh, as well as upon the people. And therefore Kings and Princes, and the honourable and renowned personages of the world, must not flatter themselves, nor suffer the pomp of the world to deceive them: for whether their honour and dignity consist in authority, or in wealth and riches, 
1. Kings. 22.31. The greatest men do oftentimes taste first of God's judgements. Dan. 5.30.  or in the voluptuousness and pleasure of life, none of these can free them from GOD'S judgements: Nay, if we mark the proceedings of God in the execution of his judgements, we shall often see, that the men in chiefest place, do soon taste of his judgements. Ahab, king of Israel, was first slain in the battle at Ramoth Gilead. Among all the people that met jehu as he went to Izreel, we read of none that was slain, but the 2. kings, jehoram king of Israel, & Ahaziah king of judah .1000. princes did profane the golden and silver vessels, which were brought out of the Temple at jerusalem, together with Belshazzar King of the Chaldeans, as also did his wives and concubines; yet the Scripture makes mention of none that was slain that night, but only the King. This should teach Kings and Rulers, and such as are of note and place, to take no more liberty of sinning unto themselves, than those of the vulgar sort and condition: for they are as subject to God's judgements, as the meanest among the people.  
But now wonder all ye that read this History, let your hearts melt with grief, and your eyes be resolved into tears of sorrow, when you hear, that not only those of discretion & years, but even children, 
Children destroyed as well as those of elder years.  Infants, and sucking babes, that hanged upon their mother's breasts, which knew not their right hand from their left, which never committed sin actually, were also destroyed in this overthrow: The tenderness of their age might have pleaded for them, they stuck to their mother's breasts, as Apples to their trees, they could not speak, stand, nor help themselves: Their innocency & harmless simplicity might have pleaded for them, they knew not their right hand from their left, they could not distinguish between good & evil, right & wrong, strait and crooked. Those of elder years had judgement, & will in themselves, & therefore they were justly punished for their transgressions: but what had these infants done, which had not as yet attained to years of discretion? But so fierce is the wrath of God against sin, that nothing could excuse these silly infants: for the Lord destroyed all the inhabitants of these cities, he reserved neither man, woman, nor child alive. Neither was there any cruelty or injustice in God, in destroying the children of Sodom, together with those that were of elder years & discretion: for four reasons may be yielded of this action.  

Reason. 1. Reason's why Infants were destroyed.  The first reason why the infants and sucking babes in Sodom were destroyed aswell as those of elder years was, because they were the branches of such cursed trees, & children of such ungodly parents: for howsoever it be true, that the Lord speaks by the Prophet Ezechiel, that the child shall not bear the father's sin, it is true also that the Lord himself speaketh in the second Commandment, He will visit the sin of the fathers upon the children: So that if a wicked and ungodly man beget a child, that child shall not bear the sin of the parents spiritually, and eternally, if it walk in good ways, and betake itself to holy and virtuous courses: but if the child of ungodly parents live never so carefully and conscionably according to Gods will, yet the Lord will visit the sins of the parents upon it corporally & temporally, and if it walk in the ways of the parents, it shall bear the sins of the parents eternally also. But admit that a child of ungodly parents never come to commit sin actually, the Lord in his justice may visit the sins of the parents upon that child both temporally and eternally, because it is of the same nature that the parents are: even as the Huntsman finding a litter of some noisome & obnoxious beasts, kills them, though they never did harm, because their nature is to do harm if they live: even so, God in his justice may destroy the very infants and sucking babes both temporally and eternally, though they never committed sin actually, because their nature is corrupt and tainted by propagation from their parents. But you will say unto me, The like may be said of the children of godly parents. No: For the godly have a promise, that God will not only be their GOD, but the GOD of their seed also: so that if the children of the godly die while they hang upon the breast, or in the womb, yet there is hope of mercy, by reason of the promise: but if the children of the wicked die before they be of power to commit sin actually, there is no hope of mercy, but a fearful expectation of justice, because there is no promise of mercy belonging unto them.  
You see then the reason, why God destroyed those infants & sucking babes of Sodom, with this temporal judgement of fire & brimstone, even because they were children of ungodly parents. And if he hath destroyed them eternally, he hath done no more than in his justice he might, because he never made promise of mercy unto them.  
The second reason why God destroyed these children, was to increase the grief and sorrow of their parents: for commonly the miseries of our children are more grievous unto us, than our own miseries. David took the death of his son Absalon so heavily, that he wished he had died for him. And out of question, when this people saw their children lie sprawling in the fire, scorched and burnt with the heat thereof, when they heard them scréeke and cry, and could not help them, it was as grievous unto them, as their own misery; and therefore the Lord did it, even to increase and enlarge their sorrow.  
The third reason why the Lord destroyed these children, was, 
Reason. 3.  because they should not walk in the wicked & abominable ways of their parents; for if they had lived, the nature which they drew from their parents, would have drawn them to the sins of their parents: lest therefore these children should have traced the sinful steps of their parents, the Lord takes them away in the same destruction with their parents.  
The last reason why these children were destroyed, was, 
Reason. 4  because GOD would leave none of that wicked brood to remain upon the earth; there were overmany of that rank already: 
Doctrine. Parents, even in regard of their children, aught to live conscionably.  and therefore the Lord, to the end he might root out the memory of this people, he destroyed children and all. Whereby man is taught to live holily, justly, and soberly in this world, forasmuch as a man is not wicked only to himself, but to his posterity also. The wickedness of the parents lies heavily upon the children: and therefore if thou hast no regard of thine own soul, yet have a respect of thy children, and for their sakes cease to do evil. 
Esay 57.3.  The Prophet Esay summons the children of Witches, the seed of the adulterer and of the whore, and the children of the rebellious, he summons them all before God, and he lays this heavy judgement upon them; There is no peace to the wicked, 
20.  saith my God. It is a fearful thing to be the child of an Usurer, of an Adulterer, or Whore, of a Drunkard, of a murderer, of a blasphemer, or of any other notorious wicked person whatsoever: for surely God will visit the sins of the parents upon the children, as he hath threatened in the commandment, temporally, live the children never so well, but temporally and spiritually both, if the children do walk in the ways of their parents.  
Last of all, concerning the generality of that destruction, which the LORD brought upon this Country and people, it is said, 
All living creatures destroyed in Sodoms' overthrow.  that He destroyed all that grew upon the earth: or as Tremelius hath learnedly translated the same words thus, All that the earth brought forth, and nourished, all cattle and beasts of the field, all creeping things, and whatsoever was upon the face of the earth, was destroyed in this overthrow. And here we may justly wonder at the judgements of God, which he extendeth not only unto man, which hath judgements & will, nor unto babes and sucklings which are tainted with corruption by the propagation of nature from their parents, but also to unreasonable creatures, which never sinned, but are subject to vanity against their wills, which do not offend their Creator, but follow the law of their creation, and shall never come into judgement; yet these creatures, as void of sin as of reason, are oftentimes plagued and destroyed for the sin of man. Thus was the earth cursed for the sin of Adam: Thus were all these creatures destroyed with the flood, for the sin of that age; and yet we may say of them, as Pythagoras sometimes said: 
Quid meruistis oves, placidum pecus?  
Quid meruere boves, animal sine fraud?   
What have these poor silly creatures deserved, that they should be punished? nay, destroyed, having never offended? We are the sinful wretches of the world, workers of all iniquity, deserving not to be scourged with rods, but with Scorpions: We (I say) being only nocent, cause innocency itself to be punished for our transgressions. Behold then, O sinful man, thine own ungraciousness, thou dost not only procure vengeance to thyself by thy sin, but to every thing else that doth serve thy sinful use. Man by his creation is a Lord, and a high commander upon the earth; for as it is in the Psalm, 
Psal. 8.  he hath dominion over all the works of God, all things are put in subjection under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh thorough the paths of the seas: So that man in reason should content himself with this dominion and Lordship which he hath over the creatures, and not seek and procure the destruction of them: Man should satisfy himself with the use and commodity of these creatures, and not seek the ruin and wrack of these poor bondservants, both by ill entreating them himself, and by provoking God with his sin, to plague, punish, and destroy them. And surely, but that the providence of God doth restrain these silly dumb creatures, it is a marvel, that they do not break their league with man, and shake off the yoke of obedience toward him: It is a marvel that the earth doth not rend in sunder under man, as he walks upon it, seeing it is so plagued with barrenness for the sin of man: It is a marvel, that our oxen and our horses, with their horns and hooves, do not make war against us, seeing we are such unrighteous & tyrannical Lords over them, not content to have their use and service, except we plague them beside into such undeserved vengeance of GOD'S wrath by our sins and transgressions. Let us therefore forbear and eschew sin, and fly from it, as from a Serpent, seeing by it we do not only draw down Gods heavy judgements upon our heads, but also we plague our posterity, and the very dumb and unreasonable creatures into the wrath of God's vengeance, by our sins and transgressions. And let us further learn the perfect hatred of GOD against sin, who doth not only punish it in man which committeth it, but in all things which any way serve man in his sinful courses: and let us esteem no sin small, seeing the infinite majesty of God is offended by it, infinite torments are prepared for it, and nothing can satisfy for it, but the inestimable price of Christ's blood, applied to the conscience by a true and lively faith.  
Now it remains, 
The cause of Sodoms' destruction was sin.  that in the last place we examine the cause, why the Lord brought such a fearful destruction upon this land and people. There must needs be some great cause, that did exasperate the Lord to execute such a fierce & strange judgement upon them. The cause is not hard to be found out: for nothing doth separate man from God, but sin; nothing doth provoke God to punish, plague and destroy man, but sin; nothing doth draw down the judgements of God upon man, but sin; and sin it was, that moved the Lord to revenge himself thus severely upon this land and people, as it appears by the words of Almighty God to Abraham, 
Gen. 18.20.  Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is exceeding grievous, I will go down now, saith the Lord. Sin brought death into the world, they are twins, bred and borne in one day; sin and destruction are Relatives; admit the one, and the other follows; death and destruction grows forth of sin, as fruit from the tree: and therefore if we sin, we may surely expect to be punished; and if we be punished, we need not doubt of the cause, but we may safely think with ourselves, it is for our sins. Therefore as we have considered the punishment of Sodom, so let us consider the sins of Sodom, which were the cause of her overthrow and destruction. The Prophet Ezechiel doth make known unto us the sins of this people to be four; Pride, 
Ezec. 16.49. The sins of Sodom. Gen. 19.5.  fullness of bread, idleness, and unmercifulness towards the poor. But these were not all the sins of Sodom: for the Scripture lays down another sin practised amongst this people, which because it did either begin amongst them, or was more practise● amongst them then amongst any other people beside, derived the name from them, and so holds it to this day: but the Prophet doth reckon the forenamed sins, to be the sins of this people, because they were the principal causes of that unnatural sin, which wi●h the cry thereof brought such a fearful vengeance upon them.  
In speaking of the sins of Sodom, I will keep the same order, that the Prophet observeth in the place before cited, 
Pride.  placing Pride in the first rank, as though it were the Ringleader to the rest, and the root from whence all other vices do follow: and so it is indeed, and therefore it is called the Centre in the sphere of man's life, from whence are drawn lines to the circumference of iniquity. If a man have any good gifts or qualities in him, pride doth expel and abandon them: if a man have none, pride will not give place for any to enter: 
A proud man cares not for God. Ps. 10.4.  and the first thing that pride works in man, is an irrespective care and an incurious respect of God; he cares not for God, he seeks not for God, he doth not trust and rely upon God, nay, he thinks always there is no God; for the object of his pride is his God, and in it he doth trust, upon it he doth rely, and he sets it up as an Idol, not only in his own heart, but in the eyes and view of the world, to the end all men may applaud, admire, honour and magnify it: as if a man be proud of his Nobility, of his dignity and greatness, of his wealth and riches, of his credit and estimation, of his learning and wisdom, of his apparel, of his costly and goodly buildings, or whatsoever else is the object of his pride, he doth not only set his heart upon it himself, seeking all means to uphold and maintain it, deriving all his joy and contentment from it, depending upon it as upon the staff and stay of his strength, but he must have all other men likewise to commit Idolatry with it: and as the finger is always where the pain is, and the eye where the affection is: so is the heart of a proud man always settled & fixed upon the thing whereof he is proud. And therefore it is true that David speaks of him; he cares not for God, 
Ps. 10.4.  he seeks not for God, & he thinks always there is no God: & as he is thus careless & inrespective of God, so is he most injurious to his neighbour, in scorning, disdaining, despising, & vildly esteeming him. Superbus nes●at esse socius: 
A proud man is injurious to all men.  A proud man acknowledgeth none to be his equal. A proud man is always contentious, and by reason he is wholly possessed with self-love, a man shall never have justice at his hands: for which cause, Moses gave warning to the Israelites, 
Deut. 17 20.  not to choose a King, that should lift up his heart above his brethren: for when the chief Magistrate is proud and haughty, all justice and judgement is perverted, & he governs all things after the rule of his own proud conceits: And even as when a man winnoweth wheat, the chaff mounts aloft, though it be light and unprofitable, but the wheat falls down unto the ground, though it be more precious and excellent than the chaff: even so, when a proud man sits in government, vanity is preferred, but justice and judgement are depressed. 
Ps 119.51.69.  David complaineth of the proud, that they had him exceedingly in derision: and in another place, that they imagined a lie against him: noting unto us thereby, that in the first place, they scorn and disdain all men; and in the second place, that they wrong, malign, and deal unjustly with every man. Thus is a proud man found impious towards God, injurious to his neighbour, 
A proud man not capable of grace.  not capable to receive any good gifts or graces, as a certain Philosopher told Alexander, perceiving his pride, God (said he) is able to give wisdom unto men, but Alexander is so proud, that there is no place for wisdom to take place in him. And lastly, a proud man is in danger to lose those good gifts and qualities which he already hath, according to that old proverb, Inficit egregios adiuncta superbia mores.  
Where pride is, there all excellent conditions are infected and poisoned, so that they either die, or grow so weak, that they are not able to perform any good office or duty.  

Psal. 36.11.  This made David pray, Let not the foot of pride come against me: for well he was assured, that if pride set in a foot against him, he should have extreme wrong offered him. Pride then being one of the sins of Sodom, it is manifest, that there was no religion there, no seeking after God, nor any care of his worship or service, neither was there any justice, judgement, or equity in the land, but all kind of oppression and wrong, all grace & goodness was exiled thence, neither was there any place for virtue & godliness in that place: and therefore no marvel it was, if God brought such a fearful destruction upon such a proud place and people; for pride brings always destruction with it, as Solomon saith, Pride goes before destruction, 
Pro. 16.18.  and an high mind before a fall. So that a man is never near a mischief, till he grow proud: for them he procures God's hatred towards him, as it is in the Prophet, 
Amos 6.8.  The Lord hath sworn by himself, I hate the excellency of jacob. And this hatred that God bears against pride, 
jam. 4.6.  provoketh him to resist the proud, to cross them, and by sundry means to revenge himself upon them. 
Zeph. 2.10.  This shall they have for their pride, saith the Prophet. The Lord will be terrible unto them, as he hath threatened by the Prophet jeremy, saying, Behold, I come unto thee, 
jer. 50.31, 32.  O proud man: And, The proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all about him. All these threatenings against pride, did the LORD bring upon Sodom and her Cities, in such sort as they are here remembered, for an example unto all posterities: the same threatenings he will likewise bring upon all those that are infected with it. 
The second sin of Sodom, fullness of bread.   
The second sin of Sodom, was fullness of bread. By bread is signified all such meats & drinks as are used for the nutriment of the body, which this people of Sodom did use with such saturity, and ingurgitation, as did not relieve nature, but destroy Grace: Nature is content with a little, Grace with less; but where this fullness and repletion of bread is, there nature is depraved, and grace destroyed. This sin is the bait which the devil useth, 
Gluttony, the devils bait.  to provoke men to yield unto all his temptations; for as the Falconer, when he would call his Hawk to his fist, doth not hold out his bare fist unto her, but showeth her a piece of flesh, unto which she willingly comes, and so is taken: so the devil, when he would tempt a man to any sin, he offers him the bait of deliciousness, knowing that the more the body is replete, the more empty is the soul of all grace and goodness. One cause why Dives was so unmerciful towards poor Lazarus was, because he fared deliciously every day; for a full belly is never touched with the feeling of others miseries. The cause why the Israelites were not sorry for the affliction of joseph, 
Amos. 6.4.6.  nor pitied the distressed estate of their brethren, was, because they ate the lambs of the flock, and the calves of the stall, and drunk their wine in bowls. The cause why every man among them neighed after his neighbour's wife, was, 
jer. 5.8.  because they did rise in the morning like fed horses. And the cause why they committed idolatry, and worshipped the golden calves which Aaron made them, was, because they crammed themselves excessively with meat & drink, and that made them forget God, which had done so great things for them. Whereby it is evident, that the repletion of the belly is the confusion of the soul, and that the devil hath the greatest advantage against us to tempt us, and we the least strength to withstand him in this repletion and fullness of bread: 
Psal 69.23.  therefore David calleth the table of delicious feeders, a snare: for even as birds are caught in that place where they come to feed: even so are they that fare deliciously, caught in the devils net, whiles they feed. 
Pro. 23.20.  For this cause, the Wise man forbids us to be companions with those which cram themselves with flesh, lest by eating and drinking excessively, we give the devil advantage to tempt us to some grievous sin. And in like manner did Almighty God forbid the Prophet to go into the house of feasting, 
jer. 16.8.  to sit there to eat and drink: for as he saith in another place, 
Hos. 13.6.  When men are filled, their hearts are exalted, and then they forget God. And as this fullness of bread plungeth the soul into many inexplicable dangers, & makes it subject to divers temptations: so is this unmeasurable feeding hurtful & obnoxious to the body: for when the stomach receiveth such abundance, & so many kinds of meat and drink, it is oppressed rather then relieved. Therefore saith Solomon, 
Eccle●. 5.11.  that the satiety of the rich will not suffer him to sleep: his body is so distempered by his feeding, that his quiet rest departeth from him. We esteem the goodness of a medicine, 
Meat & drink to be taken like a medicine.  not by the pleasantness, nor by the great quantity, but by the wholesome & good operation of it: so ought we to esteem of meat, not by the deliciousness of it, nor by the abundance of it, but by the health it bringeth to our bodies. Nothing breeds a surfeit sooner, than this fullness of bread; & out of all doubt, this unmeasurable feeding hath brought many to an untimely death. If therefore thou wilt keep thy body in health, use thy meat and drink as thou usest medicines; that is, seldom and in small measure: 
Five cautions to be observed in eating & drinking.  for in five things do we especially offend in eating and drinking.  
First, when we make it our first work in the morning, being no sooner out of our beds, but our mind is upon our meat; for which cause Solomon denounceth a woe unto that land, whose Princes eat in the morning: for such as eat in the morning, are fit for nothing all the day after. Secondly, we offend in eating and drinking, when we are too curious and nice in our diet, not contenting ourselves with ordinary and common meats and drinks, but longing after strange and unusual things, and those must be most costly and curiously dressed: this was the sin of the Israelites, 
Numb. 11.6.  which loathing Manna, desired flesh for their lust: for which curiosity of theirs, God destroyed them, even whiles the meat was in their mouths. 
Plutar. in Rom. Apoph. Caution 3.  And the Emperor Augustus did cause one Erotes, a Lieutenant in Egypt, to be nailed to the mast of a ship, because he bought a Partridge and ate it. And our Saviour Christ noteth curious feeding, as a fault in the rich Glutton, even because he fared deliciously.  
The third sin in eating & drinking, is, when we eat and drink without measure, not respecting what will suffice nature. Our Tables are called mensae, as some think, a mensura, to teach us to measure our appetite, and not to eat & drink unmeasurably; for even as that rain, which comes down meekly and gently upon the earth, doth most good, and makes the earth most fruitful: so that meat which is taken in measure, doth most benefit the body and soul: and this is the measure we must observe, we must not eat much, but rather for necessity then for lust; then we must not eat nor drink often: and lastly, we must not eat nor drink of divers and sundry sorts: for all these things do make our eating and drinking sinful and hurtful.  
Fourthly, we offend in this kind, 
4  when we study and devise what to eat or drink. These persons are compared to those beasts, which are always either eating or chewing the cud: so these persons are either always eating, or devising what to eat. This was the sin of the sons of Hely; 
1. Sam. 2 13, 14, 15.  they were not content with those parts of the sacrifice which the Law had provided for them, but they found out new devices, and sometimes they would have sodden flesh, & sometime they would have raw, sometime without fat, and sometime fat and all. These devisers are they, that make their belly their God.  
Lastly, we offend in eating & drinking, when we greedily devour the creatures like dogs, which have it no sooner in their mouths, but it is down their throats. This was the sin of Esau, who coming hungry from hunting, 
Gen. 25.30. Sine me haurire: Tr●mel.  desired his brother to feed him quickly, or to suffer him to devour those red pottage. But he had better have taken more leisure, and eaten more advisedly: for he lost the prerogative of his birthright by his greediness. And because man should not devour his meat and drink with greediness, Nature hath given man a less mouth, than many creatures which are less than he; to teach man by so small a receptacle, to receive his meat & drink with time and leisure.  
Thus have we heard the five things, wherein we offend in eating and drinking.  
Now this fullness of bread is such a grievous sin in the sight of God, that he hath sworn he will never purge it. And the reason is, 
Esay 22.13, 14.  because we are called to other duties. Non nati sumus ad libidinem, hoc possimus facere, sed non est opus nostrum: We are not borne into the world, neither do we live in the world, to give ourselves to delicious & full feeding, to feasting and banqueting, nor to fulfil our own lusts and desires; we may do these things, if we will run headlong into our own mischief: but this is not our calling, it is not that we are bound to do, it is not the work which we are commanded and enjoined to perform: and therefore, as it is Crimen laesae maiestatis, a capital and treasonable crime for an Ambassador, 
Fullness of bread most displeasing unto Almighty God.  to execute his charge contrary to the limitation of his profession: even so it is most displeasing unto Almighty God, when we walk contrary to our calling, crossing the end of our creation. No marvel then, if Almighty God took such a fearful vengeance upon this people, which walked so contrary unto him, filling themselves with bread, and cramming themselves with flesh, when indeed the Lord calls men to weeping and mourning, 
Esay. 22 12.  to baldness and girding about with sackcloth.  

The third sin of Sodom was idleness.  The third sin of Sodom and her people, was idleness, which was twofold in this people. First, they gave themselves to their ease, to unthriftiness and sluggishness, not following their callings laboriously and industriously, but living loosely and remissly, giving themselves to all dissolute and unthrifty courses: This may be gathered out of the 19 Chapter of Genesis, the 4. verse, where it is said, that all the men of the City, even from the young to the old, all people out of all quarters compassed Lot's house about, to have the men brought out unto them, that they might know them. From whence it may be gathered, that they were an idle and unthrifty company, giving themselves to no good employment, but rather to vain & dissolute exercises. The second kind of idleness in this people was, a careless security, & a certain respectless regard, wherewith they were so possessed, that they never thought upon dangers, they feared nothing. Abraham had slain the five kings, which would have made them tributary, he recovered all the spoil, and gave it to the King of Sodom, so that now they had no enemy to be afraid of; they had peace & plenty, and therefore they lived idly, that is, securely & carelessly, fearing no dangers, preventing no mischiefs.  
As the pride of this people provoked God to resist them, and as their fullness of bread gave the devil a greater advantage to overcome them by his manifold temptations, so their Idleness made them a burden to the Earth: They were a coomber and a surcharging trouble to the place of their abode, living unthriftily & unprofitably both to themselves, and to the land where they dwelled. 
Luk. 13.7 Idle persons a burden to the earth.  The fig tree in the Gospel being barren and unfruitful, is said to trouble the ground; so those persons which live idly, do but trouble the world, & overcharge the earth: for which cause the be driveth from the hive the Drone, which takes no pains, but devours the honey, which others by their great labour do get & bring in; teaching the Magistrates of the earth their duty, which is, to correct, with all sharpness of discipline, those unthrifty and unserviceable Drones, which live idly in the common wealth, trifling out their time in continual laziness, as though there never had a law been given to the sons of Adam to labour, nor to the daughters of Eve, with the sweat of their brows to get their living. 
Pro. 6.6. All creatures in heaven, earth & hell, painful in their places, but only man.  Solomon sendeth the sluggard to the Pismire, to consider her ways, and to learn wisdom: for she having no guide, governor, or ruler, provideth meat in Summer, & gathereth food in harvest. Man therefore may be much ashamed of himself, that having reason to guide him, nature to direct him, law to govern him, grace to rule him, limbs strong & able for performance, yet provideth not, gathereth not, laboureth not, but like a Drone consumes his days in idleness, living unprofitably and unserviceably both to himself and others.  
God sanctified not his rest, before he had finished his labour. The Angels in heaven attend in their places, and stand before their Creator, and with all alacrity, readiness, 
job. 1.7. 2. Pet. 5.8.  and industry fulfil his will.  

job. 1.7. 2. Pet. 5.8.  The devil himself is said to compass the earth, and to walk about, seeking whom he may devour. Seeing therefore God, Angels, Bees, Pismires, and the despised worms of the earth, do all of them in their kinds & places give themselves to labour: Nay, seeing the devil himself spends not his time idly, they are worse than the devil, which suffer the days of work to slide away, without labouring in the works of their vocation. Idleness, as Barnard saith, 
Idleness the sink of all lawless temptations.  is a sink of all lustful and lawless temptations. What was the cause that Aegisthus became an Adulterer?  In promptu causa est, desidiosus erat. 
Idleness was the cause that provoked him thereunto. And if you will know the cause of so many robberies in the fields, riots in the streets, disorders in every place: in a word, all these & many more inconveniences proceed and grow from idleness; for even as that water that hath no current, doth in short time corrupt, & become offensive: so that body or mind which exerciseth itself about no employment, becomes a very sink of all lewdness & disorder. 
Pro. 24.  Solomon went by the field of the sluggard, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof. And as the field of the slothful is covered with nettles and thorns; 
Idle persons corrupt both in body & mind.  so his body is overgrown with infirmities, his mind corrupted with the infection of sin, his conscience destitute of a good testimony to itself, and his soul void of all hope of eternal happiness. God hath placed us in this world, as labourers in his vineyard, as soldiers in his camp, as travelers to seek a country to rest ourselves in, as cursitors or runners in a race: whereby we may gather, that idleness is not our profession: for we cannot obtain, except we run the race: we cannot overcome, except we fight manfully: we cannot have that penny, except we labour in the vineyard: the fruitless tree must be cast into the fire. The unprofitable servant must be bound hand and foot, and cast into utter darkness. 
This world no place of rest.  Therefore whosoever rests here in this world, where he should labour, shall labour in the world to come, where he thinks to rest. Our Saviour Christ promiseth his disciples, that when he should rest, they should rest also. But when did our Saviour Christ rest, saith Barnard? not in this world: for he went about, doing good, and rejoiced as a mighty Giant to run his course: therefore his disciples must not look to sit, and rest them in this world. It is a shame, saith Augustine, that the Sun, whose going out is from the end of the heaven, and whose compass is to the ends of the same, should take any man in his bed: for may not the Sun rightly say to such a sluggard, I traveled a greater journey yesterday, than thou didst, and art thou in bed after me this morning? It should seem, that in jobs time, 
job. 30 5.  there was very strait order taken for such as lived idly, and unthriftily: for they were chased forth from among men, and every one shouted at them as at a thief. 
2. Thess. 3.10.  And the Apostle Saint Paul maketh a strict decree against them, that such as would not labour, should not eat. So much hath Idleness been always detested among good men: & therefore no marvel if God brought such a fearful destruction upon Sodom, whose Inhabitants lived in this abominable and detestable sin.  
But this people was not only possessed with a careless and secure slumber of Idleness in their bodies, 
A second kind of Idleness which was in the Sodomites.  but in their souls also; they did not only live loosely and remissly in their ordinary vocations and callings, but they lived without all fear of any imminent danger, or future calamity that should fall upon them for their wickedness: they lived sinfully in their lives, & securely in their hearts: Their sins cried for wrath, but they cried, Peace, peace, there shall no harm happen unto us: they provoked the Lord to vengeance, and yet they promised themselves safety. This slumber of the soul is worse than that of the body: for it is a present forerunner of destruction: when men shall say, Peace and safety, 
2. Thess. 5.3.  then shall come upon them sudden destruction, as travel upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. 
Matt. 24.23, 24.  Our Saviour Christ dehorteth us from this security, by the fearful example of the old world; for whiles they in that age did eat and drink, and buy and sell, and marry wives and were married, the flood came and drowned them all: so if we live and lie snorting upon the careless beds of sinful security, the wrath of God will come suddenly upon us and destroy us. 
2. Cor. 5.11. 1. Pet. 1.17.  For this cause the Apostle persuadeth the fear of the Lord unto men. And S. Peter exhorteth men, to pass the time of their pilgrimage here in this world in fear: and Solomon pronounceth those blessed, 
Pro. 28.14.  that live always in fear: for they which harden their hearts, shall fall into evil.  
This security is one of the signs, 
Security a forerunner of destruction.  which shall go before that great and final destruction of the world at the last day: and it is said, that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night; even when men are in the dead sleep of sin, then shall the last judgement come upon them. Whiles the Mariner sleeps at the helm, the ship is soon run against a rock. 
judg. 4.21.  jael doth easily strike a nail in the temples of Sisera, whiles he sleepeth under a covering. 
1. Sam. 30.16, 17.  David coming upon the Amalechites, & finding them eating and drinking and dancing, slew every man of them, and recovered all the spoil. So when men fear nothing, but pass their time in pleasures, delights and vanities, without fear of God or his judgements, then doth God come upon them suddenly, and destroys them without mercy. 
Mat. 24.48.  Therefore our Saviour Christ gives every one warning of this careless security, and accounts him an ill servant, that shall say in his heart, My master doth defer his coming, and so beginneth to eat and drink with the drunken, and smite his fellow servants: The master of this careless and secure servant shall come in a day, saith our Saviour Christ, when he looketh not for him, & in an hour that he is not aware of, & will cut him off, and give him his portion with Hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Seeing therefore this people of Sodom laboured of so dangerous a Lithargy, they were justly surprised with so strange and fearful a judgement.  

The fourth sin of Sodom.  The fourth sin of Sodom, was, They did not strengthen the hand of the poor, they were unmerciful, uncharitable and hardhearted towards the needy: and surely they could not otherwise be; for a proud heart, a full belly, and a vain, careless, idle head never regards the distressed estate of those that are in want and misery. Other sins provoke God to wrath and indignation: but this sin provokes him to deny mercy, and to become inexorable, according to that saying of the Apostle, 
james. 2.13.  There shallbe judgement merciless to him that showeth no mercy And the reason why God will show no mercy to those that are merciless unto the poor, either in oppressing them, or in not relieving them, is, because he taketh all unmerciful and uncharitable dealing with the poor, to be an injury done unto his own person, according to that saying of Solomon, He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth him that made him.  
Thus you may well perceive, that all the wrong that is done to the poor, the LORD doth take it as done to himself: for in every place throughout all the whole Scripture, the Lord GOD doth profess himself to be the Guardian and keeper of the poor and needy, 
God the Guardian of the poor.  and acknowledgeth them to be his Wards and Pupils: and therefore God will revenge himself in justice without mercy, upon all those, which either deal uncharitably or injuriously with them. Whereupon the Lord expostulates the matter with his people, 
Esay. 3.15.  and demands of them, What they had to do to grind the faces of the poor? As though it were a thing that they could not justify. And to the end that all the cruel and unmerciful of the world might know, that GOD will not suffer the wrongs that are done to the poor, to escape unrevenged, he proclaims it to the world by the Prophet David, 
Ps. 12.5, 6.  that for the comfortless troubles sake of the needy, and because of the deep sighing of the poor, I will up, saith the Lord, and help every one from him that swelleth against him, and will set them at rest. As if he should say, Though I pass over other sins, and bear with patience other indignities, 
Though God bear with other sins, yet he will not bear with the sin of unmercifulness. Pro. 22.23.  though I sit still and wink at other transgressions, yet when the case concerns the poor, when my Orphans and Wards are wronged, than I will up, saith the Lord, I'll bear no longer, but I will revenge their cause and relieve them. For which cause Solomon gives all the unmerciful dogs of the world warning, not to bite nor devour these silly sheep: for the Lord will defend their cause, saith he, & spoil the soul of those that spoil them. The poor, saith S. Augustine, are God's barns, in which except we lay our earthly treasures of pity and compassion in this world, we shall not find that heavenly treasure of everlasting life in the world to come.  
Many and fearful are the plagues which are threatened against those which deal unmercifully with the poor. Their prayers are abominable; 
The prayers of the unmerciful, are abominable.  the Lord will not hear them, though they cry unto him in the bitterness of their soul. 
Pro. 21.13.  He that stoppeth his ear at the cry of the poor, shall also cry, and not be heard.  
In which words, Solomon doth give us two things to understand; first, that the unmerciful men shall cry, how rich, how honourable, how potent and mighty soever they be, yet the Lord will lay some grievous thing or other upon them, either in health or in sickness, either in this world, or in the world to come, that shall make them cry, as upon their deathbed: the guiltiness of their own conscience, the fear of death, the horror of hell, and dread of damnation. If God lay these things upon them, they will be enforced to cry: but if not, yet certainly they shall cry in hell, with their fellow Dives; 
Psal. 104.21. Psa. 147.9. Hose●. 2.21. Gen 4.10.  for cry they shall, as Solomon saith: but the second thing is, they shall not be heard. The Lions roar, and the Lord heareth them: The young Ravens cry, and he heareth them: he hears the heavens, he hears the blood of those that are murdered, and indeed he hears all things; but an unmerciful man, he shall cry, and not be heard. Dives is a notable precedent to all those that are dogged and hardhearted towards the poor; he cried not in this world, he had his pleasure, as many more rich men have: but for all that, the saying of Solomon proved true upon him; for though he cried not in this world, yet he cried in hell, I am tormented in this flame. But was he heard? Alas, no, he could not have so much as a drop of cold water granted him. This therefore is one plague, and a fearful one also, which shall happen to all unmerciful, cruel and uncharitable persons: They shall cry, and not be heard.  
The second misery, that shall befall those that do not strengthen the hand of the poor, nor succour them in their miseries, is, they shall not enjoy the things which they chiefly desire to enjoy, their present hope shall be frustrate, and when they think themselves to be the surest of their wished desires, even than shall they be deprived of all their hopes, and shall never see the fruits of their labours. 
Amos. 5.11.  This doth the Lord threaten by the Prophet, Forasmuch, he saith, as your treading is upon the poor, ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them, ye have planted pleasant vineyards, 
job. 20.20.  but ye shall not drink wine of them. This is the misery of the unmerciful, they shall purchase, for others to inherit, they shall build houses, for others to dwell in, they shall get and scrape together, but others shall enjoy their hopes, and carry away the fruits of their labours. Nabal, that foolish Churl, may serve for an example to confirm the truth of this unto us, who out of his hard, and incompassionate heart denied his bread, his water, and his flesh to David and his followers in the wilderness. This Nabal did shear his sheep, but he never lived to sell his wool; he made a great feast, but he never digested his meat: for he became as a stone, and died in ten days after. So shall the hopes of all the unmerciful be frustrate, and they shall not be partakers of their wished desires, but leave their labours for others to enjoy.  
Now, 
The sin of unmercifulness provoketh God to punish a whole land. Amos 8.4, 8.  if the sin of unmercifulness did only provoke God to inflict private and particular punishments upon men, it were the more to be borne withal: but indeed it procureth the fierce wrath of God, and his heavy judgements upon a whole land, and against a people or nation in general: For so the Lord hath threatened by his Prophet, Hear this, ye that swallow up the poor, that ye may make the needy of the land to fail, shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? So that, unmerciful men do not only provoke the vengeance of God upon themselves, but to the land wherein they inhabit, and to the people of the land where they dwell. No marvel then, if the Lord God brought such a fearful and strange punishment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and the people of that country, seeing this sin of unmercifulness was rooted amongst them so, that they did not strengthen the hand of the poor.  
The last misery that shall befall unmerciful men, is, that last and dreadful speech, which shall be pronounced unto them at the day of judgement, Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 
The unmerciful shall have the curse of God, which is woe everlasting.  Then shall all the unmerciful of the world know and feel, to their woeful experience, that there is a God that revengeth the cause of the poor and needy. Then they shall pay dear for all that they have gotten by oppression and wrong, and by hard and unmerciful dealing. Then shall they have as much torments, as ever they had pleasure, and as little comfort, as ever they had mercy: depart they must from the presence and favour of God for evermore. If unmerciful and uncharitable persons would but think of such a day, of such a speech, of such a departure, and of such a fire, they would distribute and give to the poor, they would make friends of their unrighteous Mammon, that in the world to come they might be received into everlasting habitations, and not thrust into everlasting fire.  
The last sin of Sodom, 
The last sin of Sodom.  was that unnatural sin, which taking the name of that city, hath carried it ever since, and is called Sodomy. In speaking whereof, I will follow the advice of Simmachus, who saith, that it is the safest, not once to name it. Paul had not known what lust meant, but that the Law said, Thou shalt not lust. So that sin took occasion by the Law, 
Rom. 7.8.  to work concupiscence in Paul. So, if I should discourse of this sin, you might haply say unto me, We had not known what this sin meant, if you had not taught us. Therefore Solon would not make any law against parricide, lest, whiles he went about to repress it by law, he should teach it rather. So if I should lay open this sin at large, I should rather teach the world it, then do any thing else. I will therefore pass it over in silence, as not worthy once to be named.  

A comparison between the sins of Sodom and the sins of England  Thus have we heard the destruction of Sodom, and the sins of Sodom, which were the cause of her destruction: and now it remains, that we compare the sins of Sodom, and the sins of England together: For, if we find our sins to be as great as the sins of Sodom, we have just cause to expect some such like fearful judgement to be inflicted upon us, as was upon that City, people, and country.  
And first concerning the sin of pride, it is notorious, that we of England are no whit inferior to those of Sodom in this sin: For, whether we consider pride, as it is the botch of Nobility & Honour, or the leprosy of riches, or the bile of apparel, or the scourge of authority, or the madness of building, or the bane of good learning, certain it is, that pride was never at such an height, as it is amongst us in this age. 
The pride of England equal to the pride of Sodom.  The Noble man will not be reproved, the rich man must not be mated, the gay coat must be honoured, authority will not yield, sumptuous building must look over the whole country, and learning makes us swell above the banks of modesty and sobriety: So every one thinks better of himself then of others, and every one in the height of their pride scorneth another: and hereupon comes those dissensions, oppositions, contentions, divisions, envy & emulation amongst us: 
judges. 5.16.  for as Deborah sung of Reuben, so may we sing of ourselves, The divisions of England are great thoughts of heart. Ask the poor country Farmer, whereupon it is, that such unreasonable fines are exacted of him, why his rents are so racked and enhanced, and he will tell thee, it is to maintain the pride of his Landlord & Landlady. Hospitality, charity, patience, humility, & almost all virtue both divine and moral, are by pride exiled and banished this land. The subject is like the Prince, the servant like the master, the maid like the mistress; and such a confusion and disorder hath pride brought into this land, that every one hath forgotten their duty, calling and condition. The faces of the Elders are not had in honour, that ancient reverence, which sometime was given to the sacred calling of the Clergy, pride hath now turned into great contempt; devotion is scorned, we give nothing, for pride persuades us, that all is too little for ourselves. We forgive nothing; for our pride still provokes us to cruelty and revenge. That humble, homely habit, which kings in former times have used in their apparel, is now of every base unthrift and prodigal companion scorned. Those frugal fashions, & course stuffs, both for woof and workmanship, which ancient times delighted in, are now turned into velvets and silks of most strange and hellish devices. The pride and profusion in apparel, together with the fashions and inventions which are usual in England, were not once heard of in Sodom, in the day of her iniquity. Our women, as soon as they rise, put on a peddlers pack upon their backs, they paint their faces, pin their ruffs, frizzle their hair, & then their days work is done. Many there be, whose apparel is more worth, than all their estate beside: and very few there be, but their apparel is better than themselves. Our Saviour Christ noted the rich glutton, for that he was clothed in purple & fine linen: but how many may he brand with the mark of his heavy displeasure, which amongst us go as brave as he every day! O that laws could redress the pride of England, shame suppress it, or preaching break the neck of it! but all men & women have so generally taken it up, that neither laws, shame, nor preaching can take it away. There is nothing that hath undone Gentlemen, & men of other rank, so much as pride and profusion. Neither are we ever to expect or look for happy & good days, till such time as authority devise some means, to purge out of the body of this Realm, the superfluous humour of this sin: for it confounds all, consumes all, undoes all: Thus by woeful experience we have found our pride to be grown to the highest pitch, so that the pride of Sodom could not exceed it.  

Fullness of bread in England equal to that of Sodom.  Now in the second place, we are to compare the excess in meat & drink, which was in Sodom, to that of our country of England, of whom it may be truly said, that we build houses, as though we should never die, and we eat and drink, as though we should die to morrow. The very creatures cry out upon us for this sin, because we abuse them and kill them, not for our necessity only, but also for our excess and riot: we kill them, not to eat only, but to eat them deliciously and intemperately. Our fasting days are despised, and we esteem it a point of superstitious Popery, to observe days, and abstain from meats. 
Amb. Epist. 82. ad Eccle. ver.  The Church in the time of Saint Ambrose condemned the jovianists for heretics, because they called fasting, delirium, a mockery or madness. And have not we them amongst us at this day, that hold fasting to be superstition? And although in former times, the time of Lent was approved and commanded by nine several Counsels and Synods, besides the Canon of the Apostles commanding the same, yet we, making a God of our bellies, do, without any difference, serve the beastly desires of the same. And although authority hath taken order often, to restrain this our excess in eating and drinking, yet when did we pull one dish from our tables, or withhold one morsel from our bowels, in sign of obedience to authority, and of contrition towards God? But what do I speak of fasting, seeing our souls abhor it, and in stead thereof have entertained feasting, in which we show ourselves to be Gentiles rather than Christians? Our feasts are the feasts of Sodom, and we imitate that villainous Emperor Vitellius, 
Suet. in vita Vitell. sect. 13.  in his insatiable gluttony, of whom we read, that at one Supper he had prepared for him 2000 sundry sorts of fish, and 7000. sorts of Fowl. So the multitude of dishes, and the variety of services, is our glory at our feasts. And whereas one wood doth yield sufficient sustenance for many Elephants, the earth, the air, the sea will hardly minister provision for one of our feasts: but still we say, We are sorry we have no cheer: and therefore it is not possible, that the excess of Sodom in their fullness of bread, should be greater than ours in England.  
The third sin of Sodom, was, 
Idleness of England equal to that of Sodom.  idleness; in which sin, if we compare ourselves with them, we shall find ourselves nothing inferior unto them. The Steward in the Gospel, that wasted his master's goods, confessed freely that he could not work, & that he was ashamed to beg: but we have them amongst us, that can work, and yet are not ashamed to beg, being so impudent in this kind, that neither shame nor laws can restrain them. The theatres, the Taverns, the Bowle-alleyes, the Brothelhouses, the fields, the streets of Sodom did never swarm more thick with such vermin, then ours do, to the great displeasure of Almighty God, & the unspeakable detriment of our country and Commonwealth. The rich sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play. The poor labourer was never more idle in his calling, than at this day; he hath learned to make two days work of one, & he makes no conscience how he gets his wages, nor how he slubbers up his work. The Tradesman doth not live on the labour of his hands, but by the tricks of his wits; and therefore is every thing so deceitful & full of sleight, because idle hands have the handling of it. Others there be, which take the pains to rise to their dinner, and then walk to a play, and so return home by a whorehouse, them to supper, and lastly to bed: and thus they pass their time from day to day, as unprofitably, as ever did Marg●tes, of whom it is said, that he did nothing in all his life that might tend to good. Thus our Land is become a pool of standing waters, & a hive of Drones, and except Authority draw forth the sword of correction against the idle lozells of this Land, they will in time devour all the sweet from the painful and industrious hand: for where no Oxen are, there the crib is empty; and where none are that be painful, there is but want and beggary. Peter must be commanded to cast forth his Nets: The watchman must be charged to stand upon his watch, and not upon his honour, ease and reputation: Caesar must not sleep, 
Suet. in vita Clau. 33.  when he should administer justice, nor the Captain must not be in the Tavern, when he should be in the field, nor the Tradesman, nor the Gentleman, nor the labourer, must in no wise have idleness stick in their finger's ends; for as it was one sin amongst the rest, that procured the overthrow of Sodom: so will it together with other sins, hasten our judgement upon us, 
Want of mercy and charity in England without comparison.  seeing we have it in as great abundance amongst us, as ever they had it amongst them.  
And now order leads me to the comparison of a sin practised amongst us, wherein indeed we suffer no comparison, which is unmercifulness towards the poor and needy. Our unmerciful & uncharitable dealing with the poor, was not heard of in the day of Sodoms' iniquity; for their uncharitableness only extended itself to strangers, as far as can be gathered by History. They were inhospitales: they harboured no strangers, but if any stranger happened to come into this country, they abused him strangely and villainously: and for this cause they would have used Lot so ill, because he entertained and lodged strangers: following herein the custom of other nations, but especially of the Egyptians, who offered all strangers that arrived there, upon the altar of Busiris, being sometimes King of Egypt: 
Pined. in job, tom. 2. in cap. 31.  in whose reign there was a great drought in the land for the space of nine years: whereupon Busiris sent into Grecia for certain soothsayers to be sent him, to the end that by them he might be certainly informed of the cause of this drought: unto whom was sent Thasius, a man very expert in this kind, who certified the king, that the overflowing of Nilus could not be procured, but by the blood of some stranger offered up to jupiter in sacrifice. Whereupon Busiris 
— fies iovis hostia primas  
Inquit, et Aegypto tu dabis hospes aquam:  And so offered this soothsayer stranger unto jupiter: and ever after, these Egyptians, in any calamity or distress, used to offer the strangers that arrived amongst them, upon the altar of Busiris. Fron which custom of the Egyptians, other nations became very barbarous, cruel, & unmerciful unto strangers. But amongst us, Manasseh eats Ephraim, & Ephraim eats Manasseh, and both of them eat juda. And it may rightly be said of us, as the Prophet sometimes said of his people, There is no mercy in the land. For whereas mercy and charity consists in giving and forgiving, our hard & uncompassionate hearts will suffer us to give nothing, & our malicious minds will permit us to forgive nothing: there was sometimes an age of giving, & lending: but now our pride, our covetousness, one self-love, persuade us, that all is too little for ourselves; & therefore this modern age neither gives nor lends; It may be, when we die, than we will and bequeath, but as long as we live, we keep and hold fast. And surely, if the most charitable man that lives in this age, would but compare that which he gives to the poor, with that he spends and bestows idly, vainly, and upon his pleasures, he himself would cry shame upon his charity. The crying and complaining of the poor in our streets, doth witness against us, that we do not strengthen the hand of the poor. There was an age, when men would have forborn much, and have forgiven much: but now we go to law for every trifling trespass, and we take our debtors by the throat, and cast them in prison, till they pay the uttermost farthing. But it may be, the Sodomites were as unmerciful as we, in giving and forgiving: but the name of an Encloser was not so much as heard of amongst them: and happy had it been for England, if Enclosure had never been known. 
Against Inclosers. Esa. 5.8, 9, 10.  Woe be to these Inclosers, even that woe denounced against them by the Prophet: for they are the unmerciful men of the world, they leave no room for the poor in the land, they appropriate that to themselves, which custom hath made common: injurious they are to common society, they pull down houses, overthrow towns, send men, women and children of all sorts, the widow, & the fatherless, from their known and accustomed dwelling places, to seek where they can thrust in their heads. Injurious they are to Religion, 
Tho. More, Eutop. lib. 1.  and to the worship and service of God: for either they pull down Churches, or if they let them stand, it is not for devotion, but either to croove their sheep in, or else for some base and irreligious service: Injurious they are to commonwealth, by straightening, stepping, or turning high ways out of their right course, into a wrong course, so that travelers either cannot pass at all, or else with great danger and fear of robbing and killing: they destroy tillage, whereby corn is grown both very scarce and extreme dear. And now that they have enclosed and converted their Enclosure into pasture, they farm out their grounds at so dear rate, that Butter, Cheese, Milk, Beef, Mutton, Veal, is at so excessive a price, as never before among our forefathers. The fields of England were sometimes compared to Christ's coat, which was without seam: so were they either without hedge▪ or ditch: but now they resemble a beggars cloak, being full of seams, pieces, and patches. These unmerciful men were not heard of in Sodom; for of Sodom it is said, that it was a plain country: 
Gen. 13.11. and 19.29.  therefore shall the Sodomites rise up in judgement at the last day against our Inclosers. Cymon, the Athenian, commanded all hedges and pales to be plucked up, and taken away from his grounds, to the end that both Citizens and strangers might have free access into his fields for any thing they stood in need of: but the Inclosers of our age do set down hedges and pales, where never any was, to keep out both strangers and home-born persons, and to abridge them of that which custom once made common to all: therefore that heathen man shall rise up in judgement against the Inclosers of our age.  
Neither was the name of Engrosser heard of in the day of Sodoms' iniquity: These are they, 
Against Engrossers. Amos 8.5.  which swallow up the poor; for when they have got a commodity into their hands, they make the Ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsify the weights by deceit: then they buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes, & sell the refuse of the wheat, and their commodities at their own price. This is a wicked generation; for they appropriate that to themselves, which nature hath made common to others: they care not who weep, so they may laugh: they seek to bring all the water to their own mill, neither do they respect the public good of the Commonwealth, but only their own private profit and gain. Nature doth abhor this kind of oppression. For as it were an unnatural thing in the body, if one member should draw unto it all the blood and nourishment, which the other members should be strengthened and preserved withal; so is that man an unnatural member in the politic body of the Commonwealth, which by engrossing, forestall, and regrating, doth get into his hands any commodity to enrich himself, without due respect of the good of others. 
C. de M●n. lib. jube.  The civil law doth condemn these kind of men, as most pernicious and hurtful to the State where they live, & therefore all their goods are by the civil law confiscate, and they themselves for ever banished: and the Magistrate which did connive and wink at such persons, was to lose fifty pounds, for suffering such persons to practise such unlawful means to enrich themselves by. And all Divines do hold, that Monopolies are directly against the eight Commandment, Thou shalt not steal: proving it to be a kind of public theft. And yet though nature abhor it, the Civil law condemn it, & the Law of God forbid it; the practice of it is common amongst us at this day, and many have risen to the height of that greatness which now they enjoy, only by this means, to the great dishonour of Almighty God, contempt of law, undoing of many hundreds in particular, and the public detriment of the Commonwealth in general.  
The unmerciful usury of our age far exceeds all that ever hath been before us: 
Against usury.  All ages before us have condemned it for a sin, but we have those in this age, that dare undertake to defend it to be no sin. Usury hath always drawn her name from biting: but now she may well have her name of devouring; for usury, as it is practised amongst us, doth not only bite, but devour. The Usurer in time past was excommunicated, as a man not worthy of the society and communion of Saints; he was deprived of Christian burial, as though he were not worthy to lie in the earth, but in hell; he was not permitted to make a will at his death, as though his goods were not his own: but now they are accounted worthy of the best company, our Churches are profaned with their sepulchres, and their wills and Testaments have as good approbation, as theirs, who have gotten their goods most truly and uprightly. Thus we do not only defend the sin which our forefathers have condemned, but we approve, reverence, and justify the sinner, which GOD will condemn: and therefore we surmount all that have been before us in our sins.  
What shall I say to the workmasters of our time? 
Against the unmerciful dealing of work masters.  Never were there such unmerciful persons heard of, as some of them be: if I should speak what I could, it might seem uncredible, that ever there should be such unmerciful courses among Christians. These are they which grind the faces of the poor Tradesman, by changing his wages seven times, as jacob said to Laban: for either they detain the workman's wages, or they abate them, or they change them, or reckon them short, or pay them in such commodities as is to be wondered at. And surely, great pity it is, that some merciful man or other doth not take in hand to redress this oppression of the workmasters: but if the poor Tradesman should complain, or seek redress, than he should lose all, and clean thrust himself out of custom for all work. Thus must he take all, and hold himself content, or lose all, and be content whether he will or not. Was there ever such a lamentable thing heard of, that the workman living in his calling, according to the law which God first laid upon man, In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou get thy living, should notwithstanding, contrary to that law, be wronged of his wages which are the stay of his living? Oh ye unmerciful men of the world, have you none to oppress but the poor workman? have you not read, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out of the corn? If man owe a duty of mercy to the unreasonable creature which laboureth for him, much more doth he owe a duty & right to man, which is his own mould, and should not muzzle up the mouth of the workman, his wife & children, by unconscionable courses in his wages: for the like was never heard of in Sodom. Thus are we unmerciful in giving, unmerciful in forgiving, unmerciful in lending, unmerciful in paying, unmerciful in buying and selling: so that it may justly be said of us, which was said of the Sodomites, They strengthen not the hand of the poor & needy.  
Thus have we found, by comparing our sins with the sins of Sodom, that we are nothing behind them in our sins; if we exceed them not, we are surely equal with them. It is said of the sins of Sodom, that they cried in the ears of the Lord: and surely our sins are as saucy and impudent, as ever were theirs; and if theirs cried, 
Sins of England, crying sins.  ours are not tongue-tied, I warrant you: we reach home to them with our wickedness. The sins of Sodom were grown to their full height, & so are ours. For it is impossible, that any man or woman in these days, should add any thing to the sins which they practise: so that as in a general plague, it is not such a marvel at those which die, as it is at those which escape: so in this general infection of sin, wherewith the world at this day is defiled, we are not so much to marvel that there be so many bad, as that there be any good. Now when the sins of a people grow to that height, that they come to be crying sins, than vengeance loiters not, destruction comes speedily.  
When the LORD had taken knowledge of the cry of the sins of Sodom, and had found their sins to be according to the cry, even the next day he reigned fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. So, when the Lord shall find our sins at their full height, he will speedily bring his judgements upon us, and destroy us: for as the husbandman thrusts the sickle into the Corn, when it is perfectly ripe; and as the Ox is brought to the slaughter, when he is fat: so destruction comes upon men, when the measure of sin is fulfilled.  
Now, 
The sins of England at the full height.  that our sins are at their height, and are grown to their perfect ripeness, it is manifest; because they are equal with the sins of Sodom, as hath been already proved, and also, because there can not be any addition made in the several humours and dispositions of men, to the sins which they practise. But admit, these two reasons shall not be thought of truth sufficient, to confirm the height and ripeness of our sins, I will add four infallible arguments, to prove the ripeness of sin.  
First, when sin is directly committed against God, against nature, 
The height and ripeness of sin, proved by four arguments.  and against human society, of which sort our sins be: they are directly against God, witness our horrible swearing and forswearing, and our fearful blapheming of the most holy and blessed Name of GOD, and our profane unhallowing of his Sabbath, together with the contempt of his word, and neglect of his Ministers: They are against nature, witness the filthy sin of Sodomy, of which this Land of ours can not clear itself; as also the Incest, the Parricide, the Fratricide, the Coosen-germane marriages which are committed amongst us: & they are against human society, witness our enclosing, our engrossing, our cruelty, extortion, oppression, robberies, murders, and such like.  
Secondly, the generality of sin doth prove the ripeness of sin, when not a few, but a whole multitude are corrupt: and such is our estate, a general infection of sin hath run over the whole Land, so that except the Lord had left unto us a small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and like unto Gomorrah.  
Thirdly, the impudence of the sinner doth prove the ripeness of sin, as when men are not ashamed to transgress openly, and also to brag and boast of their sins: and such have we amongst us, as might be instanced by men of note, if it were expedient to particularise.  
Lastly, when the sinner is not humbled, nor amended by punishments, & judgements inflicted upon him, it is a true mark that his sin is at the height: and herein have we showed ourselves to be incorrigible: The Lord hath threatened us with war, he hath plagued us with the pestilence, he hath pinched us with scarcity & dearth, and yet we are not bettered, there is no turning unto God, 
More tokens of God's wrath against us within few years, then of long time before.  but we fall away more and more: our sins therefore being at the height, the fierce wrath of God must needs be even near at hand, and ready to be executed upon us. And will you have such likelihoods, as may persuade the truth thereof unto us? Then write my words in tables, that they may be monuments for later days; for when your children's children shall hear of them hereafter, they will be astonished at them. The months of the year have not yet gone about eight times in their courses, wherein the Lord hath showed more tokens of his intended & approaching wrath, than the agedst man in our Land is able to recount of in so small a time. The winds have been so outrageous & violent, as though the four ends of heaven had conspired to turn the foundations of the earth upside down. The anger of the clouds hath been powered down upon us in such abundance, as hath been both unseasonable for the time, and unprofitable for the earth. The heavens above us have been turned to brass, and the earth beneath us into iron, which hath wrought such effects, that the child unborn shall speak of it. The sea, with unwonted inundations, hath attempted to bring the Land within the territory thereof. The fire, as an Ambassador of the last vengeance, hath most fiercely raged in all parts of our Land. Treasons many, mighty & monstrous, never before heard of, or imagined, have been plotted and contrived against our most dread & Sovereign, our Queen and Royal Issue, intending the utter overthrow of Kingdom, State, and Country.  
The Commons have risen, pretending themselves wronged in their commons, endangering the common peace and tranquillity of the Commonwealth.  
The arrows of a woeful pestilence have been cast abroad at large in all the quarters of our Land. A present dearth without scarcity, doth pinch us, bringing poverty like a wayfaring man upon us.  
Our Summer is turned into Winter, our cheapness of all things into dearth.  
The skies lower upon us, because their Creator is angry at us. The Sun hideth from us his gladsome light, as though we were not worthy to enjoy it.  
The clouds, night and day, do let fall showers of tears, bemoaning the miseries which God hath determined to bring upon us. And thus all the creatures do threaten and foreshow our approaching destruction: yet we, more senseless than the insensible creatures, neither fear any thing, nor suspect any thing. Well, there must be an end of sinning, or else God will make an end of us. 
There must be a turning unto God on our parts, before God will turn unto us.  There must be a turning unto God, or else God will not turn unto us. If our sins be the sins of Sodom, our judgement must be the judgement of Sodom. There must be some end of our sins, or if Moses and Samuel, with all the holy Angels, were amongst us, to bestow both their preaching and their prayers that we might be saved, they should save but their own souls, and neither us, nor our sons and daughters: We are not sinners of yesterday▪ we are not Novices in the school of Satan: but we have long trodden the paths of ungodliness, & wearied ourselves in the ways of wickedness. We have wearied the tongues of the Lords Ministers, and grieved the souls of those Preachers that have been sent unto us, in seeing their labour lost upon us; they have preached in season, & out of season, they have brought out of their treasures things both new & old, they have given us milk, and strong meat, they have come in the spirit of gentleness, and with a rod, they have entreated, threatened, preached mercy, & preached judgement, and yet all this without success: for we have been like the deaf Adder, stopping our ears, & refusing to hear the voice of the Charmer, charming sweetly unto us.  
Hearken now, I pray you, and be judges yourselves, O ye inhabitants of England, if the men of Sodom might have had those means to have drawn them to repentance, which you have had, would they not have brought forth fruits more worthy of repentance than you have done? Therefore shall they rise up in the day of judgement against you. Let this Alarm, given you by Sodom & her Cities, be a warning unto us all, to eschew their sins, lest we burn in their judgements. Let us all, from the highest to the lowest, fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker: let us lie low before the footstool of his Majesty, and with all submission both of body and mind, acknowledge our sins, & prevent the intended wrath of God against us, by our true & hearty repentance. For the Lord is our God, and will, and must be served of us: he is our Lord, & will, and must be honoured of us: he is our Father, & will, and must be obeyed of us: he is our judge, and dreadful Revenger, and will either be feared of us, or else he will revenge himself upon us.  
FINIS.