2. And the injury is yet greater, if we consider it as the Spirit's temple. On this ground the apostle strongly convinceth and dis- suadeth Christians from these abuses of the body, 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16. He argues from the dignity God will put upon our bodies by the resurrection, ver. 13, 14. They are to be transformed, and made like unto Christ's glorious body ; and from the honour he has al- ready put upon the bodies of the saints in their union with Christ, ver. 15, 16. They, as well as the soul, are ingrafted into him, and joined with him ; they are his temples, to be dedicated, hal- lowed, and consecrated to his service. O let them not be made a sink for lusts, or mere strangers for meat and drink.
(2.) By macerating them with covetous lusts, denying them their due comforts and refreshments, and unmercifully burdening them with labours and sorrows about things that perish. (1.) Some deny their bodies due comforts and refreshments, which the natural and positive laws of God both allow and command. Their souls are cruel step-mothers to their bodies, and keep them too short ; not out of a prudent and Christian design to starve their lusts, but to advance their estates. Of this Solomon speaks, Eccl. vi. 22. " There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and "it is common among men; A man to whom God hath given " riches, wealth and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his " soul of all that he desireth ; yet God giveth him not power to " eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. This is vanity, and it is " an evil disease."" Tenacity is a disease of the soul, like that of a dyscrasy in the stomach, which so indisposeth it that it cannot re- ceive with any appetite or delight the best refreshments at a plenti- ful table. (2.) And others there are that wrong and abuse their own bodies, by laying unreasonable and unmerciful loads upon them, especially loads of grief and sorrow, wasting and weakening them beyond all rules of reason or religion. If a friend or relation die, they have less mercy on their own bodies than a conscientious man hath on the horse he rides. Cares and sorrows are as deadly to the body as a sword, 1 Tim. vi. 10. Intense and immoderate griefs about worldly losses and crosses have slain their ten thou- sands ; and, which is strange, the soul seems to take a certain kind of pleasure in loading and tormenting the body. There is a real truth in that strange expression of * Seneca, " Sorrow itself hath a " certain kind of pleasure attending it.""
* Inest quiddam duke tristiticc. Eph, 80G.
^'{'4r A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
The souls of some mourners do willingly excite and provoke their own grief, when they begin to abate, which is like the whet- ting of the knife that grows dull, to make it cut the deeper into the body. Thus, as f Seneca observes, " some parents that have " lost their beloved children, willingly call to mind their pleasant " sayings, and pretty actions to find a kind of pleasure in a fresh " shower of tears for them ;" when, poor hearts ! sorrow hath so broken them already, that they need consolations under their pre- sent sorrows, rather than irritations of new ones. And the soul's unmercifulness to the body, is in such causes farther discovered by its obstinate refusal of all that is comforting and relieving. So it i? said of Rachel. Jer. xxxi. 15. "Rachel weeping for her children. " would not be comforted, because they were not.r> So the Israelites hearkened not unto Moses, because of the anguish of spirit, and the cruel bondage, Exod. vi. 9- Thus we studiously rake together and exasperate whatsoever is piercing, wounding, and overwhelming ; and shut our ears to all that is relieving and supporting, which is cruelty to our own bodies, and that which hath so far broken the health and strength of some bodies, that they are never like to be useful instruments to the soul any more in this world ; such deep and desperate wounds have their own souls given them by immoderate grief, as will never be perfectly healed, but by the resurrection. Of those wounds the body may say, as it is Zech. xiii. 6. These are the wounds " with which I " was wounded in the house (or by the hand) of my friend;'" thus my own soul hath dealt cruelly and unmercifully with me.
Secondly. Others offend in the excess and extravagancy of their love to the body, and these are a hundred to one in number com- pared with those that sin in defect of love. My friends, upon a due search, it will be found, that the love of our souls generally degene- rates into fondness and folly : there is but little well-tempered and ordinary love found among men. We make fondlings, yea, we make idols of our bodies ; we rob God, yea, our own souls, to give to the body. It is not a natural and kindly heat of love, but a mere feverish heat, which preys upon the very spirits of religion, which is found with many of us. The feverish distemper may be discovered, by the beating of our pulse, in three or four particulars,
(1.) This appears by our sinful indulgence to our whining ap- petites. We give the flesh whatsoever it craves, and can deny it nothing it desires : pampering the body, to the great injury and hazard of the soul. Some have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh, as it is, Eph. ii. 3. trading only in those things that please
f Cum ocmrrnnt sermoneseorumjucundi, conversatio hilaris ojficiusa pietas : tunc ocul: vrtut in garulio relaxanlur. Id. ib.
A TREATISE OF TITF. SOI'L OF lfAlti CO'
*md pain per the flesh ; " They sow to the flesh,'1 Gal. vi. 8. i. e, all their studies and labours are but the sowing of ike seeds of plea- sure to the flesh. Not a handful of spiritual seed sown in prayer for the soul all the day long : what the body craves, the obsequious soul like a slave, is at its beck to give it ; Tit. hi. '3. " Serving divers lusts and pleasures;" attending to every knock and call, to fulfil the desires of the flesh. O how little do these men understand the life of religion, or the great design of Christianity ! which con- sists in mortifying, and not pampering and gratifying the body, Rom. xiv. 13, 14. And according to that rule, all serious Christians order their bodies, giving them what is needful to keep them ser- viceable and useful to the soul, but not gratifying their irregular desires ; giving what their wants, not what their wantonness calls for. So Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 27. " I beat it down, and keep it " under ;" he understood it as his servant, not his master. He knew that Hagar would quickly perk up, and domineer over Sarah, expect more attendance than the soul, except it were kept under : these two verbs, urwr/a^w and hxkaywyw, are very emphati- cal ; the former signifies to make it black and blue with buffeting, the other to bring it under by checks and rebukes, as masters that understand their place and authority use to do with insolent and wanton servants.