§ 2. The case so standing betwixt the soul and body, the wisdom or folly of the soul is plainly discovered in its way and manner of go- verning the body,'as the love and prudence of an husband is in the governing of his wife, or the master in ordering the affairs of his house; or the neat breeding of a man, in the comely wearing of his
502 THE REASONABLENESS OF PERSONAL REFORMATION.
garments ; or the skill and care of an artificer, in the brightness, keenness, and sharpness of his tools.
Some husbands give evidence to the world of their governing pru- dence and ability, in such an allowance of liberty to their wives, as the laws of conjugal love require, and their state and incomes will conveniently bear, and no more ; and in restraining their extrava- gancies, as well as by encouraging their virtuous courses, in keeping back no due encouragement to virtue, nor giving the least encour* agement unto vice.
A well-bred man, that carries with him a becoming sense of his quality, and the decorum he ought accordingly to observe, will wear his garments decently, and becoming his rank ; they shall be sure to be neat and clean, and sit fit and comely upon his body. He abhors to wear a garment tumbled in the mire, and go like a beast, without regard to his reputation.
No prudent owner and governor of an house, will let the rain drop through the roof, nor choak up the passage to his door with a nasty dunghill. His house within shall be neat, and not nasty : the rooms clean and comely : and yet abhors to suffer superfluous ornaments, and costly vanities, to swallow up his estate that should maintain it, and bring bailiffs (more odious than a dunghill) to his very doors.
The curious artificer, neither grinds away the substance of his in- struments to make them bright and glittering, and set an edge too fine to hold one minute''s use ; nor yet suffers them to be thrown aside in some neglected corner, where rust and flaws shall render them utterly useless, or make him blush at the botches such instru- ments will cause in his work.
The prudent husbandman will neither break the heart of his ground for want of rest and compost, nor yet overload it with dres- sings which brings forth nothing but rank and useless weeds ; he will in a fit season turn in a stream of water to his meadows, like a cordial- draught to fainting spirits ; but will not drown it, and rot the very roots of his grass, by letting in too much, or by suffering it to lie under water too long. He will feed his horse high enough to per- form his journey, and carry him through the mire ; but will not feed him to such a height, that the rider shall neither be able to sit, nor command him.
In all these cases, the common prudence of every man directs him to that just mediocrity, wherein both his honour and profit do appa- rently lie. And what we say in such common cases and concerns as these, is as true, and much more excellent in the soul's prudent go- vernment of its own body, unto which it was espoused in the womb, and is its dear and constant partner, both in the present and future good or evil. It is the garment it wears, tlie instrument it useth, and the field it cultivates. It must neither deny the body those necessary supports and comforts which God and nature allow it, nor yet surfeit
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and overcharge it with more than it is able to bear. In either of these extremes, the extreme folly of the soul is discovered.
§ 3. Now the dethroning of reason, and frequent oppressions of nature, by the practice of drunkenness, is the highest exaltation of folly in the soul of man ; plainly manifesting its ignorance and in- ability to order and govern the body, to which it is married by a vital union.
Here is a foolish soul by misgovernment, dishonouring and destroy- ing its vigorous and comely body, under a pretence of love and kind- ness to it. We account it one of the greatest outward infelicities in this world, incident to a discreet and virtuous woman, to be headed and governed by a sottish fool, neither able to govern himself, or her, nor give a reason of his own actions or commands. A man whose folly shall make her blush in all sober companies he comes into, and forces her upon such a course of life, as she perfectly abhors, and will biing speedy ruin upon her ; all men pity such a case as this. And this is the very case of many a comely, vigorous body.
Only such a woman hath two reliefs under her bondage, whicli the body of a drunkard wants. She can sometimes withdraw and retire from his company, and enjoy the relief of her solitude, which the wretched body of a drunkard cannot do till death ; but is tied day and night to the company of its foolish soul, which is frequent- ly abusing it, and imposing upon it.
Besides, such a woman may haply overlive her vicious abusive hus- band, and spend many a comfortable year in the world with a more discreet, sober and religiouspartner of herlife, whose sobriety, discre- tion, piety, and love, shall make full compensation for all those years of misery and slavery she endured before. But the case before us ad- mits no such relief : for as long as ever the body Hves and breathes, the soul is, and must be with it, and in it. And though death will for a time separate and divorce them, yet the body's second marriage at the resurrection, can be with no other but the same soul which op- pressed and ruined it in this world. And this second marriage will be far worse than the first ; for though it were the sottish soul's slave and drudge in this world, and suffered many a sickness, shame, and loss by its folly ; yet in the world to come, it must be its partner and companion in hell-torments for evermore, inasmuch as it was the in- strument the soul used in most of those sins committed by it in this world. And this is the case of all bodies married to, and governed by souls that have neither reason nor religion enough prudently and soberly to order and govern their own bodies.
§ 4. Sad and doleful, therefore, are the lamentations and cora- plamts of the bodies of drunkards, against the folly and tyranny of their souls; and as just as sad. Let me here therefore act the part of an advocate for your bodies, which is a part of yourselves, and to which, by the law of nature, you owe love, care, and honour ; or, rather by apro^ojpopccia, let me bring in the body sighing out its own
504 THE REASOIJJABLENESS OF PERSONAL REFORMATIOK'.
complaints in the ears of its own soul, and thus bemoaning itself to it.