ing a A^nfe, but the loving a wife, 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 ctmjngal love is a gift of God, and comes from heaven ; this, like the ' vestal fire, must be cherished, that it do not go out. He who loves not his wife, is the likeliest person to embrace the bosom of a stranger. — 13. Labour to get the fear of God into yotn- hearts, Prov. xvi. 6., " By the fear of the Lord men dej)art from evil." As the banks keep out the water, so the fear of the Lord keeps out luicleanness. Such as want the fear of (iod, want the bridle that should check them from sin. How did Joseph kec p from his mistress's temptation ? The fear of God pulled him back, Gen. xxxix. 9., " How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ?" St. Bernard calls holy fear, janitor anima, — ' the door-keeper of the soul.' As a nobleman's porter stands at the door, and keeps out vagrants, so the fear of God stands and keeps out all sinful temptations from entering. — 14. Get a delight in the word of God, Ps. cxix. 103., " How sweet are thy words to my taste !" St. Chrysostom com- pares God's word to a garden. If we walk in this garden, and suck sweetness from the fiowers of the promises, we shall never care to pluck the ' forbidden fruit.' Sint castce delicicB me<B scriptura^ Aug. The reason why persons seek after unchjiste, sinful pleasures, is, because they have no better. Csesar riding through a city, and seeing the women j)lay A\ith dogs and parrots, said, ' Sure they have no children :' so they that sport with harlots, it is because they have no better pleasures. He that hath once tasted Christ in a promise, is ravished with delight : and how would he scorn a motion to sin ! Job said, the wor.d was his " neces- sary food," Job xxiii. 12. No wonder then he made ' a covenant with his eyes.' — 15. If you would abstain from adultery, use serious consideration. Consider,
(1.) God sees thee in the act of sin. Ho sees all thy curtain wickedness. He is lo- tus ocu/us, — all eye, Aug. The clouds are no canopy, the night is no curtain to hide thee from God's eye. Thou canst not sin, but thy judge looks on, Jer. xiiL 27., " I
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have seen thy adulteries and thy neighings," Jer. xxix. 23., " They have committed ad- ultery witlj their neighbours' wives ;" even I knf)\v, and am a witness, saith the Lord. (2.) Few that are entangled in the sin of adultery recover out of the snare, Prov. ii. 19., " None that go to her return again." That made some of the ancients conclude that adultery was an unpardonable sin ; but not so. David repented, and Mary Magdalene was a weeping penitent ; her a- morous eyes that had sparkled with lust, she seeks to be revenged of them, she wash- ed Christ's feet with her teais : so that some have recovered out of the snare. But " none that go to her return," that is, ' very few ;' it is rare to hear of any who are en- chanted and bewitched with this sin of a- dultery, that recover out of it, Eccles. ^^i. 26., " Her heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands." " Her heart is snares," that is, she is subtle to deceive those who come to her ; and, " her hands as bands," that is, her embraces are power- ful to hold and entangle her lovers. Plu- tarch said of the Persian kings, ' They were captives to their concubines ;' they were so inflamed, that they had no power to leave their company. This consideration may make all fearl'ul of this sin ; ' none that go to her return again.' Soft pleasures har- den the heart.
(3.) Consider what the scripture saith, and it may ponere obicem, — lay a bar in the way to this sin, Mai. iii. .5., " I will be a swift witness against adulterers." It is good when God is a witness ' for us,' when he witnesseth for our sincerity, as he did for Job : but it is sad to have God a ' wit- ness against us.' ' I (saith God) will be a witness against the adulterer.' And who shall disprove his witness ? And he is both witness and judge, Heb. xiii. 4., " Whore- mongers and adulterers God will judge."
(4.) Consider the sad farewell this sin of adultery leaves : it leaves an hell in the conscience, Pi-ov. v. 3, 4., " The lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb, but her end is bitter as wormwood." The goddess Diana was so artificially drawn, that she seemed to smile upon those that came into her temple, but frown on those that went out. So the harlot smiles on her