Zeph. i. 12. It shall come to pass at that time, that I icill search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees ; that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.
SUCH was the state of the Jews for a long time previous to the Babylonish captivity, that the prophets had little to do, but to denounce the judgments of God against them. The promises which they were inspired to utter had respect to a different and distant period, a period for the most part yet future ; shadowed forth indeed by their deliverance from Babylon, but to be realized only by their future conversion to the faith of Christ. Nevertheless, the warnings given to them are of use to the Church of God in all ages. The Christian Church at this time is in a state not very dissimilar to that of the Jews in the land of Canaan. We are externally the chosen people of God : we enjoy the ordinances of religion in their purity : and we have all the means of grace richly afforded us. But we rest in external services, as they did ; and have as little of real piety as the generality of that infatuated nation. Whilst we call ourselves the peo- ple of the Lord, we differ but little from the nations that know not God. We conform in many things to customs most repugnant to true religion ; and in the spirit and habit of our minds, shew, that, whatever we may retain of " the form of godliness, we are strangers to its power." The evils which God reproved
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