Now had this man any ground for pride, for the share he had in the restoring of his hand? Yet just such is our share in the raising up of the spiritual life within us. All that we can do, is only like this man’s stretching out his hand; the rest is the work of Christ, the only giver of life to the withered hand, or the dead soul. When the Virgin _Mary_ conceived the holy Jesus, all that she did towards it herself, was only this single act of faith and resignation: _Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word_. This is all that we can do towards the conception of the new man in ourselves. Now this truth is easily consented to, and a man thinks he believes it, because he does not deny it. But this is not enough, it is to be apprehended in a deep, full, and practical assurance, in such a manner as a man knows that he did not create the stars, or cause life to rise up in himself. And then it is a belief that makes room for the operation of God upon it. His light then enters with full power into the soul, and his Holy Spirit directs all that is done in it, and so man lives again in God as a new creature. For this truth thus firmly believed, will have these two effects: *_First_, It will keep the soul continually turned towards God, in faith, prayer, desire, confidence, and resignation for all that it wants to have done in it, and to it; which will be a continual source of all divine graces. The soul thus turned to God, must be always receiving from him. It stands at the true door of all divine communications, and the light of God as freely enters into it, as the light of the sun enters into the air. _Secondly_, It will fix and ground the soul in a true and lasting self-denial. For by thus knowing our own nothingness and inability, that we have no other capacity for good, but that of receiving it from God alone; no room is left for spiritual pride; we are saved from a Pharisaical holiness, from wrong opinions of our own works and good deeds, and from a multitude of errors, the most dangerous to our souls, all which arise from the something that we take ourselves to be either in nature or grace. *But when we once apprehend but in some degree, the all of God, and the nothingness of ourselves, we have got a truth whose usefulness and benefit no words can express. It brings a kind of infallibility into the soul, in which it dwells; all that is vain, and false, and deceitful, is forced to vanish before it. When our religion is founded on this, it has the firmness of a rock, and its height reaches unto heaven. The world, the flesh and the devil can do no hurt to it; all enemies are known, and all disarmed by this great truth, dwelling in our souls. It is the knowledge of the all of God, that makes cherubim and seraphim to be flames of divine love. For where this all of God is truly known and felt in any creature, there its whole breath and Spirit is a fire of love, nothing but a pure, disinterested love can rise up in it, or come from it, a love that begins and ends in God. For this pure love introduces the creature into the all of God, all that is in God, is opened in the creature, it is united with God, and hath the life of God manifested in it.
*There is but one salvation for all mankind, and that is the life of God in the soul. God has but one design towards all mankind, and that is to generate his own life, light, and spirit in them, that all may be as so many images, temples, and habitations of the holy Trinity.
Now there is but one possible way for man to attain this salvation, or life of God in the soul: and that is, _the desire of the soul turned to God_. Through this desire the poor prodigal son leaveth his husks and swine, and hasteth to his father; ’tis because of _this desire_ that the father seeth the son, while yet afar off, that he runs out to meet him, falleth on his neck, and kisseth him. No sooner is this desire in motion towards God, but the operation of God’s Spirit answers to it, cherishes and welcomes its first beginnings, signified by the Father’s seeing, and having compassion on his Son, whilst yet afar off, that is, in the first beginnings of his desire. Thus does this desire bring the soul to God, and God into the soul. Suppose this desire not to be alive, either in a _Jew_, or _Christian_, and then all the sacrifices, the service, the worship either of the law or the gospel, are but dead works, that bring no life into the soul. Suppose this desire to be awakened, though in souls that never heard either of the law or gospel, and the operation of God enters into them, and Christ blesses those that never heard of his name.