Seven godly and fruitful sermons. The six first preached by Master John DodSeuen godlie and fruitfull sermons. The six first preached by Master Iohn Dod

Nebuchadnezzars fall was great when he was stripped of his Empire, Doct. 4 ¹and in stead of ruling men was turned into the wilderness to live amongst beasts, to eat and drink with the wild asses, and that for seven years together: this was a marvellous great fall, yet not comparable to theirs, that of professors become profane persons. For whereas Nebuchadnezzar went from men to beasts, they go from godly men to wicked Atheists, that are ⟨p. 75⟩worse then beasts, yea to the company of devils, and of all the damned spirits. And whereas Nebuchadnezzar had a stump left in the ground, which after seven years should sprout forth again, and so he should return to a better estate then he enjoyed before; those that are revolts and backsliders, have no stump at all left in the ground, but are unrecoverable: ²For if we sin willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgement, and of a violent fire, which shall devour the adversaries. Nothing doth so provoke the vengeance of God against men, as this wretched apostasy doth. For a man to fall from riches to poverty, from promotion to debasement, &c. it is a matter of nothing; God loves him never the worse: but to fall from profession to profaneness; from God to the Devil; from heaven to hell; from life to death; this is a lamentable thing indeed. David did not sustain the fall of his house, but had only some tiles, and a part of the roof blown off: yet was that a greater loss then if he had been deprived of his kingdom: ³neither would that have so rent his soul, and crushed his bones, and ground his heart to powder, as the committing of those offensive evils did: nay, if he had been set upon a steep rock with a millstone about his neck, and from thence had been cast headlong into the sea, it had been but a trifle in comparison of the other. Oh then how fearful must their case be that do utterly forsake the living ⟨p. 76⟩God? If his deadness and hardness of heart, and inability to do duties to God and men, were more bitter then the most violent death unto him; if I say, the very decay in grace did bring with it such torture; what must they expect either in this world, or in that which is to come, or both, who do not only part, but wholly lose that taste of good things which once they had?