commanded as all the positive institutions of worship are good but they have an intrinsical goodness and commend themselves to us from their very nature they are such things as flow from the nature of God as well as bear a conformity to the Will of God So that it is impossible they should be otherwise than good or that what is contrary to them should be so Injustice unmercifulness and disobedience to God cannot be good they are Evil and altogether Evil and will be so for ever Deut. 30.15 see I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil Holiness is good and sin is evil and it is impossible that either of them should be other than what they are Sin cannot become Good holiness cannot become evil the difference betwixt holiness and sin is as great as betwixt good and evil that except good could become evil and evil good the nature of good and evil be alter'd and confounded it is impossible that Holiness thould be any otherwise than good and sin any other thing than the worst and the purest evil These things are also Good for us so that we cannot more directly seek and promote our own good and happiness than in the practising of them Is that good that is amiable and lovely what so lovely as ho liness That is the glory of the Divine Being and the likeness of God in Man Is that good that is pleasant and delightful the sweetest pleasures are to be found in the ways of God None injoy such peace and tranquility in their mind are so free from fears and offences as those who have the strictest regard to God's commands Or is that good that is profitable we are assur'd that godliness is profitable to all things having a Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Oh how good is it to walk with God! to awake with God and to be in the fear of the Lord all the day Whereas many say Who will shew us good Would they seek it in the way of God's commands they would assuredly find it And these things are good for others too how advantagious and beneficial to the World are Justice and Mercy how much do they conduce to the good order of it how sweet are the influences that they diffuse amongst all persons who is not the better for them The godly are refreshed with them they adorn the Gospel and commend Religion to others as a real substantial thing that is worthy their consideration and choice The Religion that lies only in forms and discourse is an airy unaffecting thing and gets no ground in the World but that that is operative and powerful commends it self to the Consciences of Men these things are good for the bodies and good for the Souls of others and that is one Reason of the strict charge that is laid upon the Ministers of the Gospel to be frequent in the urging and pressing of them Tit. 2.8 These things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men And this is further inforc'd by 2. A consideration of the will of God as being that which the Lord requires of us 'T is His will concerning and his command to us who is the Lord who has an unquestionable right in us and a supream power over us and whose will is a binding law as well as a sufficient Reason to us so that it is no arbitrary or indifferent matter whether we will obey or no but he that requires you to perform the duties of his solemn Worship and in Obedience to whose command you ingage in them does likewise require you to do justly to love mercy to walk humbly with your God And as his willing of these things to be duties incumbent on Man is that that is highly consentaneous and agreeable to his own glory that the reasonable creature should be just and merciful as he is and be always mindful of that infinite distance that there is between him and it and the highest deference that upon that account is due to him so the regular subordination that there ought to be in our Wills to His the relation we stand in to Him as the Lord and the intire subjection we owe to Him in that Relation lays us under the strictest obligation to observe and obey all his requirements Consider then The Lord that is thy supream Ruler and Governour He in whose hands is the disposal of all things who doth according to his will in the Army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the Earth He that is the one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy who has the power of Life and Death and whose power reacheth to the Soul as well as the body can save or destroy both in Hell He whom the Angels obey and are His Ministers hearkning to the voice of his word He whose Law at first impress'd upon them the inanimate creatures do every day fulfil This Soveraign Lord who is King throughout the World requires that you should be Just and Merciful and Humble Every act of disobedience to his command is a high contempt of his Authority 'T is the character of the wicked to say Who is Lord over us and again Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice Oh let us take heed of becoming guilty either in mind or practice of so great an impiety Moreover The Lord that is thy Redeemer that has bought thee with the inestimable price of his own blood that laid down his Life to deliver thee from Sin and Death and Hell was willing to empty himself of his glory for a time to be poor and mean to be despised and persecuted and suffer the accursed death of the Cross for your sake rather than you should dye He would dye in your place rather than you should become a sacrifice He was willing to be made one Himself that out of Obedience to the Will of God and from the greatness of his love to the Children of Men travelled with the greatest sorrows drunk off the bitterest cup and underwent the Curse for you He also requires the most exact obedience at your hand And ye are not your own but ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Yea The Lord that is thy bountifull Benefactor that does thee good continually that loads thee with his benefits every day that prevents thee with mercy that supplies thee with good that delivers thee in thy straits succours thee in thy temptation hears thy prayers and is so ready to appear for thy help The Lord in whom them dost Live and Move and hast thy Being that is a Sun and a Shield will give Grace and Glory and with-hold no good thing that has given thee so many tasts of his Love such
was something that God required of Christ when He substituted himself in our Room to answer for our sins which was his dying for us so there is something that God Requires of us if we would have the benefit of the death of Christ The Gospel does not make void but establish the Law in its preceptive power Christ's dying for sin and our doing the will of God do very well consist For to this end He dyed and rose and revived that he might be the Lord both of the Dead and Living That as he dyed for sin so we should die to sin and have communion with him in his rising by our walking in newness of Life That which God required of Christ was obedience in a way of merit that which God requires of us is obedience in a way of duty Our obligation to obedience is not dissolved but inforced and heightn'd by the mediatory Obedience of our Lord Jesus To. do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God ever were and ever will be incumbent on the Reasonable creature and are those things that the Lord requires of them that would Seek him with acceptation and success This premis'd I now proceed to confirm the truth of the Proposition and the proof of it will depend upon shewing these two things 1. The insufficiency that there is in a bare performance of the duties of Religious Worship separate from the duties of justice mercy and humble walking with God to procure the favour of God to a People 2. The necessity that there is of such a People's attending to the practice of those things that are expressive of real holiness and Obedience to God in conjunction with the duties of God s worship in order to that end And first let us consider the insufficiency that there is in a bare performance of the duties of Religions worship separate from the duties of justice mercy and humble walking with God to procure the favour of God to a People to comprimise the difference between God and them to pacifie his Anger and to avert his judgments And because this People in the text talk'd so much of their burnt-Offerings their Calves and their Rams I shall to make this branch of the demonstration more plain and convincing present you with the judgment of God in his word concerning these things whilst this way of worship was in use and shew you of how little account with God these Sacrifices were when separated from the duties of justice mercy and humble Obedience The Ancient Sacrifices are to be considered two ways 1. as they were typical Representation of that real Sacrifice which our Lord Jesus Christ offered to God to make reconciliation for the sins of his offered to when through the enternal Spirit he offer'd himself to God Much of the Gospel as it was Reveal'd in that time was wrap'd up in those Sacrifices They did all refer to and prefigure him that was to come For whereas the holy and righteous Law of God had threatned Sin with Death it could not be reasonably supposed that the blood of Bulls and of goats should take away sin And therefor the Heathens to supply that defect having some natural or rather traditional knowledge of the necessiry of sacrifices to make Atonement for sin did conclude that nothing less than the Life of a Man offered in Sacrifice was sufficient to appease God But indeed this man is no other than the man Christ Jesus the Psalmist is brought in speaking to his Father to this purpose Heb. 10.5 When he cometh into the world he saith acrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me Or secondly they are to be considered as acts of Homage and Worship performed by that People to God and in which they generally rested in a neglect of the weightier matters or the Law And however they though to please God thereby we 〈…〉 testimonies in their own Scriptures which shew how highly God was displeased with them whilst they took up with these in the neglect of Judgment Mercy and Humble walking with God And I 'll begin with that Reproof the Prophet gave King Saul who bore himself much upon this business of sacrificing in the omission of a direct command of God wherein his obedience was concerned 1 Sam. 15.22 Samuel said Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams It do's appear by the preceding part of this history that God had sent Samuel to Saul with a command to destroy the Amalekites and that with a total destruction Man and Woman Infant and suckling Ox and Sheep Camel and Ass Saul applies himself to this work but did it negligently and in part only Agag the King he spares supposing it might be for his honour to make him a Prisoner of War to lead him in triumph Also the best of the Sheep and of the Oxen and of the Fattlings and of the Lambs he saves and his pretence for that was that these Fat Beasts would do well to serve God's Altar 't was not fit to slay them any where else What hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifices as in obedience This was the command of God that all of Amalek should be destroyed what meaneth then the bleeting of the Sheep and the Lowing of the Oxen which I hear Oh says he they are for sacrifices to Worship God with No the Prophet tells him God will accept of no such Worship as is besides his command and is founded in a contempt of that To obey is better pleases God more than Sacrifice Better thou hadst throughly obeyed the command of God tho' there had not been a Ram left in the Universe to be offer'd in Sacrifice My second proof for this I take from the 50th Psalm at the seventh verse we find the Lord addressing himself to that people thus Hear oh my People and I will speak oh Israel and I will testifie against thee God had something to speak to them and something to tesitifie against them That which he had to say to them is at ver 8. I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings continually before me It seems they were so punctual in their Sacrifices they would not rob God of a Lamb nor fail him of an hour their burnt offerings were continually before him So that he would not tax them for any remissness or deficiency that way But tho' He would not reprove them for their Sacrifices he would reprove them for their sins and that to purpose asking them what they had to do to declare his statutes or take his Covenant in their Mouth seeing they hated instruction and cast his words behind them Come says God you load my Altar with your sacrifices but at the same time you make me to serve with your sins You are
frequent experiences of his goodness and yet has greater things in reserve to bestow what is it that he requires of thee as a grateful return for all these benefits but that thou do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God consider then who it is that requires these things of you and how reasonable and equitable is it that we should answer His requirements in the most punctual manner Especially if we add 3. The last consideration that the Lord who hath required these things hath shewed and made known the same has promulg'd and declared his will very plainly and expressly in these things to the understanding and capacity of all persons He hath shewed thee Oh man what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee He requires nothing of thee but what He has shewed thee These things are common to man as man and therefore requir'd of every man He has spoke them to thy ear he has made them visible to thy Eye they are such things as do approve themselves to thy Rational Faculties These are not Mysteries but plain discoveries of the mind and will of God He has set thy duty in a clear light which whosoever attends unto may attain to the understanding of it He hath shewed thee Oh man Partly by the Light of Nature that some of these things at least as to do justly and to Love mercy are pleasing and acceptable to him He has ingrav'd them upon thy very Heart so that reflecting upon the Original principles of thy Nature and by conversing with thy self asking thy Conscience questions and harkning to the Answers and dictates of it this thou mayst know and understand that to do justly is good and injustice is evil to love mercy is pleasing to God and the contrary to it as displeasing to him Did the Heathens of old and do they still at this day know it and art thou a stranger to it Read what is said of them Rom. 2.14 15. the Gentiles which have not the written Law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the Law are a law unto themselves which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts But principally He hath shewed it thee by the light of his Word that contains a more explicite and full Revelation of man's duty All the lines of it are there drawn at length all the particulars of it clearly stated If thou goest to the Law and to the Testimony thou may'st have a sufficient direction how to act in all thy concerns how to order thy steps in every path what it is God requires of thee every day in every place and in every condition what thy duty towards God and what thy duty towards man is And what cause have we to adore the goodness of God that has furnish'd us with such a clear light to direct us in our walking with him that we have not only a Law light but a Gospel-light that shines so brightly Jesus Christ is come a light into the World He hath reveal'd God unto us He is the way the truth and the life that both by his Preaching and by his Example has opened the mind of God to us and He that followeth Him shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life And because God hath shewed it unto thee thou art inexcusable oh man who livest in the neglect or contempt of these requirements of His. Thou canst not plead ignorance or say when thou dost an unjust action that thou didst not know better or be unmerciful and say thou didst not know it to be a fault or be proud and disobedient against God and ask what evil there is in 't oh take heed that thou dost not sin against Light and Knowledge for to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin sin with an aggravation that will be attended with a sorer punishment on them that are guilty of it even to be beaten with many stripes So much for the confirmation of the Doctrine that which follows is The APPLICATION 1. This Doctrine yields at all times a useful but on this day a very seasonable caution to us to take heed that we rest not in mere outward duties of Worship as if that were all that God required and as it is to be feared many persons do to the deceiving of themselves They are very exact very frequent and very punctual in these things but guilty of a woful neglect of the moral duties of Religion and so are but partial and consequently unsincere in their obedience Let us take heed that we deceive not our selves in the same way If we halve it with God in the matter of our duty He will cut us short in the matter of his mercy What if such a Religion should obtain a temporal reward 't is insufficient to evidence a real interest in the saving love of God There is no doubt but God has requir'd these things of us All the true methods means and ways of Worship are of God's appointment Praying and Hearing and Fasting are his Ordinances but he never intended that we should rest in these and go no further To do this and no more to attend unto these and neglect other things is a Badge of loathsom Hypocrisie in the sight of God and branded in Scripture as the guise of an unsound Heart Hypocrites and unsound Professors know they must do something in Religion Something they would do to appease God when He is Angry something to continue His favour when Providence is easie and comfortable to them something to keep up a Credit and Reputation with others for Religion and something to quiet the importunities of their own Conscience but then they resolve to do as little as they can and because a slight and heedless performance of the Worship of God is the easiest part of Religion and most consistent with their unmortified lusts they pitch upon this course 'T is indeed much easier to confess a hundred sins than to forsake one 't is easier to spend a whole day in publick Worship than to deny the enticement of a Lust or to withstand a Temptation when it opportunely presents because the one is only the labour of the body the other requires the exercise of the Soul the one may be a weariness to the Flesh but the other is cross and opposite to the beloved interests of it and carnal Hearts may make shift to brook the one tho' they cannot bear the other A little outward Pennance and Mortification of the body they can undergo but a true Repentance of sin that consists in deserting the practice and mortifying the principle of sin is utterly distasteful to them Oh then as we would acquit our selves of the charge and guilt of Hypocrisie let us take heed of resting in the outward duties of Worship Tho' your Eyes be lifted up to Heaven if your affections be fix'd upon Earthly objects tho you bow