A TREATISE OF Fornication: 

Showing  
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 viij. 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 Poultry. 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 Gild, 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 Threatening of God, Ezek. 33.8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked Man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked Man from his way, that wicked Man shall die 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 Majesty's 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 hearty 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 Christ's 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 man's own Body as another's, p. 18  
(3) Against all the Persons of the Sacred Trinity, p. 17  
(4) And is punished with the Judgement 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 unprofitableness of it, p. 26, 27  
6. It is Mischievous unto the Fornicator, and others also, ibid.    
First, Unto the Fornicator himself: It cuts him off from the favour of God, p. 27. out'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 Judgement and Spirit, and Freedom, p. 32, 33. Deprives him of his Peace and Quiet, p. 35. Blasts his Credit, Ruins 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 Gild, Shame, and Punishment, p. 42, 43  
Thirdly, To the Child unlawfully begot being murdered or starved, and incapable of Inheritance, p. 44.45  
Fourthly, Unto Christian Religion, the Church of Christ Universal 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, etc. from p. 59, to 65. Sixthly, Exercise Mortifications of the Body, as Fast, etc. 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, Judgement, 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 God's Assistance, to do these things: 

1. To show 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 thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them; that is, thou didst fall down and worship them, commit Idolatry with them: which doing is again called opening of the feet, and committing fornication, and playing the whore and harlot, v. 25, 26, 27, 28. etc. And so when heathen Rome is called the great whore, Rev. 17.1. with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication, v. 2. the meaning is, That it was a very idolatrous City, a City very much given to the Worship of Heathenish Gods, Images and Idols; and that from thence many other Kingdoms had been confirmed in their idolatrous courses, if they had not also had something of their Idolatry, false and superstitious Worship propagated to them from thence. In this Notion I do not conceive this Word to be taken in the Text. Yet forasmuch as it is the Duty of Christians, and of all Men, to flee this Fornication also as well as the other, namely, that of the Body; and being it lies so pat in my way, I will speak somewhat, though very little of what might be, of this Fornication also.  
Now touching this, the Unlawfulness of it, and so ours, and all men's necessity of avoiding it, may appear from the Scripture directly forbidding it, and commanding our abstaining from it, or our avoiding of it. Such is that in Levit. 26.1. Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it. Such again is that in Exod. 20.45. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. So that God's People were to make no Idols, nor Images for themselves to worship and serve.  
But what if they found such things ready made to their hands, by others in the Country whither they were to come, might they not then worship and serve them?  
No such matter: There is a direct Prohibition of this too, in Exod. 23.24. Thou shalt not how down to their Gods, (i.e. the Gods of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whose Land they were to come into, and take to themselves in Possession; to them they were not to bow down) nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. Thus is spiritual Fornication the Sin of Adultery, or the worshipping of Idols, that is, Images of true of supposed Men or Gods, forbidden in the Old Testament.  
And accordingly in the New Testament we meet with Prohibition of it, and Dehortation from it. So the Apostle St. Paul, 1 Cor. 10.6, 7. having spoken of the Israelites of old, and touched of their evil do, and sufferings too for their doing so ill, in order, by the example of their Sufferings, to deter us from their do; these things (saith he) were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted, v. 6. he comes in, v. 7. to dehort particularly from Idolatry, and not to be followers of them in that Sin, lest we should follow them in their Sufferings for it; Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. And again in v. 14. Wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. And so St. John contual Fornication, Little Children, saith he, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.  
And in the steps of these Apostles of Christ did the Primitive Saints and Fathers of the Church walk. Hence St. Cyprian, Quid te ad falsos Deos humilias & inclinas? Quid ante inepta simulachra & figmenta terrena captivum corpus incurvas? Why dost thou humble, and bow down thyself unto false Gods? Why dost thou bend thy captive body before foolish Images, and earthly figments? Relinque idola, quae humanus error invenit: Ad Deum converte, quem si imploraveris, subvenit; Leave the Idols which human error hath invented, and turn thyself to God, who will assist thee, if thou implore his aid for help. And so St. Austin, Nulla imago Dei coli debet, nisi illa quae hoc est & ipse; No Image, no not of God himself, to be worshipped, but that which is the same with himself, that is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the brightness of his glory, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the express image of his person, Heb. 1.3.  
Thus both Scriptures and Fathers are against committing this Spiritual Fornication, which stands in the worshipping of Idols and Images. They that are guilty of this kind of Idolatry, do with God, as Whores do with their Husbands, forsake him, and follow, and serve other loves: they give the Glory of the Creator to the Creature, and worship and serve the Creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, Amen. This is a just cause and sufficient reason for us to stand off from Communion with any Church (be it Roman, or other) where this spiritual Fornication, the worshipping of Idols and Images is made to be a part of the Religion of that Church. And we may well look upon any solicitations with such a Church, as on so many Allurements and Enticements to the committing of spiritual Fornication and Adultery.  
We have great cause to bless God for his Mercy to us, in delivering us from an idolatrous Community, and continuing in the Communion of a Society of pure Worshippers of God. As the Case stands with us in respect of the Object of our Worship, we have nothing proposed to be adored by us, but what every body acknowledgeth to be worthy of all Adoration, that is, the One only true God, and the ever blessed Son of God, who is one with the Father, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. No Idols, no Images, no Pictures, are prescribed, or proposed unto us, to worship, or bow down unto. Nothing of that spiritual Idolatry are we enjoined as part of our Worship, or so much as invited unto in our worshipping. All that is said to us, is that which was said unto us by the Angel unto St. John, Rev. 22. Worship God. So that in this respect the Members of our Church can worship God with a clear Conscience, without any regret of Mind, or rising of Heart at what we worship, as there must needs be in those who are compelled to worship that which they cannot but know is no God; yea, is that which they may revile and spit upon, offer any Affronts and Indignation unto, without any prejudice at all unto themselves. God give us Eyes to see the greatness of his Mercy, and Hearts to value it according to the greatness of it.  
I shall give some Considerations to persuade all to flee this Idolatry, and to abstain from this kind of spiritual Fornication.  
First, It is a Great Vanity: for it is a doing of service to that from which can come no good; neither protection from evil, nor acquisition of good. For what is the Idol or Image that is worshipped? A very nothing as to any thing of Deity supposed to be in it. We know (saith St. Paul) that an Idol is nothing in the world, 1 Cor. 8.4. Now of nothing, what but nothing is it that can come? Hence that Sarcasm used by the Lord to the Idols of Israel, Isa. 41.23, 24. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good or evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your works of nought. Lactantius gives three Accounts of the vanity of Idolatry.  
1. The Idols that are worshipped are the Images of dead men. Est autem perversum (saith he) & incongruum, ut simulachrum hominis à simulachro Dei colatur: But it is a perverse and unseemly thing, that the Image of the living God, should worship the Image of a dead man.  
2. Those sacred Images (imagines sacrae quibus vanissimi homines serviunt, omni sensu carent, quoniam terra sunt) which those vain men that worship Idols, do their service to, are senseless things, as being nothing in the world but Earth. Quis autem non intelligat nefas esse rectum animal cervari ut adoret terram? And who can but think it a ridiculous at least, if not a very wicked thing, for a man that was made upright, to bow himself to worship earth? which was therefore put under our Feet, ut calcanda à nobis, non adoranda sit; to the intent we should tread on it, and not be Worshippers of it.  
3. Those Spirits, the Devils, which are worshipped and served in the worshipping and serving of Idols, are base abject things, thrown down by God from Heaven to Earth, and below that, even to Hell, and are both unable to do any thing of good for those that serve them, because the power of disposing of all things in the World that are good, is Gods: So that as St. James saith, Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, (Jam. 1.17.) and are willing to do them all the hurt they can, and to that end, mortiferis eos illecebris & erroribus perdent, they work their undoing by drawing them into, and entangling them in deadly Errors, whereby they are led away from the seeking after the true God. Besides, to those that serve the true God in holiness and righteousness, those Spirits are so bruised under their Feet, that they are subject to them, and not able to abide in any place or person, whence they will expel them, as was evidenced by infinite of Instances in the primitive times, and even in times of late date. So that it is a great incongruity, yea, a very vanity for a man to make himself a Vassal to that which God hath put in subjection unto himself; and that so for to worship an Image consecrated it, which yet had been no Image, had not himself made it one; and which when made, he may unmake again at his pleasure, and in the mean time use or abuse as he pleases, without any Prejudice to himself by any Indignity put upon it. So that from hence Idol-worship appears to be a very great Vanity. But that is not all. For,  
Secondly, It is a great Impiety, a crimson Sin, a Sin of a deep guilt, of a heinous nature, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Sin exceeding sinful. And that may dissuade from the commission of it. He that considers it will be apt to say, when tempted to this spiritual Fornication, what Joseph said when tempted by his Mistress to carnal Fornication, How can I do this great evil, and so sin against God? The greatness of which Sin will appear in these following accounts.  
1. It is a Work of the Flesh, and ranked among the foulest of Sins, such as Adultery, Fornication, Uncleanness, Lasciviousness, Witchcraft, Gal. 5.19. if like its Companions, is bad enough.  
2. It is made the measure whereby to judge of the sinfulness of Rebellion, and stubbornness against God; and so must be a Sin as great as that is. And who but thinks that a Sin exceeding sinful? For Rebellion (saith Samuel unto Saul, 1 Sam. 15.23. is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. A clear evidence of its being a great Sin.  
3. It is accounted Whoring, and that after Devils (Levit. 17.7.) and called by the name of Whoredom, and Fornication, and playing the harlot, as is showed above, it is no less Sin than carnal Whoredom and Fornication.  
4. It is a Sin wherein is great unfaithfulness, and that with God. Hence it is said of Israel in Ps. 78.57, 58. That they dealt unfaithfully like their Fathers, that is, with God: For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.  
5. It is a hating of God. Hence in the second Commandment, those that break that Commandment which is the direct Prohibition of Idol-worship, are said to hate God. For God visits the iniquities of the Father unto the third generation of them that hate me, that is, that repel and refuse him, and worship Idols instead of him. To be an Idolater is an horrible Sin, it is to hate God, that is, a Hater of him that is all Goodness itself.  
6. It is a robbing of God. For it is a giving of God's Honour unto that which is not God; he gives God's honour away to an empty, earthly, dunghill Deity, to a thing that is nothing. By all which, this Sin of Idolatry or spiritual Fornication appears to be a great Sin.  
Thirdly, It is a great Abomination unto God, an abominable thing that he hates, Jer. 44.4. Hence in St. Peter (1 Pet. 4.3.) we read of abominable Idolaters. And in 2 Chron. 15.8 of abominable Idols. The Image itself is called Abomination unto the Lord, Deut. 27.15. And so is he that chooseth it for the Object of his Worship, Is. 41.24. And very abominably is King Ahab said to have done in following idols, 1 King. 21.26.  
Lastly, It is a thing abhorred by the Saints of God. Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego would rather be cast into a burning fiery Furnace, than at the command of a King do worship to a golden Image, Dan. 3.17, 18. Yea, in Ps. 97.7. there is a severe Imprecation made by the Psalmist against the Servers of such senseless Deities, Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of Idols. Thus it was with the Saints under the Old Testament: And to tell how it was with the Saints under the New, were an endless Task. What was that that made all those primitive Saints, whom we call Martyrs, embrace Prisons, Banishments, Famine, Whips, Scourges, Racking, Burn, and all the other Tortures and Punishments so much talked of in Ecclesiastical History, but an abhorrency of Idolatry? Would they but have been Idol and Image-worshippers, they might have escaped those Cruelties, and have lived in Wealth and Honour. And should we who believed what they believed, ever do that which they so abhorred, as that they would die any the cruelest 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 join 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 join 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 ruin 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, than 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 Judgement. And as in Mat. 25.31, etc. the whole race of Mankind at the day of Judgement, 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 expressly 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 Horror, 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 harkening 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 enjoin the worshipping of Images. Time may show 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, gins with Adultery, Fornication, etc.) 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 signify 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 Father's 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 v. 3. we are to understand universal holiness, so by Fornication in the former Verse we are to understand universal uncleanness.  
The Question now is, in what Sense the Word is to be taken in the Text, whether in the stricter, or larger acceptation of it; as it means simple Fornication, or any Uncleanness in general.  
And to that I answer, That according to my apprehension, the Apostle doth direct his Discourse against simple, or properly so called, Fornication; and that in that Sense we are to understand it.  
Not as if the Apostle were not against all Acts of uncleanness, and had not as much mind to forbid them as this; but because, whereas other acts of Uncleanness, as Adultery, Increst, Sodomy, and even Rapes, were accounted Sins by the Heathens themselves, and unlawful; yet this simple Fornication, or the carnal Copulation of two single persons, was not looked upon by them as unlawful, or any Sin; and even the Christians of those times were by the Gnostick Heretics, then rife in the Church, attempted to be abused into the like apprehension of it. And this was the reason as Aquinas gives it, why Fornication was particularly forbidden the Gentiles in that Canon framed by the Council of the Apostles assembled at Jerusalem, Act. 15.29. because the Gentiles did not think that to be any Sin. Fornicatio autem prohibetur specialiter, quia Gentes non reputabant eam esse peceatum. (as. q. 103. a. 4. ad 3.) So that the Apostle is to be understood here, as if he had said, Such Cleanness and Holiness ought to be in your Conversation, that ye ought to abstain, not only from those higher, and most gross acts of Uncleanness which ye do condemn, as Incest, Adultery, Buggery, etc. but even from that lower and most simple act of it, which is known by the name of Fornication, and which ye do allow of. It is not enough that ye be not incestuous Persons, Sodomists, buggers, or Adulterers, but ye must not so much as be Fornicators, ye must flee this too, as well as them.  
Now hence will follow, that if Fornication the lowest sort of Uncleanness, that wherein there was thought to be no Sin, if that must be avoided, if not so much as that may be allowed to men, or indulged to Christians, then much less may any of the other Sins of a deeper guilt, and of a more heinous nature, be dared to be committed, but must be utterly declined and abstained from.  
So that the Apostle in requiring to flee Fornication, tho' in the strict Sense of the Word, hath spoken as fully and effectually, as if he had either particularly required to flee every other Act of uncleanness, or had in general commanded to flee and abstain from them all. And thus we have shown what the Sin is which we are here by the Apostle required to flee, which was the first part of our Undertaking.  
II. Proceed we now to the second, which is to show how it is that we are to flee this Sin.  
And to this I answer, That we are to flee it two ways; in Action, and in Affection.  
First, We are to flee it in Action; that is, we are neither to act it, nor any thing of it in our Bodies, but we are to preserve our whole Bodies, and every Member of them pure and chaste, free from all desilement by any uncleanness whatsoever; not thinking it enough that we do not commit uncleanness with our Bodies in the Act itself of carnal Copulation, unless we do also abstain from all filthy acting with any part of our Bodies, as our Eyes, Tongues, Ears, or Hands.  
We must flee Fornication with our Eyes. We must have chaste Eyes, not fill our Eyes with Adultery, like those in 2 Pet. 2.14. nor so much as look upon a Woman to lust after her, Mat. 5.28. rather plucking out our right Eyes, than being so far scandalised by them, as be brought by them to offend in this way. No rolling looks, no wanton glances must be cast out to entice unto Lust.  
We must flee Fornication with our Tongues, abstaining from all tempting of others of sin by any stattering blandishments, from speaking any obscene, filthy, bawdy words. So the Apostle charges the Ephesians, chap. 5. v. 3, & 4. Fornication, and all other uncleanness, or covetousness, (that is, of acting inordinate Lusts) let it not once be named among you as becometh Saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting. Obscene speech, bawdy talk, which some use by way of jest to move Laughter with; these by the Apostles Rule, are things that do not become Saints; and so are a kind of Fornication, one degree of it which Christians are to fly.  
We must flee Fornication with our Ears also. We must not hearken and give ear to others that would tempt us to uncleanness; not so much as hear them any such thing, but turn away our Ears from, and be deaf unto any such motion. We must not take any delight to hear the obscene, filthy, bawdy, wanton Words and Songs of others, by which the Coals of Lust are kindled in the Mind, and all the Body, as it were, blown up into a flame of unchaste desires. In this as well as in other Cases, we ought to have regard to that Premonition of our Saviour's in Mark 4.24. Take heed what you hear.  
And as we are fly it with our Ears, so with our Hands. We must act nothing of Unchastity with them, but must abstain from all filthy application of them to the Member of any other, and from making any filthy signs by them, of any unclean Desires in ourselves, or unclean Deeds we would have acted by others. As our Hands must not be defiled with Blood, so neither our Fingers with Iniquity, If. 59.3. But if our right hand shall scandalise us in this way, we are rather to cut it off, and cast it from us, than be brought so to offend by it, Mat. 5.20 In a word, in every Member, and in every Gestury whereby we may act, or allure, or entice, or any way stir up and inflame Concupiscence, we are to observe Chastity, and to act such Mortification in all our Members, that our whole Body as well as our Soul and Spirit, and be perserved blameless, kept pure and spotless from all uncleanness. And this is the first way wherein we are to flee Fornication, viz. in Action.  
Secondly, We are to flee it in Affection. As we are not to act it, so we are not so much as to affect it. They that are after the Spirit, must not mind the things of the Flesh, Rom. 8.5, 6. They that have rightly learned Christ, must not give themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness, Eph. 4.19, 20. Those Members of ours which are upon the earth, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, or greedy desire after unnatural or unlawful Enjoyments; that is, those earthly Affections of ours unto these things (such as are in earthly-minded men, who mind nothing of Heaven, but like bruit Beasts, have their minds all on Earth, and set their Affections only on earthly things, earthly Enjoyments, earthly, brutish, carnal Pleasures) whereby we are incited, stirred up, and provoked to filthy actings, these are to be mortified, Col. 3.5. to be subdued, and brought under, and not suffered to reign in our mortal bodies, so as that we should obey them in the lusts thereof, and in obedience thereto yield our members servants to uncleauness', Rom. 6.12, 19 But as being Strangers and Pilgrims in this World, we must abstain from fleshly Lusts, 1 Pet. 2.11. yea, as being Christ's, that is, Christians, Members of Christ, we must crucisie the flesh, with its affections and lusts, Gal. 5.24. In this not so much as thought is free, nor desire lawful, but every unclean affection is sinful, which therefore is to be abhorred, detested, and avoided by us.  
And this is the second way wherein we are to flee Fornication, viz. as in Action, so in Affection. And this is all I shall say concerning the second part of our Undertaking, How we are to fly this Sin.  
III. We now proceed to the third, where we are to present you with some Considerations, pressing you on by way of Motive to fly this Sin of Fornication.  
And the first is, The sinfulness of it. That any thing is a Sin, is Motive enough to dissuade from the acting of it, how delightful, or how gainful soever otherwise it might be. The least of Sins is not to be committed for the obtaining of the greatest Goods; for even of those who say, Let us do evil that good may come thereof, the Apostles tells us, that their damnatoin is just. And the more Aggravations that any Sin is capable of, still more reason there is to abstain from the commission of it. The greater Sin brings upon the Sinner the greater guilt, that is an obligation unto the greater Punishment. So that whereas some Offenders shall be beaten but with few stripes, others shall be beaten with many.  
Now Fornication taken in the simplest Sense of it, is a Sin, and that a great one: A Sin it is, for it is the Transgression of God's Law, as being specially forbidden, not only by our Apostle in this Text, but also by a whole Council of the Apostles assembled and acting by Divine Authority at Jerusalem, Act. 15.29. And so, 1 Thess. 4.3. This is the will of God, even your sanctificiation, that ye should abstain from Fornication: Yea, and the Law of Man too it is a Sin; lor thereby it is strictly forbidden to be committed, and thereby Punishment is ordained for, and inflicted upon the Committers of it, so that it is a Sin; and a great Sin it is too, as being chargeable with many Aggravations.  
As first, it is an acting against right Reason: so Aquinas, Fornicatio dicitur esse peccatum in quantum est contra rationem rectam. Then Reason is right when it acts according to the Will of God, which is the first Law, and highest Rule. Inasmuch therefore as the Will of God is our Sanctification, and our abstaining from Fornication, therefore this Sin is a Sin against right Reason, which in conformity to the Will of God dictates the quite contrary hereunto. so that it seems no man commits this Sin, who hath nor first debauched his Reason, and so far turned himself into a beast, or worse.  
Secondly, It is an acting against Charity: inasmuch as that due care which ought to be taken for the Issue of the begotten, is not attended unto, the satisfaction of a present Lust, not the Propagation of a future holy Race, being the thing intended therein. Whence so many base-got Children are either murdered as soon as born, or neglected, or starved not long after their Birth, and commonly smally cared for all their life, as to either Education or Maintenance, prefent Instruction, or future Salvation. Whence the Schools determine Fornication to be no less than a mortal Sin. Fornication simplex, cum contra bonum educendae prolis sit, illicita est, ut etiam sit lethale crimen; so Aquin. 25, q. 154. conclus. 3. And our Church praying in her Litany to be delivered from Fornication, and all other deadly Sin, intimates Fornication in her account to be also a deadly Sin. And by the Canon-Law the like Penance was imposed upon the Committers of this Sin, as was upon those that were guilty of Perjury, Adultery, Murder, and other like deadly Sins. [ib.]  
And as against human Charity, so also it is a Sin against Christian Purity; as being contrary to that Purity that was exemplified in the Life of Christ, and contrary to that Purity that is in the Law of Christ; contrary tog that Purity that in obedience to the Law, and in consormity to the Life of Christ, should be practised by all that are Christians. Christ himself lived a life of exact Purity, never guilty of the least Inchastity in Act, in Gesture, in Word, in Thought. And his Will is our Sanclification, that we should abstain from Fornication, and possess our vessel, that it, our Body, in sanctification and honour, nhot in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God, 1 Thess. 4.3, 4, 5. And that we may know his Will, his grace that bringeth Salvation to all men, hath appeared, teaching us, that denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present World, Tit. 2.11, 12. So that by the Gospel we are called to be 
* Rom. 1.7.  Saints, that is, holy Persons. And we are initiated into our Christianity by a purifying Sacrament, the holy Sacrament of Baptism, where by the outward cleansing of our bodies from their Filth by Water at their Birth, or entrance into Christianity, is signified what Purity there ought to be in all our lives, whereof there is a beginning also wrought inwardly in us by the sanctifying Grace of God's Spirit accompanying the outward Ordinance for the taking away of the filth of our Nature, and the enduing us with inherent Holiness: Whence that Sacrament is called, not only the washing of regeneration, but also the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and the sanctification of the Spirit, Tit. 3.5. 1 Pet. 1.2. Whereupon, as he which hath called us is holy, so it is our duty to be boly in all manner of conversation, 1 Pet. 1.15. To cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. 7.1. to hate every garment spotted by the flesh, Judas 23. and not (having escaped the corruption and pollution that is in the world through lust) to be again entangled therein, and overcome, 2 Pet. 1.4. and 2.20. The divine power hath given unto us all things that appertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature,2 Pet. 1.3, 4. Now what can be more contrary to this Purity, than this beastly 
† 2 Pet. 4. & 2.19, 20. rom. 6.19. 2 Cor. 7.1. Jud. 8.18, 23. 1 Thess. 4.7.  Sin, which is so far from Purity, that it is the direct contrary thereto, and called by the name of corruption, uncleanness, pollution, filthiness, the lust of uncleanness, ungodly lust, a spotting, and defiling thing. And what indeed is in the whole story and business of it, but nastiness and beastliness, filthiness and uncleanness, not to be seen by Christian Eye, not to be spoken by Christian Mouths, not to be heard by Christian Ears: Whence the Apostle would not have it once named among Saints, and saith, it is a shame even to speak of those things, Eph. 5.3, 12.  
And thirdly, It is a Sin against all the Persons in the sacred Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  
1. Against the Father, in that it is a dishonouring of his Creature; abusing that to vileness, and baseness, and bruitishness, which he made for himself, and for his own Honour and Glory. Whence the Apostle cells us above, v. 13: that the Body is not for Fornication, but for the Lord: and helow, v. 20. bids that we should glorify God in our Body, as being that which is his upon a double right; first of Creation, and after of Redemption; and therefore is only to be used according to his Will in all Purity, and not to be abused according to our Lust in any Uncleanness.  
2. Against the Son: for it is a Dishonouring, and a defiling of a Member of him, even so far as to make it a Member of a Harlot. Know ye not, says our Apostle, v. 15. that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of an harlot? God forbidden. As by Marriage the two Parties become one in Body, so by Religion, which imports a holy tye of a Christian unto Christ, Christ and the Christian become one in Spirit, there is a spiritual Union betwixt them, as a civil Union betwixt married couples. But then Fornication is the breaking of this Union; for by a man's joining himself to another, to a Harlot, he becomes one body with a Whore, which is a high disloyalty against Christ, and a breaking off from Union with Christ, a forsaking of him to follow after, and be joined with a Whore, which is a strong Argument against this Sin; Memento quia Christo sacrata sunt menbra tua, now misceantur membris meretricis, Chrysost. O remember that your Members are consecrated unto Christ, and that is reason enough why you should not commit Fornication, inasmuch as that 'tis the making of your Members to become the Members of an Harlot or Whore.  
3. Against the Holy Ghost: For it is a dishonouring and a defiling of his Temple, and a turning it into a Stve, or rather a Den of Uncleanness. What, says the Apostle here v. 19 know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you. So that this defiling of the Body, is the defiling of the Temple of the Hold ghost, and to a doing of despite unto that Spirit of Grace, a forcing him with our nastiness to forsake his Habitation, which is also a sure way to bring on our Destruction. For, says our Apostle, 1 Cor. 3.16, 17. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the Temple of God is holy, which Temple are ye. Now this Consideration raises up this Sin to so exceeding an height of sinfulness, as that it seems not needful to add any thing more to show the sinfulness of it: And yet more may be said to show it.  
For it is a Sin against a man's own Body, and abusing of a man's self, a doing a Dishonour, and Despite to their own bodies, Rom. 1.24. And our Apostle argues by way of Motive to dissuade from this Sin in the following members of the Text: Flee Fornication. Every Sin that a man doth, is without the Body: but he that committeth Fornication, sinneth against his own body. The meaning is, That whereas most other Sins are against others, God or our Neighbour, this is a Sin against a man's own self, whereby he defiles that part of himself into filthy abuse, which was sanctified by God to an use of holiness, even to be the Temple of his most holy Spirit. It is a robbing of a man's self of so great an Honour, and so great an Happiness, as to have his Body to be the Temple of God's Spirit; than which, what worse Discourtesy, what greater Mischief can a man do unto himself?  
And not only against himself, but it is a Sin also against the body of Another, the Body of her with whom Fornication is committed, as well as his own Body: It is a doing to her as much mischief as to himself, bringing as great a Sin upon her, and involving her into as great a share of Punishment as himself. For this is a Sin that cannot be committed by one; there must ever be two at it. A man may commit Murder or Thyestes alone; he may forswear and lie alone; he may gluttonize, and be drunken himself alone, but he cannot play the fornicator alone by himself, he must have a Partner with him in his Sin, whereby he doubles his Sin; as being guilty not only of his own act, but others also, whom he tempted to the consenting to him in the acting of that filthiness, which is a great aggravation to the sinsulness of it. And yet neither is this all. For,  
In the next place, it is a Sin committed against clear light and knowledge, and so cannot but be against Conscience. For the Scripture hath clear and plain Prohibitions and Dehortations from it, and Denunciations, or Threaten against the Committers of it; which none can be ignorant of, that knows any thing of the Scriptures of God. Prohibitions and Dehortations we have mentioned before; and such is this in my text, Flee Fornication: Such is that in Act 15.29. where abstaining from Fornication is made a necessary Injunction upon all that would be Christians. Such again that in 1 Thess. 4.3. where it is declared to be the will of God, that we should abstain from Fornication.  
And for Denunciations or Threaten, they are plain, and clear, and full: Such is that of the Apostle, Hib. 13.4. Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge. Such that of his again in Eph. 5.5. No Whoremonger, nor unclean Person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ, and of God. So v. 6 For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of Disobedience. And to name no more, such is that Rev. 21.8. where Whoremongers are of that number that shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone, which is the second Death.  
Are not these clear and plain Prohibitions and Denunciations? And do these lie fair and clear in our Books to read? And are they not frequently read in our Churches, and published in our Congregations? Who then can plead ignorance of them, unless it be to excuse one Sin with another, which nothing mitigates the faust, but rather greatens the guilt? So that this must needs be acknowledged a very great Sin, which is committed against so many, so clear, so known Declarations of the Will of God against it, and Denunciations of the Wrath of God against the Commuters of it. And yet neither is this all. For,  
Lastly, The Considerations of the Punishments threatened, and assuredly inflicted, unless prevented by a timely repenting, do as it were with a beam of the Sun, point out unto, declare and display the greatness of the Crime, the blackness of the Sin. Great Punishments are ordained for great Sins; so that in the greatness of the Punishment denounced, we may read the greatness of the Sin committed  
Now what is the Punishment denounced against this Sin? Why, first in general, the Judgement of God; That God will judge the Committers of it, Heb. 13.4. Which, how far that may extend, God knows; being that remporal and eternal Judgements, all Curses and Plagues both in this lise, and in the lise (or rather death) that is to come, may lie enfolded within the arms of its Comprehension.  
Secondly, Excommunication out of the Church Militant. With a Foruicator Christians are not to eat, not so much as the ordinary Food of the Body, much less the Sacramental Food of our Souls; no, not so much as keep compamy with him, 1 Cor. 5.10. I know not what some may think of this, but sure in the Primitive Times it was accounted a heavy Punishment; insomuch that they upon whom it fell, were reckoned of as Persons delivered up unto Satan. 1 Cor. 5.5. As indeed he must uceds be put under the Dominion of Satan, who is expelled the Kingdom of Christ.  
Thirdly, Exclusion out of the Church Triumphant. Neither Fornicators, nor Adnlterers, nor effeminate Persons, nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind, are admitted to an Inheritance in Heaven; such 'tis expersly said shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 5.9, 10. And so again, Epb. 5.5. No Whoremonger, nor unclean ' Person, nor covetous Man (which Expression relates to matters of Uncleanness) hath any inheritance in the Kigdom of God.  
Fourthly, Condemnation unto the Torments of Hell. Whoremongers, among the rest of these wicked ones, are threatened to have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone, Rev. 21.8.  
All which laid together, do show the Punishment denounced against Fornicators, to be a very grievous Punishment; and that is Proof abundantly enough, that the Sin that it threatened with that Punishment, is a very grievous Sin, a heinous Offence, a Sin that is exceeding sinful. And tho' we may flatter ourselves with a hope of escaping for leffer Sins, and so out of that hope venture the more boldly upon the commission of them; yet for such grand Offences, mortal Sins, deadly Crimes as this, we cannot but be hugely afraid of suffering the deserved Punishment. And therefore this may be one weighty Consideration to press on by way of Motive to abstain from this Sin, and to flee Fornication.  
A second may be the shamefulness of it. Things that are honest, pure, and lovely, and of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy, those are thing; for Christians to think of, to have their Minds and Hearts upon; (Phil. 4.8.) But things of dishonesty, things that are shameful, and of evil report, these Christians should with the greatest care that can be, avoid. And indeed if we consider this Sin of Fornication in every Circumstance of it, it is a very shameful Sin.  
1. The Actors of it are ashamed to be seen in it, and therefore choose darkness and secrecy to act it in: In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night, as the Wise Man observed, Prov. 7.9. Whence this, and the like Sins are called the Works of darkness, Eph. 5.11. done in secret, in private and close Chambers; (whence Chambering and wantonness go well together, Rom. 13.13.) or other places of conveniency for privacy and secrecy, as furthest removed from Observation and Discovery: which, why need it be, if it were a thing of honesty, if it were not a shameful thing.  
2. The Parts and Members of the Body wherewith the Sin is acted, are things which were a Shame to see or name. Whence the Greeks call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the Latins, pudenda, shameful things; things which People that have any thing of Modesty in them, are ashamed to look upon. Shem and Japhet, when the Father so lay, that his nakedness appeared, took a Garment, and laid it upon both their Shoulders, and went backward, and covered it, without seeing of it; and for that Modesty of theirs got their Father's Blessing; whenas Cham for his Immodesty, looking upon it, had his Father's Curse, Gen. 9.22, etc. The Fall of our first Parents into Sin, was not so great as to take away from them all Shame: But as soon as they perceived themselves naked, they had so much remains of Modesty left them, as to make themselves A prons, tho' but of Fig-leaves, to cover themselves withal, Gen. 3.7. which God himself did after change into a better covering of Coats made of Skins, v. 21. God would not have an Altar with steps made up to it, lest that ascent should be an occasion of discovering of the nakedness of such as should sacrifice thereon, Gen. 20.26. and gave special order, that for prevention of the like discovery in the Priests, they should have linen Breeches made them, reaching down from the loins to the thighs, Exod. 28.42. Hence (by was of allusion) Raiment is counselled to be bought by the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, that the Sbame of his nakedness might not appear, Rev. 3.18, and he is pronounced blessed, that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his Shame, Rev. 16.15. Throughout the whole Scripture those Parts are never found mentioned by name, but by some other modest way of Expression. Neither amongst the Heathens would the People of Modesty have any of those words in their Mouth: The more shame for those Christians, whose delight it is, upon every occasion, to mouth them in most immodest sort. Of these People may it be truly said, what St. Paul spoke of some in his times, That they glory in their shame, Phil. 3.19. or as St. Judas expresseth it, they foam out their own Shame, v. 13.  
3. The Act if self, wherein this Sin is committed, is so shameful, as that it cannot be mentioned in greatest privacy without Shame; and therefore the Apostle speaks of it as a thing not to be named among Saints, Eph. 5.3. and saith, it is a shame to speak of those things, v. 12. And well he might, as being a thing fit for Bruits, as Dogs and Bitch's, to delight in, rather than for Men. Whence 
* Epist. 50. ad Ocean.  St. Hierome calls the acts of Fornication, Caninas Nuptias, the nuptical Weddings or Marriages of Dogs. And being a thing much delighted in by the Devil himself, so far as not only to make it a part of his Service, (in the performances whereof stood much of the Mysteries of his Worship) but also to practise himself, together with Men and Women, in assumed human Shapes and Bodies, as is ordinary among Witches.  
And if the Act itself cannot be named without Shame, how shameful must we needs think the commission of it? How can not only their Faces outwardly, but their Hearts inwardly burn and glow within them, whilst they are acting so shameful a thing; a thing that can neither be seen, nor spoken, nor heard by others, who are no way guilty of it, without blushing at it,  
4. The tempooral Punishment consequent to this Act, is a shameful Punishment. Among the Grecians in many places of Greece, as Camerarius observes, the Punishment for Fornicators was, That the Fornicator should have his Beard chopped off with a keen Axe, and so to be sent away, which to him was a Mark of Infamy. Amongst us the Punishment is for Offenders in that kind, to stand in the places of most public notice (the Church during Divine Service, or some Market-Town in the time of throngest concourse of People) with a white Sheet upon them, to be a publickSpectacle for all People to behold, and gaze upon, and so be the Town or Countries talk, that I say not their Scoffs and Scorns; a thing greatly shameful to those that have any remains in them either of Grace, or good Nature.  
Now all these things laid together, the shamefulness of this Sin appears to be very great; and the consideration of that, may be one other weighty Motive to abstain from the Commission of it, and to flee Fornication.  
A third may be the Toilesomness of it. Christians are called to Liberty and Freedom; and the greatest Liberty in the World consists in Virtue and Piety: For the more virtuous and pious, the more free from Sin and Wickedness; to be Servant to which, is the greatest Slavery in the World: no Tyranny like to that where Sin reigns. But as all Sin in general is tyrannous, and so the serving of it Slavery; so all Lust in particular is very tyrannical, and the serving of it very drudgery: The Slave to that Tyrant is never at rest, no not so much as in the Night, when other Slaves, tired with the Toil of the forepast day, take their ease. And therefore when the Apostle saith, Flee Fornication, 
* Lib. 1. de Cain & Abel, cap, 5.  St. Ambrose tells us he said it, ut veloci fugâ tanquam furiosae dominae declinare saevitiam, & tetro exitio exire possemus; that we might be moved thereby to do our endeavour by a swift flight to avoid the Cruelty of a raging Tyranness, as it were, and get out of a most base Service: Sad is the Toil, heavy is the Drudgery of a Slave to this Lust, Savus criminum stimulus, libido est, quae nunquam quietum patitur affectum; Lust, the Lust of uncleanness, is a cruel stinger on unto Wickedness, it never lets the Affection be in quiet. Nocte fervet, die anhelat, à negotio abducit; as he goes on; it burns in the Night, and pants in the Day, it awakes from sleep, and takes off from business; gives no rest to its Slave, but ever inflames with enjoyment, and becomes more raging by use.  
How doth it busy the Head with thousands of thoughts about the obtaining of its desire? What Plots, what Contrivances, what Arts, what Stratagems, what Tricks, what Policies, what Ways, what Means doth it devise and frame for the compassing of its end? Eating, drinking, resting, waking, sleeping, still the mind is kept in action with musing and meditating, pondering and studying how to be made Master of its so longed-for Wish. How doth it fill the Heart with Crowds of Cares to put its Projects into practice, and with throngs of Fears of Disappointments in its Designs, and multitudes of Jealousies of being defeated by any other counter plotting Competitor.  
What Watch must there be of the Inamorates for opportunity to open their minds, and discover their Passions? What soliciting, courting Compliments with the Paramour to woe and win her to a Compliance with them in their Desires? What promising, what vowing, what swearing of love to the attempted Mistress, when there is no more of Love in them to her, but a brutish, unruly, longing Desire to satisfy their Lust only?  
What a waiting must there be? What attendance must many times be given before their Suit can have its accomplishment, if they have to do with a Person that is proud and coy, or covetous and cunning; who for pleasing of her humour, or for the advancing of her gain, will exercise them with a thousand delays, and keep them in hand with variety of Shifts and Put-offs, as tedious and wearisome as those meet withal that go to Law; this Evening, or that Morning; this Afternoon, or that Midnight must be waited for, and attended on, and over and over, and all to no purpose through some accidental or contrived disappointment.  
O, who is able to endure such Drudgery as this! One seeing a Harlot going in her Gaiety to the Theatre, wept to think what pains the Wicked took to go to Hell, whereas himself took no near that pains to get to Heaven. Were those Thoughts and Cares to besprent in making our peace with God, which these People spend in gaining a Whore to their minds; were there to be that watching and waiting for the saving of our Souls, which these Persons undergo for the satisfaction of their Lusts, we should think the price of Salvation intolerably too dear. Weight but how wearisome a thing it is to most men but to say a few short Prayers Morning and Evening, or to read a Chapter or two once in a day, or to attend once or twice on God's Day in God's House at the Service of God; how long the Prayers are thought? how tedious the Sermon? how tiresome the whole Duty? Some have not patience to sit it out, and therefore either come not at all to it, or else come short of much of it, or sleep and drowze away most of their time whilst they are at it. Oh, what would they think, what would they say, if they were to wait hour after hour, day after day, night after night upon God's Service? Oh, how toilsome then must be the Service of Lust? how tiresome the Sin of Fornication, which exacts these Drudgeries from its Servants? that they must spend Nights and Days about it; busy their Wits, and break their Sleeps with it, take little or no rest Day or Night for it.  
This, with considering persons, cannot but be very weighty to stop them from going into, or turn them back from going on in so troublesome a way, so toilsome a travail, so wearisome a drudgery in the Service of so base a Lust.  
A fourth is the Expensiveness of this Sin. A man cannot be a Whoremaster at a small Charge: He that drives that Trade, had need to have a good Stock to set up withal; for he shall find it a costly Sin, a Sin that will waste him to the Bones, if he follow it any thing hard, whereof we have infinite Examples in our Times and Countries to assure us.  
What a deal of Expense goes in the Price of Whoredoms, especially where the Whore drives a Trade with their Bodies. Flora the Harlot got by that Trade such an Estate, as the City of Rome disdained not to become Heir unto. Lais, the Harlot of Corinth, had such a rate for a Night's lodging with her, as men of great Estates were afraid to give: Ten thousand Drachms (a great Sum, if it were but so many of our Groats) did she demand of 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Demosthenes for the pleasure of her Company for one Night, though he had the wit not to buy Repentance, as he said, at so dear a rate. And no doubt but the Fornicators of our days pay dear enough in this way for their vain Pleasure and lewd Enjoyment.  
What a great deal of Expense must go in Treatments, and Entertainments of the Whore? What in Plays and Revels, Feasts and Banquets, Wine and Presents, to allure and oblige her? What in Gifts and Bounties to those about her? What in Pay to, or Expenses on Pimps to procure her? What in Bribes to Privadoes for Opportunities of access to her, and for secrecy of Converse with her? The Hand is never out of the Purse almost, for fetching out one Expense or other in these things of this Nature.  
What a great deal again goes in high Diet, provokative Drinks, Confectionary Philters, and all manner of Incentives and Incendiaries unto Lust? What again in Charges for Cure of the French Diseases gotten by those ways of filthiness? And that (to name no more) must go in Fees by way of Commutation, to buy off that shameful Punishment, which by the Law is to pass on those who are guilty in this kind, where the Fault is known, and the Offender prosecuted against?  
How many fair Estates do we see daily melted and mouldered away to nothing by these means? Men of good Abilities, Heirs of five Lands, are in a small time brought to Penury and Beggary by this way! He that is now rich, may in a little space whore away all he hath, and be brought, like the Prodigal in the Gospel, to be glad to eat Husks with the Swine for Hunger, if he knew how to get them. So vastly, so vainly expensive a Sin this is.  
Now this Consideration to persons that have any thing of Wit or Understanding, may be a very pressing Motive to restrain them from following so base ways as these. When they shall consider how expensive those ways are, and at what rate they must buy Repentance, they cannot but think these are no ways for them to go on in, unless they design to ruin and undo themselves for ever.  
A fifth Consideration to hinder or withdraw so vicious a Course, may be, that it is an unprofitable Lust, a fruitless Sin. Ambition gets Honour, Covetousness gets Wealth; Gluttony, good Cheer; Drunkenness, good Liquor; but what gets the Fornicator? nothing that I know that is good. It is a Sin that brings in o Profit, unless it be to the Whores that make a Trade of it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so the Apostle asks to Question of the Romans, having spoken but newly before of their yielding their members Servants to uncleanness; What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? What can the Fornicator say he hath gotten after all his Thought, and Care, and Time, and Trouble, and Money spent in obtaining satisfaction to his Lust? What can he say he hath gotten, unless it be somewhat that he is afraid to own, or ashamed to speak of? For, as for that Pleasure that is fancied, rather than found to be in carnal Enjoyments, it is in that case so very little, or rather none, as that it can in no sort come in comparison with all that Trouble and Charge that is undergone and spent for the obtaining of it. But then when with all it is considered, what inward Fears and Cares solicit the mind, whilst the Fornicator is indulging those outward Pleasures to the Body, (what is the Amazement of Discovery, and what is the Terror that the Apprehension of it brings) the Fornicator's forbidden Fruit, whereof he is so greedy, that he eats and surfeits to the destroying of Body and Soul, is but like the Apples of Sodom, how well-coloured and lovely soever without, nothing but Cinders and Ashes within, utterly void of all real Pleasure and Contentment. Such a fruitless Sin is this Sin of Fornication, so nothing at all of good comes on it; which also may be another pressing Consideration to dissuade from the committing of it. And if that were all, that nothing of Good came of it, it were the less matter: but yet that is not all neither; for besides that there comes no Good of it, there also comes a great deal of Mischief and Evil of it. And, which is  
Our sixth Consideration, it is a mischievous Sin. There comes a great deal of Mischief from, and by it, as we shall show in sundry respects.  
First, It is mischievous unto the Fornicator himself.  
Secondly, It is mischievous unto Others.  
First, It is mischievous unto the Fornicator himself; and that many ways.  
1. It cuts him out of the Favour of God, and brings him under his Displeasure. God is angry (as the Psalmist tells us, Ps. 7.11.) with the wicked every day: and if so, than he is no day well-pleased with the Fornicator, who every day in the disposition of his Heart, if not by the action of his Body, is offending God in a most contumelious way. For he prefers that Delight which is taken in giving Satisfaction to the Lusts of his filthy and shameful Members, before that Pleasure which is had in Communion with the holy and pure God. When the basest Member about him requires the contrary to that which God commands, he chooses rather to rebel against God, than not to give obedience to the Lust of it; so in effect, chooses that rather than God to be his Lord: Whereas he should glorify God in his Body (first created after the Image of God (according to the capacity of it) and then redeemed with the Blood of God) by preferring so precious a Vessel in Holiness and Honour, he dshonours God, in abusing his Body to be the Instrument of base Actions, and the Subject of base Enjoyments, submitting it to brutish lowness and vileness, and defiling it with nasty Pollution, and thereby provoking God to bring Destruction on him; for if any man defile the Temple of God, that is, his Body, him shall God destroy, 1 Cor. 3.17. Noble Men think it a high Contumely and Reproach to them, when any of their Daughters prove guilty of this lewdness, or any of their Spouses commit this filthiness: Oh, how can God then but be inflamed with Anger, and burn with Jealousy, when the Soul of Man, the Daughter of God, and the Spouse of Christ, becomes guilty of this Harlotry, and gives herself to his Uncleanness, as that of corporal Fornication is in the most literal Sense of that Word. No marvel if God will judge Whoremongers and Adulterers; no marvel if he have provided a Lake of Fire and Brimstone to wash, or rather burn away the filthiness of Fornicators.  
2. As it renders him odious to God, so it outs him of the Protection of Angels. God sends forth his Angels to be ministering spirits to them who shall be heirs of Salvation, Heb. 1.14. And gives them charge over them to keep them in all their ways, Ps. 91.11. But now the Fornicator, by acting that which disinherits him of Salvation (for as the Apostle saith, 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. Neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor effeminate Persons, shall inherit the Kingdom of God) he acts that by which he is disinterested in the Angelical Protection. And besides, how can the Fornicator but be odious to the Angel that was deputed to the Guardianship over him, when he immerses and soaks himself into nastiness and filthiness, so utterly contrary to the Angelical Nature and Purity. Angels are Being's of a pure and spiritual Nature, and the Fornicator swills himself in bodily filthiness and uncleanness, so odious to the Angelical Fineness and Purity, that an Angel in Representation (and to show their detestableness of this Sin unto their Nature) is (in the Lives of the Fathers) reported to have stopped his Nose at the sight of a Fornicator, as not able to endure the noisome Savour and Stench of so polluted and unclean Person. And when once the good Angels of God have withdrawn from any man their Protection, who can we think but the evil Angels of Satan do take him into Possession? Now this cannot but be thought a great mischief to a man to be forsaken of his Defence, and invested by his Enemies; to be outed of the Protection of Angels, and put into Subjection to Devils.  
3. It dspossesses him of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God will not dwell but in a holy Temple: thereupon the Body of a Fornicator can be no Temple for him to inhabit; 'tis too nasty and filthy, polluted and defiled a place for him to abide in; 'tis a Sink of Uncleanness, and therefore can be no suitable Mansion for the Spirit of holiness. For the Temple of God (that is, that Temple which God by his Spirit will dwell in) is holy, 1 Cor. 3.17. That Body which is defiled with Pollution of Lust and Uncleanness, is no Temple of his, none that he will dwell in. Uncleanness chaseth him out of his Habitation, outs him of his Temple, dispossesses him of his Dwelling, which he will no longer abide in, than it continues to be holy. And therefore St. Chrysostom saith, Non polluas Templum sacratum Domino, ne fias à Spiritu ejus alienum; take heed ye defile not that Temple of your Body which is consecrated unto the Lord, lest thereby ye become a Stranger to his Spirit, i.e. lest his Spirit be withdrawn from you, and forsake you. Our Church in her Morning Service suitably hereunto (as to me it seems) first prays that God would make clean our Hearts within us, and then not to take his Holy Spirit from us; intimating, that unless our Herarts be clean within us, God will not suffer his Holy Spirit to abide with us. What a Mischief is this that the Fornicator doth himself? He deprives himself of the Presence, of the Assistance, of the Comfort, of the Counsel of God's Spirit, and hath no fellowship with the Holy Ghost. He tears off his Seal of Adoption, and throws away the Farnest of eternal Salvation, and so hath now neither Right to Heaven, nor Evidence for it. Yea, when the good Spirit is once departed out of its Habitation, the evil Spirit will he ready to enter into, and take it up for his own Possession, and then the end of that Man is worse than his beginning. Devils dwell in him now for a time, and he must dwell hereafter with Devils to all eternity in the World to come.  
And, which is consequent to his, it disfurnisheth him of the Grace of God. For that which deprives a man of the Grace of the Spirit, must divest him of the Spirit of Grace. When the Spring is withdrawn, no wonder if the Streams dry up and fail. But besides, Grace is a work of the Spirit, and Fornication (as all other Sins of Uncleanness are) is a Work of the Flesh. Now the Flesh and the Spirit, as the Apostle saith, Gal. 5.17. are contrary the one to the other. And therefore as the Principles of these Works, the Flesh and the Spirit, are contrary each to other; so these Works which flow from these Principles, are contrary the one to the other. This (and so any) Sin of Uncleanness is not privatively only, but positively also, even contrariantly opposite unto Grace; there is in it not only a want of Holiness, but something of positive filthiness. Now as Logicians say, Contraria se mutuó destruunt, alterumque alterius contractione remittitur; Contraries do destroy each other, and the presence of the one is abated by the access of the other. So that this Sin when it is admitted, diminishes and destroys Grace; the Act of it is a Diminution, and the Habit of it a Destruction to it. Now surely the Destruction of Grace in a man, is a great Mischief to him; it is the defacing of his Evidence for, and a destroying of his Title to Heaven. For as the pure in heart shall see God, so without holiness shall no man see the Lord, mat. 5.8. Heb. 12.14. It is the depriving him of every thing of Divine nature in him, and the stripping him of all, so much as likeness unto God. It is the rereturning of him into a state of corrupted nature, to a state of Damnation, a Condition far worse than that of Beasts which perish; which, whatever they suffer, yet they do not sin, and find at once an end of their lives and of their miseries; whereas the end of an ungracious man's life is but the beginning of an endless Death. yea further, it is the makingway for the Image and Nature of the Devil to enter upon, and overspread the man; for as the Divine Nature and Image stands in Purity and Holiness, so the Diabolical Image and Nature consists in Impurity and Uncleanness: So that, in effect, it is the making of a man, who was before the Child of God, to become the Child of the Devil. Whereupon St. Ambrose says our Apostle did well to warn Christians to flee Fornication, per quam filii Dei fiunt silii Diaboli; inasmuch as by that, the Children of God did become the Children of the Davil. A greater Mischief is hard to say.  
4. It wounds, and wastes, and destroys his Conscience. This is a Sin that is done with Knowledge most an end, (for it is tore that a man should be so far gone from himself through Drink, or any other Course, as that, like Lot, he should not know hedoth commit the sin when he doth commit it.) It is a Sin that requires much study in most Cases, how to contrive and compass the commission of it; and therefore, especially in such Cases, is a Sin of knowledge, a Sin committed with deliberation, and therefore is a wilful Sin; and such Sins are wounding Sins to the Soul, wasting Sins to the Conscience; the first Act wounds, the second wastes, and the Habit of it when it grows to that, quite destroys the Conscience; the custom of sinning takes away all both Sense and Conscience of Sin; like those Gentiles spoken of by St. Paul, Eph. 4.17, 18, 19 who walked in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that was in them, because of the blindness, or rather, hardness of their heart, who being past feeling, gave themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Which blindness and hardness, senselesness and stupidity of Mind and Heart, when men once have through continued custom of sinning in this way, brought upon themselves, than it is but just, that God should give them up (in a Judicial way) unto Uncleanness, and unto vile Affections, and even give them over unto a reprobate mind, a mind void of Judgement, as he did those Romas St. Paul speaks of, Rom. 1.24, 26, 28. And this to be given over to a reprobate sense, to have the Conscience cauterised, to be under a benummedness of mind, and a brawniness of heart, to be without Sense and Conscience of sin, is to be under a most dismal Judgement, the high Road to, and the very Gate into, and month of Hell. For when once a man is past ceiling or sin, he is the past sorrowing for sin, and past repenting of it, (without an extraordinary and miraculous Work of Conviction wrought upon him) and without Repentance there can be no Salvation. And therefore that sin which brings a man into this desperate Condition, is a sin that is mischievous with a Witness; it blinds the mind, perverts the judgement, benumbs the heart, sears the Conscience; leaving the mind under stupefaction and senselesness, hardness and impenitency.  
5. It distracts him in those Duties to God, whereby he should obtain the Grace of God, and preserve and increase it when it is obtained. This fleshly Lust will not suffer him rightly to attend to any spiritual Duty: it will not suffer him to have any Communion with God, either by hearing God speak to him in his Word, or speaking to God himself in Prayer: it so takes up all his Thoughts, that he can mind nothing of the Worship and Service of of God as he ought. When he should be thinking of God, he is thinking of his Whore; and instead of praying for Grace to abstain from his sin, and to mortify his Lust, he is plotting how to fulfil his Lust, and commit his sin. So true is that of St. Ambrose, Nullus peccandi modus, & inexplexibilis scelerum sitis, nisi morte amantis, extingui non potest; This sin is unmeasurable, unsatiable, the burning Thirst whereof never quenched by any thing but Death. Now surely it is a very great mischief to be so distracted in one's Duty to God; that is a plaguy Lust that will not let a man be quiet till he hath said his Prayers, but be as ill, or worse a Tempter to a man than the Devil himself. And yet such a mischievous sin Lust, is that whereby the Fornicator is swayed, and governed in his Course of Uncleanness.  
And no marvel: for it besots and fools him, so that he neither minds, nor regards what he is about, unless it be when he is getting satisfaction to his Lust. It dispirits and unmans the man, and turns him all into Beast well nigh, saving what he is in show and shape. Who could think any other that should find Hercules, the only Worthy and Wonder in his time for strength and Valour, stooping to the meanness of being a Servant to Omphale, and in the quality of a Wench working at the Rock and Spindle? And what other can we think was meant by the ancient Poets when they tell us of the strange Transformations of Jupiter and other Gods into a Bull, a Swan, and the like brutish Creatures, for the love of, and to satisfy his lust with this or that admired Beauty, but that lust, this lust of Fornication transforms and turns men, even the greatest of them into very Beasts, makes them do brutish things, as if they had no more of the Heart of a man in them, than Nabuchadnezzar had when he was turned to Grass, than the Beasts of the Field have. And this probably was meant by the Prophet Hosea, when in his fourth Chapter and cleventh Verse, he makes Fornication to be one of those things that take away the Heart; Whoredom and wine, and new wine take away the Heart, do turn a man into a very beast. and suitably the Prophet Jeremy compares these unclean sinners to Horses, lustful Creatures, Jer. 5.8. They were as fed horses, saith he, every one neighed after his Neighbour's Wife. And so the Apostle St. Peter speaking of those that walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, compares them to natural bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed; and even to Dogs, and Swine, two most unclean Creatures, and more irrational than any other Creatures in their lusts, (2 Pet. 2.10, 12, 22.) which is a great mischief to a man, as being the turning of him out of himself, and the degrading of him into a Beast, rendering him unfit for any manly acting, and dissolving him all into softness and folly.  
And having bereft him of Judgement and Spirit, the less marvel is it, if it do also bereave him of his Freedom, and make a very Slave of him. It is an imperious lust this; it makes them in whom it reigns, very Servants and Slaves to it. Hence these kind of people are by the Apostle St. Peter called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, servants of corruption; adding this for the reason of his so calling them, because that of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage, 2 Pet. 2.19. And so the Apostle St. Paul, Rom. 6.16. Know ye not to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? And after v. 19 speaks of their having yielded their members servanos to uncleanness. So that this sin of Uncleanness is a tyrannous lust, it bereaves its Subjects of their Liberty and Freedom, and brings them under bondage and slavery. A fornicator and a Freeman, are two terms that cannot be said of the same Man: He that is a worker of Uncleanness is in a state of very servitude; and a base, a wretched servitude is it that he serves. He is made a Servant to the most servile part of himself, his corrupt flesh, and to the basest part of his flesh, the vilest member of his Body. And that is base that is inglorious, Nil vilius quam a carne vinci; to be conquered by, and enslaved to the flesh, is so vile and base, as nothing can be more. And yet what is much less vile and inglorious, he is a servant to a Woman, and must be subject to her pleasures and displeasures, frowned on, and talked to, yea to be boxed and knocked about the Ears with her Slipper, as of old they used to do, taking their Example from Omphale's so using Hercules. Touching which, notable is that saying of the Roman Orator, Illum ego non liberum dico, cui mulier imperat, leges imponit; I cannot call him a free man, whom a Woman bears rule over, and giveth Laws unto: so that if she call, he must come; if she bid be gone, he must away; if she demand, he must give; if she threaten, he must stand in awe. Hunc ergo non t●●●tummodo servum, sed nequissimum servum ego judico, as he goes on; such a Man as this I account not only a servant, but a very sorry servant, a vile, base, abject Slave. Now, in as much as Freedom is a thing of high value, not only in the mind of any generous Grecian or Roman Heathen, but in the mind of every true Christian, who are redeemed from Slavery to Liberty by the Son of God himself; and that with the price of his own Blood, who became himself a Servant that they might be made Freemen, in so much is the bereaving a Man of his Freedom a pernicious mischief; and the rather in that the loss of his Freedom doth commence into a base and sordid, cruel and intolerable, easeless and endless slavery and drudgery, as that of this Lust of Uncleanness is, which with the most merciless fury rages in, and tyrannizeth over the Fornicator, making a very Ass, and Drudge, and Beast, and Slave of him. He would think so, and say so, that upon any other account were obliged to submit to those meannesses, and act those basenesses, which at the command of this Lust he humbles himself to the doing and enduring of: Enough this to affright any one from ever giving himself over to it. But because there are divers Tempers of men, and some are persuaded by one means, and some by another, I will proceed to some other Considerations, which will show it still more and more mischievous.  
Sixthly therefore, It deprives a Man very much of his Quiet. I have showed before how it keepeth him continually busied, filling Head and Heart with thoughts and fears, and making him watch, and pray as I may say, and promise, and vow, attend and wait for the satisfaction of his Lust. But that's not all, it engages him in various jangles and brawls, and quarrels, and strifes, and fightings about the Whore with other Men. Either they would both have her, and quarrel and fight about that, or else one prefers his Whore above the others, and then they quarrel and fight about that; or else some of her Relations are not able to endure such abuse to one of their Family, and then they quarrel and light about that. This St. Chrysostom well observed, and thereupon concludes, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉:) That if any Man love pleasure, and would live his Life in quietness of mind, he must fly the converse of Whores, for they fill the souls of their Lovers with infinite Wars and Troubles, and are continually putting them upon Fights and Contentions in all their words, in all their deeds. Who is able to reckon up, not the little brawls and brangles, quarrels and cuffing, but the most desperate Weapon-fights in extemporary, or premeditated Duels, that have been upon these occasions? The World hath several times been made but as it were one great Cockpit, wherein Blood and Wounds, and Deaths have been dealt upon the occasion of Lust. The quarrel between Greece and Troy of old, which ended in the Destruction of that fair and famous City, began in that. The War betwixt the Spaniards and the Saracens, which ended in the destruction of Spain, and the overrunning of much of Christendom, with those Mahometan Enemies thereof, began also in that. So high sometimes flies the Contention betwixt Persons engaged in quarrel upon the score of this Lust of Fornication, and Uncleanness. And therefore by this it appears how mischievous a sin it is in this respect. He that devotes himself a Servant to that Mistress, must expect as many real turmoils and Disquiets, Brawls and Contentions, Duels and Fights about her, as our Romantic Writers fancy their Knights Errand at every turn to be engaged in for their airy Amours, and the imaginary Ladies of their Affections. But this is not all the Mischief yet. For,  
Seventhly, It blasts his Credit, ruins his Estate, and destroys his Body. It blasts his Credit, stains his Reputation, and takes away his good Name. How shameful a sin this is in all the Circumstances of it, is already shown. Now what but Shame and Disgrace can be the Fruit of so shameful a Root? Whereupon no doubt it is, that Solomon counsels his Son to remove his way from her, and come not nigh the door, lest he should give his honour unto others; that is, run himself into Shame and Disgrace, Prov. 5.8, 9 The Names by which Persons addicted to this Vice, are spoken of, and mentioned, carry the Disgrace of the Person along with them in the Front thereof. Such in these our days of looseness and lasciviousness is the name of Gallant, not to name the more grossly, shameful Names of Whoremaster and Wheremongers, and the like. Persons of modesty know not well how to mention them, but with some brand of Infamy affixed to their Names. How are their Crimes made the talk of the Country! And that which they think they act in secret, not whispered, but openly spoken of in the Housetop. How are their Miscarriages, Discoveries, Quarrels, made the Subject of common Discourse! And, if upon Conviction they be brought to undergo that Shame which the Law inflicts upon such shameless Offenders, there needs no more be added to so public a Disgrace. And sure the taking away of a man's good Name, the spoiling of his Credit, the soiling of his Reputation, is a great Mischief; else there would not be so many Suits and Quarrels as there happens every day about Reputation and point of Honour. It hath been used to be said, Actum est de homine, si actum est de nomine; A man had as good be half hanged, as, in an ill Name. And no doubt but it is a great hindrance to many a ones rise to Preferment, that he is in an ill Name for this Vice: For what Person of Quality or Honour will come within the Embraces of those Arms that are used to hug a Whore? Or what credit can she give to the Promises and Vows, Protestations and Oaths of that Tongue 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 ruins 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 ruin thy Estate, and bring thyself 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 Expense, 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, Expense in Diet and Drink, Physic or Fees, even that carelessness 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 six and seven, and is abroad day by day, and night by night, perhaps Week by Week, following his pleasure of Whorehunting; besides that few will regard to preserve his Estate, there will be enough 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 itself, (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 do to filthy Diseases, shameful to name, loathsome to behold, tormenting to endure, deadly, if not cured in time, and both troublesome and chargeable to be cured (if a Cure be got) so they rot alive, and stink aboveground; and if they die not upon Dunghills (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 waste 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 dissuade 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 ruin 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 itself, whatever thought of by profane Worldlings: For they upon whom the Church's Censure falls in that kind and measure, are excluded from the Benefit of the Church's Ordinances, the Word and Sacraments, the Food of their Souls; they are excluded from communicating with the Church's 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 readmitted into the Communion again, they would continue in the state of Penance, and do the Penance 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 itself, is enough to make any afraid of doing any thing whereby to deserve and incur 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 expressly 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, than 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 Ecstasies 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 debars 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, Liars, 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 Heaven's loss, is added the mischief of Hell's 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 enwrapped, 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 persuade 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 Gild of sin with the Fornicator. It is not his Temptation that will acquit her from the Gild 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 expressly 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.) not partaking with Adulterers, (Ps. 50.18.) not 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, 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 Margin is profane. So Leu. 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 herself with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat 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 public Spectacle to all Beholders, whether in Church or Market, as well as the Man. The very Name of a Whore, which she gets unto herself 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; 'tis 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 herself by playing the whore, she was to be burned with Fire, Leu. 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 Father's 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 Father's house.  
The Adulteress as well as the Adulterer, was surely to be put to death, Leu. 20.10. If a Bondmaid were found guilty in this Case, though she was not to be put to death, because she was not free, yet she was to be scourged, Leu. 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 World's 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 inquire 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. 
‖ 22dae. q. 159. a. 3.  Fornicatio simplex cum contra bonum educendae prolis sit, its illicit a est, ut etiam sit ●●thale crimen: This is the Conclusion of Aquinas in the Case; Simple Fornication, inasmuch as it is against the good of the Offspring 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 Offspring, 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 hid 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 Pope's 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 Murders 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 though she hath not a Heart outright 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 another's) 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 Parent's 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 aught 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 born.  
And lastly, What care soever be taken for it to preserve it in Life, and provide it of Estate (for not all are so wicked, as to be so cruel to, or careless of it) yet the baseness of its Birth is such a Blot to its Name, such a stain to its Honour, such a Disgrace to its Person, as it is never able to wipe off. It is disgracefully spoken of upon every occasion; and especially in any Quarrel shall be sure to hear itself called by the usual ignominious Names. The buy Blows even of Kings and Princes seldom have their Names in Chronicles transmitted to Posterity, but with a Brand of the Infamy of their Birth set upon them, being remembered as the base Sons of such or such a Prince. So mischievous in point of Life, Estate, and Honour, is this Sin of Fornication to the Child of the Fornicator.  
Thirdly, It is mischievous unto Religion: It brings a Scandal upon Christianity, as if that were a Religion that either taught, or at least, did tolerate Fornication. And of those that follow that sin, may that of Salvian truly be said (de Gub. l. 4. Per flagitia ac turpitudines suas, nomen Religionis infamant; By their Wickednesses and Filthinesses they defame the Name of Religion. For what would a Civil Heathen, Turk, or Jew say other, but that the Religion itself could not be good, whose Professors they saw to be so bad. Si enim bona discerent, boni essent; For did they learn that which was good, they themselves could not but be good. Talis prosecto Secta est, quales & Sectatores; Such verily is the way they follow, as the Followers of that way are. Hoc sunt absque dubio quod docentur; That undoubtedly they are, which they are taught to be. It appears therefore that their Prophets which they have, do teach them filthiness; That the Apostles which they read, do teach them uncleanness; and that the Gospels wherein they are instructed, do preach those things which themselves do practise. Thus do our Fornicators cause the way of Truth to be ill-spoken of, and that Doctrine which is according unto Godliness, to be accounted an Instruction unto Filthiness; than which no greater Mischief can be done to Religion, no fouler Scandal can be brought on Christianity.  
And as it is mischievous unto Religion, so in the next place also unto the Catholic Church; for it brings a scandal upon that, makes that be ill-thought of, and ill-spoken of too: We may give an Instance in the Gnostick Heretics of old; these wretched Miscreants taught all manner of filthiness of Manners, made Wickedness to be a Religion. These Practices of theirs gave great occasion to the Enemies of the Lord (both the unbelieving Jews, and infidel Heathens) to blaspheme. Their beastly Practices were laid to the charge of the Orthodox Christians, who were all judged such as they were. And the like befell the Church again from the Debaucheries of the Carpocratians, who, as 
* Contra Heres. Carpocrat. l. 1. To. 2. c. 27.  Epiphanius saith, were fitted, and sent forth by Satan, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to the Reproach and Scandal of the Church of God.  
Their filthy Actings brought a base Report on the Professors of Christianity, as if they were all such as those Heretics were, none among them better than they. And truly when the Whoredoms, with the other Wickednesses of Christendom, are known (as known they are) to Jews, Turks, and Pagans, what can they think, but that the Church of Christ is a wicked Company of Reprobates, rather than any holy Communities of Saints; and out of detestation of their viciousness, abstain from joining with them in their Communion; as if it were as unlawful now for Infidels to join with Believers, as formerly it was for Believers to have fellowship with Infidels.  
Thus it is mischievous to the Catholic Church, in respect of Infidels and Unbelievers abroad.  
And to this particular Church it is no less mischievous in respect of Separatists and Schismatics at home.  
For that (especially when so many) Members of our Church do act such filthiness, gives them occasion to censure hardly of us, as if we were a Company of carnal Creatures, had none of the Spirit of Christ abiding in us, and were not true Members (and so no true Church) of Christ, and thereupon to stand off from our Communion, and rather live and die in Separation from us, than return to Union with us; and especially when they see such Wickedness tolerated among us, or at least connived at by us, so that the Actors of it pass uncensured and unpunished for what they do, being admitted not only into Civil Commerce with us in worldly matters, but unto sacred Communion with us in heavenly Ordinances, the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer. The serious Consideration of this, were enough to make a pious Heart not weep, but even bleed again with Gries. O, the heavy Reproach that lies upon this Church upon this account! O, the sad mischief that is brought upon it by this means!  
And even the Remedy of this, if the Church shall go about in earnest to remedy it, will not be without mischief to the Church: For, O how many, O how great Persons must be cut off from the Church for this thing! Of whose returning after such Excommunication, the Church could have but little hope; and for whose not returning after it, it could not but have great Sorrow. And thus the Church of Christ, both the Catholic throughout all Christendom, and the Particular within this Kingdom, suffer by this Sin of Fornication.  
Neither does it end here, but lastly, it is also mischievous to the Kingdom, in respect of the Persons in it, and Destruction upon it. First, it defiles the Persons that are in it. Among the things that defile a man, Fornication is reckoned up for one, Marth. 15.18. and accordingly Fornication and Uncleanness go together in Gal. 5.19. and Eph. 5.3. And so Whoremonger and unclean Person, Eph. 5.5. It defiles the Person that acts this Uncleanness by that Pollution that flows from it unto their own persons; for upon the commission of this also, as of every other sin, the Actor doth not only become a guilty person, but also a filthy Person; filthy in the sight of God's Eye, as well as guilty of the breach of God's Law; such a Person God hates to see, as well as is resolved to judge.  
And it defiles the Persons of others that converse with them, by the Contagion that it spreads by their filthy Conversations, and Examples, into the Lives and Manners of others; one scabbed Sheep, as it is said by way of Proverb, deriving Infection into the whole Flock. O, 'tis a most infectious Vice this! the converse of Fornicators is contagious, their very Breath is pestilential, their evil Word but too to powerful to corrupt other men's good manners.  
Secondly, It brings Destruction upon it. For when the Inhabitants are defiled upon the Land, then is the Earth defiled under the Inhabitants thereof, (Is. 24.5.) and 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 spew out the Inhabitants, Leu. 18.25, 28.  
A smart instance there is of God's Wrath against a Nation for this sin, in Numb. 25.1, etc. 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 joined to Baal-peor; so that there were form and twenty thousand that died of that Plague, which beak 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 through the Belly with his Javelin, as they lay together in the Tent. Oh, 'tis a Nation ruining, a Land destroying (because a Land defiling) sin, this sin of Fornication. And no doubt but the many Judgements 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 fallen upon us, in a very great measure, for this impudent beastly sin of Fornication, which hath spread itself 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 Jealousy, let them read St. Chrysoftom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25.  Jealousy 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 poisons her Husband, or drowns herself, 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, choosing 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 Sluice it opens for the Estate and Livelihood to run out at, and for Ruin 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 itself, 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 itself; 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, than it may be to purpose to give Directions for the flying of it. But if it be a thing that a man cannot fly, than 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 justify 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 enjoin 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 easy, and his burden light? Yea, how are his Commandments any other but grievous? What choosing 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 mere strength of our own , 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 ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves, 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  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, than 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 cannot be overcome of evil, so neither will he suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, if we seek to him for strength, but will with the temptation make way to escape, that we may be able to bear it, 1 Cor. 10.13. Thence our Saviour taught its to pray, not to be led into (that is, not to be left to ourselves in, and overcome by any) Temptation.  
And let us a little consider whence it is that our Fornicator, who complains of his Unableness to contain, is enforced and constrained to this sin? Is it from God, or from the Devil, or from the Woman, or from his own flesh? From God it cannot be, for he only permits it, he doth not necessitate to it by any Impulse or Decree of his. From the Devil it cannot be, for he commonly tempts, he cannot enforce to sin. From the Woman it cannot be, for she can only allure, she cannot compel. (Not to say that the greatest Complainers, that they cannot forbear this sin, are the greatest Tempter's of Women to it.) And from his own Flesh it cannot be, because that may dispose him to a Desire, but it cannot constrain him to the Act, both because God hath given him Reason to bridle his Will, if he will make use of it, and will give him grace to subdue his Passion, if he will but seek for it.  
The Plea of Cannot, is a mere pretence, and that a groundless one; it is the Will not that is in fault. If poison be offered them in Meat or Drink, they can forbear that, if they know of it; and can they not as well forbear Fornication, which is as destructive to the Soul, as Poison to the Body? When their Lust is never so hot, they can forbear while any body is by; and can they not then forbear at all times, since God himself is always by them, and his holy Angels never from them? What they have a mind to save (their Wine, or any thing else they affect) they can keep well enough, and why not their Chastity? Undoubtedly as well that as any thing else, so the same care be used to keep that which is used to keep other things.  
No doubt, but in the height of their Lust, a good consideration, as a great Sum of Money, or the offer of a Crown or Kingdom, would hire them to contain themselves; or a great Danger would fright them into Chastity, as if they saw that after the Fact committed, they should forthwith drop into a flaming Furnace; or if they saw that there were no place to commit it in, but a Bed of Fire, why then cannot Heaven allure them to continence? Why cannot Hell affright them from Incontinency? Heaven, which for Wealth and Glory, exceeds all Rewards; Hell, which for Horror and Torment, transcends all Pains.  
The most passionately amorous can contain for a time, upon Promise or hope of Enjoyment of his Pleasure: And cannot he then, if he will, contain for always, when better Pleasures and Enjoyments are assured to him upon his Continency, unto all Eternity? If upon any Consideration he can contain for a Day, a Week, or for a Month, then why not for a longer time, even all his life long, upon a better Consideration than any that can be made to him of things on Earth, even the but using to forbear for a while, will the better enable him for a total Forbearance; for as vicious, so virtuous Habits get strength by use, and increase by continuance. Nor is it to be doubted, but where God sees the Heart sincerely set upon a good purpose, he will there set in with his Grace, and furnish with Ability, and strengthen unto performance.  
And how knows he that pleads the Impossibility of Continence, but that he may be chaste, if he will? Did he ever take right Advice about it? Did he ever make a true Trial of that Advice? Undoubtedly never any man made that Plea, that took right Advice, and made a Trial. The Plea of Impossibility, is only made out of cunning to prevent Advice, and supersede all Trial, and is the highest piece of Sophistry that the Devil can cheat any man withal; for let him once work a man into a persuasion of that, and then the next News is, that the Reins of his Lust are thrown into the Neck of him, and he rides full drive, without stop or stay, in a high Career to Hell and Damnation.  
And now having blown away that thin Cobweb, pretence of Impossibility of keeping this Precept of our Apostle, I shall go on with my intended Work, and give those Directions, which, if faithfully and carefully observed, will sufficiently qualify any man to be Continent, and enable him to flee Fornication.  
And, first, Not to direct you to that course, which yet our Saviour tells us that some have taken for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake, and of which he also saith, He that is able to receive it, let him receive it, Mat. 19.12. which Origen also in the primitive Times did, and made himself an Eunuch, because there is no Virtue in, no Praise for abstaining from that sin which one is not able to commit, (though the but bare freedom from so impetuous a Lust, and so troublesome a Temptation, might be worth all the Paln and Trouble of either a Physical Emasculation, or a Mechanical Eviration,) I say, not to advise any to make an Eunuch of himself, I shall in the first place, to those that are Unmarried, in order to their abstaining from Fornication, if otherwise they are not able to contain themselves, give that Advice which the Apostle St. Paul gives in 1 Cor. 7.9. and that is, to marry. Having before, v. 8. acknowledged it good for them, if they did abide as he did; that is, keep themselves unmarried; notwithstanding he adds an Advice to marry, if they cannot otherwise keep themselves chaste: But (saith he) if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn. As if he had said, Tho single Life may in some respect; be to be preferred before the married Condition, yet if any find not in themselves ability and strength to abstain, and preserve Chastity, let them marry in God's Name; it is infinitely better than so to do, and preserve Conjugal Chastity, than by rejecting the use of that Remedy, to be inflamed with vehement burning Desire, and perhaps break out into unnatural Practices. And hence our Church declaring the Causes for which Matrimony was ordained, tells us, that it was ordained (among other things) for a remedy against sin, and to avoid Fornication, that such persons as have not the gift of continency, might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's Body. Thus 
* De Abrah. Patriarch. l. 1. c. 7.  St. Ambrose, Ideo conjugii tibi datum est jus, ne in laequeum incidas, & cum alierâ muliere delinquas; Marriage is allowed you to prevent your falling into a Snare, and committing Fornication. And to this purpose is that advice of Plutarch, touching young Men, (de Educ. lib.) Danda est opera, ut matrimonio vinciantur, quod est tutissimem juventutis vinculum; That care be taken to get them married, as the safest way to keep them chaste. Here now for the satisfaction of Natural Desires, and for the prevention of unlawful Practices, here, I say, is one Remedy for the Unmarried, ordained by God, approved by man both Christian and Heathen; if they cannot otherwise contain, let them marry.  
But because neither can all, at least, not at all times, make use of this Remedy; and because even this Remedy alone where it is had, is not enough with with some to keep them chaste, I shall therefore go on to give you other Directions, and those such as will indifferently concern all, whether married or unmarried.  
Secondly, Therefore in order to the flying of Fornication, watch and quench the first Motins of the Spirit of Impurity within yourselves; suppress and stifle the first Desires and Thoughts of Uncleanness that arise in your Hearts. 'Tis easier to deal with a spark than with a flame, to crush an Egg, than kill a Cockatrice: A spark, if it get vent to quicken it, will rage's to a flame; and the Cockatrice Egg, if it get warmth to hatch it, will break out into a Serpent; give no way to that which will ruin you, no life to that which will destroy you: Principis obsta; keep down the first rise of the Flesh, smother the first breathe of Lust; choke the first Imaginations of Uncleanness; strangle the first desires of Impurity: Cut the throat of your Lusts in the Infancy of them, or dash the brains of them against the Stones, any way get rid of them, and as soon as you can; let not a vain Thought have any lodging in your Bosom, not a carnal Desire have any abiding in your Breast. The beginning of a Temptation is the time to show our greatest Valour and Vigilance in. And therefore run the Sword of the Spirit to the Heart of Lust in the very first appearance of it. Say to thyself, the Law hath said, Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not lust, and shall I give way to carnal Desires, to fleshly Lusts? I will not do it; avaunt, be gone away from me, ye vain Thoughts, yet unclean Motions, ye impure Imaginations, I will neither act, nor think of any such thing. If with this Vigilancy you shall attend, with this Resolution oppose, with this Courage set upon, design, and endeavour the destruction of Lust in its first motions and apperances', you will, no doubt, have a noble and cheap Victory over it! you will overcome it, and subdue it with ease and certainty: But give it time, and it will soon grow too hard to be overmastered by you.  
Thirdly, Hold no dispute against any Temptations to Uncleanness: To dispute with it, is the way to be overcome by it, or highly endangered thro' it: Arguments against it do but enrage it to come upon us with a sharp point, or the keen edge of a more vigorous Reply. They will leave an ill relish upon the Tongue, and a bad smack upon the Fancy. Hear the Temptation but speak for itself, and before you are ware, it insinuates itself into the Bosom of you, and is in your Heart before you can think it got into your Head, with an unseen Fire, and unsensible Power, it melts you into softness, and dissolves you into yielding. Good therefore in this case is the advice of St. Augustine: Contra libidinis impetum apprehende fugam, si vis obtinere victoriam. So St. Ambrose: Cum aliis vitiis potest expectari conflictùs, hanc fugite ne approximetis, quia non potest aliter melius vinci. Against a Temptation to Uncleanness, sight is not so good as flight for the obtaining of Victory. He that would conquer Fornication, must, (as our Apostle saith) flee Fornication; that is, fly the Temptation to it, stand no dispute with it, maintain not contest against it, but wholly throw it off, and lay it aside; give it no consideration, but run away from it, as Joseph did from his tempting Mistress. Non fugatur, nisi fugiatur; The only way to put it to flight, is to flee away from it. Had our Great Grandmother Eve done so at the first with the Devil's Temptation, had she given no ear to his Words, set no eye upon the Fruit, held no dispute with him, had no consideration of that, but turned herself, and gone away from him and it, she had not been the Mother of so much Sin and Misery, as she hath been to her Posterity. In Gen. 3.17. the ground is cursed, and Adam condemned to eat in sorrow of it all the days of his Life. What's the cause? why, because he had harkened unto the voice of his Wife, tempting him to eat of the forbidden Fruit. He should not have harkened to any Temptation to that, nay, (according to the Septuagints Version) he should not have heard any Temptation to it. 'Tis there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because thou hast, not harkened, as we read, but heard the voice of thy Wife. In order therefore to the avoiding of this sin, neither hearken to the Persuasion, nor so much as hear the voice of Temptation to it, but reject it; and (as Hercules did from the Monsters of Lybia, that had the faces of beautiful Women, but the Claws and Tails of cruel Serpents) run away from it, by turning yourself to sober Thoughts, or betaking yourself to laudable business; as he said in the Comedy, Aliquid agam, ne hoc agam; so do you, do something, do any thing that you may not do this; that you may have no leisure to act, or think of any such thing.  
And if you be alone when the Temptation gins its assault upon you, abide no longer in that solitariness, abandon the place, and quit the field, as I may say, get into Company forthwith, but that such, as by the gravity of it may awe you into Chastity; or by the cheerfulness of it, may divert your Thoughts, and put the Temptation quite out of your mind. In this case we may say by the Tempted, as God said by Adam before Eve was created, (Gen. 2.18.) It is not good for man to be alone. Yea, as Solomon saith, Eccles. 4.10. woe to him that is alone when be falleth, viz. into this temptation, if he seek not to get other Company to himself, to get himself into the Company of Men, or however to get God into Company with himself. Indeed to run to Men and God both, is best in such cases, to God for strength against, and to Men for diversion from the Temptation.  
Fourthly, Avoid all occasions of Temptation to this sin, all things that may externally provoke to lust, or put in mind of it, instruct, or encourage to it: They are many, and some I shall mention.  
1. Avoid Society and Converse with men that are given that way, and especially at times and places, when and where they are to act their filthiness, or but design to do it: Their Actions, 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 yourself. For as Seneca saith, Malignas comes, quamvis candido & fimplici rubiginem suam affricat; An ugly-conditioned Companion rubs the Rust of his own Malignity upon him that is otherwise fair-conditioned, and , 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 Samson 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 subtle and piercing; their Blandishments delicate and melting; their Words are charming, their Looks enchanting, their Kisses killing, their Hairs are Snares to take, their 〈◊〉 are Fetters to hold, and their Glance are Darts to destroy their Prey; their very niceness, and shiness, and coyness, are inflaming: What then are their direct and downright enticings, court, 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 harkened 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 yourselves; 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 Compliment 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 Be●● 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, etc. saith, The lips of a strange Woman drop as a Honeycomb, and her mouth is smother than Oil: 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 herself, 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, though a wise Man, yet a mere Heathen, would not endure to be a Beholder of such Wantonries in the Floral Plays, but rather chose to avoid the Theatre. O, these things that I have now mentioned, are the great and common Bane of Modesty, the Ruin 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 dipped 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 unchaste 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 women's 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, 
* Dr. Taylor.  Lust is observed many times to be the Punishment of a proud Man, to tame the Vanity of his pride by the Shame and Affronts of Unchastity.  
2. Fly Anger. The irascible and concupiscible Appetite, or (if you will) Anger and Lust are but the same Affection under several Considerations, and do cohabit and dwell together in the same place, even in the Heart of Man, as our Moralists say. And the same intemperate heat that makes Anger, does enkindle Lust: And therefore that ye may avoid the one, avoid the other; overcome your Anger, that you may not be overcome of Lust, and so commit Fornication.  
3. Flee Covetousness. The love of money (the Apostle tells us) is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6.10. of this Evil, no doubt, it is in many the very Root. Of old the Poets described this in their fiction of Jupiter's raining himself into Danae's Lap in a shower of Gold; as meaning thereby to show what a Power there is in Gold to corrupt Chastity, and that the love of Money is the Root, as of other Vices, so also of this of Fornication. And we see the Practice of it every day, infinite almost every where, being dissolved (thro' the love of Money) into a willingness to consent to the Act of Uncleanness, with much less than a shower of Gold reigned into their Laps, even with a handful of Gold or Silver, and perhaps a less quantity of either put into their Hands. How many Women do, for love of Money (like Flora of old among the Romans, or Thais among the Grecians) prostitute their Bodies to all Comers, that will go to, or give the Price of their Whoredoms! Yea, (which is a shame to speak) how many men are there, that for love of the same, do, as it were, let themselves out to hire for Stallions to satisfy the inordinate Lusts of insatiable, lascivious, brutish Wantoness! Covetousness then is a mighty Factor of Lust, and therefore subdue that, if you mean not to be subdued by this; which are so near akin, that one word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is made use of in Scripture to signify both, and as intimating that he that is given to one, may easily be drawn into the other; whereupon it follows, that ye must fly the one, if you mean not to follow the other; that ye must avoid Covetousness, if ye purpose to fly Fornication.  
4. Fly Idleness. The Soul of man is a busy thing, cannot but be doing; it must, it will have some Employment, and if it have no good, it will have evil. The idle man therefore that finds his Soul nothing of good to employ itself about, gives it leisure, and opportunity, and a temptation to let itself lose unto Vanity, and to give Entertainment unto wanton Imaginations, lascivious and lustful Thoughts, upon the first, and every occasion of such thinking.  
And again, the Body of man, by the labour of business and exercise, is freed much from the superfluity of those Humours, which are the Foams and Fuel of Lust. But where this is wanting, there the superfluity of that naughtiness is so great, as that like a Coal-mine that is fired within itself by the abundance of sulphureous and bituminous matter immixed with it, it heats and kindles in the Entrails, and rages within the Breast and Bosom, and burns throughout the whole Body.  
As therefore a man of Business and Labours is seldom much given, if any thing inclined to this sin, so on the other side it is observed, that no easy, healthful, and idle person ever was chaste, if he could be tempted. For Lust, (as a 
* Dr. tailor's Holy Living, p. 96.  learned Bishop once said) usually creeps in at those emptinesses where the Soul is unemployed, and the Body at ease. And the witty Epigrammatist well observed this Saying: 
Quaeritur Aegysthus quare sit factus adulter,  
In promptu causa est, desidiosus erat.  Wherein he gives the Idleness of Aegysthus to be the cause of his being an Adulterer: And above all Idleness, the Idleness of the Bed and Couch is most pernicious; the soft Bed is the source of unclean Thoughts, and the Mother of wanton Desires. The time when David fell a lusting after Bathsheba, seems to have been such an idle time as this with him; it was an Eventide, after he had been lolling on his Bed, and was risen thence, and was walking on the Roof of his House, 1 Sam. 11.2. Idleness we see, especially of the Bed, disposes to lasciviousness, and is an Enemy to Chastity; for as the Poet said, Otia si tollas, periêre Cupidinis arts. Take away Idleness, and all Cupid's Arts and Darts lose their Efficacy and Force; Dispositions to Uncleanness waste away, and Temptations to it are ineffective: And therefore as you would not be given to Lasciviousness, be not given unto Idleness, but fill up your time with fevere and useful Employment of both Mind and Body in concerning Business, and significant Labour, and follow that as ye would flee Fornication.  
5. Flee Curiosity; that especially which lies in the Eye, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from looking comes lusting, was an old Etymological Observation. Oculis excitatur libido, the Eye is a great inflamer of Lust. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉! Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error! So the Greek and Latin Eclogists; As soon as I began to look, I began to lust, and to be inflamed with filthy Desires; to be mad on her I had seen. In Mat. 5.28. first comes looking on a Woman, and then lusting after, and then committing Adultery already with her in his Heart. So in 2 Pet. 2.14. we read of Eyes full of Adultery: There, at the Eye sin gins. 
* St. Ambros.  Fenestra oculus est, the Eye is the Window by which Lust finds entrance into the Heart. Joseph's Mistress first cast her Eye upon Joseph, and then she said, Lie with me, Gen. 39.7. First she looked, and then she lusted.  
And therefore if you would avoid this sin of Fornication, stop that passage of it especially, that of the Window, that of the Eye. 
* St. Ambros.  Cave ne per fenestra introeat amore, libido penetret; Take heed Lust get not into you. Heart by the Window of your Eye. Non vis amore capi, noli in speciem mulieris intendere; Would you not be taken by, then do not look upon a Woman; take heed of curious eyeing and viewing of her, so as to consider her Beauty, and study her Perfections; gaze not upon her, you may as well face a Basilisk as her: But above all, take heed of prying into, or looking upon any naked part of her more than what is seemly, and civil to behold. Eye no secret part of her, whether purposely discovered, or accidentally unbared. Remember what a mischief David got by such a casual Look; from the roof of his house he saw a Woman washing herself, and then no way, but he must have her to lie with him, 1 Sam. 11.2, 4. Do therefore as holy Job did, Job 31.1. and make a Covenant with your Eyes; that's the way neither to look, or think on Maid or Wife so as to lust after her, and so one proper Expedient for the flying of Fornication.  
6. Flee Drunkenness: This is an Apostolical Advice, Be not drunk with Wine, (so our Apostle, Eph. 5.18.) for therein is excess, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if he had said, Thence springs all manner of lewdness and filthiness, it debauches to all manner of lasciviousness and lewdness. 
‖ Ibid.  Oculis excitatur libido, sed ebrietate succenditur; The Eye stirs up Lust, but Drunkenness sets it on fire. 
* Valer. Maximus.  Proximus à Libero patre ad inconcessam Venerem gradus est; There is but one step from excessive Wine to unlawful Lust. Drunkards and Whoremasters go together; and 'tis rare who is one, is not the other. Vino accenditur libido, ebrietate inflammatur, said Eric. Putecinus, Wine kindles Lust, Drunkenness inflames it. Immoderate Wine puts the Body into excessive heat, and the excess sof that heat enrages it with untamed Lust: And therefore wittily (to note thus much unto us) did the ancient Poet's match Vulcan and Venus, i. e. Heat and Lust together. Lot's Daughters made their Father drunk with Wine, and the next news you hear of him, is, That in his Drunkenness he lay with, and committed Incest with his own Daughter, (Gen. 19.33. etc.) Et quem Sodoma non vicerat, vina vicerunt, D. Hier. ad Ocean. Solomon dissuading from the love of Wine, by reason of the mischiefs of Drunkenness, amongst other mischiefs named to dissuade therefrom, mentions this as one, that it would incline to Fornication: Thine Eyes, saith he, Prov. 23.33. shall behold strange Women; as if he had said, 'Twill set thee a working, and lusting after strange Women. And every days experience doth so confirm this, that I spare further labour to prove it; only mentioning to you one Example, which I chief choose to speak of, because it is so notorious: It is recorded by St. Augustine in his 33 Serm. ad Fr. in Er. of the Son of one Cyril, a noble Citizen of Hippo, who had a Son whom he loved even above his Maker, not contradicting him in any Desire, nor correcting him for any Fault. This riotous youngster, not content to roar it abroad, and spend his Father's Estate, comes home drunk, and (now mark and remember all, especially fond indulgent Parents) he villainously ravished his own Mother big with Child; one of his Sisters he endeavoured to deflower, two of them he wounded that they died; and for his Father, him he killed outright. A terrible Example to all Drunkards, and enough sure to wound any Heart that is not cauterised, to a serious abomination of so exceedingly sinful a sin as Drunkenness is. Avoid Drunkenness therefore, if you would not be guilty of Whoredom; and follow not that, as ye would flee Fornication.  
Lastly, Flee Gluttony. Gluttony and Drunkenness were ancient Companions, and grow too much to be again so in these days: And well might they go so, inasmuch as the one as well as the other, is an incentive to lasciviousness. Jesurun waxed fat and kicked, that is, waxed wanton upon his high feeding, Deut. 35.15. it is a Metaphor taken from fat wanton Horses. So Jer. 5.8. They were as fed Horses in the morning: every one neighed after his Neighbour's Wife. High feeding is a great Incendiary unto hot lusting; it fills the Body with superfluous Nutriment, Spirits, and Moisture, which are the suel of Lust. Whence St. Hieron. saith, Difficile inter Epulas ervatur pudicitia: And St. Bernard, Periclitatur castitas in deliciis: It is a hard thing to feed high, and keep chastity, which is in great danger by the delicatest fare. For as Ericius Putecinus saith, Pascitur libido convitiis, nutritur deliciis; Lnst is fed with Feasts, and nourished with Dainties. In Gen. 32.6. it is said of the Israelites, that they sat down to eat, and to drink, and risen up to play, i. e. to play the Wantoness, to play the Whoremasters, to commit Fornication, and to act unnatural Uncleannesses, as were usual for Idol-worshippers to commit, and act at, and after their Idol-feasts. They did so then, and they do not much otherwise now; they eat, and drink and rise up to play, and too much of their Play is of this kind, even playing the Whores and Woremasters, and committing filthiness one with another. And therefore if you would not be given to Lust, be not given to Gluttony; avoid not only the use of all salacious Food, and lustful Meat, but all inordinate, excessive, intemperate feeding on any Meat. Nunquam vidi continentem, quem non vidi abstinentem; He is never continent, that hath not been abstinent. And therefore follow not Gluttony, if ye would flee Fornication. And thus much for my fifth Direction.  
Sixthly, Exercise Mortifications upon your Body, in order to the subduing of your Flesh: This is an old, and approved Remedy, the success whereof, upon trial, hath worthily been recommended to Posterity.  
Use frequent Fast, not from some kind of Food only, but from all, either Meat or Drink, and those of some strength and continuance, and that not when we are unable to eat, but are desirous of Meat, like the Fasts we read of kept by the Saints in the Scripture, which were continued for some days, in which they did neither eat nor drink, that is, not until Night, and that which they took then, was very little, and of mean quality, a bit of Bread, course Bread, and a draught of Water, tho' some, I suppose, did even forbear from that too, neither eating Bread, nor drinking Water. This is a way that will bring the Body low enough in time, and humble the Flesh, and quench Lust. Sine Cerere & Libero friget Venus, so the Comedian observed, Take away Diet and Drink, the Fuel of Lust, and the Heat of it will abate, and the Fire of it goeth out.  
But because the Body cannot be maintained either in Health or Life without some Food, and so there is a necessity of eating, let your ordinary and constant feeding be for the quantity of it, very sparing, and for the quality of it, mean and course; no matter how unpleasant, so it be not unhealthful. Sumenda sunt alimenta tanquam medicamenta; We must in this case take Meat like Medicines, as St. Augustine said; no more than needs must to keep us alive, and preserve us in health. 
* S. Bernard.  Sufficit ut comestabilia sint non concupiscibilia; 'Tis enough, that what we eat be wholesome, tho' it be not toothsome. Thus by often forbearances to eat at all, and a constant thin Diet, little and mean when we eat, we shall starve Lust, and subdue our Flesh, and bring that Enemy of ours, (like a Town pined out with a long Siege) to our own terms. And that none may think this Prescription unpreacticable, this was the way of Eremitical Living in former Ages, whereof infinite Instances, besides that of Antonius the Institutor of that kind of life, might be given, if it would not swell this part too much.  
And if yet the stubborn Rebel Lust lift up his head, and make opposition, then use some sharpness to him, handle him with severity, put him to pain, cause him to feel smart; either by long lyings on the ground, or by praying in painful Postures, as on hard stones with bare Knees and extended Arms; or else by wearing Sackcloth, or Hair-shirts upon their Flesh, or by inflicting of heavy stripes on the Body with the Rod, or Whip, or the like.  
This is a Course which St. Paul is said to take with himself; and indeed so saith he himself in 1 Cor. 9.27. I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; the Greek is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I strike my Body, and get it under me; strike it, and that with severity, like as a Cuffer strikes his Adversary, till I make it black and blue again; yea, till I wound it so, that the Wounds do rot again, as our Critics descant on the Text: 
a S. Benedictus.  One for this end tumbled himself among Thorns; 
b S. Martiniamus.  Another burned his Face and Hands: 
c S. Johannes cognomento Bonus.  A third ran sharp prickles up his Fingers between the flesh and he nails. And it we a thousand times better that we did by any, tho' never so afflicting a Course, subdue our Flesh, conquer our Lust, and preserve our Chastity, than that we did pamper our Bodies, yield to our Lust, and commit Fornication, and for such commission to be condemned to lie under Satan's lash for ever in Hell, to be torn and tormented with his fiery Whips, and flaming Scourges to all Eternity. Better forbear any thing, do any thing, suffer any thing to avoid this sin, than for not avoiding it now, go to Hell hereafter, and lie, and live, or rather die in Torments for it for evermore. And thus much for my sixth Direction.  
Seventhly, Meditate upon such things as may by the Consideration of them, be apt to withhold you from the Commission of that sin. Want of due Consideration is in many the Cause of this, and many other sinful Commissions. To preserve you therefore from committing this sin, meditate and consider: You may ask, What? and I shall answer, that there be many things to be thought of, in order to this end, and some of the chiefest I will offer to your Consideration.  
First, Call to mind and consider of the Falls of others that have miscarried in this way; as of Samson, and David, and Solomon, men famous in their Generation, for Strength, Valour, Wisdom, and see to what weakness of Body, and poorness of Spirit, and foolishness of Mind they were brought to by this sin, and be afraid of that which was too hard for them; avoid that which was the overthrow of them. Optimum est alienâ frui insaniâ; It is a sine thing to get good by others hurt, to learn wisdom from other men's folly, to grow careful for our own stand by the consideration of other men's fall; let us make this use of their Examples, and get this good by their harms, to fly that thro' which they fell: Let us look upon their falls, as so many Beacons set up upon Rocks in the Sea, as so many Marks of Cautions for us to avoid that sin which was their overthrow: And let us not add to the Triumphs of sin, nor to the Trophies of Lust, and be made such Spectacles for others to look on and loath, as others have made themselves to be to us.  
Secondly, Consider and meditate upon the Constancy of others that have held out unconquered by this Lust, notwithstanding their Temptations to it. The most notable one that we can mention, is that of Joseph, recorded in Gen. 39.7, to 13. He was tempted to it by his Mistress, who had some Power to command him, and many ways to oblige him, yet he consented not. He was tempted to it, not by Looks and Glances, Hints and Intimations, (any of which were enough with too many in these our days, to draw them to it) but with downright words, she plainly and boldly said to him, Lie with me; and yet he consented not. He was tempted to it by her, not once or twice only, (for trial of him, as might be thought) but many times, to show she was in earnest; she was often at it with him, tempting him, she spoke to Joseph day by day, and yet he confented not, He was tempted to it by her, not at unseasonable times only, while Company was at home, whereby they might be discovered and descried, but at a time of greatest seasonableness and opportunity, when he might act the thing with greatest secrecy and security, when he had business to do within the House, and there was none of the men of the house there within; and yet he consented not. He was tempted to it by her, not only by winning Speech, but by enforcing Action; she not only used Speech to him, but laid hand on him, she caught him by his Garment, saying, Lie with me, and yet he consented not. Here's a noble Example of Constancy and Chastity, as well worthy of our Imitation, as deserving our Admiration. Let this be ever in our Memories and Minds, whenever our Chastity is assaulted, and endangered by any such Temptation. Not much unlike was that which St. Hierome reports of a Son of a King of Nicomedia, who being tempted upon Flowers, and a perfumed Bed whereon he was tied, by an impure Courtesan with all the Arts, and Circumstances of Luxury, lest the ease of his posture should abuse him to a yielding to her Temptations, bitten off his Tongue, and spit it in her Face. If such noble Examples as these be made familiar to your mind by freqeunt Meditation on them, they will come in as Auxiliaries upon occasion, to help you toward the Victory over every Temptation that may be offered to you to commit Fornication.  
Thirdly, Consider of, and meditate, What that thing is, whose Enjoyment is so lusted after; and how lovely soever it appear; to the Eye, there is enough in it, if well considered of, to make it loathsome to the mind. I will give you this Consideration in the Sense of St. Chrysosom's Words: Saith he, When thou seest a fair Woman that hath a twinkling Eye, and a smiling Face, a Look pleasant, attractive and amiable, such as putteth thy Heart into a heat, and sets thy Desires all on fire, think with thyself, that that thing which so ravisheth thee, is nothing else but Earth; and that the fire wherewith thou art burned, is nothing else but Dung; and then the heat of thy fury will be assuaged. Unmask her of the skin of her Face, and look under, or within that, and thou shalt see all the vileness of that goodly show. Gaze not with the Eye of thy Body upon the outside of her, but pierce with the Eye of thy Mind upon that which is within, and what else shalt thou see there, but Bones, Sinews, and Veins? And yet is not this enough? Remember that Beauty changeth, groweth old, and withereth; that the quickness of the Eyes wax dim and dead, that the Cheeks grow hollow, and all that fair Flower passeth away. See what that is, that, as it were, maketh a Beast of thee: It is Ashes, Dust, and Filth that thou art burned with. For of this Beauty which thou seest, what is it but Snot, Spittle, corrupt Blood, and the juice of rotten Nourishment? What cometh there else out of the Ears, Eyes, Nose or Mouth? And if these Vacuations, and ordinary Defluxions of Excrements shall cease, and the Breast, Liver, and Brain cease to be purged that way, all this goodly show declineth, and goes to decay; the Skin shrivels, and the Eyes sink down into the Head. Whereupon if thou consider what is in the bottom of these goodly Eyes, what is within that fair and strait Nose, what within the Mouth, and under the Cheeks, thou wilt confess, that this so amiable a Body is nothing else but a whited Sepulchre, wherein all is full of filthiness, and of rottenness, and of stink. He therefore that is so taken with the outward Beauty, that upon sight of a fair Woman, he becomes fond, and is like a Body without a Soul, would he but consider that which so transporteth him, he would find the foulness of it to be such indeed, as he would not endure another should name to him in word. Many, as air as she, when once dead, within a few hours stink, and rot, and are the Food of Lice and Worms. Therefore bethink with thyself a while, when thou art under Temptation to Uncleanness, what a business that Beauty is, which thou so dotest upon, and the consideration thereof, will very much allay thy heat, and cool thy desire, and even dash thee out of Countenance. For there is nothing certainly that so much mastereth the desire of the Flesh, as to think what that which one loveth, is, after once it be dead. And the Experience hereof, we have in that Hermit, who understanding that a Woman, whom he was too too much enamoured on, was dead, went by night to her Grave, and having opened it, with the lap of his Mantle wiped away some of the filth of the dead Corpse, being half rotten, and when afterwards he found himself pricked with any unlawful desires, he laid abroad his foul and stinking Mantle, he said thus to himself; Go to now, see what it is that thou dost desire, and take thy fill of it. By which means his Heart was cooled, his Desire damped, and his Lust quenched. And no doubt but this Consideration will be found again (what it hath proved heretofore) to those that shall make trial of it, very significant towards the enabling any so considering Person to keep the Apostolical Precept, and to flee Fornication.  
Fourthly, Consider that you cannot act this sin, but there will be Eyes upon you.  
1. The Eye of God is upon you: The Eye of the Allseeing and Almighty, the Eye of the most holy, and most just God is ever von you; and if you shall commit Fornication at any time, you cannot commit it any where, but in his Presence. Should you ascend up into Heaven he is there; shouldyou make your Bed in Hell, behold, he is there; should you take the wings of the morning, and flee to th' uttermost parts of the Sea, even there will his Eye be von you to behold you; should you say, surely the darkness shall cover us, even the night shall be light about you. Yea, the darkness hideth not from God, but the Night shineth as the Day, the darkness and light are both alike to him, (as it is said, Psal. 139.8, 9.10, 11, 12. The Eyes of the Lord are in every place, as Solomon tells us, Prov. 15.3.) beholding the evil and the good; no possibility of escaping his sight, if ye should attempt the committing of any such fact. And who that hath seriously considered of this, could ever have the confidence to do any such thing? Would he not be afraid to act such filthiness in the sight of that great God that is mighty and terrible? to uncover the nakedness of his Body in the presence of that holy God, in whose presence the Seraphims cover their Faces? Sure he would.  
In a Fury, or in a Frolic, or for some politic purpose, such a like thing as this may be acted in the presence of a man; as it once happened in Alexandria, where a Tarlaquin transported with beastly fury ran at a Woman as she came out of the Stove, laid hold of her, threw her on the ground, and notwithstanding all the resistance she made, had carnal knowledge of her in the presence of many Spectators. And so we read in 2 Sam. 16.22. how to make the breach irreparable between Absolom and his Father David; Absolom spread a tent upon the top of the House, and went in unto his Father's Concubines in the sight of all Israel. The like Wickedness hath been said in these days of impudent sinning to have been committed in the light of the Day, and in the sight of men, and upon the top of an house, even in England, that no Age or Place might outdo the present for abominable Wickedness, and for shameless Debauch.  
Yet generally in men that have not utteriy defaced all the common Notices of God, which Nature's hand hath written in the Heart of man, secrecy for time, and for place, is sought out for the acting of this sin, and the greatest care imaginable is taken, that no Eye may see, that no Ear may hear, that no Person may know: It will not be acted in the view, even of those Pimps and Privadoe's, who are the most instrumental to bring the Actors of it together.  
Now surely, if the Eye of man be not to be endured in the commission of this sin, much less should any be able to endure the Eye of God upon him whilst he commits this sin. To think then that it is impossible to act it in any place, but where the Eye of God must look full and broad upon you, whilst you are in the Act, must needs be an amazing, and a terrifying Consideration, enough to stop and hinder you from the doing, of any so abominable thing, and which God so hates.  
And indeed the experience of this Consideration's effectualness, I have heard made by one, who being wearied with the Solicitations of a tempting Dalilah, at last consented to the Act, provided it might be committed where they might not be seen. Whereupon being brought into one room, he alleged they might be seen from this place, and in another, that they might be seen in that place; and still found some exception upon that account; but at last being brought into such a place where could be no reason for such Plea, yet he alleged, that it was not so secret, but that the Eye of God would be upon them even there, and that unless his Eye too, as well as all others, could be shut out, he durst not do it; by which means he preserved his Integrity from violation. So effectual is this Consideration towards the preventing of the Commission of this sin.  
And therefore St. Ambrose was pleased himself to take notice of it: Putas te solum esse cum fornicaris, & non recordans, quia oculi Domini vident orbem terrarum? Do you think you are alone, all in secret, when you are committing Fornication? And do you not call to mind, and remember, that the Eyes of the Lord have this World, and all the things contained therein, within the view and prospect of them? Which is, as if he had said, to remember, and consider that the Eye of God will be upon you in the commission, is enough to persuade you to fly Fornication. O, remember therefore, if ever you be under Temptation to this sin, that ye cannot do it but in the sight of God; and that Thought will, no doubt, be mightily prevailing with you to forbear so sinful an Act; you will not dare to do such filthiness in the sight of his divine Purity; you will not be so impudent as to put so high an Affront upon his sacred Majesty, as to act Whoredom in his presence.  
2. Beside the Eye of God upon you, who is to be your Judge, you have also the presence of Satan with you, who does mean to be your Accuser. The Devil is Pimp Paramount to the World, not a piece of filthiness is committed, not an act of Fornication done in it, but he is as one at it by his Enticements and Pimperies helping to it. Ipse suggerit & ministrat fomenta luxuriae; He finds and furnishes with fuel for Lust. And as he knows all ye do now, so he will tell all ye have done hereafter, both where, and when, and with whom, and how oft ye have committed that sin. As therefore you would not have him accuse you of it hereafter, so dread to commit it in his presence here. As he now tempts you to it, so he will be with you at the doing of it, and afterwards accuse you for it.  
3. Even the Angels of God, who loathe to behold you in it, yet do, and will take so much notice of you at it, as that they will be Witnesses against you, when you shall come to be judged for it: They will with Grief and Detestation declare, how that, whereas they were deputed to guard you from Temptation, you refused to hearken to their Perswading of you to the contrary; and by the nastiness and filthiness of your Conversation, drove them to forsake their Station, and relinquish their Charge, and leave you to yourselves, to be made a Slave to Satan and Lust, and to commit Fornication.  
4. Besides the Eyes of all without you, there is the Eye of your Conscience within you, which will also be one day a thousand Witnesses against you. The Apprehension of which, were there nothing else, were enough to deter from so foul a fact. Your own Conscience, without other Accuser, Witness, or Judge, will accuse, convict, and condemn you: Nay more, it will not only be Accuser, Witness, and Judge, but Executioner too. O, how it will lash and scourge you both now and hereafter! the gripe of it for present, are very terrible, but the gnawings of it for future, will be intolerable. It makes a Hell of your Heart here, and will be another Hell to your Heart in the midst of Hell hereafter; for there the Worm doth no more die, than the Fire is quenched. This the purblind Heathens were sensible of, and represented under the Mythological Fictions of the Livers of Titius and Prometheus, continually gnawed upon, and eaten up, yet without consumption thereof, by an Eagle and Vultur. Scelerati, conscientiâ obstrepente, condormire non possunt, agitant eos furiae, saith Philotas in Curtius; Wicked Men cannot sleep in quiet for their Conscience, which haunts and terrifies them like Furies. In consideration whereof, doubtless it was, that Pythagoras gave that good and wise Counsel of his,  
— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
That no man should commit any filthiness either with another, or alone by himself; and that above all others, he should stand in awe of himself; that is, dread and fear his own Conscience, which will be privy to all you do, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (as Isocrates observes) how privately soever you act your Wickedness, and out of the Eye and Knowledge of others. No more running away from Conscience, than from God, which lindeed with Menander, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a kind of God to all men; that is, God's Viceroy and Deputy, as it were, placed by him in, and over men, to see and censure, correct and condemn men for their Vices and Wickedness. Having then Eyes, such, and so many, as well within you, as without you, all upon you in every act of filthiness you commit, how can you, if you but take it into any Consideration, be able to do a thing of so much loathsomeness in the sight and presence, in the view and beholding of so many, and those such Eyes! Think but of this, and think of it well, and by the thought of it, with the Concurrence of God's Grace, you will be able to overcome all Temptations to Lust, and to flee Fornication.  
Fifthly, Consider of, and meditate upon what is behind. Let the last Things come into your Thoughts, when you are under any Temptation to sin, and especially to the sin of Uncleanness of any sort; and the thought of them will be mightily conducing towards your preservation from that, or any other sin. What are they? Why, they are four, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell; and the serious Thought of any one of these, is enough to give a stop to the Course of any Sinner in the height of his most eager Pursuit and Career to sin.  
Fornicator, Adulterer, unclean person of any sort, Death is behind. Thou caused not live for ever here, thou must die; and die thou mayst thou knowest not how soon, even in the very act of thy Uncleanness thou mayst expire, and be cut off; and, O how dismal would thy Condition be, if that should befall thee! What can befall a man more woeful and dreadful, than to be catcht, and cut off by Death in the very Act of sin? And yet how many have been so surprised, and seized upon, taken and carried away by Death! And what hath befallen any, may justly be feared by all. Remember thy end therefore, and be afraid of such an end as this, to be cut off at once both for sin, and in sin; and this will much conduce to a making thee fearful to commit this, or any other sin.  
But, secondly, not Death only, but Judgement also is behind. Thou Adulterer, Fornicator, unclean Person, thou must not only die, but be judged too for thy filthiness and uncleanness after Death: For Whoemongers and Adulterers God will judge, Heb. 13.4. Death will not so hit thee as to make an end of thee; it will but seize on thee like a Sergeant, and imprison thee until the general Goal-delivery at the end of the World, and then it will bring thee forth to Trial, 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 entered 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 sum 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 brutish Pleasures? If ye would but remember, and show yourselves 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 God's 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 Doxy? Shall I plunge myself 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 Judgement, and Heaven, and you will (by God's 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 persuade 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 yourselves, 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 persuade 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 expressly, He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify 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 ourselves that Gild 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 ourselves by it, but also show ourselves most unworthy, and ingrateful towards him in crucifying him afresh, and putting him over again unto an open Shame, and trampling his Blood even under our Feet, as an insignificant thing. When therefore we are under any Temptation to this sin, to think a while calmly and coolly with ourselves, if we can get but so much time to think thus; This that I am a going to act, is that which brought Jesus to his Death; that which God was so much angered with, that he was no way to be appeased for it, but by the Death of his Son: This is that that Jesus died to redeem me from, that I might not act it, but preserving my Vessel in Sanctification and Honour, and shall I be so wicked, and so unworthy, as notwithstanding all this, to act it? Thus to meditate on his Passion, might b e a means so to crucify our Lust, mortify our Flesh, and subdue our Passions, that we should remain in our Integrity, and persevere in our Chastity, abhor, and flee from Fornication.  
Lastly, Infinite was the Love of Christ that brought him, being so pure in Life, to undergo such a Passion at his Death; and to undergo it not for any Offence of his own, but all for love of us, to save us from our sins, to redeem us from our Iniquities, to deliver us from the Gild of them in our Justification, and to deliver us from the filth of them in our Sanctification; and so to make us Members of himself, to join us to his own Body, that being Partakers of his Holiness here, we might be Partakers of his Happiness hereafter. Has he had, has he showed such Love to us? and shall we then act that which is so hateful to him? Cannot all the Love that he hath shown us, engage us to abstain from that which he so much abhors? Shall we violate the Temple of his Spirit? Shall we take the members of Christ, (as the Apostle speaks) and make them the members of an Harlot? Shall we prefer the enjoyment of a Lust before Communion with Christ? and love a Whore better than Jesus? better than Jesus that so loved us, as not to love himself even to the Death for us, but give his Life for us? God forbidden. If we thus would meditate on the Love of Christ, when we are under Temptation to uncleanness, the Love of Christ would damp and dead all other Love, subdue, and cruecifie, and kill all carnal Lust. We should never be able to love any thing in competition with him, much less lust after any thing in Contradiction to him, and so abstain from all uncleanness, detest and flee Fornication. And thus much for my seventh Direction.  
There is but one thing more that I know of, requisite to give you for a Direction, and that is Prayer. Prayer! O, what will not that do! It hath a kind of Omnipotency in it; it can do any thing, even with God himself; he cannot, because he will not resist it. Fervent and effectual Prayer, O, it Availeth much! as St. James tells us, c. 5. v. 16. To this means therefore betake yourselves for Preservation of your Chastity, and for Protection against Temptation to Incontinency. 'Tis our Saviou'rs own Direction, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, Mat. 26.11. Nothing so forcible for the overcoming of this Temptation, as Prayer. Surely never was any man foiled with it, that used this Weapon against it, and did not first forsake his Weapon, and give over his Defence. Whatever therefore else ye do, be sure to betake yourself to Prayer. Prayer will interest, and concern God himself in your Preservation, and engage his Omnipotency in your Quarrel. It will obtain Grace to subdue Lust, strength to withstand Satan, Constancy to continue chaste, and in one word, conquest in, and over every Temptation. To this weapon therefore betake yourselves, and doubt not of Success in every Encounter. He was never finally overcome by Lust, who continued praying sincerely.  
And now I have given you my Directions to preserve you from falling into the Sin of Fornication, I must now leave the Readers to the Trial of them. and my Prayer is, That God would so bring these Directions into your Minds, and so incline your Hearts to the using of them, and so bless your Endeavours in their Use, that they prove as so many powerful Antidotes against Lust, strong Remedies against Uncleanness, and effectual Preservatives against Fornication. So shall God have Glory, so shall you have Profit, and I shall have the and I propounded to myself in this Discourse.  
And all this, and much more the Lord be pleased to do for you and me, and all for the Son of his Love's sake, our ever blessed Lord, and only Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all Honour, Glory, and Power, ascribed now and for evermore. Amen.  
The END of the Treatise of Fornication.