A Body of Practical Divinity

2. Let us speak of Man who is a Microcosm, or lesser World: The excellent Contexture and Frame of his Body who is wrought curiously as with Needle-work, Psal. 139.15. I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. And the Endowment of this Body with a noble Soul; who but God could make such an Union of different Substances, Flesh and Spirit? In him we live, and move, and have our being. The quick acute Motion of every Part of the Body, shows that there is a God; we may see something of him in the sparkling of the Eye: And if the Cabinet of the Body be so curiously wrought, what is the Jewel? The Soul hath a Celestial Brightness in it, as Damascene saith. 'Tis a Diamond set in a Ring of Clay: What noble Faculties is the Soul endowed with? Understanding, Will, Affections, which are a Glass of the Trinity, as Plato speaks. The Matter of the Soul is Spiritual; 'tis a Divine Sparkle lighted from Heaven: and being spiritual is immortal, as Scaliger notes. Anima non senescit; the Soul doth not wax old, it lives for ever. And who could create a Soul ennobled with such rare Angelical Properties, but God? We must needs say as the Psalmist, It is he that hath made us, and not we our selves, Psalm 100.3.

2. Let us speak of Man who is a Microcosm, or lesser World: The excellent Contexture and Frame of his Body who is wrought curiously as with Needle-work, Psal. 139.15. I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. And the Endowment of this Body with a noble Soul; who but God could make such an Union of different Substances, Flesh and Spirit? In him we live, and move, and have our being. The quick acute Motion of every Part of the Body, shews that there is a God; we may see something of him in the sparkling of the Eye: And if the Cabinet of the Body be so curiously wrought, what is the Jewel? The Soul hath a Coelestial Brightness in it, as Damascen saith. 'Tis a Diamond set in a Ring of Clay: What noble Faculties is the Soul endowed with? Understanding, Will, Affections, which are a Glass of the Trinity, as Plato speaks. The Matter of the Soul is Spiritual; 'tis a Divine Sparkle lighted from Heaven: and being spiritual is immortal, as Scaliger notes. Anima non senescit; the Soul doth not wax old, it lives for ever. And who could create a Soul enobled with such rare Angelical Properties, but God? We must needs say as the Psalmist, It is he that hath made us, and not we our selves,