Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 23:15

15 Woe unto you scribes, and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land, to make one proselyte: and when he is made, ye make him two fold more the children of hell than your selves.

A third Woe followeth, expressed in this Verse, because they Corrupted their Proselytes, both as to Doctrine and Manners, so as they were twice more the Children of the Devil, and in danger of Hell than before. A Proselyte was one, who coming from some Pagan Nation Relinquished Idols, and worshipped one true, and living God. Of these Writers tell us there were two sorts: One that only professed to believe and Worship one God. tho he did not embrace the Jewish Religion, such a one they suffered to live among[illegible: 1 letter]t them, and called him a Proselyte of the Gate. Others imbraced the Jewish Religion, and were admitted into their Church, by Circumcision, and Baptisme and Sacrifice (as their Writers tell us) These they called Proselytes of Righteousness. Our Saviour saith the Scribes, and Pharisees, Compassed Sea and Land, that is, would take any pains (it is a Proverbial Expre[illegible: 1 letter]sion) to make one a Prose[illegible: 1 letter]yte, nor was this blame-worthy in them, but that which followeth, That they made him twice more the Children of Hell, than before. Corrupting them with their false Doctrine, and setting them Examples of an ill Life. Their business was not to turn them from Sin unto God, but meerly to convert them to an Opinion, if they had once got them into their Church, so as they could make their Markets of them, never regarding their Souls more, nor to press upon them the Reformation of their Lives, that they might be saved. Thus Priests and Iesuites at this Day go to China, Iapan, to Proselyte Men to the Roman Faith, and use all imaginable Arts to seduce Persons Born and bred under the Profe[illegible: 1 letter]sion of the Protestant Religion, in Protestant Countries, and boast much of their Converts, but he who looks upon the Scriptures, and considereth the Lives of the most of their Converts, will easily see they are but twice more the Children of Hell, being Licensed, by their Indulgences, pardons, Absolutions, nay by their very Casuilts to live most Prodigious Impious Lives, to say nothing of their Damnable Errors in matters of Faith.