fat things, full of marrow, as it is expreffed, Ifa.. xxv. 6. Spiritual things are proper food for fpiritual and immaterial fouls. Infer. 8. The fpiritual nature of the foul farther informs us, That no acceptable fervice can be performed to God, except the foul be employed and engaged therein.

VI. A fpiritual fubftance.

The body hath its part and share in God's worship, as well as the foul; but its part is inconfiderable, in comparison; Prov. xxiii. 26. "My fon give me thy heart," i. e. thy foul, thy fpirit. The holy and religious acts of the soul are fuitable to the nature of the object of worship: John iv. 24. " God is a Spirit, and "they that worship him, muft worship him in fpirit and in

truth." Spirits only can have communion with that great Spirit. They were made fpirits for that very end, that they might be capable of converfe with the Father of Spirits. They that worship him, must worship him in fpirit and in "truth;" that is, with inward love, fear, delight, and defires of foul, that is, to worship him in our fpirits; and in truth, i. e. according to the rule of his word which prefcribes our duty. Spirit refpects the inward power; truth the outward form. The former strikes at hypocrify, the latter at fuperftition and idolatry: the one opposes the inventions of our heads, the other the loofenefs and formality of our hearts.

No doubt but the fervice of the body is due to God, and expected by him: for both the fouls and bodies of his people are bought with a price, and therefore he expects we glorify him with our fouls and bodies, which are his but the service of the body is not accepted of him, other wife than it is animated and enlivened by an obedient foul, and both fprinkled with the blood of Chrift. Separate from thefe, bodily exercise profits nothing, Tim. iv. 8. What pleasure can God take in the fruits and evidences of mens hypocrify? Ezek. xxxiii. 31.

Holy Paul appeals to God in this matter; Rom. i. 9. " God "is my witnels (faith he) whom I ferve with my fpirit;" q. d. I ferve God in my fpirit, and he knows that I do fo. I dare appeal to him who fearches my heart, that it is not idle and unconcerned in his fervice. The Lord humble us, the best of us, for our carelefs, dead, gadding, and vain fpirits, even when we are engaged in his folema fervices. Oh that we were once fo fpiritual, to follow every excursion from his fervice with a groan, and retract every wandering thought with a deep figh! Alas, a cold and wandering fpirit in duty is the difeafe of moft men, and the very temper and conflitution of unfanctified ones. It is a weighty and excellent expreffion of the Jews, in their Eucho

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logium or prayer-book, "Wherewithal fhall I come before his face, unless it be with my fpirit? For man hath nothing more precious to prefent to God than his foul." Indeed it is the best man hath thy heart is thy totum poffe: it is all that thou art able to prefent to him. If thou caft thy foul into thy duty, thou doft as the poor widow did, caft in all that thou haft: and in such an offering the great God takes more pleasure than in all the external, coftly, pompous ceremonies, adorned temples, and external devotions in the world. It is a remarkable and aftonishing expreffion of his own in this cafe, Ifa. lxvi. 1, 2. "Thus faith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth " is my footftool: Where is the houfe that ye built me? and "where is the place of my reft? For all these things have "mine hands made, and all these things have been, faith the Lord; but unto this man will I look, even to him that is poor, "and of a contrite fpirit, and trembleth at my word;" q. d. Think not to please me with magnificent temples, and adorned altars; if I had pleasure in fuch things, heaven is a more glorious throne than any you can build me; and yet I have more delight in a poor contrite fpirit, that trembles with an holy awe and reverence at my word, than I have in heaven or earth, or all the works of my hands in either. Oh! if there had been more trembling at his word, there had not been fuch trembling as now there is, under fears of the lofs and removal of it. can fuperftitiously reverence and kifs the facred duft of the fanctuary, as they call it, and exprefs a great deal of zeal for the externals of religion, but little confider how small the interest of these things is in religion, and how little God looks at, or regards them.

Some

Infer. 9. How much more are the fpirits of men funk by fin, below the dignity and excellency of their nature?

Our fouls are fpirits by nature, yet have they naturally no delight in things fpiritual: they decline that which is homoge neal and fuitable to fpirits, and relish nothing but what is carnal and unfuitable to them. How are its affections inverted and mifplaced by fiu! That noble, fpiritual, heaven-born creature the foul, whofe element and centre God alone fhould be, is now fallen into a deep oblivion both of God and itself, and wholly fpends its ftrength in the pursuit of fenfual and earthly enjoy ments, and becomes a mere drudge and flave to the body. Car

פני בוכיאמ כרוחיבי אדליאש נבבר מנפטר *

Nh. e. Qua re potius preæveniam faciem cujus, nifi fpiritu meo ? nihil enim eft homini preciofius anima fuar

nal things now measure out and govern its delights and hopes, its fears and forrows. Oh! how unfeemly is it, to behold fuch a high-born fpirit lacqueying up and down the world in the fervice of the perithing flesh. "Their heart (faith the prophet) "goeth after their covetoufnefs," Ezek. xxxiii. 31. as a fervant at the beck or nod of his master.

Oh, how many are there to be found in every place who melt down the precious affections and ftrength of their fouls, in fenfitive brutifh pleafures and delights? James v. 5. "Ye "have lived in pleasures upon earth," as the fish in the waters, or rather as the eel in the mud; never once lifting up a thought or defire to the fpiritual and eternal pleasures that are at God's right hand.

Our creation did not fet us fo low; we are made capable of better and higher things.

It was a

God did not infpire fuch a noble, excellent, fpiritual foul into us, merely to falt our bodies, or carry them up and down this world for a few years, to gaze at the vanities of it. great faying of an Heathen, "I am greater, and born to greater things, than that I should be a flave to my body †." We have a fpirit about us, that might better understand its original, and know it is not fo bafe a being, as its daily employments fpeak it to be. The Lord raise our apprehenfions to a due value of the dignity of our own fouls, that we may turn from these fordid employments with a generous difdain, and set our affections on what is agreeable to, and worthy of an high-born spirit. Infer. 10. Is the foul of man a vital, fpiritual, and immortal fubftance? Then it is no wonder, that we find the refentments and impreffions of the world to come, naturally engraven upon the fouls of men all the world over. These impreffions and fentiments of another life after this, do as na. turally and neceffarily fpring out of an immortal nature, as branches fpring out of the body of a tree, or feathers out of the body of a bird. So fairly and firmly are the characters and impreffions of the life to come fealed upon the immortal fpirits of all men, that no man can offer violence to this truth, but he must alfo do violence to his own foul, and unman himself by the denial of it, who feels not a chearinefs to fpring from his abfolving, and an horror from his accufing confcience? neither of which could rife from any other principle than this. We are

VII. The foul an immortal fubfiance.

Major fum, et ad majora natus, quam ut corporis mei fim mancipium. Seneca.

beings confcious to ourselves of a future ftate, and that our fouls do not vanish when our breath doth; that we cease not to be, when we cease to breath.

And this is common to the most barbarous and favage Heathens: "They fhew (faith the apostle) the work of the law "written in their hearts, their confciences alfo bearing them "witness, and their thoughts in the mean time accufing, or "elfe excusing one another." By the work of the law, underftand the fum and fubftance of the ten commandments, comprifing the duties to be done, and the fins to be avoided. This work of the law is faid to be written upon the hearts of the Gentiles, who had no external written law; upon their hearts it was written, though many of them gave themselves over to all uncleannefs; and they fhewed or gave evidence and proof, that there was fuch a law written upon their hearts. They fhewed it two ways: (1.) Some of them shewed it in their temperance, righteoufnefs, and moral honefty, wherein they excelled many of us, who have far greater advantages and obligations. (2.) In the efficacy of their confciences; which, as it cleared and comforted them for things well done; fo it witneffed against them, yea, judged and condemned them for things ill done. And thefe evidences of a law written on the heart are to be found, wherever men are to be found. Their ignorance and barbarity cannot ftifle thefe fentiments, and impreffions of a future ftate, and a just tribunal to which all must come. the univerfality of it plainly evinces, that it fprings not out of education, but the very nature of an immortal foul.

And

Let none fay that these univerfal impreffions are but the effects of an univerfal tradition, which have been, time out of mind, fpread among the nations of the world: for as no fuch univerfal tradition can be proved; fo if it could, the very propenfion that is found in the minds of all men living, to embrace and close with the proposals of a life to come, will evince the agreeableness of them to the nature of an immortal soul. Yea, the natural closing of the foul with thefe propofals, will amount to an evidence of the reality and existence of those invisible things. For as the natural fenfes, and their organs, prove that there are colours, founds, favours, and juices; as well as, or rather because there. are eyes, ears, &c. naturally fitted to clofe with, and receive them; fo it is here, if the foul naturally looks beyond the line of time, to things eternal, and cannot bound and confine its thoughts and expectations within the too nar row limits of prefent things, furely there is fuch a future flate, as well as fouls made apprehenfive of it, and propenfe to close

with the difcoveries thereof. So natural are the notions of a 'future ftate to the fouls of men, that thofe who have fet them felves defignedly to banish them, and struggled hard to fupprefs them, as things irkfome and grievous to them, giving interruption to their fenfual lufts and pleasures; yet ftill these apprehenfions have returned upon them, and gotten a just victory o ver all their objections and prejudices; they follow them wherefoever they go; they can no more flee from them, than from themselves; whereby they evidence themselves to be natural and indelible things.

Infer. 11. Hath God endued the foul of man with underftanding, will, and affections, whereby it is VIII. Endued made capable of knowing, loving, and enjoywith underflanding God? It is then no wonder to find the malice and envy of Satan engaged against man, ing, will, and afmore than fections. any other creature, and against the foul of man, rather than any thing elfe in man.

It grates that Spirit of envy, to fee the foul of man adorning and preparing, by fanctification, to fill that place in glory from which he fell irrecoverably. It cut Haman to the very heart, to fee the honour that was done to Mordecai; much more doth it grate and gall Satan, to fee what Jefus Chrift hath purchased and defigned for the fouls of men. Other creatures being naturally incapable of this happinefs, do therefore efcape his fury; but men fhall be fure to feel it, as far as he can reach them; 1 Pet. v. 8. "Your adverfary the devil, goeth about like a roaring lion, feeking whom he may devour." He walks to and fre; that fpeaks his diligence; feeking whom he may devour that fpeaks his defign; his reftlefsnefs in doing mischief, is all the rest and relief he hath in his own torments. It is a mark of pure and perfect malice, to endeavour to deftroy, though he knows he shall never be fuccessful in his attempts. We read of many bodies poffeffed by him; but he never takes up his quarters in the body of any but with design to mischief the foul. No room but the best in the houfe will fatisfy him; no blood fo fweet to him as foul-blood. If he raife perfecution against the bodies of men, it is to destroy their fouls: holiness is that he hates, and happiness is the object of his envy the foul being the fubject of both, is therefore pursued by him as his prey.

Infer. 12. Upon the confideration, both of its excellent nature, and divine original, it follows, That the corruption and defacing of fuch an excellent creature by fin, deferves to be lamented,

VOL. III.

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