A PREPARATION unto FASTING and REPENTANCE.  
By PETER MOULIN, and translated by I. B.  
LONDON: Printed by T. S. for Nathaniel Newberry, and are to be sold at the sign of the Star under S. Peter's Church in Cornhill, and in Pope's head ally. 1620.   

To the Religious and Virtuous Lady, the Lady JANE BOYS, Widow to the right worshipful Sir JOHN BOYS, sometime Recorder of the City of Canterbury; grace & peace from our LORD JESUS CHRIST.  
Madam, I present unto your Ladyship's view and reading, this Homely preached in the French tongue by that learned and judicious divine, Mr. Peter du Moulin, Minister of the word of God, and by me translated, touching that excellent conference between God and his servant Abraham; wherein we may behold on the one side the nature of sin, and the vengeance of God when sinners are come to their full measure; on the other side the patience and familiar access, which he affords to those that love him, how mild and patiented he is towards them that fear him, and how he behaves himself towards his enemies, and all to this end to move us all to faith, repentance, and humility.  
And since my small pains in englishing it yields me a right to make choice of one to whom I may dedicate this little volume, I am bold to present the same unto your Ladyship (hoping your favourable acceptance thereof) and the rather because it befits you, (Madam) in many respects, for these virtues that are here required, are in you. (Madam) I speak it without flattery; faith, repentance, humility, zeal to God's house, love to his word, love and faith which you have to the Lord jesus, and towards all his Saints; for you are an Anna, always serving God in the Temple with fasting and prayers, a Lydia in hearing God's word, a Mary in pondering and meditating the same, a Dorcas to Widows and Orphans, a Shunamite to the Prophets and Ministers of God, not only countenancing our persons and ministry with your person and presence in our Church of Canterbury when you are here, but also cherishing us with good and comfortable words, and exercising your liberal charity towards our poor, not losing your first love, like the Ephesians, but continuing it towards us from time to time; and therefore the just God will not forget your piety towards him, nor your charity towards his Saints; but as your name and charitable works are enregistered in our book of remembrance, so is your name written in the Book of Life, your deeds of charity in feeding, covering, visiting the poor, written in that Book that shall be opened in the day of judgement to your consolation; then shall you reap plentifully what you sow here, and as Damascen speaks, here you give a little, there you shall receive much; now you give a transitory thing, then shall you gain an eternal; here you give a penny, there you shall receive a Kingdom; for if julius Cesar gave Lands to one that gave him but a draught of water, what a reward will Christ give to those, that give but a cup of water to drink in his name to those that belong to him? If Darius gave a Kingdom to Silosontes, that gave him a garment only; what a Kingdom will Christ give to those that give him clothing, food, and drink, in the name and person of the least and poorest of his brethren? The same jesus Christ whom you feed, cloth, and visit here on earth in his members; as he feeds you and  you here on earth, not only corporally, but also spiritually, with the spiritual Manna the bread and water of life, even he himself who is your spiritual food and garment also, will give you that everlasting Kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world; where and when you shall be crowned with the crown of righteousness, clothed with the robes of glory, sit down with Abraham, Isaac and jacob to be nourished with the fruit of the tree of life and water of life, and live eternally with him in the kingdom of heaven, Amen.  
Canterbury the 30. of june, 1620. Your Ladyships in all dutiful service to command, JOHN BULTEEL.   

¶ A Preparation unto FASTING and REPENTANCE.  GEN. Chap. 18. vers. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. etc. 
20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their Sin is very grievous.  
21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know, etc.  

IT is not needful my brethren to represent & show forth unto you the extraordinary occasions, for the which we are invited to afflict our souls, and sanctify a Fast by Repentance; seeing that we want not ordinary causes: The enmity of Satan, and of the world, the feebleness of the Church, the Name of God blasphemed, our vices that do increase, our zeal which waxeth cold, the hand of God lifted up to strike us, and his rods prepared, do bind us to tremble under his hand, and prevent his judgements by Fasting and Repentance; lest GOD send us another kind of Fasting, making us to Fast from his Word, which is the spiritual bread, sending us that famine prophesied by the Prophet Amos, not a famine of bread, but a famine of the hearing of the Word of God, for a punishment, because we taste this spiritual bread with distaste, and receive not his Word with reverence.  
Let us do in such sort, that our humiliation may be acceptable unto God, and that whiles our bodies are void of meat, we have not our hearts replenished with hatred and rancour, that whiles we abstain from drinking, we be not drunken with pride: (for God doth as much detest the fast of the hypocrite, as the dissoluteness of the profane;) that our mouths do not only abstain from meats, but also from bad discourses and evil words; that we fast with our ears, to keep them shut against vain and idle discourses, and with our hands, keeping us from rapine & usury: In a word, that all that which is in us, even to our secret thoughts celebrat unto God an holy Fast, and pleasing unto God, through jesus Christ. That we may know that fasting is not instituted to satisfy the justice of God, but to revenve us of ourselves. That we give unto the poor that which we spare & take from ourselves, that our voluntary fasting may help and aid that fast which the poor endureth of force & necessity. And while that your bodies fast, let your souls feed on the food of life, which is a meat which you must eat (as of old the Paschall Lamb) with bitter herbs, soaking it in tears of repentance. Instead of sackcloth, after the fashion of the Elders, be ye clothed and covered all ever with holiness and integrity; in lieu of sprinkling of ashes, as of old, acknowledge yourselves, with Abraham, to be dust and ashes, and give glory to GOD, in humbling yourselves: Who knoweth if God will not have pity on his people, and will not stir up his compassions upon his children? For having in times past stayed the Sun at the prayer of one man, how much more will he stay and keep back his judgements at the general cry of his whole Church, proceeding from faith, and made strong by Repentance?  
To dispose our hearts thereunto, I have chosen this excellent conference between God and his Servant Abraham; where you see on the one side the nature of sin, and the vengeance of God when sins are come to their full & heaped measure: on the other side the patience and familiar access which he affords to those that love him. All this conference may be reduced to these three heads: I. Who he is that speaks. II. How he behaves himself towards his enemies. III. How mild and patiented he is towards them that fear him.   

I. PART.  
I. Who he is that speaks.  
TOuching him that speaks unto Abraham, it is said in the beginning of the Chapter, that three men did present themselves to Abraham; one of those is called a while after the LORD: And so in the history of the vision of the burning bush, and in the history of Gideon, and in that of the conception of Samson, even he who is called an Angel, is called the LORD; which cannot appertain unto any but unto the Son of God our Lord jesus Christ: For it is he, who being sent of God, is notwithstanding God, and the Lord our righteousness, jeremy 23. by whom even then the Lord governed his Church, made it feel his assistance and know his will; yea, before the flood he hath by the mouth of Noah preached to the dead, whole spirits are now in the infernal prison. 1 Pet. 3.19.  
Perhaps you find it strange that he appeared unto Abraham in the form of a man, as if before he was borne of the Virgin Mary, he had took man's nature; but you must know that the bodies wherein the Son of God appeared in the old Testament, were but borrowed bodies for a time and by dispensation, the Deity of the Son not being united personally to the body, which was an instrument which he used for the present action only, and then left it. Even as a good or a bad Angel may assume a body and move it, without giving it life or form, and without making himself one person with that body.   

II. How God behaves himself towards his enemies.  
NOw touching the manner wherein and whereby God behaveth himself towards his enemies, it is expressed unto us in these words: And the Lord said unto Abraham, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, & because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know.  
Where you see, that God bears and permits with patience the wicked to rule a long time, but when their sin is come to the full, than he unfolds and spreads abroad his terrible judgements; which he doth here in this place after an inquiry and kind of information, to show that he proceeds herein justly and without precipitation. He speaks then of a sin that cries before God, so Abel's blood, Gen. 4. cryeth from the ground unto God for vengeance; So job in the 31. chapter, speaking of land detained by an unjust possessor, saith, that the land cries against the unlawful possessor, and the furrows likewise thereof complaint. And Habbakuk Chap. 2. speaking of houses built by extortion, saith, that the stones cries out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber answereth it, as bearing witness against their master before God. And Saint james in his fist chapter, saith, that the hire of the labourers, which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cryeth, and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. Which teacheth us, that there are heinous sins that cry and call God to vengeance, so that though men should hold their peace, the thing itself would speak, as our Saviour saith, Luke 19 If these men should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. For even as when God speaks, the liveless and senseless things understand: When he speaks to the rock, it casteth forth water; when he speaks to the dead, they rise up at his word: Even so God understands the language of senseless things, and brings them forth to witness against them whom he will punish in his wrath. These crying sins are the sins that are come to their full measure, as the iniquity of the Amorites in joshuahs' time; for in Abraham's time God declareth in the 15. chapter of Genesis, that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full, that is to say, that the measure was not full to the top as then; according to that which Christ jesus saith unto the jews, Mat. 23 Ye fill up the measure of your fathers: which the Apostle Paul, 1 Thess. 2. saith, happened in his time, They fill up their sins always, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.  
This last period of sins, is when these two things concur in a country or in a twone: I. When siners do boast of their wicked acts, and have lost that good that remains in sinners, to wit, the shame of doing evil, wherein the Prophet Esayas coupleth the jews with the Sodomites, in the 3. chapter, They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not Such are they of whom the Wiseman speaketh in the 2. Chapter of Proverbes, who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked, which is the third and last degree of iniquity, which David describeth in the 1. Psal. namely, to sit in the seat of the scornful, that is to say, of those that with insolency and flouting do mock at God's Word, and take a delight, yea, a glory to despite and vex him. II. The second point that makes this full measure of sin is, when there is no one man to be found in a city or country that withstands the evil, and opposeth himself against it, and as it is said in the 12. Psalm, The godly man ceaseth, the faithful fail from among the children of men, there is none that doth good, no not one; none that fear GOD, no not one; or else the number of good men is so small that they are as nothing in a crowd, and as a grain of corn in a heap of straw. Such was the condition of jerusalem, which jeremy deplores in his 5. Chapter, Run ye to and fro through the streets of jerusalem and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgement, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it. And in the 22. chapter of Ezekiel, I sought for a man amongst them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none; therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath, their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.  
This self same enormity and heinousness of sin is here represented by the word, aggravate, or made heavy and weighing down, where God saith, that the sin of Sodom is very grievous, speaking of sins as of burdens, which overwhelm our souls, and do hinder them to lift up themselves to God, and do cast them down headlong into the depth of perdition: Or else he speaks of sins, as of weights put in a balance, that carry them against the patience of God, and do make his will to hang towards the side of the punishment; therefore the Prophet Zacharie in his fift Chapter compares sin to a lump of lead; and the Prophet David Psa. 38. saith, his iniquities are gone over his head, as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for him: and the Prophet Isaiah speaking of our sins as of heavy burdens, wherewith jesus Christ hath charged himself to discharge us; He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all and S. Peter, 1 Pet 2. He hath borne our sins in his own body on the tree, by whose stripes we are healed. O how heavy was that burden, seeing that the least piece of our sins which every one of us do commit, is a sufficient weight to cast us down headlong, and plunge us to the bottom of the bottomless pit! Now jesus Christ hath borne the sins of all men on his Cross. It was the most principal burden and charge of jonas ship; the Mariners laboured with strength of arms to unload the ship, & to save their lives did cast their wares into the sea, but the heaviest burden remained in the ship, namely jonas sin; neither was there any way to save themselves, but by casting him into the sea. True it is, that as Lepers do not feel nor smell their own infection, nor they that have an obstructed and corrupt nose do not smell the scent of their breath; and the swine wallowing in the mire do find that odour sweet; so men plunged and steeped in sin, feel not the weight of their sins, because they are as it were borne and bred with them, and that this natural evil groweth and increaseth more and more by custom; which is the reason which the Philosophers do render, why those that swim between two waters, feel not the weight of the water which is over their heads, because (say they) that an element is not heavy in his natural place: Even so sin doth not oppress nor overcharge the consciences of profane men, and they feel not their consciences burdened, because sin is there in them as in his own natural place, but if God withdraweth a man out from this bottom and depth, and maketh him once to breathe the air of his grace, than the very relics of sin that are in him weighs him much down and wearies him much.  
When therefore the sin of the wicked is come to his full and last measure, than God, who by his patience hath invited sinners to repentance, who hath uncovered, dunged, and pruned this barren figtree three years long, finally seeing that it bringeth forth no fruit, and that the sinner mocks at his long patience, commands that the are be laid unto the root of this cursed tree, and rewardeth his long expectation with the greatness of his punishment. Even as when a woman condemned to death by law being found with child, her execution is deferred till she be delivered of of her child; so although God hath already determined in his council to punish some wicked men, notwithstanding he stays till the sin which they have conceived in their hearts, be brought to ripeness; during which time the sinner often makes merry, as malefactors do, who to drive themselves from their dumps, play in prison at cards and dice; but before God the day and hour of their execution is decreed.  
Notwithstanding before he comes to that point, he speaks as if he doubted of the truth, and prepares himself to make a kind of information and inquest. I will go down and see now, saith he) whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me: And so in the confusion of languages God descends, to see what the children of men builded, and to have knowledge thereof.  
These things are said after the fashion of men, for God descends not, seeing he is every where, and hath no need to inquire, seeing he knoweth all things; but the holy Ghost stuttereth with us, as with children, in humane words, of Divine things. God comes down to us, when he makes himself to be felt of us; he stretcheth his arm, when he displays his strength; he moves himself when he will move us; he wakens when he makes it known that he hath not slept; he inquires of the sins of men, when he will convict and convince them; he speaks as doubting, when he will put us out of doubt of the certainty and full knowledge of our actions.  
Notwithstanding God giveth by this practice a rule unto Magistrates, not to judge till after a careful enquiry, and after a ripe consideration, and to undergo that Law which God hath imposed unto himself, saying, I will go now down and see if it be thus and thus: Which is also a warning to all particular men, that they be not unjustly prone to believe calumnies, nor rashly unjust to condemn others without being well informed of the truth; but expecting the judgement of GOD that will make all things manifest, let us beware that we give not rashly our judgement.   

III. How gentle and mild God is towards them that fear him, and the care he hath of his children.  
THe third point is the manner, how God behaves himself towards those that fear him. This point requires a more careful and serious consideration, because it toucheth us more particularly.  
Of these three men setting themselves forwards towards Sodom; two of them go on their way, but the third who is called the Lord, stays with Abraham who being in thought for his nephew Lot, fearing lest he should be entrapped and enwrapped in the ruin and destruction of Sodom, makes intercession for the men thereof: Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? shall not the judge of all the earth do right? He could not better ground his supplication, then on God's justice as Saint Paul saith, Rom. 3. What shall we say, is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? God forbidden, for then how shall God judge the world? God being by nature righteousness itself, can no more do injustice, then white can black, or the flame can freeze. To say that God is unrighteous, is to say he is God and is not God, for to be, and to be righteous, are one thing with God, not as with men, or Angels, who are susceptible of contrary qualities without corruption of their substance. Even as the right of governing and of judging the world, is devolved and fallen to him by inheritance, not happened by election: so neither is he just and righteous to be conformable to laws that any hath imposed to him, but as his Empire, so his justice is natural.  
This righteousness being necessarily joined with goodness, Abraham had reason to presuppose, that it was more convenient and befitting this upright goodness, to support the wicked for the good men's sake, then to destroy the good for the wickeds sake. Notwithstanding it seems this bears many exceptions, and hath many difficulties. For not to speak of afflictions for God's cause, which befall the faithful alone, while that the  prosper as Christ saith, Ye shall weep, but the world shall rejoice, because these afflictions are honourable, a glorious reproach, honest brands & blemishes, scarf, and liveries of our warfare, and conformities to jesus Christ, I will speak only of evils and afflictions wherewith God punisheth the good with the wicked, and that because of the wicked: God had foretold by his Prophets, that by reason of the sins of the people, the land should vomit out her Inhabitants, which was fulfilled when Nabuchadnezzar did lead the people captive into Babylon; with the multitude of this rebellious people, Daniel and Ezekiel were led also away, as also those three men, who by the heat of their faith, overcame the heat of the burning furnace. There were the good afflicted, for the wicked men's sake. There were seven thousand in Samaria, and among the ten tribes, that had not bowed their knees unto Baal, were those exempted from the public calamity, when as Salmanazar & Tiglatpilezer kings of Syria did lead the ten tribes into captivity. Doth not God say by his Prophet Ezekiel, Chap. 21. that his sword shall cut off from the land of Israel, the righteous and the wicked. And when God saith in the 18. Chapter of the Revelation, Come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagnes? doth he not warn them, that if any of his people remain there, he shall be partaker of the plagues of Babylon? And if God would now at this time afflict a kingdom, given over to idolatry, and should find there a general plague, who doubts but that the faithful mixed with the Idolaters should incur the same danger?  
To explain unto you this point. Observe that when God visits a kingdom, or a City, with a general affliction, by reason of the wickedness of the people, than those of the faithful, mixed with the wicked shall escape, whom God intends to make as yet use of, and to employ them for his glory, and for the good of his Church. So he saved Noah from the universal Flood; because he would reserve him, and make use of him, for the preservation of mankind. So also in the days of the Emperor Vespasian, the Church of the Apostles that was in jerusalem, was warned to go out of the City, and withdraw herself to Pella on the other side of jordan, lest she should be enclosed by the enemies in the besieging of the City, whereby it was razed down and the people destroyed. And in the 14. Chapter of Ezekiel, God speaks after this manner: Son of man, when the land sinneth against my by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it; though those three men, Noah, Daniel, and job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God; they shall not deliver neither sons nor daughters, they only shall be delivered; Because that the conservation of these men was profitable to the Church of God.  
But if God, who provides for his work as it pleaseth him, will employ no more such a one, and will quickly give him the possession of eternal life, then marvel not if he die as the rest do; and if the like and semblable accidents do befall him; notwithstanding in his common afflictions with the wicked, he hath particular consolation; God gives him grace to profit by his chastisements, and to take these banishments for flights from the world, and walking towards God: Poverty is unto him a wholesome and profitable dyet, and an exercise of abstinence. In his death-bringing sickness, God's Angel assists him, who wipes off from him his sweaty drops of blood, and Christ jesus near him showing him the crown of Glory. His death is as fare different from the death of others, as there is difference between the gates of hell, and the Kingdom of God. So Thresher's with the same flail do alike thresh both the corn and the straw, but to diverse ends; which are as Christ jesus saith, To gather the Wheat into the Barn, but to bind the straw in bundles, to burn it in the unquenchable fire. So the passage through the red Sea, was the ruin of the Egyptians, but was to the Church of God a passage to arrive unto the promised inheritance. In a word, the chastisements wherewith God doth visit the faithful, shall never be fully distinct and separated from those of the wicked before the day of judgement; for then the sheep shall be called out from among the goats, divided and set a part, and the tares grown pellmell, and confusedly mingled with Wheat▪ and that hath together endured both storm and weather, wind and haule, shall be picked up by the Angels, even unto the very last slip and sprig, and be bound in bottles, to be cast into the everlasting fire.  
Notwithstanding, Abraham might seem to pass the limits of modesty in this demand, as ready to control the actions of God, Wilt thou (saith he) destroy the righteous with the wicked? that be fare from thee; as showing unto God his duty. Then afterwards he seems to use policy and Art towards God, endeavouring to obtain of God by retail and parcels, that which he thinks he shall not get by the whole, and all at one time; saying, If there be fifty righteous in the City, wilt thou notspare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? And this being granted unto him, from fifty he comes to forty five, and from that to forty, and from that to thirty, and so at last unto ten. Hardly I suppose is there to be found any Prince, be he never so mean and petty, that would endure that any of his servants should lead him so by degrees, and abuse thus his gentleness, and yet notwithstanding there is some comparison between the greatest Prince of the world, and the meanest beggar, yea, between the excellentest Angel, and between the Pismire and worm, the distance and inequality is not infinite, for they are creatures, and there can be no infinite distance betwixt two finite things; but there is no comparison between God and the most excellent creature that is; how much less between God and between a man, a sinner as Abraham was, who acknowledgeth himself to be nought but dust and ashes? whose light is nought but darkness? whose righteovinesse is as filthy rags? whose strength is as smoke that vanisheth away? If God finds no steadfastness in his Angels, how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the Moth? Such as was the splendour of Herod's robes, when he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost, in comparison of the brightness of the Sun, such is the glory of man in the presence of God, and that small lustre which he hath in this world, is accompanied with thousands of briers and incommodities, like a gloeworme in the midst of a bush. What think ye is the highest heaven before God? It is as a point in his presence; and what is the earth in regard of heaven, but as a point in comparison? And what is a man in comparison of the whole earth, but as a Pismire wand'ring in a large country? as the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 40. speaketh, Behold the nations are as a drop of a Bueket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance, and are as nothing before him. And therefore Abraham saith, Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. It is also the end for the which God hath created man of the dust, to the end that if he should happen to glory of the light of his understanding, he should be presently abased and abated by the remembrance of the birth and beginning of his body, and by the feeling of his infirmity; and to the end he should use and employ this reason to pray unto God, who lifteth the poor from the dust, and poureth his treasures into earthen vessels, that he would not contest against dust, nor enter into an account with ashes; that he would let it dissolve by nature, without dissolving it before his time by the violence of his wrath. This is the consideration which David brings in the 103. Psalm, to move God to clemency and compassion. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, he remembreth that we are dust, before whom we cannot present ourselves, but our hairs must stare, our blood must freeze within us, and all the pride we have in us must needs be abated by fear.  
All these considerations might make this private familiarity of Abraham with God, seem to be excessive, as intending to control the actions of God; and his cunning with small respect to insinuate himself little by little, and obtain by pieces that which he durst not demand all at once.  
Notwithstanding in that God heareth him willingly, and accepts his demand, hinders us to presume of any evil in such an holy and excellent servant of God.  
To resolve you of this point, ye must know that in a great similitude of words, there is often a great dissimilitude of sense and intention. Two persons sometimes will use the same words, and make the same signs, but to diverse ends, and with different intentions. As in the 17. Chapter of Genesis, Abraham laughs at the promise which God made him touching a Son, this laughter in him is not reproved, because it proceeded of joy, not of distrust; but in the 18. Chapter Sarah laughs at the self same thing, and is checked for it, because God did perceive therein her distrust, as if the thing was impossible. Zacharie the father of john Baptist and the Virgin Mary do answer the Angel in words alike, saying, How shall this be? In Zacharie it was a How of doubt, in the holy virgin Mary it was a How of inquiry, to demand instruction. Who could approve in any other then in Moses these bold words, Yet now if thou wilt, forgive their sin, if not, blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written?  
You know that job and jeremy pressed with anguish, have cursed the day of their birth. I think that those that are tormented in hell, say the very same thing; for as Christ saith of judas, it had been good for those men, that they had never been borne. But other was the motion that driven these holy men to this, other the murmuring of the damned; for these are moved and set on with hatred against God, but job and jeremy have suffered themselves to slip by infirmity to these words of excess, wherein I doubt not but they have greatly offended God, and have asked him pardon thereof. The bubbling of their anguish have casted forth for once this scum of their impatience; So in a man weaker in faith then Abraham, and less accustomed to confer with God familiarly, this private familiarity might seem excessive; but the humility whereby he acknowledgeth himself dust and ashes, and the favourable answers of God to his demands, do exempt him from the crime of temerity.  
Let us not impute to subtlety this kind of insinuating himself so by degrees, nor look for any craft therein; let us rather attribute it to the nature of faith, which imboldeneth herself by degrees, and maketh herself familiar little by little, by how much she acknowledgeth the effects of God's favour; for the first favourable answers do give liberty to make others, the first graces of God do contain covert promises of increasing of graces; for God giveth because he hath given, his first liberalities do invite the following ones, he crownes not our merits but his gifts, his gifts and his calling are without repentance.  
This private familiarity of Abraham therefore, was without contempt, his boldness was modest; his confidence humble; which he testifies in acknowledging himself dust and ashes, for without this humility his prayer had been unpleasing to God, who rejects the prayer of the proud, and inclines his care unto those that have a contrite and broken spirit, as it is said in Isaiah, Chapter 66. I will look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. God sendeth rain in greater abundance on low places, yea, & when it doth fall on high places it stays not there. And if any great tempest or furious storm happeneth, the Oak and Ashe trees are overthrown and cast down to the earth, but the Time and Marjoram remain whole. God's graces falling upon the proud do not stop nor settle there; God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble: To ask of God graces with a haughty spirit, and opinion of his own righteousness, is to be like him that should beg with a suit of cloth of gold and all perfumed; he that asks after such an undecent manner must look to be refused.  
Notwithstanding in this gradation of Abraham's de●…ands, considering that he being come to the number of ten, he stays there, and saith not, but Lord if there be five found within the City, wilt thou not spare the place for those five righteous? Wither it was because Abraham did judge in himself, that he ought to subscribe to the decree and sentence of the justice of God, and acknowledged that it was a just thing that a great City in the which ten righteous men were not to be found, should be destroyed, and that he ought not to make intercession for it: Or whither it was, because God hindered him to proceed on in his demands, lest he should ask things contrary to God's decree and ordinance, and that thereupon God should have been fain to have refused him, and reject his prayer; for often in the Scripture God forbids his servants to make intercession for such and such, when he is resolved not to pardon them; he forbids Samuel to pray for Saul, and jeremy to make intercession for the jews, because God holds it not convenient to his goodness, to permit his children to pray unprofitably and without reaping some fruit.  
Observe also that in this conference of God with Abraham, and often elsewhere, the faithful are called righteous, not that they are without sin, but in comparison of the wicked; and because God wipeth out their sins by his mercy for his Son's sake, whom jeremy calleth the Lord, our righteousness, jeremy 23. Sometimes also because of the righteousness of the cause, which they maintain, and for the which cause they are persecuted: So Noah, Lot, job, Daniel, and Zacharie are called righteous, though Noab fell into drunkenness, Let committed incest, David adultery and murder, job cursed the day of his birth, Zachrie doubted of God's promises; which faults are as warts in a fair face, which seem as an exposition of this word Righteous.  
That we may know, that when Christ jesus saith that he is not come for the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance, these sinners are righteous in some sort, and that jesus Christ by the righteous understands those that think they are without sin. Our righteousness consists in acknowledging our unrighteousness, and in clothing ourselves with the righteousness of jesus Christ, who hath been made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 5. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many Isa. 53. Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, & redemption, 1 Cor. 1.  
This is the sense and meaning of this history, and the exposition of the three points which we have propounded unto you; whence springeth diverse doctrines, that serve to comfort, instruct, and to humble us.   

The Application.  
FIrst in the manner wherein God proceeds against Sodom, you have an example and pattern of God's patience, soliciting sinners to repentance; he sends Lot to those of Sodom, who was among them an Herald and Preacher of righteousness, who dwelling among them, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds, as S. Peter saith, 2 Pet. 2. But they believed him not, Gen, 19.9. This one fellow came in to sojourn, and so will needs be a judge? After Lots coming, God sends them wars, that spoils their Country, and leads them into captivity, whence being delivered by Abraham's help, they amend not. At the last God being provoked, sends fire from heaven, which consumes them: whereunto served the nature of the soil, for the country was full of slime pits, which served as matter unto it, and brought a sudden inflaming.  
Three things are happened unto them for examples, and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come, lest we should abuse God's patience, who hath so long time supported us, solicits & calls us to repentance: for what hath not God done, to bind us to his love and fear? He hath sent us his servants, and set his word before our eyes, he hath chastised us often, and hath set us on foot again by his help; he hath scattered us in strange countries, and then reassembled us together again by his mercy. He makes us to subsist now as the remainder of the massacre, as some planks saved from shipwreck, or like a brand reserved from the fire, and do as yet subsist as a miracle to strangers, and a rare example of his providence; for in the troubles of a State it happeneth ordinarily as with catarrhs and defluctions, which always fall upon the weakest part. Now the weakest part in the body of this kingdom is the Church of God, notwithstanding in these last stirs which have troubled this estate, God hath secured and saved harmless his Church, and restrained the people's will, though on our side we have enough contributed to our own ruin, and yet God even this day giveth us this grace, that we are here assembled in peace, to lift up together our hands and hearts before his presence. He may then say that which he saith, Isai. 5. What could have been done more to the vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes: For that we do not bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, is it because we have not been chastised? but we newly come forth out of persecution: Or is it because he hath not threatened us? but yet even now we were at death's door, and as it were on the point of our steep downfall: Or is it because he hath imparted unto us his gifts and graces so sparingly? but who can comprehend his goodness towards us, his liberality and his patience? Or is it because you have not been sufficiently and carefully informed? but surely we have not spared ourselves in this point, yea, our liberty and freedom of reprehending seems intolerable unto many. After a continual labour, we receive instead of recompense, calumnies, which tend to make our Ministry unfruitful, and to take away the efficacy from our preaching: The time will come (●f GOD hath not pity on us) wherein ye shall have teachers according to your desire, or else shall have leisure to fast after the Word of God.  
But if we speak in our exhortations against the abuses of Popery, ye hear that with great attention, but ye will not enter into disputation with your own vices, as being at agreement with the devil on that side. You condemn the Church of Rome, in that she forbids the people the reading of the holy Scripture, but are we for all that the carefuller to read it? they are hindered to read it by scruple, but you by contempt and negligence. Ye blame those that pray, not understanding what they say; but are ye more excusable to pray without thinking what ye say? You reprehend them for superstitious signs and gesture that they have in the Church; but you in avoiding superstition fall into irreverence, one keeping on his Hat in Prayer time: another makes difficulty to kneel, to show unto our adversaries that we need not suffer so much for religion, seeing we have it in so little esteem. You condemn the idolatry of the Church of Rome, and notwithstanding you idolatrize, and as it were worship your bodies and goods, which you serve much more and better than you serve God. You condemn spiritual whoredom, and you pollute yourselves with corporal fornication. You condemn those that esteem to merit Paradise by their good works, & in the mean time you live as if you would go into hell by your evil works, or as hoping to be saved without your good works. We blame auricular confession, but are we for all that now careful to confess our sins to God? We blame those that think to redeem their sins by money given to the Church, but the money we spare on that side, is it bestowed in almsdeeds? and that which we withdraw from the idle, is it consecrated to God's service. Contrariwise the poor languish and accuse the rich to be little charitable, the cry of the poor is mounted and entered into the cares of the LORD of hosts.  
And therefore do not take it as an injury to be compared to Sodom and Gomorrah; for although we are guiltless of that sin, for the which God consumed them with fire; notwithstanding there are other sins that cry as loud as that, and for the which many hearers of the Word of God, shall be more roughly handled in the day of judgement than Sodom and Gomorrah, as it is denounced unto Capernaum, Corazin, and Bethsaida, Mat. 11. that had seen the miracles of jesus Christ, and heard his word, which they had rejected, and were not converted.  
And indeed the Scripture teacheth us, that beside the sin of Sodom, there are other sins that cry and call for the vengeance of God. There is the cry of the innocent blood, witness the blood of Abel, that cried from the earth unto God. There is the cry of the labourers and Servants, whose hire is kept back by fraud, whereof Saint james speaketh, jam. 5.4. There is the cry of the widow, and of the orphan, whereof Moses speaketh, Exod. 22. Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child, if thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. Which is a sin that is to be found among us, besides which, example of violent snatching and usury are to be found. Such a one fasteth this day from flesh and meat, that eateth at his house the flesh of the poor, and consumeth his neighbour's substance. Many overturning God's commandment that forbids to come unto the altar with void hands, bring to the Lords Table hands full of violence and extortion, fare from clothing jesus Christ in his members, seeing that they strip them thereof.  
And what think ye of the mortal, or rather immortal quarrels of those, that have not learned to forgive, that ask of God every day that he forgive them not their sins, seeing they forgive not those that have trespassed against them; that hate a thousand times more their neighbour, than they love God; seeing they defame the Church of God by their quarrels, and put it to an open shame? What, do ye think that these things cry not against heaven? Do ye think that the Heathen soldiers, having not torn Christ's coat, those can be suffered that tear his body, which is the Church? and seeing that he who offendeth one of the least ones, deserves to be thrown and drowned in the depth of the Sea, with a millstone about his neck, he which offends the whole Church, deserves he not to be cast into Hell? Or do ye think that he can have peace with his father, that is always in quarrel with his brethren?  
It is good also to observe the causes of the destruction of Sodom, and by what degrees she came to be corrupted. The Prophet Ezekiel, tells us in the 16. Chapter. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. These selfsame vices do infect our flock; charity diminisheth amongst us, and covetousness increaseth; the quarrels are hot, and the prayers cold; the word of GOD ill planted in our hearts, rancour and hatred firmly rooted in them; the parents are careful to hoard up goods for their children, but not to teach them to make good use of them, and to forgo them willingly for the Gospel's sake. In poor families, you shall find in an extreme poverty, an extreme pride, idleness & drunkenness; they had rather see their children go naked, then apply themselves to labour and sobriety. Ye shall see in many of the Nobility a profane humour, an arrogant ignorance, unclean and filthy words, ordinary swearing, a distaste of God's Word. They are courageous to revenge their own injuries, but cowards to resist their vices, or to defend God's cause; sumptuous in , but niggards in almsdeeds. They are not such as our forefathers were in old time, ready to run to Martyrdom, but they are ready to run to every public faction and sedition.  
Are these those, whom God hath raised to underprop & support his Church? or do we hope that God will deliver his people by their hands?  
Of all in general we make this complaint, with the Prophet Isaiah, Chap. 9 The people turneth not unto him that smiteth them neither do they seek the LORD of hosts. Thou hast strucken them, and they have felt no pain; thou hast consumed them and they have refused to receive instruction; they have hardened their faces like stone, they have refused to turn themselves; and as it is in the 29. Chapter of Deuteronomie: They have blessed themselves in their hearts, that is to say, flattered themselves, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination & stubbornness of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. By this means God's patience, that should serve to amend us, serves to mar us. God will give us thereby leisure to repent us of our sins, and we take leisure thereby to rejoice in our wickedness. God commands us to be holy, but we will make him a sinner, winking at our profane humour. He will have us expect his help, and we will have him expect our amendment at our leisure. This is the right brimstone that pulls down fire from heaven, that sulphurous earth of Sodom never had such force, to draw down God's inflaming anger consuming them with fire, as the contempt of God's Word hath power to pull down his judgements on our heads: Let us fear lest his patience being in the end overcome by his wrath, we find no more place of repentance, as Godthreatneth by his Prophet Isaiah, Chap. 1. Therefore when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. But as for them that turn themselves unto the LORD. God's familiarity with Abraham, and the free access he gives to his Servant, aught to give them a holy confidence to speak unto God familiarly, and to be assured that God will hear them. For as Saint Paul teacheth us, Rom. 4. that that which is written of Abraham's faith, which was imputed to him for righteousness, Was not written for his sake alone, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up jesus our Lord from the dead. So then hold certainly, that this benignity of our God in hearing Abraham's demands, that seemed to be importunate, is not propounded only for Abraham's sake; but for you also that believe, that ye may have this assurance, that God is even delighted and desires to be importuned by his children, and is not offended with this filial freedom, which proceeds from the spirit of Adoption; that he love's this holy obstinacy; who according to jacob wrestling with him, lets him not go, till it hath got a blessing; or after the example of the woman of Canaan, who being often repulsed by jesus Christ, yea even so far as to be compared by him to a dog, yet at last she obtains, besides the curing of her daughter, this testimony of Christ that her faith was great, and that he had not found so great a faith, no not in Israel. And this is that spirit of adoption, of freeness and liberty, which makes, that as in afflictions we had rather fall into the hands of God, then into the hands of men, because his compassions are great and many; so in matter of demands and requests we dare ask of him such things, as we dare not ask of men, because his grace and goodness are according to his greatness, that is to say, are incomprehensible.  
Nay, which is more, to give us the more private familiarity to call upon him, although he doth us good by his freewill, and without any constraint; notwithstanding he will have us to think that he gives it to our importunity and continuance in prayer, as we are taught by our Saviour Christ, Luke 11. by that similitude of a friend that goes unto his friend at midnight, and says unto him; friend, lend me three Loaves, I say unto you, saith Christ, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth; and by the example of an unjust judge, which dispatcheth the poor widow of her suit to deliver himself from her importunity, whence Christ saith, Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?  
This confidence and familiarity of praying unto God, shall no more bar humility, than it did in Abraham, who amidst his requests, full of liberty, acknowledgeth himself notwithstanding to be naught but dust and ashes. There is an humble familiarity, an humility with freeness, which being drawn to by love, diminisheth not the reverence due unto him. Wherefore in prayer we join together these two gestures, we bow our knees, and lift up our eyes, whereof the one witnesseth our humility, the other our confidence. Many other doctrines do arise from this Text, which we will briefly touch. When you read that in a great city, ten righteous are not to be found among many thousands; you may learn, that you must not square yourself by the multitude to live well, as the LORD saith, Exod. 23. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. The multitude hath been always a bad counsellor, the broad way leads to destruction. The whole world, shall run after and follow the beast, Revel. 13. They that produce the greatness, multitude and universality for marks of the Church, had they lived in Sodom, would have sooner joined themselves with the Sodomites, then with Lot, who was almost alone among this multitude.  
Which Lot being righteous, of whom Abraham speaketh, when he saith, wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? teacheth us by his example, that it is a dangerous thing for an holy man to live in the company of the wicked. Wherefore David saith, Psal. 26. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men. One jonas thinking to escape and fly from the presence of God, and to exempt himself from his obedience, had like to have cast away the whole ship. A heathen Captain of a ship, hearing a wicked man making his prayer among the rest during the tempest, Hold thy peace, saith he, and hide thyself, lest the gods know that thou art here. Wherefore God said unto the Israelites, depart from the tents of these wicked men; namely, Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins: Come out of Babylon my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues; and that therefore not only for fear of the like peril & punishment, but also for fear of the contagion of vices. There is nothing so glewish as evil examples, nothing so pernicious as the company of the wicked. If Dina had not haunted dancing, she had preserved her chastity. If the Israelites in Nehemiahs' time had not allied themselves by marriage with the infidels, their children should not have spoken the language of Ashdod. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, by the conversation and acquaintance with the wicked, we become like them. Wherefore even as one counselleth women that conceive, to have by their bed side the pictures of fair children, so must we have fair examples before our eyes, to the end we may conceive good thoughts, and bring forth good actions▪ For what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an Infidel? wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separated▪ ●aith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing, 2 Cor. 6.  
Finally touching that which you have heard; namely, if there had been ten righteous men in Sodom, God would have spared the City for their sakes; ye may learn how God esteemeth his children, choosing rather the preservation of ten of his children, than the ruin of ten thousands of his enemies. He bears with the wickedness of the world, and fore slowes his judgements for his Church sake mixed with the world; so God would not send the flood till after methusalem's death, who died a year before the flood; as soon as josias is dead, Nabuchadnezzar invadeth the country of judea; the life of one servant of God did support the country, and keep back God's judgements. So soon as Saint Augustine was dead, the City Bona, whereof he was Bishop, was won by the Vandals, and sacked by them; as if by the death of that good man of God, the rampiers and walls of the town were fallen down. Therefore the LORD in the 57 Chapter of Isaiah, after he had said, that the righteous man perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men are taken away; immediately after he makes the punishment of the wicked to follow, as a necessary sequel and consequence. But draw ye hither ye sons of the Sorceress, against whom do ye spur yourselves? etc. Nay which is more, God having lifted up his hand, to turn upside down heaven and earth, because they are become a temple of idols, and the kingdom of the devil, is stopped and withheld from doing it, because there are a few of the faithful mingled among the wicked, least in rooting up the darnel, he should also pluck up by the roots the good corn; therefore it is said to the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, that were under the altar, and cried for vengeance against them that dwell on earth, Apocal. 6. that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled; that being once done, the end of the world will necessarily follow: for should the world be so possessed by the devil that God should have no part in it? or should the Sun rise only to give light to those that do evil? It is therefore one of the reasons, for the which the faithful are called the salt of the earth, Matth. 5. Because it is that part that preserves the rest of the Inhabitants of the earth, and protects the world from corruption.  
And to apply these things to ourselves, I esteem that these last days past, when our Churches were in great danger, God cast his eyes upon us; he considered therein many mischiefs and maladies that infect the flock; that covetousness is very rise among us, so that we esteem of men as we esteem of bags of money, that is to say, according to the money they have, the man is esteemed as nothing, as the bag is nothing esteemed. That every one tells lies and life's subtly with his neighbour. That destruction, hatred, suspicion are among us, in the highest degree; that usury, whoredom, and blasphemies are to be found among us, to the great dishonour of the Gospel, that so soon as there is never so little prosperity, excess, not and superfluity of apparel do incontinently appear; and that charity towards the poor, and the zeal of the honour of God is waxed cold; while as the superstitious power out their goods at the feet of an Idol, do lay foundations of new religions, build Churches, give offerings, buy masses and services at a great rate and with an extreme cost; that is to say, that superstition is servant in them, but true religion keycold in us; that they to make a molten Calf, do contribute even unto their jewels and golden earrings, whiles that the service of the honour of God is ill maintained.  
For these causes he had already sent his destroying Angels, and had snatched away his word from us, had it not been that even he the same unto whom Abraham spoke, who is his only Son our Lord and Saviour jesus hath stayed his wrath, and thereupon he hath considered ten righteous amidst this corruption, that is to say, some few of the number of the true faithful, and of holy souls that fear him, and groan under the general corruption; for whose sake he suspends as yet his judgements, and spares the flock; and those perhaps not the greatest ones, nor the richest, nor the most noble; but perhaps some poor, whom we know not, and to whom we, as ungrateful, con little thankes; He hath stopped and stayed Gods judgements, and hath stood in the gap, and hath been in the public commotion, like the lifting up of the hands of Moses, that did more than josuahs' sword; which is the observation that the wiseman makes in the 9 of Ecclesiastes, That there was a little City and few men within it, and there came a great King against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it; now there was found in it a poor wiseman, and he by his wisdom delivered the City, yet no man remembered that poor man.  
Seeing then that the number of those that fear the Lord among us, is the defence and the safety of the Church, and as King joram said of Elisha, the Chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, for whose sake God pardoneth the rest: Let us labour to increase the number of them; and that notten not thirty, not fifty, but that the whole troop and flock be truly the holy nation and the portion of the Lord. Let us make our sins hold their peace that cry, and that their cry be overcome with the cry of repentance, which pours unto the feet of our Saviour jesus, that precious ointment, with an holy grief, and bedews them with herteares as heretofore Mary did, whose tears were a thousand times more odoriferous, than her precious ointment, for this filled the chamber with a sweet pleasing smell, but her repentance is even yet of good favour in the Church of God.  
And in stead of that heavy burden of sins, whereof Christ jesus doth discharge us, Let us charge and take upon us his yoke which is easy, and his burden which is light; whether by this yoke and burden we understand his cross; or whether we take it in general for our subjection unto his word; that hereafter we have no other will then his, no other trust and confidence then in his promises, no other joy then in his love.  
And that we may make use of our vices, and give to our desires a lawful employment and occupation; let not the violent have hereafter any other violence, then that which taketh by force the Kingdom of heaven. Let usurers give themselves to giving to the poor, for that is to lend unto God by usury. Let the coverous gather a treasure in heaven. Let the quarrellers make an irreconcillable war against their vices. Let the haughty and ambitious glory in the knowledge of God, and in that they are the children of the most high.  
If ye do so, God who desires not the death of a sinner, but his conversion, whose compassions are always open towards those that seek him; will watch for your safeguard; he will blow upon the erterprises of our enemies, and will frustrate their hopes; his providence shall be as a wall of fire about his Church. If you fear GOD, you will not fear men. Bear yourselves courageous against men's threatenings, but tremble at God's Word, who hath bought and redeemed you with too great a price, to leave you. He will not deny you things necessary for this present life, seeing that from the foundation of the world he hath prepared for you an everlasting kingdom; as he himself will proclaim in the last day. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherito the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world. To whom be ascribed all honour, power and dominion, for ever and ever, Amen.   
FINIS.