fensns est ; uxor aatem hie camis vide ne te istss filiie sopitum ac dor-

imaginem teneat. Caro est enim, mientem, dam tibi nee sentire nee

qoA respicit semper ad vitia, qusB intelligere videris, complezibns suis

cum animns tendit ad salatem, ilia instringant . . . Vigila ergo et ob-

retrorsom respicit, et Tolnptates re- serva ne de his generes filios." —

qnirit. .... Tide ne tibi, cum effn- Orig. Horn, yL in Gen,

gies flammas ssBCiUi, . . . insidientur * CL chap, xviil. 1, and ziz. I.
due filic istsB, qnss a te non disce-

Q2



228



Abrahamy or the Spirit of Faith. [Part IV.
him," * is fully realised. Three persons, Father, Son, and
Spirit^ will be known, stooping in a form we can bear to
come under our roof, not in darkness, but in the lights as
guests to commune with us. While those who yet are in
the world, like Lot, receiving their heavenly guests " at
even," that is, in declining light, be their faith what it
may, will in experience lose one person, and have less per-
fect communion.^

The ground they stand on is as distinct. Abraham is
" in the plains of Mamre, in his tent-door ; " Lot is " sit-
ting in the gate of Sodom." True men of faith, as pilgrims
with their tent, in obedient self-judgment rest at Mamre
or Hebron, that is in vision or communion. Others,
righteous but not self-judged, seek to judge '^ in the gate
of Sodom," the defiled world-loving world.* The one not



* John xiv. 23.
