received for fact by some who are disposed to think with the royal preacher, "Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us" (Eccl. i. 10). Yet will there be still no warrant nor necessity for such an inference. The existence of good principles before now, and their transmission from one age to others, is very credible: and Christian modes may be satisfied with this principle for all that relates either to pre-existence or futurity. But still this is not to satisfy the plain question of a personal and perfect pre-existence generally: which, though a question of minor importance compared with that of a spiritual regeneration in life, and eventually of a corporeal likewise in us consequent upon that, may, however, be worth considering for reasons that will appear hereafter. Understanding therefore by PERSONAL PRE-EXISTENCE a pre-existence of the same person considered in existence, it may be proper to determine, in the first place, what it is that constitutes a personal identity, or in what that sameness of person may be held to consist. The great historian of the Kingdom derives its general identity, from its general beginning; and if there be any other identity for any part than what occurs in its particular beginning, the same is beyond conception. Therefore, whether similar or dif ferent, whether one thing or another, in the beginning of every thing, and in that alone, can we perceive its identity. If a man in the beginning should be next a tree, and then a bird, and then an elephant or any thing else, (though it is most probable that a person could not come of a thing, as every thing comes of kind,) in every change he would be the same person, the same forming altogether the mode of his existence and pre-existence. It may seem a long while to account for, may that of the two former periods, namely, first, the antenatal, and next the supramundane before mentioned: so that, supposing a man to have existed before his last essential birth, it will be of no use to consult a register for his identity; he may be the son of VOL. I. M Ephraim, who was the son of Joseph, who was the son of Jacob; but was he Ephraim, and Joseph, and Jacob, or was he either of them, as well as the son of Ephraim ? : But without reverting particularly either to a former period, to a period before principles or beginnings, a period of darkness and chaos, at least to our perception; or to the antenatal and comparatively modern state, ere the relation of parentage began upon earth with multiplied sorrow for one party, an increasing responsibility for the other, and disappointment enough for both-without insisting on the perfections of a primitive state including the same excellent properties, or species of acts, pure and perfect, which are now so alloyed in our race, and it may be, more excellent that are lost; or inquiring, as to what might have become of such properties on their separation at the fall, and by what means they may be restored to the body as where went righteousness, for example, when it left the earth; with holy joy, and peace, and purest love? Where went all "the fruits of the Spirit" (Gal. v. 22) in short? Went they partly into the pages of history or rather into those of fiction? or most likely, into the land of oblivion? If not; in what exalted region, in what blessed repository, or rather, in what perfect model, were they located and laid up; to be reissued at the appointed time, and handed down again traditionally from generation to generation among the sons of men, like their vital acts, or such simple constituents as in their several species naturally descend from father to son? Whether then were they all disbanded and dispersed like withered blossoms on that occasion, or like those same vital species in the case of persons dying without issue? Not to insist on these or any the like particulars, we may be allowed to admire the traces of superhuman ability as well, which are extant in the wonderful invention of language, and its perfection in the impenetrable recesses of antiquity, with the superiority of the earliest compositions, in literature especially, to any more recent specimens, - corresponding with the primitive perfection of language, and being such as to authorize almost an imputation of the form as well as matter of the said compositions to a superhuman operation, like the book of Job, for example, which has never been paralleled by a work of the kindalso of the useful arts, or those which minister to the support and comfort of this present life-but above all those gifts, as they are rather called, by which our future state is improved as well, gifts even higher that that of language; a sense of decency, honour, and propriety in our moral conduct, a peculiar cast of beauty and elegance in the highest order of performance; and chiefly, among other uncommon powers and perceptions, a glimmering of divine light, an imperfect sense of religion, with the power to walk thereby superadded. And while we wonder at these phenomena, it may sometimes be thought whether they do not afford a plain evidence of nobler generations than the world has been able to boast, at any period within the knowledge or conception of the present; earthly angels, who did not fall with the rest, nor yet were either forwarded or restored to an higher state untainted with corruption; but sent onward, or rather downward, after that catastrophe to act their parts over and over in the changing scenes of life, with multiplied disadvantages continually. Certainly, the development in this life of higher constituents than common, like those above mentioned, must look in general more like a resuscitation than either a natural or a new birth; although the same constituents may still go on improving sometimes or in some subjects, not only through this life, but also through every future stage of their existence. And although likewise the generality of mankind have so few first-rate constituents, that to account for them, we need not suppose any other opportunity than what this life affords; yet it must be owned, that there are, in the course of ages, to be seen some who display a degree of excellence that cannot be ascribed to such opportunity, nor accounted for on any common principles. It would seem as if some subjects or combinations had been previously formed in some more perfect state, to break out with such uncommon lustre in this. If all we hear of them be true, such samples of genius and virtue as we hear of must have gone through fire and water, to arrive at such perfection ; must have been trained by other spirits of various qualities, have passed through different natures, and collected something superior from each, to appear with so much advantage in their present state. Or it may be thought, whether a divine breed has not really been amalgamated with the human, as seemingly asserted in sacred history, and more directly in heathen mythology. Or the original perfection of a man's nature might make him naturally all that we can imagine of general worth in a creature; while the proportion of hereditable advantages varying in most cases, it would not be wonderful, if a larger share of one sort should fall to one man, and of another sort to another, occasioning a diversity, perhaps without a disparity, in this respect. So had he, on the contrary, an opposite origin, there would be as full a meed of imperfection for the man, and as ugly a difference as possible between him and others, without any chance of amelioration. And certain it is, that as much may be said on this hand in favour of a wretched, as we have just observed in favour of a fortunate pre-existence; v.g., that such villainous dispositions as men appear sometimes to be born with could never have come into the world originally with their ancestors, but must have been cast in hell sometime before, and imported into human nature somehow or other from that wretched state, or else contracted here by some infernal mixture answering to the heavenly above mentioned. Without the help of divine Revelation it were as hard to account for the discordant feelings with which the human heart is too often distracted, as for the supernatural melody which it occasionally pours forth in loud, impassioned strains by day, or warbling inwardly enjoys, as it is said, by "songs in the night" (Job xxxv. 10). But by the help of Revelation, as aforesaid, we are able to account for these evil phenomena likewise, and to trace them from a second beginning even more decidedly than from a first. We know how men are exercised at present: the cares of the world are a great trial for them; its blandishments, a greater: but the divine seed being infused into their existence at any period will overcome all; and not only all the world, but the devil himself must likewise succumb to this gratuitous acquisition of a candidate for eternity. "We know, that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not" (John I. v. 18). As men are always prone to flattery, they will be more likely to assume an heavenly pre-existence for themselves than an infernal, or both: but admitting either or both in substance will not be an admission of the fact in dispute; which is not a pre-existing substance, nor a pre-existing mode either, but a pre-existing substance within a certain mode, which is a pre-existing person. And either way there will be nothing to hinder the hypothesis, for it cannot be more, of our continual preparation for a better state or a worse than we occupy at present, and perhaps oftener for a worse than for a better. We know that great purposes are long maturing, great operations are long in combining; the one has many changes to undergo before it can be wrought into an utensil, and so may an human existence before it can become a person to use it. We may go back with such an existence to the very beginning of mankind; and, without affecting the subject's identity, deduce from that point all his constituents agreeable to his first beginning; or which should not rather be traced to the second era before mentioned and the general source of corruption. And then all our best properties, our every |