Next Part 2 (The SEVENTH Commandment)

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Use three. For exhortation, to keep ourselves from the sin of adultery. "Let every man have his own wife," says Paul, not his concubine, nor his paramour. 1 Cor 7:2. That I may deter you from adultery, let me show you the great evil of it.

(1) It is a thievish sin. It is the highest sort of theft. The adulterer steals from his neighbour, that which is more than his goods and estate; he steals away his wife from him, who is flesh of his flesh.

(2) Adultery debases a person. It makes him resemble the beasts; therefore the adulterer is described like a horse neighing. "Everyone neighed after his neighbour's wife." Jer 5:8. Nay, it is worse than brutish; for some creatures that are void of reason—yet by the instinct of nature, observe some decorum and chastity. The turtle dove is a chaste creature, and keeps to its mate; and the stork, wherever he flies, comes into no nest but his own. Naturalists write that if a stork, leaving his own mate, joins with any other, all the rest of the storks fall upon it, and pull its feathers from it. Adultery is worse than brutish, it degrades a person of his honour.

(3) Adultery pollutes. The devil is called an unclean spirit. Luke 11:24. The adulterer is the devil's first-born; he is unclean; he is a moving quagmire; he is all over ulcerated with sin; his eyes sparkle with lust; his mouth foams out filth; his heart burns like mount Etna, in unclean desires. He is so filthy, that if he dies in this sin, all the flames of hell will never purge away his immorality. And, as for the adulteress, who can paint her black enough? The Scripture calls her a deep ditch. Prov 23:27. She is a common sewer; whereas a believer's body is a living temple, and his soul a little heaven, bespangled with the graces, as so many stars. The body of a harlot is a walking dung--hill, and her soul a lesser hell.

(4) Adultery is destructive to the body. "Afterward you will groan in anguish when disease consumes your body." Prov 5:11. Immorality turns the body into a hospital, it brings foul diseases, and eats the beauty of the face. As the flame wastes the candle, so the fire of lust consumes the bones. The adulterer hastens his own death. "So she seduced him with her pretty speech. With her flattery she enticed him. He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter or like a trapped stag, awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life!" Proverbs 7:21-23. The Romans had their funerals at the gate of Venus' temple, to signify that lust brings death. Venus is lust.

(5.) Adultery is a drain upon the purse; it wastes not the body only—but the estate. "Keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life!" Proverbs 6:24-26. Whores are the devil's horse-leeches, sponges that suck in money. The prodigal son spent his inheritance, when he fell among harlots. Luke 15:30. The concubine of King Edward III, when he was dying, got all she could from him, and even plucked the rings off his fingers, and so left him. He who lives in luxury, dies in beggary.

(6) Adultery destroys reputation. "But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys his own soul. Wounds and constant disgrace are his lot. His shame will never be erased!" Prov 6:32, 33. Some, when they get wounds, get honour. The soldier's wounds are full of honour; the martyr's wounds for Christ are full of honour; but the adulterer gets wounds—but no honour to his name. "His shame will never be erased!" Wounds of reputation--no physician can heal. When the adulterer dies, his shame lives. When his body rots underground, his name rots above ground. His bastard children are living monuments of his shame.

(7) This sin impairs the mind. It steals away the understanding; it stupefies the heart. "Whoredom and wine take away the heart." Hos 4:11. It eats all purity out of the heart. Solomon besotted himself with women, and they enticed him to idolatry.

(8) This sin incurs temporal judgments. The Mosaic law made the penalty for adultery, to be death. "The adulterer and adulteress shall surely be put to death;" and the usual death was stoning. Lev 20:10; Deut 22:24. The Salons commanded people guilty of this sin to be burnt. The Romans caused their heads to be stricken off. Like a scorpion--this sin carries a sting in its tail. The adultery of Paris and Helen was the death of both, and the ruin of Troy. "For jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge!" Prov 6:34. The adulterer is often killed in the act of his sin. Adultery cost Otho the emperor, and Pope Sixtus IV their lives. "Lust's practice is to make a joyful entrance—but she leaves in misery." I have read of two in London, who, having defiled themselves with adultery, were immediately struck dead with lightening from heaven. If all who are now guilty of this sin were to be punished in this manner, it would rain fire again, as on Sodom!

(9) Adultery, without repentance, damns the soul. "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexual offenders . . . will inherit the kingdom of God!" 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. The fire of lust brings to the fire of hell. "God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral!" Heb 13:4. Though men may neglect to judge them—yet God will judge them!

But will not God judge all other sinners? Yes. Why then does the apostle say, "God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral"? The meaning is, he will judge them assuredly; they shall not escape the hand of justice; and he will punish them severely. "The Lord knows how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished—but chiefly those who walk in the lust of immorality." 2 Pet 2:9, 10. The harlot's breasts keeps from Abraham's bosom! "The delight lasts a moment, the torment an eternity!" Who for a cup of pleasure--would drink a sea of wrath! "Her guests are in the depths of hell." Prov 9:18. A wise traveler, though many pleasant dishes are set before him at the inn, forbears to eat all of them--because of the reckoning. We are all travellers to Jerusalem above; and when many baits of temptation are set before us, we should refrain, and think of the reckoning which will be brought in at death. With what pleasure could Dionysius eat his dainties, when he saw there was a glittering sword hung over his head as he sat at table? While the adulterer feeds on strange flesh, the sword of God's justice hangs over his head. Causinus speaks of a tree growing in Spain, that is of a sweet smell, and pleasant to the taste—but its juice is poisonous. This is an emblem of a harlot; who is perfumed with powders, and lovely to look on—but poisonous and damnable to the soul! "She has cast down many wounded, yes, many strong men have been slain by her." Prov 7:26.

(10) The adulterer does what lies in him, to destroy the soul of another--and so kills two at once! He is worse than the thief; for, suppose a thief robs a man, yes, and also takes away his life-- the man's soul may be happy; he may go to heaven as well as if he had died in his bed. But he who commits adultery, endangers the soul of another, and does all he can, to deprive her of salvation. Now, what a fearful thing is it to be an instrument to draw another to hell!

(11) The adulterer is abhorred of God. "The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is abhorred by the Lord, will fall into it." Prov 22:14. What can be worse than to be abhorred of God? God may be angry with his own children; but for God to abhor a man--is the highest degree of hatred!

How does the Lord show his abhorrence of the adulterer? In giving him up to a reprobate mind, and a seared conscience. Rom 1:28. He is then in such a condition that he cannot repent. He is abhorred of God. The immoral person stands upon the threshold of hell; and when death gives him a push, he tumbles in!

(12) Adultery sows discord. It destroys peace and love--the two best flowers that grow in a family. It sets husband against wife, and wife against husband; and so causes the "joints of the same body to smite one against another." This division in a family works confusion; for "A house divided against a house falls." Luke 11:17.

All this should sound a warning in our ears, and call us off from the pursuit of so damnable a sin as immorality. Hear what the Scriptures say: "Her house is the way to hell." Prov 7:27.

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