Inf. 2. Then sec the ground and reason of Satan's envy and en- mity against the soul, and his restless designs and endeavours to destroy it. It grates that spirit of envy, to find himself, who is by nature immortal, sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into misery, and the souls of men appointed to fill up those vacant places in heaven from which the angels fell. No creature but man is envied by Satan, and the soul of man much more than his body: it is true, he afflicts the bodies of men when God permits him, but he ever aims at the soul when he wounds the body, Heb. x. 37. This roaring lion is continually going about, " seeking whom he may devour,"* 1 Pet. v. 8. It is the precious soul he hunts after; that is the Morsus diaboli, the bit he gapes for, as the wolf tears the fleece to come at the flesh. All the pleasure those miserable creatures find, is from the success of their temptations upon the souls of men. It is a kind of delight to them to plunge souls into the same condemna- tion and misery with themselves. This is the trade they have been driving ever since their fall. By destroying souls he at once exer- cises his revenge against God, and his envy against man, which is all the relief his miserable condition allows him.
Inf. 3. Do the souls of men out-live their bodies ? Then it is the height of madness and spiritual infatuation, to destroy the soul for the bodys sake ; to cast away an immortal soul for the gratification of perishing flesh ; to ruin the precious soul for ever, for the plea- sures of sin which are but for a moment ; yet this is the madness of millions of men. They will drown their own souls in everlasting perdition, to procure necessary things for the body, 1 Tim. vi. 9. " They that will be rich,1' &c. Evei-y cheat and circumvention in dealing, every lie, every act of oppression, is a wound given the immortal soul, for the procuring some accommodations to the body.
<j what soul-undoing bargains do some make with the devil ! Some sell their souls out-right for the gratification of their lusts, 1 Kings xxi. 20. Many pawn their souls to Satan in a conditional bargain ; so do all that venture upon sin, upon a presumption of pardon and repentance. The devil is a great trader for souls, he hath all sorts of commodities to suit all men's humours that will deal with him. He hath profits for the covetous, honours for the ambitious, pleasures for the voluptuous : but a soul is the price at which he sells them ; only he will be content to sell at a day, and not require present pay : so that it be paid on a death-bed, in a dving hour, he is satisfied. But oh ! what an undoing bargain do sinners make, to part with a treasure for a trifle ! Matt. xvi. 26. the precious soul for ever, " for the pleasures of sin, which are but
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF UAXh 581
\\ov xx 17. f°r a season •' Heb. xi. 25. We are charmed with
Prov. xxiii. 3 1 ,' the present pleasure and sweetness there is in sin;
32. Job xx. 12, but how bitter will the after-fruits thereof be ! — See
13. James i. 15. tjle textg 'm tjle margin# You will say hereafter as
Jonathan did, 1 Sam. xiv. 31. "I tasted but a little honey, and I " must die,"
Inf. 4. Then the exposing of the body to danger, yea, to certain destruction, for the preservation of the soul, is the dictate of spiritual wisdom, and that which every Christian is bound to chuse and prac- tise, when both interests come in full opposition, Heb. xi. 35. Dan. iii. 28. Rev. xii. 11. No promises of preferment, no threats of tor- ments, have been able to prevail with the people of God to give the least wound, or do the least wrong to their own souls. When Se- cundus was commanded to deliver his bible, he answered, Chris- tianus sum, non traditor : I am a Christian, I will not deliver it : then they desired him to deliver aliquant ecvolam, a chip, a straw, any thing that came to his hand in lieu of it : he refused to redeem his life by delivering the least trifle on that account to save it.
That is a great word of our Lord's, Luke ix. 24. " He that will " save his life, shall lose it : and he that loseth it for my sake " shall find it."" Christians, this is your duty and wisdom, and must be your resolution and practice in the day of temptation, to yield your bodies to preserve your souls, as we offer our arm to de- fend the head. Oh ! better thy body had never been given thee, than that it should be a snare to thy soul, and the instrument of casting it away for ever. Oh ! how dear are some persons like to pay for their tenderness and indulgence to the flesh, when the hour of temptation shall come ! mortify your irregular affections to the body, and never hazard your precious immortal souls for their sakes. It is the character of an hypocrite to chuse sin rather than affliction, Job xxxvi. 21. But if ever thou hast been in the deeps of spiritual troubles for sin, if God have opened thine eyes to see the evil of sin, the immense weight and value of thy soul, and of eternity, " Thou wilt not count thy life dear to thee, to finish thy " course with joy," Acts xx. 24.
Inf. 5. If the soul be an immortal being, that shall have no end, Then it is the great concern of all men to strive to the utmost for the salvation of their souls, whatever become of all lesser temporary In- terests in this world, Luke xiii. 24. There is a gate, i. e. an intro- ductive means of life and salvation ; This gate is strait, i. e. there are a world of difficulties to be encountered in the way of salvation : but he that values and loves his never-dying soul, must, and will be diligent and constant in the use of all those means that have a tendency to salvation, be they never so difficult or unpleasant to flesh and blood. There be difficulties from within ourselves, such
j$2 A TllEATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
as mortification, self-denial, contempt of the world, parting with all at the call of Christ ; and difficulties from without, the reproaches, persecutions, and sufferings for Christ, which would not be so great as they are, were it not for our unmortified lusts within ; but be they what they will, we are bound to strive through them all, for the salvation of our precious and immortal souls.
(1.) For it is the greatest concernment of the soul, yea, of our own souls ; we are bound to do much for the saving of another's soul, 2 Tim. ii. 10. much more for our own ; this is our darling, Psal. xxii. our only one.
(2.) Others have done and suffered much for the saving of their souls ; and are not ours, or ought they not to be, as dear to us, as the souls of any others have been to them ? Mat. xxi. 32.
(3.) The utmost diligence is little enough to save them. Do all that you can do, and suffer all that you can suffer, and deny your- selves as deeply as ever any did, yet you shall find all this little enough to secure them, 1 Pet. iv. 18. The righteous themselves are scarcely saved, 1 Cor. ix. 24.