to remember, that as subjects are supposed to consist either of acts or accidents, according to their active or passive foundation, they divide themselves accordingly into two classes; these forming the incidental, and those the constituent; to be separately considered in accordance with the method here adopted; which is, to proceed always inversely, looking on the outside first as aforesaid, and taking due care always to name every object as nearly as may be in the order of observation, incidentals first, and then constituents-from the last of the first to the first of the

last.

Incidentals are every thing that belongs to a subject without composing or making any part of it--every thing that is laid on a subject, or given, or attributed to it, and every thing that happens, or is happening to the same; instead of entering into corporeally and helping to compose it, or proceeding or happening from or by it; which, on the contrary, turns to constituents. There are many sorts of things belonging to a subject, without entering into, or helping to compose it; such as name and notion generally; also with man, the subject of the kingdom-birth and station, place and habitation, with others of the kind, besides those above mentioned, which do not affect the identity of the subject either by their presence or absence: for if they are present, the subject will be neither greater nor less, nor better nor worse, nor yet if they are absent. Such are the two sorts of properties, v. g., incidental and constituent, belonging to subjects in general, and to man, the subject of the kingdom, in particular: of whose incidental properties, or briefly incidentals, here follow a few examples in the order of their standing or observation.

§ 1. 2. As nominal and ideal subjects stand before real, therefore in respect of the observer, being like ambassadors between him and them, they are properly the two first sorts of incidentals to be regarded. Indeed, it may be said of these subjects, that they not only belong to the kingdom, which is the property of incidentals, but also

form a larger, if less solid, portion of it than all the substantial ingredients of the same that we know of put together. For upon an average, there are perhaps ten times as many names as substances, or things, within the sphere of our animadversion, and ten times ten thousand times more notions.

It is just that these two titles, Name and Notion, should stand together in their enumeration; as they often occur together in application, and both for the same reason, v. g., that neither of them is found very often of sufficient importance to deserve a separate notice or consideration distinct either from the other, or from the subject to which it relates. For one mode of existence is as susceptible of discussion as another,-names and notions as much so as persons and things, and with all the same specification of particulars. Even nothing itself may be talked of as well as any thing. But in general the notice or consideration of these shadows is merged in that of the realities to which they relate or belong: on a very few and very particular occasions only it may be worth while to give them a distinct consideration. For shadows they really are, although some things of most serious importance, whether for good or evil, in the vulgar estimation, are founded upon them; as may be observed, when that class of incidentals, or that improvement on this shall come to be considered. § 3. Of similar importance to the subject, and its acquaintance, is another kind of incidentals, and another foundation for characteristics: which, if incidentals were to be enumerated in the order of seniority, ought to have been mentioned before the preceding; but as they are enumerated in the order of observation, name and notion have taken the lead of Birth, and of its usual adjunct, Rank or Station, which is here appended to it; as being a very intimate, if not necessary companion of the same. And in the same manner either of these, i. e., of rank, birth and station, is often used in the construction of the others, to wit, of name and notion, at present; as it was in the first

instance, when "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, (i. e. earth,) in the day when they were created" (Gen. ii. 7; v. 2), also Son (John I. iii. 1), also Creature (Gen. i. 27). So according to David," children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord" (Pscxxvii. 4), and according to what is said of Obed, David's grandfather's mother, Ruth, "The Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son" (Ruth iv. 13).

He who made the first man, also made the second by his means he who made man male and female, also made them human and divine. As thou formedst the first man of the dust of the ground, and breathedst into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. ii. 7) particularly; so "thou hast made me (even me, at this distance of time) as the clay; hast poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese; thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews" (Job x. 9—11): and after all hast begotten me again to new life, who was dead in trespasses and sins, by the same medium of thy Breath or Holy Spirit. And though we attribute to mankind the part of procreation; it is not an original act, nor so expressed; but its continuance or repetition, like the continued productions of nature, as we call them, to which this act is never attributed. For the incidental called birth or descent, with respect to man, the proper subject of the kingdom, stock or sort with respect to inferior animals, and race or pedigree with respect to both, whether it be considered in the gross or in detail, as the birth of the kingdom, or birth in the kingdom; as birth of the kind, or birth of individuals; must be the same in both cases, if traced from the beginning, since there can be no other beginning for any individual of a monogeneous or single-headed race, than there is for the whole, whatever may be his pedigree, or intermediate beginnings.

§ 4.

The next incidental, while it presents some

thing like a more substantial property for a subject than its name and notion, or simple recognition, is also subservient in most cases to the effect of designation as well as the last mentioned place and habitation; it being hard to identify such an endless multitude of subjects as there are in the kingdom, or to complete their merest notion without referring to their place and habitation, as well as to their sphere and birth in addition to their common name or designation. This property of a subject is put next to birth and station, therefore, because it agrees with the forementioned plan or method of proceeding inwards with their enumeration, from the remotest to the most intimate topics of the kingdom of God incarnate. Thus we consider next to his name and notion, station, birth and such like,--the outer shell of the soul or essential man,-the Habitation inclosing his frail body under all circumstances, whether he be dead or alive, generally some time of the day, but chiefly by night in the former case. For whether dead or alive the man must have his habitation for a season: and human vanity is as profuse sometimes in expense on the shell of the former as of the last mentioned. This we may consider first, as coming first between a man's immaterial incidentals and himself: considering as next his portable property, (i. e. portable for a time,) whether it consist in actual comforts and conveniences, such as money, stock, &c.-dress and diet, literary stuff and records, with other things of the kind; or else, in a plain right to such things. The whole of this is generally denominated personal property; and its particulars, not properties; as the particulars of the kingdom, or of man, its principal subject on earth, are denominated; but kinds of property, a very proper distinction between the subject or foundation, and its apparatus or incidentals, between the domestic and foreign property of the kingdom. For all that belongs to a man may be regarded as foreign property; habitation and the rest, as well as his name and notion.

But a man's place or habitation is different from the

place or habitation of man generally speaking, his particular and artificial from his general and natural habitation. By nature man is a tenant of the earth in common with many other animals; fellow lodgers, we may call them, in this great house. But not content with the apartments which nature assigned him like the rest, man has been at considerable pains in making habitations for himself; building, planting, fencing and fortifying the same at no inconsiderable cost of nearer and clearer property, i. e. of domestic or constituent. But what should have occasioned the application of real to a sort of property that a man can hold only for his life, or for a short time after, is hard to conceive; unless it be that we find a greater fixation or stability attending this sort of subject than some others, though not in its relation of property to the subject. And even then it may be questioned, whether the distinction of fixed and portable property would not apply more correctly to lands and linen, or to houses and eatables, than real and personal. However, let that be real which the world has so ordained; and let it be owned, that some habitations are pretty and pleasant; yet taking into consideration, at the same time, some other habitations which the debtor, the criminal, and the captive can tell of, we must needs own that the thing itself is naturally indifferent as well as incidental,-an essential, but no constituent. For if there is indeed one habitation that we all desire, we do not all, nor any of us, seem in much haste to occupy it, nor yet very apt to think of that habitation either so much as we ought. And, what shews still further the incidentality of the subject, namely, an habitation; as when living, men are often assimilated herein, without being assimilated at the same time, either in their qualities or their enjoyments; but wise men and unwise, happy men and miserable are living together, continually sharing in the same house, the same room, the same bed; so, when dying, a man has taken leave of this transitory scene, and can be no longer either happy or miserable in