*Nature must become a torment and burden to itself, before it can willingly give itself up to that death, thro’ which alone it can pass into life. There is no real conversion, whether it be from infidelity, or any other life of sin, till a man comes to know, and feel, that nothing less than his _whole_ nature is to be parted with, and yet finds in himself no possibility of doing it. This is the despair by which we lose all our own life, to find a new one in God. For here, in this place it is, that faith, and hope, and true seeking to Christ, are born. But till all is lost that we had any trust in; faith and hope, and turning to God in prayer, are only things practised by rule and method; but they are not in us, till we have done feeling any trust or confidence in ourselves. Happy therefore is it for your friend, that every thing is taken from him in which he trusted. In this state, one sigh or look to God for help, would be the beginning of his salvation. Let us therefore try to improve this happy moment to him, not so much by arguments, as by the arrows of divine love. *For _Humanus_, tho’ hitherto without Christ, is still within the reach of divine love: he belongs to God; God created him for himself, to be an habitation of his own Spirit; and God has brought him and us together, that the lost sheep may be found, and brought back to its heavenly shepherd. Oh _Humanus_, love is my bait: you must be caught by it; it will put its hook into your heart, and force you to know, that of all strong things, nothing is so strong, so irresistible, as divine love. It brought forth all the creation; it kindles all the life of heaven; it is the song of all the angels of God. It has redeemed all the world: it seeks for every sinner upon earth; it embraces all the enemies of God; and, from the beginning to the end of time, the one work of providence, is the one work of love. _Moses_ and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, were all of them messengers of divine love. They came to kindle a fire on earth, and the fire was the love which burns in heaven. Ask what God is? His name is love; he is the good, the perfection, the joy, the glory, and blessing of heaven and earth. Ask what Christ is? He is the universal remedy of all evil; he is the destruction of misery, sin, death, and hell. He is the resurrection and life of all fallen nature. He is the unwearied compassion, the long-suffering pity, the never-ceasing mercifulness of God to every want and infirmity of human nature.