SERMON VIII.

St. Matth. xvi. 26.

For what is a Man profited, if be fhall gain the whole World, and lofe his own Soul? Or what fhall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul?

S

HOULD we understand this SERM. Paffage of Holy Writ in the VIII. lowest Senfe, the Words are

capable of, and fuppofe, that

by the Sout here is meant only the prefent mortal Life; our Saviour's Reafoning would be however juft and conclufive. For what will all the World and all its admired Enjoyments fignify to us, when we are removed into quite a new Scene? Whither we can carry nothing away with S 3

นะ

SERM. us of all our earthly Goods, neither fhall

VIII, our Pomp follow us. But if we take the Soul to mean, as it properly does, the spiritual and principal Part of our Nature, what makes us to be Men, rational, moral, and eternal Beings; the Argument will appear in a much stronger Light, as the Paffage is thus raised to a more exalted Senfe, and adapted to a more excellent Purpose.

IF Life is preferable to all Things in the World; If whatever a Man is poffeffed of he would gladly part with to ransom himself from the Jaws of Death: Much more freely fhould he refign all his temporal Acquifitions together with even this mortal Life itfelf (if neceffary) in order to fave his Soul,-to obtain a better Refurrection and a bleffed Immortality. Since fo inconceivable an Happinefs is abfolutely to be preferred before All, that Men account valuable in this World, and, indeed, before the World itself.

THIS is the only Way of Thinking, which can have the Approbation of found Reason, as it has the Authority of divine Revelation: And notwithstanding that small Price, which wicked Men, blinded by their Vices, fet upon their Souls, felling them many

many times, as it were for nothing, and SERM. quitting their Title to an everlafting In- VIII. heritance for very trifling Confiderations, our good Lord, whofe Judgment may be implicitly relied on, was, we fee, in very different Sentiments, and by putting the Que ftion home to us, would have us answer it for ourselves: Which if we do with any tolerable Serioufnefs and after due Reflection, we fhall be obliged to acknowledge the human Soul to be a Thing of real intrinfic Worth, its Value to be ineftimable, and its Lofs to be irreparable. And this fhould any one ignorantly doubt of, there are many Arguments to convince him of his Error. Thefe I propofe here to confider with a View of awakening you to a juft Senfe of your most important Interests.

1. THE great Value of the Soul may be discovered from its fuperior Faculties and Perfections above every other Being in this World.

THE Soul, tho' fallen from its original Dignity, is yet venerable in its Ruins. It is capable of reaching with its Thoughts to the moft diftant Objects either in Time or Place, of making the paft and abfent present, and

SERM. of ranging in an Inftant through the Uni-
VIII. verfe :---It can mark out the Paths, compute

the Distances, calculate the Dimenfions, and
determine the Motions of the heavenly Bo-
dies ---It measures the Surface of the Earth,
and dives into its capacious Womb :---Its
Reafon extends to all natural Things, and
enlightened by Revelation advances even to
fupernatural, fo far as to penetrate into the
invifible Regions of Blifs and Mifery :--
It can follow Effects to their Caufes; till
through the Chain of fecond Causes, which
are but fo many natural Effects dependant
each on the foregoing, it afcends up to God
himfelf the great Author of Nature, the
first, and, strictly speaking, the only Cause
of all Things:---In fhort, it is the Soul,
which alone of all Creatures upon Earth
can trace out its divine Origin, can conceive
fome faint Idea of the Infinite Creator, and
look into his adorable Perfections.

AND as the Soul can difcern and demonftrate the Natural, fo can it transcribe and . imitate the Moral Attributes of God. However low it may lay how much foever it polluted, yet is it capable of being renewed after the Image of him, who formed it; of

grovelling now, or

may be at present