men in this period, and I scarce have found a faint, who had better views, fince the days of Cyprian, unless we except Ambrofe of Milan. But by far the greater part of real good men, in this whole century, and the latter part of the laft, lived, comparatively, in bondage, looking to Jefus, fincerely, though confusedly. One perfon, however, was training up under the fpecial guidance of God in the latter part of this century, whose superior light was appointed to illuminate the next, as we fhall fee by and by. But how does the piety, the humility, the confcientioufnefs of fuch men as Ephraim, with all their abject fuperftition, rebuke the pride and carelesness and levity of many now evangelized in the head, and not in heart, who trifle with the light, and live in fin, because they conceive grace to abound?

I fhall difinifs this Saint, after I have taken a little notice of one of his companions named Abrahani, whofe life he has written, and whom he admires extremely. For fifty years, he lived an Afcetic, in the ftricteft obfervation of monaftic rules, and confined himself principally to his cell; though the intelligent reader will think he acted moft like a Christian in those intervals, when he left it; in one of them particularly, to which alone I fhall confine my attention. There was a great defert in the neigbourhood of the city, (Edeffa I fuppofe,) in which, the inhabitants were all idolaters to a mán*; and though many presbyters and deacons had been fent to them by the bishop of the city, yet they had all returned without effect, unable to bear the perfecution of the Pagans. One day, the bishop obferved among his clergy, that he knew of no perfon fo devoted to God as Abraham, and therefore he would ordain him as an evangelist of these

* Σκε

of

Pagans. At first he intreated him, but in vain; Abra ham begged to be permitted to bemoan his own evils. The bifhop, however, infifting on the obedience, which he owed to authority, and how much better it was to be employed in the falvation of many, than of one foul only, Abraham at length fubmitted. He began his work with fervent prayer for the divine bleffing, and having erected a church, he supplicated in it, for the converfion of the people. His next step appears not fo proper; he threw down the idols and altars of the Pagans; the confequence of which was, that, with much ill ufage, he was expelled from the country. He returned, however, to the village, and refumed his work of prayer in the church, to the astonishment of the Pagans; who coming from time to time to him, he began to exhort them to turn from idols to the living God, on which he was worse treated than before. For three years, he bore their infults, and a conftant series of perfecution. His patience, however, and meeknefs, were admirable, and at length the people began to be softened, and comparing his preaching with his practice, they concluded that God must be with him, and offered themselves voluntarily to receive his doctrine. The Saint, rejoicing at the event, defired them to give glory to God, who had enlightened the eyes of their hearts to know him. In fine, he gathered them into a church, daily opening to them the Scriptures. At length, when he faw them confirmed in the faith of the gospel, and bringing forth the fruits of it with steadiness, he abruptly retired from them to his former folitude. The work, however, remained firm and strong, and the bithop visited and exhorted them, from the word of God, and ordained paftors from among themselves.

How much better would Abraham have been thus employed during the fifty years of his folitude? but fuch

were

were the times. While the world proceeded in its usual wickedness, those who were beft calculated to reform it, had a strong tendency to live a reclufe life; and falfe fear and bondage kept many from the pastoral office, who might have been its brightest ornaments. The mischief of this was inexpreffible; the extenfion of the gospel was checked; and every circumftance fhewed, that the spirit of God was no longer poured out, in his fulness, among men.

CHAP.

AN

CHA P. XXII.

HILARY OF POICTIERS.

N account of the life of Hilary is delivered by one Fortunatus, who wrote about two hundred years after him. This biographer, according to the tafte of the age, which was ftill more credulous and fuperftitious than that of Hilary, is extremely barren in matters, which really deferve attention, and is full of prodigies and fictions. The beft account of him therefore is to be drawn from his contemporaries, and the ecclefiaftical hiftorians, and above all from his own writings. Of his life and actions little is known, that deferves to be recorded: yet fo great a man merited a diftinct attention.

He was born at Poitiers in France, and being of a very noble family, and diftinguished by a liberal education, he was enabled to throw a luftre on Christianity, after he received it. In his book on the Trinity he gives us fome account of his converfion*. He seriously confidered the folly and vanity of idolatry, and was led to conclude, that its profeffors could not poffibly be competent to lead men to happiness. He contemplated the visible frame of things, and inferred an Omnipotent Eternal Being, as their Maker and Preferver. He obferves, that happiness confifts not in any external things, nor in the bare knowledge of the first principles of good and evil, but in the knowledge of the true God. By reading the books of Mofes and the prophets, he found his mind enlightened and his judgment confirmed in thefe ideas. The short, but comprehenfive account of God, in the book of Exodus, "I am that I am, affected" him with admiration. * Du Pin.

See Cave's Life of Hilary.

ration. When he was carried forward to the New Teftament, there he learnt, that there is an eternal word, the Son of God made man, who came into the world, to communicate to it the fulness of grace. His hope of happiness was now enlarged: "fince the Son of God was made man, men may become the Sons of God. A man, who with gladnefs receives this doctrine, renews his fpirit by faith, and conceives a hope full of immortality. Having once learned to believe, he rejects the captious difficulties, and no longer judges after the maxims of the world. He now neither fears death, nor is weary of life, and preffes forward to a state of a blessed immortality.' În fuch a manner, does Hilary give us the hiftory of his own mind in religion. And when he enters on the fubject of the Trinity, he gives an excellent admonition; humility at leaft will think fo, though pride will object to it. It is, that the reader would think of God according to the light of faith, and agreeably to the testimony of God himself, divefting his mind of the meannefs of human opinions. "For the chief qualification required in a reader is, that he be willing to take the fenfe of an Author from what he reads, and not give him one of his own. He ought not to endeavour to find, in the paffages which he reads, that, which he prefumed ought to be there. fuch paffages, as defcribe the character of the Supreme Being particularly, he ought at least to be perfuaded, that God knew himself." And in another part of the fame treatife, he makes this obfervation. "The blafphemies of the heretics oblige us to do those things which are forbidden us, to fearch into myfteries incomprehenfible, to fpeak things

In

* I apprehend, if this method had been followed in all ages, there would never have been found any one to oppose the doctrine of the Trinity. Agreeably to this, it appears that Hilary, by the study of the Scriptures alone, had obtained and fteadily profeffed the Nicene faith, before he had ever seen the Creed of that name, or knew any thing of the Arian Controversy.