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preserve the tender infant , to choose the most wholesome air and salutary food , to avoid infectious disorders , and cherish its limbs with grateful warratb , and promote by frequent exercise the expansion of its powers } What anxiety if it appears to decline , instead of thriving in health and vi ^ gour ! What expense or what trouble is spared to procure the most judicious advice , and find out the cause and apply the remedy ? And shall we feel less care or less anxiety to preserve the life and well-being of the soul ? Is
not equal care requisite in the beginnings of the spiritual life to prevent the smoaking flax from being quenched and the languishing virtue from becoming extinct ? Can our virtues gain strength without exercise , or spiritual beings thrive without spiritual food ? Is the young Christian able to contend with the subtle cavils of sophistry , or to resist the contagion of evil example ? Can he breathe freely in the tainted atmosphere of impure communication ; and will his virtues have the same genuine and healthy complexion in the world as when protected and cherished in the shade of
domestic retirement ? Examine yourselves , therefore , all you who are concerned for the well-being of the immortal part within you , both whether you have undergone this important change and whether you are improving it to the perfection of the divine life . As to the first part of the question , much needless anxiety has formerly been incurred by weak and wellmeaning Christians for want of reflecting on this simple truth , that he whom we see living must some time or other certainly have been born . When
we see a man walking , conversing , acting , exercising all the functions of animal life , we should think it very superfluous to inquire whether he had been born or no . Thus no other criterion is necessary to ascertain the reality of the new birth but the effects of it . When we see a man in whom holy affections and good principles bring forth the fruits of virtuous actions , we may be well assured that he is born in the gospel sense , though he may remember it as little as he does his natural birth . The operations of grace are gradual as well as those of nature ; the widest flame is kindled at first by
the smallest spark , and whatever is produced must be brought to perfection by slow and insensible degrees . Therefore , first , be not satisfied with merely being born . It is not enough that the child is born , it must grow too . Do you grow in grace and graces ? In a healthy body the limbs enlarge and shoot out . A vigorous principle of life draws nourishment from every thing it takes ; it cannot be stationary ; if it does not thrive and increase , it must languish and die . It is not natural to rest in any stage , and especially in the earliest and weakest . We love children rather for the promise
than the fruit . Lovely and interesting as they are , if they were to remain children we should be grievously disappointed . If , after having nursed them up to the full age of manhood , they were to retain ihe weakness and imbecility of an infant , instead of exciting tenderness they would raise disgust * And though the meanest renewed soul is precious in the sight of God , yet we must run and strive , and add to our faith virtue , and to virtue holiness and all the fair fruits of the spirit . Would you know , therefore , whether you are in this healthy and growing state , inquire with yourselves .
Is your taste pure and unvitiated , your appetite for spiritual things strong and vigorous , or can you not relish your sabbaths and your sermons except you meet with wit and eloquence and novelty to tickle the nicer ear ? Can ye not love your duty unless it sorts with your inclination ? Are you various and capricious in your taste for divine things , sometimes longing and sometimes loathing ? Can ye not hold communion with a good Christian of plain , unadorned sense and homespun manners ? Then is the cokoh
Untitled Article
4 B 0 j&iscdufse by Mrs , Barbautd .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 480, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/8/
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