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
that is used to make the like Courtship to a common Strumpet But it does not only stab and wound a man's Honour and Reputation but also ruines his Estate Solomon tells in Prov. 29 3. He that keepeth company with Harlots spendeth his substance And in Prov. 6.26 That by means of a whorish Woman a man is brought to a piece of bread And in consideration of that in Prov. 5.10 he exhorts to avoid keeping Company with a strange Woman that is an Whose or Harlot lest strangers be filled with thy Wealth and thy labours be in the house of the Stranger that is lest thou ruine thy Estate and bring thy self to Poverty thereby whilst others in the mean time run away with thy Estate A Proof whereof we have in the Prodigal Son Luke 15. who having gathered all his Substance together took his journey into a far Country and there wasted his Substance with riotous living v. 13. that is he spent all upon Whores Whence it is that in v. 30. his elder Brother tells his Father that his Son had devoured his living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Harlots or Whores And if we had not this Instance we have deplorable Example enough in our Times and Countries every day almost before our Eyes But of this we made mention before in our Discourse upon the Expensiveness of this sin and therefore shall not here much enlarge thereon only we shall note that besides all those ways of Expence whereon we touched before as the Hire of Whores and the Treatments of them Gifts and Presents to them and Bribes to those about them Expence in Diet and Drink Physick or Fees even that carelesness of ones own Estate and Affairs which the following of this sin causes and occasions is enough and enough again to ruin and undo one When the Master attends not to his own Concerns but leaves all at sixes and sevens and is abroad day by day and night by night perhaps Week by Week following his pleasure of Whore-hunting besides that few will regard to preserve his Estate there will be enow ready to counsel and forward to help on that which will tend to his undoing Now to be ruined and undone to be brought from Wealth to Want from Plenty to Poverty is a misery so great in it self and yet so much greater in that the Wickedness by which it is procured renders a man no Object of Pity whilst he is in misery that the sin that brings all this upon a man may well be said to be a mischievous sin it is so ruinous and so undoing But which is more it destroys his Body too it weakens his Strength impairs his Health shortens his Life and hastens his Death How many are suddenly cut off in the midst of their days and in the strength of their years being killed in Dueis or other Quarrels about Whores or in Suppritals with them as Pope John the Thirteenth was by the Husband of a Woman with whom he was found by him in the Act of Adultery and as Zimri was being taken by Phineas in the Act of Fornication with Cozbi Numb 25.8 or by close Stratagems by them or others as Pope John the Eleventh was stiffed with a Pillow by his Strumpet Marozia that her Son might obtain the Popedom In reference to which that of Solomon may be interpreted to be spoken when he tells us of a young Man void of Understanding whom a Harlot with much fair speeches caused to yield to her and forced with the flattering of her Lips and of whom he saith he goeth after her straightway as an Ox to the slaughter or as a Fool to the correction of the Stocks Till a dart strike through his Liver as a Bird he hasteth to the Snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7.6 to 24. And of those that escape such sudden Death yet how many are brought by their filthy doings to filthy Diseases shameful to name loathsom to behold tormenting to endure deadly if not cured in time and both troublesom and chargeable to be cured if a Cure be got so they rot alive and stink above-ground and if they die not upon Dung-hills as some have done yet whilst they live they are but as Dung upon the Earth For besides the Infection which they are apt to take from the diseased pocky Bodies of Whores even their own Lasciviousness and immoderate use of Venery is apt to wast their Spirits and dry up their radical moisture and extinguish natural heat whereby they are brought to Consumptive Diseases which wear them away to untimely Deaths And the fear of something of this nature * See Dr. Patrick ' Paraph. upon the place Solomon thought fit to interpose as an Argument to disswade from this sin when he counsels to avoid the Company of an Harlot lest thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Prov. 5.12 And by which destroying it as well as defiling it the Fornicator sins against his own Body as our Apostle may well be thought to mean in the latter end of the Text the Argument by which he strengtheneth his Exhortation in the beginning of it to flee Fornication Now certainly that which brings upon a man so much evil as in the burning of Diseases or sudden Deaths of Fornication who if not killed by others which is ill yet are generally killed by themselves which is worse that must needs be judged by every rational person to be a very mischievous thing No man sure will ever follow it that hath not a mind to ruine and destroy his own Body to shorten the time of his own Life and procure and hasten on his own Death But this is not all the Mischief it doth For Eighthly It turns him out of the Church Militant and Triumphant First It turns the Fornicator out of the Communion of the Church of Christ on Earth A Fornicator is such as Christ will not have to be a Member of so much as his outward visible Church he will not have such a Person to have any external Communion with him or Relation to him he allows not those that are his Members so much as to have Civil Converse with them if after their having given up their Names to Christ they shall addict themselves to this hearthenish Sin And therefore St. Paul 1 Cor. 5.9 11. wrote unto the Corinthians not to keep company with Fornicators and if any man that is called a Brother should be a Fornicator with such a one no not to eat that is to have no either sacred or so much as civil Converse withal * D. Ambros in loc Cum fratre in quo hoc vitia reperiuntur non sacramenta edenda sed ne communem escam docet ut erubescat cum vitiatur se corrigat And in all the new Jerusalem in that Vision which St. John had of the Church of Christ under that notion Rev. 21 22. or Representation the Evangelist could not
espy one Fornicator They were with Companions like themselves Dogs Sorcerers Murderers and Idolaters in another place without that City Rev. 22.15 that being a place into which there was not in any wise to enter any thing that defileth Rev. 21.27 And Fornication is one of the things that our Saviour declareth to be defiling things Mat. 15.19 20. and so there is no coming for such Persons to nor continuing of such Persons in that Place Now cortainly to be cut off from Communion with the Church of Christ is a mischief great in it self whatever thought of by profane Worldlings For they upon whom the Churches Censure falls in that kind and measure are excluded from the Benefit of the Churches Ordinances the Word and Sacraments the Food of their Souls they are excluded from communicating with the Churches Prayers and having any share in the Blessings sought and obtained by those Prayers they are excluded from inward Union and Fellowship with Christ outed of all relation as Members unto him and so are deprived of the influence of his Spirit into them In a word they are delivered up unto Satan and their Sins so bound on Earth that they are bound also in Heaven not to be loosed either here or there without Repentance and a Desire at least and Endeavour to have Absolution Which Mischief was so dreaded by Offenders in the primitive Times that rather than not to be re-admitted into the Communion again they would continue in the state of Pennance and do the Pennance of Offenders a long time many years standing at the Church-door and lying prostrate on the ground with Prayers and Tears beseeching and begging the Prayers of those that went into the Church And besides all this I might add that even upon Persons that continue obstinate Despisers of this Ecclesiastical Censure and will not be reduced to obedience and brought to Reformation by this Chastisement the Civil Law hath used to fall very heavily in Fines and Imprisonments or both But without and besides this the Church's Censure or Excommunication even allow it and of it self is enough to make any afraid of doing any thing whereby to deserve and incurr it to abstain from and flee Fornication But this is not all for it not only ejects out of the Church of Christ but also excludes out of the Kingdom of God What earthly Possessions soever the Fornicator hath on Earth he is never like to have any Inheritance in Heaven For this ye know saith St. Paul to the Ephesians 5.5 no Whoremonger hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God * D. Ambros in loc Qui talis fuerit partem in regnum coelorum non habebit quod est Patris Filii Hath not doth he say no nor shall have And he saith expresly in his first Epistle to the Corinthians c. 6. v. 9 10. Neither Fornicators nor Adulterers shall inherit the Kingdom of God And so again to the Galatians They who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and Fornication is one of these things Gal. 5 19 20. Now if the Punishment of Loss be greater than the Punishment of Sense as Casuists conclude then inasmuch as the loss of Heaven is the loss of the greatest Good that which brings upon a man that loss does him the greatest mischief that possibly can be done O who is able to imagine what mischief it is to be shut out of Heaven It imports to be shut out from the Enjoyment of the greatest Good that can be desired or imagined from Society with God and Christ and Angels and Saints from all those Joys and Pleasures Delights and Felicities wherewith the Souls of emparadised Persons are bathed and blissed and filled and ravished even into Extasies of most delightful Admiration Now this may be a weighty Consideration to induce the Fornicator if he hath any regard in the least to his own Souls eternal Good to abstain from that Wickedness by the commission whereof he shall forfeit and lose so great a Happiness But this is not the height of this sins mischief for it not only debarrs from Heaven but it damns to Hell plunges the Fornicator into that Lake of Fire and Brimstone which burneth to Eternity So our Apostle in Rev. 21.8 Whoremongers Sorcerers Idolaters Lyars shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death So deep it seems is the silth of this sin that nothing else but Floods of Fire and Brimstone can wash it out and nothing less than Eternity can be time enough even for that to wash it out in Now when to the mischief of Heavens loss is added the mischief of Hells Pain there is nothing that I know that can be added to make it more mischievous And yet such is this sin of Fornication to the Fornicator it debars him from Heaven it damns him to Hell it sends him to those Regions where is Darkness without light Torment without ease Sorrow without end where his Bed he must lie down on shall be a fiery Pile of unconsumable Fuel and the Sheets wherewith he must be inwrapped shall be scorching Flames of that inextinguishable Fire The Consideration of this tremendous Catastrophe of the Fornicator's play this dreadful Punishment which he is like to be condemned to should as any reasonable man would think be enough if any thing can be enough to work with him and perswade him to abstain from the commission of so mischievous a sin and to flee Fornication And yet is not this neither all the Mischief that it doth for hitherto we have spoken only of the Mischief that it doth to the Fornicator himself Secondly There is still a Mischief that it doth to Others besides himself And First It is mischievous to the Woman with whom the sin is committed For first it involves her in the same Guilt of sin with the Fornicator It is not his Temptation that will acquit her from the Guilt of so sinful a Commission To be tempted is no sin but to yield to Temptation to consent to the Tempter to act the thing tempted to that is sinful And indeed the Law of Fornication lay not against the Man only but against the Woman also for it is expresly said Deut. 23.17 There shall be no Whore of the Daughters of the Children of Israel The Fornicator therefore cannot commit this sin alone but he must draw sin by that Act upon another too as well as upon himself and so aggravate still his own more as not having only sinned himself but made another sin too by consenting to and acting that filthiness with him inasmuch as there ought to be no consenting unto the Enticement of Sinners unto Wickedness Prov. 1.10 no partaking with Adulterers Ps 50.18 no having fellowship with the unfruitful Works of darkness Eph. 5.11 And the Woman that hath to do with such Persons in such Actions is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sinner a Person eminently