and uprightly." True religion, to be sure, has the same tendency, but it promotes its end with much greater force and better success; because its principles are much more exalted, its precepts and instructions are of greater purity, and it is besides attended with a divine power, whereby it makes its way into the hearts of men, and purifies them with the greatest force and efficacy, and yet, at the same time, with the most wonderful pleasure and delight. And this is the regeneration of which we are speaking, and whereof we have already observed, that philosophy acknowledged it even under the same name. But that it affected it, we absolutely deny. Now it is evident from the very name, that we are to understand by it an inward change, and that a very remarkable one. And since God is called the author and source of this change, whatever the philosophers may have disputed, concerning the origin of moral virtue, we are by no means to doubt, but that this sacred and divine change upon the heart of man is produced by an influence truly divine. And this was even Plato's opinion concerning virtue; nor do I imagine you are unacquainted with it. The same philosopher, and several others besides him, expressly asserted, that virtue was a kind of image or likeness of God; nay, that it was the effect of inspiration, and partook, in some respect, of a kind of divine nature. "No mind can be rightly disposed without divine influence," says Seneca. And it was the saying of the Pythagorean philosophers, that "the end of man is to be made like to God.” “This mind,” says Trismegistus, "is God in man, and therefore, some of the number of men are gods;" and a little further on, whatever souls the mind presides, it enlightens them with its own brightness, opposing their immoralities and mad inclinations; just as a learned physician inflicts pain upon the body of his patient, by burning and cutting it, in order to recover it to health, in the same manner the mind afflicts a voluptuous soul, that it may pull up pleasure by the very roots; for all diseases of the soul proceed from it. Impiety is the severest distemper of the soul."

"In

What wonder is it then if these very thoughts are expressed in the more divine oracles of the sacred scriptures more fully, and with greater clearness? And this conformation of the human mind to the divine nature, is com

monly represented therein, as the great business and the end of all religion.

What was more frequently inculcated upon the ancient church of the Jews, than these words, Be ye holy for I am holy? And that the same ambition is recommended to Christians appears from the first sermon we meet with in the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, who came down to this earth, that he might restore the divine image upon men. Be merciful, says he, as your Father, who is in heaven, is merciful; and, according to Luke, Be perfect, as your Father is perfect; and again, Blessed are the pure in heart. And indeed this is the true beauty of the heart, and its true nobility; but vice introduces degeneracy and deformity also.

Now the more the mind disengages and withdraws itself from matters that pollutes it, that is, from the body it inhabits, the purer and more divine it constantly becomes; because it attains to a greater resemblance with the Father of spirits, and, as the apostle Peter expresses it, partakes more fully of the divine nature. Hence it is that the apostle Paul warns us at so great length and in such strong terms against living after the flesh, as the very death of the soul and directly opposite to the renewed nature of a Christian. He that is born of God is endued with a greatness of soul, that makes him easily despise and consider as nothing those things which he prized at a very high rate before. He considers heaven as his country, even while he lives as a stranger on this earth. He aspires at the highest objects, and, "flying up towards heaven, with soaring wings, looks down with contempt upon the earth."

And yet, with all this sublimity of mind, he joins the deepest humility. But all the allurements of sin, though they continue to have the same appearance they had before, and possibly throw themselves in his way, as the very same that were formerly dear to him, he will reject with indignation, and give them the same answer that St. Ambrose tells us was given by a young convert to his mistress, with whom he had formerly lived in great familiarity; "Though you may be the same, I am not the same I was before."

Lactantius elegantly sets forth the wonderful power of

"a man

religion in this respect. "Give me," says he, that is passionate, a slanderer, one that is headstrong and unmanageable; with a very few of the words of God I will make him as quiet as a lamb. Give me a covetous, avaricious, or close-handed person; I will presently make him liberal, and oblige him to give 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. Show 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. 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 revovation 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, vi. 17, describes these adopted children of God by their repentance: in the Epistle to the Romans, they are characterized by their love, viii. 28; and in the passage of St. John's gospel we have mentioned already, by their faith, i. 12. But whatever name it is conveyed by, the change itself is effected by the right hand of the Most High. As to the manner of this divine operation, to raise many disputes about it and make many curious disquisitions with regard to it, would be not only quite needless, but even absurd. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, xi. 5, gives some grave admonitions with regard to the secret processes of nature in forming the child 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? 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 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 the Baptist called the baptism of fire, on account of the wonderful influence it has in

illuminating and purifying the soul. It is certainly 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 least 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