sented is that of careless, indolent, lifeless hearers of the gospel, who notwithstanding all the means of grace, which are showered down in so great abundance upon them, still remain hard and impenitent, indifferent and unconcerned.It is not to be doubted but our Saviour meant to design both these characters. We shall, therefore, consider each of them by itself, under this separate view.

That all who profess christianity are not really christians, is a truth too obvious to need any demonstration-for the first of the classes of unprofitable hearers of the gospel now mentioned, namely, that of hypocrites, includes but too great a number of the frequenters of our religious assemblies; as under it may be comprehended, at least, all those whose lives are visibly inconsistent with the profession of religion, with the genius and spirit of that gospel which they pretend to believe, by giving their personal attendance upon some of its ordinances—perhaps by their talking and arguing in defence of it, and even by recommending it to the choice of others. For we can easily suppose—and there really are such characters in abundance, through every corner of the land-we can easily suppose, I say, a man who is able to support with warmth, nay, with judgment

who

and good sense, the truth, importance, and high advantages of our holy religion in general, and inculcate its particular doctrines with earnestness and zeal, and yet his life at the very same time may be a flat contradiction to those tenets which he so vigorously maintains. We meet with people every day who would take it very heinously amiss to have their knowledge in religious matters called in question; who, notwithstanding, make no sort of scruple to live in the habitual neglect of the plainest and most obvious duties of religion, and in open contradiction to, and contempt of, its most important precepts; many would not for the world desert religion in the way of argument, who in their practice dispense with its most sacred obligations, by committing all manner of iniquity with greediness. But we may justly suppose the character to go a great deal farther there are many who not only defend the truth and doctrines of christianity with ardour, and give their testimony in its favour as a recommendation to others, but are likewise abundantly diligent and regular in the observance of its more obvious duties, and in keeping at the utmost distance from the more enormous vices it forbids: we may even suppose a person of this character going the length of performing, with a scrupulous exactness, the public, the private, nay, the secret

duties of religion, and carefully abstaining from all appearance of evil; and yet, pity it is-all this may take place, where a heart-felt love to God and religion is wholly wanting-it is the heart chiefly, it is the heart only that God seeks, this is the fruit he expects and requires; without this, it is in vain to think of pleasing him: every thing else is but blossom and leaves, liable to be nipped and blasted by every transient storm of affliction, opposition, or persecution for Christ's sake and the gospel's-and which may fall off un timely, and no fruit ensue correspondent to so fair a prospect. We find God himself exhibiting a charge to this purpose against his ancient peo ple by the prophet Isaiah: "This people draw "near me with their mouth, and with their lips "do they honour me, but have removed their "heart far from me." Would to God, the Christian church were not chargeable in the same

manner.

The hypocrite is the most unaccountable character in nature. To see a person submit to what must be to him a slavery, a mere drudgery, the performance of a certain and constant round of duties to see him practise a thousand acts of mortification and self-denial for the sake of what he does not love: to be obliged always to sup

port a character he does not comprehend, and which must, of course, sit very uneasy upon him. In a word, to see one doing that with trouble and constraint, which might be done with ease and delight, bestowing more labour to acquire the semblance, than would be sufficient to arrive at the substance-to see one possessed of such an extravagant degree of folly, is more than reason can account for, even from the present corrupted state of human nature. Such a person must be sensible, as his practice evinces, that religion is of the last consequence; he must be convinced that he himself is under certain obligations to attend to it; but his conviction, alas ! does not go deep enough to engage his heart in the cause. Hence there cannot be such a thing as stedfastness or uniformity in his conduct: as his aim is to obtain rather the approbation of the world, the good opinion of his fellow men, than of God and his own conscience-his conduct still pointing invariably to this loadstone, must be like the humours and opinions of men, fluctuating and unstable. Of course there can be no "growth "in grace," no "fruit unto holiness;" for the root from which alone these can spring is a principle of faith in the Redeemer, even a “faith "that worketh by love, that purifieth the heart, "and that overcometh the world:" to which the

hypocrite must of necessity be a stranger. And it is of some importance, surely, for us to enquire how far such a character may belong to ourselves, and to be diligent, honest, and impartial in making such an enquiry, as there is no point in which we are more apt to deceive ourselves than this.Nothing is more common than to see men without scruple or ceremony accuse others of hypocrisy, however chargeable with presumption such a conduct may be, and however inconsistent with that spirit of " charity" which "thinketh no " evil;" but too, too seldom do we find ourselves disposed to call in question, to suspect our own sincerity, though we are undoubtedly at greater liberty and much better qualified to examine into, and determine upon our own conduct and its motives, than that of any other person. Let us beware of imagining, therefore, that because we may have got our heads filled with a number of speculative notions respecting religion, or because we are able to talk with fluency, and reason with precision upon it, that we are therefore truly religious; but let us ever carry about with us a spirit of humility and self-denial, a deep sense of the weakness of our own understanding, of the small extent of our knowledge, of the worthlessness and inefficacy of all our performances-and by this mark may we try ourselves-unless we