wn
nature. Doth not all this cry aloud upon us, that the order of creation is
now dissolved,--that the beauty of it is marred,--that all is turned upside
down,--when men's passions and senses are their only guides, and the
principles of light in their conscience are choked and stifled? Doth not
all this teach us plainly that we should not "live after the flesh,"--that
we owe not so much to this brutish part as to enthrone it and empower it
over us,--that it were vilest anarchy, and most intolerable confusion and
usurpation, to give it the power over us, as most men do,--that there can
be no order or beauty in man till the spirit be unfettered from the chains
of fleshly lusts, and restored to the native dignity, and so keep the body
in subjection? And, indeed, Paul was so, 1 Cor. ix. 27. "I keep my body in
subjection, and beat it down, because it is an imperious slave,--an
usurping slave,--and will command, if not beaten and kept under."

Again, Christ, hath put a bond upon us to this very same. He hath
strengthened this obligation with a new cord, in that he gave his precious
life a ransom for the souls of men. This was the principal thing he paid
for--the body only being an accessory and appendix to the soul--for it is
said, "The redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever,"
Psal. xlix. 8, and, "What can a man give in exchange for his soul," Mark
viii. 37. For what material thing can equalize a spirit? Many things may
be had more precious and fine than the body, but all of them have no
proportion to a spiritual being. Now, then, in that so dear a ransom, and
so infinite a price must be given for the spirit of man, it declares the
infinite worth and excellency of it above the body, and above all visible
things. And here is, indeed, the greatest confirmation that can be
imagined. God hath valued it, he hath put the soul of man in the balance,
to find something equal in weight of dignity and worth and when all that
is in heaven and earth is put in the other scale, the soul is down weight
by far. There is such distance that there is no proportion; only the life
and blood of his own Son weighs it down, and is an overvalue, and thus, in
our redemption, we have a visible demonstration--as it were--of the infinite
obligation of this law, not to live after that contemptible part, our
flesh, but to follow after the motions and directions of an enlightened
spirit, not to spend our thoughts, care, and time, upon th