Parochial and Plain Sermons

T is surely most nccessary fo beware, as our Lord solemnly bids us, of the lcaven of fhe Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. We may be infecfed with it even though we a.re hot conscious of our insincerity; for fhey did not ]«norv fhey werc hypocriIes. Nor need we bave any definite bad object plainly before us, for they had none,—only the vague desire to be seen and honoured by the world, such as may influence us. So it would seem, that there are vast multitudcs of Pharisaical hypocrites among baptized Christians; i.e. men professingwithont praetising . Nay, so far we mav be called hypoeritieal, one and all; for no Christian on earth altogether lires up fo his profession. But here some one may ask, whether in saying that 1Lvi)oerisy is professing  without praetising, I am hot, in thct, overthrowing all external religion from the foundation, sinee all ereeds, and prayers, and ordinances, go beyond the rem belief and frame of mind of even the best Christians. This is even the gïound whieh some men

4o Pj'ofcssioJz witho¢tt Hyiocriy. aetua.lly take. They say that if is wrong" fo baptize, and eail C1Mstians, those who have not yet shown themselves tobe really sueh. "As lnany as are ba.ptized inlo Christ, put on Christ;" so says the text, and these lnen argue from if, tha.t till we have aetully put on Christ, thag is, till we have g'iven our heart fo Christ's service, and in our degree beeome lmly as He is 1o1; if ean do no g'ood fo be baptized into Ilis naine, llalher ig is a. great evil, for if is fo beeome lypoerites. Ny, l-ea]ly humble, well-lntentioned men, feel this about themselves. Ther shrink ff'oto retainin the blessed filles,and privileg'es whieh Christ. g'ave them in infimey, as being" unvorhy o|' them; and they fear lest they are really hypocrites like the Pharisees, a.fter all their better thoughts and exerions. Now ghe obvious answer fo this mistaken -iew of religion is fo say, that, on the showing" of sueh reasoners, »o one af all ought to be baptized in a.ny case, and ealled a Christian; for no one aele KI) fo his baptismal profession; no one believes, worships, and obeys duly, the ]?ather, Son, and tIoly Ghost, whose servang he is ruade in baptism. And yet the Lord did say, "Go, baptize ail nations;" elearly showing us, that a man may be a. fit subjeet for bptism, though he does hot in f'aet praetise every thing that he professes, and therefore, that anv fears we may ha.ve, lest men should be in some sense like the Pharisees, must hot keep us from making" them Christians. But I sha.ll treat the subjeeg more af length, in order that we may understand wha.t kind of disobedienee is really hypoerisy, and what is hot, lest timid consciences should be fi-ightened. Now men profess without fcellng and doing, or arc hypocrites, in nothing so much as in their prayers. This is plaiu. Praycr is thc most directly religious of all out duties; and out falliug short of our duty, is, then, most clearly displayed. Therefore I will enlal'ge upon the case of prayer, to explain what I do hot mean by hypocrisy. We then use the most solemn wo«ds, ei{laer without attending to what we are saying, or (cven if we do attend) without worthily entering iuto its meaning. Thus we secm to resemble the Pharisees; a question in consequence arises, whether, this being the case, we should go on repeating prayers which cvidenlly do not suit us. The lncn I just now spoke of, aflirln tlmt we oug'ht to lea.ve them off. Accordiugly, such persons in their own case first give up the Church prayers, and take to othcrs which thcy thlnk will suit them better. Ncxt, when these disappoint them, they have recourse to what is called extcmpore prayer; and afterwards perhaps, discontcnted in turn with this mode of addressing Ahnighty God, and as unable to fix their though{s as fliey were before, they corne to the conclusion that they ought not fo pray, except when specially moved to prayer by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Now, in answer to such a manner of reasoning and acting, I would main{ain that no one is to be reckoned a Pharisee or hypocrite in his prayers who tries not to be onc,who aims at knowing and correc{ing himself, and who is accustomed 1o pray, though hot perfecfly, yet hot indo]ently or in a self-satisfied way; however lamentable his actual wanderings of mind may bc, or, again, however poorly he enters iuto the meaning of his pra.yeïs, even when he attends fo them. ]., First take the case of hot being" attettire fo the prayers. Men, if seems, a.re tempted to lcave off pra.yers beeause they camlot follow them, bceause they fiud their thoughts wander when they :epeat them. I answer, tha.t to pray atteutively is  ah't. Tllis must ever be kept in mind. ]X'o one $e]bts with having his heart thorough]y in thcln; but by trying, he is enabled to • ttend more and more, and af length, ai"ter ma.ny trials a.nd  long sehooling o' himsel', fo fix his mind steadily on them.:No oue (I repeat) $e]its with being attentive. Novelty in prayers is the cause of persons being attentive in the out.set, and novelty is out o' the question in the Church prayers, tbr we ha.ve heard them ff-oto ehildhood, and knew them by heart long before we could understa.nd them.:No one, then, when he first turns his thoughts fo religion, finds if easy fo l»ray; he is irregular in his religious feelings; he pritys more ea.rnestly af some rimes than a.t others; llis devotiona.1 seasons eome by fits and starts; he cannot aeeount for his state of mind, or reekon upon himself; he frequently finds tha.t he is more disposed for prayer af any rime and place than those set apa.rt for the purpose. Ail this is to be expected; for no ha.bit is formed t once; and bet%re the flame of religion in the hea.rt is purified and strengthened by long practice and experienee, of course if will be caprieious in its motions, if will tiare about (so to sa.y) and flicker, and af rimes seem almost to go out. However, impatient men do hot well conslder this; they overlook or are offended af the neeessity of humble, tedious practice to enable them to pray attentively, and they account for thcir coldness and wtmdcrlngs of thougllt in any way but the truc one. Somctimes they attribuée this inequlity in thcir religious feclings fo the arbitrary coming and going  of God's IIoly Spirit; t most irreverent and prcsumptuous iudgmcnt, which I should hot mention, except that men do brm it, and therefore it is necessary to state in ordcr to condemn it. Again, somefimes they think that they shall make themselves attentive all at once by bringing bcbre thcir minds the more sacred doctrines of the Goslel, and tlms rousing and constraining • tiroir souls. This does for a time; but when the novelty is over, they final themseves relapsing into their former inattention, without apparently having ruade any advance. And others, ag"ain, when discontented with their wandcrings during prayer, lay the fimlt on the prayers thcmsclves as bcing • too long. This is a common excuse, and I wish to call your attention toit. If any one alleges the le»gt]t of the Chm'ch praycrs as a reason for lais hot keeping his mind fixed upon them, I would beg him to ask lais conscience whether he sincerelv believes this to be at bottom the real cause of his inattention? Does he think he should attend te#er if the prayers vere shorter? This is the question he has fo consider. If he answers tlmt he believes he s]wuld attend more closely in that case, then I go on to ask, whether he attends more closely (as it is) to the first part of the service than to the last; whether his mind is his own, regularly fixed on what he is engaed in, for any rime in any part of the service?:Now, if he is obliged fo own that this is hOt the case, that his thoughts are wandcring in all parts of the service, and that even during fhe Confession, or the Lord's l'rayer, whlch come first, they arc not his own, if is quite c]ear t]mt it is not the le»/ of the service which is the real cause of his inattention, but his belng deficient i [he habi3 of being- attentive. If, on the other hand, he answers thaç he eau fix his thoughts for a rime, and during" the early part of the service, I would have him reflect that even this degree of attention was not always lais own, that has been the work of rime and practice; and, if by trying he has g'ot so thr, by trying he may go on and learn to attend for a still longer time, till af length he is able to keep up his attention through the whole service. Howcvcr, I wish ehiefly fo speak fo such as are dissatisfied with themselves, and despair of attending properly. Let a man once set his heart upon learning to pray, and strive to learn, and no failures he may eont.inue fo make in lais manner of praying are sufficient to cast him from God's favour. Let him but persevere, hot discouraged af his wanderings, hot frightened into a notion he is a hypocrite, hot shrinking ri'oto t.he honourable titles which God puts on him. Doubtless he should be humbled a{ his own weakness, indolence, and carelessness; and he should feel (he cannot feel too nuch) the guilt, alas! which he is ever contracting in hi prayers by the irreverence of his inattention. Still he must hot leave off his prayers, but g'o on looking towards Chris his Saviour. Let him but be in earnest, striving fo toaster his thoughts, and to be serious, and ail the guilt of his incidental failings will be washed away in his Lord's blood. On|y let him not be contented vith hinaselç; only let bim hot neglect to at[em21 to obey. What a simple rulc if is, fo t2¢ fo be attentive in ordcr tobe so! and yet it is continually overlooked; that is, we do not systetatically try, we do not naake a point o" attcmpting, and attenapting over and over again in spire oi  bad success; we attempt. only now and then, and our best devotion is naerely when out hearts are excited by some accident which mav or may not happen again. So nauch on inattention to oto" prayers, which, I say, should hot surprise or frighten us, which does hot prove us tobe hypocrites unless we acquiesce in if; or oblige us to leave them off, but rather fo learn to attend fo thena. g. I proceed, secondly, to remark on the diflîculty of en[eriu into the naeaning of thena, when we do attend to thena. IIere a tender conscience will ask, " tIow is it possible I tan rightly use the solenan words which occur in the prayers?" A tender conscience alone speaks thus. Those confident objectors whona I spoke of just now, who maintain that set prayer is necessarily a nacre formal service in the generality of instances, a service in which the heart has no part, they are silent here. They do hot feel t]is diflîculty, which is the real one; they use the most serious and awful words lightly and without remorse, as if they really entered into the naeaning of what is, in truth, beyond the intelligence of Angels. But the hunable and contrite believer, coming" to Christ for pardon and help, perceives the great strait he is in,

146 Professio without t]y)bocrisy. in having fo nddress the God of heaven. This perplexit of miud ifwas whieh led eonvineed sinners in former rimes to seek refuge in beings short of God; hot as denyiug God's supremacy, or shunning Him, but discerning the va.st distance between themselves and Hin b and seeking" some resting" places by the way, some Zoar, some littlc city near fo flee unto a, because of fle height of God's mountain, up which the way of escape lay. And then gradually becoming" devoted to those whom thcy trusted, Saints, Angels, or good men living, and copying" them, their faith had a fall, and their virtue trailed upon the ground, for want of props to rear it heavenward. We Christians, sinners though ve be like other men, are not allowed thus to debase out nature, or to defmud ourselves of God's mercy; and though it be very terrible to speak to the living God, yet spek ve must, or die; tell our sorrows we must, or there is no hope; for created mediators and patrons re f6rbidden us, and to trust in an arm of flesh is ruade 2. sin. Therefore let a man reflect, whoevcr from tenderness of conscience shuns the Church as above him (whe{her he shuns her services, or her sacraments), that, awful as it is to approaeh Christ, to speak fo IIim, to "eat IIis flcsh and drink tIis blood," and to lire in ttim, fo wko.m shall ]e go? Sec what it cornes to. Christ is the onlv way of slwtion open to sinners. Truly we are children, nd cnnot suitably feel the words which the Church teaches us, though we say them after ber, nor feel duly reverent af God's presenee! Yet let us but know out own ignorance and weakncss, and we arc sale. God accepts those who thus corne in faith, bringing" nothing as their offering', but  confession of sin. And this is the highest excellence to which we ordinarily attain; to understand our own hypocrisy, insincerity, and shallowness of mind,—to own, while we pray, that we cannot pray aright,—to repent of our repentings,and to submit omelves wholly to His judgment, who could indeed be extreme with us, but bas already shown IIis iovingkindness in bidding us fo pray. And, while we thus conduct ourselves, we must learn fo feel that God knows all this belote we say if, and tZar better than we do. He does hot need fo be informed ofour extreme worthlessness. We must pray in the spirit and the temper of the extremest abasement, but we need hot search for adequate words to express this, for in truth no words are bad enough for our case. Some men are dissatisfied with the confessions of sin we make in Church, as hot being" strong" enoug'h; but none cau be stron 8" enough; let us be satisfied with sober words, which bave been ever in use; it will be a great thing if we enter into t]tem.:No need of searching" for impassioned words to express our repentance, when we do hot rightly enter even into lhe most ordinary expressions. Thefore, when we pray let us hot be as the hypocrites, making" a show; nor use vain repetitions with the heathen; let us compose ourselves, and kneel down quietly as to a work far above us, preparing our minds for our own imperfection in prayêr, meekly repeatin the wonderful words of the Chureh our L o.

48 Profession withot! H,ocrisy. Teaeher, and ]esirin with the Angels to look into them. When we eall God out Father Almighty, or own ourselves miserable offenders, and beg Him o spare us, le us reeollee tha, though we,are using" a strang`e langamge, yet Chris is pleading for us in the saine words with full understanding of them, and availing" power; and that, though we know no what we should pray for as we oug`ht, yet the 8piri iself maketh intercession for us with plaints unutterable. Thus feelin God fo be around us and in us, and herefore keeping ourselves still and eolleeed, we shall serve Him aeeeptably, with reverenee and godly tçar; and we shall ake baek with us fo out eommon employments the assurance tha He is still gracions o us, in spire of out sins, hot willing we should perish, desirous of out perfection, nnd ready fo form us day by da.y after the fashion of hat divine image whieh in bapism was outwaMly samped upon us. I bave spoken only of our prayers,,and bu referred o out g`eneral profession of Chrisianity. [t is plain, however, what has been said about praying, may be applied fo `ail we do and say `as Chrisfians. I is true tha we profess fo be saints, fo be guided by the highest prineiples, and fo be ruled by the 8pirit of God. We have long" ago promised to believe and obey.  is also truc that we cannot do these things aright; nay, even with God's help (such is our sinful weakness), still ve fall short of our duty.:Nevertheless we must hot cease to profess. We must not put off from us the wedding garment which Christ gave us in baptism. Y% may still rejoice in Itim without being hypocrites, that is, if we labour day by day to make that wedding garment our own; to fix if on us and so incorporate it with our very selves, that dcath, which strips us of all things, nmy be unable fo tear if from us, though as yet if be in great measure but an outward garb, covering our own naledness. I conclude by reminding you, how great God's mercv is in thus allowing us to clothe ourselves in the glory of Christ from the first» evcn bcfore we are worthy  of it. I suppose there is nothing so distressing to a true Christian as to have fo _])ro;e limselJ" such to others; both as being, conscious of his own numberless fi, ilings, and from his dislike of display. Now Christ has antieipated the difficulties of his lnodesty, tic does hot allow such an one to speak for himself; IIe speals for him. IIe introduces each of us to his brethren, hot as we are in ourselves, fit tobe despised and rejected on account of" thc temptations which are in our flesh," but "as messengers of God, even as Christ Jesus." It is our happiness that ve need bring nothing in proof of our fellowship with Christians, besides our baptism. This is what a g'reat many persons do hot understand; the think that none are to be accounted fellow- Christians but those who evidenee themselves tobe such to their taallible understandings; and hence they encourage others, who wish for their praise, to practise all kinds of display, as a seal of their regcneration. Who can tell the harm this does to the true modesty of the Christian spirit? Instead of using the words of the Chureh, and sl»eaking to God, men are led fo use their own words, and make man their judge and justifier . They think it necessary to tell out their secret feelings, aad to enlal\q,e on what God lins donc to their own souls iu particulier. And thus making hemselves really answerable for all the words they use, which are altogether thcir own, they do in this case become hypocrites; they do say more than thev can in reality feel. Of course a religiots man will naturally, and nnawares, out of the very fulness of his heart, show lais deep feeling and his conscientiousness to his near ii-iends; but when fo do sois ruade amatter of necessity, an object tobe aimed at, and is an intedional act, then itis that hypocrisy mst, lnore or less, sttlly out faith. " As many of you as bave been baptized into Christ, bave put on Christ;" this is the Aposfle's decision. "There is neither Jew nor Grdek, there is neither bond nor i]'ee, there is neither male nor femme; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." The Church follows this rule, and bidding us keelO quiet, speaks for us; robes us f'om head fo foot in the ga'ments of righteousness, and exhorts us to live henceforth fo God. But the disputer ofthis world reverses this procedure; he strips off all our privileges, bids us renounce our dependence on the!Iother of saints, tells us we must each be a Church to himself, and must show himself to the world tobe by himself and in himself the elect of God, in order to prove his right to the privileges of a Christian.

Far be if from us thus to fight against God's gracious purposes to man, and to make the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died! Let us acknowledge all tobe Chrîstians, who bave hot by open word or dced renounced their fellowship with us, and let us try to lead them 5n into all truth. And for ourselves, let us endeavour fo enter more and more fully into the meaning • of out own prayers and professions; let us humble ourselves for the very little we do, and the poor advance we makc; let us avoid unnecessary display of religion; let us do our duty in hat state of lire to which God has callcd us. Thus proceeding , we shall, through God's grace, form wit.hil us the glorious mind of Christ. Whether rieh or poor, learned or unlearned, walkin by this rule, we shall become, at length, true saints, sons of God. We shall be upright and perfect, lights in the world, the image of Him who died that we might be conformed to His likeness.