PROPHET VERSUS PRIEST. 219 



declared the unity of God, and exposed the folly of 

 idol- worship. They did even more than this. They 

 opposed the Ceremonial Law, and preached the reli- 

 gion of the heart. They declared that God did not 

 care for their Sabbaths and their festivals, and their 

 new moons, and their prayers, and church services, and 

 ablutions, and tbeir sacrifices of meat and oil, and of 

 incense from Arabia, and of the sweet cane from a far 

 country. " Cease to do evil," said they ; " learn to 

 do well ; relieve the oppressed ; judge the fatherless ; 

 plead for the widow." It is certain that the doctrines 

 of the great prophets were heretical. Jeremiah flatly 

 declared, that in the day that God brought them from 

 the land of Egypt, he did not command them concern- 

 ing burnt-offerings or sacrifices : and this statement 

 would be of historical value, if prophets always spoke 

 the truth. 



They were bitter adversaries of the kings and 

 priests, and the consolers of the oppressed. " The 

 Lord hath appointed me," says one whose oracles have 

 been edited with those of Isaiah, but whose period 

 was later, and whose true name is not known, " the 

 Lord hath appointed me to preach good tidings unto 

 the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken- 

 hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to give 

 unto them that mourn beauty for ashes, the oil of joy 

 for lamentation, the garment of praise for the spirit of 

 heaviness." 



The aristocracy who lived by the altar did not re- 

 ceive these attacks in a spirit of submission. There 

 was a law ascribed to Moses, like all the other Jewish 

 laws, but undoubtedly enacted by the priest party under 

 the kings, that false prophets should be put to death ; 

 and though it was dangerous to touch prophets on 



