Son, and Spirit, holy angels, and perfected faints, Heb. xii. 23. "The fpirits of juft men made perfect." (3.) From the bondage of corruption to perfect liberty and everlasting freedom; fo much is implied, Heb. xii. 23. "The fpirits of juft men made perfect." (4.) From all fears, doubtings, and queftionings of our conditions, and anxiousdebates of our title to Chrift, to the cleareft, fulleft, and most satisfy-. ing aflurance; for what a man fees, how can he doubt of it? (5.) From all burdens of affliction, inward and outward, under which we have groaned all our days, to everlasting rest and ease, 2 Cor. v. I, 2. 3. Oh what a bleffed change to the righteous muft this be!

(2.) A marvellous change will also be then made upon the fouls of the ungodly, who shall then part from (1.) All their comforts. and pleafant enjoyments in the world; for here they had their confolation; Luke xvi. 25. here was all their portion, Pfal. xvii. 14. and, in a moment, find themselves arrested and feized by Satan, as God's gaoler, hurrying them away to the prison of hell, 1 Pet. iii. 19. "there to be referved to the judgment of the great "day," Jude 6. (2.) From under the means of grace, life, and falvation, to a ftate perfectly void of all means, inftruments, and opportunities of falvation, John ix. 4. Eccl. ix. 10. never to hear the joyful found of preaching or praying any more; never to hear the wooing voice of the bleffed bridegroom, faying, Come unto me, come unto me, any more. (3.) From all their vain, ungrounded, prefumptuous hopes of heaven, into abfolute and final defperation of mercy. The very finews and nerves of hope are cut by death, Prov. xiv. 32. "The wicked is driven away in his wickednefs, but the righ

teous hath hope in his death." Thefe are the great and aftonishing alterations that will be made upon our fouls, after they part with the bodies which they now inhabit. Oh that we, who cannot but be confcious to ourselves that we must over-live our bodies, were more thoughtful of the condition they must enter into, after that feparation which is at hand.

Inf. 10. If our fouls be immortal, then death is neither to be feared by them in heaven, nor hoped for them in hell. The being of fouls never fails, whether they be in a state of blessedness or of mi fery. "In glory they are ever with the Lord." 1 Thef. iv. 17. There fhall be no death there, Rev. xxi. 4. And in hell, though they shall with for death, yet death fhall flee from them*. Though there be no fears of annihilation in heaven, yet there be many wishes for it in hell, but to no purpose; there never will be an end put, either to their being, or to their torments. In this refpect no other creatures are capable of the mifery that wicked men

* O death thou art fweet to those to whom thou waft formerly bitter: They defite thee alone, who did hate thee alone. Auguft.

are capable of: When they die, there is the end of all their misery ; but it is not fo with men. Better therefore had it been for them, if God had created them in the basest and, lowest order and rank of creatures; a dog, a toad, a worm, is better than a man in endlefs mifery, ever dying, and never dead. And fo much of the foul's immortality.

EPH. V. 29.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherifbeth it, even as the Lord the church.

HA

AVING given fome account of the nature and immortality of the foul, we next come, from this text, to discourse of its love and inclination to the body, with which it is united. fcope of the apoftle is, to prefs Chriftians to the exact discharge of thofe relative duties they owe to each other; particularly, he here urgeth the mutual duties of husbands and wives, ver. 22. wives to an obedient fubjection, husbands to a tender love of their wives. This exhortation he enforceth from the intimate union, which, by the ordinance of God, is betwixt them, they being now one flesh. And this union he illuftrates by comparing it with,

1. The mystical union of Chrift and the church. 2. The natural union of the foul and body.

And from both thefe, as excellent examples and patterns, he, with great ftrength of argument, urgeth the duty of love: ver. 28. "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies; he that "loveth his wife, loveth himself." Self-love is naturally implanted in all men, and it is the rule by which we measure out and difpenfe our love to others." Thou fhalt love thy neighbour as "thyfelf."

This felf-love he opens in this place, by,

(1.) The univerfality of it.

(2.) The effects that evidence it.

1. The univerfality of it. No man ever yet hated his own flefb. By flesh, understand the body by an ufual metonymy of a part for the whole, called flesh. By hating it, understand a fimple hatred, or hatred itself. It is ufual for men to hate the deformities and diseases of their own bodies, and upon that account to deal with the members of their own bodies as if they hated them; hence it is, they willingly stretch forth a gangrened leg or arm to be cut off for the prefervation of the reft: but this is not a fimple hatred of a man's felf, but rather an argument of the ftrength of the foul's love to the body, that it will be content to endure fo much pain and anguifh for its fake. And if the foul be at any time weary of,

and willing to part, not with a fingle member only, but with the whole body, and loaths its union with it any longer, yet it hates it and loaths it not fimply in, and for itself, but because it is fo filled with difeafes all over, and loads the foul daily with so much grief, that how well foever the foul loves it in itself, yet upon fuch fad terms and conditions it would not be tied to it. This was Job's cafe, Job x. 1. "My foul is weary of my life;" yet not fimply of his life, but of fuch a life, in pain and trouble. Except it be in fuch refpects and cafes, no man, faith he, ever yet hated his own flesh, i. e. no man in his right mind, and in the exercise of his reason, and fense; for we muft except distracted and delirious men, who know not what they do, as also men under the terrors of conscience, when God fuffers it to rage in extremity, as Spira and others, who would have been glad with their own hands to have cut the thread that tied their miserable fouls to their bodies, fuppofing that way, and by that change, to find fome relief. Either of thefe cafes forces men to act befide the stated rule of nature and reason.

2. This love of the foul to the body is further discovered by the effects which evidence it, viz. its nourishing and cherishing the body, Exтpe xas baλ. Thefe two comprize the neceffaries for the body, viz. food and raiment. The firft fignifies to nourish with proper food; the latter to warm by clothing, as the word Jaar is rendered, James ii. 16. to which the Hebrew word □nny answers, Job xxxi. 20. The care and provifion of these things for the body evidences the foul's love to it.

Doct. That the fouls of men are strongly inclined, and tenderly affected towards the bodies in which they now dwell.

The foul's love to the body is fo ftrong, natural, and infeparable, that it is made the rule and measure by which we difpenfe and proportion our love to others, Matth. xix. 19. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf." And the apoftle, Gal. v. 14. tells us, That the whole law, i. e. the second table of the law, is fulfilled, or fummed up in this precept, "Thou shalt love thy "neighbour as thyfelf." The meaning is not, that all and every one who is our neighbour, must be equally near to us as our own bodies; but it intends, (1.) The fincerity of our love to others, which must be without diffimulation, for we diffemble not in felflove. (2.) That we be as careful to avoid injuring others, as we would ourselves, Matth. vii. 12. To do by others, or measure to them, as we would have done or measured unto us: for which rule, Severus, the Heathen emperor, honoured Chrift and Chriftianity, and caufed it to be written in capital letters of gold. (3) That we take direction from this principle of felf-love, to meafure

out our care, love, and refpects to others, according to the different degrees of nearnefs in which we ftand to them. As, (1.) The wife of our bosom, to whom, by this rule, is due our first care and love as in the text. (2.) Our children and family, 1 Tim. v. 8. (3.) To all in general, whether we have any bond of natural relation upon them or no; but efpecially those to whom we are spiritually related, as Gal. vi. 10. And indeed, as every Christian hath a right to our love and care above other men, fo in fome cafes, we are to exceed this rule of felf-love, by a transcendent act of selfdenial for them, 1 John iii. 16. And Paul went higher than that, in a glorious excefs of charity to the community or body of God's people, preferring their falvation not only to his own body, but to his foul alfo, Rom. ix. 3. But to thefe extraordinary cafes we are feldom called; and if we be, the gofpel furnisheth us with an higher rule than felf-love, John xiii. 34. But by this principle of selflove, in all ordinary cafes, we must proportion and difpenfe our love to all others; by which you fee what a deep-rooted and fixed principle in nature felf-love is, how univerfal and permanent alone this is, which elfe were not fit to be made the measure of our love to all others.

Two things well deferve our confideration in the doctrinal part of this point.

Firft, Wherein the foul evidenceth its love to the body.

Secondly, What are the grounds and fundamental caufes or reafons of its love to it; and then apply it.

First, Wherein the foul evidenceth its love to the body, and that it doth in divers refpects.

1. In its cares for the things needful to the body, as the text fpeaks, innourishing and cherishing it, i. e. taking care for food and raiment for it. This care is univerfal, it is implanted in the most favage and barbarous people; and is generally fo exceflive and exorbitant, that though it never needs a fpur, yet moft times, and with moft men, it doth need a curb; and therefore Chrift, in Matth. vi. 32. fhews how thofe cares torture and distract the nations of the world, warns them against the like exceffes, and propounds a rule to them for the allay and mitigation of them, ver. 25, 26, 27. So doth the apostle alfo, 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31. To speak as the matter is, moft fouls are over-heated with their cares, and eager purfuits after the concerns of the body. They pant after the duft of the earth. They pierce themfelves through with many forrows, 1 Tim. vi. 10. They are cumbered like Martha with much serving. It is a perfect drudge and slave to the body, beftowing all its time, ftrength, and ftudies about the body; for one foul that puts the queftion to itself, "What fhall I do to be faved ?” a thousand are to be found that mind nothing more but " What shall

"I eat, what fhall I drink, and wherewithal fhall I and mine be "clothed?" I do not fay, that thefe are proofs of the foul's regular love to the body; no, they differ from it, as a fever does from natural heat. This is a doating fondness upon the body. He truly loves his body, that moderately and ordinately cares for what is neceffary for it, and can keep it under, 1 Cor. ix. 27. and deny its whining appetite, when indulgence is prejudicial to the foul, or warm its lufts. Believers themselves find it hard to keep the golden bridle of moderation upon their affections in this matter. It is not every man that hath attained Agur's cool temper, Prov. xxx. 8. that can flack his pace and drive moderately where the interests of the body are concerned: the best fouls are too warm, the generality in raging heats, which diftract their minds, as that word, Matth. vi. 25. μn EPOTE, fignifies. If the body were not exceeding dear to the foul, it would never torture itself, day and night, with fuch anxious cares about it.

2. The foul difcovers its efteem and value for the body in all the fears it hath about it. Did not the foul love it exceedingly, it would never be affrighted for it, and on its account, fo much and fo often as it is. What a panic fear do the dangers of the body caft the foul into? Ifa. vii. 2. When the body is in danger, the foul is in diftraction, the foul is in fears and tremblings about it: these fears flow from the fouls tender love and affection to the body; if it did not love it fo intenfely, it would never afflict and torment itfelf at that rate it doth about it: Satan, the profeffed enemy of our fouls, being thoroughly acquainted with thofe fears which flow from the fountain of love to the body, politicly improves them in the way of temptation to the utter ruin of fome, and the great hazard of other's fouls; he edges and fharpens his temptations upon us this way; he puts our bodies into danger, that he may thereby endanger our fouls; he reckons, if he can but draw the body into danger, fear will quickly drive the foul into temptation; it is not fo much from Satan's malice or hatred of our bodies, that he ftirs up perfecutions against us: but he knows the tie of affection is fo ftrong betwixt thefe friends, that love will draw, and fear will drive the foul into many and great hazards of its own happiness, to free the body out of those dangers. Prov. xxix. 25. "The fear of "man brings a fnare:" and Heb. xi. 37. "Tortured and tempted.".

Upon this ground alfo it is, that this life becomes a life of temptation to all men, and there is no freedom from that danger, till we be freed from the body, and fet at liberty by death. Separated fouls are the only free fouls. They that carry no flesh about them, need carry no fears of temptation within them. It is the body which catches the fparks of temptation. 4 F

VOL. II. No. 19.