A Body of Practical Divinity

(11.) Take heed of Idleness. When a Man is out of a Calling, now he is fit to receive any Temptation. We do not use to sow Seed in Fallow Ground: But the Devil sows most Seed of Temptation in such as lie sallow. Idleness is the Cause of Sodomy and Uncleanness, Ezek. 16.49. When David was idle on the Top of his Leads, then he espied Bathsheba, and took her to him, 2 Sam. 11.4. Hierom gave his Friend this Counsel, to be always well employed in God's Vineyard, that when the Devil came he might have no leisure to listen to a 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, chap. 24.16. When Solomon had dissuaded from strange Women, he prescribes a Remedy against it: Prov. 5.18. Rejoice with the Wife of thy Youth. It is not the having a Wife, but the loving a Wife, 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 Conjugal Love is a Gift of God, and comes from Heaven. This, like the Vestal Fire, must be cherished, that it do not go out. He who loves not his Wife, is the likelyest Person to embrace the Bosom of a Stranger.

(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, chap. 24.16. When Solomon had disswaded from strange Women, he prescribes a Remedy against it: Prov. 5.18. Rejoyce with the Wife of thy Youth. It is not the having a Wife, but the loving a Wife, makes a Man live Chastly. He who loves his Wife, whom Solomon calls his Fountain, will not go abroad to drink of muddy poysoned Waters. Pure Conjugal Love is a Gift of God, and comes from Heaven. This, like the Vestal Fire, must be cherished, that it do not go out. He who loves not his Wife, is the likelyest Person to embrace the Bosom of a Stranger.