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to take "their good things" altogether among those passing vanities which are to perish with the using?

But note (again) the other feature which was mentioned as of positive profaneness in the mind of Esau ;—his rash, unholy, wilful marriage with an evil race. I would not urge a parallel of this sort too far, in which undoubtedly there are no trifling differences between his case and ours; but, Christian brethren, I may say with confidence as far as this-that we shall not be clear from this same sign and this great danger of profaneness, until it shall be found at least the general rule of Christian wedlock, that it be undertaken "soberly, discreetly, reverently, and in the "fear of God." How far the case is so, or otherwise, among us, judge for yourselves.

The special features, then, thus marked in Scripture as the evidence of Esau's profaneness, are not uncommon in the Christian world; and it is clearly possible, at any rate, for us to do as he did; that is, renounce our covenanted right to the divine promises, by yielding to the influence of like temptation.

§. 2. But it is not my object to enlarge on these specific acts. What more concerns us is,

* Cf. Luke xvi. 25.

to mark the loose and careless tone of general character which seems to have produced them. That is the thing which so much needs a warning voice, and is so much to be avoided. From whence then may we judge that Esau grew profane and irreligious? and by what courses was his disregard of spiritual things too probably confirmed?

It is quite plain his general habits were of the free and sensual kind. "A skilful hunter and a "man of the field;" a man of warm and hasty temper, and unaccustomed to control either his passion or his appetite; no doubt, addicted to indulgences to eat, and drink, and to be merry; averse to grave and serious subjects; living by sight, and not by faith ;-who cannot fill up the picture? Or who (transferring but the scene to these our own times, and recollecting that the elements of human nature have been and are at all times just the same, who) cannot perceive the class to which this sort of character must, now-adays, be said to belong? who cannot trace the features of the good companion, the seeker of diversion and of pastime; the indolent and easy mind of those (whatever be their special bent) who are in truth what the Apostle calls "lovers

y 2 Tim. iii. 4.

"of pleasures more than lovers of God;" whose disposition is, in brief, the very opposite of Christian sober-mindedness"?

But here the Christian preacher must refrain. It would be little fitted to the sacredness of this place to follow the description too minutely. Your own experience must supply the rest; reminding you of what the chief transgressions of the divine law are, with which this class of habits (in whatever rank of life) are apt to be accompanied―as, lawless and licentious conversation, and every other branch perhaps of "evil communication, tending to corrupt good manners." Your own experience of the ways of men must show you thesea.

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2 Cf. Titus ii. 6.

a From the extreme importance of the subject, I hope to be excused for touching on a very painful question in a note.

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In looking to the whole connexion of the Apostle's words in the place from whence the text is taken, it seems too probable that fornication was among the causes which estranged the mind of the unhappy Esau from eternal things. "Follow peace with all men" (says St. Paul)" and holiness, without “which no man shall see the Lord; looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitter"ness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; "lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, "who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right."

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It is but honest to allow, the words may or may not intend

The business of the servant of the Lord, on such a subject, is rather to forewarn you in the general, and with a solemn earnestness, to what a state and frame of mind (that is, to what a condition of the whole inner man) this tone of character is apt to lead; in what a settled disposition it is like to end. Which disposition is no less, than a complete spirit of profaneness, or (in other words) of hardened and habitual irreligion; producing an aversion to all thoughts and things which most concern the soul, and falling at the last, too often, into "an evil heart of unbelief," and wilful forfeiture of all the Christian's hope of an eternal inheritance.

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And do not fancy that this sort of character cannot be very evil, because it may be often found

to impute that grievous sin to Esau; it is not positively clear whether they do, or do not. But it is eminently probable (without recurring to assertions of the Targums*) that this may have been among the rocks on which he suffered shipwreck of his faith and of a good conscience, both from the nature of the sin itself, which so peculiarly indisposes the whole heart and spirit of a man to heavenly things, and also from the way in which we find that Esau married wilfully into a loose and vicious stock, instead of choosing to himself a partner from among the faithful and the virtuous. The point, with all its bearings, is well deserving of a Christian's calm and serious reflection.

* See Whitby on Heb. xii. 16.

combined with many generous and pleasant qualities. Alas! this is the very thing that constitutes its chief danger. There is no wisdom in denying it such praise as really may be its due. There is no need to darken all the shades of it, so as to confound at once our own best judgment, and to go beyond the truth. Nay, rather let us be aware of every thing which may be said for it, or we shall lose our best security. Such character is quite compatible with many better feelings, with much of kindness, and of warmth of heart; with hospitality, and friendliness, and common honesty, and all the qualities which win men's praise, of that description. It may consist with much good will of neighbours, and with an exercise of many of the lower acts of charity. It was found joined with much that we can like, in Esau's case; it may be so in any man's. But Esau was, as we have seen, a profane person; and though we need not make him worse than really he was, and must not speculate, or dare to speak, about his final sentence, we see that he is pointedly held up to Christians as a warning. His character is set before us, as a character to be avoided. And as we "' know "how that afterward, when he would have in"herited the blessing, he was rejected: for he

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