SERMON XXVII. 377 criminal regard to the idols of his mistresses, as to build, temples for them near the temple of Jehovah ; and " the Lord was angry with Solomon, when his wives turned,away his heart after other gods, and he rent the kingdom from him in the daysof his son Rehoboam," and made a long and fatal separation between the tribes of Israel for many generations. And, to name no more, " turn your eyes to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh ; mark how the Lord rainedfire and brimstone out of heaven upon them, and they are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; Jude 7. IV: Thinkof the dreadful threatenings that are denounced against impure sinners in the word of God, and you will find these areflaming witnesses against their practice ; Hos. iv. 1 -5, " The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitantsof the land, because of killing, stealing, and adultery : therefore shall the land mourn." And God seems to forbid the prophets to give them reproof, as though he resolved to destroy them. Let no man strive and reprove another. His mercy and forgiveness seem to be put to a stand ; Jer. v. 7, 9. " How shall I par- don thee for this? saith the Lord; thy children have forsaken me when I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, andassembled themselves in troops in the harlots' houses.' Shalt I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord ? and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?" When the apostle Paul had represented this sort of vice in 1 Cor. vi. 18; 19. " as a defilement of the body, which is the temple of God, and the habitation of the Holy Spirit ;" he adds this word of terror ; iii. 17. " If any man defile the temple of God, hint shall God destroy ; for the temple of God is and ought to be holy," and not kept as a nest for unclean vermin, " Be not de- ceived ; neither -fornicators, nor' idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who indulge vile impurities, shall inherit the kingdom of God ;" 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Such were some of yoay indeed, says St. Paul to his converts, but ye are washed and sanctified from these pollutions, or you could never have been saved. There- fore saith thesame holywriter, " let neither fornication, nor any unclean practices be so much as once namedamongst you as be- cometh saints ;" that is, letthem never be named withoutabhor- rence. " For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor any unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, bath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience;" Eph. v. 3-6. Thevisions of St. John in the book of the Revelation, pronounce the doom of whoremongers with the rest of notorious
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