Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
Ver. 5. Which say, Stand by thyself; come not near to me.] These Jews were all manner of naughts, and therefore worthily rejected by God; necromancers, idolaters, epicures, gross hypocrites, as here their words, full of pride and contempt of others, show them to be. Such were the Pharisees with their sanctior sum quam tu Luk 7:39 the monks and mass priests among the Papists, and the Brownists with their broad leaves of formal profession among us. From Matthew 18:19, because Christ promiseth not doing for them that ask, except they agree on earth, Brownists peremptorily conclude that they ought not to pray with them that do not consent with them in their opinions; nor will they pray with their own wives and children, though never so pious, if they do not meet in the same centre of conceits. a
These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day,] i.e., A continual offence to me, as smoke is to the nose and eyes, Pro 10:26 and shall be perpetually tormented by me in the hottest fire of hell; whereof hypocrites are the freeholders, and other sinners are but tenants as it were to them, while they are said to have their portion with the devil and hypocrites. Some think he hinteth at their smoking and sacrificing in their gardens and groves. Isa 65:3
a Abbott's Trial of Church Forsakers, p. 148.