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Father also, standing as He does to his Church in every possible relation. "And "now they fin more and more, and have " made them molten images of filver, idols

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according to their own understanding, all " of it the work of the craftsmen: they say " of them, let the men that sacrifice kiss "the calves." These are the people who are exhorted to return unto the Lord their God, and to confess themselves "Fatherless."

If we look into the thirty-fecond chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, we there find an account of the parental dealings of God with the Children of Ifrael. "Is not He "thy Father that bought thee? hath He "not made thee and established thee? Re-" member the days of old, consider the years " of many generations: ask thy father and " he will shew thee, thy elders and they " will tell thee. When the Most High "divided to the nations their inheritance, "when He feparated the fons of Adaın, He

• Hof. xiii, 2.

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"set the bounds of the people according to "the number of the Children of Ifrael. For "the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is "the lot of his inheritance. He found him " in a defert land, and in the waste howling "wilderness; He led him about, He in"structed him. He kept him as the apple "of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her " nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth "abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth " them on her wings: so the Lord alone did "lead him, and there was no strange God " with him." In the fame chapter they are warned of those sins by which they should lose all these privileges, and reminded of that base principle of ingratitude in the human heart, which kindness but too often puts in motion. "But Jeshurun waxed fatand kicked; "thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, "thou art covered with fatness; then he "forfook God which made him, and lightly

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V. vi, 12.

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"esteemed the Rock of his falvation. They " provoked him to jealousy with strange "gods, with abominations provoked they " him to anger. They facrificed to devils, "not to God; to gods whom they knew "not, to new gods that came newly up, "whom your fathers feared not. Of the "Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, " and hast forgotten God that formed thee."* Such was the character of the Ifraelites in the times when God raifed up most of their prophets among them; and if theirs was a fatherless condition in confequence of their mixing with the heathen, fuch doubt-. lefs was the condition of the heathen themselves. When St. Paul was at Athens,. " his spirit was stirred within him upon fee"ing the city wholly given to idolatry, and.

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upon finding an altar with this infcription, to the UNKNOWN GOD." It is true indeed that in his discourse upon this occafion he reprefents God as the common parent of

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all mankind, as "not far from every one of

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us, for in him we live and move and are, " as certain also of your own poets have faid, " for we are his offspring." But what do we expect to find in children? certainly the knowledge of their father; but here is an altar to the UNKNOWN GOD. We certainly expect to find some resemblance of their father; "let us make man in our image after our likeness; but here are no traces of fuch resemblance to be found, for "my ways are not your ways and my "thoughts are not your thoughts, faith the "Lord. It is written, there is none righ"teous, no not one: there is none that un"derstandeth, there is none that seeketh "after God: they are all gone out of the

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way, they are altogether become unpro"fitable: there is none that doeth good, no " not one." These passages and many others of the like import the Apostle brings together in the third chapter of his Epistle

* Gen. i, 26.

Ifaiah, lv, 8.

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to the Romans, and declares that they were written that "every mouth may be stopped " and all the world become guilty before "God." Again, what do we expect to find in children? we certainly expect the love of their father; but they are " haters " of God:" and "the carnal mind is en"mity against God, for it is not subject to "the law of God, neither indeed can be." Once more, what do we expect to find in children? we expect a certain confidential nearness to their father; but where is any thing of this kind between fallen man and the God that made him upright? The Apostle tells the converted Gentiles that they were " sometime afar off, having no ,, hope," and " without God in the world." They dread every approach and apprehension of God-They hate the light, neither, " come to the light, left their deeds should " be reproved"-they "put far away the "day of judgment as an evil day-they cry

Rom. i, 30. Rom. viii, 7.

Ephes. ii, 12.

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