LOTS WIFE.  
A SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLES cross.  
 
AT LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, for John Flasket, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Churchyard at the sign of the black bear. 1607.   

TO THE RIGHT honourable SIR EDWARD DENNY, Lord Baron of Waltam, all peace and happiness in this life, with the blessed hope of the life to come.  
THe particular respects, whereby I am and haue been these many yeares indebted to your Honor, haue made me( Right honourable) a long time careful to find out some good occasion, whereby I might make known my dutiful affection to you: And forsomuch as I knew nothing either more suitable for me to present, or more acceptable to your Christian devotion, then a meditation of the mercies and judgements of God, I haue therefore prepared you a savoury meate to ruminate vpon, and such( as I thought) your soul loved; which yet I must confess, I haue not newly taken for you with my bow and quiver, as Esau did his venison, but I haue fetched out of my former store, as jacob did a ●id out of the flock: And yet I had not so done neither, but that Rebeccah bad me; and not Rebeccah onely, but many other of my Christian and loving friends, haue most earnestly importuned me thereunto: yet what I haue yielded to their entreaty, I haue dedicated to your protection, as part of payment of my more especial duty. If any man shall think the Text too short for such an auditory, let him aclowledge, it is a piece of the bread of life, which while we break it, increaseth in our hands, as the few loaves wherewith our saviour fed so many thousands; yea rather let him think that we ourselves are too short, too weak, and too shallow to sound but the depth of ordinary divinity, and Who is sufficient for these things? If any man shall think either the Text, or the Sermon to be too salt( indeed a Salt-stone gives taste unto both) yet let him consider again, that the age is corrupt wherein we live,& it is now no time to anoint, but to search men in their sins. God give us all grace to know ourselves in truth, to reform ourselves in wisdom, and to wait for the rewards with patience. And thus I humbly take my leave; beseeching God, who hath laid in your person a foundation of an honourable family, to continue and increase your Honor, to the glory of his name, the supporting of his Church, and to the good of the state wherein you live.  
Your Honors true affencted in all Christian love and duty, R. W.   
luke 17. 32. Remember Lots Wife. 
IN the two and twentieth chapter of S. Matthew, the calling of the world to the preaching of the gospel, is by Christ himself compared to the inviting of men to a feast: howbeit( Right honourable and well-beloved in Christ) it falleth out far otherwise with me; who though a seruant of the same Christ, and a preacher of the same gospel, yet must invite you to day to a lump of salt: yet salt is good( saith Christ) and every sacrifice must be seasoned with salt, Mark. 9. yea and our speech must be powdered with salt too; Coloss. 4. 6. and therefore forsomuch as the mercy of God is as sweet meate, and the judgements of God as a sharp sauce( and such things commonly accord together,) I hope it shall not be amiss amid the manifold preachings of the mercies of God, to add now and then some examples of the iustice of God, as a sprinkling or casting on of salt to season them.  
This short Scripture which I haue red unto you, is a Remembrance or rifling up of an old and known history, in which history there is a tragedy, and in which tragedy there is a Metamorphosis or strange transformation of a miserable, a sinful and woeful woman, for but a glance of her eye, and for but winding her head awry, yet suddenly blasted, and destroyed vnrecouerablie: Now happy( I fear) had she been, if shee had never been, and better to haue been born blind, then to see with such eyes, or to haue raled them out with her nailes, then to look so vnluckely: but howsoeuerit happened unhappily for her, yet makes it for Gods glory, to which end even our sins are directed, and still it makes for our example, for which it was first by Moses written, and now again by Christ remembered, Remember Lots wife; that as she remembered where she lived, so we might remember how she died, and look back to her, as she looked back to Sodom.  
Two things are in this Scripture distinctly to bee considered: First, to what part of the mind this exhortation is directed, which is not to the first understanding or original apprehension, but to the memory; Remember: Secondly, the subject or matter of this Remembrance, which is, Lots wise. For the first, we are to consider, that remembering alway presupposeth foreknowing, for in order of nature, once we learn to know, and ever after we call to mind what first wee learned and knew before, so as neither can a man forget what he never knew, neither can any man remember but what he knew before; therefore Christ doth not here take vpon him to bee the Author of the story, or to plot out a new description or narration of the matter, but takes it up at the second hand from Moses, as Moses at the first hand had it by revelation from God, and so vpon good and just occasion he remembreth it to the Church anew: therefore as S. Paul saith of the Law, I speak to them that know the Law, Rom. 7. 1. so doth Christ of Lots wife here, he speaks to them that know her well enough, that haue often red, and much heard of her, that as they know her, so they may remember her; for they go together, Prou. 4. 5. Get wisdom, get understanding, and forget not; first to get, and then not to forget: and as the Psalmist saith, o my people hear my law, Psal. 78. and Salomon saith, My son, forget not my law, Prou. 3. So do Moses and Christ in one and the same subject answer one another; Moses teaching to know it, but Christ admonishing to remember it. Themistocles was wont to say, that it was needful for men to learn the arte of forgetfulness, in that sense wherein Paul sapke, Philip. 3. I forget that which is behind; that if men had attained to perfection in any thing, they should forget what they had already, lest by remembering it too much, they should grow idle and secure, and care to get no more: And surely if it can be any way expedient to learn the Art of forgetfulness, to which we are so apt by nature, as we need no help of Art; then must it needs be every way necessary to learn the Art of Memory, which is Ars artium, an art adding perfection to every art, in which regard many haue written whole books to add perfection to it; for if( as men say) it bee no less a virtue to hold a good thing then to get it, and as great an honor to keep a Castle as to win it, then to remember a good thing shall be as needful as to learn it, and to retain knowledge as singular a virtue as to attain it; nay it is great pity that he should ever know a thing that cannot remember it: he that learns a thing, and then forgetteth it, is like him that finds a treasure and then loseth it, which as he was very fortunate to find, so was he a very fool to lose; put both together, and they spell a fortunate fool: The Ostrich, job 39. layeth many goodly eggs; but she layeth them in the sand, and when she hath laid them, there she leaveth them, and comes no more at them, for which cause God there condemneth her for a fool. A feather of that bide doth he bear, and a bide of that feather shal he be, that learns to know a thing, and then forgets it; like Adam, who was once possessed of Paradise, and could not hold it; and like the divell, who had once a place in heaven, and then went and lost it.  
Therefore( beloved) memory will come to haue a singular place in divinity, and in religion; yea every man by memory becomes excellent in every Art; the scholar, the Lawyer, the physician, the Mathematician; yea and many a Merchant thinks his book of Accounts or remembrances to be his Canticum can●●orum, the most catholic and canonical book he hath: therefore let no man look to excel in matters of religion, and not to keep a register, that is, not to remember it; especially religion being a thing which men are so apt to forget. S. Hierom saith of the conquering romans, that amidst their greatest pomp and triumphs, they had ever one at the back of the Chariot to pull the conqueror by the sleeve, and so oft as the people shouted and cried, to cry to him again, Memento te hominem esse, Remember thou art a man. And is it possible, a man should forget himself to be a man? much more then had wee need of one thought, to stand up always in the chariot of our heart, and to cry, Memento Deum esse, Remember there is a God; for we are indeed by nature forgetful: Pharaohs Butler forgot joseph, Gen. 40. and joseph forgot his fathers house, Gen. 41. 51. The Disciples of Christ( which men seldom do) forgot to take bread with them, Matth. 16. nabuchadnezzar once dreamed, and forgot his own dream, Dan. 2. Yea we red of one Messala Coruinus so sottish and forgetful, as he forgot his own name; much more may wee suspect our selves and fear, lest we forget Gods name, for the Creator and the creature being names so near a kin, we may not forget the one, and then think to remember the other; therfore we must so learn to know God, as that we may remember him, and so hear of the judgements of God, as that we may meditate on them; yea it was Dauids usual phrase, not to say, I look vpon thy law, as men commonly come to church to look vpon the walls, and then forget that ever they were there, but, O how I love thy law( saith he) it is my continual meditation; Psalm. 119. and the best way to help memory is continual meditation.  
That we should as well remember the judgements of God, as learn to know them, God hath ordained a Sabbath for remembrance, not that we should remember God but one day in seven, but that if we would be forgetful, yet we should remember him one day in seven at the least: for this cause hath God ordained a Sacrament for remembrance, Hoc facite in commemorationem mei, Do this in remembrance of me, Luk. 22. yea and for this end hath God filled the world with remembrancers, ordaining the creatures continually to put us in mind of the Creator, in the heauens to behold his greatness, though God bee greater then the heauens; in the sun to behold his brightness, though God bee brighter then the sun; in the stars to see his beauty, albeit there be no beauty like to his; in the thunder the terror of his presence, albeit the thunder roar not half so loud as he; in the fowles of the air, his care and providence; in the course of nature, his mutable wisdom; in the creation of the world, his eternal power and God-head; that so often as we see these( and we cannot but see them often) so often wee should remember him that made them.  
That God did not mean the law should be forgotten, it may appear by the first publishing of it, which as it is Exod. 19. was given in thunder and lightning, that the amazing of their minds with such a terror might make them to remember it the better; as a schoolmaster, when he will haue his scholar not to forget such a rule, sets it on with a beating; so likewise did Moses when he had written Exodus, which was indeed the book of the law, afterward wrote deuteronomy, which was nothing else but a remembrance of the law. Hitherto likewise tended the practise of the Church, which kept the tables of the Law in the ark, Deut. 10. and the book of the Law in the ark, Deut. 31. and caused it afterward to be red every Sabbath in the Synagogues, Act. 13. Lest all this should not serve to keep the Law in mind, Moses took a surer course to set it before 
Deut. 6.  their eyes; for the Iewes were commanded to bind it on their hands, that their hands might learn to live by law: they were commanded to hang it between their eyes, that they might learn not to look, but to look by law, yea to wear it vpon their foreheads,( the very seat of memory) that they might always remember and meditate of the Law: they were commanded to writ it on their gates and doors without, that they might remember they had their entrance and first admission in condition of obedience to the Law: they were commanded to writ it on the walls and posts within, that they might remember their standing was supported, and their state maintained by law: they were commanded to writ it on the phylacteries and skirts of their garments, that they might remember their chiefest beauty, ornament, and honor was to honor God in the keeping of the Law: such care had God to keep his law in their hearts, as their heads, and their hands, and their houses, and their gates, and their garments must be garnished with it, and all for this end that they might remember it. In Leuit. chap. 11. those only beasts were clean, which when they had eaten a thing, did ruminate and chew vpon it; so are they the best hearers, which when they haue heard a thing do ruminate and meditate vpon it, that is, remember it. In the ceremonial law, Moses was commanded when he had made the candlestick, to make the snuffers too, Exod. 25. 38. whose use was, when the lights in the Tabernacle were cloyed, to clear them, or( as commonly we say) to snuff them; wherein mystically ye must thus much understand, that so often as the spiritual light of knowledge grows dim in your minds, the Priest hath Ius repurgandi, authority and power to clear it, that is, by remembering it anew, to add a new impression and strong imagination to it: and therefore if ye will hear of Lots wife, or any good thing, and then again forget it, take it how ye will; God hath put the golden snuffers into our hands, and howsoever you snuff, we must snuff too. In the gospel the blessing is not onely vpon him that heareth the Word, but, Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it, Luk. 11. In the Church of God there is not only Paul to plant, but Apollos comes after with his water pot to water what Paul hath planted, lest it die; 1. Cor. 3. So as unless you will drive Apollos, and all the disciples of Apollos, that is, all waterers out of the Church, ye must give Christ leave to remember what Moses had taught before, and yourselves must endeavour to remember what ye haue learned before. Little cares the divell how much men hear, so they remember nothing; yea the divell( to choose) would haue men to hear, so they did not remember, that in hearing, and then again forgetting, they might stand more answerable for that they hear. The inconveniences of not remembering, do no where better appear then in Peter, for Christ  told Peter, Luk. 22. that the divell had a desire to sift him, and indeed the divell did sift him, and shake so much out of him, as by not remembering the words of Christ, he forswore Christ; for when he remembered the words, the text saith plainly, He went out and wept bitterly; and 
Luke 22. 61. 62.  what is this, but for a man to haue a sieve in his hand, and to haue ears like a sieve, when he shall receive instruction at one ear, and let it out at both? like a sieve which takes in water at one place and lets it out at an hundred. And therfore when a man hath heard a Sermon, and straightway forgetteth it, let him strongly suspect, the divell hath sifted him. In the parable of the sour, one part of the seed fell by the high way side, and that the little birds picked up, Matth. 13. which is nothing else but the Word preached to forgetful hearers; and the little birds, what bee they, but worldly thoughts and cares, which consume and eat up the spiritual seed as fast as it is sown? Therefore to our planting wee must add watering, and to our hearing remembrance.  
And where are then our fine Athenian ears, such as never vouchsafe to open, but when some new thing is delivered? If a man come with Scitote, and teach to know some new thing, he is welcome; but Mementote, a remembrance of the old is a mere Bis coctum, stale, and unsavoury; and he that preacheth so, is like him that poureth twice sudden broth out of the pot. Men come now adays to a Sermon as to a play, Aut nouum dicas, aut nihil dicas, either some new thing or nothing, either a new matter or none at all. speak ye of Lots wife! and what of her! our pulpits are made for Moses that tells the tale while it is new; the bel-frey is good enough for him that remembreth it when it is old. Preaching is become like appareling, we can fancy it no longer then the fashion is new: If wee come to a Sermon and hear no new thing, we think that time was lost, and bid Fie on such a man, as the Israelites did on Manna, because they had it every day; here is Manna, and Manna, and nothing but Manna; and so say we, we heard to day the high-way points of faith and good works, with the vulgar doctrine, and common place of repentance, and heard nothing but that we knew before, and men grow angry if they hear of one thing twice, as if their patience were greatly abused: Nay wee are come to that niceness now, that we can scarce endure to hear one man twice; when a man comes out first, we admire him without measure, and every man is ready to cast up his cap, to carry branches of palm before him, and to cry Hosanna, yea and to say of him, as the samaritans said of Simon Magus, This man is that great power of God; but when nine daies are once over, and he begins to be stale, why then, Arescit anima nostra, our soul is dried up with this Manna, give us some other meate. But( beloved) if ye will haue your minds reformed, the way is, not to draw up your mind to your ears, but to carry down your ears to your mind, that ye may relish, not that which is most plausible, but that which is most profitable; and say not, when you haue heard what you haue heard before, that ye knew all this before; for how then! It seemeth by this that you came to Church, and knew not why, like the men of Ephesus who assembled together, and could yield no reason why: for what is the end 
Act. 19. 32.  of mens assembling and meeting at the Church? Ye will say, to hear and to learn some new thing: Indeed that may well be one end among other, though not the only end excluding all other; for as ye come to learn anew, so come ye likewise to remember the old: nor must ye think that we preach alway to your understanding, to teach you what ye knew not before, but most commonly to your memory, to put you in mind of that ye knew, lest ye forget it: I haue not written unto you( saith S. John) because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, 1. joh. 2. 21. A very strange consequent: and S. Paul to the Romans, I am persuaded of you, that ye are full of all goodness; yea and more then so, that ye are full of all knowledge; yea and more then so, that ye are able to admonish one another, they were so grounded as every private man amongst them was meet to make a Preacher: nevertheless( saith he) I haue written unto you, as one that puts you in remembrance; Rom. 15. 14. 15. Neither must ye think that all Scripture is only for instruction, but chiefly for remembrance: I writ no new commandement to you, but an old( saith S. John) which ye haue had from the beginning: 1. joh. 2. 7. nor was Paul ashamed to say over again, what he had said immediately before, As I said before, so I say again, if any man preach otherwise then that ye haue heard, let him bee accursed, Gal. 1. 9. And again, I haue  told ye oft, and now again I tell ye weeping, that many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ: Philip. 3. 18. Nor doubted Peter to say, that he wrote his second Epistle only for remembrance, This second Epistle writ I now unto you, to call to your remembrance the words of the Prophets and Apostles, 2. Pet. 3. 1. 2.  
For he that drives a nail into a knotty piece of wood, knocks not once, but again and again to fasten it: so God minding to settle deep in our dull hearts, both the knowledge and conscience of the Law, did by often repetitions remember it; even as Pharaoh when he dreamed of the plenty, and famine in Egypt, his dream was doubled, because( as his Interpreter  told him) God would establish it, Gen. 41. 32. Yea and where Atheists bark at the Scriptures for being by often repetition tedious, the devout and sober minded do thence take occasion to adore, whence they to detest; for it hath been held as a rule in former times, Quoties Scriptura repetit, mysterium est, that so oft as the Scripture repeats and saith one thing over and over, there is sure some mystery, or some great matter in it; for as when the Hounds open loud and free, the huntsman gathereth that there is some game; so when the Scripture useth importunity in a point, it is a sign there is some great thing to be marked.  
Be ye therefore I beseech you( Right honourable and well beloved) be ye I beseech you of Dauids mind, for God spake once or twice( saith david) that power belongeth unto God, and I heard it, Psal. 62. 11. No doubt a patient auditor; God spake of one thing twice, and he heard it, whereas commonly if we speak of one thing twice, or but remember an old matter, we can get no audience, no man will hear it. Now if this be so, then am I clean lost and shamed. If this be the course, that men may remember no old matters, but still to teach, and to bring in new, then what shal I do with Lots wife here, or of all places, what do I here? I must remember to you the iudgement of God vpon Lots wife; I know ye know it already; yea and I know this besides, that I can observe nothing, and teach nothing out of it, but that which hath been observed and taught before, Et nihil dictum quod non dictum prius, I shall say nothing but that which hath been said before: yet if there be any here which knoweth not the story of Lots wife, then shall I stand in Moses stead to teach it him: If ye know the story of Lots wife, yet give me leave, a poor disciple of Apollos, to water your knowledge, that is, to Remember it: if ye did once know it, and haue now forgotten it, yet hear it again, and ye shall remember it better, and ye shall find it true which S. Paul saith, It grieves not me to writ the same things to you, and for you it is a sure thing, Philip. 3. 1. But say ye both know it well, and well remember it, yet the very act of remembrance in the acts and judgements of God, is one of the most divine duties we can perform to God; david often testifying of himself, that he did meditate in the Law of God, and of the works of GOd, and that not once in seven daies, but seven times in a day, yea and all the day, and therfore pronounceth him the happy man that so doth: Blessed is he whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in his Law doth meditate day and night, &c. And so much for the first part general, concerning Remembrance.  
The subject of this remembrance is Lots wife, who in the second place comes to be considered of. A more plausible subject( I am sure) it had been, to speak unto you of Lot himself, then of Lots wife, for he was saved, and she was destroyed, he a special figure of mercy and salvation, but she a partaker of the common condemnation, and what haue we to do with them that were condemned? every man saith now, we live in the time of the Gospel, what haue we to do with the judgements of the Law? We are come to the 
Hebr. 12. 22.  peaceable hill of Sion, why are we then brought back again to mount Horeb? When the Law was first given, the Iewes ran away for fear, and ever since when the judgements of the Law are remembered, we are ready to go away for anger; for we haue Euangelicas aures, our hearts indeed are all sin, but our ears are all of mercy, and therefore he that will set us a song, must set it to the tune of the gospel: as if the Law( like an old almanake) were clean out of date, we must hear of nothing but Pax vobis, Peace and peace; and we must see nothing, but Ecce Agnus Dei, Behold the lamb of God; but yet wee must remember that that lamb was a Lion too, revel. 5. 5. 6. and that Christ and Moses met both vpon the mount, in whom the Law and the gospel did both shake hands together: Matth. 17. And what if Christ be our peace? yet is he Iustice too; for in him it was prophesied, that Mercy and truth should meet, that Iustice and Peace should kiss one another, Psalm. 85. And from him proceeded Blessings to the meek, Blessings to the merciful, Blessings to the pure in heart; and from him likewise, Wo to thee Corazin, and wo to thee Bethsaida. And therefore if we live in sin, the Law and Iudgement must be preached unto us, yea though in the time of the gospel. There is a time to slay, and a time to heal, saith Salomon, Eccle. 3. Now the time of healing is when men haue sinned and are weary of it, but the time of wounding is when men sin and sin, and yet are senseless in it, which is the sickness of this age, even of this last and worst age wherein we live; yea Christ prophesieth here plainly, that toward the latter end of the world men shall grow senseless, and secure, and asleep in sensuality, that they shall do as they did in the daies of Lot, and in the desolation of Sodom, that they shall do as in the daies of the flood, they shall eat till they surfet, and drink till they be drunk, they shall marry, and give in marriage, they shal buy and sell, and plant and build, they shal build houses, as Stratomachus saith of the men of Rhodes, Aedificant quasi semper victuri, comedunt quasicras morituri, They build houses, as if they should live ever, but they eat and drink as if they should die to morrow: therfore to such men, and to such a time Christ thought it much better to remember Lots wife, then to remember Lot.  
Now forsomuch as no man is remembered for nothing; but either for some good thing, or for some evil, either for being notable, or else for being notorious, two things in Lots wife are very memorable and worthy our meditation, the one is the sin committed by her, the other is the punishment inflicted on her; so then wee must remember her for that shee did, and wee must remember for that she suffered; we must remember how she lived, and we must remember how shee died; we must remember how she turned from God to embrace the world, and( which is ever memorable) how in embracing it, she perished with it. Who list to understand the story of her sin, may read it at large in the report of Moses, who in the nineteenth of Genesis recordeth a bill of inditement against her, thus; That whereas God for the abomination of those sinful cities had sent down an angel of vengeance to destroy them, yet Lot found such favor for himself and his family, as that in the utter wast and desostroy them, yet Lot found such favor for himself and his family, as that in the utter wast and desolation of four whole cities, he only was exempted, and the fift city( which was Zoar) for his sake preserved; only this required at his hands, to make hast and bee gone: but what hast Lot made, wee will not now dispute; and yet by his leave( though it stood vpon his life) he made no more then he should; but Moses puts in a sweet parenthesis,( God being merciful to him.) But his 
Gen. 19. 16.  wife, this woeful woman, of whom we are now to speak, shee made much less, yea shee made a great deal too little, for while her husband was a great way before, she was a great way behind, and lingered so long that she lost her life. And for so much as it seemeth to point out a doctrine more particularly for women, I would she might stand up as a pillar for all women to look vpon, yea and as well for men too, to let both men and women know how dangerous a thing it is for man to tempt his Maker, and to dally with the judgements of God.  
Moses seemeth to indite her for two things, first for being behind, secondly for looking behind; to which was added a punishment in proportion, that she was left behind. Now his wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt, Gen. 19. 26. His wife behind; How behind? I hope, not behind with the world, for she loved the world too well; but behind either with God, in preferring smoke and vanity before him; or behind with the Angels of God, notwithstanding the great hast imposed by them; but chiefly behind her husband in lingering vpon the way, and losing ground of him; and if she did so, it was her fault, yea it was a trespass in marriage, for her husband was her standard, whom shee ought not in times of trouble to forsake: yea the wife must neither be before her husband, nor behind him, but just with him; for neither was she made of any part before, nor of any part behind, but out of his side, that she might go side by side. marriage is resembled to a yoke, Be not unequally yoked with infidels, 2. Cor. 6. Now they which are yoked must go in pairs, one just beside another, for if one go before, and another go hehind, then are they not like oxen, but like horses, not like clean beasts, but like unclean. It was never well in wedlock since Satan first prevailed to sever the wife from her husband; I speak not of a diuorcing of their persons, but a dividing of their wils, when as if he will one thing, she wils another; if he like one thing, she likes another; if he be behind, she will be before; or as Lots wife heer, if he be before, she will be behind, and I think sure, that amongst other circumstances of her sin, she was punished for her neglect and contempt in this. But Lot was at this time much more then a husband to his wife, for the Angels came especially to him, the destruction of Sodom was revealed to him, the promise of particular preservation made to him, the charge of making hast was laid on him, all came at the first hand to him; so as now he is made a Prophet, an oracle, a leading star to his wife; and yet for all this, His wife behind him. But it is a wonder to see in men made all of one mother earth, such difference of mettall, and contrariety of spirits; some men like S. Peter run before their masters, and their patterns, for Christ had scarce begun the parley, when he had got out his sword, and charged vpon the main battle; and therefore it is no marvell if the race of the Peters ever since do run before the rest of the Church, since the first Peter of whom they hold, outran even Christ himself. Some women likewise run before their husbands; like eve, who had plucked and eaten up the apple, before Adam durst to touch it; and where job ment to curse but the night or the day of his birth, his wife went before him, and pointing him to heaven, bad him Curse God and die. 
1. King. 21.  But Achabs wife was a woman beyond all women, yea a woman by herself, for ahab came faintly, and vpon faire conditions to buy or change a vineyard, and could not; and because he could not, he went to bed heavy, half dead vpon it, but jezebel delivereth him speedily without purchase or change, what he could not buy for love nor for money. Some men clean contrary are of heavy, lumpish and leaden spirits, like jonas when the winds roared, and the seas raged, as if heaven and earth would haue gone together, then was he fast a sleep in the bottom of the ship; he had led in his eyes: and the two disciples that went to Emaus, they were Tardi cord, 
Luke 24. 25.  they had led in their hearts, as Lots wife here had led in her heels. But let us call her to account,& ask what cause she had to hang so far behind; will she say she limpt, or that she was lame? then was it, Animo magis qùam corpore, her limbs were all right, but her heart was out of joint; or will she say, shee was weary? weary indeed, but it was of well doing; or will she say she was tired, or that she fainted? and so perhaps she did, but it was in her faith; or will she say, she was not well at ease, or that she was sick? so said Rachel when her father bad her rise, she was not well she said, for The maner of women was vpon her, Genes. 31. 35. And what is the maner of women? to pretend one thing when another is the cause? yea and so it is a sore disease with men too. But of what disease did she labour, or whereon was she sick? she was sick of Sodom, as ahab was of Naboths vineyard; she was sick of her own will, for she went unwillingly: No marvell then if she made no more hast, since she went whither she would not. Ah that crooked will of ours, so eager on that which is evil, and so unwilling to any thing which is good; so hot and so hasty to his own hurt, but so loathe, so lingering, and so far behind, when mercy and salvation is before.  
But no marvell if this woman lingered so far behind, for she looked back, as if she would haue gone back, or as if she had left her heart behind; And ubi amor ibi oculus; as where the treasure is, there will the heart be also, so where the heart is, there will the eye be also: of the heart and the eye, we may say as jacob of Simeon and levi, Brethren in iniquity: The eye is but a broker to the heart; the eye sheweth what is lovely, the heart loveth; the eye liketh, the heart affecteth; the eye looketh out like a skoute, and saith, a lovely object cometh, the heart putteth on affection and pursueth: The eye saith, Hoc est pulchrum, the heart saith, Hoc est meum. This sympathy between her heart and her eye, did Lots wife feel when shee came from Sodom, that she might haue said to herself, as Salomon to the Spouse, Thou hast wounded 
Cantic. 4.  my heart with a look of thine eyes: For whither went she? to Zoar; whence came she? from Sodom; from her kindred and from her friends, from her country where she had lived, from her house where shee had dwelled, from her gardens, and from her pleasures, from sweet air, green pastures, and pleasant waters, yea from a paradise,( For as was the garden of the Lord, even so was Sodom before it was destroyed, Gen. 13.) from thence came this woeful woman, and as if she thither would again, thither she looks; she goes forward and looks clean backward, as if God had broken her neck when he brought her thence: And but that God cut her off, somewhat sure she had to say to Sodom, when she looked vpon it, as if shee would haue taken her leave of it, and bid it farewell, as if she would haue wept vpon it, as Hagar wept on ishmael, or Christ vpon jerusalem: And must I leave thee Sodom, and part for ever from thee? then once again let me look vpon thee, since I must look no more, yea let me die with thee, since thou must live no more; for where was ever Paradise if not in thee! or what will heaven be when thou art gone! O thou the light of mine eyes, and delight of my soul, whom heaven itself doth but match in happiness, ouermatching only in eternity; what a life it was to live in thee! If we wished for wealth, we wallowed in it; if for honor, it waited on us; and when we would bee merry, plenty, ease, and peace sang melody to it. Such a bewitching it is to the soul of man to fall in love with the world, that we oft times look back, and go back, and wish we were there, from whence without great grace we were not delivered. Therfore fie vpon the fleshpots of Egypt, for it is they which haue bewitched us: but Remember Lots wife; yea remember Moses who 
Hebr. 11. 25.  forsook the court of Pharaoh, and choose to suffer adversity with Gods people, rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: Remember Eliseus, who forsook the gold and silver at the 
2. King. 5. Dan. 1. 8.  hands of Naaman: Remember Daniel, who despised the dainty meats of Babylon: Remember Christ, who fled into a mountain when they 
John 6.  would haue made him King; yea remember all the Prophets, Martyrs, and Saints of God from time to time, which held the world in scorn, and stood at defiance with it; as Peter with Simon Magus, when he tempted him with money. think thou art now between Sodom and Zoar, that is, going from the world to God; the Angels haue cried unto thee, as revel. 18. Come out of Babylon, so come out of Sodom, lest ye be partakers of her plagues; yea think that Angels are come into thy house to fetch thee out and to hasten thee; therefore look not aside, for the way is full of snares; nor look behind, for Sodom calls vpon thee and saith, come again, come again to Sodom; she sends out her messengers, Epicures and carnal companions to call vpon thee, and every one saith, come again, come again to Sodom; yea she casteth up her lures to tempt and 'allure thee, come again, come again to Sodom: but Remember Lots wife.  
In remembering of whom, flesh and blood may happily be offended to hear, that for being behind, and for looking behind God should inflict so heavy a iudgement; for can the eye transgress so grievously, or doth God set such a law for looks? yea we are so secure vpon small sins, as if a man reprove such a sin, we think him more guilty in remembering it, then we in committing it, as if the smaller sins must be preserved for breed: yet in the law trespasses and sins 
Leuit. 4.  done of ignorance,( which were ever thought to be the least) yet were not purged but by fire and by blood; God showing the strength of the disease in the nature of the purgation: and in the gospel where mercy more aboundeth, we must account For every idle word, and that at the day of iudgement, Matth. 12. and he that calls but fool, shall be punished with hell fire, Matth. 5. Yea he that taught us to pray for remission, taught us not to say, forgive us our great offences, but forgive us our trespasses, or, as it is originally, forgive us our debts; not our theft, or what we haue stolen unjustly, but even the debt which we cannot pay through poverty, for each penny whereof in the rigour of the law, we shall be penned up in hell, or if any sin be less then a penny, if but a halfpenny; yea if less then a halfpenny, if but a farthing, yet shall we not come forth till we haue paid that uttermost farthing. And where are then our little sins? yea let any sin be as little as it will, yet being sin it generally carrieth thus many deformities with it; first a preferring of a mans own will before the law of God; secondly a contempt of the iustice of God, for where God hath set our damnation vpon it, if we do it, yet( let hell bee what it will) we will do it: thirdly a contempt of the rewards proposed, if we do it not; for where God saith, Do not this and ye shall live, yet let life be what it will, we will accomplish our vile desires, and spare not to sell heaven for a halfpenny: and then lastly, there is in every sin a flat contempt of God himself, for rebellion is like witchcraft, wherein a man sets up the suggestion of the divell, his own wit, or his own will, and leaveth God vnobeyed, to obey one of these. Therefore let no man think any sin to be little, which is done to the dishonour of the great God.  
In obedience the nature of the commandement is not so much to be regarded, as the majesty and authority of God that commands, and therefore God sometime forbiddeth things in themselves indifferent, as the apple in Paradise, which was not forbidden because it was evil, for God made nothig but was good; but it was therefore evil because it was forbidden, and God forbade it, being in itself not evil, vt dominum se 
August.  habere intelligerent, that they might understand by that restraint they had a God; for if we give God leave to command the greater things and not the less, then do we circumcise his authority, and make him but half a God, who is to us Ita magnus in maximis, vt non sit etiam minor in minimis: So great in the greatest things, as he is no whit less in the least things; and therefore if he say, Thou shalt not kill, it is good; and if he say, go not back, or look not back, it is good too; God in this, and God in that, yea God as much in this as in that, of whom we may say in every letter of the law, Non suscipit magis aut minus, he admitteth no degrees of more or less. Sometimes again God forbiddeth or commandeth slight things severely, thereby to make proof of our obedience, as a master to try his seruants trust, sometime forgetteth his money and leaveth it abroad, to see if his man will bee picking or nibbling at it. If therefore before we haue committed sin, we say, it is but a little sin, and God will surely forgive it, this is to sin that grace may abound; a sin of presumption, and presumption maketh a little sin to be great: If when we haue committed sin, we say it was but a little sin, we plead against ourselves, for how shall God obtain the greater matters at our hands, when we deny him in the least? beside, the less any sin was, with so much more facility we might haue resisted it: and Augustine saith well, Tanto maiori iniustitia violatum est mandatum &c. That a man is more wicked in doing that sin, which he might so easily haue left undone. But when we read of Lots wife, do we think her sin to be so light? then descend with me a little( I pray you) into the particular aggrauations of it, and though she did but linger and look behind her, yet look with indifferent eyes, and tell me how light it was. every sin is sure so much the greater, by how much the more and greater graces are abused in it; in which consideration a heap of witnesses, yea a cloud of witnesses will come in to condemn this sinful woman: for first we find that she had particular warning of the destruction of Sodom, which( her house and kindred excepted) none in Sodom had beside her; and do we think it nothing to abuse, not the ordinary word of God, but the extraordinary mercy of God, when it waits even by revelation vpon us? Secondly, the warning was given by an angel, an example rare and singular, both in regard of the Angels, and of themselves; in regard of the Angels first; for they which before were set with a shaking sword to keep men out of Paradise, were made to her the messengers of peace to bring her out of Sodom; yea the very same Angels which destroyed Sodom, brought her out of Sodom; in regard of themselves, it was no ordinary thing for men to be admonished by Angels, but by the ministry of men, as the world was before by the preaching of Noah, yet an angel from heaven was sent to her. Thirdly the Angels appeared to her, not as to jacob on a ladder, nor as to Moses in a bush, nor as to Samuel in the tabernacle, but they came into her house, and did eat and drink with her; as to us the Gospel and salvation is come to our doors. Fourthly, she hath leave not only to save herself, but also to bring out of the city whatsoever she had in it, and as the proverb is, Cum sarcinis enatare, to scape with bag and baggadge, so as she needed not to come poor out of Sodom, but to bring her riches with her. Fiftly, she was pardonned one delay before, for while her husband and she prolonged the time, the angel caught them both up, and set them without the city, and yet shee could not take heed, but offend in the like again. sixthly and lastly, where it is said she looked back, she had from the angel an express and literal charge not to look back, and yet shee made bold to do it: therefore judge in these circumstances how light her sin was.  
But we commonly discern of sin as we do of the sun, which we judge to be little, because we are fare from it; so in sin the nearer we come to it, and the better we examine it, the greater it seems. It is true that the Scripture maketh difference of sins, setting out some for beams, and 
Matth. 7.  some for moats, that is, making some of a greater size and some of a less, but when we say that any sin is little, we say it respectively and in regard of a greater; for in regard of the majesty offended, Angels and men were all too mean to make satisfaction for the eating of an apple. Sin is like a poison, whereof but one drop empoisoneth the soul, therefore the less we take of it the better it is, and best of all, if we could take none at all. Well saith S. Augustine, Nolite contemnere venialia quia minima, said timete quia plurima, contemn not the smaller sins because they be little, but rather fear them, because they be many. Egypt was as much plagued with flies and with lice, as with the greater plagues. And what is less then the drops of rain? yet being many the fill up the channels of the earth, they make the riuers swell, they cast down houses, and drown whole countries; therefore ever worthy our remembrance is it, not to contemn the smaller sins: For sin indeed doth no way prevail so much against us, as by being contemned, Nam maior culpa& citius cognoscitur,& celerius emendatur, saith S. gregory, The greater sin is easilier discerned and sooner reformed; but the less sin while it is thought to be no sin, is with more security retained in use. Christ  told Peter( as ye heard before) that the divell had a desire to sift him. Now we think all to be well, that the divell comes but with a sieve, for the holes be so narrow, as what can be got out there? but we must consider that as they be narrow, so they be many, and the grace of God, yea the whole kingdom of God which 
Matth. 13.  is no greater then a grain of Mustard seed, will easily sink through. The divell comes sometime like a Lion, a Dragon, or like a huge and mighty Whale; but when he comes with such a port, and carrieth such a breadth, we haue the advantage of him, for we can discover him before he come; sometime he comes not like a great beast, but like a little bide, and what doth he then? then he picks up all the seed which was sown, and gathers all grace clean out of our hearts: yea sometime he comes but in a seed, for the envious 
Matth. 13.  man did but cast in tares, a small seed, yet by that little seed he choked the wheat: therefore no sin can be so little, but the divell can convey himself into it, and hid the hook of our damnation in it. O remember therefore the sleights and subtleties of this wily Serpent, yea remember to resist him even where he seemeth most reasonable. The divell will not say at the first, Go back to Sodom( though that be principally intended) but rather, look back to Sodom, hoping that he which yeeldeth to look back will also go back in the end, which this woman in all likelihood would haue done, had not God by death prevented her; Verecunda sunt initia omnis peccati; Sin is ever bashful and shames to beg too much at the first, though we be bountiful in yielding, and say to it, as Herod to his daughter, ask what thou wilt, and I will give thee: sin like a Fox craves first to put in but a foot, but then wrings in his head, and then his whole body, and so by little and little comes at last with main strength vpon 
Mark. 6. 22.  vs. Sloth asketh but a little, Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, but poverty in the end comes like an armed man, Prou. 6. Delay asketh but a little, Suffer me but to bury my father, or but to bid my friends farewell, Luk. 9. said modicum& modicum non habebat modum, saith Saint Augustine, A little and a little grows unmeasurable at the last; sin will say to thee, as the father said to his son in law the levite, tarry, 
judge. 19.  but to eat a moresell of bread, and then go thy way; and when thou hast tarried that, it will say again, tarry now all night and then go thy way; and when thou hast granted that, it will say the next day, tarry now till midday and then go thy way: So if thou grant sin one day, it will haue seven daies, like that evil spirit, Matth. 12. which came at the first alone, but brought at the next time seven spirits worse then himself. O remember therfore how insensibly sin steals vpon thee, and remember to repress it even when it is least sensible: Take even the little foxes which destroy the vine, saith Salomon, Cantic. 2. suppress schisms& heresies when they first begin to bud, and kill unruly lusts( as Pharaoh did the Israelites) even in the birth. The Lacedemonians seeing a little child which took pleasure in killing young birds, said, that he in time would kill men, and did therfore put him to death: so deal thou with the least of thy sins, and be secure of no sin, because it is little, but remember him that said, that not only beams, but 
Matth. 7.  also moats must be cast out of the eye, though in their order; yea and blame not us if sometime we descend to reprove the small diminutive sins. Indeed the politic law hath well provided for nets, that they should be of a size, not too straite, nor too narrow, for fear of destroying the younger fishes, that is, the frey; but S. Peters nets must not be brought to the size, nor corrected by the statute, because we fish, as to save souls, so to kill up sins; and as an Emperour said, E pessimo genere 
jul. Maximus.  ne catulus educandus, of an ill store not a kitling may be kept. Therefore not to speak always of your covetousness insatiable, ambition intolerable, your lust and sensuality brutish and abominable; not to speak always of your usury, simony, bribery, your grinding the faces of the poor, your gripping and catching at the goods and possessions of the Church, your plotting, and planting, and supplanting one another; not to speak always of these great and capital sins, we must sometimes descend even to Mynth and anise; For even these things ye ought to haue done too, Mat. 23. and we must tell you sometimes of your tricks and complemental toys, your affencted and effeminate gestures, your vain discourse and vnsauourie jesting; your idle sports, idle labours, and idle times; and yet( I doubt) idleness will scarce come in among the smaller sins: and we must tell you sometimes of your sins of mere omission, indeliberate thoughts, want of due reverence in reverend things, with many petty profanations: And sometime wee must come among women, and tell them as the Prophet Esay 
Esay 3.  doth, of many pretty superfluities, and sins of supererogation; as for example, their stretching and casting out their necks, as if they were in distress and gasping for air; their minsing and shuffling, and tinkling with their feet, as if they were still meditating and practising to dance; for even for these things the Prophet threateneth desolation vpon them, as Christ for each idle word conuenteth to the day of iudgement, and Lots wife for but looking back had a iudgement here.  
Therefore as we haue remembered her for her sin, so must we in the next place remember her for Gods iudgement on her, for since sin and iudgement go commonly together, I see not well how they should be taught asunder, yea it is the cause of much wickedness in the world, that men remember Lots wife sinning, and forget her dying, that is, that remember the examples of sin and Gods iudgement apart. Death and desolation they grow out of sin, as a conclusion out of the premises; For, Why doth the land perish? because they haue forsaken the law of the Lord, saith ieremy, chap. 9. 12. 13. sin and death are relatives, Posito uno ponitur& alterum, say the one, and ye may swear the other. Sin and death are like two twins, bread and born both in a day, for what day the divell brought in sin, sin brought in death, according to that, Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest of it thou shalt die the death; and so it was indeed, death followed the sinner as jacob followed Esau, it caught him by the heels and overthrew him. I know not how so fitly to resemble sin, as to the apple which eve did eat, for while we stand as it were to cheapen it, to like and look vpon it, It is pleasant to the eye, to be desired for knowledge, it is good for meate, and many good properties it hath belonging to it; but when we haue once eaten and swallowed it, wee are presently strike with shane and with fear, we are naked, dishonoured and confounded by it; answerable to that of Zophar, job 20. wickedness was sweet in his mouth, and he hide it under his tongue, but it was as bitter in his bowels as the gull of asps; and who would not look back, yea and go back to Sodom, if there were not fire and brimstone belonging to it? Therefore in the punishment of this woman, three things are fearfully to be remembered, A sudden stroke, A strange iudgement, A pillar of shane: She was punished suddenly, for she did but turn, and she was turned; she was punished strangely, turned into salt; and she was punished famously, for she became a pillar of salt.  
The suddainnes of her punishment is the thing which Christ here chiefly intended to remember, that as the old world was taken suddenly, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were taken suddenly, and as Lots wife was taken suddenly; so the latter world, and this city, and every other city, and myself, and every other man, and every other woman might fear to be taken suddenly. Death come it never so gently, yet it is as the Philosopher calleth it, Terribilium terribilissimum, of all terrible things the most terrible; but when it cometh suddenly and giveth no warning, it redoubleth the terror, and seemeth to kill not only him that feeleth it, but like that flaming furnace, Dan. 3. 22. even so many as come near to behold it: And whereas there is none of us which prayeth against death, yet against sudden death wee all pray, as if to die suddenly were worse then to die; yet against death there is some comfort, first because It is the way of all the world, Ioshu. 23. 14. so as though it be a plague, yet no man is singular in bearing it: secondly, as it is universal, so it is necessary, for It is appointed to men, that they must once die, Hebr. 9. 27. And what greater wisdom is there then patiently to bear what we cannot forbear? but sudden death we think neither common to all, nor necessary to any one, but like a Cains mark set vpon some few for example of horrible iudgement. And though many upbraid it as a blemish in our liturgy, that wee pray against sudden death, yet he that taught us to pray, taught us to say, deliver us from evil; but what is evil if this be not? And where they say, we may not pray against it, because we always ought to be ready for it; so ought we likewise to bear poverty when it cometh, and yet Agur prayeth devoutly, give me not poverty, Prou. 30. 8. We may pray against all temporal evils, as Christ prayed in his conflict, If it be possible 
Matth. 26.  let this cup pass from me &c. Where first he prayeth not against all affliction, for that were unreasonable, but against That cup, that fearful kind of affliction. Secondly, he made no absolute request neither, but under condition of the will of God, and so do we against sudden death. Surely in all carnal reason, it were better to die in a moment, then to lye sick a month; for what weariness in the bones, what torments in the whole body are cut off by this means? yea what terror of God, what horror of the grave, what conflicts with nature? The friends stand by sighing, the wife wringing her hands, the children weeping, and every tear seemeth a drop of blood, so as in such distraction a natural man hath much ado to go to God; beside the stroke of death is so fearful, as even the strongest in faith are afraid of it when it comes: yet all this notwithstanding, it stands with good devotion to pray against sudden death. For first it is a godly desire, that as in our life, so in our death we might haue leave to glorify God, and by example of Christ, to give back the spirit 
Luk. 23. 46.  with to him that gave it. Secondly, we may wish with Hezekiah to haue time in death to set our house in order, 2. King. 20. In death I say, at what time our wils and deeds are commonly more conscionable, our consciences in all causes are usually better, yea at what time our ghostly counsels, reproofs, and exhortations are of more weight with the hearer, and God oft revealeth more wisdom to the dying speaker. Thirdly, we desire of God that we might haue time as to set our houses, so to set ourselves in order. To which if it be answered, that our whole life is allowed as a time to do it; we aclowledge it true, yet sure an humble mind is never so possessed or secure of any former preparation, but that in death he may prepare better, it being commonly attended with sickness, with fear, and with feeling of sin, the true mortifying means and wasters of worldly love. Lastly, since every man desires as in life to be well thought of, so in death to be charitably judged of, and it is cruelty so to care for conscience, as we neglect our good name, surely if for no other reason, a man would pray against sudden death, yet for this one devoutly, that wee might at our end give testimony to the world, that we die in God, which of men dying suddenly, our judging nature will hardly beleeue: and yet when we haue thus prayed, we pray withall, Thy will be done, this being one of the petitions which God is not tied to grant. It is our wisdom therefore howsoever we pray, to prepare notwithstanding, and so to live daily, as if wee thought every day to be the last, for which the uncertainty of the worlds continuance, the frailty of our earthen vessels, the sudden chances and changes of time do incessantly call vpon us, for when we rise we are not sure we shall go to bed again, when we go to bed, we are not sure that we shall rise again, and when with Lots wife we look but back( so many things fall between the cup and the lip) as we are not sure we shall ever look right forth again; and therefore Christ to keep us alway waking, telleth us that the thief is uncertainly coming, Matth. 24. yea God himself shall come as a thief in the night, 1. Thess. 5. In the night while men are in their dead sleep secure in sin and sensuality, and think not of him; while men are sleeping as Sisera, a nail comes and a hammer comes, and strikes them into the head; while men are feasting and iunketting and banqueting, as Iobs children, a wind comes, and the divell comes and flings down a house vpon their heads; while men are building and planting and buying and selling, a flood comes as in the daies of Noah, and drowneth them unawares: while men are swearing and deceiving, and lying as Ananias and Sapphira, a secret blast from heaven comes and strikes them ston dead.  
And remember with the suddenness of her punishment the strangeness of it; A woman turned into salt! an unspeakable, unnatural, and horrible change: Death is indeed the way of al the earth, 1. King. 2. 2. and sudden death the way of some, but such a death as this,( I think) was never the way of any; for come to instance or examples, and there is none to match it; come to nature, and there is no analogy, proportion, or way unto it; for whereas in every natural change there is some mediate thing to convey from one form to another, what transition or passage of nature could there be from flesh and blood to a lump of salt? so as we may truly say with ieremy in another case, creavit Deus nouum supper terram, God hath done a new and a strange thing vpon the; earth Ierem. 31. Which that we may conceive a right, we must not think that in this change any singular thing did befall this transformed woman, more then did the rest of Sodom, because all Sodom was so turned, even all to salt; and why to salt? because salt is by nature freting, and an enemy to growth; and Gods wrath was not satisfied in destroying Sodom, unless he did curse the ground whereon it stood, and therefore he lays an eternal barrenness vpon the earth too; in imitation whereof Abimelech when he destroyed 
judge. 9. 45.  Sichem sowed salt in it, that for ever after it should be unfruitful. Why but the story maketh no mention of salt in the destruction of Sodom. Indeed the story in Genesis maketh no mention of it, but Deuteronomy& Zephanie make it plain; for in Genesis is described onely the manner of the burning, but in those Scriptures the face and outward show of those cities being burnt; out of which it may be gathered that in the Sulphur or brimstone, there was a power or nature of salt, into which, as into ashes, the fire did convert the parts consumed; therefore Moses speaking of the destruction that should come on Canaan, if Israel kept not the covenant, saith, That land shall burn with brimstone and salt, neither shall it be sown, nor bring forth, nor any grass shall grow in it, like as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Deut. 29. 23. And in Zephany more plainly, As I live( saith the Lord) Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles and pits of salt, Zephan. 2. 9. By which it may bee gathered, that those cities being consumed did lye in heaps and pits of salt, hand that Lots wife by all likelihood being by her lingering within the compass of the fire when it fell, was caught with it, even with the same fire wherewith Sodom was burnt, and so left standing upright in her fashion, like an image or picture of salt; and unto this the Prophet may seem to allude, both for the sin and punishment, where he saith, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and withdraweth his heart from the Lord, he shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited, Ierem. 17. 5. 6. And thus as job saith, 
job 31. 3.  There shal be strange punishment to the workers of iniquity: and when men will sin strangely, they must reap what they sow,& look to be punished strangely: for what is it that hath brought into the world so many plagues and judgements of new& unwonted fashion, but that men by new and inordinate affections do provoke the patience of the almighty? for this cause oft appear wonders in the heauens, perturbations in the elements, fearful accidents and matters of occurrence in the earth; for this cause oft appear prodigious births, horrible deaths, and strange marks vpon the bodies of men. Thus at the first the sons of God most unkindly matched with the daughters of men,& brought forth for a punishment of their sin a strange breed of Giants into the world, Gen. 6. 4. even as when Anahs 
Gen. 36. 24.  ass and his mere mingled, there came forth a Mule, a monstrous creature out of a monstrous generation. Thus the accursed seed of Cham, the Egyptians, Moores& Ethiopins had for a stamp of their fathers sin, the colour of hell set vpon their faces. Thus came in men of ghastly and grisly shapes,& that( as Cosmographers say) even propagating children of the same shape; which wee cannot ascribe to any ordinary impotenci or defect in nature, for that naturally deformed men beget children of a comely shape and form, nor can we think that any at the first were created so, since all had their original out of the loins of Adam; but it may well be believed, that as men in their minds did grow monstrous, so God did turn the course of nature to breed monsters among them, that so by the horror of the punishment wee might conceive hatefully of sin, on which naturally we dote and are besotted, even as this woman was on Sodom. Come we to particular judgements, and ever we find that as wee offend, so are we punished; Aarons sons offered strange fire vpon the Altar, and therfore a strange fire from heaven destroyed them, Leuit. 10. And what a hideous thing was that in the sixteenth of Numbers, where the earth claue in sunder, and swallowedvp Corah and his company, as overcharged with the burden of such rebellion?& what a fearful thing was that, the great nabuchadnezzar, The hammer of the whole world, yea the god of 
Jer. 50. 23.  the world to eat grass with an ox, to be hairegrowne like a beast,& to haue long claws like a bide? Dan. 4. 30. But he that would ascend above the clouds, and be like the most high, Esa. 14. 14. was for punishment of his pride laid level with the lowest of the creatures. But I think all fear and astonishment, will give place to that which is remembered here, whether we consider it but in the person of this woman, or in the common calamity of the place wherein she perished; for are wee not amazed to remember what is now become of Sodom? That which once was well peopled and inhabited, now to be wild and desolate, yea not desolate only, but detested: That which once was fruitful and pleasant like Paradise, now barren and hateful like the gates of hell; yea that which once was a land, now turned into a black and filthy lake: Salomon saith, that in his daies, it smoked, Wisd. 10. 7. as if hell had there found a chimney whereout to vent his smoke: In later times it seems turned all to sea, which for that it neither breedeth nor preserveth any living creature, it is commonly called mere mortuum, the dead sea, being so contagious as if a bide but fly over it, she is presently dammed, and fals down dead into it; and as S. jerom saith, If by the swelling 
Hieron. sup. Ezech. 47.  of jordan the fishes but flow over into it, they die strait and float above the waters: yea and as late Authors report, which are as they say eye witnesses of their own report, it casteth out continual filthy vapours, by whose stinch and breath the mountaines and valleys many miles about are as it were scorched, blasted, and made utterly barren, beside many ugly shapes and shows of terror in it, beside apple of goodly colour growing by it, which being touched turn all to smoke and ashes, to remember faire Sodom which now is turned to ashes. And thus because we think it nothing to abuse the patience of God, we are taught by the punishment how great the sin is. O what a fearful change was that where earth was wasted with fire! O what a fire was that whose ashes were salt! and how horrible is it to think that brimstone should come from heaven! brimstone should rather come from hell, where there is( as S. John saith) A lake of fire and brimstone, revel. 20. 10. But this would God do to let us see, how sin turneth heaven into hell, and maketh the merciful saviour an unmerciful tormentor; for is it not a strange contempt, that God should offer mercy, and we not to accept it? Mercy ought to be sought, to bee followed and pursued, yea bought with loss of life, and therefore on a strange contempt, as strange a iudgement is inflicted: Therfore if ye think it horrible which david saith of joab, for a man Not to go to his grave in peace, 1. King. 2. If ye fear what Moses saith of Corah and his company, Not to die the common death of men, Numb. 16. If ye be afraid of that which God threatened against the house of Eli, to do such a thing, As who so heard of it, their ears should tingle, 1. Sam. 3. make not then light account of the mercy of God, abuse not the patience and long suffering of God, tempt not God the saviour to be an unmerciful and strange tormentor, but remember Lots wife.  
Thirdly, remember in her punishment, that as it was sudden and strange, so was it famous and public too, for which purpose she was turned not into a hill or heap of salt, but into a pillar of salt, that she might stand for a monument of Gods wrath to all that passed by that way. In the place before name, Wisdom. 10. 7. Salomon saith, that in his daies it stood to be seen, which was about nine hundred yeares after the thing was done; and many hundred yeares after him, yea some yeares after Christ, Iosephus the jew reporteth that he saw it where it stood, yea and still it standeth to be seen, if they may be credited who avouch they haue seen it in the way between Engaddi and the dead sea: so endless a pillar of 
Brocard. Saligniacus.  shane it is to renounce the Creator, for love of any creature. Now vpon this pillar are written two things, shane to her, and Instruction to vs. As it respecteth herself it is a pillar of shane, for since our evil doing tendeth to the dishonour of God, it is very proportionable that it bring dishonour to itself; answerable to that in the seventh of Matthew, With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again; therefore if thou wilt not obey( saith Moses) the Lord shall sand vpon thee cursing, trouble, and shane, Deut. 28. And what worse thing could the Church wish her enemies then this, Let them be confounded& troubled, yea let them be put to shane? Psal. 83. and every where the Israelites are threatened, that if they forsake 
1 King. 9. 8. Ierem. 22. 8. Lamet. 2 15.  the covenant of the Lord, they shal be a proverb and a common talk, and men shal hiss, and clap their hands, and wag their heads& say, Why hath the Lord done thus to this great city? And though the reproach that followeth sinners in their sin be not the greatest portion of their pain, yet is there nothing which worldly men fear more then worldly shane; for when Saul perceived that God had cast him off, yet strove he still to maintain his honor with the people, and still entreated Samuel to honor him before the Elders of the people, 1. Sam. 15. 30. But that which wicked men fear most shall fall vpon them; and their sin shall be written, not with a finger, as Exod. 8. Digitus Dei est hic, The finger of God is here, but they shall say with Belshazzar, Dan. 5. Video manum, I see a whole hand writing vpon the wall, when their disgrace shall be written in great and capital letters, that as Abacuk saith in another case, 
Apoc. 2. 2.  A man may run and read it: It shall be written, not as Christ wrote, when he wrote in the dust, joh. 8. where every wind may blow it away, but it shall be written, as jeremy saith, with a pen of 
Ierem. 17.  iron, and point of a diamond, as it were in tables of ston and steel, that wee may see there is nothing but dishonour to them, which honour the world above him that made it. again as shee standeth up in a pillar of shane to her self, so likewise as a pillar of instruction to us, therfore pitched up in a pillar that she might be seen and remembered of us; that as the brazen serpent in the wilderness, men did look vpon it and were healed, so this pillar in Sodom, men might look vpon it and be warned; yea she was turned into salt( saith S. Augustine of this woman) Vt prudentes exemplo condiret, that she might season the wise by her example, and as Ezechiel saith of the mystical woman, That all women may bee taught not to do after such wickedness, Ezech. 23. 48. Where God punisheth he doth not as we do, who if where wee hate we can induce the judge, bribe the witnesses, and bring the matter to a Crucifige, we desire no more; but when God punisheth one, he doth in the punishment of that one, intend the reformation of another; Nolo mortem peccatoris; God sure desireth not the death of a sinner, Ezech. 33. but if sinners will needs die, his next desire is, that he which death may stand up as a pillar, and give example to other. whatsoever things are written, are written for our instruction, saith S. Paul, Rom. 15. and is it not as true, that whatsoever things are done, are done for the same end? The Israelites committed fornication and fell in the wilderness, They tempted Christ, and were destroyed of Serpents, They murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer; and what of all this? Why, these things came vpon them for our example,& were written to admonish us, 1. Cor. 10. And it is indeed the true use of examples, Lego Historiam, ne siam historia, so to read the stories of other men, lest we ourselves come into a story, and a story be made of us; that is, never to see, hear, or read any famous example of iudgement, but presently to think of ourselves, as when we read of Pharaoh plagued for the hardness of his heart, to imagine streight that Moses stands by us with the rod of God in his hand, to power out all that wrath on us; when we read of Nadab& Abihu consumed with fire from heaven, to think there is in heaven as hot and as consuming fire for us; when wee read of Corah, Dathan and Abiram swallowed up into the bowels of the earth, to think the earth can gape as wide for us; when we read of Saul discarded and cast out of his kingdom, to fear lest for our rebellion a better kingdom be taken from us; and when we read of Lots wife standing up in a pillar before us, to fear lest for our apostasy, as famous a pillar be set vpon vs. The use of examples, is it not one of the talents? and shal we not one day yield account what profit and benefit we haue reaped by it? Tyrus and Sidon never saw the mighty works, and yet there is a iudgement for them, Matth. 11. What then shall become of Corazin and Bethsaida which saw so much, and did so little? But that which exceedeth all the rest, is it not an admirable favour to us, that the loss of other men should so become a gain to us, that whereas wee haue ourselves deserved to bee made examples to other, yet other must stand up for pillars, and be made examples to us? much like the crucifying of Christ, where Barrabas was begged, and Christ hanged up; right the world turned upside down: Christ an innocent must give example to Barrabas, and Barrabas an old thief and a murderer must take example by Christ: yea it is said expressly, Luk. 13. that they on whom the tower of Silo fell, were not greater sinners; but Christ sheweth the use, that wee amend by such punishments, lest we likewise perish: how much more should we amend when wicked men are taken and strike in their sins?  
To make use of this in the several kinds; First to you Men; here is a Memorandum, or remembrance for you; ye see how ill it succeeded with Lot, who being advised by the angel to save himself in the hill, went notwithstanding into Zoar the city, and lost his wife by it, so as where before he had a wife to look vpon, now he hath a lump of salt: A horror to his heart, and a woeful spectacle to his eye; and so shall it bee with them all that forsake Gods word to follow their own fancy, God shall turn their sugar into salt, and their chiefest blessing into a curse: Remember that.  
Secondly, to you women; here is a Memorandum, or remembrance for you; Not to straggle or decline too much from the good steps and admonitions of your husbands, for as a soldier flying from his captain, or a sheep wandring from the shepherd, so is a wife forsaking him whom God hath ordained to be her guide, Prou. 2. 17. More temptation attendeth you in such rebellion; as the divell by all probability set vpon eve while she was from Adam; beside greater punishment falleth on you for such presumption; as Lot himself being gone before into the city, and his wife lingering behind in the field, the fire of God overtook her. Remember that.  
Thirdly, to you of ouer-pitifull hearts, and eyes; here is a remembrance for you; look not back with the eyes of pity where God hath cast the eyes of his wrath: Abraham indeed had leave to behold with his eyes the burning of Sodom, Gen. 19. 27. 28. because he was a stranger to it; but Lot and his wife had friends, and acquaintance, and kindred in it, and therfore to prevent foolish pity, were forbidden to look toward it; for though excess in clemency be the less extreme, yet is it an extreme,& therfore punished oft extremely: for Saul for sparing Agag lost his kingdom; and ahab for sparing Benhadad lost his life, and Eli for too much lenity toward his children, lost both his Priesthood and his life; and because this woman would needs look back, and show herself more merciful then God, she shewed mercy, but found none. Remember that.  
Fourthly, to you secure and careless of heart; here is a remembrance for you; only four persons escaped out of Sodom, and yet not all they saved neither, and why do we then presume, as if one temptation or danger ouer-past, there were no more to come? yea why work we not out our salvation with fear and trembling,& alway fear lest a worse thing fall unto us? The Israelites came well out of Egypt, yet fell to murmuring in the wilderness; and Lot came safe out of Zoar, yet fell to incest in the mountaines;& his wife came as safe out of Sodom, yet miscarried in the way. Remember that.  
Fifthly, ye that dally with Gods mercy, and post off the time of your repentance; here is a remembrance for you: think it not in your power to repent at pleasure, and to turn to God when ye list, but rather with S. Paul learn while ye haue time to do good, for a time may come when oil shall be to seek, yea and lamps to seek, when faith, and knowledge, and all good things shal be to seek; yea a time may come when time shall be to seek; for who can make himself a lease of his life, or truly to determine of what shal be to morrow? but sometime even Hac nocte, A summons comes to night, and sometimes in an hour, yea sometime as Lots wife, a man but turns, and taken before he can return again. Remember that.  
sixthly, to you Apostaes and back-sliders, ye that come out of Sodom, and then look back again; here is a remembrance for you: No man that puts his hand to the plow( saith Christ) and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God, Luk. 9. No man that beings a good course, and then quails in it, that washeth himself from any sin, and then walloweth in it again, shall ever haue part in God, yea it were better never to haue known the way of righteousness, then having once known it, to decline from it, for if we sin after grace received, A worse thing is threatened to 
joh. 5. 14.  come unto vs. Remember that.  
In the seventh place, to you Presumptuous; here is a Memorandum for you; you that tempt the patience of God and make bold to sin still, because ye haue done so long,& yet unpunished for it. The pitcher that goes so often to the well, yet comes home broken at the last; and the fly that plays so long with the flamme, yet is burnt at the last; and though God forbear a long time, yet he pays home at the last: Lots wife had warning over night to go, but shee made no reckoning of that,& shee was commanded in the morning not only to go, but to make hast, yet she cared not for that, and when her husband and shee prolonged the time, they were not punished for that; and when they took liking of another place then the Angel had appointed, they were not punished for that; but when she would still tempt God and provoke him farther, she adventured to look back, and was strike for that. Remember that.  
In the eighth place, to you perverse and crooked of heart; here is a remembrance for you: Lots wife had first an express precept not to look back, and yet she did look back, and I think she did it the rather; such a raging lust there is in nature to do forbidden things: secondly, shee had manifest examples against that shee did, for Lot and his two daughters went to Zoar, and yet shee winded toward Sodom: Now sure( I think) if they had gone to Sodom, she had turned to Zoar; And there is a breed of such singular spirits that turn their backs vpon us, and go to Sodom, only for that cause, because wee go to Zoar, fugitives& runagates of the Romish Church, that haue renounced not their country only, but their faith too, and there by barking like dogs in a den, to pronounce for heresy whatsoever we say, and to detest as execrable whatsoever we do; sworn enemies to Church and Common-wealth, to Prince, Priest, people, and to all men, as if they were born to bid battle to all, or came into the world, as goliath into the field, to defy all; but for such singular spirits God hath a singular plague: Remember that.  
In the ninth place, to you hypocrites which hold of Iudas; here is a Memorandum for you: The more blessings ye haue, and the more knowledge ye haue, and the better that name is which ye abuse, the more heavy shall your iudgement be; for God will search the sins of jerusalem with a candle, Zephan. 1. and it shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon then for you, Mat. 11. For an ill Christian is the worst creature in the world, and therefore worse befell Iudas that lived in the bosom of Christ, then any of them that mocked, whipped, and crucified Christ: And whereas all other men and women in Sodom were burnt to ashes, and there an end, Lots wife above all was made an example to all, and the more blessings shee received, the more heavily shee was punished: Remember that.  
In the tenth place, to you that hold of S. Luke, lukewarm men; here is a Memorandum for you; you that are neither hot nor could; you whose feet are to Zoar, but your face to Sodom; you that go one way and look another, that move forward& look backward; Professors in mouth, Atheists in life; Protestants in appearance, Papists in heart; zealous in show, nothing in deed; here is for you. Elias speaks to you; Why halt ye between two opinions? I would ye were either hot or could: Be something, or be nothing; Lots wife was not in Sodom, nor in Zoar, but between Sodom& Zoar, in the mid-way between both, and yet destroyed; and if you be neither hot nor could, God shall spew you out of his mouth. Remember that.  
In the eleventh place; to you the inhabitants of this honourable city; here is a remembrance for you: ye know what is said, The sins of Sodom were pride, idleness, and fullness of bread, Ezech. 16. Therefore think( I beseech you) that these are evil stones to stumble at: Do in this case as the Priests of Dagon did, though with a wiser zeal, because their god Dagon fell down vpon the threshold,& there broke his neck, they vowed never to tread on that threshold any more, 1. Sam. 5. and is it not a faire warning( think ye) for all cities of all sins to abiuere these, when they hear how sweetly Sodom and Gomorrah paid for these? And if the same sins bee found in Sion, which were in Sodom, how then? shal not God do to one city as he hath done to another? or shall there be any difference between one and other? saving that, it shall be easier in the day of iudgement for them of Sodom, then for Sion; and the more grace men haue received, the more fearfully to bee tormented; yea and be sure of this, that if the Lord from heaven did so plague a silly woman, which only pitied Sodom in her punishment, would he not much more severely punish those which should partake with Sodom in her sin? But I hope for better things of the holy city.  
In the last place,( for it were past remembrance to exceed) to you worldlings and citizens of Sodom; here is a Memorandum for you, you whom the beauty of this world hath bewitched; why look ye so often back? or what do ye see when ye look back? ye will say, your country; so thought Lots wife indeed, for she was warm, well settled, richly seated, and loathe to remove; but she was dedeiued; for as the Apostle saith, we haue no country, nor standing city here, Hebr. 13. but with Abraham wee are alway ready to remove, from chaldee to Canaan, from Canaan to Egypt, from Egypt to Bethel, from Bethel to Hebron, &c. That as jacob said of his time, The time of my pilgrimage, Gen. 47. so wee might say of the place we dwell in; The place of our pilgrimage; for we are but pilgrims here,& the world is but a place of exile to us, wherein we ever look to be removed, either carried into captivity, chased with the sword, or driven away with persecution, lest if we should dwell here, wee should forget heaven, and settle our affections here, and so taking too good a liking of this life, wee should think our way to be our ways end, and do as the two tribes, Gad and reuben did, which sate them down before they came to Canaan. But the Saints of God never looked back to the world, but confessed they were pilgrims here. Noah, Abraham, jacob, and the most of the Fathers to testify unto the posterity, that their hope was not here, did live in tents, and built no houses here, but their houses were like themselves, ever ready to remove, it was but the plucking up of a pin, and they were gone; and no marvell, for even Christ himself when he was here, had not so much as a hole wherein to hid his head. But come to wicked men, and to worldlings, and they build houses here; They build houses( saith the Psalmist) and call them by their name, Psalm. 49. yea they build cities here, for the first city which ever was built, was built by Cain a figure of the malignant Church, Gen. 4 17. Afterward came in the accursed brood of Cham, Nimrod& his rout, and they built a city too; yea a city would not serve, but they must haue a tower too, even Babel must be built, a castle of confusion, a fort of defiance against the almighty; and so do they all that plant their felicity here; for we haue but a tent here, and if we build here, what do we, but gather up the stones of Babel which God hath cast down?  
Well: look ye back on Sodom; yea take your fill in looking on it, yet well may ye fear, lest while ye look vpon it, the fire do fall from heaven to consume it; for so shall bee the end of all this golden pomp and glory; your pleasant gardens shall one day be as wild as the wilderness, your gallant houses shall lye level with the ground, and ye yourselves if ye could sell all the world to make a tomb, in that tomb to set up a name for eternity, yet that tomb shall one day tumble down,& in spite of your teeth the grass shall grow vpon your graues: yea he was not past an hundred and twenty yeares since a crwoned King, and great commander of this land, who ruled, and raged, and killed, and made the kingdom to quake, and yet now hath neither house, nor hearse, nor Hic jacet, but a horse or a cow to grace vpon his grave, that worldly men might be amazed to see so mighty a worldling, so soon, and in such silence to vanish. And who can point out now but any one of those rich pyramids, pillars pitched up only for monuments of honor? or what is now become of that wonder of the world, that brazen and ambitious image which men proudly called, Colossus Solis, The Colossus of the sun? or what is now become of that golden image, which the Babylonians erected in in the plain of Dura, full threescore cubits high? Dan. 3. or what is now become of the rich and wealthy Carthage? or who can show us now but where faire Sodom stood? or of Babels tower, but one ston vpon another? And so shall one day this hill of stones behind you be, yea so shall one day this goodly city faire London be. And if this be the end of iron, ston, and steel, and of these more enduring substances, if these things which consume and eat out one age after another, bee in the end consumed themselves, then what shall flesh and blood expect, but while we look vpon them to be blasted with them? And what is indeed become of the great and wealthy worldlings, which held the world in admiration, and spent their daies in looking on it? are they not all consumed and worn away with their wealth! Where are the glorious and mighty monarchs, on whom the world itself did wait, which never were seen but with trains and troops to attend them? are they not all dead and butted in their dust? where are the noble orators, the silken courtiers, the invincible conquerors, are they not all sunk and gone? is not all their glory coutched in earth and ashes, and all their memory in a few verses? so as now being gone, no man can say, here haue they trod or set a foot: Thus faire Sodom serveth them that serve it, and deceiveth them that look vpon it. Let us therefore take heed how we look back on the world, or any worldly thing to love it, lest while we look vpon it, we perish with it, as Lots wife did with Sodom: but if wee will look on the world, then must wee do as Elisa did to the 
2 King. 2.  children that mocked him, when he looked back vpon them and cursed them, for the world deserveth not a blessing, but a curse at our hands, because it mocketh us, for it leadeth us on with promises, and promiseth a felicity which it hath not, like the divell which  told Christ he would give him all the kingdoms of the world, whereas he had not one foot of land but in hell; so the world telleth us of ease, when it hath nothing but vexation of spirit, it telleth us of certainty, when all is vanity, it telleth us of comfort, when all is care: Is not this to mock us? but if we will learn to look right, we must look neither forward, nor backward, but upright, that is, to heaven, from whence we look for the Lord Iesus, Philip. 3. 20. For if we look for him on earth who is in heaven, then shall we lose our labour, and say with the Church, Cantic. 3. I sought him whom my soul loved, I sought him, but I found him not; and no marvell, for she sought him where he was not; and if we seek Christ in the world, or any worldly thing, we may imagine it said to us, which the angel saith, Luk. 24. Resurrexit, non est hic; he is risen and gone, he is not here: but look up to heaven and ye shall find him there; look for him in the Church where he is preached, and ye shall hear of him there; look for him by invocation, by newness of life and sanctification, and the holy Ghost will show him there; and when ye haue found him, ye shall go up to heaven with him, and reign with him there, even there where Lot now dwells which came out of Sodom; even there where Abraham dwells, which gave away Sodom; even there where Angels dwell, which call us out of Sodom; even there where Christ dwells, who redeemed us out of Sodom; yea even there where the Father dwelleth in the son, and the son in the Father, and the holy Ghost in both, and we in all. God grant us in the mean time so to loathe the world, that at the last we may be partakers of that heavenly society.  
Amen, Amen.  
FINIS.