Qg TLES/1 AND SPIRIT, whew the grounds of this metaphorical use of the word spirit And there are the same sorts ofreasons tobe given whythis word is used to represent the principles of holiness, as there are why flesh should signify theprinciples of sin. I. Becausethe objects andaimof holysouls arechiefly spiri- tual, viz. God and heaven, invisible and eternal things. Spiritual objects are chief in their esteem, most in their thoughts, and in their desires, and have the first placein their designsand pursuits: As they that are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh; so they that are after the spirit, mind the things of the spirit; Rom. viii. 5:. A saint, who is spiritually-minded, aims at those things that aremore a-kin to thenatureof a spirit; he seeks the knowledge of the favour of God, who is the supreme of Spirits, . the infinite and self-sufficient Spirit, in whose knowledge, and in whose love, all intelligent creatures find a full sufficiency of bles- sedness. He knows that all created spirits who are holy and happy, are made soby derivations from God's. all-sufficient holi- ness and happiness ; and therefore he applies himself with zeal and vigour toall those spiritual exercises of meditation, faith and prayer, wherein God reveals himself and his mercy, Theknow- ledge of God and his worship, of Christ and his gospel, of the Holy Spirit and his grace, is the chief desire of a holy soul. These are the objects of the pursuit of a spiritual man ; he has devoted himself to God and things divine ; upon account of which, a man is denominated holy, and thereforeholiness is called spirit. The holy man seeks the welfare of his own soul or spirit before that of his flesh ; and while sinful men lay out their whole care and contrivance about the body, which must die, and grasp at the things of this life to make provisionfor the flesh, the saint is most concerned about his soul, which is an immortal spirit; he endeavours to. rectify those disorders of it, which sin and the flesh have introduced, and is ever diligent to make provision for this soul of his in the spiritualand unseen world, because it must have a being there for ever. The holy man is most solicitous that his soul may be happy in an unknown hereafter, while the sinner seeks all his happiness here. As the natural man neglegts the two chief Spirits he has any concernwith, that is, God and his own soul; so fleshly objects are his chief desire : But the spiritual man despises them all, in comparison of the unseen desirables of the spiritual world. The men of this world take pains to gratify their senses, and indulge every fleshly appetite amòng the entertainments of this present world; but those who are holy, mortify their sinful pas- sions, and set their affections on things above ; Col. iii. 1, &c. They look and aim at things that art unseen, that are eternal,
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