482 CHARACTER OF A SOUND, the operations free, and subject to reason., It is a spiritual appe- tite in the rational appetite, even the will; and a spiritual, visive disposition in the understanding. Not a faculty in a faculty ; but the right disposition of the faculties to their highest objects, to which they are by corruption made unsuitable. So that it is neither a proper power in the natural sense, nor a. mere act, but nearest to the nature of a seminal disposition or habit. It is the health and rectitude of the faculties of the soul. Even as nature hath made the understanding disposed to truth in general, and the will dispos- ed or inclined to good in general, and to self-preservation and feli- city in particular ; so the Spirit of Christ doth dispose the under- standing to spiritual truth, to know Godand the matters of salva- tion, and doth incline the will to God and holiness, not blindly, as they are unknown, but to love and serve a known God. So that whether this be properly or only analogically calledk nature, or rather should be called a habit, I determine not ; but certainly it is a fixed disposition and inclination, which Scripture talleth the "divine nature," (2 Pet. i. 4.) and " the seed of God abiding in us " 1 'John iii. 9. But most usually it is called the Spirit of God, or of Christ in us. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his ;" Rom. viii. 9. "By one Spirit.we are all.baptized into one body ;" 1 Cor. xii. 13. Therefore we are said "to be in the Spirit, and walk after the Spirit, and by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body;" Rom. viii. 1. 9. 13. And it is called, "the Spirit of the Son and the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ; "'or are inclined to God, as chil- dren to their father; and the "Spirit of grace and supplication;" Rom. viii. 15.23.26. Gal. iv. 6. v. 17,18. Eph. ii. 18.22. iv. 3, 4. Phil.i. 27. ii. 1. Zech. xii. 10. From this Spirit, and the fruits of it, we are called new creatures, andquickened, and made alive toGod; 2 Cor. v. 17. Eph. ii. 15. Rom. vi. 11. 13. It is a great con- troversy, whether this holy disposition and inclination was natural to Adam or not, and consequently whether it be a restored nature in us or not. It was so natural to him as health is natural to the body, but not so natural as to be a necessitating principle, nor so as to be inseparable and unlosable. 2. This same Spirit and holyinclination is in the weakest Chris- tian also, but in a small degree, and remissly operating, so as that the fleshly inclination oft seemeth to be the stronger, when he judgeth by its passionate strugglings within him. Though, indeed, the Spirit of life doth not-only strive, but conquer in the main, even in the weakest Christians ; Rom. viii. 9. Gal. v. 17 -21. 3. The seeming Christian bath only the ineffectual motions of the Spirit to a holy life, and effectual motions and inward disposi- tions to some common duties of religion. And from these,with
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