There vou shall find a mind susceptive of all light, both natural and spiritual, shining as the candle of God in the inner man, closiuo" with truth, as the iron doth with the attractive loadstone ; a shop in which all arts and sciences are laboured and formed ; what are all the famous libraries and monuments of learning, but so many systems of thoughts, laboured and perfected in the active inqui- sitive minds of men ? Truth is its natural and delectable object; it pursues eagerly after it, and even spends itself and the body too in the chase and prosecution of truth ; when it lies deep, as a sub- terranean treasure *, the mind sends out innumerable thoughts, re- inforcing each other in thick successions, to dig for, and compass that invaluable treasure ; if it be disguised by misrepresentations and vulgar prejudice, and trampled in the dirt under that disguise, there is an ability in the mind to discern it by some lines and fea- tures, which are all well known to it, and both own, honour, and vindicate it under all that dirt and obloquy, with more respect than a man will take up a piece of gold, or a sparkling diamond out of the mire : it searches after it by many painful deductions of reason.
• Veritas in jmteo. i. e. Truth must be drawn from first principles.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 157
and * triumphs more in the discovery of it, than in all earthly trea^ sures ; no gratification of sense like that of the mind, when it grasps its prey for which it hunted.
The mind passes through all the works of creation, it views the several creatures on earth, considers the fabric, use, and beauty of animals, the signatures of plants, penetrating thereby into their nature and virtues : it views the vast ocean, and the large train of causes laid together in all these things for the good of man, by God, whose name it reads in the most diminutive creature it be- holds on earth.
It can, in a moment, mount itself from earth to heaven, view the face thereof, describe the motions of the sun in the ecliptic, calculate tables for the motions of the planets and fixed stars, in- vent convenient cycles for the computation of time, foretel, at a great distance, the dismal eclipses of the sun and moon to the very digit, and the portentous conjunctions of the planets, to the very minute of their ingress. These are the pleasant employments of the understanding.
But there is a higher game at which this eagle plays ; it reckons itself all this while employed as much beneath its capacity, as Domitian in catching flies ; though these be lawful and pleasant exercises, when it hath leisure for them, yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise, even to penetrate the glorious mysteries of redemp- tion, to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods, and manifold discoveries of it ; and yet higher than all this, it is capable of an immediate sight, or facial vision of the blessed God 7 short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble power and infinite appetite.
View its will, and you shall find it like a queen upon the throne of the soul, swaying the sceptre of liberty in her hand, (as f one expresses it) with all the affections waiting and attending upon her. No tyrant can force it, no torment can wrest the golden sceptre of liberty out of its hand ; the keys of all the chambers of the soul hang at its girdle, these it delivers to Christ in the day of his power; victorious grace sweetly determines it by gaining its consent, but commits no violence upon it. God accepts its offering, though full , of imperfections ; but no service is accepted without it, how excel- lent soever be the matter of it.
View the conscience and thoughts with their self-reflective abili- ties, wherein the soul retires into itself, and sits concealed from all
* Archimedes, when he made a valuable discovery of a new truth, leapt out of tlie bath for joy. crj ing, I have found it, I have found it.
158 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
eyes but his that made it, judging its own actions, and censuring its estate ; viewing its face in its own glass, and correcting the in- decencies it discovers there : things of greatest moment and impor- tance are silently transacted in its council-chamber betwixt the soul and God ; so remote from the knowledge of all creatures, that neither angels, devils, nor men, can know what is* doing there, but by uncertain guess, or revelation from God * : here it impleads, condemns f , and acquits itself as at a privy session, with respect to the judgment of the great day : here it meets with the best of com- forts, and with the worst of terrors.
Take a survey of its passions and affections, and you will find them admirable : see how they are placed by divine Wisdom in the soul, some for defence and safety, others for delight and pleasure. Anger actuates the spirits, and rouseth its courage, enabhng it to break through difficulties : Fear keeps centinel, watching upon all dangers that approach us : Hope forestalls the good, and antici- pates the joys of the next life, and thereby supports and strength- ens tl:ie soul under all the discouragements and pressures of the present life : Love unites us to the chiefest good : " He that dwel- " leth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him :" Zeal is the dagger which love draws in God's cause and quarrel, to secure itself from sin, and testify its resentments of God's dishonour.
O w4iat a divine spark is the soul of man ! well might Christ pre- fer it in dignity to the whole world.
3. The worth of a soul may be gathered and discerned from its subjective capacity and hability both of grace and glory. It is capa- ble'of all the graces of the Spirit, of being filled with the fulness of God, Eph. iii. 19- to hve to God here, and with God for ever. What excellent graces do adorn some souls ? How are all the rooms richly hanged with divine and costly hangings, that God may dwell in them ! This makes it like the carved works of the temple, overlaid with pure gold ; here is glory upon glory, a new^ creation upon the old ; in the innermost parts of some souls is a spiritual altar erected with this inscription. Holiness to the Lord : here the soul offers up itself to God in the sacred flames of love ; and here it sacrifices its vile affections, devoting them to destruc- tion, to the glory of its God : here God walks with dehght, even a delight beyond what he takes in all the stately structures and mag- nificently adorned temples in the whole world, Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2.
No other soul besides man's is marriageable to Christ, or capable of espousals to the King of glory : they were not designed, and there- fore not endued vvith a capacity for such an honour as this : but
f Rom. ii. 15. 2 Cor. i. 12.
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