A White Sheet, OR A Warning for Whoremongers. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Swithins by London-stone, the 19 of july, Anno Domi: 1629. the day appointed by Honourable authority, for penance to be done, by an Inhabitant there, for fornication, continued more than two years, with his Maide-servant. BY RICHARD COOK B: of D: and Parson there. Fornication and uncleanness let it not once be named amongst you as it becometh Saints. Ephes. 5. 3. Fornicatio nulli impunè conce●itur. August: de conflicts vitior 〈…〉 vi●tutum. LONDON, Printed by john Dawson, for Henry Overton, and are to be sold at the entrance into Popes-head-Alley, out of Lumbard-streete. 1629. TO THE RIGHT WORSIPFULL, AND HIS worthily respected friends Mr HUMPHREY SMITH, ALDERMAN. M. William Essington. M. Richard Glover. M Richard Caswell. M. Matthew Craddocke. Common Counsel men of the Parish of St. Swithins, and to the rest of my kind and loving neighbours there, GRACE. and GLORY. RIght Worshipful, and the rest, I little thought when I preached this Sermon, (the rude and undigested meditations of some few hours) that it ever should have gone further than where you found it, God is my witness, I have ever been so conscious to myself, of so much weakand disability, of making any thing of mine own public, that I have ever held it true, benè qui latuit, benè vixit, he liveth contentedly, that liveth retiredly, accounting myself happy enough if I could but give content to them by my private labours, by whom I live and have my means, and maintenance. From the Pulpit it is now come to the Press, and had not some of my good friends at home; and other loving acquaintance abroad, earnestly pressed and importuned me for the publication of it, it had seen no Sun: but being unwiling to deny many a thing so reasonable, and hoping it might be profitable for many, and especially for him, who that day was the cause of so great a concourse and conflux of people) I have adventured to present that unto your hands and eyes, which at the first I, only intended for your ears; though mine hopes have failed me, and the success I expected, give me but small encouragement, or comfort in it. You have heard I persuade myself, since I preached the Sermon, how vildly and uncivilly I have been traduced by him: the thing that I feared is fallen upon me, I could look no better fruit from such à Crab: Men do not gather Grapes of Thorns, nor Figs of Thistles: Who can expect sweet water, from an unwholesome fountain, or a pleasing Odour from a stinking Dunghill? but regium est malè audire, and my comfort is the testimony of mine own conscience with me, and for me, that what then I did or spoke, was intended for his good, both for his humiliation and for his comfort. But as the best meats, received into a foul stomach, turn rather to corruption, and putrefaction, then unto good and wholesome nutriment: so is the word pabulum animae, the food of our souls, to feed us, and fit us for the kingdom of heaven; when it is entertained into a wicked heart: The Bees suck honey out of common and coarse flowers, when Spiders, and Toads, gather nothing but pason out of the best and sweetest. The word of God is aliis odor vitae ad vitam, aliis odor mortis ad mortem, as the Apostle tells us, 2. Cor. 2. 16. unto some the savour of life unto life, and unto others the savour of death unto death: I am heartily sorry it wrought no kindlier, or no better with him. And as for myself, whatsoever his baseness and unbefitting behaviour hath since been unto me, I thank God, I can as easily contemn it, as he obtrude it, with Socrates answer only, as Laertius reports it, who being reviled made no other answer, nor was further moved at it, but with benè loqui non didicit, he had not yet learned to speak well; I know his tongue is no slander: why then should I be moved, or discontented at any thing invented, or vented by such a man? Philip being told, that the Grecians spoke evil of him, notwithstanding the much good he had done them, and therefore being solicited to punish them for it; mildly replied, what would they do, if I should do them any hurt? Ego verò sic vitam instituam ut nemo illis sit crediturus: but I will so order my life, that no man shall believe them, what soever evil they shall speak of me: I say no more, for myself, or of him, but Father forgive him, and Lord lay not this sin unto his charge. What my life and conversation hath been amongst you, for now more than twenty and four years, you best know, in whose eyes I have ever lived: who, I presume, will easily vindicate my reputation from all malevolent and scandalous aspersions. I appeal unto you all, how unjustly, and undeservedly he hath defamed me. I comfort myself with David's answer to Abishai, concerning Shemies railing and reviling him: Let him alone, it may be the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will do me good for his cursing this day: 2 Sam. 16. 13. and I am confident of that truth of the wise man; The curse that is causeless shall not come. Pro. 26. 2. We use to say, they run far that never return: all were not called into the vineyard at the first hour of the day; Some at the third, some at the ninth, and some at the eleventh. Mat. 20. 3. etc. I hope that this Prodigal may come home again into himself, and that by the goodness and mercy of God unto him in Christ, he may be more careful of his own salvation, and conscionable of my good name and reputation: which God grant. The Lord knoweth that I neither thought nor meant him ill, in all I said or did: If I dealt plainly, and and to purpose with him, it was the good of his soul, and the discharge of my conscience to God and men, that I only aimed at: and if for this I shall be either evilly thought of, or spoken of, blame me not if I be a little moved, pardon me this passion, and pity my disgrace, and save me what you can, from the lash of lewd and slandering tongues, we are both sufficiently known unto you and what our lives have been amongst you; judge and spare not, which of us two have most offended. I have thus far presumed of your love and favour, (my kind and loving neighbours) to dedicate these my poor and plain labours unto you, and unto none but you: for unto whom should I, or could I give both myself and whatsoever that little (that Christ enabling me, I shall be able in the work of my ministry) next unto God, then unto you, amongst whom for these many years I have lived, as comfortably, and as contentedly, (I bless God for it) as any poor Minister in this City? I presume you will not deny the Patronage and protection of this worthless work of mine: you have somewhat suffered through the sin of him that suffered that day, that condign shame and punishment. I would it had never been told in our Gath, nor published in the streets of our Askalon, or that so bad a Bird had not defiled so sweet a nest. I did my best to free you all, from either concealing, or conntenancing of the sin, and gave them their due that did their best to have it punished; whose pains to that purpose may justly calling a thank full remembrance from us all: Refuse not to countenance his pains, that did what he could to maintain your honour. I have hitherto blessed God, and rejoiced in your liberality: your many favours, from many of you in private, from most of you in public, shall ever oblige me unto you all, in all thankful love and observancy: Add I pray unto the great heap of your former beneficency, a favourable acceptance of these few leaves of my weak labours; It is a Child that was both begotten and borne in your Parish, I hope it shall not find the less favour for the Father's sake. You have been I am sure, and still are (as I think) at this time also, at the care and cost of keeping some poor men's children: what this may cost you I cannot tell: howsoever, I persuade myself, you will not see it starve in the streets. Silver and Gold have I none, but such as it is, it is only yours; and so is he, that living and dying resolveth to be an humble petitioner unto the throne of Grace, for the happiness and prosperity of you all, here and hereafter. Now the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole Spirit, and Soul and Body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord jesus Christ; so it becometh him to pray, who is your servant in the work of his Ministry, and heartily desireth the continuance of your love and favour, and to remain. Yours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 RICHARD COOK. A White Sheet; OR A Warning for Whoremongers. HEB. 13. 4. Whoremongers and Adulterers, God will judge. YOu will not much wonder I persuade myself, that I have this day changed mine ordinary and usual Text, while you cast your eye upon this penitentiary spectacle, of a black soul in a white sheet: The first of this kind and nature, (I thank God) that since my time we ever had; and I hope both we and he also will pray God, that as he hath been the first, so also he may be the last. A Spectacle causing I know not whether, greater sorrow or rejoicing: in me I can assure you, it causeth both: If natural parents having children, that prove unnatural and disobedient, cannot but lament and grieve for them: as for a murdering Cain, a mocking Ishmael, a profane Esau, etc. but to have in the family a Reuben, climbing up to his father's bed, an Amnon, to defile his sister Tamar, or an Absolom, to lie with his father's concubines, in the sight of all Israel, and of the Sun: how can this but cut them to the very heart and soul? How then can those, whom God hath made to be spiritual Fathers but mourn as much to have such monsters? God is my witness this is no pleasing sight to me, further than I consider in it digitum Dei, the finger of God in this justly inflicted and imposed punishment upon him; which I hope through the mercy of God may be for the destruction of the flesh that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord jesus, which God grant. It hath been often said that it is a fair flock that hath never a scabbed sheep in it. The fruitfullest fields of corn when they have been freest, have had some weeds growing, as well as grain: Crescunt cum tritico Zizania tares amongst the wheat, and what Congregation ever was yet so fortunate to have all stand sound and strieght amongst them: In the primest times and purest days of the Gospel, the Apostles had an Ananias and Saphira, an Elimas', a Simon Magus and the like. a 1 Cor. 5. 12 In the Church of Corinth, for all Paul's zealous praying for them and preaching to them, there was such a sin broke out amongst them, that was not named amongst the Heathens; That a man should have his father's wife. Yea b john 6. 70. Christ himself, amongst those few he had, even of twelve one proved to be a devil. Sorrow and compassion is never more sweet and seasonable, then when God is dishonoured, the souls of men endangered, and religion blemished, by the fowl and filthy sins of ungodly and graceless men. When Zimri and Coshi had committed fornication in the camp of Israel, c Numb. 25. 6 you shall find all the congregation of the people of Israel, weeping before the doors of the Tabernacle of the congregation: d 2 Sun. 18. 33 What made David to take on so pitifully for the death of Absalon, but for his sins the main cause of his untimely death, he died a rebel to God, and a traitor to his Father; hinc illa lacryma, this caused that sorrow. S. Cyprian in his sermon de lapsis a little from the beginning testifieth of himself; that when he saw, or heard of any that fell away from the Orthodox faith for fear of persecution, that he could not but shed many tears for them, and that he felt himself as deeply wounded with their apostasy; Tanquam persecutorum gladijs vulneratus fuisset, as if he had been wounded unto death by the swords or other weapons of cruel persecutors. When that incestuous person in the Church of Corinth had brought that scandal on the Church, and had nothing said or done to him for it, S. Paul went not behind their backs to blame them for it, and to tell them e 1 Cor 5. 2 they were rather puffed up, then sorrowed, that he which had done that fault might be put away from amongst them. It is a masterpiece of religious wisdom in sorrowing for the sins of others, to put a difference betwixt their sins and their souls having compassion f jude 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligendo homines, odio habendo peccata: hating them as sinners but loving them as men: And thus and no otherwise stand I this day affected, to the sin & the shame of him that stands here before us. And as I am sorry for the foulness of his sin, so I profess I rejoice and am glad with all mine heart, for the execution of justice by those Honourable, Reverend, and Worshipful persons in the High Commission-Court, that have so justly and worthily inflicted this punishment upon him. No more I am confident than law permitted, though not so much I dare say, as his sin deserved: If such a fly had fallen on weak spiders webs, God knows where he would have light and fly-blowen next. There is nothing that causeth such boldness and impudency in sin as impunity. g Eccle. 8. 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, the hearts of men are fully set in them to do evil. h 1. Sam. 18. 9 10. 11. Saul can no sooner swear to the witch of Endor for her safety, at the raising of only seeming Samuel, but she presently, falls to her sorcery, which till then she durst not for her life have attempted. Hope of escaping draws men to sin bare-faced and with boldness. Which made Cato wisely to say that it were better ⁱ pro collato beneficio nullam reportare gratiam quam pro maleficio non dare paenam, to receive no thanks for doing well, than no punishment for doing evil. We should therefore be so affected, when we see the hand of God in the punishment of offenders, as the author of them is, who delights not in them, as they make his creatures miserable, but as thereby his justice is made more conspicuous & glorious: It should not only joy us to see God kind and gracious in his mercies to his own, but also to see him terrible and just in the punishment of his enemies. It 〈◊〉 no cruelty to rejoice in justice, the foolish pity of men is cruelty in God's esteem. It was a wise and religious answer of Lewis K: of France who was styled the Saint, who having signed a pardon for a malefactor, and afterward calling it in again, being asked the reason of it replied nothing nor made no other answer to it then with these words of the Psalmist. l Psal. 106. 3. Beati qui faciunt judicium et justitiam in omni tempore, Blessed is he that doth judgement and justice at all times. And I have read of that Isabella of Spain that was wont to say, of four things which she loved to look at, one was this, to see a thief upon the ladder at the Gallows, rejoicing to see the execution of justice. The Psalmist tells us that n Psal. 58. 10. the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, a text not to be tontured to private revenge, or meant of that joy when men are tickled to see or hear of some mischief to befall their enemies, such a kind of rejoicing is unchristian and vancharitable; and the contrary is commanded, o Prou. 24. 17 rejoice not when thine enemy falleth and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it and it displease him: but of the justice of God when he meets with offenders for their sins. Metellus Macedonicus and Scipio Africanus were always out with one another, and as cross and contrary each to other as might be, yet when Metellus heard of the death of Scipio, he ran about the streets & lamentably cried out, ᵖ concurrite, concurrite cives, maenia urbis nostra subversa sunt, help neighbours, help, the walls of our city are overthrown: And when Caesar saw the head of Pompey, uberrimas lachrymas profudit, he wept bitterly. The joy of the godly never is, or aught at any time to be in the hurt or punishment of the wicked, but in this that God hereby is glorified and his justice magnified, Gaudendum non de malo impij, sed de bono iudice as Anselmus well observeth, we may not rejoice that the wicked suffer, but that their sufferings come from a righteous judge: and thus and no otherwise I profess myself, and I hope I may promise as much for you all, do no otherwise rejoice in this man's shame and punishment this day. If he hath but so much grace as to do both these for himself, he is an happy man: for though happily he hath hitherto deceived the expectation of the world, who as yet see but small sign of either, yet hereby he may conceive some hope of finding God more favourable, in forgiving this that is past, and the world also more friendly, to help him; by their prayers for mercy and forgiveness at the hands of God if this be wanting, if this be not obtained, what can be expected after all these earthly shames and censures, but eternal tortures both of soul and body, in those easeles and endless flames of fire and brimstone? that very doom which here is denounced against the sin of uncleanness and filthiness, for Whoremongers etc. The whole verse as it lieth in the lump, if you please to consider it, as it is compact together, consisteth of these two principal parts and members: A Commendation and secondly a Commination; The gracing of marriage; And then the disgrace of the polluters of marriage, the first honourable, the last damnable. Marriage is honourable, an honourable testimony of that holy institution of God in the time of man's innocence, when q Gen. 2. 22. God seeing that it was not good for him to be alone, out of man made he an help meet for man, that for ever after for the avoiding of fornication, every man might have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own wife, and every wife her own husband, r 1 Cor. 7. 2. that such as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body, as we have it well in our litturgie of marriage. But if any such should happily be borne, that like wild beasts would needs be breaking over the pale of this park of God, and like fed horses fall s jere. 5. 8. a neighing after their neighbour's wives, as God complains of such in jeremy's time, t Ezek. 22. 11 or that should discover their father's nakedness, or humble her that was set apart for pollution, or committed abomination with his neighbour's wife, they might know they should do it at their own peril, and pay sweetly and dearly for it first or last, for Whoremongers etc. Which words being for the sum and substance of them a definitive and peremptory sentence against unclean and filthy persons, may it please you to take into your observation three several circumstances, whereby it is exemplified & enlarged, first the sinners to be censured; Secondly the judge that shall set upon them: and thirdly the punishment that shall be inflicted. The persons punishable and to be tried, are two ways discovered, first by the nature of the sin: secondly by the number of offenders. Whoremongers and adulterers, The judge before whom they shall be arraigned is God, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, the censure and punishment to be inflicted is judgement, a word of large extent aggravating the soreness & severtiie of their punishment, for Whoremongers & Adulterers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gualther truly hath observed. Let us first look upon the prisoners at the bar: there are here two sorts of sins and sinners named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoremongers and adulterers. Both apparently peccants and delinquents against that peremptory commandment of God, u Exod. 20. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery, but not offenders alike, faulty enough both, and bad is the best: both condemned and with these and whatsoever other uneleanesse else, by that commandment and law of God is also interdicted. I know Divins have well distinguished them: Whoredom to be filthiness and uncleanness committed by those that are at liberty and loose, Soluti cum Soluta and therefore called single fornication, the sin of such as be both free, not yet knit together, nor of twain made one by anytie of matrimonial conjunction; such as was the sin of uu Gen. 34. ● Shechem with Dinah and of x Numb. 25. Zimri with Coshi. The other kind of this uncleanness is Adultery: which is a plain & a palpable breach of holy marriage: The word adulterium some have thought to have been derived of quasi ad alteram of coming to, or accompanying with an other: which I think is something short: others better tell us that adulterium is ad alterius thorum accessio: the climbing up unto the bed of another, as ʸ Aquinas defineth it to be the unlawful companying together of them, that are coupled together, such as was the sin of z Gen 49. 4. Reuben, a 2 Sam. 11. 4. David with Bathsheba, and of b 2 Sam. 16. 22. Absalon with his Father's concubines, both which the Apostle tells us God will judge. Secondly we have them discovered by their number whoremongers & adulterers, meaning not some one but all such speaking indefinitely & generally in the plural number, aiming at every man & mother's son. God in cases of justice, being c Hab. 1. 13. a God of pure eyes, that can behold no iniquity a God that taketh no pleasure in wickedness c Psal. 5. 4. neither shall any evil dwell with him. He is neither accepter of places nor persons: He that gave such a strict charge to his delegates & deputies not to d Exod. 23. 3. countenance a poor man in his cause, and charged them also, e Deut. 17. not to have respect of persons in judgement but to hear the small as well as the great and not to fear the face of men. This God I say, thus strict and punctual in his precept unto others, that justice might be carried in a right line and level, will not lay heavy burdens on other men's shoulders, and not move them himself with one of his fingers, but will be as impartial against all sorts of sinners, whose repentance and humiliation after sin committed comes not forth speedily to meet this God as Abigail did David, or the inhabitants of Tyrus and Sidon to pacify Herod displeased with them. Let no unclean person dream of a dispensation in his sin, I know God never hath nor will grant any: that is enough for Dominus Deus noster Papa of Rome (as his base clawbacks and Sycophants blasphemously style him) God scorns to live by so base and beastly rents & comings in: anima g Ezek. 18. 20. quae peccat morietur, that soul that sinneth shall die. h Isay 9 14. The Lord will cut off head & tail, branches and rush in one day, and if happily it should find any favour with men, (which God fobid) yet let it hope for none with God: God's purpose is otherwise (if such mend not their manners) for Whoremongers etc. The next thing to be handled and dispatched in the text, is the judge before whom they should be tried and that is God, for Whoremongers and Adulterers, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God then shall be their judge: truly termed and styled by Abraham, to be the judge of all the world: i Gen. 18. 15 shall not the judge of all the world do right? and surely so he is, the only Lord chief justice of all the world riding no lesser or shorter circuit than the compass of all the world. Two ways is God said to judge, per se, per suos, by himself or by some others, immediately or mediately, usually by both and in both together. In taking vengeance and inflicting punishment upon offenders, what or who is it, that is not at his command, readily and cheerfully to be at his beck to do his pleasure? When God goes about the devastation and conflagration of Sodom and Gomorrha: by the judgement of hell out of heaven, by raining down k Gen. 15. 24 fire and brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven. God will be their judge, but God's Angels shallbe his executioners: When God intends to coop up that blasphemous mouth of l 2 Kin. 19 35 37 Rabshekie, and to take down the pride and insolency of his Master, God will bring it to pass by an Angel and men. Yea what creature is so mean, despiseable, or contemptible which God cannot quickly arm with strength and power enough, to avenge the quarrel of God in the confusion & destruction of the proudest offenders? m Exod. 8. 16. Lice, frogs, caterpillars, out of the very dust and ashes of the earth can God muster up an army to fight against Pharaoh, when he comes to plague him and his people; By all which, or by any of which whatsoever is effected, these are but the instruments, God is primus motor, the especial agent and mover, God by these and in these bringing to pass his intended purposes and good pleasure, in the punishments of such as shall dare to provoke him by sinning against him. It is true that usually & most an end God hath put the power of punishing into the hands of subordinate authority, of whom he hath said n Psal. 82. 6. Dij estis, yea are Gods, by God appointed, o Rom. 13. 4. to take vengeance of them that do evil, yet whatsoever these do in courts and causes of justice: justly and sincerely is Gods own act, it is he that doth it: these are the mouths and hands of God from whom they speak, and for whom they strike; when offenders suffer. If any shall ask why the Apostle tells us that God naming none but God, will have the hearing and handling of such fowl matters as these, & himself will sit in judgement upon whoremongers and adulterers. I suppose that happily it might be for these several causes and reasons. First the church and people at this time being under persecution and dispersion, they could have no public court of justice, nor any law civil, or Eclesiastick to punish this sin: or secondly if there were means for the suppressing of it: yet it was not so strictly looked after as was fitting, as may appear by that indulgency which the incestuous person found in the Church and Congregation of Corinth. But the chief and principal cause as I conjecture, was in terrorem peccatorum for the greater terrifying of such offenders, that all such filthy wretches and beastly livers might be assured that they could neither sin so secretly, but they should be discovered, nor after sin committed scape unpunished: if there were none that either would or could look after them, yet God himself would plague them for it, for whoremongers and adulterers God, etc. Two things amongst many make the wicked bold and presumptuous to fall upon any sin with greediness. Hope that their sin shall not be seen, and secondly weakness in authority, if found out and taken with it, It often happeneth that as other sinners, so Whoremongers and adulterers, are so close and cunning in their uncleanness, that the most vigilant and observaut eye of authority can take no notice or knowledge of it, it is a piece of the mystery of their iniquity, and a trick in that black Art, Si non castè tamen cautè, if they can be but secret they think they are safe enough. p job 24. 15. The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight, and saith none eye shall see him, and disguiseth his face: q Prou. 7. 7. 9 and the simple young man when he goeth to a bandy house and to meet with his harlot takes his time in the twilight, in the morning in the black and dark night. Thus indeed they may be too cunning and to crafty for the eyes of men, but they are to young to hide their sins from God: for there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can be hid as Elihu speaks in job r job. 34. 5. 22. can any man hide himself in secret, that I shall not see him? s jer. 23. 24 do not I fill heaven and earth. The darkness is no darkness with him but the night is as clear as the day, the darkness and the light to him are both alike, And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t Psal. 139. 12. 13. all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. u Heb. 4. 13. uu Psal. 94. 9 10. He therefore that made the eyes must needs see, and he that planteth the ear must needs hear, and he that chasteneth the Heathen shall not he punish? yes surely: and as he never winks at any sin, so will he not at this, for whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. The other thing that flesheth men in their filthiness, is weakness of authority, when either those that would may not, or those that may, do not, or dare not meddle with them: when these beastly creatures think they can either overlook or over-top authority, by being greater or better, either by their persons, or places, or purses, than the Magistrate: for this is not always or alone the sin of beggars, as it was wont to be said of drunkenness, as drunk as a beggar: But Erasmas called it long since Lusum magnatum, the sport of great men, and therefore through their greatness know how to deal well enough with Authority, presuming that either by fraud, or force, or fear, to scape well enough by breaking the cords of Magistrates, and casting these bonds from them. 'tis true it may so now and then fall out, that greatness of offenders may manumit malefactors and free them from the force of the stroke of a mortal Magistrate, but they are like to meet with their match, when they meddle with their maker: he neither wants eyes to see, nor hands to smite, nor courage to punish the proudest whoremonger, or the greatest adulterer; when he shall come to sit in judgement. The strongest willbe to weak to deal with him: x Isay 27. 4. who will set the briers and thorns against him in battle? y 1 Cor 10. 12. do we provoke the Lord to jealousy, are we stronger than he? what is a pot of earth to a sceptre of iron; or the stabble to the fire z Heb. 12. 29. for our God is a consuming fire; a Mat. 10. 28. He can tear in pieces and none shall deliver, he can kill both soul and body in hell. And this is that judge, which here the Apostle tells us, shall give this sentence upon these and all other impenitent sinners; Whoremongers and adulterers by name in this text, for whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. The third and the last thing in the trial of these persons, is to hear their judgement, for God will judge them. There is a two fold kind of judging given to God, iudicium liberationis and iudicium condemnationis, a judgement of absolution and another of condemnation, the first is gratiae, the other irae: that comfortable, this other terrible: The judgement of absolution is only for such which after sin committed, have heartily repent and humbled themselves to God, and through Christ have made their peace with God, for whose only sake, they have their pardon sealed, and hear no more of them, but some sweet words of grace and mercy, like that of Nathan to David, c 2. Sam. 12. 13. Dominus transtulit peccatum tuum: The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die, or as Christ said to him that he had cured of the palsy, d Mat. 9 2. Confide fili, remittuntur tibi peocata tua: son be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee, So that there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ. Rom. 8. 1. e john 5. 29. For he that heareth my words, and believeth in him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. And thus only are the godly judged, and none thus but these The other kind of judging is a judgement condemnatory, binding over all remorseless and impenitent sinners, to all those temporal and eternal plagues and punishments, which God the righteous judge hath not only nominated and threatened, but undoubtedly shallbe inflicted as severely as threatened. And of this kind of judging only is this in the text intended, thus Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. A terrible saying, but a true: A word of astonishment and amazement, like that hand writing which appeared to Belshazzar on the wall, at the very sight whereof, before he knew what it might be or meant, f Dan. 5. 6. his countenance was changed, his thoughts troubled him, the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees knocked one against another: little less terrible than Peter's words to Ananias and Saphira, at the hearing whereof, g Acts 5. 5. 6. they both gave up the Ghost and died. As much amazement well may this word cause in Whoremongers and adulterers, to deter them from this sin, for God will judge them. But if God be purposed to judge such beastly livers, where, when, or how, will some man ask, will God effect it? I answer for the time, that is in his own appointing, and at his own pleasure: sooner or later or whensoever he listeth: only let such know that first or last at one time or an other, God hath appointed a day in which he will judge them: There damnation sleepeth not, it may come suddenly; Gods hands are never so bound, never so pinioned that he cannot punish at his pleasure: If not suddenly, yet certainly: ʰ Scra venit, sed certa venit vindicta deorum, slow but sure. Hath not God met with some in the very act of their abominable filthiness; Thus perished i Numb. 25. 7. 8. Zimri and Cosbi by the hands of Phinees, Plutarch reports that Alaebiades was burned in his bed with his Courtesan Yimandra, and Paulus Diaconus that Rodoaldus King of Lombardic was slain with a certain Matron, even in the action of their concupiscence: But what if present execution be not done, shall they therefore scape scot-free? will God put it up, or pass it by unpunished? m 〈…〉. I have a long time held my peace, I have been still and resrained myself; but I will cry like a travelling woman, I will destroy and devour at once. Quod differtur non aufertur; forbearance with God is no payment, the longer he stayeth, the liker to pay, home at the last, quanto diutiùs sustinet tanto disstrictiùs iudicat; the further he fetcheth his blow, the heavier it must needs fall wheresoever it lighteth. But of this let all those be fully assured, that whensoever it comes it will be to their cost, whether here or hereafter, now or then, temporally or eternally, it may be in both, Whoremougers and Adulterers God will judge. And as for the manner how God will punish them, that also is as he will, and how he pleaseth: Non desunt Deo ulciscendi modi: God never wanteth weapons to wound his enemies, or rods in piss to whip ungracious and rebellious children, o Gen. 19 24 Fire and brimstone for Sodom and those Cities: when God sees the old world so foul with sin, he knows how to wash it, p Gen. 7. 7 with a flood of waters, he hath a ten stringed whip for q Exod. 7. 8. 9 cap. Pharaoh: The r Num. 16. 31 earth to swallow up Corah and his Company: s Num 12. 10 Leprosy for Miriam and Gehazi; The t Ezek. 6. 12 sword, famine, and pestilence for Israel; u Acts 12. 23 Lice and worms for Herod and the like: and what not indeed to meet with sinners? Oh that we could ever think of that after-reckonning for sin! Or that we knew the worst or what it would cost us, before God hath done with us who knows? who can presage, how God may deal with him when by his sins he hath once provoked him? What punishment originally, and by that first law that God made against Adulterers, you know was no less than death. The mercy of the Gospel in some Churches hath mitigated that severity, into more mild and merciful proceedings, not taking away allcensures or punishments from that sin, but hath left it in the wisdom and power of uu Deut. 22. 22. Authority, to have that sin severely and sharply punished, though not with death. God grant this sin may find no hole to hide his head in, nor that there may be no daubing, nor dallying, no dandling of it: We see where this man's sin was lately censured, it hath had but little countenance, and less encouragement. The blessing of him that dwelled betwixt the bush reward them sevenfold into their bosom, for their singular justice and Sincerity. But shall I tell you how this sin hath prospered, and what entertainment it usually finds at God's hands: I must tell you then, but them especially that find such pleasure in this sin: that God never gives other then sour sauce to such stolen meat: as will pregnantly appear by those fearful precedents, and examples of Gods heavy hand, in revenging and punishing this sin of uncleanness; what a pitiful massacre followed upon the deflowering of y Gen. 34. 25 Dinah, Jacob's daughter by Sechem the son of Hamer? how dear did Amnon pay for his incest with his sister? When (though full two years after,) yet God nor man and not yet forgotten it, he z 2 Sam. 13 28. 29. was suddenly murdered by the servants of his brother Absalon, as he sat at the Table: What an heavy time was it, what a black day in the Camp and Congregation of Israel, for this very sin, when not only a Num. 15. 8 Zimri and Cosbi perished by the hand of Phinees, but b 1 Cor 10. 8 twenty and four thousand of the people besides, were swept away suddenly by the hand of God? Yea the very heathen have had this sin in such detestation, that they thought no punishment bad enough for the committers of this sin Zaleucus King of Locris, adjudged them by Law to lose their eyes both man and woman; and so strict was he to see his Law observed, that when his own son was taken in Adultery, and should have lost both his eyes, the people importuning his Father to forgive him, rather than justice should not be done, he commanded that one of his own and another of his son's eyes should be put out, and so they were as Peter Martyr upon the 2. of Sam: Nebucadnezzar, hearing that one Acub and Zedekiah, jews, had committed foulness with two married women, broiled them both to death on a gridiron. Amongst the Egyptians the man that was taken in Adultery, was beaten with a thousand stripes, and the woman had her nose cut off, as Dio: Siculus reporteth; The Ancient Germans used to set the Adulteress naked before her kindred, and to cut off her hair, and then her husband was to drive her before him through the City, beating her with cudgels. The Cumeans placed the Adulteress in the open market place upon a stone, in the public view of all the people, that she might be derided and scorned of all, and then setting her upon an ass, to ride through the streets, and she was ever after called in mockage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an asse-rider, and that stone she stood on, was ever held and abhorred as a thing filthy and unclean: as Plutarch hath related. And hath God at any time been less friendly or favourable to this sin then so? hath his sight been weaker that he cannot see, or his power wasted that he doth not smite, now as of old? his anger is not now turned away, but his hand is stretched out still: we see enough every day to make us believe it: How many fearful sights are daily in our eyes, representing God's justice upon such offenders in their souls, bodies, goods, good name, and in their issue and posterity of these (if any be) for by some of these ever, by many of these often, by all these now and then, God meets with them, and pays them home for their beastly living. Look upon his justice in their souls, what impressions of his wrath he hath left there? by the substraction of his grace, a plain presager, of a Precipitation, and downfall into sin: blinding their understanding, besottiug their affections, hardening their hearts, delivering them up to a reprobate sense, and giving them up to uncleanness through the justs of their own hearts, as S. h Rom. 1. 24. Paul speaks of the Gentiles, and at last in his justice suffering them to perish in the vanity of that sin, and to carry it with them to the grave; from which while they lived, neither Laws of God, or man could possibly reclaim them. Look upon them in their goods and estate, though fair and great, how God hath blown upon it, and how soon hath it been blasted, & brought to nothing. That which Solomon speaks of another sin, the sin of drinkenes, a companion I am sure, if not Cousin-german to the sin of filthiness, That the i Prou. 23. 32 drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. I am sure he tells us it will be no better with whoremongers k Pro. 6. 26. For by means of an whorish woman, a man is brought to a morsel of bread, whores and jesuits (I may well couple them together) like Simeon and Levi brethren in evil, for those as well as these, are, if not carnal yet spiritual fornicators: those I say have ever been wheresoever they come the only soakers & sinkers of the fairest inheritances. Horse-leech-like ever crying give, give. That which Diogenes sometime said of a drunkard's house with a bill on it, to signify that it was to be let, I thought as much said the Cynck, that ere long he would spew up his house also; And so will these do that follow this, it is a thousand to one, if they leave not that, that will not leave them worth a grey groat: Misery and beggary will be their end: for if he that followeth vain persons shall have poverty enough: they shall be sure to be beggarly enough that follow this sin: I can give them no comfort, but if their lives be so bad, the reward of their sin can be no better, and seraerit in fundo par simonia; to the shame of their faces, and in the sorronws of their souls, they shall say we are wise too late, it is too late to spare, when all is gone and spent Look upon their bodies more near and dear unto them then all they have besides; how have they been stigmatised by the hand of God? What fowl, what filthy, what infectious diseases have lighted, yea, loaded the bodies of such? How many have hereby had the very noses of their faces consumed & eaten off? That that face which could not blush at the sin, might carry in it, like Cain's mark, a perpetual stamp both of their sin and shame. Look upon their credit and their reputation, and how lies all their honour, not in the dust, but even in a dunghill: The most precious thing that a man hath in this world is a good name, l Pro. 22. 1. A good name is rather to be chosen then great riches, m Eccle. 7. 1. better than the most precious ointment: Whence the Heathen could persuade men to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: labour rather to get a good name, than any thing: yet how soon is that precious ointment made to stink by this dead fly of filthiness? n job 18. 17 Their remembrance shall perish from the earth, and they shall have no name in the streets, as Bildad speaks in job. o Pro. 10. 7. And when the memory of the just shall be blessed, p Pro. 6. 33. the name of the wicked shall rot. Lastly, look upon them in their issue, and posterity, (if any be) and how they are branded with baseness and infamy. By the law of God they were not to q Deut. 23. 2. enter into the congregation, and by the laws of man a base son cannot inherit, if he hath any right to inherit any thing, it is nothing but the fruit of his father's filthiness, shame and disgrace, like the leprosy of Gehazi shall cleave unto him and his seed for ever: and what greater blemish then to be filius populi, a spurious seed, and who knows whose? for how high so ever they may carry their heads, and look big upon such as know them not, yet knowing themselves to be no better, they must live and die with the shame of bastardy: This is the portion of those wicked filthy livers from God, and the heritage appointed unto them from God. as r job 20. 29. Zophar speaks in job. Hae●●ortio calicis eorum, s Psal. 11. 6. this is their portion to drink, accursed in their souls, plagued in their bodies, beggared in their estate, blemished in their reputation, and infamized in their posterity, Thus whoremongers, etc. And all this but in this life; God hath two places to keep Courts of justice, one here below, the other in heaven above: here he keeps a but quarter Sessions, there his general Assizes: Oh happy were it for Whoremongers and Adulterers, if the mountains and hills could fall upon them, or the hills hide them, from the terror of their trial at that day! But alas, alas! it will not be: as it will be teribile apparere, so it will be impossible latere, s 2 Cor. 5. 10. we must all appear before the Tribunal seat of Christ? How merry might such wretches be, if they might covenant with God by temporal punishments, to be dispensed with, and exempted from eternal torments? But woe worth the day that ever they were borne, if they be not borne of water and the Spirit: this is not all: the worst is yet to come, all these are, but initia delorum, the beginning of sorrows, these are but flea-bite to that which is behind, t 2 Sam. 2. ●6. As Abner told joab, about his wars, Knowest thou not that it will be bitter in the latter end? or as Solomon tells the Drunkard concerning his cups, and carousings, u Pro. 23. 3●. that at the last it will bite like a Serpeut, and sting like a Cockatrice; So will it be with these before God hath done with them, the latter end of these willbe worse than their beginning, it will be bitter at the last: uu Pro. 5. 3. 4. The lips of a strange woman etc. What greater bitterness then eternal torments with the Devil and his Angels? what fouler shame then perpetual banishment, and everlasting abdication from the glorious and blessed presence of the everlasting God? What is the sorest or the sharpest censure of an earthly judge, to the final and univerfall judgement of an angry God? what is the paying or parting with a little money, to the loss, at the last, of the soul and body? Shame amongst men, to the disgrace of Saints and Angels? A white sheet in a Church, to the eternal flames of Hell? This and nothing else can such expect, unless their repentance and humiliation to God, like an other Moses stand in the breach, to stop this gap: to turn away his indignation and displeasure from them: for except they repent, they shall surely perish. To come then by the way of conclusion, to that which is the life and power of preaching, I mean to application of all that hath been spoken. This Doctrine meeteth first, with the cursed and corrupt opinion of our adversaries of the Church of Rome, who in their conclusions and propositions concerning this Doctrine of the Apostle, are as cross & contrary, as Belial to Christ, and darkness to light, for it hath been a common and current tenet amongst them, that Simplex fornicatio non est peccatum, simple fornication is no sin, no sin it may be because they think so, or no sin because so common with them: Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccandi, custom in the sin blinds them, that they think it is no sin. But if it be no sin, why, I would know of them, hath God so precisely prohibited, and so severely punished it? There shallbe no whore of the Daughters of z Deut. 13. 17. Israel, nor a whore-keeper of the Sons of Israel, these be the express words of the Law. a 1 Cor 6. 18. Flee fornication, Saith the Apostle, ᵇ Let us not commit fornication. S. Paul reckoning up the fruits of the flesh, which (I hope) our adversaries will not deny to be sins, nameth Adultery and Fornication, First, The c Gal. 5 19 works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, etc. d Colo. 3. 4. Mortify your members which are on earth, fornication first, uncleanness, inordinate affection and the like, e 1 Thes. 4. 3 This is the will of God your sanctification, and that you should abstain from fornication; what mean these plain and precise dehortations from it, if it were not apparently a sin against God? S. Augustine proves it thus to be a sin, because it is a plain breach of that Law, g Exod. 20. 19 Thou shalt not commit adultery, a commandment forbidding all kind of uncleanness, and therefore fornication: if fornication be not here forbidden, ubi sit illa prohibita in decalogo, utrum inveniri possit ignoro: whether it can be found prohibited else where in the decalogue, I cannot tell, but it is most certain that is either forbidden here or no where in the moral Law, The same Father in his book, the 10. Chord. cap. 9 answereth an objection which might seem to defend it, Vxorem non habeo, ad meretricem vado, I am unmarried, and make use of an harlot: S. Augustine answers, In Deum peccas, eius imaginem per diffluentias libidinis in te violasti, thou dost sin against God, whose image in thee thou defacest in thyself by thy overflowing lusts: Dominus qui scit quid tibi utile sit, uxorem concessit, hoc praecepit, h●c iussit: The Lord who knoweth what is best for thee, hath granted thee a wife: this he prescribed, thus he hath commanded; it is therefore surely a sin against God. Tostatus argueth well to prove it a sin, Q: 22. in Exo. every natural act not used or employed to the right end is evil, as to eat and drink, non propter conservationem individui, not to preserve the body, but for riot and excess is evil, so to use carnal copulation of lust not propter conservationem speciei per generationem, not for the preserving of the kind by generation, for the which it is appointed, must needs be evil, and so it is in fornication. Reverend M. Latimer maintains it to be a sin against God, out of this text thus: ex quo discimus Deum benedixisse coniugio, where we read that God blessed marriage, it is easy to gather on the contrary, that all other companying of man and woman not in marriage is accursed, and proves it by the words of my text and concludes thus, seeing therefore the sanctity and chastity of marriage is commanded in the Law, and the contrary is forbidden, and all other acts of uncleanness whatsoever, which are a violation of marriage: adding also to this reason the testimony of n Hosea 4. 11. Hosea, Whoredom and wine take away the hearts: and the punishment of the Israelites for their fornication out of 1 Corinth. 10. 8. But we must give these Apes leave to hug their own, and these crows to think their own birds the beautifullest. It is one of the Pope's purviors that carrieth in his provision? no marvel then, if they have so many Champions to maintain it, and so many monstrous whoremongers and adulterers amongst them to practise it; and so they do both agere and docere: who knoweth not this that hath read any thing concerning the filthiness of both Popes and Priests in the Church of Rome; Theodoricus of Niem will tell us, that in Norway and Ireland it hath been lawful for the Bishops and Priests to keep their Concubines, and when twice a year they visited the Parish Priests that were under them, they were wont to carry their Concubines with them: yea, their Concubines would not suffer them to visit without them Here was good doing, this was good stuff, and singular holiness. Vdulricus, B. of Auspurg, reports, that when a certain Pope sent to draw a Pond for fishes, there were taken up and brought him above six thousand Infants heads. Alvarius Pelagius complaineth that the Priests live incontinently, and wisheth they had never vowed continency, Alvarus Chartier, The ministers of the Church, leaving the use of marriage, follow wand'ring, dissolute, and unlawful lusts, Nunn Bridget, Priests and Deacons, keep whores, that with their great bellies walk up and down with other women, and Pieus Mirandula, to name no more, speaks as broadly and truly of them, The Priests once lay with the women at the door of the Tabernacle, (alluding to the sin of Elies' sons) but in our time, they break into the sacred houses, and (Fie for shame) women are to be brought in to satisfy their filthy lusts: and no marvel then if it be not sin with such, that are such egregious and shameless beasts. What means their common Stues, and open bawdy houses allowed by the Pope, and even under his nose: out of which sin he sucks no small advantage: persuaded that dulcis oder lucri ex re qualibet: Gaine is sweet howsoever it comes in, as he said of the ill sent of Urine, yea the hire of an whore, and the price of a dog, which were had in detestation, and held a thing abominable to be brought into the house of God, must not miss his mouth, nor shall scape his greasy chaps: All that bring such greest, come welcome to his Mill, amici curiae bed and bosom friends, though never so base or beastly to the Court of Rome, and Chamber of the Pope. But leaving these like Swine to wallow in their own mire, or like Boars and Beasts to satin in their own filthiness, let us in a word or two, see how this Commination concerns ourselves. The use for us may be in a word, by the severity of the punishment, to be deterred from the filthiness of the offence against which it is threatened, recollect but briefly the particulars already dispatched, and you shall soon see reason sufficient to dissuade you from it; Is uncleanness a sin? come not near; he that toucheth this sin must needs be defiled: he that cometh too near this fire, shall surely be scorched: t Pro. 7. 27. for the house of an whore is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death. Again will God be avenged of it, if no body else will punish it? is it that God from whom we cannot hide it? nor from whose power we can not be delivered? will it light so terrible first or last, either in our souls or bodies, goods, good name, or posterity? or in one of these? perhaps in all of these? are we liable to such deadly strokes of God's hand here, and in danger of eternal torments in hell fire for ever, after all the plagues and judgements either by God or men to be inflicted? shall neither u 1 Cor. 6. 9 Whoremongers nor Adulterers inherit the Kingdom of heaven? uu Reuel. 26. 27. shall no unclean thing enter into that new jerusalem? shall dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers be without? x Reuel. 22. then let him that hath an ear to hear, hear what the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. y 1 Cor. 6. 18. Flee fornication, z Colo. 3. 5. Mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanes, etc. a Ephe. 5. 3. fornication and uncleanes, let it not be once named amongst you, etc. b 1 Cor 6. 15. know you not, that your bodies are the members of Christ? make them not the members of an harlot. c 1 Cor. 3. 17 For if any man defile the Temple of God, him will God destroy. d Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God; e 1 Thes. 4. 3. for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication; and that every one should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour. And as those shall be sure with Psalms in their mouths, and Palms in their hands, as conquerors, to follow the f Reuel. 14. 4. Lamb wheresoever he goeth, which have not defiled themselves with women, but are virgins, so those that have given themselves over to fornication, in going after strange flesh as g jude 7. jude speaketh, shall suffer the vengeance of eternal fire: for whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. And now before we part, I must speak a word or two to you, not long, (and yet too late) our unworthy neighbour, I must say to you as h judg. 3. 10. Ehud said to Eglon, I have a message unto thee from God: but not with a Dagger in my hand to kill you, but with good counsel from my heart to keep you that you cast not away yourself. The words of the wise, i Eccle. 12. 11. they are like goads and nails, not like jaels' nails to be driven into your head; but like S. Peter's nails, to be fastened in the heart, and I pray God they may have no worse success than his had, for they were pricked in their hearts, and said k Acts 3. 37. men and brethren, what shall we do? Sorrowful and ashamed of the evil past, and desirous how to learn to go and sin no more. And while I shall perform this last work of charity to your soul, (which God make profitable unto you as my soul desireth) let me entreat this favour from you, which Daniel desired of l Dan. 4. 27. Nabuchadnezzar, let my counsel be acceptable unto you, and suffer a word or two of exhortation: Account me not your enemy because I tell you the truth, hate me not because I have not used to prophesy good unto you, dealing plainly, when I found you faulty, or (if you do) it shallbe all one with me, Ego liberabo animam meam, I will discharge my conscience, before God, and men, and then your blood be upon your own head, you shall fall or stand to your own master. You have heard out of this text, the foulness of the sin of fornication, and how roundly and tartly God usually proceedeth in the punishment of it; This hath been your sin; and this sin hath brought you to this day's shame; ut poena ad paucos, timor ad omnes, God grant it may do you good, and that others by your punishment may learn to be wise; How long you have loved and lived in this sin, your own conscience can tell you best, by your own confession since October, 1626. near three years, and that which is worst, to keep an whore under your wife's nose, too long, and too much, if you bethink you well, if it had been less and never so little. You have heard, that Whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge, if such a thunderclap will not startell and awake you, I may justly fear you have slept your last, and that you are not only dead, but with n john 1●. 39 Lazarus stink in the grave. Rouse up yourself, o Ephe 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead, that Christ may give thee light: I have heard of that public protestation that you made, where you first did penance in that Honourable and Worshipful presence at Pauls-crosse, of an ample and large restitution and satisfaction to such as you had wronged, even to threefold: had you said more you had not promised too much, and had you ever climbed up on a tree to see p Luke 19 18 Christ, as Zacheus did, and with no worse heart than he, you would have enlarged your tongue, whatsoever you would have done with your hands, and promised to restore fourfold as he did. But words will not carry it. Good trees are known by their fruits and not by their leaves, and good Christians not by their words, but by their lives. I will not wonder to see light ears of corn to prike and pear up themselves, above all in the furrows or field, not to hear an empty cask to make the greatest noise: I should think myself an happy man, if I might presume to take you at your word, in the mean time, let me tell you what I think, that the world or (wise men at the least) will never believe it, till they see it, and till then, you shall show some wisdom to say less and do more, be not verbal in your purposes and protestations, but real and royal in your performances. Let me tell you plain, what I think, and that is this, that you have run yourself mightily in debt by this your sin, & unto divers, which must be discharged or you must lie by it a while, and die for it at the last. I speak not of your purse or charge before your filthiness was found out, while you lived closely in uncleanness; I have heard, than you were base and fordid enough, perhaps so provident as to provide something against a rainy day: I speak not of your expenses in Newgate, or other prisons whither you have been most justly committed by Authority: I know you are not behind hand for paying these scores, these you have cleared. But some other Creditors have entered actions against you, and will be paid before you can be discharged. What do you think you owe to God, whom you have so highly dishonoured in the violation and transgression of that sacred and holy Law of his, peremptorily forbidding the sin of uncleanness. Item to the world, I mean not by the world, such as yourself, such as love filthiness as well as yourself: for I know that birds of a feather will fly together, those that run with you to the same excess of riot, will easily forgive you, and not stand with you, if it were a greater matter than this: but I speak of those that profess Religion in truth and sincerity; and so cannot but hate this sin wheresoever they find it, here you have drawn blood, and that will bear an action, and must be answered, you have wounded Religion, given just cause to the sons of g 2 Sam. 12. 19 Cham, to laugh at your nakedness, and as Nathan told David, by this deed, you have given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. What satisfaction can you ever make to that servant of yours, who by your base and beastly fornication with her, came to a shameful and untimely death? Blessed had you both been, if you had never seen each others faces, for had she never known your face, nor you her body, you might perhaps (I say verily perhaps) have proved a better husband than before, and she lived in time to have been a wife for as good a man as yourself: she lost her life; and living and dying helped to save yours, I dispute not by what means, she was wrought & brought to it: the Law was satisfied and I am contented. What satisfaction can you make to God or the world, for the blood of that sweet new borne babe, murdered and made away by her, by putting it alive, by some secret conveyance into the house of office, (an office fit for a whore and no mother) I do not say nor charge you to be privy to the putting of it into the privy; I shall leave that to God and your own conscience, who (if you were) will not go behind your back, when time shall serve to tell you of it; I judge you not, you were acquitted from the Law of man, God grant you may come off as fair with God, that he may never lay this sin unto your charge. Amen. Last of all, what satisfaction can you make, to this place and parish where you lived of late, and a little too long? What dishonour have you done us, in bringing this disgrace, and casting this aspersion on us? What favours have you had successively amongst us? How often have you been invited to our public feastings? How usually called to our counsels & meetings? How preferred to several places of offices with us? And after all this, to reward us thus; to cast this filth in our faces, to leave this stink behind you is base ingratitude: it must needs be a bad bird that thus defiles her own nest: we can count you no better, you have used us so badly: we shall be willing to pray for your well doing elsewhere, but not for your dwelling here, till you be a little sweeter. Shall I tell you in a word or two, how you may make all well? I would set you this way, if I were worthy to be your guide. First begin with God, and make your peace with him: as Elihu said to job, so I can advise you no better, r job 22. 21. Acquaint thyself with God and be at peace, thereby shall good come unto thee. And there can be no peace to be had with God, but by hearty humiliation, and sincere and sound repentance for former sins, and unfeigned resolution for future holiness, f Isay 57 21. Nulla pax impijs, There is no peace saith God unto the wicked, what peace said t 2 King 9 22. jehu unto joram, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother jezabel, and her witchcrafts are so many? Rebel's must lay down their arms, if they look for peace or pardon: The best means to obtain remission of sins from God is man's submission for sins unto God: where God takes the one with the one hand, he ever gives the other with the other. Let it now I beseech you be your care to return speedily unto God, let this day's punishment beat you home to God, and like a sovereign medicine work kindly with you, to purge your soul of your sins, for the health and recovery of your soul, and when you go about this business, beware how you slight and slubber it over: it must be no easy or ordinary repentance that will serve the turn: your offence hath been great, your humiliation must not be less: Magna peccata magnâ egent misericordiâ: if you make not the plaster as large as the sore, it will do you little good. Cry therefore mightily unto God, and roar for the very disquietness of your heart: u joel 2. 13. Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord. with uu Psal. 6. 6. David make your bed to swim, and water your couch with your tears, with x jer. 9 1. jeremy wish that your head were waters, and your eyes a fountain of tears, that you might weep day and night for this sin: with y jer. 31. 19 Ephraim smite upon your thigh and he ashamed: and with z Math. 26. 75 Peter go out and weep bitterly. Eusebius in the 6. book of his Eccle: hist. cap. 8. reports of one that having sworn falsely against Narcissus Bish: of jerusalem, and seeing God's hand upon two other of his companions, for their perjury, wept so abundantly, that according to his own imprecation, he lost both his eyes. I shall have much a do, to persuade you to be so cruelly merciful to your own soul, as to weep out but one eye: yet for your comfort let me tell you, that it is more profitable, a Math. 5. 29. That one member should perish, and not the whole body should be cast into hell. If you cannot mourn so much, yet do what you may; blessed shall you be if you thus mourn, and that thus sowing in tears, you may reap in joy: God send you such weather: a wet time here of sowing, and the Sunshine of blessedness at the time of Harvest, when God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes. And for that satisfaction which will give all the world best content, it will be when they see you prove an honest man: blind not the eyes of the world with seeming holiness: Satan can, (to serve his own turn,) seem a Saint by transforming himself into an Angel of light; judas heard many a good Sermon from his Master's mouth at Church, and had many a good admonition in private, and yet miscarried: and so may any such, whose heart is not upright. b james 1. 21. Not the hearers, but the doers of the Law shall be justified. To shut up all in a word, let me give you that holy counsel and gracious admonition, which Simon Peter gave c Acts 8. 22. 23. Simon Magus, Repent of this your wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you; I will not add that which follows, I hope you are not in the all of bitterness, nor in the bond of iniquity: God never suffer you to come so near to hell. Turn over a new leaf, resolve to practise our Saviour's counsel, to one that (but changing the sex) was faulty as you are, found and taken in Adultery, d john 8. Go and sin no more. I have read of a certain Nun, that reading in a book she had, at the bottom of the leaf, she found these words written, Bonum est omnia scire, it is good to know all things, whereupon she resolved with herself, to know what the carnal copulation of man and woman together might be: but turning over the leaf, the next words were, sed non uti; but not to use it: whereupon she presently changed her mind: So shall you do well to resolve to go from hence, with a settled purpose to become a new man: as it is said of e Gen. 9 29. Noah, that when he awaked from his wine, Graviter pius senex a crapula ad se reversus, de peccato indoluit, as Pareus observeth, the good old man awaked from his wine, and was very sorrowful for his sin: and as it is said of f Gen 38. 26 judah concerning his uncleanness with Tamar: He knew her again no more: so let your repentance testify to the world, a perfect detestation not of this sin only, but an hearty reformation of all besides. And as for me, let me promise and profess to you, and for you, as Samuel did unto the people terrified with a terrible tempest of thunder, in the time of harvest, desiring samuel's prayers, g 1 Sam. 12. 23 Pray unto the Lord for thy servants, whom Samuel comforted thus, As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord, in ceasing to pray for you. I will God willing do no less for you, I would to God with all mine heart, I could do so well; And I hope I may promise as much for all here, whose sorrowful faces be deawed with so many tears at this time, make me to persuade myself they pity your shame, and pray to God for mercy to forgive your sin: Even so, God of mercy hear and help, and let all here present say, Amen. Amen. FINIS.