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SERMON XIV.

ON SINCERITY IN RELIGION.

MATTH. VI. 16—18.

Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, which is in secret; and, thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

"THE Lord seeth not as man seeth: man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Two men may appear to the world to be equally zealous and active in the discharge of every religious duty, who, in the estimation of the Searcher of hearts, are of widely different characters. Though they offer the same external worship, yet, the one may be a true servant of God, and the other may have only put on the form of godliness, to answer the carnal purposes of vanity or interest: and, consequently, the one shall be accepted, and the other not. Where the heart is right towards God, the

practice of religious duties will naturally follow; but it is very possible, that the practice may be specious, nay, unexceptionable, as far as men can see, and yet the heart not "sound in God's statutes." The pur

pose of the hypocrite is to deceive the world; he also sometimes deceives himself. He assumes the mask of religion, that his character of sanctity may facilitate to him the attainment of worldly advantages; or, perhaps, that he may, without danger of detection, indulge himself in some secret sin. little time, disguise becomes natural to him; and he begins to imagine, that his religious observances constitute him a true servant of God, whilst in reality, he is no better than a base pretender.

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And even those who take up the profession of religion, without any such sinister design, but really wish to be and are, to a certain degree, sincere in it, are not wholly free from this danger of deceiving themselves to their own hurt. There is a selfpartiality in every man, which is a constant source of self-delusion. Take a person's own account of his principles and conduct; and it will some how or other, without much of design upon his part to misrepresent or conceal any circumstance, be so favourable to him, that you cannot, without injustice, fix any great blame upon him. You will be forced to acknowledge, that, every thing considered,—making due allowance for his natural constitution and temper, for his education, the situations and company into which it was his lot to fall,-and the nature of those allurements and temptations to which he was

exposed, he could hardly in any case have acted otherwise than he did. He will set in the best light those circumstances which serve to illustrate his virtues and extenuate his faults; he will omit or soften those which might tend to inculpate him; and all this, as I have said, without much of design, but merely from the strong desire which we all feel to stand well with ourselves, and vindicated, if not respectable, in the eyes of others. Hence our backwardness to enter upon any strict scrutiny into our own character; a secret suspicion lurks in our minds, that the result would be unsatisfactory. If we are regular in the performance of the external duties of religion, we are loath so much as to doubt the purity of our motives. We take for granted, that they are such as they ought to be; and thence, perhaps, indulge ourselves in a self-complacency to which we are not entitled, and which, as it is delusive, must be highly dangerous.

So deceitful is the heart of man, that this is sometimes, and in some measure, the case even with the best intentioned Christians. The passions and infirmities of the old man of corruption occasionally haunt and annoy the new man of grace. Vanity and interest sometimes insinuate themselves into his mind, and, unperceived by himself, form some part of his motive to such services as are seemingly the most pure and disinterested.

The instructions here delivered by our Lord are, therefore, not only calculated to reclaim the designing hypocrite, and to make him that in reality, of which

for the sake of advancing secular and carnal ends, he only wears the appearance; but may be of the greatest service to those Christians who wish, and believe themselves to be sincere, by exciting them to enquire and ascertain, by frequent and careful selfexamination, whether they are really so. That this is of importance no one can doubt, who bestows the least thought or consideration upon the subject. The heart of man being deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and as out of it are the issues of life or death, we cannot be too careful or too attentive in watching its motions and desires, or too diligent in regulating them; lest, while we imagine we are serving God, we be only serving our own passions. A mistake in this matter cannot be too sedulously guarded against. We should consider our passions as enemies who are continually lying in wait, with intent to obtain some advantage over us; which they will certainly do, if we are not habitually on our guard to prevent it. In the Christian warfare, vigilance and caution are no less necessary to success than fortitude and courage.

In particular, there is not one of our passions that is more apt to obtain an undue influence over us, and to make us forget God, even at the very time we are drawing near to him with our mouths and honouring him with our lips, than vanity, or an eager desire of human approbation and applause. This will make a man deny himself and take up his cross, who would do nothing, would suffer nothing, for the love of God or to serve his fellow men. It will make a man put

on the appearance of every virtue, and exact in every religious observance, while, at the same time, there is no real goodness or piety in his heart.

Of this we have a most remarkable example in the behaviour and conduct of the Scribes and Pharisees, whose vain-glorious display of sanctity and virtue our Saviour took every opportunity of animadverting upon with the keenest severity of censure ;-in order, no doubt, to warn his followers, in all the ages of his church to the end of the world, against splitting upon the same rock. And the earnestness with which he delivers his instructions upon this head, and his frequent repetition of them, plainly show, that fallen man stands greatly in need of being warned from the highest authority, and in the strongest terms, against this error, and of being made fully aware that no services performed from motives of vain-glory, or indeed from any other motive than a sincere desire to please God, can be accepted as worship, or be spiritually profitable to the worshipper.

Our Lord having, in the former part of the chapter before us, cautioned his followers against ostentation in the performance of two very important duties-namely, almsgiving and prayer-proceeds, at the 16th verse, in the same spirit of warning and admonition, to direct them what to avoid, and what to do, in observing a religious fast, (ver. 16.) "Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I