Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Ver. 5. Having a form of godliness] Hollow professors are as hollow trees in an old wood; tall, but pithless, sapless, unsound. Their formality is fitly compared to a bulrush, whereof the colour is fresh, the skin smooth; he is very exact that can find a knot in a bulrush, Isaiah 58:5. But peel it, and what shall you find within but a kind of spongeous unsubstantial substance &c. These, as if religion were a comedy, do in voice and gesture act divine duties, in heart renounce them. Hypocrites only act religion, play devotion; like they are to the ostrich, saith Hugo, qui alas habet sed non volat which hath wings but flies not. God is in their mouths, but not in their reins, as the prophet Jeremiah complaineth; and all they do is an effect rather of art and parts, than of the heart and grace; shells not kernels, shadows and pageants of piety, not heart workings. The swan in the law was rejected for sacrifice, because of her black skin under white feathers. Art may take a man more than nature; but with God the more art, the less acceptance: he loveth truth in the inwards, Psalms 51:6 .