Holy Paul appeals to God in this matter ; Rom. i. 9- " God is " my witness (saith he) whom I serve with my spirit ;" q. d. I serve God in my spirit, and he knows that I do so. I dare appeal to him who searches my heart, that it is not idle and unconcerned in his service. The Lord humble us, the best of us, for our careless, dead, gadding, and vain spirits, even when we are engaged in his solemn services. O that we were once so spiritual, to follow every excursion from his service with a groan, and retract every wander- ing thought with a deep sigh ! Alas, a cold and wandering spirit in duty is the disease of most men, and the very temper and consti- tution of unsanctified ones. It is a weighty and excellent expres- sion of the Jews, in their Euchologium or prayer-book, " * Where- " withal shall I come before his face, unless it be with my spirit ? " For man hath nothing more precious to present to God than his " soul." Indeed it is the best man hath : thy heart is thy totum posse : it is all tha^ thou art able to present to him. If thou cast thy soul into thy duty, thou dost as the poor widow did, cast in all that thou hast : and in such an offering the great God takes more pleasure than in all the external, costly, pompous ceremonies, adorned temples, and external devotions in the world. It is a re- markable and astonishing expression of his own in this case, Isa. lxvi. 1, 2. " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and " the earth is my footstool : Where is the house that ye built me ? " and where is the place of my rest ? For all these things have " mine hands made, and all these things have been, saith the " Lord ; but unto this man will I look, even to him that is poor, " and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word ;" q. d. Think not to please me with magnificent temples, and adorned altars ; if I had pleasure in such things, heaven is a more glorious throne than any you can build me ; and yet I have more delight in a poor con- trite spirit, that trembles with an holy awe and reverence at my word, than I have in heaven or earth, or all the works of my hands in either. Oh ! if there had been more trembling at his word, there had not been such trembling as now there is, under fears of the loss and removal of it. Some can superstitiously reve- rence and kiss the sacred dust of the sanctuary, as they call it, and express a great deal of zeal for the externals of religion, but
* Qua re potius prccvcniam faciem ejus, nisi spiritu meo ? nihil enim est homini prt- ciosious anima sua.
536 A TRLATI.se OF THE SCtTL OF MAX.
little consider how small the interest of these things is in religion, and how little God looks at, or regards them.
Inf. 9- How much are the spirits1 of men sunk by sin, below the dignity and excellency of their nature ?
Our souls are spirits by nature, yet have they naturally no de- light in things spiritual : they decline that which is homogeneal and suitable to spirits, and relish nothing but what is carnal and unsuitable to them. How are its affections inverted and mis- placed by sin ! That noble, spiritual, heaven-born creature the soul, whose element and centre God alone should be, is now fallen into a deep oblivion both of God and itself, and wholly spends its strength in the pursuit of sensual and earthly enjoyments, and becomes a mere drudge and slave to the body. Carnal things now measure out and govern its delights and hopes, its fears and sor- rows. O ! how unseemly is it to behold such a high-born spirit lacqueying up and down the world in the service of the perishing flesh. " Their heart (saith the prophet) goeth after their covet- " ousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. as a servant at the beck or nod of his master.
O how many are there to be found in e\ery place who melt down the precious affections and strength of their souls, in sensitive brutish pleasures and delights ? Jam. v. 5. " Ye have lived in plea- " sures upon earth," as the fish in the waters, or rather as the eel in the mud ; never once lifting up a thought or desire to the spiri- tual and eternal pleasures that are at God's right hand.
Our creation did not set us so low ; we are made capable of bet- ter and higher things.
God did not inspire such a noble, excellent, spiritual soul into us, merely to salt our bodies, or carry them up and down this world for a few years, to gaze at the vanities of it. It was a great saying of an Heathen, I am greater, and born to greater things, " than that I should be a slave to my body*." We have a spirit about us, that might better understand its original, and know it is not so base a being, as its daily employments speak it to be. The Lord raise our apprehensions to a due value of the dignity of our own souls, that we may turn from these sordid employments with a generous disdain, and set our affections on what is agreeable to, and worthy of an high-born spirit.
Inf. 10. Is the soul of man a vital, spiritual, and immortal sub- stance? Then it is no wonder, that we find the resentments and im- pressions of the zcwld to come, naturally engraven upon the souls of men all the world over. These impressions and sentiments of an- other life after this, do as naturally and necessarily spring out of an
* Mojor sum, et ad maj.<ra naius, quavi ut corporis rnei sim mancipium. Seneca.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 537
immortal nature, as branches spring out of the body of a tree, or feathers out of the body of a bird. So fairly and firmly are the characters and impresions of the life to come sealed upon the im- mortal spirits of all men, that no man can offer violence to this truth, but he must also do violence to his own soul, and unman himself by the denial of it. Who feels not a cheeriness to spring from his ab- solving, and an horror from his accusing conscience ? neither of which could arise from any other principle than this. We are be- ings conscious to ourselves of a future state, and that our souls do not vanish when our breath doth : that we cease not to be when we cease to breathe.