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sion, if others had not done the same. Ah, brethren, do you flatter yourselves that you who know your Master's will, shall be excused because others do not perform it? Is the conduct of others the rule of duty for you? Be assured, such excuses will avail nothing for your justification in the sight of God. He will not ask you what your brethren have done, but what you have done or neglected to do.

Perhaps you have been saying to yourselves, "This time of declension is no good time to repent or reform. We must remain as we are, until God pours out his Spirit and revives us." This is just making one sin an excuse for another. And, furthermore, it is an attempt to throw off the blame of your continuance in sin from yourselves upon the holy God. Is it indeed a time of religious declension? Then it is a time which calls for immediate repentance. If you are guilty of backsliding, then you should come down with deep self abasement before the Lord, and commence within yourself a thorough reformation. A full proportion of the guilt of this declension lies at your door. You may not then wait for your brethren; nor have you a right to wait for God to impel you to do your duty. To put off repentance in the midst of backslidings and negligence, is to hold fast deceit and to refuse to return. It is to act over the sinful conduct of the Jews, for which they were so solemnly reproved.

2. Professors hold fast deceit and refuse to return, when they disregard divine reproof and misimprove the means which are employed to reform them. A very large proportion of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, is addressed to professed believers. Numerous admonitions and reproofs, commands and exhortations are given, to guard them from error and to quicken them in duty. Let the halting, wavering, slothful christian open the sacred volume, and admonitions and awakening instructions will meet his eye on every page. If he disregards these and goes on in slothfulness, he holds fast deceit and refuses to return.

The ministry of reconciliation is one of the most important means which God hath instituted for the conversion of sinners and the perfecting of the saints. But how often do faithful ministers, like the prophets of old, deliver God's messages to his people, and show them their sins, without inducing them to repent and reform! How often, not only on the sabbath, but on other occasions of solemn convocation, do they labor to arouse the members of the church and to prevail on them to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and see these labors resisted and made ineffectual. How often do they stand, and plead, and warn in the name of the Lord, before any signs of life can be perceived. The slumbers are so profound, they seem like the

sleep of death. The love of ease and selfish enjoyment produces such an insensibility to spiritual things, that it seems impossible to quicken the soul to holy action. When some vigorous efforts are made to break up these leaden slumbers, objections and excuses are perhaps started. The complaint of turning the world upside down, is again renewed, and the call for order is echoed from every dozing professor. O, how they hold fast deceit, and refuse to return! The language of their hearts is, a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep. God often grants such the desires of their hearts, and lets them sleep until the pangs of death take hold upon them.

3. Professors of religion hold fast deceit and refuse to return, when they are not aroused and reformed by the afflictive and trying events of divine providence. God has various ways of trying and roving his people. He tried his people of old that it might be seen whether they would be obedient unto him, and cleave to him in all circumstances. And they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

So it is now. Sometimes he sends sickness and causes them to take a serious look into eternity. Sometimes he sends misfortunes, and removes the idols of wealth and pleasure to which they have given their hearts. Sometimes he suffers their reputation to be assailed by the tongue of slander to show them their sin in seeking the praise of men more than the praise of God. Sometimes the church is brought into peculiar difficulties,-its numbers are greatly diminished, and the frowns of Heaven are evidently upon it. Contentions arise, and opposers employ their weapons to weaken its friends and destroy its interests.

Now, then, if professors are not aroused and reformed by these trials; if they are not humbled under a sense of their sins;-if they are not made more faithful in duty, more prayerful and believing, it is a sad indication of great alienation from God. It is certain they are holding fast deceit. Just so it was in the days of Jeremiah, the prophet. Said he concerning the Jews, "O Lord, thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return."

4. Professors are guilty of the sin specified in the text, when their conduct is manifestly in opposition to their prayers.

Do not people often pray for holiness, and yet neglect the means which are necessary to obtain holiness? Do they not refuse to deny

themselves in things which are unsuitable and wrong,-such as the indulgence of pride, or appetite, or jealousy, or ambition? Do they not avoid self-examination, and thus neglect the state of their hearts? While they pray to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, do they not neglect the study of the Bible and contemplation on divine truth? Yea, while they pray for holiness, do they not indulge in foolish talking and jesting, and suffer their minds to be filled with vanities, and their hearts to be occupied with impure associations? Is it not evident in such cases,-cases in which they pray for one thing and pursue after a directly opposite thing—that they hold fast deceit and refuse to return?

Do not some people pray to be kept from temptation and the snares of the devil, and then put themselves directly in the way of temptation, and step into the net which they know is spread for their feet? Do they not spend their time in the mere pursuit of pleasure, or at places of public resort where the profane and intemperate hold their revels? Do they not sometimes ask to be kept from the way of the wicked, and then go right into their way,-adopt their principles and yield to their practices? And is not this holding fast deceit? Of what benefit was it for Judas to pray to be kept from evil, and then go away and take counsel with the enemies of Christ, and sell himself into their hands to accomplish their wicked designs? As little will it profit us to pray, unless we strive to live in a manner corresponding with our prayers.

Persons under serious impressions, will pray that they may submit to God and do their duty, and yet stand out against God and resist all the motives which he has presented to induce them to perform their duty. They will seem to sigh for deliverance from sin, and at the same time be unwilling to part with sin and commence a life of holiness. How awfully do such provoke God by holding fast deceit and refusing to return!

Again, professors often pray for a revival of religion and the conversion of the impenitent; when yet nothing can prevail on them to remove obstacles which prevent a revival. Nothing can move them to perform the duties which are necessary in order to such a desirable state of things. One has a difficulty with his fellow-christian, and will not do what he can and ought for the settlement of it. Another has not walked orderly with the church according to his covenant vows, and will not make the proper acknowledgment and reform, Another is grieving his brethren by pursuing an improper business, and will not abandon it. Another is wilfully, or carelessly, or evasively withholding honest dues. And another is contending about principles and modes of operation of comparatively little importance; and will not unite heart and hand for the promotion of a revival. Thus while they

pray for the prosperity of religion, they are standing in the way of its prosperity, and exert their whole influence to prevent it.

So the Jews prayed for the coming of the Messiah and for the prosperity of his kingdom, and yet rejected him when he had come. They hated his doctrines and his movements, and did all they could to prevent the progress of his kingdom. Our Savior, therefore, in his plainness, styled them hypocrites, who strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel; --who tithed mint, annise, and cummin,-were precise about certain things, but omitted the weightier matters of the law;--who in fact would neither enter into the kingdom themselves, nor suffer others to

enter.

Men hold fast deceit when they refuse to pray as God requires them to pray. Every one knows that formal, heartless, unbelieving prayers are offensive to God, and yet, how many continue to offer such prayers from week to week. The Lord has expressly forbidden such unmeaning performances. He says, "bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear." And yet, how many persist in offering vain oblations unto the Lord, and weary him with their heartless, unbelieving prayers. They will not renounce their wicked unbelief. They will not shake off their stupidity. They will not come down into the dust and plead with importunity and faith. They know they ought to do this;-that they ought to approach God with the confidence, and affection, and earnestness of needy children, and yet they will not do it. O how do such hold fast deceit and refuse to return !

5. Those are chargeable with this sin, who will not cease to be conformed to the world;—who will persist in their supreme attachment and devotedness to it. No man can serve two masters, especially when they require directly opposite things. The love which God requires, as due to himself, is supreme, and is to be manifested by serving him in preference to every thing else. But how can such love and such service be rendered by those who are devoted to worldly things; who prefer the enjoyment of sensual pleasures to the performance of duty; or who would rather be rich and honorable than to have the favor of God?

What would you think of a servant who should come to you in the morning, very seriously, and ask you what you would have him do through the day, and profess to be very ready to serve you exactly according to your pleasure; who should go directly away and disregard all your orders, and spend his time in seeking his own pleasure, or in

attending to his own interests in opposition to yours? Suppose he should come to you, morning after morning, in the same manner, and having obtained your instructions, should go and spend the day in slothfulness and self-indulgence! Would you not dismiss him as an unfaithful and treacherous servant?

But, how many there are, who, when they have ascertained the will of God, go and live in direct opposition to it. How often do people pray to be holy, and to be directed in duty, who will by no means renounce their sinful conformity to the world, and who are entirely unwilling to walk in the path of duty. How many professed disciples of the Redeemer there are, who are so absorbed in worldly pursuits and worldly enjoyments, that they can scarcely find time to pray at all. O how many ask to be weaned from the world, and yet cling to it with a grasp like the grasp of death! Weaned, indeed! Just as the Israelites were weaned from the lecks and flesh pots of Egypt, when they were longing after them continually. Let it be remembered, that an inspired apostle declares, "if any man will be the friend of the world, he is the enemy of God." The first transgression consisted primarily in withdrawing the confidence and affections of the heart from God, and choosing sensible objects in preference to him. This has been substantially the ground of the controversy between God and men, down to this day. He teaches us, saying, love not the world, nor the things of the world;-seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; be ye holy, for I am holy. But, how many there are, even among professors of religion, who make the attainment of holiness, the favor of God, and eternal life, matters of secondary importance! Yea, rather, these things, which involve their interests for eternity, engage but a small portion of their attention, and seldom rouse them to any vigorous and self-denying efforts. Thus do they hold fast deceit and refuse to

return.

This subject teaches us, that an obedient temper is the great thing necessary. When Saul spared the best of the spoil taken from the Amalekites, contrary to the command of God, under the pretence of offering it in sacrifice, Samuel said unto him, "hath the Lord as great delight in burnt sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." The offering of sacrifice is solemn mockery, if the heart be not obedient. It is a mere task, performed to quiet conscience or to purchase the favor of the Most High. Religious services, however numerous and imposing they may be, will not be acceptable, unless the heart be right with God; unless there

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