In a letter to John Wesley in June 1735, his mother Susanna Wesley wrote these words:
The beauty, pleasures, and ease of the body strangely charm us; the wealth and honours of the world allure us; and all, under the management of a subtle malicious adversary, give a prodigious force to present things; and if the animal life once get the ascendant of our reason, it is the greatest folly imaginable, because he seeks it where has not designed he shall ever find it. But this is the case of the generality of men; they live as mere animals, wholly given up to the interests and pleasures of the body; and all the use of their understanding is to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, without the least regard to future happiness or misery.
I take à Kempis to have been an honest weak man, with more zeal than knowledge, by his condemning all mirth or pleasure as sinful or useless, in opposition to so many plain and direct texts of Scripture. Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure; of the innocence or malignity of actions? Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.
(from Susanna Wesley by Eliza Clarke LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 1886)
I like this …. and perhaps I am being picking or mincing words… but I prefer in the last sentence to read;”…in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your”, SOUL, “that thing is sin to you,…..”
I find my mind as easily corrupted as my body…perhaps even more so……..
Wha-cha think, heh?
Either way for me. It depends on how you describe your makeup: body and soul or body, mind, and soul, or body, soul, and spirit.
The concept of soul is rather vague and ethereal. We have an idea of something in there somewhere. But to define it with precision or even get a clear picture of what it entails ends in either futility or argument. On the other hand, the mind is something most of us can grasp mentally. It encompasses our thoughts, reasoning and memories.
Therefore, I have to disagree with John’s alternative. Mrs. Wesley chose her words well, which may be one reason we still comment on it hundreds of years after the fact.
Thank you for posting this. It’s a good reminder of how I ought to judge the options I have for my free time.