1 Timothy 4:2

Speaking lies in hypocrisy; or, in the hypocrisy of those who speak lies, inculcating on the people as true what they know to be false; such as the power of the priests to forgive sins, the pretended working of miracles by the relics of saints, the liquifying of the blood of St. Januarius, and the weeping of the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Seared with a hot iron; branded with the marks of their wicked deeds. Their sins are, as it were, burnt in upon their consciences. They are hardened transgressors, who carry about in their own souls the consciousness of their hypocrisy and wickedness, and are indifferent to it. To pretend to be what one is not, and by hypocrisy and lying obtain money, power, and influence awfully blinds the mind, sears the conscience, and hardens the heart.