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contempt. It is on this ground, that attempts have been made, to use that love of approbation, and that fear of contempt, as a lever in education, to obtain the practice of certain virtues, or the fulfilment of certain duties; but it has been forgotten, that those feelings, powerful as they are, to prevent a man from forsaking evil courses, have no power whatever, to produce good, being the offspring of the unregenerate nature, and therefore evil in themselves. Outwardly good conduct may, in some instances, be obtained; but even that will generally fail; for it must be observed, that it is not approbation or contempt, generally or abstractedly, that man loves or fears, but the approbation or contempt of those, with whom he sympathises, and to whose suffrage, therefore, his own feelings give an internal sanction. The reveller, who shrinks from the sneers of his associates in sin and debauchery, is perfectly indifferent to the contempt of an honest man, or of a chaste woman. The case of Montgomery, who, after a long course of profligacy, poisoned himself in Newgate, to avoid the disgrace of a public execution, and who was tormented in his last moments by the idea, that he had been guilty of insincerity towards the turnkey, in concealing the laudanum from him, is one of those singular instances of a strong sense of shame remaining in individuals, whom we should suppose to have been long dead to all shame. If this subject were seen in its full importance, there can be no doubt, but that the inadequacy, both of discipline and instruction, in the present systems of education, would be felt; and it would likewise be perceived, how much a less strict separation of classes might contribute, to neutralize the influence of the prevailing fashions of each class. But enough has been said on a topic, which might have been dispatched with a simple reference to the brotherly union, in which Christians are enjoined to live together, had not a highly unnatural state of things rendered the practicability of that command questionable, in the eyes even of those, who do not deny its divine authority. Having urged its importance, and

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pointed out its blessings, I must leave it to the conscience of every one, individually, to do as much as is in his power to give it effect; and I proceed to inquire, how far, with reference to religious instruction in particular, Christianity has hitherto been permitted to influence education.

If we take the answer, which some of the most zealous advocates for Christianity return to this much discussed question, at their public meetings, we shall persuade ourselves, that Christianity is not only perfectly established, as the ground-work of all other things, in the education of a great proportion of our children, but, likewise, that its influence is making rapid progress in those quarters, where it had been neglected hitherto. The ground on which they rest such presumptuous statements, is, that, in almost all schools, the doctrines of Christianity are carefully taught, and their superiority to all other knowledge, their absolute and infallible authority, is emphatically inculcated. It never seems to occur to these trumpeters of good tidings, that the most absolute practical ignorance of religion, is by no means incompatible with the most complete doctrinal knowledge of it; that the mouth, nay, and that mystic power, the memory, too, may be full of high doctrines, of well-chosen and well-interpreted texts, exhaling, continually, the sweet savour of sanctity, and yet the heart be in a state of perfect alienation from God, and the mind utterly darkened against his light. This was the religious state of the Pharisees of old, and this, I fear, is the state of far the largest proportion of the so styled religious world, in our days. They are obtruders on the kingdom of Heaven, hoping, by their high and supercilious professions, to gain admission there, where humility of faith, in a spirit of genuine love, will alone be acceptable.

If we inquire into the causes from which this spirit of Pharisaism arises, in the first instance, individually, we shall find that it has, for its ground-work, the general corruption of the human heart, which, in these false saints,

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has been restrained outwardly, so as to produce a shamconsistency with the divine law; but which, inwardly, is unsubdued, unconverted, unrepenting, and, therefore, unregenerate, unpurified, and unsanctified. To this com

mon inheritance of evil, which, in unprofessing sinners, presents itself as open wickedness, and which, in the hypocrite, gains in intensity, what it loses in extent of manifestation, our Pharisees have superadded an evil peculiar to themselves, religious conceit: that is to say, the imaginary persuasion, that their heart is regenerated, and their mind illumined, by the Holy Spirit of God. If the danger and the obstinacy of delusion increases, in proportion to the importance of its object, there can be no doubt, but that this is, of all delusions, the most fearful, and the most incurable. But rather than enlarge upon a danger, which is so obvious, and an incurability, of which we have but too many proofs daily before our eyes, it becomes us to inquire, whence the delusion arises, and by what means it may be distinguished from a true assurance of faith. It seems natural to suppose, that, where there is a delusion of regeneration, some sort of change must have taken place, which has given rise to the mistake. This supposition is confirmed by fact; for, to sum up the matter in a few words, the distinction between true and false regeneration is, that the former consists in a change of spirit, and the latter in a change of objects. Originally, that is to say, not by creation, but since the fall, the human heart is governed by the spirit of self, which seeks nothing but self-gratification, and knows of no other motive, but what arises out of self, and refers back again to self. This spirit is in itself restless, for it seeks ever more gratification; it drinketh ever, and is ever thirsty; feedeth ever, and is ever hungry; and therefore it wanders from object to object, after the pattern of its great prototype, "going about, and seeking what it may devour." But God has, in his wisdom, ordained things so, that, whatever is within man's reach in this world, should

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disappoint his selfish spirit, when made the object of its gratification; so that the renewed hunger is accompanied by a disgust for those things by which it has been allayed before. Whilst going this round of never-ceasing longings, and ever repeated disappointments, it so happens, by the course of Providence, that the subject of religion is presented to the mind, and, from this moment, the great trial of life begins. There are two things contained in revelation, the first, what God requires of man, and the second, what He has promised to give man. Which of these two it is man's first business to inquire into, is obvious; but it is no less obvious, that the selfish spirit will prefer the other. Accordingly, different individuals are very differently affected by religion. Some, who would wish to lay hold of the promises, but perceive them to be conditional, and find the conditions too difficult to be fulfilled, turn away from religion altogether, and, generally, for the whole remainder of their lives; being convinced that it can give no satisfaction to them, and, therefore, looking for gratification elsewhere, where, though they may not have much hope, yet they have not a positive denial of it. Others, equally eager to appropriate the promises to themselves, are less scrupulous concerning the conditions; which they evade by substituting some vain outward performances, considered as tests in the religious world, as, for instance, assiduity at public worship, display of prayer on private occasions, frequent participation in vestry meetings, and (though last, not least, subscription to, or speechifying at, religious societies) daubed over with an abusive interpretation of the doctrines of election, and of free grace. The most High God, and his eternal promises, are now the objects, to which the selfish spirit turns, with a hope to derive from them, ultimately, that self-gratification, which has failed everywhere else; the sinner, disappointed by the world, begins to wait on the Lord, not, however, for the Lord's, but for his own sake. Most of the passions find an ample

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field for their display in religion, and still more in the religious world; the restless thirst for gratification, the root of all evil, is converted into a constant fidget for "religious opportunities," termed an anxious wish for communion with God; pride is puffed up with the privileges of the saints; vanity is gratified by the applause of ranting multitudes, or by a more refined notion of the "respectability of one's religious connexion;" the tongue, that unruly member, is busy in rebuking the "enemies of Christ," especially behind their backs, and scrutinizing the consistency of believers; hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, are indulged, in various modes of persecution, both by word and deed, and by an affected abhorrence of "the unclean thing ;" ambition becomes a laudable feeling, through its alliance with a 66 holy zeal for the cause of the Cross ;" covetousness is made a duty, on the ground, that "he who provideth not for his own house, is worse than an infidel ;” splendour and luxury are sanctified means of adding to the respectability of religion; and so on, multiplying religious pretexts for ungodly sins, "drawing iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin, as it were, with a cart-rope." A few grosser sins are entirely subdued, as far as outward commission goes, or, at least, indulged with precaution, so as to avoid public scandal; whatever remains of the deceitful lusts in the heart, is laid to the door of Satan,* as his temptations, appointed and ordained for the purpose of glorifying God in his saints; occasional transgressions are charged upon this body of sin and death;" and thus the selfish soul, having invested some of its sins with a heavenly raiment, and divested itself of the blame attaching to the rest, by transferring it upon others, stands in its assumed purity and sanctity, a snare to itself; to the world, a phantom; and to the wise, a whited sepulchre. This is false regeneration; a change of objects, but the same spirit.

* On which account a celebrated preacher warned his congregation not to "bear false witness against their neighbour."

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