3. Some sins are more catching than others ; the very mention of them may revive and stir the motions of them in an unmortified heart. And uncleauness and fornication are of this nature, because they tend immediately to please the flesh ; other sins more remotely. Now where the fleshly mind and appetite are not subdued, what doth immediately please the flesh doth more j)resently stir the motions of it at the very mention, than what doth more remotely conduce to its satisfaction.
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 193
As the prophet taketh his similitude of condemning the idolatry of Israel from adulterers, and expresseth it thus : Ezek. xxiii. 19, ' Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth ;' as if the remembrance of former adulteries were a new snare to her. And divines say, in the case of considering temptations, that we may be fore-armed against them, that it is not so safe to a man to consider the temptation of Joseph as the temptation of Peter, because the consideration of the first may rather ensnare than fortify the mind. All this showeth that some sins, especially with some kind of tempers, are more catching and apt to induce men to sin ; therefore the apostle saith, ' Let it not be once named.'
4. There is a naming of these things which is very sinful, and that two ways —
[l.J When it is done in such a broad and coarse way, or nasty lan- guage, as doth rather invite sin than rebuke it. Immodest speech cometh certainly from a vain and filthy heart, and showeth the absence of the fear of God : Mat. xii. 34, ' Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Men have a beastly savour with them, and vent it in their speech. As crows that are driven away from the carrion love to remain within the scent, so many whom shame restraineth, or whom age hath disabled to commit, do not act these sins, yet love to talk and discourse of them, and that with a gust and relish ; and by their way of naming these things discover their temper. This is that o-aTrpo? X070?, that ' rotten communication,' which the apostle reproveth : Eph. iv. 29, ' Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers,' Obscene and corrupt discourse cometh from a rotten heart, as un- savoury breath doth from putrid lungs. This fire is kindled in their hearts, and the sparks fly abroad in their language and discourse to set others on burning. Therefore well might the apostle say, ' Let not these things be once named,' for we propagate our taint by our speech, and seek to make the hearers like ourselves : 1 Cor. xv. 33, ' Be not deceived ; evil communication corrupts good manners.' The talking of these things doth almost debauch the manners of the world, as well as the acting of them.
[2.] When we seek to palliate foul deeds with handsome and plau- sible names, and so speak of these things with allowance and extenuation, and not with extreme detestation. Christians must abhor the mention- ing of such filthy sins in other manner than will induce the hearers to abhor them. Look, as calling drunken meetings good fellowship cor- rupts and taints the manners of the world, and doth induce men to a better opinion of the communion of sinners in this brutish way than it deserves, as if it maintained amity and love, so the dressing up of ugly sins in handsome and plausible names doth not beget such an abhor- rence of them as Christianity would enforce. As where we call lawless liberty platonic love ; or fornication, marriage in conscience ; or the adopting or taking in of a strumpet into the riglits of the lawful wife, courtship, or having a mistress ; this is but the invention of poor deluded sinners to cheat themselves and the world, and to varnish a filthy thing with a cleanly notion, that it may go down the more glib with ourselves and others. How much better is it to speak as the word of Ood speaketh ? ' An whore is a deep ditch ; and he that is abhorred
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194 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [Seii. III.
of the Lord falletli therein,' Prov. xxii. 14; 'For an whore is a deep ditch, and a straii<;e woumu a narrow pit,' Prov, xxiii. 27. This is phiin and o})en, and cautions men how they slip into such a foul ditch. But sinners have a double deceit, they represent goodness and virtue under horrid names, as astronomers call glorious stars by the names of the bear, and the dragon's head, and the dragon's tail ; but they insin- uate vice with plausible names, that they may not consider how hateful to God both their persons and their practices are ; and so keep the greater guard upon themselves lest they incur his sore displeasure. But let us take heed of adorning foul sins. The apostle saith, ' Let them not be once named without detestation.'
Thirdly, The reason, ' As it becometh saints ; ' that is, christians or believers ; all of them are saints, or should be saints.