Moreover, it is plain that he who gave my soul its being, and such a being, gave it also all the good it ever had, hath, or shall have : and that it neither is, nor hath any thing but what is purely from him : and therefore he must needs be my most bountiful Benefactor, as well as absolute Owner, and supreme Governor. There is not a soul which he hath created but stands bound to him, in all these ties and titles. Now for such a creature to turn rebelliously upon its absolute Owner, whose only, and wholly It is ; upon its supreme Governor, to whom it owes entire and absolute obedience ; upon its bountiful Benefactor, from whom it hath received all, and every mercy it ever had, or hath ; to violate his laws, slight his sovereignty, despise his goodness, contemn his threatenings, pierce his very heart with grief, darken the glory of all his attributes, confederate with Satan his malicious enemy ; and
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAK. *3l
strike, as far as a creature can strike, at his very being (for in a sense, O nine pec cat urn est Deicidium, every sin strikes at the life and very existence of God) : Blush, O heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid ! O cursed sin, the evil of all evils, which no epithet can match ; no name worse than its own can be invented, sinful sin. This is as if some venomous branch should drop poison upon the root that bears it. Love and gratitude to benefactors, is an in- delible principle engraven by nature upon the hearts of all men. It teacheth children to love and honour their parents, who yet are but mere instruments of their being. O how just must their per- dition be, who casting off the very bonds of nature, turn again with enmity against that God, in whom they both live, and move, and have their being ! O think, and think again, on what an * holy man once said ; What a sad charge will this be against many a man at the great day, when God shall say, Hadst thou been made a dog, I never had had so much dishonour as I have had ? It is pity God should not have honour from the meanest creature that ever he made, from every pile of grass in the field, or stone in the street ; much more that he should not have glory from a soul more precious and excellent than all the other works of his hands. Surely it is better for us, our souls had still remained only in the number of possible beings, and had never had an actual existence in the second rank of beings, but a very little lower than the angels; than that we should be still dishonouring God by them. O that he should be put to levy his glory from us passively ; that it should be with us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, from whom God had more glory when he was driven out amongst the beasts of the field, than when he sat on the throne. In like manner, his glory will rise passively from us, when driven out among devils, and not actively and volun- tarily, as from the saints.
Infer. 5. If God create and inspire the reasonable soul imme- diately, This should instruct and incite all Christian parents to pray earnestly for their children, not only when they are born into the world, but when they are at first conceived in the womb.
It is of great concernment both to us and our children, not only to receive them from the womb, with bodies perfectly and comely fashioned ; but also with such souls inspired into them, whereby they may glorify God to all eternity. It is natural to parents to desire to have their children full and perfect in all their bodily members ; and it would be a grievous affliction to see them come into the world defective, monstrous, and misshapen births; should a leg, an arm, an eye be wanting, such a defect would make their lives miserable, and the parents uncomfortable. But how few are
* Mr. Burrough's Excellency of the soul of man, n. 2.~2.
532 A TREATISE OF THE BOOL OF MAN.
concerned v. ith what soul they are born into the world ? " Good " God, (saith * Musculus,) how few shall we find, who are equally " solicitous to have such children as may live piously and honestly, " as they are to leave them inheritances upon which they may live " splendidly and bravely ?" It pleaseth us to see our own image stamped upon their bodies ; but, O ! how few pray, even whilst they are in the womb, that their souls may, in due time, bear the image of the heavenly, and not animate and use the members of their bodies, as weapons Of unrighteousness against the God that formed them ?
Certainly, except they be quickened with such souls, as may in this world be united with Christ, better had it been for them that they had perished in the womb, whilst they were pure ernbrytfs and had never come into the number and account of men and women ; for such embryo's go for nothing in the world, having only rudi- ments and rough draughts of bodies, never animated and informed by a reasonable soul, Job iii. 11, 12. But as soon as such a soul enters into them, though for never so little a time, it entails eternity upon them. We also know that as soon as ever God breathes, or infuses their souls into them, sin presently enters, and death by sin, and that by us, as the instruments of conveying it to them : which should have the efficacy of a mighty argument with us to lay our prayers and tears for mercy in the very foundation of that union.
Think on this particularly, you that are mothers of children, when you find the fruit of the womb quickened within you, that you then bear a creature within you of more valuG than all this visible world ; a creature, upon whom, from that very moment, an eternity of happiness or misery is entailed ; and therefore it concerns you to travail as in pain for their souls, before you feel the sorrows and pangs of travail for their bodies. O what a pity is it, that a part of yourselves should eternally perish ! that so rare and excellent a creature as that you bear, should be cast away for ever, for want of a new creation super-added to that it hath already ! O let your cries and prayers for them anticipate your kisses and embraces of them. If you be faithful and successful herein, then happy is the womb that bears them ; if not, happy had it been for them, that the knees had prevented them, and the breasts they have sucked. O f ve cannot begin your suits for mercy too early for them, nor con- tinue them too long, though your prayers measure all the time betwixt their conception and their death.
* Bone Deus ! quam paucos reperias qui tarn solicili quomodo pie et honeste vivant filii, quam curant ut amplam relinquant illis h&reditatem qua post obitum illorum splendide et titioie declicntur? Musculus in 8 Gen.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN, 533