f! 3 96 Thefrj1 Sign. PART III. as to be called a lightfame Body. So the Spirit of God acting upon the Soul only, without communicating it felf to be an active Principle in it, can't denominate it fpiritual. A. Body that continues black, may be faid not to have Light, tho' the Light fhines upon it ; fo na- tural Men are faid not to have the Spirit, Jude r9. fenfual, or natural ( as the Word is elfewhere render'd ) having not the Spirit. 2. Another Reafon why the Saints and their Vertues are called fpiritual, ( which is the principal Thing) is that the Spirit of God, dwelling as a vital Principle in theirSouls, there produces thofe Effeas wherein he exerts and communicates himfeifin his own proper Nature. Holinefs is the Nature of the Spirit of God, therefore he is called in Scripture the Holy Ghoft. Holinefs, which is as it were the Beauty and Sweetnefs of the Divine Nature, is as much the proper Nature of the Holy Spirit, as Heat is the Nature of Fire, or Sweetnefs was the Nature of that holy anointing Oil, which was the principal Type of the Holy Ghoft in the Mofaick Difpenfation ; yea, I may rather fay that Holinefs is as much the proper Nature of the Holy Ghoft, as Sweetnefs was the Nature of the fweet Odour of thatOintment. The Spirit of God fo dwells in the Hearts of the Saints, that he there, as a Seed or Spring of Life, exerts and communicates himfelf, in this his fweet and divine Nature, making the Soul a Partaker of God's Beau- ty and Chrift's Joy, fo that the Saint has truly Fellowfhip with the Father, and with his Son Jefus Chrift, in thus having the Communion or Participation of the Holy Ghoft. The Grace which is in the Hearts of the Saints, is of the fame Nature with the divine Holinefs, as much as 'tis pofihle for that Holinefs to be, which is infinitely lets in Degree; as the Brightnefs that is in a Diamond which the Sun fhines upon, is of the fame Nature with the Brightnefs of the Sun, but only that it is as nothing to it in Degree. Therefore Chrift Pays, John 3. 6. That which isborn of the Spirit is Spirit ; i. e. the Grace that is begotten in the Hearts of the Saints, is fomething of the fame Nature with that Spirit, and fo is properly called a fpiritual Nature ; after the fame Manner as that which is born of the Flefh is Flefh, or that which is born of corrupt Nature is corrupt Nature. But the Spirit of God never Influences the Minds of natural Men after this Manner. Tho' he may influence them many Ways, yet he never, in any ofhis Influences, communicates himfelf to them in his .awn proper Nature. Indeed he never a&s difagreably to his Nature, either on the Minds ofSaints or Sinners : But the Spirit of God may a& upon Men agreably to his, own Nature, and not exert his proper Nature in the A6Is and Exercifes of their Minds : TheSpirit of -God may ad fo, that his Actions may be agreable to his Nature, and yet may not at all communicate himfelf in his proper Nature, in the Ef fed of that Action. Thus, for Initanee, the Spirit of God moved upon
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