" And, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a
trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of
Jacob their sins," saith the Lord to the prophet. Such are the
charges and commissions laid on and granted to His messengers.
Thus we may observe that God's prophets of old, St. John the
Baptist, our Lord Himself, the holy apostles did in terms most
vehement and biting reprove the age in which they lived, and some
particular persons in them. The prophets are full of declamations
and invectives against the general corruption of their times, and
against the particular manners of some persons in them. "Ah, sinful
nation; people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children
that are corrupters! They are all adulterers, an assembly of
treacherous men; and they bend their tongues like their bow for
lies. Thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; every
one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the
fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come before them.
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their means.
As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests
murder in the way by consent, and commit lewdness.
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