47. 1. By SPIRIT IS MEANT THE LIFE OF MAN. This may be evident from common speech, in which a man is said to yield up the spirit when he dies; so that by spirit, in this sense, is meant the life of respiration. The word spirit also is derived from respiration*; and in Hebrew there is one word for spirit (breath) and wind. There are two springs of life in man; one is the motion of the heart, and the other is the respiration of the lungs. The life from the respiration of the lungs is what is properly meant by spirit, and also by soul. This acts in unison with the thought of man from the understanding, while the life from the motion of the heart acts in unison with the love of man's will, as will be seen in its proper place. That the life of man is meant by spirit (or breath) in the Word appears from the following passages:
Thou takest away their breath, they expire, and return to their dust. Ps. civ 29.
He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. Ps. lxxviii 39.
When his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. Ps. cxlvi 4.
Hezekiah lamented that the life of his spirit should go out. Isa. xxxviii 16.
The spirit of Jacob revived. Gen. xlv 27.
His molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in it. Jer. li 17.
The Lord Jehovih said unto the dry bones, I will bring breath into you, that ye may live ... Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. ... and the breath came into them, and they lived again. Ezek. xxxvii 5, 6, 9, 10.
Jesus took the hand of the maiden. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway. Luke viii 54, 55. * Latin, spiro, I breathe; spiritus, breath, spirit.
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