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tion, and all harfhnefs and unkindness betwixt married perfons. These are to be avoided, as incitements to uncleannefs.

(8.) Lastly, The Popish doctrine and practice of forbidding lawful marriages, 1 Tim. iv. 3.; difpenfing with unlawful marriages, Mark vi. 18.; tolerating of stews or bawdy-houses, Deut. xxiii. 17.; and entangling vows of fingle life, Matth. xix. 10.

II.

I shall next make fome improvement of this fubject.

1. Let those that have fallen into the fin of uncleannefs, repent, and walk humbly all the days of their life under the fenfe of it. There are alas! not a few amongst us to whom this exhortation belongs. And perhaps, if their eyes were opened, they would fee fomething in their lot that God has fent to go along with them, as a mark of his dif pleasure against that their fin; wherein they might with no great difficulty read their old fin in a continued punishment. That fin may be forgotten with us that is not fo with the Lord.

2. Let those that ftand take heed left they fall. Labour to get your hearts poffeffed with a dread of this fin, and watch against it, especially ye that are young people, feeing it is a fin moft incident to youth, when the paffions are moft vigorous; which yet may stick faft with the blue marks of God's difpleasure upon you when you come to age. For motives, confider,

(1.) It is not only a fin, but ordinarily, if not al ways, a plague and punishment for other fins. It is a mark of God's anger against the perfon that is permitted to fall into it, Prov. xx. 14. The mouth of a Strange woman is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord, fhall fall therein. This is a heavy mark of God's indignation, which is worfe than to fall into a fever or fome lingering diftemper; for a perfon may

recover of these in a fhort time, but it is not fo eafy to recover of the other.

(2.) It is a fin that very few ever get grace to repent of. It ftupifies the confcience, and waftes all fenfe of fin from it, Hof. iv. 11. I have seen alas! too many that have made public fatisfaction for that fin; but allow me to fay, I have feen very few by whofe repentance I was much edified. Hear what the Spirit of God fays of thefe unhappy people, Prov. ii. 19. None that go unto her, return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. None, that is, very few; but fome indeed do, as among the Corinthians, 1 Cor. vi. 9. 11. And be not offended, but cautioned, if I fay, that few women particularly ever get grace to repent of it. Solomon faid it before me, Eccl. vii. 28. A woman among all those have I not found. And obferve what is faid Acts xxiv. 25. that Felix trembled when Paul preached, though he repented not; but there is not a word of Drufilla's being moved..

3. It dishonours and debafes the body, i Cor. vi. 18. Our bodies are the members of Chrift or should be; but how are they debafed, being made members of a harlot? And how low and contemptible a thing is fuch a wretched crcature even in the eyes of those that join with them?

(4.) It leaves an indelible ftain upon their reputation; their honour is funk, and there is no recovering of it, Prov. vi. 33. Though the fin may be pardoned before God, yet the blot lies on their name, while they have a name on the earth. Yea, and when they are dead and gone, their baftard pofterity ftill lie under the ftain, whereof they could be no caufe.

(5) Poverty and want oft-times follow it. It natively tends to poverty, Prov. v. 1o.; and there is a fecret curfe of that nature that often accompanies it, Prov. vi. 26. By means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread. How many

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have been made miserable by it, who have had occafion as long as they lived to remember they had ruined themselves?

(6.) Laftly, It is ruining to the soul, Prov. vi. 32. He that doth it [commit adultery with a woman], destroyeth his own foul. It ruins it here, in fo far as it defiles the confcience, fetters the affections, blinds the mind, utterly unfits for communion with God, till the guilt be washed off by the application of Chrift's blood, after a frightful awakening of the confcience. And if they do not repent of this fin, it will destroy the foul for ever. Let thefe fcriptures imprint a horror of it in the minds of all, Heb. xiii. 4. 1 Cor. vi. 9. Gal. v. 19. 21. Rev. xxi. 8.

I close with a few directions, in fo many words. 1. Give yourselves away foul and body to Jefus Christ, and learn to live by faith, sensible of your own weakness, and relying on his promised strength; for without him ye can refift no fin, nor temptation to, fin.

2. Beware of a carnal frame, of floth and lazinefs. Labour to be fpiritual and heavenly in the frame of your heart, Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit, and ye fhall not fulfil the luft of the flesh.

3. Watch over your heart and fenies. Make a covenant with your eyes, as Job did, that ye may avoid unlawful looks; and never venture on the devil's ground, otherwife ye will fall into the fnare.

4. Study mortification of all your unruly lufts and paffions, and beware of all occafions, and incentives to this wickedness.

5. Keep at a diftance from immodeft company, and be not too frolicfome and foolish, light and airy in your discourse.

6. Lafly, Pray fervently and importunately, that the Lord may fave you from this foul fin, and all temptations to it; faying with David, Pfal. cxix. 37. Turn away away mine eyes from beholding vanity.

TH

Of the eighth Commandment.

EXODUS XX. 15.

Thou shalt not steal,

HIS command refpects mens goods and outward eftate in the world; and the scope of it is to procure and further the fame by all good means. And the law of God refpecting this plainly fays, that religion is highly concerned in our civil actions, working, buying, and felling, and all the ways of advancing of the outward eftate. In these we are hedged about by this command, as well as in natural things by the fixth and feventh. God's law follows us where-ever we go, to the house or field, bed or board, church or market. This command also plainly establishes diftinct properties, and that there is no univerfal community of goods, but every one has his own portion.

This being a command of the second table, it refpects ourselves as well as our neighbour. And fo the meaning is, Thou shalt not fteal from thyfelf nor any other; thou shalt not wrong thyfelf nor others. And as in every negative is implied an affirmative, fo while stealth or theft is here forbidden, the contrary is required, namely, the procuring and furthering of our own and others welfare in these things, but by means only that are lawful..

In difcourfing further from this fubject, I shall shew,

I. What is required in this command, viz. " the "lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward eftate of ourselves and others."

II. What is forbidden, viz. "Whatfoever doth or may unjustly hinder our own or our neigh "bour's wealth or outward eftate."

III. Make application.

I. I am to fhew what is required in this command, And,

FIRST, God requires us in this command by lawful means to procure and further our own wealth and outward estate. We may take up this in these feven things.

1. We fhould look unto God for things neceffary and convenient for us. Here we should begin our care about temporal things; for he it is that giveth thee power to get wealth, Deut. viii. 18. and without his appointment our endeavours will not fucceed, Pfal. cxxvii. All the creatures depend on God's provifion, as caged birds on thofe to whofe care they are committed, Prov. xxx. 8. And fo our Lord teaches us to pray every day, Give us this day our daily bread, Matth. vi. 11. feeing God has comprehended this in the promise.

2. A provident care and ftudy to get things neceffary and fuitable to our condition, Tim. v. 8. To pray and caft off means is prefumption; to use means, but negelect praying and looking to the Lord, is Atheism. We fhould keep the middle way betwixt careleffnefs and anxiety, and hold in the way of moderate care in thefe things; for we are not to expect to be like the lilies that toil not, neither fpin, and yet are clothed.

3. For this caufe every body must have a lawful calling and employment, and duly ufe it, that fo he may be ufeful to himself and worth his room in the world, and not like mice and rats, good for nothing but to devour what others labour for. Adam in innocency had a calling, that of dreffing and keeping the garden of Eden, Gen. ii. 15.; and fo had his fons afterwards, though born to greater eflate than any now can pretend to, the one being a keeper of fheep, and the other a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. But we must be fure it be a lawful calling, Eph. iv. 28. But what avails it if. it be not duly used? Therefore God requires of

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