Use 2. Exhort. Branch 1. If the soul be 80 precious, take heed of abusing your souls. Socrates exhorted young men that they should look their faces in a glass, and if they saw they were fair, they should do nothing unworthy of their beauty. Christians, God hath given you souls that sparkle with divine beauty ; O do nothing unworthy of these souls, do not abuse them : there are four sorts of persons that abuse souls.
1. They that degrade their souls.
(1.) That set the world above their souls; " Who pant after the dust of the earth," Amos ii. 7. As if a man's house were on fire, and he should take care to preserve the lumber, but let his child be burnt in the fire.
(2.) That make their souls lackeys to their bodies. The body is but the brutish part, the soul is the angelical; the soul is the queen-regent, who is adorned with the jewels of knowledge, and sways the sceptre of liber- ty ; oh what a pity it is that this excellent soul shall be made a vassal, and be put to grind in the mill, when the body in the meantime sits in a chair of state ! Solomon complains of an evil under the sun, Eccl. x. 7. "1 have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth." Is it not an evil under the sun to see the body riding in pomp and triumph, and the soul of man, that royal and heaven-born thing, as a lackey walking on foot.
2. They abuse their souls that sell their Kouls.
(1.) The covetous person sells his soul for money ; as it is said of the lawyer, he hath a tongue that will be sold for a fee ; so the covetous man hath a soul that is to be set for money. Achan did sell his soul for a wedge of gold. Judas did sell his soul for silver ; Judas sold cheap pennyworths; for thirty pieces of silver he did sell Christ, who was more worth than heaven ; and his own soul which was more worth than a world ! how many have damned their souls for money ? I Tim. vL 9, 10. It is observed that the
eagles' quills or feathers mixed with hens' feathers, will in time consume them; such is the world to the soul ; if you mix these earthly things with your souls, and let them lie too near you, they will in time consume and undo your souls.
(2.) The ambitious person sells his soul for honour; as Alexander the sixth did sell his soul to the devil for a popedom ; and what is that honour but res imaginaria ? a torch lighted by the breath of people, with the least puff of censure blown out ! how many souls have been blown into hell with the wind of popular applause ?
(3.) The voluptuous person sells his soidfor pleasure. Heliogabalus drowned himself in sweet water; so many drown their souls in the sweet perfumed waters of pleasure. Plato calls pleasure the bait that catcheth souls : Pleasure is a silken halter, a flattering devil, it kills with embracing.
(4.) Theyabuse their souls that poison their souls ; error is a sweet poison. Ignatius calls it the invention of the devil. A man may as well damn his soul by error as vice, and may as soon go to hell for a drunken opinion as for a drunken life.
( 5. ) They abuse their souls that starve their souls ; these are they that say they are above ordinances ; but sure we shall not be above ordinances, till we are above sin. The apostle saith, that in the blessed sacrament we are to remember the Lord's death till he come, 1 Cor. xi. 26. that is, imtil Christ comes to judgment. How then can any omit sacraments without a contempt and affront offered to Christ himself? if Saint Paul and the apostles, those giants in grace, needed the Lord's supper to confirm and corroborate them, much more do we need such holy or- dinances, who have but an infant faith ; but Satan likes these fasting days, he would have men fast from ordinances: if the body be kept from food, it cannot live long.
Branch 2. If the soul be so precious a thing, take heed you do not lose your souls ; consider what a loss it is, as appears in two things.
1. It is a foolish loss to lose the soul, " Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re- quired of thee," Luke xii. 20. It is a foolish loss to lose the soul, iu a threefold respect.
PRECIOUSNESS OF THE SOUL.
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(1.) Because there is a possibility of saving the soul ; we have time to work in, we have light to work by, we have the Spirit offering us help. The soul is like a ship laden with jewels, the Spirit is a gale of wind to blow; if we would but loosen anchor from sin, we might arrive at the port of happiness.