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234
On
the
Excellency
of
the
soul.
if
you had
Paid
you
had
`loved
mee
as
your
body,
then
I
Ihould
have thought you had loved
mee ,
but
I
fee no
love
you have
to
your foul
;
It
was
the prayer
of
the
Apoffle
St.
John
in
the Epiftle
that bee writ
to
his
hol{
Gains
I
fuppofe
you
that
know
Scripture,
are
not unacquainted
with
it,
in
his
third Epiftle,
Beloved ,
I
wig,'
above
all
things
that
thou
mayeftz
profper,
and
bee
in
health,even
as
thy
foul
profpereth.
I
(hall
clofe all
I intend
for the
prefent
with this Scrip-
ture
;
it
feems
that
Gains
was
a
holy man ,
but
a
man of
a
weakly
and
fick
body, and therefore
St. John
writing to him,
hee prayes thus
, Above
all things
,
I
defre that
thy
body
may
but
profper,as thy
foul
profpereth.s
if
hee fhould
fay
,
O
Gatos, thou
haft
an
excellent
gracious
foul,
indued
with ad-
mirable
graces
of
the
Spirit
of
God,
full
of God
thy
foul
is,
though thy body
bee weakly
:
Oh that
thou
hadft but
as
good
a
body,
as
thou
haft
a
foul.
It
feems Gains
had
more
care
of
his
foul
a
great deal
,
than of
his
body
:
but
now
my
brethren
confider
this,
Would
not
this
bee
a
curfe
to
molt men
for one
to
pray thus for
them,
Oh
Lord,give
them
fuck
bodies as they
have
fouls?
it
were
as
much
as :to
fay, Lord,
Let
that
body
bee
blafied
,
let
it
bee
filled
with difeafes
,
let
it
bee
filled with
rottenuefs, let
it
confume away,
let
it
bee
a
noy-
[eme
and
loathfome
body
, for
his foul
is
fo
;
The
fouls of
aloft
men are
filled
with
difeafes,
are noyfome and
loath
-
ffine
in
the
eyes
of God.
It
is
a
happy
thing,
my
brethren,
to have better
fouls
than
bodies ,
that
was
the
happinefs
of
Gains
and
fo
it
would bee your
happinefs
if
you could
fay
fo; you have
great care of
the
bodies of your children,
I,
but
have you
a
greater care of their
fouls?
if
you
have,
it
would bee
an
excellent
fign
that
God
bath made
you
to
underfland what true excellency means.
It
is
a
great
que-
flion
among
Divines , and
among Philofophers too
,
about
the propagation of
the
foul
,
how
it
comes
in
,
whether
by
the
Parents,
or
immediate creation
;
truly
there
is one ar-
gument that it
is
not
like
to
come
in
by
the Parents ,
be-
caufe wee
fee
that there
is
fcarce any
Parents
that
have
any
care
of the
fouls
of
their
children,
but altogether
ca-
ring