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that heareth those sayings of mine, and doeth them not, is like unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand; and the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew; and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall thereof." His Apostles renewed the warning, comparing the unfruitful hearer to the sweet sound produced by an instrument of music, which hath, in itself, neither harmony nor sense, "the sounding brass, and the tinkling cymbal" and they exhorted all men who professed the faith of Christ, to become "doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving their own selves."

And truly, who is the person deceived and defrauded by the mere external show of religion? Not the Lord, certainly; for He cannot be deceived, since "He reads what is written in the bosom, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Nor can He be either bene

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fitted or injured by all that man can do. The person cheated and ruined by the deception is the hypocrite himself; whose conscience, lulled asleep by habitual insincerity, is satisfied with "coming before the ministers of GOD, and "hearing their words, but doing them not." But "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh," when the truth must appear, and conscience be aroused from its slumber, and all false pretensions to religion will be "as a broken reed, whereon if a man lean, it will go through his hand, and pierce it."

For that Advent of our Lord to judgment let us prepare while we have yet time, by a severe scrutiny into our own motives and conduct; by a vigilant attention to the effect produced upon our lives by hearing the Word of the Lord. Upon no other test can we safely depend; for it is the test that shall be adopted by our Judge Himself. How often has He,

how often have His holy Apostles, how often have all His faithful ministers reminded the Christian world, that " every one shall be judged according to his deeds."

SERMON X.

THE CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT.

PSALMS ii. 7.

I will preach the law, whereof the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

MORE literally, I will publish the decree which the Lord hath declared to me. But the sense is the same in either translation, and can only be referred to the preaching or publication of a new law or edict, the principle of which is the formal acknowledgment of the Son of God.

All former laws had come directly from GOD to man; and consisted in commandments and ordinances, to the observance

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of which were attached certain promises, and to the transgression of them certain The old law given by

punishments. Moses was a covenant precisely upon these terms; "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fat of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured of the sword."

But the Psalmist, in the words of the text, prophesies of a new law upon an entirely new principle, not in the first instance commanding us to do any thing, not promising, not threatening any thing as the recompence of our obedience or transgression; not requiring preliminary conditions, or holding out temporal inducements, but simply declaring that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of GOD, is the only way of salvation. It is true that moral obligations and religious duties remain in force under this new law; or rather they are confirmed and extended, as well as illustrated, by the light which it throws upon all the relations of mankind

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