wickedness, or shut their eyes to it, (which is so great that none but God can know it,) how shall they justify it to their reason, or make their conduct consistent with the rule of their judgment in other cases, when they arbitrarily confide in their perception and appreciation of the attributes of God; in the testimony of their deceitful hearts to his spotless holiness and untainted righteousness, which alike prove his displeasure with them, and require their displeasure with themselves!

I The prophet Jeremiah, when contemplating the wickedness and deceitfulness of the heart, exclaims, 'Who can know it?' as much as to say, no man can.

CHAPTER III.

Various modes in which human character is disclosed-Prevalence of hypocrisy-Its tendency to self-deception and infidelityMorality of secular men a proof of their infidelity-Devotees of fashion-Dignity of their vocation-Their irreligion-Their freedom from the affectation of goodness-Their errors-The best virtues of unconverted men seem not to acknowledge a GodThey infer the greatest misconception of personal characterThey centre in creatures, and afford the clearest evidence of a faithless heart-Peculiar depravity of such persons-Their sinning without a motive-Things which try men's souls-Their complaints and their pretensions illustrate their infidelity—Their selfimportance and misery-Contrast of their reasoning and conduct with the suggestions of faith-Happiness of a mind resting on God.

MEN disclose their real character in many ways. Small incidents, rightly considered, are very decisive of it. They show by signs and complaints, to which they are apt to attach little or no import, what is in them, and what they think of God and of his word. And what individuals disclose from any cause or event, is adequate proof of what all others, having the same principles, would do in a similar case. It is true that we are apt to look with surprise upon the conduct of others, as though we were incapable of doing what they have done, yet this is a feeling which universal observation condemns as founded

in ignorance and self-deception, and as one of the coverts in which an evil heart conceals itself fron our view. Were we to take the trouble to examine into our own history, we should find we have, from time to time, committed acts and sins, to which, at different periods, we had thought ourselves in no degree exposed, and have come to a hardihood in impenitence, and in neglect of our duties, which, in a season of more tenderness of conscience, we contemplated with horror. Every year of life is marked with changes of this character. They prove that we know little what we are, or what we shall be; that 'he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,' no wiser for experience, and as confident of future goodness as if he had been only goodness itself from the beginning;--a 'fool,' because all he can know is something concerning God or his creatures, and he knows nothing of eithernothing, certainly, that deserves the repute of understanding.

This deception is seldom so complete but it is known to himself, more seldom so well set off but it is seen by others to be a counterfeit of goodness, a confidence of virtue that does but express the loss of sensibility to it. Hypocrisy is often spun of a fine that even the spinner can

very fine thread, so

hardly tell it from the material it is designed to

His

represent; but, when he affects to put it off as better than that, and to be surprised that that so often fails and disappoints our hopes, he may be suspected of too much interest in the matter to be honest. confidence is the fruit of success, not of excellence; just as the counterfeiter is confident, and sets the standard value upon his spurious coin, both because it will bring him that, and because, if he lets it go for less, it would expose the secret of his profession. His assurance increases with the success and profit of his trade; he comes soon to think well of that and of himself; seeks the best society and connexions, under the colour and pretence of a well earned fortune and reputation; and, taken by others for what he affects to be, no one resents any suspicion of his honour or integrity more sharply, or is more clamorous against the misdeeds of others. But expose his crimes-bring him out of his concealments-cover him with shame and contempt, and he will prove a mystery of iniquity; his capabilities surprise himself as well as others; all of the decency, the philanthropy, the seemingness of the gentleman, which he had, is gone at once, and his heart swarms with every species of crime and meanñess. So it will turn out with all the more refined and less criminal degrees of hypocrisy. They conceal powers of evil which, in certain emergencies, under

great pressures, or for chances of great advantage, will lay by the mask, and exhibit a front of brass that shocks and shames every beholder. Examples of this are occurring every day through all the gradations of society, and in individuals as little suspected as any others; some of them so distinguished that everybody knows and speaks of them; but others, and by far the greater number, known only to those more directly affected by them. What we wish the reader to observe as pertinent to our inquiry is, that the preceding remarks show that men generally have lower views of moral honesty, and of all the qualities essential to the fear of God and a respect for his revealed commands, than they pretend, or suppose, they have; and that their faith, as they will have it called, is not a faith in things as they are, but involves a radical misconception of the objects which it embraces.

There is another view of the subject which, though disagreeable to nature, is yet worthy to be considered. All men are ready to condemn hypocrisy, if not to boast that they are clear of it; the very word is odious, and yet nothing is more common than some degree of it. If men, good and bad, were taken for what they affect to be, they would generally pass for more than they are worth. No doubt some are suspected of evil wrongfully: suspicion, however, is