They never find God, who seek for him by reasoning; for since God is the highest spirit, nothing but a like spirit can unite with him; find or feel, or know any thing of him. Hence it is, that faith and hope, turned towards God, are the only possible means of obtaining a true knowledge of him. And the reason is plain, it is because by these _holy tempers_, which are the workings of his _spirit_ within us, we seek the God of life _where he is_, we call upon him with his _own voice_, we draw near to him by _his own spirit_; for nothing can breathe forth faith and hope, but that Spirit which is of God, and which therefore through flesh and blood thus presses towards him, and readily unites with him. There is not a more infallible truth in the world than this, _that neither reasoning nor learning can ever introduce a spark of heaven into our souls_: but if this be so, then you have nothing to seek, nor any thing to fear, from reason. _Life_ and _death_ are the things in question: they are neither of them the growth of reasoning or learning, but each of them is a state of the soul, and only thus differ, _death is the want, and life the enjoyment of its highest good_. Reason, therefore, and learning, have no power here; but only by their vain activity to keep the soul insensible of that life and death, one of which is always growing up in it, according to the desire of the heart. Add reason to a vegetable, and you add nothing to its life or death. Its life and fruitfulness lieth in the soundness of its root, the goodness of the soil, and the riches it derives from air and light. Heaven and hell grow thus in the soul of man: his heart is his root; if that is turned from all evil, it is then like a plant in a good soil; when it hungers and thirsts after the divine life, it then infallibly draws the light and Spirit of God into it, which are infinitely more ready to live and fructify in the soul, than light and air to enter into the plant that hungers after them. For the soul hath its breath, and being, and life, for no other end, but that the _triune_ God may manifest the riches and powers of his own life in it. Thus you see, and feel, that the _spirit of prayer_ is your certain way of returning to God.