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SECT. I. Chriftians degenerated into an empty

form, and their zeal and love frozen at the fountain; when daily multiplying herefies, like the frogs in Egypt, shall infest and contaminate all things; when infidelity shall rage and fwell, and iniquity of every kind fhall abound. Sights like these may confound and stagger those who shall then be ignorant of the fcriptures, and weak in faith. But an acquaintance with the divine difpenfations will turn them into so many arguments for the truth of revelation, and the approach of the day of God. "When these things begin to come to pafs; then look up, and lift up your "heads, for your redemption draweth nigh" then be found, with Simeon and Anna, in the temple, waiting for the confolation of Ifrael.

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WHEN We read of men who have done good in their generations, and fhone as lights in the world, curiofity naturally leads us to enquire after their connections and relations, and especially after the happy perfons chosen to be the inftruments of conveying fuch bleffings

a Luke xxi. 28.

to

to the church. The fcripture account SECT. I. of Zacharias and Elizabeth is concise, but comprehenfive. He was "a priest. "of the course of Abia," she was "of "the daughters of Aaron," and "they "were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments " and ordinances of the Lord, blame

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lefs. The course of Abia was the eighth in order of the twenty four courfes of priests appointed to relieve each other in the fervice of the temple, where, during their ministration, they refided in the chambers allotted them for that purpose; that fo, being fequeftered from the cares and pollutions of the world, they might "wait on the "Lord without distraction," performing the outward ceremonies of the law, and exercising their faith in the contemplation of those heavenly things shadowed out by them. This holy office Zacharias, in the worst of times, adorned and beautified with a correfpondent holinefs of life. The spirit of the fanctuary rested upon him, and manifested itfelf in the fruit of righteousness; a

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SECT. I. righteoufnefs, which exceeded that of the Scribes and Pharifees, approving itfelf in the fight of God, to whom are known the fecrets of the heart, as well as in that of men, who are witneffes only of the external deportment. Thro' the ftrength of this fpirit, he walked in the path of an uniform obedience, an invariable obferver of thofe ordinances which were at that time the facramental means and pledges of pardon and acceptance, through faith in him, of whofe advent he was a devout expectant. From fuch a father, and a mother worthy of him, who graced the line of Aaron by a like inviolable fanctity of manners, was the Baptift to descend; that the Jews might have no poffible objection against him; that he might be a proper forerunner of one who was to make all the world in love with the beauty of holiness; that it might appear wherein true nobility of birth confifteth, viz. in a defcent from perfons confecrated to the fervice of God, and of an exemplary piety; and lastly, to affure us, that on the heads of thofe, who to a holy profeffion add a holy life,

will, fooner or later, defcend the choi- SECT. I, ceft bleffings which heaven hath to be

ftow on the fons of men.

BUT let not fuch be impatient, because those bleffings are for a while deferred. He, who fends them, beft knows the proper time of fending them, and often fees it neceffary, for many reafons, to exercise the faith and patience of his fervants, who may always rest fatisfied, that in due season he will bring every thing to pafs, which will conduce to their true welfare. The fcripture, having witneffed of Zacharias and Elizabeth, that "they were both right"eous before God, walking in all the "commandments and ordinances of the "Lord blameless," proceedeth, in the very next words, to inform us, that 66 they had no child, because that Eli"zabeth was barren, and they were both "will stricken in years." They who fstand highest in the favour of God, may, therefore, during the greatest part of their lives, want the external and visible marks of it, and lie under the burden

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SECT. I. of

reproach among men "," as was the cafe of childlefs women in Judea. But these two pious perfons, when their condition, in this refpect, feemed defperate, were upon the eve of felicity. For of parents at their time of life John was to be born; that fo the miraculous manner of his birth might excite the attention of mankind, and dispose them to liften to his voice, when it should be heard in the wilderness; and also, that it might prepare them for that great event which was taking place, as the prophet Ifaiah had foretold;"A vir

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gin fhall conceive, and bear a fon." In circumstances parallel with those of St. John, were born, of old, Ifaac, and Jofeph, and Samfon, and Samuel, all of them illustrious forerunners of Meffiah, in one or other of his three characters, prophetical, facerdotal, or regal. And did not God intend, by fo often caufing "the barren woman to keep house, and "and to become a joyful mother of

children," to make that power known, by which the incarnation of the Redeemer and the fruitfulness of his church

a Luke i. 25.

were

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