then he finds the benefit of having " digged deep," and laid his foundation well. Then he stands immoveably secure: the promise and oath of Jehovah are his firm support: Omnipotence itself upholds him. In vain do troubles from without, or temptations from within, assault him: even in the immediate prospect of death itself he retains his confidence, " knowing in whom he has believed*^," and assured that Jesus will save him to the uttermost.]
In a perfect contrast to this, our Lord exhibits,
II. The character and condition of the ungodly —
Their character is the very reverse of that ah*eady drawn —
[It is worthy of observation, that nothing is said of their coming unto Christ. Here is their radical defect: had they ever come as perishing sinners to him, they should have wanted nothing for the perfecting of their salvation : but they are too proud to stoop to such an humiliating method of obtaining mercy : they do not feel their desert of God's wrath, or their need of a mediator: and therefore, though they will compliment Jesus with the name of Saviour, they will not flee to him for refuge as those who know that without him they must for ever perish.
They will indeed " hear his sayings ; but they will not do them." They may take a pleasure in hearing the Gospel preached ; and, like Ezekiel's hearers, attend the ministration of the word with as much delight, as others listen to a musical performance"^. They may even shew an extraordinary zeal about the ordinances of religion *^, and may alter their conduct, like Herod, in many things S: but there is some darling lust with which they will not part. When their besetting sin comes to be exposed, they draw back, unwilling to have their wounds probed, and their lusts mortified. When they are required to " pluck out their right eye, and to cut off their right hand," they turn away, exclaiming, " This is an hard saying ; who can hear it^?"
Tliis stamps their character as ungodly. It is not the com- mission of any gross sin that constitutes men ungodly; but it is the retaining of some bosom lust, the rendering of only a partial obedience to the law, the " not having the heart right with God."]
The similitude also reversed exactly describes their condition —
'I 2 Tim. i. 12. and iv. 6—8. e Ezek, xxxiii. 31, 32.
f Isai. Iviii. 2. s Mark vi. 20. '» John vi. 60.
282 MATTHEW, VII. 28, 29. [l 335.
[A person who, because the weather is fair, buikis his house without any proper foundation, will, as soon as storms and tem- pests arise, find reason for regret. The house, for want of a foundation, will be undermined, and fall. He will then lose all the labour and money that he has bestowed upon it, and perhaps, with all his family, be overwhelmed in its ruins.
The ungodly man " is like to him" in folly, and in danger. His religion must come to the test at last : if it bear him through his trials in life, and uphold him with some degree of comfort in death, still it can never bear the scrutiny of the judgment day : then every man's work will be tried as by fire ; and that which does not endure the fire, will be burnt up'. How will the folly of trusting to vain delusions appear in that day ! What regret and sorrow will arise in the mind of him who has laboured so much for nought ! And how " great will be his ruin," when he shall have no shelter from the wrath of God, and when the goodly fabric that he built sliall crush him to atoms !
O that we well considered this ; and that all of us would build as for eternity !]
Let us LEARN from hence,
1. The necessity of practical religion — [Religion does not consist in mere notions, however just