III.  Concerning two of these births, the first and the last, we have not to speak on the present occasion.  Let us discourse upon the second, which is now necessary for us, and which gives its name to the Feast of the Lights.  Illumination is the splendour of souls, the conversion of the life, the question put to the Godward conscience. This is the literal version of the passage, which is somewhat loosely quoted from 1 S. Peter iii. 21, where the A.V. renders “the answer of a good conscience towards God,” and the R.V., “The interrogation (Marg. inquiry) of a good conscience, etc.”  The passage is usually explained as referring to the Interrogatories in Holy Baptism, answered by the threefold Vow which enlists us “under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, and the Devil,” professes the Faith, and promises obedience.  It is the aid to our weakness, the renunciation of the flesh, the following of the Spirit, the fellowship of the Word, the improvement of the creature, the overwhelming of sin, the participation of light, the dissolution of darkness.  It is the carriage to God, the dying with Christ, the perfecting of the mind, the bulwark of Faith, the key of the Kingdom of heaven, the change of life, the removal of slavery, the loosing of chains, the remodelling of the whole man.  Why should I go into further detail?  Illumination is the greatest and most magnificent of the Gifts of God.  For just as we speak of the Holy of Holies, and the Song of Songs, as more comprehensive and more excellent than others, so is this called Illumination, as being more holy than any other illumination which we possess.