THE EXCELLENCY AND NOBLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION, 1. IN ITS RISE AND ORIGINAL. 2. IN ITS NATURE AND ESSENCE. 3. IN ITS PROPERTIES AND OPERATIONS. 4. IN ITS PROGRESS. 5. IN ITS TERM AND END. To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. --Ps. xvi. 3. Εὐγένεια δὲ, ἡ τῆς εἰκόνος τήρησις, καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἀρχέτυπον ἐξομοίωσις, ἣν ἐργάζεται λόγος καὶ ἀρετὴ, καὶ καθαρὸς πόθος.—GREG. NAZIANZ. Orat. VIII. § 6. Εὐγένειαν δὲ λέγω, οὐχ ἣν οἱ πολλοὶ νομίζουσιν. ἄπαγε.—ἀλλ ̓ ἣν εὐσέβεια χαρακτηρίζει καὶ τρόπος, καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸ πρῶτον ἀγαθὸν ἄνοδος ὅθεν γεγόναμεν.—IDEM in Orat. xxv. § 3. Nescit religio nostra personas accipere: nec conditiones hominum, sed animos, inspicit singulorum. Servum et nobilem de moribus pronunciat. Sola apud Deum libertas est, non servire peccatis. Summa apud Deum est nobilitas clarum esse virtutibus.-PAULINI EPIST. ad Celantiam (vid. HIERONYM. Opera). CC THE EXCELLENCY AND NOBLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. Prov. xv. 24. IN INTRODUCTION. N the whole book of the Proverbs we find Solomon, one of the eldest sons of Wisdom, always standing up and calling her blessed: his heart was both enlarged and filled with the pure influences of her beams, and, therefore, was perpetually adoring that sun which gave him light. 'Wisdom is justified of all her children';' though the offspring of darkness and the children of folly see no beauty nor comeliness in her, that they should desire her, as they said of Christ. That mind which is not touched with an inward sense of Divine wisdom, cannot estimate the true worth of it. But when Wisdom once displays her own excellences and glories in a purified soul, she is entertained there with the greatest love and delight, and receives her own image, reflected back to herself in sweetest returns of love and praise. We have a clear manifestation of this sacred sympathy in Solomon, whom we may not unfitly call sapientiæ organum-an instrument Wisdom herself had tuned on which to play her divine lessons: his words were every where full of divine sweetness', matched with strength and beauty, Toλvv voûv éxovtes 1 Luke vii. 35. Toμévois; Plot. Enn. III. 7, 6. 4 7 Eccles. xii. 10. evdov or, as himself phraseth it, 'like apples of gold in pictures of silver'.' The mind of a proverb is to utter wisdom in a mystery-as the apostle sometimes speaksand to wrap up Divine truth in a kind of enigmatical way, though in vulgar expressions. This method of delivering Divine doctrine (not to mention the writings of the ancient philosophers) we find frequently pursued in the holy Scripture, thereby both opening and hiding, at once, the truth which is offered to us. A proverb or parable being once unfolded, by reason of its affinity with the fancy, the more sweetly insinuates itself into that, and is from thence, with the greater advantage, transmitted to the understanding. In this state, we are not able to behold truth in its own native beauty and lustre; but, while we are veiled with mortality, truth must veil itself too, that it may the more freely converse with us. St Austin hath well assigned the reason why we are so much delighted with metaphors, allegories, &c. because they are so much proportioned to our senses, with which our reason hath contracted an intimacy and familiarity". And therefore God, to accommodate His truth to our weak capacities, does, as it were, embody it in earthly expressions; according to that ancient maxim of the Cabbalists, Lumen supernum nunquam descendit sine indumento3; agreeable to which is that of Dionysius not seldom quoted by the schoolmen: Impossibile est nobis aliter lucere ra 1 Prov. xxv. II. 2 Ad ipsum autem ignem amoris nutriendum et flatandum quodammodo, quo tanquam pondere sursum vel introrsum referamur ad requiem, ista omnia pertinent quæ nobis figurate insinuantur ; plus enim movent et accendunt amorem, quam si nuda sine ullis sacramentorum similitudinibus ponerentur. Cujus rei causam difficile est dicere. Sed tamen ita se habet, ut aliquid per allegoricam significationem intimatum plus moveat, plus delectet, plus honoretur, quam verbis propriis diceretur apertissime. Credo quod ipse animæ motus quamdiu rebus adhuc terrenis implicatur, pigrius inflammatur: si vero feratur ad similitudines corporales, et inde referatur ad spiritualia, quæ illis similitudinibus figuran tur, ipso quasi transitu vegetatur, et tanquam in facula ignis agitatus accenditur, et ardentiore delectione rapitur ad quietem. Tom. II. p. 203 A, ed. Par. 1836. 3 Vid. Not. I. p. 174. dium divinum, nisi varietate sacrorum velaminum circumvelatum1. Thus much by way of preface or introduction to these words, being one of Solomon's excellent proverbs, viz. The way of life is above to the wise?' Without any mincing or mangling of the words, or running out into any critical curiosities about them, I shall, from these words, take occasion to set forth the nobleness and generous spirit of true religion, which I suppose to be meant here by the way of life.' The word by here rendered 'above,' may signify that which is divine and heavenly, high and excellent, as the word avw does in the New Testament—τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως; τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε. St Austin supposeth the things of religion to be meant by the ra avw, 'superna,' for this reason, quod merito excellentiæ longe superant res terrenas. And in this sense I shall consider it, my purpose being from hence to discourse of the excellent and noble spirit of true religion, whether it be taken in abstracto—as it is in itself; or in concreto-as it becomes an inward form and soul to the minds and spirits of good men; and this in opposition to that low and base-born spirit of irreligion, which is perpetually sinking from God, till it couches to the very centre of misery, 'the lowermost hell".' In discoursing upon this argument, I shall observe this method; viz. I shall consider the excellency and nobleness of true religion, |