to them if they do not shine so bright in contradiction to their lives that they are offended at it The Church of God is called the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 because it doth hold forth the truth to men and support it in the world even as a pillar doth a proclamation which is affixed to it so that all that pass by may read it And this it doth not only by preaching and outward profession but by the sincere practice of a multitude of professors So that it is as easie for men to know their duty as to know what a Kings proclamation is which is not only cryed but likewise posted up in the market-place that all may read it Let us not then be so dull as to think on the one hand to plead Ignorance or weakness of parts or insufficiâ—ncy of light in excuse for neglect of our duty or so wild We cannot then plead Ignorance we need not be Seekers as on the other hand to turn Seekers in Religion as though no body could yet find the way to heaven The Lord hath shewed thee O man what thou hast to do and therefore thou shalt not be able to pretend that thou wantedst the means of knowledge and hadst no body to inform thee in thy duty And he hath shewn it so long ago that the world cannot be at this day to seek how to please God as if no body could tell what his mind was To pass by the former let it be considered concerning the latter that they he shrewdly to be suspected to believe no God or else not to know what they mean by the name who are to seek what Religion to be of For no man can be rationally perswaded of the being of a God and not be perswaded that he governs the world And if he govern the world it must be by Laws And if those Laws are incertain they are no better then none And if they be made for all his subjects they must be plain because many of them understand but little It is an easie thing to find what Gods will is if we be but impressed with such a sense of our dependance on him as begets that reverence and fear of him and that love and affection to him which easily and naturally flows from the sense of our dependance Gods mind is laid before us we need only open our eyes and look no further The way is plain though it be narrow the gate is open though it be strait You may easier find the way then walk in it you may sooner see the gate then enter in at it It is to be feared that they who seek for some new way find this too strait and narrow which they have been in and they would have a greater liberty to themselves then formerly their consciences durst let them take And then the Devil may soon shew them the way wherein they should walk and by a new light discover to them the paths of darkness But I dare say if any man have a mind to live godly to deny himself to walk humbly with his God he need not go to seek any further then this book There he may behold so much to be practised that if he will seek no further till he hath done that I may warrant him from being of the number of any other seekers then those that seek the Lord continually that they may walk in all his commandments blameless They are exceeding broad they are to have an influence into the whole life so that if the doing of those be our end we need seek for no more for they will hold us at work all our dayes THE third observation is The third observation proved That Gods demands are not unequall or that he doth not exact of us any duty that is hard and rigorous They are not Draco's Laws cruell and tyrannicall nor the heavy yoke of Moses grievous and painfull but the gracious commands of Jesus Christ the Laws that God himself lived by when he was in the flesh Coâ—in germans to those that rule in heaven Two things in the text likewise speak this besides that which is mainly intended First the Prophet calls it Good which the Lord shews to us He requires nothing that is for our harm or our reall damage or which a man should refuse if he was left to himself did he rightly understand And secondly the question likewise speaks it What doth the Lord require of thee As if he should have said what great matter doth he look for what canst thou except against it is it any thing strange and uncouth that was never before heard of Did thy mind never give thee notice of it Is it some monstrous task that the mind of man could never conceive it nor think of it No. 1. 1 God exacts not things impossible God requires nothing impossible as is apparent from two things which the text suggests to our thoughts 1. He doth not bid men offer their children to him which perhaps they have not He doth not bid them buy them as the Heathen sometime were fain to do for perhaps they are not able He doth not exact of men as the Prophet before said a thousand rivers of oyl which a whole Town or Countrey cannot afford But as Moses saith The commandment is not hid from thee neither is afar off It is not in heaven that thou shouldst say who shall go up to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldst say who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou maist do it Deut. 30.11 12 13 14. He doth not bid us all be Schollars and understand all the books of nature He bids us not to climb up to heaven and follow the chariot of the Sun and track the paths wherein the Moon walks and number all the heavenly bodies things which all mens parts and employments will not reach but he saith plainly do justly love merty walk humbly with God things within us which we know well enough he requires of us And secondly you may observe that he saith What doth the Lord require or thee O man He doth not bid us make other men do justly and love mercy c. He doth not command us to quell other mens passions but our own nor govern other mens desires and lusts but those that are in our selves He exacts not of us their duties whether it be of our children or servants or any such impossible task but our own duty toward God and them When we have done what we can to make them understand and do their duty then saith the Scripture God will not require their blood at our hand But the soul that sinneth that shall die and every soul shall bear its own iniquity 2. Nor
THE EPITOME OF Mans Duty BEING A Discourse upon Mic. 6.8 where the Hypocritical people are briefly directed how to please God Qui in vitiis sibi placent non credent nobis etiamsi Solem manibus gestemus Lactant. LONDON Printed by R. W. for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet near the inward Temple Gate 1660. The Epitome of mans Duty MIC 6.8 He hath shewed 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 THAT there are Laws of God engraven upon the tables of our hearts Men would willingly please God and themselves too both the light of nature and the holy Scriptures plainly tell us Whensoever we raze out or blot any of these Laws we prick our consciences and draw blood of our own souls and we become traytors also to Gods Majesty whose image and superscription we vilely deface and we know very well that we have incurred his high displeasure Now it hath been the enquiry of all men how to heal these wounds and gashes in the conscience and how to pacifie the wrath of God and obtain reconciliation with him Yet such a love they have to their old traiterous practises which they are loth to leave that they would willingly find a way to please God and to please themselves both together They will spare no cost to be at peace with God so it may not cost them the life of their sins and they may still be at peace with them This is too manifest in the story of Heathens Jews and Christians The Heathens knowing that they had offended their Gods Appatent from the Heathens but having no mind to be perfect friends with them invented all the wayes they could think of to get their good will and obtain a grant of them to sin and not be punished a license to follow their own desires without any disturbance This was the original of the multitude of Gods of uncouth ceremonies horrid mysteries Panick terrors and affrightments for they stood in a terrible dread that the Gods intended some mischief to them which they knew they deserved The Athelians for example worshipped many Gods who they thought might do them either good or harm and least there should be any that they performed no devotion unto and therefore might owe them a spite they made an Altar to an unknown God Or as we may gather from Diogenes Laertius there being a great mortality among them and they obtaining no ease by all their prayers and sacrifices to the Gods of their own countrey they imagined that it came from some unknown hand and so worshipped that God whosoever he was that he might be reconciled to them Just such likewise was the humour of the Jews From the Jews though better taught by God They could contentedly bestow any thing upon him so that they might but have their own wills And when their sacrifices were costly and expensive they hoped God would be well satisfied and account himself no loser by their sins which brought him in so many fat services And if these would not give him full content rather then he should not be satisfied and rather then their sins should be sacrificed they would offer their own children unto him They ask him if he would have their first born as it was the manner of some heathens to sacrifice men and women upon their Altars to their Gods If he desired the fattest and fairest child in the flock should be made an oblation to him or if he would have all their estates evaporated in sacrifices all their riches smoak in his holy fires It is the art of the superstitious man to flatter God and fawn upon him to bribe him as it were with a rich and gaudy worship at some seasons that he may have liberty at other times not to worship him nor serve him as he ought And this being a timerous disposition of soul it makes the man very scrupulous how to please God very lavish in his expences out of fear that he will otherwise be very troublesome to him if he be not pleased There is still the same disease in the soul of most that are called Christians And from the Christians They know that they have sinned and that God is very angry and they know that he is very powerfull and able to tear them in pieces that he is a consuming fire can devour them in a moment And this fear makes them sigh and weep knock their breasts and make a mournfull noise fast and pray run from Church to Church to offer him sacrifice hear Gods word and read it or do any other thing but only do the will of God according to what they hear and read to be their duty For they do not see any such goodness in God that should attract their love and make delight in his life and accord with his will but they are only amazed at his greatness and tremble to think of the evil that he can do them They will give him as it were the fruit of their body they will pine and starve their corps with fasting if the doing that pennance will satisfie for their surfetting and drunkenness or for their greedy ravenous and devouring covetousness They will spare no ballowed breath if their prayers may but blow away the infection of their oaths lyes corrupt communication that comes out of their mouths If he will have a drink offering of their very tears they will not grutch it so be it that they may drown the tears of the oppressed or wash off the stains of cruelty and unmercifulness They will mourn and lament they will cry and houl upon their beds they will sigh and groan they will walk heavily and sadly they will shut themselves up from company they will make large confessions of their offences I cannot tell what it is that they will not do but all is to intreat the Lord not to be angry with them for their rebellions and if ever they commit the like again they promise to make him as good an amends as they do now and resolve to fast and mourn and bewail the fault so that he shall not say they did nothing to please him And the reason of all this is The reason of mens endeavour to please him without leaving their sins because men love their sins well themselves and think that God can love them also if he will and that he need not be so offended and distasted unless he please They hope therefore that â—hey may intreat him to be more kind then to take away their beloved lusts from their embraces seeing it is not his nature but only his imperious will as they imagine that sets him so against them And hence it is that they earnestly begg his pardon for what his past and for to incline him to condescend to their desires of not being angry with
their sins they are willing and ready also otherwise to gratifie him and to give him something that may please him as well as their forsaking of them And at last by long use and practice they grow to this conceit that they cannot imagine what God would have more then that they should confess their sins and be sorry for them And they live as if they could not devise what should be more pleasing to God nor what he should require further of mortal creatures Whereas my text tells you plainly that it is the corruption of their wills rather then the weakness of their understanding that makes them judge thus perversly For it is plain enough what is acceptable unto God The Lord hath shewn thee o man what is good and what else is it but to do justly c. Thou needest not ask so many questions as they do ver 6 7. as if thou knewest not what God would have nor what thou shouldst do to him more then thou dost unless thou shouldst offer thy children to him or all the beasts in thy pastures c. For a little inquiry will acquaint thee that God is very well pleased if thou wilt be just mercifull and humble That seems to be the very true sense and meaning of those words foregoing The sense of the words from their dependance on the foregoing Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord c. ver 6 7. For this chapter contains the pleading of God with his people in the first verse of which he calls to the Prophet as his Attorney to manage his plea which he puts in against them And the Prophet in the second verse calls for silence whiles he pleads in open court in his behalf After which in ver 3 4 5. he opens the case and shews how guilty they were even from their own confession that God had never given them any cause to be weary of his service but rather that he had done them all the good that they could desire And he leads their memories back as far as Aegypt and the wilderness where his mercies were wonderfull to them bidding them testifie against him and put in their plea also if they had any thing to say in justification of their defection from him Now in those words ver 6 7. the Prophet seems to bring in the people interrupting of him in this complaint against them saying for themselves in a grumbling manner What would you have us do what is it that you would have us give to God Do we not offer him sacrifices and bow our faces before his dwelling place What would he have more then this What better provision shall we make for him at his house They speak like men that knew not how to please God and as if he was such an one that no body knew what would content him Will he be pleased say they with a thousand of rams What would he have all the sheep in our flocks driven to his Altars Would he have all the oyle in the land run in a stream to his house or would he have our first born children now sacrificed which formerly we might exchange for some thing else Would he have them in kind now offered up unto him or would he have all the fruit of our body the blood of all our children one and other sprinkled before him to expiate for our sins No what need all this language saith the Prophet here in my text why do you make your selves so strange to what I say As though you could not tell without all these aspersions cast upon God what he would have you to do He hath shewed thee O man who talk'st in this sort what is good And tell me what thou thinkest in thy own conscience it is that the Lord requires of thee Is it any thing else but to do justly to love mercy and walk humbly with God Their silence and not answering to the Question argues that it is unanswerable and therefore the Prophet goes on in the rest of the chapter without any interruption from them to lay open their sins and punishments It is not such a difficult matter to please God as men make it they know well enough what it is that he requires if they have any mind to do it and it is no such strange thing that they should wonder he requires it at their hands In the words you may observe these six things 1. Six observations from the words That there is some duty to be paid to God by every one of us 2. That it is easie to know this duty 3. That God exacts of man nothing in his duty which is unequal or unjust and therefore it is easie also to do it 4. That a mans own conscience will be witness against him if he do not perform this duty which God requires 5. Justice mercy and humble deportment before God are the summ of it 6. These things were alwayes more valued by God then sacrifices and other the most costly services All these lie plainly before your eyes as you may soon discern in the text or they will all manifestly appear to him that will seriously attend these following considerations which I will offer to his thoughts upon every one of them FOR the truth of the first That there is something owing by every one of us unto God The proof of the first from four things I need not search all the divine writings to make out Gods title to mans duty here are evidences enough for it within the compass of the text First he is our Lord What doth the Lord require of thee 1 He is our Lord. and that by a title Paramount to all others He gave us our being and it is one of the Regalia of the crown of heaven that all the Subjects of that kingdom are perfect creatures We are all his vassals and can no more be absolved from fealty and homage to him then we can cease to be when we are All the tenures you know among us were held by some services and that of pure Villenage made a man most at the will of the Lord now such is that which we owe to God but more pure and absolute then any other can possibly be For our persons are tyed and bound to him and not only our services and we are not bound by our own consent only but we are Servi nati born his servants yea more then so we are Servi creati a title peculiar to him created servants who owe their whole selves to him To deny therefore all obedience unto God is to say we are our own who is LORD over us It is the highest piece of pride and insolency an unpasalleld rebellion against our natural Soveraign a crime never to be pardoned but by his infinite clemency and our unseigned subjection to him as long as we live 2. 2 We are men We are men he hath shewed thee O Man what is good and as we are reasonable creatures 1
We are indowed with more excellent powers of obeying God then other creatures we are tyed to him in the most noble services and fitted for the most honourable employments 2 And being reasonable creatures we likewise have a sense above all others of our obligations to the supream Lord of the world and our own consciences give us the lye if we say that we are free to do what we will We know very well that when we took a being from him we took an oath of faith and service to him There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocles as an Heathen himself could say an oath inessenced and consubstantiated with mankind an oath of allegiance included in our very being a Sacrament which we took to God in our mothers womb when we had first leave to become men Our very reason and conscience is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Arrians Phrase that promise and engagement whereby we swear to God before we can speak as soon as a soul is breathed into us He that breaks this sacred oath or promise doth unman himself as much as he can and becomes unreasonable And 3. as reasonable likewise a man can soon tell himself that since he requires service of persons and things below him he is much more bound in service to the Most High who is the creator of us all 3. God requires something of us 3 God makes demands which he would never do if it was not his due He is not so unjust as to make demands where he hath no right nor so needy as to beg that which is none of his own nor so unkind as to follow us with continuall arrests if we were his neighbours only and not his tenants and debtors nor so unwise as to maintain officers and servants where he hath nothing to receive These are the words of the Prophet of God to men now why should God send his messengers and Ministers and call upon men so earnestly but that there are some services incumbent upon them of which they ought to be highly sensible What King makes proclamation where he expects no subjection What Lord issues out commands and sends out his servants where he hath no tenants that hold of him It would be in vain to make such loud cryes to men if God expected nothing but that men should please themselves and do to him as they thought good And it is too late to ask quo jure by what right God requires our obedience for I have already mentioned a title that comprehends all in it 4. 4 The worst of men confess his right The worst of men confess his right They that will not love him will flatter him they that will not give him all will give him some and they that have been negligent seek to make him satisfaction The Jews to whom the Prophet here speaks that would not do all his will yet offer him large summs to buy off the punishment for their faults As they who are bound by their tenures to personal service in the wars would many times rather send their servant in their stead so would these men gladly give God content by sacrificing of their beasts when they had no mind to offer up themselves And all the wayes whereby the poor heathen study to make him reparation for their wrongs and atone him to them are plain confessions of this truth that we owe something to him In a matter so clear Application against the professedly prophane I will not hold a candle to the Sun but First I shall rather wonder that there should be any such persons in the world that live like bruites as if God required nothing of them but had made them to fill their bellies and their purses and had given them leave not to be men Sons of Belial they are as the antient Scripture calls them men under no yoke or government unless it be the tyranny of their own lusts and passions which domineer over them Men that hate instruction and scorn reproof as if we did them wrong when we tell them God requires that they should be better Men that lift up the nose like the wild Ass in the wilderness which snuffs up the wind at her pleasure and say who shall command them I wish there were no such Monsters in the world that shake off the government of God and say of Christ this man shall not reign over us that take it ill to be touched in the tender interest of their sins that think it is plain neither God nor man can require more of them then they will give them Take heed that all this be not true in your lives if not in the temper of your spirits Remember seriously this fundamentall truth which you all know well enough already That you are not at liberty that there are some indispensable duties he upon you that you are tyed to God in the most sacred bonds and that it must be your greatest care to see them well discharged And secondly And against pretended Saints if this be true let the Libertines of this Age look to it who think that all duty smells of baseness and servitude for by that name they have learnt to call all our services and that Christ came to free us from obedience to God himself And let us look to them also for if God must expect nothing from them then what presumption is it for us poor mortals to imagine that they must be just or faithful or any thing else to us And therefore you may observe that at the same time that men began to think there was no obligation lay upon them of duty to God they began to imagine that all their Landlords also were usurpers and that they had no rights but what the corruption of ancient times had given them But Christ did not make us the less men by making us to become Christians He hath in his title the name of our Lord. Duty and true grace are it no such difference as silly people imagine Our obligations are not diminished but our strength and power is increased the service is not altered but love mixt with justice makes it more easie We are not discharged from our work but our reward is swelled to an unmeasurable disproportion to it But I pass by this because I hope there are none that hear me who set God and Christ at odds and rob him of his creature under a pretence of making him a Christian THE second truth The second obseâ—â—â—… provâ—… 〈…〉 viz. That it is eafie for men to know their duty is clear from two passages in the text 1. The Lord hath shewed it to them He hath demonstrated it made it very plaine so that if a Law do not bind till it be promulgated that injures not Gods title at all for he hath shewn and proclaimed his mind 2. It is so shewn that men cannot but see it and take notice of it as the manner of words by way of
things unreasonable He requires nothing unreasonable for he speaks to us here in the Text as men He bids us only love a greater good more then a less a better thing more then a worse God more then the world the soul more then the body To do to others as we would they should do to us to provide for a long life more then a short to lay up treasure where none can take it away He never bids us pray unless we be in need nor give thanks but when we have received a blessing Do but show that you are not in perpetual want and he will not ask you to pray without ceasing Do but make it good that you receive not innumerable blessings every day and he will not require you to give solemn and hearty thanks Do but shew that it is better to be drunk then to be sober and you may take your fill that a man can write better then God and then you need not read his Word that all time is your own and then you may sit at home or recreate your selves on the Lords day And so you may say of every other duty not one of them is unreasonable to be expected from us for he commends the best things to us and prefers a good to us before an evil or a greater good before a less 3. Nothing that is unnatural Nor things unnatural I do not mean to corrupt nature for so the most reasonable thing that is may seem unnatural as to provide for our parents to keep our word when it is to our damage c. But to nature as God made it and to renewed nature God requires nothing that is contrary It cannot be unnatural to trust God more then our riches to live by faith in God to depend upon his promises yea to leave all for his sake and to trust him with our lives as well as our fortunes to trust him till another world as well as in this That which seems the hardest thing in Religion is to lay down our lives if God call for them to forsake every thing rather then break the least of his Commandments and yet there is nothing unnatural in it but it is according to the right constitution and nature of our souls to let him dispose of our lives and goods who gave them to us to trust him with them and with our selves It is not unnatural to give our lives to the God of Life especially since he hath promised a better life which makes it infinitely reasonable and so far from being unnatural that it is desirable to do and suffer what he pleases 〈◊〉 in Epist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing puts us so much out of all fear as to stand in the fear of the Laws And nothing puts us in such possession of our selves as to give our selves to him But you must not think that when I say it is thus good A caution there is nothing in it that is harsh and sowre for as the worst things may be grateful so the best things may be unsavoury to a bad palate To the flesh these things will not seem good till it be tamed and subdued and then even the body will think it self bettered by them Many sorts of poyson are sweet in the mouth and many good medicines are as bitter Many sins are pleasurable in the acting though they be rank poyson bitterness and gall when they are gone down and swallowed into the conscience And on the contrary many things are uneasie and distastful which afterward yield the rarest delights and the greatest benefits We must not think that our duty is such that we shall find no labour no reluctance in it No it is not so easie as to eat our meat or drink our drink but being spiritual it will find resistance from the flesh and we must do some violence to that at the first for our souls good And then when we are used to our duty it will be as natural to us as to eat and though to put forth such acts of obedience may not be so easie as to go to a feast yet in the acting they will be no less sweet then our meat and drink And if God require no unequal thing No man then shall dare to plead his want of power to do Gods commands let no man think to plead his own inability to do Gods commands Why should God give us a charge if it were impossible to be kept what good or wise master would require tasks that can never be performed And besides is it not as possible to forbear sin for Gods sake as out of reverence to a person whom thou fearest Canst thou not as well do what God commands as what a friend enjoyns Canst thou not as well forbear to be drunk when none but God sees as thou canst when the Magistrate or Minister is in company And if thou canst be sober to day then why not to morrow also If for a week thou canst give thy self to reading and prayer then why not for a moneth and so for a year and so for ever If thou canst be silent and hold thy tongue why canst thou not keep from Oaths and evil language when thou speakest And for other matters that are higher if thou canst do these lower even by an ordinary grace why canst thou not do them by the mighty power of Gods holy Spirit If a man can abstain from much evil by himself then why should he not be able to do good through God There is no man shall have this pretence for himself at the day of Judgement that he was unable to do what he knew for then it will appear to all others and himself also that he could have done more then he did God required many things within himself and for the rest the Spirit of God that moved him to them would have assisted him in them Yea even now it appears to mens own consciences that they can have no such excuse for that is the fourth Observation THat mens own consciences will speak against them The fourth observation proved if they do not what God requires This is but a deduction from what hath been said and is plainly also supposed in the text For first you have seen that men have a full knowledge of their duty They need not be told it but the Question only being askt it is supposed they can readily make an Answer Or being named it need not be proved their own hearts instantly giving an assent And therefore secondly they must needs witness against themselves for as they know what they ought to do so they know when they do not as they ought And they know without any information so that if you do but ask the Question they are sufficiently reproved of their negligence And so thirdly they will condemn themselves for it is contrary to the mind to approve of that which it knows it ought not to have done As it is a witness against
take away no mans rights defend our Laws pitty the poor and not exact great fums meerly to support their own greatness Let us pray that those may rule us who are ruled by their maker that will do good even to enemies walk humbly with their God be poor in spirit not given to the vanities and excesses of the world that will sympathize with a poor Nation in its poverty pitty it miseries not prodigally wast its treasures and such as will love Religion and make the worship of God reverent and the practice of all Christian duties had in high esteem Such Rulers the Lord will love and bless See also Prov. 28. 15 16. Prov. 29.14 Prov. 20.28 Amos 5.14 15. and both Prince and people will feel the blessing that is in them For so the wisest King that ever was tells us Prov. 25.5 That if the wicked be taken from before the King his throne shall be established in righteousness And if it be so established then the King by judgement establisheth the Land Prov. 29.4 All the people rejoyce when the righteous are in authority and by a man of understanding and knowledge the state of a land is prolonged Prov. 29.2 28.2 That which the Bishop of Elvas said to the estates of Portugal after they had restored that family to the Crown which had long been excluded by the Spaniard is the greatest commendation of a Prince to the peoples affection next to true piety His Majesty said he doth not esteem those tributes lawfull which were paid in tears and he will not reign over your goods nor over your heads nor over your priviledges but over your hearts He that by such a government as this doth seat himself in the affection of God and his people his throne shall be est ablished for ever and his children are blessed after him Prov. 29.14.20.7 8. I will conclude this with the words of the same wise King which concern every man of us He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life righteousness and honour ch 21.21 By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life Pro. 22.4 And when God hath heard these prayers may we be so wise and happy as to chuse such Representatives in future times as consist of persons just and righteous mercifull and tender of all mens interests and concernments and that walk with God not living in any sin and that walk humbly with him not being puft up with a conceit of their own godliness That are neither ungodly themselves nor call all others ungodly who are not of their mind That love not those who are bad nor scorn any that are good And in brief that are not swoln with a belief of their own excellencies nor grown heady and proud in opinions but men of a sober Religion toward God joyned with justice and charity toward man I Shall not exercise the Readers patience any longer about these matters The sixth Observation when I have but briefly opened the sixth observation which naturally arrises from the discourse of the Prophet viz. That these things to do justly to love mercy to walk humbly with God were alwayes more valued by God then Sacrifices or any other bodily though costly services It is the very intent of the man of God in this place to disparage all outward worship though of Gods own appointment and much more all their own devised services if it were not joyned with true purity of heart and piety of life For there is nothing reaches the soul but these things that I have been treating of nothing but these conform us unto God who is a pure spirit nothing is everlasting and of an immortal nature but this image of God and therefore this he would work in us that we may be blessed But I need not proceed in this manner to give you the reason of it you will presently conclude the truth of the observation if I do but shew you first that these are the things which God always required above all the other Two things to be proved and secondly that all the other things did tend to the advancement of these You may well expect I should take this method for your own souls will bid you enquire why God did appoint sacrifices circumcision abundance of washings and other ceremonies if he was not mightily pleased with them Therefore first I shall demonstrate that God was not pleased with sacrifices and things of that nature 1 Sacrifices not so pleasing as holiness separated from justice mercy and godliness but that rather they were an abomination to him and like the stinking carkass without the soul when so separated 1. Look into the times before the law you shall see that there is no body commended for offering sacrifices or for loving any of these outward shadows but only for these substantial vertues which my Text speaks of It is said of Enoch that he walked with God and that God took him Proved from the times before the Law Gen. 5.22 24. but it is not said that he was very liberall in slaying of beasts and that he ascended to heaven in the smoak of sacrifices And it is said of Noah that he was a just man and perfect in his generations and one that walked with God Gen. 6.9 but nothing is there said where he is commended of building Altars and making great store of oblations to God Though they did these things and it is recorded of them that they did them yet their character is not fetcht from such things nor do you read that God commends them upon their account And so of Abraham it is said that he left his own countrey and believed God and this saith the Apostle was accounted to him for righteousness His high thoughts of God his submission to him his dependance on him his forsaking all for him his trusting of life and every thing he had in his hands his obeying God and following of him whithersovever he would lead him and in short his absolute resignation of himself child and all things else to Gods will These were the acts for which God accounted him his friend But we do not read that God or the Apostle commend him for being circumcised no circumcision was but the seal of the righteousness of that faith which he had in uncircumcision Rom. 4.11 i. e. It did but testifie to him that his faith was good and sound because God hereby took him into a covenant with himself or it was that mark and outward token whereby God did assure him of his acceptance into a covenant of great blessings for himself and seed because he had believed on him and was righteous before him 2. And not to proceed any further to others that succeeded presently after him And from the times when the Law was given but to look to the time of the Law You may observe that the ten commandments were given by God before he gave any of the other Laws
but shadows of more heavenly performances whereby they were to seek that better countrey 12. And yet when they performed these acts with an holy heart in obedience to Gods command and as a part of his will not relying on them nor contenting themselves with them alone they might be accepted as a piece of diviner righteousness as Isaacs offering his son was meerly because God required him so to do For then they were converted to have something of spirituality in them and became of another nature Then he that calls himself the righteous Lord and the holy one of Israel stiles himself also by this name The Lord whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem Isa 31.9 Those divine Acts which render us acceptable in Gods sight might be imployed in these things as well as in others that faith obedience resignation humility liberality c. which God requires might be exercised in these observances as well as in another matter and for them not meerly for the sacrifices c. they were commended AND now how well will all this pains be bestowed if every man who reads these things will never content himself nor be at rest without a state of inward purity and conformity to the divine will and a sincere obedience to every part of that Law which our Lord hath given us Do not I beseech you cover your selves with the leaves of piety nor shroud your selves under the empty shadows of Religion but put on the Lord Jesus Christ bring forth the reall fruits of justice mercy and humble godliness let the life of God possess your souls and the divine spirit actuate and inform you as living members of his body We have our washings and our sacrifices and our dayes of rest as well as the Jews had let us have a care that we use them out of a sense of that duty we owe to God and as means to exercise and increase our graces and not pride our selves as they did in outward performances and an heartless sanctity If we glory meerly in our Baptism in our being of such a party and perswasion in going to our Churches hearing of Sermons there and repeating them at home receiving of the Sacrament of Christs body and blood praying singing Psalms and offering praises We do but mock God with outward shews and bring him to an Idol as Michal did Sauls messengers instead of a man Nay it is a greater shame and more damning for us to mistake so grosly and to think to please God with such trivial things as words and outward gestures when we know more then they did and have their miscarriages laid so plainly before us If God did not only despise but hate the Jewish service when not joyned with obedience to his eternal precepts then much more will he loth all ungodly men now with all their worship which they bring him though never so pompous and ceremonious For their Religion was full of shadows ceremonies and outward signs but ours is a Religion of more simplicity and therefore we can be the less tempted to formality And besides we being eased of that burden of that heavy yoke which lay upon their necks the heartier obedience in other things may be more justly exacted of us and expected from us Let me conclude therefore with the words of the Apostle of us Gentiles and beseech you by the mercies of God Rom. 12.1 2. that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God FINIS