of which he will be pacified towards us: What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do jufty, and to love mercy, and to walk bumbly with thy God? It was ufual among the Jews to reduce all the duties of religion to these three heads, justice, mercy, and piety; under the first two, comprehending the duties which we owe to one another; and under the third, the duties which we owe to God. 1. Juftice. And I was going to tell you what it is; but I confidered, that every man knows it, as well as any definition can explain it to him. I fhall only put you in mind of fome of the principal inftances of it, and the feveral virtues comprehended under it. And, 1ft, Juftice is concerned in the making of laws, that they be fuch as are equal and reasonable, ufeful and beneficial, for the honour of God and religion, and for the public good of human fociety; this is a great truft, in the difcharge of which, if men be biaffed by favour or intereft, and drawn afide from the confideration and regard of the public good, it is a far greater crime, and of worse confequence, than any private act of injuftice between man and man. 2dly, And then juftice is alfo concerned in the due execution of laws; which are the guard of private property, the fecurity of public peace, and of religion and good manners. And, Laftly, In the obfervance of laws, and obedience to them; which is a debt that every man owes to human fociety. But more especially juftice is concerned in the obfervance of thofe laws, whether of God or man, which respect the rights of men, and their mutual commerce and intercourse with one another. That we use honesty and integrity in all our dealings, in oppofition to fraud and deceit; truth and fidelity, in oppofition to falfehood and breach of truft; equity and good confcience, in oppofition to all kind of oppref fion and exaction: these are the principal branches and inftances of this great and comprehenfive duty of juftice; the violation whereof is fo much the greater fin, because this virtue is the firmeft bond of human fociety, upon the observation whereof, the peace and happiness of mankind does fo much depend. 2. Mercy; which does not only fignify the inward affection of pity and compaffion towards thofe that are in mifery and neceffity, but the effects of it, in the actual relief of thofe whofe condition calls for our charitable help and affiftance; by feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, and vifiting the fick, and vindicating the oppreffed, and comforting the afflicted, and miniftring ease and relief to them, if it be in our power. And this is a very lovely virtue, and argues more goodness in men than mere juftice doth. For juftice is a ftrict debt; but mercy is favour and kindness. And this perhaps may be the reafon of the different expreffions in the text, that when God barely commands us to do justly, he requires we should love mercy, that is, take a particular pleasure and delight in the exercise of this virtue, which is fo proper and agreeable to mankind, that we commonly call it humanity, giving it its name from our very nature. In fhort, it is fo excellent a virtue, that I fhould be very forry that any religion fhould be able to pretend to the practice of it more than our own. 3. Piety; to walk humbly with thy God. To walk humbly in the fear of the Lord; fo the Chaldee paraphrafe renders thefe words. And this phrafe may comprehend all thofe acts of religion which refer immediately to God; a firm belief of his being and perfections; an awful fenfe of him as the dread Sovereign and righteous Judge of the world; a due regard to his fervice, and a reverent behaviour of ourfelves towards him in all acts of worship and religion, in oppofition to atheism, and a profane neglect and contempt of God and religion; a new and monstrous kind of impiety! which of late years hath broke in upon us, and got head among us, not only contrary to the example of former ages, but in despite of the very genius and temper of the nation, which is naturally devout and zealous in religion. Or Or else this phrafe of walking humbly with God, may refer more particularly to the posture and condition of the people of Ifrael at that time, who were fallen under the heavy difpleasure of God for their fins. And then the duty required is, that being fenfible how highly God hath been offended by us, by the general corruption and viciousness of the age, which like a leprofy hath spread itself almost over the whole body of the nation, and by that open lewdness and those infolent impieties which are daily committed amongst us; I fay, that being deeply fenfible of this, we do with all humility acknowledge our fins to God, and repent of them, and implore his mercy and forgivenefs, and refolve by his grace to turn every one from the evil of our ways, and from the wickedness that is in our hands; which God grant we may every one do this day, according to the pious defign and intention of it. And if we be fincere in this refolution, who can tell but God may turn and repent, and turn away his anger from us, that we perish not? Nay, we have great reafon to believe, that he will be pacified towards us. So hath he declared, If. i. 16. Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, ceafe to do evil, learn to do well, Seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherlefs, plead for the widow. Come now and let us reafon together, faith the Lord: though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as white as fnow; though they be red like crimson, they fhall be as wool. But if we continue unreformed, God will fay to us, as he does there to the people of Ifrael, To what purpose is the multitude of your facrifices unto me? Your calling of assem blies I cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the folemn meeting: And when ye Spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, and when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. To which, let me add that excellent faying of the fon of Sirach to this purpose, Ecclus xxxiv. 25. 26. He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing? So is it with a man that fafteth for This fermon was preached upon occafion of a public fast. for his fins, and goeth again and doth the fame things. Who will hear his prayer, or what doth his humbling profit him? II. Let us confider by what ways and means God hath made known thefe duties to us, and the goodness and obligation of them: He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee? I fhall mention five ways whereby God hath discovered this to us. 1. By a kind of natural instinct. 2. By natural reason. 3. By the general vote and confent of mankind. 5. By the inward dictates and motions of God's Spirit upon the minds of men. 1. By a kind of natural instinct, by which I mean a fecret impreffion upon the minds of men, whereby they are naturally carried to approve fome things as good and fit, and to diflike other things, as having a native evil and deformity in them. And this I call a natural instinct, because it does not feem to proceed fo much from the exercife of our reafon, as from a natural propension and inclination, like those inftincts which are in brute creatures, of natural affection and care toward their young ones. And that these inclinations are precedent to all reafon and difcourfe about them, evidently appears by this, that they do put forth themfelves every whit as vigoroufly in young perfons, as in thofe of riper reafon; in the rude and ignorant fort of people, as in those who are more polifhed and refined. For we fee plainly, that the young and ignorant have as strong impreffions of piety and devotion, as true a fense of gratitude, and juftice, and pity, as the wifer and more knowing part of mankind: A plain indication, that the reafon of mankind is prevented by a kind of natural instinct and anticipation, concerning the good or evil, the comeliness or deformity of thefe things. And though this do not equally extend to all the inftances of our duty, yet as to the great lines and ef fential parts of it, mankind hardly need to confult any other oracle, than the mere propenfions and in clinations clinations of their nature; as whether we ought to reverence the divine nature, to be grateful to thofe who have conferred benefits upon us, to speak the truth, to be faithful to our promise, to restore that which is committed to us in truft, to pity and relieve thofe that are in mifery, and in all things to do to others as we would have them to do to us. And this will further appear, if we confider thefe two things. ift, That men are naturally innocent or guilty to themselves, according to what they do in thefe things. So the Apostle tells us, Rom. ii. 14. 15. When the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, thefe having not the law, are a law unto themselves, and do fhew the effect of the law written in their hearts, their confciences alfo bearing witnefs, and their thoughts by turns (that is, according as they do well or ill) accufing or excufing them. There is a fecret comfort in innocence, and a strange pleasure and fatisfaction in being acquitted by our own minds for what we do. But, on the contrary, when we contradict thofe natural dictates, what uneafinefs do we find in our own breafts? Nay, even before the fact is committed our confcience is ftrangely difquieted at the thoughts of it. When a man does but defign to do a bad thing, he is as guilty to himself, as if he had committed it. Of this we have a confiderable inftance, in the first violence that was offered to nature, Gen. iv. 6. The Lord faid unto Cain, why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? The very thought of that wickednefs which he did but then defign, did diforder his mind, and make a change in his very countenance. Guilt is the natural concomitant of heinous crimes, which fo foon as ever a man commits, his fpirit receives a fecret wound, which caufeth a great deal of fmart and anguish. For guilt is reftlefs, and puts the mind of man into an unnatural working and fermentation, never to be fettled again but by repentance. The wicked are like the troubled fea when it cannot reft; which plainly fhews, that the mind of man hath a kind of natural fenfe of good and evil; because whenever we offend againft nature, our confciences are touched to the quick, and we reVOL. V. U ceive |