On the Excellency of the Seul. 213 God. Shines -in the world , 'and mans foul is as the glafs, and when it was in its ::firfl purity, was as a clear chryflal glafs, and received in all the beams Of Gods glory, all the glory of God I lay, that did.4hine in all his creatures, was received into mans, foul 7 as the beams of the Sun into a glafs, , and: now man was able to. refle,;,q the glory of thefe beams:upon the face of God again, rid to return all again .to God ; for as all things that are good come from him, fo all good mould return again to him ; but now, how comes the Lord to have an injoymenc as it were of his goodnefs that bee lets out from himfelf ? How comes bee to have it return back again to himfelf ? Why, the way of his re- turning, it is by the Angels in.heaven:, and thefpirirs of men thefe are the two excellent creatures that God cloth make ufe of to fetch in all the glory that bee hath froni all his creatures , that they in an aoaive way should refle& it all upón the face of God again ; certainly the foul of man is of an excellent nature then, that is contigu- ous with God hiinfelf ,, next unto him r -It -is no matter whether a man bee rich or poor, learned or unlearned , yet hee bath a foul that is capable of this. Yet further , For the excellency of the foul , as it is excel- The excellency di 11- lent in relation to fo in relationtmthe Angels. It is of ofthe foul f .` covered in its the fame kinde of nature that they are of, . they are fpirits, relation to An- and fo is the foul of man yea it hath the very faine name gels, with God himfelf , God is a Spirit , and fo is the foul of man ; it is of the very fame nature with the Angels, and fo is able to convene with them as well as with God himfelf; but for the way and manner of convene with thofe fpirits, that is little revealed in the word, and therefore wee can fay litt'e of it. And further , The excellency of masts foul , it will appear 3 The excel- in-the excellent endowments of it : Look, upon the foul of icncy of the ran in his fallen eflate, and what admirableendowments foot in t 1n- Lome men have, ac imthe excellent knowledge that fome d'nits o£ men have of Arcs and Sciences , the knowledge of the lt. heavens ; it is a very g' orious thing that they are able to D d 3 afcend
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