errors of the day are usually sufficient for this purpose. Infidelity and Socinianism mislead some; but a low and false estimate of the great and genuine features of the Gospel betrays and ruins by far the greater number. Men learn to conceive lightly or falsely of man's total fall and apostacy from God, of the almighty operations of divine grace, of the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, of justification by faith alone, of union with Christ, of deadness to the world, of devotedness to God, of unreserved and consistent obedience to his commands. In the place of this, the notion of a remedial law, of meritorious conditions in the covenant of grace, of a double justification, of spiritual grace necessarily, uniformly, and almost exclusively conveyed in baptism, and in the Supper of the Lord, tends directly to depreciate the importance of real godliness, and to substitute merely human endeavour, a dead faith, a general and indefinite notion of a Saviour, the decent exterior of religion, and a civil conduct in society, for the virtue, and life, and grace, and unction, and spirituality of true and unadulterated Christianity.

And now the formal worshipper is prepared to DENY, as the text expresses it, the power of godliness. MANY DO THIS DIRECTLY and ABSOLUTELY. They contend against all real spiritual piety. They actually reject the whole system of

instruction which is founded on the doctrine of the entire fall and corruption of our nature, and the necessity of a radical and universal change of heart and life. They sometimes proceed to an open opposition against these plain and essential truths, and those who sincerely and cordially receive them. In their families and neighbourhoods, they mark with contempt the individuals who maintain and exhibit the influence and force of divine grace. So far as the laws of our land will allow it, they will even pursue the true Christian by direct ill offices and hostility. The semblance of religion which they preserve, and the exterior decency of their conduct, sustain them, in the mean time, in their error. They may conceive that they are doing God service. Their minds are made up. They have a scheme of doctrine of their own. Their standard is fixed. Their general society and habits, the natural hardness of the human heart, its alienation from the life of God, and the subtle malice of Satan, all conspire to lull them asleep in their dangerous security. The Holy Scriptures are read partially, and without fervent prayer for divine illumination. The offices and services and articles of our pure and apostolical church are wrested from their obvious meaning, and made to do homage to the prejudices of the day. Thus an almost impregnable barrier is thrown around, and the strong man

armed, to adopt our Saviour's language, keepeth his palace, and his goods are in peace.

Where the evil does not proceed to this length, the formalist still DENIES PRACTICALLY AND VIRTUALLY, the power of religion, which he may have too much knowledge, or sense of truth, directly to oppose. His life refutes what his tongue may possibly express. He admits perhaps in words the truth and excellency of sincere piety; but the language of his habitual conduct and temper is, I will not renounce the pleasures and reputation of the world; I will not receive the humiliating doctrines of the utter inability of man, and of salvation by grace through faith in the death of Christ; I will not be taught and guided by the Holy Spirit; I will not submit myself to the laws of God.' These persons exemplify the practical denial of the real grace of God, and are contented to remain on the low level of merely human virtue. They may be ainiable, but they are not religious; they may be sincere, but they are not enlightened; they may be engaging, but they are not spiritual; they may consent to serious statements of religion, but they do not feel them; they may talk, but they do not act; they may be moral and decent, free from licentious irregularities, and distinguished by a worldly moderation and temperance; but they are not holy, spiritual, zealous, and entirely devoted to God.

They are deceiving themselves. They have no sufficient conviction of their sins. They are governed by a prevailing regard to the present life; are proud of their imagined attainments; and God and his supreme claim on their love are forgotten. The salt is without its savour; the lamp without its oil; the scaffolding without a building; the guest without the weddinggarment; the body without a soul. It is not the living Christian, but a picture. It is not David, but an image and pillow of goat's hair. It is not wheat, but chaff; not inward purity, but the washing of the outside of the cup and platter; the whited sepulchre; a name to live whilst we are dead.

THE FINAL TENDENCY of this adherence to the mere semblance of piety may be learnt from the statements which introduce the text. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good; traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. How terrible a picture; and how calculated to inspire us with a dread of mere formality in religion! It is observable that the enumeration begins with the vice of selfishness and ends with that of sensuality. This may possibly be designed to teach us that

Р

men depart from God by being lovers of their own selves; and terminate their apostacy by being lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; whilst the vain appearances and decencies of religion are partly the cause, and partly the effect of both. So that this perilous state of lifeless conformity, trifling as the evil may appear at first, may reduce men at last to nearly the same condition as the unenlightened heathens. The list of their vices, as given us in the first chapter of the Romans, resembles in almost every particular the one we have just recited, and seems to teach us that, if the power of religion be lost, all is lost; and that, whatever be the outward form of piety, the corrupt heart of man will gradually sink to the same abyss of disorder and immorality, from which the genuine doctrines of salvation, and the mighty grace of God attending them, alone can deliver it.

I proceed, then, in applying the subject, to address myself,

I. TO THOSE WHO HAVE TOO MUCH REASON TO FEAR THAT THEY HAVE THE FORM OF GODLINESS WITHOUT THE POWER.

And here I would wish to speak with unfeigned respect and tenderness. I would address you with the most friendly intentions, and in the accents of kindness and affection. I am