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
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 11. By W. B. M. A. Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.4 LONDON Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1690. TO THE READER Courteous Reader THese Sermons being Occasional and evident by Matter of Fact that some were guilty in the Matter whereof this Book treats I thought good to Discourse of this Sin of Fornication opening the Nature of the Sin and displaying the greatness of its Guilt to the intent that those who are guilty of it may be brought to Repent and those that are not guilty may take Warning and avoid it In doing which I had no other Design but that of the greatest Charity to their Souls and the Discharge of my own Duty and Conscience as not willing to have the Blood of any upon my Head nor their Souls required at my Hand for I dread that Threatning of God Ezek. 33.8 When I say unto the wicked O wicked Man thou shalt surely dye if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked Man from his way that wicked Man shall dye in his iniquity but his Blood will I require at thine Hands And this Sin being so common and general throughout this Kingdom I thought these Discourses might be necessary to be published for the benefit of the poorer sort and vulgar Capacities especially because I knew of none that had published any thing of this Nature since his Sacred Majesties Letter to the Bishop of London where this Sin of Fornication amongst other particular Vices are ordered to be Preached against by the Clergy And I heartily pray to God this Discourse may be effectual for the turning of many Souls unto Holiness of Life that have been guilty of this Sin of Fornication and that they may keep themselves clean and undefiled Members of Christs Body is the hearty Prayer of Thy Servant in Christ THE CONTENTS SPiritual Fornication its unlawfulness and sinfulness discoursed from p. 2. to 10. Corporal Fornication what p. 10 11. We are to avoid it in Action and Affection p. 12 13. Motives for the flying this sin are 1. The sinfulness of it as being charged with many aggravations p. 14. 1 It is a sin against the Dictates of right Reason Humane Charity Christian Purity p. 15. 2 Against a mans own Body as anothers p. 18 3 Against all the Persons of the Sacred Trinity p. 17 4 And is punished with the Judgment of God Excommunication out of the Church Militant and Triumphant and Condemnation to Hell Torments p. 19 20. 2. The shamefulness of this sin in every Circumstance of it p. 20 21 22 3. The Slavery of it p. 23 24 4. The Chargeableness of it in many respects p. 25 26 5. The Vnprofitableness of it p. 26 27 6. It is Mischievous unto the Fornicator and others also ibid. First Vnto the Fornicator himself It cuts him off from the favour of God p. 27. Ou ts him of the Protection of Angels p. 28. Dispossesses him of the Spirit and Grace of God p. 29 30. Wounds his Conscience p. 31. Distracts him in Religious Duties bereaving him of Judgment and Spirit and Freedom p. 32 33. Deprives him of his Peace and Quiet p. 35. Blasts his Credit Ruines his Estate Destroys his Body p. 36 37 38. Turns him out of the Church Militant and Triumphant and damns to Hell p. 39 40 41. Secondly It is mischievous to the Woman with whom the sin is committed involving her into the same Guilt Shame and Punishment p. 42 43 Thirdly To the Child unlawfully begot being murthered or starved and incapable of Inheritance p. 44.45 Fourthly Vnto Christian Religion the Church of Christ Vniversal throughout the World and this particular Church and Kingdom p. 46 47 48 49 Directions for the flying this sin p. 50 First Is to marry p. 53. Secondly Quench the first Motions of Lust p. 54. Thirdly Avoid temptation p. 55. Fourthly All occasions to this sin p. 57. Fifthly All Vices that incite to Lust as Pride Anger c. from p. 59 to 65. Sixthly Exercise Mortifications of the Body as Fastings c. p. 65. Seventhly Meditate on such things as may withhold you from the Commission of this Sin as the Falls of some and Constancy of others p. 67. Consider what the thing is you lust after p. 68. Think that the Eye of God the Presence of Satan the Angels of God see you p. 70 71 72 73. and your own Conscience will condemn you ibid. Meditate on what is behind Death Judgment Heaven and Hell p. 74 75 76. Meditate on the Purity Passion and Love of Christ p. 77 78. Lastly Prayer p. 79 A TREATISE OF FORNICATION UPON 1 Cor. VI. xviii Flee Fornication THESE Words are the Apostle Saint Paul's Exhortation to the Christians of Corinth to avoid unlawful carnal Copulation and have in them two things I. A Sin to be avoided and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fornication II. A Precept for the avoiding of that Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flee it From whence we observe this point of Doctrine That it is the Duty of all Men but especially of all Christians to flee Fornication Upon which I purpose with Gods Assistance to do these things 1. To shew what the Sin is which we are to fly 2. How it is that we are to fly that Sin 3. To present you with some Considerations by way of Motive to press on the flying of this Sin 4. To prescribe you some Directions for the flying of it 1. I begin with the first What the Sin is which the Apostle here exhorts to fly and that is Fornication And here before we define the Thing to be avoided it may not be amiss to distinguish of the Name of the Sin which we are to avoid There is a twofold Fornication a Spiritual and a Corporal Fornication The first Spiritual Fornication St. Bernard defines thus Spirituè fornicatio est desecto Deo adhaerere Diabolo Spiritual Fornication is a forsaking of God and an adhering to the Devil As they do that worship not the true God but Stocks and Stones Images of Wood and Stone yea or of Gold and Silver or whatever other Materials and in short it is the same with that and all one with the Sin of Idolatry Hence it is said of Jerusalem that is the People and Inhabitants of it in Jerem. 3.9 that through the lightness of her whoredom she defiled the land and committed adultery with stocks and stones that is had worshipped Images and Idols in which sense also we are to understand her playing of the harlot spoken of v. 6 8. So in Ezek. 16. Thou hast also taken the fair Jewels of my gold and of my silver which I had given thee and madest to thy self images of men and didst commit whoredom with them that is thou didst fall down and worship them
and highly sinful Luke 7.37 And how can she but be a great Sinner who is an Actor in that which in the Scripture is called a great Wickedness Gen. 39.9 And after this sin committed it brings upon her Shame if a Maid it robs her of her Glory which was her Virginity if a Widow it robs her of her Honour which was her Integrity In Levit. 19.29 it is said Do not prostitute thy Daughter to cause her to be a Whore What in the Text is read prostitute in the Margent is profane So Lev. 21.17 the Priest was not to take a Wife that was a Whore or profane so also v. 9. so that to be a Whore is to be a profane Woman her Whoredom is a Profanation to her When Tamar had a mind to deceive her Father-in-law she covered her self with a vail and wrapped her self and sate in an open place And when Judah saw her he thought her to be an Harlot because she had covered her face Gen. 38.14 15. The thing as it would seem by this was in those days so shameful that she that acted it was ashamed to show her face when she did it both before and after the doing of it In our Laws the shame of the Fact lights on the Woman as well as the Man who is to be a publick Spectacle to all Beholders whether in Church or Market as well as the Man The very Name of a Whore which she gets unto her self thereby hath so much of Shamefulness and Reproach Dishonour and Disgrace in it as nothing can have more No greater filth can be thrown upon any than what is comprehended in that Name worse cannot well be said of a Woman than that she is a Whore 't is all Shame in one Word And therefore mischief abundance he doth to a Woman that brings her under that Shame And which is consequent to her Shame it brings upon her Punishment or if you will other Punishment besides the Shame If the Daughter of any Priest profaned her self by playing the whore she was to be burned with Fire Lev. 21.9 If the Daughter of any other person did it she was to be stoned to death Thus runs the Law in that Case Deut. 22.21 They shall bring out the Damosel to the door of her Fathers house and the men of the City shall stone her with Stones that she die because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore in her Fathers house The Adulteress as well as the Adulterer was surely to be put to death Lev. 20.10 If a Bond-maid were found guilty in this Case tho she was not to be put to death because she was not free yet she was to be scourged Lev. 19.20 So sharp Punishment was the female Offender in this kind to undergo by the Law and there is no exemption from Punishment for them in the Gospel but Fornicators of what Sex soever are to be thrown out of the Church to be shut out of Heaven and to be turned into Hell as we have already shown in the former part of this Discourse This sin is as mischievous to the Woman with whom it is committed as well as to the Man that commits it with her Secondly It is mischievous to the Child that is if any be got by such sinful Copulation The Schoolmen make this sin of Fornication simple Fornication to be a deadly sin and that in such measure that * Tom. 2. sol 11. c. 7. Peraldus a Papist concludes That if one who had never before sinned in Thought Word or Deed but had done all the good that could be imagined should once and but once commit this sin ex necessitate damnabitur he must of necessity be damned if he die without Repentance Insomuch that if all the Masses that ever shall be said by the Church to the Worlds end should be said for him non liberarent eum à morte eternâ they could not deliver him from eternal Death which they may do well by the way to take notice of that make so light a matter of this deadly sin as is commonly made of it Now if we enquire into the ground of the deadliness of this sin we shall find it placed by them in the mischievousness of it to the Children of Fornication ‖ 22 dae q. 159. a. 3. Fornicatio simplex cum contra bonum educendae prolis sit its illicit a est ut etiam sit â—â—thale crimen This is the Conclusion of Aquinas in the Case Simple Fornication inasmuch as it is against the good of the Off-spring to be brought forth is so unlawful as that it is a deadly sin There is not that care ordinarily in Fornicators for the preserving and providing for their Children begotten in and born of Fornication that Nature obliges all Parents to take and have of their Off-spring and then doth this sin become unto the Committers of it a deadly sin And to look a little nearlier into this business How many Children so begotten are by one means or other stifled in their Mother's Womb and murdered before they are born or expelled thence before the time to bring forth and so killed in their very Birth Again How many of them to hide the Infamy and Shame of their Birth are by the Hands of the very Mothers of them strangled or drowned or otherwise destroyed as soon as they are born We need not go so far for instance as to the Popes Ponds out of which six thousand murdered Infants Skulls were taken How seldom is there an Assize with us wherein there are not some or other arraigned for such Facts as these the Murthers of Bastards Again how many of them are if not at first violently strangled to death yet afterwards leisurely starved to death and quite lost for want of looking after Tho some do yet not very many of them live to be Men and Women The Mother is ashamed of it and tho she hath not a Heart out-right to kill it or hath no mind to be hanged for killing of it yet wishes it dead and is wanting in affording it means of Health and Life And the Father as not being certain that it is his for she that is false with one may be so with another and so none that hath to do with her can be assured that it is his more than anothers he hath no affection for it takes little or no care for the Maintenance and Education of it and so it seldom thrives and comes to good The sight of it is the remembrance of its Parents sin and a renewal of the shame and therefore they ordinarily have neither that love to it nor care of it that Parents have or ought to have to and for the Fruit of their Bodies so that wanting the Effects of that Love and Care it commonly dwindles away until it die Yet again if it live it becomes incapable of Inheritance until it be legitimated by Act of Parliament and so is disinherited before it be
that 's a time both for God to visit upon the Inhabitants their Iniquity and for the Earth also because of their Iniquity to vomit and spue out the Inhabitants Lev. 18.25 28. A smart instance there is of Gods Wrath against a Nation for this sin in Numb 25.1 c. Israel began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab and they called the people unto the Sacrifices of their Gods wherein all filthiness and lewdness was committed and even as a part of the Religion and thereupon all the Heads of the people are commanded to be taken and hanged up before the Lord by Moses and the Judges of Israel are commanded to slay every one his men that were joyned to Baal-peor so that there were form and twenty thousand that died of that Plague which beake in upon them upon that occasion which was stayed by the Execution of Zimri and Cozbi slain by Phineas in his Zeal thrusting him and her thorough the Belly with his Javelin as they lay together in the Tent. Oh 't is a Nation ruining a Land destroying because a Land defiling sin this sin of Fornication And no doubt but the many Judgments that have been long and heavy upon us whereby we have been brought to great desolation and even to the brink of the Pit of utter Destruction have faln upon us in a very great measure for this impudent beastly sin of Fornication which hath spread it self throughout the whole Land so that there is scarce a a Town in the Kingdom that hath not been more or less defiled with it And oh not how many only but how great Persons also are notoriously known to be guilty of it who make that to be their Glory which should be their Shame sinning like Absolom on the top of the House and in the sight of the Sun with a Face of Brass and Heart of Flint being neither sorry for it nor ashamed of it God in mercy in his due time convince them of it and convert them from it By this now it appears how mischievous this sin even of simple Fornication is even unto others also besides the Fornicator himself But now where the Fornication is not simple but is committed with Persons that live in Wedlock there besides all the mischiefs and those in a higher measure and degree as the sin is in a higher measure and degree more sinful there are other Mischiefs also that come thereby O the vexation of that Man or Woman who is possessed with the Spirit of * They that would see the terrible effects of Jealousie let them read St. Chrysoftom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25. Jealousie upon such occasions What Brawls what Quarrels what fightings betwixt Man and Wife and betwixt Neighbour and Neighbour and betwixt Rival and Rival are occasioned hereby Yea how much sin is this many times the occasion of what lying and swearing and cursing and railing is there about it Here one hangs himself for grief at his Wive's Disloyalty there another poysons her Husband or drowns her self out of rage for her Husband's Dishonesty Here a Husband turns Whoremaster to cry quit with his Wife and there a Wife turns Whore to cry quit with her Husband I know not whether more foolishly or more wickedly chusing rather to hazard the Damnation of their own Souls than not to be revenged on the other for their unfaithfulness with their Bodies It were small to say how ready a way this makes and what a wide Sluce it opens for the Estate and Livelihood to run out at and for Ruine and Destruction to run in Grace and Glory Heaven and Happiness are forfeited by it Sin and Misery Hell and Damnation are incurred through it Now when unto the Sin and Shamefulness and Toilsomness and Expensiveness of this sin there is yet further added this Consideration of the great Mischievousness of it and that so many ways not only to the Fornicator himself but to the Wife and Child of Fornication yea to Christian Religion it self and the Church of Christ both the Universal throughout the World and this Particular within this Kingdom and even to the whole Nation and Kingdom it self what can be said what can be thought that may be added to beget in a man a greater Detestation of this sin and stronglier incline him to obey this Command of God given by his Apostle in the Text which is to flee Fornication God bless what hath hitherto been done that it may be effectual to that in those that shall read it And thus I have dispatched the third thing designed by me to be done upon this Point which was to give you some Considerations by way of Motive to press on to the flying of this Sin IV. I shall now proceed to the fourth and last thing which is To give you some Directions for the flying of it But before I begin with my Directions it may not be amiss by the way to consider whether that which the Directions tend to the flying of Fornication be a thing feasible that it may be done or no if it be a thing that a man may fly then it may be to purpose to give Directions for the flying of it But if it be a thing that a man cannot fly then all the Directions that can be given will be in vain and it will be but lost-labour to speak of them And it is no needless Inquiry this because there are Persons that seek to justifie their Commission of this sin by the impossibility of their abstaining from its Commission Now in the first place I cannot understand why our Apostle should enjoyn the Corinthians here to flee Fornication if it were a thing a man cannot flee Doth the Spirit of God give any unnecessary Prescriptions or Christ impose any impossible Injunctions How then is Christ's yoke easie and his burden light Yea how are his Commandments any other but grievous What chusing can there be to keep or not keep an impossible Precept And what sin can there be in the Act where there is no choice in the Will Nemo peccat in eo quod vitare non potest No man sins in doing that which he cannot possibly but do if we believe St. Augustine It is ttrue by the meer strength of our own Free-will we can neither keep this nor any other Precept of Gods for without me saith our Saviour John 15.5 ye can do nothing Neither as the Apostle saith are we sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 but our sufficiency is of God Yet by the sufficiency which we have from God we may be enabled to keep this or any other Precept Tho our Free-will be not yet his grace is sufficient for us to enable us thereto If he work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure then thro his good pleasure we can both will and do Then saith St. Paid I can do all things thro Christ which strengtheneth me Phil. 4.13 And as God