The Ten Commandments
by Thomas Watson
The SEVENTH Commandment
"You shall not commit adultery." Exodus 20:14
God is a pure, holy being, and has an infinite antipathy
against all impurity. In this commandment he has entered his caution
against it, "You shall not commit adultery." The sum of this
commandment is--the preservations of bodily purity. We must take heed
of running on the rock of impurity, and so making ****pwreck of our
chastity. In this commandment there is something tacitly implied, and
something expressly forbidden.
1. The thing implied is that the ordinance of MARRIAGE should
be observed. "Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman
have her own husband." 1 Cor 7:2. "Marriage is honorable and the bed
undefiled." Heb 13:4. God instituted marriage in paradise; he brought
the woman to the man. Gen 2:22. He gave them to each other in
marriage. Jesus Christ honored marriage with his presence. John 2:2.
The first miracle he wrought was at a marriage, when he turned the
"water into wine." Marriage is a type and resemblance of the mystical
union between Christ and his church. Eph 5:32.
In marriage there are general and special duties. The general
duty of the husband is to rule. "The husband is the head of the wife."
Eph 5:23. The head is the seat of rule and judgment; but he must rule
with discretion. He is head, therefore must not rule without reason.
The general duty on the wife's part is submission. "Wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Eph 5:22. It is
observable that the Holy Spirit passed by Sarah's failings, not
mentioning her unbelief; but he takes notice of that which was good in
her, as her reverence and obedience to her husband. "Sarah obeyed
Abraham, calling him Lord." 1 Pet 3:6.
The special duties belonging to marriage, are love and
fidelity. Love is the marriage of the affections. Eph 5:25. There is,
as it were--but one heart in two bodies. Love lines the yoke and makes
it easy; it perfumes the marriage relation; and without it there is
"not harmony but constant wrangling." Like two poisons in one stomach,
one is ever sick of the other. In marriage there is mutual promise of
living together faithfully according to God's holy ordinance. Among
the Romans, on the day of marriage, the woman presented to her husband
fire and water: signifying that as fire refines, and water cleanses,
she would live with her husband in chastity and sincerity.
II. The thing forbidden in the commandment is infecting
ourselves with bodily pollution and impurity. "You shall not commit
adultery." The fountain of this sin is lust. Since the fall, holy love
has degenerated to lust. Lust is the fever of the soul. There is a
twofold adultery.
[1] Mental. "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has
committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matt 5:28. As a man
may die of an inward bleeding, so he may be damned for the inward
boilings of lust, if it is not mortified.
[2] Physical; as when sin has conceived, and brought forth in
the act. This is expressly forbidden, "You shall not commit adultery."
This commandment is set up as a hedge to keep out impurity; and those
who break this hedge a serpent shall bite them. Job calls adultery a
"heinous crime." Job 31:2: Every failing is not a crime; and every
crime is not a heinous crime; but adultery is "a heinous crime." The
Lord calls it villainy. "They have committed villainy in Israel, and
have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives." Jer 29:23.
Wherein appears the greatness of this sin?
(1) It is a breach of the marriage-oath. When people come
together in matrimony, they bind themselves by covenant to each other,
in the presence of God, to be true and faithful in the marital
relation. Unchastity breaks this solemn oath; and herein adultery is
worse than fornication, because it is a breach of the marital bond.
(2) The greatness of the sin lies in this: that it is a great
dishonor done to God. God says, "You shall not commit adultery." The
adulterer sets his will above God's law, tramples upon his command,
affronts him to his face; as if a subject should tear his prince's
proclamation. The adulterer is highly injurious to all the persons in
the Trinity. To God the Father. Sinner, God has given you your life,
and you do waste the lamp of life, the flower of your age in lewdness.
He has bestowed on you many mercies, health, and estate, and you spend
all on harlots. Did God give you wages--to serve the devil! It is
injurious to God the Son, in two ways. As he has purchased you with
his blood. "You are bought with a price." 1 Cor 6:20. Now he who is
bought is not his own; it is a sin for him to go to another, without
consent, from Christ, who has bought him with a price. As by virtue of
baptism you are a Christian, and professes that Christ is your head,
and you are a member of Christ; therefore, what an injury is it to
Christ, to "take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a
harlot"? 1 Cor 6:15. It is injurious to God the Holy Spirit; for the
body is his temple. "Don't you know that your body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit which is in you?" 1 Cor 6:19. And how great a sin is
it to defile his temple!
(3) The sin of adultery lies in this: that it is committed
with mature DELIBERATION. There is contriving the sin in the mind,
then consent in the will, and then the sin is put forth into act. To
sin against the light of nature, and to sin deliberately, is like the
dye to the wool, it gives sin a tincture, and dyes it of a crimson
color.
(4) That which makes adultery so sinful is, that it is
NEEDLESS. God has provided a remedy to prevent it. "To avoid
fornication, let every man have his own wife." 1 Cor 7:2. Therefore,
after this remedy prescribed, to be guilty of fornication or adultery,
is inexcusable; it is like a rich thief, who steals when he has no
need. This increases the sin.
Use one. The church of Rome is here condemned, which allows
the sin of fortification and adultery. It does not allow its priests
to marry--but they may have their paramours. The worst kind of
impurity, ***** with the nearest of kin, is dispensed with for money.
It was once said of Rome, Rome was become a common stew. And no
wonder, when the Pope, for a sum of money, could give a license to
commit impurity; and, if the license were not enough, he would give
them a pardon. Many of the Papists judge fornication to be venial. God
condemns the very lusting. Matt 5:28. If God condemns the thought, how
dare they allow the act of fornication? You see what a cage of unclean
birds the church of Rome is. They call themselves the Holy Catholic
Church; but how can they be holy--who are so steeped and parboiled in
fornication, *****, sodomy, and all manner of impurity!
Use two. It is a matter for lamentation to see this
commandment so slighted and violated among us. Adultery is the
reigning sin of the times. "They are all adulterers, as an oven heated
by the baker." Hos 7:4. The time of King Henry VIII was called the
golden age--but this may be called the unclean age, wherein whore-
hunting is common. "In your filthiness is lewdness." Ezek 24:13.
Luther tells us of one who said, "If he might but satisfy his lust,
and be carried from one whore-house to another, he would desire no
other heaven"; and who afterwards breathed out his soul between two
notorious strumpets. This is to love forbidden fruit, to love to drink
of stolen waters. "Son of man," he said, "do you see what they are
doing? Do you see the great sins the people of Israel are doing to
drive me from my Temple? But come, and you will see even greater sins
than these!" Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard,
where I could see an opening in the wall. He said to me, "Now, son of
man, dig into the wall." So I dug into the wall and uncovered a door
to a hidden room. "Go in," he said, "and see the unspeakable
wickedness going on in there!" Ezekiel 8:6-9. Could we, as the
prophet, dig in the walls of many houses, what vile abominations
should we see there! In some chambers we might see fornication; dig
further, and we may see adultery; dig further, and we may see *****,
etc. And may not the Lord go from his sanctuary? God might remove his
gospel, and then we might write Ichabod on this nation, "The glory is
departed." Let us mourn for what we cannot reform.
Use three. For exhortation, to keep ourselves from the sin of
adultery. "Let every man have his own wife," says Paul, not his
concubine, nor his paramour. 1 Cor 7:2. That I may deter you from
adultery, let me show you the great evil of it.
(1) It is a thievish sin. It is the highest sort of theft. The
adulterer steals from his neighbor, that which is more than his goods
and estate; he steals away his wife from him, who is flesh of his
flesh.
(2) Adultery debases a person. It makes him resemble the
beasts; therefore the adulterer is described like a horse neighing.
"Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife." Jer 5:8. Nay, it is
worse than brutish; for some creatures that are void of reason--yet by
the instinct of nature, observe some decorum and chastity. The turtle
dove is a chaste creature, and keeps to its mate; and the stork,
wherever he flies, comes into no nest but his own. Naturalists write
that if a stork, leaving his own mate, joins with any other, all the
rest of the storks fall upon it, and pull its feathers from it.
Adultery is worse than brutish, it degrades a person of his honor.
(3) Adultery pollutes. The devil is called an unclean spirit.
Luke 11:24. The adulterer is the devil's first-born; he is unclean; he
is a moving quagmire; he is all over ulcerated with sin; his eyes
sparkle with lust; his mouth foams out filth; his heart burns like
mount Etna, in unclean desires. He is so filthy, that if he dies in
this sin, all the flames of hell will never purge away his immorality.
And, as for the adulteress, who can paint her black enough? The
Scripture calls her a deep ditch. Prov 23:27. She is a common sewer;
whereas a believer's body is a living temple, and his soul a little
heaven, bespangled with the graces, as so many stars. The body of a
harlot is a walking dung--hill, and her soul a lesser hell.
(4) Adultery is destructive to the body. "Afterward you will
groan in anguish when disease consumes your body." Prov 5:11.
Immorality turns the body into a hospital, it brings foul diseases,
and eats the beauty of the face. As the flame wastes the candle, so
the fire of lust consumes the bones. The adulterer hastens his own
death. "So she seduced him with her pretty speech. With her flattery
she enticed him. He followed her at once, like an ox going to the
slaughter or like a trapped stag, awaiting the arrow that would pierce
its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it
would cost him his life!" Proverbs 7:21-23. The Romans had their
funerals at the gate of Venus' temple, to signify that lust brings
death. Venus is lust.
(5.) Adultery is a drain upon the purse; it wastes not the
body only--but the estate. "Keeping you from the immoral woman, from
the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after
her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute
reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your
very life!" Proverbs 6:24-26. Whores are the devil's horse-leeches,
sponges that suck in money. The prodigal son spent his inheritance,
when he fell among harlots. Luke 15:30. The concubine of King Edward
III, when he was dying, got all she could from him, and even plucked
the rings off his fingers, and so left him. He who lives in luxury,
dies in beggary.
(6) Adultery destroys reputation. "But the man who commits
adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys his own soul. Wounds and
constant disgrace are his lot. His shame will never be erased!" Prov
6:32, 33. Some, when they get wounds, get honor. The soldier's wounds
are full of honor; the martyr's wounds for Christ are full of honor;
but the adulterer gets wounds--but no honor to his name. "His shame
will never be erased!" Wounds of reputation--no physician can heal.
When the adulterer dies, his shame lives. When his body rots
underground, his name rots above ground. His bastard children are
living monuments of his shame.
(7) This sin impairs the mind. It steals away the
understanding; it stupefies the heart. "Whoredom and wine take away
the heart." Hos 4:11. It eats all purity out of the heart. Solomon
besotted himself with women, and they enticed him to idolatry.
(8) This sin incurs tem****al judgments. The Mosaic law made
the penalty for adultery, to be death. "The adulterer and adulteress
shall surely be put to death;" and the usual death was stoning. Lev
20:10; Deut 22:24. The Salons commanded people guilty of this sin to
be burnt. The Romans caused their heads to be stricken off. Like a
scorpion--this sin carries a sting in its tail. The adultery of Paris
and Helen was the death of both, and the ruin of Troy. "For jealousy
arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes
revenge!" Prov 6:34. The adulterer is often killed in the act of his
sin. Adultery cost Otho the emperor, and Pope Sixtus IV their lives.
"Lust's practice is to make a joyful entrance--but she leaves in
misery." I have read of two in London, who, having defiled themselves
with adultery, were immediately struck dead with lightening from
heaven. If all who are now guilty of this sin were to be punished in
this manner, it would rain fire again, as on Sodom!
(9) Adultery, without repentance, damns the soul. "Do you not
know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived: Neither the ***ually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor homo***ual offenders . . . will inherit the kingdom of God!" 1
Corinthians 6:9-10. The fire of lust brings to the fire of hell. "God
will judge the adulterer and all the ***ually immoral!" Heb 13:4.
Though men may neglect to judge them--yet God will judge them!
But will not God judge all other sinners? Yes. Why then does
the apostle say, "God will judge the adulterer and all the ***ually
immoral"? The meaning is, he will judge them assuredly; they shall not
escape the hand of justice; and he will punish them severely. "The
Lord knows how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be
punished--but chiefly those who walk in the lust of immorality." 2 Pet
2:9, 10. The harlot's breasts keeps from Abraham's bosom! "The delight
lasts a moment, the torment an eternity!" Who for a cup of pleasure--
would drink a sea of wrath! "Her guests are in the depths of hell."
Prov 9:18. A wise traveler, though many pleasant dishes are set before
him at the inn, forbears to eat all of them--because of the reckoning.
We are all travelers to Jerusalem above; and when many baits of
temptation are set before us, we should refrain, and think of the
reckoning which will be brought in at death. With what pleasure could
Dionysius eat his dainties, when he saw there was a glittering sword
hung over his head as he sat at table? While the adulterer feeds on
strange flesh, the sword of God's justice hangs over his head.
Causinus speaks of a tree growing in Spain, that is of a sweet smell,
and pleasant to the taste--but its juice is poisonous. This is an
emblem of a harlot; who is perfumed with powders, and lovely to look on
--but poisonous and damnable to the soul! "She has cast down many
wounded, yes, many strong men have been slain by her." Prov 7:26.
(10) The adulterer does what lies in him, to destroy the soul
of another--and so kills two at once! He is worse than the thief; for,
suppose a thief robs a man, yes, and also takes away his life-- the
man's soul may be happy; he may go to heaven as well as if he had died
in his bed. But he who commits adultery, endangers the soul of
another, and does all he can, to deprive her of salvation. Now, what a
fearful thing is it to be an instrument to draw another to hell!
(11) The adulterer is abhorred of God. "The mouth of an
adulteress is a deep pit; he who is abhorred by the Lord, will fall
into it." Prov 22:14. What can be worse than to be abhorred of God?
God may be angry with his own children; but for God to abhor a man--is
the highest degree of hatred!
How does the Lord show his abhorrence of the adulterer? In
giving him up to a reprobate mind, and a seared conscience. Rom 1:28.
He is then in such a condition that he cannot repent. He is abhorred
of God. The immoral person stands upon the threshold of hell; and when
death gives him a push, he tumbles in!
(12) Adultery sows discord. It destroys peace and love--the
two best flowers that grow in a family. It sets husband against wife,
and wife against husband; and so causes the "joints of the same body
to smite one against another." This division in a family works
confusion; for "A house divided against a house falls." Luke 11:17.
All this should sound a warning in our ears, and call us off
from the pursuit of so damnable a sin as immorality. Hear what the
Scriptures say: "Her house is the way to hell." Prov 7:27.
Use four. I shall give some directions, by way of antidote, to
keep from the infection of this sin.
(1) Do not come into the company of a whorish woman; avoid her
house, as a seaman does a rock. "Run from her! Don't go near the door
of her house!" Proverbs 5:8. He who would not have the plague, must
not come near infected houses; every whore-house has the plague in it.
Not to avoid the occasion of sin, and yet pray, "Lead us not into
temptation," is, as if one should put his finger into the candle, and
yet pray that it may not be burnt!
(2) Look to your eyes. Much sin comes in by the eye. "Having
eyes full of adultery." 2 Pet 2:14. The eye tempts the imagination,
and the imagination works upon the heart. A lustful amorous eye, may
usher in sin. Eve first saw the tree of knowledge--and then she took.
Gen 3:6. First she looked--and then she loved. The eye often sets the
heart on fire; therefore Job laid a law upon his eyes. "I made a
covenant with my eyes--not to look with lust upon a young woman." Job
31:1. Democritus the philosopher plucked out his eyes, because he
would not be tempted with vain objects; the Scripture does not bid us
do this--but to set a watch before our eyes.
(3) Look to your lips. Take heed of any unclean word which may
enkindle unclean thoughts in yourselves or others. "Evil
communications corrupt good manners." 1 Cor 15:33. Impure discourse,
is the bellows to blow up the fire of lust. Much evil is conveyed to
the heart by the tongue. "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth!" Psalm
141:3.
(4) Look in a special manner to your heart. "Guard your heart
with all diligence." Proverbs 4:23. Every person has a tempter in his
own bosom. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." Matt 15:19.
Thinking of sin, makes way for the act of sin. Suppress the first
risings of sin in your heart. As the serpent, when danger is near--
guards his head, so keep your heart, which is the spring from whence
all lustful motions proceed.
(5) Look to your attire. We read of the attire of a harlot.
Proverbs 7:10. A wanton dress is a provocation to lust. Cuttings and
braidings of the hair, a painted face, half-****d breasts, are
allurements to immorality. Where the sign is hung out--people will go
in and taste the liquor. Jerome says, "those who by their lascivious
attire endeavor to draw others to lust, though no evil follows--are
tempters--and shall be punished, because they offered the poison to
others, even though they would not drink."
(6) Take heed of evil company. Sin is a very contagious
disease; one person tempts another to sin, and hardens him in it.
There are three cords which draw men to immorality:
the inclination of the heart,
the persuasion of evil company, and
the embraces of the harlot.
This threefold cord is not easily broken. "A fire was kindled
in their company." Psalm 106:18. The fire of lust is kindled in bad
company.
(7) Beware of going to theaters and plays. A play-house is
often a preface to a whorehouse. "Plays furnish the seeds of
wickedness." We are bid to avoid all appearance of evil; and are not
plays the appearance of evil? Such sights are there, which are not fit
to be beheld with chaste eyes. A learned divine observes, that many
have on their death-beds confessed, with tears, that the pollution of
their bodies has been occasioned by going to plays.
(8) Take heed of mixed dancing. "Dances are instruments of
lust and wantonness." From dancing, people come to dalliance with
another, and from dalliance to immorality. "There is," says Calvin,
"for the most part, some unchaste behavior in dancing." Dances draw
the heart to immorality--by wanton gestures, by unchaste touches, and
by lustful looks. Chrysostom inveighed against mixed dancing in his
time. "We read," he says, "of a marriage feast--but of dancing there we
read not." Matt 25:7. Many have been ensnared by dancing; as the duke
of Normandy, and others. "Dancing is not the conduct of a chaste woman--
but of the adulteress," Ambrose. Chrysostom says, "Where dancing is,
there the devil is!" I speak chiefly of mixed dancing. We read of
dances in Scripture--but they were sober and modest. Exod 15:20. They
were not mixed dances--but pious and religious, being usually
accompanied with singing praises to God.
(9) Take heed of lascivious books and pictures, which provoke
to lust. As the reading of the Scripture stirs up love to God, so
reading vile books stirs up the mind to wickedness. To lascivious
books I may add lascivious pictures, which bewitch the eye, and are
incendiaries to lust! They secretly convey poison to the heart.
(10) Take heed of excess in diet. When gluttony and
drunkenness lead the van, immorality and wantonness bring up the rear.
"Wine inflames lust." "Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and
gluttony." Ezekiel 16:49. The foulest weeds grow out of the fattest
soil. Immorality proceeds from excess. "When I had fed them to the
full, everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife." Jer 5:8. Get the
"golden bridle of temperance." God allows the refreshment of nature,
and what may fit us the better for his service; but beware of surfeit.
Excess in tem****al things--clouds the mind, chokes good affections,
and provokes lust. "I discipline my body and bring it under strict
control." 1 Cor 9:27. The flesh pampered--is liable to immorality.
(11) Take heed of idleness. When a man is idle, he is ready to
receive any temptation. The devil sows most of his seeds of temptation
in fallow ground. Idleness is the cause of sodomy and immorality.
"Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony." Ezek 16:49. When
David was idle on the top of his house, he espied Bathsheba, and
committed adultery with her. 2 Sam 11:4. Jerome gave his friend
counsel to be always well employed in God's vineyard, that when the
devil came, he might have no leisure to listen to temptation.
(12) To avoid fornication and adultery, let every man have a
chaste, entire love to his own wife. Ezekiel's wife was the desire of
his eyes. Chap 24:16. When Solomon had dissuaded from immoral women,
he prescribed a remedy against it. "Rejoice with the wife of your
youth." Proverbs 5:18. It is not having a wife--but loving a wife--
which makes a man live chastely. He who loves his wife, whom Solomon
calls his fountain, will not go abroad to drink of muddy, poisoned
waters. Pure marital love is a gift of God, and comes from heaven;
but, like the vestal fire, it must be nourished, so that it does not
go out. He who does not love his wife, is the likeliest person to
embrace the bosom of a harlot.
(13) Labor to get the fear of God into your hearts. "By the
fear of the Lord, men depart from evil." Proverbs 16:6. As the
embankment keeps out the water, so the fear of the Lord keeps out
immorality. Such as lack the fear of God, lack the bridle which should
check them from sin! How did Joseph keep from his mistress'
temptation? The fear of God pulled him back! "How can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God!" Gen. 39:9. Bernard calls holy fear,
"the door-keeper of the soul." As a nobleman's ****ter stands at the
door, and keeps out vagrants, so the fear of God stands and keeps out
all sinful temptations from entering.
(14) Take delight in the Word of God. "How sweet are your
words unto my taste." Psalm 119:103. Chrysostom compares God's Word to
a garden. If we walk in this garden, and suck sweetness from the
flowers of the promises, we shall never care to pluck the "forbidden
fruit." "Let the Scriptures be my pure pleasure," says Augustine. The
reason why people seek after unchaste, sinful pleasures--is because
they have nothing better. Caesar riding through a city, and seeing the
women play with dogs and parrots, said, "Surely, they have no
children." So those who s****t with harlots have no better pleasures.
He who has once tasted Christ in a promise, is ravished with delight;
and he would scorn a temptation to sin! Job said, that the Word was
his "appointed food." Job 23:12. No wonder then, that he made a
"covenant with his eyes."
(15) If you would abstain from adultery, use serious
consideration.
[1] Consider that God sees you in the act of sin! He sees all
your curtain wickedness. He is totus oculus--"all eye." The clouds are
no canopy, the night is no curtain--to hide you from God's eye!
Whenever you sin--your Judge looks on! "I have seen your detestable
acts--your adulteries and your neighings." Jer 13:27. "They have
committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. I know it and am a
witness to it!--declares the Lord." Jer 29:23.
[2] Consider that few who are entangled in the sin of
adultery, ever recover from the snare. "None that go to her return
again." Proverbs 2:19. This made some of the ancients conclude that
adultery was an unpardonable sin; but it is not so. David repented.
Mary Magdalene was a weeping penitent; upon her amorous eyes which
sparkled with lust, she sought to be revenged, by wa****ng Christ's
feet with her tears! Some, therefore have recovered from this snare.
"None that go to her return," that is, "very few." It is rare to hear
of any who are enchanted and bewitched with the sin of immorality, who
recover from it. "I find more bitter than death the woman who is a
snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who
pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare." Eccl
7:26. Her "heart is a trap," that is, she is subtle to deceive those
who come to her; and "her hands are chains," that is her embraces are
powerful to hold and entangle her lovers. This consideration should
make all fearful of this sin. Soft pleasures, harden the heart.
[3] Consider what Scripture says, which may lay a barricade in
the way to this sin. "I will be a swift witness against the
adulterers." Mal 3:5. It is good when God is a witness "for us", when
he witnesses to our sincerity, as he did to Job's; but it is sad to
have God a "witness against us." "I," says God, "will be a swift
witness against the adulterer." And who shall disprove God's witness?
He is both witness and judge. "God will surely judge people who are
immoral and those who commit adultery." Heb 13:4.
[4] Consider the sad farewell, which the sin of adultery
leaves. It leaves a hell in the conscience. "The lips of an immoral
woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But
the result is as bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her
feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to hell." Proverbs
5:3-5. The goddess Diana was so artfully drawn, that she seemed to
smile upon those who came into her temple--but frown on those who went
out. So the harlot smiles on her lovers as they come to her--but at
last, they come to the frown and the sting! "Until an arrow pierces
his liver." Proverbs 7:23. "Her end is bitter."
When a man has been virtuous, the labor is gone--but the
comfort remains; but when he has been wicked and immoral, the pleasure
is gone--but the sting remains. "He gains momentary pleasure--and then
eternal torment," says Jerome. When the senses have been feasted with
unchaste pleasures, the soul is left to pay the reckoning. Stolen
waters are sweet; but, as poison, though sweet in the mouth, it
torments the conscience. Sin always ends in tragedy! Sad is that which
Fincelius re****ts of a priest in Flanders, who enticed a young girl to
immorality. When she objected how vile a sin it was, he told her that
by authority from the Pope he could commit any sin; so at last he drew
her to his wicked purpose. But when they had been together a while, in
came the devil, and took away the harlot from the priest's side, and,
notwithstanding all her crying out, carried her away! If the devil
should come and carry away all that are guilty of immorality in this
nation--I fear more would be carried away than would be left behind!
(16) Pray against this sin. Luther gave a lady this advice,
that when any lust began to rise in her heart, she should go to
prayer. Prayer is the best armor against sin; it quenches the wild
fire of lust. If prayer will "cast out the devil," it will certainly
cast out those lusts which come from the devil.
Use five. If the body must be kept pure from defilement, much
more the soul of a Christian must be kept pure. The meaning of the
commandment is not only that we should not stain our bodies with
immorality--but that we should keep our souls pure. To have a chaste
body--but an unclean soul, is like a beautiful face with a cancerous
heart. "Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Pet 1:16. The soul cannot be lovely
to God, until it has Christ's image stamped upon it, which consists in
righteousness and true holiness. Eph 4:24. The soul must especially be
kept pure, because it is the chief place of God's residence. Eph 3:17.
A king's palace must be kept clean, especially his presence-chamber.
If the body is the temple, the soul is the "Holy of holies," and must
be consecrated. We must not only keep our bodies from carnal pollution--
but our souls from envy and malice.
How shall we know our souls are pure?
(1) If our souls are pure, we flee from the appearance of
evil. 1 Thess 5:22. We shall not do that which looks like sin. When
Joseph's mistress courted and tempted him, he "left his garment in her
hand, and fled." Gen 39:12 He was suspicious to be near her.
(2) If our souls are pure, the light of purity will ****ne
forth. Aaron had "Holiness to the Lord" written upon his golden plate.
Where there is sanctity in the soul, there "Holiness to the Lord" is
engraved upon the life. We are adorned with patience, humility, good
works, and ****ne as "Lights in the world." Phil 2:15. Carry Christ's
picture in your life! 1 John 2:6. O let us labor for this soul purity!
Without it there is no seeing God. Heb 12:14. "What communion has
light with darkness?" 2 Cor 6:14. To keep the soul pure--have recourse
to the blood of Christ, which is the "fountain open, to cleanse from
sin and impurity." Zech 13:1. A soul steeped in the briny tears of
repentance, and bathed in the blood of Christ, is made pure. Pray much
for a pureness of soul. "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Psalm
51:10. Some pray for children, others for riches; but you are to pray
for soul purity. Say, "Lord, though my body is kept pure--yet my soul
is defiled, I pollute all I touch. O purge me with hyssop, let
Christ's blood sprinkle me, let the Holy Spirit come upon me and
anoint me. O make me evangelically pure, that I may be translated to
heaven, and placed among the cherubim, where I shall be as holy as you
would have me to be, and as happy as I can desire to be."
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