so more and more, incited by a zeal for chastity, do meet her and scourge her again, till they leave her either dead or scarce alive, that others may fear adultery and luxury. And the Wineds, which are the filthiest and worst sort of men, do keep the love of matrimony with so great a zeal, that the woman will refuse to live when her husband is dead. And after some reproofs of the fornicating king, he addeth these further stories. Ceolred, your Highness' predecessor, as they witness who were present, he being splendidly banqueting with his earls, was by the evil spirit that drew him to violate God's law, suddenly distracted in his sin; so that without repentance and confession, being raging mad and talking with the devil, and abominating God's priests he departed out of this life, no doubt to the torments of hell. And Osred (king of the Deiri and Bernicii) the spirit of luxury carried in fornication and defiling the sacred virgins in the monasteries, till such time as by a vile and base kind of death, he lost his glorious kingdom, together with his youthful and luxurious life. Wherefore most dear son, take heed of the ditch into which thou hast seen others fall before thee.Vid. Auct. Bib. Pat.

tom. ii. p. 55, 56.

And how great sufferings were laid on priests, monks, and nuns that had committed fornication, by several years imprisonment and scourging, see ibid. p. 84. in an edict of Carloman, by the advice of a council of bishops.

And Epist. lxxxv. p. 87. Boniface writeth to Lullo that he was fain to suffer a priest to officiate, baptize, pray, &c. that had long ago committed fornication, because there was none but he alone to be had in all the country, and he thought it better to venture that one man's soul, than let all the people perish, and desireth Lullo's counsel in it. By all which we may see how heinous a sin fornication was then judged.

Object. But (say the filthy ones,) did not David commit the sin of adultery? Did not God permit them many wives among the Jews? How many had Solomon? Therefore this is no such great sin as you pretend.' Thus every filthiness a little while will plead for itself.

Answ. David did sin: and is the sin ever the less for that? It is easier to forbear it, than undergo the tears and

Besides the

sorrows which David did endure for his sin! bitterness of his soul for it, his son Absalom rebelleth and driveth him out of his kingdom, and his own wives are openly defiled: and yet God leaveth it as a perpetual blot upon his name. Solomon's sin was so great that it almost ruined him and his kingdom: though experience caused him to say more against it than is said in the Old Testament by any other, yet it is a controversy among divines whether he was ever recovered and saved: and ten tribes of the twelve were therefore taken from his line, and given to Jeroboam. And is this any encouragement to you to imitate him? Christ telleth you in the case of divorcement, that God permitted (not allowed, but forbore) some such sins in the Jews, because of the "hardness of their hearts";" but from the beginning it was not so; but one man and one woman were conjoined in the primitive institution. And the special reason why plurality was connived at among the Jews, was for the fuller peopling of the nation; they being the only covenanted people of God, and being few among encompassing enemies, and being separated from the people of the earth, their strength, and safety, and glory lay much on their increased number, and therefore some inordinacy was connived at for their multiplication, but never absolutely allowed and approved of. And yet fornication is punished severely, and adultery with death.

II. The Directions against Fornication.

Direct. 1. If you would avoid uncleanness, avoid the things that dispose you to it:' as gluttony, or fulness of diet, and pampering the flesh, idleness, and other things mentioned under the next title, of subduing lust. The abating of the filthy desires, is the surest way to prevent the filthy act; which may be done if you are but willing.

Direct. 11. Avoid the present temptations.' Go not where the snare lieth without necessity. Abhor the devil's bellows that blow up the fire of lust; such as enticing apparel, filthy talk and sights, of which more also under the next title.

Direct. 111. Carefully avoid all opportunity of sinning.'

2 Mark x. 5.

"Come not near the door of her house," saith Solomon". Avoid the company of the person thou art in danger of. Come not where she is: this thou canst do if thou art willing; none will force thee. If thou wilt go seek for a thief, no wonder if thou be robbed. If thou wilt go seek fire to put in the thatch, no wonder if thy house be burnt. The devil will sufficiently play the tempter; thou needest not help him; that is his part, leave it to himself; it is thy part to watch against him: and he will find thee work; if thou watch as narrowly and constantly as thou canst, it is well if thou escape. As thou lovest thy soul, avoid all opportunities of sinning: make it impossible to thyself: much of thy safety lieth in this point. Never be in secret company with her thou art in danger of; but either not at all, or only in the sight of others: especially contrive not such opportunities, as to be together in the night, in the dark, or on the Lord's day when others are at church (one of the devil's seasons for such works), or any such opportunity, leisure and secresy: for opportunity itself is a strong temptation. As it is the way to make a thief, to set money in his way, or so to trust him as that he can easily deceive or rob you and never be discovered; so it is the way to make yourself unclean, to get such an opportunity of sinning, that you may easily do it without any probability of impediment or discovery from men. The chief point in all the art or watch is, to keep far enough off. If you touch the pitch you will be defiled. "Whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent." "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt? So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife." Bring not the fire and the gunpowder too near. If thou canst not keep at a distance, nor forbear the presence of the bait, thou art not like to forbear the sin.

Mark

Direct. IV. Reverence thy own conscience.' what it speaketh now, for it will shortly speak it in a more terrible manner: hear it voluntarily; for it is terrible to hear it when thou canst not resist: treat with conscience in the way while it is reconcileable; for thou knowest not how terrible a tormentor it is. I doubt not but it hath given thee some gripes for thy very lust, before it ever came

a Prov. v. 8.

b Prov. vi. 29.

с ver. 27, 28.

to practice: but the sorest of its gripes now, are but like the playing of the cat with the mouse, before the killing gripe is given. Doth no man see thee? Conscience seeth thee and thou art a wretch indeed if thou reverence not conscience more than man: as Chrysostom saith, 'Suppose no man know the crime but himself and the woman with whom he did commit it! How will he bear the rebukes of conscience; when he carrieth about with him so sharp and bitter an accuser? For no man can overrun himself; and no man can avoid the sentence of this court within him: it is a tribunal not to be corrupted with money, nor perverted by flattery; for it is divine, being placed in the soul by God himself: the less the adulterer now feeleth it, the more he hasteneth to the perdition of his soul.' Dost thou not feel a sentence passed within thee? A terrible sentence, telling thee of the wrath of a revenging God! Bless God that it is not yet an irreversible sentence; but sue out thy pardon quickly lest it come to that. Dost thou not feel, that thou art afraid and ashamed to pray or to address thyself to God? Much more afraid to think of dying, and appearing before him? If thy sin make thee ready to fly from him now, if thou knewest how, canst thou look him in the face at last; or canst thou hope to stand with comfort at his bar? Art thou fit to live in heaven with him, that makest thyself unfit to pray to him? Even lawful procreation (as I said before) doth blush to come too near to holy exercises: as Chrysostom saith, Die quo liberis operam dedisti legitime, quamvis crimen illud non sit, orare tamen non audes- Quod si ab incontaminato lecto resurgens times ad orandum accedere; quum in diaboli lecto sis, cur horribile Dei nomen audes invocare?' Conscience is a better friend to thee than thou dost imagine when it would reclaim thee from thy sin: and will be a sharper enemy than thou canst now imagine, if thou obey it not. Direct. v. Suppose thou sawest written upon the door of the house, or chamber where thou enterest to sin,

d Plutarch's Roman. Quest. 65. is, Why the bridegroom is not to have any light when he first cometh to bed to his bride? and answered. Happily this was instituted to shew how sinful and damnable all unlawful company of man and woman together is, seeing that which is lawful and allowed is not without some blemish and note of shame.

"Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." And write that, or such sentences upon thy chamber door, or at least upon thy heart.' Keep thy eye upon the terrible threatenings of the dreadful God. Darest thou sin, when vengeance is at thy back? Will not the thought of hellfire quench the fire of lust, or restrain thee from thy presumptuous sin? Dost thou not say with Joseph, "How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" As it is written of a chaste woman that being tempted by a fornicator, wished him first at her request to hold his finger in the fire: and when he refused, answered him, 'Why then should I burn in hell to satisfy you?' So ask thyself, can I more easily overcome the flames of hell, than the flames of lust?

Direct. vi. Remember man that God stands by.' If he were not there, thou couldst not be there: for in him thou livest, and movest, and art. He that made the eye must see, and he that made the light and darkness, doth see as well in the dark as in the light: if thou imagine that he is absent or ignorant, thou believest not that he is God: for an absent and ignorant God, is no God. And darest thou, I say darest thou, commit such a villany and God behold thee? What! that which thou wouldst be ashamed a child should see! which thou wouldst not do if a man stood by! Dost thou think that thy locks, or secresy of darkness, have darkened or shut out God? Dost thou not know that he seeth not only within thy curtains, but within thy heart? O what a hardened heart hast thou that in the sight of God, thy maker and thy judge, darest do such wickedness! Ask thy conscience man, would I do this if I were to die to-morrow, and go to God? would I do this if I saw God, yea, or but an angel in the room? If not, shouldst thou do it, when God is as sure there as if thou sawest him? O remember man that he is a holy God, and hateth uncleanness, and that he is a consuming fire!

Direct. VII. Suppose all the while that thou sawest the devil opening thee the door, and bringing on thy mate, and driving on the match, and persuading thee to the sin?' What if he appeared to thee openly to play his part, as sure as he now playeth it unseen? would not thy lust be cooled? and

e Heb. xiii. 4. VOL. III.

Gen. xxxix. 7.
G G

Heb. xi. 29.