ted, earth and heaven combined against them; when they find all holy, happy spirits-all the dignity of the human character-all that makes man man, heaven heaven, and God God, leagued for their destruction, it is very possible, my brethren, that this kind of fear may produce greater terror upon the mind than any thing else. They may easily mistake the slavish fear of punishment for true contrition for their crimes. This fear of punishment is very different from that repentance unto life, that godly sorrow and hatred of sin, which true religion requires. Real repentance consists in a deep sense of personal guilt, an acquiescence in the rules of Divine justice, and a hatred of ourselves. This is that repentance which is alone availing, that produceth godly sorrow, that will effect an alteration of principle and conduct; but how is this possible when the experiment cannot be made, and God may put eternity upon their fate, and transmit them to that state and condition from whence there is no return? "Watch and pray, therefore, my brethren, lest ye enter into temptation." Avoid vicious company-resist the first enticement to scenes where pleasure spreads its unlawful charms, where ambition holds out to view its more glittering prizes, and where indolence tempts into effeminate indulgence. Let us pray to God that we may "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth most easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us."

Vice has two aspects: one is flattering to the sense when you approach it, but when you have yielded to its allurement it wears a ghastly form. Remember, it is impossible to be happy but in the favour of God, and in the approbation of your own conscience; for the throbbings of a guilty bosom would poison all your pleasures. For this purpose let me, in conclusion, impress upon your minds the necessity of possessing a solemn fear of God. Prudence and worldly policy may do in some seasons and situations, but there are temptations against which nothing can arm us but the fear of God. Flee from the company of the wicked; "misery and destruction are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known," because "the fear of God is not before their eyes." The fear of God, my brethren, will keep us safe in solitude. The fear of God will keep us safe in the unguarded moments of cheerfulness or mirth. The fear of God will quench the fiery lust of passion. The fear of God will be our polar star to guide us through life. He that has virtue, founded upon reason and true religion, is likened by our Saviour "unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."

Let us determine upon a holy life, let us place ourselves by prayer under the hands of the Almighty. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Those unhappy men who were executed yesterday confessed they began their wicked course by breaking the Sabbath, and by neglecting the worship of God on his holy day. God has thus punished their contempt of religion; they forsook God, and He forsook them; they lost their virtue and probity when they VOL. IV.-Oo

lost his fear. He has thus determined, in the order of his providence, that the laws of God and man should inflict their united punishment together. Let us take the warning. Never think, my friends, of being virtuous or happy in any other way, or on any other principle but that of piety. Live in the fear and love of God, and, possessing these, when He, "who, without respect of persons, will judge every man according to his work," shall come, we may humbly hope "to find mercy of the Lord in that day."

XXXV.

THE HYPOCRITE'S INCONSTANCY IN PRAYER EX

PLAINED.*

JOB, Xxvii., 10: Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day evening, May 7, 1826.]

THE character to which these words refer is that of the hypocrite. In the preceding words Job asks, "What is the hope of the hypocrite when God taketh away his soul?" The term “ hypocrite" is not used in the Old Testament in the same restricted sense which it now commonly bears, as applied to the conscious pretender to piety; it is there used in a more enlarged meaning, and comprehends every insincere, self-deluding professor of religion, though not supposed to act a part for the purpose of imposing upon others. Many tests are applied in Scripture by which such a character may be tried: one of those tests occurs in the text; in which (according to a well-known mode of speech) the form of a question is used to express a more animated and energetic denial; and in which it is implied, first, that the hypocrite may sometimes call upon God; but, secondly, that he will be essentially defective, by the want of constancy in this practice; he will not delight himself in the Almighty; he will not always call upon God.

I. It is supposed that such a person may for a time observe the practice of prayer. This is no strange or improbable supposition, Prayer, on certain occasions, appears to be almost an instinct of nature. In any sudden calamity, when the creature feels his utter weakness and dependance, and is strongly impressed by the sense of an invisible superior power, at whose disposal he is, it is next to impossible for the most irreverent and stout-hearted not to utter an ejaculation of prayer--just as even the pagan sailors, in the shipwreck of Jonah, not only cried every one to his god, but urged the prophet to call upon Jehovah, and joined him in his prayer to the God of Israel. But if prayer is the voice of nature in the hour of extremity, still more may it be expected from those who live under the light of revelation. In Christian countries, it may be presumed that few live in an ab

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

solute neglect of this duty, though by far the greater number neglect it according to its only true and valuable exercise. A deathbed without a sentiment of prayer, where time was allowed to the dying, would be almost too unnatural for fiction itself. Many afflicting visitations of Providence, many impressive means of grace, and alarming representations of sin and judgment, occasion prayer in almost every breast. When conscience is awakened and goaded by the commission of some more than ordinary transgression, the criminal, though destitute of the fear of God, will scarcely refrain from the cry, "God be merciful!" When a season of public terror overtakes a nation, when pestilence rages, and in the midst of life and the scenes of gayety one and another falls on the right and left, prayer will often escape from the trembling survivers. As prayer is merely an instrumental duty, it may be more or less spiritual and earnest. Simon Magus, in the gall of bitterness, uttered a prayer.

II. The chief want of the hypocrite is the want of constancy and perseverance in this sacred exercise. And here we may consider why those who are unconverted in heart-who are not objects of the Divine favour, nor subjects of the Divine grace-why such persons are thus essentially defective.

1. They want the Spirit of God; which is "the Spirit of grace and supplications"-the Spirit that implores grace and utters supplications, causing those on whom it is bestowed to "look on Him whom they have pierced," and to "mourn apart" over the sins by which they have pierced Him. This is the first dictate of the renewed spirit; it is the spirit of prayer; and there is just as much religion in any man as there is of this spirit. The hypocrite has none of this spirit of prayer; he wants this vital principle; he has not received this new law of the new nature. No sooner was Saul convinced of his guilt, than it is said, "Behold, he prayeth :" it was the first symptom of the new life which he had received; and his future breath was that of prayer. If you have not this spirit, begin with asking earnestly for it; if you have it, exercise it diligently, and ask for its increase "Men," says our Saviour, "ought always to pray, and not to faint."

2. A second reason why the hypocrite fails to persevere in prayer, is that which the text expresses in the former clause: he does not delight in God. Those in whom we take delight, we frequently approach; those in whose converse we find no pleasure, we avoid. Of Doeg, the Edomite, the murderer of the priests, it is said that he was "detained in the presence of the Lord." Men are alienated from God, until a change has passed upon their hearts. But if we love God, though we see Him not, our thoughts will seek him by meditation our desires by prayer. To others prayer is like a burden dragged after them with trouble, and let fall as soon as possible-an encumbrance that does not belong to them, from which they are glad to escape. The blessed God is to be loved and sought for himself in the first place, and not merely for his gifts; but hypocrites desire only what God gives, not what He is in himself: if they pray, it is for his inferior favours, not for a communication of his own blessed spiritu

ality; they have no sympathy with the Psalmist when he said, “My soul is athirst for God, even for the living God."

3. This leads us to notice, as a third reason for their inconstancy in prayer, that hypocrites do not feel their wants. The poor in spirit are the true disciples of Christ; such as feel their spiritual wantssuch as thirst for what they have tasted indeed, but merely tasted; they have tasted the streams, and they long to drink at the fountainthey groan under the feeling of their own emptiness, and aspire after the fulness that dwells in God-they are always pressing on, through all difficulties and trials, to their heavenly home-they are often ready to sink, often crying out, "Hold thou me up :" they have to fight against a combination of powers-they want aid for their weakness; and pray with all prayer, as the grand weapon of their warfare. Others may be rejoicing in their corn and wine, but the good things of this life will not satisfy their spiritualized desires; and with groanings that cannot be uttered, the Spirit is often breathing in their hearts the desire, "Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us!"

4. Hypocrites neglect prayer because they cannot reconcile its exercise with the practice of sin. All unconverted persons indulge some neglect or act which their conscience disapproves. The Puritan divines had a saying, "Either sin will make a man leave off prayer, or prayer will make him leave off sin." One of the two must necessarily increase, the other decrease. How can that man who lives in indulged rebellion against his Maker, and "rushes on the thick bosses of God's buckler," dare to pray? How can he who perseveres in prayer, return from that sacred exercise "as a dog to his vomit, as a sow to her wallowing in the mire?" Sin repented is an urgent incentive to prayer; as the penitent publican smote upon his breast and prayed; but sin indulged is the quenching of the spirit of prayer; had the publican resolved to retain his sin-had he rolled it as a sweet morsel under his tongue, never could the cry have risen from his heart, "God be merciful to me a sinner.”

5. The prayers of the hypocrite tend to their own extinction. In such prayers there is no principle of vitality. Such a person merely wants to gain a smooth opinion of his state, a false peace, the forced quiet of an accusing conscience: sin is felt as alarming, but not hated; the hypocrite would have his wound healed slightly; he hopes to be cured, as it were, by his own duty, not by the blood of Christ; and thus he goes on in an alternate performance and neglect of prayer, in alternate fits of devotion and irreligion: his prayers have a tendency to terminate themselves; they are "like the morning cloud and early dew that soon passes away."

Are none such present? Why, then, did you leave off prayer? You prayed that you might obtain peace, and no sooner had you obtained it than you ceased to pray. Your prayers only calmed you in vain, lulled you into a more fatal security than ever, otherwise you would have persevered and increased in prayer to the end. The advice to such is, count all your past devotion as nothing: living without prayer, you are living without God: begin your religion afresh, by repentance

and faith penitently cry to God for his Spirit, the Spirit that manifests and endears Christ to the heart. Never will you find rest until you find it in his arms: He only is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man can come to the Father but by Him." Then will your prayers be owned and crowned by God.

But estrange yourself from God by neglect of prayer, and He will estrange himself from you: this is to shut out the fulness of God from your soul, to thrust away from you the overture of eternal life! The deathbed reserves its keenest anguish for those who, in the midst of religious advantages, never pray. How shall your heart endure, or your hands be strong, in the day when He shall deal with those who have thus neglected Him?

XXXVI.

COVETOUSNESS.*

Luke, xii., 15: And He said unto them, Take heed and beware of

covetousness.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day evening, Feb. 7th, 1831. Mr. Hall's last sermon.]

THE Saviour of mankind, when He appeared in the world, appeared in the character of a servant. While, however, this was the case, here existed a general impression of his dignity and greatness. This is evident from the passage now under consideration, where we are informed that a certain person came to ask Him to interfere in the distribution of certain property. But He did not come into the world for such a purpose; He came "to redeem Israel." He might, certainly, have exercised his authority in the manner solicited; but it formed no part of his mission to mankind. He did not, however, let the opportunity escape Him which this incident afforded of imparting instruction, but immediately embraced it for that purpose; and He here gives a lesson to his disciples who surrounded Him which it would be well for us also to improve. "And He said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

In considering this portion of Divine truth, with a view to our edification, we shall,

First, Endeavour to show in what covetousness consists.

It must be very obvious, to every reflecting mind, that the mere possession of wealth is not inconsistent with Christianity, any more than with the former dispensation. Abraham, Solomon, Josiah, and, in later times, Joseph of Arimathea, were distinguished for their extensive possessions. There were also wealthy persons in the Chris tian Church, for there was no division of property beyond the pre

* From the notes of the Rev. F. Trestrail.