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
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
to make an end of thee it will but seize on thee like a Serjeant and imprison thee until the general Goal-delivery at the end of the World and then it will bring thee forth to Tryal and so and in such a case as it found thee it will bring thee forth to the great Tribunal and present thee to be judged by the great God and righteous Judge of quick and dead in the sight of Men and Angels Who would not tremble and be amazed to think of it that he should be brought forth and made appear in such an Assembly as will be at that great Assize at the end of the World in that Condition that he is in when he is in the act of his lewdness and in all the Circumstances of his filthiness O think of it that in such condition you may be brought into that Assembly and cannot possibly be assured but that in that Condition you shall be brought into it And such a Thought if well ruminated upon may be highly conducible to the prevailing with men to flee Fornication Yet thirdly there 's Heaven behind And Oh what have I said when I said Heaven Why I said a Place and a State of Pleasure Joy Glory and Happiness beyond all that the World hath or ever had or was so much as said or thought fancied or imagined by any man in it As it is written in 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The Poets Elysian Fields the Garden of Aloadine the Paradise of Mahomet are yea the Eden of God in this World was nothing to it The summ of it is full enjoyment of highest Blessedness without interruption or abatement to all Eternity But who is this for Why for the Godly and amongst them for those that possess their Vessel unto Sanctification and in Honour that defile not themselves with Women For neither Fornicators nor Adulterers nor Idolaters nor effeminate Persons nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. And therefore think of this when at any time you are tempted to Uncleanness and say Shall I for the love of a Whore lose my Heaven lose my Happiness Can the pleasure of all the Beauties in the World had I the Enjoyment of them all countervail the loss of Heaven Is not one days fruition of Heavens Joys beyond a Year yea a life spent it bruitish Pleasures If ye would but remember and shew your selves men and act according to right reason you would conclude Heaven too good to be forfeited upon so silly a Consideration as the Pleasure which Bruits have one with another and so would by that Consideration be mightily fortified against the Temptations which you may be assaulted with to uncleanness and much enabled to abstain from all the sins of the flesh and to flee Fornication Lastly There is Hell behind O what is that Why a Place and State of perfect Misery where is an utter deprivation of all Comfort and an exquisite infliction of bitterest Torment where is weeping and wailing and gnashing to Teeth where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched where the damned are implunged into a Lake of Fire and Brimstone that burneth to Eternity for ever living in the Extremities of the most dolorous and tormenting Pains And who are to be turned into this Why the Wicked and amongst the rest Fornicators Adulterers and such like Defilers of the Image of God and Members of Christ and Temple of the Holy Ghost There in that Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone is their part set out to be Rev. 21.7 And this shall they have at Gods hand for their Wickedness that they shall lie down in Sorrow and burn in the Sparks of their own kindling for evermore Now certainly if this were well thought of and considered by any man that were under Temptation to uncleanness he would never be so far overcome with the Lust so as to commit the sin What shall I go to Hell for a Whore Have I a mind to be damned for a Doxie Shall I plunge my self into Fire and Brimstone there to lie and burn and roar to all Eternity for the little short nasty Pleasure which is had in the Embraces of a Strumpet Thus thus at any time when you come under the Temptations of Lust call to mind and meditate a while upon this and all the other three last things Death and Judgment and Heaven and you will by Gods Grace be so wrought on in that Meditation and Consideration that you will both fly the Acts and detest the Thought of any such thing and abstain from all appearance of that evil Sixthly Consider and meditate upon the Purity Passion and Love of Christ There is Argument in all to perswade to Continency and Chastity It was a life of Purity that Christ led there was not the least Unchastity either acted syllabled or imagined done said or thought by him And his Life is that great Exemplar which we are to copy out in our Conversation He that saith he ahideth in him ought himself to walk as he walked When therefore you are at any time under Temptation to this sin thus say with and to your selves And is this to be Partaker of Christ's Holiness Is this to be conformable to Christ's Purity Did he ever any thing of or like to this kind of acting Was he either a Deflowerer of Maids or a Corrupter of Wives an Actor of or a Tempter to Uncleanness Where read ye any thing of his gallanting it to Ladies or so much as amorous courting or be-complementing of Women To think then how unsuitable such acting is unto the Conversation of Christ and how disagreeing with his Purity all manner of filthiness is may be one good Consideration to restrain us from all Impurity and to perswade to retain our Chastity Again Bitter was the Passion that Christ suffered Scoffs and Scorns Staves and Whips Nails and Thorns in one word the Cross the ignominious cruel and accursed Death on that he endured But what was all this for Why to redeem us from the guilt of sin that we might not be damned after our Repentance for what had passed before our repenting and not that only but to redeem us also from the filth of sin that being made whole by his Stripes we should sin no more So the Apostle expresly He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Tit. 3.14 And now did Christ suffer for all and so for this sin of ours and shall we again do that that he suffered for Shall we bring upon our selves that Guilt and Filth which he shed his precious Blood to cleanse us from How shall we not only render his Passion fruitless and in vain as to any good to our selves by it but
their Words their Gestures have Mischief in them and are mighty to corrupt If a Man touch Pitch he shall be defiled therewith Ye may sooner hope to converse with Persons that have the Plague and not be infected by them than to converse with persons given to lascivicusness and escape being corrupted and debauched among them their evil Words will corrupt your good Manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Menander To converse with those that are naught is the way for you to become naught your self For as Seneca saith Malignas comes quamvis candido fimplici rubiginem suam affricat An ugly-condition'd Companion rubs the Rust of his own Malignity upon him that is otherwise fair-condition'd and plain-hearted and infects him with it With Wolves a man shall become to howl and with Cripples to halt such Company such Companions But of all ill Companions lascivious ones are the worst like People that have the Plague on them they desire and delight love and long to draw in others into the same Puddle and Sink of filthiness with themselves to infect and poison them with the Venom of their own Vice to debauch and corrupt them into the same lewdness of manners that themselves are guilty of Therefore as you would avoid the sin of Fornication so avoid society with Fornicators 2. Avoid all Communication and Commerce with Women of wanton Carriage and Conversation No Danger more dangerous than that Women however accounted the weaker Vessel overthrew Sampson the strongest and Solomon the wisest Mars and Jupiter the highest and strongest of Heathen Gods Their Arts to seduce are powerful and prevailing their Temptations subtil and piercing their Blandishments delicate and melting their Words are charming their Looks inchanting their Kisses killing their Hairs are Snares to take their 〈◊〉 are Fetters to hold and their Glancings are Darts to destroy their Prey their very niceness and shiness and coyness are inflaming What then are their direct and downright inticings courtings and tempting but enraging and undoing And therefore if you preserve your Christity you must avoid such venerous female Society Prudent and exemplary was the carriage of Joseph in this case as it is set down in Gen. 39.10 whenno saying of his wanton tempting Mistress nay would serve her turn he then avoided her presence and hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her So must you do if you mean to escape being ruined by them Chastity among such persons is as a Ship among Rocks the first it touches upon it splits Have therefore no unnecessary Commerce with them no private Talks and Whispers in the Company of others no close Communications alone by your selves touch them not with Lip or Hand as you mean not to be taken and defiled with them there 's Pitch and Birdlime in their Lips and Fingers and Itch of Amorousness of Skin all over and ye may as well hope to take Fire in your Bosom and hug a Flame without being burnt as to admit a rude Woman within your Embraces and not be all on fire within with the heat of Lust Omnibus igitur modis lascivae mulieris vitandus occursus est D. Ambros in Apolog. Dand. In a word neither in presence nor at distance by speaking or writing either make Courtship or Complement to them or have any Converse or hold any Correspondence with them but utterly fly them and avoid them as Dragons in the Shapes or rather as Devils in the Bodies of Women and with the Tongues and Faces of Virgins In that shape as Beâ—â— fancies the Old Serpent deceived our first Parents and with that shape he continues to this day to destroy their Posterity For as Solomon in his Proverbs c. 5. v. 3 c. saith The lips of a strange Woman drop as a Honey-comb and her mouth is smoother than Oyl But her end is bitter as Wormwood sharp as a two-edged Sword Her feet go down to Death her steps take hold of Hell Thither at last she goes her self and thither she sends and carries many more Fesides her To put many things together for brevity sake avoid the speaking of any wanton Words and if possible the hearing of any spoken also the reading of any lascivious Books or Verses singing or hearing sung any filthy obscene Ballads and Songs also the beholding of any impure Sights either of shameful Parts and Actions themselves or the Pictures of them and to be an Actor in or a Spectator of any wanton Plays or Shows * Salvian l. 6. Balls or Dances or other lascivious Revels which by the garish Dresses amorous Words and wanton Gestures used therein do not only instruct but stir up to Uncleanness Cato tho a wise Man yet a meer Heathen would not endure to be a Beholder of such Wantonries in the Floral Plays but rather chose to avoid the Theater O these things that I have now mentioned are the great and common Bane of Modesty the Ruine of Chastity the Debauch and Corruption of the Manners of all both Gentry and Commonalty they are Satan's Artillery which he levels at and shoots against and batters down our Integrity withal or rather they are Matches dipt in the Brimstone of the Fire of Hell for the enkindling and enflaming us with Lust to the consuming and destroying of our Chastity In a word they are those sweet Baits with which the Devil baits his Hooks and takes the precious Souls of men captive first drawing them by those Pleasures to sin and then dragging them for their sin to damnation Have you beheld an ugly Spider spin a fine and curious Web and take his Prey and draw it into his Hole and then devour it Ye have seen an Image of the foul Devils laying these pleasing and delightful Snares and catching Souls therein and haling them to Hell and there destroying of them And if ye like not the end of that Sport then have nothing to do in the beginning of the Play as ye would preserve your Bodies pure from unchast Defilements and both Souls and Bodies safe from the Damnation of Hell for being defiled so avoid these Occasions of Provocation to lust after strange Flesh and to commit the sin of Fornication Fifthly Avoid those Vices and subdue those Passions which inwardly dispose to lustfulness and incite to ‖ Vid. D. Patrick's Paraph. upon the place Fornication such as Pride Anger Covetousness Idleness Curiosity Drunkenness and Gluttony for which see Prov. 23. 1. Pride that disposeth a man to think very goodly of himself that he deserves to be the Object of all Eyes and Hearts and so that he hath a commanding Power over all Womens Affections so that he can but ask their good Wills and have their Consents as if it were an Honour to be his Whore and a happiness to them that they may have the fruition of such an Enjoyment and this puts him first upon tempting others and then betrays him to be tempted and overcome by others himself And besides