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hath beaten him, as it were, out of the public field, and thereby spoiled his principality, and abridged his power; but he hath left him a devil, and an enemy to mankind still; to prove us, whether we will be his soldiers or not; and to teach us to war, which, without an enemy we could not learn. A consideration which cannot fail to bring every Christian, who knows the weakness of man's fallen nature, on his knees, in earnest and repeated supplication to the great Captain of our salvation, that he would vouchsafe unto him such a portion of that strength, with which he himself fought and greatly conquered, as may be sufficient to enable him also, so to fight the good fight of faith, that having trodden down Satan under his feet, he may hear with rapture those enlivening sounds, proceeding from the throne of grace, which are calculated to encourage and support every Christian soldier in the day of battle. "To him that overcometh," saith Christ," will I give to eat of the tree "of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God" and "the same shall " be

"be clothed in white raiment, and I will "not blot his name out of the book of "life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Rev.

66

iii. 5.

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Seeing that ye have put off the old Man with his Deeds, and have put on the new Man,' which is renewed in Knowledge, after the Image of Him that created him.

To acquire an uniform and consistent knowledge relative to the great scheme of redemption, which had its origin in the, fall of our first parents, and its accom plishment in the work which the Son of God came into the world to finish; for the gracious purpose of restoring man to the capability of attaining to that life which had been lost; will doubtless be considered as constituting the most important employment of the human mind, For without knowing what man was in his primeval

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primeval state of perfection, and duly considering what he now is, in his fallen condition, we cannot attain unto the proper knowledge of God, either as our Creator, our Redeemer, or our Sanctifier.

From ignorance on this important subject it is, that the divinity of our Saviour has at different times been called in question. For those, whom the pride of the natural man will not permit to consider the faculties of the human soul to have become by Adam's Fall, like an instrument out of tune, will not be disposed to admit the necessity of means to restore them to order. Hence, either by turning away from the oracles of truth entirely, or so far neglecting to appreciate their contents, as not, by an honest enquiry, to obtain satisfactory knowledge of the doctrines which the Church has derived from them; many, who even call themselves Christians, have in a manner lost sight of those preliminary elements of Christian science, which relate to the Fall of man; and in conséquence know not in what condition they stand, either as individuals chargeable with actual sins; or, in their

general

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