here, by polluting and defiling it, by unfitting it for the service of God, for prayer, and for all religious thoughts and offices;-by rendering it earthly and sensual. And they war against the soul hereafter, by exposing it to everlasting ruin in the world to come. We are assured by St. Paul in several places, that fornication-in common language the sin of whoredom-is one of those sins which will exclude from the kingdom of God those who are guilty of it. I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things-such things as fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness-shall not-cannotinherit the kingdom of God. And again to the Ephesians, For this ye know-every one who has any knowledge at all of religion must know this-this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And if they are not received into the kingdom, what remains for them, but to be cast into that outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth?

;

We are told in Scripture, that we stand in need of the assistance of the Holy Spirit in order to be saved If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. But those who give way to fleshly lusts, who commit this sin of fornication, do what they can to drive the Holy Spirit from them. St. Paul argues against this sin, on this very ground. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy'.

We all of us profess to rest our hope of salvation upon the redemption effected by the death of Jesus Christ;

e Matt. xv. 19, 20.

1 Cor. vi. 18, 19.

f Gal. v. 21.

i 1 Cor. iii. 17.

Ephies. v. 5.

for it is in Him that we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and there is none other name given among men whereby we may be saved. But if we are thus redeemed, thus bought by Christ, we belong to him, and not to ourselves. St. Paul, in the same chapter, argues against the sin of unchastity from this consideration. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. And then a little after, Ye are not your own. Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

The sin of fornication is contrary to the whole spirit and character of the Christian religion. Those who are admitted into the fellowship of that religion, are called upon solemnly to renounce all the sinful lusts of the flesh, especially those lusts of which we have been speaking. Fornication, says St. Paul, and all uncleanness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints *—that is, as becometh Christians, as becometh men who have been dedicated to God by baptism. Again to the Colossians, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, and evil concupiscence; for which things' sake, he adds, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience'. The wrath of God will come on them in the sentence of condemnation ;-for, as we read in several places, that those who commit these sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God, will not go to heaven; so we find in the book of Revelation, that they will have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death".

This awful condemnation, it is true, may in this, as in every other instance, be avoided, through faith in the atonement of Christ, upon the sincere repentance k Ephes. v. 3. 1 Coloss. iii. 5, 6.

m Rev. xxi. 8.

of the offender. That repentance however, in order to be real and accepted, must be made up of deep shame and confusion of face, of heartfelt sorrow and contrition of spirit, attended with hatred of sin, and with a real change, a real amendment, of heart and life. How little we see of such repentance as this, how utterly inconsistent it is with that light, thoughtless, shameless behaviour, which I have already spoken of, you need not to be told. I must add too, that though sins of this nature, as well as all other sins, may be blotted out, through faith in the blood of Christ, upon the deep repentance of the sinner, yet that they are apt to render repentance peculiarly difficult. This difficulty arises, not only from the remembrance of the guilty pleasure which attended them, but because they have, perhaps more than most other sins, a tendency to brutalize the soul, and make it less fit for spiritual thoughts and considerations. This, as I have` already said, is one of the ways in which fleshly lusts rear against the soul. They indispose it for prayer and all religious thoughts and exercises. In short, they make repentance necessary, and at the same time render it peculiarly difficult to repent.

And here I would add another consideration, which is, that the sin of which I have been speaking, is not committed by one person alone. Therefore, even supposing that through the grace and mercy of God, he, who has in this way offended, is brought to repentance, yet still his repentance cannot save from ruin the partner of his guilt. His own sin may, upon his repentance, be blotted out, but the partner of his crime is perhaps never induced to repent, and he must ever bear in his mind the dreadful thought, that in order to gratify his fleshly lust, he has been accessary to the ETERNAL RUIN of a fellow-creature.

In comparison with the awful sufferings to be endured in the world to come, the evil consequences

of unchastity in this world are but as nothing. In themselves, however, they are most lamentable, such as no man of common sense or common feeling would willingly occasion. Reflect, that if you seduce into sin a young woman who hitherto was innocent, you bring upon her character a blot, a stain, which no time can wash away. You make her to become a grief and a reproach to her parents and relations, perhaps an outcast from society. You probably deprive her in great measure of the means of procuring a livelihood, and make her to become a degraded being, the object of the pity, perhaps of the scorn, of her neighbours. Never suffer your fleshly lusts so far to prevail over you, as to induce you to occasion such great, such irreparable misery. Possibly some men may be disposed to reply, that they would upon no account seduce one who had hitherto been innocent, and that they offend only with those abandoned and profligate women, who have long since been corrupted, and who make a trade and profession of sin. But do you not see, that you thus encourage them to go on in that evil and shameful course of life? That you make their repentance, their turning to God, more difficult? And reflect on the evil you bring on yourself, the injury you may do to your own character-your substance your health-your immortal soul. We often see, that by such women, many men, according to the observation of Solomon ", are brought to absolute want; often they contract a sore disease, the taint and corruption of which descends to their children and their children's children. And above all, they acquire a habit of that sin, which wars against the soul, which drowns men's souls in destruction and perdition. To such I should repeat the advice of Solomon. Remove thy ways far from the evil woman, and come not nigh the door of her house. He that goeth after her,

goeth as an or to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; till a dart-the dart of disease-strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Let not thine heart decline to her ways; go not astray in her paths. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death o. HER HOUSE IS THE WAY TO HELL; for the sin of fornication, though in some cases more sinful than in others, does in every case, if died in without repentance, expose a man to the vengeance of eternal fire.

Shun carefully, therefore, every approach to this most dangerous sin. Keep as much as possible out of the way of temptation, and be on your guard against the very first beginnings of unchastity, against every thing that is likely to lead you into it. Avoid reading such books or songs, or having or looking at such prints or pictures, as are calculated to excite impure desires and unchaste thoughts. Especially keep away from all conversation that has this tendency, and from the society of such men as indulge in such conversation. Let no corrupt communication, says St. Paul, proceed out of your mouth". Such corrupt communication will grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and perhaps induce him altogether to leave you. Neither filthiness, soon after continues the apostle, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient-not suitable to, but utterly unworthy of, the character of a Christian. After all our care, the appetites and desires of our corrupted nature will still be but too headstrong and rebellious. It is madness to add to their strength by such incentives as I have alluded to, by permitting our eyes to see, or our ears to hear, any thing which is calculated to add fuel to the flame. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not 9 Eph. iv. 29. and v. 4.

P Prov. vii. 22, 23, 27.