SERMON III.

ON PUBLIC DEVOTION.

Preached at Broadstairs, Thanet.

MATTHEW XXi. 13.

It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

IF any more convincing evidence were necessary, of the unhappy degeneracy of the Jewish nation, than the general tenor of Scripture history affords us, the occasion which drew from our blessed Lord this severe reproach, might at once remove all doubt upon the subject. That in the lapse of time, abuses should arise in their political constitutions; that a system of laws, so minute and so com

plicated, should lose, in the hands of a naturally perverse and headstrong people, something of their original efficacy, is not so much to be wondered at; but while they really clung with such pertinacity to the worship of the true God, while they insisted so scrupulously on every tittle of the ceremonial law, that they could not only permit, but even encourage, the open violation of the very temple they idolized, is an instance of inconsistency, as singular as it was in the highest degree reprehensible. Several remarkable circumstances attending the life of our Saviour, have been recorded by one apostle, and omitted by another; but that at present before us appears to have made so deep an impression on the mind, as to have found a place in the writings of all. Our Saviour's sudden appearance in the temple, his casting out all those who sold and bought therein, his overthrowing the tables of the money

changers, and the seats of them which sold doves, is related with nearly the same minuteness by each, and this forming the material of the account, is exactly the part in which, on the presumption that they derived their information from separate sources, they would be most likely to agree; in the precise expressions made use of by our Saviour, and in his mode of speaking, there is a slight variation, and this, on the same presumption, is just what might have been expected. St. Matthew gives it thus—" It is written, my house shall be called the house

of

prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." St. Luke, xix. 46-"It is written, my house is the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves." In St. Mark, xi. 17, our Saviour is represented as speaking interrogatively-.. "Is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."

St. John, xi. 16" Take these things hence, make not my Father's house a house of merchandize." The prefacing remark, "It is written," points to some passage in the Jewish Scripture, and this is to be found in Isaiah lvi. 7— "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people ;" and in Jeremiah vii. 11, "Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord."

The abuse was not new or uncommon; it had existed long previous; it had called forth, ages before the birth of Jesus, the censure of God, by the mouth of his holy prophets; but these were men, whose high functions they acknowledged with pride, however much they might be inclined to neglect the admonitions which they uttered. Who was their new reprover?-a person, who, in his whole life and conduct, was continu

ally wounding some and all of their favourite prejudices; who came with the most extraordinary pretensions; and, what must have been still more aggravating, apparently bore out these pretensions by the possession of powers as strange and wonderful; who put forth new rules of faith, striking at the heart of their ancient systems; who left no occasion unem. ployed of exposing their avarice, their fraud, and their hypocrisy: the language of reproof, little palatable at all times, must have been still less so on the lips of such a one. The Scriptures abound with rules of conduct to guide us in our christian character; from the parables of our Saviour we deduce the most important lessons: is there nothing in the instance before us which we can apply to ourselves? It is the temple of the Deity whereof we have been speaking, whither came and knelt thousands from distant lands; whose every stone was hallowed;