Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	adultery_n	fornication_n	put_v	1,670	5	6.4986	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30987	A treatise of fornication shewing what the sin is, how to flee it, motives and directions to shun it : upon 1 Cor. VI, XVIII : also, A penitentiary sermon upon John viii. II / by W.B., M.A.	W. B. (William Barlow), b. 1617 or 18.	1690 (1690)	Wing B848; ESTC R10545	68,090	89

ever do that which they so abhorred as that they would die any the cruellest Death in the World over and over rather than once do O far be it from us ever to do any such thing I may add here the Punishments that spiritual Fornicators are liable unto for it excludes them from Communion with the Church Militant and Triumphant and exposes them to temporal Destruction and eternal Condemnation 1. It shuts out from Communion with the Church Militant here on Earth If a Christian became guilty of it if he were an Idolater in the Apostles days Christians were to have no Communion with him not to keep company with him not so much as to eat with him but to avoid all Commerce and Converse not only sacred but civil with him 1 Cor. 5.11 Neither were Christians to joyn with Idolaters in their Worship but to come out from among them and to be separate the Temple of God having no agreement with the Temple of Idols 2 Cor. 16.17 Nor were Idolaters to joyn with Christians in their Worship whilst they continued Idolaters but were to be without not suffered to be in the holy City the new Jerusalem the Church to Christ on Earth as Members of it or Communicants in it So the state of that City or Church is described Rev. 22.15 For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and idolaters and whoever loveth and maketh a lie This spiritual Fornication keeps from coming into the Church and turns out of it also such as are in are guilty of it and therefore there is great reason for our avoiding it But further it excludes from Communion with the Church Triumphant in Heaven Idolaters are of those sorts of Sinners that shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 Gal. 5.20 Eph. 5.5 No Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God for spiritual Fornicators for Worshippers of Images and Idols And who would make himself a Slave to a piece of painted or graven Earth to lose thereby a solid Inheritance in Heaven 2. It exposes to temporal Destruction and eternal Condemnation First to temporal Destruction in this present World Thus Ahaz and all Israel was ruined by this sin 2 Chron. 28.2 They the false Gods the Idols of Damascus which that idolatrous King did serve and sacrifice unto they were the ruine of him and all Israel that is he and all Israel were ruined brought to destruction by and for that Idolatry of his and theirs Long before that whilst Israel was in the Wilderness three or four and twenty thousand lost their lives in one day about it 1 Cor. 10.7 Numb 25.9 and no marvel for before that at the very time of the giving of the Law there is a direct menace of utter Destruction to any one that should be guilty of this kind of Fornication He that sacrificeth unto any God save unto the Lord only he shall utterly be destroyed Exod. 22.20 But further it renders liable to Eternal Condemnation in the World to come It damns even to the Pit of Hell To prove this it were enough to say it shuts out of Heaven and if so then it must needs thrust down into Hell For after this Life duo sunt loca non est tertius ullis there are but two Receptacles for them Heaven and Hell and there is no third place for any at least in St. Augustine's Judgment And as in Mat. 25.31 c. the whole race of Mankind at the day of Judgment are cast but into two sorts Sheep and Goats that is Elect and Reprobates so no disposing of any but into two Sorts and Conditions Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death the one whereof is the state of those in Heaven the other of those in Hell So that what shuts out of Heaven shuts into Hell But in Rev. 22.8 it is expresly said that Idolaters with other like wicked Creatures shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the ssecond death Which what other can it mean but that they shall be cast into Hell into those regions of Darkness and Horrour where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth where their Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched In consideration therefore of these things let us abstain from all idolatrous Actions and flee from all Acts of this spiritual Fornication And as God is jealous of having any of his Honour given to any but himself so we must abstain from all appearance of every thing that may provoke him to jealousy Have we a care of hearkning to any that may seduce us or of obeying any that may go about to enforce us to Idolatry to be of that Religion which alloweth of it at least if it do not command and enjoyn the worshipping of Images Time may shew more need of such an Exhortation than at present some think there seems to be in the mean time if ever such occasion be remember I have warned you And this is all which by occasion of the Text I shall think good to speak of this first Notion in which Fornication is sometimes taken and spoken of namely Spiritual Fornication or Idolatry and the Worshipping of Idols and Images I now come to speak of Fornication in the second Notion of it and as it denotes that Sin which is also called Corporal Fornication Now in this Sense also it is taken sometimes more strictly and sometimes more largely In the strict Notion of it as it is called simple Fornication so it is defined to be concubitus soluti cum solutâ the lying together or the carnal Copulation of two single Persons out of the state of Matrimony In the large Notion of it so it is defined more generally to be humanus illicitus concubitus the unlawful Copulation of a man in any kind or respect Hence Adultery which is a distinct Sin from Fornication and so see Gal. 5.19 where the Apostle reckoning up the Works of the Flesh begins with Adultery Fornication c. yet is sometimes understood by the word Fornication Whence our Saviour saith Matth. 5.32 Whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causeth her to commit Adultery where by Fornication in probability is to be understood Adultery and so in Matth. 19.9 Hence the word Fornication is sometimes put to signifie the Sin of Incest as in 1 Cor. 5.1 It is reported commonly that there is Fornication among you and such Fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles What is that why the incestuous Marriage of a Son with the Wife of his Father that one should have his Fathers Wife And so when the Apostle tells us 1 Thes 4.3 that it is the will of God that we should abstain from Fornication it is evident by the opposing Sanctification that thereby is meant all Uncleanness in general Suitably whereunto it is said v. 7. that God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness So that as by Sanctification in

commit Idolatry with them which doing is again called opening of the feet and committing fornication and playing the whore and harlot v. 25 26 27 28. c. And so when heathen Rome is called the great whore Rev. 17.1 with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication v. 2. the meaning is That it was a very idolatrous City a City very much given to the Worship of Heathenish Gods Images and Idols and that from thence many other Kingdoms had been confirmed in their idolatrous courses if they had not also had something of their Idolatry false and superstitious Worship propagated to them from thence In this Notion I do not conceave this Word to be taken in the Text. Yet forasmuch as it is the Duty of Christians and of all Men to flee this Fornication also as well as the other namely that of the Body and being it lies so pat in my way I will speak somewhat though very little of what might be of this Fornication also Now touching this the Unlawfulness of it and so ours and all Mens necessity of avoiding it may appear from the Scripture directly forbidding it and commanding our abstaining from it or our avoiding of it Such is that in Levit. 26.1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image neither rear you up a standing image neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it Such again is that in Exod. 20.45 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them So that Gods People were to make no Idols nor Images for themselves to worship and serve But what if they found such things ready made to their hands by others in the Countrey whither they were to come might they not then worship and serve them No such matter There is a direct Prohibition of this too in Exod. 23.24 Thou shalt not how down to their Gods i.e. the Gods of the Amorites Hittites Perizzites Canaanites Hivites and Jebusites whose Land they were to come into and take to themselves in Possession to them they were not to bow down nor serve them nor do after their works but thou shalt utterly overthrow them and quite break down their images Thus is spiritual Fornication the Sin of Adultery or the worshipping of Idols that is Images of true of supposed Men or Gods forbidden in the Old Testament And accordingly in the New Testament we meet with Prohibition of it and Dehortation from it So the Apostle St. Paul 1 Cor. 10.6 7. having spoken of the Israelites of old and touched of their evil doings and sufferings too for their doing so ill in order by the example of their Sufferings to deter us from their doings these things saith he were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted v. 6. he comes in v. 7. to dehort particularly from Idolatry and not to be followers of them in that Sin lest we should follow them in their Sufferings for it Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them And again in v. 14. Wherefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry And so St. John contual Fornication Little Children saith he keep your selves from idols Amen And in the steps of these Apostles of Christ did the Primitive Saints and Fathers of the Church walk Hence St. Cyprian Quid te ad falsos Deos humilias inclinas Quid ante inepta simulachra figmenta terrena captivum corpus incurvas Why dost thou humble and bow down thy self unto false Gods Why dost thou bend thy captive body before foolish Images and earthly figments Relinque idola quae humanus error invenit Ad Deum converte quem si imploraveris subvenit Leave the Idols which human errour hath invented and turn thy self to God who will assist thee if thou implore his aid for help And so St. Austin Nulla imago Dei coli debet nisi illa quae hoc est ipse No Image no not of God himself to be worshipped but that which is the same with himself that is Jesus Christ the Son of God who is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his glory but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the express image of his person Heb. 1.3 Thus both Scriptures and Fathers are against committing this Spiritual Fornication which stands in the worshipping of Idols and Images They that are guilty of this kind of Idolatry do with God as Whores do with their Husbands forsake him and follow and serve other loves they give the Glory of the Creatour to the Creature and worship and serve the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen This is a just cause and sufficient reason for us to stand off from Communion with any Church be it Roman or other where this spiritual Fornication the worshipping of Idols and Images is made to be a part of the Religion of that Church And we may well look upon any sollicitations with such a Church as on so many Allurements and Enticements to the committing of spiritual Fornication and Adultery We have great cause to bless God for his Mercy to us in delivering us from an idolatrous Community and continuing in the Communion of a Society of pure Worshippers of God As the Case stands with us in respect of the Object of our Worship we have nothing proposed to be adored by us but what every body acknowledgeth to be worthy of all Adoration that is the One only true God and the ever blessed Son of God who is one with the Father the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ No Idols no Images no Pictures are prescribed or proposed unto us to worship or bow down unto Nothing of that spiritual Idolatry are we enjoyned as part of our Worship or so much as invited unto in our worshipping All that is said to us is that which was said unto us by the Angel unto St. John Rev. 22. Worship God So that in this respect the Members of our Church can worship God with a clear Conscience without any regret of Mind or rising of Heart at what we worship as there must needs be in those who are compelled to worship that which they cannot but know is no God yea is that which they may revile and spit upon offer any Affronts and Indignation unto without any prejudice at all unto themselves God give us Eyes to see the greatness of his Mercy and Hearts to value it according to the greatness of it I shall give some Considerations to perswade all to flee this Idolatry and to abstain from this kind of spiritual Fornication First It is a Great Vanity for it is a doing of service to that from which can come no good neither protection from evil nor acquisition of good For what is