it: but if we give an unbridled loofe to fleshly appetite, instead of keeping the body un--der the dominion of the higher faculties, we fhall abandon all that wherein we are capable of bearing the image of God, and "become like the beafts that perifh." And this cannot be done by us without the guilt of debafing our natures, when God had made us capable of nobler pursuits, and better relishes. It is obfervable, that in three feveral places where fin is fpoken of as against God, reference is had to the fin of uncleannefs. So it was in Jofeph's cafe, when he overcame the temptation with this thought; "How can I do this great wickednefs, and fin against God?" Gen. xxxix. 9., David's confeffion in this Pfalm had the fame fpecial evil in view, ver. 4. "Against thee, thee only, have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight." And the prodigal fon is reprefented to have "wafted his, fubftance with riotous living," Luke, xv. 13. and in another verse to have devoured his living with harlots," ver. 30. and without doubt he had that as much as any other fin in his eye, when he refolved to return to his father with this penitent acknowledgement, ver. 18, 19. have finned againft heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon.” Thus the Scripture leads us to confider this fin as eminently against God. How much are we obliged therefore to cultivate purity ? and especially purity of heart, fince properly we can bear the image of God only in our fpirits.

2. Senfuality has a fpecial tendency to extinguith

G 2

tinguifh the light of reafon, and to unfit for any thing fpiritual and facred. "Whoredom and wine, and new wine take away the heart," Hof. iv. 11. Such criminal indulgencies are both the effects of great blindness, and the means of increafing it, Eph. iv. xviii, 19. No. fort of fin commonly hardens the heart to a greater degree: Of which David was a melancholy instance; he seems not to have been recovered to a penitent sense of his fall, till he received a message from God by Nathan the prophet; and that was not till after the birth of the child. Nothing makes the mind more: averfe to facred exercifes, or indifpofes it: more for the ferious and fpiritual perform-ance of them. Hence the deluded youth who gives himself up to fenfualities, is defcribed when he comes to mourn at laft, as reviewing, this, among other pernicious effects of his evil! practices, Prov. v. 14. "I was almost in all evil in the midft of the congregation and affembly." His vices had fo leavened his. mind, that his thoughts were full of them,, even when he appeared in worshipping affemblies.

3. Senfuality is most contrary, to the de-. fign and engagements of chriftianity. Our bleffed Lord and Mafter inculcated the ftricteft purity upon all his disciples; not only an abftinence from the grofs outward acts of uncleannefs, but from polluting thoughts and defires. To this purpose he vindicates the fpiritual intention of the feventh commandment, in Matt. v. 2730. and his practice kept at the remoteft diftance from every thing that had

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Had an impure afpect. His intention in "giving himfelf for us," is declared to be "to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify to himself a peculiar people," Tit. ii. 14. We are to consider "our old man as crucified. with him, that the body of fin might be detroyed, that henceforth we should not ferve fin;" Rom. vi. 6. " Sin fhould not thereforereign in our mortal body, that we should obey it in the lufts thereof," ver 12. i, e. A finful inclination of mind to the indulgence of bodily luft, should not be fuffered to prevail in us.. So, when the apoftle- puts the Theffalonians in mind what commandments he and his fellow-fervants in the Gospel had given them by. the Lord Jefus, i. e. by his authority and under the direction of his Spirit; he preffes this as a matter of special obligation on Chriftians, 1 Theff. iv. 2-5. "This is the will of God, even your fanctification, that ye fhould. abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to poffefs his veffel in fanctification and honour; not in the luft of concupifcence, even as the Gentiles which know not God." When Chrift was afcended into heaven, he puts a moft particular mark of his abhorrence upon the deeds and doctrines of the Nicolaitans: and at the fame time of his approbation on thofe Chriftians who abhorred them,.Rev..ii. 6. 15. Thofe Nicolaitans were a fet of vile and filthy hereticks at the beginning of chriftianity who taught doctrines of the utmost licentioufnefs, while they difgraced the Chriftian name by wearing it; and their practices were as lewd as their prin

ciples..

ciples. The Holy Jefus by a message from heaven takes care to ftigmatize thefe filthy dreamers, and to animate his disciples to a rooted hatred of every impure principle and practice.

The apoftle in feveral places urges this рцrity upon Christians from another argument, their participation of the Holy Spirit of God. "They are the temple of God, by the Spirit of God dwelling in them; and therefore they might be affured, that if any man defile the temple of God, him will God deftroy;" 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. And elfewhere that "they are the members of Chrift, and the temples of the Holy Ghoft: Shall I then" (fays he) "take the members of Chrift, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid ;" chap. vi. 15. 19. Whatever others do, a Chriftian, who profeffes to be united to Chrift by his Holy Spirit, fhould abhor the thought of fockifhnefs.

4. The bleffed hope with which christianity infpires us, lays us under a forcible engagement to prefent purity.

Thofe of the contrary temper, are abfolutely excluded, by the exprefs declarations of the Gofpel, from the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. "Be not deceived; neither forni- cators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, &c. fhall inherit the kingdom of God." Heb. xiii. 4." Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." And fuch are reckoned up among thofe who "fhall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimftone,"

Rev. xxi. 8. and who are without the heavenly Jerufalem, chap. xxxii. 14, 15. On the contrary, the promise of the future blessednefs is most plainly made to the pure in heart, Mat. v. 8. Bleffed are the pure in heart, for they fhall fee God." And this very reprefentation of the heavenly felicity, that it principaly confifts in the fight and fruition of a holy God, fhews that his conftitution limiting that happiness to the pure in heart, is founded in the nature and reafon of things. We cannot relish it, or be made happy by it, any more than be allowed to fhare in it, without a heart refined from the dregs of fenfuality. Saints themselves have but an imperfect relifh for it here, fince they are not divested of all remains of fenfual inclinations: But because they will be made perfectly righteous in the future ftate, and raised to their full refemblance of God in fpirituality, therefore: the enjoyment of him then will give them full fatisfaction. So the Pfalmift joins these circumftances together in his profpect of the other life, Pfal. xvii. 15. "As for me, I will (or fhall) behold thy face in righteousness :: I fhall be fatisfied when I awake with thy likeness." In the fame manner St. John fpeaks of our future condition, 1 John iii. 2. "We know, that when he fhall appear, we fhall be like him; for we fhall fee him as he is." But obferve how thereupon he infers the neceffity of prefent afpirings and endeavours. after a resemblance of divine purity, in all the expectants of heaven, ver. 3. "And eve-. ry man, that hath this hope in him, purifieth

himfelf