pure, perfect light, and quickly finds itself a substantial being, able to act freely in that light." Before the eyes of the dead body are closed, I doubt not, but the believing foul, with open eyes, beholdeth the face of Jefus Chrift, Luke xxiii. 43. Philip. i. 23. But this will also be further spoken to hereafter.

Inf. 3. The fouls of men being created immediately out of nothing, and not feminally traduced; it follows, That all fouls by nature are of equal value and dignity; one foul is not more excellent, honourable, or precious than another; but all by nature equally pre

cious.

The foul of the poorest beggar that cries at the door for a cruft, is, in its own nature, of equal dignity and value with the foul of the most glorious monarch that fits upon the throne. And this appears to be fo,

1. Because all fouls flow out of one and the fame fountain, viz. the creating power of God. They were not made of better or worfe, finer or coarfer matter, but un orar, out of nothing at all. The fame Almighty Power was put forth to the forming of one, as of another. All fouls are mine, faith he that created them, Ezek. xvili. 4. the foul of the child as well as of the father, the foul of the beggar as well as of the king; thofe that had no preexiftent matter, but received their beings from the fame efficient cause, must needs be equal in their original nature and value. The bodies of men, which are formed out of matter, do greatly differ from one another; fome are moulded (as we say) e meliori luto, out of better and finer clay; fome are more exact, elegant, vigorcus, and beautiful than others; but fouls, having no matter of which they confift, are not fo differenced.

2. All fouls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and bleffed God. They need no other powers, faculties, or capacities than they are by nature endued with (if these be fanctified and devoted to God) to make them equally happy and bleffed with them that are now before the throne of God in heaven, and with unfpeakable delight and joy behold his bleffed face. We pafs through the fields, and take up an egg which lies under a clod, and fee nothing in it but a little fqualid matter; yea, but in that egg is feminally and potentially contained fuch a melodious lark as, it may be, at the fame time we fee mounting heavenward, and finging delicious notes above. So it is here, thefe poor despised fouls, that are now lodged in crazy, despicable bodies on the earth, have, in their natures, a capacity for the fame employments and enjoyments with thofe in heaven. They have no higher original than thefe have, and thefe have the fame capacity and ability with them. They are beings improveable by grace, to the higheft perVOL. II. No. 18. 3 X

fections attainable by any creature. If thou be never fo mean, baie, and defpicable a creature in other refpects, yet thou haft a foul, which hath the fame alliance to the Father of spirits, the fame capacity to enjoy him in glory, that the most excellent and renowned faints ever had.

3. All fouls are rated and valued in God's book, and account, at one and the fame price; and therefore by nature are of equal worth and dignity. Under the law, the rich and the poor were to give the fame ransom, Exod. xxx. 15. "The rich shall not give "more, and the poor fhall not give lefs than half a fhekel." The redemption of fouls, by the blood of Chrift, cofts one and the fame price. The poorest and the most despised foul that believes in Jefus, is as much indebted to him for the ranfom of his foul, as the greatest and most illustrious perfon in the world. Mofes, Abraham, Paul, &c. did not coft Chrift any thing more than poor Lazarus, or the meaneft among all the faints did. "The righte"ousness of Chrift is unto all, and upon all that believe, for there "is no difference," Rom. iii. 22.

But yet we must not understand this parity of human fouls univerfally, or in all refpects. Though being of one fpecies or common nature, they are all equal, and those of them that are purchafed by the blood of Chrift are all purchased at one rate; yet there are divers other refpects and confiderations, wherein there are remarkable differences betwixt foul and foul. As, (1.) Some fouls are much better lodged and accommodated in their bodies than others are, though none dwell at perfect reft and eafe. God hath lodged fome fouls in ftrong, vigorous, comely bodies; others in feeble, crazy, deformed, and uncomfortable ones. The hiftorian faith of Galba, Anima Galba male habitat; the foul of Galba dwelt in an ill body. And a much better man than Galba was as ill accommodated. John wishes in behalf of his beloved Gaius, that his body might but profper as his foul did, Epiftle iii. ver. 2. Timothy had his often infirmities. Indeed the world is full of inftances and examples of this kind. *If fome fouls had the advantages of fuch bodies as others have, who make little or very bad use of them; oh, what fervice would they do for God! (2.) There is a remarkable difference alfo betwixt foul, and foul, in respect of natural gifts and abilities of mind. Some have great advantages above others in this refpect. The natural fpirits and organs of the body being more brifk and apt, the foul is more vegete, vigorous, and able to exert itfelf in its functions and operations. How clear, nimble, and firm, are the apprehenfions, fancies, and

Toftatus, bishop of Abulam, had so strong and firm a conftitution to endure fevere ftudies, that he is faid anea inteflina babuiffe, to have had a body of brafs

memories of fome fouls beyond others! What a prodigy of memory, fancy, and judgment, was father Paul the Venetian! and Suarez, of whom Strada faith, "Such was the ftrength of his parts,' that " he had all St. Auguftine's works (the most copious and various "of all the fathers) as it were by heart, fo that I have feen him, faith «he*, readily pointing with the finger to any place or page he disputed "of." Our Dr Reynolds excelled this way, to the astonishment of all that knew him, fo that he was a living library, a third univerfity. But above all, the character given by Vives of Budaeus is amazing, That there was nothing written in Greek or Latin, which he had not turned over and examined; that both languages were alike to him, fpeaking either with more facility than he did the French, his mother tongue; and all by the penetrating force of his own natural parts, without a tutor; "fo that + France never brought forth a man of "fharper wit, more piercing judgment, exact diligence, and greater "learning, nor, in his time, Italy itself." Felix et fœcundum ingenium, quod in fe uno invenit, et doctorem, et difcipulum! A happy and fruitful wit, which in itself found both a master and a fcholar! And yet Pafquier relates what is much more admirable of a young man, who came to Paris in the 20th year of his age, and in the year 1445, fhewed himself fo excellent and exact in all the arts, fciences, and languages, that if a man of an ordinary good wit, and found conftitution, fhould live an hundred years, and during that time study inceffantly, without eating, drinking, fleeping, or any recreation, he could hardly attain to that perfection. (3.) And yet a far greater difference is made betwixt one foul and another, by the fanctifying work of the Spirit of God. This makes yet a greater difparity; for it alters and new-moulds the frame and temper of the foul, and reftores the loft image of God to it; by reafon whereof the righteous is truly faid to be "more excellent "than his neighbour," Prov. xii. 26. This ennobles the foul, and stamps the highest dignity and glory upon it, that it is capable of in this world. It is true, it hath naturally an excellency and perpetuity in it above other beings; as cedar hath not only a beauty and fragrancy, but a foundness and durability far beyond other trees of the wood: but when it comes under the fanctification of the Spirit, then it is as 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, Mat. xxv. 46. fome received into glory,

Statim quo loco quaque pagina differuerit, ea fuper re expedite docentem, ab digito commonftrantem fæpe vidimus.

† Quo viro Gallia, acutiore ingenio, acriore judicio, exactiore diligentia, majore eruditione, nullum unquam produxit : bac vero ætate nec Italia quidem. Lud. Viv. in 17. cap. de Civ. Dei.

others shut out into everlasting mifery; Mat. 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 cast out into outer "darkness, there fhall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And that which will be the fting 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 perish will find they were as naturally capable of blessedness, as thofe that enjoy it; and that it was their own inexcufable negligence and obftinacy that were their ruin.

Inf. 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 still remained nothing, had not the pleasure of its Creator chofen 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 shall be at all. So that fince the pleasure and power of God were the only fountain of my being, he must needs 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 feeing the fame pleasure of God, which gave it a being, gave it also a reafonable 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 soul.

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 must needs be iny 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, whofe 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 threatenings, pierce his very heart with grief, darken the glory of all his attributes, confederate with Satan his malicious enemy; and

ftrike, as far as a creature can strike, at his very being (for in a fenfe, Omne peccatum eft Deicidium, 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 gratiude 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 juft must their perdition be, who cafting off the very bonds of nature, turn again with enmity against 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 fhould not have honour from the meaneft creature that ever he made, from every pile of grafs in the field, or ftone in the street; 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 existence in the fecond rank of beings, but a very little lower than the angels; than that we should 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 glo, ry when he was driven out amongst the beafts 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 inspire the reasonable foul imme-. diately, This fhould inftruct and incite all Chriftian parents to pray earnestly for their children, not only when they are born into the world, but when they are at firft 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 fafhioned; but also with fuch fouls infpired 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 affliction to fee them come into the world defective, monftrous, and misfhapen births; should a leg, an arm, an eye be wanting, fuch a defect would make their lives miferable, and the parents uncomfortable. But how few are

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