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of what is neceffary; from our violent heats and animofities, to a more peaceable temper, and by a mutual condefcenfion on all fides, to a nearer and ftronger union among ourselves, till we recover in fome measure our ancient virtue and integrity of manners; we have reafon to fear, that God will still have a controverfy with us, notwithstanding all our noise and zeal about religion.

This is the true, this is the only courfe to appease the indignation of God, and to draw down his favour and bleffing upon a poor distracted and gasping nation: He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

I have but one word more, and that is to put you prefently upon the practice of one of thefe duties that I have been perfuading you to, and that is mercy, and alms to the poor. If what I have already faid, have had its effect upon you, I need not use any other arguments; if it have not, I have hardly the heart to ufe any. I fhall only put you in mind again, that God values this above all our external devotion; he will have mercy rather than facrifice; that this is the way to find mercy with God, and to have our prayers speed in heaven; and without this, all our fafting and humiliation fignifies nothing. And to this purpose I will only read to you thofe plain and perfuafive words of the prophet, which do fo fully declare unto us the whole duty of this day, and par ticularly urge us to this of charity, Ifa. lviii. 5. 6. 7. 8.9. Is it fuch a faft that I have chofen? a day for a man to afflict his foul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread fackcloth and afhes under him? Wilt thou call this a faft, and an acceptable day unto the Lord? Is not this the faft that I have chofen? to loofe the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are caft out to thy house? when thou feeft the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide

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not thyself from thine own flesh? Then fhall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy falvation fhall Spring forth Speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord fhall be thy rereward. Then thou shalt call, and the Lord shall anfwer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, here I am.

SERMON

CIII.

Inftituted religion not intended to undermine natural.

MATTH. ix. 13.

But go ye and learn what that meaneth; I will have mercy, and not facrifice.

of the most freceffu, attempts that

been made upon religion, by the devil and his inftruments, hath been by fetting the laws of God at variance with themfelves, and by dafhing the feveral parts of religion, and the two tables of the law against one another, to break all in pieces; and under a pretence of advancing that part of religion which is inftituted and revealed, to undermine and deftroy that which is natural, and of primary obligation.

To manifest and lay open the mischievous confequences of this defign, I fhall at this time (by God's affistance) endeavour to make out these two things:

1. That natural religion is the foundation of all inftituted and revealed religion.

2. That no revealed or inftituted religion was ever defigned to take away the obligation of natural duties, but to confirm and eftablish them.

And to this purpose, I have chofen these words of our Saviour for the foundation of my following difcourfe: But go ye and learn what that meaneth; I will have mercy, and not facrifice. The occafion of VOL. V. which

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which words was briefly this: The Pharifees found fault with him for keeping company, and eating with publicans and finners. He owns the thing which they objected to him, and endeavours to vindicate himself from any crime or fault in fo doing; and that these two ways.

1. By telling them, that it was allowed to a phyfician, and proper for his office and profeffion, to converfe with the fick, in order to their cure and recovery. He may abstain, if he pleafeth, from the converfation of others, but the fick have need of him, and are his proper care, and his business and employment lies among them: He said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are fick; I came not to call the righteous, but finners to repentance they who were already good, needed not to be called upon to amend and reform their lives; and they that were fo conceited of their own righteoufnefs, as the Pharifees were, and fo confident that they were found and whole, would not admit of a phyfician, and thereby rendered themselves incapable of cure; and therefore he did not apply himself to them, but to the publicans and finners, who were acknowledged on all hands, both by themfelves and others, to be bad men; fo that it could not be denied to be the proper work of a fpiritual physician to converfe with fuch perfons,

2.

By endeavouring to convince them of their ignorance of the true nature of religion, and of the rank and order of the feveral duties thereby required: But go ye and learn what that meaneth; I will have mercy and not facrifice; which faying is quoted by him out of the Prophet Hofea, chap. vi. 6. I defired mercy and not facrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings; which text our Saviour cites and applies upon two feveral occafions; the confidering and comparing of which will give full light to the true meaning of it.

The first is here in the text, upon occafion of the Pharifees finding fault with him, for converfing with publicans and finners; the other is Matth. xii. 7. where the Pharifees blaming the difciples of our Sa

viour for plucking the ears of corn on the fabbath day, our Saviour tells them, If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not facrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless; that is, if they had understood the true nature of religion, and what duties of it are chiefly, and in the first place, to be regarded, they would not have been fo forward to cenfure this action of his difciples.

So that the plain meaning of this faying is this, that in comparing the parts of religion and the obligation of duties together, thofe duties which are of moral and natural obligation, are most valued by God, and ought to take place of thofe which are pofitive and ritual: I will have mercy and not facrifice; that is, rather than facrifice, according to the true meaning of this Hebrew phrafe, which is to be understood in a comparative fenfe, as is evident from the text itfelf in Hofea, I defired mercy and not facrifice; and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings; if they cannot be obferved together, let facrifice be neglect ed, and the work of mercy be done.

And the reafon of this feems very plain; becaufe fhewing mercy, or doing good in any kind, is a prime inftance of thofe moral duties, which do naturally and perpetually oblige; but facrifice is an inftance of pofitive and ritual obfervances, and one of the chief of the kind: fo that when moral duties, and ritual obfervances come in competition, and do clash with one another, the observation of a rite, or pofitive inftitution, is to give way to a moral duty; and it is no fin in that cafe to neglect the obfervation of fuch a rite, yea though it were commanded and appointed by God himself. And though this may feem to be a breach of the letter of the law; yet it is according to the true mind and meaning of the law; it being a tacit condition implied in all laws of a ritual and pofitive nature, provided the obfervance of them be not to the hindrance and prejudice of any duty, which is of a higher and better nature; in that cafe, the obligation of it does for that time give way, and is fufpended.

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And

And this will appear to be the true meaning of this rule, by comparing more particularly the inftances to which our Saviour applies it. His difciples paffing. through the corn on the fabbath day, and being hun. gry, pluckt the ears, and did eat. This our Saviour does juftify to be no breach of the law of the fabbath ; because in that cafe, and in fuch circumftances, it did not oblige: for the disciples being called to attend upon our Saviour, to be inftructed by him in the things which concerned the kingdom of God, that is, in the doctrine of the gofpel, which they were to publish to the world, this attendance hindered them from making neceffary provifions against the fabbath, they, in obedience to their mafter, being intent upon a better work; but that they might not ftarve, the neceffities. of nature must be provided for; and therefore it was fit, that the law of the fabbath, which was but pofitive and ritual, fhould give way to an act of mercy and felf-prefervation: If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not facrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

may

And the reafon is the fame as to any inftrumental part of religion, by which I mean any thing which be a means to promote piety and goodness; as prayer, hearing the word of God, keeping good company, and avoiding bad; the duties of this kind, our Saviour here in the text (where he likewife applies this rule) compares with moral duties. To avoid the company of vitious and wicked perfons, is a good means to preserve men from the contagion of their vices, and was always efteemed a duty among prudent men, both Jews and Heathens, and is no wife difallowed by our Saviour: but yet not fo a duty, as to hinder a greater duty, nor so strictly and perversely to be infifted upon, as if one ought not to converse with bad men in any cafe, or upon any account, no, not for fo great and good an end as to reclaim them from their vices. In this cafe we ought to confider, that our firft and higheft obligation is to moral duties, comprehended under the love of God and our neighbour; among which one of the chief is to do good

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