GEN. XVIII. 32.

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And he faid, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. adventure ten fhall be found there. And be faid, I will not deftroy it for ten's fake.

OU must all of you recollect that these

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words are represented as addreffed to the Deity by the Patriarch Abraham, when he was interceding with him for the city of Sodom. There can fcarcely be a more affecting reprefentation; and it is not poffible that on the prefent occafion, I should speak to you on a properer fubject. The calamity by which Sodom and the whole country round it was destroyed, is one of the most antient as well as the most tremendous events, of which we have any account in history. We have a particular relation of it in the xixth chapter of this book of Genefis; and, throughout all the subsequent parts of fcripture, it is referred to, and held forth as an example and a warning to other countries.-Thus in Jude we read, that Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them,

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them, had been set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; that is, a fire which totally confumed them, and which appeared to be even ftill burning, and would probably burn till the end of the world. So likewife in the prophecy of Jeremiah, the Lth chapter and 40th verfe, it is faid that Babylon should no more be inbabited for ever; and that as God had overthrown. Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbouring cities, fa fhould Babylon be overthrown. And in Deuteronomy the xxixth and 23d, the prophetical denunciation against the children of Ifrael is, that if they for fook the Lord, and ferved other gods, their land fhould be turned into brimstone and falt and burning, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. And in Luke xvii. and 28th and following verfes, our Lord, in admonishing his difciples to vigilance, directs them to think of the security and careleffnefs of the inhabitants of Sodom, before God rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. It is in allufion alfo to this event, that in the Revelation (ch. xix. 20, and xxi. 8.) the future extirpation of anti-christian delufion, and of the workers of iniquity, is expreffed by their being caft into a lake burning with fire and brimftone.

That part of the land of Judea, where these devoted cities stood, was rich and fertile above all the other parts of Judea. In Genefis, chap.

xiii.

xiii. we are told that when Lot feparated from Abraham, he looked over all the plain of Jordan, and faw that it was well watered every where, before the Lord deftroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. This induced great numbers of people to fettle in this part of Judea; and, particularly, it engaged Lot and his family to fettle here. It was an extenfive plain, bounded to the east and weft by very high mountains, about feventy-two miles in length and eighteen in breadth. Here feveral cities were built, the principal of which were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Zoar. The causes that produced the richness of the foil, and crouded this country with inhabitants, were fuch as at the fame time produced a corruption of manners, and rendered its ruin unavoidable. The fertility of the foil proceeded from a warmth communicated to it by fubterranean fires. And this, probably, joined to the eafe and indulgencies arifing from a rich foil, contributed to enflame the paffions of the inhabitants, and to render them fo infamous as we are told they were for wickedness. But while they were rioting in voluptuoufnefs, there was a dreadful enemy working below them, which had been destined by Divine juftice to deftroy them. The fun being rifen upon the earth (as the history tells us) one morning, and Lot and his family (the only righteous perfons left) having escaped by Divine direction,

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rection, the flames burst forth, the whole country funk at once, and water took its place. The Scriptures call this event God's raining down from Heaven fire and brimstone. The truth is, that it was an event of the fame kind with many that have happened fince; or an eruption of liquid fire from the bowels of the earth, like the eruptions from volcanos, attended with thunder and lightening and earthquakes. So fhocking, in this inftance, was the catastrophe, that a country, before one of the richest and best peopled in the world, was in one hour converted into a fmoaking lake, which has been ever fince called the Afphaltic lake, or the Dead Sea. The river Jordan had run through this country; but ever fince it has discharged itself into this lake, and loft itself in it. Its water is falt and naufeous in

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* That is, the lake of brimftone. The name of the DEAD SEA has been given it from the immoveable stillness of its waters, produced by the bituminous and unctuous matter mixed with it, and floating upon it. Diodorus Siculus, (Lib. xth, chap. 6.) in describing this lake, fays, that though feveral rivers of fweet water empty themselves into it, the water of it is fo bitter and flinking, that no fish can live in it; that great pieces of brimftone frequently rife from the bottom of it, and reft upon its furface like islands; and that the air on its coafts is fo hot and fo infected by fulphureous fteams, that the inhabitants are very unhealthy and shortlived. Tacitus calls it, lacus immenfo ambitu, fpecie maris, Sapore corruptior, gravitate odoris accolis peftifer. Neque vento impellitur, neque pifces patitur,

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