SPIRITUAL PEACE AND COMFORT. 393 would have all such remember, 1. That God is a Spirit, and will be worshiped in spirit and in truth ; and such worshipers doth he seek. 2. That God will have mercy and not sacrifice ; and that thevitals of religion are in a consumption, when the heat of zeal is drawn too much.to the outside; and that placing most in externals, is the great character of hypocrisy, and is that pharisaical religion to which the doctrine andpractice of the Lord Jesus wasmost opposite, as any that will read the gospel may soon see. 3. That God hath made our bodies to be his servants, and instruments of righteous- ness, (Rom. vi. 13.,) and helpful and serviceable to our souls in well-doing. And therefore it is disobedience, it is injustice, it is cruelty to disable them, and causelessly to vex and torment them, much more to destroy them. You may see by sick men, by mel- ancholy men, by madmen and children, how unfit that soul is to know, or love or serve God,. that bath not a fit body to work in and by. The serpent knows this well enough. Ifhe can but get you by excessive fastings, watchings, labors, studies, orother austerities, especially sadness and perplexities ofmind, to have a sick body, a crazed brain, or a short life, you will be able to do him but little hurt, and God but little service, besides the pleasure that he takes in your own vexation. Nay, he will hope to make a further ad- vantage of your weakness, and to keep many a soul in the snares of sensuality, by telling them of your miseries, and saying to them, ' Dost thou not see in such a man or woman, what it is to be sò holy and precise ? They will all run mad at last. If once thou grow so strict, and deny thyself thy pleasures, and take this precise course, thou wilt but 'make thy life a misery, and never have a merry day again.' Such examples as yours the devil will make use of that he may terrify poor souls from - godliness, and repre- sent the word and ways of. Christ to them in an odious, and un- pleasing, and discouraging shape. Doubtless that God who him- self is so merciful to your body, as well as to your soul, would have you to be so too. He that provided so plentifully for its refresh- ment, would not have you refuse his provision. He that saith that the righteous man is merciful to his beast, no doubt would not have him to be unmerciful to his own body. You arecommanded to love your neighbors but as yourself; and therefore by cruelty and unmerciful dealing with your own body, you will go about to justi- fy the like dealings with others. You durst not deny to feed, to clothe, to comfort and refresh the poor, lest Christ should say, " You did it not to me." And how should you dare to deny the same to yourself? How will you answer God for the neglect of all that service which you should have done him, and might ifyou had not disabled your bodies and mind ? He requireth that you delight yourself in him. And how canyou do that when you habituate VOL. I. 50
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