For disobedience, Nimrod and his company were confounded and scattered.

And for disobedience, the Jews were drove and carried captive out of their own land of Canaan.

And for disobedience to the same light, power, and Holy Ghost, that the apostles and the church were in, in the apostles' days, the Christians in name, and not in power and nature, are without the heavenly holy city, New Jerusalem. An unjust man is an abomination to the just, and he that is upright in the way, is an abomination to the wicked.' Prov. xxix. 27. In God I will praise his word, in God I will put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.' Psalm lvi. 4. Thus saith the Lord, I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood, as with sweet wine, and all shall know that I am the Lord.' Isa. xlix. 26. By G. F.

THE Lord God is holy and pure, therefore he would have all his people to be holy and pure; and therefore consider what the Lord in the Old and New Testament commands you to forsake, and commanded that you shall not do. In Exodus, the Lord saith, Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.' These things are forbidden in Exod. xx. in the old testament, and much more in the new, for Christ saith, 'You have heard that it hath been said of old time,' (to wit,) in the old testament, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say, whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart;' and here you may see the law took hold of the outward act, and the gospel took hold of the inward act. For out of the heart proceed the evil thoughts,' murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man.' Matt. v. 28. and Matt. xv. 19.

And these evil things are in man and woman, yea, committed before they be acted outwardly. And the apostle saith in 2 Cor. v. 10. Every one shall give an account of things done in the body;' for, saith he,' we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, &c. to shun that which is bad and evil, and cleave to that which is good, and lust not after beauty in thy heart, but keep thee from the evil woman; from the flattery of the tongue of a stran

ger; neither let her take thee with her eye-lids. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for thy precious life. But whoso committeth adultery with a woman, lacketh understanding. He that doeth it, destroyeth his own soul, and a wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away.' Prov. vi. 32. And you may see in Prov. ii. 16. this strange woman which flatters with her words, who forsaketh the guide of her youth,' the spirit of God, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house enclineth to death, and her paths unto the dead. None that goeth unto her returneth again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.' And therefore, that thou mayst walk in the way of good men, and keep in the paths of life.' Prov. ii. 20. This is the exhortation of the wisdom of God to follow: For the mouth of the strange woman is a deep pit, and he that is abhorred of the Lord, shall fall therein.' Prov. xxii. 14. And you may see in Prov. v. how Solomon exhorts to the study of wisdom, and showeth the mischief of riot and whoredom; and Prov. vii. how the silly young man, void of understanding, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night,' how he was deceived by the speeches and attire of the harlot, 'whose house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.' And this well-favoured harlot, deceived the young man under pretence of religion; for she pretended, she had peace-offerings, and she had paid her vows, and the good man was gone from home; and this whore abides not in her house, but is without in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner; she is out of her house from the spirit of God, whored from that; and so Christ the good man is not within, and so that whorish spirit's habitation is in the twilight and darkness, and would beget others, either to spiritual adultery, or carnal adultery. One while, this whorish spirit is loud and stubborn, and another while, with flattering speeches. All that keeps with this spirit of God, and the light of Christ in their hearts will keep out of her way that leads to hell, and the chambers of death.'

In Jer. iii. how Jeremiah complains against Judah's vile whoredom and committing adultery; and Judah was worse than backsliding Israel, who said, 'She is gone upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and thy wickedness, and thou hast a whore's forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed.' Here you may see what a sad condition the Jews came into, when they forsook the Lord; and therefore, let Christians beware that they be not found in the same practice, and so come under the same judgment, as you may read in Jer. iii. and v. you may see the judgments of God upon the Jews, for perverseness and adultery; for the Lord saith, How shall I pardon for

this, my children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no god's; for when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops into the harlot's house. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one neighing after his neighbour's wife. Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? And the prophets shall become wind; and the word is not in them.' Now let them that are called Christians in Christendom look to themselves, and see if they be not found in this spiritual and natural whoredom that the Jews were found in, though they made a profession of the scriptures of the old testament; and they that go under the name of Christians, may make a profession of the new testament in words, but Jeremiah saith, the word was not in those Jews, that run into these wickednesses, neither is it in those called Christians, that run into spiritual or carnal whoredom, 'for the word of God is a fire, and hammer, and a sword, to beat, and cut down, and burn up the evil matter, and its fruits.'

And in Jer. xxix. 23, speaking to the Jews, 'Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them, even I know and am a witness, saith the Lord,' therefore is their destruction foretold.

And Jeremiah saith, in chap. ix. 'Oh! that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of a wayfaring man, that I might leave my people, and go from them: for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, it speaketh deceit. One speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. Shall not I visit for these things? saith the Lord.' And therefore, saith the Lord, I will make Jerusalem heaps, a den of dragons,' which was the chief city of worship amongst the Jews; and did not the Lord bring his judgments upon it?

And Jeremiah saith, 'My heart is broken because of the prophets; and all my bones shake, and I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the word of his holiness, for the land is full of adulteries: for because of swearing the land mourns, &c. Their course is evil, and their forces not right. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing; they commit adultery, and walk in lies; they strengthen also the hand of evil doers, that none doth return from their wickedness. They are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.' Jer. xxiii. And Jeremiah saith, I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings; the lewdness of thy whoredoms, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Wo be unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean?' Jer. xiii. And again he saith,

"Thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness; and through the lightness of her whoredoms, (to wit, the Jews,) and committest adultery with stocks and stones.' Here you may see the carnal and spiritual whoredom among the Jews, who were the greatest professors of the old testament, in their day, and yet the greatest disobeyers of God; let them that calls themselves christians, be warned of their sins, and of their judgments. And the Lord saith, 'Will you steal and murder, and commit adultery, &c. and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name? and saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord; and say we are delivered to do all these abominations? this house which is called by my name is become a den of robbers.' So God rejected the vain confidence of the Jews, and the sacrifice of the disobedient. Jeremiah vii. 9.

And Job speaks against the murderers and adulterers, he saith, "They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof; the murderer rises with the light, killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. The eyes of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, no eye shall see me, and disguises his face in the dark. They dig through houses which they had marked for themselves in the day time; they know not the light, for the morning is to them as a shadow of death. Then here was some terror upon the adulterers, if they were known; but as drought and heat consumeth the snow water, so doth the grave those that have sinned, &c. The womb forgets him, the worms shall sweetly feed upon him; he shall be no more remembered, and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.' Job xxiv. 15, &c. See how loathsome wickedness and adultery was in days past. And Solomon saith, in Prov. xxiii. For an whore is a deep ditch, she layeth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men;' and this by experience is seen.

And Hosea shows God's judgment upon the Jews, for their spiritual and carnal whoredom, in the first chapter; and further saith, By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood: therefore shall the land mourn, for whoredoms have caused them to err; they have gone a whoring from under their God, they have committed whoredom continually.' Read the chapter throughout, and there you may see the abominations and wickedness of the Jews, and of their spiritual and carnal whoredom, whom God threatens with his judgments. And in Hosea ii. he saith, Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day she was born; and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.' For the Lord saith, 'I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of VOL. VI.

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whoredoms.' They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened,' &c. Hosea vii. where you may see God's reproof and wrath against the manifold sins of the Jews, throughout the whole book. And therefore, let all that go under the name of christians, beware of these sins of the Jews, lest the wrath of God come upon you. And the Lord sent Isaiah to reprove and declare against the Jews, and their whorish idolatry, and saith, The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men are taken away; none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come. But draw near hither ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore, against whom do ye sport yourselves; against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue; are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood?' Isaiah lvii. 4.

And David saith, 'Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentest with him, and hast been partaker with the adulterers; thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.' Unto such wicked ones, God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth,' &c. Psalm 1. So every one that names God and Christ, must depart from iniquity. And in Mal. iii. the Lord saith, 'I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerer, and against the adulterer, and false swearer, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, and the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.' Here you may see, God is both witness against wickedness, and the judge of it.

And Ezekiel the Lord sent to denounce judgment upon the Jews for their adultery, and said, that they were old in adulteries; and they went a whoring after the heathen, and were polluted with their idols, and had forgotten the Lord, and cast him behind their backs. Through their lewdness and whoredoms, they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands.' And you may see in chapter xxiii. throughout, They have committed whoredoms in Egypt: they have committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.' Oh! let all that are called by the name of christians, have a care of this spiritual and carnal whoredom. And Ezek. vi. 'I am broken, saith the Lord, with their whorish heart which hath departed from me;' therefore the Lord threatens his judgment upon them. And again, the Lord declareth against the Jews' monstrous whoredom and adultery, as you may see in chapter xvi. throughout; they are compared, through their lewdness, and whoredom, and wickedness, to Sodom. And in Ezek. xliii. they are exhorted to put