A SERMON ON LUKE XYII. 32.
Bemember Lot's wife. — Luke xvii. 32.
Here is a warning of Christ's relating to an history recorded by Moses, in which two things are remarkable — (1.) The sin committed by her ; (2.) The punishment inflicted on her ; what she did, and what she suffered. She remembered too much the place where she had lived, and was loath to get out of it ; and when she was got out,||fer heart hankered after it still. And we must remember the manner how she died, for our caution and warning.
It is brought in here among the predictions of the calamities that were to come upon Jerusalem. And in the parallel place it is thus expressed : Mat. xxiv. 16-18, ' Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains ; let him that is on the house-top not come down to take anything out of his house ; neither let him that is in the field return back to take his clothes.' Now read the foregoing verse here : ver. 31, 'In that day he which shall be on the house-top, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away ; and he that is in the field let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot s wife.'
The comparing these two places together will give us the sense, that where life is in safety, we must not think of loss of goods, lest we lose both ; and where eternal life is in danger, we must not run that hazard for any temporal things : for it presently followeth, ver. 33, ' Whosoever shall seek to save his live, shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his life, shall preserve it.' For both temporal and eternal life, ' Remember Lot's wife.' And it is either a proverbial expression to hasten their flight, or a profitable admonition.
Doct. That it is very profitable for those whom God hath called from a state of wrath and perdition to eternal safety and rest by Christ to remember Lot's wife.
This woman was called out of burning Sodom to a secure place of retreat ; but she disobeyed God, and perished in the passage.
To make this evident, I shall — (1.) Briefly give you the hi.story concerning her sin and judgment ; (2.) Show why it is profitable for us to meditate on it.
First, The history concerning her sin and judgment. You have it,
VOL. XV. 2 a
370 A SERMON OX LUKE XVII. 32.
Gen. xis. 26, ' And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.'
1. Of her sin ; she looked back. "What fault was there in that ? you will say. I answer —
[1.] There was disobedience in it, because it was against the ex- press command of God, given by an angel: Gen. xix. 17, 'Look not behind thee.' Isow this commandment of not looking back was not given to Lot alone, but to his wife and children, as the event showeth ; for he, nor either, or any of them, was not to look back. Now, to go against an express command of God in the smallest matters is a great crime. As when Saul spared Agag and the fattest of the cattle, against God's command, Samuel telleth him, 1 Sam. xv. 23, that rebellion is as the sin of w^itchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. It is rebellion and stubburness when men wilfully transgress God's known commandments, and commit a sin the rather because it is evident to them God hath forbidden it. Now this God taketh as heinously as if it were witchcraft, when men leave God and seek to devils ; or idolatry, when they forsake God's true worship, and serve idols ; they despise and resist God's known will, and so rob him of his glory, and the service due from the creature to him.
[2.] There was unbelief in it ; not believing the words of the angel, God's messenger, who had assured her in the name of God that he would destroy Sodom : Geik xix. 13, ' Hasten hence, lest thA be consumed in the iniquity of the city.' Now she would look back, to see whether the prediction and warning were true. And therefore the author of the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, chap. x. 7, calleth her aTTLCTTovarit; '^vxv'i fivrj^ielov, a monument of an unbelieving soul. It is a grievous sin to call God's truth in question. But usually disobedience is complicated with unbelief, and men despise the com- mands of God because they do not believe his threatenings : Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.' An unbelieving heart will easily be perverted and enticed into a rebellion against God, and those that cannot trust God will not be true to him.
[3.] There was worldliness in it, or an hankering of mind after what she had left in Sodom ; and so this looking back was a look of covetousness, a kind of repentance that she had come out of Sodom ; for people aro wont to look back who are moved with a desire and remembrance of their former dwelling. So Lot's wife looked back because she had left her heart behind her. There were her kindred, and friends, and country, and that pleasant place which was as the gar- den of God, Gen. xiii. 10. From thence this woman came, and thither she would fain go again ; as if she had said, And must I leave thee, Sodom, and part for ever from thee ! This certainly had an influence on her, for she was loath to depart ; for when the angel warned them all in common, Lot lingered : ' And the men laid hold upon his hand ; and when his wife lingered, they laid hold on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of her two daughters : the Lord being merciful to him : and they brought him forth, and set him without the city,' Gen. xix. 16. Nay, when they had brought them forth, they were fain to quicken them : ' Escape for thy life, lest thou be consumed,' ver. 17 ;