The Spirit of Man, Title page – Introduction
THE SPIRIT OF MAN: OR, Some Meditations (by way of Essay) on the Sense of that Scripture. 1 Thes. 5. 23. And the very God of Peace Sanctifie you wholly, and I pray God, your whole Spirit, and Soul, and Body, be Preserved Blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Iesus Christ.By Charles Morton, Minister of the Gospel at Charlstown in New-England.
Mal. 3. 16. Take heed to your Spirit
Luke 19. 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit you are of.
Boston Printed by B. Harris, for Duncan Campbell, at the Dock-Head, over-against the Conduit. 1692.
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AS we have all manner of Demonstrations, to assure us, of what E…hu asserted when he said, There is a Spirit in man; so we have the Eternal Spirit of God Himself, by the Pen of His Inspired Solomon, Recommending this Blessed Oracle of Wisdom unto us, A man of Understanding is of an Excellent Spirit. Indeed, we have no Understanding till, believing that we have within us, a Spirit Excellent for the first Author and Nature of it, we Endeavour above all things to make that Spirit become yet more Excellent, by the Alterations of a New Birth upon it▪ The Woful and Rueful Degeneracy, which has be…allen the Spirit of Man, by his Fall into Sin, is a matter of the most bleeding Lamentations, unto every Spirit that in the least measure begins to Awaken out of that Lamentable Fall. Yea, The whole Creation Groans over the vitiated Spirit of man, and sighs, How art thou Fallen, O thou Child of the Morning! Accordingly, when once the Symptoms of a Recovery, from, The madness in our Hearts whil… we L…ve, do dawn in the Reflections of our Spirit, upon its own unhappy Depravations our chief Question and Study then is, What we shall do for the Salvation of that Spirit from the Distempers …f it; and we become wonderfully Thankful unto our God, for His accommodating of Us, with such means of Grace, as He never bestow'd upon the Apostate Spirits, whom He hath Reserved in Darkness under Everlasting Chains. If we duely consider, the Natural Faculties of that Spirit, which the Father of Spirit…s hath Breathed into us, or the provision which God has made For it, in the Spiritual World, we shall indeed reckon, that our Spirit is too Excellent a Thing to be neglected; yea, that there is no Folly like that of the man, who Despiseth his own Soul. But if we again consider the Moral Pollutions, which have disordered our Spirit, we may be soon convinced, That we are in Danger of Dying without Wisdom, whereby the Excellency that is in us then will go away: And that there had need be some Essayes towards a Revival of the Primi…ive Excellency in our Nobler and Better Part, in order to our Meetness for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. Now, as the whole work of Sanctification upon the Spirit, is necessary to make it Excellent, so, there is a notable stroke of that work performed in the Sanctification of the Humour, which is to be seen in the Temper and Biass of that Spirit. There is … certain Air of our Complexion, which Results from some Circumstances of the Uni… between our Souls and our Bodies; and …his Disposition, we ordinarily call, The Spirit of the man. Let This be Sanctify'd, and the Man will become one of, The Ex…cellent in the Earth. It would be a marvellous Renewal o… the Divine Image in our Spirits, and it would render us extraordinarily as well Serviceable to others, as Comfortable to our selves, if that Inclination which our Spirits have, as they are United, and therefore very much Conform'd, unto our Bodies, were Preserved Blameless: and were this remarkable Article of Sanctification, more considered, we should see perhaps, …ar more Excellent Spirits, than are now too frequently beheld in those that wear the Name, that began at Antioch.
To promote this Holiness and Happiness, the Reader is here blessed with the Worthy Labours, of a Learned, Pious, and now Aged Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Ministry of the Gospel. He is a person too considerable in his Generation, to want any of our Commendation; and as for this his Judicious Treatise, 'twill by its own Pertinency, and Usefulness, abundantly Commend it self unto every sensible person, that shall peruse it with a just Attention. All that belongs unto Us, is to follow it with our Prayers, That He who Forms the Spirit of man within him, would by this Book assist the Readers in Reforming whatever they may find in their own Spirits calling for that Reformation; and in Glorifying of God, with the Spirits, which He has Made and Bought for His own Immortal Glory.
Increase Mather
Iames Allen
Samuel Willard
Iohn Baily
Cotton Mather