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the fame exactnefs, require juftice to himfelf. Juftice will fuiter no violation of holinefs, either for or against it. And as the law of GOD is the image or expreffion of his holinefs, fo the leaft deviation from it, fubjects the foul to a proportionable degree of punishment. Hence it is faid, "Curfed is every one "who continueth not in all things which are written "in the book of the law to do them." And if in the beginning, when the law was written on the heart, any oppofition had been made to it, it had not gone unpunished: In like manner, the law of trial, the teft of obedience being broken, it was punished with death. And thus it must be in all other cafes, according to the law of juftice: For, as GoD is unchangeable in holinefs, fo he is immutable in juftice; and therefore will, according to the nature and degree of the offence, proportion the punishment. And by the fame rule will he proceed in difpenfing rewards: They will be proportioned to the qualities, capacities, and deportments of all; for he will judge the world in righteousness, and give to every one their due.

Herein appears what may be known of GoD, viz. his fpiritual, holy nature; his wifdom, power, goodnefs, and juftice; all which are confpicuous in the works of creation and providence; for the heavens exhibit his glory, and the earth fheweth his handywork. Thefe, to every nation and generation, are faithful witneffes that he is," and alfo of what he can do. Human wisdom would confider them as the iffue of long deliberation and labour: But, the ele ments being firft formed, he finished the whole in fix days, in fuch perfection and inimitable order, as order,

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not to require a review, but in order to be pronounced, very good." How wonderful then is GOD!

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Second, Proceed we now to fpeak of man, made in the image of God.

1. Man is a being compofed of matter and fpirit, of a body and a foul. His body, taken from the duft, is a compofition of the elements; and is fo nearly related to this world, that he may with propriety be termed a part of it: Which relation capacitates him to partake of the profits and pleafures, which almoft every creature adminifters to his feveral fenfes, and appetites, for his fupport and delight.

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2. His foul is a spiritual being, different from his body, in which it is placed, and by which it is governed. The fpirituallity of the foul is inferred from its origin, GOD; who, after forming the body, breathed into him the "breath of life, and he became a living foul*;" and from its actings, which matter, as fuch, however modified, cannot attain to, viz. thinking, reasoning, remembering, &c. all which are acts of intellectual nature, and fpring from that principle of intelligence, feated in, and confined to, or terminated in that part of the body, where all the animal fenfes meet, viz. the head: Which fituation of the foul, is fufficiently demonftrated by, and becomes felf-evident to all, who, retiring into themselves; confult the rife of their own reasonings; all which center in and flow from that part only.

And, as the foul is the principle of life, fo it is the fpring

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fpring of all voluntary motion. For though the body moves by matter and means of its own; by the nerves being originated in the brain, and conveying thence animal fpirits, whereby life and fenfe and motion are preferved and performed in all parts of it; yet they are but fecondary, not primary fprings of motion, and act under, being commiffioned and guided by the rational spirit; all voluntary motion being the refult of understanding and choice, which are the properties of fpirit only.

3. The quality of the foul in the original state, was correfpondent to HIS in whofe image it was made. For, as the fervice of man was to confift of acts perfectly agreeable to the will of God, in matters moral as well as ceremonial; fo it could not confist with the wisdom and goodness of GOD, to conftitute a reafonable, religious, accountable creature, contrary to himfelf. Wherefore, as GOD intended him to be an imitator of his imitable perfections, it behoved him to be poffeffed not only of a fpiritual nature, and its faculties, mind, and will, wherein he might agree with God's natural image; but alfo be replenished with whatsoever might give him the nearest refem- blance of his moral image, the holiness and happiness of GOD. As fuch, he was free from every temper and affection contrary to GoD, and difquieting to himself; was pure and peaceable, good and agreeable to GoD. And from the fpirituallity and purity of the foul, arofe all the properties peculiar to the primitive state of man.

4. And being a compofition of earth and heaven, and having fenfes adapted to both, he was qualified to

act

act in a double capacity; to ferve his maker in a religious regard, and fuperintend the affairs of this life. Hence he was knowing in things celeftial and terreftial: Yet not as containing innate ideas of either; but only capacitated to receive the notices and impreffions. of fpiritual things, and the images of the earthly thro'. the outward fenfes. But though the faculty of knowing did not contain or imply any idea or image of any thing extrinfical to itself; yet it could no fooner exift, than know or be fenfible of the LORD, its Maker, objectively: For, as the eye of the mind was clear and ftrong, and capable of difcerning fpiritual objects, and being enlightned with divinity itself, the light or prefence of the LORD, fo he was the first, because the nearest object of the mind: Wherefore, there being nothing to darken their views of, or hide, his face from them, he was exhibited to their view, on the firft opening of the fpiritual eye in the created eftate. And by the fame ability, but through a different medium, the fenfes of the body, the foul was capable of converfing with, and judging of external things: For as Adam gave names fuitable to the natures of all creatures; fo, 'tis probable, he formed a juft notion of the nature of fublunary things, prior to any attention to their operations and effects.

.5. A fecond property of the foul was its powerful agency. The body, a compound being, by reafon of its imbecility or weakness, is eafily reduced to a fate of inactivity: But as the foul confifts not of parts, nor is compofed of different things, being one fimple effence, fo it is always active. And as the invifibility and fine texture of the air gives it a diftant refemblance of fpirit in general, fo its permanent operation,

the

the conftant action of air, is analogus to that property of fpirit, termed power: Whence arifeth the foul's unremitted action in thought, &c. and agency in ac tuating the body. And though fpirit is not incapable of being annihilated by its maker; yet it is not fubject to decay of itself, nor can be deftroy'd by any creature.

Hence

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6. The rational fpirit of man is the fame in all the viciffitudes of life. Its power is unalterable, mani-. fefting itself according to its own and the peculiar quality and condition of the body it informs. fhews its power in good or evil; in joy and grief, in love and hatred, in courage and fear, in hope and defpair: And when the body languishes under fickness or pain, infirmities and old age; in the midft of nature's ruins and the wreck of time, it fuffers no diminution. In the hour of death, when the blood runs tardy in the veins, and the pulfe beats low; when every nerve is unftrung, and the whole fcene of outward things is clofing, even then, it retains its power; and except it be infenfible of its real condition, being blinded with ignorance, hardened by fin, and rendered 、 past feeling, it has forebodings of its future fate, witneffing a glorious earneft of heaven in holiness and happiness, or a fearful looking for of hell in a guilty confcience; which, to the dying, is an omen of eternal wrath. Yea, when all connexion and commerce with the body is broke off, it fubfifts in happinefs or mifery, in the enjoyment of heavenly blifs or hellifh torment. Thus the permanent, unchangeable nature of the foul infers its natural immortality, that being the true ground thereof, the bafis on which that doctrine is built.

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