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could tell the means by which they were to D1S C. be reconciled to the offended Deity? Not one. Infinite were the devices and fancies of fuperftition to effect fuch reconciliation ; but all in vain. It must have been dropped, and let alone for ever," by them; whereas, every child with us knows, that "Chrift "has appeared to put away fin by the fa"crifice of himself, and is become the "author of falvation to all who believe in "him, and walk according to that belief.”

At a certain time, we die. Our bodies are laid in the earth, and moulder to duft. And what is to befal them afterwards? Where is the wife man of the world that can give us inftruction and affurance on this point?" Son of man, can thefe dry bones "live?"—is a queftion not to be answered out of the Chriftian school. In that school any child can answer it. "Now is Chrift "rifen from the dead, and become the first "fruits of them that fleep. For as by man "came death, by man came alfo the refur"rection of the dead. For as in Adam all

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DISC. "die, even fo in Chrift fhall all be made

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"alive. The hour is coming in which

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“ all that are in their graves shall hear his "voice, and shall come forth; they that "have done good, to the refurrection of life; "and they that have done evil, to the refur"rection of condemnation."-" Had Jefus "Chrift delivered no other declaration than "this laft (fays an excellent writer), he had

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pronounced a meffage of ineftimable im

portance, and well worthy of that fplendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with "which his miffion was introduced and “attested: a meffage in which the wisest “of mankind would rejoice to find an an"fwer to their doubts, and reft to their en

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quiries." The obfervation is juft and noble. And yet, fuch a meffage one of the heathen fages, were he now living, might receive by the first child he met in the street.

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In this manner, to filence false philosophy and pretended wifdem, has God" ordained ftrength out of the mouths of babes and "fucklings," while by them are acknowleged

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leged and proclaimed the most concerning DISC. truths, which none of the philofophers of Greece and Rome could difcover; the creation and redemption of the world; the origin and abolition of evil; the refurrection of the dead; and the final judgment. These were the points in which mankind long wanted and wished to be informed. Yet many have been the fcoffs and fneers thrown out by unbelievers against the Gospel, as being the religion of women and children. Never furely was wit worse employed. For if the religion be in itself true and excellent, it can receive no prejudice from the circumstance of being embraced and cultivated by women and children, Juft the contrary; fince if God ever vouchfafed a religion to the world, it must be adapted to either fex, and to every age. Christianity is that religion, and glories in being fo.

Thirdly, there is in the temper and difpofition of children fomething peculiarly acceptable to God our Saviour. They brought young children to Chrift, that

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DISC." he should touch them. His difciples re

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"buked those that brought them. But when

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Jefus faw it, he was much displeased, and "faid unto them, Suffer little children to "come unto me, and forbid them not, for "of such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily

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I fay unto you, that if any man shall not "receive the kingdom of God as a little "child, he shall not enter therein. And he "took them up in his arms, put his hands

upon them, and bleffed them." Children, then, are capable of benefit by Chrift; they are capable of his bleffing on earth, and his prefence in heaven; fubjects of his kingdom under grace, and heirs of his kingdom in glory. The best office therefore we can perform for them, is to be the means of bringing them to the knowlege of him, that they may be partakers of these benefits, and fo glorify their father which is in heaven. He is pleased, when we are thus employed. Nay, he fets thefe children before us, as little patterns and models of what, in heart and mind, we ourselves ought to be. Men, if they think of entering into his kingdom, muft

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must be converted, and become as little DISC. children, without pride, without wrath, without luft, without avarice, without ambition, without prejudice, without guile, open and teachable, all innocence, fimplicity, fincerity. These tempers of little children conftitute the ornaments of religion; and charming it is to behold them displayed in the life of a child of God! "The wifdom "that is from above," fays St. James, as if this very subject had been then in his eye, "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and

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easy to be intreated, full of mercy and

good fruits, without partiality, and with"out hypocrify." View the furious Saul, breathing out threatnings and flaughters, exceedingly mad against the difciples of Jefus, and perfecuting them even to strange cities; till fuddenly humbled to the dust, by a light and a voice from heaven, you hear him, with all the meekness of an infant, exclaiming, Lord, what wouldeft thou "have me to do?" Many are the changes of this kind that have been wrought, and many in every age will be wrought, through

the

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