a golden colour, called the Pious Mother! which straitly embraces it, and keeps it from quashing; round which is another more loose, but tougher and stronger next is the skull, which is hard as a bone, and of remarkable tenacity, covered with skin and hair; thus defended, it cannot easily be injured. And as for the heart, the principal of all animal life and action, called, by some, the Sun of the little world, being that where the vital flame is constantly kept up; how carefully is it deposited in the centre of the trunk of the body! transversely in the cavity of the breast, inclosed in its own membrane, called Pericardium, which contains a transparent liquor that facilitates its motion and prevents friction.

This was doubtless that blood and water, contained about the heart, which followed the spear of that vile miscreant who pierced our Saviour's sacred side. Amazing love! that he should permit this even to be done after he was dead! that the world might be assured of the truth of his death. Oh the greatness of the wrath of almighty God, and the heinous nature of our sins, that nothing

less than the last drop of the heart's blood of our Lord could quench it, and wash them away.

In the heart is that crimson fountain which sustains the whole human system; but how from the ventricles it is forced into the arteries, and thence diffused into numberless streams through the body, and returned again by the veins through the auricles to the heart, anatomy not being our subject, I shall not determine; but further notice, how the heart is guarded by ribs, flesh, muscles, and skin, near which are likewise placed the arms for its protection. By all which we see the wisdom and goodness of our Creator, in placing those principals of existence, namely, the brain and heart, with such security in the body.

Should I speak of the members, we would find them no less wonderfully contrived and situated to answer the conveniences of life.

But curiously and wonderfully as the body is framed, the soul is still more so, being an immaterial, thinking substance, posses

sed of powers immediately derived from God; one of which is that of the understanding, by which we discern and have a knowledge of things, their situations, qualifications and qualities, and form our judgements of them accordingly.

Next, the will, that power by which we choose or refuse that which the understanding pointeth out to be good or hurtful for us. Likewise that of the conscience, by which we are approved, when we have chosen, loved, or done, that which our understanding pointed out to be right for us, and reproved when we have acted the contrary.

Next, the memory, that by which we retain those things in our minds which we have understood or learned. And the imagination, which serveth as a handmaid to the understanding, and all the other faculties, by supplying them with ideas; and is to the soul as the breath to the body, the setter of all the other powers on motion; not to speak of the passions, which, for noble purposes, the Most High hath endued us with, but which, alas! are too often used to his dishonour.

The brutal creation, indeed, enjoy those powers in some measure after their kind; to instance only that of the dog for all. Does he not understand that which is good or hurtful for him? for, place him upon the edge of a high precipice, where, on the one side he can come from it with safety, will he not discern his danger in leaping, and shew his will in choosing to come down the other way? And if he has often done a wrong, and been frequently beaten for it, will he not thereby become sensible that that is displeasing to his owner? And if he see or hear his master coming the time he is doing that particular fault, as, for instance, lying in a bed or so, will he not shew his consciousness of it, and his fear of punishment, by his immediately leaping out, or giving over what he was doing? And does he not shew his memory, when he has lost his master, in running to the different houses or places which he used to frequent, seeking him? and his thought, or consideration, at the meeting of two ways, when running before, stopping at an uncertainty, till such time as he sees which road his owner will take? And that he is possessed with passions, is evident from his

affection for his master, fear, anger, and resentment of injuries.

Now, since brutes are thus endowed, this question will naturally occur, What pre-eminence hath a man above a beast? I answer, A very great deal. The spirit, or brutal soul, is from the earth, and answereth to man and the things of this life; and that in a very limited capacity: whereas the soul of man is from God, and answereth to God; and the things not only of this life, but also of that which is eternal, in a most extensive degree; being highly distinguished by the faculty of rationality or reason, whereby it can discriminate and clearly distinguish betwixt moral good and evil, truth and falsehood; assemble ideas, comparing one with another through means of intermediate ones; reflect and deduce causes from effects, and effects from causes, and so find out truth from error, right from wrong, a future state from a present, and delight in the contemplation of infinity itself.

What a noble creature then is the soul of man! True, indeed, it, by the fall of Adam, (as Mephibosheth falling out of his nurse's