Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. On the great danger of falling into Sixth Sunday. On making light of venial sins, Seventh Sunday. On the death of the sinner, Eighth Sunday. On the death of the just, Ninth Sunday. Page 1 On the interior dispositions that ought to accompany us to the house of God, 96 Twelfth Sunday. On a vigilant attention to the means of ensuring our salvation, Thirteenth Sunday. Fourteenth Sunday. On human respect, On the vice of impurity, 166 188. 212 On death, - Fifteenth Sunday. Sixteenth Sunday. On the same subject, Seventeenth Sunday. On the obligation incumbent on all of Page 232 257 leading a holy life, 280 ON THE GREAT DANGER OF FALL- SOUL IS EXPOSED IN A STATE OF Except your justice exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matt. v. 20. WERE I to give a full and correct description of the moral and religious conduct of the men who are so severely censured by our Lord in the gospel of this Sunday, and compare it with the behaviour of B VOL. III. the generality of Christians of the present times, it would appear that hardly an individual is to be found among us, who can be said to equal, much less exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, though even this, we are admonished, would be far from being sufficient to entitle us to the possession of God's eternal kingdom. The character of this age is tepidity and remissness in the 'service of God. Men form to themselves a system of religious worship, which consists of little more than a listless attendance at the public service. They hear the word of God: read over their usual prayers; but neither practise what they hear, nor attend with proper devotion to what they read. Their piety, like that of the Pharisees, is mostly external. If they avoid criminal excesses, they conclude that their salvation is not endangered. Although they entertain no sincere love for God, although they |