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SERMON VII.

ON THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS, CHAP. xx. Ver. 14,
Thou shalt not commit Adultery.

IF the commandments of God were to be understood only in the literal and confined sense which the bare words seem to convey, the iniquity of man would avail itself of that opening to indulgence, and shelter itself under that apparent reservation, fondly deeming that to be allowed which is not expressly prohibited. Under that supposition, in the present case, the

foolish man would feel himself at liberty to gratify every sensual appetite, and disregard every other breach of the marriage contract, provided he steered clear of Adultery-a mode of reasoning, which the weak or the wicked alone could adopt; the one, from his ignorance of understanding to draw the line betwixt the allowance and the prohibition of the law; and the other, from the badness of his heart, to open a door to the gratification of his depraved inclinations.

But it has been observed in a former discourse, that where any vice is forbidden, its opposite virtue is necessarily commanded; and every avenue leading to the commission of that sin, or deviation from the path of that virtue, as well as every inferior failing that can possibly tend in its consequences to the violation of the commandment, is prohibited as absolutely as if it had been literally expressed in so

many words. Taking this commandment then, in its general sense, as well as the strict meaning of the words, let us consider the bad consequences that attend the indulgence of unlawful passions, particularly in the married state.

It will be difficult to persuade a man, that what appears so promising in its beginning, can be attended with such fatal issues, that so profound a calm can be succeeded by such furious storms; but this is a truth known and recorded in every age. Poets have represented this delusive pleasure under the figure of the fabulous syrens, who enchanted passengers with the charms of their voice, to draw them aside

from the right way, certain destruction.

and lead them to Philosophers have

filled their books with salutary precepts, to divert men from this dangerous passion, which they have described as a labyrinth, to which there are a thousand ways of en

trance, and from which it is hardly possible to find one passage to escape. But the holy writings furnish us with numberless examples of the evils attendant upon this passion, in the punishments denounced and executed against those who have given way to it.

The marks of God's wrath against adultery and fornication would be too visible, were it not the nature of this passion to blind our eyes against all the bad consequences resulting from it, and to look only upon the pleasures it seems it seems to hold forth.

What dishonour did this weakness bring upon Solomon, sullying the honour of his name, obscuring his glory, and the fame his wisdom had acquired, as well as losing the esteem of all his people! It fixed a lasting blot his memory.

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