A century of sermons upon several remarkable subjects preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Hacket, late Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; published by Thomas Plume ...

THE FIRST SERMON UPON LOT'S WIFE. (Book 1)

GEN. xix. 26.

But his Wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

SInce the least sin that ever was committed deserves eternal pu∣nishment, I am sure any sin that ever was done deserves an hours reprehension; especially one of so great magnitude as this of Lots Wife. He that will judg himself, and take a strict account of his faults, let him look this way to my Text, and observe with me how many ways this woman transgres∣sed, through so small a motion as to turn about. He that will examin his repentance and his vivification as well as his sins, let him look upon this Pillar, and mark that it is a Mo∣nument erected against a relapsing convert, against one that was turning from the vain pomp of the World and did not persevere. For she that fled from Sodom, and lookt back, perished as well as they that never came out. And he that will con∣sider what an heinous crime it is to be invited unto mercy, and abuse it, let him taste of this salt, and feel what a strange judgment remains in this example to cast away that which God would have saved. All this is tacitly included in the words which I have read unto you: and as the Prophets of old uttered their Pro∣phetical spirit many times by deeds and gestures, as well as by word and speech. So God doth teach his Church as well by fact as by precept. Those Exhortations I premised were not doctrinally delivered at the castigation of Lot's Wife, but mi∣raculously exhibited in a visible work, objectivè, non praeceptivè, they are not passed over in a line or two by the Pen of a ready Writer, but built up for all posterity to look upon in a durable Monument.

And when judgment advanceth it self in a Trophy, in a standing Pillar, every man will conceive that it is meant it should be a monitory to all succession, rather than if it were a fluxive a transitory penalty that left no print behind it. The Idol Calf which the Israelites worshipped was beaten to powder, the dust of it blown away before the wind, and drunk up in the River. The Sea which had gi∣ven back on either side for the passage of Gods Host, met together and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Army in the bottom, that they were no more seen. The Earth clave and opened it self to swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and it closed a∣gain, so that no appearance of them remained. Nothing was found of Jezebel, eaten up of dogs, but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands. So it plea∣sed him who sits on high that all visible memorial of these sinners should be rid out of the way. But He made brine of Lot's Wife, and congealed it into a Statue, where it stood longafter, nay I cannot convince those reporters who have written, that the reliques of it are to be seen to this day, that passengers might shake their

heads at it, and say, Ah thou that wert pluckt out of Sodom, like a brand out of the fire, and yet didst loiter by the way, and couldst not refrain to cast back a wishing and a voluptuous eye upon those filthy habitations.

Ingenious fancies have taken scope to riddle upon this judgment, Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum, sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver, sepulchrum tamen & cadaver intus; that she was a dead corps that had no sepulcher, and that she was a sepulcher that had no dead corps, and yet it was both corps and sepulcher. This gives me the hint to di∣vide my Text into an Epitaph and a Tomb: the Epitaph, His wife looked back from behind him; the Tomb which that Epitaph respects is, that she became a pillar of salt. If you will have it in Logical terms, which come all to one pass, thus, here are two principal heads to which all the matter is to be referred, qua fecit, quae passa est, first what she did, and that's the summary Enditement of her sin, secondly what she suffered, and that's the sentence of her punishment. I bind my self to the first part only at this time, in which there is cumulus salis, as many corns of salt as will lie upon a knifs point, so in these few words, she looked back from behind him, many Command∣ments are broken. 1. She was inobsequens, she looked back, being expresly forbidden, there's disobedience. 2. Excors, here's blindness of heart, she might have saved her self by going streight on, and looking forward, yet she violated those easie condi∣tions. 3. I••docilis, she looked back from behind him. Lot was a good example that went before her, and she would go her own ways. 4. Incredula, she doubted whe∣ther those Cities should be destroyed as God had sent word, or she thought it would not be the worse for her though she stood still and gazed upon Sodom. 5. Recidiva, she fainted in well doing, and had a desire growing upon her to live again among those filthy sinners whom she had escaped. 6. Misericordiae contemtrix, she was slow to save her self, and did not fly away upon the wings of mercy. 7. Beneficii pertaesa, she rather valued what she had lost, than what she had saved, her Habitation, her Estate and Riches were consumed, for her lifes preservation she set little by that, and so loathed the benefit.

The Angel speaks in the 17. verse of this Chapter, Escape for thy life, look not be∣hind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain, yet she would not hearken, no not to such a Monitor as an Angel, but she looked back from behind him, and so stands guilty of disobedience. For disobedience is a sin by it self alone, Cum crimen potius contra pro∣hibitionem quàm contra rem ipsam fiat, says the School, when the fact it self were inno∣cent, but that the prohibition of the Lawgiver makes it nocent. There are some Commandments of Gods which lean not so much upon apparent reason, as upon absolute authority. For though there be weighty causes which moved the most wise God to appoint it so, yet when those reasons are not emergent out of the seeds of nature, nor any way exprest and revealed, as the Angel expresseth none in this place, then the Command is said to come from absolute and uncontradicted domi∣nion to try obedience. There is a natural Law which lighteth every man that cometh into the World to choose the good in sundry cases of honesty, and to re∣fuse the evil; this light is not a pure elementary fire, but ignis culinaris as we say in Philosophy an impure smoaky flame, which makes it apparent to the understand∣ing what's filthy to the soul, as well as what's noxious to the body. And in those things where God is little known, or at least little thought of, humanity it self doth suggest the performance. But because we rest not in the good of nature only, as beasts do, but aspire to a supernatural end and felicity; therefore there is a supernatural Law to bring us to it, Repent and believe, and thou shalt be saved; this is the Covenant of mercy and forgiveness which is made in Christ, and the grace of God doth work in us a good will to those Divine duties, that we do not frustrate our salvation. Then thirdly the Sacraments of the New Testament are the Seals of the righteousness of faith: as Sacraments they are Ceremonial Ordinances, and are solemnly kept upon submission to the absolute Command of the Divine Autho∣rity; but as faith is necessarily now knit unto them, so they are a limb of the su∣pernatural Law, and are carefully observed, not as Canons of obedience, but as the way to eternal life. As a sick man takes the potions that are prescribed him, not out of duty to the Physitian, but out of due regard to his own recovery.* 1.1 The similitude sorts with our infirmity, Obtemperet medico ut surgat, qui noluit credere ne ae∣grotaret, says St. Austin, Man would not obey the Physitian to prevent his sickness, therefore let him use his after-wit, and take those Sacramental means that are ap∣pointed to make him whole. But fourthly there is lex privata, a Law imposed up∣on some particular person, in whose transgression neither were justice infringed,

nor Gods glory violated, if his Command were not laid upon it; and there is no scope in this but to make the passive humility of our soul, that is our obedience more illustrious.

* 1.2What was there in it else that the Man of God that came from Judah unto Bethel was charg'd neither to eat nor drink water in that place, nor to return by the same way that he came, there is no colour of Religious Worship in these observations, but God would have him submit to his unquestionable Authority, and you know his misery ensued, when he was unperswaded to obey it. Dominus cur jusserit viderit, what pro∣fit there is to keep such private Laws, as seem to carry no great substance in them, let God look to that says the Father, but be you obsequious. That peremptory de∣nuntiation upon pain of death not to eat of the Tree of knowledg of good and evil, called the forbidden fruit, no Theological wits could ever pass a ripe mature judg∣ment upon it why it was so laid, but that they, and all we in them, are to stoop under that sweet yoke of the Divine Will with absolute, indefinite, undiscoursed obedience. It was no robbery to eat of it, wherein God was defrauded of any thing that He stood in need of, then it had been hurtful to him; the fruit was not dis∣easeful or poisonous, then it had been hurtful to them: it was a pure Edict of Au∣thority, to let the best of all bodily Creatures know to what service and homage they were born; as the vulgar Latin reads that verse, Psal. ix. ult. Constitue le∣gislatorem super eos, not as we translate it, put them in fear, O Lord, but set a Lawgiver over them, that they may know themselves to be but men. Quomodo eris sub Domino, nisi fueris sub praecepto? so St. Austin upon that very instance of the forbidden fruit. How are you under the Lord, unless you be under the Law? and not that Law which leans upon apparent reason, for that Law is within you, and therein you obey your self; but that Law which flows from absolute Authority, that's without you, and therein you stoop lowest under the power of God. And this is the very condition of that word which the Angel spoke to Lot and those that were with him, Look not behind thee, neither stay in all the plain. Wherein could it tend to the honour of God that they should set their face one way more than another? perhaps you will say it was meant to the greater detestation of the Sodomites, whom the Lord would not permit to have commiseration, or any respect from good men: or to urge them to make haste away with a kind of hyperbolical celerity. As our Saviour sent his Disciples to preach in every City of Judaea with this speedy or prefestinating Com∣mand, Salute no man by the way, Luke x. 4. And Elisha imposed that post haste upon Gehazi his servant,* 1.3 Gird up thy loyns and go thy way, if thou meet any man salute him not, and if any man salute thee answer him not again. Suppose this or that were the secret drift of this Interdiction look not behind thee, yet a little casting of the head on one side had not made their expedition the slower. What need we seek a knot in a rush? what need we prove her faulty for reasons that are not alleaged? this con∣vinceth obliquity enough in her sin, that she did not observe the precise command of God in every gesture of her body.

In a word, the thing it self commanded did not in it self bind the conscience, but with the Command it did. The eye is free to view all the works of the Lord, unless something upon which it glanceth doth scandalize it with concupiscence. Who suspects the contrary, but that the crackling of the fire, and the out-cries of them that perisht in those Cities that were consumed, did rowze many in the neighbour Villages to look upon those places, and lament them? Did not Abraham rise up early in the morning and look toward the Land of the Plain, and see the smoak of the Country go up as the smoak of a Furnace? 'tis soon answered, Where there was no restraint, there was no transgression. But above all other Laws, those which we may rather call Canons and Constitutions, that impose the prestation of adiaphorous duties, and prohibit other things that have no moral ob∣liquity in them, are most generous ways to heap reward upon the willing, and to discover the stiff stomach of rebellion. In all Injunctions Ecclesiastical and Political, set aside charity, edification, unity, peace of the Church, or any other moral re∣spect. Put it only upon this, that meer authority enforceth them, which is just authority derived from Gods Ordinance, God forbid we should need any haling or towing to them, for he that sees the finger of Authority held up, sees reason e∣nough to obey; and to recoil as Lots Wife did, because the Commandment seem'd not to be weighty and ponderous, is blind disobedience. O 'tis a blessed thing not to have a licentious itch upon a man, not to desire scope and random, but to sub∣mit chearfully to a punctual Discipline in all our actions, and every circumstance

of them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as it is the praise of an Holy Father, as if his soul had been created without a will. Alas into what precipices would our fancy carry us if we were left to our selves, to be libertines in any thing, there would be nothing but confusion? Deus servitute nostrâ non eget,* 1.4 nos autem sine ejus dominatione esse non possumus, nothing truer, it is St. Austins. God stands in no need of our service, but we could not live without his command and governance. 'Tis hard to confine this point to brevity, but I must break off: only let me put you in mind, that whereas the Jesuits set forth themselves to be the only Obedientiaries in the World, so that to neglect the Precept of their Superior in a trifle, they brand it for a flagiti∣ous crime; yet the Jesuit a Lapide says upon my Text that he would not discord with them, that hold the trespass of Lots Wife to be no more than venial error; for either some sudden clap of thunder might make her start and look back una∣wares: or else she thought not that the Angel gave her that direction not to retort her eyes under the guilt of a mortal sin, or she thought the Commandement held her no longer, when she came out of the Plain, and was even entring into Zoar. Here's a Jesuitical subtlety for you, to aggravate the offence to the bigness of a Moun∣tain, if a Novice violate the private Law of his Superior; but to extenuate the sin almost to nothing, if a Servant disobey the private Law of his heavenly Master. But it is not the wit of man that can set a size upon sins which are mortal and which are venial, for it is the Lord that judgeth the Earth.

The next place to which I refer the heinousness of this womans sin, is great folly and blindness of heart, for she refused the will of God, and the preservation of her own life, upon such easie conditions as to hold still her head. When Elisha's Mes∣senger bad Naaman wash seven times in Jordan, and he turn'd away in a rage, his Servants spake reason to him, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing,* 1.5 wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then when he saith to thee, wash and be clean? If he would not use such gentle means, so near at hand, means of no expence, no pain, no lingring molestation, he deserved to continue a Leper. In like sort if Lots Wife had been set a task of many observations, put to a strict and a tedious penance would she not have done it, to have escaped a storm of fire and brimstone? how much more when this was all that was required from her, Go on streight to the Mountain that is before thee, turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. Quanta erat iniquitas in peccando ubi tanta erat non peccandi facilitas? says the Father,* 1.6 What a shame it was to offend when there was so much facility to decline the of∣fence? Were not all the Regions of the World free for her to look upon, except∣ing that one City behind her which could not be seen for the smoak? Ex omnibus unum elige Myrrha virum, modo ne sit in omnibus unus: A single exception is the smal∣lest exception that can be made, and let them feel the smart that cannot conform themselves to those things which are of such easie observation. For wherein did the transgression of Adam and Eve especially consist. God knows best, but the tri∣vial and best grounded conjecture is, quod levis fuisset in tantâ copiâ unius arboris con∣tinentia, all the Trees of the Garden else were frankly theirs both for food and pleasure, both for delight and necessity; What an easie imposition was this, let this only Graft be untoucht, the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil, and all beside is yours? Who could forget it, or neglect it? But they stumbled when there was nothing to make them fall, that is, they violated a Law which was nei∣ther burdensom in strictness, nor in multitude of circumstances.

Therefore in those good hours which we set apart for repentance and bewayling of our sins, let it strike us deep to the heart, when we remember how much evil we have done upon very small provocation, how many branches of the Law we have broken, when we cannot justly say that we were strongly beset with any tentation, and how far we have given way to our frailties when 'twas prompt and easie to repress them. The negative Commands of the Law are more obvious to us, more ready in our power to obey them than the affirmative. So St. Chryso∣stom spends his judgment upon it with a tacit reason, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 'tis far easier to hold off our hand from sin than to put to our hand to virtue: and we can sooner shew the evil that we have not done, than the good that we have done. Nay the Father makes that such a slight thing that he says, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the very Beasts might alledg that, or it might be alledged for them that they had done no iniquity: yet what a strong charge it will be against us all in the day of judgment, that we have not girt our selves close, no not to this negative obedience, touch not, taste not; What facil Ordinances are these

to a temperate man? and nothing but custom and a sluggish spirit hath made them difficult to the intemperate. Defraud no man, extort from no man; God is no austere God in those Statutes, they are quickly learnt, and quickly kept; yet the wealthiest many times will do the contrary: when they could not pretend, as the necessitous may, the least impulsion of poverty. How soon may any one abstein from the Lords Table that finds himself unprepared and uncomposed for those sacred Mysteries? yet God shall have their company at that holy Feast when he least desires it. How easie a thing it is for a man not to fall down before Stocks and Stones, and to worship them? yet a smack of Idolatry abounds even in the Church of Christ. We dream of difficulties, we cry out against invincible tentations, when there is no such matter. I know there are Royal Laws in Scripture fit for heroick vertue, to bless them that persecute you, to pull down every high imagination, to quench all the sparks of concupiscence, to lay down our life for Christs sake. God doth justly weigh both the duress and the weight of these Commands, and our infirmi∣ty to fulfil them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉▪ he sees us strive for mastery in those Combats, and admires the fortitude of his Saints; but in other things it is as strange how quickly our faintness and easiness is subdued. Could you not watch one hour, says our Lord to his Disciples? What a poor request is this? to wake one hour for his comfort and service: Therefore the objurgation was the sharper, be∣cause they fail'd him. You will pollute my name for handfuls of barly and pieces of bread, Ez. xiii. 19. The Devil's haec omnia is a strong allurement, All these things will I give thee; he may bate a great deal of that offer to them that are ready to run into sin, let it be hoc aliquid, a little preferment, a little countenance and they are taken with the Snare. O insensati, O slow of heart, like this sinner in my Text, will you re∣ject God and forsake his Word even in things wherein you may so easily perform obedience?

Thirdly it is another brand upon her sin, that she was indocilis, most unatten∣tive to learn. Lot went before her constantly and stedfastly without any recipro∣cation or backsliding, the Example was in her eye all the way from Sodom to Zoar, every step he trode was a Sermon to bid her do the like, if she would be saved, yet she made no benefit of the Pattern, though he were her own Mate, her 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with whom she was bound in a more particular bond than all others, to draw the same yoke. What was this but to shut her eyes unto the light that was before, and to turn to the smoak that was behind? This is no distorted amplification, but an evident spot in her crime: yet not in her alone, but in all those that can∣not shew the use of good examples in the fruits of their lives. A good Example is the fairest transcript of Gods will, texted in capital letters, so that he that runs may read; and as a Picture expresseth the life more when colours are laid upon it, than when 'tis drawn out only in the rude figure: so where piety lives and moves in the actions of virtuous men, 'tis more illustrious so by far than in empty Pre∣cepts, and God expects it at our hands, that where we are deaf to plain instruction, yet we would easily be won with imitation. We will run after thee in odore unguen∣torum, says the Spouse, in the smell of those fragrancies which the Worthies of the Church have left behind them. Our Church, which hath omitted no opportune oc∣casion to put sound devotion in our mouths, hath taught us often to pray in seve∣ral Collects, in that admirable piece of piety the Common-Prayer Book, for grace of conformity with the best of Gods Children, that we may learn to love our enemies by the example of his Martyr St. Stephen, that after the example of John the Bap∣tist we may constantly speak the truth, and patiently suffer for the truths sake; that we may follow all the Saints that are knit together in one communion and fellowship in vertuous and godly living; this is the true celebration of their Holy-days, to tread their footsteps as they have gone before us unto everlasting life.

But Novelists had rather be talkt of that they began a fashion, and set a Copy for others, than that they contein'd themselves within a strict imitation of the most excellent Presidents. Be ye followers of me, says Paul to the Church of Corinth; and is it not better says Nazianzen to one Nichobalus upon the mention of those words, to come after the Apostles heels, than be a ringleader, or the formost a∣mong Sectaries? Praestat infra aquilas paululum, quàm supra alaudas volitare, it is a fairer pitch to fly a little under an Eagle, than to soar somewhat above a Lark. The Age is blessed, the days are blessed, when conspicuous facts of holy men are like Beacons on a hill, which cannot choose but be gazed upon. And if our slug∣gishness obscure such rare Examples for want of emulation, and make them vanish

like prints in snow that are soon forgotten, the Lord will set up others of a con∣trary kind that shall last longer to our terror. For since the memory of the just is no more regarded which is eternized for our imitation, he will powder and make brine of the wicked for our confusion. Here's an instance in my Text of one that observ'd not a faithful Leader that conducted her: She would not be tied to ex∣ample, and in that place where she refused to learn she was left for an example to all posterity. But why do I stick at this only, that she would not be a Scholar to Lot? he was a frail man, and had need of a Guide himself: herein rather it appears that she was most averse from discipline, nothing would make her wise, for there was an Angel or twain in the Troop, they were the Leaders of this little Flock out of Sodom, yet she order'd her steps disobediently even in the sight of an Angel. No earthly means or perswasions, no nor heavenly patterns can reduce some head∣strong sinners to repentance, they have hardned their hearts like the nether milstone. The rich Glutton in Hell thought that by some new device his Brethren might be converted, if one would come from the dead and admonish them. And do not most of you imagin, if an Angel were sent from Heaven to preach, there would be great reformation among us, we would mend apace: yes perhaps as much as Lots Wife did, who would tread her own path, though the Angel were at her elbow. They that will not hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be converted for that, they would be at the same stay though Angels walked daily among them.

The express words of my Text have afforded me hitherto all that I have ob∣jected against this sinner, and what I shall say more shall be deducted out of it both by facil and easie consequence, and by fair authority; especially in the imputa∣tions of incredulity and recidivation. And to come to them with the more per∣spicuity and order, I observe the same rottenness in the sin of Lots Wife which Cajetan discovered in the transgression of Eve. Eve cavilled upon that which God had commanded, two wayes; first she turned that absolute sentence, in the day thou eatest that fruit thou shalt die, into ye shall not eat of it lest you die, or as the Vulgar Latin, ne forte, lest perhaps ye die. Then she cloyed the Commandment with more austerity than was in it, to shew she was weary of it, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it; concerning the not touching her own loathing of the Law did put in that addition. So the poison of the Devil had crept into her understand∣ing, and into her affections says Cajetan, In intellectum per haesi••ationem poenae, in af∣fectum per displicentiam praecepti: in her understanding she doubted no such punish∣ment would follow as was threatned, in her affections she distasted the Command∣ment, and these are just so in the Subject we handle.

In the 10. of Wisdom ver. 7. (I name an Author of all that are in the Apocryphal List next to Canonical credit) Lots Wife is called a standing Pillar of salt, as a Mo∣nument of an unbelieving soul. An unbeliever is one that gives not faith to that which God hath said and revealed. Now she fell into unbelief in one of these two points, or in both, either she believed not that the place from whence she came should be destroyed as the Angels had denounced, or else she believed not it would conduce to her safety whether she looked back or no: the former she would try out of curiosity, and the latter she would put to hazard upon peevish presumption. The Sun rose clear that morning, ver. 23. there was no thunder nor darkness in the Heavens; she began to suspect she was drawn from home to no purpose, and they were wiser that stayed behind. So she stood in motu trepidationis, she knew not whether she should believe or not believe, at last she resolved to trust Gods Mes∣senger no further than she saw cause, and would make her own eyes her sureties, though she were strictly forbidden. You cannot provoke God to anger sooner than by reserving power and license to your self to judg whether all his sayings are cer∣tain and infallible. He that believeth not is condemned already. Faith is the eye of all Religion, if you wink with that eye you shall never see the Lord: Especially to think you can discern more with these bodily senses than with the inerrable light of Divine Truth, is an extreme indignity. A grave Patrician would be grieved that the deposition of a noted Varlet should be heard against his innocency. And will you hear the objections of sense and reason against that sacred evidence, Thus saith the Lord? that were to trust to darkness before light, the Flesh before the Spirit, to lying vanities before unalterable and eternal truth. But to her senses this Infidel would appeal, and they would instruct her sufficiently, whether it had gone with Sodom so ill as it was foretold. And was she sure to be satisfied by look∣ing

back? I greatly doubt it, a mist might rise up like the smoak of a Furnace, and she conceive it to come from fire, when it did not: Or the Sun might shine upon the waters in the Plain, and she misdoubt that the waters were become bloud, as the Moabites were so mistaken. Doth not a late Historian tell us of the whole Watch of a City, that misdoubted a Field of thistles a far off was a Troop of Pikemen that encamped there to besiege them? Was ever man more cautious according to humane rules than St. Thomas the Apostle? He would trust no mans reports that his Master was risen from the dead, he would see somewhat; neither would he trust his own eyes, he would feel too, nay he would not trust his fingers ends in small wounds, but he would wallow his whole hand in the rent of his side. For all this wariness he might have been deluded. The Syrians saw Elisha, and yet wist not it was he. The Sodomites felt all night at Lots door, and were still to seek. Old Isaac held Jacob fast and was deluded, the hands are Esau's hands says he, and yet they were not. And will this woman trust her eye-sight, and at a distance, ra∣ther than Gods peremptory assertion? O trust not in man, trust not in these fallible humane means. Our senses are bruitish, Nature is corrupt, Philosophy is vain, but Faith leans upon that strong pillar, the revelation of the Spirit from above, which cannot falter, and to lie it is impossible.

And as this woman was called an incredulous Soul, because she looked back to see whether vengeance had passed upon the Cities of the Plain, as the Angel of the Lord had foretold, so for want of faith, touching the caution which was gi∣ven to her own person, she fell into presumption, and by presumption into death; it would not sink into her thoughts that God was in earnest, that as many of their Troop as looked behind them should be consumed; she thought they were big words to scare timerous persons, such as Prophetical men in their zeal did every day denounce against sinners, yet they liv'd and rub'd on that took their own li∣berty to disobey, for God was gracious and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise against miserable sinners. Feel, feel the pulse of your own conscience I beseech you, tell me if it do not beat disorderly? Doth it not confuse you to call to mind, that this infidelity, this in ipso genere, hath betrayed you to the tenta∣tions of Satan more than all his snares beside? that desperate courage which you assume to your selves upon some hope of impunity is it not the spur to all trans∣gression? God is gentle and of long suffering, his minacies are terrible, but his dearly beloved Son and our only Saviour is merciful, sed & exorabile numen fortasse ex∣periar, says the Heathen, his loving kindness is soon entreated. This is a bastard faith of our own, to subvert the true faith which is begotten by the Spirit. A Diabolical infusion that God doth menace out of policy that which He never meant, to make us obsequious by the shadow of his scourge: but remember that non moriemini was a lie. 'Tis the Serpents Master-piece to expel all faith and fear out of our mind, for they go hand in hand together, and to break our necks with confidence. A barbarous beastly kind of life says Aristotle hardned the Scy∣thians, that they neither feared Thunder nor Earthquakes: but it is infernal witchcraft that makes obdurate hearts believe that all the woes and curses in the Gospel are but a strong noise, terrible while it is heard, but comes to nothing. Quotidie Diabolus quae Deus minatur levigat,* 1.7 says Gregory. God affirms, the Woman doubts, the Devil denies. O unhappy they that think Truth it self may be de∣ceived, and give ear to a deceitful spirit. If all the maledictions against Impe∣nitents were not indubitably to be expected, Christianity were but fainthearted superstition, Religion nothing but panick fear, Faith not the Evidence of things to come, but a devised Fable, and the sacred Scriptures in all penalties and threatnings a vizard of mockery. But as sin brought punishment upon us, so let the certain expectation of punishment bring us out of sin. Remember Lots Wife, the only memento that Christ fixeth upon any Story of the Old Testament. The less she believed the less she feared, but the less she feared the more she smarted. What God hath threatned will not be declin'd by our contrary opinion. Though Christ shed his bloud to save a sinner, God will not lie to save a sinner. No title of his Word shall fail, no not to save an hundred thousand souls out of the infernal pit.

I am come to the utmost portion of the hour, and not to the utmost of the first part of my Text by three points. She fainted in well-doing, she neglected mercy, and was slow to save her self, she contemned the benefit of preservation in respect

of that which was taken from her. But as Logick convinceth more than Rhetorick, as the fist knit together is stronger than the hand spread abroad; so all this will be most doctrinal in one point, that she relapsed, and sunk after she was in fair speed to obtain mercy, because she fell in love with wicked Sodom again from whence God had withdrawn her? This is her crime which Philo exaggerates more than once, aestu refluo retrosum absorpta, she was like a Ship sailing with full sails from the sinful delights of the World, but the contrary winds and tides of concupi∣scence carried her clean back again. Josephus accuseth her worse upon the same charge, that though her feet came from that impious City, yet her heart staid behind, Et saepius tardavit vertendo se ad civitatem, she stood still more than once to take her full view of that loss which she so much bemoaned, nor was it at the first turning about, as he says, that she was turn'd into a pillar of salt. The very Apples of Sodom remain as a token against her to this day, which put forth at first as if they would grow to be very delicious in the taste, and in conclusion they pul∣verize, and become sooty ashes. So Lots Wife ran well at first, but in the midst of her course, nay almost at the end she fainted, and stuck fast in the mire of re∣coyling desires. These are the Apples of Sodom, Plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness, Wisd. x. 7. This was not her native Country from whence the Angel brought her, I confess that would have moved a stony heart to have pitied it, if they had seen it desolate: No, Lot and she were strangers in Sodom, and but coarsly used by the lawless luxurious multitude: but wealth came in apace, Lot chose it for that end: there were other reasons I believe that took her more, there was the conflux of the Gallantry, there were the Fashions, there was the Bravery, there were the Sports that filled up idle hours, there were the Servants and the Visitants, and some things else which we much mistrust did follow all this. O 'tis an harsh thing for feminine pride and wantonness to be sent from such a City into little Zoar, or into a Mountain. No marvail if good counsel do not altogether work that good effect in this kind among our Ladies that might be ex∣pected, for the Angels of God could neither perswade nor affright Lots Wife from such a place, but that being a mile or so out of the Gates she longs to return.

He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back, says our Saviour,* 1.8 is not fit for the King∣dom of Heaven. Post aratrum respicit qui ad mala revertitur quae reliquit, says Gregory. If you call back any sin to which you had bid adieu, then you mar that furrow which is before your eyes, wherein you were casting good seed, and make it crooked. This is a cleanly Comparison, but because relapsing is an odious sin,* 1.9 St. Peter hath strein∣ed for a loathsome Similitude, and calls it returning with the dog unto his vomit. Si canis hoc faciens horret oculis tuis, tu quid eris oculis Dei, says St. Austin,* 1.10 if a dog is not to be endured in our sight that will lap in his own digustments, how shall God cast thee out of the sight of his eyes which dost wallow in those sins which thou hadst abju∣red? 'Tis a subtle question which Clemens propounds in the 2. of his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: and the resolution of it will cost them dear, I think, that resume those sins for which they had asked pardon, whether it be worse to sin in one kind once with a mans full knowledg and obstinacy, or out of negligence and weakness to return again to those faults whereof he had repented? certainly the determination will be, that relapsing begets extreme obstinacy, and obstinacy begets obdurateness: Facit obri∣gescere in peccato, as one says, the Metaphor is taken from her in my Text, that after recidivation became senseless as a Pillar, and did not feel what it was to sin. They marry those sins again from whence their Soul was once divorced: they are reinamoured of iniquity which once they confessed was to be loathed: they do as it were say unto God, take thy restraining grace again, we will have none of it: they were drawn out of the snare of the Hunter, and put in their foot again, improbè Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit, said the Heathen; therefore as their first illumination was an illustrious example of mercy, so their sliding back and ingratitude shall be punished with a memorable instance of justice. The Ca∣nonists say bis recidivus non debet commutare. A simple offender, in whom unfeined sorrow appears, if the Magistrate please may be punished in his Purse for once to excuse him from his corporal shame; but if he fall into the same offence again he must undergo his own penance without all indulgence of commutation.

Consider therefore, and the Lord put it into all our thoughts, that all Vows, Promises, and Protestations of amendment of any fault that are retrograde, cease, and become nothing, will be the most terrible witnesses against us in the day of

judgment.* 1.11 The Scape-goat that was sent out into the Wilderness with the sins of the people was dismissed never to return again. The Philosopher Plato could say 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; which is as one would say, go out of Sodom, and never turn back to look upon it. Christ bad us not only come unto him, Matth. xi. 28. but also abide with him, and stay with him, Jo. 15.4. There is no labour to lost la∣bour, to begin in the spirit, and to end in the flesh. Root up vanity that it may grow no more; if you do but clip off the top it will grow the thicker afterward, The Philistins let the hair of Samson grow again to their own destruction. Take heed that your repentance be not the worst sin that ever you committed; be as constant in well doing as the worst are in evil, be constant unto the end, and the Lord will give you a Crown of Life. AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  In Psal 70.
• * 1.2

  1 Ki. 13.8.
• * 1.3

  2 Ki. 4.29.
• * 1.4

  Lib. 8. de Gen ad. lit. cap. 11.
• * 1.5

  2 Ki. 5 13.
• * 1.6

  August. Civ. Dei. lib. 14. cap. 15.
• * 1.7

  Moral. lib. 24. cap. 7.
• * 1.8

  Luke 9.62. Homil. 3. in Ezek.
• * 1.9

  2 Pet. 2.22.
• * 1.10

  In Psal 80.
• * 1.11

  Lev. 16.26. De leg. lib. 9.