whose mighty provocations made his Heart to ake so and were no other but the very Flowers and Heads of the People to speak plainly the very Nobility and Gentry of both the Families of Seth and Cain mighty Men and Men of Renown So usual hath it been for Divine Mercy to pity the sottishnesses of the Rude and Illiterate unhappy in the want of those advantages of Education and Learning which might have resin'd them into the Ingenuities of a generous and reasonable Service that he hath sometimes spared the greatest Cities upon the account of the very Bruits that were in them but still remember it was then too when the Princes sat in Sackcloth and Fasted with them God knows the Authority and Port of Greatness strikes so great an Awe into the Spirits of the Beasts of the people and hath so great an influence upon them that they dare not be so unmannerly to be more Devout than their Masters and out of fear to spoil the Frolick merrily venture a Damnation with them Thus the Blasphâ—mies of the Parlour pass out with the Dishes into the Hall and are kept on the Coals for the Servants to swallow with as great a pleasure and sweetness as the Meat which was sauc'd with them before 'T is a wonder to me that Dives should forget his Livery-men in the Prayer that he makes unto Abraham But anon when the Cataracts of Heaven flie open and Judgment appears upon all Then shall the miserable Wretches know that as they had the confidence to Sin with their Masters so shall they have the unenvied Honour of Suffering with them Mighty Men and Men of Renown Come then ye Mighty and evidence the Bravery of your great Souls God is resolved to try the mettle of your Courage Great Dangers do but edge the noble Steel the mighty Alexander once Triumphed in the Encounter of an Enemy that Peer'd his Spirit Shew us now how bravely ye can Bridle the Clouds and fetter up the insulting Waves that dare be so insolent to invade your Presence and trip up your Heels How oft have you boasted of your Valour in your Cups and breath'd out Thunder from your Nostrils against Heaven How often have you rent the terrible Majesty by the frightful claps of your Oaths and the dire flashes of your profaner Tongues and Wits What do your Spirits sink now at the Appearance of a Shower Blessed God! wherefore are these so Renowned whose Souls are weaker than Water that are thus dismayed at the insurrection of so common an Element Were these Mighty Men Valiant for thy Truth upon Earth and did they take thy part and Side with thee against the flood of Impiety that then overflowed the World Were they Knights of the holy Order who fought thy Battels and sacrificed their Blood to thy glorious Interest Why then is their Name perished and we have not the Legends of their Chivalry But if they were famous for Wickedness Men Mighty to Oppress and Renowned for Profaneness Is it so glorious a thing to Brave a God and Challenge the Omnipotent Arm to a Combat Is the contempt of a Deity the Foundation of this great Coloss I plainly find that none shall be losers by thee Thou wilt give Atheism it felf the due Encomium of its Daring Spirit that has Courage enough to flie in the Face of thine infinite Justice and Power Mighty Men and Men of Renown but I fear this is to their little Comfort when these mighty Worms are washed away in the more mighty Waters and turned all into Slime and Dirt and thy Sword prides it self to be Bath'd in their Blood while it executes thy pleasure in the devouring such Mighty Enemies Men of Renown God deliver me from the Vanity of a swelling Title which will little Ease me when in Hell. But would'st thou that I give a more distinct Account and produce a Catalogue of those particular Sins that put the Almighty upon such Resolutions of a total defacing the Beauty and Furniture of the whole Earth Sure they were â—o Punie Ones no Peccadillo's that could prevail to pour down so great a Ruine Verily they are with thee Reader already in the Streets where â—hou livest Nay they are in thee Closseted up â—n the Bosome thou bearest about thee at least â—n semine Take head therefore they break not out and force down a shower of Wrath upon thee And tho' Moses hath given us but the small draught of them and seems but lightly to touch them yet such were they as never could be forgotten and are indelibly Engraven upon the Heart of God so written in Heaven as it were with a Sun-beam that the blessed Jesus Two thousand years after brought them down to display them before us not for Imitation and to teach us new Arts of Debauchery but for utter detestation and to Arm us against the Riots that so perfectly destroy them Tho' still he fears the new World in the heat of Blood will be so mad to degenerate into the very same again for if Gluttony and Drunkenness Lust and Obscenity Forgetfulness of God and Mocking at his Ministers Scoffing at our Noahs while they are Fanatically building the Ark against a Flood that will never come If Oppression of the poor by the mighty Gyants Vnmercifulness and Cruelty Contempt of the Patience and Longsuffering of Heaven if all these and a World more as Blasphemies and Oaths c. which I have not named Usher'd in by Pride the Midwife of all Plagues both to Angelâ— and Men be not enough to justifie the righteous Proceedings of God against them and to verisie the Prophecy of our Saviour against our selves let us wait till the next Deluge of Judgment overwhelm us and then we shall feel how just a God he is to Sinners Sin was born with a Sword in its hand and hath been a Murderer from the beginning when a Child it slew the World in Adam and all his Posterity by little and little one after another â—ut now grown to full Age it makes nothing with Sampson to pull down the very Pillars of â—he House to destroy Worlds and to make but â—ne blow of them all Original Sin is favourable and kind it gives Letters of Licence for Life if it be once satisfied â—f at all it sufficeth but open Profaneness eggs â—n Justice to take out Execution without any Paâ—ience like the unmerciful Servant it takes all â—y the Throat and sends to Prison without pity Yet God who sometmies cries out of the Burâ—hen as if unable to sustain it any longer does â—ere engage his Patience yet to bear up resoluteâ—y under the Load of all this Mass of Provocaâ—ions to let us see what Infiniteness can do and â—hat he delighted as little in their Blood as he â—id in their Sin. He very well knew that as slender satisfaction would be made at the end of that Term as preâ—ently could be yet because he foresaw that he had â—ime enough to pay himself in the
Ruins bin Tremble ye mighty Gods of Earth Here God's as Great as you want Breath O for an Ark of Safety now Come in come in and Lowly Bow. The Impiety of Cham. THE proud Waters that had received their Commission from the King of Heaven to Fight his Battel and revenge his Quarrel against the universal Apostacy with more Faithfulness than Saul who in pity spared the delicate Agag and the best of the Cattel for Sacrifice undertaking the General Massacre without Mercy Proud of an opportunity to Muster up all their strength and by this Execution to Chronicle the Eternal Victory over all their oposite Elements pour'd out all their Forces with such a Torrent of Fury and Rage that soon did the poor baffled Flames Sacrifice themselves for fear and lie all Martyr'd in their own Ashes Not a Spark left in the whole World but what must be fetcht from Heaven to warm Noah's Altar The Air guilty of the Treason too for yielding Breath to such a Rebellious crew is all smother'd to Death within the Concaves of the Spiring World. But the poor Earth for the Guilt of bearing this unhappy Burden and Feasting them with all her Luxurious Prodigalities with Caesar muffles her Face in her Mantle and patiently receives the Wounds of her own folly while the insulting Enemy not content to ride upon her Back only tramples her under his Feet and is trod into Mire and Dirt. Whose cruel Tyrannies when the All-gracious God perceived and now that these insolent Waves help'd forward the Affliction of his poor little Church in the Ark crowded among Brutes and very uneasie commands them to go back It is enough stay now your hand But while they hardly retire and with too slow a pace a mighty Wind is sent forth to sound the Retreat and enforce them to a speedier conformity that so the Creator might conferr a New World on those his favourites who had alone been so Loyal and Faithful to him in the Old. The Commission is Executed and the good Prophet hopes that this Wind has blown him some good while the obedient Surges post so fast away to their Quarters and that neither Wind nor Water had done him hitherto the least prejudice in their several Marches How submissively doth he wait till he receives the glad Tydings of the Recession of the Enemy which is confirmed to him by his winged Ambassadour under seal with the Signature of an Olive Branch And that Patience might have its perfect work he still attends and dares not set a Foot on the Earth without receiving orders from Heaven But now behold this poor despised Preacher of the Old World comes ashore from his dark Cabbin and lands the great Monarch of the Vniverse a Type of the greater Saviour the Prophet Priest and King over all the Earth whos 's first work is to build an Altar whereon he Sacrifices his very Soul in Praises and Thanksgivings to God the Perfume of which was so sweet in his Nostrils that it brought down a blessing not on Himself only but on all the Earth to all Generations for while Seed-time and Harvest Summer and Winter Day and Night continue unto us we cannot be unmindful of holy Noah's Sacrifice which was so pleasing to God that to him was sealed the Confirmation of them all to us Yet could not all the Floods of Wrath extinguish the rage of that Venom which his Impious Son C ham translated from the Old World into the New and had lodged in his Heart all this while like a close Traytor in the very Bosome of the Church A Contagion which will spread it self to that Latitude as in a few years shall over-run the Earth again This was the cursed Stock out of which shall sprout those venomous Branches which shall dilate themselves into a prodigious Plantation for the increase of Wickedness He was a fellow of so vile a Spirit that you might have found all the Rudenesses of the past World concentred in him And while he wants other opportunities to manifest the Villanies of his Heart he blushes not to act them against his own Father so devoyd was he of that common Grace and reverend Respect which every Pagan Conscience payes to the Maintenance of the Honour of Soveraignty so insensible was he of that Duty which as a Natural Tribute is due to so great a Prince and so good a Parent that he is not afraid of the Vengeance of Heaven while he belches out the Crudities of his rotten Lungs upon his venerable Face by open Derision and prophane Contempt of that glorious Person now a Prisoner in the surprizing Snares of his own Vines whose uncivil Twiggs had caught him by the Heels and ruffled off his Mantle from him in the fall Unhappy Prince to give so vile a Miscreant occasion of so Rebellious an Affront to thy Majesty But most worthily Accursed Wretch that wer 't so far from casting the Veil of Duty and Charity over that naked Bosom wherein lodged an Heart so lately by the Righteous Judge of Heaven pronounc'd to be the very Best and most Sincere in all the World That here I find thee taking up the perfect Postures of a Mad-man extending thy widened Throat into loud Exclamations of Laughter and Derision to the insufferable dishonour of that mournful Object Nor canst thou be satisfied in ridiculing thine own Father in the presence of the All-seeing God and his Angels but must maliciously summon all the World to do it too how righteously therefore wer 't thou and thy whole Posterity bound up in the strong Chains of an Eternal Curse The Infirmities of our Fathers either Civil or Natural should be so far from causing us to draw a wry Mouth that they must be ever the subject of our aking Hearts Since the Fathers eating sowre Grapes do but cause the Childrens Teeth to be set on Edge And who is Ignorant that Noah's Wine did but exhilerate his Spirit into a more chearful pronouncing the dreadful Imprecation upon that Son whom the doom of Heaven had before decreed to be blasted Sure I am those Israelites had forfeited their own Heads before ever God gave way to Satan to Tempt David to Poll them and Absalom's hot Brain did but naturally generate those long Locks which Divine Justice twisted into an Halter to hang him with for the short Cutt of his Curtail'd Obedience to so good a Father 'T is but Turkish Impiety to reck our Revenges against the Plagues of Heaven that Sin hath procured upon the very Bodies of our Kings 'T is remarkable that most of the Rebellions which Sacred Writ hath acquainted us with were raised against the best Princes and the very Intimates of God whose Interest for divine Assistance was so apparent that 't was a Miracle Passion should so besott men into the fatal Effects that pursued them all Since Corah's Grave was so affrightfull as might well allay the rage of that Spirit to this day Tho Zimri slew his Master that
God And whatsoever I am in my Self that will I be to thee I will be a God to thee Secondly As I am God I am Almighty and Alsufficient both for my self and all my Creatures that shall close with me I will make over the Fulness and Alsufficiency of my Godhead to thee There is nothing in it communicable to the Creature but what shall be secured to and imployed for Thee and Thine on all occasions Thirdly The very same Priviledge shall be secure to all the Children of thy Faith for evermore I will be their God and I do hereby firmly and unalterably Covenant with thee to be a God unto Thee and Them. To do and be whatsoever a God can do and be to his People in Covenant with him Fourthly I will confirm my part of these Covenants to thee and thy spiritual Seed by mine Oath which shall never be broken And they shall be one day further Ensured and Sealed in the Blood of my Son. Now on the other side what I require of thee Abraham and all thy Seed that shall enter into this Covenant after thee is no more than what every Woman engageth to her Husband to be faithful and Loyal I will be wholly to thee and thou shalt be wholly to me I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other Gods but me This is my Covenant therefore thou shalt Walk before me in Vprightness with a Perfect Heart and a willing Mind Thine Eye and Heart shall be ever upon me to admire thine own Happiness in all my Perfections Thou needest not hunt after Creatures with expectation of other Good than what is secured to thee in my Self Didst thou know what a Portion thou hast in a God thou wouldst disdain to turn aside after Idols Thou hast mine Alsufficiency made over to thee out of which as from an inexhaustible Fountain thou mayst draw out all thy Supplies What need they run to Streams that have a Command of the Spring-head Let thy Children be but Faithful and Constant to me and give themselves up by an adequate measure of Trust and Confidence in my Truth and Covenant relying wholly on my Wisdom and Goodness in providing for them and casting all their cares upon Me they shall ever reap the sweet Effects of that Recumbency while they give me the Glory of their Faith I will never leave them I will never forsake them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not no by no means I will not While they keep up entire Affections towards me I will delight to do them good with all my Heart and with all my Soul But if they run Whoring from me for I am a Jealous God I shall soon discover the least Aberration of their unfaithful Hearts and have Wayes enough tho' Sharp and Thorny to Hedge up their wandring Steps and reduce them again to their First Husband But Integrity of Soul will be their greatest Glory and the higher their Affections shall arise by perfect Dependance upon me the more sweetly will all the streams of my Love and Goodness flow out upon them I will fill their Souls wit◠Joy and Peace in Believing They shall taste Angels food and feast themselves with the Bread of Heaven The very Marrow and Fatness of my Bounty shall be their daily Repast They shall not envy the Prosperities of the Wicked that are feeding themselves to an Eternal Slaughter When the ravishing sence of my Love alone shining in upon them shall furnish out all Varieties of ineffable Pleasures to them they shall pity those that are walking in the Shadows of Death and See with none other but Brutish Eyes when the Beams of my Presence shall Gild all the Chambers of their Souls and make a continual Goshen there When the World shall reproach and reject them because of their Fidelity to my Covenant and they complain how much they suffer for me I will extend the Arms of my tender Mercies to receive them into mine own Embraces and safety And should some of them as my Witnesses be delivered up to the Malice of their Enemies and they Mercilesly kill them all the day long and lead them as Sheep to the slaughter yet shall Death be so far from separating them from my Love that themselves shall be more than Conquerours over all while all the surviving of them may prepare their Eyes to see the Vengeance and their feet to be washed in the Blood of their Enemies Is not this laid up with me and sealed among my Treasures Treasures of Wrath which shortly shall be poured on them and fall down in whole Cataclismes of Judgment on their Guilty Heads and Souls who have eaten up my People as Bread. The dread of Death must not tempt them to recede one Inch from their Sincerity since they have a God who is a Fountain of Life and that little little of it they breath out in the World is not a Drop compared to the River of Life they shall Swim in to Eternity But that little how little soever it be when Offered to my Glory is so pleasing a Sacrifice as cannot fail to draw from mine Exchequer the singular Retributions of my Favour on those happy Souls who so valorously surrender up their All to my Truth and Honour in assured Confidence of an happier Being in my Self 'T is the Triumph of my Justice to render unto every Man according to his Work As to their Executioners the hotter Fires of my Wrath and double Portions of my Plagues so more resplendant Crowns for the Loyal Heads of those who failed not to write the Evidences of their Integrity and Love in the dearest Blood of their Hearts How preeious then in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Whose Souls are so securely bound up in the Bundle of Life with the Lord their God that all their Enemies on Earth that all the Devils in Hell cannot slacken the Knots of that Vnion by which they are fastened to Himself Life is Theirs to fit them for and Death is Theirs to bring them to his Glory and blessed Fruition of his Endless Love. And in nothing could God have manifested a greater Love to his Abraham than by prescribing a Duty so perfectly agreeable to his own Holy Nature which is Pure Simple and Unmixt He is what He is and cannot be any thing else than what he discovers Himself to be the only True and Faithful God keeping Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commands And 't is Sincerity alone Truth in the inward Parts the Service of a real and perfect Heart that he requires He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee more than to do justly as Himself will to love mercy as Himself doth and to walk humbly before him To be holy as he is holy perfect as he is perfect looking towards Him with the simgle Eye of Fidelity and Love and directing all thy Devotions to him with
themselves are the only Beasts that would do it and Joseph is too truly torn in pieces by the Divisions and Animosities of their fomenting But let not Himself conspire in the Treason nor break the Heart of his Father by sealing the Articles of his own Slavery He will find a Lady in Egypt that will strip him again and rent not his Coat only but very Flesh off her Irons will enter into his Soul if he consent not to her lewd Fornications Egyptian Flesh was ever fatal to the Israel that doated on it And 't is impossible that Dinah should consent to the Rape that yields her no pleasure at all and thô afterwards compounded into a Contract even that will add still to her Torments when anon it is written in the Blood of the Ravisher and instead of an Husband she Wed a Corps Should they deal with our Sister as with an Harlot Nothing can betray us to Her Sorrows but Sin nothing secure us but Obedience and keeping close under the Wings of a Father We shall find by the dreadful Examples what rueful Effects Extravagancy and a wandring from God into Vanity and Folly hath brought upon the World even from its Creation Sin ever hath been ever will be the great Apollyon of our Peace and Safety whose Tragedies I have adventured by too rude a draught to expose to thy View with the same design as once Anthony held forth the bloody Gown of the brave Caesar all mangled and full of holes by the Daggers of his Murderers on purpose to provoke the People to Revenge In which undertaking if Defects too many be discovered by the severe and censorious Reader he will be more courteous sure than to wound me too while he kindly remembers the shaking of my Hand with the very Fear and Apprehension of so bold an Attempt But come Reader let us lay aside Words and be wise Religion with Joash is left alone in the Temple and none pitieth that solitary Princess sure 't will be our Advantage to unite to her Coronation and unanimously Guard her while the Crown is putting on and we see her re-invested in all her Regalities Let Profaneness and Superstition with Athalia rend their Cloaths and Throats too crying Treason Treason the Treason is all against Hell and let no Englishman be startled at the Plot Nay let every one come under the Guilt of it not one Non-conformist to the Dominion of Grace but should any stand off let us leave them to the Tyranny of their own Athalia while we ever cry with all Judah triumphing with Joy for the Restauration of the true Worship God Save the King God Save the King. THE Angels Tragedy To my Reverend Brethren the Messengers of Christ to the Churches Metaphorical Angels and spiritual Men do I humbly offer this Tragedy May not one of them make the Defection or suffer the Eclypse of these unhappy Apostates but ever shining in the lustre of their own Graces may emit those Beams of Divine Light and Life as will irradiate and quicken the dead and benighted Souls of Men that when God shall remove them from the lower Firmament to fix them above they may altogether make up a glorious Constellation in Heaven and shine there as Starrs for ever and ever 2 PET. 2.4 If God spared not the Angels c. 'T IS by slow and trembling Steps that I pass towards the Territories of the Miserable thence to take a distant Prospect of the tremendous Executions made by Divine Justice upon so great a Part of the once glorious Spirits now hanging up alive in the Chains of fierce Wrath and reserved unto the further Judgment of the great Day Methinks it is Pity that Sin hath so fair a Pretence to the glory of High Birth We cannot deny it the Honour of a Noble Extraction when we see it unluckily Issuing from the Heart of an Angel For neither were those Sons of God at their first Creation bless'd in such an absolute Degree of Stability and Perfection as should ever secure them from all possibility of falling into the Sorrows of so unnatural a Production But if already my Plough make a Baulk in this Tragick Field and my Pen blunders to decipher this Serpent's Root from whence sprung up the Monster my Reader may well remit it to me when the great St. Austin throws it off with a Non Deus sunt They were not God but Created in a Mutable and not Impeccable Estate He charges his Angels with Folly But if Folly hath a Lodging in the Bosoms of those who each Minute Behold the face of mine heavenly Father wonder not if at this distance it be graduated into perfect Distraction and the Atheistical Fools of the Earth say in their Hearts There is no God because they see none when they are not vouchsafed the dreadful Kindness of Diabolical Conviction but are sentenc'd to the ruinous effects of an impudent Obduration without the Mercy of a scrupulous Conscience which in time might Torment them into a prudent Recantation How the Holy Court was Alarm'd at the breaking out of this Viper as of some Flying Dragon that would have stung them all to Death and what dreadful havock was wrought in a Moment and how very many Thousands perished by its Venomous Sting e're the most expeditious Orders could be issued out for the clearing the sound from the infected And what Decree passed forth for their everlasting Exile thence into the lowest Abyss of Darkness and Confusion is so far from being News now adayes that Heaven and Earth rings with the Tragedy And happy had it been for the Younger Sons of God that this degenerous Brood had been ever closely confin'd within the limits of their own sooty Walls and not permitted by their ranging about to have had the Liberty of making their pernicious How d'ye's into the Paradise of Joy where the Kindness of their Maker had so blessedly plac'd them together in Pleasure and Peace Very vainly does prying Curiosity make enquiry after the Quality of the Sin that wrought this Ruine since perhaps Holy Writ is so obscure and reserv'd with design to dictate a more prudent Caution against all since whatsoever it were that slew an Angel the very least of all may crush a Worm Yet to gratifie a little the Inquisitive Humour know that the very Learned are divided and strangely differ in their Opinions about it Some â—aying the Ruine to the Charge of Envy from their foreknowledge of God's determination in Promoting the Humane Nature into the ineffable Honour of Vnion with the Godhead in neglect of their own so Zanchy and others Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and Chrysostome think it to be Luxury from Gen. 6.1 But surely Spirits need no Mistresses Others alleadge the Breach of a Positive Command and Law imposed upon them and the Rabbins will have it of some Service to Man which the proud Angel refusing was therefore cast down an Opinion a little hard to be entertain'd 't is
was but a Sott yet a Jezabel could observe that he suffered the Plagues of a Regicide and the Pleasure of a Weeks Reign was soon expired in the Flames of his expeditious Ruine when despair of Safety from the Prosecutors of that Treason reduc'd him to that wofull Exigency of Offering up himself a most unacceptable Holocaust in the Fire of his own Kindling 'T is the Kindness of God to all Subjects in acquainting them that the Hearts of Kings are in his own hand directing them by that discovery into the safest Methods of Redress against any the wildest Exorbitances of Tyranny Since 't is but their Addressing unto himself who is able to turn them as the Water-streams to flow into as great Currents of Favour and Kindness towards us as ever they have ebb'd in the diminution of any Rights or Liberties from us If their own Prayers can redress their Conditions 't were but Madness to fly upon the Faces of Princes whose Wrath is as the roaring of Lyons when speedier succour may be drawn by humbling themselves into the Arms of a gracious God Who for the Oppression of the poor and for the sighing of the Needy will surely arise to set them in safety from every one that puffeth at them Be it ever remembred That God hath secured the Prerogative of Honour to all our Superiours with the same Care as he hath provided for the Lives of other Men to shew us That 't is as dangerous to withdraw our Allegiance from them as to act Murder upon others And that their Sovereignty is as safely guarded as our own Beings And Oh! that the Brightness of those Eyes that sparkle Terrour into the Hearts of the Wicked and scatters them as the Clouds before the Sun may reflect so great a Light into all the Paths of Princes that their Royal Feet may never slip into Noah's Noose nor any of those more vulgar Weaknesses which give Opportunity for Chamish Impiety to set light by that Majesty which God hath made the very Image of his Own. And let Undutiful Children take care that the Stones of Absalom's Heap which Travellers say are still increased by very Jews and Turks passing by it in detestation of that unnatural Act be not brought hence by Divine Justice to beat out the Brains of those whom the Horrour of so notorious an Example can little affright into better Obedience the Punishment of this Crime being so seldom Prorogued to the General Assize as Vengeance hardly takes a Nap before Execution be done to the full When a wretched Son was once laying violent Hands on his Aged Father and kicking him out of doors Now hold thy Hands said the Old Man for 't was but hitherto that I served thy Grandfather in the very same Manner And 't is observable that the Curse is entail'd expressely upon Canaan for the Sin that was committed by his Father to let us see how so great a Profaneness is seldom expiated but by the Blood of Generations And God's withholding his Grace only from Children is Slip enough to strangle them with the same Halter their Fathers hung in This is that Canaan whose Name gave Denomination to the Fruitful-land and whose Sin made it yet but a Wilderness to his whole Posterity since the Blessing of Exuberance is but a Curse to those to whom common Mercy is but a constant Judgment and God did but send them before-hand as a Company of Slaves to build those Houses and plant those Vineyards which should chear the Hearts of the more obedient Children of Shem to whose use God sealed the Lease of their Ejectment and delivered it to Abraham so weary was he of such Tenants four hundred Years before it was Executed while in the mean time a People should be born that should serve the Lord and Pay him the Quit-Rent of Praise for so pleasant Habitation And what Is not this another Tragedy when the Sword of God strikes inwardly and executes its Massacres upon all the invisible Faculties kills them spiritually and spares the poor Corps to the Curse of Slavery not to Men only but Lusts and Hell leaving them so perfectly Dead from performing the Functions of the true Life that they are absolutely senceless of any other end than that of Luxury wherefore they are continued in the World 'till running up and down for a while like Swine with the fatal Knife sticking in their Throats they faint away and bleed themselves into Eternal Death as Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction Canaan Adieu the unhappy Son of so prophane a Father who hath entail'd upon thee and thine so direful Execration that I see some of thy Cursed Off-spring hypocritically crouching with their mouldy Bread and clouted Shooes to begg a miserable Life from the flourishing Family of thy more dutiful Vnkle and none other is granted them but such as is worse thaâ— Death it self when rather than perish they are content to become the contemptible Skullion of their Kitchen the Prophesied Judgment iâ— actually verified Cursed be Canaan a servant oâ— servants shall he be Babel's Tragedy To the City of God if any on Earth be the Incomparable London Instructed and Edified on Everlasting Foundations into all the Dimensions of Saving Knowledge Faith Love Truth and holy Experience by the Care Skill and Industry of Her Spiritual Builders do I humbly Dedicate this Tragedy Beseeching God that neither the Clattering of Tongues nor the Division of Hearts may ever procure Her the Baffle of Babel But that she may be a City at Unity in it Self her Affections as uniform and Compact as her Habitations ever remembring that she is not Secure till God himself lay her Topstone in Heaven and Finish her up to Perfection GEN. XI 4. Go to let us Build c. BUT come Reader Let us pass from Golgotha the Charnel-house of Dead Bones and Skulls while we divert our selves a The Tragedy of SODOM c. Grand Paw she mightily dislikes their whining Minims she must have them Note it to the Ela of c. And as their Speech so their very Looks do please her as little they know not how to charge their Countenances to dart a Terrour nor how to Swell and look bigg nor with one Frown shot from the furious Brow send away the Impudent Creditor that dares take the boldness to Dunn for his own In all these Reformations she promises her utmost skill to assist them Now for the manner of their Eating this above all hath given her the greatest Affliction As if God had still left them under the Curse of Temperance and given them nothing but Herbs and Sallads to feed on She verily thinks their Fields and Meadows did not present their Liberal Issues to a more silly and dull-brain'd People in the World. What had they not learned the sacred Science of Eating Well Unskilful yet in the Lectures of Cookery and Sauces Nor how to Exercise the Trained-Bands of Dishes and Platters She hates to see them gnawing upon
or an Arm for his Wife when his own whole Body is in danger he presses forward and shifts for himself leaving her to Trudge after as she could 't were well if so many were not over-courtly together handing one another into Death The hour is coming when the Dearest Relations shall be all swallowed up in that nearest Interest of Self-preservation Lot's Wife was a Native of Sodom her Body was out of but her Affections were in it still So little doth God value the Carcass service of Hypocrites that he will make them the more lasting Monuments of his Wrath While she disobeys the Command and her Eyes turn back to look after her Heart her whole Body is Petrified and the Eyes of the whole World commanded to look upon her now become a standing Pillar that yet hath a Voice and loudly preaches the Dangers of Disobedience Ingratidude and Backsliding and least Time should wear ouâ— the Memorial of so strange a Prodigy the Son of God comes from Heaven to proclaim it afresh and sets up a Buoy to prevent our Splitting upon the Rock against which that unhappy Creature broke her self And whenever thy deceitful Heart starts back from God Terrifie it with three words as three Darts shot by Joab into Absalom's Heart to end that Rebellion against so great a King and Father Remember Lots Wife God had sent his Angel to deliver her out of the Flame that Angel had given her fair warning by no means to Look back Zoar was but a little way whither she had Orders to escape She had the company of her Husband and Children with her yet she alone insensible of these Mercies despises them all and will Sin and she alone that Sins doth Suffer No Means nor Mercies can prevail with the Obstinate and Wilful while others believe to the saving of the Soul They draw back to Perdition and turn from the Holy Commandement delivered unto them Whose end therefore is Destruction Naked and Bare passes Lot out of Sodom leaving all his Riches and Goods behind him as Fuel to the Flames His Life only is given to him for a Prey to let Him see how little he had advantaged himself by an Intermixture with the Wicked and to teach us how low and mean our Gains will be in this Evil World when at the last we shall carry nothing out of it but a Shroud to lap the Poor Carkass in And very happy shall we be if in the loss of every thing else we make our escape with a Soul to God washed from the Pollutions that are in the World through Lust by the precious Blood of Jesus Art thou gotten up Reader and with Abraham early viewing the dismal Obsequies upon the Hill of Contemplation Look out yonder and see how Wrath and Justice are burying the filthy Cities into their fiery Graves in a miserable new and unheard of Manner Here is no Earth to Earth Dust to Dust Alas they had acted as Devils and overturned all the Laws of Humane Nature Therefore as Infernal Spirits shall receive their Interrment Fire to Fire Flame to Flame Burning to Burning in sure and certain Desperation of any other Resurrection than to everlasting Damnation from Jesus Christ who shall raise their vile bodies to make them yet more vile according to his mighty Power whereby he subdues all things to himself Come lend thine Ears a while to the sad Screeks and Yellings of the miserable Wretches thorough every Street in Sodom and the same answered by those of Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim Ecchoing to both Lord into what Confusion hath Pride and her Idle Gluttonous Drunken Beastly Filthy Vnnatural Counsels betrayed them When there was but one dead in the several Families of Egypt what an Outcry and Noise what a fearful Distraction was there at Midnight what a Tossing and Tumbling to hasten away Israel when there was no other Fright but of one quietly Dead in his Bed in each House But here the Lord thundered in the Heavens the most high gave his voice Hail-stones and Coals of Fire he sent out his Arrows and scattered them he shot out his Thunderbolts and discomfited him Their cursed Eyes behold the Shower of Fire and Brimstone falling down on them all whole Flakes and Rolls of Fire first burning down their Houses to make the more haste to seize on their more combustible Carkasses which had been so long baking in the Oven of their flaming Lusts into a perfect Crust of Obduration and Sencelesness they were become now fit for nothing but the Fire The Plague is proportionably suited to the Sin they flame in Lust God flames in Wrath and because their Heats were Vnnatural so shall these also and the aspiring Element shall act Retrogade and descend to consume them They Universally Suffer as they Universally Sin Old and Young environ the House Old and Young are environed in their own The young Vrchins of Villany are put into the Fry to prevent the cursed Succession of their Breed Their Fruit is rooted out of the Earth and their Seed from among the Children of Men. O tremendous Spectacle to see them altogether Houses and Bodies of Men Women and Children Cattel and whatsoever was found within their Bounds all roaring together in one Raging Furnace heated seven times and blown up by the furious Breath of an incensed God whose Smoak passed up in thick and black Clouds and Pillars darkening the very Air and benighting Heaven it self Upon what Hill wert thou gotten thou most accursed Sorceress Piping and Dancing with Nero to the Flames of thine own kindling while it is Sport and Recreation to thee to see them all burning in a Flame together Where will be the end of thy bloody Tragedies Sixteen times in Holy Record hath God lighted up the Fire of Sodom to affright if possible the whole World from the Execrable Provocations that enkindled them His Holy Spirit hath held up the Tapers in whose Light we see them in Hell as if our very Eyes beheld them there They are Suffering the Vengeance of eternal fire and their Damnation set forth for a fearful Example to those that hereafter should live ungodly But Alas Man's Wickedness hath made Gods Examples as void and uneffectual as his Counsels To find Sodoms Vices surviving among the poor Heathen is horrible but to see them translated into the Church of God is Insufferable whose Eyes runs not down with Tears to hear of the Daughters of Sion exceeding the Daughters of Sodom in Pride and Wantonness But to find the Brothel-houses erected for the very Trade of Sodomy so impudently out-facing the Temple of God This might call for Tears of Blood. And I could wish History had fail'd of Truth when it tells us of a Dispensation granted to the Family of a Cardinal for the same Villany with a Fiat ut petitur 'T is a strange Power that can rake up Vices out of Hell to bring them up and make them in Fashion again upon Earth It were well too
them a Nobler Science than the Art of Love bringing them to Doat on the Beauty of the Heavens which far exceeded that of his Wife And some of them as Chrysostom thinks to the knowledge of that God who had fixed the Lusture upon them A Jewish Tradition makes us believe that Sarah had a Tutelar Angel sent her from God to secure her from all the Assaults of this Tyrant who upon every rising of his Lust and Hot desires would strike him into so perfect an Impotency as forced him to pass from her Chamber with the shame and vexation of an Eunuch laden only with the Spoils of his frustrated Hopes instead of those of her Honour while her self stands Laughing as her Children afterwards on the Shore of security and freedom when this Pharaoh venturing to pursue her hath the Heels of his eagerness tript up and is sent to cool his Flames in a Watery Bed. 'T was indeed from a Power unconquerable as her Own Steel'd with a Spirit wholly Divine that she gloriously stood the Shock and baffled all the Attaques that were made upon her Vertue till at last God pittying this Noble Free-woman in Bondage here under the Tyranny of this impious Prince and hearing from above the Sighings of the Prisoner was resolved to knock off the Shackles of her Captivity with such an Hammer as shall make the Foundation of her Prison to shake and the Keepers thereof to Tremble A Cloud of Indignation Condenses over their Heads and falls down in a shower of Plagues upon them The whole Court is under Horrour and Labours under Diseases and perfect Confusion The happy Pair are in Ease and Safety while That is under Consternation and Disorder Some say the Magicians are consulted to enquire into the Causes of the Wrath of Heaven others that Sarah her self is re-examined from the Jealousie they harboured of her nearer Relation to Abraham Indeed she knew her self as Jonah the procuring cause of the Storm and that a little time might blow Her into Harbour and Safety They all grow Sick of the New Mistress and would gladly send her packing for calm Weather again themselves wish her another Lover and would gladly pay a Priest to Marry her a Second time into Abraham's Bosom and possibly they might save that labour for the Sister may be the Wife already God had sent down from Heaven an ample Certificate of the Marriage which they might read but too plainly in Characters of Judgment Sarah as some say upon Examination confessess the whole and now if at any time had Abraham just ground to fear but God had secured him from the fright for if they were thus Plagued for the guilt but of an Unlawful desire to his Wife what should they be if they lay violent Hands on her Husband There is a certain Divine Appearance of Majesty seated in the very Countenances of the truly Godly and shining there in so clear a Light as never fails to strike Terror into the Hearts of prophane Men A Spirit of Glory resting upon them that melts the Drossie Spirits of the wicked who are made to fall before it and yield that due Veneration and Reverence as greatly tends to their Honour and happy Security from danger so that the hand of Cruelty wants an Heart to offer a rude Touch to Gods Anointed or to do his Prophets Harm It was this Venerable Aspect sitting on the Brow of the Great Abraham from whose Eyes darted the Lightning that Pierced the Breast of this Egytian King and dissolv'd him from his Natural Ferocity into so Meek and gentle a Temper that instead of the Thunder of Wrath we might have expected to have ratled from his furious and incensed Spirit we find nothing but the still small Voice of a soft and weaker rebuke Why saidst thou She is my Sister It is God that turns the Hearts of Kings whither soever he will. Methinks I see the Blood that under the first Temptation had passed from Abraham's Cheeks to guard his Heart and left him Pale with Fear now returning all back again making him blush with Shame Nor could he in Civility do less than wear the same Livery with the King whose Face is dipt into the same Scarlet and blusheth as deep as he from the Conscience of so great an injury done by him to the Lady of so Mighty a Personage as Abraham 'T is strange this Fallacy had not wrought to greater Vengeance Princes seldom brook the Affronts made upon their Reputations or Affections 'T is but Sport and Recreation to them to Revenge themselves especially where there is not a proportionable Strength for Defence and where too there is nothing but Nature to check its Fury and Rage But the Lord was there and the whole Court was under the Sores of his Wrath who therefore Politickly consult rather the more safe and generous way of heaping up Coals of Fire upon the Head of Her that had enflam'd their Brince than by any injurious usage to provoke greater Flames on themselves And the Monarch is content to pay well for his Liquorish Longing who thinks it Bargain good enough if he buy off his Guilt with the price of those liberal Presents which he sacrifices as Trespass-offerings to Abraham which he hopes will satisfie for the Sin of his Ignorance after which received he has Audience of leave and free Liberty to depart who passes from the Court with his Lady in his hand a Greater Man than when he came in We must not forget the Kings last kindness in giving severe Orders to the Guards for their intire security making it little less than Treason for any Subject to profane the Shrine himself had so religiously adored And surely all but need while he providently foresaw how the common People could easily expound their greatest Insolencies into good Service to their Prince when they heaped them on those only who had been the instrumental cause of so many plagues and mischiefs to him as they think Vulgar eyes looking no higher than the bloody Effects of the Judgment are perfectly blind from any Penetration into the first procuring Cause Had Pharaoh's Heart bin as innocent as Sarah's Eyes they had never felt the vigour of Gods displeasure upon them The Church hath bin ever indeed a Burthensome Stone to the Wicked who making all their force to heave and lift at it have found not their Shins crackt only but their Heart-Strings broken with the weight of it Whosoever hath fallen on this Stone hath bin broken but on whomsoever it hath fallen it hath ground him into powder Abraham travelled into Canaan because they gave him so cold a welcome behold a Famine on themselves from thence he passed into Egypt where they plague him by the Rape of his Wife behold a Disease on themselves See Haman hanging on the Gallows prepared by himself for Mordecai and an hundred fourscore and five thousand Carkases spread as Dung on the Fields of Jerusalem who threatned to make the Inhabitants eat
laid them before him to make his own Choice and to take them all to himself Is this price in his hand to be happy for ever and hath the Fool no heart to it Is the Everlasting Charter fairly Copied out and sent him down from above to peruse and read over wherein he finds all the Priviledges of Heaven and Earth made over and secured to him and all this not worthy reflecting on And the Book lying as fast clasped up as his own Heart See how grievously God takes this Affront to his Goodness I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing A matter not concerning them at all The Feast is prepared and all things ready themselves Invited but they make light of it they have other Pleasures to follow O Judicial Blindness O cursed Insensibleness Israel would none of me so I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts to walk in their own Councels He that hath no Heart for God may jealously fear that God hath no Heart for him Pray not for this People for my mind cannot be towards them Why Their Heart is turned away from me Yet is this but the first Seething of the deadly Poyson see it boiling up into the heighth of a mutual Abhorrency and Loathing Their Soul abhorred me and my Soul loathed them Tremble to think on the fatal Effects of thy Hearts aversion from God 'T is a perfect Predamnation the very Devils arrive at no greater height of Impiety And thou that wilt not meditate Love mayst shortly meditate Terror and become a Magor Missabib a very Fiend to thine own Self Go miserable Creature sit in the Dust lye on the Ground cloath thee with Ashes put on Sackcloath let bitter Tears be thy drink Abhorr thy Self Thy Soul is departed from God and God as from Saul is departed from thee and what wilt thou do in the end thereof On what will thy miserable Thoughts feed on to Eternity 'T were a Judgment to pass one day without Meditation on God! but how wilt thou spend an endless Life without him which yet thou canst not do while all thy Faculties will be enlarg'd to take in nought but Plagues and Torments which here fed on nothing but Vanity and Leasing There thou wilt do nothing else but think on His Wrath on thy Self and Others who here hadst no leisure or Heart to think on his Love and Goodness to thy Self and Others Bethink thy self a little while thou art in the World summon up thy Considerative Faculties set them all at work to ruminate on the unchangeable Estate wherein thou wilt either Praise or Blaspheme the Name of God for ever Hast thou a Soul given thee for no other Work but to compleat thine own Misery And doth God wait upon thee but until thou fittest thy Self for destruction whiles thou art little thinking how soon it will come upon thee And then all the vain Thoughts that lodge within thee will take their flight from thee and perish for ever with thee Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider thy wayes And remember 't is the proper work of the Rational Soul and of no other Creature but Angels to reflect on it self and wisely to project for its future Happiness When God hath laid before thee all the Contrivances of his everlasting Councels and Love towards thee in Jesus Christ and set Him forth to be a Propitiation thrô Faith in his Blood that thine Eyes and Heart may be astonished with Admiration of such Mercy That this White Flag should hang up so long and none consider the Black One of Judgment may appear in its stead when all hopes of Life are gone and departed for ever This is an Evidence of a fatal Obduration and a mighty Contempt of Divine Grace See Sinner Mercy is yet offer'd Proposals of Peace are laid before thee Consider thy Life and Soul are in hazard if thou art drawing lines with Archimedes in the Dust while the City is stormed and the Enemy entred the next News will be the Sword in thy Bowels and an everlasting Adieu to thy presumptuous Hopes But while Isaac's holy Heart was better exercised and he was sweetly walking with his God in the Fields his Eyes discover the Camels Coming In the doing thy Commandments there is great Reward Mercy overtakes him in the midst of Duty In the very Moment that he is enjoying God God gives him the Enjoyment of his Rebekah to whom for the Honour that she doth him in lighting off her Camēl and Veyling her self at the first Meeting he pays so entire Affection and constant Love that in all his Life he never leaves her to depart into another Bed And having now gotten so good a Wife he endeavours to forget the loss of a Mother and to remember his Sorrow no more I question not but the Readers Observation hath already prevented me in the Noting of the clearest Allegory of the Proceedings of God in the raising a Seed to his Son illustrated by the Care of Abraham in this Transactions of Isaac's Nuptials 'T is the Project and the Councel of his Will to propose him as the Spiritual Husband to his Church He makes the first Motion by his Servants that are sent forth to Woe and Beseech They are sworn to Fidelity under the dreadful penalties of destruction to themselves if they be found Careless or Unfaithful in so great a Trust Their Blood will I require at thy Hand The Arguments they use are the Promises of an Everlasting Inheritance durable Riches and Honour in the heavenly Canaan There is nothing required but bare Consent and an hearty willingness to the Match What doth the Lord require of thee c. My Son give me thine Heart onely The Holy Spirit cooperates with the Messengers and helps to convince and perswade Our Gospel came not in Word only but in Power and in the Holy Ghost He enlightneth the mind to see what are the Hopes of his Calliing and how great the Riches of the Inheritance He works the Heart to a free Consent Thy People shall be willing c. When Faith is wrought and Consent gotten the Jewels are produced Gifts and Graces After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit Dispatch is urged Be ye ready the Faithful Soul called to depart Hearken O Daughter and consider incline thine Ear forget thine own People and thy Fathers House While she is traveling on the Road of Life the Bridegroom meets her I will manifest my self unto her she receives him covered with a Veyl and blushing at the Thoughts of her unworthiness But he likes her the better and greatly delights in her Beauty while the Worships him as her Lord and passes in with him into the everlasting Pavilion where she alone enjoys his Love and entire Person for ever We shall be ever with the Lord Wherefore comfort one another with these words The Nuptials of Isaac thus happily Celebrated and Rebekah in Possession of