This is true both in saints and sinners, for even in sinners that have no renewing grace, there is the light of nature, as well as the knowledge of scripture in our nation; there are the powers of reason and conscience; and these judge concerning _vice_ and _virtue_, that one is to be avoided, and the other practised; these inward and intellectual principles tell us, that sin is offensive to God our Maker; that it exposes us to his anger, and deserves terrible punishment; and by the exercise and influence of natural reason, added to the knowledge of scripture, and by the inward stings, and sharp reproofs of natural conscience, many an evil motion of the flesh is suppressed, many an inordinate appetite and passion subdued, and many a grosser sin prevented. Now though all this is not properly called holiness, till the nature itself be renewed, the love of sin broken, and the love of God wrought in the heart; yet it is evident that those principles which resist sin, and have any distant tendencies toward holiness, lie chiefly in the mind or spirit. This is yet more evident in a saint, a man that is regenerated and sanctified by grace: For though in such a person, the body as well as the spirit, may be in part sanctified; that is some of its irregular appetites may be much weakened and subdued; yet still I cannot help supposing that the spirit, or soul, has a greater share of sanctification than the flesh in this life. It is in the soul that the love of God is wrought by the Holy Spirit; it is the soul that repents of past sins, and watches against temptation; it is the soul that believes the gospel, and trusts in our Lord Jesus Christ; it is the soul that by faith takes a distant prospect of heaven and hell, and converses with invisible things beyond the reach and power of flesh and sense: It is by the powers of the soul enlightened and renewed, that we come to see the value and excellency of religion, and spiritual things above temporal; and are inclined to chuse God for our only happiness, and Jesus Christ _as the way to the Father_. The understanding and will are faculties of the soul, and the flesh has no part in their operations. The soul of a believer seems to be the more proper, immediate, and receptive subject of the sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God and this will appear by consulting the word of God, or the experiences of men.