It was a rare expression of a Heathen, Major sum, et ad majora natus, quam ut corporis met sim mancipium ; I am greater, and born to greater things, than that I should be a slave to my body. And it was the saying of a pious divine, when he felt the flesh re-* bellious and wanton, Ego Jaciam, aselle, ut ne cdlcitres ; I will make thee, thou ass, that thou shalt not kick. I know the super- stitious Papists place much of religion in these external things, but though they abuse them to an ill purpose, there is a necessary and lawful use of these abridgments and restraints upon the body ; and it will be impossible to mortify and starve our lusts without a due rigour and severity to our flesh. But how little are many acquaint- ed with these things? They deal with their bodies as David with Adonijah, of whom it is said, 1 Kings i. 6. His father had not dis- pleased him at any time, in saying, Why hast thou done so ? And just so our flesh requites us, by its rebellions and treasons against the soul ; it seeks the life of the soul, which seeks nothing more than its content and pleasure ; this is not ordinate love, but fondness and folly, and what we shall bitterly repent for at last.
(;L) It appears by our sparing and favouring of them, in the ne- cessary uses and services we have for them in religion. Many will rather starve their souls, than work and exercise their bodies, or disturb their sluggish rest: thus the idle excuses and pretences of endangering our health, oftentimes put by the duties of religion,
606 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX.
or, at least, lose the fittest and properest seasons for them : we arc lazying upon our beds, when we should be wrestling upon our knees : the world is suffered to get the start of religion in the morning, and so religion is never able to overtake it all the day long. This was none of David's courses, he prevented the dawn- ing of the morning, and cried, Psal. cxix. 147. and Psal. v. 3. " My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morn- " ing will I direct my prayers unto thee, and will look up." And indeed we should consecrate unto God the freshest and fittest parts of our time, when our bodily senses are most vigorous ; and we would do so, (except God by his providence disable us) were our hearts fully set for God, and religion lay with weight upon our spirits.
Some, I confess, cannot receive this injunction, being naturally disabled by prevailing infirmities ; but those who can, ought to do so. But oh, how many slothful excuses doth the flesh invent to put off duty ! We shall injure our health, &c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas ! If profit or pleasure calls us up, we have no shifts, but can rise early and sit up late.
O, friends, why hath God given you bodies, if not to waste and wear them out in his service, and the service of your own souls ! If your bodies must not be put to it, and exercised this way, where is the mercy of having a body ? If a stately horse were given you on this condition, that you must not ride or work him, what bene- fit would such a gift be to you ? Your bodies, must and will wear •out, and it is better to wear them with working, than with rusting : we are generally more solicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably ; and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God, if it had been less precious in our own eyes. It is just with God to destroy that health with diseases, which he sees we would cast away in sloth and idleness. Think with thyself, had such a soul as Timothy's or Gaius's been blest with such a body as thine, so strong and vigorous, so apt and able for service, they would have honoured God more in it in a day, than perhaps you do in a year. Certainly this is not love, but laziness ; not a due im- provement, but a sinful neglect and abuse of the body, to let it rust out into idleness, which might be employed so many ways for God, for your own and others souls. Well, remember death will shortly dissolve them, and then they can be of no more use ; and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the resurrection, use them for God now, with a faithful, self-denying diligence.
(3.) It appears by our cowardly shrinking from dangers that threaten them, when the glory of God, our own and others sal- vation, bid us expose and not regard them. Some there are, that
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rather than they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man, will hazard their souls to the wrath of God *. They are too tender to suffer pain or restraints for Christ, but consider not what suffer- in os are prepared for the fearful and unbelieving in the world to come, Rev. xxi. 8. How many sad examples do the church- histories of ancient and latter times afford us, of men, who, con- sulting with flesh and blood in time of danger, have, in pity to their bodies, ruined their souls !
There be but few like-minded with Paul, who set a low price upon his liberty or life for Christ, Acts xx. 24. or with th( <e worthy Jews, Dan. iii. 28. who yielded their bodies to preserve their consciences. Few of Chrysostom's mind, who told the em- press, Nil nisi pcccatum timeo, I fear nothing but sin; or of Basil's, who told the emperor, God threatened hell, whereas he threatened but a prison. That is a remarkable rule that Christ gives us, Mat. x. 28. The sum of it is, to set God against man, the soul against the body, and hell against temporal sufferings ; and so surmount- ing these low fleshly considerations, to cleave to our duty in the face of dangers. You read, Gal. i. 16. how in pursuit of duty, though surrounded with danger, Paul would not confer, or consult with flesh and blood, i. e. ask its opinion which were best, or stay for its consent, till it were willing to suffer ; he understood not that the flesh had any voice at the council-table in his soul, but willing or unwilling, if duty call for it, he was resolved to hazard it for God.
We have a great many little politicians among us, who think to husband their lives and liberties a great deal better than other plain-hearted, and too forward Christians do: but these politics will be their perdition, and their craft will betray them to ruin. They will lose their lives by saving them, when others will save them by losing them, Mat. x. 39. For the interest of the body depends on, and follows the safety of the soul, as the cabin doth the ship.
O my friends, let me beg you not to love your bodies into hell, and your souls too for their sakes : be not so scared at the sufferings of the body, as, with poor Spira, to dash them both against the wrath of the great and terrible God. Most of those souls that are now in hell, are there upon the account of their indulgence to the flesh, they could not deny the flesh, and now are denied by God. They could not suffer from men, and now must suffer the ven- geance of eternal fire.