happiness are the perfection and satisfaction of the soul. The apostle tells us, The less is blessed of the greater. Can the world bring perfection to man, that is so incomparably short of his imperfection? Our Saviour assures us, the gain of the whole world can not recompense the loss of one soul. There is a vast circuit in our desires, and all the lines terminate in the centre of blessedness. Can the world give sincere satisfaction to them? Solomon, who was as rich and high as the world could make him, has left an everlasting testimony of the vanity of transient things, from his experimental observation, and the direction of the Holy Spirit: so he begins and ends his sermon, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity: so vain and vexing, that we shall not only be weary of them, but of this life, wherein we use them. Can the creature make us happy, when their emptiness and anguish annexed to it, makes our lives miserable? The world can not satisfy our narrow senses: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, much less the infinite desires of our supreme faculties. Those who are now enchanted with its allurements, within a little while will see through its false colors. As when one awakes, all the pleasant scenes of fancy in his dream vanish; so when the soul is awakened at the end of life, the world and the lusts thereof pass away, and the remembrance of them.

I shall add farther; what clearer evidence can we have of the worth of the soul, than from God's esteem, the Creator of it? Now when God foresaw the revolt of our first parent, that brought him under a double death in one sentence, temporal and eternal, and that all mankind was desperately lost in him, then his compassionate counsels were concerning his recovery: his love and wisdom accorded to contrive the means to accomplish our redemption, by the death of his incarnate Son: We are not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a Lamb without spot and blemish. Of what value is a soul in God's account, that he bought with his own Son's blood the most sacred treasure of heaven? We may say for the honor of our Redeemer and our own, that which the angels can not; we were so valued by God himself, that his Son became man, and died on the cross for the salvation of our souls, the eternal weight of glory, which exceeds all the thoughts of our minds, and desires of our hearts. What are all the kingdoms and pleasures of the world, in comparison of that blessedness God has prepared for those

that love him? Now the soul that is inestimably precious, and should be most dear to us, is secured from danger, when received by God's hands.

2. The soul is our immortal part. The body is compounded of jarring principles, frail and mortal: a casualty of sickness dissolves the vital union, and it falls to the dust.

But the soul is a spirit by nature, and immortal by its inherent property. Its spiritual operations performed without the ministry of the senses, -the eye of the mind contemplates its objects, when the eyes of the body are closed-demonstrate its spiritual nature: for the being is the root of its working, and consequently that it exists independently of the body. But of this we have the clearest assurance in the Scripture. This is another demonstration that present things can not make us happy; for they forsake us the first step that we take into the next world, and then the soul enters into happiness or misery equally eternal. The immortality of the soul, and the immutability of its state, are inseparable then; for the present life is the time of our work, the next is of recompense according to our works. If we die in the Lord, the consequence is infallible, we shall live with him for ever: if we die in our sins, we shall not be received by his merciful hands, but fall into his bottomless displeasure. And of what concernment is it, to have our souls with God in that infinite and incomprehensible duration? All the measures of time, days and weeks, months and years, and ages, are swallowed up in that invisible depth, as the rivers that pour into the sea are swallowed up without any overflowing of its waters. The dove that Noah let out of the ark, as a spy to discover whether the deluge was abated, found not a place to rest on; but after many circuits in the air, it returned to the ark. If our thoughts take wing, and multiply millions of millions of ages, we can not rest in any computation, for there remains after all an entire innumerable eternity.

Such is the precious treasure, so grand in nature, capacity, worth, and duration, which the dying saint commends to the safekeeping of God's hands. May we so live, that when we come to die, we may in the full assurance of faith and hope, say, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?-1 Cor. iii. 16.

As to the indwelling of the Spirit, let this be premised: When we speak of any one dwelling in safety, the great question is, who keeps the house? When David fled from Jerusalem for fear of Absalom, there was no likelihood that his palace would hold out, for "he left ten women, that were concubines, to keep the house." So if we leave our concubines, our lusts and carnal desires, to keep our conscience, they will betray us to Satan to get the possession. "But who can take the city, if the Lord keep it?" How impregnable are we, if he dwell in us, and we in him, "because he hath given us of his Spirit."

All that one can say unto this, who is doubtful in faith, will be, "Show me that the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, is entered into me, and it sufficeth." I answer, I cannot show, that is, demonstrate it to another, that his eternal life is in him; but I can persuade an unapt scholar to stir up the grace that is in him, that he may show it to himself. I say, he may do it, if he give his mind to it. Else St. Paul made a question to no purpose, "know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

I deny not but the devil hath a way to fetch it about, to make you misknow, and take no heed of that you do perceive, if he did not stagger you with delusions. This is the first lesson that he reads out of his morals, "That distrust is a high point of wisdom; and be not overreached with opinion: you are sure of that you see, and of no more." But to meet with this fallacy: Is nothing certain, or at least so certain as that which may be seen? Why, the wind will blow away this objection, the air will confute it. What can you make up so close that the air and the wind will not get into it? You see it not, you know not whence it comes, it is an invisible messenger: "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." Breath is an imperceptible expiration; therefore, Christ breathed on his apostles, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Some gales of western winds, in the spring, make the earth glad with their gentle blast, and open the

buds and flowers: so there is a breath of omnipotent virtue, which fans the heart that was hot in sin, with its coolness, which carries away the caterpillars that cut up the tender leaf of our first greenness which widens our blossoms to make their expectation show itself openly: which perfume the evil scents of scandals that annoy us, as it is expressed to that intent in the mystical song: "Awake, thou north wind; and come, thou south; and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."

I bring the case again to be examined: Is no witness so competent to depose for truth, unless it be sensible, and chiefly discerned by the eye? then what ail all sects of philosophers to say, "That the sun, and all the stars above, work upon these bodies below by heat and light, and likewise by influence?" An invisible virtue that doth enter into the production of many effects; which seems to have God's approbation with his own voice, who mentions there "the sweet influences of Pleiades, and the bands of Orion." And can the constellations of the firmament drop down good upon minerals and plants, upon man and beast, and by a secret derivation? What an error, or rather what a madness, is it then, to scruple whether he that made the heavens, can dart celestial beams into a man's soul, without a sensible perception! And this is all I will say more unto it: Is not the soul of man above a material apprehension? Pliny or Galen, or whosoever unadvisedly deny the immortality of it, will yield there is a soul in our composition, that holds all the parts of the body together, and moves and acts in them; yet they can as soon take a pencil, and paint an echo, as describe the intelligible nature of a soul, by species drawn out in our sensitive fancy. Therefore it concerns us, in maintenance of the dignity of our own nature, to say, that the Spirit of God can inform our soul, as well as our soul can inform our body. I know not what temptation may rise to gainsay the truth, that the soul is known by her powers and operations, that it justifies itself to be an immaterial substance, a spark kindled in us by God from reason, and will, and memory. But what evidence is there that there is a Divine cause that worketh in, and is more than, these natural faculties? It is requisite to work close unto this question: and I answer, first, because the bounds of nature are known, beyond which, nature cannot reach forth itself: as it works in its own sphere to preserve itself in being, and in well-being, in

health, in wealth, in fame and glory, in extending ourselves unto ages to come by leaving a posterity, in preserving our country where we are born, and the like. But to have our conversation in heaven, at this present in heaven, to ascend thither in our desires, and in the tendencies of all our actions, to aspire to live in blessings for ever, to long to be at rest, where there is no sin ; to look for a church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle : this could not enter into us to prosecute it at all industriously, constantly, cheerfully, but by a supernatural elevation far above the vigor of a soul pressed down by a corruptible body, that is, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

"O that the Comforter would come!

Nor visit as a transient guest,

But fix in me his constant home,

And keep possession of my breast:
And make my soul his loved abode,
The temple of indwelling God!

MAY 26.

LEIGHTON.

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.-1 Peter ii. 12.

As the sovereign power of drawing good out of evil resides in God, and argues his primitive goodness, so he teacheth his own children some faculty this way, that they may resemble him in it. He teacheth them to draw sweetness out of their bitterest afflictions, and increase of inward peace from their outward troubles. And as these buffetings of the tongue are no small part of their sufferings, so they reap no small benefit by them many ways: particularly in this one, that they order their conversation the better, and walk the more exactly for it.

And this, no doubt, in Divine providence, is intended and ordered for their good, as are all their other trials. The sharp censures and evil speakings that a Christian is encompassed with in the world, is no other than a hedge of thorns set on every side, that he go not out of his way, but keep straight on in it between them, not declining to the right hand nor to the left: whereas, if they found nothing but the favor and good opinion of the