fanctification of the Spirit, then it is a cedar over-laid with gold. (4.) Laftly, a wonderful difference will be made betwixt one foul and another, by the judgment of God in the great day. Some will be bleffed, and others curfed fouls, Matth. xxv. 46. fome received into glory, others fhut out into everlasting mifery; Matth. viii. 11, 12. Many fhall come from the Eaft, and "Weft, and fhall fit down with Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, "in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom "fhall be caft out into outer darkness, there fhall be weeping "and gnashing of teeth." And that which will be the fling and aggravation of the difference which will then be made, will be this parity and equality in the nature and capacity of every foul by reafon whereof they, that perith, will find they were as naturally capable of blessedness, as those that enjoy it; and that it was their own inexcufable negligence and obstinacy that were their ruin.

III. The foul a created fubftance.

Infer. 4. If God be the immediate Creator, and former of the foul of man, Then fin muft needs involve the most unnatural evil in it, as it is an horrid violation of the very law of nature. No title can be fo full, fo abfolute, as that which creation gives. How clear is this in the light of reafon? If God created my foul, then my foul had once no being at all: that it had ftill remained nothing, had not the pleasure of its Creator chosen and called it into the being it hath, out of the millions of mere poffible beings: for as there are millions of poffible beings, which yet are nothing; fo there are millions of poffible beings, which never fhall be at all. So that fince the pleasure, and power of God was the only fountain of my being, he needs muft be the rightful owner of it. What can be more his own, than that whofe very being flowed merely from him, and which had never been at all, had he not called it out of nothing?

And seeing the fame pleasure of God, which gave it a being, gave it also a reasonable being, capable of, and fitted for moral government, by laws, which other inferior natures are incapable of; it muft needs follow that he is the fupreme governor, as well as the rightful owner of this foul.

Moreover, it is plain that he who gave my foul its being, and fuch a being, gave it alfo all the good it ever had, hath, or fhall have; and that it neither is, nor hath any thing but what is purely from him: and therefore he muft needs be my moft bountiful benefactor, as well as abfolute owner, and fupreme governor. There is not a foul which he hath created but ftands bound to him, in all thefe ties and titles. Now for fuch

;

a creature to turn rebelliously upon its abfolute Owner, whose only, and wholly it is; upon its fupreme Governor, to whom it owes entire and abfolute obedience; upon its bountiful benefactor, from whom it hath received all, and every mercy it ever had, or hath; to violate his laws, flight his fovereignty, defpife his goodness, contemn his threatnings, pierce his very heart with grief, darken the glory of all his attributes, confederate with Satan his malicious enemy; and strike, as far as a creature can strike, at his very being (for in a fenfe, Omne peccatum eft Decidium, every fin ftrikes at the life and very existence of God): Blush, O heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid! O curfed fin, the evil of all evils, which no epithet can match no name worse than its own can be invented, finful fin. This is as if fome venomous branch fhould drop poifon upon the root that bears it. Love and gratitude to benefactors, is an indelible principle engraven by nature upon the hearts of all men. It teacheth children to love and honour their parents, who yet are but mere inftruments of their being. O how just must their perdition be, who cafting off the very bonds of nature, turn again with enmity againft that God, in whom they both live, and move, and have their being! O think, and think again, on what an * holy man once faid; What a fad charge will this be against many a man at the great day, when God fhall fay, Hadft thou been made a dog, I never had had fo much dishonour as I have had? It is pity God should not have honour from the meanest creature that ever he made, from every pile of grafs in the field, or ftone in the fireet; much more that he should not have glory from a foul more precious and excellent than all the other works of his hands. Surely it is better for us, our fouls had still remained only in the number of poffible beings, and had never had an actual exiftence in the fecond rauk of beings, but a very little lower than the angels; than that we fhould be still difhonouring God by them. O that he should be put to levy his glory from us paffively; that it fhould be with us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, from whom God had more glory when he was driven out amongst the beasts of the field, than when he fat on the throne. In like manner, his glory will rife paffively from us, when driven out among devils, and not actively and voluntarily, as from the faints.

Infer. 5. If God create and infpire the reafonable foul immediately, This bould inftruct and incite all Chriflian parents to

* Mr. Burrough's Excellency of the foul of man, p. 232,

VOL. III.

X

pray earnefily for their children, not only when they are born into the world, but when they are at first conceived in the womb.

It is of great concernment both to us and our children, not only to receive them from the womb, with bodies perfectly and comely fashioned; but alfo with fuch fouls inspired into them, whereby they may glorify God to all eternity. It is natural to parents to defire to have their children full and perfect in all their bodily members; and it would be a grievous affiction to fee them come into the world defective, monstrous, and misshapen births; fhould a leg, an arm, an eye be wanting, fuch a defect would make their lives miferable, and the parents uncomfortable. But how few are concerned with what foul they are born into the world? "Good God, (faith ‡ Musculus), "how few shall we find, who are equally folicitous to have fuch "children as may live piously and honeftly, as they are to leave "them inheritances upon which they may live fplendidly and "bravely?" It pleafeth us to fee our own image ftamped upon their bodies; but, O! how few pray, even whilst they are in the womb, that their fouls may, in due time, bear the image of the heavenly, and not animate and ufe the members of their bodies, as weapons of unrighteoufefs against the God that formed them?

Certainly, except they be quickened with fuch fouls, as may in this world be united with Christ, better had it been for them that they had perished in the womb, whilft they were pure embryo's and had never come into the number and account of men and women; for fuch embryo's go for nothing in the world, having only rudiments and rough draughts of bodies, never animated and informed by a reasonable foul, Job iii. 11, 12. But as foon as fuch a foul enters into them, though for never fo little a time, it entails eternity upon them. We alfo know that as foon as ever God breathes, or infufes their fouls into them, fin prefently enters, and death by fin, and that by us, as the inftruments of conveying it to them: which should have the efficacy of a mighty argument with us to lay our prayers and tears for mercy in the very foundation of that union.

Think on this particularly, you that are mothers of children, when you find the fruit of the womb quickened within you, that you then bear a creature within you of more value than

Bone Deus! quam paucos reperias qui tam foliciti quomodo pie et honefte vivam filii, quam curant ut amplam relinquant illis hæreditatem qua poft obitum illorum splendide et otiofe declientur ? Mufculus in 8 Gen.

all this vifible world; a creature, upon whom, from that very moment, an eternity of happiaefs or mifery is entailed; and therefore it concerns you to travail as in pain for their fouls, before you feel the forrows and pangs of travail for their bodies. O what a pity is it, that a part of yourselves fhould eternally perifh that fo rare and excellent a creature as that you bear, fhould be caft away for ever, for want of a new creation superadded to that it hath already! O let your cries and prayers for them, anticipate your kiffes and embraces of them. If you be faithful and fuccefsful herein, then happy is the womb that bears them; if not, happy had it been for them, that the knees had prevented them, and the breafts they have fucked. O! ye cannot begin your fuits for mercy too early for them, nor continue them to long, though your prayers measure all the time betwixt their conception and their death.

IV. A vital

fubftance.

Infer. 6. Moreover, if God hath created our fouls vital fubftances, to animate and act those bodies, How indifpenfably neceffary is it that fuch a principle of fpiritual life, do quicken and govern that foul which quickens and governs our bodies and all the members of them? Otherwise, though in a natural fense we have liv ing fouls, yet they are dead whilst they live.

The apostle, in 1 Cor. xv. 45, 46., compares the animal life we live, by the union of our fouls and bodies, with the fpiritual life we live, by the union of our fouls with Jesus Christ. And fo it is written, (viz. in my text), "The first man Adam "was made a living foul, the laft Adam was made a quickening Spirit." He oppofes the animal to the fpiritual life, and the two Adams, from whom they come; and fhews, in both refpects, the excellency of the fpiritual above the animal life; not in point of priority, for that which is natural is before that which is fpiritual, (and it must be fo, because the natural foul is the recipient fubject of the Spirit's quickening and fanctifying operations); but in point of dignity and real excellency. To how little purpose, or rather to what a difmal and miferable purpose are we made living fouls, except the Lord from heaven, by his quickening power, make us fpiritual and holy fouls? The natu ral foul rules and uses the body, as an artificer doth his tools: and except the Lord renew it by grace, Satan will rule that which rules thee, and fo all thy members will be inftruments of X 2

* The body bears resemblance to an organ, the foul to an artist. Iren. b. 2.

iniquity to fight against God. "The actions performed by "our bodies, are justly reputed and reckoned by God to the "foul t," becaufe the foul is the fpring of all its motions, the fountain of its life and operations. What it doth by the body, its inftrument, is, as if it were done immediately by itself; for without the foul it can do nothing.

V. A spiritual fubftance.

Infer. 7. Moreover, from the immaterial and fpiritual nature of the foul, we are informed, That communion with God, and the enjoyment of him, are the true and proper intentions and purposes for which the foul of man was created.

:

Such a nature as this, is not fitted to live upon grofs, material, and perishing things, as the body doth. The food of every creature is agreeable to its nature; one cannot subsist upon that what another doth as we fee among the feveral forts of animals, what is food to one, is none to another. In the fame plant is found a root which is food for fwine, a stalk which is food for theep, a flower which feeds the bee, a feed on which the bird lives: the sheep cannot live upon the root, as the swine doth; nor the bird upon the flower, as the bee doth: but every one feeds upon the different parts of the plant, which are agreeable to its nature. So it is here, our bodies being of an earthly, material nature, can live upon things carthly and material, as most agreeable to them; they can relish and fuck out the fweetness of these things; but the foul can find nothing in them fuitable to its nature and appetite; it must have spiri tual food, or perish. It were therefore too brutish and unworthy of a man that understood the nature of his own foul, to chear it up with the ftores of earthly provifion made for it, as he did, Luke xii. 20. "I will fay to my foul, Soul, thou hast "much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, "drink, and be merry." Alas! the foul can no more eat, drink, and be merry with carnal things, than the body can with fpiritual and immaterial things: it cannot feed upon bread that peritheth, it can relish no more in the best and daintiest fare of an earthly growth, than the white of an egg: but bring it to a reconciled God in Chrift, to the covenant of grace, and the fweet promises of the gospel; fet before it the joys, comforts and earnests of the Spirit; and if it be a fanctified renewed foul, it can make a rich feast upon thefe. Thefe make it a feast of

+ Omnia quocunque fecerit corpus, five banum, five malum, animæ reputantur. Origen in Job.