sayd he is able to giue wisdome vnto men but Alexander is so proud that there is no place for wisdome to take place in him And lastly a proud man is in danger to lose those good gifts and qualities which hée already hath according to that old prouerbe Inficit egregios adiuncta superbia mores Where pride is there all excellent conditions are infected and poysoned so that they eyther dye or grow so weake that they are not able to performe any good office or duety This made Dauid pray Let not the foot of pride come against mee for well he was assured that if pride set in a foot against him hee should haue extreme wrong offered him Pride then being one of the sins of Sodom it is manifest that there was no religion there no séeking after God nor any care of his worship or seruice neither was there any iustice iudgement or equitie in the land but all kinde of oppression and wrong all grace goodnesse was exiled thence neither was there any place for vertue godlinesse in that place and therefore no maruel it was if God brought such a fearefull destruction vpon such a proude place and people for pride brings alwayes destruction with it as Salomon saith Pride goes before destructiō and an high minde before a fall So that a man is neuer néere a mischiefe till hée grow proud for thē he procures Gods hatred towards him as it is in y e Prophet The Lord hath sworne by himselfe I hate the excellency of Iacob And this hatred that God beares against pride prouoketh him to resist the proud to crosse them and by sundry meanes to reuenge himselfe vpon them This shall they haue for their pride sayth the Prophet The Lord will be terrible vnto them as he hath threatned by the Prophet Ieremy saying Behold I come vnto thee O proud man And The proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him vp and I will kindle a fire in his cityes and it shall deuoure all about him All these threatnings against pride did the LORD bring vpon Sodom and her Cityes in such sort as they are héere remembred for an example vnto all posterityes the same threatnings he will likewise bring vpon all those that are infected with it The second sinne of Sodom was fulnes of bread By bread is signified all such meats drinks as are vsed for the nutriment of the body which this people of Sodom did vse with such saturity and ingurgitation as did not relieue nature but destroy Grace Nature is content with a little Grace with lesse but where this fulnesse and repletion of bread is there nature is depraued and grace destroyed This sinne is the baite which the diuell vseth to prouoke men to yéeld vnto all his temptations for as the Faulconer when he would call his Hawke to his fist doth not hold out his bare fist vnto her but sheweth her a piece of flesh vnto which shee willingly comes and so is taken so the deuill when he would tempt a man to any sinne he offers him the baite of deliciousnesse knowing that the more the body is repleate the more emptie is the soule of all grace and goodnesse One cause why Diues was so vnmercifull towards poore Lazarus was because he fared deliciously euery day for a full belly is neuer touched with the féeling of others miseries The cause why the Israelites were not sorry for the affliction of Ioseph nor pitied the distressed estate of their brethren was because they ate the lambs of the flocke and the calues of the stall and drunke their wine in bowles The cause why euery man among them neyed after his neighbours wife was because they did rise in the morning like fed horses And the cause why they committed idolatry and worshipped the golden calues which Aaron made them was because they cram'd themselues excessiuely with meat drinke and that made them forget God which had done so great things for them Whereby it is euident that the repletion of the belly is the confusion of the soule and that the deuill hath the greatest aduantage against vs to tempt vs and wee the least strength to withstand him in this repletion and fulnesse of bread therefore Dauid calleth the table of delicious féeders a snare for euen as birds are caught in that place where they come to féed euen so are they that fare deliciously caught in the Deuils net whiles they féed For this cause the Wise man forbids vs to bée companions with those which cramme themselues with flesh lest by eating and drinking excessiuely we giue the deuil aduantage to tempt vs to some grieuous sinne And in like maner did Almighty God forbid the Prophet to go into y e house of feasting to sit there to eate and drinke for as he saith in another place When men are filled their hearts are exalted and then they forget God And as this fulnesse of bread plungeth the soule into many inexplicable dangers makes it subiect to diuers temptations so is this vnmeasurable féeding hurtfull obnoxious to the body for when the stomake receiueth such aboundance so many kindes of meat and drink it is oppressed rather then relieued Therefore saith Salomon that the saciety of the rich will not suffer him to sleepe his body is so distempered by his féeding that his quiet rest departeth from him We estéem the goodnes of a medicine not by the pleasantnes nor by y e great quantity but by the wholesome good operation of it so ought we to estéeme of meat not by the deliciousnesse of it nor by the abundance of it but by the health it bringeth to our bodyes Nothing bréeds a surfet sooner then this fulnesse of bread out of all doubt this vnmeasureable féeding hath brought many to an vntimely death If therefore thou wilt kéepe thy body in health vse thy meat and drinke as thou vsest medicines that is seldome and in small measure for in fiue things doe wée especially offend in eating and drinking First when wee make it our first worke in the morning being no sooner out of our beds but our minde is vpon our meat for which cause Salomon denounceth a wo vnto that land whose Princes eat in the morning for such as eate in the morning are fit for nothing all the day after Secondly wée offend in eating and drinking when we are too curious and nice in our dyet not contenting our selues with ordinary and common meates and drinkes but longing after strange and vnusuall things and those must be most costly and curiously drest this was the sinne of the Israelites which loathing Manna desired flesh for their lust for which curiositie of theirs God destroyed them euen whiles the meat was in their mouthes And the Emperour Augustus did cause one Erotes a Lieutenant in Egypt to bée naild to the mast of a ship
King Iosias so much lamented by Ieremy and commended by the testimony of Gods spirit in the Scriptures What say you to many good men some drownd at sea some kild in fight some going well to bed and found dead in their beds do you affirme that sudden death to all these is a spiritual iudgement Surely concerning Iosias I answere that he dyed not a sudden death for he was wounded at Megiddo and after he was wounded he complayned to his seruants that he was very sicke wherevpon his seruants remoued him out of his owne charret into an other and afterward carryed him to Ierusalem and there he dyed Can Iosias be sayd to dye of a sudden death They doe but fâ—atter the world which countenance the sudden death of their friends with the example of Iosias for where it is sayd that he was taken in there nets the Prophet doth not meane by Nets the suddennes of his destruction but rather the cunning deuices and stratagems which his enemies vsed to worke his ouerthrow and so is Net taken Iob. 18.8 and in diuers other places besides And as for such as perish at sea they cannot be sayd to dye suddenly for when a man sets his foote into a ship he well knows that there is but halfe a foots breadth at the most betwéene him death so that a mans entrance into a ship to goe to sea is as it were an entrance into some dangerous sickenes and commonly there is some storme before a shipwracke which is a good premonition of ensuing danger when a man is vnder water he is not presently depriued of life but there is some reluctation of Nature in which time of reluctation there may be many a déep sigh sent vnto God for mercy and forgiuenes and as it is with those that goe to sea so it is with those that goe to fight who knoweth not that the chance of warre is vncertaine therfore when a man goes into the field to fight he should make account that he lies him downe vpon his sick-bed The Drums and Trumpets are to him as so many bells that sound forth his dolefull knell The Arrowes the Pikes the shot of all sort are messengers of death vnto him so that he cannot be said to die suddenly but that man dyes suddenly who being in perfect health and frée from all imminent danger is so depriued of life that there is no reluctation of Nature to bée perceiued And what are we to iudge of such Surely concerning such we are not onely to consider the present condition of their death but also to looke backe to their liues formerly past and if we find them to haue liued in al good conscience before God and men and to haue béene busied in some holy or charitable action at the howre of their death these men doubtlesse dye in the fauor of God sudden death is but a temporall iudgement vnto them it were against the rule of charitie piety to iudge otherwise of them for of what kind of death soeuer a iust man dyes it shal be wel with him his soule shal be at rest but if a man hath all his life time liued wickedly vnconscionably and be also taken by death in some vngodly vncharitable action out of al question suddeÌ„ death is a spiritual iudgment to such a man as it was to the Sodomites here in this place whom the Apostle S. Iude doth definitiuely condemne saying that they suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Let this therefore be the vse of all that hath bin said euen to pray against sudden death yet to liue alwaies so prepared for death that we may be ready at all times with the fiue wise virgins in the Gospel to go in with the bridegrome be partakers with him of al his pleasures which indure for euermore Now we are in the 2. place to consider the Author of this fearefull ouerthrow wherewith SodoÌ„ Gomorra were destroyed that was the Lord for the text saith The Lord rayned vpon Sodom Gomorrha brimstone fire froÌ„ the Lord out of heauen The phrase of spéech here vsed séemeth somwhat strange therefore diuers men haue diuersly interpreted it some haue thought it to be nothing els but a speach proper to the Hebrew tongue others haue thought it a redundancy of speach some againe haue thought that the holy Ghost would by this forme of speach note vnto vs a miraculous and extraordinary action aboue and beyond the course of nature but in reading the ancient fathers we may finde that they did vrge this place against certaine Hereticks of their time to proue the eternity of Christ So Marcus Arethusus in the Sirinian Counsell alledged these words against Photinus expounding them thus The Lord Christ to whom y e Father hath committed all iudgement did rayne from the Lord Iehouah his Father brimstone and fire out of heauen So that Almighty God by his Sonne did execute this fearefull vengeance vpon Sodom and her Cityes There was neuer any thing which hapned in the world eyther so miraculous or extraordinary but there haue bene euer some which haue eyther douted of the truth of it or disputed about the true cause of it Some haue doubted vpon the truth of Noahs floud Others haue attributed the cause thereof to the constellation of the Starrs or to fatall necessity Concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha there be that do attribute it to the nature of the soyle for the country say they being full of pitch slime and other combustible matter the fire that destroyed these cities did burst forth of the earth Which assertion of theirs is cleane contrary to the Scripture here in this place which sayth that it came from heauen And amongst vs at this day if any strange accidents do happen eyther in the Ayre or in the Earth or in the Waters we referre them to some naturall cause or other being vnwilling as it were to acknowledge God to haue a hand in them And why should we be so willing to séeke out causes in nature for such things as fall foorth strangely in the world and so vnwilling to intitle the God of nature in them God made the Starres and the Planets and the rest of the celestial bodies of that kind to be for signes and seasons dayes and yéeres and this is the right and lawfull vse of them by their creation Let them be for signes saith Almighty God but not for causes Astra demonstrant non necessitant The Starrs doe sometimes foreshew such things as happen but they are not the inforcing causes of such things as happen Most impious therefore and blasphemous it is to ascribe these things to the influence and operation of the Stars for it is to rob God of his honour to derogate from his power to ouerthrow his prouidence and to tye God to secondary and subordinate
because hée bought a Partridge and ate it And our Sauiour Christ noteth curious féeding as a fault in the rich Glutton euen because he fared deliciously The third sinne in eating drinking is when we eate and drinke without measure not respecting what will suffice nature Our Tables are called mensae as some thinke a mensura to teach vs to measure our appetite and not to eat drinke vnmeasurably for euen as that raine which comes downe méekely and gently vpon the earth doth most good and makes the earth most fruitfull so that meate which is taken in measure doth most benefit the body and soule and this is the measure wée must obserue wée must not eat much but rather for necessitie then for lust then we must not eate nor drinke often and lastly wee must not eate nor drinke of diuers and sundry sorts for all these things doe make our eating and drinking sinfull and hurtfull Fourthly we offend in this kinde when we study and deuise what to eate or drinke These persons are compared to those beasts which are alwayes either eating or chewing the cud so these persons are either alwayes eating or deuising what to eate This was the sinne of the sonnes of Hely they were not content with those parts of the sacrifice which the Law had prouided for them but they found out new deuices and sometimes they would haue sodden flesh sometime they would haue raw sometime without fat and sometime fat and all These deuisers are they that make their belly their God Lastly we offend in eating drinking when wee gréedily deuoure the creatures like dogs which haue it no sooner in their mouthes but it is down their throats This was y e sin of Esau who comming hungry from hunting desired his brother to féed him quickly or to suffer him to deuoure those red pottage But he had better haue taken more leysure and eaten more aduisedly for he lost the prerogatiue of his birth-right by his gréedinesse And because man should not deuoure his meat and drinke with gréedinesse Nature hath giuen man a lesse mouth then many creatures which are lesse then he to teach man by so small a receptacle to receiue his meate drinke with time and leysure Thus haue we heard the fiue things wherein wee offend in eating and drinking Now this fulnesse of bread is such a grieuous sinne in the sight of God that hee hath sworne hee will neuer purge it And the reason is because we are called to other duties Non nati sumus ad libidinem hoc possimus facere sed non est opus nostrum Wée are not borne into the world neither do we liue in the world to giue our selues to delicious full féeding to feasting and banquetting nor to fulfill our owne lusts and desires wée may doe these things if wee will runne head-long into our owne mischiefe but this is not our calling it is not that wee are bound to doe it is not the worke which we are commanded and inioyned to performe and therefore as it is Crimen laesae maiestatis a capitall and treasonable crime for an Embassadour to execute his charge contrarie to the limitation of his profession euen so it is most displeasing vnto Almightie God when we walke contrary to our calling crossing the end of our creation No maruell then if Almightie God tooke such a fearefull vengeance vpon this people which walkt so contrary vnto him filling themselues with bread and cramming themselues with flesh when indéed the Lord calles men to wéeping and mourning to baldnesse and girding about with sackcloth The third sinne of Sodom and her people was idlenesse which was twofold in this people First they gaue themselues to their ease to vnthriftinesse and sluggishnesse not following their callings laboriously and industriously but liuing loosely and remissely giuing themselues to all dissolute and vnthriftie courses This may be gathered out of the 19 Chapter of Genesis the 4. verse where it is said that all the men of the Citie euen from the yong to the olde all people out of all quarters compassed Lots house about to haue the mē brought out vnto them that they might know them From whence it may be gathered that they were an idle and vnthrifty company giuing themselues to no good employment but rather to vaine dissolute exercises The second kinde of idlenes in this people was a careles security a certaine respectles regard wherewith they were so possessed that they neuer thought vpon dangers they feared nothing Abraham had slaine y e fiue kings which would haue made them tributarie hee recouered all the spoyle and gaue it to the King of Sodom so that now they had no enemie to be afraid of they had peace plenty and therefore they liued idly that is securely carelesly fearing no dangers preuenting no mischiefes As the pride of this people prouoked God to resist them and as their fulnes of bread gaue the deuill a greater aduantage to ouercome them by his manifold temptations so their Idlenes made them a burthen to the Earth They were a coomber and a surcharging trouble to y e place of their abode liuing vnthriftily vnprofitably both to themselues and to the land where they dwelt The figge trée in the Gospell being barren and vnfruitfull is sayd to trouble the ground so those persons which liue idly do but trouble the world ouercharge the earth for which cause the Bée driueth from the hiue the Drone which takes no paines but deuoures the hony which others by their great labour do get bring in teaching the Magistrates of the earth their duty which is to correct with all sharpnes of discipline those vnthrifty and vnseruiceable Drones which liue idly in the common wealth trifling out their time in continuall lazines as though there neuer had a law bin giuen to the sonnes of Adam to labour nor to the daughters of Eue with the sweat of their browes to get their liuing Salomon sendeth the sluggard to the Pismire to consider her wayes and to learne wisdome for she hauing no guide gouernor or ruler prouideth meat in Summer gathereth food in haruest Man therfore may be much ashamed of himselfe that hauing reason to guide him nature to direct him law to gouerne him grace to rule him lims strong able for performance yet prouideth not gathereth not laboureth not but like a Drone consumes his dayes in idlenes liuing vnprofitably and vnseruiceably both to himselfe and others God sanctified not his rest before he had finished his labour The Angels in heauen attend in their places and stand before their Creatour and with all alacrity readinesse and industry fulfill his will The deuill himselfe is said to compasse the earth and to walke about séeking whom he may deuoure Séeing therefore God Angels Bees Pismires and the despised wormes of the earth do all of them in their kindes places giue