and victorious, to be able to triumph over the powers of the enemy?"

The testimony here given to the ejection of evil spirits, as a common thing even in the third century among the christians, deserves to be noticed, as a proof that miraculous influences had not ceased in the church. Minutius Felix speaks to the same purpose, and I think with more precision. "Being adjured by the living God, they tremble wretched and reluctant in the bodies of men, and either leap out immediately, or vanish by degrees, as the faith of the patient, or the grace of the person administering relief may be strong or weak.” Indeed the testimony of the fathers in these times is so general and concurrent, that the fact itself cannot be denied without universally impeaching their veracity. It is not my province to dwell on this; the sanctifying graces of the Spirit are the most important, and they are described by Cyprian as by one who had seen and tasted them. A life and energy, far out of the reach of common rational processes and evidently divine, he doubtless felt in himself in his conversion, and he appeals to his friend Donatus if he had not felt the same.

We may safely infer that such things were then frequently known among christians, even though the effusion of the Holy Ghost was not so much known as in the two former centuries. Indeed what else can account for a change so sudden, so rapid, and yet so firm and solid, as obtained in Cyprian? For nothing can be conceived more different in the last thirteen years of his life, than he must have been from his former self. Will modern fastidiousness call all this enthusiasm ?

The reader will see, in the account here given, the essential doctrines of justification and regeneration, by divine grace, not only believed but experienced by this zealous African. The difference between mere human and divine teaching is rendered more striking by such cases. With no great furniture of learning, it was his happiness to know little if any thing of the then reigning philosophy. We see a man of business and of the world rising at once a Phoenix in the church, no extra

ordinary theologian, in point of accurate knowledge, yet an useful, practical divine, an accomplished pastor, flaming with the love of God and of souls, and with unremitted activity spending and being spent for Christ Jesus. This is the Lord's doing, and it should be remarked as his. We shall see his own conversion prepared him for real service, and while they disputed and reasoned in the east, in the west they loved.

He seems to express a remarkable influence of divine grace as having accompanied his baptism. It was reasonable to suppose that it was commonly the case at that time: the inward and spiritual grace really attended the outward and visible sign. It is to be lamented, that the perversion of after-ages availing itself of the ambiguous language of the fathers on this subject, which with them was natural enough, supposed a necessary connexion to take place where there had been a common one. In Cyprian's time to call baptism itself the new birth was not very dangerous. In our age it is poison itself; for it has long been the fashion to suppose all baptized persons regenerate of course; and thus have men learnt to furnish themselves with a convenient evasion of all that is written in scripture concerning the godly motions of the Holy Spirit.

Cyprian goes on, "and that the marks of divine goodness may appear the more perspicuously by a discovery of the truth, I will lay open to your view the real state of the world, removing the darkness of evils, and detecting the hidden darkness of this present course of things. Fancy yourself for a little time withdrawn to the top of a high mountain, thence inspect the appearance of things below you, and looking all around, yourself unfettered by worldly connexions, observe the fluctuating tempests of the world, you will pity mankind, and admonished of your own bliss, and made more thankful to God, you will with more joy congratulate your escape.'

He then gives an affecting view of the immensity of evils which the state of mankind at that time exhibited, and graphically delineates the miseries of public and

private life, and then returns to the description of the blessing of true christianity.

"The only placid and sound tranquillity then, the only solid, firm, and perpetual security is, if any man delivered from the tempests of this restless scene, be stationed in the port of salvation, lift up his eyes from earth to heaven, and being admitted into the favour of the Lord, and approaching near to his God with his mind, justly boast that whatever sublime and great in human things among others, lies within the sphere of his conscience. He who is greater than the world, can desire nothing, can want nothing of the world. What a stable, what an unshaken protection is it, a castle truly divine and fraught with eternal good, to be loosed from the snares of an entangling world, to be purged from earthly dregs, to be wafted into the light of immortal day, and to see what the insidious rage of the enemy (who before infested us) plotted against us. We are the more compelled to love what we shall be, while it is allowed us both to know and to condemn what we were. Nor is their any need for this of price, of canvassing, or of manual labour, that the complete dignity or power of man may be acquired by elaborate efforts; but the gift of God is gratuitous and easy. As the sun shines freely, as the fountain bubbles, as the rain bedews, so the celestial Spirit infuses himself. After the soul, looking up to heaven, has known its Author, higher than the earth, and sublimer than all secular power, she begins to be what she believes herself to be. Do you, whom the heavenly warfare hath marked for divine service, only preserve untainted and sober your christian course by the virtues of religion. Let prayer or reading be your assiduous employment; one while speak with God, another while hear him speak to you; let him instruct you by his precepts, let him regulate you; whom he hath made rich, none shall make poor. There can be no penury to him whose heart has once been fattened with celestial marrow. Roofs arched with gold, and houses inlaid with marble, will be vile in your eyes, when you know that you yourself

are rather to be cultivated and adorned; that this house is more valuable which the Lord has chosen to be his temple, in which the Holy Ghost has begun to dwell. Let us adorn this house with the paintings of innocence, let us illuminate it with the light of righteousness. This will never fall into ruin through the decays of age; its ornaments shall never fade. Whatever is not genuine is precarious, and affords to the possessor no sure foundation. This remains in its culture perpetually vivid, in honour spotless, in splendor eternal; it can neither be abolished not extinguished; only it will receive a richer improvement of its form at the resurrection of the body.

Let us spend this day in joy, nor let an hour of our entertainment be unconnected with divine grace. Let the sober banquet resound with psalms; and as your memory is good, your voice harmonious, perform this office according to custom. Your dear friends will be agreeably fed, if we hear spiritually, and religious harmony delight our ears."

In all this the intelligent reader sees a picture of a christian alive, possessed of some rich portion of that effusion of the Holy Ghost, which, from the apostle's days, still exhibited Christ Jesus, and fitted by experience to communicate to others the real gospel, and to be an happy instrument of guiding souls to that rest which remains for the people of God.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Beginnings of the Persecution of Decius, and Cyprian's Government till his Retirement.

How Cyprian conducted himself in his bishopric,

who is sufficient to relate? says Pontius in the fulness of his admiration. Some particular account however might have been expected from one who had such large opportunity of information. One thing he notices of

his external appearance. His looks had the due mixture of gravity and cheerfulness, so that it was doubtful whether he was more worthy of love or of reverence. His dress also was correspondent to his looks; he had renounced the secular pomp to which his rank in life entitled him, yet he avoided affected penury. From a man of Cyprian's piety and good sense united, such a conduct might be expected.

While Cyprian was labouring to recover the spirit of godliness among the Africans, which long peace had corrupted, Philip was slain and succeeded by Decius. His enmity to the former emperor conspired with his Pagan prejudices to bring on the most dreadful persecution which the church had yet experienced. It was evident that nothing less than the destruction of the christian name was intended. The chronology is here remarkably embarrassed, nor is it an object of consequence to trouble either myself or the reader with any studious attempt to settle it. Suffice it to say that the eventful period before us of Cyprian's bishopric extends from the year 248 to 260, and that Decius' succession to the empire must have taken place toward the beginning of it. The persecution raged with astonishing fury, beyond the example of former persecutions both in the east and west. The latter is the scene before us at present. And in a treatise of Cyprian concerning the lapsed, we have an affecting account of the declension from the spirit of christianity, which had taken place before his conversion, which moved God to chastise his church. "If the cause of our miseries, says he, be investigated, the cure of the wound is found. The Lord would have his family to be tried. And because the long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us, the heavenly chastisement hath raised up our faith which had lain almost dormant; and when by our sins we had deserved to suffer still more, the merciful Lord so moderated all things, that the whole scene rather deserves the name of a trial than a

* Section 4.