they were covetous, and unjuft, and devoured widows houfes; in a word, our Saviour tells us, they neglected the weightier matters of the law, mercy, judgement, and the love of God, and keeping faith with men fo that it is in these things, that our Saviour means, that our righteousness muft exceed the righteoufness of the fcribes and Pharifees, viz. in the practice of moral duties, which were neglected by them; and confequently it is the moral law which our Saviour came to confirm and establish..

3dly, If we confider the inftances which our Saviour gives in his following difcourfe, by which we may beft judge what he means. He inftances in mur der, and adultery, and perjury, which are undoubt. edly forbidden by the natural law; and then he inftances in feveral permiffions which were indulged to them for the hardness of their hearts, but yet did intrench upon the dictates of right reason, and the first and original confiitution of things; as the permiffion of divorce upon every flight occafion, and of revenge, and retaliation of injuries.

4thly, If we confider, that by the law and the Prophets, our Saviour means that which was principally defigned and ultimately intended by them, which was the obfervation of moral duties; which as they were written in the two tables, by the immediate finger of God himfelf, fo are chiefly inculcated by the Prophets. And fo we find this phrafe of the lar and the Prophets elsewhere ufed by our Saviour, when he mentions that great rule of equity, That we should do to others as we would have them do to us, Matth. vii. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men fhould do to you, do ye even fo to them; for this is the law and the Prophets. But how was this the lar and the Prophets, when this rule was never fo much as mentioned in either? Our Saviour means, that this is the foundation of all thofe duties of justice and mercy, which are fo much inculcated in the law and the Prophets.

So that our Saviour makes the obfervation of moral duties to be the principal defign of the Jewish

law,

law, and as it were the foundation of it; and therefore he calls moral duties τα βαρύτερα το νόμο, the weigh tier matters of the law, Matth. xxiii. 23. But ye (fays he to the fcribes and Pharifees) have neglected the weightier things of the law, judgement, and mercy, and fidelity. The fcribes and Pharifees bufied themfelves chiefly about ritual obfervances; but our Saviour tells them, that thofe other were the most confiderable and important duties of the law, and lay at the bottom of the Jewith religion. And much the fame enumeration the Prophet makes, where he compares facrifices and thefe moral duties together, Mic. vi. 6. 7. 8. Wherewith fhall I came before the Lord, and bow myfelf before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleafed with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firft-born for my tranfgreffion, the fruit of my body for the fin of my foul? 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? He had required facrifices, but had no regard to them in comparison with thefe.

2. No inftituted fervice of God, no pofitive part of religion whatfoever, was ever acceptable to God, when moral duties were neglected; nay, fo far from being acceptable to him, that he rejects them with difdain and abhorrence. To this purpose there are almost innumerable paffages in the prophets, Ifa. i. 11. &c. To what purpose is the multitude of your facrifices unto me? When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hands, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incenfe is an a bomination to me; the new moons and fabbaths, the calling of affemblies, 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: when you make many prayers, I will not hear. What is the reafon of all this? because they were defective in the moral duties of religion; fo it follows, Your

hands

:

hands are full of blood. Wash ye, make ye clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; ceafe to do evil, learn to do well; feek judgement, relieve the oppreffed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now and let us reafon together, faith the Lord implying, that till they had refpect to moral duties, all their external worship and facrifices fignified nothing. And fo likewise Ifa. lxvi. 3. He tells them, that nothing could be more abominable than their facrifices, fo long as they allowed themfelves in wicked practices: He that killeth an ox, is as if he flew a man: he that facrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck: he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered fwines blood; and he that burneth incenfe, as if he bleed an idol: yea, they have chofen their own ways, and their foul delighteth in their abominations.

And to mention but one text more out of the Old Testament, Jer. vii. 4. 5. Truft ye not in lying words, faying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are thefe. Throughly amend your ways, and your doings; throughly execute judgement between a man and his neighbour; opprefs not the firanger, the fatherless and the widow, and fhed not innocent blood. If they did not practife thefe duties, and forbear those fins, all the reverence for the temple, and the worship of God fignified nothing. You fee in the Jewish religion what it was that was acceptable to God for itself and its own fake, viz. the practice of moral duties; and that all instituted religion, that did not promote and further thefe, or was destitute of them, was abominable to God. And under the gospel our Saviour prefers a moral duty before any gift we can offer to God, and will have it to take place, Matth. v. 23. 24. If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remembereft that thy brother bath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

But it thould feem by this, and what hath been faid before, that God prefers goodness and righteoufnels to men, before his own worship; and obedience

to

to the precepts of the fecond table, before obedience to thofe of the first.

But this does but feem fo. All that can be collected from this paffage of our Saviour, or any thing that hath been already faid, are only thefe two things:

Ift, That God prefers the practice of the moral du. ties of the fecond table, before any inftituted worship, fuch as facrifice was; and before obedience to the laws of religion, which are merely pofitive, though they do immediately concern the worthip of God.

2dly, That if we neglect the duties of the fecond table, of goodnefs and righteoufnefs towards men, God will not accept of our obedience to the precepts of the first, nor of any act of religious worship that we can perform. This our Saviour means when he fays, Leave there thy gift before the altar, first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift; intimating, that fo long as we bear a revengeful mind towards our brethren, God will not accept of any gift or facrifice that we can offer to him, or indeed of any act of religious worship that we can perform.

3. The great defign of the Christian religion is to reftore and reinforce the practice of the natural law, or, which is all one, of moral duties; and therefore our Saviour begins his firft fermon, by promifing bleffedness to the practice of thefe duties; of purity, and meekness, and righteoufnefs, and peaceablenefs, and mercifulness, and patience, and fubmiffion to the will of God under perfecutions and fufferings for righteousness fake; and tells us (as I fhewed before) that he came not to release men from the practice of thefe duties, but to oblige them thereto more effectually; and that as thefe were the law and the Prophets, that is, the main duties and the foundation of the Jewish religion, fo were they much more to be fo of the Chriftian. This the fcriptures of the New Teftament do every where declare to be the great de fign of the gofpel, and the Chriftian religion, to inftruct us in thefe duties, and to engage us effectually to the practice of them. In that known and excellent text, Tit. ii. 11. 12. The grace of Goa (which is in and by the doctrine of the gospel) hath appeared to alt VOL. V.

men; teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lufts, we should live foberly, righteously, and godly, in this prefent world. And herein St James tells us, the true nature, and the force and virtue of the Chriftian religion doth confift, James i. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, To vifit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. And chap. iii. 17. The wifdom which is from above (that is, that heavenly and divine knowledge revealed to us by the gofpel) hath thefe properties, and is apt to produce thefe effects; it is first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, and eafy to be intreated, full of mercy, and of good fruits.

And the planting of these difpofitions in us is that which the fcripture calls the new creature, and the image of God, Eph. iv. 20. &c. The Apoftle fpeaking there of the vices and lufts wherein the Gentiles Jived, tells Chriftians that they were otherwise instructed by the gospel : But you have not fo learned Chrift, if fo be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jefus: That ye put off, concerning the former converfation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lufts: and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteoufness and true holinefs, or (as the words perhaps may be better rendered) in the holiness of truth; for it immediately follows, Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour.

And this is that which the Apostle elsewhere makes to be all in all in the Chriftian religion: In Chrift Jefus, neither circumcifion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but a new creature, Gal. vi. 15. Which the poftle in the chapter before expreffeth thus, In Chrift Jefus neither circumcifion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but faith which worketh (or is infpired) by charity. And yet more exprefsly, 1 Cor. vii, 19. Circumcifion is nothing, and uncircumcifion is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. By the comparing of which texts, it appears, that the main thing in Chriftianity is the practice of moral du