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28 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES.

confirmed by its divine contents; its apparent contradictions reconciled; whilst all that is divine and holy, all that is good and true, all that is calculated to excite the veneration of intelligent beings, and the affection of penitent ones; all, in short, that has a tendency either to enlighten the human understanding, or to purify the human will ; either to edify, by the bright and profound lessons of divine truth, or to soften and console by the sweet and tender influences of the divine love, is perceived to proceed from this Divine Fountain, as its only source !

" Yet such is the transcendent glory, gain, and happiness imparted to every penitent and devout receiver of the above heavenly doctrines. Add to this, the nearness and connection between this world and another, demonstrated by such a weight of irresistible evidence; the great evangelical doctrines of faith, of charity, of repentance and remission of sins, of temptation, reformation, regeneration, the freedom of the will opened, explained, and enforced, according to their edifying and important meaning; the nature, also, and effect of the Last Judgment, the Lord's second advent, and the descent of the New Jerusalem, presented to view in all the brightness and fulness of truth, and confirmed by the testimony of the sure Word of prophecy; and some faint idea may then be formed of the immense debt of gratitude owing at

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