A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

From the first crime here specified [giving themselves ¹over to Fornication] That Adulterous uncleanness doth much displease God. When they were given over to fornication, they were given over to judgement. 1. This is a sin that doth not only defile the Soul but the Body, 1 Cor. 6. 18. Every sin that a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth Adultery sinneth against his own body: most other sins imply an injury done to others, to God or our Neighbour: this more directly an injury to our selves, to our own bodies: 'tis a wrong to the body considered either ^*as our vessel, or as the ^*Temple of the holy Ghost: if you consider it as our vessel or instrument for natural uses, you wrong it by uncleanness: namely, as it destroyeth the health of the body, quencheth the vigour of it, and blasteth the beauty, and so 'tis self-murder: if you consider it as Temple of the Holy Ghost, 'tis a dishonour to the body to make it a channel ⟨p. 329⟩for lust to pass through, shall we make a sty of a Temple? abuse that to so vile a purpose which the Holy Ghost hath chosen to dwell in, to plant it into Christ, as a part of his mystical body, to use it as an instrument in Gods service, and finally to raise it out of the grave, and conform it to Christs glorious body? The dignity of the body well considered, is a great preservative against lust. 2. It brawneth the soul, the softness of all sensual pleasures hardeneth the heart, but this sin as being the consummate act of sensuality much more, Hosea 4. 11. Whoredom and Wine take away the heart; these two are mentioned, because usually they go together, and both take away the heart, besot the conscience, take away the tenderness of the affections: so that men are not ashamed of sin, insensible of danger, and unfit for duty; and so grow sapless, careless, senseless. 3. Next to the Body and Soul, there is the name, now it blotteth the name, Prov. 6. 33