13. This God continually declared to those formal worshippers. That their outward 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 oblations: 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_, (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._ (chapter vii. 4.) 15. Thus it was that they hardened themselves in their wickedness. _They are impudent children_, saith God, _and stiff-hearted_, (Ezekiel ii. 4.) _Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush_, (Jeremiah iv. 15.) _I have spread out my hand all the day to a rebellious people, that provoketh me to anger continually to my face_, (Isaiah lxv. 2, 3.) _They will not hearken unto me, saith the Lord, for all the house of_ Israel _are impudent and hard-hearted_, (Ezekiel iii. 7.) _Since the day that their fathers came forth out of the land of_ Egypt _unto this day, I have sent unto them all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers_, (Jeremiah vi. 25, 26.)