being purified, even as he is pure, and SER M. raised almost to an Equality with thofe re- VIII. fined angelic Natures, which do most nearly refemble the Fountain of all Excellency. Truth, Holiness, Justice, Goodness, and the like, are the glorious Robes, with which the Soul may adorn itfelf; and by getting free from the Dominion of Senfe and the Bondage of Corruption, by keeping a due Restraint on carnal Appetites and gradually weaning itself from the Pleasures of the Body, it may be trained up to lead a fpiritual and divine Life, to relish here in this depraved State the heavenly Food of Wifdom and Purity, of Love and Contemplation: With which it fhall for ever folace itfelf hereafter, if it is diligent to root out whatever may vitiate or corrupt its Tafte, and relifh of fuch elevated Enjoyments.

THUS, to no contemptible Degrees of both natural and moral Perfection is the Soul even now able, by God's Grace, to attain; and yet thefe, we are fure, fhall be inconceivably heightened in the World to come, and the Joys refulting from them be as boundlefs in their Continuance, as in their Nature,--fully as extenfive as the Faculties of the Soul, and everlasting as its Effence.

AND

SERM.
VIII.

AND this intimates to us another Argument of the Value and Excellency of the Soul, namely, that it is immortal. It is not, like the material Beings we daily fee and are daily employ'd about, made up of an infinite Number of grofs and jarring Particles, perpetually liable to Change, Corruption, and Diffolution; but it is an incorporeal Substance, as diftinct from Matter in its Nature as in its Properties, pure, fimple and uncompounded, without all difagreeing Qualities and divfible Parts, one fpiritual Effence, by its own original Conftitution altogether free and exempt from any Decay, and by its very Frame appointed to an eternal Exiftence, a Privilege it cannot be deprived of by a lefs Act of Omnipotence, than that by which it was at first created, nor poffibly robb'd of those Pleasures, when once in its Fruition, which are at God's Right Hand for evermore.

THESE Arguments, fuggefted by our Reafon, for the ineftimable Value of the Soul, may be farther ftrengthened from confidering, what Place it bears in its Maker's Efteem; whofe unerring Knowledge will not permit him to judge amifs concerning the

intrinfic

intrinsic real Worth of Things. And if we SERM. find it to be exceeding precious in his Sight, VIII. well may we allow it to be highly valuable. Let us then enquire and learn from the Divine Conduct towards Mankind, at what an advanced Price the whole Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, are pleafed to estimate the Souls of Men.

GOD the Father, when he purposed to create thefe fpiritual Beings and unite them to Bodies of Clay, well-knowing the vaft Hazards they would be expofed to and the infinite Rifques they would run (though no other than were the Confequence of a free but peaceable Nature) was fo deeply concerned for their Prefervation, that he thought nothing too much to fecure them in a Way confiftent with their effential Liberty and Poffibility of Tranfgreffing. As they were to be placed in a State of Tryal to be trained up by a Life of Holiness to a Capacity for higher Enjoyments, than what a terreftrial Paradife could afford, it was expedient to appoint fome Teft of their Obedience, and what lefs Proof could there be expected, than the abstaining from the Fruit of one only Tree amidst that Profufion of Delights, which he had spread around them?

AND

SERM.
VIII.

AND when the Almighty forefaw, that they would neither hearken nor obey,-----that being willingly feduced by the Subtlety of the Tempter, they would forfeit their Innocence and his Favour, and oblige his Juftice, to banish them from that Seat of pure Pleasures, where he should place them; fuch was the Overflowing of his tender Refpect for them, that he decreed to remove the Scene of their Happiness from Earth to Heaven: And to that End he inftituted the Covenant of Repentance instead of that of Innocence, which they had fo bafely broken both for their Pofterity and themfelves: All their Defcendants as Inheritors of their depraved Nature having finned in them, and come fhort of the Glory of God.

AND that by this new Syftem of Reconciliation God might the more effectually recover the lapfed Creatures from Sin and Mifery, he determined to grant it in fuch a Manner and upon fuch wife and weighty Confiderations, as should affect them at once with the deepest Senfe of his Mercy and Compaffion, and the moft awful Dread of his Severity and Juftice; that fo whilft by the former he gently drew them, by the

Jatter

latter he might terrify them into Amend- SERM.

ment.

.

BUT Repentance without Punishment could not atone for their Difobedience; and it has evidently appeared from the Event, that fome more valuable Satisfaction was necessary, and therefore demanded by infinite Wisdom, Holiness, and Justice, in order to render a Reconciliation with Sin-polluted Souls confiftent with the Authority of his Government over them, and the Purity of his own Divine Perfections.

To punish the Offenders themselves must have been utterly to deftroy them, and to leave no Objects for unbounded Goodness to be exercised upon,----to pardon them without any Suffering must have encouraged them to offend ftill more prefumptuously; God thought fit therefore to chalk out a middle Course, and avoiding entire Destruction on the one Hand, and abfolute Forgiveness on the other, he as wifely as graciously appointed and accepted of, a vicarious Punishment.

BUT to manifeft in the highest Degree both his Efteem of the Souls of Man and his Abhorrence

VIII.