We must become subject to our Bodies Appetites and Sensual Delights we are then Carnal and sold under Sin and led by the Instigation of our Lusts which first wound our Consciences and afterwards destroy them We by these Degrees fall under the Power and Dominion of Sin and by means of our own vile Affections are led captive by the Devil at his Will This is what the Gospel in several Places teaches and declare to us and however it may seem Strange and Wonderful in the manner of it to those who have a weak Faith and faint Perceptions of things that fall not within the Ken of their Senses it is a Divine and Certain Truth and visibly apparent in its Effects upon the Tempers and Actions of Men. Let it then but once more be consider'd that Fornication Dishonoureth the Body and Defileth those Holy Temples which the Spirit of God has consecrated and set apart for his own Habitation That when we by defiling our Bodies Grieve the Holy Spirit he will abandon and forsake us That for our Resisting and Abusing the Divine Grace of God it will be taken from us Let us but possess our selves with Just Notions of these mischievous and pernicious Consequences and from hence it will be easie to find out what must necessarily be the Thoughts and Dispositions and Inclinations of such Men towards God and Religion The Prophet Hosea iv 11. has plainly taught us what Effects this Sensuality will produce Whoredom and Wine steal away the Heart and it must needs fare with these Men as it did with the Romans for these Disorders viz. that they must be abandoned of God and given up to Vncleanness and the Lusts of their own Hearts to vile Affections and a reprobate Mind to do those things that are not convenient These Men must be entirely under the Conduct of their Corrupt Appetites and Carnal Inclinations They must needs be enslaved to their Lusts and hardned in their Sins and not without great difficulty to be reclaimed because they have at present lost not only their Spiritual Strength but even the principle of good Affections and Desires Nay It is morally impossible that these Men should contain themselves within the bounds of any one single Vice but Iniquity will encrease and the Works of the Flesh and the Lusts of the Body will cloud their Understandings byass their Judgments infect their Minds and debauch their Spirits So that they can hardly refrain but that from the dire Effects of this deadly Sin they must fall into Atheism Profaneness Blasphemy and an Universal Scorn and Contempt of God and Religion This our own Reason from the Doctrines of the Gospel will teach us to conclude must needs happen and every Days Experience will confirm it Atheism and Profaneness are grown to a very great height among us and are become not only scandalous but formidable We are fallen into such an Age as the Roman Historian speaks of in which our vices are intolerable and yet become incurable But consider how long this has been Since Adultery and Fornication have been conniv'd at and exempted from the Censures of the Church and the Punishment of the Civil Magistrates And who are the Men among whom this Tremendous Mystery of Great Iniquity does chiefly work It is among the Sensual and Unclean that live in Adultery and Fornication These are the Men that dispute the Being of a God doubt his Providence over the World and deny the Immorality of the Soul These are they who trample under foot the Son of God and count the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of Grace These chiefly are they that disdain the Thoughts of Divine Revelation and set up the Profane Oracles of false delusive Reason against the Infallible and Holy Oracles of God These are they that blaspheme the name of the Blessed Jesus and profane the Sacred Scriptures that speak of a Saviour with Derision and of Redemption with Scorn that despise Heaven and harden themselves against the Terrors of Hell These are they in whom the God of this World has blinded their Eyes and cast a Vail before their Understandings whereby Sacred and Spiritual Things are become to them imperceptible they know them not neither indeed can they know them for they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. In a word these are they that being swallow'd up in the Desires of the Flesh and Sensual Delights have Stisted all the Gracious Motions of the Spirit have no Taste nor Relish of Divine and Holy Things have therefore denied the Lord that bought them turn'd Apostates from the Faith and labour to make the Doctrines of it ridiculous and its Promises and Threatnings contemptible Nor is it strange that it should be so Religion is against them and therefore in Policy and their own Defence they must set themselves against Religion Christianity threatens Everlasting Burnings and unquenchable Flames as the future Recompence of their present for did Pleasures And they have no way to harden themselves against these Terrors and enjoy tolerable Peace within but by a seared Conscience and an evil Heart of Vnbelief by rejecting the Authority of these Threatnings by calling these Flames Folly and the Gospel that preaches them a Delusion It is now since they will not be reclaim'd become the Interest of such Men and their only Hope of Comfort to perswade themselves that all it says is false And tho the Truth of Religion is attested by very rational and strong and serious Arguments yet when Men have once resolv'd that they will not obey it it then becomes their Wisdom too to resolve that they will not believe it And tho the Infidelity of such Men seems at first Sight much to be wonder'd at Yet not at all when we seriously reflect upon their Actions The greatest Wonder of all would be that Men could live such Lives and yet believe such Doctrines While therefore these Vices are tolerated or conniv'd at that repel Grace destroy the Conscience and make Men implacable Enemies to Religion I doubt it will be in vain to hope for a sufficient Restraint of Blasphemy and Profaneness and wicked Opinions Censures and Punishments may stop Men's Mouths or make them more secret and retired in their Blasphemy But the Gospel of our Salvation will hardly gain much better Veneration and Esteem in the Minds of Men till Adultery Fornication and all those abominable Lusts are restrain'd that debauch Men's Spirits and create this great Aversion and Abhorence of Christianity The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary one to another And therefore it is to be feared that those Men who indulge themselves in the Works of the Flesh will be always inclin'd always endeavouring to ridicule and to deride the Laws of God and the Revelations of his Holy Spirit Erroneous Opinions may do a great deal to encourage
God he is none of his But to add yet more force to these Considerations consider III. Lastly That this Sin in particular is absolutely inconsistent with those Qualifications which the Gospel requires from us as the indispensable Condition of Salvation To this purpose we all know very well that when Christ came into the World to redeem Mankind from Eternal Death he at the same time intended to destroy the Power of Sin in us and call us back from the Perpetration of those Iniquities which had been the Original Occasion of our Misery For this reason together with his Promises of Grace Mercy and Peace he has added several Holy Precepts and Commands and strict Injunctions and Rules of living well which every one who comes into this Covenant and desires to be a Partaker of this Hope is bound to observe And that we might have a due and deep Sense of the Necessity of this Obedience he has inserted it into our Covenant and made it the Indispensable Condition of his Promises without which we have no Hope no Title to any of the Blessings Benefits or Comforts of the Gospel Now among the several Qualifications which the Gospel on this Account requires from us there are those two eminently recommended and strictly exacted that we should be Pure and that we should be Holy So that a sincere Christian needs no better Argument no stronger Proof of the Greatness of this Sin and the danger that attends it than to consider with himself how contrary it is to and how utterly inconsistent with both these Qualifications 1. We are commanded to be Pure Mat. v. 8. Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God And it was St. Paul's Advice to Timothy 1 Tim. v. 22. Keep thy self pure And Phil. iv 8. there are recommended to us whatever things are pure and St. John declares both the Nature and the Necessity of this Purity He that hath this Hope in him must purifie himself as God is pure 1 Joh. iii. 3. Now this word Pure in its natural and proper Signification denotes the being without any Mixture that may make a thing worse than it is in it self The Vessel is said to be pure that is without Soil or Taint and the Wine is said to be pure that is neither mudded by its own Lees nor by any Adulteration From hence it is used in a Moral and Religious Sense for being without those Pollutions and Desilements which make us hateful and unacceptable to our God And tho' under the Law and among the Superstitious Heathens there were many External Defilements yet in the true proper Gospel Sense nothing pollutes nothing makes us unclean and unacceptable to God but what is a Sin contrary to his pure Nature and makes us unfit for his Divine Conversation in Heaven All Sin whatever does thus corrupt and defile and pollute us yet it it remarkable that this sensual Vice is particularly singled out as one of those that has an extraordinary Malignity in this Respect And the repeated Mention of Uncleanness that so frequently occurs in the New Testament is directly levell'd at Adultery Fornication and all unlawful Lusts. Thus St. Paul speaking particularly of the abominable Lewdness of the Romans says of them Rom. i. 24. that God gave them up to Vncleanness through the Lusts of their Hearts And 2 Cor. xii 21. he speaks of those who had not repented of their Uncleanness Fornication and Lasciviousness which they had committed For this reason they are joyn'd together Gal. v. 19. The Works of the Flesh are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness And Col. iii. 5. Fornication Vncleanness Inordinate Affection and evil Concupiscence These are the Defilements and Pollutions which destroy that Purity that Christ has made the Indispensable Condition of our seeing God And in the Language of the New-Testament to be Pure is to be Chaste and Chastity is the Virtue very often particularly intended when the Gospel speaks of Purity 2. We are commanded also to be Holy and Holiness is expresly declared to be that qualification without which no Man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. Now in whatever it is that this Holiness consists it is observable that to avoid and abstain from Fornication makes up one necessary part of it This is undeniably evident from St. Paul 1 Thes. iv 3 c. This is the Will of God or that which he requires from you as the great evidence of your Sanctification That you should abstain from Fornication that every one of you shou'd know how to possess his vessel or body in Sanctification and Honour If therefore the true notion of Holiness shall be found to consist in a Discrimination and Separation from the rest of the World by a nearer relation to God and a more particular Devotion to his Worship and Service it will follow that Gods certain Purpose and Design when he made our Sanctification to oblige us to abstinence from that Vice was thereby to declare that we shou'd Discriminate and Distinguish our selves from the rest of Mankind throughout all the Earth by stricter Rules of Chastity and a more eminent degree of Purity in all our Conversation And all Pretensions to the True Christian Evangelical Holiness are vain and frivolous and trifling in any Man who lives still in Fornication That Uncleanness is for the Gentile World who live in Darkness and are given up to the Lusts of their own Hearts But we have not so learned Christ We are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a Peculiar People beloved and favoured and elected of God that we should show forth the Praises of him who hath call'd us cut of Darkness into his marvellous Light It is therefore no excuse for us to look back upon the corrupt Conversation of former times and the effects of more inferior and imperfect Dispensations For the matter is come to this last issue whether Jesus Christ into whose Name we have been baptiz'd be indeed our Saviour in whom is all our hope of Mercy and Everlasting Peace or whether we look for Salvation in any other If not it concerns us to receive his Gospel as the rule both of Faith and Manners to suffer its Doctrines to determine our Consciences and Judgments and its Precepts and Commands to guide and direct our Lives Whatever other Men do we must cleanse our selves from all Impurity both of Flesh and Spirit we must abstain from fleshly Lusts and flee Fornication or we shall not inherit the Kingdom of God While any Man continues in this wicked Practice he is void of Grace and of the Holy Spirit of God and of that Evangelical Purity and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. I proceed therefore III. Lastly To speak a little of the natural Turpitude of this Sin and the mischievous Evils and Consequences that attend it And were Men but sincere and impartial in their Enquiries into Truth it were easie to shew that this Law
has a Title in and a just Authority over them So that the Foundation of this Pretence is delusive and vain As Creatures of God we must be subject to his Dominion and as the Redeemed of Christ we must receive from him what Laws Injunctions and Commands he pleases 1 Cor. vi 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a Price therefore glorifie God both in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's Right and Property And this is the very same thing that he urged v. 13 14. Now the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body i. e. Christ was raised from the Dead that he might raise us also to Immortality and therefore we are bound not to live unto our selves by giving up our Bodies to Pleasure in the Lusts of the Flesh but to devote our selves to the Service of that Great God who made us and to the Obedience of Christ who died to expiate our Guilt 2. He argues in the next place from the great Uncomeliness and Indecency of this Practice in Consideration of our close and near Relation to Christ v. 15 16. Know you not that your Bodies are Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid c. In which Words he declares what our Liturgy has truly and properly express'd that we Christians are one with Christ and Christ with us And that Union is not only in the way of Polity Ecclesiastical as we are Members of his Church and intitled to the Spiritual Privileges and Offices thereof but in a much Nobler and Diviner Sense He has taken upon him our Flesh and he has communicated to us his Spirit and this Spirit is the Bond and Medium of that Unity betwixt us For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body 1 Cor. xii 13. And as the Soul of Man is the Foundation of Life and of Vital Union in all the Members of the Body so is the Spirit of God the Foundation and common Principle of Spiritual Life and Grace in all true Christians whatsoever And as certainly as Jesus Christ has taken on him our true and real Flesh so certainly has the same Christ communicated to us of that Holy Spirit which abides in him For which reason our Apostle says v. 17. He that is join'd to the Lord is one Spirit with him and Rom. viii 9. If any Man hath not the Spirit of God he is none of his Now having instructed the Corinthians in this Doctrin he recommends it to their own Serious Consideration how Unseemly and Shameful and Unworthy it is for Men in so near a Relation to God and so close an Alliance to the Son of God to have Fellowship and Union with the most Infamously Vile and Detestable of all Human Creatures Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid This is an Evil that ought not to be done This is scandalous and abominable He appeals to the common Sentiments of Mankind It must be preposterous and absurd to pretend Union with Christ and to profess that Union the Foundation of our Hope of Mercy and Salvation by him and at the same time to consociate with the most hateful of all Creatures by a Vice forbidden under the Penalty of everlasting Condemnation The very Nature of God who is Holiness and Light and in whom there is mo Darkness at all is a sufficient Proof how disagreeable all such sinful Practices are how offensive how hateful and how dangerous 3. He argues from the great Dishonour which a Man does hereby to his own Body He debases and reproaches himself He becomes one Flesh with such a Person as he is ashamed to own his Relation to and for which all Mankind besides will despise him tho' he does not scorn and loath himself He becomes in every sence polluted and defiled Every other Sin that a Man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body The Prophane is injurious to God and the Fraudulent to his Brother and the Mischief of all other Sins falls first at a distance from ones self But the Mischief of Fornication falls more immediately on the Offenders own Head his own Body is debased in the very Trespass he has committed Nay the Apostle has improv'd this Consideration from the former and tells us that by the Residence of that Holy Spirit within us our Bodies are so honour'd by Almighty God as to be esteem'd and valued as his Temples Places of his Residence dedicated to his Use and devoted to his Service v. 19. Know you not that your Bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and which you have of God And again 1 Cor. iii. 16. Know you not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you From whence he takes occasion to warn them of the Danger of dishonouring of themselves by Fornication because v. 17. If any Man desile the Temple of God him will God destroy For the Temple of God is holy which Temple are ye These are the Arguments which St. Paul makes Use of to convince and to dissuade all Christians from this Vice These indeed are Christian Arguments founded upon Christian Doctrines and Spiritual Reflections but of very great Force and not at all to be despis'd For this Union with Christ by the means of his Spirit is one of the great Priviledges of a Christian one of the great Benefits of our Redemption and our only Hope of Mercy and Peace and Comfort and Reconciliation thro' his Blood Does then Fornication break off this close Alliance with Christ destroy this Union that is to the Soul in a Spiritual Sense like loping off an Arm or a Leg from the natural Body 'T is alienating the Man from Christ and cutting off all his Hope of Reconciliation in him 'T is in effect rejecting him from the Covenant of Grace and blotting out his Name from the Book of Life Again does St. Paul say that by Fornication a Man dishonoureth his own Body and desileth those Temples which God has consecrated to himself to be the Habitations of his Holy Spirit God who has punish'd the Pollutions of his Temple at Jerusalem with the Death of the profane Offender will certainly punish the defiling these living Temples with Eternal Death and the most dire Effects of his severest Vengeance and Indignation Besides in desiling the Habitation of God's Holy Spirit we must grieve that Spirit and resist and repel it and drive it away from the intended place of its Residence and Abode And how can a Practice be either innocent or safe that so provokes our God that we become abandon'd of the true Principle and Foundation of all Grace Spiritual Life and Sanctification Especially when St. Paul has so solemnly declar'd That if any Man have not the Spirit of
teach it better Principles than its Parents had Nor is it easie to imagin that the Parents themselves shou'd do much better in this Affair It may be they have not yet repented of their own Iniquity and if not it is hard to believe that they shou'd have any great Zeal to implant Grace in others who stiffle and extinguish it in themselves But suppose they have how will they set about a Work that shall bring afresh into their Minds all the Shame and Terror and Confusion that first followed the Commission of that Sin The Sense of their own Shame will stop their Mouths and the Rebukes of their Consciences Divert their Purpose and Prevent their Good Design So that tho' other Parents may be careless and negligent in the Instruction and Tuition of their Children these lie under almost a Fatal and Inevitable Necessity of this Neglect And who knows what great what irreparable and it may be Everlasting Mischiefs this one Calamitous Misfortune may be the Cause of Or how little is it to be wondred at if such a Shameful Spurious Brood inherit the Vices of their Parents and become Persons of Reprobate Minds and given up to Vile Affections and abominable Lusts What is to be expected from such wicked Practices but a Propagation of Vice and Naughtiness and an horrid Increase in great Iniquities that without some extraordinary Operation of Divine Grace and Mercy brings the whole Generation to Everlasting Misery and Torments These are Notorious Instances of the lamentable Evils and Mischievous Consequences of this Sin But 2. The Mischiefs of it falls oftentimes upon the Offenders themselves as well as upon their Offspring and Posterity And that in the first Place in their Credit and Character and Reputation As to Female Prostitutes they even by the Heathens themselves have ever been esteemed the most Infamous and Profligate And tho' Men are generally of a less tender Fame and Credit yet so inseparable and unalienable is Shame from Sin and Vice that neither the Commonness of the Practice nor the Authority of great Examples nor all the Pleas and Apologies that are alleged for its Excuse can give it Credit and Reputation And those who are almost ready to be Advocates for it yet in the Commission of it are generally sollicitous to be conceal'd and that not only from the Sober and Pious and Grave but from others of the same ill Life and Conversation And many of these who have made a shift to harden their Hearts and sear their Consciences against the Guilt of it find it yet very difficult after all to harden their Foreheads too against the Shame and Scandal And tho' in a very Wicked and Degenerate Age yet there is no Man of what Rank soever that continues in this Sin and refuses to be reclaimed but it will prove a Blemish to him and a Scandal to any Dignity Office or Character that he bears And tho' in Civility and Good Manners he may not discover this by any outward visible Disrespect yet he must lose considerably in the inward Veneration and Esteem of Men. Nor does it often fare better with these Sinners in their Estates of which besides the Evidence of Reason we have the Confirmation of almost every Days Experience How often do such Men Ruine and Waste their Substance and at last become Poor and Despicably Miserable Thus it fared with these Offenders above two thousand Years ago Nor has Time or Experience been able to teach such Men to escape the Mischief any other way but by abstaining from the Sin Keep thee from the Evil Woman from the Flattery of the Tongue of a strange Woman Lust not after her Beauty in thine Heart Neither let her take thee with her Eye lids for by means of a Whorish Woman a Man is brought to a Piece of Bread Prov. vi 24. c. And Prov. v. 8 9 10. Remove thy way far from a strange Woman and come not nigh the Door of her House lest thou give thine Honour unto others and thy Years unto the Cruel Lest Strangers be filled with thy Wealth and thy Labour be in the House of a Stranger and thou mourn at the last when thy Flesh and thy Body are consumed Agreable to which is that Advice to the Son of Syrach Eccles ix 16. Give not thy Soul unto Harlots that thou lose not thine Inheritance I may very pertinently add here to all the former Mischiefs the Pernicious Effects of this Sin to the Bodies of those that live in it who frequently impair their Health and wast their Strength and it may be dye Infamous Martyrs to their Lusts by the Rottenness of their Bones and the Venemous Infection of a Noisom Scandalous Disease But I am unwilling to enlarge upon so Loathsome and Odious a Subject And yet methinks 't is no small Evidence no trifling Indication of God's great Displeasure against this Sin that he has entail'd a Curse and a Calamitous Distemper even to Rottenness and Putrefaction so peculiarly upon Adultery and Fornication that it is not to be brought upon any of Mankind but one of these Detestable Iniquities must be the Original Cause of it But I pass by all these things with transient Reflections Not that they are in themselves either small or inconsiderable for an Infamous and a Wicked Posterity a Reproachful Character a Beggar'd Fortune and an Infected Body are all of them very great and sore Calamities But because there are greater Evils and Consequences more pornicious and more justly to be lamented yet behind I mean 3. Lastly The Spiritual Mischiefs and Miserable Consequences to the Soul in Grieving the Holy Spirit of God and repelling his Divine Grace which is the true Fountain of Christian and Spiritual Life in us and the Blessed Author of our Sanctification This is an Evil which a very little Consideration will convince us is inseparable from this Vice and from Adultery And at the same time more deplorable than all the Evils that can befal our Credit Estate or Life because these ill Effects will follow Men thro' the Grave and make them Miserable to all Eternity For the clearing what I intend on this Head let it be remember'd that I have already shewn that our Union with God and Christ is by the Mediation of that Holy Spirit which Resides and makes its Abode within us That this is the Principle of Grace and all manner of Goodness in us that to the joint Operation of this Holy Spirit with our Spirits we owe both our good Affections and Desires and also our Strength and Power to do what is Virtuous and Good That therefore according to the Proportion of God's Spirit in us and our own Care to Cherish and Improve it Such will be the Temper and Disposition of our Souls and the Degrees of Goodness and Holiness in us And that by consequence upon the Want and Deprivation of this Spiritual Assistance we must lose both our Inclinations and our Power of being Religious