bear the most decided testimony. The injunction
given to the prophet was, " Cry aloud, spare not ; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." And what were the transgressions that were to be so severely censured ? Was it an entire neglect of ordinances ? No : it is acknowledged that the people abounded in the externals of religion : " They seek me early,'" says God, " and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of justice : they take delight in approaching to God." But in the midst of all this pretended zeal for godliness, they were insincere at heart. Their observance of duties proceeded from a principle of pride, and was intended as a cloak for their hidden abominations. Their very "fasts" were nothing but a display of the vilest hypocrisy, which God abhorred. The prophet, being commanded to reprobate such odious conduct, states to them what their fasts should be, in order to be accepted and approved by God.
In considering this statement we shall shew,
I. What, in their seasons of humiliation, was required of God's people of old —
They were called to express their contrition by fasting a. But the outward service, however humble in appearance, was not acceptable to God, unless attended with suitable dispositions of mind, and amendment of life. Hence the prophet appealed to the people themselves, that, to evince the sincerity of their devotions, there must be a change in their whole conduct, and an habitual practice of the long- neglected duties of justice and charity.
[The Jews, both before and after the Babylonish cap- tivity, were much addicted to extortion and oppression b. To make restitution to those whom they had defrauded, and reduced to bondage; to refrain from "putting forth the finger" in a way of scorn and menace against those whom they had
a Joel ii. 15—17. b Jcr. xxxiv. 9—11.