The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?
Ver. 14. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.] Some sorry shift a man may make to bustle with, and to rub through other ailments and aggrievances, disasters or diseases, sores or sicknesses of the body - as the word here properly importeth. Let a man be sound within, and, upon good terms, at peace with his own conscience, and he will bravely bear unspeakable pressures. 2 Corinthians 1:9 ; 2Co 1:12 Paul was merry under his load, because his heart was cheery in the Lord; as an old beaten porter to the cross, maluit tolerare quam deplorare, his "stroke was heavier than his groaning," as Job. Job 23:2 Alexander Aphrodiseus a gives a reason why porters under their burdens go singing; because the mind, being delighted with the sweetness of the music, the body feels the weight so much the less. Their shoulders, while sound, will bear great luggage; but let a bone be broken, or but the skin rubbed up and raw, the lightest load will be grievous. A little water in a leaden vessel is heavy; so is a little trouble in an evil conscience.
But a wounded spirit who can bear?] q.d., It is a burden importable, able to quail the courage, and crush the shoulders of the hugest Hercules, of the mightiest man upon earth; who can bear it? The body cannot; much less a diseased body. And if the soul be at unrest, the body cannot but co-suffer. Hence Job preferred, and Judas chose strangling before it. Bilney and Bainham, after they had abjured, felt such a hell in their consciences, till they had openly professed their sorrow for that sin, as they would not feel again for all the world's good. b Daniel chose rather to be cast into the den of lions, than to carry about a lion in his bosom, an enraged conscience. The primitive Christians cried likewise, Ad Leones potius quam ad Lenones adiaciamur. To the lions is more preferable than let us be thrown near the lions. What a terror to himself was our Richard III, after the cruel murder of his two innocent nephews; and Charles IX of France, after that bloody massacre? He could never endure to be awakened in the night without music, or some like diversion. But, alas! if the soul itself be out of tune, these outward things do no more good than a fair shoe to a gouty foot, or a silken stocking to a broken leg.
a Problem i. Numb. 78.
b Act. and Mon., fol. 938.