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Our

next it holds him out to us, who is Our "field" on earth, and will be "exceeding great reward" in heaven; who "guides us with his "counfel, and will, after that, re"ceive us to glory-Whom have

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we in heaven, O Lord, but thee; "and there is none upon earth we can defire in comparison of thee*!"

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11.

Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the daySpring from on high hath visited

us,

12. To give light to them that fit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

*Pfalm lxxiii. 24.

St.

St. John was the morning-ftar, that preceded the fun of righteoufnefs at his rifing; an event, the glory of which is due to "the ten"der mercy of our God;" fince towards the production of it man could do no more than he can do towards caufing the natural fun to rise upon the earth. The bleffed effects of the day-fpring which then dawned from on high, and gradually increased more and more unto the perfect day, were the difpertion of ignorance, which is the darkness of the intellectual world; the awakening of men from fin, which is the fleep of the foul; and the converfion and direction of their hearts and inclinations into "the way of peace," that is,

of

of reconciliation to God by the blood of Chrift, to themselves by the anfwer of a confcience cleansed from fin, and to one another by mutual

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love. Happy is the people that

"is in fuch a cafe; yea, happy is

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the people, whofe God is the Lord.

They are the children of the light "and of the day. Their fun shall "no more go down, neither fhall their

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moon withdraw itself; for the

"Lord fhall be unto them an ever

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lafting light, and the days of their 'mourning fhall be ended.”

SEC

SECTION III.

Confiderations on St. John's education in the defarts.

A

LL the information we have

concerning St. John, from the time of his birth to that of his public appearance, is contained in the few following words-" And the "child grew, and waxed ftrong in

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fpirit, and was in the defarts till "the day of his fhewing unto Ifrael *.* There, apart from the world, and under the tuition of heaven, he was catechized in the principles of divine wifdom, initiated into the mystery of

* Luke i. 80.

a holy

a holy life, and perfected in the dif cipline of felf-denial;

The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the chrystal well:
Remote from man, with God he pafs'd the days,
Pray'r all his bus'nefs, all his pleasure praise.

PARNELL.

THIS difpenfation in the cafe of the Baptift, like many others relative to the prophets, was extraordinary and miraculous; confequently, not to be literally copied by any one, but in fimilar circumftances, and under a fupernatural direction. Nor has the monaftic scheme the fanction of fo great an example; as St. John was under the obligation of no wow, but having finifhed his preparation in folitude, came forth to act his part upon the theatre of the world. And

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