1. Membership in the true church, considered as a visible society, is no security that we shall obtain the favour of God. The Jews, before the advent, were members of the true and only church, and yet Paul teaches they were not on that account the more acceptable to God. Multitudes of Jewish converts were members of the apostolic church, and yet, retaining their former doctrines and spirit, were in the gall of bitterness, v. 17.
2. Mere knowledge cannot commend us to God. It neither sanctifies the heart, nor of itself renders men more useful. When made the ground