The beatitudes

2. Having showed you the souls preciousness; the next thing to be demonstrated, is, that the soul is more precious than a world: 'tis [Greek or Hebrew]. The world is made of a more impure lump; Rudis indigestaque moles; The world is of a courser make, of an earthly extract; the soul is heaven-born, of a finer spinning, of a more noble descent; the world is [Greek or Hebrew] ▪ as Origen calls it, a great Book o• Volume, wherein we read the Majesty and Wisdom of him that made it; but the soul is [Greek or Hebrew] the Image of God, Gen. 1. The soul is a studied piece; ⟨p. 459⟩when God made the world, it was but fiat, let it be, and it was done; but when he made the soul, all the persons in the Trinity sate together at the Counsel-table, Gen. 1.26. Come let us make man in our own likeness. The soul is a Glass wherein some Rays of Divine Glory shine, much of God is to be seen in it; though this glass be cracked by the fall, yet it shall one day be perfect; we read of spirits of just men made perfect, Hebr. 12.23. The soul since the fall of Adam, may be compared to the Moon in its conjunction, very much obscured by sin; but when it is sanctified by the Spirit, and translated from hence, it shall be as the Moon in the full, it shall shine forth in its perfect glory.

2. Having shewed you the souls preciousness; the next thing to be demonstrated, is, that the soul is more precious than a world: 'tis 〈non-Latin alphabet〉. The world is made of a more impure lump; Rudis indigestaque moles; The world is of a courser make, of an earthly extract; the soul is heaven-born, of a finer spinning, of a more noble descent; the world is 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 ▪ as Origen calls it, a great Book o• Volume, wherein we read the Majesty and Wisdom of him that made it; but the soul is the Image of God,