for one moment, at this subject. The external religious services of wicked men are sinful,—they are a solemn mockery in the very presence of a holy God! Is there any tendency in such acts to produce holiness?—any tendency in sin to produce real love to God? And if so, how strong is this tendency? Is it at all proportioned to the heinousness, the turpitude of the act? We all feel justified in detesting the conduct and character of that man who comes to us under the guise of respect and friendship, when we know that his professions are lip-service merely, and in direct opposition to the feelings of his heart. The greater the profession, the more barefaced would be the hypocrisy, and the more abominable the conduct of that individual in our estimation, until his feelings should be made to correspond with what he professed. It is upon this very principle that we hear God asserting in his word, that "the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord." He had required sacrifices to be offered under the former dispensation, but he had never given any encouragement to the supposition that either that or any other duty could be performed to his acceptance with an impenitent heart. The sacrifices of the former dispensation were acts of religious worship, and were designed to answer the same general object that is designed by the religious duties of the Christian under our own more favored dispensation. In this view of the subject, listen again to the declaration from heaven-" The sacrifices of the wicked are," not merely sinful, but" an ABOMINATION to the Lord." I would that this solemn truth might ring in the ear of every impenitent man in Christendom, until he should be driven from his refuge of lies to seek shelter in the ark of safety. And I ask, how great can be the tendency in the external religious services of impenitent men to produce piety, when they are an abomination in the sight of God? Were there any tendency to such a result, it is obvious that the longer a person should continue to resist God's claims to repent, the nearer to holiness he would approximate, provided merely his hands and his lips were moved as God required! Let this be done, and then the longer he should stand out in impenitence and rebellion against God's demand to repent

Now, the more like a Christian must he become! If the sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to the Lord, do they cease to be so by being repeated three, five, or ten times a day? and do they become less and less offensive by every subsequent repetition? What was the fact in relation to the scribes and Pharisees? They were the most punctilious in the performance of the external duties of religion, and what was the tendency of this course? Did they come nearer and nearer to the point of penitence and holiness?become more and more like God? The Son of God himself compares them to whited SEPULCHRES. What a representation to describe the holy tendency of religious duties performed by impenitent men! Can there be any such tendency in that which is insulting to a holy God, and at war with his claims and his character? Is not obedience better than sacrifice? I say not that a person will not become a Christian-that he is placed beyond the reach of hope or mercy, who lives in the performance of the external duties of religion. But I do say, that these external services, when performed in impenitence, are sinful, are an abomination to God, and therefore have no tend ency to produce holiness. I will now go still farther, and remark,

3. That God himself has stamped the seal of reprobation upon such services. "To what purpose is the multitude of your

sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord; I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hands to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear." (Isa. i. 11-15.) This is God's testimony relative to his own. views and feelings of the very subject under consideration. He had required these duties to be performed, but with feelings directly the reverse of those possessed by the persons here ad

dressed. While their hearts were not right in the sight of God, and they were rolling sin as a sweet morsel under their tongues, and were refusing to repent of and forsake it, they could not more directly insult the Most High than by this round of mock services, which he condemns in the most unqualified manner. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices?" What valuable end can they possibly answer? "Who hath required this at your hands, to tread my courts" with the feelings and character which you bring? "Bring no more vain oblations." Mark the prohibition.

"Oblations" of a different kind God de

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➡not a single one.

solemn meeting !”

manded; but these were "vain," or sinful, and would not, and could not be tolerated. Bring no more," therefore, says God, "Incense is an abomination unto me," "it is iniquity, even the "And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear."

I repeat it, this is God's testimony,--this is God's representation; not indeed the whole of what he has said upon the subject, but barely a specimen of his views, and of the light in which he regards the external religious services of impenitent men, Is there not, then, the most unequivocal proof that God can never look upon them with approbation, while they continue to stand out in rebellion, and in their refusal to repent and turn to the Lord? This he demands as their first duty; he "now commands all men everywhere to repent;" and until they comply, they are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. They may maintain an external deportment as irreproachable, and perform the external duties of religion with as much punctiliousness, as the scribes and Pharisees, and yet be nothing better than whited sepulchres, beautiful indeed outward, but in the sight of God SEPULCHRES still. What a humiliating view does this give us of the boasted goodness of the very best of the ungodly. They may go through with the whole catalogue of the external duties. of the Christian without a particle of piety, and while the wrath of a holy God is still following them; and this can never be averted by any of these external compliances. God demands

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a broken and contrite heart" for sin. With nothing short of

this will he be satisfied. "To obey is better than sacrifice.” Nay more, while the sinner refuses to come to this point, in the performance of every one of these external duties he is committing sin enough to sink the soul to everlasting perdition.

But the question is here asked, by way of objection to the view presented in the preceding pages, May not the sinner who has no religion use the means to obtain it? Shall he be cut off entirely from attending to those things which are necessary to his becoming a Christian ?

Before replying directly, a word may be necessary respecting the vague and confused ideas relative to this subject. People are very often heard to speak of religion, and of obtaining it, as though it were some external object, into the possession of which they might come as they would into that of a farm or a treasure. But what is RELIGION, divested of all the mist and fog that have been made to envelop it? It is simply loving God with all the heart. It has already been observed, that this love will be connected with repentance for sin, faith in the Lord Jesus, and all the Christian graces. It may be added, in one word, that this love will secure unhesitating obedience to the requirements of God, so far as they are known. Loving and serving God, then, make up the whole of religion. But as love is the main-spring of the whole, and lays the foundation for the existence of all that God requires, it is appropriately not only the fulfilling of the law, but the sum and substance of a compliance with the gospel. This, then, is RELIGION, viz. loving God supremely. It is this that constitutes a person a Christian. The question, then, whether a person destitute of religion should not use the means to obtain it, amounts to nothing more or less than this, whether a person who has no love to God should not use the means to love Him? But what means to love can be used, but loving?-but putting forth the very exercise which God demands with those faculties which He has given us? And how long need the sinner wait to do this? and what round of external services is it necessary to perform, before he can comply with this simple requirement of Jehovah, to love him supremely? This is religion--the only religion that will save the

soul,—the religion which God demands that the sinner should now possess. "To obey is better than sacrifice," better than any external service which he can render while he refuses to comply; nay more, every such mere external service is an abomination in the sight of God. Are any of these external duties to be performed in this manner as the means of obtaining religion, when religion consists simply in loving God with all the heart, and the obedience connected with this love? Must a sinner perform a “quarantine" of abominations before he can put forth the love which God demands? and are these abominations to be dignified with the appellation of the necessary means of religion? But the sinner is not doomed to remain impenitent for a single moment for the purpose of insulting God in any mock service of religion. Nor is there any necessity of any such service as a preparation to his loving God with all the heart, and repenting of sin. He may drop the weapons of his rebellion this very moment, and fall at the feet of mercy with a broken and penitent heart for his sins,-enough already, without adding to the number by a few more impenitent services. God demands this surrender; with nothing short of this will he or can he be satisfied. "To obey is better than sacrifice."

But the sinner is still ready to inquire, May I not do something as a preparation for repentance?' And what will you do as a preparation ?-continue to sin still longer? Suppose a child should ask if he might not do something as a preparation for being sorry that he had disobeyed the reasonable command of a parent? What would you think of such a question, but that he wished to evade a duty so reasonable, and yet wanted some pretence that had the appearance of plausibility, to urge in extenuation for not at once sorrowing as his conduct demanded? And are you, fellow-sinner, more consistent? Why not come to the point now, as God, in the most unqualified terms, demands? God has given you no liberty to delay this work for a single hour or moment; and will you take the liberty? The only preparation to repent which you need, is to know that you have offended God by your sins. This you know already. Will you wait then? will you take another step nearer the wailings