man should be so far gone from himself through Drink or any other Course as that like Lot he should not know hedoth commit the sin when he doth commit it It is a Sin that requires much study in most Cases how to contrive and compass the commission of it and therefore especially in such Cases is a Sin of knowledge a Sin committed with deliberation and therefore is a wilful Sin and such Sins are wounding Sins to the Soul wasting Sins to the Conscience the first Act wounds the second wasts and the Habit of it when it grows to that quite destroys the Conscience the custom of sinning takes away all both Sense and Conscience of Sin like those Gentiles spoken of by St. Paul Eph. 4.17 18 19. who walked in the vanity of their mind having their understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them because of the blindness or rather hardness of their heart who being past feeling gave themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Which blindness and hardness senselesness and stupidity of Mind and Heart when men once have through continued custom of sinning in this way brought upon themselves then it is but just that God should give them up in a Judicial way unto Uncleanness and unto vile Affections and even give them over unto a reprobate mind a mind void of Judgment as he did those Romas St. Paul speaks of Rom. 1.24 26 28. And this to be given over to a reprobate sense to have the Conscience cauterized to be under a benummedness of mind and a brawniness of heart to be without Sense and Conscience of sin is to be under a most dismal Judgment the high Road to and the very Gate into and month of Hell For when once a man is past seeling or sin he is the past sorrowing for sin and past repenting of it without an extraordinary and miraculous Work of Conviction wrought upon him and without Repentance there can be no Salvation And therefore that sin which brings a man into this desperate Condition is a sin that is mischievous with a Witness it blinds the mind perverts the judgment benumbs the heart sears the Conscience leaving the mind under stupefaction and senselesness hardness and impenitency 5. It distracts him in those Duties to God whereby he should obtain the Grace of God and preserve and encrease it when it is obtained This fleshly Lust will not suffer him rightly to attend to any spiritual Duty it will not suffer him to have any Communion with God either by hearing God speak to him in his Word or speaking to God himself in Prayer it so takes up all his Thoughts that he can mind nothing of the Worship and Service of of God as he ought When he should be thinking of God he is thinking of his Whore and instead of praying for Grace to abstain from his sin and to mortifie his Lust he is plotting how to fulfil his Lust and commit his sin So true is that of St. Ambrose Nullus peccandi modus inexplexibilis scelerum sitis nisi morte amantis extingui non potest This sin is unmeasurable unsatiable the burning Thirst whereof never quenched by any thing but Death Now surely it is a very great mischief to be so distracted in ones Duty to God that is a plaguy Lust that will not let a man be quiet till he hath said his Prayers but be as ill or worse a Tempter to a man than the Devil himself And yet such a mischievous sin Lust is that whereby the Fornicator is swayed and governed in his Course of Uncleanness And no marvel for it besots and fools him so that he neither minds nor regards what he is about unless it be when he is getting satisfaction to his Lust It dispirits and unmans the man and turns him all into Beast well nigh saving what he is in shew and shape Who could think any other that should find Hercules the only Worthy and Wonder in his time for strength and Valour stooping to the meanness of being a Servant to Omphale and in the quality of a Wench working at the Rock and Spindle And what other can we think was meant by the ancient Poets when they tell us of the strange Transformations of Jupiter and other Gods into a Bull a Swan and the like bruitish Creatures for the love of and to satisfie his lust with this or that admired Beauty but that lust this lust of Fornication transforms and turns men even the greatest of them into very Beasts makes them do brutish things as if they had no more of the Heart of a man in them than Nebuchadnezzar had when he was turned to Grass than the Beasts of the Field have And this probably was meant by the Prophet Hosea when in his fourth Chapter and cleventh Verse he makes Fornication to be one of those things that take away the Heart Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the Heart do turn a man into a very beast and suitably the Prophet Jeremy compares these unclean sinners to Horses lustful Creatures Jer. 5.8 They were as fed horses saith he every one neighed after his Neighbours Wife And so the Apostle St. Peter speaking of those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness compares them to natural bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed and even to Dogs and Swine two most unclean Creatures and more irrational than any other Creatures in their lusts 2 Pet. 2.10 12 22. which is a great mischief to a man as being the turning of him out of himself and the degrading of him into a Beast rendring him unfit for any manly acting and dissolving him all into softness and folly And having bereft him of Judgment and Spirit the less marvel is it if it do also bereave him of his Freedom and make a very Slave of him It is an imperious lust this it makes them in whom it reigns very Servants and Slaves to it Hence these kind of people are by the Apostle St. Peter called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 servants of corruption adding this for the reason of his so calling them because that of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 And so the Apostle St. Paul Rom. 6.16 Know ye not to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness And after v. 19. speaks of their having yielded their members servanos to uncleanness So that this sin of Uncleanness is a tyrannous lust it bereaves its Subjects of their Liberty and Freedom and brings them under bondage and slavery A fornicator and a Free-man are two terms that cannot be said of the same Man He that is a worker of Uncleanness is in a state of very servitude and a base a wretched servitude is it that he serves He is made a Servant to
8.18 23. 1 Thess 4.7 Sin which is so far from Purity that it is the direct contrary thereto and called by the name of corruption uncleanness pollution filthiness the lust of uncleanness ungodly lust a spotting and defiling thing And what indeed is in the whole story and business of it but nastiness and beastliness filthiness and uncleanness not to be seen by Christian Eye not to be spoken by Christian Mouths not to be heard by Christian Ears Whence the Apostle would not have it once named among Saints and saith it is a shame even to speak of those things Eph. 5.3 12. And thirdly It is a Sin against all the Persons in the sacred Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost 1. Against the Father in that it is a dishonouring of his Creature abusing that to vileness and baseness and bruitishness which he made for himself and for his own Honour and Glory Whence the Apostle cells us above v. 13 that the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and helow v. 20. bids that we should glorifie God in our Body as being that which is his upon a double right first of Creation and after of Redemption and therefore is only to be used according to his Will in all Purity and not to be abused according to our Lust in any Uncleanness 2. Against the Son for it is a Dishonouring and a defiling of a Member of him even so far as to make it a Member of a Harlot Know ye not says our Apostle v. 15. that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot God forbid As by Marriage the two Parties become one in Body so by Religion which imports a holy tye of a Christian unto Christ Christ and the Christian become one in Spirit there is a spiritual Union betwixt them as a civil Union betwixt married couples But then Fornication is the breaking of this Union for by a mans joyning himself to another to a Harlot he becomes one body with a Whore which is a high disloyalty against Christ and a breaking off from Union with Christ a forsaking of him to follow after and be joyned with a Whore which is a strong Argument against this Sin Memento quia Christo sacrata sunt menbra tua nou misceantur membris meretricis Chrysost O remember that your Members are consecrated unto Christ and that is reason enough why you should not commit Fornication inasmuch as that 't is the making of your Members to become the Members of an Harlot or Whore 3. Against the Holy Ghost For it is a dishonouring and a defiling of his Temple and a turning it into a Stve or rather a Den of Uncleanness What says the Apostle here v. 19. know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you So that this defiling of the Body is the defiling of the Temple of the Hold ghost and to a doing of despite unto that Spirit of Grace a forcing him with our nastiness to forsake his Habitation which is also a sure way to bring on our Destruction For says our Apostle 1 Cor. 3.16 17. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple are ye Now this Consideration raises up this Sin to so exceeding an height of sinfulness as that it seems not needful to add any thing more to shew the sinfulness of it And yet more may be said to shew it For it is a Sin against a mans own Body and abusing of a mans self a doing a Dishonour and Despite to their own bodies Rom. 1.24 And our Apostle argues by way of Motive to disswade from this Sin in the following members of the Text Flee Fornication Every Sin that a man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own body The meaning is That whereas most other Sins are against others God or our Neighbour this is a Sin against a man's own self whereby he defiles that part of himself into filthy abuse which was sanctified by God to an use of holiness even to be the Temple of his most holy Spirit It is a robbing of a man's self of so great an Honour and so great an Happiness as to have his Body to be the Temple of Gods Spirit than which what worse Discourtesy what greater Mischief can a man do unto himself And not only against himself but it is a Sin also against the body of Another the Body of her with whom Fornication is committed as well as his own Body It is a doing to her as much mischief as to himself bringing as great a Sin upon her and involving her into as great a share of Punishment as himself For this is a Sin that cannot be committed by one there must ever be two at it A man may commit Murder or Thiest alone he may forswear and lye alone he may gluttonize and be drunken himself alone but he cannot play the fornicator alone by himself he must have a Partner with him in his Sin whereby he doubles his Sin as being guilty not only of his own act but others also whom he tempted to the consenting to him in the acting of that filthiness which is a great aggravation to the sinsulness of it And yet neither is this all For In the next place it is a Sin committed against clear light and knowledge and so cannot but be against Conscience For the Scripture hath clear and plain Prohibitions and Dehortations from it and Denunciations or Threatnings against the Committers of it which none can be ignorant of that knows any thing of the Scriptures of God Prohibitions and Dehortations we have mentioned before and such is this in my text Flee Fornication Such is that in Act 15.29 where abstaining from Fornication is made a necessary Injunction upon all that would be Christians Such again that in 1 Thess 4.3 where it is declared to be the will of God that we should abstain from Fornication And for Denunciations or Threatnings they are plain nad clear and full Such is that of the Apostle Hib. 13.4 Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Such that of his again in Eph. 5.5 No Whoremonger nor unclean Person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God So v. 6 For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of Disobedience And to name no more such is that Rev. 21.8 where Whoremongers are of that number that shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Are not these clear and plain Prohibitions and Denunciations And do these lie fair and clear in our Books to read And are they not frequently read in our Churches and published in our Congregations Who then can plead ignorance of
his Eye too as well as all others could be shut out he durst not do it by which means he preserved his Integrity from violation So effectual is this Consideration towards the preventing of the Commission of this sin And therefore St. Ambrose was pleased himself to take notice of it Putas te solum esse cum fornicaris non recordans quia oculi Domini vident orbem terrarum Do you think you are alone all in secret when you are committing Fornication And do you not call to mind and remember that the Eyes of the Lord have this World and all the things contained therein within the view and prospect of them Which is as if he had said to remember and consider that the Eye of God will be upon you in the commission is enough to perswade you to fly Fornication O remember therefore if ever you be under Temptation to this sin that ye cannot do it but in the sight of God and that Thought will no doubt be mightily prevailing with you to forbear so sinful an Act you will not dare to do such filthiness in the sight of his divine Purity you will not be so impudent as to put so high an Affront upon his sacred Majesty as to act Whoredom in his presence 2. Beside the Eye of God upon you who is to be your Judge you have also the presence of Satan with you who does mean to be your Accuser The Devil is Pimp Paramount to the World not a piece of filthiness is committed not an act of Fornication done in it but he is as one at it by his Enticements and Pimperies helping to it Ipse suggerit ministrat fomenta luxuriae He finds and furnishes with fuel for Lust And as he knows all ye do now so he will tell all ye have done hereafter both where and when and with whom and how oft ye have committed that sin As therefore you would not have him accuse you of it hereafter so dread to commit it in his presence here As he now tempts you to it so he will be with you at the doing of it and afterwards accuse you for it 3. Even the Angels of God who loath to behold you in it yet do and will take so much notice of you at it as that they will be Witnesses against you when you shall come to be judged for it They will with Grief and Detestation declare how that whereas they were deputed to guard you from Temptation you refused to hearken to their Perswadings of you to the contrary and by the nastiness and filthiness of your Conversation drave them to forsake their Station and relinquish their Charge and leave you to your selves to be made a Slave to Satan and Lust and to commit Fornication 4. Besides the Eyes of all without you there is the Eye of your Conscience within you which will also be one day a thousand Witnesses against you The Apprehension of which were there nothing else were enough to deterr from so foul a fact Your own Conscience without other Accuser Witness or Judge will accuse convict and condemn you Nay more it will not only be Accuser Witness and Judge but Executioner too O how it will lash and scourge you both now and hereafter the gripings of it for present are very terrible but the gnawings of it for future will be intollerable It makes a Hell of your Heart here and will be another Hell to your Heart in the midst of Hell hereafter for there the Worm doth no more die than the Fire is quenched This the purblind Heathens were sensible of and represented under the Mythological Fictions of the Livers of Titius and Prometheus continually gnawed upon and eaten up yet without consumption thereof by an Eagle and Vultur Scelerati conscientiâ obstrepente condormire non possunt agitant eos furiae saith Philotas in Curtius Wicked Men cannot sleep in quiet for their Conscience which haunts and terrifies them like Furies In consideration whereof doubtless it was that Pythagoras gave that good and wise Counsel of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That no man should commit any filthiness either with another or alone by himself and that above all others he should stand in awe of himself that is dread and fear his own Conscience which will be privy to all you do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isocrates observes how privately soever you act your Wickedness and out of the Eye and Knowledge of others No more running away from Conscience than from God which lindeed with Menander is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of God to all men that is Gods Viceroy and Deputy as it were placed by him in and over men to see and censure correct and condemn men for their Vices and Wickedness Having then Eyes such and so many as well within you as without you all upon you in every act of filthiness you commit how can you if you but take it into any Consideration be able to do a thing of so much loathsomness in the sight and presence in the view and beholding of so many and those such Eyes Think but of this and think of it well and by the thought of it with the Concurrence of God's Grace you will be able to overcome all Temptations to Lust and to flee Fornication Fifthly Consider of and meditate upon what is behind Let the last Things come into your Thoughts when you are under any Temptation to sin and especially to the sin of Uncleanness of any sort and the thought of them will be mightily conducing towards your preservation from that or any other sin What are they Why they are four Death Judgment Heaven and Hell and the serious Thought of any one of these is enough to give a stop to the Course of any Sinner in the height of his most eager Pursuit and Career to sin Fornicator Adulterer unclean person of any sort Death is behind Thou caust not live for ever here thou must die and die thou mayst thou knowest not how soon even in the very act of thy Uncleanness thou mayst expire and be cut off and O how dismal would thy Condition be if that should befall thee What can befall a man more woful and dreadful than to be catcht and cut off by Death in the very Act of sin And yet how many have been so surprized and seized upon taken and carried away by Death And what hath befaln any may justly be feared by all Remember thy end therefore and be afraid of such an end as this to be cut off at once both for sin and in sin and this will much conduce to a making thee fearful to commit this or any other sin But secondly not Death only but Judgment also is behind Thou Adulterer Fornicator unclean Person thou must not only die but be judged too for thy filthiness and uncleanness after Death For Whoemongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.4 Death will not so hit thee as