304 THE ABSOLUTE written in it? Can the seat you sit on overtop your counsels? More likely than for you to overtop the Lord: Silly worms! you know not what God is; nor know you any one of his revealed thoughts, no more than that pillar doth know your thoughts. You know not what you are yourselves, nor see any further than the superficies of your skin. What is thy soul; and whence didst thou receive it ? Dost thoú know its form; or didst thou feel it enter ? Whichpart didst thou feel it first possess ? Thou canst call it a spirit, but knowest thou what -a spirit is; or rather only what it is not? Thou knowest not that whereby thou knowest; and how was thy body formed in the womb ? What was it an hundred years ago? What is that vital heat and moisture? What causeth that order and diversity of its parts ? When will the most expert anatomists and physicians be agreed ?, Why, there are mysteries in the smallest worm, which thou canst not reach ; nor couldst thou resolve the doubts arising about an ant or atom, much less about the sun, or fire, or air, or wind, &c.; and canst thou not know thyself, nor the smallest part of thyself, nor the smallest creature; and yet canst thou overreach the everlasting counsels? 2. And is thy might and power any greater than thy policy ? Why, what are the kings and rulers of the earth but lumps of clay, that can speak and go; moving shadows, the flowers of a day, a corruptible seed, blown up to that swelled consistence in which it appears, as children blow their bubbles of soap, somewhat invisible condensate ; which, that it may become visible, is become more gross, and so more vile, and will shortly be almost all turned into invisible again; and that little dust, which. corruption leaves by the force of fire, may be dissipated yet more; and then where is this specious part of the man? Surely now that body, which. is so much esteemed, is but a loathsome lump of corruptible flesh, covered with a smooth skin, and kept a little while front stinking by the presence of the soul, and must shortly be cast out of sight into a grave, as unfit for the sight or smell of the living, and there be consumed with rottenness and worms. These are the kings and' rulers of the earth ; this is the power that must conquer heaven, and save them that rebel against Christ the.Lord. They that cannot live a 'month without repairing" their consuming bodies by food, one part whereof Both turn to their vital blood and spirits, and the other to loathsome insufferable excrements, so near is the kin between their best and worst, judge all you that have common reason, whether he that cannot keep himself alive an hour, and shortly will not be able to stir a finger, to remove the worms that feed upon his heart, be able to resist the strength of Christ, and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=