for man's habitation! Sodom and Gomorrha were seated in the fruitful valley, the country near it was more barren and mountainous. Some countries are high, and thirsty, and barren; others low, and watered, and fruitful. God could have made the whole earth to have been alike in all places, and not so variously ordered; but this singular diversity excellently praises the wisdom of his providence. They who live in barren mountains, which are only watered by the showers of heaven, are compelled to acknowledge that they owe all their increase to a blessing from above. They who inhabit the fruitful valleys enriched with fountains and rivers, are admonished of the bounty of God's providence to them above others, in the plenty of their supplies. They who live in mountainous and barren places, show the goodness of God in sustaining them even in such places of scarcity, and that it is not necessary for man's preservation to live delicately; those who fare more hardly often living more healthfully than those who swim in great abundance. In a word, by this | variety, places are made helpful and beneficial one to another; some places abound with the blessings of one kind, some with those of another; the mountains with health, the valleys with wealth; the mountain wants the valley for supply of food, the valley is beholden to the mountain for strength and defence. Every place enjoys not every comfort, but is necessitated to crave supply from a neighbouring country. The city cannot live without the food of the country, nor the country without the coin and commodities of the city; the poor wants the rich, and the rich the poor: the one is helpful by his labours, Pauper rogat, the other by his rewards; the one by dives erogat. work, the other by wages. True is that of Solomon, The rich and the poor meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of them all, Prov. xxii. 2; who by this variety both advances the honour of his own wisdom, and provides for the good of human society.

tus irrigua, et

utraque quasi carcere usus est

tigandum Isra

nii corruptio, ut

non

tem et castigatio

Obs. 2. God often affords the richest habitations and the greatest earthly plenty to the greatest sinners. Sodom for wealth and fertility is compared to the garden of God, and yet God bestows it upon the Babylon irrigua, Worst of men. Egypt and Babylon, et fertilis, Egyp abounding with waters and plenty, are amona; et tamen given, not only to those who are without the church, but who are enemies of the Dominus a cas church. In these countries God made elem: sic expos- his people slaves and captives; and cit humani inge truly it is safest for Israel to meet with locis amœnioribus most woe in places of most wealth. God at delicias, sed ad gives his enemies their heaven, their tristem servitu portion, their all in this life, Psal. xvii. nem populi sui. 14; they here receive their good things; Musc. in Gen.xiii. and have all in hand, nothing in hope; all in possession, nothing in future reversion. By this distribution of earthly plenty, God would have us see how slightly and meanly he esteems it. He throws the best things that this world affords upon the worst and, as Daniel speaks, the basest of men. Who but the Nimrods, the Nebuchadnezzars, the Alexanders, the Cæsars, have ordinarily been the lords of the world? These have fleeted off the cream of earthly enjoyments, when the portion of saints has been thin, and lean, and poor. Some observe, that Daniel expresses the monarchies of the world by sundry sorts of cruel beasts; to show, that as they were gotten by beastly cruelty, so enjoyed with brutish sensuality. The great Turkish empire, said Luther, is but as a crust which God throws to a hungry dog. God sometimes indeed, lest riches should be accounted in themselves evil, gives them to the good; but ordinarily, lest they should be ac

sons.

counted the chief good, he bestows them upon the bad; oftener making them the portion of foes than of What is it to receive, and not to be received; to have nothing from God but what he may give in hatred; to have, with Sodomites, a garden of God upon earth, with the loss of the true Paradise! in a word, to have no other dews of blessing but such as may be followed with showers of fire!

Obs. 3. The plenty of places oft occasions much wickedness and impiety. Commonly where there is no want, there is much wantonness. The rankness of the soil occasions much rankness in sin. Sodom, which was watered with Jordan, and fatted with prosperity, was a nursery of all impiety: she had fulness of bread, and therefore abundance of idleness; "neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor; and they were haughty, and committed abomination before me," Ezek. xvi. 49, 50. "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked," Deut. xxxii. 15. "The drunkards of Ephraim were on the head of the fat valleys,” Isa. xxviii. I. Wealth unsanctified is but as oil to nourish the flame of lust. How deceitful an argument of God's love is worldly abundance! Not the having, but the holy improvement of wealth, is the distinguishing mercy. God cuts his people short of bodily supplies in much love to their souls. His Daniels thrive best with the diet of pulse. I never yet heard or read that prosperity occasioned the conversion of one soul. Cyrus, they say, would not suffer his Persians to change a barren soil for a fruitful, because dainty habitations make dainty inhabitants. Rich cities have ever been the stoves of luxury. Men have natural inclinations according to the genius of their country; and it is rare to see religion flourish in a rich soil. In the scantiness of earthly enjoyments, want restrains and stints our appetites; but where there is abundance, and the measure is left to our own discretion, we seldom know what moderation means. Islands are the richest soils, and islanders are held the most riotous people: we in this city lie in the bosom of an indulgent mother; we live in as dangerous a place for prosperity as Sodom; and as the fattest earth is most slippery for footing, we had need of special grace at every turn, and of that watchfulness whereby in the midst of abundance we may not want temperance. How hard is it, with holy Paul, to know how to be full, and to abound! How holy is that man who can be chaste, temperate, heavenly in Sodom! Let us not only Nullos esse Deos, be content to want, but even pray inane Cœlum, against those riches which may occasion probatque quod se us, full, to deny God, Prov. XXX. 8, 9. factum, duin neIt is a most unwise choice, with Lot, to beatum. Mart. 1. leave Abraham to inhabit Sodom; and 4. Epig. 21. an ill exchange, to go with Jacob, from Bethel, the house of God, to Bethlehem, though a house of bread and plenty. They who, for worldly advantages, betake themselves to places only of outward accommodations, soon find, with Lot, the recompence of their inexcusable error. How much more commendable was the choice of holy Galeacius, who forsook all the wealth and honours of Italy, to enjoy God in the purity of his ordinances in poor Geneva! It is much better to travel to Zion through the valley of Baca, than to pitch our tents in the plains of Sodom.

affirmat Selius,

gat hæc, videt

Obs. 4. Sinners are not bettered by premonition. They commonly remain unreformed, notwithstanding the bitter foretastes of judgments. How soon has Sodom forgot that she was spoiled and wasted by Chedorlaomer and the other kings! But sinners grow worse by afflictions, as water grows more cold after heating. If that wicked city had been warned by the sword, it had escaped the fire. But now this visitation has not made ten good men in those five

Vid. Rivetum in

loc.

they deserved to be made as Admah and Zeboim, Hos. xi. 8, the two cities that were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrha, he subjoins, ver. 9, "I will not return to destroy Ephraim:" by not returning to destroy, he means he will not utterly destroy; he will not be like a conqueror, who, having overcome a city, and in the heat of blood destroyed all with whom he met, at length gives over, but afterward returns to make a total destruction thereof: though God make a full end of all nations, yet he will not make a full end of his people, but correct them in measure, yet not leave them altogether unpunished, Jer. xxx. Il; xlvi. 28; he will ever have some to serve him, and to be monuments of his mercy, Zech. iii. 2. God will deal with his people as he enjoined them to do in gathering their grapes at vintage, Lev. xix. 10, the gleaning of grapes he will leave in it, and as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, Isa. xvii. 6; vi. 13; x. 22. God will have evermore some of his people above the reach of their enemies. This indulgence of God should both teach us humility, considering what we deserve; and thankfulness, considering what we escape, it being the Lord's mercies that we are not utterly consumed.

This for the first part of this seventh verse, viz. the places punished. Now follows,

II. The deserving cause of their punishment, expressed by the apostle in these words; "In like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh."

Wherein he sets down, 1. The sin of some; namely, of the cities about Sodom and Gomorrha, which was to sin "in like manner."

2. The sin of all the cities destroyed. Wherein I consider, (1.) Into what they fell; viz. uncleanness; yea, one of the most odious sorts of uncleanness, Sodomy, or pollution with "strange flesh." (2.) The degree or measure of their embracing this sin; they gave themselves over to the one, they went after the other.

In the explication of this second part, viz. their sin, three things principally are considerable.

1. What we are to understand by this sinning "in like manner."

2. What by "fornication and strange flesh." 3. What by this "giving themselves" to the former, and "going after" the latter.

Hoc non ad Is

For the first. These words, "in like manner," in the original, τὸν ὅμοιον τούτοις τρόπον, some refer not to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, but to the Israelites and angels of whom the apostle spake in the foregoing verses; as if he had intended, that these cities about Sodom and Gomorrha sinned after that manner in which the Israelites and angels sinned; and their only reason is, because the gender is changed in this word Touros, which (say they) cannot be referred to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, but to those Israelites and angels of whom he spake before, and who sinned, though not by that bodily raelitas, et ange- uncleanness which Jude afterwards mutuo ad mentions, yet by spiritual whoredom, in morrham refero, making defection from God. But I pronomen TOUTOs conceive, with Beza, Calvin, and Estius masculinum est; upon the place, that Jude intends that potius, quam ad these cities about Sodom and Gomorrha spexit. Calv, in sinned after the same manner with these greater cities, whose steps and examples they followed, and therefore were involved in their punishment. We never find in Scripture that the Israelites sinned in following strange flesh, nor can we either according to Scripture or reason attribute this sin to angels;

Soomam et Go

Nec obstat quod

nam ad incolas

loca Judas re

loc.
Vid. etiam Be-

zam; et Estium

in loc.

and as for the change of the gender in the word Touros, by a metonymy of the subject, the Scripture often puts the city for the inhabitants of the city, as Matt. viii. 34, "The whole city went out to meet Jesus," &c.

2. We are to inquire what the apostle here intends, 1. By "fornication;" and, 2. By "strange flesh."

First, "fornication," I take not properly and strictly for that act of uncleanness committed between persons unmarried; but as in Scripture it is put for poixeia, adultery, where Christ saith, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication," &c., Matt. v. 32; so is it here to be taken for all sorts of carnal uncleanness, and as comprising all breaches of chastity.

Παρεκτός λόγου πορνείας.

studium omne ad

lum genera, spe

omnes, subjecta,

Rivet in Decal.

The impure pens of those more impure penmen, the Jesuits, and among them of Thomas Sanchez, in his Treatise of Matrimony, have in their casuistical discourses treated this subject fit for those whose father, his unholiness the pope, invites to the public profession of fornication. Rivet observes, Talia, quæ vix they utter such things as scarcely Satan Diabolus ipse, himself with all his study would have hibendo, suggeresuggested, examining not only the kinds re posset. Non soand several sorts, but even every man- cies, sed et modos ner, object, subject, circumstance of this objecta, minutasin so exactly, that chaste readers cannot in examinant. read them without blushing and abomi- p. 245. nation. To mention therefore only the principal sorts of carnal uncleanness, and such as we find (though with sacred modesty) set down in Scripture. This sin, if practised with a man's own body, according to the opinion of some, is called paλaxía, and ȧkalapoia, effeminateness and uncleanness, for which God slew Onan, Gen. xxxviii. 9; 1 Cor. vi. 9; Col. iii. 5; if with a beast, it is bestiality, a sin forbidden and severely to be punished by God's law, Lev. xviii. 23; xx. 13; if with mankind unwillingly, the party patient not agreeing, it is called ravishing, Exod. xxii. 19; Gen. xxxiv. 2; 2 Sam. xiii. 14; if the parties agreeing be males, they are called apoEvokoirat, and their sin, to the perpetual infamy of Sodom, is called Sodomy, Rom. i. 27; 1 Tim. i. 9; 1 Cor. vi. 9. The parties being of a different sex, and if the sin be committed with more, there being a pretext of marriage, it is called polygamy; there being no such pretext, whoredom, or uncleanness, transported to the abuse of many. If uncleanness be committed by parties between whom there is consanguinity or affinity in the degrees forbidden by God, it is incest; if by parties not so allied, when both or either of them is married, it is adultery, Lev. xviii. 20; Prov. ii. 16, 17; v. 7, 8, 20. If the female be a virgin, and not married, it is stuprum, or deflouring her; if she be retained peculiarly to one, she is a concubine, Judg. xix. 1; if the act be oft repeated, it is called luxury; and he who sets himself after it, a whoremonger. Nor is it impossible but that uncleanness may be between married couples, when the use of the marriage bed is in a season prohibited, or in a measure not moderated, or in a manner not ordained, or to an end not warranted. To all which may be added the sin called lenocinium, when a female is prostituted to the lusts of another, either for gain or favour; forbidden, Lev. xix. 29; with which some join the toleration of uncleanness, either in private families or in public states, as in Rome that spiritual Sodom. As also all those things which incite, dispose, or provoke to actual uncleanness; as immodest kisses, embraces, glances, filthy speeches, impure books, amorous songs, mixed dancings, and lascivious attire. And lastly, the concupiscence, boiling or burning lustfulness of the heart, out of which "proceed evil thoughts, murders, adul

teries, fornications," Matt. xv. 19; called 1 Cor. vii. 9, burning; and Col. iii. 5, "evil concupiscence."

It is most probable that these impure Sodomites at first began at some of the less heinous of the forementioned sorts of uncleanness, and that they went through most, if not all, of them before they became such hellish proficients and practitioners in their villanies, as to abuse themselves with mankind; the heinousness of which abomination swallows up the mention of the rest. They left the natural use of the woman, and burnt in lust towards one another, and, as Jude saith, followed "after strange flesh."

Musc. in Gen. P. 464.

lent treatise,

Briefly, though suitably to this branch of explication, I shall add to the discovery of the sorts of uncleanness a touch of the peculiar odiousness of this sin. (1.) It is a close and cleaving sin, much cherished Vid. Mr. D. Ro- by corrupt nature. It bears, as a regers, in his excel- verend divine notes, the name of its called Matrimo- mother, which is called in general lust, nial Honour. or concupiscence; it has the name of its kind, and therefore it is lust eminently; it lies near the heart, and sleeps in the bosom. (2.) It is an infatuating sin, Hos. iv. 11, taking away the heart; even David was led with a stupor of spirit for a whole year together after his uncleanness. How did this sin beset Samson! It blunts the edge, not of grace only, but even of reason also; even Solomon himself could not keep his wisdom and women at once. (3.) It is an injurious sin to others. It loves not to go to hell without company. An adulterer cannot say, as some other sinners may, that he is his own greatest enemy. How many, besides those whom it kills in soul, does it wound in body and name at one shoot! and for this wound there can be no salve of restitution or recompence. (4.) It is an attended sin; not only inducing others to sin, but it brings on other sins with it; it is like the needle which draws the thread after it; idolatry, perjuries, murders, riot, defrauding even of nearest relations. The apostle joins fornication and wickedness, woρvɛia and wоvηpia, together, Rom. i. 29. An unclean person runs down the hill, and cannot stop his course in sin. (5.) It is a dishonourable sin to the body, and peculiarly said to be against the body, 1 Cor. vi. 18. The unclean person makes himself a stigmatic; he brands his body, and leaves upon it a loathsome stain. Other sins comparatively are without the body, by it, not in it; this both, it being a more bodily sin, and requiring more of the body for perfecting it. (6.) It is a sacrilegious sin; it takes away from God that which is his own: he made our bodies, and curiously wrought them like a piece of tapestry, and he will not have them spotted, Psal. cxxxix. 15. Our bodies are the members of Christ our mystical Head, united strongly, though spiritually. If it were heinous for David to cut off the skirt of Saul's garment, what is it for any to divide between Christ and his members, and that by making them the members of an harlot! Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16, 18, 19; dedicated, therefore not to be profaned. (7.) It is a heathenish sin. Gentiles walk in the lust of concupiscence," 1 Thess. iv. 5. And a sin before conversion; "Such were some of you," 1 Cor. vi. 11. A sin of night and darkness, Rom. xiii. 12, wherein men care not how much their apparel is spotted or torn. A sin not to be named among Christians; in a word, a sin not of saints, but of Sodomites; who,

2. Are specially taxed with the breach of chastity in pollutions by "strange flesh." The words in the original are sapròç érépas, properly signifying another flesh. Whereby the apostle intends, such a flesh as was another, or different from that which was afforded

to their natural use by the law of nature, or a flesh that was made by God to another use and end than that unto which they abused it. Or, as Ecumenius thinks, that flesh which they followed may be called another, or strange, because God never appointed that male and male, but only that male and female, should be one flesh; in which respect, the flesh of a male must always be another flesh. And Chrysostom well observes on Rom. i. 27, that whereas by God's ordinance in marriage two became one flesh, both sexes one, by Sodomitical uncleanness the same flesh is divided into two.

pœna transit,

Calv. Πάθη arquías.

Βδέλυγμα. Νε licet; of which it is not lawful to ro deriveth it, as

fas, de quo ne tari

speak, or, as Varthough they who committed it were worthy to eat

ne farre digni, not

bread. Vid.

Of this sin of pollution with strange or another flesh, in Scripture two sorts are mentioned: the one, carnal joining with a beast, which is of another kind, prohibited Lev. xviii. 23, and punished with death, Lev. xx. 15, wherein it is observable, that the very beast is also appointed to be slain, by which was manifested the detestableness of that sin, in that it pollutes the very beasts, and makes even the unclean creatures more unclean, and the beast below a beast, and not worthy the living the Ad ipsum invery life of a beast; but especially (as noxium animal Calvin notes) the Lord would show how much this sin displeased him, when he commands that even the harmless beast, neither capable of nor provoking to the sin, was punished with death. (2.) The other sort of pollution by strange flesh was that which is properly termed Sodomy, committed when persons defile themselves with their own sex. Willet in Lev. The sin which the Gentiles committed P. 504. when "God gave them up to vile affections," or affections of dishonour and ignominy, whereby men with men wrought that which was unseemly, Rom. i. 27; whereby, as they had left the author, they were also suffered to leave the order of nature. A sin called an abomination, Lev. xx. 13, sending an abominable savour unto the Lord. Incest with the daughter-in-law is called confusion; with the mother and daughter, wickedness. This sin of Sodom is called Bovypa, abomination. The ἐβδελυγμένοι, abominable, are numbered among the "fearful, unbelievers," &c., who "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:" by abominable, many learned men understand those who are given to this sin against nature, as if abomination properly belonged to it. In adultery, Infamiæ irrogaviolence is offered to marriage; in in- tur toti humanæ cest, to affinity; but in this sin, as Tos- Ex eo quod relatatus observes, infamy is offered to the tione ad Deum whole human nature. And Pererius grammaton, dinotes, because it is said these Sodomites cuntur valde mali were sinners before the Lord, the word significatur eos being Jehovah, that it is signified they valde peccasse. sinned against the right and light of Per. in Gen. xiii, nature. And it is called, as Gerard notes, Sap. 14. 26, yevéσewç évadλayǹ), a changing of birth. The unsavoury sulphur that was mixed with the flames of Sodom, and (if travellers may be believed) the still continuing stench of that sulphureous lake where Sodom once stood, seem to be comments upon the abhorred unsavouriness of this sin. By the law of Theodosius and Arcadius, Sodomites were adjudged to the fire. Among the Athenians the offender was put to death, and the sufferer was debarred from all office. In the council of Vienna, the Templars who were found guilty of this sin were decreed to be burnt. Among the Romans it was lawful for him who was attempted to that abuse to kill him who Probus adolemade the assault; and thus C. Lucius Scens facere peridid, who, as Tully saith of him, had piter perpeti rather do dangerously than suffer Milon.

naturæ.

sub nomine tetra

et peccatores,

contra jus naturæ

culose quam fur

inaluit. Orat. pro

Qua indignati

one tantum ne

6. c. 23. de vero cultu.

shamefully. In short, against this sin of Sodomy no indignation, as Lactanfas prosequar? Vincit officium tius speaks, is enough. The greatness linguæ, sceleris of the sin overcomes the office of the magnitudo. Piget dicere. Lact. I. tongue. Tertullian brings in Christianity triumphing over paganism, because this sin was peculiar to heathens, and that Christians neither changed the sex, nor accompanied with any but their own wives. This and such like, as Tertullian speaks, are not so much to be called offences as monsters; and not to be named without holy detestation by saints, though they be committed without shame by Sodomites.

Non delicta, sed

monstra. Tertull. de pud. Kivados,

quasi κενὸς ἀίδους, quia cacat pu

dore Justinian

in 1 Cor. vi. 9.

In

Thus having in the second place spoken of the "fornication" of these Sodomites, and their pollution by "strange flesh," it remains that briefly, in the third place, we should inquire what was their "giving themselves over" to the former, and their" going after" the latter. Both these are contained in a double expression in the original; the first is the preposition K, being in composition in the word ikπopvevoαoat, by the addition whereof the signification of the word saith Gerard, is dilated, enlarged, increased; as also are the significations of other words by the same preposition. The second is in the words anλOovoaι biow, &c., "going after," &c., whereby is intended more than the accepting or embracing, even the prosecuting the motions of their unnatural uncleanness. sum, I conceive by these expressions of their "giving over themselves," and "following after strange," &c., here is noted, besides the original root and fountain both of uncleanness and all other lusts; I mean, that fomes innatus, that inbred occasion of sin; as also, besides the arising of unclean motions in the heart, the delighting in such motions, the consent to those motions so delighted in, the actual performance and execution of those motions so consented to; I say, besides all these, which are supposed in these expressions of the apostle, there is intended the more hideous height and prodigious eminence of this Sodomitical uncleanness; and that in sundry respects. As,

(1.) Of their making provision, and in projecting for their lusts. Both by spending their time, pains, cost in fetching in and laying on its fuel; the constant providing and pouring on of oil to keep in and increase the flame, by fulness of bread, and excessive eating and drinking; and also by listening after, relating of, and laying out for such objects as seemed to promise most satisfaction to their unsatiable lusts, which appeared by the sudden notice and shamefuĺ resentment of the arrival of Lot's beautiful guests.

(2.) The excessiveness and exuberancy of their lust, even to the consuming, wearing, and wearying themselves by uncleanness; the boiling over of their strength and lusts together, though with difference, the former being hereby impaired, the latter increased; and in a word, their becoming hereby their own destroyers and Satan's martyrs. And this the apostle Peter intends clearly in that word, dailyea, 2 Pet. ii. 7, where he speaks of the avaspoon iv doλycia, the filthy conversation of the Sodomites; the word dokλyela comprehending not only all kinds of lust and obscenity, but also a monstrous profusion, a violent spending oneself without ανάχυσις τῆς measure in all lasciviousness, even the greatest excess of riot," I Pet. iv. 4. (3.) Their impudence and shamelessness in sinning, whereby they feared not to own their impurity before all the world. These Sodomites were not only practitioners and proficients in, but also professors of, their black and hellish art of uncleanness.

ἀσωτίας.

|

Tostatus in loc.

Nihil magis in

Hence it is (say some) that the men of Sodom are said to be "sinners before the Lord," Gen. xiii. 13; that is, publicly and shamelessly, without any regard of God's eye or observation. Hence likewise, Isa. iii. 9, the prophet reproving boldness of sinning in the Jews, saith that they "declared their sin as Sodom," whose inhabitants Potest idem sighid not their filthiness in corners, but nificare quod palam et publice. by their countenance, carriage, and Perer, in loc. words proclaimed it to all spectators. natura sua, lauThis impudence was noted by the hea- dare se dicebat quam ἀδιατρεψί then historian as the height of wicked- av Suet. in ness in Caligula, one of the worst of men; but in Sodom behold a city full of Caligulas. The sin of these miscreants abhorred secrecy; they blushed not, though the sun was a blushing witness of their filthiness. They gloried in their shame because they had outsinned all shame. Their hands were the organs, and their tongues the trumpets of wickedness. Would any but a company who had more of monsters than men in them, have made such a demand in the open streets, as is mentioned Gen. xix. 5, "Bring them out to us, that we may know them ?"

Calig.

tionem usque

(4.) Their obstinacy and pertinacy in sinning. The late bloody war, the spoiling and plundering of their city, the preaching of Lot's life, the persuasions of his tongue, their plague of blindness, could not reclaim them, but they are by these rather exasperated than amended; like violent streams, that when they are resisted by flood-gates, swell over the banks. After they were smitten with blindness, it is said "that they wearied themselves to find the door,” Gen. xix. 11; upon which place Mus- Quamvis obcœculus well notes, that such was their cati essent, ostium obstinacy in sin, that even after their tamen ad fatigablindness they were as mad upon their frustra quærelust as before, even to weariness of bant. Mus, in loc. body. What were all the means used to amend them, but like pouring oil down the chimney? By a hellish antiperistasis they become more hotly furious by calm and cool opposition; and all that Lot could gain by his meek and earnest dissuasion from abusing his guests was but a scoff for becoming a judge, and a threat that they would deal worse with him than with them. Were not these possessed with the unclean spirit of lust, who could break in sunder all the chains of reproof and persuasion? Were they not thoroughly scorched with the heat and thirst of lust, thus to break through armies of opposition to draw the stolen waters of unnatural and poisonous pleasures?

Obs. 1. Wicked men agree in sinning. Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, sinned in like manner. The inhabitants of several cities were inhabited by the same sins; in opposing of God they join hand in hand. However the wicked may disagree in secular conditions and interest, yea, and may have their private quarrels among themselves, yet in offending God they are unanimous; and though it be possible that they may agree with the people of God in civil concernments, yet in the matter of holiness they will ever differ. There may be many grudges and quarrels between the soldiers of the same army among themselves, who yet all consent to oppose the common enemy. The heads of Samson's foxes were turned contrary ways, but the foxes met in the tail and the firebrand. The heads, the policies of sinners, may be divided, but in their lusts they are united. They are acted by one spirit, and agree in that which is natural, though they differ in regard of what is accidental. How good is God to his people, to divide sinners among themselves in their worldly interests! to order that by the contests between the Pharisees