5. In a word, what our blessed Saviour said of himself, is, in some measure, applicable to his followers, that it is their _meat and drink to do their Father’s will_.¹ And as the natural appetite is carried out towards food, though we should not reflect on the necessity of it; so are they carried, with a natural and unforced propension toward that which is good and commendable. It is true, external motives are of great use to stir up this inward principle, especially in its infancy; when ’tis often so languid, that the man himself can scarce discern it, hardly being able to move one step forward, but when he is pushed by his hopes, or his fears; by the pressure of an affliction, or the sense of a mercy; by the authority of the law, or the persuasion of others: yet, if such a person be conscientious and uniform in his obedience, and earnestly groaning under the sense of his dulness, these are the first motions of the divine life; which, though it be faint and weak, will surely be cherished by the influences of heaven, and grow unto greater maturity. But he who is utterly destitute of this inward principle, and contents himself with those performances whereunto he is prompted by education or custom, or the fear of hell, can no more be accounted a religious person, than a puppet can be called a man. This forced and artificial religion is commonly heavy and languid, like the motion of a weight forced upward. It is scant and niggardly, especially in those duties which do violence to mens inclinations; for those slavish spirits will be sure to do no more than is absolutely required; ’tis a law that compels them, and they will be loth to go beyond what it stints them to; nay, they will ever be putting such glosses on it, as may leave them the greatest liberty. Whereas the spirit of true religion is frank and liberal, far from such peevish and narrow reckonings; and he who hath given up himself entirely unto God, will never think he doth too much for him.
¹ John iv. 34.
_Religion a divine principle._
6. By this time, I hope, it appears, that religion is, with reason, termed _a life_, or vital principle; and that we are to distinguish betwixt it, and that obedience which is constrained, and depends upon external causes. I come next to give an account why I term it _a divine life_: and so it may be called, not only in regard of its fountain and original, having God for its author, and being wrought in the souls of men, by the power of his Holy Spirit; but also in regard of its nature, religion being a resemblance of the divine perfections, the image of the Almighty shining in the soul of man: nay, it is a real participation of his nature, it is a beam of the eternal light, a drop of that infinite ocean of goodness; and they who are endued with it, may be said to have _God dwelling in their souls, and Christ formed within them_.
_What the natural life is._
7. Before I descend to a more particular consideration of this, it will be fit to speak a little of that natural or animal life which prevails in those who are strangers to the other: and by this I understand nothing else, but our inclination and propension towards those things, which are pleasing to nature; or self-love issuing forth, and spreading itself into as many branches as men have several appetites and inclinations. The root and foundation of the animal life I reckon to be sense, as it is opposed to faith, and importeth our perception of things, that are either grateful or troublesome to us. Now these animal affections, as they are implanted in us by nature, are not vicious or blameable; nay, they are instances of the wisdom of the Creator, furnishing his creatures with such appetites as tend to the preservation and welfare of their lives. These are instead of a law to the brute beasts, whereby they are directed towards the ends for which they were made. But man, being made for higher purposes, becomes criminal when he is transported by the inclinations of this lower life, to neglect the more noble designs of his creation. Our natural affections are not wholly to be destroyed, but to be over-ruled by a more excellent principle: and the difference betwixt a religious and wicked man is, that in the one the divine life bears sway; in the other the animal prevails.
_The different tendencies of the natural life._