That the soul of man is The man, The soul goes away with the 1name of the whole person: The soul is not the man in a natural consideration, (as some have philosophized, asserting that man is nothing but a soul clothed with a body) for, man is man by the union of soul and body, and the perfection of man as man, consists in that union; but the soul is the man in a moral consideration, because it is the more noble and excellent part of man: and it is usual to denominate the whole from that part which is more excellent. The body is but as the Cabinet, the soul is the Jewell; the body is but as the sheath or the scabbard, the soul is as the knife or the sword; You know when a man buyeth a sword, he buys a scabbard too, or when he buys a knife, he buys the sheath too, yet he saith, this knife cost me so much, or I gave so much for this sword he makes no mention of the scabbard or of the sheath; now the body is the sheath or scabbard of the soul (Dan. 7. 15.) you have it expressed so, I was grieved (saith the Prophet) in my spirit in the middest of my body, so we translate it, but the Chaldee is (and so we have it in some Margents) in the middest of my sheath; The soul is the blade, a blade of admirable mettle and temper; the body how beautiful soever by nature, or gay by art is but a velvet, or an embossed sheath and scabbard: therefore at first, when God formed man out of the dust of the earth, and had breathed into him the breath of life, the result of all is, and man became a living soul; it is not said, man became a living body, though life was breathed into the body, and the body stood up and lived, yet the best part is named for all, the dust and the clay are (as it were) quite forgotten in the story, man became a living soul. And that may be a reason, why the fear of God and keeping 2his Commandments (Eccles. 12. ult) is called all man, because these things chiefly concern that part of man, which (upon the matter) is all man. The fear of God and keeping his Commandments, are soul work, and tend to the eternal welfare of the soul; and though the body shares in all the blessings, and assists in most labours of the soul, yet the soul labours most for, and is the chiefest seat of blessedness. How strangely have some departed from this point of truth, which the Scripture every where writes as with a Sun-beam:
That the soule of man is The man, The soule goes away with the 1name of the whole person: The soule is not the man in a naturall consideration, (as some have philosophiz'd, asserting that man is nothing but a soule cloathed with a body) for, man is man by the union of soule and body, and the perfection of man as man, consists in that union; but the soule is the man in a morall consideration, because it is the more noble and excellent part of man: and it is usuall to denominate the whole from that part which is more excellent. The body is but as the Cabinet, the soule is the Jewell; the body is but as the sheath or the scabbard, the soule is as the knife or the sword; You know when a man buyeth a sword, he buyes a scabbard too, or when he buyes a knife, he buyes the sheath too, yet he saith, this knife cost me so much, or I gave so much for this sword he makes no mention of the scabbard or of the sheath; now the body is the sheath or scabbard of the soule (Dan. 7. 15.) you have it exprest so, I was grieved (saith the Prophet) in my spirit in the middest of my body, so we translate it, but the Chaldee is (and so we have it in some Margents) in the middest of my sheath; The soule is the blade, a blade of admirable mettle and temper; the body how beautifull soever by nature, or gay by art is but a velvet, or an embossed sheath and scabbard: therefore at first, when God formed man out of the dust of the earth, and had breathed into him the breath of life, the result of all is, and man became a living soule; it is not said, man became a living body, though life was breathed into the body, and the body stood up and lived, yet the best part is named for all, the dust and the clay are (as it were) quite forgotten in the story, man became a living soule. And that may be a reason, why the fear of God and keeping 2his Commandements (Eccles. 12. ult) is called all man, because these things chiefely concerne that part of man, which (upon the matter) is all man. The feare of God and keeping his Commandements, are soule worke, and tend to the eternall welfare of the soule; and though the body shares in all the blessings, and assists in most labours of the soule, yet the soule labours most for, and is the chiefest seate of blessednesse. How strangely have some departed from this point of truth, which the Scripture every where writes as with a Sun-beame:
- 1Non qued anima si• bono ut quidam posuerunt, dicentes hominem nihil aliud esse quàm animam indutam corpore, sed quia anima est principatior pars hominis, unum quodque autem consuevit appellari id, qu•d est in eo principalius. Aquin. in loc.
- 2[Greek or Hebrew]〈non-Latin alphabet〉
