chapter lxvi

. 3.) _When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer an oblation, I will not accept_, (Jeremiah 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 xliii. 25.) _A deceived heart had turned him aside, that he could not say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?_ ( chapter xliv . 20.) So far from it, that at this very time they said, _We are innocent, we have not sinned_, (Jeremiah ii. 35, 37.) _We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us_, ( chapter viii . 8.) _The temple of the Lord! the temple of the Lord are we._ (