all uncleanness-let it not once be named amongst you, as becometh saints;-for this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person,,-hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God," Ephes. v. 3, 5. And lest the plausible ways of talking in defence of lewdness, in which men of parts, debauched themselves, are very expert, should stagger any weak believer, and seduce him to imagine fornication may be practised with impunity, this awful caution is given: "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye not therefore partakers with them." Ephes. v. 6, 7. The same doctrine is as strongly inculcated upon the Christians at Colosse, and those at Thessalonica, in the following ample manner: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification; that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles which know not God; for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth (what is said of the evil and danger of fornication, and of the absolute necessity of purity) despiseth not man, but God."

St. John, taught by inspiration of God, exposes no less clearly the greatness of the sin of fornication; for whoremongers, he declares, are shut out of the gates of the heavenly city, Rev. xxii. 15. "Whoremongers" have their part assigned them, "in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death," Rev. xxi. 8.

But of all the scriptures written on purpose to inspire a horror of fornication, those animated interrogations to the believers at Corinth are most striking: "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" Do you not profess to belong to him, and that he is your lifegiving head?" Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot ?-God forbid.” Would it not be monstrous to make such a vile use of them as to alienate them from his service; and, rending them off as it were from him, to turn them into the members of a lewd woman, by committing whoredom with her? "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the

Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" 1 Cor. vi. 19. Appropriated to God, you have no right to abuse your bodies by gratifying a brutal desire of pleasure. This is the worst kind of sacrilege this is the most dreadful of all profanations, the turning what is consecrated a temple for the living God, into an habitation for the spirit of uncleanness.

Sum up now what has been offered in proof of the great sinfulness of fornication. Consider the present evils so evidently connected with it, that no infidel can deny them: consider the repeated declarations of God's displeasure against this sin, from his first making it capital under the old law, to his denouncing against it everlasting punishment again and again in the last revelation of his will. Consider that this his unchangeable purpose is so openly, so strongly proclaimed, that either we have nothing to fear from any sin we can possibly commit, or fornication must be confessed to be a damnable one. Weigh these things, and you must acknowledge how much it is the duty of every Christian, as he loves God, as he reverences his word, nay as he regards his own salvation, to deny him. self in every propensity he feels to commit fornication, and to flee from it as he would from the face of a serpent.*

Know therefore, that you must either turn apostate from the christian faith, renouncing every hope of finding mercy from God; or you must mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness; and be fully persuaded, that this sin alone, supposing it were

but

* All these considerations are absolutely necessary to be frequently pondered by young people, especially in a single state; because lewd ness has not only a party in its favour in our very constitutions; noise and impudence, and numbers, every where combine to discoun tenance chastity. To such a shocking height is this attempt carried, that chastity is generally regarded as impracticable, except in cases where the interests of a family, or of a female, depend upon character. Thus the lewd endeavour to make fornication appear necessary, therefore innocent. Thus they represent self-denial in the preserva tion of chastity, as a grievous bondage; and the Bible, that enjoins it, as an odious book: insensibly engaging men's passions to throw of the authority of revelation, which so loudly proclaims the evil of practice to which they are enslaved, and which they desire above all things, at least in many instances, to look upon as harmless.

and

possible to subsist with the discharge of christian duty in other respects, (which it cannot) would drown the soul in perdition. This full persuasion of the evil and sinfulness of fornication is of great use to secure you in the early and most important season of life, from what is generally the first instance of premeditated rebellion against God; the first means of rivetting on the sinner that chain, which drags down its thousands and ten thousands to the prison of hell!

Further; whenever any end is proposed, or duty enjoined, the means necessary to maintain the one, and to perform the other, are tacitly included in the general precept; and whatever in itself renders the practice of the duty very precarious, is virtually forbidden, where it can be avoided. Now from this most evident principle, a christian is obliged to carry his self-denial much farther than a mere abstinence from the gross acts of fornication or uncleanness; for this may be done when there is no chastity; nothing more than a prudential continency. A christian must resolutely shun all representations to the eye, and every thing that by the medium of the senses can be offered to his mind, exciting impure desire, or defiling the imagination. Thus the chastity of Job is expressed by his making a covenant with his eyes, absolutely to check them from gazing on any inflaming object; and our Lord brands as the adultery of the heart, "the looking upon a woman to lust after her." In short, the same divine authority which condemns all gross lewdness, condemns every species and appearance of it also in word or thought. Therefore all light, wanton, and obscene ways of talking, however fashionable, are impure in such a degree as every christian must detest. And as it is the temper of the heart which stamps the real character, no one can be said truly to mortify his sinful appetite, who cherishes any unclean thoughts, has the least pleasure in them, or can suffer a lascivious idea to rest upon his mind, or a sound exciting it to play upon his ear. For were it a renewed mind, were it a filial fear of God, were it a sense of the evil of sin, which restrained him from the commission of open lewdness; then the same principle must equally restrain from all near approaches to it, and from every thing savouring of it. Indeed, where only a

fear of shame, or of the temporal mischiefs which may follow lewdness prevails, there a superficial self-denial extending to gross acts only will be all the effect. On the contrary, where there is a real desire to be approved of God, and to walk worthy of his kingdom and glory, there purity in the most secret thoughts will be cultivated with all carefulness, and every person, jest, or object injurious to it, will be conscientiously avoided.

Here then behold a noble province for christian selfdenial opens! here the spiritual warfare, in which every believer in Jesus daily fights, becomes most visible;—most visible in opposing all the licensed honourable ways, invented by the world, to gratify the lewdness of the heart. In the number of these licensed and honourable ways of cherishing defilement, are all wanton glances of the eye, that mirror of the mind; the singing soft and amorous songs; double entendres, mixed dancings, reading novels; and above all, the frequenting the play-house. For in this innocent amusement, as the world will have it called, in defiance of our holy faith, our reason and experience; in this innocent amusement, whatever can corrupt the mind is set off to the greatest advantage. Is there a lewd allusion, or stroke of impure wit; the air, the voice of the actor labour to give in the highest emphasis: whilst the greater part of the audience loudly applaud the entertainment. Nay, if by chance some piece should gain admittance on the stage, free from a filthy tincture; the house must still have their prurient humour gratified by an epilogue or a farce, full of inuendos, intimating that the happiness of the human race must stand or fall with those things" they know naturally and as brute beasts."*

*If the reader should be tempted to censure this remark on the stage, the author is supported in it, by some of the greatest writers in the nation; particularly by archbishop Tillotson, who was never deemed either a rigorous or an enthusiastic divine. And those who resent the absolute condemnation of this fashionable amusement, do well to consider what this distinguished prelate says upon this subject.

would

"As the stage now is, plays are intolerable, and not fit to be permitted in any civilized, much less a christian nation. They do most notoriously minister both to infidelity and vice. By the profaneness of them they are apt to instil bad principles, and by their lewdness to

Now to live in the world, and thus, in direct opposition to its favourite taste, to preserve true chastity of mind, is a fruit of faith in Christ, and a part of self-denial indispensably required from all christians.*

F

CHAPTER XXXII.

ON SELF-DENIAL, WITH RESPECT TO THE DESIRE OF WEALTH; THE INORDINATE AFFECTION FOR THINGS LAWFUL; AND THE LOVE OF PRAISE.

It is a remarkable proof of the corruption of human nature, that all the passions which are natural to the human race, require to be restrained and mortified. If we look into the world, we do not find men in general so impressed by love to God, by delight in spiritual things, by ardent benevolence, as that attention and caution are required lest those virtues should be carried to excess (if there could be excess in them) and lest the business of this life should be neglected. As the bias lies on the other side, the danger is, lest religion should be neglected; lest the love of the world and the lusts of the flesh should be cherished. Religion therefore supposes human nature to be corrupt. It is in fact nothing but a system of restraint upon man: it prevents his doing what he is strongly inclined to do, and requires him to do what else he would not think of performing. We have already seen how much self-denial is requisite with respect to the natural appetite for food, and the love of women; we now observe, thirdly, that corrupt self must be denied in its propensity to covetousness.

dispose to lewd and dissolute practice, and therefore I do not see how any person pretending to sobriety and virtue, and especially to the pure and holy religion of our blessed Saviour, can, without great guilt and open contradiction to his holy profession, be present at such lewd and immodest plays; much less frequent them, as too many do, who would yet take it very ill to be shut out of the communion of christians, as they certainly would have been in the first ages of christianity."-Sermon on the Evil of Corrupt Communication.

* See Prayer the 12th.