6. This is he, who _having a form of godliness, denies the power thereof_; yea, and probably reviles it, wheresoever it is found, as mere extravagance and delusion. Meanwhile, the wretched self-deceiver thanks God, that he _is not as other men are; adulterers, unjust, extortioners_: no, he doth no wrong to any man. He _fasts twice in the week_, uses all the means of grace, is constant at church and sacrament: yea, and _gives tithes of all that he has_, does all the good that he can: _touching the righteousness of the law_, he is _blameless_: he wants nothing of godliness but the power; nothing of religion, but the spirit; nothing of Christianity, but the truth and the life. 7. But know ye not, that however highly esteemed among men, _such a Christian_ as this may be, he is an abomination in the sight of God, and an heir of every woe, which the Son of God yesterday, to-day, and for ever, denounces against _Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites_? He hath _made clean the outside of the cup and the platter_, but within is full of all filthiness. _An evil disease cleaveth_ still _unto him_, so that _his inward parts are very wickedness_. Our Lord fitly compares him to a _painted sepulchre_, which _appears beautiful without_; but nevertheless is _full of dead mens bones, and of all uncleanness_. The bones indeed are no longer dry; _the sinews and flesh are come upon them, and the skin covers them above_, but _there is no breath_ in them, no Spirit of the living God. And _if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Ye are Christ’s, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you._ But if not, God knoweth that ye abide in death, even until now. 8. This is another character of the sleeper here spoken to. He abides in death, tho’ he knows it not. He is dead unto God, _dead in trespasses and sins_. For, _to be carnally minded is death_. Even as it is written, _by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men_, not only temporal death, but likewise spiritual and eternal. _In that day that thou eatest_ (said God to _Adam_) _Thou shalt surely die_. Not bodily (unless as he then became mortal) but spiritually: thou shalt lose the life of thy soul: thou shalt die to God; shalt be separated from him, thy essential life and happiness.