An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eleventh, twelfth, & thirteenth chapters of…

And then Fourthly, All duties of Religion that thou performest ¹are rejected by God; you who are conscientious to your selves of ways of falseness in your trading, and it may be have gone on many days and years in your ways, I say, all the duties of Religion that you perform are rejected by God, you will deceive, and yet come to hear, and deceive again, and yet hear, and so make the duties of Religion to be a colour to your deceit. Who would suspect such a man that is so forward in matters of Religion that he should be so deceitful? Oh! cursed is that wickedness above all wickedness, it is aggravated by this, When thou makest Religion to be a colour of deceit, know, that God casts all thy profession and duties ⟨p. 317⟩as filth and dung back again in your face. I'll give you this on Scripture in Ezek. 28. 18. Thou hast (saith the text) defiled thy Sanctuaries (how?) by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy TRAFFIC: By the iniquity of thy Traffic thou hast defiled thy Sanctuaries. You go abroad and there you traffic, and deceive, and put off false Commodities, and have false Reckonings, and the like: now you come into the Sanctuary, Oh but you defile the Sanctuary by the greatness of your iniquity; and among other greatness of your iniquities, the iniquity of your Traffic is that that defiles the Ordinances of God unto you: In Micah, 6. 8. when those Hypocrites had said, What shall we do? shall we come with ten thousand Rams, and Rivers of Oil? Saith the Prophet, He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, &c. As if he should say, Though you come with all these things, it's all to no purpose, whatsoever Offerings you offer to God, it's all nothing, except you do Justice.

And then Fourthly, All duties of Religion that thou performest ¹are rejected by God; you who are conscientious to your selves of waies of falseness in your trading, and it may be have gone on many daies and yeers in your waies, I say, all the duties of Religion that you perform are rejected by God, you will deceive, and yet come to hear, and deceive again, and yet hear, and so make the duties of Religion to be a colour to your deceipt. Who would suspect such a man that is so forward in matters of Religion that he should be so deceiptful? Oh! cursed is that wickedness above all wickedness, it is aggravated by this, When thou makest Religion to be a colour of deceipt, know, that God casts all thy profession and duties