whilst I open the abominations of the inner court, I solemnly guard all against imputing them to religion, or thinking less favourably of religion on account of them. But it must be confessed, that, amongst religious professors, there are mul- titudes who walk unworthy of their holy profession ; multi- tudes, who are as worldly and as covetous in their desires, as destitute of truth and honesty in their dealings : yea, and as corrupt and vicious in their practices, as the ungodly world. Those who have seen the interior of religious societies, and witnessed the proud domineering spirit of some, the conceit and forwardness of others, the bigotry of others, the hypo- crisies, envyings, evil-speakings of others, the lying and dis- honesty of others, the lewdness and impurity of others ; in a word, those who know the most of what is called the religious world, will have seen, to their grief and shame, that the evils of the seven Asiatic Churches are far from being yet excluded from the fold of Christ : there are yet " wolves in sheep's clothing," many who " say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie ;" and, though professedly of the Church of Christ, are yet, in truth, " of the synagogue of Satan™." God knoweth, that, in declaring these things, we would be glad to be found false witnesses, and to retract our assertions, if the truth of them were not unhappily established beyond all possibility of doubt.]
It is yet further applicable to,
III. The heart—
This, as the prophet tells us, is superlatively deceitful —
[There is not any thing which we greatly affect, but the heart will find out some special reason for doing it : nor are we called to any thing that will thwart our inclinations, and obstruct our interests, but it will furnish us with some con- venient pretext for declining to make the sacrifice. It has a great deal of ingenuity, in covering the malignity of what is evil, and in discharging us from the obligation of what is good". By the substitution of a name, it operates a change in our views of any action, as much as if it changed the quality of the action itself. Under its guidance, covetousness be- comes a just regard for one's family ; bigotry, a holy zeal ; cowardice, a prudential care. Peter thought with himself, perhaps, to benefit the circumcision, when he constrained the Gentiles to submit to Jewish ordinances ; whereas he was beguiled by a fear of that resentment which the Judaizing teachers were likely to manifest, if he did not comply with their wishes : and Barnabas too, and other holy Jews, were
m Rev. hi. 9. n Isai. v. 20.