Thirdly, We are to consider Jerusalem also in her decays; for as she
is so considered, she is the proper object of our text, as will be
further showed by and by.

Jerusalem, as I told you, was the place and seat of God's worship,
but now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized. The word, the rule of
worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put and set
up their own traditions; they had rejected also the most weighty
ordinances, and put in the room thereof their own little things,
Matt. xv.; Mark vii. Jerusalem was therefore now greatly
backsliding, and become the place where truth and true religion were
much defaced.

It was also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy,
and gulf where true religion was drowned. Here also now reigned
presumption, and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of
souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and
blasphemy vented itself against the power of godliness, in all places
where it was espied; as also against the promoters of it; yea, their
Lord and Maker could not escape them.

In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughter-
shop for saints. This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ,
and his people, were most horribly persecuted and murdered. Yea, so
hardened at this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she feared
not to commit the biggest, and to bind herself by wish under the
guilt and damning evil of it; saying, when she had murdered the Son
of God, "His blood be upon us and our children."