Take away _inspiration_, or suppose it to cease, and no religious acts, or affections can remain. For the creature can return nothing to God, but _that_, which it has first received from him; therefore, if it is to offer up to God, affections and aspirations, that are divine and godly, it must of necessity have the divine nature living, and breathing in it.――Can any thing reflect light, before it has received it, or any other light, than that which it has received? Can any creature breathe forth _earthly_ or _diabolical_ affections, before it is possessed of an _earthly_, or _diabolical_ nature? Yet this is as possible, as for any creature to have divine affections dwelling in it, either _before_, or any _farther_, than it has, the divine nature, dwelling, and operating in it. A religious _faith, that_ is _uninspired_, a _hope_, or _love_, that proceeds not from the immediate working of the divine nature within us, can no more unite us with God, than an hunger after earthly food, can feed us with the bread of heaven.――All that the _natural_, or _uninspired_ man does, or can do in the church has no more of the truth, or power of divine worship in it, than that, which he does in the field, or shop, through a desire of riches.――And the reason is, because all 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, are as strictly the whole of all that is, or can be, in the natural man, as in the natural beast: the one can no more be better, or act above his 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 heavenly desire. A religion that is not wholly built upon the _supernatural ground_, but stands upon the powers, and reasonings 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_.