ful lusts, and to follow righteousness, faith, charity, and peace with them that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. ii. 22): to mortify our members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection; for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. (Col. iii. 5, 6.) Nay, from a sense of the infectious nature of these vices, they enjoin, that nothing of the kind be once named, as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, all which are unprofitable, and that because no whoremonger or uncleon person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God; and, therefore, he exhorts the Ephesians to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove them; for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. (Eph. v. 12.) And that no man may deceive himself as to his state, the Apostle affirms, that, if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (Gal. v. 19); and these, he says (besides many others which do not immediately relate to our present subject), are manifestly, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, drunkenness, revellings, and such-like. Be not deceived (says he); neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God; for the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for

the body. Having now brought together, and delivered to you, as many scriptural authorities, both from the Old and New Testament, as must be sufficient to convince you of the heinous nature of this sin, and to instruct you fully respecting the many other vices it includes, and which are no less threatened with eternal condemnation, if not repented of and forsaken ; and that, from the unavoidable necessity of purity of heart and life to qualify any creature for admittance into the rest of God; we will now take a short view,

Thirdly, of its terrible consequence, as a sin against society at large; and conclude with an account of the positive duties which the commandment points out for our observance.

We cannot desire a stronger proof of the terror God designed to impress upon his people, and thereby to preserve them from a ruinous violation of the laws of society, than by the punishment affixed to this crime, which was DEATH; and this we may reasonably suppose was not only on a civil account, to prevent this very outrageous act against the rights of men, but also figuratively to denote what such persons are to expect from God in the other world, even death eternal. The sin of adultery is most forcibly described in the book of Job (xxxi. 11, 12): It is an heinous crime (says this holy man); yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for

it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. This is a very exact state of the case; for it is not only a most heavy sin in the sight of God, but very destructive to human society also; for it breaks the most solemn vow that can be made it is robbing a fellow-creature of the dearest and most sacred possession in this life; and, of the happiest, perhaps making him the most miserable of men. It is most undeservedly exposing a man to public, indelible shame, and irreparably destroying his future peace of mind. If the seduction originates in the unlawful desires of the adulterer (that is, on the man's part), he is guilty of a double crime, since, unless some base arts had been employed to wean the woman's affections from her lawful lord, she might never have been exposed to the temptation; and when the vicious purpose exists on the woman's side, nothing can afford a fouler mark of human depravity, since the peculiar character of the sex aggravates every breach of modesty, honour, and grateful regard to her lawful protector, to whom she is bound by the most solemn ties, and most likely still closer attached by the tenderest of all natural ties, the most powerful of all pleasing endearments-a FAMILY, It is the most scandalous breach of our blessed Lord's golden rule, of doing to all men as we would have them do unto us; since a man must be lost to every

sense of goodness, that could be indifferent to so gross an injury of all his rights natural and legal; and hence it lays the ground of infinite quarrels, and the most mortal hatred and division in families. It frequently occasions murders, wherein the sufferer is cruelly exposed to the chance of losing his life, by the very person who has done him the greatest of human wrongs, and deserves universal contempt, and the severest punishment: nay, it has sometimes caused sedition and contention in the civil state; it often subjects an innocent offspring to unmerited reproach and shame all their days; and, from the distressful consequence of such iniquitous intercourse, gives an unlawful heir to the property of another, and robs the lawful offspring of a just inheritance.

In the more general view of the effects of all illicit and impure connexions, this vice is more apt than any other cause, to entail the most wretched kinds of complaints upon man's posterity; it is an enemy to all serious undertakings and generous actions, and both weakens men's minds and bodies, bringing curses and misfortunes upon succeeding generations; and, in short, is so destructive to the peace and prosperity of the community, that it well deserves the severe punishment of the civil magistrate now, as we are sure it will be punished by God hereafter: and if we were only to adopt the

laws of many heathen nations against this shameful practice, which grows every day more common and less reproachful, even in Christian countries, it would do honour to the Christian name; and at the same time that the general benefit of society would be consulted, men's bodies would be happily punished for the good of their souls.

To conclude: As in the commission of all vice whatever, they who are any ways assisting, are in a great degree as guilty as the principal in the crime; so, in the sin of adultery particularly, all contrivers or abettors of unlawful connexions, all who encourage such meetings of the two sexes as may end in criminal consequences -all who do not prevent, to their utmost, any beginning of such improper acquaintance between the two sexes, either married or single, as may expose them to temptation-all who do not advise those whom they see inclined to run into danger, from trusting to themselves, or who, by their silence, are in any shape accessory to the commission of this sin, are accountable to God and man for their unworthy behaviour; and though the nature of their transgression may not be such as, the public laws will punish, and though they may vainly fancy their degree of guilt is slight, yet conscience will tell them that they justly rank with the Psalmist's plain and serious description of sinners of this kind: When thou