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النشر الإلكتروني

1025

DISCOURSE V.

THE CURSE AS IT HATH DEGRADED MAN THROUGH EXCESS OF BODILY LABOUR, AND THE DELIVERANCE FROM THE SAME.

(PREACHED ON opening a scoTCH CHURCH AT BIRMINGHAM, MARCH, 1824.)

GEN. iii. 17-19.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

SHORT and scanty as is the account of the condition of our first parents before they transgressed the commandment of God, it furnisheth materials for comprehending in some sort the nature of their being. Of the creation of the animals it is written, "Let the earth bring them forth; let the waters bring them forth." But of man it is said, "Let us make man in our image, after our like

ness." And, in another place, it is written of the animals, "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air;" but of man it is written, "The Lord God formed men of the dust, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, or the spirit of lives, and he became a living soul." The expression, "the Lord God formed man of the dust," is equivalent to the expression used of the creatures, that the Lord God formed them out of the ground, both having reference to the structure of the body, and the gift of animal life, but this other expression used only of man, that he breathed into his nostrils the spirit of lives, and he became a living soul, signifies something which was not bestowed upon the creatures, but derived from an immediate inspiration of the Almighty. This part, superadded to the being of man by the breathing of God, is in the original " the spirit of lives," and denotes these other forms of existence which man hath beyond every creature under heaven, and which seemeth to us to be threefold; the understanding which discourseth over things submitted to the senses, and formeth them into historical and scientific knowledge; the reason which discourseth over things that have no existence in the sense, but are presented to it by the conscience or will; and the conscience, or moral will, which discerneth the relations of right and wrong, and presideth over moral life. There are therefore to be discerned in man an animal frame and an animal life, which he had in common with the other animals. And next to that there is his understanding, which is their instinct, elevated and extended, and infinitely magnified, but agreeing with their instinct in this, that they

are both conversant with the visible world. Then there is the rational life, or the pure intellect; whose operations are in the reason, and depend on the spirit, not on outward things; and there is the moral or spiritual will, which is ever endeavouring to represent itself in the infinite forms of the reason: this is the life of the soul. Of which two, reason and will, the lower creatures have not the faintest resemblance.

The theory of life which hath of late begun to be taught in our medical schools, is so accordant with this account of man's formation, that I cannot help making a reflection upon it as I proceed. Formerly, in treating of man, and even still in the French schools, the physiologists were wont to compare him in whole with the lower animals; and Helvetius hath found the chief cause of his excellence to consist in the superior form of his hand, and other instruments of sensation. And this found its way into our English philosophy, which sought to find in the lower animals, and in the plants, even faculties of reason and of feeling, kindred with those of man. But the progress of true science is fast exploding this brutalizing form of philosophy, and the latter physiologists have separated the being of man into two parts: that which he hath in common with other creatures, his organic structure, by which his animal life is continued; that is, the life of the body, which, in man and the animals, is maintained by provisions and processes almost alike, and which throughout the whole organic or created world, is linked and bound together by wonderful analogies. This department, the physiologists have now discovered to be their proper field, out of which none but sciolists and speculators wander.

The rational and the moral parts, which have no connexion with things seen, and not therefore to be anatomized or experimented upon, they leave to the metaphysician and the theologian to treat of, after the methods that appertain to them. The physiologists take unto themselves the study of the habitation of the soul, not of the soul which dwelleth therein. The cunning arts by which that habitation is builded up in the womb and in youth, by which it is repaired in weak and wounded places, by which it is fitted for labour and activity, and all the functions of animal life, and by which it declines at length and dies, and resolves into the elements of other lives: this the physiologists address themselves to study by observations, with experiments of the knife, with trials of various foods and medicines; and in doing so they are students of the wonderful architecture which God hath displayed in this our mortal tabernacle, and servants to him so far as they can: but further they presume not to go, and none but sciolists speculate from the house to the inhabitant of the house, who is to be studied by other methods altogether. Nay, in studying the art of nature in building up and repairing the house, the wisest of them confess their own ignorance: they see the thing done, they see the preparations for doing it, and so far they can lend a help, but the workshop where nature fashions a bone, or a muscle, or a fluid, they allow they know nothing of; only they see it is accomplished, and they can minister the supplies of food out of which she accomplisheth it the most pleasantly. Of this I could say much more, and I am strongly tempted to say more, in order to expose a little the weakness of the Materialists; but I refrain, because it would

draw me entirely from the proper province of our ministry, which is to expound unto men the truths of revelation.

Having shewn to you the parts of human nature to consist in his animal strength, his understanding of visible things, his reasoning of things invisible, as of his own spirit, of other spirits, of God, and also of the ideal forms of things visible, whereof mathematics are a noble monument; and his pure feeling of things moral and spiritual: observe now how in paradise, short as is the account of it, there is a distinct province of employment for them all. First, for his animal employment, God planted a garden eastward in Eden, out of the ground of which the Lord God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In this well watered and beautiful garden, which to the prophets was the emblem of every thing fertile and happy, he placed man to dress it and to keep it; and gave him to eat of every tree thereof, save of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Of these two trees we do not speculate at present: perhaps we may in some future discourse.) To keep and dress this garden was the occupation of our first parents; the Almighty shewing thereby, that even to them exercise of the body was a pleasant and necessary thing. This was the activity appointed for his body, the daily use of his animal life. Then for his understanding, there was the government of all the creatures, the culture of all the plants, and that power over external nature which God appointed to him, and for which he gave him the

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