He breathes forth Spirit: Incorporeal fubftance; which feems,thereupon to bear that name; the name of Breath. He calls matter into Being And all that he produces, he produces with infinite Facility. He fpake and it was done; he commanded and it flood faft. His word is productive and prolific. He can create matter, and inveft it with what Forms he pleases. Here's obligation on the intelligent part of the Univerfe! They were spoke into existence by the self-exiftent Being.

II. The Preferver of all things. He continues the Beings that he has made. The power that made them might let them fink into their original nothingness, or non-existence; but he ftill fuftains them by and for the fame pleasure, by and for which he made them. He upholds all things by the word of his power. Nor does any juft reason occur, why he should at any time annihilate the things that he has made. We cannot fuppofe, that he has made too many, or more than he knows what to do with, or how to difpofe of to his own glory.

III. The abfolute Proprietor of all things. The Being that he produces out of, or from, nothing, muft needs in all refpects be his own. No propriety can be more full, illimited and defpotical. The heavens are thine; the earth alfo is thine; as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou haft founded them.

IV. The Difpofer of all things. He manages the Universe. His will must be accomplish'd. His defigns must be attain'd; his word must be fulfill'd; and all things must be made fubfervient thereto. As by him, so through him, (through his direction and difpofal) are all things; for his Kingdom (and directive dominion) ruleth over all.

V. The Supreme end of all things. It is beneath his majesty ultimately to defign things for any Being befides himself. As he made all things by his free power, fo he made them for himself; for his own ufe, for the display of his perfections, and the gratifying of his own will. For him are all things, and for his pleasure (or will) they are and were created.

Besides his univerfal relations, he has fome more efpecial ones towards the intelligent part of the creation. Unintelligent fubftance falls under defpotical dominion. It seems to be made for the fake of intelligent Beings; for their habitation, accommodation, ufe and behoof. Accordingly, it is most abitrarily disposed of. Some compofes the terraqueous globe; fome the planets and comets; fome the fun and ftars of light. Some is form'd into minerals and metals; fome into the feveral forts of vegetables; fome into the bodies of animals. What of it may be compofed into the vehicles of fuperterrestrial spirits, we know not. But a confiderable quantity compofes the bodies of mankind, and must conftitute them after the refurrection from the dead. Accordingly, fome of this matter must be eternally glorifyed in the heavenly world; and other fome must be committed to the infernal flames. Though fo much matter as belongs to the constitution of perfons will, at laft, be legally difpofed of; yet, of it felf, it is uncapable of proper law, and falls under arbitrary determination. Intelligent Beings are of a higher fphere, and are much otherwife treated, The great God deals with them according to their nature. Accordingly to them, he fuftains the relations,

I. Of Legiflator. He gives them intellectual rule, or moral law, for the guiding of them into bleffednefs. He fhews them what is good, both morally and phyfically good, their duty and their blifs, and commands them to choose both. What peculiar laws he gives to the inhabitants of the fuperior world, we know not. But that they are under law, appears, in that they are capable of fin; and great numbers of them have actually finn'd. Now, where there is no law, there can be no tranfgreffion. It more concerns us to know, that he gives us law; The Lord is our Law-giver, the Lord is our King. From his very creating us fuch excellent Beings as we naturally are, there feems to arife the law of love and gratitude, and obligation to all things that please him.

II. Of judge. We are come to God, the judge of all. Law would be of little fignificance, were there to be no judgment according to it. The divine Wisdom adds fanctions to his law. And as the precept is the rule of

Our

Efa xxxiii. 22.

our duty; fo the fan&tion will be the rule of judgment. And therefore we must fo fpeak, and fo do, as thofe that shall be judged by the law of liberty (either the law of gracious liberty, in oppofition to the ritual Yoke of bondage; or the law of impartial Freedom, in oppofition to refpect of perfons)

III. Of Executor of his law, or of the fanctions of his law. In the promife he raises our hope; and by the threatning, our fear. And the great God does not mean to govern the world by falfe hopes and fears. As he will judge the world in rightcoufnefs, fo he will render to every one, as his ftate and work fhall be found.

While mankind was innocent, he treated them with fuch law, as was fuitable to the state of innocency. Upon the violation of that law, the great governor enter'd into judgment with the criminals, paft a penal fentence upon them, and executed fome judgment; but with fuch moderation and clemency, as leaves room for further gracious treatment both by law and providence.

To the fallen guilty world, the great God is graciously pleas'd to affume the relation of Reconciler. God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himself. And fince he was pleased to bring about this reconciliation by the way and means of a wondrous redemption, he has the relation of Redeemer. And fince this reconciliation and redemption is to bring us back, and bring us home to him as our end and reft, he has the relation of bliss or bleffedness. I am thy exceeding great reward.

In the relation of Reconciler the great God is pleas'd to send out fuch law (or covenant, which coming from the fupreme governour of the world, has the force and Authority of a law) as is fuitable to a revolted world, that is to be reconciled to him. Of which, more may be faid hereafter. But thus the inftitution moft fully opens and reprefents the various re lations, in which the bleffed God stands to the world and us. The prof pect of which contributes to the honour and vencration of the divine majefty; and may juftly ftrike religion into the confidering foul, and inflame the heart with an ardent devotion.

James. ii. 12

C 2

SECT.

SECT. III.

The Christian Religion eminently fuppofes and afferts the original Dignity of the Human Nature.

I

T puts the highest honour and estimate upon mankind. How dark were the old fyftems of philofophy about the origination of our princely race! Some thought we fprung from the Earth, as certain excrescences from its fertil juices. Some fancy'd we dropp'd in baggs or bladders (like oak-balls) from Trees. Some would fay, that Prometheus framed the human body of the Earth, and enlivened it with fire from Heaven. What sketch of Hebrew tradition may be couch'd in fuch a notion, let the learned judge. But no account of our origin and conftitution can be more noble and honourable, than what is fuppofed and allowed in the chriftian revelation. As their God is the most excellent Being; fo Man is the immediate workman-fhip of God; and formed in fuch eminence of nature, that he is faid to be made in the Image of God. Particularly,

I. His body is made indeed of earthly materials, but framed with exquifite judgment and skill. The study of five thousand years has penetrated but a little way into the contrivance and contexture of it. Its numerous and curious parts, organs and veffels are scarcely perceived by all the affiftants the cye can gain. The curiofities of the bones, cartilages, membranes, muscles, nerves and Arteries are all wonderful. The origination and process of it in the natural propagation furpaffes human disquifition. It is of an erect and elevated Figure, as made for dominion over the other terrestrial animals, and defigned for the contemplation of the Heavens, where its great parent most eminently refides. It is made to be an intimate companion for an intellectual agent; an inftrument of its functions and operations; an habitarion for a sprightly fojourner here; and a fellow

fellow-conftituent of fuch a fort of Being, as is to be the chief inhabitant of this world; and is to learn and practife fuch duties and offices here, as will prepare it for a tranfplantation to an higher orb.

II. The foul was infpired by the Creator himself. 'Tis a Breath of Life; a vital breath; the Breath of the Almighty; an image of the vital Being from whence it came. An intellective, volitive, active Being. A fpring of thought and multiform Ideas. Capable of wisdom, counfel, and difcreet determinations. A fund of defires, defigns and motions. Capable of law and facred government; of being guided by unseen motives, by hopes and fears, and profpect of things fpiritual, divine and future. A being capable of admirable improvements in its intellectual and moral faculties; capable of philofophy and noble sciences; of virtue, goodness and eminent usefulness in publick focieties. Capable of religion and aspiration towards God, and the enjoyments of a perfect world.

III. This foul is fo different from the body, that it can live Separate and diftant from it. It's life does not depend upon the organization of its earthly machine. A notion of its immortality, the poor Pagans have. generally had. Some have fancied a transition, or tranfmigration of fouls, from one human body to another; or even to the bodies of beafts. Some have imagin'd Elysian Fields for the virtuous, and the dark Caverns of Pluto, for immoral fpirits. But no where is the human immortality so well illuftrated and confirmed as in the Christan Code and Oeconomy There our nature is eminently exalted above our neighbour-animals, Are ye not much better than they! The faviour might well say so. His of fice proclaims our native dignity. He well understood the value of fouls, that was to pay the price of them. But what shall a man (any other. man) give in exchange for his foul! He promised a penitent confeflor, that That day (the day of their death) he should be with himself in paradife. There we are affured, that when the earthly houfe of this tabernacle fhall be diffolved (without ftaying for its being fet together again) We have a building of God, an houfe not made with hands, eternal in. the Heavens. What a mysterious Being is here, one part of which may