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CHAPTER III.


CONCLUSION.


"A day of clouds and of thick darkness," indeed, must that have been, when even the men of christendom could not see that all who die in infancy must have their abode among the blessed;—when the most learned expounders of the Christian religion, believed and taught the dreadful doctrine of infant damnation. And when the mind of Christians generally were involved in such thick darkness upon this subject, could they have been in a high degree of illustration upon others? Impossible. In every religious system, the doctrines are found, on a close examination, to be intimately connected. They all have a kind of family likeness. No great and glaring falsehood ever stands alone. A single great error in any system, whether of philosophy or religion, is a thing unheard of. It can stand there only by virtue of its close alliance with other kindred errors, whence also it derives support. So great a falsity, therefore, as the Old doctrine of infant damnation, could no more stand alone in any theological system, or as an integral