2. Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the
mind; mental; intellectual.
3. Of or pertaining to the moral feelings or states of the soul, as
distinguished from the external actions; reaching and affecting the
spirits.
God's law is spiritual; it is a transcript of the divine nature,
and extends its authority to the acts of the soul of man.
Sir T. Browne.
4. Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as influenced by the
Spirit; controlled and inspired by the divine Spirit; proceeding from
the Holy Spirit; pure; holy; divine; heavenly-minded; -- opposed to
carnal.
That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift.
Rom. i. ll.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
Eph. i. 3.
If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such an one.
Gal. vi. 1.
5. Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical; as,
the spiritual functions of the clergy; lords spiritual and temporal; a
spiritual corporation.
Spiritual coadjuctor. (Eccl.) See the Note under Jesuit. -- Spiritual
court (Eccl. Law), an ecclesiastical court, or a court having
jurisdiction in ecclesiastical affairs; a court held by a bishop or
other ecclesiastic.
Spir"it*u*al, n. A spiritual function, office, or affair. See
Spirituality, 2.
He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor
in temporals.
Lowell.
Spir"it*u*al*ism (?), n. 1. The quality or state of being spiritual.
2. (Physiol.) The doctrine, in opposition to the materialists, that all
which exists is spirit, or soul -- that what is called the external
world is either a succession of notions impressed on the mind by the
Deity, as maintained by Berkeley, or else the mere educt of the mind
itself, as taught by Fichte.
3. A belief that departed spirits hold intercourse with mortals by
means of physical phenomena, as by rappng, or during abnormal mental
states, as in trances, or the like, commonly manifested through a
person of special susceptibility, called a medium; spiritism; the
doctrines and practices of spiritualists.
What is called spiritualism should, I think, be called a mental
species of materialism.
R. H. Hutton.
Spir"it*u*al*ist (?), n. 1. One who professes a regard for spiritual
things only; one whose employment is of a spiritual character; an
ecclesiastic.