And now let me tell you both, it is much to be feared, you as yet stand only under this outward teaching; your good works are only done under obedience to such rules and doctrines as your reason assents to, but are not the fruits of a new-born spirit within you. But till you are thus renewed in the spirit of your minds, your virtues are only taught practices, and grafted upon a corrupt bottom. Every thing you do, will be a mixture of good or bad; your humility will help you to pride, your charity to others will give nourishment to your own self-love, and as your prayers increase, so will the opinion of your own sanctity. Because, till the heart is purified, and has felt the axe at the root of its evil, (which cannot be done by outward instruction) every thing that proceeds from it, partakes of its impurity and corruption.
Now that _Theogenes_ is only under the law, or outward instruction, is plain from the complaint he made of himself. For notwithstanding his progress in the doctrine of love, he finds all his corrupt nature still alive in him, and himself only altered in opinion.
The same may be well suspected of you, _Eusebius_, who are so mistaken in the spirit of love, that you fancy yourself to be wholly possessed of it, from no other ground, but because you embrace it, as it were with open arms, and think of nothing but living under the power of it. Whereas, if the spirit of love was really in you, you would account for its birth, and power in you, in quite another manner, you would have known the price that you had paid for it, before the spirit of love was in you.
_Eusebius._ But, surely, Sir, imperfect as our virtues are, we are under something more than mere outward instruction. We expect all our goodness from the Spirit of God dwelling and working in us. We live in hope of the divine operation; and therefore your censure upon us seems to be too severe.
_Theophilus._ Dear _Eusebius_, I censure neither of you. So far from it, that I love and approve the state you are in. It is good for _Theogenes_, that he feels and confesses his natural tempers are not yet subdued. It is good for you also, that you are so highly delighted with the doctrine of love, for by this means, both of you have your true preparation for farther advancement. But tho’ your state has this difference, yet the same error was common to both of you. You both thought you had as much of the spirit of love as you ought to have; and therefore _Theogenes_ wondered he had no more benefit from it; and you wondered that I should desire to lead you farther into it. And therefore, to deliver you from this error, I have desired this conference upon the practical ground of the spirit of love, that you may neither of you lose the benefit of that state in which you stand.
_Eusebius._ Pray therefore proceed as you please. For we have nothing so much at heart, as to have the truth and purity of this divine love in us. For as it is the highest perfection, that I adore in God, so I cannot desire any thing, but to be totally governed by it. I could as willingly consent to lose my being, as to find the power of love lost in my soul. Neither doctrine, nor mystery, nor precept, has any delight for me, but as it calls forth that spirit, which doth all that it doth, towards God and man, under the one law of love.
*_Theophilus._ I apprehend that you don’t yet know what divine love is in itself, nor what is its nature and power in the soul of man. For divine love brings perfect peace and joy, a freedom from all disquiet, all content and happiness. Love wherever it comes, comes as the restorer of every lost perfection, a redeemer from all evil, a fulfiller of all righteousness. Thro’ all the universe nothing is uneasy, unsatisfied, or restless, but because it is not governed by love, or because its nature has not reached or attained the full spirit of love. For when that is done, all complaining, murmuring, resenting, revenging and striving are suppressed. If you ask why the spirit of love cannot be displeased, cannot be disappointed, cannot complain, resent or murmur, it is because divine love desires nothing but itself; it is its own good, it has all, when it has itself, because nothing is good but itself, and its own working; for love is God, and he that dwelleth in God, dwelleth in love; tell me now, _Eusebius_, are you thus blessed in the spirit of love?
_Eusebius._ Would you have me tell you, that I am an angel? And without the infirmities of human flesh and blood?