A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

He that came to destroy the works of the Devil, came to save the soul and body,¹ the works of God. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

1. 1Luke 19.10.

1. A man may love his own body, and is bound to preserve the life of it; no man ever yet hated his own flesh. ¹We read indeed of one out of the tombs, who was day and night in the Mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones: and of the Idolatrous Baalites, (who sacrificed to the Devil, and not to God,) that they cut themselves, after their manner, with knives, and lancers, till the blood gushed out upon them: but who in his right wits ever did such a thing? or where did God require it at any mans hands? The Lord forbids the Israelites to make such barbarous cuttings and manglings of their flesh (after the manner of the heathen) because they were his servants.² A man may sin against his own body many ways; as by excessive labour, neglecting to take necessary food, or physic; intemperance, and the like: He ⟨p. 51⟩that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body.

1. A man may love his own body, and is bound to preserve the life of it; no man ever yet hated his own flesh. ¹We read indeed of one out of the tombs, who was day and night in the Mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones: and of the Idolatrous Baalites, (who sacrificed to the Devil, and not to God,) that they cut themselves, after their manner, with knives, and launcers, till the blood gushed out upon them: but who in his right wits ever did such a thing? or where did God require it at any mans hands? The Lord forbids the Israelites to make such barbarous cuttings and manglings of their flesh (after the manner of the heathen) because they were his servants.