John Gill On Resisting Sexual Temptation

By Jonathan Boyd

The name of John Gill (1697-1771) is often associated in our day with hyper-Calvinism, the kind that is purported to have plunged the Particular Baptists of the eighteenth century into a profound spiritual lethargy. This idea, coupled with the vastness of his writings (over 10,000 folio pages), have led many to shy away from reading Gill. Others have read Gill only in order to critique his position on the free offer of the gospel or his position on the divine decrees (he was committed to eternal justification, for example). This focus is understandable but truncates the spiritual benefit that could be received from a wider reading of one of the most eminent Baptist pastor- theologians of history. In the words of Augustus Toplady, his Anglican contemporary, Gill “considered not any subject superficially, or by halves. As deeply as human sagacity, enlightened by grace, could penetrate, he went to the bottom of every thing he engaged in.” [1] Gill also incorporated a wealth of knowledge of the Semitic languages and rabbinic literature in his writings; this knowledge, coupled with many years of pastoral experience, makes much of Gill’s writing relevant for our day. Although he was surely wrong in some areas of his theology, we should appreciate his thoroughness and wisdom as applied to many areas of theology, ethics, and ministry.

In this article, I propose to look at an aspect of Gill’s thought that has never been investigated in print: his sexual ethics, and particularly his advice on resisting sexual temptation. How should a pastor approach the teachings of God’s Word about sex and sexual temptation? What advice does Gill offer to people who struggle with lust or pornography? Some pastors of our era garner headlines for the shock value of their teaching on these topics, but I believe that Gill’s approach has more biblical merit. His approach to sexuality and sexual temptation is sober but not prudish, radical but not impractical, and always Christ-centered.

In order to understand Gill’s teaching on sexuality and resisting temptation, we must first see him in his original context. This requires no small effort, as many cultural aspects have changed over more than two hundred years; in addition, the scholarly guild has sometimes wrongly assessed Gill’s theology, a fact that could skew our understanding of his view on sexual ethics.

John Gill In His Context

Gill was born in England in the town of Kettering, Northamptonshire, on November 23, 1697, to Edward and Elizabeth Gill. Gill’s parents were dissenters and eventually became part of the Particular Baptist congregation in Kettering, the same church that Andrew Fuller later pastored. According to our limited sources, we can conclude that Gill’s parents modeled piety in their home, and Gill’s father received a “good report” as a deacon for his “grace, his piety, and holy conversation.” [2]

The young Gill showed great promise in his studies, quickly advancing in Latin and Greek. As his early biographer John Rippon notes, Gill spent so much time in the local bookstore reading that his neighbors began to affirm something as fact by saying that “it is as sure…as that John Gill is in the bookseller’s shop.” This habit of study never ceased, and during his ministry people would use the phrase “as surely as Dr. Gill is in his study” in a similar manner. [3] He later taught himself Hebrew and continued developing and honing his language skills throughout his entire life.

On November 1, 1716, Gill, who had become a believer at an earlier date, professed faith in Christ before his church and was baptized. Three days later Gill read and commented on Isaiah 53 in a home gathering of his church to the obvious benefit of those attending, and the following Sunday he preached his first sermon. Thus began a teaching and preaching ministry that would span almost fifty-five years. A short time after his baptism, Gill moved to Higham Ferrers, a small town near Kettering, where he boarded with a learned pastor and assisted in the ministry of a new church plant. Although his academic interests were frustrated in Higham Ferrers, his life was blessed by Elizabeth Negus, a godly young woman whom he married in 1718. This would begin a happy union that would last for over forty-six years.

An understanding of one challenge in Gill’s marriage may further illuminate our study. In August of 1720, Elizabeth suffered a miscarriage, which affected her emotional and physical health for seven or eight months. As a result, Gill invested energy in caring for his wife to the extent that he received criticism from church members for his inordinate attention towards her. In March of 1721, Thomas Crosby, one of the church’s deacons, confronted Gill about this issue in what was apparently a difficult conversation. [4] Based on

B. R. White’s analysis, it appears that the matter continued to fester as Gill eventually used Crosby’s criticisms against him in a church meeting two years later in March of 1723. [5] Although Gill may not have handled this situation in the best manner, the love that he had for his wife in spite of her physical weakness shines through loud and clear. Elizabeth’s ill health seems to have continued, as she spent the last nine years of her life as an invalid. [6] We can better appreciate Gill’s teaching on the marriage relationship and on avoiding temptation when we take into account the physical weakness of his wife over the course of their marriage.

Another issue that merits mention is Gill’s relation to Antinomianism. Although Antinomianism is not easy to define, the chief issue was the rejection by the Antinomians of the moral law for the believer. [7] Most scholars agree that Gill taught a doctrine of “ justification from eternity,” [8] but we should not automatically link that belief with Antinomianism. Even a cursory reading of Gill shows that he rejected both doctrinal and practical Antinomianism, [9] and the scholarly studies on this subject have substantiated this view. [10] Thus, we should read Gill as a Baptist who followed the “mainstream of Reformed thought regarding the law,” [11] whose teachings on sexual ethics remained within this trajectory.

His Tone Towards Sexuality

In the twenty-first century, we are inundated by references to sexuality. Many industries promote a flippant or vulgar attitude towards this aspect of our human nature. This tendency may be more widespread than in previous generations, but it is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the eighteenth century had its fair share of pornography and sexual sin. [12] Some have perhaps thought that a biblical approach towards sex and sexual temptation would be to retreat to a more Victorian prudishness. We may imagine that Gill would not freely talk of these matters, but such a view would be erroneous.

Throughout Gill’s corpus, we find a sober but honest approach towards sexuality and sexual temptation. Take, for example, his comments on the words “And knew her not” in Matthew 1:25. [13] Gill states that this refers to “carnal knowledge of her, or copulation with her.” He later explains: “The words are an euphemism, or a modest way of expressing the conjugal act.” [14] From this comment we see that Gill teaches that modesty in these intimate matters is important. In another place, he interprets “the secrets” or the “privy parts” of a man to be that “which through shame are hidden, and modesty forbids to express in proper terms; and such is the purity of the Hebrew language, that no obscene words are used in it.” [15] By the same token, Gill is not ashamed to speak of sexuality. For example, he explains in detail the proceedings to be followed when a young woman was accused of having lost her virginity before her wedding night. He mentions that this process of exposing the sheet with proof of her virginity should not be considered indecent, since “persons and things much more filthy came under the cognizance and examination of the priests, as leprous, menstruous, and profluvious persons, and their respective disorders.” [16] Gill’s understanding of how the priests viewed their responsibility to judge physical matters considered “filthy” seems to correspond to his own viewpoint towards pastoral ministry with respect to sexual sin. As a pastor, he did not fear speaking the truth in love when the topic was sodomy, fornication, or sexual temptation.

Pastors in the eighteenth century needed to exhort their church people about sexual temptation and the possibility of moral failure. Michael Watts, in his study on the Dissenters from 1690 to 1730, says that the main sins that required church discipline were “neglect of worship, drunkenness, and sexual lapses.” [17] Gill would surely have faced some of the same issues. He notes, for example, in his commentary on 1 Timothy 4:12, that Timothy should be an example to the believers in “purity,” which he defines as “chastity of body, in opposition to all impurity of the flesh, by fornication, adultery, and the like.” He further states that Paul’s exhortation “was very proper to be suggested to a young man.” From this statement we can infer that Gill understood the struggles that young men face, perhaps both from personal and ministry experience.

His Teaching On Fighting Sexual Temptation

Gill’s writings cover a vast array of theological topics, but he wrote few pieces directed specifically to ethics. [18] For this reason, we will need to bring together his teaching on resisting sexual temptation from various passages in his works, most notably from his commentaries on the Old and New Testaments. My goal in the body of this paper is to distill Gill’s major teaching on this topic, especially in the areas that contemporary Christians would find most helpful or thought- provoking. As we shall see, many of Gill’s exhortations are reflected in modern studies on this topic, but his approach also provides new ways in which to think about sexual temptation, and therefore may lead to new insights about how to reject it.

Attack The Sins Of The Heart

Gill follows in the Puritan tradition of placing a high value on the heart. [19] In his Body of Divinity he contrasts external and internal worship, positing that:

internal worship requires our first attention, it being of the greatest moment and importance; external worship profits little in comparison of that; if the heart is not engaged in worship, bodily exercise is of little advantage, that being only the form without the power of godliness; yea vain is such worship where the heart is far removed from God. God is a spirit, and must be worshipped with our spirits, the better and more noble part of man. [20]

This distinction between internal and external worship applies directly to Gill’s teaching on resisting sexual temptation. Commenting on the words of Malachi 2:15, “Therefore take heed to your spirit,” he says this refers “to your affections, that they do not go after other women, and be led thereby to take them in marriage, and to despise and divorce the lawful wife.” Breaking the marriage covenant is a sin that begins in the heart, and for that reason this sin must be radically attacked in that sphere.

Gill’s treatment of Proverbs 5-7 provides some of his most practical teaching on how to reject sexual temptation. Proverbs 7:25, speaking of how a young man should avoid the “strange woman,” says, “Let not thine heart decline to her ways.” Gill applies this text in the following way:

Do not so much as think of going out of the one [way] into the other; let there not be the least wandering thought, affection, or disposition of the mind thereunto; stop and check the first motion of the heart, which leads to a compliance with her, and seems to be directed to her ways, or to betray any love and liking of them. [21]

This sort of instruction is dovetailed with a clear rejection of moralism. According to Gill, the gospel ministry is not directed towards teaching people “to read lectures of morality” [22] because these do not change the heart, which is “the source of all wickedness.” [23] In accord with Christ’s teaching, all sexual sins “take their rise from, and are devised, and forged, in the corrupt heart of man.” [24] Thus, instead of focusing on moralism, Gill teaches that sexual temptation must be resisted by relying on the Spirit’s power to transform the human heart through the gospel and the Word of God.

Another passage that clearly shows Gill’s concern for attacking the sins of the heart is his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” He begins his commentary by stating that the Jewish people focused on the sinfulness of literally looking at a woman in order to “cover themselves” from suspicion of wrongdoing. This tendency shows their focus on outward appearance more than on their heart condition; as a result, they were often led to “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Gill explains: “It was not any looking upon a woman, that is forbid by Christ as criminal; but so to look, as ‘to lust after her.’” [25]

How then should we fight sexual temptation? A first step is to incorporate the category of heart sins into our understanding of sexual sin. Gill notes that the Pharisees struggled with sexual sins because they “generally speaking, had no notion of heart sins.” [26] We cannot follow their hypocritical path. Just as true worship is internal before it is external, so the true arena for fighting sexual temptation is the heart before it is the body.

Control Your Eyes

Although the visual aspect of sexual temptation was surely less brazen in the time of Gill than in ours, his biblical focus led him to warn about carefully controlling this gateway to temptation. As we shall see, Gill finds a close connection between heart sins and temptation that enters through the eyes. Mirroring the thoughts of the Roman poet Claudius Aelianus, he wrote that “the eye [is] the way through which the beauty of a woman passes swifter than an arrow into the hearts of men, and makes impressions there.” [27] Samson offers a clear example of this principle. Gill notes that Samson’s downfall was due to his lack of self-control with regard to what he saw. In his commentary on Judges 16:1, he observes that:

The woman that kept this house might herself be an harlot, or, however, Samson saw one in her house, with whom he was captivated, and went in unto her, or had criminal conversation with her; it seems as if he did not turn in thither with any such wicked design, but on sight of the person was ensnared to commit lewdness with her.

In commenting on the end of the Samson story, Gill follows the Jewish commentators in their view that the Philistines plucked out Samson’s eyes in “ just retaliation” for the sins that his eyes had led him to commit against many Philistine women. [28] For Gill, Samson’s example warns of the danger of permitting our eyes to feast on forbidden pleasures. We may not lose them as Samson did, but unless we control them, they will lead to our downfall.

How then should we control our eyes? In Gill’s thought, Job provides a model for how to apply this principle. Commenting on Job 31:1, he says that Job, in order to avoid sexual sin,

entered into a solemn engagement with himself, laid himself under a strong obligation, as if he had bound himself by a covenant, made a resolution in the strength of divine grace, not to employ his eyes in looking on objects that might ensnare his heart, and lead him to the commission of sin; he made use of all ways and means, and took every precaution to guard against it; and particularly this, to shut or turn his eyes from beholding what might be alluring and enticing to him.

Of special importance in this comment is Gill’s emphasis on “the strength of divine grace.” As we have already noted, a list of sexual prohibitions does not translate into holiness of life; rather, believers must avail themselves, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of every possible means of avoiding the sins that tempt them through their eyes.

He builds on this instruction in his commentary on Matthew 5:29, where he explains that making a covenant with our eyes means resolving to

turn them away from beholding such objects, which may tend to excite impure thoughts and desires; deny themselves the gratification of the sense of seeing, or feeding the eyes with such sights, as are graceful to the flesh; and with indignation and contempt, reject, and avoid all opportunities and occasions of sinning; which the eye may be the instrument of, and lead unto.

The juxtaposition of terms in this comment is striking. Anything visual that is “graceful to the flesh” must be met head on with “indignation and contempt,” born out of a desire to avoid future destruction. Gill’s teaching here challenges our apathetic stance towards “feeding the eyes” with sensual or sexual images. Just as our Lord Jesus was angered by sin, we too should be angered by our tendency to allow sin to enter our hearts through our eyes.

Take The Natural Law Into Account

Gill cites the importance of the natural law in much of his teaching on resisting sexual temptation. In order to understand Gill’s framework, we must understand his approach towards knowledge about God’s moral will. In the section “Of a Good Conscience” in his Body of Divinity, Gill lists three possible sources for correct knowledge of God’s moral will: “the law and light of nature,” “the moral law written,” and the gospel. [29] For Gill, these sources are not contradictory but complementary, since “the matter and substance of the moral law of Moses agrees with the law and light of nature.” [30] Based on this foundation, Gill appeals to “the law and light of nature,” also known as the natural law, in many passages on sexual ethics.

The natural law instructs us to reject certain sins because of their intent against the natural order of creation. Thus, in his commentary on Leviticus 18, Gill asserts that the natural law, in agreement with the written law, prohibits incest, homosexuality, and bestiality. Of special importance are his comments on homosexuality. He notes that sodomy is an abomination, since

it is so to God, as the above instance of his vengeance shows, and ought to be abominable to men, as being not only contrary to the law of God, but even contrary to nature itself, and what is never to be observed among brute creatures. [31]

The natural law also instructs about homosexual tendencies in clothing, given that “in nature a difference of sexes is made, it is proper and necessary that this should be known by difference of dress, or otherwise many evils might follow; and this precept is agreeably to the law and light of nature.” [32] In his commentary on Romans 1, Gill points out further the connection between the rejection of the Creator and disdain for the natural law. In other words, when people reject “the light of nature” about God’s attributes as revealed in the creation, they will inevitably reject the natural law’s teaching about sexual ethics. For example, he states that sodomy “generally prevails where idolatry and infidelity do,” especially as a result of the influence of Islam, the papacy, and deism. [33]

In modern evangelical thinking on sexual ethics, the natural law is usually not taken into account. For this reason, some evangelicals teach that a couple’s sexual practices within marriage have no limits. But Gill’s teaching raises an issue. What does the natural law teach about the sexual relationship, even within marriage? Gill’s comment on Paul’s phrase, “for even the women did change the natural use into that which is against nature” from Romans 1:26, gives pause for thought. He interprets the manner in which they exchanged the natural use as

either by prostituting themselves to, and complying with the “sodomitical” embraces of men, in a way that is against nature; or by making use of such ways and methods with themselves, or other women, to gratify their lusts, which were never designed by nature for such an use.

Without going into graphic detail, we see that Gill’s explanation of this text leads us to think about how certain sexual practices even between men and women could be “against nature,” and as such should be rejected.

Avoid The Slippery Slope Of Sexual Sin

Sexual temptation comes in different styles. Internet pornography may attack suddenly or a neighbor may make sexual advances without warning, but more often than not sexual temptation develops slowly. Gill teaches us to reject the gradual, subtle manner in which sexual sin operates. Gill uses the teaching of Proverbs on the adulterous woman to warn against the slippery slope of sexual sin. He exhorts us about removing our ways from her:

The way of the mind, walk, and conversation; keep at the greatest distance from her; neither come where she is, nor look at her, nor converse with her; shun her, as one would the pest or a loathsome carcass; go a good way about rather than come near her, or be within sight of her, or so as to be in any danger of being ensnared by her. [34]

The believer should avoid drawing near to sexual temptation. Normally, a Christian does not seek to fall into sexual sin, but the temptation grows as precautions are laid aside. To the unwary, exposure to sin looks harmless:

The house of the harlot that stood in a corner to take in persons that came both ways; to come near which is dangerous; this was putting himself in the way of temptation; or the corner of the street where she stood to pick up young men; it could be with no good design to walk the streets in the night, and to go where harlots haunt, and where they dwell or stand; or, however, it was exposing himself to danger, and, had he took the wise man’s advice, would not have done it. [35]

Perhaps the young man did not desire “to commit fornication” with the harlot, but the fornication of his heart led him “to gratify his lusts by looks, dalliances, and impure discourse with her,” [36] which in turn led to further sexual sin.

The actions of Joseph in Genesis 39 provide a clear contrast with those of the young man of Proverbs 7 and a concrete method for avoiding the slippery slope of sexual sin. Gill explains that Potiphar’s wife spoke to him “continually, incessantly, hoping in time to prevail upon him to comply with her desires; so that the temptation, as it was strong, and very ensnaring, it was urgent, and frequent, and pressed with great importunity.” Joseph, in order to resist this continual temptation, “not only did not yield to her, but would not give her an hearing, at least as little as possible he could, lest he should be overcome by her persuasions.” Joseph understood that sexual sin, embodied in his master’s wife, seeks “by degrees to gain her point.” [37] For this reason, he fled, leaving his garment in her hand, “lest he should by handling of her have carnal desires excited in him, and so be overcome with her temptation.” [38] Gill advises, “all unchaste touches, embraces, etc. are condemned. As adultery may be committed in the heart, and by the eye, so with the hand.” [39] In his “Compendium of the Decalogue” he expands this exhortation, saying that the Seventh commandment teaches

to avoid everything that tends to unchastity; as intemperance, in the case of Lot; sloth and idleness, as in Sodom; immodest apparel and ornament, as in Jezebel; keeping ill company, and frequenting places of diversion, which are nurseries of vice; and also reading impure books. [40]

Gill’s teaching remains relevant for today’s world. Were he alive today, he would surely warn about the potential dangers of the Internet, the entertainment industry, video games, social networks, and a host of other areas in which the twenty-first century Christian must be on guard against the slippery slope of sexual temptation.

Enjoy The Sexual Relationship In Your Marriage

Augustus Toplady, Gill’s contemporary and friend, described his moral character as “consistently exemplary,” saying that he could not be charged “with the least shadow of immorality.” [41] This moral character was exemplified by faithfulness to his wife for more than four decades. It is no surprise that Gill taught the importance of the sexual relationship within marriage as an integral aspect of avoiding sexual temptation.

Gill follows the standard Baptist teaching on marriage, which flowed out of the Reformed tradition, as especially evinced in the Puritans. [42] Although he rarely references the Second London Confession of Faith of his Particular Baptist forebears, his views on marriage concur with the Confession’s teaching. The Confession teaches three main purposes of marriage: “mutual help,” “the increase of mankind,” and “for preventing of uncleanness.” [43] An article by Michael Haykin and Ian Clary [44] and a book chapter by Sharon James [45] contribute towards a better understanding of Gill’s views on the first two purposes of marriage mentioned, but neither discusses in detail the importance of the third purpose as understood by Gill, to which we now turn.

Gill lays the foundation for marriage and the sexual relationship in his commentary on the first chapter of Genesis. He explains the clause “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” thus: “This shows that marriage is an ordinance of God, instituted in paradise, and is honourable; and that procreation is a natural action, and might have been, and may be performed without sin.” [46] He further explicates the one-flesh relationship in marriage in the following manner:

The union between them is so close, as if they were but one person, one soul, one body; and which is to be observed against polygamy, unlawful divorces, and all uncleanness, fornication, and adultery: only one man and one woman, being joined in lawful wedlock, have a right of copulation with each other, in order to produce a legitimate offspring, partaking of the same one flesh, as children do of their parents, without being able to distinguish the flesh of the one from the other, they partake of. [47]

This comment indicates that the one-flesh relationship contradicts any sexual immorality. Teaching about resisting sexual temptation, Gill explains the need to “drink waters out of thine own cistern,” urging men to

take a wife and cleave to her, and enjoy all the pleasures and comforts of a marriage state. As every man formerly had his own cistern for the reception of water for his own use, (2 Kings 18:31); so every man should have his own wife, and but one: and as drinking water quenches thirst, and allays heat; so the lawful enjoyments of the marriage bed quench the thirst of appetite, and allay the heat of lust; for which reason the apostle advises men to marry and not burn, (1 Corinthians 7:9); and a man that is married should be content with his own wife, and not steal waters out of another cistern. [48]

This interpretation follows closely that of the Puritans, who promoted “a greater celebration of intimacy and sex within marriage” than the majority of their Christian forebears. [49] Gill’s exposition of 1 Corinthians 7 expands on this general principle of sexual intimacy. He comments on Paul’s command, “let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband,” saying:

That is, let every man that has a wife enjoy her, and make use of her, and let every woman that has an husband, receive him into her embraces; for these words are not to be understood of unmarried persons entering into a marriage state, for the words suppose them in such a state, but of the proper use of the marriage bed; and teach us that marriage, and the use of it, are proper remedies against fornication; and that carnal copulation of a man with a woman ought only to be of husband and wife, or of persons in a married state; and that all other copulations are sinful. [50]

Gill also cites the Jewish writers on this topic in his commentary on the same verse, noting that for them a woman who refuses her husband the use of the marriage bed was considered “rebellious” and could be sent away. While Gill did not agree with this refusal as a grounds for divorce, [51] he did see it as “injustice” or a “defrauding,” whether on the part of the husband or the wife. [52] Mirroring the biblical teaching, Gill emphasizes the importance of an ongoing sexual relationship within the bonds of marriage as an important factor in resisting sexual temptation.

Relate All Sexual Sin To Spiritual Adultery

In our final point of consideration from Gill’s teaching, we examine the close connection in his thought between sexual temptation and spiritual adultery. Benjamin King is representative of the Reformed tradition when he defines spiritual marriage as “that neere and intimate conjunction, that is betwixt Christ and every beleeving soule, which is so great and intimate, that Christ and a beleever are sayd to bee one.” [53] Viewing the Christian life as a spiritual marriage to Christ provides a deep motivation for resisting sexual temptation, since any sin against Christ is spiritual adultery.

Most biblical commentators since Origen have read the Song of Songs as a text dealing with spiritual marriage between Christ and the believer. [54] Gill followed this same method when reading both the Song of Songs and other biblical texts. [55] In fact, Gill preached 122 sermons on the Song of Songs, using the allegorical method to teach about the relationship between Christ and His church, [56] but his understanding of spiritual marriage did not flow only from the Song of Songs. Following in the Reformed tradition, he saw this relationship in a number of other biblical texts, such as Psalm 45, Matthew 9:15, and 2 Corinthians 11:2. Although we may not share Gill’s hermeneutical outlook in toto, we can learn from his deeply Christological piety, and his approach yields insight into resisting sexual temptation.

Gill’s extensive preaching on the Song of Songs influences all of his later works, including his biblical interpretation of passages related to sexual temptation. In many of these texts, he passes seamlessly from a discussion of the sexual relationship to that of a spiritual relationship with God or vice versa. The concept of spiritual marriage helps to define spiritual adultery, which in turn is often found in a context of sexual sin. Although this mixture of the sexual and spiritual may jar our sensibilities, Gill follows the teaching of a number of biblical texts that juxtapose sexual sin and spiritual adultery. [57]

Gill’s commentary on Proverbs 5 provides an example of the close connection in his thought between sexual temptation and spiritual adultery. He begins by describing the “wicked woman…the kisses of whose lips, her confabulations and songs, are as pleasing to the carnal senses of men as honey is sweet to the taste; she promises them a great deal of pleasure in her embraces, and in the enjoyment of her.” This description of sexual sin brings to Gill’s mind “the whore of Rome” and her “idolatrous practices,” which are “spiritual adultery.” [58] This exemplifies Gill’s method of interpreting passages on sexual sin in the sense that they inevitably lead him to discuss spiritual adultery.

Perhaps the clearest passage in Gill’s corpus on spiritual adultery arises from his commentary on the Decalogue:

Now for Israel, who knew the true God, who had appeared unto them, and made himself known to them by his name Jehovah, both by his word and works, whom he had espoused to himself as a choice virgin, to commit idolatry, which is spiritual adultery with other gods, with strange gods, that are no gods, and this before God, in the presence of him, who had took them by the hand when he brought them out of Egypt, and had been a husband to them, must be shocking impiety, monstrous ingratitude, and extremely displeasing to God, and resented by him; and is, as many observe, as if a woman should commit adultery in the presence of her husband, and so the phrase may denote the audaciousness of the action, as well as the wickedness of it. [59]

This understanding of spiritual adultery helps us understand the personal nature of sin. We do not simply break God’s laws; we commit spiritual adultery against our Lord. Gill connected the ideas of spiritual marriage and sexual sin also in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 6, interpreting the phrase “ joined unto the Lord,” as a description of “the marriage between Christ and his church.” [60] Since the believer is united spiritually to Christ and indwelt by the Spirit of God, Gill says that “it is most abominably scandalous and shameful that that body should be defiled by the sin of fornication.” [61] He treats the phrase “stolen waters are sweet” in a similar manner, first discussing physical adultery and then turning to spiritual adultery:

By which [phrase] in general is meant, that all prohibited unlawful lusts and pleasures are desirable to men, and sweet in the enjoyment of them; and the pleasure promised by them is what makes them so desirable, and the more so because forbidden: and particularly as adultery, which is a sort of theft, and a drinking water out of another’s cistern, (Proverbs 5:15); being forbidden and unlawful, and secretly committed, is sweeter to an unclean person than a lawful enjoyment of his own wife; so false worship, superstition, and idolatry, the inventions of men, and obedience to their commands, which are no other than spiritual adultery, are more grateful and pleasing to a corrupt mind than the true and pure worship of God. [62]

Gill’s commentary on Psalm 51 serves as a fitting conclusion to this section: “All sin, though committed against a fellow creature, being a transgression of the law, is against the lawgiver…and being committed against God, that had bestowed so many favours upon him, was a cutting consideration to him.” [63] Thus, any sexual sin should ultimately be understood as transgression against God, or in more striking terms, as spiritual adultery against the Lord “who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). In light of this understanding, a lustful thought, an innuendo, a furtive glance, an immoral touch, or a surreptitious Internet search becomes a betrayal of the Savior. These subtle sins, placed within a conceptual map that includes spiritual adultery, become grievous offenses. Edging down the slippery slope, committing sins with the eyes, and lusting in the heart are all forms of spiritual adultery.

A Concluding Challenge

In today’s world of increasing sexual temptation, believers need clear biblical teaching and concrete examples of men and women who serve as models of sexual purity and marital faithfulness. As this study has shown, John Gill provides exactly that: he lived a life of complete faithfulness to his wife, taught key biblical truths on resisting sexual temptation, and exalted Christ in the process.

Notes

1. Cited John Rippon, A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late Rev. John Gill, D.D. (Harrisonburg, Va.: Sprinkle Publications, 2006), 137.
2. Rippon, A Brief Memoir, 2-3.
3. Rippon, A Brief Memoir, 4.
4. B. R. White, “John Gill in London, 1719-1729: A Biographical Fragment,” The Baptist Quarterly 22, no. 2 (April 1967): 82.
5. White, “John Gill in London,” 84.
6. Robert W. Oliver, “John Gill (1697-1771): His Life and Ministry,” in The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), 42.
7. Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 324.
8. Paul Brewster, Andrew Fuller: Model Pastor-Theologian, Studies in Baptist Life and Thought (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Academic, 2010), 155; Michael A. G. Haykin, “Hyper-Calvinism and the Theology of John Gill” (paper presented at the True Church Conference, Muscle Shoals, Ala., 2010), 6 (http://www.andrewfullercenter.org/ files/hyper-calvinism-and-the-theology-of-john-gill.pdf; accessed October 13, 2012).
9. For an example, see his sermon entitled “The Law Established by the Gospel” in John Gill, A Collection of Sermons and Tracts: In Two Volumes (London: George Keith, 1773), 1:200-16.
10. Curt Daniel, “John Gill and Calvinistic Antinomianism” in The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), 171-90; Jonathan White, “A Theological and Historical Examination of John Gill’s Soteriology in Relation to Eighteenth-Century Hyper- Calvinism” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2010), 179.
11. Daniel, “John Gill and Calvinistic Antinomianism,” 187.
12. Julie Peakman, Mighty Lewd Books: The Development of Pornography in Eighteenth-Century England (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
13. Biblical citations will be made from the King James Version of 1769.
14. All citations of Gill’s commentaries will be drawn from John Gill, The Collected Writings of John Gill, CD-ROM (Paris, Ark.: Baptist Standard Bearer, 1999). His commentaries are also readily available on the Internet and in a variety of print versions.
15. Commentary on Deuteronomy 1:25.
16. Commentary on Deuteronomy 22:17.
17. Michael R. Watts, The Dissenters: Volume I: From the Reformation to the French Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 326.
18. Daniel notes that Gill had wanted to write a treatise on the Ten Commandments but died before he was able to do so. Daniel, “John Gill and Calvinistic Antinomianism,” 188, n.89.
19. For examples of the Puritan emphasis on the heart, see Arthur G. Bennett, ed., The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975).
20. John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, or, A System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures (London: Thomas Tegg, 1839), 2:346.
21. Commentary on Proverbs 7:25.
22. Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:5.
23. Commentary on Romans 1:24.
24. Commentary on Matthew 15:19.
25. Commentary on Matthew 5:28.
26. Commentary on Matthew 5:28.
27. Commentary on Job 31:1.
28. Commentary on Judges 16:21.
29. Gill, Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, 2:547.
30. Commentary on Romans 2:14.
31. Commentary on Leviticus 18:22.
32. Commentary on Deuteronomy 22:5.
33. Commentary on Romans 1:27.
34. Commentary on Proverbs 5:8.
35. Commentary on Proverbs 7:8.
36. Commentary on Proverbs 7:8.
37. Commentary on Genesis 39:10.
38. Commentary on Genesis 39:12.
39. Commentary on Matthew 5:30.
40. Gill, Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, 2:757.
41. Rippon, Brief Memoir, 138.
42. Richard Muller provides a seminal study of the theological background of Gill’s thought in the Reformed tradition. This same background is seen in Gill’s views on sexual ethics. Richard A. Muller, “John Gill and the Reformed Tradition: A Study in the Reception of Protestant Orthodoxy in the Eighteenth Century,” in The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), 51-68.
43. W. J. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911), 263.
44. Michael A. G. Haykin and Ian Clary, “Baptist Marriage in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Talking, Thinking and Truth,” in Journal of Discipleship & Family Ministry, 3.1 (2012): 28-40. Haykin and Clary provide a helpful discussion of the Second London Confession; see “Baptist Marriage,” 28-30.
45. Sharon James, “‘The Weaker Vessel’: John Gill’s Reflections on Women, Marriage and Divorce,” in The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), 211-23.
46. Commentary on Genesis 1:27.
47. Commentary on Genesis 2:24.
48. Commentary on Proverbs 5:15.
49. Tom Schwanda, “Soul Recreation: Spiritual Marriage and Ravishment in the Contemplative-Mystical Piety of Isaac Ambrose” (PhD diss., Durham University, 2009), 65 (http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/55/; accessed January 6, 2013).
50. Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:2. The phrase “carnal copulation” in eighteenth-century English refers to the sexual act without any negative connotation.
51. He believed the only proper grounds for divorce was unrepentant fornication, broadly understood as sexual immorality. See his commentary on Matthew 5:32.
52. Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:5.
53. Benjamin King, The Marriage of the Lambe (London, 1640), 7. This definition was brought to my attention by Schwanda, “Soul Recreation,” 74.
54. Schwanda, “Soul Recreation,” 53.
55. James laments Gill’s allegorization of Proverbs 31. See James, “‘The weaker vessel,’” 219.
56. This series was published in 1728 and became a work that contributed to Gill’s growing prestige among the Particular Baptists. See Rippon, Brief Memoir, 24.
57. E.g., “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not” (Jer. 7:9).
58. Commentary on Proverbs 5:3.
59. Commentary on Exodus 20:3.
60. Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:17.
61. Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:19.
62. Commentary on Proverbs 9:17.
63. Commentary on Psalm 51:4.