holy ways, who yet think that, because they turn not back to open profaneness, they shall " escape the judgment of God." Now,
These are the persons warned — [" The man who puts his hand to the plough, is not to look back," lest the furrows which he makes disgrace the field'. So " those who turn aside unto their crooked paths" are persons who, by crooked policy and undue compliances, are labouring to avert the evils which a bold and steadfast conduct
would bring upon them Such was the conduct of
Peter, when, for the sake of pacifying the Judaizing teachers, he constrained the Gentiles to conform to the Mosaic ritual : and had not the reproof which Paid administered to him, in the presence of the whole Galatian Church, produced the de- sired change, this temporizing Apostle would have destroyed his own soul, and the souls of all his followers. In matters of minor importance we may yield, for the sake of peace, as Paul himself did when he became a Nazarite : but in matters which will in any degree impeach our fidelity to God, " we must not give place, no, not for an hour." To benefit others, we may yield : to screen ourselves, we must not yield. Not life itself must be held dear, when an adherence to duty calls for the sacrifice of it.]
Those only who are " upright" will have peace at
the last —
[Those who dissemble with God, and are diverted from the paths of righteousness by that " fear of man which bringeth a snare," have no real peace in this life k : for there can be no peace where there is not " the testimony of a good conscience." Much less can there be peace in a dying hour, and in the near prospect of giving up our account to God. But, if we suppose a man to have deceived himself so far as to have prevented any remonstrances from his own conscience, still, the very instant that he shall be summoned into the pre- sence of his God, his delusions will be all dispelled, and he will see himself even as God sees him. Where will his peace then be ? Alas ! it will be fled for ever : for in that day none but the true Israel will be approved of their God. All the rest, how specious soever may have been their conduct, " will be led forth with the workers of iniquity," and take their portion with the most abandoned of the human race. In fact, the portion of hypocrites is declared to be pre-eminently bitter1, because of the light they have resisted, and the dissimulation they have practised. Let the unstable then know this, and avail themselves of the warning thus given them.]
i Luke ix. 62. k Isai. lix. 8. » Matt. xxiv. 51.