away his money in large quantities with his own hands. Give me one that is afraid of pain or of death; he shall, in a very little time despise crosses, flames, and even Phalaris's bull. Shew me a lustful person, an adulterer, a complete debauchee; you shall presently see him sober, chaste, and temperate *." So great is the power of Divine wisdom, that, as soon as it is infused into the human breast, it presently expels folly, which is the source and fountain of sin, and so changes the whole man, so refines, and as it were, renews him, that you would not know him to be the same. It is prophesied of the days of the Messiah, that the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together, and the leopard lie down with the kid. Isa. xi. 6. The Gospel has a wonderful effect in softening even the roughest dispositions, and "there is none so wild, but he may be tamed, if he will but patiently give attention to this wholesome doctrine +."

Now, whether you call this renovation or change of the mind, repentance, or Divine love, it makes no difference; for all these, and, indeed, all the Christian graces in general, are, at bottom, one and the same, and, taken together, constitute what we may call the health and vigour of the mind; the term under which Aristo of Chios comprehended all the moral virtues. The Apostle Paul, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. vi. ver. 17, describes these adopted children of God by their repentance: in the Epistle to the Romans, they are characterized by their love, Rom. viii. 28; and in the passage of St. John's gospel we have mentioned already, by their faith. John i. 12. But whatever name it is conveyed by, the change itself is affected by the right hand of the Most High. As to the manner of this divine operation, to raise many dis

* Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus, maledicus, effrænatus; paucissimis Dei verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam. Da cupidum, avarum, tenacem; jam tibi eum liberalem dabo, et pecuniam suam propriis plenisque ; manibus largientem. Da timidum doloris ac mortis ; jam cruces, et ignes, et Phalaridis taurum contemnet. Da libidinosum, adulterum, Ganeonem ; jam sobrium, castum, continentem videbis.

Nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit

Huic modo doctrinæ patientam commodet aurem.

putes about it, and make many curious disquisitions with regard to it, would be not only quite needless, but even absurd. Solomon, in his Ecclesiastes, ch. xi. ver. 5, gives some grave admonitions with regard to the secret processes of nature in forming the fœtus in the womb, to convince us of our blindness with respect to the other works of God: how much more hidden and intricate, and even past our finding out, is this regeneration, which is purely spiritual! This is what our Saviour also teaches us, when he compares this new birth to the unconfined and unknown turnings and revolutions of the wind; a similitude which Solomon had lightly touched before, in that passage of the Ecclesiastes, to which we just now alluded. O! that we felt within ourselves this blessed change, though we should remain ignorant with regard to the manner of it; since we are sufficiently apprized of one thing, which it is greatly our interest frequently and seriously to reflect upon : Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This spiritual progeny is also compared to the dew, the generation whereof is hidden and undiscovered. Hath the rain a father, and who hath begotten the drops of the dew? Job xxxiii. 28. Good men are also called children of light, and light in the Lord. 1 Thess. v. 5. Eph. v. 8. But it is from the Father of lights Himself, and from His only begotten Son, that these stars (for this title of the angels may, without injustice, be applied to them) derive all the light they enjoy. Now, the nature of light is very intricate, and the emanation and the manner of its production, is yet a secret even to the most sharp-sighted of those who have made nature their study, and no satisfactory theory of it has yet appeared. But, whatever it is, it was produced by that first and powerful word of Eternal Uncreated Light. Let there be light. By the same powerful word of the Almighty Father, there immediately springs up in the mind which was formerly quite involved in the darkness of ignorance and error, a Divine and immortal light, which is the life of men, and, in effect, the true regeneration. And because this is the most effectual means of

purifying the soul, it is ascribed to the water and to the Spirit. For this illumination of the Holy Ghost is, indeed, the inward baptism of the Spirit; but, in the primitive times of Christianity, the baptism of water, on account of the supposed concurrence of the Spirit, was commonly called the illumination, and the solemn seasons appointed for the celebration of this mystery, the days of illumination or light. And in the very same manner, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is by John Baptist called, the baptism of fire, on account of the wonderful influence it has in illuminating and purifying the soul. It is, to be sure, a celestial fire, quite invisible to our eyes, and of such a nature, that the secret communications of it to our souls cannot be investigated. But the sum of all is what follows.

It seemed good to Infinite Goodness and Wisdom, to form a noble piece of coin out of clay, and to stamp His own image upon it, with this inscription," The earthly son of God:" this is what we call man. But, alas! how soon did this piece of coin fall back to clay again, and thereby lost that true image, and had the inscription shamefully blotted out! From that time, man, who was formerly a Divine creature, and an angel clothed with flesh, became entirely fleshly, and in reality a brute : the soul, that noble and celestial inhabitant of his earthly body, became now quite immersed in matter, and, as it were, entirely converted into flesh, as if it had drunk of the river Lethe. Or, like the son of an illustrious family, carried away in infancy to a far country, it is quite ignorant of its present misery, or the liberty and felicity it has lost, becomes an abject slave, degraded to the vilest employments, which it naturally and with pleasure performs; because, having lost all sense of its native excellency and dignity, and forgotten its heavenly original, it now relishes nothing but earthly things, and, catching at present advantages, disregards eternal enjoyments, as altogether unknown, or removed quite out of sight. But if in any particular soul, either from some spark of its native excellency still remaining alive, or any indistinct report that reaches it, some desires or emotions towards the recovery of its native

liberty should arise; yet, as it has no sufficient strength of its own, nor finds any way open that can lead to so great a blessing, these ineffectual wishes come to nothing; and the unhappy soul having lost its hopes, languishes in its chains, and is at last quite stupified.

Philosophy, as we have already observed, perceiving that man was born to higher views than this world affords, attempted to raise him from his present dejection, secure his claim to heaven, and restore him to a conformity and likeness to God; but in vain. To redeem the sons of man, and restore them to what they had lost, it was necessary that the eternal Son of God should come down from heaven. Our fall was easily brought about, but our restoration was a work of the greatest difficulty, and only to be performed by the powerful hand of God. There are but few whom the exalted Father of spirits has loved, and Christ has raised up to heaven. source whence the Spirit of God flows down to us; He is the fountain of that new life and sanctified nature, by which we mount towards God, whereby we overcome the world, and, in consequence thereof, are admitted into heaven. And, happy, to be sure, are those truly noble souls whose fate it is to be thus born again, to be admitted into the choirs of the holy angels, and to be clothed with those glorious robes that are whiter than snow! They will follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and he will lead them to the crystal streams, and even to the fountain of life itself.

He is the

But all those that are to be the attendants of the Lamb in those blessed pastures which are to be met with in his heavenly country, must, of necessity, even while they live in this lower world, be followers of him in his humble innocence and purity. This spotless, holy, and pure Lamb of God, is the guide and shepherd of a pure and holy flock, a flock dear to God, and of distinguished beauty; but "the shepherd is still more beautiful than they*." But the impure goats and uncleanly hogs

* Formosi pecoris custos formosior,

he beholds at a distance, and leaves them to unclean spirits, to be possessed by them at pleasure, and afterwards to be precipitated into the depth of misery; unless it be determined to deliver some of them from that shocking form, by a wonderful and Divine change, and to convert them into lambs, which is effected in proper time by the influence of the Holy Ghost. Whence they are called the holy, pure, and Divine sons of God; and all love to earthly things, all carnal, impure affections, are banished out of those hearts, which are, as it were, temples consecrated henceforth to God: "For the dwelling place of the Holy One must be holy also*."

LECTURE XVII.

Of TRUE FELICITY and ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

O How insipid and unsatisfactory are all the pleasures of this earthly life which we now live, in respect of that incomparable and altogether heavenly delight which attends the meditation and contemplation of Divine things! When mortals are thus employed, they eat the bread of angels: and if there are any who do not relish the sweetness of this food, it is because the Divine part of their composition is become brutish, and, forgetting its original, lies buried in earth and mud. But though the soul is reduced to these woful circumstances, it is not yet so entirely divested of itself, but it still retains some faint remains of its heavenly original and more exalted nature; insomuch that it cannot acquiesce in, or be at all satisfied with those fading enjoyments wherewith it is surrounded, nor think itself happy or easy in the greatest abundance of earthly comforts. And though, possibly, it may not be fully sensible of what it wants; yet it perceives, not without some pain and uneasiness, that something is still wanting to make it happy. The truth is, besides that great and unknown good, even those whom, by an abuse of that term, we call most happy, are in

* "Αγιου γάρ ἅγιον εστιν οικητήριον.