e city of
Jerusalem: "this was the sin of Sodom thy sister,--pride, fullness of
bread, luxury and idleness, and that to the poor they did not reach
out the hand, and have lifted themselves up, and have wrought such
shameful cruelty before me that I have even destroyed them." For
Sodom was a land, like the garden of the Lord, as Moses says, and a
rich mine of costly oil and wine and all things, so that every one
would think, here dwells God. For this they were secure, and led such
a shameful life as Moses has written of. Such sin breaks out only
where there is an assurance that they have enough to eat and drink
and to spare, and idleness is joined therewith; just as we still see,
the richer cities are the more shamefully do men live in them; but
where there is hunger and cumber there the sins are so much the
fewer. Therefore God permits, in regard to those that are His, that
their education should be severe, that they may remain pure.

These are the three fearful examples whereby St. Peter threatens
those that are godless. And as he insists upon it so, we must hold
that this is its import. And it is spoken especially of the spiritual
order--pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks and nuns, and all who
hang upon them. These are, as it were, angels in the Apostles' stead,
appointed to this very end, that they should preach and make known
God's word; for an angel is a messenger, or one sent, who discharges
his message by word of mouth, for which reason preachers are called
in Scripture angels,--that is, messengers of God. Such angels should
our clergy be. But as these angels of old fell off from God, and set
themselves above God, and wished to be their own masters, so these do
also, and have nothing but just the name of messengers, as those have
the name alone of angels. So these also, as they have gone off from
God, shall be held in chains of darkness and reserved to
condemnation; as he has said above, that their sentence does not
linger, nor their damnation slumber, although punishment has not as
yet overtaken them.

Beside, they are like that former world, who, although they heard the
prophets and the word of God, yet blasphemed and reviled them; and as
Moses writes, took to themselves wives according to their pleasure,
whomsoever they would, and became great and powerful tyrants.
Observe, then, whether all that which Moses wrote of those is not now
taking place. These are the great scamps that live in revelry,
oppre