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But the other has no Life left for these Spiritual Exercifes. She that liveth in Pleafure, fays he, is Dead while fhe Liveth. A very Emphatical Expreflion to fignifie the Ufeleffnefs and Inactivity of fuch a Perfon, as to the Duties of Devotion, or any other good Duties whatsoever.

(2) As to Sins of Commiffion, it is impoffible to reckon up all that this fort of Vices expofe us to. They make Young People Impudent and Difobedient, and undutiful to their Parents; they make Married Perfons harsh and unfriendly, and difregardful of one another; they make us break through all Duties to God, to Parents, to Hufbands or Wives. Nay, often they make us break through all Rules of common Decency, Honour, Reputation and Civility; and ftop our Ears to all good Advice, and even to the Clamours of common Shame; they blind our Understandings, that we cannot perceive those Vices in our felves, which every Body elfe perceives, and exclaims against; they make Fools of Men, and expose them to every Unreafonable Thing that may ferve to compass their finful Purposes, or to preserve them in the good Graces of the Perfons by whom they are fo led afide. They make them espouse all their Vices as well as their own; and become Tools and Fools to do any unreasonable Thing, They dictate and fuggeft. And commonly these Creatures finding the Advantage and Ascendant which they have upon the Perfons they have thus got in their Snare, fpare not to make use of it to the utmoft, and not only to exercife but to fhew their Authority, to the moft fhameless degrees of Imperioufnefs: So that one would admire what's become of our Understandings and Common

Senfe,

Senfe, to fuffer our felves to be fo impofed upon :And may with Admiration put the queftion God puts in Ezek. xvi. 30. How weak is thine Heart, faith the Lord, Jeeing thou dost all thefe Things, the work of an imperious whorish Woman?

4. Another Danger of thefe Sins is, that they are very Tenacious and hard to get rid of. They are like Pitch or Birdlime, which whofoever touches cannot easily shake off; Solomon fpeaking of the Whorish Woman, Prov. ii. 19. faith, that none that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the Paths of Life. It is an Elegant Allufion to a Wilderness or Labyrinth, in which any one may eafily find the Way in, but it is exceeding difficult to find the way out. In another Place he fays, (a) Many ftrong Men have been Slain by her, and her Houfe is the way to Hell, going down to the Chambers of Death. As ye would not then choose to travel through a great Bog or Quagmire, where there is no fure Footing, but every step ye take in it, it is Worfe and Worfe, and ye are fure to be both bedawbed and bemired; confider before ye are engaged in fuch dangerous Courfes, and extricate your felves quickly all ye that are not yet grown Hardened in your Wickednefs; for affure your felves the more ye dally with thefe Vices, fo much the fafter shall ye be caught and entangled in them; till at laft in vain fhall ye bewail your evil Habits, and not find the way out of them, nor be able to comprehend the Reafon, how ye are fo faft bound to that bafe fort of Servitude. Solomon will tell you how this

(a) Prov. vii. 26. 27.

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was

was a Thing that puzzled his Reafon, as well as endangered his Salvation. Eccl. vii. 24, 25. That which is far off and exceeding Deep, who can find it out? I applied my Heart to know and to fearch, and to feek out Wijdom, and the Reafon of Things, and to know the Wickedness of Folly, even of Foolishness and Madness: And I find more bitter than Death the Woman, whofe Heart is Snares and Nets, and her Hands as Bands: whofo pleaseth God shall escape from ber, but the finner fhall be taken by her.

5. Another great Mischief of those grofs Acts of Uncleanness is, that they not only endanger our own Souls, but the Souls of others, who are Partners in the Crime. And this is really a very great Aggravation of the Sin. To be a Seducer and a Tempter to Sin is the Office of the Devil; and we should confider, though afterwards it may be in our Power to repent of our own Sins, it may not be in our Power perhaps to perfwade those others to Repentance, whom we have formerly led afide with our Wickedness. This must be a dreadful Confideration to all that fear God, to think that they have proved the Occafion of the Ruin of the Soul of any other Perfon. And what our Saviour fays of those who Scandalize or offend others, that is, prove the Occafion of their falling away from him and their Duty, is one of the fevereft Things he ever faid against any Sin, except the Sin against the Holy Ghoft. Ye may fee it, Matt. xviii. 6. But whofo fhall offend one of thefe little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a Milftone were Hanged about his Neck, and that he were drowned in the Depth of the Sea. And although

he

he tells us it is impoffible but that Offences will come, he denounces a Wo against Them by whom they come. If we have then any regard either to our Saviour's dreadful Threatning, or are afraid of being Inftrumental in the greatest of all Injuries to others, let us beware of thofe Sins, which bring on the Guilt and Damnation of others.

6. The Sixth I fhall mention of the Spiritual Dangers of thofe Sins, is the Opinion which God Almighty has of them; for in all the Catalogues we have in Scripture of Great and Damning Sins, They generally make a principal Part. I fhall quote a few Paffages to this Purpose. Gal. v. 19. Now the Works of the Flesh are Manifeft, which are thefe, Adultery, Fornication, Uncleannefs, Lafciviousness, Idolatry, Witchcraft, Hatred, Variance, Emulations, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, Herefies, Envyings, Murders, Drunkenness, Revellings, and fuch like: Of which I tell you before, as I have aljo told you in Time paft, that they who do fuch Things fhall not inherit the Kingdom of God. And Col. iii. 5. Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth; Fornication, Uncleanness, Inordinate Affection, Evil Concupifcence, and Covetousness, which is Idolatry: For which Things fake the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Difobedience. And I Cor. vi. 9. Be not deceived, neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers, nor Effeminate, nor Abufers of themfelves with Mankind, nor Thieves, nor Covetous, nor Drunkards, nor Revilers, nor Extortioners, fhall inherit the Kingdom of God. And Rev. xxii. 15. fpeaking of the new Jerufalem, he fays, without are Dogs and Sorcerers, and Whoremongers,

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Whoremongers, and Murderers, and Idolaters, and whofoever loveth and maketh a Lye. From all which we may conclude, that the Sins of Uncleannefs are particularly Odious to Almighty God, and fhall receive an high Degreee of Punishment, unlefs repented of and forfaken

betimes.

7. Lafily, Among the Spiritual Dangers, we may reckon the Senfuality and Sottishness they bring upon a Man's Spirit, the vile Ideas with which they fill and pollute his Imagination and Memory; the want of Life and Courage to attempt any good Work or Study, which the Confcioufnefs of fuch vile Practices certainly introduces; the conftant Pull-backs in Devotion, the Wandering of the Mind in Prayer and all good Exercifes; and the Want of Hope and Affiance in God, without which no great Matter in Spirituals can be effected; all which are fuch evil Confequences of thofe Vices, that nothing in this World can ever fufficiently compenfate and make up. But I muft leave time to fay fomething of the other two Sorts of Dangers of thofe Vices I propofed, namely, the External Dangers to Ourselves and the Common-wealth: For tho' the Confideration of them feems to be foreign to Religion, yet it may prove the Means of bringing Men to Repentance, as the Straits the Prodigal was brought to, occafioned his Refolving to come Home to his Father; and fince the Holy Scripture makes ufe of fuch Arguments, I know not why we should not use them too.

II. The Second Sort of Dangers then of the Sins of Uncleannefs I propofed to confider, are the External Ones to our own Perfons; fuch as

are

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