A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews wherein every word and particle in the original is explained ... : being the substance of thirty years Wednesdayes lectures at Black-fryers, London / by that holy and learned divine Wiliam Gouge ... : before which is prefixed a narrative of his life and death : whereunto is added two alphabeticall tables ...

§. 89. Of Fornication.

Heb. 12. 16, 17.

Vers. 16.

Lest there be any fornicatour, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mor∣sell of meat sold his birth-right.

Vers. 17.

For ye know, how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

THese verses depend on the former, as is evident by this phrase, a 1.1 lest any. Now it depends on that which goeth before, as a particular exemplification of a gene∣rall caveat. Fornication and profanesse are roots of bitternesse; therefore Fornica∣tors and profane persons, we our selves may not be, nor may we suffer such to be among us; for so much doth this phrase in the extent thereof import, lest there be any, that is, lest you your selves, or any among you, be such. It seemeth that these two vices were too rise among the Hebrews, therefore he exemplifieth the general into these two particulars, viz. Fornication and profanesse. As in the fourteenth verse he enjoyned peace, which hath especiall respect to man, and holinesse, which respecteth God: so here he forbiddeth a speciall sin against man, which is fornication, and al∣so a sin against God, which is profanesse.

O•…•… the notation of the word translated fornication, of the difference betwixt it

and adultery, of the heynousnesse of each sin, and of the remedies to redresse them, see Chap. 13. v. 4. §. 37, &c.

Notes

• a 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.