DISC. of certainty determine, by whom the world

was made; whether it were made at all; whether there were many Gods, or one.

If the world were made by a good and gracious God, whence came fo much evil as we all fee and know to be in it? Here the wisdom of paganifm was for ever at a ftand. Bewildered and loft in it's reafonings and gueffes upon the fubject, it foon came to question whether God were indeed good and gracious, or whether there could be any God who governed fuch a world. Let thefe men liften to a child, nurtured in the Chriftian Scriptures. "By one man's disobedience "fin entered into the world, and death by “fin; and fo death paffed upon all men, "for that all have finned." What plainer or farther information can be defired?

Mankind have always found themselves tempted and carried on by their lufts and paffions to offend God, by tranfgreffing that law (whatever it might be) under which they lived. But who among them could

III,

could tell the means by which they were to DISC. 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 instruction and affurance on this point? "Son of man, can these dry bones “live?”—is a question not to be answered out of the Christian 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

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came death, by man came also the refur"rection of the dead. For as in Adam all

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

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

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 "attefted: a meffage in which the wifest "of mankind would rejoice to find an an"fwer to their doubts, and reft to their en

66

quiries." The observation is just 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.

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

III.

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 vouchsafed a religion to the world, it must be adapted to either sex, 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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E 4

"he

DISC. " he should touch them. His difciples re"buked those that brought them. But when

III.

upon

Jefus faw it, he was much displeased, and "faid unto them, Suffer little children to "come unto me, and forbid them not, for "of fuch is the kingdom of heaven. Verily "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 them, and bleffed them." Children, then, are capable of benefit by Chrift; they are capable of his bleffing on earth, and his presence in heaven; subjects 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 these 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