1. Upon the name; a dishonour is gotten, and a reproach that shall not be wiped away, Prov. vi. 33. Though the sore may be healed, yet the scar abides, although repentance should be the plaster. Though Samson and Solomon were pardoned, as to their own execution, yet were they burnt in the hand, and branded in the forehead, for a warning to others. Such was the hatred of God against this sin, that God hath not left it a blank, but a blemish, in David's story; nay, so deep was the spot of dishonour which cleaved to this sin, that the bastard issue of the adul*terer was shut out from the congregation to the tenth generation, Deut. xxiii. 2. 2. Upon the body. It makes a man the devil's martyr. This sin is the seed of diseases; and though it loves to lie hid in the shop, yet the distempers bewray it which are laid in open view upon the stall. The noisome breath, the unclean botches, the inflamed blood, the consumed flesh, Prov. v. 11, the speedy age, the short life, of many, are some of the most favourable productions of carnal uncleanness. The penalty inflicted by the law of God upon adultery was death by stoning, as it is generally thought; and for some other excesses in this sin, death by burning, Lev. xx. 10; Deut. xxii. 22. The woman suspected of adultery, drinking those waters of jealousy which (if she were guilty) plagued her with the rotting of her belly and thigh, was a clear testimony of the heinousness of this sin, Numb. v. 27; and if these instances suffice not, remember the death of twenty-four thousand Israelites at Peor. 3. Upon the estate. Lust is a flame that has burnt down whole families, cities; it spoiled David's posterity of the greatest part of his kingdom; it gives rags for its livery; and though it be furthered by the fulness, yet it is followed with a morsel, of bread, Prov. v. 10; vi. 26. It is a fire | (saith Job) that consumes to destruction, and roots up all increase, Job xxxi. 12. It is a secret canker and moth in the substance of the wealthiest : witness the destruction of many noble families and irreligious houses in England.

(3.) Eternal vengeance follows this sin. Whoremongers and adulterers God himself will judge, Heb. xiii. 4. God returns flames for flames, and revenges the hell of this fire in the heart with the fire of hell. The strange woman lodgeth her guests in the depths of hell, Prov. ix. 18. Nor shall dogs be admitted into the new Jerusalem, nor the unholy see the face of God, Rev. xxii. 15. How great then is their sin who account this carnal uncleanness no sin; who drink down this pleasant poison of stolen waters, and never think of its certain operation; and throwing this firebrand into their beds, their bodies, families, revenues, say they are in sport! What prodigious heaven-daring impudence is it to glory in this both sin and shame! What are those bold enticers to it, by paint, speeches, naked breasts, (fire and brimstone shall one day cover them,) but the devil's decoys, the emissaries and factors of hell, the stratagems of Satan, the increasers of transgressors? Prov. xxiii. 28. Let it be too much for Rome to suffer it to set open shop by toleration; why do we punish the stealing of a piece of silver with death, if we connive at these whose theft flies higher, even at estate, health, honour, life, nay, the soul itself? In short, how nearly does it concern those who have burnt in these impure flames of uncleanness, and thereby have also kindled the flames of God's wrath, to labour to cool and quench them with the blood of Jesus Christ, which alone can allay the heats of sin in them, and wrath in God; as also to cast their tears of godly sorrow into the flame; because they have not been pure-hearted Josephs, to become brokenhearted Davids! while for the future they carefully

avoid all those objects whereby their lust has too frequently been, and is too forward again to be inflamed.

Obs. 2. God punishes sinners in a way of judiciary process, even with the greatest equity and righteousness. His vengeance even upon Sodom was dien, a vengeance of justice. In his proceedings with our first parents after their sin, as also with Cain and the Babel-builders, first he accurately examines and inquires into the fact, and afterwards he pronounceth sentence, Gen. iv.; xi. 1-9. As the word " vengeance," here used by Jude, has righteousness included in its signification; so in the work of vengeance, as related in Genesis, righteousness is as openly displayed as wrath. The cry of Sodom's sin was no uncertain rumour, requiring that God should go down and see, for his better information, whether they had done altogether according to the cry thereof, Gen. xviii. 21. He who knew the secret sins of the heart, could not be ignorant of the proclaimed sins of Sodom; nor was any proper descension consistent with his omnipresence, nor information with his omniscience; but hereby he would become exemplary to judges, who ought to take heed of their precipitancy in judgment, and never proceed to condemnation without accurate examination. In Sodom's punishment there was a map of hell, a sea of wrath, not a drop of injustice. Sin can make God angry, not unrighteous; though sometimes he may destroy his creatures, yet never deny himself. How contented should this make us to be under the smartest providences! A gracious heart will justify God when God sentences him. "Thou art just" (saith Nehemiah) "in all that thou hast brought upon us; for thou hast done right, and we have done wickedly," Neh. ix. 33. That we are spared, it is mercy; that we are punished, cannot be injustice. Could we have harder thoughts of sin, our thoughts of God's dealing would be more honourable.

Obs. 3. Great is the patience and long-suffering of God even toward great sinners. God overthrew not Sodom till they gave themselves over to fornication; till they were impudent in sin, and it became crying: God did not show that he heard it till they proclaimed it to every one. He puts not his sickle into Sodom till it was ripe. He goes down to see "whether they had done altogether according to the cry of it;" altogether, or, as the Hebrew has it, whether they had made a consummation, i. e. whether their iniquities were full; God hereby showing his purpose to spare them till it was so. He loves to clear his justice before man, as well as to execute it upon man: he shows how mercy pleases him, even when he puts forth justice. There is no judging of God's love by our impunity, or having the space without the grace of repentance. God bears with the wicked, but yet not that they may be so. The longer the sinner is spared, the more the sin is aggravated. Sinners are beholden to God for their being spared so long, to themselves for their being spared no longer. Unless Sodom's sin had cried importunately, God had not answered it. Even by this expres- Misericordia mea sion of the crying of sin (saith Salvian) mihi suadet ut God shows how unwilling he is to parcam, sed tapunish sinners; and that mercy per- clamor cogit ut suades him to spare them, did not the primal. de cry of sin constrain him to punish them.

men peccatorum

Prov. 1.

Obs. 4. The justice of God is not abolished by his mercy. So good was God in his gracious condescension even to the lowest step of Abraham's request for Sodom, to such a measure did God suffer the sin of unpunished Sodom to swell, that justice seemed to be laid aside; but though it had woollen and leaden, silent and slow feet, yet had it also iron hands, which

most? How strong a hedge has he set about man's welfare in his ten commandments! in them he distinctly provides for man's authority, life, chastity, estate, name, and generally in them all for his soul. All the rebellions, murders, rapes, oppression, defamations, &c. in the world, whereby men suffer from men, are from hence, that God is not obeyed by men; and all the violences among men proceed from the violation of the law of God, which, were it observed, what a face of calmness and comeliness would be upon the whole earth! God is infinitely better to us than we are to ourselves, to one another. How observable is the difference between those places where the fear of God sways and others, even in respect of civil, comely, and honest behaviour! To conclude, though God might have enjoined us the worshipping and serving of himself, without any regard to our own benefit, yet such is his love to man, that as no command hinders, so most are intended for the furthering of man's outward welfare. How strong an engagement lies upon us to be studious of giving him that honour which we owe, who is so careful to make that provision for us which he owes us not!

Thus far of the third particular, the severity of the punishment inflicted upon the Sodomites, viz. "the vengeance of eternal fire."

IV. The end and use of that punishment, in these words, are set forth for an example."

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Two things must here be explained.

1. What kind of example these Sodomites were set forth to be.

Δεικνύω sive δείκ dico, quarit,

www.ostendo, in

Traducu palam, ostento. Col. ii.

15. Significat ali

quem, per publi

tantium, ducere,

victos, manibus

retro devinctis,

in conspectum ho

nominiam ducere

ficat spectandum omnibus propo

2. Why any example of this kind was thus set forth. For the first. The word example in the Greek is δεῖγμα, and it signifes not only that which is openly shown, and pointed at, Mark xiv. 15; John ii. 18, and exactly to be observed; as Matt. viii. cum cætum spec- 4, Christ commanded the leper, whom sicut olim Roma- he had cleansed, to go and show himself ni victores, hostes to the priest; so Mark i. 44; Luke v. 14. But also a showing by way of exminum, ad perpe- posing to open infamy and disgrace; tuam illorum ig. and thus it is said, that Christ "having solebant. Signi spoiled principalities and powers, daypários, made a show of them openly;" nere. Vide I au- where the word signifies, saith Zanchy, rent. in 2 Pet. ii. a leading, a showing them in the public view of all spectators, to their perpetual infamy, as captives were wont to be led with their hands tied behind them; the compound word zapaduyparíčw signifying to set an offender before others as a public spectacle of shame and infamy, for the warning of all the beholders; in which sense this word deiyua is to be taken in this place, as also is that word vяódyμа, used in 1 Pet. ii. 6, parallel with this of Jude, and translated also example; it also signifying the setting before the eye, or subjecting something to a man's view or sight, not only for caution and warning, (saith Gerhard,) as in that place of Peter, but even for imitation also, as John xiii. 15; James v. 10; and sometimes it signifies a type or figure of something, as Heb. viii. 5; ix. 23.

These punished Sodomites, then, were set forth for an example, not of imitation, their courses thus described and punished requiring rather our detestation; nor, therefore, of God's mercy and compassion, as Paul saith of himself, that in him Jesus Christ showed forth all long-suffering rρòç inоrúnwow, for a pattern and example to them who should hereafter believe.

But, (1.) For an example, by way of pattern, type, and figure of those who are tormented in hell with fire truly eternal, in which respect some read the text not with a comma after the word dyμa, example,

cum commate post vocem deir

proposita sunt

cum commate

sitæ sunt exemplo

as our translators and most interpreters do, who read the words thus, "are set Ipsa verba, apóκεινται δείγμα forth for an example, suffering the venge-pos a δίκην ὑπέχουσαι, ance," &c.; but with a comma after vel legi possunt the word fire, thus, are set forth for an example or figure of everlasting fire, a, ut sit sensus, suffering vengeance: though when I exemplo, vel consider that parallel place in Peter, post vocem where it is said that they are made an awrior, propoexample to those that afterwards should ignis eterni: prior live ungodly, I conceive we should tamen lectio marather keep the ordinary reading, viz. loco Petri, et are made "an example, suffering," &c. batur interpretiIt is nevertheless plain, from what was bus. Laur, in said before, that the fire wherewith the Sodomites were punished was a type of hell-fire, and that the Sodomites are set forth as punished with fire from heaven, that they who afterward should live ungodly might be cautioned and warned to shun that eternal fire in hell, whereof the Sodomitical fire was a type. And therefore,

gis congruit cum communiter pro

2 Pet. ii.

c. 14.

(2.) And principally, these Sodomites were set forth as an example of caution, warning, or admonition, that sinners for time to come might, by their plague, take heed of their sin. The philosophers of old (as Gellius saith) thought there were three causes of punishing offences. Noct. Attic. I. 6. 1. That which is called vovescia, when punishment was inflicted for the amendment of the party punished for the time to come. The second they called rupia, when any were punished for the preservation of the honour of him against whom the offence was committed, lest indulgence should occasion contempt of his dignity. The third they called #apáduyμα, when an offender was punished for example sake, that so others might be deterred from the like practice: this was the end (here mentioned by Jude, and before by Peter) of the judgment of these Sodomites; God dealing with them as a judge with some notorious murderer, whom he sentences to hang in chains by the way-side, to warn others by his suffering; or as a pilferer or thief is set forth upon the pillory in some public place of the city, with his crime written and pinned upon his breast. And that in this punishment of Sodom God intended a special example of caution seems evident, because no one judgment of God upon sinners is so frequently in Scripture recalled to the minds of sinners as this, repeated even above twenty times; as also because God has made the signs and effects of Sodom's overthrow to continue to this very day, as historians unanimously report, as if he intended the laying forth or public placing of this standing monument of his wrath before the eyes of men as a warning to all the world, Deut. xxix. 23; xxxii. 32; Isa. i. 9; xiii. 19; Jer. xxiii. 14; xlix. 18; 1. 40; Lam. iv. 6; Ezek. xvi. 46; Hos. xi.8; Amos iv. 11; Zeph. ii. 9; Matt. x. 15; xi. 23, 24; Luke x. 12; xvii. 29; Rom. ix. 29. Nor are these examples of caution strange in Scripture. "Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh," (saith God unto the Jews,) "where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel." God commands, Deut. xiii. 10, that the enticer to idolatry should be put to death, to which he immediately subjoins, in ver. 11, "And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and do no more such wickedness as this is among you." And the apostle tells the Corinthians that the destructions of the Israelites in the wilderness happened unto them "for ensamples; and they are written" (saith he) "for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come," 1 Cor. x. 11. "And these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted," 1 Cor. x. 6; and he warneth the

Hebrews to take heed of falling "after the same example of unbelief," Heb. iv. II; as likewise doth Christ his disciples by remembering Lot's wife, Luke xvii. 32.

2. Why the Lord would show forth such an example of caution. Hereby he would show,

ner.

(1.) Our natural forwardness to sin in like manHe who saith, Take heed of such a practice, shows a likelihood, without care, of doing the very same. The natural inclination of our hearts answers to that of the greatest sinners, as face answers face in the glass. Their practices are but expositions upon our natures. It is a proverb, What fools speak, wise men think; I am sure it is a truth, To that which the worst man acts, the heart of the best man, without grace, inclines. And though the godly are not companions with the wicked in sin, yet should they be humble for the very sinning of the wicked.

(2.) His constant abhorrence of sin. Examples of caution speak both God's hatred of the sin of those who went before, whose punishments are the monuments of his vengeance, as also his equal dislike of it in those who succeed, against whom (if they will sin) he is prepared to do what he has done against the former. Though God's forbearance towards some shows that sometimes he can spare sinners, yet his punishing others shows that he never loves sin.

(3.) The aptitude of examples to prevent sin. Greater is our forwardness to be affected with what we see executed, than with what we hear denounced: My eye," saith the prophet, "affecteth mine heart." Examples, either of imitation or caution, work more on us than doctrines. The rod has a louder voice than the word; a man's word will not be so soon taken as his hand and seal: God has not only set seals to his promises, but to his threatenings also; and such seals as are examples. "Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared the Lord, and believed," Exod. xiv. 31. "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness," Isa. xxvi. 9. "When a scorner is punished," saith Solomon, "the simple is made wise," Prov. xxi. 11. At the death of Ananias and Sapphira " great fear came upon all the church," Acts v. 11. "If one went from the dead," said that tormented glutton, "they will repent," Luke xvi. 30.

(4.) His merciful willingness to prevent our ruin. The Lord gives us to see, that so we may not be examples; and lets us read the stories of others, that so we may not be stories to others. Such is the goodness of God, that he had rather we should be driven away from than destroyed in sin. Oft does God recall to the minds of Israel the sins and punishments of their forefathers, and his plagues upon the Egyptians. It had been as easy for God to have destroyed them with as warned them by others, had not mercy pleased him. Quot vulnera, tot ora; every wound of another is a mouth that calls upon us to repent.

(5.) The inexcusableness of sinning after setting examples before us. This was the great aggravation of Belshazzar's pride, that he humbled not his heart, though he knew the judgment which God had laid upon his father for the very sin of pride, Dan. v. 22. Thus likewise the prophet heightens the impiety of Judah, in that notwithstanding Judah saw the idolatry which Israel had committed against God, and what judgments God had laid upon Israel, yet "Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also." How just is God in hitting those to whom he had said before, Stand off! They who sin against examples sin presumptuously, and even to a contempt of all God's attributes, his immutability, power, righteousness, long-suffering, &c. They cannot sin

at so cheap a rate as those who never were warned. He who will ride into the depth of the river, notwithstanding the stake, deserves irrecoverably to be drowned. That thief offends obstinately, who will rob in that place where his fellow hangs in chains.

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Obs. 1. The works of God, especially his judgments, have a language as well as his word. Examples of judgment are visible sermons, and speak the pleasure of God. When God forbears to punish, he is said to keep silence. "Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath," saith the psalmist, "and vex them in his sore displeasure." A word is significative, and God is not only known by his word, but even by his works also, and particularly by his judgment which he executeth," Psal. ix. 16. A word is not more easily uttered than the greatest work is performed by God. There is nothing done by God but, as a word is filia mentis, produced by the mind, was first determined before in his secret counsel. There is no word so diffusive and scattered among so many as the works of God are, "there being no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." In short, no word or speech requires so much attention as the works of God do observation. It is a shame for us that God has spoken so often, and so loud, so long, so plainly by them, and that we will not hear. If that voice be not loud enough, and if he has stood too far to be heard, he will speak more loudly, and come nearer to us, to our cost. Entreat the Lord to open the ear as well as to speak the word, and to teach as well as to speak, Psal. xciv. 12. Obs. 2. Great is the excellency of the word in point of purity. It sets not forth sins by way of mere relation, much less by way of imitation, but by way of caution. As in it the filthiest of sins are spoken of modestly and purely, so they are mentioned as punished severely. Sodom's filthiness is set forth in Scripture, but so likewise are Sodom's flames, and both to warn us, not to allure us. The Scripture mentions the scourge as well as the sin of the holiest man, the medicine as well as the malady. How groundless is their impiety who take liberty to sin from reading the sins, especially of good men, in the word! what is this but to read it with Satan's spectacles, who, as he cites, so always shows Scripture by halves? To sin without examples of caution is bad, to sin against them is worse, to sin by them is worst of all; the first is to walk, the second to run, the third to fly to hell.

Obs. 3. Public and notorious offenders ought to be open examples. Sodom is not afraid to declare their sin, and God declares it to make others afraid. Though punishment should reach but a few, yet fear should reach all. Secret punishment is a plaster not broad enough for an open, a scandalous fault. God threatens, even his otherwise dear David, that he who had made "the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme," should be punished "before all Israel, and before the sun," 2 Sam. xii. 12. Private corrections for open crimes are not plasters to cure, but only to cover the sore. If sin be impudent, reproof and correction should not be bashful. If a minister sees that error and profaneness seek no corners, he should not hide truth in a corner. Public offences are like a bag of poison thrown into a common fountain, serving for the use of a whole city; and the end at which God aimed in the punishing of offenders, was that all Israel should "hear, and fear, and do no more any such wickedness," Deut. xiii. 11. The Syrians cared not to fight with small or great, but with the king of Israel, and magistrates and ministers should principally strike at reigning sins. All the reproofs of the prophets and Christ were bent against the impieties of their times. I verily believe that one

main sin whereby God is provoked to make public officers in church and state so contemptible as they are, is their fear to oppose public and spreading sins so freely as they should.

Obs. 4. In this our present condition we want as well the affrightments of fear as the allurements of love to keep us from sin. The burnt Sodomites should make us fear the fire. The overthrow of the Israelites are examples to saints under the New Testament. And "let us" (saith the apostle)" therefore," he means by the example of the unbelieving Israelites, "fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." "I am," saith holy David, "afraid of thy judgments," Psal. cxix. 120. "Who," saith Jeremiah," would not fear thee, O King of nations?" Jer. x. 7. And, "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, &c.; for thy judgments are made manifest," Rev. xv. 4. Fear him, saith Christ, who is able to cast soul and body into hell. Faith is as truly due to threat enings as promises; and holy fear is the proper effect of that faith: "By faith Noah being warned of God, moved with fear," &c. Nor is it possible or profitable, so long as we have such an eager proneness to sin, to want a stoppage by fear. So unwilling are we to be weaned from the forbidden breasts of sinful pleasures, that we daily need to fear the wormwood and aloes wherewith the Lord imbitters them; and all little enough: only heaven perfects love and casts out fear.

Mundus semper

Obs. 5. There is a proneness to sin in every age of the world. Why should God make Sodom an example of caution to succeeding ages, if these were not forward to make Sodom an example of imitation? Peter saith expressly that these overthrown cities were made an "example to those who after should live ungodly." The world always was, fuit, est, et erit is, and will be the world, saith Luther. mundus. Luth. The several ages of the world have differed in their other fashions, but sin was never out of fashion. Look over all times and places, and it will be found true in both, "the whole world lies in wickedness;" and of all times, so true was that prediction of the apostle, the last days are the most perilous. We now live in the sink, the dregs of time; Satan now labours to do much mischief, and posts the faster because he shall not long have day-light. Men likewise by long practising, and by the sinful experiments of former times, are now grown, as in other things, so in sin, greater artists than heretofore. How careful should we be that God may have some, even in these worst of times, who may love holiness when most leave it; control, if not conquer sin; who may shine as lights in the world; and who, if they can do no good to others, yet may get no hurt from others! To conclude this, though evil times should not damp our zeal, yet neither should they make us impatient. The tares and wheat will grow together till the approaching harvest. Meanwhile, none is so much provoked as that God who is most patient. Nor should we forget that all foregoing ages have abounded with those sins and difficulties, which much imbittered the lives of holy men who lived in them; in which respect we may wisely make use of that counsel of Solomon, "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these ?" Eccl. vii. 10. Errors and impieties were in former times, and are now, but newly acted over; and let us rejoice, that though the sins of the times should make us mourners for them, yet they cannot make us followers of them.

Obs. 6. In all ages God is the same. He hates the same sins in after-times which he hated in the former. Sodomy is now as abominable in his sight as hereto

fore; "He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever;" in him there is no shadow of change; he loves the same holiness now which he ever loved. How great a terror is this to those who live in those sins against which God has formerly declared his wrath! God will not go out of his way to gratify their lusts; no, it is the duty of the sinner to change: "If he turn not, he will whet his sword," &c., Psal. vii. 12. Much may this comfort those who walk in the steps of former saints. Paul was a pattern to those who "hereafter should believe," 1 Tim. i. 16. They find God as ready to accept them as any heretofore. This comforted the psalmist, "Our fathers trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them," Psal. xxii. 4. We are forward to entertain hard thoughts of God, if he continue not the same favours to us which he afforded to others; we think he changes, whereas we alone are to be blamed. It is not the shore which moves, but the boat. If we will turn to God, we know where to have him; our prayers and repentance will make a change in us, and make us fit to be accepted, they make no alteration in him at all; as they who being in a ship, and pull at a rope fastened to a rock, move not the rock to them, but themselves to the rock.

Obs. 7. God is gracious even in his greatest severity. Even when he was punishing Sodom with fire and brimstone, he had thoughts of preventing similar punishment upon others for the time to come. He warns even when he wounds, and punishes a few that he may spare many; he takes occasion by the sin and punishment of Sodom to do good to following ages; his justice magnifies his mercy. God lays up manna with the rod, and is not forgetful to feed us even when he smites: in his smiles he will be feared, in his frowns he will be loved; in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy. If God be so sweet in his bitter administrations, how sweet will he be when he is altogether employed in the ways of grace! We should herein look upon the Lord as our pattern; severity should not make us forget and throw off tender-heartedness. We should have merciful ends in our severest punishing of offenders, and not wound like murderers, to destroy, but like surgeons, to cure, and to prevent the spreading of sin, yea, of punishment.

Obs. 8. It should be our great desire, by all our own sufferings for sin, to prevent the like sin in and sufferings of others. We must not be like those that have the plague, who love to infect others with it. A gracious heart rather desires to hear of converts by his falls and woes, than to have companions in either. They who have been by sin examples of imitation, should pray that by their sufferings they may become examples of caution. How rare is this heavenly temper in sufferers! Most Christians, when they are in troubles, only desire the removal of them, perhaps the sanctifying of them to themselves; but who prays for the sanctifying of them to others? It is ordinary for men under their sufferings to have thoughts of impatience against God, and of revenge against the instrument of their troubles; but unusual for men to have aims of benefiting beholders by their troubles. If the Lord would thoroughly affect us with love to his glory, and hatred to sin, we should be willing to have the house pulled down upon our own heads, so that sin may be destroyed in others; and hereby we may do more good at our death than we have done throughout our whole lives.

Obs. 9. Sinners of these latter times sin more heinously than they who lived in former ages. The sins committed by those who have others for an example are greater than those committed formerly, though they are the same for kind. He who falls by stumbling at the same stone at which he dashed who