-Goodness," for which it was created. The immortal Principle
within forever drives it to seek its Original, and it lives only when
it "lives above itself," and follows "its own proper motion upward."[25]

The real Gospel in contrast to the "legal gospel," is "the formation of
a Christlike Nature in a man's soul by the mighty power of the Divine
Spirit."[26] It is no new set of opinions; no body of Notions about
Truth; "no system of saving Divinity, cast in a Pedagogical mould"; it
is, from its Alpha to its Omega, Spirit and Life, or, to put it in
Smith's own words, it is "a vital or energetical Spirit or Power of
Righteousness," "a Principle of Life working in man's spirit," "a
quickening ministration," "a Seed of God," "a vital Influx, spreading
through all {312} the powers of the soul and bringing it into a Divine
Life."[27] There are many close imitations of this real Gospel which
on the outside look exactly like it, but they only assume "the garish
dress and attire of religion," they put on "the specious and
seemingly-spiritual Forms" without the inward Life and Power which are
always the mark of true religion. These "mimical Christians" reform
their looks, instruct their tongues, take up the fitting set of duties
and system of opinions, underprop their religion with sacred
performances; "chameleon-like, they even turn their insides to whatever
hue and colour" is demanded of religion; they "furnish this domestick
Scene of theirs with any kind of matter which the history of religion
affords them"--only, however they "cunningly fashion out their religion
by Book-skill," they cannot get "the true and living thing," which
creates a new spirit and produces a new inward joy: "True Religion is
no piece of artifice; it is no boiling up of our Imaginative powers nor
the glowing heats of Passion; though these are too often mistaken for
it, when in our jugglings in Religion we cast a mist before our eyes.
But it is a new Nature informing the souls of Men; it is a Godlike
frame of Spirit, discovering it self most of all in serene and clear
Minds, in deep Humility, Meekness, Self-denial, Universal Love of God
and all true Goodness, without Partiality and without Hypocrisie;
whereby we are taught to know God, and knowing Him to love Him and
conform ourselves as much as may be to all that Perfection which shines
forth in Him."[28]

Heaven and Hell for John Smith, as for Boehme and for Whichcote, "have
their foundation laid in