with it. Because of the superior light they enjoyed, they despised all the rest of the world, as blind, ignorant, be- nighted : and they assumed to themselves vain-glorious titles, as " guides of the blind, lights of those who were in darkness, instructors of the foolish, and teachers of babes :" they had a summary of their duties in a short compendious form, " a form of knowledge and of the truth in the law," by means of which they were enabled to appear very wise to the unen- lightened heathen ; but, whilst they thought themselves so highly qualified to " teach others, they taught not themselves:" on the contrary, they were notoriously guilty of those very crimes which they reprobated amongst the Gentile world. They proclaimed with great authority the commandments, "Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery;" but they were as much addicted to these crimes as the heathen themselves ; and though since their return from Babylon they professed an abhorrence of idolatry, and in that respect ex- celled the heathen, they sacrilegiously robbed God not only of his tithes and offerings, but of all that honour and obe- dience which they acknowledged to be his due. In a word, by their gross hypocrisy, and their diversified abominations, they caused Jehovah himself to be blasphemed and abhorred amongst the heathen who were round about them0.
Of what avail could external privileges be to such hypo- crites as these?]
Would to God there were not equal cause for
reproof to those also who name the name of Christ —
[Great as were the advantages of the Jews, they were not to be compared with those which are enjoyed by the Christian world. We have not the law only, but the Gospel also, in which are discovered to us all the wonders of redeeming love. And we, in consequence of this distinction, look down with pity on the benighted heathen, who are bowing down to stocks and stones, and seeking to propitiate their deities by services most painful, most nugatory, most debasing. On the Christian name also we value ourselves, as if that name could save us : and because we have been admitted by baptism into the external bond of the Christian covenant, we conclude ourselves of course partakers also of its inward blessings. Ah! fatal delusion! We stand amazed at this error, when exhibited to us by the Jews ; but behold it not, when exemplified in ourselves.
But our lives testify against us, as no less hypocritical than the Jeivs themselves. Were we really a holy people to the Lord, we might well " make our boast of the Saviour," and " rest in his Gospel " as an undoubted source of everlasting
c Isai. lii. 5. Ezek. xxxvi. 21 — 23.