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"therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."

The religious claims of the British Colonies resolve themselves into, finally, AN IRRESISTIBLE APPEAL TO HER CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God." This is the highest of all possible distinctions; the greatest of all possible blessings. And if it were but a presumptuous imagination in the heart of the king of Tyre, or a figure the strongest that could be imagined, of security and felicity, it is unquestionably a reality with us; a reality in respect to privilege; whether a reality in respect to principle, remains to be perceived, and will be determined by the hold which the appeal, so irresistible in i's own nature, made to these principles in reference to these claims, shall have upon the conviction, the concurrence, and the energies of the nation at large, and upon the hearts, consciences, and exertions of professors of religion in particular. For it is the work of the nation, and it is the work of the nation in her magnitude, and it has wherewithal to occupy all the labour and talent that can be brought to bear upon it. It is a fitting re-action for benefits received: surely, a portion of the fulness which has poured in through these commercial channels may flow back in other forms of communication upon the colonial relations of a country. Even interest might dictate such a reparation, as certain to make returns more valuable intrinsically, for that which is thus applied in the formation of character, the cultivation of morals, the excitement of zeal and affection, and the establishment of fidelity. If in this single instance the children of this world are blind to their idol, expediency, the national honour claims something on the score of consistency as a nominally Christian nation, which cannot, therefore, be supposed to be wholly indifferent to the state of religion in the world, and which ought to be peculiarly affected to it in its own dependencies.

Professors of religion-I mean those who under some form, and by some name, make a more distinct profession of attachment to religion than those who are merely called Christians by courtesy, and as falling into the mass of a population and a country so denominated-are called upon to listen to the claims advanced, and to act upon them without the least delay. They ought also to remember through every denomination, and to be influenced by the conviction, that it is not a separate interest, nor should it be the isolated work of a party. Here differences should be merged in the prominent object of general concernment, of universal utility, and faithful allegiance to our common Lord. Here, if ever, all envy and strife, all doubts and surmisings, all malice and evil speaking at all times so unbecoming the Gospel of Christ, so unworthy Christian character, so hateful in themselves, so pernicious in their effects, so opposed to the spirit of our Master-should be laid aside; remembering, that during the time that is consumed in contention, the work of God must stand still. Here there should be no emulation, but such as should call forth holy ardour and brotherly affection, and stir up to love and to good works. Here devotion and labour will advance the design, if prosecuted with unity of heart and spirit; and differences may for once produce advantages, if while the watchmen see not eye to eye, with the voice together they shall sing while the Lord buildeth up his spiritual Zion. Let then the labour be divided, but let the spirit be one; and professors lose the littleness of party in the magnanimity

of their occupation Let the nation feel its duty and interest united; and let all ranks and classes combine in an object so majestic and so benevolent. Let our country lead the way to the throne of the Son of God, that the kings of the earth may follow in her train, and bring their glory and their honour unto it. The religious claims of the British colonies may appeal safely to Christians indeed on principle. These will require no argument to convince, no eloquence to plead, no circumstances to excite them; the most that can be necessary, and this is far more profitable, is to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance. All arguments, all pleadings, all excitements, all that can be necessary to the most active exertions, and the most entire devotedness to this great cause, is found within them: these are lodged already by the Holy Spirit in their own bosoms; and the love of Christ simply and alone, in all the greatness of its single force, will constrain and support them. What they do they will do heartily, as to the Lord, and not to man: they will not stay till temples are built, and forms are established, but remembering that the loss of a moment may place an immortal spirit out of their reach, they will take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea; they will find the cathedral of nature's own construction in the East, with long drawn aisles, and fretted roofs, and religious shade, and majestic extent, and unmatched, unrivalled by human art. In every colony they will find a sanctuary, on the mountain, or on the plain, or in the valley, or by the river, or under every green tree. These have been desecrated to idolatry, or polluted by vice; let them become hallowed by religion and consecrated to God. What Christians indeed do, they will also do liberally; so that what cannot be effected by them personally, may be accomplished by the dedication of their property, through the instrumentality of others: God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. It is time that the moral scene should change, and that the kingdom of the Son of God should come. It is time for thee, O Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. With the religious claims of the British Colonies the cries of the universe are heard, and the groans of the whole creation arise on every side. The history of man is a history of guilt, and of misery blood spots the imperial purple, the ermine of the legislator and the magistrate, the robe of the priesthood. Blood is the trade of the warrior. I see blood every where. I turn to thee, O God of love and of peace, the avenger of oppression, unto whom the voice of our brother's blood crieth; to the word of reconciliation, and unto the world of everlasting rest and felicity; and there at length find a sure defence, and unviolated repose.

426

THE DECEITFULNESS AND WICKEDNESS OF THE HEART.

REV. R. VAUGHAN.

KENSINGTON, APRIL 13, 1834.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” JEREMIAH, xvii. 9.

ALL saving acquaintance with religion must be preceded by a degree of true knowledge in reference to ourselves. Religion now is not as it was when man came forth pure from the hand of his Maker. It then consisted in the natural, the pleasing, and the delightful expression of all the thoughts and emotions of the human spirit. Religion now, however, presents itself to us ia the character of a remedy for those who are diseased. It is no longer the mere utterance of devcut thought, of holy emotions, the excitement of simply pleasurable feelings: it supposes a condition far removed from that in which human nature was at first: and we shall only judge correctly in religion in proportion as we shall be found to have judged correctly as to the extent of the inveteracy of the malady which it is now intended to counteract.

It is on this ground that the subject to which the text calls our attention is so manifestly involved. The language which the prophet employs must not be understood as referring to any particular class of men, to the men of any age or country. It is language studiously set forth apart from all restricted application: it is of man, in all the broadest of our broad conception of human nature that the prophet thus speaks. Nor must we suppose that in speaking thus, forcible as the language is, he employs strong eastern modes of expression, which are to be subject to very much explanation and softening, ere we arrive at the real amount of meaning which his terms were intended to convey. On the contrary, the passage is a statement partaking of very little ornament; and is meant, therefore, to be received by us according to the usual signification of the terms in which it is expressed. There is no escape, without disingenuousness, from the humiliating contemplation which it urges upon us relative to the present state of human nature. We may regard it as a stain on humanity, we may consider it not a little discreditable to us that it should be at all true; but it is nevertheless the saying of God. That it should not occur to us at once as an accurate description, is to be anticipated from what is generally taught on the subject, in the Scriptures themselves; for here we are especially told that it is not enough that the doctrine relative to the present condition of the human nature should be stated in Scripture, but that, in connexion with all such statements, however forcible and explicit, there sho ld be grace vouchsafed to man to enable him to perceive the truth of these humiliating and alarming descriptions.

When it is not only said that the heart is "deceitful," and "desperately

wicked," but the inquiry is put, "Who can know it?" it may seem at first as though a charge of presumption would apply to any man who should attempt to ascertain the complex and the subtle character really attaching to it. Yet those Scriptures which tell us of the importance and necessity of knowing our own heart ere we can be partakers of any thing that will constitute a ground of hope towards God; the Scriptures which, beyond this, urge upon us to connect prayer for divine light with the careful perusal of such Scriptures, lay the truth before us in the most obvious and impressive terms. I must urge it, therefore, on you, my dear hearers, very seriously-if the statement in our text should not present itself to your mind, on the first view, as a statement to be literally taken to be very careful that this be not a conclusion suggested by that natural feeling of self-importance and self-confidence, which we know from Scripture, and from observation, to be inwrought with the present state of humanity upon all moral subjects.

We are to advert to what is stated here as to the heart; first, to its deception"deceitful above all things;" secondly, to its wickedness-it is " desperately wicked: who can know it?"

With regard to ITS DECEPTION, we perceive the indications of this in the readiness with which it can misrepresent things—with which it can conceal from us the tendency of things-and with which it is found even to impose upon ourselves.

The deceitfulness of the heart is manifest from the readiness with which it misrepresents things.

The effect which the fall has had on the human intellect with regard to natural objects is not, of course, the object of the present inquiry. How far it has impaired our powers of discernment with reference to what is just, or proper, or beautiful, in art or science, is another question: that its effects have left humanity only the wreck of what it was, may be clearly inferred from Holy Writ.

We have to do at present with more serious matter. How readily does this treachery manifest itself in the mistaken views which men entertain of God himself. The perfections of the divine nature are not viewed according to the exhibition of them in Holy Scripture by men in general. Not only do men withhold their assent from certain things which are taught of the Divine nature, assuring themselves that they are not verities; but they are found attributing to the Divine Being what is alien from his true character. Accordingly the natural man, the man who is untaught by Scripture, and by the Spirit who has indited Scripture, is described as being "at enmity against God;" his mind is not subject to the law of God, in consequence of the enmity that is in him in reference to the divine nature. The sovereignty of the Divine Being, for instance the traces of which we can observe quite as much in the system of nature and of providence as in any thing that is disclosed in Holy Writ itself the divine sovereignty is commonly felt by men as though it were a wrong inflicted on man on the part of Him who presides over human affairs. The purity and the rectitude of the divine nature is not received as it should be, when men can dare to violate to the extent they do the laws of purity and the laws of rectitude; concluding, obviously, one of two things-either that God has not prohibited these things, or that he is not sufficiently their enemy to visit them with punishment.

The same is true with reference to many other particulars. The fool is ready to say in his heart, "There is no God;" and multitudes, who do not reach this extent, substitute a god having no existence but in the eye of their own depraved imaginations, and the view of that All-glorious Being whom it is the great object of the Sacred Scriptures to make known. Here, as in other respects, the deceitfulness of the human heart manifests itself, disposing men continually, from the views of the divine character which they ought to receive with all readiness and affection, to indulge in vain conceptions of their own, simply because they would have the God to whom they profess to do homage such a one as themselves.

The same is observable in the estimate which men form of every thing in the present world. They look to the riches of the world, to the honours of the world, to the pleasures of the world, not as things which have in them, indeed, somewhat of worth, and are worth somewhat of effort, and things which, if conferred, should call forth gratitude to God; but they look to them as things in which they are to find their chief good. It is from their wealth, it is from these honours, it is from these pleasures, that they expect to derive the essence of their well-being. Make them rich, and they think you make them happy; give them honours, and they imagine themselves to have reached interminable bliss; admit them to pleasures, and they think that their heaven is come. What is this but a power of fascination equal to any thing that human imagination can conceive? Where is the immortal creature who has ever separated himself for one solitary hour to think of these things, who does not, in the exercise of his own reason, see that all this is folly and madness itself? Yet here men are persuaded that their chief good is to be found; they have learned through the deceitfulness of the human heart the power of the deception that is going on within them; they have learned that it is an evil thing to have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and to hew out to themselves cisterns that will hold no water.

The same again is obvious with regard to every thing of morality. How often does the treachery of the human spirit betray itself here. What kind of standard is that which you find generally obtaining among men, in reference to what is moral and what is not moral? Do you not find names strongly misapplied in regard to their feelings and their states of mind? Are not pride, anger, revenge, even cruelty, too commonly described as nothing more than proper spirit-covetousness nothing more than prudent care? And many

are the forms of selfishness in which man is alienated from his fellows as well as from his God, far indeed from being descriptive of their real character. Among the ancient nations of Greece and Rome, there was not a term to express the idea of what we intended by the word "humility:" they had no conception. of that which Christians designate by the term "humility," as being in itself an honourable thing; their expression was "base-born:" they wanted the term because they wanted the reality. We say not that nothing is true in reference to the morals which men adopt apart from Revelation, but we contend that throughout every system of morality which man has adopted, this deceitfulness of the heart is continually manifested by such false representations.

The same, again, is true with regard to religion. What is the system of religion that the majority of persons professing themselves to be Christians entertain? That a man should declare his belief in certain doctrines, to belong to a certain ecclesiastical connexion; that he should give some decent

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