6. From them Gorgonia derived both her
existence and her reputation; they sowed in her the seeds of piety,
they were the source of her fair life, and of her happy departure with
better hopes. Fair privileges these, and such as are not easily
attained by many of those who plume themselves highly upon their noble
birth, and are proud of their ancestry. But, if I must treat of
her case in a more philosophic and lofty strain, Gorgonia’s
native land was Jerusalem above, Heb. xii. 22, 23. the object,
not of sight but of contemplation, wherein is our commonwealth, and
whereto we are pressing on: whose citizen Christ is, and whose fellow-citizens
are the assembly and church of the first born who are written in
heaven, and feast around its great Founder in contemplation of His
glory, and take part in the endless festival; her nobility consisted in
the preservation of the Image, and the perfect likeness to the
Archetype, which is produced by reason and virtue and pure desire, ever
more and more conforming, in things pertaining to God, to those truly
initiated into the heavenly mysteries; and in knowing whence, and of
what character, and for what end we came into being.