Mankind sensible of this therefore it is often suggested to us in Scripture This Chapter vers 1. says Man that is born of a Woman is of few days Few and evil says Jacob have the days of the years of my Life been after he had lived an hundred and thirty Years Gen. 47. 9. Well then might the Psalmist say If our strength lasts to fourscore years yet it is soon cut off as Psal 90. 10. But we shall have the best and most lively apprehension of the contemptible shortness of human Life if we compare the continuance of that with the duration of some other things There are many of the Creatures made inferiour to us that yet now commonly live much longer than we Naturalists tell us that some forts of Birds commonly live an hundred years when alas not one in many hundreds of us can reach to near that Age. Of some Trees it is said they will live Eight hundred years Many of our own Works abide and continue much longer than we We contrive them for our own advantage and comfort and in a little time leave them we know not to whom We live in Houses we meet in Churches that were built by we know not who we read Books written by men that have been dead perhaps many hundred years ago If we consider the more abiding parts of the Creation how much longer do they last than we whom they were made to serve One generation goes and another comes says the Preacher but the Earth abides for ever The expression does not mean that this Earth shall never be dissolv'd and there are other Scriptures which intimate that it shall but it teaches us that while the Earth abides and has done so for several thousands of years a great many generations of men have successively been upon it For a while it has fed and then devoured them A while they have had a portion here and then resigned it to others and they after a little while have resigned it again to others no man can carry any of these things away with him How many lives has the Course of this one Sun measured and yet the Sun continues to run his Race Above five Thousand years has that bright Creature been a burning and shining Light when alas we are but as of yesterday as Job speaks Job 8. 9. And how much longer after us the Earth and the Sun and the Heavens may last we know not But if they should last much longer as we have reason to think they will not last always there are yet another sort of Beings of a longer duration The Angels which were made above five Thousand years ago shall continue for ever they shall know no end of duration nor alteration of their blest and happy condition Their duration is not transitory their condition is not frail and feeble But in the last place let us consider the infinite and everlasting Duration of the Ever-blessed God He is from everlasting to everlasting as is said Psal 90. 2. He always was and never had beginning always is and shall be and never shall be at an end Oh how justly may we despise considering these things the contemptible shortness of our present Life The Psalmist says to God A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past Which is as if he should say If we wretched mortals should be continued in this world for a longer time than any of the first men liv'd who liv'd some of them near a thousand years yet this were very little to thy unmeasurable duration The longest Life of man is as inconsiderable to thee as one past day is to us Yea it is as little as a watch in the night he adds as three or four hours spent in sleep And very fitly is this matter exprest yet further to make us duely sensible of it Psal 39. 5. Behold my days are as an hand-breadth The four short Stages of mans life are but each of them as it were the breadth of a finger in their length and yet further Mine age is as nothing before thee The greatest number of our years is so small it is as nothing when compar'd with thy eternal duration Thus we may help our selves duely to apprehend the shortness of our present life 2. Let us consider that this our present Life is very frail and feeble As the Flower is the shortest liv'd part of a plant so 't is usually the weakest the most easily withered and destroyed A cold wind pinches and blasts it a high one tears it in pieces a hot Sun shrivels and withers it a little fly or worm can easily destroy a thing of so delicate and tender a constitution And so frail as this is the life of man There is not the weakest Flower more weak than he the strongest man may be kill'd by a fly or an hair a crum of bread a blast of ill air or a few drops of drink Even the weakest and most contemptible Creature that is can put an end to his days when 't is commissioned by the Providence of God to do so And we are liable to a great many mortal accidents any of which can cut us off in the prime of our years when we are proud of youth and strength As Job says some die in their full strength when their breasts are full of milk and their bones are moistned with morrow Job 21. 23 24. Our greatest strength is but weakness How often has the Sun risen upon a man alive and well and promising himself many days and before his setting has seen him a dead carkass Again We may apprehend the frailty of our present life from hence we all breed in our selves the Causes of death A great many distempers are our mortal bodies liable to and we carry the seeds of them in our selves And we may say there are some diseases which the excess of health and vigour dispose men to some that kill only the young or strong as a consumption or a feaver But that constitution must needs be acknowledged frail which breeds its own destruction and this is the common case of mankind in our present state And yet further will the frailty of this life be presented to us if we consider the unavoidable decays of old age If without accidents and in spite of distempers we pass through childhood and youth and manhood yet in old age nature decaies of its self If nothing else destroy us we shall like the weak flower fade and fall alone The crazy building may be propt a while but it will tumble at last let what will de done to support it And this ought sure to be reckon'd a very frail thing which will fall of it self and perish if it be let alone And much rather yet should we account it so if it will fail and perish notwithstanding the greatest care and the best means that can be used to preserve it And this is the miserable condition of our present life 3.
an Animal can have so great a sense of Pleasure or Happiness as a Spirit may if it be proper to say that it has any at all Matter the best of it is dull in comparison to a Spirit and must be moved but a Spirit is active and moves its self and what is most capable of Action is most capable of Happiness for all fruition consists in Action Further The Objects of our Happiness are all spiritual things By vertue of this Spirit in us we can delight in and enjoy such which are the noblest and most excellent things in themselves and are able to afford the greatest Pleasure Sensible Objects have not that force with them nor that Power to please which spiritual things have that are the delights and blissful enjoyments of wise and refined Spirits Hence it must be said that Mankind cannot fall into a greater or more unhappy mistake than to think that there is no pleasure but in gratifying the Senses and Appetites of their Bodies with sensual Enjoyments or that this is the greatest pleasure of any This in truth is not worthy the Name of Pleasure if it be compared with the delight which a rectified mind can take in spiritual Objects and Enjoyments Further it is doubtless the greatest thing in Happiness and that which adds much to it still how great soever it was before That the Being which enjoys it can reflect upon it and so can consider and know its self happy This the Soul of Man can do and none but a rational and spiritual Nature can do this But since I have spoken of spiritual Things as the chief Object of our Happiness I shall particularly mention some of them The Soul of Man can please its self highly in good and vertuous Actions In those which we do our selves and in those we see done by others It is incomparably pleasant to view and consider the reasonableness and the fitness of these to see how necessary and just they are to consider how much Gratitude towards God and the Obligations we have received from him do require them of Mankind to consider the wisdom and vast advantages of them Hence did a good man acknowledge to God Thy Law is sweet to my taste yea sweeter than hony to my mouth There is not any thing among men so pleasant and charming to a rectified Soul as are the vertuous and pious Actions and Behaviour of good Men while the sensual Minds of others dote on a fair outside and sine cloaths he sees and takes a more just and true delight in the glory that dwells within and darts out its rays in Religious and good Actions The Soul of Man can take delight in the converse of holy and wise and kind Angels those glorious Creatures that are the Beauty and Flower as we may say of the Creation It can delight in what they are in what they say and in what they do when it shall be admitted into their Society And it is mentioned in Scripture as a part of that Felicity to which our conformity to the Laws of the Gospel does intitle and will bring us That we shall enjoy hereafter the Society of an innumerable company of Angels as well as that of the spirits of just men made perfect and of God the judge of all Heb. 12. 22. And very delightful it must needs be to good men in this Life to consider these noble Creatures and to know that they are Ministring spirits upon all occasions sent forth to minister for the good of the Elect To consider that whilst he is holy and vertuous he is a delight to them they love to be about him and they have the charge of him to keep him in all his ways and he is accordingly the object of their continual Care and they are most willing to do for him all the Offices of kindness that he has occasion for Further the Soul can enjoy after a very pleasing and satisfying manner the ever-blessed God who is an infinite unmeasurable Good a boundless Ocean of Excellencies and Perfections It can delight in all the discover'd Glories of this Incomprehensible Being and in considering him it is transported with pleasure while it finds it self in the utmost stretch of its Faculties lost in the Infinite Incomprehensible Object And this Happiness the Enjoyment of God may in some measure begin in this Life A most ravishing Pleasure the Soul can take to consider what this Excellent Being has said of himself in Holy Scripture and what discoveries he daily makes of himself in his Works When it can view in some of these his wonderful Wisdom and Power in others large and bounteous Goodness in others awful and bright Justice and Righteousness And when to these Meditations it can add the sweet thought that this God is reconciled that it is a Favourite of Heaven then it must needs be as the Psalmist said My Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. And then if to all this we add that this great Object of the Soul's Happiness will endure for ever and so will also the lesser ones that have been mentioned that being spiritual in their Nature they are all of them Eternal and Unchangeable they will never cease to Be nor cease to be delightful and pleasing If we consider that the Soul its self by its Immortal Nature is capable to be for ever blest with the Enjoyment of these Objects we shall from hence see that we are capable of an Everlasting Happiness of that which shall never be interrupted never decay nor diminish never come to an end We are capable of living beyond all reach of Thought beyond all measure of duration amidst unfading Pleasures unspeakable Joys and a pure unmix'd and perfect Felicity Oh that Men were so wise as to consider these things Thus much and more than we can now conceive our Souls are made capable to enjoy And these things all of them together at least I think do sufficiently prove the great Worth and Excellency of the Soul of Man Application And certainly if the things which have been now said were duly considered if they had their just and due Influence upon Mankind they would exceedingly alter and amend the lives and actions of a great many Men. They would make us act more suitable to the dignity and worth of our Souls and with more regard to their Interests and Happiness than we commonly do And in particular these things following the Influence of them upon us would effect and cause They would make us very Pious towards God and thankful for what he has made us they would make us prefer our Souls before our Bodies and ambitious of attaining those Divine and honourable Accomplishments which we are in our Nature capable of they would make us very Industrious to gain that Happiness which we were Originally and in our Nature designed for In these things I shall set before you the due Use and Improvement of what has been
a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not TO know who it is that these words of Job do describe in so mean and disparaging a Character we need but look back to the first verse of this Chapter where we shall find he is speaking of Man It is man that Cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth as a shadow and continueth not It was his design to represent by this Expression the contemptible and wretched Condition of our present Life which we very foolishly and unreasonably dote upon and admire This Life on Earth was never intended to be our happiest State and by reason of the Sin of Mankind it is fallen much below that degree of Happiness which the Creatour had intended it should enjoy Yet this pitiful State is that the wretched Sons of Men are most extreamly fond of Here they would always be this takes up all their Thoughts and Care They know or at least mind no Heaven but Earth and think to heap up felicity as they gather worldly Enjoyments We study how to live happily till we die and dote upon fading Pleasures as if we were always to enjoy them We commonly live here as if after this Life we were to be no longer and there were no better things attainable than what this Life possesses And while we mind this World we neglect the other we do not seek the better Happiness of that and lose it for want of seeking it Yea we forfeit that Happiness which is to come and deserve and incur everlasting Misery by what our too great love of this Life and its Enjoyments does engage us in Very much of the wickedness of this World and the misery of the next is due to this unhappy Cause To render a temporal Life happy as we suppose we spoil an Eternal one or incur an Eternal Death we serve our Bodies to the Destruction of our Souls The great Folly of which our Saviour suggests by that Question Mark 8. 36. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul To meet with this unhappy and dangerous Errour as much as this Text without straining it will allow I shall employ the following Discourse about three things 1. I shall enquire and make it appear from other Scriptures what intimations concerning our present Life this Text affords us 2. I shall insist a little upon the Illustration of those Intimations 3. I shall add the due Improvement and Application of them In the first place let us compare this Text of Scripture with others that we may derive from it the more certainly and evidently the Instructions it contains In 1 Pet. 1. 24. 't is said All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away And in the next verse he adds But the word of the Lord endureth for ever By this opposition of the Word that endureth to the Grass and the Flower of it which falleth away we may understand that by the Comparison of a Flower the Holy Spirit would teach us this Life is not of long continuance The Flower is the shortest liv'd part even of those Plants that have the shortest duration and is upon that account fit to mind us of the short continuance of this present Life Further in Ps 103. v. 15 16. we are told As for man his days are as grass as a Flower of the Field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone This short liv'd Flower is exposed as the Flower of the Field 't is liable to many destructive and mortal Accidents yea if but the Wind passes over it it is gone 't is most easily destroyed 't is a thing may look fair and beautiful but has very little strength Thus it is with Man is the Psalmists meaning here He is as feeble as the Flower of the Field a small mischief may snatch him away in his prime Thus the Scripture teaches by this comparison the frailty and weakness as well as the shortness of human Life Again in Psal 102. v. 11. the Psalmist speaking of himself says My days are like a shadow that declineth which is as if he had said while my afflictions last and I hope for better days my Life declines apace it wasts continually away In Psal 144. v. 4. 't is said Man is like to Vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away From these Scriptures we may learn that by the Comparison of a Shadow is taught us how transitory our present Life is It is continually passing away and spending it self And the rather may we be allow'd to conclude this from our present Text because 't is said of Man He fleeth as a shadow and then 't is added too He continueth not From this Text then it appears we may learn these three serious Intimations 1. The present Life of mortal Man is very short as is the continuance of a Flower 2. It is very feeble and frail is most easily cut off and destroyed and yet is exposed too as the Flower of the Field 3. This our present Life in this World is altogether transitory it is continually passing away As a shadow always moves and passes on till it is lost in the Nights Universal Darkness These are very obvious Truths and such as every Man's thoughts may easily suggest to him And they are very important and worth our considering and would be to those that would well consider them the Springs of much Peace and Wisedom But as obvious and useful as they are it appears they are much neglected and men commonly live as if they knew not these things At least 't is certain they seldom or never consider them Let us then not be unwilling to fix our minds upon them for a little while at present and let none fear any harm will follow if thereby they should make impression upon his mind and for the future so stay there as never to be forgotten again The next thing then that I proposed to do is to illustrate these particulars to express and speak of them in a few more words on purpose that our Thoughts may be detained a while upon them and that we may give them some advantage to make a due Impression 1. Let us consider that the present Life of mortal Man is very short They that live the greatest Number of Years have but a short Life on Earth A little time passes over the Innocence and Ease of our Infancy and Childhood A little more withers the flourishing Beauty and Gayety of Youth A little more weakens the Strength and spends the Usefulness of riper Manhood And if beyond this we live a little time more buries the decays and infirmities of Old-age The longest distance from the Cradle to the Grave is but a short one And the Wisedom of God would have
without this precipitant hast They drive away that which they would keep and which is going away of it self They make hast to put an end to that which above all things they dote upon that is sensual pleasure to disable themselves from enjoying it by diseases or an untimely death Intemperance and excess brings the infirmities and aches and defects of old Age upon Youth and kill men in the prime of their days almost as soon as they come to enjoy the world and know what it is to live Is this the wit of the world or rather a madness A wise man would use with care a frail and brittle thing especially if he does highly esteem and value it Is it reasonable to wish for a long enjoyment of the pleasures of this Life and to take a course at the same time to make it short to dote on pleasures and spoil them to place all our happiness in this life and make hast to end it to be prodigal of a small Stock and use ruggedly and carelesly a weak thing If this be Wit there is nothing can deserve the name of Folly 3. These disparaging properties of this present life should teach men to be humble in their greatest worldly prosperity It may and ought to serve to this purpose to consider Whatever I have now it is but a little while agoe that I receiv'd it Naked I came not long since into this world I have but a very little while been honour'd or rich or learned and ere long I must cease to be what I am I must goe out of this world quickly and go as naked at least of all outward advantages as I was when I came into it All that I have then here is but a transitory portion my best estate is Vanity which is built upon so slight a foundation as this feeble Life Alas I cannot have here a stable abiding felicity while my life is moving and passing away And if I can enjoy what I have till I die that is the longest I shall do so and that cannot be long Then the poor Begger will be as rich as the most wealthy And there will be as much beauty as much strength in his dust who was deform'd and weak as in that of those who are proud of beauty or strength no marks of Wisdom or Learning will remain about the Dead and corrupted Carkass All sorts are huddled together equall'd and canfounded in the Grave The man that is proud of his present advantages may assure himself that within a few days he may be as despicable on earth as any that he despises Yea in a little time he shall be more despicable and made inferiour to him if the other outlives him If the rich and honour'd dies first the poor man remains richer and more honourable than he As a living Dog is better than a dead Lion The one enjoys still his little the other is totally stript of his abundance Should I despise any man let me say when a little time may make so great a difference to his advantage When he whom I disdain perhaps to speak to may shortly tread upon me and have me under the dust of his feet Surely this frail and transitory life with all its advantages is too mean a thing to cause or allow a man to be proud of it 4. These conditions of our present Life may justly render us patient under all present Adversity May we not with great reason bear that Patiently which we cannot endure long especially when the more patient we are under grievous things the more easie and tolerable they be Let us consider then when any Affliction befalls us I cannot undergo a long affliction in a short life If poverty be my Lot I shall not long be expos'd to the inconveniences of that If I am condemned to a life of hard labour and toil I may comfort my self with this thought that I am hasting to a place where the weary are at rest If I am vex'd and afflicted by the Lusts and Passions of unreasonable and wicked men I may consider their Life is frail and transitory as well as mine and I am going to be where the wicked cease from troubling In all adversity this may comfort us my afflictions are fading and transitory as I am the evils as well as the good things of this Life can last no longer than my self and that will not be long Such as these are the Thoughts Dispositions and Resolutions relating to this World that these conditions of our present Life should excite in us The Apostle Paul urges such a use of these things 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Brethren the time is short It remains that they which have Wives he as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that use this world us not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away I proceed now to the last part of the Discourse with which I shall soon conclude that is to represent the due Behaviour relating to the other World which these disparagements of our present Life should teach and provoke us to And I cannot imagine but that every one will readily acknowledge these things should make us turn our thoughts towards the World to come and look into the reality and nature of a future State and earnestly endeavour to secure to our selves a happy condition there Since there is most certainly another World and a Life to come is it not our Wisdom to think of it and look before us especially when we are continually hasting to it When I am going apace from this World shall I not think at all whither I am going Is not this worth a thought Let us consider what the Scripture teaches us of the Future State That it assures our Souls to be immortal though our Bodies perish they shall never die and our perishing Bodies shall lie but a while in their dissolved State They shall certainly rise again from the dust to live hereafter in immortal Life That we shall be raised to receive the rewards of our doings here whether they have been good or evil That the Eternal world to come is divided into two different States the one perfectly happy for the reward of good men the other perfectly miserable for the punishment of the bad Since these things will certainly be let us certainly expect them and frequently think of them Let every one often tell himself this short Life is hasting to end in an endless Life I am going where I shall be happy or miserable for ever from transitory to abiding things from temporal to eternal Whatever puts an end to this frail Life which is so easily destroyed sends me into an unalterable State whatever sort it be of If a happy one it will ever be happy and perfectly so if miserable it will always be a perfectly miserable State And my condition there will be ordered according to
moment which we have continually provoked we had perisht irrecoverably Oh how great and wonderful is thy Patience and Goodness in continuing and supporting and watching over such provoking Sinners We admire we praise thee for thy Long-suffering towards us and since thou hast given space to do it we repent of all our past Sins we purpose and desire to lead a new and good Life and we humbly sue for thy pardoning Mercy When we with Sorrow and Shame confess our Sins do thou we pray thee forgive our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Give us a true and unfeigned Repentance and the Grace to amend our Lives according to thy Holy word Teach us that denying all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present World spending the rest of our Days to thy Honour and Glory In this way make us to seek an Inheritance in the World to come that since we have here no long abode no certain Duration no abiding State we may have a Treasure in Heaven an Inheritance in the next World that fadeth not away Make us so sensible of the short and uncertain condition of this our present Life that our Affections may be wean'd from this World and set upon the things to come teach and inable us so to pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things that are Eternal We pray thee let not this day be utterly lost to us but give us Comfort and good Fruit of our Attendances upon thee O Let thy Ordinances be to us the means of a Glorious and Eternal Life Grant us to lie down this Night in Peace while thou makest us to dwell safely Let our waking Thoughts in the Night-season instruct us Give us cause in the Morning to rejoyce in thy Goodness and Lord Comfort this our wretched mortal Life with thy Blessings let us see thy Goodness in the Land of the Living We beseech thee to have mercy upon all Men Grant them to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to their eternal Salvation Save thy People O Lord and bless thine heritage govern and lift them up for ever We pray thee Bless these Nations wherein we live be thou as a Wall of Fire round about us and our defence against all thine Enemies and ours O purge and cleanse us from our Sins that we may be meet for the Favours of thy Providence Grant our King and Queen a long and happy Reign over us give them great Prosperity and Peace Direct all our Magistrates so to govern themselves in their several places as may be to thy Glory the good of thy Church among us and to the Safety Honour and Welfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms Teach all our People duely to fear thee to be subject and obedient to those that are over them in Church or State and to live in brotherly Love and Unity one among another We humbly recommend to thy Goodness O Father of Mercies all that are in any Trouble or Affliction give them Patience and Submission to thee and in due time deliver them We pray thee bless all our Friends and Relations do good to our Enemies and make them to be at Peace with us All this we humbly ask in the Name of Jesus Christ and further whatever he himself hath taught us to pray saying Our Father c. The USEFULNESS of EARLY RELIGION TO Old-Age demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ECCLES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them NOtwithstanding the great uncertainty of humane Life and though none of us can tell how short his appointed time may be Though we see persons of every Age descend into the Grave some in their early Infancy and some in Youth in their full strength as well as some in an old Age Yea which is very strange though we see that a great many more die young than there are that live to any great Age yet do Mankind commonly promise themselves a long Life on Earth All expect this almost though but few attain it We believe that we may live as long as the oldest Persons that we see or know And this vain Imagination proves a fatal and mischievous snare to a great many For because they may live long as they think they will not trouble themselves betimes to prepare to die though it is as true that they may not live long They set the practice of Religion and the concern of their Souls aside for the present because they shall have as they suppose time enough to mind them hereafter They apply themselves wholly now to the Business and Pleasures of this Life and refer their Reformation and Religion to old Age. And thus while they think they have much time to spend they squander away and lose much from their main concern and with their time they lose Eternity and their Souls too Their time is spent and their Day of Salvation is over before they have secured and wrought out their Salvation And Death snatches many of them away in the midst of their worldly Cares and Pleasures and so they are undone for ever To meet with and cure if it may be this Errour I shall insist a little upon these words of Solomon Wherein he intimates the Unreasonableness and Folly of delaying to repent and be religious till old Age though it be supposed that we may or though it could be certain that we shall live to old Age. We may reckon that the latter part of this verse is a reason and argument to enforce his advice in the former part of it and that his meaning is this Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth because the latter end of a long Life will be Evil days and such as you shall say I have no pleasure in them To be religious in youth will be the best preparation against the evil days to come and in those days you will need those consolations and advantages which a religious and vertuous Course that has been before them will then afford Many other arguments are commonly insisted upon by those that handle this Text to persuade young Persons to mind Religion and Vertue but I shall set them all aside and insist upon this alone which seems chiefly if not only intended in the Text. To do this with the better success if it may please God I shall divide the following Discourse into three parts 1. To shew what is meant by Remembring our Creatour in the days of our Youth Because 't is usually thought that Youth may
depart and to be with Christ Which does most plainly shew he expected to Be still and to be more happy after Death than he was here Again this is also plainly suggested by our Saviour in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus Luke 16. 19 Verse to the End The Soul of Man then is at his Death disposed to such Abodes as it deserves and is suited to till the time of the General Resurrection of the Bodies of Men and then it shall be united to its own Body again and live with it for ever in a State of endless Happiness or endless Misery Thus much may suffice to shew the Excellency of the Soul of Man from its Nature The Second Head of Proof of this which I shall now speak to is the Capacities of the Soul arising from its Nature It will give us a further apprehension of its Excellency to consider what great and honourable things it is capable of And these I shall speak of under three Heads It is capable of Knowledge of Moral Qualifications and of a most sublime and elevated kind of Happiness 1. It is capable of Knowledge It can know the Creatures about us which are the Objects of our Senses can understand their Nature and Use by vertue of which it has and exercises a Dominion over these things It knows how to apply them to the serving our Necessity and Delight By vertue of this it can make those things which have no use of reason themselves to serve for rational and wise Purposes It can tame the wild and correct the hurtful Creatures It can govern the Strong and by artful application give strength to the weak Ones It often fetches wholesome Food or very effectual Physick out of mortal Poysons The Soul of Man is capable of knowing himself To understand his own Nature in the principles and end of it To know his Ornaments and Disparagements the causes and means of his Happiness or Misery and wherein these do truly consist and lie Man is capable to understand and know very much of the Ever-blessed God the Highest Being to apprehend and meditate upon the most glorious and delightful Perfections of his Infinite Nature He can see the Marks and Characters of these perfections upon the sensible things which is the most excellent Knowledge and the best use of them as the Apostle suggests Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead The Soul of Man renders him capable of knowing the Rules of true Wisdom of that Wisdom which is from above Those Rules which direct us to render our selves acceptable and amiable to God and one another to Become and Honour our selves Those Rules by which the Wise and Holy Angels govern their behaviour and those by which the most Holy God tho in an Infinite Eminency above all his Creatures governs his And surely this Capacity of Knowledge may be lookt upon as a great and honourable Advantage especially that of such a Knowledge as hath been mentioned Knowledge finds the mind of man pleasant and useful Employment which as it is an active and busie thing must have such employment or 't is uneasy and unhappy Knowledge presents us with the Objects of our Happiness and inables us to enjoy them This is the light and brightness and beauty of the Mind Ignorance is dark and deform'd and leaves the Soul unpolisht and ugly Ignorance like darkness is uncomfortable and sad Knowledge like the light is chearing and delightful This improves and raises the activity and freedom of the Mind but ignorance is clogg'd and wretchedly confin'd Of Knowledge then it may be said It is more to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold But especially is that true of that Knowledge which the Psalmist speaks it of even that which presents to us the Rules of good living Of which also Solomon speaks thus Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Prov. 3. 13 14 15. 2. Another Capacity which greatly recommends the Soul of Man is That it is capable of Moral Qualifications By which word I mean the glorious Vertues of Holiness and Justice Goodness and Mercy Faithfulness and Prudence It is not only capable of knowing the Rules of these Vertues but also of possessing the Vertues themselves and of expressing them in our Actions Our behaviour towards God may be adorn'd with the bright Rays of Faith and Love of Piety and Devotion of Reverence and Humility Our behaviour towards men may all be regulated and adorned with Justice and Charity Meekness and Sincerity Goodness and Mercy None of the other Creatures about us can be possest of such Qualifications A Stone or a Beast cannot be just or good or faithful A Beast does not know what its self does it has not freedom of will does not chuse any of its actions therefore cannot be vertuous or vicious The Soul of Man has in this the Advantage of all the visible World and when 't is endowed with these Vertues at least it is brighter and more glorious than the Sun or Stars These render us like to God himself in the highest manner that a Creature is capable of In these things consisted the best part of the Divine Image in man before the unhappy Fall of our Nature in our first Parents and tho we then lost the things themselves yet we did not lose the capacity of receiving them again And when the Scripture speaks of the renewing or restoring that Image in us again this is said to be done by enduing us with Righteousness and true Holiness These are Excellencies which God ascribes to himself which he glories in and therefore it must be our greatest Advancement and Honour to be partakers of them and it must be accounted an argument of great worth in the Soul of Man to be capable of such Honourable Ornaments 3. It is another Argument of this that the Soul of Man is capable of enjoying a very high and honourable kind of Happiness even the best that any creatures can attain to When the Manna which the Children of Israel were fed with in the Wilderness is called Angel's Food it is intimated that this wonderful Provision did as a figure represent that Mankind are capable of the same Happiness with the glorious Angels and all holy and devoted Souls do in some measure partake of it in this Life By vertue of his Soul is every man even from the Prince to the Beggar capable of a Spiritual and Eternal Felicity As this is a Spirit it has a very high sense of things and a very lively perception of Pleasure or Pain No meer Body or Matter however 't is refin'd or made up into