them, therefore he himself will torment them for ever with his own immediate power : Now he will stir up all his zcrath, and sinners shall know the price of their pleasures. The punishment of Sodom is a little map of hell, as I may say. O how terrible a day was that upon those unclean wretches ! But that fire was not of many days con- tinuance : When it had consumed them, and thjeir houses, it went out for want of matter : but here, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it. The pleasure was quickly gone, but the sting and torment abide for ever. *' Who knoweth the " power of his anger ? Even according to his fear, so is his wrath,'* Psal. xc. 11. Oh consider, how will his almighty power rack and torment thee ! Think on this when sin comes with a smiling face towards thee in the temptation. O think ! If the human nature of Christ recoiled, when his cup of wrath was given him to drink ; if lie were sore amazed at it, how shalt thou, a poor worm, bear and grapple with it for ever ?
Arg. 9. Consider further, how closely soever thou earnest thy wickedness in this world, though it should never be discovered here, yet there is a day coming when all will out, and that before angels and men. God will rip up thy secret sins in the face of that great congregation at the day of judgment : Then that which was done in secret shall be proclaimed as upon the house-top, Luke xii. 3. " Then God will judge the secrets of men,'*"' Rom. ii. 16. " the " hidden things of darkness will be brought into the open li^ht." Sinner, there will be no sculking for thee in the grave, no declining this bar; thou refusedst, indeed, to come to the throne of grace , when God invited thee, but there \A\\ be no refusing to appear before the bar of justice, when Christ shall summon thee. And as thou canst not decline appearing, so neither canst thou then palliate and hide thy wickedness any longer ; for then shall the books be opened ; the book of God's omniscience, and the book of thine own conscience, wherein all thy secret villany is recorded : for though it ceased to speak to thee, yet it ceased not to write and record thy actions. If thy shameful sins should be divulged now, it would make thee tear off thy hair with indignation ; but then all will be discover- ed ; Angels and men shall point at thee, and say, lo, this is the man, this is he that carried it so smoothly in the world. Mr. Thomas Fuller relates a story of Ottocar king of Bohemia, ' who refusing to do his
* homage toRodulphus the first emperor, being at last sorely chastised ^ with war, condescended to do him homage privately in a tent ; but ' the tent was so contrived by the emperor's servants, (saith th
' historian) that, by drawing one cord, it was taken all away, and ' so Ottocar presented on his knees, doing homage to the emperor in
* the view of three armies.' O sirs, you think to carry it closely, you wait for the twilight, that none may see you ; but, alas ! it will be to no end, this day will discover it ; and then what confusion and everlasting shame will cover thee I Will not this work then ?
S22 THE harlot's face IN THE SCRIPTURE-GLASS.
Arg. 10. Lastly, consider but one thing more, and I have done. By this sin thou dost not only damn thine own soul, but drawesl ano- ther to hell with thee. This sin is not as a single bullet that kills but one, but as a chain-shot, it kills many, two at least, unless God give repentance. And if he should give thee repentance, yet the other party may never repent, and so perish for ever through thy wickedness; and oh ! what a sad consideration will that be to thee, that such a poor soul is in hell, or likely to go thither by thy means .? Thou hast made fast a snare upon a soul, which thou canst not untie ; thou hast done that which may be matter of sorrow to thee as long as thou livest ; but though thou canst grieve for it, thou canst not re- medy it. In other sins it is not so : If thou hadst stolen another's goods, restitution might be made to the injured party, but here can be none : if thou hadst murdered another, thy sin was thine own, not his that was murdered by thee: but this is a ccmphcated sin, defiUng both at once ; and if neither repent, then, oh ! what a sad greeting will these poor wretches have in hell ! how will they curse the day that ever they saw each other's fac^ ! O what an aggrava- tion of their misery will this be ! For look, as it v.ill be matter of joy in heaven, to behold such there as we have been instrumental to save, so must it needs be a stinging aggravation of the misery of the damned to look upon those who have been the instruments and means of their damnation. Oh, methinks if there be any tenderness at all in thy conscience, if this sin have not totally brawned and stupified thee, these arguments should pierce hke a sword through thy guilty soul. Reader, I beseech thee, by the mercies of God, if thou hast defiled thy soul by this abominable sin, speedily to repent. O get the blood of sprinkling upon thee ; there is yet mercy for such a wretch as thou art, if thou wilt accept the terras of it, "• Such were some of " you, but ye are washed,'' 1 Cor. vi. 11. Publicans and harlots may enter into the kingdom of God, Matth. xxi. 31. Though but few such are recovered, yet how knowest thou but the hand of mercy may pull thee as a brand out of the fire, if now thou wilt re- turn and seek it with tears ? Though it be a jive that consumeth unto destruction, as Job calls it. Job xxxi. 12. 3ret it is not an un- quenchable fire, the blood of Christ can quench it.
And for you, whom God hath kept hitherto from the contagion of it, O bless the Lord, and use all God's means for the prevention of it. The seeds of this sin are in thy nature ; no thanks to thee, but to restraining grace, that thou art not delivered up to it also. And that thou mayest be kept out of this pit, conscionably practise these few directions.
Direct. 1. Beg of God a clean heart, renewed and sanctified by saving grace; all other endeavours do but palliate a cure : the root of this is deep in thy nature ; O get that mortified, Matth. xy. 19. " Out of the heart proceed fornication, adulteries." 1 Pet. ii. 11,
THE harlot's face IN THE SCRlPtUEE-GLASS. 3:23
12. " Abstain from fleshly lusts having your conversation
honest."" The lust must first be subdued, before the conversation can be honest.