fying and refining those which are sent to it, and seems like a curious piece of needlework. The ear, framed with windings and turnings, to keep any thing from entering to offend the brain, is so disposed as to admit sounds with the greatest safety and delight; filled with an air within, by the motion whereof the sound is transmitted to the brain. What a curious workmanship is that of the eye, which is in the body, as the sun in the world, set in the head, as in a watch tower, having the softest nerves for the receiving the greater multitude of spirits necessary for the act of vision? The tongue is framed for speech, like a musical instrument; the teeth serving for variety of sounds; the lungs serving for bellows to blow the organs, as it were, to cool the heart; by a continual motion transmitting a pure air to the heart, expelling that which was smoaky and superfluous. Not the least part of the body is made in vain. The hairs of the head have their use, as well as are an ornament. The whole symmetry of the body is a ravishing object. Every member

hath a signature and mark of God, and his wisdom. He is visible in the formation of the members, the beauty of the parts, and the vigor of the body. This structure could not be from the body, that only hath a passive power, and cannot act in the absence of the soul. Nor can it be from the soul. How comes it then to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation? The soul knows not the internal parts of its own body, but by information from others, or inspection into other bodies. It knows less of the inward frame of the body than it does of itself. The Lord God formed the body, senses, and faculties of it, to take in delight from all things in this visible world. Man is the epitome of every creature, and from them, by means of impressions made on his senses, which is through the medium of the nerves and blood, the soul, the inhabitant within, has, and does receive such apprehensions of present things, as cause us to know, feel, and perceive what is pleasing, profitable, and good for us, as it respects present things. And man in his creation is a

creature in every thing dependent on God. Creation was an act of pure sovereignty. Man's body and soul, his every faculty and perception, is of God.

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His original purity, holiness, and righteousness, were wholly from the Lord. The soul, its faculties, their exercise, use, and end, were all of God. Man could not in his first and best state deserve any thing from God in a way of due. He received his being, and his well-being from his Maker. He not only existed because God willed it, but his continuance in being also depended upon the same sovereign and immutable will. His all was of gift. He received his being, and all the blessings he possessed from the Lord, and was accountable to him for all his thoughts, words, and actions.

I pass on to consider what man was at creation: a pure, holy, righteous creature. His soul brighter than the sun. His body pure and undefiled, and though his thoughts were innumerable, yet not one of them was irregular. Though the objects he conversed with were variously

diversified, yet they all led him up to God; seeing in every creature, and in every part of the creation, such prints of Deity, the goodness, wisdom, holiness, love, and power of God so clearly mani fested, as filled him with astonishing wonder, gratitude, and praise. Man, the subject of Jehovah's power, wisdom, and love, was in his primitive state honoured by having the moral law, which contains a transcript of God's holiness, which contains his revealed mind and will, and is the foundation of all creature holiness, concreated in him, and together with him; which law was also given to him under the form of a covenant obedience to which was the tie, or bond of union between God the creator, and man his pure and holy creature. He was magnified, and set up as the root, representative, and fœderal head of all his natural offspring, and God honoured him by making him Lord of the whole world; and as he made all for him, he put all into his hands, by giving him a grant of `all, and dominion and lordship over the creatures. But we may justly break forth

into surprise, saying,

"What is man,

that thou shouldest magnify him?" It is wholly impossible for us properly to conceive the pure, holy, upright, blessed state of man, at, and by creation. What it must be to feel perfect creature purity, to have every thought, word, and work, influenced by love to God, and adequate to the precept of the law, to make Jehovah's glory our ultimate end in every action, and for every faculty and affection to be engaged with him, fixed supremely on him, and drawn after him, is what we can have but very imperfect ideas of, seeing we have never been in our own persons the actual enjoyers of such a state. This however was the case, and state of the first man, How long cannot be said. The inspired psalmist says, "Man being in honour abode not long." For the creature was subject to vanity, owing to, and arising from its own mutability. And God never did make an immutable creature. The angels themselves, though stronger made, and higher raised, were not immutable at and by creation. "Behold, (says Eliphaz,) he put