fort them that are afflicted; to heal the wound which others give, and, after the example o our bleffed Saviour, to relieve the temporal a well as fpiritual wants of mankind.

SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

In this law of God, as in many of the others, the highest degree of crime is mentioned; but all the smaller degrees of it are intended alfo to be forbidden. Moft people, no doubt, will agree, that "thou fhalt not kill," implies alfo, thou fhalt not hurt; and that the command, to honor our father and mother, includes the honor due to those other perfons whom God has placed over us: fo alfo, "thou fhalt not fteal," means, unquestionably, thou fhalt in no wife defraud or cheat. On the fame principle, then, we ought to understand the words, "thou fhalt not commit adultery," as implying likewise that we must not be guilty of any thing which is contrary to strict chastity. Indeed, our Saviour himfelf has put it out of all doubt, that we ought thus to explain this Commandment; for he hath exprefsly told us, that "who foever looketh on a woman to luft after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart." The Scriptures of the New Teftament, in many places, declare ftrongly against unchastity of every kind; and folemnly warn us, after speaking of this and other grofs fins, that "they which do fuch things fhall not inherit the king

dom of God." Thofe who deliberately and habitually venture on fins of this fort, would do well, therefore, to remember, that they do it in: defiance of the plaineft threatenings of God; and that while they continue in fuch practices, they can have no hope of eternal life, for "the Scriptures cannot be broken."

It is very proper here to remark, that every Commandment of God, however ftri& and harfh it may feem, tends, in fact, to promote the happiness of his creatures. If mankind. were allowed to iudulge all their natural inclinations juft as they pleafed, what mifery would fill the earth!

Let us now draw the picture of the wretched. ftate of one who has broken this Commandment of God; and let us alfo take occafion to fhew from what fort of finall beginnings the ruin of a young woman may naturally be fuppofed to proceed.

We will imagine, then, that a young girl fets out in life with a thoughtless and giddy mind, and with a fecret inattention and diflike to ferious religion. We will fuppofe her alfo having been fomewhat fpoiled from her infancy, to be not. much used to labour, and to be, at the fame time, fond of finery, or of what fhe calls fashion and gentility, and apt to drefs herself out, not perhaps always very decoroufly, with a view to

men's admiration.

She fucceeds in drawing the notice of fome bad man or other, who begins to take liberties

with her, infifting always that there is no harm in it. Such a man as this foon finds out that fhe has no very ftrict principles about her, and he takes for granted that she will make no great confcience of retaining her modefty, having obferved that she is not very confcientious about other matters. She is drawn away step by step: one little liberty is permitted, or perhaps invited, and then another, until she has completed her ruin. For a while fhe tries to conceal her fhame, by lying or deceit; but it is impoffible long to do it. The tale is out, her character is gone, and from this time fhe finds it far more difficult to get her bread honeftly than before. Now alfo fhe is expofed to the rude infults of every profligate man whom fhe meets, and who knows her ftory. Being afhamed of her former friends, or having friends who are, perhaps, afhamed of her, fhe dwells among ftrangers. She has no eye to pity her, no father or mother to guard and to direct her, no hufband to comfort her, no companion to foothe her, or to attend to her in diftrefs. Being driven to extremity, and forfaken, as a young woman almost always is by her feducer, vice perhaps, by degrees, becomes her trade; and if that be the cafe, fhe lives among the vileft company. But what is worst of all, her own heart, under thefe circumftances, becomes every day more and more hardened. She is undone in every fenfe. She foon becomes difeafed in body, and is ftill more dreadfully ruined as to her mind; and fhe is every day

finking lower and lower. As long as fhe treads, this earth, woes upon woes await her, and there feems to be no glimpfe of hope for her, while, in the next world, there is nothing but "a fearful looking for of fiery indignation."

There is often one circumftance in the fituation of women of this fort, and efpecially of such as may not be so hardened as I have defcribed, which is very affecting, and that is the ftate of their children, if they fhould have any: for what a curfe do thole children commonly feem to them! What a continual reproach as well as burden! There is no father to fupport the feeble infant, nor to provide for the mother during her lying-in. In moft cafes, therefore, fuch children are dreadfully neglected, and often perifh miferably. But if their bodies are attended to, and preferved alive, how exceedingly. deftitute are they of inftruction, and thus what danger is there left they fhould perifh miferably as to their fouls!

Compare now the cafe of fuch an unhappy woman as has been defcribed, with the lot of one who, having maintained her modefty, and fet out in the fear of God, has become united with a chriftian hufband, in that ftate of wedlock which has been appointed by the laws of her Maker. Her friends, many of them, probably, abide around her, and her husband, who is her chief earthly dependence, fupports, protects, and comforts her: he commends her to God by his prayers, and he improves her by his.

christian counfel and converfation. Her children rife up and call her bleffed. Their education engages her at home, while the father is working for the family abroad; and fhe feels the tenderest affection for them. She does not view them (like the other women we described) with a tormenting confcience, being continually reminded by them of her guilt. She is not afhamed (as the other is) of having them called by her name, but fhe views them as a bleffing fent from heaven, as both a comfort and a credit to her, and as a means, poffibly, of fupport, when old age fhall advance, and when both her own and her husband's ftrength fhall fail. What a difference! How excellent then is that law of God which tends to promote fuch happiness as this, and to prevent the mifery which was before defcribed, Never, perhaps, did God confult more clearly the temporal comfort and well being of his creatures than when he gave the law, which fays, "Thou shalt not commit adultery;" and when he prohibited fo effectually, as he has done in the New Tefta. ment, every fpecies of unchaftity. Instead, therefore, of faying, as wicked men are apt to do, Where is the harm of following all our natural inclinations? let us learn, on the contrary, to admire the goodnefs of God in this law, and to confider the libertine as one of the greatest enemies of mankind; as far more hurtful than the thief or the robber; as a rebel, in the first place, against the Commandment of his