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they are chaste? They have reason to say so; or if they do, they have no reason to be believed. And though we cannot live in the world without meeting with temptations, yet we may avoid them much oftener than we do; and if we have the fear of God in our hearts, we shall not be hurt by them. Let but women so behave themselves, as that men may believe them to be chaste; and they may be confident nobody will attempt them but in an honest way. But this is the real occasion of so many miscarriages:people discover, either by their very vain dress, or looks, or words, or behaviour, they discover, that they do not fear God; that they only want to be tempted; and this encourages those that are as naught as themselves, to tempt and to gain their wicked ends of them. Let us therefore remember, that when we say "lead us not into temptation," we are bound not to run into them willingly; or if we do, we must not expect that God will deliver us from evils of our own seeking.

What has now been said, shews us the necessity of another means of preserving our innocence, and that is, fervent prayer; since it is impossible, in the midst of so many temptations, for any Christian to be long innocent, unless supported by divine grace. The very slightest temptation will ruin us, if left to ourselves. Therefore has God encouraged us to pray to him for help, and has promised to hear us. But then, it is not any sort of prayer that will prevail with him,

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to prevent, or to deliver us from evil. We must know our own misery, to humble us; we must know our danger, to make us be in good earnest; and our weakness and backslidings, that we may be more careful of our ways. Such dispositions as these will recommend us to God's favour and protection, and the true reason, why so many people become an easy prey to the devil, is this: They seldom pray in private; they pray in public without any sense of their wants; without any concern to be heard: without devotion, and without reverence. How then should they expect to be heard and delivered from danger? If Christians did but know to what miseries those are abandoned who are possessed with an unclean spirit, they would pray to be delivered from such a curse with more concern than a man, that asks to be delivered from perpetual slavery.

But there is another means which God has appointed, that men may have no pretence for running into vices which must certainly ruin the soul and body; and this is, a chaste marriage. "Marriage is honourable in all," saith the apostle, "and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." [Heb. xiii. 4.] Believe it, Christians, the lawful provision which God has made for those that cannot contain; the more easy the remedy is, the more severe will be their punishment, and the more difficult their pardon, who refuse to make use of it, and rather chuse their own abominable ways, to satisfy their brutish lusts. As for such as

have chosen this remedy, they have all the obli gations to be content with such a merciful provision that God or man can lay upon them. It is God's ordinance; they have solemnly vowed to observe it; it is plainly their interest to do so, as they value either a quiet life, or a peaceable conscience; but, above all, as they hope for sal vation. If we believe the sacred Scriptures, they tell us expressly, that this sin leads directly to hell; [Prov. vii. 27.] and everlasting destruction is not to be jested with.

To conclude;-Let this be seriously thought of; that all sins, and especially the sins of forni cation and adultery, and such foul crimes, will meet with a due reward one time or other. If you sin against the Lord, your sin will surely find you out. There is no hiding your crimes from God; no blotting them out of his remembrance; no escaping his severe justice: he can bring evils upon you when you least expect them; come upon you like an armed man, not to be resisted; deprive you of the dearest blessings of your life, and make you" to possess the iniquities of your youth." [Job. xiii. 26.] Be persuaded, therefore good Christians, to prevent your own misery; avoid temptations, mortify your corrupt affections, pray earnestly for grace, and grieve not the Holy Spirit by which you are sanctified; and you will escape all these evils, and, what is worse than all these, eternal death.

And do thou, O God, rebuke the spirit of impurity that is gone out amongst us; preserve

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all those that are yet undefiled from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; make us all watchful over ourselves, and of those sins that do most easily beset us; that keeping ourselves pure, as thy servants ought to be, we may, when we come to die, be admitted into the Paradise of God, where no impure thing can enter. Grant this, O Heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen, Amen.

SERMON VII.

ON THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS Xx. 15.

Thou shalt not steal.

UNDER the eighth commandment is comprehended our duty to our neighbour, in respect of his worldly substance. And to explain it distinctly, I shall endeavour to shew,

I. What it forbids and

II. What by consequence it requires.

I. As to the former. The wickedness of mankind hath invented ways to commit such an astonishing variety of sins against this commandment, that it is impossible to reckon them

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up, and dreadful to think of them. But most, if not all of them, are so manifestly sins, that the least reflection is enough to make any one sensible, how much he is bound conscientiously to avoid them. And he, who desires to preserve himself innocent, easily may.

The most open and shameless crime, of this sort, is robbery; taking from another what is his, by force which, adding violence against his person to invasion of his property, and making every part of human life unsafe, is a complicated transgression, of very deep guilt.

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The next degree is secret theft: privately converting to our own use what is not our own. To do this in matters of great value is confessedly pernicious wickedness. And though it were only in what may seem a trifle, yet every man's right to the smallest part of what belongs to him is the same, as to the largest and he ought no more to be wronged of one, than of the other. Besides, little instances of dishonesty cause great disquiet: make the sufferers distrust ful of all about them: sometimes of those, who are the farthest from deserving it; make them apprehensive continually, that some heavier injury will follow. And indeed almost all offenders begin with slight offences. More heinous ones would shock them at first: but if they once allow themselves in lesser faults, they go on without reluctance, by degrees to worse and worse, till at last they scruple nothing. Always therefore beware of small sins. And always re

member,

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