Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Appendix- What do the Christians do that makes them like Pharisees?

What do the Christians do that makes them like Pharisees

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From the text:

 

The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose

 

votaries it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes

 

and Pharisees, "They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be

 

borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves

 

will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works

 

they do for to be seen of men.—They love the uppermost rooms

 

at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, . . . . . . and to be

 

called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.—But woe unto you, scribes and

 

Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven

 

against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye

 

them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows’ houses, and

 

for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the

 

greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to make one

proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the

 

child of hell than yourselves.—Woe unto you, scribes and

 

Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and

 

cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,

 

judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and

 

not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a

 

gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and

 

Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup

 

and of the platter; but within, they are full of extortion and

 

excess.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for

 

ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear

 

beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and

 

of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous

 

unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

 

 

Source(s)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass