The merchant who ventures all he has in one ship, if that be lost, is quite ruined. If one loses his health, he may recover it again if he loses his estate, he may make it up again but if he lose his soul, the loss is irreparable. Oh, look to the main chance let the soul be chiefly tended! The loss of the soul would be fatal. And we cannot show our care for our souls more than by improving all seasons for their good as reading, praying, hearing, and meditating. Therefore, it is wisdom to look chiefly to the soul, because in saving the soul we secure the happiness of the body. If the soul be gracious, the body shall be glorious, for it shall shine like Christ’s body. If it be well with the soul, it shall be well with the body.
The body must sit in the chair of state, but the soul, that princely thing, is made a lackey to run on the devil’s errands. They are caterers for the flesh, they make provision for the flesh, they have the best diet, but let their souls starve as if one should feed his hawk, but let his child starve. (2) About feeding their bodies than their souls. They do not get the jewels of grace to adorn the inner man. They put on the best clothes, are dressed in the richest garb but care not how naked or undressed their souls are. The body is but the brutish part, yet they take more care, (1) About dressing their bodies than their souls. They are reproved who take more care for their bodies than their souls. Hence, we make but one petition for the body, but two petitions for the soul. Surely, then, if the soul be so ennobled and dignified, more care should be taken about it than the body. The essence of the soul is eternal it has a beginning but no end. Though the body dissolve into dust, the soul lives. The body is the more humble part, it is the cabinet only, though curiously wrought, but the soul is the jewel it is near akin to angels it is capax beatitudinis, capable of communion with God in glory. It is the more refined and spiritual part of man it is of an angelic nature it has some faint resemblance to God. (1) The soul is an immaterial substance it is a heavenly spark, lighted by the breath of God. The excellency of the soul may challenge our chief care about it. In the law, the weight of the sanctuary was twice as big as the common weight, to typify that spiritual things must be of far greater weight with us than earthly. That in this prayer there is but one petition for the body, ‘Give us our daily bread,’ but two petitions for the soul, ‘Forgive us our trespasses, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ Observe hence, that we are to be more careful for our souls than for our bodies, more careful for grace than for daily bread and more desirous to have our souls saved than our bodies fed.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’ Matt 6: 12.īefore I speak strictly to the words, I shall notice