I have thus enlarged, on the presents occasion, upon the enormous deficiencies of christian character, because it is of great importance for us to understand, what is not accordant with the principles of the gospel, as well as what is: it is of vital consequence, that we should be thoroughly aware of the insufficiency of that spirit and view, of those maxims and motives of those habits and observances, which pass current for religion in the world. We cannot put on the new man, unless we put off the old; and we cannot put off the old, unless we thoroughly understand in what it consists. The work is too commonly supposed much easier and much less comprehensive, than it really is: many vicious habits may be corrected, without any essential or fundamental alteration of character. A man may become weary of the pursuits, disgusted with the follies, worn and sated with the profligacies of life; he may find his circumstances impoverished, his reputation impaired, his worldly interest obstructed: and such considerations as these may generate a purpose of moral reform. Or the sinner may feel himself oppressed with the increasing weight of years; infirmities are coming fast upon him; and his conscience, in many a whisper of fear, tells him that something should be done, some preparation made, for the world to which he is hastening, for the account which he will speedily be called to render. The idea of dying with those depravities, to which he has clinged through life, is awful and insupportable. The more flagrant of them are accordingly corrected; and the rest, which are less startling and disquieting, are undisturbedly retained. In all this there is no change of principle, no vital alteration: the old man continues; less hideous in features and outward appearance, but the very same in reality. With this partial renovation the mind is satisfied; the conscience is becalmed; the sinner dies.