eed and
in reality, come to nothing unless it be in us not only matter of
Knowledge and Speculation, but doth establish in us a Frame and Temper of
Mind and is productive of a holy and vertuous Life. Therefore let these
things take effect in us; in our Spirituality and Heavenly-mindedness; in
our Conformity to the Divine Nature and _Nativity from above_. For
whoever professes that he believes the Truth of these things and wants
the Operation of them upon his Spirit and Life doth, in fact, make void
and frustrate what he doth declare as his Belief. He doth receive the
Grace of God in vain unless this Principle and Belief doth descend in his
Heart and establish a good Frame and Temper of Mind and govern in all
Actions of his Life and Conversation."[56] This translation of Light and
Truth and Insight into the flesh and blood of action is a necessary law
of the spiritual life: "Good men spiritualize their bodies; bad men
incarnate their souls";[57] or, as he expresses it in one of his Sermons:
"To be [spiritually] well and unactive do not consist together. No man
is well without action."[58]

Religion is, thus, with him always a dynamic principle of Life, working
itself out in the frame and temper of the man and producing its
characteristic effects in his actions. It does not operate "like a charm
or spell"--it operates only as a vital principle[59] and we become
eternally the self which we ourselves form. "We naturalize ourselves,"
to use his striking phrase, "to the employment of eternity."[60] We are
lost, not by Adam's sin, but by our own; and we are saved, not by
Christ's historical death, but by our own obedience to the law of the
Spirit of Life revealed in Him and by our own death to sin;[61] and the
beginning of Heaven is one with the beginning of conformity to the will
of God and to our nativity from above. "Heaven is a temper of spirit,
before it is a place."[62] {302} There is a Heaven this side of Heaven
and there is as certainly a Hell this side of Hell. The most impressive
expression of this truth is given in one of his Sermons: "All misery
arises out of _ourselves_. It is a most gross mistake, and men are of
dull and stupid spirits who think that the state which we call Hell is an
incommodious place only; and that God by His sovereignty throws men
therein. Hell ariseth out of a man's self. And Hell's fewel is the
guilt of a man's conscience. It is impossible that any should be so
miserable as He