DISCOURSE II. 563 the same God perform the same wonders in the world of spirits ? Can he not form a spirit of such extensive capacities as may be equal to a million of common human souls ? Let us think again, what strange difference there is between the life and activity of an eagle and an oyster, or betweena grey-. hound and a snail, and yet both are animals. May not therefore the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ exceed common souls both in the activity and extent ofits powers as much as the most spright- ly animal exceeds the dullest and most stupid ? As far as sun beams exceed smoke and ashes, or as far as the sun exceeds our common fires ? For inall things he must have thepre-eminence ;" Col. i. iS. Again, Cannot theMaker of all things create a new world ofmaterial beings vastly superior both in bulk and in powers to this our earth, and the inhabitants of it ? Cannot an architect build a royal palace larger and more exquisitely adorned than his own little model of,it? May he not form the model at the proportion of an inch to a thousand yards ? And why may not the Creator of all things as much exceed our usual ideas also in forming a spirit of most extensive and surprising capacities above all other spirits ? It is too assuming for us to m'easure all possi- bilities by our common conceptions. But even our common conceptions will furnish us with some examples fit to persuade us of the vast and extensive power of a creature. Couldwe ever think of the pupil of the eye, that it should take in a whole hemisphere of stars, each ofwhich is big- ger than the globeof our earth, if every night's experience did not convince us : And yet this hemisphere, so vast as it is, is but one of the ideas of a human soul. There are millions of ideas besicles this which are contained in the soul or memory of every modern philosopher or ingenious mechanic. Many of these our ideas indeed are successive : But why may not the soul of Christ be large enough in its native capacity to take in all at once what we take in by a long succession, or what Would cost us the labour of ages ? Such a glorious creáted minci as belongs to the Son ofGod may be capable, for ought we know, of extending its thoughts backward to far distant ages, and forward beyond time, and reach far into eternity, and may also spread them abroad over the nationsof mankind, and all their chief affairs, and yet not be perfectly infinite as the knowledge of God is* ; for divine know- It is worthy of our observation how Mr. Locke in the " Essay ou the Human Understanding" describes the largeness of a man or an angers memory, Cook I1. chapter x. section 9. " It is reported of that prodigy or parta, Mon- sieur Pascal, that till the decay of his health had impaired his memory, he forgot nothing of what he had dune, read or thought in any part of his rational age. Nn2
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