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SERMON VIII.

ST. MATTHEW, xxiii. 5.

"BUT ALL THEIR WORKS THEY DO, FOR TO BE SEEN OF MEN.

SUCH is the severe and heavy charge, brought by our blessed Lord, against the Pharisees. And would to God, that the same charge did not lie now, in full force, against a fearfully large proportion, of those who call themselves Christians! But it is my painful duty, to say that it does so lie. And I am convinced that no man, who gives his full attention to the subject, could avoid agreeing with me, in this opinion. But here is the misfortune; that men are so rarely brought to give a calm and candid hearing, to any arguments delivered from the pulpit. When a jury are empannelled, to hear and determine on life or property, their whole minds are engaged; not a word, which the witnesses depose, or the counsel urge, is suffered to pass unheeded: because, here, the matter is felt to be of consequence. But, in the things that concern religion, we may speak, and the mouth of the Lord may speak and those who should sit, not merely with the attention of the juryman, but with the trembling interest of the

prisoner at the bar,-these men will sit, and sit it out, because it is decent to do so: but they will be thinking of anything, but what we are saying; and feel anxious, only, that the sermon may not be unreasonably long. But so it is, and will be, and ever must be, while men live to the world, and not to God; and value their properties and their bodies, above their salvation and their souls. But this is anticipating what I intend as the main subject of my discourse. I have said thus much, merely in hopes of securing, what I beg leave now to entreat, a fair and attentive hearing.

It is quite plain, and beyond all controversy, that the Scriptures speak of the race of man, as fallen from their first estate; as having all sinned and died in Adam; as universally in a state of corruption and depravity, of alienation from, and enmity towards, God: that they speak, not of a few, or of many, having corrupted their way; but assert, that the whole world,-excepting in the instance of those who are in Christ Jesus, and separated from the world, by the grace of the Gospel-that the whole world lieth in wickedness, and under the curse of God's broken law. For the truth of this, I refer you to your Bibles. Indeed no man, who reads the Scriptures, or who is a consistent member of the Church of England, can deny it.

Yet, clear as the doctrine of the universal depravity of our nature is, it does not appear so evident, when we come to look into the various characters of men-I mean of those who are, decidedly and avowedly, not under the influences of religion-it does not, I say, after such an examination, clearly appear, in what this depravity consists. If we say, that none but truly pious men, have any kindly, amiable, or honourable feeling; facts will at once disprove it. If we say, that the whole of society, who are regardless of religion, are one uniform mass of moral deformity, and that there is no distinction between man and man, except that of religious and irreligious; we take a ground, which it is impossible for us to maintain. Every one's experience can contradict us. I have myself known some, who laugh at all spiritual religion, and yet upon whose word I would, in any honorable transaction, place a strong reliance-men who are of bland tempers in domestic life; who would scorn to take a paltry advantage; and who can shed the tears of tender sympathy, at a tale of misery. And are these exactly on a par, as to their moral level, with the selfish, hard, and brutish natures, who can yield no milk of human kindness, who grind the faces of the poor, who are without natural affection, and if a son ask bread, give him a stone, or if he ask a

fish, a serpent? No. You might as well, and even better, include all the inferior animals, in the same sweeping clause of condemnation; and put no difference between the fidelity of the dog, and the treachery of the tiger; between the cunning of the serpent, and the harmless simplicity of the dove.

If, then, plain facts and experience prove, that such vast varieties are to be found, in unregenerate men; and if the Scriptures, at the same time, describe them, as all the children of wrath, and included under sin; in what does that sin consist? What is that defect, or principle of corruption, or character of evil, or by whatever name we describe that root of bitterness, which constitutes man by nature-whatever modifications and shades that nature may be capable of-which constitutes him a sinner before God?

This question can be answered at once: for the master-mind of Chalmers has already set the whole at rest, in one word. It is ungodliness. It is separation, in heart and mind, from the Author of his being, and the principle of his spiritual life. It is living without God in the world.

Now, however worldly men may differ from each other, in a thousand various ways; they all agree in this, that they withhold from God, the things that are God's. As different in mind, as in the

outward expression of their faces, yet here they are all united. Against God's claims, they are firmly leagued, and of one heart and soul. As the Psalmist describes the nations who conspired against Israel; "They have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Amand Amalek; the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre. Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot." (Ps. lxxxiii. 5-8.) It is not (need I say?) that God is formally denied in name. No: but what I do most soberly mean, is, that God is acknowledged, by the world at large, in name alone. He is denied that place in men's habits of thinking, and feeling, and living, which is due to him, as God. And, consequently, all such are, virtually, and to every real purpose, and in the estimation of Heaven, Atheists. They may, perhaps, come to church, and prayers, and sacraments,-nay, and sometimes, from a double delusion, think they are doing all this from the purest motives-when their hearts are as much steeled against God, and they are as fully determined that no argument shall persuade them to come nearer to God, than the world around them do, as much determined on this, as the holy angels are, on serving God with all their power,