The excellency of a gracious spirit Delivered in a treatise upon the 14. of…The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of…

Thirdly, yea, this is not only the life of Angels, the life of heaven, but ¹the life of God himself; for so it is called by God himself, Ephes. 4. 11. ²Seneca says of Reason, that it is part of the Divine Spirit in mans body, it is much more true of Grace, it enables the soul in some resemblance to come the nearest that can be, to live as God lives, to work as God works; it represents God in his highest glory, and therefore it is called, The linage of God: This shows more to the world what God is, than all the ⟨p. 89⟩frame of Gods creation besides. It is not as an Image, which hath only the dead lineaments drawn, though there be some beauty in this; but as the Image in a glass, which presents the motion as well as the lineaments: yea, and not only so, but as the son that bears the Image of the father; and this represents the life: or as if a glass had life in it, and so could enjoy the sweetness, the good of that Image it represents unto it self. This Spirit is such a living glass of the blessed God, that it enjoys the good and sweetness of that Image of God it hath in it: Yea, one degree higher, it is called the very Divine Nature, 2 Pet. 1. 4. as if it were nothing else but a sparkle of the Deity it self. Seneca has a strong speech concerning mans soul, What can we call the soul ³(says he) but God abiding in an humane body? If a soul that hath only natural excellencies, comes so near God, how near then comes it to him, when raised by those spiritual and supernatural excellencies we ⟨p. 90⟩have spoke of. Yea, yet there is an higher degree than this; It is called the glory of the Lord, Rom. […]. 3. yea, a higher degree than all the former; the excellency of this spirit is such, as it is one spirit with God himself, 2 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit. It was the excellency of Joshua, that he had the spirit of Moses upon him; of Elisha, that he had the spirit of Elijah; what is it then to have the Spirit of God himself? yea to be one spirit with him. Put all these then together, godliness by which this other spirit is raised higher than common spirits, it is the life of God, the Image of God, the divine Nature, the glory of God, yea one spirit with God; and is not here an high and glorious excellency?