*_Purification_ therefore is so necessary, that nothing will do in the stead of it. But man is not purified, till every earthly, wrathful, sensual, selfish temper is taken from him. He is not dying to himself, till he is dying to these tempers; and he is not alive in God, but as he is dead to them. It is the purity and perfection of the divine nature that must be brought again into him: nor are you to think that these words, the _purity_ and _perfection_ of God, are too high to be used on this occasion; for they only mean, that the will of the creature must _will_ and _work_ with the will of God; and whatever does not thus, is at enmity with God, and cannot have life and happiness with him.
Now, nothing wills and works with God but the _spirit of love_; because nothing else works in God himself. The Almighty brought forth all nature for this only end, that boundless love might have its _infinity_ of height and depth to dwell and work in; and all the properties of nature are only to give life and strength to the spirit of love, that it may come forth into outward activity, and manifest its blessed powers; that all creatures may communicate the spirit of love and goodness, give and receive delight to and from one another. All below this state of love, is a fall from the one life of God, the only life in which the God of love can dwell.
Now who can restore this life? The unbelieving _Jews_ said of our Lord, _How can this man forgive sins?_ Christ shewed them _how_, by appealing to that power which they saw he had over the body: _whether_, says he, _is it easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk_? But the delusion of the unbelieving Deist is greater than that of the _Jew_. For the Deist sees, that his reason has no power over his body; can remove no disease, blindness, deafness, or lameness, from it; and yet will pretend to have power enough from his reason, to help the soul out of all its evil; not knowing that he only, who can say to the dead body of _Lazarus_, Come forth, can say to the soul, _Be thou clean_. The _Deist_ therefore, if he pleases, may stile himself a natural, or a moral philosopher, but with no more truth, than he can call himself an _healer_ of all the maladies of the body. And for a man to think himself a moral philosopher, because he has made a choice collection of syllogisms, in order to quicken and revive a divine goodness in the soul; or that no Redeemer need come from heaven, because human reason, when truly left to itself, has great skill in chopping of logic; may justly be deemed such an ignorance of the nature of things, as is seldom found in the transactions of illiterate and vulgar life. But this by the by.
To return to our chief subject: the sum is this: all evil, all misery of every kind, is nothing else but nature left to _itself_; and therefore, there is no _possibility_ for the natural, earthly man to escape eternal wrath, but solely in the way the gospel teacheth, by denying and dying to himself. On the other hand, all the goodness and perfection, all the happiness, glory, and joy, that any intelligent creature can be possessed of, is, and can be, from nothing else, but the invisible uncreated light and Spirit of God manifesting itself in the creatures, _filling_, _blessing_, and _uniting_ them all in _one love_.
And thus again: there is no possibility of man’s attaining to any heavenly perfection and happiness, but only in the way of the gospel, by the union of the divine and human nature, by man’s being born again from above, of the _Word_ and _Spirit_ of God. There is no possibility of any other way, because there is nothing that can possibly change us into an heavenly state, but the presence and power of the Deity united with, and working in us. And therefore the _Word was made flesh_, and must of all necessity be made flesh, if man is to have an heavenly nature. Now as all evil, sin, and misery, have no beginning, nor power of working, but in the manifestation of _contrary_ properties; so man has nothing to turn to, seek, or aspire after, but the lost _spirit of love_. And therefore it is, that God only can be his Redeemer; because God only is love; and love can be no where else, but in God, and where God dwelleth and worketh.