know God: he received a new heart. At length grace prevailed: the penitent rose up, but Latimer remained seated, absorbed in thought. The strong cross-bearer contended in vain against the words of the feeble Bilney. Like Saul on the way to Damascus, he was conquered, and his conversion, like the apostle's, was instantaneous. He stammered out a few words; Bilney drew near him with love, and God scattered the darkness which still obscured his mind. He saw Jesus Christ as the only Saviour given to man: he contemplated and adored him. "I learnt more by this confession," he said afterwards, "than by much reading and in many years before[482].... I now tasted the word of God,[483] and forsook the doctors of the school and all their fooleries."[484] It was not the penitent but the confessor who received absolution. Latimer viewed with horror the obstinate war he had waged against God; he wept bitterly; but Bilney consoled him. "Brother," said he, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." These two young men, then locked in their solitary chamber at Cambridge, were one day to mount the scaffold for that divine Master whose spirit was teaching them. But one of them before going to the stake was first to sit on an episcopal throne. [480] He came to me afterwards in my study, and desired me for God's sake to hear his confession. Latimer's Sermons, p. 334. [481] He was through the good Spirit of God so touched. Foxe, viii, p. 438. [482] Latimer's Sermons, p. 334. [483] From that time forward I began to smell the word of God. Ibid. [484] Ibid. p. 335. Latimer was changed. The energy of his character was tempered by a divine unction. Becoming a believer, he had ceased to be superstitious. Instead of persecuting Jesus Christ, he became a zealous seeker after him.[485] Instead of cavilling and railing, he showed himself meek and gentle;[486] instead of frequenting company, he sought solitude, studying the Scriptures and advancing in true theology. He threw off the old man and put on the new. He waited upon Stafford, begged forgiveness for the insult he had offered him, and then regularly attended his lectures, being subjugated more by this doctor's angelic conversation[487] than by his learning. But it was Bilney's society Latimer cultivated most. They conversed together daily, took frequent walks together into the country, and occasionally rested at a place, long known as "the heretic's hill."[488] [485] Whereas before he was an enemy and almost a persecutor of Christ, he was now a zealous seeker after him. Foxe, Acts, vii, p. 338. [486] Ibid. [487] A man of a very perfect life and angelic conversation. Becon's Works (Parker Soc.) p. 425. [488] Foxe, viii, p. 452. [Sidenote: BILNEY PREACHES GRACE.]