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cause_n	great_a	sin_n	world_n	2,522	5	4.6350	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67019	Sodom's vices destructive to other cities and states a sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor of the city of London, at the chappel of Guild-Hall, on Sunday August 1, 1697 / by Josiah Woodward ...	Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.	1697 (1697)	Wing W3521; ESTC R38321	15,595	32

sake lay not these things to our charge Thus have I laid before you the black Catalogue of Sodom's Sins which when they grew up also to a ripeness in Jerusalem proved as fatal to the latter as to the former And I must leave it to every one's Conscience to judg whether this City and Nation be not in great Danger at this day from the same Causes And let me entreat you that you would not dull the Edg of this Conviction by the conceit of a submitting Enemy and a blooming Prosperity consequent to it But remember the Eternal Righteousness of the Governour of the World which will keep its course tho that of Men does not and that he has thousands of ways to bring a profligate People to Misery and Desolation And now since we have perused the List of Sodom's Sins if any one inquires after the Sin of Vncleanness which certainly made a great Cry among the rest we find it in the next verse and they committed Abomination And if we look for it in the Text we shall find it in the loins of those two Parents of Uncleanness Luxury and Idleness which where-ever they are conjoin'd do usually produce the nasty issue of bestial Vncleanness As alas they have done amongst us to a very dreadful I had almost said to a desperate Degree So that if the Sin of Vncleanness be but obscurely represented in the Text it was notoriously visible in Sodom's Streets and alas in ours too with this shameful difference on our part that whereas the Sodomites deferr'd the prosecution of their Lusts till the Evening hoping to vail their unseemly Sin by the black Curtains of the Night with us alas it is prosecuted in the Noon-day and in the thickest Concourse I pray God excite our Magistrates to take the punishment of these things into their Hands for it is an Iniquity to be punish'd by the Judges or else to Job 31. 11. be sure God will and then wo wo unto us This leads me to apply what has been said And here in the first place I. I humbly press the consideration of these things upon those Publick and Honourable Persons before whom I speak and must in Conscience speak freely Is it not a moving Consideration to behold the very Causes of Sodom's Destruction and Jerusalem's Desolation growing upon us and come to a very dreadful Crisis This may well alarm every Member of our Community but it does more especially concern such as by their high station represent the Head of this Publick Body which is particularly empower'd and capacitated to provide for the safety of the rest of the Members It was a very passionate Expostulation of the Disciples with their sleeping Master Carest thou not that we perish Mar. 4. 38. We must needs say it was an unfit and indecent Question to be put to the vigilant and tender Saviour of Men. But methinks the Extremities of our present Case may apologize for such a rowzing Interrogatory to those Persons amongst us who seem rock'd to sleep by carnal Lusts and private Interests so as to manifest no just Concern for the Publick Good Magistrates have some peculiar Features of God's Image imprest upon them above others even those of his Power and Authority and upon this account they are called Gods in Scripture as being ordained of God to punish evil doers in his stead and to support such as do well But the Rulers of Sodom had put off this Character and so had the supine Rulers of Israel which so grieved and mov'd the Prophet Isaiah that the first Chapter of his Prophecy abounds with the sharpest Invectives against them And indeed it is very deplorable to consider from what a Divine Seat of Honour and Dignity a corrupt Magistrate descends when he acts contrary to his Post or does nothing worthy of it It is somewhat like the Fall of the Apostate Angels from being God's Ministers to be his Enemies And truly every private Person will also fall under the same Condemnation who does not sincerely set himself according to his Place and Capacity against the violent Torrent of abounding Sin Which leads me to a Second Inference II. Let all such as pretend to Christianity yea or to Sobriety and good Morals set themselves against the devouring Plagues of our Nation the common Sins thereof If ever we had need to give our publick Vote for the Reformation of corrupt Manners surely we have at this Day And blessed be God who hath kindled any Desires of it in any Persons among us It is a most admirable work of God and what opens the fairest Prospect to us of any that I know That any young Persons among us lament and escape the Pollutions of this degenerate Age and look Heaven-wards The good God increase their Number and the Number of their Friends and Favourers The Lambs are the hope of the Flock if they rot the Flock will soon come to nothing And if the next Generation degenerates as dreadfully as this has done we shall be as corrupt as Sodom it self and as surely brought to desolation Some may perhaps say that all this is true but how shall we help it How shall we Why the lively sense of Danger scarce ever wants means or seasons or strength to avoid it Any one acts above his usual strength when it is to save his Life and to prevent Destruction If we would once set our selves heartily to sutable Remedies the work were more than half done As the Reformation of Ninive and its Rescue from Destruction does abundantly testify Truly Sirs the World only stands by Divine Providence in hope of its Reformation for all Flesh seems to be corrupted before God a small Remnant only excepted And if the Sins of any People are indeed remediless their Ruin will be so too as in the Case of Judah before us of which it is said that they sinn'd till there was no remedy And if the 2 Chron. 36. 16. case be come to this I have only one Inference more to add III. And Lastly How happy is their Case who in times of general Depravity are exempted from the common Corruption who like the Family of Lot in Sodom are so far from being partakers in the vulgar Sins that they are grieved in their Spirits at the Abomination which they see and hear from day to day Such Persons must expect to be the Scoff and By-word of the wicked People among whom they live who ill repay their Pity and Concern for them It was just so with Lot in Sodom If he entreats them to refrain their pernicious Exorbitances they bitterly revile and rail upon him They call him a busy presuming Fellow who would be medling with what he had nothing to do and would feign be as magisterial as a Judg amongst them Gen. 19. 9. Thus Lot was Sodom's Laughter whilst Sodom was Lot's Grief But the End proves who acted the wisest part For then Lot and his pious Family were miraculously preserved when Sodom and its mocking Crew were miraculously destroyed Lot had the glorious Angels of Heaven sent to him for his Safeguard when Sodom had Fire and Brimstone the Emblems of Hell pour'd down upon them for their Destruction Good and bad Men live by contrary Rules and Principles now and in their Death they will be divided The one will be taken and the other left They take different Courses and must come to different Ends. Lazarus is for ever comforted and Dives for ever tormented Lot was saved both from the Flames of Sodom and those of Hell thro God's Marvelous Mercy and Sodom perished by an Everlasting Destruction For St. Jude tells us That as they were destroyed by dreadful Flames upon Earth so they now suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Jude 7. O! what greater Argument can I produce to convert Sinners or to confirm Converts I request each of these to look to the End to which they are posting Be of good courage ye that serve the Living God for your Work will speedily and infinitly be rewarded Ye may perhaps be mockt and despised of Men as your blessed Lord himself was But ye will be commended and crowned of God at the last And in truth Sirs the Favour of God is better than all the noisy Fame and fading Enjoyments of this present World I know nothing that deserves the name of Riches Honour or Happiness so much as the raising and refining of our Faculties and Capacities by Divine Wisdom and Vertue And truly this alone is all to us For all the Pleasures of the Flesh are Folly and Mockery if compared with the noble Joy of a regenerate Soul delighting in God its proper adequate and felicitating Object by communion with whom it anticipates the Powers of the World to come and rejoiceth with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory But as for such who will neither by the Mercies nor Judgments of God be reclaimed from Sensuality and sordid Lusts They sink first into the vileness of Beasts and then into the misery of Devils Their temporary Vanity leads them most assuredly to eternal Vexation They may perhaps have a little Sun-shine in the Morning as Sodom it self had but there is a dreadful Shower of firy Indignation coming down from God to consume his Adversaries For however they delude themselves now they will find at last that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for them except they repent Consider what has been said and the Lord give you Vnderstanding in all things Amen FINIS

Wrath upon that degenerate Nation for now they became a Prey to their Adversaries on every side to whom they were formerly a Terror They were insulted by the Bands of the Syrians the Moabites and the Ammonites as we read 2 King 24. 2. for 't is there expresly said that God sent these Armies against them to destroy them Besides this the King of Egypt miserably harass'd them 2 King 23. 35. and brought them under severe Tributes And now at the last the King of Babylon had invaded them and besieged their Capital City and entering it by Surrender he had driven away their King Jehojachin and great 2 King 24. 11. numbers of the People Captive to Babylon And having made Zedechiah his Vice-Roy he committed the Government Ver. 17. Ver. 20. of Judea to him till he forfeited it by his Rebellion which was nine years after And then indeed the Forces of Babylon returned in fury and laid both Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36. 19. and the Temple in Ruins and fill'd all places with Slaughter and Desolation Now it was in the time of this Respite betwixt the first and second Invasion made upon them by the Chaldeans Ezek. 1. 2. that God was pleased to inspire the Prophet Ezekiel one of the Jewish Captives at Babylon to rebuke this Ver. 1. backsliding People who were not at all amended by their many Afflictions And this was the last Prophet who pleaded with them in the Name of God before their total Subversion in Church and State How gracious and long-suffering is Almighty God! who tries the greatest of Sinners in methods of Love and Mercy and follows even those with Calls to Repentance who are advanced to the Brink of Ruin When he had here brought great Misery upon the whole Land of Judea and suffered their Enemies to prevail in a great measure over them He then stops the Torrent of his Wrath and they must have a Reprieve for nine Years before their final Overthrow to consider the Things which belong to their Peace Thus we often see a prudent and tender Parent who having given some blows of Correction to a froward and undutiful Child then stops his hand in which he holds the Rod and expostulates and reasons the Case to see whether there be any relenting disposition in the Child to prevent further Blows But alas Such a fatal hardness and fatness of Heart had seized this profligate People that none of these things moved them They reformed not one of those Enormities which the Prophet assured them would be the Causes of their Ruin tho' they could not but see that they were the very same which had been the Destruction of Sodom before as the Prophet tells them to their Faces in the words but now recited in your Ears Behold this was the Iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness was in her and in her Daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy In which Words the Prophet endeavours to impress this Observation upon them which I beseech God to fix deeply upon every Soul here present namely That a City or Nation is then in very great Danger when it abounds with those Sins for which other Cities and Nations have been destroyed The same Way leads directly to the same End And the same Sins lead as surely to the same Miseries God is a Righteous Judg and will deal impartially with all People according to their Sins for he is no Respecter of Persons He has done Justice already to the Jews and he will not do otherwise to the Gentiles So that the Spirit of God here takes one of the most awakening methods in the World to rouze up the Jews from their torpid Slumbers He points at the very Causes of their growing Miseries and presses them to apply themselves to the speediest methods of Redress Behold says he the very Symptoms of Destruction which appear'd in the Cities of Sodom are dreadfully apparent in thy Cities even thine Does it not fill thee with horrour to behold the very same Plague-spots upon thee that were on those Places which God destroyed by fire from Heaven Thou art the very Sister of Proud Idle Vnclean and Vnmerciful Sodom a Sister to her in Vice and Impudence and art drawing on to as certain and as sore a Destruction O Jerusalem I am sent from thy God to thee to advise thee of this and to charge thee to consider thy languishing State and to prevent thy Ruin But whether thou wilt hear or whether thou wilt forbear I will spread both thy Sin and thy Danger before thine Eyes Behold thou art become a second Sodom and those very Sins which abound in thee were those which destroyed her They were haughty and luxurious and unmerciful as ye are this day and God took them away as he saw good The Overthrow of Sodom was a proverbial speech for a sudden and terrible Destruction and is so used both in the Old and New Testament We find that God threatned to destroy Babylon as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah Jer. 50. 40. and the neighbouring Cities thereof which another Prophet tells us were Admah and Zeboim And the Apostle Hos 11. 8. Jude minds us that the Desolation of those Cities is set forth by God's appointment as a terrible Example to all after Ages That all Cities and Nations may consider in what Danger they stand when once they come into any affinity to their Sins And therefore it will nearly concern us at this time when all but such as never think are convinc'd that both our Sins and Dangers are tremendous to consider whether the Vices amongst us are not such as led both Sodom and Judea to their Ruin For which purpose I now come to lay them in order before you as they are represented in the Text And I recommend this important matter to your special Consideration particularly to such as are more peculiarly obliged to consult the Interests of this Great City as in the Presence of Almighty God I. The first Sin mentioned in the Text as a Cause of the Destruction of Cities and Nations is that of Pride Which consists in an overweaning Conceit of one's self or of something belonging to us to that degree that our Heart is vainly lifted up thereby And being so the Man grows insolent in most things which he either thinks speaks or does He has a scornful Eye an imperious way of speaking and a contemptuous Carriage towards all Men. Yea the proud Man carries it stifly towards God himself and almost forgets his dependence upon him and that he was formed out of the Dust of the Earth It is a Vice that is never barren but is continually bringing forth other Enormities by sholes It produces a contempt of Sacred things and an insolent resentment of God's Providences both of Bounty and Correction In any Affliction he frets and is peevish for his Pride will not allow him to think