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teft. He prays for grace to walk agreeably to that will of God, which he finds revealed in the feveral parts of the holy Scriptures, and th very knowledge of his redemption conftrains hi heart to obedience. Still, indeed, his beft fer vices are imperfect, and he underftands f well the great extent of his duty, that he dif covers much corruption in himself, where ano ther man would not at all difcern it. He there fore does not truft in his good works, though h is diligent in them, and fees the neceffity of per forming them. The language of his heart may be well expreffed by a quotation from a ju dicious and eminent divine of the laft century "We can do nothing," faid he, "that is merito rious and worthy to be rewarded. God, in deed, doth liberally promife whatever pertain to a bleffed life, to as many as fincerely obferv his law, though they be not exactly able to keep it. Wherefore, we acknowledge a dutiful ne ceffity of doing well, but the meritorious dig nity of doing well we utterly renounce. fee how far we are from the perfect righteouf nefs of the law: the little fruit which we have in holiness is, God knoweth, corrupt and unfound we put no confidence at all in it; we challeng nothing in the world for it; our continual fui to God muft be, to bear with our infirmities and pardon our offences."

W

A NEW

CHRISTMAS TRACT;

OR THE

RIGHT WAY OF REJOICING AT CHRISTMAS.

Shewing the Reafons we have for Joy at the Event of our

Saviour's Birth.

THERE are two ways of keeping Christmas :

fome feem to keep it much in the fame way in which the unbelieving Jews kept their feast in honor of the calf which they had made. "And they made a calf in Horeb in those days, and the people fat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." But what a fad fort of Chriflianity is this! I am no enemy to mirth of a proper kind, and at proper seasons; but the mirth I now fpeak of, is the mirth of inconfideration and of folly, and it is often mixed with much looseness of conduct and drunkennefs. Is this, then, the fort of mirth proper for Chriftians?

Let us fuppofe now, that a man was to choose a church as the place in which he was to fit and fing his jolly fong, and to drink till he was intoxicated, furely this would imply that hè was a perfon of extraordinary wickednefs. But this you will fay is what no body is fo bad as to be guilty of; well then, let us fuppofe, that inftead of choofing a church as the place, he fhould

M

choofe Christmas as the time for the like acts of riot and drunkennefs; methinks this muft imply no fmall degree of the fame kind of wickedness; for, as he that should get drunk in a church would infult the church, fo he that gets drunk at Christmas, which is the feafon for commemorating the birth of Chrift, infults Chrift and his religion

I know it may be faid, that those who take thefe liberties at Chriftmas do not mean to infult Chrift, and that they act from inconsideration; to which I anfwer, that they are then very guilty in being fo inconfiderate; for I would just remark by the way, that these people, who are fo very inconfiderate in fome things, are apt to be very confiderate in others; for inftance, they are very confiderate about their pleasures, but very inconfiderate about their duty; they are of ten, perhaps, very confiderate about this world, always very inconfiderate about eternity; very confiderate for themfelves, and very little fo about other people; extremely confiderate on their own fide of a bargain, but as inconfiderate about the fide of the other party; and when they have committed a fin they are apt to be very confiderate in finding out excufes for it, but very inconfiderate in tracing out the guilt and mifchief of their wickednefs. In fhort, then, let it be remembered, that inconfideration is often neither more nor lefs than another word for wickedness, and that the inconfiderate way of spend

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ing Christmas, which has been spoken of, is only in other words, the wicked way of spending it. But now let us come to the true way of keep

ing it. First, then, in order to know how the time of Christ's birth ought to be remembered by us, I would obferve, that it is neceffary to understand well who Chrift was, and for what purpose he came on earth. How abfurd would it be to celebrate the 5th of November, without knowing that, on that day, the Houfes of Parliament were faved from fire, and our happy Conftitution, as well as our Religion, was preferved to us. Again: how abfurd would it be for any man to celebrate the King's Birthday, or Coronation Day, who did not feel within his heart loyalty and affection towards his fovereign, and who did not think that any blessings were derived from our kingly government.

Let every one, therefore, who wishes to spend Christmas aright, get acquainted with the bene-, fits which have followed from Chrift's coming into the world. We will endeavor, now, to fhew, very fhortly, what thefe benefits have been. The world, at the time of Chrift's appearing, was divided into Jews and Gentiles. The word Gentiles fignifies nations, that is, all the nations. except the Jews. Let us fpeak of the Gentiles firft, and of the Jews afterwards. The Gentiles were worshippers of falfe gods, fome of one kind, and fome of another. They all, however, agreed in this, that they thought one god as good as another, and no one among them had any

anxiety to bring his neighbor over to his reli gion, which is a plain proof that they had n true religion among them; for, whoever is pof feffed of true religion, is poffeffed of a grea comfort and bleffing, which he will therefore b glad to convey to other people alfo. It was the cuftom of fome of thefe Gentiles to worfhi ftocks and ftones; others bowed down to living animals, fuch as bulls or goats, or lizards; and others paid their ftupid adoration to the fun, in ftead of the author of it. Many of them wor fhipped their deceased fellow-creatures, and the dead men who were thus turned into gods, had been, in general, fome of the moft wicked and abominable of the hman race.

Now this ignorance of the true God was followed (as all ignorance of him is apt to be) by great wickedness in their practice. They were "given over on this account (as St. Paul, the infpired apostle declares) to a reprobate mind; to work all uncleannefs with greedinefs." They learnt to confound good and evil-vices were then commonly practifed, fuch as are not named among Chriftians. Falfe principles, and falfe maxims of every kind, abounded. Slavery prevailed even in the moft civilized lands, for almost all fervants were flaves in thofe days. The earth was filled with violence. He that had killed the greatest number of his fellow-creatures got ufually the greatest praife. Wars were carried on with dreadful ferocity, and multitudes were maffacred at the public games, in battles

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