DISC. "the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye

A fcene like this is prefented to our imaginations by the words of Mofes; "The "Lord God formed man out of the duft of "the ground; he moulded or modelled him as a potter doth; we fee the work, as it were, upon the wheel, rifing and growing under the hands of the divine artificer !

The human body was not made of the celestial elements, light and air; but of the more grofs terrestrial matter, as being defigned to receive and communicate notices of terreftrial objects, by organs of a nature fimilar to them. In this inftance, as in another fince, God feemeth to have, "chofen, "the base things of the world, to con"found things honourable and mighty"," when of the duft of the ground he composed a frame, superior, in rank and dignity, to the heavens and all their hofts.

I.

They whofe profeffion leads them to ex- DISC. amine the structure of this astonishing piece of mechanism, these men fee the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the formation of the human body. A contemplation of it's parts, and their difpofition, brought Galen upon his knees, in adoration of the wifdom with which the whole is contrived; and incited him to challenge any one, upon an hundred years ftudy, to tell, how any the least fibre or particle could have been more commodiously placed, either for use, or beauty. While the world fhall laft, genius and diligence will be producing fresh proofs, that we are “fearful

ly and wonderfully made;" that "mar"vellous are the works," and, above all, this capital work of the Almighty; and that the hand which made it must needs be verily and indeed divine.

Into the body of man, thus conftructed, we learn from Mofes, that God, "breathed "the breath of life, and man became a living foul." The question here will be,

Whether

DISC. Whether these words are intended to de

I.

note the rational and immortal foul, or the

fenfitive and animal life?

They are certainly fometimes used in the lower of thefe acceptations. "Cease ye "from man whose breath f is in his nof"trils. All creatures in whofe noftrils was "the breath of life died by the flood." By these texts it appears, that the terms Spirit and breath are used to fignify that animal life, which is fupported mechanically, by refpiration through the noftrils.

h

But they are likewise used for the rational and immortal foul; witness thofe words of the pfalmift, adopted by our Lord, when expiring on the crofs; "Into

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thy hands I commend my fpirit." So again-" * "The spirit fhall return to God "who gave it." And "The spirit of man' "is the candle of the Lord."

I.

Spiritual effences and operations come DISC. not under the cognizance of those fenfes, which, during the prefent ftate of probation, God has been pleased to make the inlets of our ideas. They must therefore be reprefented and described to us, in the way of comparison and analogy, by fuch language as is commonly ftyled figurative, or metaphorical. Of animal life, begun and continued by refpiration, we have a proper and fufficient knowlege. From a contemplation of that life, and the manner in which it is fupported by the air, we are directed to frame our notions of an higher life, maintained by the influence of an higher principle. For this purpose, the terms which denote the former are borrowed to express the latter; and we find the words, tranflated Spirit, and breath, sometimes used for one, and fometimes for the other.

But when we confider, that man, as other Scriptures do teftify, has within him a rational foul, an immortal spirit, which, on the diffolution of the body, returns to God

VOL. I.

B

DISC. God who gave it; that, in this original

1.

description of his formation, we may reafonably expect to find both parts of his compofition mentioned; and that a perfonal act of the Deity, that of inspiring the breath of life, is recorded with regard to him, which is not faid of the other creatures; we can hardly do otherwise than conclude, that the words were intended to denote not the animal life only, but also another life communicated with it, and reprefented by it; in a word, that man confifteth of a body fo organized as to be fuftained in life by the action of the material elements upon it, and a rational immortal foul fupported, in a fimilar manner, by the influence of a fuperior and spiritual agency.

We had occafion to obferve above, that when the knowlege of the Creator, furnished at the beginning by Revelation, had been loft in the heathen world, men paid to the works of his hands that adoration which was due to him. The material elements were invested with divinity and immortality,