29 "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh;
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(3.) From all their vain, ungrounded, presumptuous hopes of heaven, into absolute and final desperation of mercy.
The very sinews and nerves of hope are cutbydeath, Prov. xiv. 32.
" The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but therighte- " ous hath hope in his death."
These are the great and astonishing alterations that will be made upon our souls, after they part with the bodies which they now inhabit. Oh that we, who cannot but be conscious to ourselves that we must over live our bodies, were more thoughtful of the condition they must enter into, after that separation which is at hand.
Infer. 10. If our souls be immortal, then death is neither to be feared by them in heaven, nor hoped for them in hell.
The being of foulsnever fails, whether they be in a state ofblessedness or of misery. " In glory they are ever with the Lord."
1 Thes. iv. 17.
There shall be no death there, Rev. xxi. 4.
And in hell, though they shall wish for death, yet death shall flee from them *.
Though there be no fears of annihilation in heaven, yet there may 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 respect no other creatures are capable of the misery that wicked men 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 am an in endless misery, ever dying, and never dead. And so much of the souls immortality.
** ** EPH. V. 2). For no man ever yet hated his own flesb; but nourisbeth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
HAVING given some account of the nature and immortality of the soul, we next come,from this text, to discourse of its love and inclination to the body, with which it is united.
The scope of the aposlle is, to press Christians to the exact difchargeof those relative duties they owe to each other ; particularly, he here urgeth the mutual duties of husbands and wives, ver. 22. wives to an obedient subjection, husbands to a tender love of their wives.
This exhortation he enforceth from the * O death thou art sweet to those to whom thou wast formerly bitter : They desire thee alone, who did hate thee alone. August.
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intimate union, which, by the ordinance of God, is betwixt them, they being now one flesh. And this union he illustrates by comparing it with, 1. The mystical union ofChritt and the church.
2. The natural union of the soul and body.
And from both these, as excellent examples and patterns,he, with great strength 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 dispense our love to others.--" Thou shalt love thy
" neighbour as thyself."
This self-love he opens in this place, by, (1.) The universality of it.
(2.) The effects that evidence it.
1. The universality of it.
No man ever yet hated his own flesh.
By.flesh, understand the body by an usual metonymy of a part for the whole, called flesh. By hating it, understand a simple hatred, or hatred itself.
It is usual for men to hate the deformities and diseases of their own bodies, and upon thatac- - count to deal with the members of their own bodies as if they hated them; hence it is,they willingly stretch forth a gangren- -edleg or arm to be cut off, for the preservation of the rest : but this is not a simple hatred of a man's self, but rather an argument of the strength of the foul's love to the body, that it willbecontenttoendure so much pain and anguish for its sake.
And if the foul be at any time weary of, and willing to part, not with a single member only, but with the whole body, and loaths its union with it any longer, yet it hates it and loaths it not simply in, and for itself, but because it isfo filled with diseases all over, and loads the soul daily with so much grief, that how well soever the soul loves it in itself,yet upon such sad, terms and conditions it would not be tied to it.
This was Job's case, Jobx. 1. "My soul is weary of my life;" yet not simply of his life, butofsuchalife,in pain and trouble.
Except itbeinsuchrespects and cases, no man, faith he, ever yet hated hisownflesh; i. e. no man in his right mind, and in the exercise of his reason and sense; for we must except distracted and delirious men, who know not what they do, as also men under the terrorsofconfcience, when God suffers it to rage in extremity, as Spira and others, who would have been glad with their own hands to have cut the threed that tied their miserable fouls to their bodies, supposing that way, and by that change, to find
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Either of these cases forces men to act beside the stated rule of nature and reason.
2. This love of the soul to the body is further discovered by the effects which evidence it, viz. its nourishing and cherishingthebody, έκτρεφει και δαλπει. These two comprize the necessaries for the body, viz. food and raiment. The first signifies to nourish with proper food; the latter to warm by cloathing, as the word θαλπειν is rendered, James ii. 16. to which the Hebrew word answers,Job xxxi. 20. The care and provision of these things for the body evidences the soul's love to םימאתמ it.
Doct. That thefouls of men are strongly inclined, and tenderly affected, towards the bodies in which they now dwell.
The soul's love to the body is so strong, natural, and inseparable, that it is made the rule and measure by which we dispense and proportion our love to others, Matth. xix. 19. "Thou
" shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And the apostle, Gal . v. 14. tells us, That the whole law, i. e. the second table of the law, is fulfilled, or summed up in this precept, "Thou
" shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 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 sincerity of our love to others, which must be without dissimulation, for wedissemble not in self-love.
(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 Christ and Christianity, and caused it to be written in capital letters of gold.
(3.) That we take direction from this principle offelf-love, to measure out our care, love, and respects to others, according to thedifferentdegrees ofnearness in which we stand 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.) Ourchildrenandfamily, 1 Tim. v. 8. (3.) To all in general, whether we have any bond of natural relation upon them or no ; but especially 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, so in some cases, we are to exceed this rule offelf-love, by a transcendent act of self-denial for them, I John iii. 16.
And Paul went higher than that, in a glorious excess ofcharitytothecommunityorbody of God's people, preferring their salvation not only to his own body, but to his soul also,
Rom. ix. 3.
But to these extraordinary cafeswe are seldom çal led ; and if we be,the gospel furnisheth us with an higher rule
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-than self-love, John xiii. 34. But by this principle of self-love, in all ordinary cases, we must proportion and dispense our love to all others; by which you fee what a deep-rooted and fixed principle in nature self-love is, how universal and permanent a lone this is, which else were not fit to be made the measure of our love to all others .
Two things will deserve our consideration in the doctrinal part of this point.
First, Wherein the soul evidenceth its love to the body.
Secondly, What are the grounds and fundamental causes or realous of its love to it; and then apply it.
First, Wherein the soul evidenceth its love to the body, and that it doth in divers respects.
1. In its cares for the things needful to the body, as the text speaks, in nourishing and cherishing it, i. e. taking care for food andraiment for it.
This care is universal, it is implanted in the most savage and barbarous people ; and is generally fo
- excessive and exorbitant, that though it never needs a spur, yet most times, and with most men, it doth need a curb ; and therefore Christ, in Matth. vi. 32. shews how those cares torture and distract the nations of the world, warns them against the like excesses, and propounds a rule to them for theallay and mi- -tigation of them, ver. 25, 26, 27. So doth the apostle also,
1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31. To speak as the matter is, most souls are over-heatedwiththeircares, and eager pursuit after the concerns of the body.
They pant after the dust of the earth.
They pierce themselves through with many sorrows, I Tim. vi.
10.
They are cumbered like Martha with much serving.
It is a perfect drudge and slave to the body, bestowing all its time, strength, and studies about the body for one soul that puts the question to itself, " What shall 1do to be saved ?" a thousand are to be found that mind nothing more, but, " What
" shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I and " mine be cloathed ?" I do not say, that these are proofs of the soul's regular love to the body; no, they differ from it, as a fever does from natural heat.
This is adoating fondness upon the body. He truly loves his body, that moderately and ordi. nately cares for what is necessary for it, and can keep it under,
1Cor. ix. 27. and deny its whinning appetite,when indulgence is prejudicial to the soul, or warms its lusts.
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
VOL. III.
A Treatise of the Soul of Man. paceanddrive moderately, where the interests of the body are concerned: the best fouls are too warm, the generalityin raging heats, which distract their minds, as that word, Matth. vi. 25. μημεριμνατε, signifies.
Ifthebody were not exceeding dear to the soul, it would never torture itself, day and night, with such anxious cares about it .
2. The soul discovers its esteem and value for the body in all the fears it hath about it.
Did not the soul love it exceedingly, it would never be affrighted for it, and on its account, so much and so often as it is. What a panic fear do the dangers of the body cast the soul into ? Ifa. vii. 2. When the body is in danger, the soul is in distraction, the soul is in fears and tremblings about it : these fears flow from the souls tender love and affection to the body; if it did not love it so intensely, it would aever afflict and torment itself at that rate it doth about it: Satan, the professed enemy of our souls, being throughly acquainted with those fears which flow from the fountain of love to the body, politicly improves them in the way of temptation, to the utter ruin of some, and the great hazard of other fouls; he edges and sharpens his temptations upon us this way ; he puts our bodies into danger, that he may thereby endanger our souls; he reckons, if he can but draw the body into danger, fear will quickly drive the soul into temptation: it is not so much from Satan's malice or hatred of our bodies, that he stirs up perfecu tions against us : but he knows the tie of affection is so strong betwixt these friends, that love will draw, and fear will drive the soul 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 snare :" andHeb.xi. 37. " Tortured " and tempted."
Upon this ground also it is, that this life becomes a life of temptation to allmen, and there is no freedom from that dan ger, till we be freed from the body, and set 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 sparks of temptation.
3.The soul manifests its dear love and affection to the body, by its sympathy, and compassionate feeling of all its burdens: whatever touches the body, by way of injury, affects the soul alsobyway of sympathy. The soul and body are as strings of two musical instruments, set exactly at one height; ifone be touched, theothertrembles. They laugh and cry, are fickand well together.
This is a wonderful mystery, and a rarefecret (asalearnedmanobferves) how the soul comes to sympathize
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with the body, and to have not only a knowledge, but as it were a feeling of its necessities and infirmities; how this fleshly lump comes to affect, and make its deep impressions upon a creatureoffodifferent a nature from it, as the soul or spirit is.
But that it doth so, tho' we know not how, is plain and sensible toanyman.
If any member of the body, tho' but the lowest and meanest, be in pain and misery, the soul is presently affected with it, and commands the eyes to watch, yea, to weep, the hands to bind it up with all tenderness, and defend it from the least injurious touch; the lips to complain of its misery, and beg pity and help from others for it. If the body be in danger, how are the faculties of the soul, understanding, memory, invention, &c. employed with utmost strength and concernment for its deliverance ! This is a real and unexceptionable evidence ofitsdearand tender love to the body. As those that belong to one mystical body shew their sincere love this way, I Cor. xii . 25, 26. so the soul .
4. The soul manifesteth its love to the body, by its fears of death, and extreme aversation to afeparationfrom it. On this account, death is called in Job xviii. 14. " The king of ter- " rors," or the black prince, or the prince of clouds and darkness, as some translate that place : We read it, " The king of " terrors," meaning, that the terrors at death are such terrors as subdue and keep down all other terrors under them, as a prince doth his subjects.
Other terrors compared with those that the foul conceives and conflicts with at parting, are no more than a cut finger, to the laying one's head on the block.
Oh! the foul and body are strongly twisted and knit together in dear bands of intimate union and affection, and these bands cannot be broken without much struggling : Oh ! it is a hard thing for the soul to bid the body farewel, it is a bitter parting, a doleful
separation: Nothing is heard in that hour but the most deep and emphatical groans; I fay emphaticalgroans, the deep sense and meaning of which the living are but little acquainted with :
For noman living hath yet felt the sorrows ofa parting pull; whatsoever other sorrows he hath felt in the body, yet they must be supposed to be far short of these.
The sorrows of death are in scripture set forth unto us, by the bearing throes ofa travailing woman, Acts ii. 24. ωδιναςτε
· θάνατο, and what those mean, many can tell. The soul is in labour, it will not let go its hold of the body, but by con. ftraint: Death is a close siege, and when the soul is beaten out of itsbody, it disputes the passage with death, as soldiers use
Ff2
A Treatise of the Soul of Man. to do with an enemy that enters by storm, and fights and Arives to the last : It is also compared to a battle orsharpfight, Eccl. viii. 8. that war.
That war with an emphasis. No conflict so sharp, each labour to the utmost to drive the other from the ground they stand on, and win the field. And though grace much over-powers nature in this matter, and reconciles it to death, and makes it desire to be dissolved, yet saints wholly put not off this reluctation of nature, 2 Cor. v. 2. Not that we would be uncloathed; as it is with one willing to wade over abrook to his father's house, puts his foot into the water, and feels it cold, starts back, and is loth to venture in; Not that we would be uncloathed.
And if it be so with sanctified fouls, how is it, think you, with others ? Mark the scripture language
Job xxvii. 8. God taketh away their souls, faith our translation ; but the root is, לשכ extra here,and signifies to pull out by plain force and violence. A graceless soul dieth not by con. sent, but force.
Thus Adrian bewailed his departure, OAnimula, vagula, blandula, heu quo vadis ! Yea, tho' the soul have never so longatime been in the body,though it should live as long as theAntideluvianfathers did, for many hundred years, yet fill it would be loth to part; yea, though it endure abundance of misery in the body, and have little rest or comfort, but time spent in griefs and fears, yet for all that it is loth to part with it. All this shews a strong inclination and affection to it.
5. Its desire of re-union continuing still with it, in its state of separation, speaks its love to the body. As the soul parted with it in grief and sorrow, so it still retains, even in glory, an inclination to re-union, and waits for a dayofre-espousals : and to that sense some searching and judicious men understand those words of Job , chap. xiv. 14. " If a man die, shall he live again ?" viz. by a resurrection: if so, then all the days of my appointed separation, my soul in heaven shall wait till that change come.
And to the same sense is that cry of separated fouls, Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11. " How long, O Lord, how long ?" (i. e.) to the consummation of all things, when judgment shall be executed on them that killed our bodies, and our bodies so long absent, restored to us again ? In that day of resurrection, the souls of the saints come willingly from heaven itself, to repossess their bodies, and bring them to a partnership with them in their glory : for it is with the soul in heaven as it is with an husband who is richly entertained, feasted, and lodged abroad, but his dear wife is folitaryand comfortless; it abates the completeness of his joy. Therefore we say, the saints joy is not consummate till that day.
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There is an exercise for faith, hope and desires, on this account in heaven.
The union of foul and body is natural, their separation is not fo: many benefits will redound to both by a re-union, and the resurrection of the body is provided by God, as the grand relief against those prejudices and losses the bodies of the saints sustain by separation.
I say not that the pro pension or inclination of the soul tore-union with its body, is accompanied with any perturbation or anxiety, in its state of separation ; for it enjoys God, and in him a placid rest ; and as the body, so the
foul rests in hope; it is such a hope as disturbs not the rest of either: yetwhenthe time is come for the soul to be re-espoufed, it is highly gratified by that second marriage, glad it is to fee itsolddear companion, as two friends after along separation. And so much of the evidence of the soul's love to the body.
Secondly, Next we are to enquire into the grounds and reasons of its love and inclination to the body.
And, 1. The fundamental ground and reason thereof will be found in their natural union with each other.
There my text lays it :
" No man ever yet hated his [own] flesh."
Mark, the body is the soul's own ; they are strictly married and related to each other: the soul hath a propriety in its body, these two make up,or conftituteone person : True, they And this is no more are not essentiallyone, theyhavefardiffer. entnatures, but they are personally one; and though the soul be what it was, after than neceffaryforthe conservation of the species, else the body its separation, yet to make amanthewho he was, (i. e.) the same complete and perfect person, they must be re-united.
Hence springs its love to the body. Every would be neglected, exposed, and quickly perish, being bad in man loves his own, John xvii. 19. All the world is in love with its own, and hence no more regard than any other body. itcarestoprovide for its welfare, ITim v. 8. " If any man provide not for his own, he is worse than an " infidel."
For nature teacheth all men to do so.
Why are children dearer to parents than to all others, but because they are their own ? Job xix. 17. But our wives, our children, our goods, are not so much our own, as our bodies are ; this is the nearest of all natural unions .
In this propriety and relation are involved the reasons and motives of our love to, and care over the body, which is no more than what is necessary to their preservation.
For, were it not for this propriety and relation,noman would be at any
A Treatise of the Soul of Man. morecostor pains for his ownbody, than for that of a stranger.
It is propriety which naturally draws love, care, and tendernessalongwith it; and these are ordered by the wisdom of providence, for the conservation of the body, which would quickly perish without it.
2. The body is the soul's ancient acquaintance, and intimate friend, with whom it hath affiduouslyand familiarly conversed from its beginning. They have been partners in each others comforts and sorrows.
They may say to each other, as Miconiusdid to his colleague, with whom he had spent twenty years in the government of the Thuringian church: Gurrimus, certavimus, laboravimus, pugnavimus, vicimus, et viximus conjunctiffime; We have run, striven,laboured, fought, overcome, and lived most intimately and lovingly together.
Confuetude, anddailyconversation,begets andconciliates friendshipandlove betwixt creatures of contrary natures: Let a lamb be brought up with a lion, and the lion will express a tenderness towards it, much more the soul to its own body.
3. The body is the soul's house, and beloved habitation, where it was born, and hath livedever since it had a being, and in which it hath enjoyed all its comforts, natural and supernatural, which cannot but strengthen the souls engagement to it. Upon this account theapofilecallsit the soul'shome, 2Cor. v. 6. " Whilst we are at home inthebody."
It is true, this house is not fo comfortable an habitation, that itshouldbemuch defiredbymany fouls; we may say ofmanygracious fouls, that they pay a dear rent for the house they dwell in : or as it was said of Galba, Anima Galbae male habitat, their souls are but ill accommodated; but yet it is their home, andthereforebeloved by them.
4. The body is the soul's instrument by which it doth its work and business in the world, both natural and religious,
Rom. vi. 13. Through the bodily senses it takes in all the natural comforts of this world, and by the bodily members it performs all its duties and services.
When these are broken and laid aside by death, the soul knows it can work no more in that way it now doth, John ix. 4. Eccl. ix. 10. Natural men love their bodies for the natural pleasures, they are instrumental to convey to their souls; and spiritual men,for the use and service they are of to their own, and other fouls, Phil. i. 23.
5. The body is the soul's partner in the benefit of Christ's purchases.
It was bought with the fame price, 1 Cor. vi. 20. fanctifiedby the fame Spirit, I Theff. v. 23. interested in the same promises, Matth. xxii. 32. and designed for the fame
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glory, I Theff. iv. 16, 17. So that we may say of it as it was said of Augustine and his friend Alippius, they are sanguine
Chrifti conglutinati, glewed together by the blood of Christ, And thus of the grounds and reasons of its love.
Infer. 1. Is it so? Learn hence themightystrength andprevalence of divine love, which overpowering all natural affections, doth not only enable thefouls of men to take their feparationfrom the body patiently, but to long for it ardently, Phil. i. 23. While some need patience to die, others need it as much to live, 2Thef. iii. 5. It is said, Rev. xii. 11. " They loved not their lives."
And indeed, on these terms they first closed with Christ, Luke
xii. 26. " to hate their lives for his sake," (i. e.) to love them in so remiss a degree, that whenever they shall come in competition with Christ, to regard them no more thanthethingswe hate.
The love of Christ is to be the supreme love, and all others to be subordinate to it, or quenched by it.
It is not its own comfort inthebody, it principally and ultimately designs and aims at, but Christ's glory ; and if this may be furthered by the death ofthebody,itsdeaththereuponbecomes as eligible to the soul as its life, Phil. i. 20. Oh! this is an high pitch of grace, a great attainment, to say as one did, vixere renuo, ut
Christovivam ; I refuse life, to be with Christ : Or another, when he was asked whether he was willing to die ? answered, ill i us eft nollemori, qui no lit ire ad Chriftium ; let him be loth to die, that is loth togo to Christ.
So, 2 Cor. v. 8. " We are " willing rather to be absentfromthebody,and present with the " Lord."
It isnoteveryChristian that can arrive to this degree of love, though they love Christ sincerely, yet they shrink from death cowardly, and are loth to be gone.
There are two forts of grounds upon which christians may be loth to be unbodied;
1. Sinful .
2. Allowable.
1. The sinful and unjustifiable grounds are such as these, viz. ( 1.) Guilt upontheconscience, which willdamp and discourage the soul, and make it loth to die.
It arms death with terror, " the sting of death is fin."
(2.) Unmortified affections to the world, I mean in suchadegree as is necessary to sweeten death, and make am an a volunteer in that sharp engagement with that last, and dreadful enemy.
It is with our hearts as with fuel ; if green, and full offap, it will not burn; but if that be dried up, it catches presently.
Mortification is the drying up of carnal affections to the creature, which is that which resists death, as greenwood doth the fire.
(3.) The
A Treatise of the Soul of Min. weakness and cloudiness of faith.
You need faith to die by, as well as live by,Heb. xi. 13. All befe died in faith. The less strength there is in faith, the more in death. A strong believer welcomes the messengers of death,when a weak one, unless extraordinarily assisted, trembles at them.
2. There are grounds on which we may desire a longer continuance in the body, warrantably and allowably : As (1.) to do him yet more service in our bodies, before we lay them down.
Thus the saints have pleaded for longer life, Psal. xxx. 9. Psal. lxxxviii. 11 , 12, 13. and Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19.
(2.) To fee the clouds of God's anger dispelled, whether public or personal, and a clear light break out e'er we die ; Psal. xxvii. 13.
(3.) They may desire, with submission, to out-live the days of persecution, and not to be delivered into the hands of cruel men, but come to their graves in peace, Psal. xxxi. 15. and 2 Theff. iii. 2. that they may be delivered from absurdmen.
3. But though some Christians snun death upon a sinful account, and others upon a justifiable one ; yet others there are, who seeing their title clear, their work done, and relishing the joys of heaven, in the prelibations of faith, are willing to be uncloathed, and to be with Christ.
Their love to Christ hath extinguished in them the love of life; and they can say with
Paul, Acts xxi . 13. I am ready.
Ignatius longed to come to those beasts that were to devour him ; and so many of the primitive Christians : Christ was so dear, that their lives were cheap, and low-prized things for this enjoyment. And here indeed is the glory and triumph of a Christian's faith and love to Christ :
For ( 1.) it enables him to part chearfully with what he sees and feels, for what his eyes never yet saw, I Pet. i. 8. " Whom
" having not seen, ye love."
(2.) To part with what is dearest on earth, and lies nearest the heart of all he enjoys, for Christ's fake.
(3.) To reconcile his heart to what is most abhorrent and formidable to nature.
(4.) To endure the greatest of pains and torments to be with him.
(5.) To cast himself into the vast ocean of eternity, the most amazing change, to be with Christ, Oh the glorious conquests of love !
Infer. 2. Then the apostacy ofunregenerate professors, in times of imminent danger, is not to be wondered at.
They will, and must warp from Christ, when their lives are in hazard for him.
The love of the body will certainly prevail over their love to Christ and religion. Amor me us pond us meum.
Self-love will now draw.
Love is the weight of the soul, which inclines and determines it, in the competition of interests, and the predominant interest always carries it. Every unregenerate professor
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loves his own life more than Christ, prefers his body before his soul ; such an one may, upon divers accounts, as education, example, flight comictions of conscience, or oftentationofgifts, fall into a profession of religion, and continue along time in that profession, before he visibly recede from Christ ; hope of the resurrection of the interest of religion in the world ; Shame of retracting his profession ; applause of his zeal and constancy in higher trials, the peace of his own conscience, and manyfuch motives, may prevail with a carnal professor to endure a while ; but, when dangers of life come to an height, they are gone,
Matth. xxiv. 8, 9, 10. And therefore our Lord tells us, that they " who hate not their lives, cannot be his disciples," Luke
12, 26.
Now will they lose their lives by saving them, Matth. xvi. 25. and the reasons are plain and forcible : For,
1. Now is the proper season for the predominant love to be discovered, it can be hid no longer and the love of life is the predominant love in all such persons ; for do but compare it with their love to Christ, and it will easily be found fo.
They love their lives truly and really, they love Christ but feignedly and pretendedly; and the real will, and must prevail over the feigned love. They love their lives fervently and intensely, they love Chriftbut coldly and remissly : And the fervent love will prevail over the remiss love.
Their love to their bodies hath a root in themselves, their love to Christ hath no root in themselves, Matth. xiii. 21.
And that which hath a root must needs out-last and out-live that which hath none.
2. Because when life is in hazard, conscience will work in them byway ofdiscouragement ; it will hint the danger of their eternal state to them, and tell them they may cast away their souls for ever in a bravado ; for though the cause they are called to suffer for be good, yet their condition is bad; and if the condi tion be not good as well as the cause, a man is loft for ever, though he suffer for it, I Cor. xiii. 3.
Conscience, which encourages and supports the upright, will discourage and daunt the hypocrite, andtellhim,he isnotonthe fame terms in sufferings that other men are.
3.Because then all the springs by which their profession was fed and maintained, fail and dry up. Now the wind that was in their backs is come about, and blows a storm in their faces; there are no preferments nor honours now to be had from religion.
These mens sufferings are a perfect surprize to them, for they never counted the cost, Luke xiv. 28. Now they must
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Oh therefore, professors, look to your hear's, try theirpredominant love ; compare your love to Christ with that to your lives. Now the like question will be put to you, that once was put to Peter, John xxi .
15. " Lovest thou me more than " these ?" What lay you to this ? You think now, you do, but, alas your love is not yet brought to the fire to be tried : you think you hate fin, but will you be able to strive unto blood against sin ? Heb. xii. 4.
Will you chuse suffering rather than fin ? Job xxxvi. 21. O try your love to Christ, before God bring it to the trial.
Sure I am, the love of life will make you warp in the hour of temptation; except, 1. You fatdownandcounted the cost of religion before-hand: if you set out in procession only for a walk, not for a journey ; if you go to sea for recreation, not for a voyage ; if you be mounted among other processors, only to take the air, and not to engage an enemy in sharp and bloody encounters, you are gone.
2. Except you live by faith, and not by sense, 2Cor. iv. 18.
" Whilst we look not at the things that are seen."
You must balance present sufferings with future glory. You must goby that account and reckoning, Rom. viii. 18. or you are gone.
" Now the just shall live by faith ;" andiffaithdonot support, your fears will certainly finkyou.
3. Except you be sincere and plain-hearted in religion, driving no design in it but to fave your souls; you may fee your lot in that example, 2 Tim. iv. 10. " Demas hath forsaken me."
Otakeheed of a cunning, deceitful, double heart in religion ; be plain, be open, care not if your ends lie open to the eyes of all the world.
4. Except you experience the power of religion in your own souls, as well as wear the name of it. O my brethren, it is not a name to live that will do you service now. Many ships are gonedowntothebottom, for all the brave names of the Success, the Prosperous, the Happy Return, andfo will you.
There is a knowing of ourselves by taste and real experience,Heb.x. 34. which doth a foulmoreservicein a suffering hour, than all the splendid names and titles in the world.
5. Except you make it your daily work to crucify the flesh, deny felffor Christ, in all the forms and interests of it.
He that cannot deny himself, will deny Jesus Christ, Matth. xvi. 24.
" Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me," elic
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he cannotbemydisciple. Ponder these things in your hearts, whilst yet God delays the trial.
Infer. 3. Ifthefouls of men be naturally so strongly inclined and affected towards the body; Then hence you may plainly fee the wisdom of God in all the afflictions and burdens he lays upon his people in this world, and find that all is but enough to wean off theirfoulsfrom their bodies, and make them willing to part with them.
The life of the saints in this world, is generally a burdened and a groaning life; 2Cor. v. 2. " In this tabernacle we groan, being burdened."
Here the saints feel, (1.) A burden of fin, Rom. vii. 24. this isadeadand a sinking weight.
(2. ) A burden of affliction ; of this all are partakers, Heb. xii. though not all in an equal degree, or in the same kind, yet all have their burdens equal to, and even beyond their own strength to support it; 2 Cor. i. 8. " pressed above measure."
(3 ) A burden of inward troubles for fin, and outward troubles in the flesh both together, so had Job, Heman, David, and many of the saints.
Certainly this befals them not, (1.) Casually, Job v. 6. " It " rises not out of the dust:" (2.) Nor because God loves and regards them not, for they are fruits of his love ; Heb. xii. 6.
" Whom he loveth he correcteth:" (3.) Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans ; Lam. iii. 34. " To tread under his feet
" the prisoners of the earth, the Lord hath no pleasure :" it is not for his own pleasure, but his childrens profit, Heb. xii.
10. And among the profits thatrefultfrom these burdens, this is not the least, to make you less fond of the body than you would elfebe, and more willing to be gone to your everlasting rest. And certainly all the diseases and pains we endure in the body, whether they be upon inward or outward accounts, by passion or compassion from God or men, will be found but enough toweanus, and loose of four hearts from the fond love of life.
Afflictions are bitter things to our taste, Ruth i. 20. so bitter, thatNaomi thought a name ofa contrary fignification fitter for her afflicted condition; call me Marah, i. e. bitter, not Naomi, pleasant, beautiful. And the church, Lam. iii. 19.. callsthemwormwood and gall.
The great design of God in afflicting them, is the same that a tender mother projects in putting wormwood to her breast when the would wean the child.
It hath been observed by some discreet and grave ministers, that before their remove from one place to another, God hath
Gg 2
A Treatise of the Soul of Man. permitted and ordered some weaning providence to befal them either denying wonted success to their labour, or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them, which not only makes the manner of their departure more easy, but the grounds of it more clear. Much so it falis out in our natural death, the comfort of the world is imbittered to us before we leave it; the longer we live in it, the less we shall like it. We overlive most of our comforts which engaged our hearts to it, that we may more freely take our leave of it. It were good for Christians to observe the voiceofsuch providences as these, and answer the designs of them in a greater willingness to die.
1. Is thy body which was once hale and vigorous, now become a crazy, fickly, pained body to thee, neither useful to God, nor comfortable to thee? a tabernacle to groan and sigh in? and little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper ;
God hath ordained this to make thee willing to be divorced from it: the less desire able life is, the lessformidabledeath will be.
2. Is thy estate decayed and blasted by providence, so that thy life which was once fullofcreature-comforts, is now filled with cares and anxieties ? O it is a weaning providence to thee, and bespeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the world farewel.
The less comfortitgives you, the less it shall entangle and engage you .
We little know with what a king hearts, and pensive breasts, many of God's people walk up and down, though for religion, or reputation fake they put a good face upon it; but by these things, God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better state.
3. Is an husband, a wife, or dear children dead, and with themthecomfort of life laid in the dust ? why this the Lord fees necessary to do to perfuadeyou to come after willingly ? It is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth, that thou mayeft fall the more easily. O how many strokes must God give at our names, estates, relations, and health, before we will give way to the last stroke of death that fells us to the ground ?
4. Do the times frown upon religion ? Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand ? Are desirable assemblies scattered ? nothing but sorrows and sufferings to be expected in this world? by these things God will imbitter the earth, and fweetenheaven to his people.
T 5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian society defaced and decayed ? That communion which was wont to be pithy, substantial, spiritual, and edifying, become either frothy or contentious, fo that thy soul has no pleasure in it, this also is a
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weaning providence to our souls; Strigelius defiredto die that - he might be freed ab implacabilibus theologorum odiis, from the
- wranglings andcontentions that were in his time. Our fond affection to the body requires all this, and much more, to we an andmortify them.
Infer. 4. How comfortable is the doctrine of the resurrection to believers, which assures them of receiving their bodies again, though they part with them for a time !
Believers must die as well as others; their union with Christ privileges them not from a separation from their bodies, Rom. viii. 10. Heb. ix. 27. But yet they have special grounds ofconfolationagainst thisdolefulfeparation above all others.
For, 1. Though they part with them, yet they part in hopes of re ceivingthem again, 1 Theff. iv. 13, 14.
They take not a final leave of them when they die. Husbandmen cast their feed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly, because they part with it in hope; so shouldwewhenwe commit our bodies to the earth at death.
2. Though death separates these dear friends from each other, yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ, Luke xx. 37, 38. " 1 am the God of Abraham," &c.
Your very dust is the Lord's, and the grave rots not the bond of the covenant.
3.The very fame body we lay down at death, we shall assume again at the resurrection ; not only the same specifical, but the fame numerical body; Job xix. 25, 26. " With these eyes shall
" I see God ."
4. The unbodied foul shall not find the want of its body, fo as to afflict or disquiet it ; nor the body the want of its foul; but the one shall be at rest in heaven, and the other sweet asleep in the grave; and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting sense of each others absence. The time will be long, Job. xiv. 12. but if it were longer, it cannot be afflicting, considering, how the soul is cloathed immediately, 2 Cor. v. 1,
2. and how the body sleeps sweetly in Jesus, I Theff. iv. 14.
5. When the day of their re-efpousals is come, the soul will find the body so transformed and improved, that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more, but a singular addition to its happiness and glory. Now it clogs us: Mat. xxvi. 41.
" The spirit indeed is willing,but the flesh is weak."
I ten cumbers us with cares to provide for it, and eats up time and thoughts; but then it will be a spiritual body, 1 Cor. xv. 43 . like to the angels for manner ofsubsistence, Luke xx. 35, 36.
Cor. vi. 13. and, which is the highest step of glory, like unto Christ's glorious body, Phil. iii. 21.
Well therefore might the
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Father say, Refurrectio mortuorum eft confolatio Chriftianorum: the resurrection of the dead is the consolation of Christians .
Use second, of reproof.
In the next place, let me press you to regulate your love to your bodies, by the rules of religion and right reason : I must press you to love them, though nature itselfteacheth you so to do; but I press you to love them as Christians, as men that un derstandthe right use and improvement of their bodies.
There are two forts of errors in our love to the body, one in defect, the other in excess; both come fitly here to be cenfuredand healed.
First, Some offend in the defect of love to their own bodies, who use them as if they had no love for them, whose souls act as if they were enemies to their own bodies: they do not for mally and directly hate them, but confequentially and eventually they maybe faidto hate them, and that,
(1.) By defiling them with filthy luits ; to the apostle speaks, Cor. vi. 18. " Every sin that a man doth, is without the bo- " dy, but he that committeth adultery sinneth against his own
"body:" In other sins it is the instrument, but here it is both instrument and object; notonlyGod, but your own bodies are abused, and wronged by it.
The body may be confideredtwo ways, Either, 1. As our vessel ; or 2. As the Spirit's temple.
1. As our vessel or instrument for natural and spiritual uses and services: and on that account we should not injure or defile it, i Theff. iv. 4, 5. but possess it in sanctification and hoT he lusts of uncleanness, gluttony, and drunkenness, quench the vigour, blast the beauty, and destroy the health and honour of the body; and so render it both naturally andmoralnour. lyunfit for the service and use of the soul.
2. And the injury is yet greater, if we confider it as the Spi rit's temple.
On this ground the apostle strongly convinceth, and diffuadeth Christians from these abuses of the body, 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16. He argues from the dignityGodwill 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 thehonour he has already put upon the bodies of the saints in their unionwithChrist, ver. 15, 16.
They, as well as the soul, are ingrafted into him, and joined with him; they are his temples, to be dedicated, hallowed, and consecrated to his service.
O let them hot be made a fink for lusts, or mere strainers for meat and drink.
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(2.)By macerating them with covetous lusts, denying them their due comforts and refreshments,and unmercifullyburdeningthem with labours and sorrows about things that perith. ( 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 fun,and it iscommonamongmen; Am an to whom " God hath given riches, wealth and honour, so that he want- " eth nothing for his soul of all that he defireth; yet God giv- "eth 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 ofa dyscrasy in the stomach, which so indisposeth it that it cannot receive with any appetite or delight the best refreshments at a plentiful table.
(2.)And others there are that wrong and abuse their own bodies, by laying unreasonable andunmerciful 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 ownbodiesthan 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 fslain their ten thousands ; 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."
The souls of some mourners do willingly excite and provoke their own grief, when they begin to abate, which is like the whetting of the knife that grows dull, to make it cut the deeper into the body.
Thus, as † 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 afresh shower of tears for them;" when, poor hearts ! Sorrow hath so broken them already, that they need confolations under their present sorrows, rather than irritations of new ones. And the soul's unmercifulness to the body, is in such caules farther discovered by its obstinate refusal of all that * I nest quid dam dulce triftitia. Ep. 806.
+Cum occurrant fermones eorum jucundi, conversatio bliaris, oficiosapietar : tane oculi velut in gaudio relaxantur.
Id. ib.
A Treatise of the Soul of Man. is comforting and relieving. So it is said of Rachel, Jer. xxxi.
15. " Rachel weeping for her children,would not be comforted, " because they were not."
So the Ifraelites hearkened not un . to Moses, because of the anguishofspirit, and the cruel bondage,
Exod. vi. 9.
Thus we studiously rake together and exafperate whatsoever is piercing, wounding, and overwhelming; and shut our ears to all that is relieving and suporting, which is cruelty to our own bodies,and that which hath so far broken the health and strength of fomebodies, that they are never like to be useful instruments to the foul any more in this world; fuchdeep 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 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 degenerates 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 feverith 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 whinning appetites. 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 and pamper the flesh : "They sow to the " flesh," Gal. vi. 8. i. e. all their studies and labours are but thefowing of the feeds of pleasure to the flesh.
Not a handful of spiritual feed sown in prayer for the foul all the day long : what the body craves, the obsequious foul, like a slave, is at its beck
" to give it; Tit. iii . 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 consists inmortifying, and not pampering and gratifying the body, Rom . xiv.
13, 14, And according to that rule, all serious Christians or-
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241.
} der their bodies, giving them what is needful tokeepthem serviceable and useful to the soul, but not gratifying their irregular desires ; giving what their wants, not what their wantonness calls for.
So Paul, Cor. ix. 27. " I beat it down, and " keep it under;" he understood it as his servant,no this 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, υπωπιαζω and δελαγωγω, are very emphatical; the former signifies to make it black and blue with buffering, 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 .
It was a rare expression of a Heathen, Majorfum, et admajoranatus, quamut corporis mei fim 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 piousdivine, when he felt the flesh rebellious and wanton, Egofaciam, afelle, ut ne calcitres; I will make thee, thou ass, that thou shalt not kick.
I know the superstitious 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 acquainted 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 displeased him at any time, in saying, Why hast thou done fo? 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 contentandpleasure: this is not ordinate love, but fondness and folly, and what we shall bitterly repent for at last.
(2.) It appears by our sparing and favouring of them, in the necessary uses and services we have for them in religion. Many will rather starve their souls, than work and exercise their bo. dies, or disturb their luggish rest: thus the idle excuses and pretences of endangering our health, oftentimes put by the duties of religion, or at least lose the fittest and propereft season for them: we are lazying upon our beds, when we should be wresthng uponourknees: the world is suffered to get the startofreligionin the morning, and fo religion is never able to overtake it all the day long. This was none of David's course, he prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried, Psal. cxix.
147. and Psal. v. 3. " My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, Hh
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" O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, " and will look up."
And indeed we should consecrate unto God the freshett and fittest parts of our time, when our bodily senses are most vigorous; and we would do so, (exceptGodby 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 that can, ought to do fo.
But O how many flothful excuses doth the flesh inventtoput off duty ! We shall injure our health, &c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas ! If profit or pleasure calls us up, we have no thifts, but can rise early, and fit up late.
Ofriends, 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 benefit 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 folicitous to live long, than to live usefully and serviceably ; and it maybe 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 slothfulness and idleness.
Think with thyself, had such a soul as Timothy's or Gaius's been blestwith fuchabody as thine, so strong and vigorous, so apt and able for service, they would have honouredGodmore in it in a day, thanperhapsyou do in a year.
Certainly this is not love, but laziness; not a due improvement, 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 fouls.
Well, remember death will shortly dissolve them, and thentheycanbe 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 salvation, bid us expose and not regard them. Some there are, that rather than they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man, will hazard their souls to the wrath of God *.
They are
*Here the foul receives adeadlywound upon itself, to ward it offfromthebody.
So did Spira.
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too tender to suffer pain or restraint for Christ, but confider not what sufferings are prepared for the fearful and unbelieving in the world to come, Rev. xxi. 8.
How many fad examples do the church-histories of antient and latter times afford us, of men, who consulting 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 those worthy Jews, Dan. iii. 28. who yielded their bodies to preserve their consciences.
Few of Chryfoftom's mind, who told the empress, Nil nifi peccatum timeo, I fear nothing but fin ; or of Basil's, who told the emperor, God threatned hell, whereas he threatned 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 surmounting 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 refolvedto 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 thano ther 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 fave them by losing them, Matth. 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 fouls that are now in hell, arethereupon the account of their indulgence to the flesh, they could not deny the flesh, and now aredeniedbyGod. Theycouldnot suffer frommen,and now must suffer the vengeance of eternal fire,
(4.) Ina word; it appears we love them fondly and irregularly, in that we cannot with any patience think of death and separation from them. How do some men fright at the very nameofdeath ! And no arguments canperfuade them seriously
Hh2
A Treatise of the Soul of Man . to think of an unbodied, and separated state.
It is as death to them, to bring their thoughts close to that ungrateful subject.
A Christian that loves his body regularly and moderately, can look into his own grave with a composed mind, and speak familiarly of it, as Job xvii. 14. And Peter speaks of the putting off of his bodybydeath; as a man would of the putting off of his cloaths at night, 2Pet. i. 13, 14. And certainly such men have a great advantage above all others, both as to the tranquillity of their life and death. You know a parting time must come, and the more fond you are of them, the more bitter and doleful that time will be. Nothing, except the guilt and terrible charges of conscience, putmeninto terrors at death, more than our fondness ofthebody.
Ido confess, christless persons have a great deal of reason to be shy of death ; their dying day is their undoing day: but for Christians to startle and fright at it, is strange, confideringhowgreat a friend death will be to them that are in Christ.
What are you afraid of? What, to go to Christ ? to be freed of fin and affliction too soon ? Certainly this hath not been so comfortable a habitation to you, that you should be lothto change it for a heavenly one.
Use third, of exhortation.
To conclude ; Seeing there is so strict a friendship and tender affection betwixt foul and body, let me persuade every foul of you to express your love to the body, by labouring to get union with Jesus Christ, and thereby to prevent the utter ruin of both to all eternity.
Souls, if you love yourselves, or the bodies you dwell in, shew it by your preventing care in season, left they be cast away for ever. How can you say you love them, when you daily expose them to the everlasting wrath of God, by employing them as weapons of unrighteousness, to fight against him that formed them? You feed and pamper them on earth, you give them all the delight andpleasuresyou can procureforthem in this world ; but you take no care what shall become of them, nor your souls neither, after death hath separated them. Oh cruel fouls ! cruel, not to others, but to yourselves, and to your own flesh, which you pretend so much love to ! Is this your love to your bodies ? What, to employ them in Sat an's service on earth, and then to be cast as a prey to him for ever in hell ? You think the rigour and mortification of the saints, their abstemiousness and self-denial, their cares, fears, and diligence, to be too great severity to their bodies : but they know these are the most real evidences of their true love to them; they love them too well to calt them away as you do.
Alas ! your love to the body doth