[3.] The third thing observable in the words is, the severity of tlieir punishment : ' Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,' We commonly say that fire and water have no mercy, and we have frequently experi- enced the truth of that saying. When God would give the world a proof of his greatest severity against notorious sinners and notorious sins, he doth it by inflicting the judgment of fire. When the Sodomites burned in their lusts one towards another, ' Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.' ' The Lord rained brimstone and fire from the Lord;' that is, by an elegant Hebraism, from himself, it being usual with the Hebrews to put the noun for the pronoun, as you may see by comparing the scrip- tures in the margin together. ^ Now this fiery vengeance came not from any inferior cause, but from the supreme cause, even God himself. This brimstone and material fire that was rained by the Lord out of heaven, w^as not by any ordinary course of nature, but by the immediate almighty power of God. Doubtless it was the supernatural and mirac- ulous work of the Lord, and not from any natural cause, that such showers, not of water, — as when the old world was drowned, — but of material fire and brimstone, should fall from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah — to which add Admah and Zeboiim, for all these four cities were burned together. God rained, not sprinkled, yea, he rained not fire only, but fire and brimstone for the increase of their torment, and that they might have a hell above-ground, a hell on this side hell. They had hot fire for their burning lusts, and stinking brimstone for their stinking brutishness. They burned with vile and unnatural lusts,
1 Gen. i. 27; 1 Sam. xv. 22 ; 2 Chron. vii. 2 ; 1 Kings viii. 1.
102 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
and therefore against the course of nature fire falls down from heaven and devours tluMU, and tlieir stinking abominable filthiness is punished with the stciifh of Ijrinistone mingled Avith lire. Thus God delights to suit men's punishments to tiieir sins ; yea, that temporal fire that God rained out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah was but a fore- runner of their everlasting punishment in that lake which burns with fire and brimstone for evermore, Ilev. xxi, 8. The temporal punish- ment of the impenitent Sodomites did but make way to their eternal inmishments, as Jude tells us, ver. 7. I readily grant that the fire of hell was typified by that fire which fell from heaven u]ion Sodom and Gomorrah ; but I cannot conceive tliat the apostle Jude, in the place last cited, doth intend or design to prove that the Sodomites were destroyed by hell-fire; for in the history of Genesis, to which the apostle alludes, there is no mention at all of hell-fire or of eternal fire. And doubtless the example that should warn sinners to repent of their sins, and to turn to the Most High, is to be taken from the history in Genesis. I cannot at present see how Sodom and Gomorrah can be set forth as an cxami)le to sinners by suffering the punishment of hell-fire, when the history is wholly silent as to any such fire. Some, to mollify the seeming austerity of that phrase which Jude uses, viz., 'eternal fire,' read the words thus, ' were made an example of eternal fire, suf- fering vengeance ;' by which construction they gather that the fire which hath irreparably destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was a type and figure of that fire of hell, of that eternal fire that is reserved for wicked men, and by which sinners ought to be warned. Others by ' eternal fire' understand the duration of the effects of the first temporal punishment, the soil thereabout wearing the marks of divine displea- sure to this very day. Several authors write,i that the air there is so infectious, that no creature can live there ; and though the apples and other fruit that grow there seem pleasant to the eye, yet if you do but touch them, they presently turn into cinders and ashes. The stinking lake of asi)haltes near to Sodom is left as a perpetual monument of God's vengeance, killing all fish that swimmeth in it, and fowls that fly over it. Others by eternal fire understand an utter destruction, according to that 2 Peter ii. 6, ' And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow,' that is, utterly destroyed them, ' making them an ensaraple unto those that after should live ungodly.' God hangs them up in gibbets, as it were, that others might hear and fear, and not dare to do wickedly as they had done.
What though it be said that the fire wherewith these Sodomites were destroyed was eternal, yet there is no necessity to understand it of hell-fire ; for even that very fire which consumed those cities may be called eternal, because the jnmislunent that was inflicted on Sodom and Gomorrah by fire was a punishment that should last as long as the world lasted. God resolved those cities should never be rebuilt, but remain perpetual desolations in all generations. Now, in this sense, the word ' eternal ' is often used in the Scripture. Again, the fire and brimstone that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah was a type and figure of that eternal fire, or those eternal torments that shall be inflicted ' Josephup, Tertullian, Augustine, «S:c.
ISA. XLII. 24:, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 103
upon all impenitent sinners for ever and ever. The sum of all is this, that the Sodomites, by giving themselves over to fornication, and by- going after strange flesh, did provoke the Lord to rain hell out of heaven upon them ; they did provoke the Lord to rain material fire and brimstone both upon their persons and their habitations. Now give me leave to say, that doubtless the body of the inhabitants of that famous city, "which is now laid in ashes, were as free from giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, as any in any part of the nation ; yea, more free than many in some parts of the nation ; yea, give me leave to say, that I cannot see how these sins that are charged upon the Sodomites can be clearly or groundedly charged upon any of the precious servants of the Lord, that did truly fear him in that renowned city ; and my reasons are these : —
[1.] First, Because in all their solemn and secret addresses to the Lord they have seriously lamented and mourned over these crying abominations.