_Theophilus._ The beginning of this redeeming love of God, is in _that Immanuel_, or God with us, given to the first _Adam_, as the _seed of the woman_, which in him, and his posterity, should bruise the head and overcome the life of the serpent. This is love indeed, because it is universal, and reaches from the first to the last man. Miserably as mankind are divided, and all at war with one another, every one _appropriating_ God to themselves, yet they all have but one God, who is the Spirit of all, the life of all, and the lover of all. Men may divide themselves, to have God to themselves; they may hate and persecute one another for God’s sake; but this is a blessed truth, that God with an unalterable meekness, sweetness, patience, and good-will towards all, waits for all, calls them all, redeems them all, and comprehends all in the outstretched arms of his ♦catholic love. Ask not therefore how we shall enter into this religion of salvation; we have not far to go to find it. It is every man’s own treasure; it is a root of heaven, a seed of God, sown into our souls; and, like a small grain of mustard-seed, has a power of growing to be a tree of life. Here my friend, you should once for all, observe, _where_ and _what_ the true nature of religion is, its place is within; its work and effect is _within_: its glory, its life, its perfection, is all within; it is the raising a new life and new love in us. This was the spiritual nature of religion in its beginning, and this is its _whole nature_ to the end of time; it is nothing else but the power, and life, and Spirit of God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, creating and reviving life in the fallen soul, and driving all its evil out of it.
♦ “catholick” replaced with “catholic”
Here therefore we are come to this firm conclusion, that let religion have ever so many _shapes_, _forms_, or _reformations_, it is no true divine service, no proper _worship_ of God, but so far as it _serves_, _worships_, _conforms_, and _gives_ itself up to this _operation_ of the holy, triune God, as living and dwelling in the soul. Keep close to this idea of religion, as an inward spiritual life in the soul; observe all its works within you, the death and life that are found there; seek for no good, no comfort, but in the awakening of all that is holy and heavenly in your heart; and then, so much as you have of this inward religion, so much you have of a real salvation. For salvation is only a victory over nature; so far as you resist and renounce your own selfish and earthly nature, so far as you overcome all your own natural tempers, so far God lives and operates in you; he is the light, the life, and the spirit of your soul; and you worship him in spirit and in truth. For nothing worships God, but the Spirit of Christ his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased. This is as true, as that _no man hath known the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him_. Look now at any thing as religion, but a strict conformity to the life and Spirit of Christ; and then, tho’ every day was full of burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, yet you would be only like those religionists, who _drew near to God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him_.
For the heart is always far from God, unless the Spirit of Christ be in it. But no one has the living Spirit of Christ, but he, who in all his conversation walketh as he walked. Consider these words of the apostle, _My little children, of whom I travail in birth, till Christ be formed in you_. This is the sum total of all, and, if this is wanting, all is wanting. Thus saith he, _If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his_; nay, tho’ he could say of himself, (as our Lord says many will) Have I not prophesied in the name of Christ, cast out devils, and done many wonderful works? Yet such a one not being _led by the Spirit of Christ_, is that very man, whose high state the apostle makes to be a mere nothing, because he hath not that spirit of charity, which is the Spirit of Christ. Again, _There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus_; therefore to be in Christ Jesus, is to have that spirit of charity, which is the spirit and life of all virtues. Now here you are to observe, that the apostle no more rejects _all outward_ religion, when he says _circumcision is nothing_, than he rejects _prophesying_, and _faith_, and _alms-giving_, when he says they _profit nothing_; he only teaches this solid truth, that the kingdom of God is within us, and that it all conflicts in the state of our heart; and that therefore all our outward observances, all the most specious virtues, profit nothing, are of no value, unless the hidden man of the heart, the Spirit of Christ, be the doer of them.