Use 2d. It is matter of lamentation to sec this commandment so slighted and violated among us. Adultery is the reigning sin of the times, Hos. vii. 4., " They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker." Tlie time of K. Henry VIII. was called the golden age, but this may be called the un- clean age, wherein whore-hunting is com- mon : Ezek. xxiv. 13., " In thy filthiness is lewdness." Luther tells of one who said, if he might but satisfy his lust, and be car- ried from one whore-house to another, he would desire no other heaven; afterwards he breathed out his soul betwixt two noto- rious strumj)ets. This is to be the right seed of Adam, to love the forbidden fruit, to love to drink of stolen waters : E/ek. viii. 8, 9., " Son of man, dig now in the wall ; and when I had digged, behold a door ; and he said unto me, Go in and be- hold the wicked abominations that thev do here." Could we, as the prophet, dig in the walls of many houses, what vile abomi- nations should we see there ! In some cham- bers we niiglit see fornication ; dig further, and see adultery ; dig further, and we may may see incest, &c. And may not the Lord go from his sanctuary ; as Ezek. viii. G., " Seest thou the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary ?" C»od might remove his gospel, and then we might write I-chabod on this nation, ' The glory is departed.' Let us mourn for what we can- not reform.
Use 3(1. It exhorts us to keep ourselves from this sin of adulterv, " Let everv man have his own wife," saith Paul, 1 Cor. vii. 2., not his concubine, nor his courtezan. Now, that I may deter you from adultery, let me shew you the great evil «if it..
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OF THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.
First, It is a thievish sin. Adultery is the hio;hest sort of theft ; tlie adulterer eteals from his neighbour that which is more than his goods and estate, — he steals au'av his wife from him, ' who is flesh of his flfsli.'
Secondly, Adultery debaseth a person ; it makes him resemble the beasts ; therefore the adulterer is described like an horse neighing, Jer. v. 8., " Every one neighed after his neiglibour's wife." Nay, this is worse than brutish ; for some creatures that are void of reason, yet, by tlie instinct of nature, observe a kind of decorum of chastity. The turtle-dove is a chaste crea- ture, and keeps to its mate ; the stork, wherever he flies, comes into no nest but his own. Naturalists write, if a stork, leav- ing his own mate, joineth with any other, all the rest of the storks fall upon him, and pull his feathers from him. Adultery is worse than brutish, it degrades a person of his honour.
Thirdly, Adultery doth pollute and be- filtliy a person. The devil is called an " unclean spirit," Luke xi. 24. The adul- terer is the devil's first-born ; he is unclean, — he is a moving quagmire, — he is all over jilceiated with sin, — his eyes sparkle with lust, — his mouth foams out filth, — his heart burns like mount Etna, in unclean desires, — he is so filtliy that if he die ia this sin all the flames of hell will never purge away his uncleanness. And, as for the adulter- ess, who can paint her black enough ? The scripture calls her " a deep ditch," Prov. xxiii. 27. She is a common sewer ; whereas a believer, his body is a living temple, and his soul a little heaven bespangled with the graces as so many little stars. Tiie body of an harlot is a walking dung-hill, and her soul a lesser hell.
Fourthly, Adultery is destructive to the body, Prov. V. 11., "And thon mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed." It brings into a consumption. Unclranness turns the body into an hospi- tal,— it wastes the radical moisture, rots the skull, eats the beauty of the face. As the flame wastes the candle, so the fire of lust consumes the bones. The adulterer has- tens his own death, Prov. vii. 23., " Till a dart strike through his liver." The Pn-
mans had their funerals at the gate of Ve- nus's temple, to signify that lust brings death. Venus is lust.
Fifthly, Adultery is is a purgatory to the purse : as it wastes the body, so the estate, Prov. vi. 26., " By means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread." ^Hiores are the devil's horse- leeches,— spunges that will soon suck in all one's money. Tlie prodigal had soon spent his portion when once he fell among har- lots, Luke XV. 30. King Edward III. his concubine, when he lay a-dying, got all she could from him, and plucked the rings oflf his fingers, and so left him. He that lives in luxury, dies in beggary.