SERMON XVII.

SELF-DECEPTION.

GAL. vi. 7, 8.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

THE precept of the text was given by the apostle on a particular occasion, but it is in its own nature of a general kind, and is accordingly so applied by the apostle himself in the concluding part of the text. It is a solemn warning to men to beware of those delusions, by which they allow the evil spirit to prevail against them, and drown their souls in destruction and perdition.

"Be not deceived," says St. Paul. Had he been writing to men about their worldly concerns, he need not have issued any such caution. We require not to be urged to look after our present

interests, or what we think to be so; we are all in such matters sufficiently shrewd and quicksighted, vigilant, and active; it is only when the welfare and security of their immortal souls are in question, that men feel otherwise and act otherwise to multitudes of them this is a subject to which they are perfectly indifferent, on which they experience no emotion, or none sufficiently strong to induce them to exert themselves in providing for their own good, and wherein they willingly suffer their eyes to be blinded, their understandings perverted, and their common sense extinguished; so that they are prepared to be the ready dupes of any imposition that may be attempted upon them, however gross, and to believe a lie suggested to them either by the devil, the father of lies, by his children and agents in the world, or by their own corrupt and sinful hearts, rather than to give credence to the infallible truth of Him who cannot lie. So true is the declaration of our blessed Lord, that the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light; that men will seek with infinitely more pains, avidity, and exertion, the meat which perisheth, than that which endureth unto eternal life.

In the hope that what I am about to say may, by God's blessing, excite some serious thoughts and holy resolutions in the minds of those who

hear me, I will now point out some of the principal ways in which men are deceived, or rather in which they deceive themselves, with respect to the things which belong unto their everlasting peace.

First, then, there is a class of persons who cannot indeed be said to be deceived, in the ordinary sense of the word, because, when we speak of people being deceived, we mean that, though they are wrong, they suppose themselves to be right; whereas the persons, whom I am now about to describe, are totally unconcerned and careless whether they may be right or wrong. But, though they cannot in this way be said to be deceived, yet they may be in another; for, if pursuing a course, which is sure to end in everlasting ruin, be deception, then they are deceived indeed :deceived to a degree, which no calculations we could form on the acknowledged imperfection and weakness of human nature would lead us to consider as probable, or even possible. For there is a set of men in the world who live exactly as if they had no souls-as if there were no God to call them to account hereafter, and as if they were, like the brute beasts, at death to perish for ever; men who never think of God-who never dream of denying themselves from any motive, but that of human policy, in the full gratification of their own heart's lusts,-who make a mock of the self-restraint

of the pious, humble Christian, and who profess, in words as well as in actions, to live for this world and for that alone. Unhappy beings! how should the very sight of them, and the bare knowledge of their existence excite the holy vigilance of better men to take heed unto themselves, lest they also fall into the same hopeless state of deep degradation and delusion!

But, I desire now to draw your attention more particularly to the case of those who have not yet cast off all religious restraint, and to show you in how many ways even persons professing godliness allow themselves to be deceived, in relation to their spiritual affairs, and to speak peace to their souls, while the word of God assures them they should have no peace, because they are living in the neglect or the violation of His holy laws.

One very fruitful cause of self-deception in this momentous affair is the habit of judging of our own condition in the sight of God, by what we suppose, and often perhaps erroneously suppose, is that of others. We see others apparently

worse than ourselves, and we immediately begin, like the Pharisee, to thank God in our hearts that we are not as those others are; and because we are not, or fancy we are not, we therefore conclude that we are safe. But it surely can be, or ought to be, but a very cold consolation to us to

believe or to know, that we are not so bad as the most depraved of our species, or even as the generality of them, when our blessed Saviour has told us that," Wide is the gate which leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; whereas strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;"-for how shall we fare the better in the place of punishment, because we may there have multitudes of companions? Here then is one instance, and one attended with the most lamentable consequences, of the manner in which people often beguile their own souls, by taking a different rule for determining their spiritual state from that with which the Gospel has supplied them.

Another example of the same thing may be seen in the undue stress which so many are apt to lay on outward observances in religion. This has been the common error of mankind in all ages; it has ever been the principal, or rather, the only point regarded in all false religions, and in all the perversions of the true which have ever taken place. And no wonder this fallacious notion is so captivating as we find it to be, because it is a much easier thing to comply with mere ordinances, to submit now and then to a little bodily mortification, and to give away money sometimes under the name of charity, than it is to wage war against our own evil affections, to die unto sin,