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(The SEVENTH Commandment)

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"You shall not commit adultery." Exodus 20:14

God is a pure, holy being, and has an infinite antipathy against all impurity. In this commandment he has entered his caution against it, "You shall not commit adultery." The sum of this commandment is--the preservations of bodily purity. We must take heed of running on the rock of impurity, and so making shipwreck of our chastity. In this commandment there is something tacitly implied, and something expressly forbidden.

1. The thing implied is that the ordinance of MARRIAGE should be observed. "Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." 1 Cor 7:2. "Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled." Heb 13:4. God instituted marriage in paradise; he brought the woman to the man. Gen 2:22. He gave them to each other in marriage. Jesus Christ honoured marriage with his presence. John 2:2. The first miracle he wrought was at a marriage, when he turned the "water into wine." Marriage is a type and resemblance of the mystical union between Christ and his church. Eph 5:32.

In marriage there are general and special duties. The general duty of the husband is to rule. "The husband is the head of the wife." Eph 5:23. The head is the seat of rule and judgment; but he must rule with discretion. He is head, therefore must not rule without reason. The general duty on the wife's part is submission. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Eph 5:22. It is observable that the Holy Spirit passed by Sarah's failings, not mentioning her unbelief; but he takes notice of that which was good in her, as her reverence and obedience to her husband. "Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord." 1 Pet 3:6.

The special duties belonging to marriage, are love and fidelity. Love is the marriage of the affections. Eph 5:25. There is, as it were—but one heart in two bodies. Love lines the yoke and makes it easy; it perfumes the marriage relation; and without it there is "not harmony but constant wrangling." Like two poisons in one stomach, one is ever sick of the other. In marriage there is mutual promise of living together faithfully according to God's holy ordinance. Among the Romans, on the day of marriage, the woman presented to her husband fire and water: signifying that as fire refines, and water cleanses, she would live with her husband in chastity and sincerity.

II. The thing forbidden in the commandment is infecting ourselves with bodily pollution and impurity. "You shall not commit adultery." The fountain of this sin is lust. Since the fall, holy love has degenerated to lust. Lust is the fever of the soul. There is a twofold adultery.

[1] Mental. "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matt 5:28. As a man may die of an inward bleeding, so he may be damned for the inward boiling of lust, if it is not mortified.

[2] Physical; as when sin has conceived, and brought forth in the act. This is expressly forbidden, "You shall not commit adultery." This commandment is set up as a hedge to keep out impurity; and those who break this hedge a serpent shall bite them. Job calls adultery a "heinous crime." Job 31:2: Every failing is not a crime; and every crime is not a heinous crime; but adultery is "a heinous crime." The Lord calls it villainy. "They have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives." Jer 29:23.

Wherein appears the greatness of this sin?

(1) It is a breach of the marriage-oath. When people come together in matrimony, they bind themselves by covenant to each other, in the presence of God, to be true and faithful in the marital relation. Unchastity breaks this solemn oath; and herein adultery is worse than fornication, because it is a breach of the marital bond.

(2) The greatness of the sin lies in this: that it is a great dishonour done to God. God says, "You shall not commit adultery." The adulterer sets his will above God's law, tramples upon his command, affronts him to his face; as if a subject should tear his prince's proclamation. The adulterer is highly injurious to all the persons in the Trinity. To God the Father. Sinner, God has given you your life, and you do waste the lamp of life, the flower of your age in lewdness. He has bestowed on you many mercies, health, and estate, and you spend all on harlots. Did God give you wages--to serve the devil! It is injurious to God the Son, in two ways. As he has purchased you with his blood. "You are bought with a price." 1 Cor 6:20. Now he who is bought is not his own; it is a sin for him to go to another, without consent, from Christ, who has bought him with a price. As by virtue of baptism you are a Christian, and professes that Christ is your head, and you are a member of Christ; therefore, what an injury is it to Christ, to "take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot"? 1 Cor 6:15. It is injurious to God the Holy Spirit; for the body is his temple. "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?" 1 Cor 6:19. And how great a sin is it to defile his temple!

(3) The sin of adultery lies in this: that it is committed with mature DELIBERATION. There is contriving the sin in the mind, then consent in the will, and then the sin is put forth into act. To sin against the light of nature, and to sin deliberately, is like the dye to the wool, it gives sin a tincture, and dyes it of a crimson colour.

(4) That which makes adultery so sinful is, that it is NEEDLESS. God has provided a remedy to prevent it. "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife." 1 Cor 7:2. Therefore, after this remedy prescribed, to be guilty of fornication or adultery, is inexcusable; it is like a rich thief, who steals when he has no need. This increases the sin.

Use one. The church of Rome is here condemned, which allows the sin of fortification and adultery. It does not allow its priests to marry—but they may have their paramours. The worst kind of impurity, incest with the nearest of kin, is dispensed with for money. It was once said of Rome, Rome was become a common stew. And no wonder, when the Pope, for a sum of money, could give a license to commit impurity; and, if the license were not enough, he would give them a pardon. Many of the Papists judge fornication to be venial. God condemns the very lusting. Matt 5:28. If God condemns the thought, how dare they allow the act of fornication? You see what a cage of unclean birds the church of Rome is. They call themselves the Holy Catholic Church; but how can they be holy--who are so steeped and parboiled in fornication, incest, sodomy, and all manner of impurity!

Use two. It is a matter for lamentation to see this commandment so slighted and violated among us. Adultery is the reigning sin of the times. "They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker." Hos 7:4. The time of King Henry VIII was called the golden age—but this may be called the unclean age, wherein whore-hunting is common. "In your filthiness is lewdness." Ezek 24:13. Luther tells us of one who said, "If he might but satisfy his lust, and be carried from one whore-house to another, he would desire no other heaven"; and who afterwards breathed out his soul between two notorious strumpets. This is to love forbidden fruit, to love to drink of stolen waters. "Son of man," he said, "do you see what they are doing? Do you see the great sins the people of Israel are doing to drive me from my Temple? But come, and you will see even greater sins than these!" Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could see an opening in the wall. He said to me, "Now, son of man, dig into the wall." So I dug into the wall and uncovered a door to a hidden room. "Go in," he said, "and see the unspeakable wickedness going on in there!" Ezekiel 8:6-9. Could we, as the prophet, dig in the walls of many houses, what vile abominations should we see there! In some chambers we might see fornication; dig further, and we may see adultery; dig further, and we may see incest, etc. And may not the Lord go from his sanctuary? God might remove his gospel, and then we might write Ichabod on this nation, "The glory is departed." Let us mourn for what we cannot reform.


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