and the more closely unite our souls to God, did not disdain to unite himself to a human body.

The great business of our life, therefore, young gentlemen, is this acceptance of Christ, and this inseparable union with him, which we are now recommending. Thrice happy, and more than thrice happy, are they who are joined with him in this undivided union, which no complaints, nor even the day of death, can dissolve; nay, the last day is happy above all other days, for this very reason, that it fully and finally completes this union, and is so far from dissolving it, that it renders it absolutely perfect and everlasting.

But that it may be coeval with eternity, and last for ever, it is absolutely necessary that this union should have its beginning in this short and fleeting life. And, pray, what hinders those of us that have not entered into this union before, to enter into it without delay-seeing the bountiful Jesus not only rejects none that come unto him, but also offers himself to all that do not wilfully reject him, and standing at the door, earnestly begs to be admitted? O! "why do not these everlasting doors open, that the king of glory may enter,' "* and reign within us? Nay, though he were to be sought in a far country, and with great labour, why should we delay, and what unhappy chains detain us? Why do we not, after shaking them all off, and even our selves, go as it were out of ourselves, and seek him incessantly till we find him? Then rejoicing over * Psalm xxiv.

No man truly rethe same time, deliAmong all the ad

him, say with the heavenly spouse, "I held him, and would not let him go;" and further add, with the same spouse, that blessed expression, "My beloved is mine, and I am his." And, indeed, this propriety is alway reciprocal. ceives Jesus, that does not, at ver up himself wholly to him. vantages we pursue, there is nothing comparable to this exchange. Our gain is immense from both, not only from the acceptance of him, but also from surrendering ourselves to him: so long as this is delayed, we are the most abject slaves: when one has delivered himself up to Christ, then and then only he is truly free, and becomes master of himself. Why should we wander about to no purpose? To him let us turn our eyes, on him fix our thoughts, that he, who is ours by the donation of the Father, and his own free gift, may be ours by a cheerful and joyous acceptance. As St. Bernard says on these words of the prophet, "To us a child is born, to us a son is given:' Let us, therefore, make use of what is ours," saith he, "for our own advantage." So then, let him be ours by possession and use,t and let us be his for ever, never forgetting how dearly he has bought us.

* Puer natus est nobis, filius nobis datus est: Utamur, inquit, nostro in utilitatem nostram

+ Κτήσει και χρήσει.

LECTURE XV.

Of REGENERATION,

THE Platonists divide the world into two, the sen sible and intellectual world; they imagine the one to be the type of the other, and that sensible and spiritual things are stamped, as it were, with the same stamp or seal. These sentiments are not unlike the notions which the masters of the cabalistical doctrine among the Jews held concerning God's sephiroth and seal, wherewith, according to them, all the worlds, and every thing in them, are stamped or sealed; and these are probably near akin to what Lord Bacon of Verulam calls his parallela signacula, and symbolizantes schematismi. According to this hypothesis, these parables and metaphors, which are often taken from natural things to illustrate such as are divine, will not be similitudes taken entirely at pleasure; but are often, in a great measure, founded in nature and the things themselves. Be this as it may, that great change which happens in the souls of men by a real and effectual conversion to God, is illustrated in the Holy Scriptures by several remarkable changes both natural and civil, particularly by a deliverance from chains, prison, and slavery; by a transition from one kingdom to another, and from darkness into light; by a

restoration from death to life; by a new creation; by a marriage; and by adoption and regeneration. Concerning this great change, as it is represented under the last of these figures, we propose, with Divine assistance, to offer a few thoughts from these words of St. John's Gospel, which we have already mentioned: "To as many as received him, to them gave he power, or the privilege to become the sons of God." Together with these words of our Saviour in another place of the same Gospel, "Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."†

If, indeed, we consider the nature and the original of man, it is not without reason that he is called the son of God, according to that passage which the apostle, in his short, but most weighty Sermon to the Athenians, quotes from the poet Aratus, and at the same time approves of, "for we are all his offspring." Our first parent, in St, Luke's Gospel, is also expressly called the son of God,§ not only because he was created immediately by God, without any earthly father, but also on account of the Divine image that was originally impressed upon the human nature.

And this glorious title, which distinguishes him from all other corporeal beings, he has in common with the angels, who are also so called in several

places in the book of Job. It is indeed true, to use the words of St. Basil, "That every piece of workmanship bears some mark or character of the workman who made it :"+ for I should rather choose, in this case, to use the word mark or character than likeness: but of man alone it is said, "Let us make him after our own image." And this distinction is not improperly expressed by the schoolmen, who say, as we have already observed, that all the other works of God are stamped with the print of his foot; but only man, of all the visible creation, honoured with the image or likeness of his face. And, indeed, on account of this image or resemblance it is, that he is in dignity very nearly equal to the angels, though made inferior to them. Here it is to be observed, that this inferiority is but little" Who was made," saith the Apostle, "a little lower than the angels:" so that, with regard to his body, he is nearly related to the brute creatures, and only a little superior to them with regard to temperament, and the beautiful elegance of his frame, but made out of the very same materials, the same moist and soft clay, taken from the bosom of their great and common mother; whereas, to use the words of the poet, "The soul is the breath of God, which takes its rise from heaven, and is closely

* Job i. 6, and xxxviii. 7.

† Παν το εργαζομενον έχειν τινα το τεκτονος τυπον.

Heb. ii. 9.