[8.] Eighthly and lastly. Liars are reckoned amongst the basest and the luorst of sinners that you read of in all the book of God : Lev, xix. 11, 'Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.' Prov. vi. 16-19, ' These six things doth the Lord hate ; yea, seven are an abomination to him : a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an lieart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that sj^eaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.' So the apostle Paul, setting down a catalogue of the basest and worst of sinners, he ranks liars in the rear of them : 1 Tim. i. 9, 10, ' Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and pro- fane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, "for man- slayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons.' So John numbers them amongst the damned crew that shall be sent to hell, and that must perish for ever : Rev. xxi. 8, ' But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the
100 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
lake which hurneth with fire and brimstone : which is the second death.' In tliis cataloij^ue of the damned crew, the 'fearful' are placed in the front, and the 'liars' in the rear. See once more how the Holy Ghost couples liars: Rev. xxii. 15, 'For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and murderers, and whoremongers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and niakcth a lie.' Thus you see in all these scriptures that liars are numbered up among the rabble of the most desperate and deplor- able wretches tliat are in the world ; and therefore upon this account also I cannot charge the trade of lying upon them that feared the Lord, whose habitations were once within or without the walls of London.
8. The eigJith sin that brings the judgment of fire, is mens giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh : Jude 7, 'Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.' In these Avords there are these three things observable: —
[1.] First, The 2jlaccs punished, and they are Sodom and Go- morrah, and the cities about them, which were Admah and Zeboiim, Deut. xxix. 23 ; Hosea xi. 8. Hegesippus and Stephanus say that ten cities were destroyed, and some say thirteen cities were destroyed when Sodom was destroyed ; but these things I shall not impose upon you as articles of faith. The overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them was total, both in respect of the inhabitants, and the places themselves. Their sin was universal, and their punish- ment was as universal. That pride, idleness, and fulness of bread that is charged upon them by the prophet Ezekiel, did usher in those abominable wickednesses that laid all waste and desolate, Ezek. xvi. 49, 50.
[2.] Secondly, The sins that brought these ptunishments — viz., 'The giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh.' The first is, ' Giving themselves over to fornication.' Now the word ' fornication ' is not to be taken properly and strictly for that act of uncleanness that is often committed between persons unmarried ; but it is here to be taken for all sorts of carnal uncleanness. The heathen thouglit fornication no vice, and therefore they made it a com- mon custom, and were wont to pray thus: 'The gods increase the number of tlie harlots.' The second sin that is charged upon them is, ' Their going after strange flesh : ' aapKo^ eT€pa<;, ' another flesh,' as the words in the original run. The apostle in this modest and covert expression, ' Going after strange flesh, or other flesh, or another flesh,' doth hint to us their monstrous and unlawful lusts, tliat were against the course, liglit, and law of nature. They gave themselves up to such filthiness as is scarce to be named among men; they went after otlicr flesh than wliat nature or the God of nature had appointed. The great God never appointed that male and male, but only that male and female should be one flesh ; it is impossible that man and man in that execrable act should make one flesh, as man and woman do: Gen. ii. 21, seq. The flesh of a male to a male must needs be another flesh. The apostle Paul expresseth their filthiness thus, ' For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against
IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 101
nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust one toward another ; men with men working that which is unseemly,' Rom. i. 26, 27. Chrysostom well observes on these words, that ' whereas by God's ordinance in lawful copulation by marriage, two became one flesh, both sexes were joined together in one ; by Sodomitical uncleanness the same flesh is divided into two, men with men working uncleanness as with women, of one sex making as it were two.' The Gentiles had left the God of nature, and therefore the Lord in his just judgment left them to leave the order of nature, and so to cast scorn and contempt upon the whole human nature.
Again, there is another sort of pollution by strange flesh, and that is a carnal joining of a man with a beast, which is prohibited: ' Neither shalt thou lie with any beast,' Lev. xviii. 23. Oh what a sink of sin is in the nature of man, the heart of man ! And as this pollution is prohibited, so it is punished with death : ' And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death, and ye shall slay the beast,' chap. XX. 15. The Lord, to shew the horridness and the heinousness of this beastly sin, commands that even the poor, harmless, innocent beast, that is neither capable of sin, nor of provoking or enticing man to sin, must be put to death. Oh how great is that pollution that pollutes the very bensts, and that makes the unclean more unclean, and that doth debase the beast below a beast ! Now to this sort of pollution the beastly Sodomites had without doubt given up them- selves.