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But first of all let us attend a little to the word itself here used-profane. In the language out of which this has been transferred into our own, the word is made up of two other words, signifying far from (or away from) the temple. Now this will let us much into the light of its true meaning, at the very outset. It may with fairness be assumed of any man who is far from the temple, who has no concern with God's dwelling place, that he is either absent from it by his own habitual choice, because he has himself no love or care for the habitation where God's honour dwelleth; or that he has been hindered and forbidden from approaching there, as one unworthy to draw near unto that holy place. In either case, what sort of man will he be likely to be? Most certainly an irreligious man; a person who has no especial thought of God, nor any taste for spiritual things. And here it is that we arrive at the true force and

meaning of the word profane. It indicates a want of heavenly mindedness. Whereas the true and faithful Christian, in compliance with the Apostle's bidding and with a just sense of his profession, will set his affections on things above, not on things on the earth", the profane person

a Col. iii. 1.

will have no such care; he will only mind earthly things.

Simply then, according to the general sense and tenour of the New Testament, to be profane is to be earthly-minded, irreligious, unspiritual. It does not mean at all the same thing with positive wickedness. So far from it, a person (on the one hand) may be very profane, utterly neglectful of the things which are peculiarly God's, and yet be a kind-hearted man among his neighbours; he may be an honest man (according to the pattern which is called honesty in men's familiar speech) in all his general dealings; his feet may neither run to evil, nor make haste to shed blood". And yet may GOD himself and His more solemn worship, and JESUS CHRIST and HIS Church, and in particular the Sacrament of HIS most blessed body and blood; all things, in short, more properly relating to the soul of man and to the prospect of the life to come, be just as nothing to him-mere foolishness-never in all his thoughts! He may, moreover, be a sinner with the tongue in the particular point of cursing and of swearing, (which may be looked upon as the distinctive overt act of profaneness,) and given to all manner of Prov. i. 16.

irreverent and foolish talking, such as the Apostle says is "not convenient;" i. e. not fitting with the Christian character.

And (on the other hand) another may be very wicked, may be that most offensive and most hopeless of offenders, a confirmed hypocrite, and yet not be profane at all. He may be ready to cry out with Jehu, Come, see my zeal for the "Lord";" he may be no less than a regular frequenter of God's public service; may know and be convinced of the importance of heavenly things; may regulate his tongue that it shall neither swear, nor utter blasphemy; and yet have " eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin," or "an heart exercised with "covetous practices." Nothing, for example, can be less profane than the deportment and the character of Balaam, whose name is mentioned by St. Peter in connexion with the words just quoted, of whom it is affirmed expressly that he "loved the wages of unrighteousness ;" and (by another Apostle) that he " taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, "to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to com"mit fornicationf."

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c Eph. v. 4.

* 2 Kings x. 16.

• 2 Pet. ii. 14.

1 Rev. ii. 14.

All these things are as possible, as real, as the things we said before, and the difference between the two characters is this; that the first is grievously profane, though not so palpably and grossly wicked; the latter is abominably wicked, though not by any means profane. So that profaneness (let us understand) is not wickedness, so much as irreligion, or (as already said) the want of heavenly-mindedness.

With this view of the word itself to keep us on our way, let us proceed now to our first particular, and trace the features of profaneness in the character of Esau.

I. Now the sum total of what the Scripture tells us concerning this " profane person" is not much; yet such is the peculiar power and fulness of instruction in the Scriptures, that it is enough to give us means of forming a correct notion of his whole character.

The first we read of him is in the account of his remarkable birth; but this is not material to our present purpose, and therefore does not call for any observation now. We next trace him in his boyhood; not meaning in its very earliest stages, but pointing rather to that time of life at which the boy passes into the man,

* Gen. xxv. 27.

and disposition fairly shows itself, and habits are formed. "The boys grew," (it is said :) " and Esau

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was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and "Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents".' The one liked thoughtful and domestic occupations better; the other (Esau) loved his sports and pleasures. Jacob was of a more grave and sober, Esau of a less considerate and wilder, turn. This seems to be a broad and marked distinction, to be inferred without dispute from the historian's expressions; and the great lines of Esau's mind and temper thus are drawn in one short

sentence.

The next particular related of him is one of great importance; being no less than that circumstance which, most of all others, discovers the profaneness of Esau. The account of it, as given in Scripture, follows immediately on the description just referred to of his general character; but probably some space of years is to be understood as having passed between the dates in contemplation of the sacred writer in the one place and in the other. The narrative of the particular fact runs thus.

Having endeavoured, towards the close of the preface, to guard against any too confined and unworthily specific application of the particular terms in which Esau is thus described, I need not take further pains on that point here.

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