the acts of the natural man, whether relating to matters of religion or the world, must be equally selfish; and there is no possibility of their being otherwise. For self-love, self-esteem, self-seeking, and living wholly to self, are as strictly the whole of all that is, or possibly can be in the natural man, as in the natural beast; the one can no more be better, or act above this nature, than the other. Neither can any creature be in a better, or higher state than this, till something supernatural is found in it; and this supernatural something, called in scripture the word, or SPIRIT, or INSPIRATION of God, is that alone from which man can have the first good thought about God, or the least power of having more heavenly desires in his spirit, than he has in his flesh.

A religion that is not wholly built upon this supernatural ground, but solely stands upon the powers, reasonings, and conclusions of the natural uninspired man, has not so much as the shadow of true religion in it, but is a mere nothing, in the same sense as an idol is said to be nothing, because the idol has nothing of that in it which is pretended by it. For the work of religion has no divine good in it, but as it brings forth, and keeps up essential union of the spirit of man with the spirit of God; which essential union cannot be made. but through love on both sides, nor by love, but

where the love that works on both sides is of the same nature.

No man therefore can reach God with his love, or have union with him by it, but he who is inspired with that one same spirit of love, with which God loved himself from all eternity, (and before there was any creature). Infinite hosts of new. created heavenly beings can begin no new kind of love of God, nor have the least power of beginning to love him at all, but so far as his own holy spirit of love, wherewith he hath from all eternity loved himself, is brought to life in them. This love, that was then in God alone, can be the only love in creatures that can draw them to God; they can have no power of cleaving to him, of willing that which he wills, or adoring the Divine Nature, but by partaking of that eternal spirit of love; and therefore the continual immediate inspiration, or operation of the Holy Spirit, is the one only possible ground of our continually loving God. And of this inspired love, and no other, it is that St John says, "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God." Suppose it to be any other love, brought forth by any other thing but the Spirit of God breathing his own love in us, and then it cannot be true, that he who dwells in such love dwells in God.

Divine inspiration was essential to man's first created state. The spirit of the triune God, breathed into, or brought to life in him, was that

in man.

alone which made him a holy creature in the image and likeness of God. To have no other mover, to live under no other guide or leader but the Spirit, was that which constituted all the holiness which the first man could have from God. Had he not been thus at the first, God in him and he in God, brought into the world as a true offspring and real birth of the Holy Spirit, no dispensation of God to fallen 'man would have directed him to the Holy Spirit, or ever have made mention of his inspiration For fallen man could be directed to nothing as his good, but that which he had, and was his good, before he fell. And had not the holy spirit been his first life, in and by which he lived, no inspired prophets among the sons of fallen Adam had ever been heard of, or any holy men speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. For the thing would have been impossible; no fallen man could have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, but because the first life of man was a true and real birth of it; and also, because every fallen man had, by the mercy and free grace of God, a secret remains of his first life preserved in him, though hidden, or rather swallowed up by flesh and blood; which secret remains, signified and assured to Adam by the name of a "bruiser of the serpent," or "seed of the woman," was his only capacity to be called and quickened again into

his first life, by new breathings of the Holy Spirit in him.

Hence it plainly appears, that the gospel state could not be God's last dispensation, or the finishing of man's redemption, unless its whole work was a work of the Spirit of God in the spirit of man; that is, unless without all vails, types, and shadows, it brought the thing itself, or the substance of all former types and shadows, into real enjoyment, so as to be possessed by man in spirit and in truth. Now the thing itself, for the sake of which all God's dispensations have been, is that first life of God, which was essentially born in the soul of the first man, Adam, and to which he died. But now, if the gospel dispensation comes, at the end of all types and shadows, to bring forth again in man a true and full birth of that holy spirit which he had at first, then it must be plain, that the work of this dispensation must be solely and immediately the work of the Holy Spirit. For if man could in no other possible way have had a holy nature and spirit at first, but as an offspring or birth of the Holy Spirit at his creation, it is certain, from the nature of the thing, that fallen man, dead to his first holy nature, can have that same holy nature again no other way, but solely by the operation of that same Holy Spirit, from the breath of which he had at first a holy nature and life in God. Therefore immediate inspiration is as neces

sary to make fallen man alive again unto God, as it was to make man at first a living soul after the image, and in the likeness of God. And continual inspiration is as necessary as man's continuance in his redeemed state. For this is a certain truth, that that alone which begins, or gives life, must of all necessity be the only continuance or preservation of life. The second step can only be taken by that which gave power to take the first. No life can continue in the goodness of its first created, or redeemed state, but by its continuing under the influence of, and working with and by that powerful root, or spirit, which at first created, or redeemed it. Every branch of the tree, though ever so richly brought forth, must wither and die, as soon as it ceases to have continual union with, and virtue, from that root which first brought it forth. And to this truth, as absolutely groundedin the nature of the thing, our Lord appeals, as a proof and full illustration of the necessity of his immediate indwelling, breathing, and operating in the redeemed soul of man, saying, "I am the vine, ye are the branches, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. ́ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a withered branch; for without me, ye can do nothing." John xv..