IN the words observe—
1. The things forbidden. Three sins are enumerated: Fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness.
2. The manner and degree of forbidding, 'Let them not be once named among you.' Christians should have such a perfect abhorrence for these things, that they should be as things unknown and unheard of in the church.
3. The reason of this prohibition, 'As becometh saints.'
Doctrine: That there lieth a great obligation on Christians to keep themselves at the greatest distance from, and abhorrence of, all impurity and uncleanness.
1. I shall fix the due sense of the words.
2. Show what purity and cleanness of heart belongeth 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. 6. 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 concerning meats, by way of correction concerning 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.] By way of correction concerning fornication.
(1.) But now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord 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; therefore it is to be disposed of according to his will. Therefore fornication 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 them 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 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.
(4.) His last argument is from Christ's right: ver. 19, 20, '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.' Christ hath a right to both, and therefore both must be used for him, and according to his direction. Neither are our souls nor our bodies at liberty that we may use them as we please. Therefore to use the body for fornication is sacrilege, and a robbing Christ of his right; he is Lord of both.
Let me now add some natural arguments against fornication, that those who will not be drawn from this carnality by scripture may yet be moved by nature. Our submission to God's authority, as having forbidden it in his law, and Christian or gospel arguments, make the restraint less difficult or rigorous; but if that will not do, nature itself will teach us that, if promiscuous lusts should be allowed, man would in nothing differ from the beasts, and such disorders would grow in the world as would make our abode unsafe therein. For what with rapes and violence, and frequent forsakings on man's part, and feminine revenge and impatiences on the woman's part, there would be no quiet and safe living one with another; and all interests and possessions would be disturbed, for none could know in such a profane mixture what children were their own; all love to posterity would be diminished, and consequently due education hindered, that there could not be a greater plague to mankind than this brutish and promiscuous liberty.
2. The next word is, ' All uncleanness;' which is a more general word than fornication, for it implieth also adultery and filthiness between married persons, as well as simple fornication; yea, incest and all brutish pleasures, which the lawless minds of men affect. There is uncleanness by inordinate desires: Matt. 5: 28, ' Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.' In the eyes, by lascivious looks: 2 Peter 2:14, 'Having eyes full of adultery.' In the tongue, by filthy and rotten speech: Eph. 5:4,' Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient.' In the life and conversation, by all manner of noisome and foul practices which lust puts us upon; of whatsoever kind they be, or by whatsoever name they be called. In such sins, modesty forbiddeth us to be too curious, or to make a particular dissection, or cutting up the branches and parts of them ; therefore all is wrapt up in this general expression, 'And all uncleanness.'
3. The next word is ' Covetousness.' But how cometh this to be put among the nefanda, the things not to be named ? I answer—
[1.] The word is pleonexia, or immoderate desire; take it in the obvious sense for love to riches, or inordinate desire of wealth; it is a base sin, and will make us act basely. We stroke it with a gentle censure, but the scripture maketh other constructions of it, and always useth to represent it as an odious and detestable thing: ' Filthy lucre,' 1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 5:2. Omnis impuritas est ex mixtura vilioris—All impurity arises from the mixture of something that is more base. To be addicted to it argueth a sordid or filthy frame of spirit. It is abominable to God and should be detestable to us.
[2.] I think it beareth here a more particular sense, and may be rendered, 'inordinate lust or luxury;' for the word signifieth not only a desire of money, but excessive and unnatural lusts; and that notion it clearly hath, Eph. 4:19, ' They gave up themselves to work all uncleanness en pleonexia, with greediness.' Certainly it is something that has affinity with uncleanness, and that is, acting it with greediness.
Secondly, The manner and degree of forbidding, 'Let it not be once named among you.' You will think this over-strict; and how can it be reproved if it be not named? But let us consider the sense.
1. The apostle speaketh thus to express the height of detestation; for things that we utterly detest we will not name them; as David would not take the names of their idols into his lips, Ps. 16:4, to express the great detestation he had of them. So the apostle here; let never these foul practices get the least admission among you; or that they should be so far from committing these things, that they should not name them, or think of them, without detestation and utter abhorrence.
2. That which is villanous to be done is also vile to be spoken of: ver. 12, 'It is a shame to speak of the things which are done of them in secret;' and 1 Cor. 5: 1, 'Such fornication as is not so much as named among the gentiles, that one should have his father's wife;' that is, it was not a thing commonly practised among them, nor spoken of without great abhorrence. We should abstain from the needless mention of things detestable, lest we should reconcile them, and familiarise them to our thoughts; for vile things that are often spoken of seem less odious, and affect the sense (being common) with less horror then when strange. So that they are not to be named, that is, not without need, nor without detestation. It were well if there were no occasion to speak of them at all.
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 uncleanness 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 presently stir the motions of it at the very mention, than what doth more remotely conduce to its satisfaction. As the prophet taketh his similitude of condemning the idolatry of Israel from adulterers, and expresseth it thus: Ezek. 23:19, '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—
[1.] When it is done in such a broad and coarse way, or nasty language, 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. 12:34, '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 sapros logos, that 'rotten communication,' which the apostle reproveth: Eph. 4:29, '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 unsavoury 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. 15:33, '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 plausible names, and so speak of these things with allowance and extenuation, and not with extreme detestation. Christians must abhor the mentioning of such filthy sins in other manner than will induce the hearers to abhor them. Look, as calling drunken meetings good fellowship corrupts 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 abhorrence 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 rights 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 God speaketh? 'An whore is a deep ditch; and he that is abhorred of the Lord falleth therein,' Prov. 22:14; 'For an whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman a narrow pit,' Prov. 23:27. This is plain and open, 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 insinuate 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.
1. Some are so only by external dedication and profession; as by baptism they are set apart for God as a clean and holy people. None enter into Christ's kingdom but those that are washed and cleansed from sin: Acts 22:16, 'Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.' And their baptismal vow bindeth them to die unto sin, especially to the lust of uncleanness. But all that have given up their names to Christ have not given up themselves to Christ; and those that do not renounce their baptism, yet forget their baptism and the bond and obligation of it, 2 Peter 1:9. They forget or do not mind that once they were washed in God's laver. Surely there is an obligation upon them still to keep them from fornication, adultery, and all manner of uncleanness, lest they forfeit the name of saints: 1 Thes. 4:7, 'For God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.' If they renounced the flesh, they must subdue and crucify the flesh chiefly in the grosser lusts, otherwise their baptism will be a nullity as to their comfort and benefit by it, yet not as to their judgment and punishment. Better never have been baptized in that sense: 2 Peter 2:20, 'For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' In those early times grown persons were baptized, and none were admitted to it but upon some knowledge of Christ, and professed resolutions to forsake the miasmata, the pollutions of the world; but if they relapse again into them, the league and confederacy between Satan and their flesh being never thoroughly dissolved, and wallow in the filthiness they had renounced, better they had never meddled with religion. By quitting holiness they forsake blessedness, and involve themselves in the greater punishment. As they turn from the holy commandment, they turn from the gracious promises. They do not dislike the happiness offered by Christ, but the seriousness of his religion; so that the privilege of betaking themselves to the way of Christ maketh their guilt become the greater and more dangerous. Christian heathenism is worse than bare heathenism at first. Now though we are born Christians, yet the case is almost the same; we do not renounce our parents' act when we come to years of discretion, rather pretend to stand to our baptismal vow and covenant, submit to the instructions of the church, would take it ill not to be accounted Christians, own the same creed and Bible that others do. But alas! what will your Christianity profit you if you live in all uncleanness, fornication, and filthiness? There are certain frailties incident to the best, but the miasmata, the pollutions of the world, these are spots that are not as the spots of God's children.
2. Others are saints by internal regeneration, as sanctified and renewed by the Holy Ghost: Titus 3: 5, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and of the Holy Ghost.'These have the effect of their baptism wrought in them. Now these things are contrary to the disposition and spirit of saints, or to the holy, new, and divine nature which is put into them. Nothing so opposite to the spirit as the flesh; and among all the lusts of the flesh, those which have most turpitude in them, as the lusts of uncleanness. Hence nature hath imprinted a shame upon them; and conscience, till it be debauched and seared, will never suffer men to live quietly and securely in them. Now if bare nature thinketh it a stain and blemish to us, much more the new nature, which checks those lusts, and bears back as from something abhorrent and contrary to itself. If nature blush at the sin, surely grace or the new nature should restrain it.'
II. What purity and cleanness of heart belongeth to Christians? In the scripture they are everywhere described by it: Ps. 18:18, 'With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure,' John 15:3, 'Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you;' Ps. 73:1, 'Surely God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart;' 2 Cor. 6:17, 'Separate yourselves from the unclean thing, and I will receive you;' and in other places. God being purity, light, and perfection itself, cannot delight in an unclean person: Ps. 24:3, 4, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lift up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.' It were endless to instance in all places. Let us see what obligations lie upon us to be clean and pure.
1. We are consecrated to the service of a holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Our God is pure: Hab. 1:13, 'He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;' that is, so as to let it go unpunished. We should never think of this, but we should abhor ourselves, and be ashamed of the remainders of corruption in us. Much dregs and dross of sin yet remain in the best. Christ is pure, undefiled, separate from sinners; so should we be who are separated from the world and dedicated unto God. And he came to wash us in his blood, and cleanse us by his Spirit, and followeth the work he hath begun, till we be without spot and blemish: Eph.5:25-27, 'Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.' The Holy Spirit, if we belong to God, hath already begun to purify and sanctify us: 1 Cor. 6:11, ' Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' And the great part of our duty lieth in obeying his sanctifying motions: 1 Peter 1:22, 'Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.' Now all this obligeth us to great purity of heart and life.
2. We profess the most holy faith; this obligeth us also, whether we look to the laws of God, which are the rule of our duty, or the promises of God, which are the charter of our hopes.
[1.] The laws of God, which measure out our duty to us: Ps. 119:140, 'Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.' It is pure in itself, as being the copy of God's holiness. There is no dead fly in this box of pure ointment, nothing but what tendeth to cleanse the heart of man from all that is base and filthy; and it maketh us pure: Ps. 119:9, 'Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereunto according to thy word.' It is not direct, or order, but cleanse. The youngest are defiled already, and if they will believe and obey the word, there is hope of their cure.
[2.] The promises, which are the charter of our hopes.
(1.) The thing itself, which is promised as our great happiness, enforceth it; and what is that but to see God as he is, and be like him? And 'He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as Christ is pure,' 1 John 3:3. The reason is, because if we count it as a happiness to see God, and be like him, we will desire it and endeavour it. Now nothing can be propounded to us as the object of our eternal delight and satisfaction but what is the object of our present desires and endeavours. If we do not desire it now, and endeavour it now, how can we look upon it as our blessedness hereafter? For satisfaction is the fulfilling of our desires, the rest of our motion. The offer of a Turkish paradise may breed a brutish spirit in us, but to look for a pure estate should make us pure and clean.
(2.) Purity of heart and life is necessary to the obtaining of it. Our interest is suspended upon the performance of this condition. The comfortable vision of God in the life to come doth only belong to the clean and pure: Mat. 5:8, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' No unclean thing can enter into the new Jerusalem; that is no place for goats or swine. Therefore, unless we get this cleanness of heart, we shall not be admitted into God's blessed presence.
(3.) This fitteth us for it. There is an aptitudinal as well as a conditional right. As it is a condition indispensably required, so also the preparation dispositively fitting us for this state: Col. 1:12, 'Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' The riper we grow for heaven, the more pure and holy we are, and the more without sin.
[3.] Because of our present communion with God and service of God.
(1.) Our present communion with God in prayer or other duties requires it. Surely they that are so frequent and familiar with a holy God should be a clean and holy people: 1 Tim. 2: 8, 'I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands;' James 4:8, 'Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you; cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.' In the Lord's supper: John 13:8, 'Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me.' So in general, in our whole commerce with God: 1 John 1:7, 'But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'
(2.) So our present service of God requires it. None but the pure and clean are fitted to do God service in the world: 2 Tim. 2:21, 'If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work.' 'From these,' that is, from youthful lusts; he is more useful for Christ, and an instrument better fitted for his glory.
III. The special impurity that is in such sins, so that holiness must be forsaken, or else these vices so opposite to holiness. What special impurity is there in those sins?
1. They defile the body, and are contrary to the dignity of the body, as it is a member of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, or an instrument to be used for the glory of God: 1 Cor. 6:18, 'Flee fornication: every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.' Most other sins are against God or our neighbour, but sins of uncleanness are in a special manner against one's self, a debasing or defiling the body, a polluting of that which is consecrated to God to serve him: 1 Thes. 4:3, 4, 'For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.' Sanctification is there taken for chastity. A man's vessel is his body; for the Hebrews call any instrument of use a vessel. Now the keeping it in honour is to preserve it for God's use, and not to prostitute it to our base lusts. Well, then, if cleanness and purity be so necessary to Christians, a sin of so foul a nature must not be slighted, it dishonoureth and polluteth the body.
2. Uncleanness corrupts and defileth the mind; for it turneth it from the true pleasure to the false, and that procured on the basest terms of downright sin against God. It is ill to be corrupted by any degree of temporal delight, though the thing in itself be lawful; as his excuse was faulty who said, Luke 14: 20, 'I have married a wife and cannot come.' The entanglements of marriage should not keep thee from Christ, but the unlawful pleasures of whoredom make the case much more unquestionable. This carrieth away the thoughts and corrupteth the heart, that they do not only forget God, but deny God, and do bring in a brutishness upon the heart of man; and therefore men are easily taken in this snare, and hardly rescued, being bewitched by their sensuality: Prov. 2:19, 'None that go in unto her return again, nor take they hold of the path of life.' And the preacher saith, Eccles. 7:28, 'One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all these have I not found;' Prov. 22:14, ‘The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.' Now all these places show, not the utter impossibility, but the difficulty of repentance, and how hardly this sin is shaken off when, once we are inveigled by it; for this sin is a strange enchantment on men.
Use 1. Is information, to inform us what need we have to work in Christians a greater abhorrence of fornication and uncleanness, because it is a common sin and a grievous sin.
1. It is a common sin; and then it is time to cry aloud and spare not, when persons, both single and married, make so little conscience of this duty. Must we then come and honey them and oil them with grace, or feed men's curiosity with tame and smooth strains of contemplative divinity? No; this were to rock them asleep in their sins. No; let us rather convince them of their gross immoralities, unfaithfulness in the marriage covenant. Possibly many of them had never gone so far if these things had been oftener revived on their consciences. Usually men are tender at first, till they be steeped in sin and bestiality; but as their minds are further enchanted, all means are too weak, and God's remedy insufficient. Lust cherished groweth arrogant, and knoweth no shame; for then they go on in sin the rather because God forbiddeth it: Isa.3:9, 'They declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not;' Jer. 5:8, 'They were as fed horses in the morning; every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.' Their consciences are debauched and judicially hardened, and so have lost all remorse of conscience and fear of God's judgment.
2. It is a grievous sin. We will endeavour to touch them in the tenderest part that is left, viz., fear: Heb. 13: 4, 'Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.' Men think it a small matter to satisfy nature, but God will find them out both here and hereafter. There fell in one day twenty-three thousand for this sin: 1 Cor. 10:8, 'Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.' The inconveniency of it is sensible. It consumeth the strength of the body: Prov. 5:11, 'And thou mourn at last, when thy flesh and body are consumed.' It wasteth the estate: Job 31:12, 'For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and will root out all mine increase.' And bringeth a blemish upon the name: Prov. 6:33, 'A wound and a dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away.' It withdraweth the heart from God: Hosea 4:11, 12, 'Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart; for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err; they have gone a-whoring from under their God.' It unfitteth for every holy duty. Holy and sacred things never can be seriously received by sensual minds and hearts. Nay, it tempteth you to forget God, or question his being, and become, if not a downright atheist, a sceptic in religion. And, lastly, it casteth men into hell: Rev. 21:8, ‘Whoremongers shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'
Use 2. Is caution to young men that are not yet taken in the snares.
Keep yourselves at a great distance from and great abhorrence of this
sin.
Therefore, first, avoid occasions: Prov. 5: 8, 'Remove thy way far from
her; come not nigh the door of her house.' So avoid Satan's assemblies for the
communion of sinners, to stir up lusts and filthiness in them. Avoid the haunts
of evil company, where they meet to inflame their lusts: Prov. 4:15, 'Avoid it,
pass not by it, turn from it and pass away.'
Avoid idleness: 2 Sam. 11:2, 'And David arose from his bed, and walked
upon the roof of the king's house, and from the top he saw a woman washing
herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.' David's heart was
fixed.
Avoid fulness of bread, excess in eating and drinking, Ezek. 16: 49.
Avoid obscene discourse. They are foolish and vain who think they have a
chaste mind when they indulge themselves in all liberty of speech. The speech
betrayeth the temper of the heart. Season your hearts with God's word: Ps.
119:9, 'Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereunto
according to thy word;' 1 John 2:14, 'I have written unto you, young men,
because ye are strong, and the word abideth in you, and ye have overcome the
wicked one.' But especially get a sound fear and reverence of God rooted in
your hearts: Gen. 39:9, 'How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin
against God?' Live always as in the sight of God, who is thy maker, preserver,
and judge.
Use 3. Is advice to all Christians. Upon all occasions, think what will become saints. Let the conscience of your dedication to God be ever upon your hearts. We that are adopted into God's family, to be children of God, and heirs of eternal life, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, cleansed and sanctified by his Holy Spirit, what a clean heart should we have within ourselves! what an holy life should we carry in the view of others! Our words should be grave and serious, our conversations such as will become the gospel; that no filthiness may be allowed in us, or drop from us in word or deed: 2 Cor. 7:1, 'Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. We are servants of an holy God; we have holy work to do, and an holy estate to expect.