GIVE ear ye sons of Sodom, and draw neer and harken ye wanton daughters of Babylon; for the Lords controver­sie is against you, and where will ye be able to stand, or where will ye have your glory when the dreadful God of Heaven shall appear, to render a recompence unto his Enemies; yea then where will the proud leave his glory, or what profit will the sons of vanity have of their pleasure; for the acceptable year of the Lord is come neer to an end, and the day of his vengeance approacheth & his long patience hath much been abused by you, & his fierce wrath is ready to kindle; for you have nourished your hearts as for a day of slaughter, and you have cast forth your abominations as an overflowing Fountain, yea Sodom came short of your wickedness, and the children of Gomorrha might be justified by you, Oh! how doth your pride and your ambition appear in the streets of every Town & City; yea, because of Oaths the Land mourns, & the Lord beholds your secret whoredoms, & your open riotousness & drunkeness is not hid from him: & what think you will the end of these things be? will not the Lord be avenged of such a generation as this? yea assuredly you are fit­ting your selves as vessels for destruction, for it is already entred into your borders, and desolation is compassing you round a­bout, and unless you spedily repent you cannot shun it, and if you defer repentance but yet a little season, the day is hastening that you shall seek it with tears and shall not finde it; therefore hear this you hard hearted ones and stiff necked, who rebel a­gainst the Lord your maker, there is a day hastening, and an hour approaching, which will make you gnash your teeth for very an­guish, and weepe and howl for very sorrow, to consider how you have slighted the day of your visitation, and the things that be­long to your eternal peace, but then it will be too late. Oh! [Page 2] that you would yet be warned & lay it to heart, and consider be­fore the day of calamity and hour of your distress cometh up­on you: Oh! why will you perish, or why will you provoke so merciful a God to break forth upon you, whose delight is not in the destruction of sinners, but rather that they should turn from their wickedness & live. Oh remember Nineveh that great Ci­ty how soon they were warned to repentance! Oh that you would take them for an example I but if you continue in your abomina­tions and wickedness, and will not be allured by the tender mer­cies of the Lord, then this know, that his dreadful and terrible Judgements shall strike dread and amazement upon your hearts, and affright you by the fearfulness thereof, and then you shall know that your destruction is of your selves, and shall be left without excuse: Oh the vanity and lendness that is found a­mongst you, it is hard to utter it; what spending, destroying, and wasting of the good creatures, is there daily upon your lust, whilst others are like to perish in your streets, with cold and hunger, for want of food & rayment; and if the Lord should visit you with famine and pestilence for the same, his judgments will be just upon you; for as you have known a day of his mercy held: forth unto you, so you must know a day of vengeance to come upon you, as an irresistable flood which will swallow you up and none shall be able to deliver; and then you shall know you have been warned by such who desires the eternal good of your souls, yea then you shall know that it is in vain for bryers and thorns to set themselves in battle against the Lord, when he shall pass through you and burn you up, or for the potchards of the Earth to exalt themselves against their Maker, when he shall take you and dash you to peeces one against another; for he hath long been silent and held his peace, but if you amend not your lives with speed, this know, he will arise and will utter his voice as a Lyon out of the Forrest, and as a Bear bereaved of her whelps will he seize upon you, and then your proud lofty looks shall not daunt him nor make him affraid, for when he roareth out of Sion, his voyce will cause the beasts of the field to trem­ble, for who may abide the day of his coming, or what is able to stand before him when he shall appear, for my God is a consu­ming fire, and in his presence is everlasting burning; therefore hear and consider all you forgetters of God, and you that put [Page 3] the day of his coming affar off; you that drink wine in bowls, and are mighty to drinke strong drinke; you that chant at the noise of the Vyol, and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ, the day is hastening that instead of your musick and songs you shall take up a bitter Lamentation, when there shall be none to pity you; yea my soul hath often mourned in secret, with the consi­deration of the doleful day of desolation which is comming up­on the wicked and adulterous generations, who have hardned their hearts against the Lord, and stopped their Ears that they might not hear reproof; for he that reprooveth sin is become a prey un [...]o them, and those who come to deny ungodliness in any measure is persecuted by them, even by the seed of Cain, who is still rising up to slay righteous Abel and his innocent seed where ever it appears; but the cries of the sufferings of the inno­cent hath pearced the clouds, and is come before the throne of the Almighty, and hath entred his Ears, and he is arising to make inquisition for all the blood and sufferings of the righteous, from Righteous Abel unto the day of his coming. Therefore woe un­to that Generation who have caused the innocent to suffer, yea woe and sorrow will be their portion, but this the Lord delights not in, but rather that you may fly the wrath that is to come by a speedy repentance, and forsaking the evil of your ways, therefore hath he born with you all this time, & with-held his in­dignation from breaking forth upon you, and sent his servants time after time, to warn you both by word and writing, and hath poured forth the Vials of his wrath upon an hypocritical Generation (in your sight) who professed him in words, but in their hearts rebelled against him; this hath the Lord done con­cerning you, yea he hath yet come nearer unto you, he hath rai­sed up his faithful witness within your own consciences to bear testimony against your ungodliness, and his righteous Spirit in your own hearts hath long stroven with you, but he hath said, His Spirit shall not always strive with man, and yet you make of all this a light thing, and as though he had done nothing con­cerning you, or as if there were no God to be feared, you still rush on in the course of your ungodliness, glorying in your wicked­ness, and making a mock of sin, and you are filling up the mea­sure of your iniquities, and it is almost full, for you are ready to cry peace and safety, but sudden destruction is even at the door; [Page 4] for when the wicked crieth peace and safety, then sudden de­struction is at hand; yea if you can stop the sun in his course, or the Sea from ebbing, and flowing, then may you stop and keep back the heavy and dreadful hand of the Almighty from falling upon you, except ye speedily repent; for if you go on in the ex­cess of your ungodliness, you will assuredly know sin shall not go unpunish'd; & when your destruction and calamity comes up­on you, you shall then know that you have often been warned in tender bowels of compassion to turn from the Evil of your wayes.