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our Organs be to the Universe, to receive Sermon thefe regular and noble Impreffions from it?

Proceed we now to make fome other Obfervations upon the other Part of our Nature, our Soul. And, notwithftanding fo much Art is laid out upon our Bodies, and they appear fuch curious Machines, yet of a far more noble and exalted Nature is the Soul. How little, in comparison, this outward Frame of our Bodies is valued by our Maker, appears, in that great Degrees of the fame Wifdom are fhewn and difplay'd in the Bodies of Brutes, which are intended only for a very fhort and uncertain Duration; which, abundantly demonftrateth, how much Wifdom foever appeareth in the Compofition of animate and inanimate Things, yet it beareth no Proportion to the divine Understanding; for it is all beftowed upon fhort-liv'd perishing Subjects. But of the Soul, God himself, as well as our own inward Senfe and Experience, teacheth us to think, and speak more highly and honourably. If we confider its Faculties and Endowments, Muft we not deem it of a different Subftance from the Body? Even what we have been here difcourfing of, concerning the Body, methinks, yieldeth a ftrong and pregnant Proof of it. For, Do we not reafon upon D 2

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Sermon all the Parts of our own Bodies? Upon the Nerves, upon the Brain, upon the fubtileft and fineft Organs? Do we not ftrictly examin them; take them all afunder; confider their Ufes and Ends? Methinks I

reafon upon my own Body, with the fame Freedom and Difengagement, as upon any other Piece of Clock-work, never fo different from me. Am I, therefore, and my Body one Thing, one Subftance? Doth my Body, therefore, thus reflect upon, anatomize it felf? Should any Man say, That your Leg is your Soul, or your Arm your Soul, Would you believe it? Were not the Propofitions ridiculous? But is it a Whit eafier to fay, The Brain is the Soul; or, The animal Spirits the Soul? It is all fhocking to common Senfe.

Suppofing any Man fhould fay, That a Horfe and his Rider, a Ship and the Mariner were the fame Thing; How could one confute fuch abfurd Affertions, but by fhewing the different Faculties and Operations of these two Things? That the Rider commanded, governed the Horfe; the Mariner the Ship. But does not the Soul do the fame to the Body, govern, direct, use, controul its Motions? and yet, Is not the Soul different from the Body? For my Part, I declare it, I fhould as foon believe the Horfe and his Rider the fame Thing, as

the

the Soul and Body. But to return to our Sermon Subject.

How curious foever the Body is framed, all would be loft without this noble Inhabitant, the Soul. It is the Soul that dif covers the curious Contrivance of the Body, it is the Soul that is the Anatomift, the Surgeon, the Phyfician, Mathematician, the Metaphyfician, Divine, and what not? It is the Soul that comprehends all Arts and Sciences, and it is not a Few that fhe comprehends, which fheweth, (although inclofed in corruptible Flesh) its divine Nature, and Energy. When she measures the Heavens, confiders their Motions, calculates Eclipfes, (as ye have seen of late with what Exactnefs) when the reasons of Eternity, of the divine Nature; when ye confider her noble Faculties and Endowments, her Will, her Understanding, her Memory, by which fuch a vaft Stock of Knowledge is acquired and retained, fo many useful and noble Arts and Sciences are ftruck out and improved; when ye think of this, Can ye fancy the Subject of all this Knowledge, the Inventer, the Retainer of it, is the Body; is nothing but Brain and Spirits? For certain, as well may Knowledge lie stored up in a Coffer, as in the Brain, or in any other corporeal Thing. But of this we D 3

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Sermon may have Occafion again to speak to, hereII. after.

I pafs on to the Second General Head, to confider, Whether what we find within our felves, the Faculties and Endowments of our Body and Mind, will evince, That they had nothing less than what we term GOD, for their Contriver and Maker.

And this, I think, ftandeth upon three felf-evident Propofitions, That we had a Beginning, That we had a Caufe of our Beginning and Existence, That an Effect can have no other, no higher or greater Perfections than its Caufe communicated. to' it.

1. We had a Beginning. I fuppofe no One will deny This; at least, as to our Nature, in its prefent Form and Condition, as it is made up of fuch a Body and Mind: Should any Man be bent on cavilling, and fancy, that the Matter and Parts of his Body and Mind, pre-existed before their Union, let him enjoy his Conceit; this hurts not us, if he allows (as he muft allow) that the prefent Make and Structure of his Body, the prefent Order and Arrangement of Parts, as well as the Faculties of his Mind, as they now appear to him, be modern, and

of

of a very late Beginning and Extraction. Sermon This every Man must allow; and this is II. abundantly enough to our Purpofe. We will fuppofe then this a clear Point, That our Minds, as to their prefent Way of Thinking and Operation; and, That our Bodies, as to their present Disposition, and Organization of Parts, had a Beginning; or, in other Words, That we have not been eternally in this prefent Form or Fashion, have not lived eternally on Earth. If we are as certain of other Things as we are of this, I hope we shall carry the Point. I despair not: I appeal to your felves: Be only equal Judges. I advance.

i Seeing we had a Beginning, we must have had a Cause of our Being and Exiftence.

This is the 2d Thing, which is felf-evident. This Caufe cannot be our felves, for then we should Be before we Are, or Be and not Be, which implies a Contradiction. The Cause therefore of our Being and Exiftence, of all our Perfections of Body and Mind, must be fomewhat in Being before, and different from, our felves.

Whatsoever this Caufe be, it must have had all the Perfections, either formally, or eminent

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