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?" Good men are also called children of light,† and light in the Lord. 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 † 1 Thess. v. 5. + Eph. v. 8.

* Job xxxiii. 28.

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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 the 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 em

ployments, 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 re-. store 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. He is the 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.

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.

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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 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 * Formosi pecoris custos formosior.

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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.

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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 * Αγιο γαρ άγιον εσιν οικητήριον.