Those whose work was to reveal the mind of God to the people, and who pretended to that office; and those that were employed in offering sacrifices, and other works which belonged to the priestly office, according to the law; the whole ecclesiastical order, all their ministry, were profane; not merely hypocritical, but lewd, immoral, and debauched. Yea, they were grown to that impudence, that they made the temple, which was the Lord's house, a den of thieves, a place where they committed wickedness. Thus it was in the time of Eli, 1 Samuel 2:22, and more generally afterward, 2 Chronicles 36:14. See Jeremiah 7:10,11, and Jeremiah 23:14 of this chapter. There is no more certain sign of a ruining nation, than when God suffereth in it a lewd and corrupt ministry.

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