It would incur equal danger and absurdity for any man to conclude that he is a partaker of the blessing recommended in our text, either because he may have _outwardly reformed_, or desisted from sordid and impious gratifications _through accident_. In the former case, the partial change is effected by a mere regard to reputation, without any real love of virtue, or hatred of sin; and thus a degree of outward reformation, where the heart is not renovated in its leading principles, may spring from pride, and perfectly consist with the inherency of every corruption, which self-complacency and formality can nurture. Or the apparent alteration may be the result of that pain of mind, which is often occasioned by embarrassed circumstances, a distempered constitution, or a sullied reputation; and is not seldom produced by some temporary pangs of legal remorse, or corrosions of natural conscience. When the hand of the Lord was stretched out against Pharaoh, he seemed to relent and repent. But no sooner were the desolating judgments removed, and the apprehension of present danger ceased, but the impious tyrant “hardened his heart,” and gave evident proof, that service arising from servile fear is transient and deceitful, and that the obedience of a slave and that of a son differ very materially in this, that the one is permanent and voluntary, the other temporary and compelled. Belshazzer was filled with horror, when he beheld the awful hand-writing that announced his approaching doom. Felix trembles, when Paul “reasons” before him “of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.” And Herod “did many things” while he sat under the ministry of John the Baptist. But not one of these men trembled or acted to any saving purpose, because the secret attachment to the most abandoned lusts remained. Sin was too sweet in an adulterous heart to be given up for the awful warning of an apostle, or the intrepid reproof of the illustrious forerunner of the Son of God. So that many things may be done, and yet if _one_ thing be omitted,—if the _heart_ be not given to God—it annuls all the rest; and all the concessions and seeming remorse extorted by present sufferings, or the dread of future torments, are often as insincere as the reformation produced by them is superficial. Besides, let us be extremely cautious how we conclude, that either ourselves or others are safe, because a degree of outward decency or freedom from grosser impieties may have taken place; since it is very possible that one great evil may be exchanged for a _greater_, and the _last_ state of some sinners may be worse than the _first_. Mat. xii. 43–45. A sepulchre, whited and ornamented to a high degree, may nevertheless be the seat of rottenness and putrefaction. So a reformed licentiate, where the renovation of the _heart_ is wanting, has been often known to sink into the very dregs of formality and self-righteousness, and to turn out a virulent blasphemer