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well as we; nay, and tremble before that majesty, which we too often infult: yet their faith will never extinguish those flames that environ them. They cannot believe themselves out of hell, nor we our fouls into heaven. Faith without works is dead, James ii. 20. and only ferves to enhance our ingratitude to God, and by confequence our damnation.

We must fulfil the whole law of Chrift, if we intend to be faved, that is, believe the Credenda, or things to be believed, and practise the Agenda, or things to be done. There will be no abatement; Christ has opened heaven-gate to mankind: all may enter; but with this provifo, that they stand to the conditions.

Indeed, had we no fupport but nature, we might look upon the obfervance of the gospel as impoffible, and heaven as a region above our reach: But God bath fent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father. God hath fent the Holy Ghoft into our hearts, whofe prefence makes us pleafing to him, and enables us at the fame time to take poffeffion of the crown he has defigned for us. This indeed is not only a favour above our deferts, but an honour above expectation.

What! man! the offspring of nothing! whose body ends in duft, whofe foul deferves hell; raised by his offended Mafter to the dignity of heir apparent to heaven! Here is kindnefs above expreffion! above imagination! Should a prince adopt a peafant; into what tranfports of love, of gratitude, would this new elected heir break out? Would he harbour any thought of difrefpect, of difobedience, of difloyalty? Yet what proportion between the honour Chrift has done us, and the greateft, the most mighty emperor, can confer upon a fubject? For here one man adopts another, both in nature equal: the difference lies without, and the advantage is the

gift of birth, or perchance of tyranny and oppreffion. He intitles him to a kingdom; yet this vaft all is greater in appearance than reality; the luftre outfhines the value. Men may ftrip you of majefty, and death moft certainly will. It makes you great, but not good: it only ferves to enlarge your defires, to enliven hope, and awake fear it may render you most miserable, and cannot compleat your happiness.

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But God is as much above man, as an infinite Being is distant from nothing; he has raised us from the duft to the inheritance of an empire, which once poffefs'd can never be loft. And the And the conqueft is certain, if we employ thofe arms God has put into our hands. Had he intrufted our fortune to the management of another, tho' our friend, we might doubt of the fuccefs: he might betray our interest either by infidelity, incapacity, or negligence. But, to fecure us, God has made us mafters of our own fortune; we carry our destiny in our own breasts; nothing can defeat our victory but ourselves; for in this cafe to will feriously, is to overcome.

And yet we mifcarry thro' our own fault and mifconduct, and because neither the world, the flesh, nor the devil, can difappoint us of our pretenfions; in fpite of nature and intereft we turn traitors to ourfelves, and fling up our claim to heaven for a trifle; we spurn at our benefactor, defpife his kindnefs, and break through all the conditions, that found our title to happiness.

O my God, open my eyes, that I may fee the greatnefs of thy kindness, and the monftrousness of my ingratitude: thou haft made me thy Son by adoption, and I have play'd the prodigal, debased my dignity, and pawned my inheritance for a bauble; and what remains of my paft follies, but a mortal regret for having offended fo loving a Father, fo ftupendous a Benefactor? I am unworthy F 2

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to bear the title of fon; nay, that of a flave furpaffes my deferts. I proftrate myself at thy feet, and only fue for pardon.

GOSPEL of St. Luke, Chap. ii. Verse

33. And Jofeph and his mother marvelled at thofe things which were spoken of him.

34. And Simeon blessed them, and faid unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is fet for the fall and rifing again of many in Ifrael, and for a fign which fhall be spoken against:

35. (Yea, a fword fhall pierce through thy own foul alfo) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

36. And there was one Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Afer; she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband feven years from her virginity.

37. And he was a widow of about fourfcore and four years: which departed not from the temple, but ferved God with faftings and prayers night and day.

38. And he coming in at that inftant, gave thanks likewife unto the Lord, and fpake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerufalem.

39. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.

The MORAL REFLECTION.

HIS gofpel informs us of Christ's oblation

THE to his eternal Father in the temple, of Si

meon's prophecy and publick confeffion, together with that of Anna the prophetefs. He had promulged his birth in a stable to the fhepherds by the harmony of angels; now he declares himself in

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the temple by an immediate revelation, and puts an end by a miracle to holy Simeon's expectation and wishes. And thus he confirms, what God pronounces by the mouth of his prophet, that he bears the prayers of the righteous, and grants the requests of thofe, who continue them, with confidence and perfeverance.

God commanded, in Leviticus, that every male child should be offered to him by his parents, after the mother's purification. By this precept he would oblige us to acknowledge our dependance, and teaches all parents, that he is the author of their children, and their last end; and by confequence, that they betray their duty, if they neglect to train them up in his fervice from the cradle. We have no other business but to ferve God here, and to enjoy him eternally hereafter. This therefore requires all our care, and always. We cannot begin this great affair too foon, but may too late.

Parents therefore are bound to imitate Jofeph and the Virgin Mary, that is, to devote their children to God from their most tender years, to inftill (if poffible) piety into their breasts together with their nurfes milk, and to perfwade them to practise virtue, fo foon as they are able to know it. I fear, many parents fuffer for their childrens fins in the other world, as well as for their own; they educate them in their families, like the children of tribute in the Grand Seignior's feraglio, without any principles of piety, nay, and of religion alfo. At the age of fifteen, they are often strangers to their end, as well as to their beginning, and know no more where they are to go, than from whence they came. Nay, did they grow up without principles, one might fay, at least in fome measure, their education is good, because it cannot be worfe; but alas! the impiety of the father often tinctures the males; and the pride, vanity, and indevotion of the mother,

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corrupt the females. So that almost all are poifoned in the nursery, and in a manner carry the mark of reprobation on their foreheads, before thoroughly capable of finning; for children ape their parents, and feldom difapprove thofe actions of their fuperiors, that take off restraint, and give liberty to their growing paffions,

It is therefore the parents duty, in the first place, to bar ill objects from their childrens fight, and much more not to fet them patterns of iniquity. If they are refolved to damn themselves, let them at least have so much compaffion for their off-fpring, as not to plunge it into the fame misfortune by their example. Let them keep the plague to themfelves, and not fcatter the contagion in the family. Those things we learn firft, are the last forgot, and Ariftotle gives this reafon, because they take possession of the foul, before it be crowded with other notions, and fo fink deeper into the brain, and leave more durable impreffions; and because, on the one fide, children are apt to learn, and, on the other, fo difpofed to remember, he banishes not only obfcene representations, but even tragedies, from a well ordered commonwealth, that neither love-intrigues, nor examples of tyranny and revenge, may come within fight of children: for they plant ill feeds in their tender breafts, which will fpring up in time, and fmother all principles of godlinefs. And if this pagan philofopher, who had an imperfect view of virtue and vice, in relation to the other world, would not allow youth to be present at the stage-entertainments of Greece, which notwithstanding were unblemish'd, if compar'd with the lewdnefs, the blafphemies, and irreligion of ours; thofe chriftian parents ftand guilty of a fin of the deepest die, who not only permit, but encourage their children to frequent the theatres, where all impiety treads the stage with applause and reward,

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