The body a vessel for
the soul.
3. The body is called a vessel, or a case, for the soul to be put and kept in. 'That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor' (1 Thess 4:4). The apostle here doth exhort the people to abstain from fornication, which, in another place, he saith, '…is a sin against the body' (1 Cor 6:18). And here again he saith, 'This is the will of God, that ye should abstain from fornication:' that the body be not defiled, 'that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.' His vessel, his earthen vessel, as he calls it in another place—for 'we have this treasure in earthen vessels.' Thus, then, the body is called a vessel; yea, every man's body is his vessel. But what has God prepared this vessel for, and what has He put into it? Why, many things this body is to be a vessel for, but at present God has put into it that curious thing, the soul.
Cabinets, which are very rich and costly things of themselves, are not made nor designed to be vessels to be stuffed or filled with trumpery, and things of no value; no, these are prepared for rings and jewels, for pearls, for rubies, and things that are chosen. And if so, what shall we then think of the soul for which is prepared, and that of God, the most rich and excellent vessel in the world? Surely it must be a thing of worth, yea, of more worth than is the whole world besides. But alas! who believes this talk? Do not even most of men so set their minds upon, and so admire, the glory of this case or vessel, that they forget once with seriousness to think, and, therefore, must of necessity be a great way off, of those suitable esteems that becomes them to have of their souls. But oh, since this vessel, this cabinet, this body, is so curiously made, and that to receive and contain, what thing is that for which God has made this vessel, and what is that soul that He hath put into it? Wherefore thus, in the third place, is the greatness of the soul made manifest, even by the excellency of the vessel, the body, that God has made to put it in.
The body a tabernacle
of the soul.
4. The body is called
a tabernacle for the soul. 'Knowing that shortly I must put off this my
tabernacle' (2 Pet 1:14), that is, my body, 'by death' (John 21:18,19). 'For we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God,' etc. (2 Cor 5:1). In both these places, by 'tabernacle,' can
be meant nothing but the body; wherefore both the apostles, in these sentences
do personate their souls, and speak as if the soul was THE ALL of a man; yea,
they plainly tell us, that the body is but the house, clothes, vessel, and
tabernacle for the soul. But what a famous thing, therefore, is the soul!
The tabernacle of old
was a place erected for worship, but the worshippers were more excellent than the
place; so our body is a tabernacle for the soul to worship God in, but must
needs be accounted much inferior to the soul, forasmuch as the worshippers are
always of more honor than the place they worship in; as he that dwelleth in
the tabernacle hath more honor than the tabernacle.8 'I serve,' says Paul, God, and Christ Jesus 'with my spirit (or soul) in the gospel' (Rom 1:9), but not
with his spirit out of, but in, this tabernacle. The Tabernacle had instruments
of worship for the worshippers; so has the body for the soul, and we are bid to
'yield our members as instruments of righteousness to God' (Rom 6:13). The
hands, feet, ears, eyes, and tongue, which last is our glory when used right,
are all of them instruments of this tabernacle, and to be made use of by the
soul, the inhabiter of this tabernacle, for the soul's performance of the
service of God. I thus discourse, to show you the greatness of the soul. And,
in my opinion, there is something, if not very much, in what I say. For all
men admire the body, both for its manner of building and the curious way of
its being compacted together. Yes, the further men, wise men, do pry into the
wonderful work of God that is put forth in framing the body, the more still
they are made to admire; and yet, as I said, this body is but a house, a
mantle, a vessel, a tabernacle for the soul. What, then, is the soul itself? But thus much for the first particular.
