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tage; his bounty rescued the hungry soul from death. He sees a happy land smiling with content, made so by his benefactions The blessing has returned upon his own head; and the secret delight of benevolence and gratitude has fully demonstrated the fact, "it is more blessed to give than to receive !" He can adopt the language of the once prosperous Job: "When the ear heard me then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me; because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widows' heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diamond. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I searched out. My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. My glory was fresh within me, and my bow was renewed in my hand."

4. But lastly, prosperity is increased to the good man from the happy prospect he has in his children. The greatest and chief concern of a man's life is his children. To provide for them, to see them walk in the paths of usefulness, fill places of honor and respectability, constitutes a large proportion of the felicity allotted his pilgrimage journey of life. While the bad man has been engrossed in the cares of the world, neglecting the education of his children, vainly thinking to ensure their felicity by worldly splendor, the good man has been faithfully cultivating the minds of his children, suppressing their evil propensities, drawing out the latent virtues of their nature, and with "pious care," endeavored to form them to all that is truly great or good in man. While the bad man has the mortification to see his children grow up with all their natural propensities, unrestrained appetites and passions strength

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ened by his own indulgence and confirmed by his own practices; while he sees them plunge into excess, sink in the vortex of dissipation, rove in the labyrinths of folly and inconsistency, or fall before the tribunals of justice, the good man sees his grow up in the ways of virtue, walk the paths of wisdom, sing in the bowers of understanding, or ramble over the flowery lawns of religion; sees them shine with lovely graces, endeared by a peculiar sweetness of temper to their parents, attracting the esteem of their acquaintance and the friendship of all who know them. Early impressed with filial piety, they remember him, and do not forsake him in his old age; but study to make his decline of life smooth easy. Hence "his leaf also shall not wither." He sees his children green, they do not wither away with evil or vicious companions; dissipation does not blast their verdure; and even the storms of the winter of life cannot destroy their freshness. They bud in his bosom in this terrestrial soil, but they shall bloom with unfading glory in the bosom of his heavenly Father in the regions above. Hence the influence of religion on prosperity, hence the superiority of the good man over the bad; a mind free from perturbation, guilt, or remorse, firmly relying on his God, believing his pardon sufficient for the past, praising for the present, and trusting him for the future a heart susceptible of the highest felicity rendered supremely happy in himself in the love and gratitude of others in the good conduct and bright and brightening prospects of his children. "His wife is a fruitful vine by the sides of his house, his children like olive plants round about his table."

Such is the influence of religion on the prosperous, and such I presume is the desire of each of my respected auditors. Cultivate then, suffer me to entreat you, the benevolent affections of the heart, acquire habits of virtue, place your dependence on God, keep his com

mandments, retreat from vice and the company of the ungodly, and this prosperity shall be yours; you "shall be like trees planted beside the rivers of water, that bear their fruit in their season, and whatsoever you do shall prosper."

For the Repository.

MODES OF FAITH.

"For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right."-POPE. Query. If all men are born free and equal, and if the law of nature, established primarily by the Governor of the universe, places individuals equal and independent in their capacity, and gives a man personal, social and moral rights,-shall we consider his "life in the right," (let him fight for what mode of faith he will) who thanks God (as he saith) for the privileges we enjoy in this happy land, that every one may sit under his own vine and fig tree, and worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and there is none to molest or make him afraid," while he infringes upon the rights of others, by taking their property unjustly, to support an idolized theory, or what he would have for a national religion? If he considers his priest in possession of a medal, which he had from the Almighty, with letters patent under the broad seal of Heaven, for his sole use, and his successors forever, with these inscriptions he that is honored as the wearer of this medal, is possessed of infallible knowledge--he is supreme over all laws, divine and human-this is the head of the church-the keys of heaven, hell and purgatory, are in his possession, and used only at his pleasure; is his life in the right? If one says (by his practice) "stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou,' and, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are"

---if he uses oppression, and exercises robbery, and oppresses the stranger wrongfully, and builds up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity, and encourages his priest, (which he made) to partake of the accursed thing, of those who have stolen and dissembled also, and put it among his own stuff, to build his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong, and yet considers him innocent; if he says such things are wrong, and yet makes no restitution, tho he says he is willing every one should enjoy his right, what shall we think of such a character ? Shall we not think he is a witness against himself, and that he allows such deeds, tho he says his priest has nothing to do about it? Is his life in the right?

If another Jesus should appear on the earth, how would he admire the improvement our divines (so called,) have made on that religion which Jesus of Nazareth published in the temples and synagogues of Judea. Yea, think ye, what encomiums he would pass on the divine institution at Andover, (and others) where every thing is sacred; sacred history, sacred music, sacred professors, sacred students, sacred oratory, where nothing is impious, nothing deistical but the equalizing spirit of truth? Do not all who are freemen in the company of avarice keep as near as possible to the orthodox priests of Rome, in making a lucrative trade of what they call the gospel? and however they may differ about what is, and what is not gospel, they see eye to eye in regard to making profit of it, and turning the altar of the Lord to their own emolument.

Can it be otherwise while they have manufactories on purpose for making parsons? If men like Jannes and Jambres, will take upon them to imitate the inimitable works of the Almighty, they may be permitted to make things, which may for a time, be mistaken for gospel ministers; even as those magicians performed miracles

by divine permission! What will become of the poor heathen who are perishing, as 'tis said, for lack of knowledge, unless we send them some of our wares, to tell them that the christian warrior who is sincere, marches up in the front of death, and sheathes his bayonet in his brother's bosom, with the same composure, and from the same principle, that he seats himself at the table of his Lord!

"Who does the best his circumstance allows,
Does well, acts nobly, angels could no more."
"Nature in zeal for human amity,

Denies or damps an undivided joy."

D. F.

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From the Christian Telescope.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not?"—Isaiah lv.2.

From this declaration of the prophet, it appears that there were some in his day, who spent their money for that which was not bread, and their labor for that which satisfied not: And when we look abroad into the christian world, appearances and the honest confession of the votaries of modern theology, compel us to believe that there are many whose practice is not unlike those, alluded to by the prophet. There are thousands who give their money, and who spend their labor in support of the strangely popular system, that Almighty God from before all worlds, elected without any foresight of faith or good works, a portion of mankind to eternal life, while the remainder he was pleased to pass by, and reprobate to the quenchless flames of an eternal hell! But does this sentiment satisfy those who spend their money and labor in support of it? No, it does not. This system leaves its votaries in perpetual doubt, not only in relation to others, but also in relation to themselves. Ask those who believe in this sentiment, if they feel

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