There is no peace, nor ever can be, for the soul of man, but in the purity and perfection of its first-created nature; nor can it have its purity and perfection in any other way, than in and by the _spirit of love_. For love is the purity, the perfection of all created things; and nothing can live in God but as it lives in love. Look at every vice, pain, and disorder, in human nature, it is in itself nothing but the spirit of the creature turned from the _universality_ of love to some _self-seeking_ in created things. So that love alone is the cure of every evil; and he that lives in the purity of love, is risen out of the power of evil, into the freedom of the one spirit of heaven. The _schools_ have given us very accurate definitions of every vice, whether it be covetousness, pride, wrath, or envy, and shewn us how to conceive them as notionally distinguished from one another. But the Christian has a much shorter way of knowing them, and what they all are, and do, in himself. For, call them by what names you will, they are all, that _same one_ thing, and all do that _same one work_, as the Scribes, the Pharisees, and rabble of the _Jews_, who crucified Christ, were all but _one and the same thing_, and all did _one and the same work_, however different they were in outward names. If you would therefore have a true sense of the nature and power of pride, wrath, covetousness, envy, they are in their whole nature nothing else but the _murderers_ and _crucifiers_ of the true Christ of God; not as the high-priests did many hundred years ago, nailing his outward humanity to an outward cross, but crucifying afresh the Son of God, who is the Christ that every man crucifies as often as he gives way to wrath, pride, envy, or covetousness. For where pride, and envy, and hatred, are wilfully indulged, there the same thing is done, as when Christ was killed, and _Barabbas_ was saved alive.
In all the universe, nothing but heaven and heavenly creatures could have been known, had every creature continued in that state in which it came forth from God. For God can will nothing in the life of the creature but a manifestation of his own goodness, happiness, and perfection. And therefore when this is wanted, it is certain, the creature hath lost its first state that it had from God. Every thing therefore, which is the _vanity_, the _torment_, and evil, of man, or any intelligent creature, is solely the effect of his will turned from God. Misery and wickedness can have no other root; for whatever wills and works with God, must partake of the happiness and perfection of God.
This therefore is a certain truth, that hell and death, curse and misery, can never be removed from the creation, till the will of the creature is again as it came from God, _a spirit of love_, that _willeth_ nothing but goodness. All the whole fallen creation, stand it never so long, must groan and travel in pain, till every contrariety to the divine will is entirely taken from every creature.
Thus, Sir, you have seen the original, immutable ground of the spirit of love. It is no imaginary refinement, or speculative curiosity; but is of the highest reality. It stands in the immutability and perfection of God; and not only every intelligent creature, be it what and where it will, but every inanimate thing must work in vanity till it works under the spirit of love.
*Every son of fallen _Adam_ is under this same necessity of working and striving after _something_ that he neither is nor hath. All evil as well as good men, all the wisdom and folly of this life, are a proof of this. For the vanity of wicked men in their various ways, and the labours of good men in faith and hope, proceed from the _same cause_, _viz._ from a _want_ and _desire_ of having and being _something_ that they neither are nor have. The evil seek wrong, and the good seek right; but they both are _seekers_, and for the same reason; because their present state has not _that_ which it wants to have. And this must be the state of every creature that has fallen from its first state. It must do as the _polluted fluid_ does; it must ferment and work, either _right_ or _wrong_, to mend its state. The muddled wine always works right to the utmost of its power, because it works according to nature; but if it had an intelligent free will, it might work as vainly as man does; it might continually _thicken_ itself, be always stirring up its _own dregs_, and then it would seek for its purity, just as well as the soul of man seeks for its happiness in the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. All which must fall away from the heart of man before it can find its happiness in God, as the dregs must separate from the wine before it can have its perfection and clearness.