Wesley Corpus

14) “They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow.” (Verse 16.) “They did but flatter him with their mouth, and dissemble with him in their tongue.” (Psalm lxxviii. 36.) So that herein they only “profaned the holiness of the Lord.” “And this have yedone again,” saith Malachi, “covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, inso much that he regardeth not the offering any more.” (ii. 11, 13.) 13. This God continually declared to those formal worship pers, that their outside religion was but vain: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Bring no more vain obla tions: Incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.--When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear.” (Isaiah i. 11, 13, 15.) “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck.” (lxvi. 3.) “When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer an oblation, I will not accept.” (Jer. xiv. 12.) “Go ye, serve your idols, if ye will not hearken unto me; but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts.” (Ezekiel xx. 39.) 14. Yet all this time were they utterly careless and secure; nay, confident of being in the favour of God: They were at ease; they “put far away the evil day.” (Amos vi. 1, 3.) Even when God had “poured his anger upon Israel, it set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not; it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.” (Isaiah xlii. 25.) “A deceived heart had turned him aside, that he could not say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (xliv. 20.) So far from it, that at this very time they said, “We are innocent, we have not sinned.” (Jer. ii. 35, 37.) “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us.” (viii.