Vol 01 - OF MACARIUS

OF MACARIUS
I. MACARIUS was born in the province of Thebais, about the year of our Lord
1, when Diocl"esian and Maximian were in possession of the empire.
2. Whoever it was that first seasoned this holy vessel of mercy with the heavenly odour of Divine grace, it seems plain from the following homilies, that he was educated like Timothy, in the Holy Scriptures, and that his acquaintance with those Sacred Writings was not merely literal or speculative, but that it was a true and practical knowledge, able to save his soul; _for whatever things he spoke or wrote came from himself, and were (as we are informed of the writings of the late Dr. Henry More,) purely the genuine emanations of his own mind, a description of his own heart and soul.
3. So remarkable above his years was the progress he had made by that time he was thirty, that he was called, out of mere respect, the young old man. At forty years of age was he honored from above with the gifts of healing, and by the church on earth with the degree of presbyter.
4. Nor were the favors of heaven, or the honors of the church bestowed in vain upon him: the success of or his ministration, as presbyter, immediately appeared, for about this time, viz. A. D. 341, in the reign of Valens, the emperor, a storm of persecution was raised by Lucius, the Arian, which raged to that degree, as even to exceed the persecutions of _the pagans. It began with the most infamous assaults upon virgins, and persons of note and character in the church for chastity. It proceeded to the banishment of citizens, to racks, slaughters, and flames; by means of which Christians were destroyed without number. And to drop other particulars, at his command our holy Egyptian, together with others of the holy fathers, were banished and transported into a certain island, where they soon converted all the inhabitants from their pagan superstition, to the faith and worship of the true God.
5. His settled abode was generally after this (as indeed it was before,) in Seeds. Here did he preside, like another Samuel, over the colleges and schools of the prophets; superintending not merely the common or inferior monks, but the very heads or governors amongst them. His first settling here was at the age of thirty, where, off and on, he spent sixty years; during which time he thoroughly acquainted himself with all the exercises of religious solitude.
6. Having thus served his Master faithfully for ninety years, he was received up into the reward of his labors. He died on the 15th of January, A. D. 391. Thus lived, and thus died, the great Macarius of Egypt, if he can so properly be said to die, whose very life in the flesh was a constant death to this present evil world; and consequently whose release from the corruptible body that presseth down the soul, must evidently be an advantage to that angelic life, which he so early had begun to experience in this earthly tabernacle. But, notwithstanding this, his death, his name will live, and GOD be glorified, on his account, both in heaven and earth.
7. There is visibly to be distinguished in our author, a rich, sublime, and noble vein of piety, but that perfectly serious, sober, and unaffected; natural and lively, but sedate and deep withal. Whatever he insists upon is essential, is durable, is necessary. What he continually labors to cultivate in himself and others is, the real life of GOD in the heart and soul, that kingdom of GOD, which consists in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He is ever quickening and stirring up his audience, endeavoring to kindle in then a steady zeal, an earnest desire, and inflamed ambition, to recover that Divine image we were made in; to be made conformable to CHRIST our Head; to be daily sensible more and more of our living union with him as such; and discovering it, as, occasion requires, in all the genuine fruits of an holy life and conversation, in such a victorious faith as overcomes the world, and working by love, is ever fulfilling the whole law of GOD, He seems indeed never to be easy, but either in the height, or breadth, or length of Divine love, or at least in the depths of humility,