This Hard School of Painful Experience - Volume 3

For My New Year's Resolution!

My prayer  is that we would learn to draw near to God and stand on the authority of the truth, the whole truth of His word. 

To find out why this short prayer, read January 1 post) 

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In times of trial and darkness, the saints and servants 
of God are instructed. They see and feel what the flesh 
really is, how alienated from the life of God—they learn 
in whom all their strength and sufficiency lie—they are 
taught that in them, that is, in their flesh, dwells no 
good thing—that no exertions of their own can maintain 
in strength and vigor the life of God—and that all they 
are and have, all they believe, know, feel, and enjoy, 
with all their ability, usefulness, gifts, and grace—flow 
from the pure, sovereign grace—the rich, free, undeserved, 
yet unceasing goodness and mercy of God. 

They learn in this hard school of painful experience 
their emptiness and nothingness—and that without Christ 
indeed they can do nothing. They thus become clothed 
with humility, that lovely, becoming garb—cease from 
their own strength and wisdom—and learn experimentally 
that Christ is, and ever must be, all in all to them, and 
all in all in them.


Many difficulties, obstacles, and hindrances

"Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press
 on to know Him!" Hosea 6:3

The expression, "press on," implies that there are many 
difficulties, obstacles, and hindrances in a man's way, 
which keep him back from "knowing the Lord." Now the 
work of the Spirit in his soul is to carry him on in spite 
of all these obstacles—to lead him forward—to keep 
alive in him the fear of God—to strengthen him in his 
inner man—to drop in those hopes—to communicate 
that inward grace—so that he is compelled to press on. 

Sometimes he seems driven, 
sometimes drawn, 
sometimes led, and 
sometimes carried, 
but in one way or another the Spirit of God so 
works upon him that, though he scarcely knows 
how—he still "presses on." 

His very burdens make him groan for deliverance—his 
very temptations cause him to cry for help—the very 
difficulty and ruggedness of the road make him want 
to be carried every step—the very intricacy of the path 
compels him to cry out for a guide—so that the Spirit 
working in the midst of, and under, and through every 
difficulty and discouragement, still bears him through, 
and carries him on—and thus brings him through every 
trial and trouble and temptation and obstacle, until He 
sets him in glory. 

It is astonishing to me how our souls are kept alive.
The Christian is a marvel to himself. Carried on, and 
yet so secretly—worked upon, and yet so mysteriously;
and yet led on, guided, and supported through so many 
difficulties and obstacles—that he is a miracle of mercy
as he is carried on amid all . . .
  difficulties,
  obstacles,
  trials, and
  temptations.

Preserving Grace Before Regeneration - Volume 2

For My New Year's Resolution!

My prayer  is that God would take away all unholy dispositions in my heart and in yours

To find out why this short prayer, read January 1 post) 

This is an excerpt from the new uploaded Kindle which contains all the 11 volumes of J. C. Philpot's quotes

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Preserving grace before regeneration

"To those who have been called,
 who are loved by God the Father
 and preserved in Jesus Christ."
    Jude 1

What a mercy it is for God's people that before
they have a 'vital union' with Christ—before they
are grafted into Him experimentally—they have an
'eternal, immanent union' with Him before all worlds.
It is by virtue of this eternal union that they come
into the world . . .
   at such a time,
   at such a place,
   from such parents,
   under such circumstances,
as God has appointed.

It is by virtue of this eternal union that the circumstances
of their lives are ordained. By virtue of this eternal union
they are preserved in Christ before they are effectually
called. 

They cannot die until God has brought about a vital
union with Christ!

Whatever sickness they may pass through—whatever 
injuries they may be exposed to—whatever perils assault
them on sea or land—die they will not, die they cannot;
until God's purposes are executed in bringing them into
a vital union with the Son of His love.

Thus, this eternal union watched over every circumstance
of their birth, watched over their childhood, watched over
their manhood, watched over them until the appointed
time and spot, when "the God of all grace," according to
His eternal purpose, was pleased to quicken their souls,
and thus bring about an experimental union with the Lord
of life and glory.

Man's Religion and God's Religion

For My New Year's Resolution!

My prayer for me and you is that God would work in our hearts and teach us how to be incurably desperate for Him. I don't know about you but I have such a thirst for God to make unceasingly, a remnant broken and humble at His feet.  (to find out why this short prayer, read January 1 post) 

This is an excerpt from the new uploaded Kindle which contains all the 11 volumes of J. C. Philpot's quotes

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"That no flesh should glory in His presence."
1 Corinthians 1:29

Man's religion is to build up the creature. 
God's religion is to throw the creature down in
the dust of self-abasement, and to glorify Christ.

What a mystery are you! 
"So I find this law at work—When I want to do
good, evil is right there with me." Rom. 7:21

Are you not often a mystery to yourself?

Warm one moment—cold the next!

Abasing yourself one hour—
exalting yourself the following!

Loving the world, full of it, steeped up to
your head in it today—crying, groaning, and
sighing for a sweet manifestation of the love
of God tomorrow!

Brought down to nothingness, covered with
shame and confusion, on your knees before
you leave your room—filled with pride and self
importance before you have got down stairs!

Despising the world, and willing to give it all
up for one taste of the love of Jesus when in
solitude—trying to grasp it with both hands
when in business!

What a mystery are you! 

Touched by love—and stung with hatred!

Possessing a little wisdom—and a great deal of folly!

Earthly minded—and yet having the affections in heaven!

Pressing forward—and lagging behind!

Full of sloth—and yet taking the kingdom with violence!

And thus the Spirit, by a process which we may feel
but cannot adequately describe—leads us into the
mystery of the two natures perpetually struggling
and striving against each other in the same bosom.
So that one man cannot more differ from another,
than the same man differs from himself. 

But the mystery of the kingdom of heaven is this—
that our carnal mind undergoes no alteration, but
maintains a perpetual war with grace. And thus,
the deeper we sink in self abasement under a
sense of our vileness, the higher we rise in a
knowledge of Christ, and the blacker we are in
our own view—the more lovely does Jesus appear.

What stupid blockheads!

"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
Matthew 15:16

What lessons we need day by day to teach
us anything aright, and how it is for the most
part, "line upon line, line upon line—here a
little, and there a little." O . . .
what slow learners!
what dull, forgetful scholars!
what ignoramuses!
what stupid blockheads!
what stubborn pupils!

Surely no scholar at a school, old or young,
could learn so little of natural things as we seem

to have learned of spiritual things after . . .
so many years instruction,
so many chapters read,
so many sermons heard,  so many prayers put up,
so much talking about religion.

How small, how weak is the amount of
growth—compared with all we have read
and heard and talked about!

But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom
He will save—and that we are saved by free
grace—and free grace alone!

Take me as I am with all my sin and shame

"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved." Jer. 17:14

Here is this sin! Save me from it!

Here is this snare! Break it to pieces!

Here is this lust! Lord, subdue it!

Here is this temptation! Deliver me out of it!

Here is my proud heart! Lord, humble it!

Here is my unbelieving heart! Take it away,
and give me faith; give me submission to
Your mind and will.

Take me as I am with all my sin and
shame and work in me everything well
pleasing in Your sight.

Nothing but a huge clod of dust

"Set your affection on things above—not
on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2

Everything upon earth, as viewed by the eyes
of the Majesty of heaven—is base and paltry.

Earth is after all, nothing but a huge clod of
dust, and as such, as insignificant in the eyes
of its Maker as the small dust of the balance,
or the drop of the bucket.

What, then, are . . .
its highest objects,
its loftiest aims,
its grandest pursuits,
its noblest employments,
in the sight of Him who inhabits
eternity; but base and worthless?

Vanity is stamped on all earth's attainments.

All earthly pursuits and high accomplishments . . .
wealth,
rank,
learning,
power, or
pleasure,
end in death!

The breath of God's displeasure soon
lays low in the grave all that is rich
and mighty, high and proud.

But that effectual work of grace on the heart,
whereby the chosen vessels of mercy are
delivered from the power of darkness and
translated into the kingdom of God's dear
Son, calls them out of . . .
those low, groveling pursuits,
those earthly toys,
those base and sensual lusts in which other
men seek at once their happiness and their ruin.

How can they escape? 

"He will keep the feet of His saints."
1 Samuel 2:9

The Lord sees His poor scattered pilgrims
traveling through a valley of tears—journeying
through a waste-howling wilderness—a path
beset with baits, traps, and snares in every
direction.

How can they escape? 

Why, the Lord 'keeps their feet'. He carries them
through every rough place—as a tender parent
carries a little child. When about to fall—He
graciously lays His everlasting arms underneath
them. And when tottering and stumbling, and
their feet ready to slip—He mercifully upholds
them from falling altogether.

But do you think that He has not different ways
for different feet? The God of creation has not
made two flowers, nor two leaves upon a tree
alike—and will He cause all His people to walk
in precisely the same path? No. We have . . .
each our path,
each our troubles,
each our trials,
each peculiar traps and snares laid for our feet.

And the wisdom of the all-wise God is shown by His
eyes being in every place—marking the footsteps of
every pilgrim—suiting His remedies to meet their
individual case and necessity—appearing for them
when nobody else could do them any good—watching
so tenderly over them, as though the eyes of His
affection were bent on one individual—and carefully
noting the goings of each, as though all the powers
of the Godhead were concentrated on that one
person to keep him from harm!

God will meet all your needs

"And my God will meet all your needs according
to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19

Until we are brought into the depths of poverty,
we shall never know nor value Christ's riches.

If, then, you are a child of God, a poor and
needy soul, a tempted and tried believer in
Christ, "God will meet all your needs."

They may be very great.

It may seem to you, sometimes, as though there
were not upon all the face of the earth such a
wretch as you—as though there never could be
a child of God in your state . . .
so dark,
so stupid,
so blind and ignorant,
so proud and worldly,
so presumptuous and hypocritical,
so continually backsliding after idols,
so continually doing things that you
know are hateful in God's sight.

But whatever your need be—it is not beyond the
reach of divine supply! And the deeper your need,
the more is Jesus glorified in supplying it.

Do not say then, that . . .
your case is too bad,
your needs are too many,
your perplexities too great,
your temptations too powerful.

No case can be too bad!

No temptations can be too powerful!

No sin can be too black!

No perplexity can be too hard!

No state in which the soul can get, is beyond
the reach of the almighty and compassionate
love, that burns in the breast of the Redeemer!

The Sin of Adultery - The Sinful Desires of The Flesh

You shall not commit adultery!

I truly apologize about the length of this post, but it is so needful today that I desire for everyone to have this article, read and apply it. Please be kind to  one another and share this article, for God's sake.......

(Thomas Watson, "The Ten Commandments". This selection is longer, but it is needful in our immoral society. Though it particularly addresses adultery, it easily applies to any kind of immorality. This is the best article I have ever read, on how to deal with lust. Every man struggles with lust-so please forward this on.)

"You shall not commit adultery." Exodus 20:14
This commandment is set up as a hedge to keep out impurity; and those who break this hedge-a serpent shall bite them! The fountain of this sin is lust. God is a pure, holy being, and has an infinite antipathy against all impurity. We must take heed of running on the rock of impurity, and so making shipwreck of our chastity. The meaning of the commandment is not only that we should not stain our bodies with immorality-but that we should keep our souls pure. To have a chaste body-but an unclean soul, is like a beautiful face with a cancerous heart. "Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16.

There is a mental adultery. "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5:28. As a man may die of an inward bleeding-so he may be damned for the inward boilings of lust, if it is not mortified. That I may deter you from the sin of adultery, let me show you the great evil of it.

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

(2) Adultery debases a person. It makes him resemble the beasts; therefore the adulterer is described like a horse neighing. "Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife." Jeremiah 5:8. It is worse than brutish; for some creatures which 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 honor.

(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. Proverbs 23:27. She is a common sewer! 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." Proverbs 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 body. 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. 

(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.

(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!" Proverbs 6:32, 33. 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) Adultery impairs the mind. It steals away the understanding; it stupefies the heart. "Whoredom and wine take away the heart." Hosea 4:11. It eats all purity out of the heart. Solomon besotted himself with women, and they enticed him to idolatry.

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(8) Adultery 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. "For jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge!" Proverbs 6:34. The adulterer is often killed in the act of his sin. "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!" Hebrews 13:4. Though men may neglect to judge them-yet God will judge them! He will judge them assuredly; they shall not escape the hand of justice; and He will punish them severely. 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." Proverbs 9:18. The harlot 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." Proverbs 7:26.

(10) The adulterer does all he can, 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. What a fearful thing it is-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." Proverbs 22:14. What can be worse than to be abhorred by God? God may be angry with His own children; but for God to abhor a man-is the highest degree of hatred! The immoral person stands upon the threshold of hell; and when death gives him a push-he tumbles in!

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." Proverbs 7:27.

I shall give some directions, by way of antidote, to keep from the infection of this sin.
(1) Do not come into the company of a whorish woman; avoid her house, as a seaman does a rock. "Run from her! Don't go near the door of her house!" Proverbs 5:8. He who would not have the plague, must not come near infected houses; every whore-house has the plague in it. Not to avoid the occasion of sin, and yet pray, "Lead us not into temptation," is, as if one should put his finger into the candle, and yet pray that it may not be burnt!

(2) Look to your eyes. Much sin comes in by the eye. "Having eyes full of adultery." 2 Pet 2:14. The eye tempts the imagination, and the imagination works upon the heart. A lustful amorous eye, may usher in sin. Eve first saw the tree of knowledge-and then she took. Gen 3:6. First she looked-and then she loved. The eye often sets the heart on fire; therefore Job laid a law upon his eyes. "I made a covenant with my eyes-not to look with lust upon a young woman." Job 31:1.

(3) Look to your lips. Take heed of any unclean word which may enkindle unclean thoughts in yourselves or others. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." 1 Cor. 15:33. Impure discourse, is the bellows to blow up the fire of lust. Much evil is conveyed to the heart by the tongue. "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth!" Psalm 141:3.

(4) Look in a special manner to your heart. "Guard your heart with all diligence." Proverbs 4:23. Every person has a tempter in his own bosom! "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, all other sexual immorality." Matthew 15:19. Thinking of sin, makes way for the act of sin. Suppress the first risings of sin in your heart. As the serpent, when danger is near-guards his head, so keep your heart, which is the spring from whence all lustful motions proceed.

(5) Look to your attire. We read of the attire of a harlot. Proverbs 7:10. A wanton dress is a provocation to lust. A painted face, and half-naked breasts, is allurements to immorality. Where the sign is hung out-people will go in and taste the liquor. Jerome says, "those who by their lascivious attire endeavor to draw others to lust, though no evil follows-are tempters-and shall be punished, because they offered the poison to others, even though they would not drink."

(6) Take heed of evil company. Sin is a very contagious disease; one person tempts another to sin, and hardens him in it. There are three cords which draw men to immorality: 
the inclination of the heart, 
the persuasion of evil company, and 
the embraces of the harlot. This threefold cord is not easily broken. "A fire was kindled in their company." Psalm 106:18. The fire of lust is kindled in bad company.

(7) Beware of going to theatres and plays. A play-house is often a preface to a whorehouse. "Plays furnish the seeds of wickedness." We are bid to avoid all appearance of evil; and are not plays the appearance of evil? Such sights are there, which are not fit to be beheld with chaste eyes. A learned divine observes, that many have on their death-beds confessed, with tears, that the pollution of their bodies has been occasioned by going to plays.

(8) Take heed of mixed dancing. "Dances are instruments of lust and wantonness." From dancing, people come to dalliance with another, and from dalliance to immorality. "There is," says Calvin, "for the most part, some unchaste behavior in dancing." Dances draw the heart to immorality-by wanton gestures, by unchaste touches, and by lustful looks. Chrysostom inveighed against mixed dancing in his time. "We read," he says, "of a marriage feast-but of dancing there-we read not." Matthew 25:7. Many have been ensnared by dancing. "Dancing is not the conduct of a chaste woman-but of the adulteress," says Ambrose. Chrysostom says, "Where dancing is, there the devil is!"

(9) Take heed of lascivious books and pictures, which provoke to lust. As the reading of the Scripture stirs up love to God, so reading vile books stirs up the mind to wickedness. To lascivious books I may add lascivious pictures, which bewitch the eye, and are incendiaries to lust! They secretly convey poison to the heart.

(10) Take heed of excess in diet. When gluttony and drunkenness lead the van, immorality and wantonness bring up the rear. "Wine inflames lust." "Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony." Ezekiel 16:49. The foulest weeds grow out of the fattest soil. Immorality proceeds from excess. "When I had fed them to the full, everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife." Jer. 5:8. Get the "golden bridle of temperance." God allows the refreshment of nature, and what may fit us the better for his service; but beware of surfeit. Excess in temporal things-clouds the mind, chokes good affections, and provokes lust. "I discipline my body and bring it under strict control." 1 Cor. 9:27. The flesh pampered-is liable to immorality.

(11) Take heed of idleness. When a man is idle, he is ready to receive any temptation. The devil sows most of his seeds of temptation in fallow ground. Idleness is the cause of sodomy and immorality. "Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony." Ezekiel 16:49. When David was idle on the top of his house, he espied Bathsheba, and committed adultery with her. 2 Samuel 11:4. Jerome gave his friend counsel to be always well employed in God's vineyard, that when the devil came, he might have no leisure to listen to temptation.

(12) To avoid fornication and adultery, let every man have a chaste, entire love to his own wife. Ezekiel's wife was the desire of his eyes. Ezekiel 24:16. When Solomon had dissuaded from immoral women, he prescribed a remedy against it. "Rejoice with the wife of your youth." Proverbs 5:18. It is not having a wife-but loving a wife- which makes a man live chastely. He who loves his wife, whom Solomon calls his fountain, will not go abroad to drink of muddy, poisoned waters. Pure marital love is a gift of God, and comes from heaven; but, like the vestal fire, it must be nourished, so that it does not go out. He who does not love his wife, is the likeliest person to embrace the bosom of a harlot.

(13) Labor to get the fear of God into your hearts. "By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil." Proverbs 16:6. As the embankment keeps out the water, so the fear of the Lord keeps out immorality. Such as lack the fear of God, lack the bridle which should check them from sin! How did Joseph keep from his mistress' temptation? The fear of God pulled him back! "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God!" Genesis 39:9. Bernard calls holy fear, "the door-keeper of the soul." As a nobleman's porter stands at the door, and keeps out vagrants, so the fear of God stands and keeps out all sinful temptations from entering.

(14) Take delight in the Word of God. "How sweet are your words unto my taste." Psalm 119:103. Chrysostom compares God's Word to a garden. If we walk in this garden, and suck sweetness from the flowers of the promises, we shall never care to pluck the "forbidden fruit." "Let the Scriptures be my pure pleasure," says Augustine. The reason why people seek after unchaste, sinful pleasures-is because they have nothing better. Caesar riding through a city, and seeing the women play with dogs and parrots, said, "Surely, they have no children." So those who sport with harlots, have no better pleasures. He who has once tasted Christ in a promise, is ravished with delight; and he would  scorn a temptation to sin! Job said, that the Word was his "appointed food." Job 23:12. No wonder then, that he made a "covenant with his eyes."

(15) If you would abstain from adultery, use serious consideration.
    [1] Consider that God sees you in the act of sin! He sees all your curtain wickedness. He is totus oculus-"all eye." The clouds are no canopy, the night is no curtain-to hide you from God's eye! Whenever you sin-your Judge looks on! "I have seen your detestable acts-your adulteries and your neighings." Jer. 13:27. "They have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. I know it and am a witness to it! declares the Lord." Jer. 29:23.

    [2] Consider that few who are entangled in the sin of adultery, ever recover from the snare. "None that go to her return again." Proverbs 2:19. This made some of the ancients conclude that adultery was an unpardonable sin; but it is not so. David repented. Mary Magdalene was a weeping penitent; upon her amorous eyes which sparkled with lust, she sought to be revenged, by washing Christ's feet with her tears! Some, therefore have recovered from this snare. "None that go to her return," that is, "very few." It is rare to hear of any who are enchanted and bewitched with the sin of immorality, who recover from it. "I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare." Eccl. 7:26. Her "heart is a trap," that is, she is subtle to deceive those who come to her; and "her hands are chains," that is her embraces are powerful to hold and entangle her lovers. This consideration should make all fearful of this sin. Soft pleasures, harden the heart.

    [3] Consider what Scripture says, which may lay a barricade in the way to this sin. "I will be a swift witness against the adulterers." Malachi 3:5. It is good when God is a witness "for us", when He witnesses to our sincerity, as He did to Job's; but it is sad to have God as a "witness against us." "I," says God, "will be a swift witness against the adulterer." And who shall disprove God's witness? He is both witness and judge! "God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery." Hebrews 13:4.

    [4] Consider the sad farewell, which the sin of adultery leaves. It leaves a hell in the conscience. "The lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But the result is as bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to hell." Proverbs 5:3-5. The goddess Diana was so artfully drawn, that she seemed to smile upon those who came into her temple-but frown on those who went out. So the harlot smiles on her lovers as they come to her-but at last, they come to the frown and the sting! "Until an arrow pierces his liver." Proverbs 7:23. "Her end is bitter."

When a man has been virtuous, the labor is gone-but the comfort remains; but when he has been wicked and immoral, the pleasure is gone-but the sting remains. "He gains momentary pleasure-but after that, eternal torment," says Jerome. When the senses have been feasted with unchaste pleasures, the soul is left to pay the reckoning. Stolen waters are sweet; but, as poison, though sweet in the mouth, it torments the conscience. 

Sin always ends in tragedy! Sad is that which Fincelius reports of a priest in Flanders, who enticed a young girl to immorality. When she objected how vile a sin it was, he told her that by authority from the Pope, he could commit any sin; so at last he drew her to his wicked purpose. But when they had been together a while, in came the devil, and took away the harlot from the priest's side, and, notwithstanding all her crying out, carried her away! If the devil should come and carry away all who are guilty of immorality in this nation-I fear more would be carried away, than would be left behind!

(16) Pray against this sin. Luther gave a lady this advice, that when any lust began to rise in her heart, she should go to prayer. Prayer is the best armor against sin; it quenches the wild fire of lust. If prayer will "cast out the devil," it will certainly cast out those lusts which come from the devil.

O let us labor for soul purity! To keep the soul pure-have recourse to the blood of Christ, which is the "fountain open, to cleanse from sin and impurity." Zech. 13:1. A soul steeped in the briny tears of repentance, and bathed in the blood of Christ-is made pure! Say, "Lord, my soul is defiled! I pollute all I touch! O purge me with hyssop-let Christ's blood sprinkle me, let the Holy Spirit anoint me. O make me pure, that I may be taken to heaven-where I shall be as holy as You would have me to be-and as happy as I can desire to be!"