[2.] It is the proper adjunct and evidence of it. Would any one know whether he be spiritually alive unto God with the life of sanc- tification and holiness? The communication of it unto him being by an almighty act of creating power, Eph. ii. 10, it is not easily discernible, so as to help us to make a right judgment of it from its essence or form; but where things are themselves indiscernible, we may know them from their proper and inseparable adjuncts, which are therefore called by the names of the essence or the form itself. Such is this being spiritually minded with respect unto the life of sanctification; it is an inseparable property and adjunct of it, whereby it infallibly evidenceth itself unto them in whom it is. In these two respects it is the life of sanctification.
(3.) “Life” is taken for the comforts and refreshments of life. So speaks the apostle, 1 Thess. iii. 8, “ Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord ;”—“ Now our life will do us good; we have the comforts, the refreshments, and the joys of it.” ‘ Non est vivere, sed valere vita.” The comforts and satisfactions of life are more life than life itself. It is “life;” that is, that which makes life to be so, bringing in that satisfaction, those refreshments unto it, which make it pleasant and desirable. And I do suppose this is that which is principally in- tended in the words of the apostle. It is “life,” a cheerful joyous life, a life worth the living. In explication and confirmation whereof it
is added that it is “ peace” also.
490 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART II.
2. “Peace” is twofold :—(1.) General and absolute; that is, peace with God through Jesus Christ, which is celebrated in the Scripture, and which is the only original spring and fountain of all consolation unto believers,—that which virtually contains in it every thing that is good, useful, or desirable unto them. But it is not here precisely intended. It is not so as to the immediate ground and cause of it, which is our justification, not our sanctification: Rom. v. 1, “ Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” So Christ alone is “our peace,” as he who hath “made peace through the blood of his cross,” Eph. ii. 14, 15, Col. i. 20, Hereof our being spiritually minded is no way the cause or reason; only it is an evidence and pledge of it, as we shall see. [Norisit so]as unto the formal nature of it. Peace with God through the blood of Christ is one thing, and peace in our minds through a holy frame in them is another. The former is communicated unto us by an immediate act of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, Rom. v. 5; the latter is an effect on our minds, begun and gradually carried on by the duties we have before at large declared. The immediate actings of the Holy Spirit, in sealing us, witnessing unto our adoption, and being an earnest of glory, are required unto the former; our own sedulity and dili- gence in duties, and in the exercise of all grace, are required unto the latter.
(2.) “ Peace” is taken for a peculiar fruit of the Spirit, consisting in a gracious quietness and composure of mind in the midst of difficul- ties, temptations, troubles, and such other things as are apt to fill us with fears, despondencies, and disquietments. This is that which keeps the soul in its own power, free from transports by fears or passions, on all the abiding grounds of gospel consolation; for al- though this be a peculiar especial grace, yet it is that which is influ- enced and kept alive by the consideration of all the love of God in Christ, and all the fruits of it.
And whereas “peace” includes, in the first notion of it, an inward freedom from oppositions and troubles, which those in whom it is are outwardly exposed unto, there are two things from which we are secured by this peace, which is an effect of being spiritually minded :—
[1.] The first is offences. There is nothing of whose danger we are more warned in the gospel than of offences. “ Woe to the world,” saith the Saviour, “because of offences!” All ages, all times and seasons, are filled with them, and they prove pernicious and de- structive to the souls of many. Such are the scandalous divisions that are among Christians. The endless differences of opinions and diversity of practices in religion and the worship of God; the falls and sins of professors, the fearful end of some of them; the reproaches
CHAP. XXL] SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS LIFE AND PEACE. 491
that are cast on all that engage into any peculiar way of holiness and strictness of life; with other things of the like nature,—whereby the souls of innumerable persons are disquieted, subverted, or infected, —are to be reckoned unto this head. Against any hurtful or noxious imfluence on our minds from these things, against disquietments, de- jections of spirit, and disconsolations, are we secured by this peace. So the psalmist assures us: Ps. exix. 165, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” The law, or the word of God, is the only way of the revelation of God and his will unto us, and the only outward way and rule of our converse and com- munion with him. Wherefore, to love the law is the principal part of our being heavenly minded, yea, virtually that which comprehends the whole. To such as do so, nothing, none of those things before mentioned, nor any other of the like nature, shall be an offence, a stumbling-block, or cause of falling into sin. And the reason is, be- cause they have such an experience in themselves of the truth, power, efficacy, and holiness, of the gospel, as that the miscarriages of men