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4
T'he Life
of
GOD
feverity;
w
hofe fierce wrath
and bitter
.
'
rage aga1nl1 their enemies,
mull:
be
called
holy .zeal; whofe petulancy towards their
fupenors, or rebellion againfi: their gover–
nors,
111ufl:
have the name of Chrifl:ian
courage and refolution.
"'<!ilh
1•
But certainly rdig:ion i·s
q.
uitc
n
at
re
1·
•
._,
givn is.
another thmg; and they who
are acquainted with it, will en–
tertain far different thoughts, and difdain
all
thofe ihadows and falfe imitations of it,
They know
by
experience, that true
reli–
gion is an union of the foul with God,
a
real participation of the divine na,ture,
the
very image of God drawn upon the
foul; or,
in the Apoftle's
pht~afe,
it is
Chrifl firmed within us.
Briefly,
I
know
not /how the nature of religion can be
n1ore fully expreifed
than
by calling it
a
di,..uine life.
And under th.efe terms
I
ihall
dicourfe of it; ihewing firfi: how it is called
a lije,
and then how it
is
termeq
divine.
Tt
I
chufe to exprefs it by
the ·
~
s
perma-
r
f
n~ncy
_and
name of
life;
firfl:, becatuc
o
!lability..
its permanency and fi:ability.
Religion is not
a
fudden
~art,
or
p~ffion
of
the;
111ind ; not though 1t ihould nfc to
the
heioht of
a
rapture, and feen1 to tranf–
port a
~1an
to exttaordinary peformances.
There are
few
but
have
conviet:ions of
the
·
heceffity