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. Now the difficulty you find in attaining this spirit of love, is because you seek for it, in the way of reasoning: you would be possessed of it only from a _rational_ conviction of the fitness and amiableness of it. And as this clear idea does not put you into the possession of it, your reason begins to waver; and suggests to you, that it may be only a _fine notion_, that has no ground but in the power of imagination. But this, Sir, is all your own error; as if you would have your eyes do that, which only your hands or feet can do for you. The _spirit of love_ is a spirit of _nature_ and _life_; and therefore can only be produced in you, by that Almighty power which produced all nature, and gave life to every living thing. Life can only arise in its _own_ time and place from its proper cause, and as the genuine effect of it. Nature and life do nothing by chance, or accidentally, but every thing in one uniform way. _Fire_, _air_, and _light_, do not proceed sometimes from one thing, and sometimes from another: but wherever they are, they are always born in the same manner, and from the same working in the properties of nature. So in like manner, love is an _immutable birth_, always proceeding from the same cause, and cannot be in existence till its own true parents have brought it forth. *How unreasonable would it be to doubt whether _strength_ and _health_ of body were real things, or possible to be had, because you could not by the power of your reason take possession of them? Yet this is as well as to suspect the purity and perfection of love to be only a _notion_, because your reason cannot bring it forth in your soul. For reason has no more power of altering the _life_ and _properties_ of the soul, than of altering the life and properties of the body. That, and that only, can cast devils, and evil spirits, out of the soul, that can say to the storm, Be still; and to the leper, Be thou clean.