Use 2. It must be closely applied for our good and benefit, till we are duly affected with it, so as to make suitable returns to God ; partly ty devoting ourselves to him: Rom. xii. 1, 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service;' and partly by rendering our thank-offerings of charity towards others : Heb. xiii. 17, ' But to do good, and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.'
SERMON III.
But fornication, and all uncleanness or coveioicsness, let it not be once named among you, as hecometh saints. — Eph. v. 3.
In the words observe —
1. The things forbidden. Three sins are enumerated, ' Fornication,' and ' All uncleanness,' and * Covetousness.'
190 SERMONS UFON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. III.
2. The manner and degree of forbidding, ' Let them not be once named among yon.' Christians 8honld liave .such a perfect abhorrence for these tilings, that they should be as things unknown and unheard of in the church.
3. The reason of this prohibition, ' As becoraeth saints.'
Doct. That there lieth a great obligation on christians to keep them- selves at ihe greatest distance from, and abhorrence of, all impurity and uncleatiness.
1. 1 siiall fix the due sense of the words.
2. Show what purity and cleanness of heart belongoth to christians.
3. Show the special impurity that there is in these kind of sins.
I. To fix the sense. The things forbidden are expressed by three words —
1. 'Fornication,' which signifieth the unchastity of persons in a single or unmarried estate, which was looked upon among the gentiles as a thing indifferent, and no sin ; and some of the christians newly crept out of gentilism thought it a light and venial fault, as at Corinth, 1 Cor. vi. from ver. 12 to the end. They thought that as eating all sorts of meat without distinction was lawful, so promiscuous copulation. To disprove this evil conceit, the apostle answereth by way of concession concei'ning meats, by way of correction concei'ning fornication, ver. 13.
[1.] By way of concession concerning meats : 'Meat is for the belly, and the belly is for meats ; but God shall destroy both it and them ; ' that is to say, it is true that meats were made to fill the belly, and the belly to receive meats for the sustentation of life during the present state ; but God will cause both the need and the use to cease in the life of glory.
[2.J By way of correction concerning foi-nication.
(1.) But now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Loi-d for the body ; namely, the end and use of the body is to serve the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. The Lord Jesus is also Lord of the body, seeing he gave himself not only for the redemption of the soul, but of the body also, and will raise it up at the last day, ver. 14 ; tlierefore it is to be disposed of according to his will. Therefore forni- cation is contrary to the use of the body, as the body is for the Lord ; and contrary to the dignity of the body, who died that it may be raised again in glory.
(2.) Another argument is from our union with Christ. The bodies of the faithful are a part of his mystical body, and therefore must be used with reverence, and possessed in sanctification and honour ; not given to an harlot, but reserved for Christ. He proveth the argument on both parts : he that is joined to an harlot maketh himself one with an harlot ; and he that is joined with Christ becometh one with Christ : * He that is joined to an harlot is one flesh ; ' namely, that conjunction is carnal and bodily. But by way of direct antithesis or opposition he telleth us, that ' he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit; ' namely, this conjunction is holy and spiritual. This argument is urged ver. 15-17. Now this consideration should have great force upon christians, because unclean commixtures and embraces do not become theui that profess to have union with Christ ; for no two things can be more contrary and unsuitable than to make ourselves one with an harlot
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 191
and one with Christ ; one with an harlot, which God hath so severely prohibited, and one with Christ, which God hath so solemnly instituted; yea, the things themselves are unsociable, carnal base pleasures and spiritual delights.
(3.) His third argument is taken from the dignity of the body, the dignity to which God hath advanced it, or the honour he hath put upon the bodies of christians, which is to be the temples of the Holy Ghost : ver. 19, ' What ! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God ? ' You are set apart for this holy use, that the Spirit may govern and employ your bodies for the glory of God. So fornication is a polluting of the temple of God. Shall the temple of the Holy Ghost be turned into a swine's-sty ? It is dangerous to pollute holy things, to defile God's dwelling-place, or to bring base lusts into the special palace of God's residence ; therefore you are not to use your bodies as you please, not for an unclean, but holy use.