tion, whilft they yet continue under the means and among the inftruments of their falvation.

Whatever the fruit of this difcourfe fhall be to others, I have caufe to blefs God for the advantage it hath already given me. I begin to find more than ever I have done, in the separate state of fanctified fouls, all that is capable of attracting an intellectual nature; and if God will but fix my mind upon this state, and cause my pleafed thoughts about it to fettle into a steady frame and temper, I hope I fhall daily more and more depreciate and despise this common way of existence in a corporeal prison; and when the bleffed feafon of my departure is at hand, I fhall take a cheerful farewel of the greater and leffer elementary world, to which my foul hath been confined, and have an abundant entrance through the broad gate of affurance, unto the bleffed, unembodied inhabitants of the world to come.

A

TREATIS E

OF THE

SOUL OF MAN.

GEN. ii. 7.

And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his noftrils the breath of life; and man became a living' foul.

“TH

HREE things (faith * Athanafius) are unknown to men according to their effence, viz. God, angels, and the fouls of "men." Of the nature of the divine and high-born foul, we may fay, as the learned + Whitaker doth of the way of its infection by original fin, "it is easier fought than understood, and better underftood than explicated:" And for its original, the moft fagacious and renowned for wifdom amongst the antient philofophers underftood nothing of it. It is faid of § Democritus, that "there is "nothing in the whole workmanship of nature of which he did "not write ;" and in a more lofty and fwelling hyperbole, they ftile their eagle-ey'd Aristotle," the rule, yea, and miracle of nature; "learning itself, the very fun of knowledge:" yet both these are not only faid, but proved by Lactantius to be learned ideots. How have the schools of Epicurus, and Ariftotle, the Cartefians, and other fects of philofophers, abused and troubled the world with a kind of philofophical enthusiasm, and a great many ridiculous fancies about the original of the foul of man! and when all is done,

* Tria funt quæ fecundum effentiam hominibus funt ayvwça, xai aogisa, Deus, angelus, anima hominis. Ath. in Tract. de defin.

+ Quæri facilius eft quam intelligi, et melius intelligitur quam explicatur.

Plato doubted, Aristotle denied, and Galen derided the doctrine of the world's creation.

S Nihil eft in toto opificio naturæ, de quo non fcripfit Democritus. And for Ariftotle, they ftiled him, Regula natura, Natura miraculum, ipfa eruditio, fol fcientiarum, Antifica literarum et fapientiæ. Lactantius lib. iii. cap. 17, 18.

three words of God, by the pen of his inspired Mofes*, enlight | ens us more than all the fubtile notions of the accidental concretion of atoms, their materia fubtilis, and anima mundi, and the rest of their unintelligible fancies could ever do.

The account Mofes gives us in this context, of the origin of the world, and of man the epitome of it, is full of fenfe, reafon, congruity, and clearnefs; and fuch as renders all the effays of all the Heathen philofophers to be vain, inevident, self-repugnant, and inexplicable theories.

The infpired penman gives us, in this context, a compendious narrative of the world's creation, relating more generally the rude, inform, and indigested chaos; and then more particularly the fpecificating, and diverfifying of the various beautiful beings, thence educed by the motion of the Spirit of God upon the face of the

waters.

When the first matter was ftrictly created out of nothing, "the "Spirit (as Mofes excellently expreffeth it, chap. i. 2.) † hovered, " or moved over it as a bird over her eggs, and, as it were, by way of incubation, cherishing and influencing it," did thereby draw forth all the creatures into their several forms, and distinct particular natures, wherein we now, with delight and admiration, behold them.

In this manner and order was the ftately fabric of the world produced and erected; but as yet, it remained as a fair and wellfurnished house without an inhabitant. God had employed infinite wisdom and power about it, and engraven his name upon the meaneft creature in it; but there was no creature yet made (except angels, the inhabitants of another city) to read the name and celebrate the praises of the Almighty Creator.

He therefore thought the world imperfect till there was a creature made that could contemplate, praife, and worship the Maker of it; for this very use and purpose was man created, that he might not only fee, but confider the things he faw; difcourfe, and rationally collect out of them the things he faw not; and both praise, and love the Maker for, and in them all.

The palaces of princes are not beautified and adorned, to the intent men fhould pay their respects and honours to thew alls, but to fhew the grandeur and magnificence of the king, to whofe per

Philofophy feeks or fearches after truth, but theology finds it. Jo. Picus

Miran.

Motus eft. He moved; a metaphor taken from the action of the eagle, when the provokes her brood to the action of flying; and is applied by fome to the communication of motion to the feveral parts of the planetary fyftem. Vid. Stokius on the word, and a Dissertation of Dr Jennings on the place. Editor.

fon their honour is due, as Athenagoras in his excellent apology for the Chriftians, fpeaks. The world is a glorious and magnificent pile, raised defignedly to exhibit the wildom and power of its Creator to the reasonable creature man, that from him God might receive the glory of all his other works. Of this creature man, the mafter-piece of all the vifible world, (and therefore crowned king over it the first moment he was made, Pfal. viii. 5.) Mofes in the next place, gives us the account, both of his original, whence he came, and of his dignity, what he is. "The Lord God formed man out of the duit of the ground, and breathed into his nof"trils the breath of life; and man became a living foul." Where we find,

I. The original of the body of man: "Formed out of. "the duft of the ground." "Duft was its original matter: of "duft was it made, and into duft it must be refolved, Gen. iii,

19. The confideration is humbling, and ferves to tame the "pride of mant," who is apt to dote upon his own beauty. Man's body was not made of heavenly matter, as the radiant fun, and fparkling stars: no, nor yet of the most precious and orient earthly matter: God did not melt down the pure and fplendid gold and filver, or powder the precious pearls and fparkling diamonds, but he formed it of the vile and defpicable duft.

We find that the fprinkling of duft upon new writing prevents many a foul blot: I am fure, the fprinkling of our original duft upon our minds by serious confideration, is the way to prevent many a proud boaft.

However, the bafenefs of the matter, and coarseness of the ftuff, ferves to fet off the admirable skill of the most wife and powerful Architect, who out of fuch mean, despicable materials, has fashioned fo exact and elegant a piece. The Lord God

"formied man out of the duft."

"The Lord God.] The name of God is here fet down at fullt,

This world is indeed most beautiful, yet it is not the world itfelf that is to be adored, but that great Artificer, its Creator: even as your fubjects, when applying to you for what they need, do not act so foolish a part as to overlook you their lords and princes, omitting all the honour due to you, and confining their regards to the magnificence of your palaces; but, on the contrary, viewing the fine ftructure of your palaces only by the by, they revere and honour yourselves before and above all things elfe. Athen. Apol.

+ TINTA Pulverem tenuiffimam ad demandam fuperbiam. Fagius, i o'nx mm' Dominus Deus. Nomen Dei hic plenum eft, propter bominia dig

nitatem. Nachm.

to fet forth the dignity of man," the fubject matter wrought upon, as fome conceive.

Formed.] Fashioned, or curiously moulded, and figured it*. The Hebrew verb, primarily fignifies "to prefs, comprefs, or "fqueeze together; and by a metalepfis, by preffing or compref

fing, to mould or fafhion, as the potter doth his clay." The Pfalmift ufeth another word to exprefs the artificial elegancy of the body of man, Pfal. cxxxix. 15, 16. np acupiētus fum, I am embroidered, painted, or flourished, as with a needle. We render it curiously wrought. Whatfoever beauty and comely proportion God hath bestowed by creation upon it, "it is all answerable "to that excellent idea, or model+ before conceived in his mind "and purpose." All this care and coft was bestowed upon the body of man, which, when all is done, is but the cafe in which that ineftimable jewel, the foul, was to be lodged. This therefore I must lay afide, and come to the more noble fubject,

II. The foul of man: about which we have before us four things to ponder in this text, viz.

(1.) The nature, and property, (2.) The defcent, and original, (3.) The manner of infufion,

(4.) The nexus, or bond that unites

(1.) The nature and property of it, a living foul. The word was alfo the Chaldee Naphfba; and the Greek 4ux, have one and the fame etymology, all fignifying to breathe, or refpire; not that the breath is the foul, but denoting the manner of its infufion by the breath of God, and the means of its continuation in the body, by the breath of our noftrils. God's breath infufed it, and our breath continues it in union with the body. It fignifies here the rational foul; and the Hebrew was, a foul, hath a very near affinity with the word onw the heavens; and indeed there is a nearer affinity betwixt the things, viz. foul and heaven, than there is betwixt the names.

The epithet which we tranflate living, the Arabic renders a rational foul, and indeed, none but a rational deferves the name of a living foul; for all other forms or fouls, which are of an earthly extract, do both depend on, and die with the matter out of which they were educed; but this being of another nature, a fpiritual and fubftantial being, is therefore rightly ftiled, a living foul. The Chaldee renders it, a Speaking foul. And indeed, it deserves a remark, that the ability of fpeech is conferred on no other

* Prefit Compreffit, et per Metalepfin, premendo et comprimendo formavit. Imaginem mente divina conceptam, quafi manu format. Fagius.

1