Exod. 20. And likewise you may take notice of the ordinary style of Moses when he speaks of these things which runs thus These are the Commandments the Statutes and the judgements Deut. 6.1 or keep his Commandments his Statutes and judgements Deut. 30.14 the like to which you may read Mal. 4.4 In all which places and many other Commandments are put first which word comprehends the moral and everlasting precepts and then follows Statutes which denotes the Ordinances and institutions about Gods Worship and after that Judgements which signifies the Laws about matters of civil right both which were alterable and not eternal Yea the whole book of Deuteronomy or the second Law as the word signifies seems to be added after the other to teach them that it was obedience to his voice in all things that God did most regard And therefore Nazianzen reckoning up the priviledges of the Jews saith that they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double giving of the Law Orat. 13. one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Letter the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Spirit Which may be interpreted of that in mount Sinai and of the other in the plains of Jordan 3. And so after the Law was given And from the succeeding Ages all the people of God understood that the things chiefly intended by him were their inward mortification their purity and integrity of soul a spiritual worship and a life of temperance sobriety justice mercy humility and all other vertues To this there are a multitude of places in holy Writ that will testifie and bear witness Hath the Lord as great pleasure saith Samuel in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of ramms For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Samuel a witness of it Saul thought that God was delighted if they feasted him with a multitude of sacrifices and that nothing distasted him if they had a care not to entertain Idols with the good chear at the Altar and therefore Samuel tells him that God took the greatest pleasure in an hearty obedience to his commands which was better then all the outward worship that he had appointed and that rebellion against Gods commands was as bad as Idolatry and worshipping of stocks and stones From the Prophet Samuel let us go to Asaph And Asaph who lived not long after and he tells us Psal 50.7 8 9 c. that God did not hunger after the flesh of beasts and foul nor thirst after the blood of Bulls and Goats nor did he fall out with them for the neglect of this kind of service but that which he required of them was to pray to him and praise him and perform all their vows promises to him which was the best of offerings ver 14 15. And that which he reproves and chides them for was that they hated instruction and made nothing of all his commands for the regulating of their words desires and actions ver 16 17 18 c. He asks them how they dare be so impudent as to pretend be in covenant with him though they brought him never so many fat sacrifices seeing they could not indure any of his counsels but were unjust unclean lyers swearers slanderers and backbiters As long as their evil affections and desires were unmortified he cared not for the death of so many of his creatures And so you may read the sense of David in the next Psalm Psal 51.15 16 17. And David O Lord open my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise For thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offerings The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise There were no Sacrifices indeed appointed for murder and adultery to which he hath a particular respect but they made a man obnoxious to death by Moses his Law Yet he saith in General that God did not delight in burnt-offerings and so his words may be extended farther than that one case of his That which pleased God was holy praises and the sacrifices of a broken heart and contrite spirit There may be an allusion to the ceremonial worship in the words broken contrite the former of which may refer to the sacrifice of beasts the latter to the perfume that was put before the testimony of the Tabernacle of the Congregation Exo. 30.35 36. And the words may signifie as if he had said that brokenness of heart and an holy shivering of the spirit in pieces so that it shall never be set together in the same frame wherein it was before is far better then the cutting and chopping of the flesh of beasts in pieces And as spices when they are beaten smell the sweetest so when your hearts are thus bruised and laid in their own dust by sincere contrition it is a more gratefull perfume to me then the beaten spices which were called most holy If you look likewise into Psal 69.30 31. You shall find that to praise God with a song and magnifie him with thanksgiving please the Lord better then an Ox or Bullock that hath horns and hoofs From him pass to Solomon his son who is of the same judgement for he saith expresly That to do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord then Sacrifice And Solomon Prov. 21.3 Yea that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord especially when he bringeth it with a wicked mind v. 27. And therefore in Eccles 5.1 he bids us be more ready to hear i. e. to obey then to offer the sacrifices of fools A fool is one that hath a body without a soul and such a carkass of religion are all sacrifices without obedience A meer skin and husk of devotion which God can no more be pleased with then we are with the gifts of a fool who knows not what he doth If from thence you pass to the Prophet Isaiah And all the Prophets he speaks so fully to my purpose in the first chapter from the eleventh verse to the twenty-first that I need not gloss upon his words And chap. 63.1 2 3. the Lord tells that people who boasted so much that they had provided him with an house and furnished his table continually with sacrifices I need no house nor am I beholden to you for a dwelling for the heavens and the earth are mine And I tell you there is no man loves me like to him that is poor in Spirit humble and obedient to my word Though you think that you please me mightily by the large provision you make at my house believe it without this contrition poverty and holy trembling at my commands he that kills a whole Ox is so far from doing me any service that it is as bad as an act of
holy place in the East God placed his sanctuary in the West But it is not his observation alone for Justin Martyr long before in his disputation with the Jew Dialog cum Tryph. saith that the Israelites making a golden calf and offering sacrifice to it after the manner of Aegypt God did accommodate himself to them and commanded them to offer him sacrifices that so they might not give away his worship unto Idols And more plainly in his answers ad Orthodoxos if that book be his he saith that the Egyptians taking all living creatures except a Swine to have something of Divinity in them Respons 35. ad Orthod God distinguished between the clean and unclean and permitted the one to be offered in sacrifice but the other he forbad to be so much as eaten By both shewing that they were unworthy of the honour or name of gods which might either be slain and eaten or else were to be reputed of as unclean And Theodoret asserts it still more particularly L. 7. de curat Graec. affect that the Aegyptians worshipping a Goat and a Sheep as well as a Calf or Heifer and likewise holding the Turtle and Pigeon among the birds in greatest veneration God commanded the Israelites to sacrifice these rather then any other that so they might learn how vile the Religion of those people was whose gods were continually slain and eaten by them And for this cause also it was as he thinks that God would not let them eat Swines flesh because the Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abstaining from the rest as gods did think it lawfull to eat of this creature only But if it should be thought that the Aegyptians did not worship a Goat as it is certain they did a Cow yet the Jews confess that the Zabii or Sabaeans who were their near neighbours did give divine honour to it and against their infection they were no less to receive an Antidote then against the other And this perhaps may be the reason why God loaded them with such a world of ceremonies that they might be so constantly imployed as not to have time to think of adding any other devices of their own or others to his service having enough to do already Only his infinite Wisdom made these things serve to teach them higher duties and to be shadows also of most glorious things to come which I am not now to treat of 7. But seventhly as they put them in mind to consecrate themselves to God so they remembred them to give him the very best and the secrets of their souls For it is well observed by Cyril Alex. that though God suffered them to offer sacrifices as other Nations did yet not after their manner but so artificially and skilfully ordered that as I just now said they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 travel with the form of a spiritual and intellectual worship in their womb L. 9. Contra Julianum of which they are now at last delivered Their whole burnt offerings which ascended intirely to heaven and were to be chosen out of the best of their beasts fruits or liquors might well carry along with them the chiefest of their thoughts and affections yea their whole souls toward God in whose service they were to spend themselves And when they sacrificed peace offerings they were to give to God the kidneyes or reins which are the seat of carnal pleasure and the heart as some think which is the fountain of all living motions and the seat in the ancient language of the thoughts and then the blood of the beast which might well teach them to offer even their lives to him who gave life to them as well as all other things which were most dear in their eyes 8. To which it may be added that the sacrifices could not be accepted unless the person as well as the beast which he brought were clean and holy So that the offering did not make him good but supposed him to be so already Plutarch gives us to understand how exact the Aegyptians were about the red Cow which they had decreed was to be offered to Typhon L. de Isid Osir when he sayes that if there were but one hair black or white she was judged to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlawfull to be offered in sacrifice But he tells us likewise in the same place that the person who brought it was to be sound and in a good state of health for they thought that that being which is most pure undefiled and without blemish ought not to be served 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with bodies or souls that were full of putrifying sores or diseases You cannot think that the Jews were no less intelligent then these heathen especially since God required of the man that offered them that he should be so far from greater pollutions that he should not lie so much as under any ceremonial defilement Or if there were any secret naughtiness lying in his heart while his outward actions were unblâ—mable yet the sacrifice of such a wicked man was an abomination to the Lord who knows the heart Prov. 15.8 And therefore you may observe that after the Psalmist had said Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of the Lord are a broken Spirit c. and desired acceptance with God for him and his people ver 18. he adds Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering c. ver 29. As if he had told us first that a broken and contrite heart must go before else no sacrifices could be accepted to do the soul good and then secondly that in the time of offering they must be accompanied with righteousness i.e. the mans soul must be holy and devout and have a good affection in it unto God 9. And after this they could not be accepted but by the mediation of the Priest which taught them great humility even when they were at the best and in the greatest purity of body and soul 10. And again there were some sins for which no sacrifices would be admitted nor no Priest could intercede which both taught them humbly to wait on the mercy of God that he would find out a sacrifice and a Priest to expiate them and likewise to take great heed how they fell into those sins 11. And the sacrifices themselves are to be considered as a part of their civil righteousness for by the giving of these to God and observing the rest of Moses his Laws they had a title to the Land of Canaan If they kept themselves from defilements or brought these oblations and observed the feasts and kept the outward part of the ten commandments they were saved from being cut off by the Magistrate or cast out by God from the possessions that he had given them But God did not intend that this should make citizens of heaven or give them a right to the celestiall inheritance Canaan it self being but a type of heaven and these ritual observances
Question doth clearly intimate What doth the Lord require of thee As if he should have said thou knowest very well I need not tell it thee It is sufficient only to put thee in mind of what thou art well acquainted with even to do justly to love mercy c. And indeed it is so plain that God shews it more wayes then one 1. 1 God shews man his duty by his Conscience He shews it in our own consciences by the light of reason That the Question supposes and the Apostle expresly saith Rom. 1.19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them Rom. 2.15 Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness c. 1 Mans soul doth not come out of Gods hand like a sheet of white paper in which there is nothing writ or printed but it is as a book impressed with many sacred letters and divine characters And 2 this book is not shut and claspt but it stands open to every ones search Nor 3 is Gods mind writ in some corner of the book and wrapt up in leavs of darkness but it shews it self and the letters are so great that they will be read Nor 4 Is the sence of this writing hard to be understood but we call them Common notions first principles which must be easie and perspicuous at the first sight Nor 5 need we go to the learned for their Comments upon them or as Tertullian speaks we need not appeal to a soul that hath been formed in the Schools bred in a Library and fed with Academical notions De test Animae cap. 1. but simplex rudis impolita idiotica illa ipsa de compito de trivio de textrino the most simple and rude the most impolished and illiterate soul the veriest high-way soul the soul that is bred in the shop or in the street will testifie to these things as well as that which is brought up in a Study or learned retirements Nor 6 is this book so blotted by our fall into the dirt but that the great lines of our duty are fair and legible Just as we see the Sun in a cloud casts forth a light whereby we discern in waht part of the heavens it is or as a pearl will shine though it lie on a dunghil so will these golden letters shine and glister in mens fouls inan heap of rubbish and this light will break forth through a veil of darkness And 7 where there are any lacunae any gaps or breaches in a particular soul by comparing all the Coppies and consulting with one anothers reasons we should soon find the true sense Yea 8 more then this it is not in the power of any of you to raze out these characters They are not at your liberty to expunge or alter For they are not so much scriptae as natae written as born we did not put them into us but we find them in us Though I might here cry out as Tertullian in another case O anima naturaliter Christiana O soul who naturally art a Christian yet let us look further and consider 2. 2 By his word in the Scriptures That in the Bible God shews our duty more clearly by the light of revelation Here we are informed so exactly both what God is and what man is that he must be blind that doth not see that it is Gods word and that mans obedience is due unto it The very stile wherein it speaks is Thus saith the Lord a form of speech not to be found in other books The contents of it about our duty are so clear and plain that we may say with Solomon Prov. 6.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lex est lux the Law is light Or as it is said in the vision of Habakkuk which God bid him write and make plain upon tables chap. 2.2 he that runs may read it And again these plain things are so agreeable to the connate principles of our mind and the natural sense that we have of goodness that he hath put his laws into our hearts and we need not say one to another as if it was a strange thing know the Lord for all of us may know him from the greatest to the least In short this word is compared to a glass which shews unto us all our own deformities and represents unto us likewise the face and image of God whereby we should dress and compose our selves to be beloved of him 3. 3 By his Ministers He shews us our duty by his Ministers in the light of preaching Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions Isa 58.1 Wilt thou judge the bloody City yet thou shalt shew her all her abominations Ezek. 22.2 If there be any thing in this book that is not so plain and clear God hath set them to expound and unfold it If any thing be dark they are to manifest it They open to men Gods word and let them into the inwards and secrets of it And by manifestation of the truth they commend themselves to every conscience of man in the sight of God as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.2 i e. men know in their consciences that what we say in these matters is the very truth of God 4. 4 By his Works The works of God in the world abundantly shew it by the light of providence Those exemplary punishments I mean upon notorious offenders which speak the finger of God and his rewards to the righteous which have many times no less of God in them By these God vindicates his authority and shews that he is the supream Governour and that these are his Laws from which we ought by no means as we love our selves to swerve or stir a foot And so God saith the wickedness of Judah was discovered Ezek. 16.57 when he punished her for her iniquity It had often before been discovered by the preaching of the Prophets but when that would not prevail he laid it open in a more dreadfull manner by the voice of his judgements which bid all men mind their duty better 5. 5 By the Church All the people and Church of God do shew it in the light of their lives Their light shines before men Math. 5.16 1 Pet. 2.9 they shew forth the praises or the vertues of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light Men cannot but see that there are many in the world that run not with them into the same excess of riot that pray continually that make a conscience of every word they speak that are full of love and pitty that are ready to do good of a peaceable and meek disposition and ready to forgive c. These shew to men what is good and they have them continually before their eyes It is well if it be not so plain that they become an eye-sore
it self in matter of fact so it will be a Judge and condemn it self as to matter of right And this is a great deal more then the Devil can do against any man of us For though he may inform and accuse yet he cannot sentence or condemn And if a mans own conscience was clear he need not fear all his plaints all the bills that he is able to put in against him But the conscience is not only Informer and Accuser and Witness but Judge also and it sentences and condemns us And that first of all as unjust to God and secondly false and cruel to our selves For there was a debt owing unto God and therefore we were unjust to him in not paying of it and our own consciences told us of it and therefore we were treacherous false and barbarous unto our souls in violating their light and acting contrary to those known principles that are within them They will alwayes be telling us of it they will lash us with everlasting torments and after they have being their own Judges they will turn Executioners and Tortors likewise of themselves So that every wicked man is worse then a Devil to himself and he carries his own hell about with him And therefore every one of us had need take heed how we render our selves guilty before God The danger of sinning against our conscience for he need but send to our own souls and rouze them up and they will become our greatest tormentors As we set our selves against God so will God set our selves against our selves And as we are ready to impeach him of hardness and severity so shall we most miserably indite our selves of cruelty and hard-heartedness to our own souls And as we are apt to count him unreasonable in his demands so shall we accuse our selves of unreasonableness and our souls shall fall out with themselves as they did with him Such a confusion doth sin make in the world and in our selves When we cease to be friends with God we shall never after be friends with our own souls When peace is broken with heaven all the world is disturbed and there is peace with nothing no not with our own minds Therefore as we love our selves let us endeavour to live in all good conscience before God Let us not do the least evil for to avoid the suffering of the greatest evil and let us not neglect any good for the purchasing of the best good the world affords Take the heathen mans counsel which it is a shame Christians should not follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chilo apud Laert. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chuse any loss rather then a dishonest gain for that will trouble thee once but this for ever It cannot be long before thou feelest that occultum flagellum that hidden whip the cords of which thou art continually twisting for to lash thy self and though it scourge thee with a silent stroke which no body hears yet it will make thee cry and roar in an eternal misery Then thou that wouldst not do justly to others shalt do justice upon thy self and thou that loved'st not mercy shalt be able to shew none to thy self and thou that behaved'st thy self proudly and contemptuously against God shalt seem the vilest creature in thy own eyes and not have so much comfort as to conceive a good opinion of thy self But that all this which hath been thus briefly discoursed may more fully and clearly manifest its truth pass we to the fifth observation which is mainly intended THat the duties which God requires of man The fifth observation are justice mercy and humble walking before him These three are the things which I say are so plain so good so necessarily incumbent upon us that our consciences cannot deny their obligation These are the Pandects that contain all the Laws whereby we are to live or rather they are the Breif the Summary of all those Laws God hath at large delivered his mind and shewn his will in the Bible but sometimes he doth epitomize it and contracts the summe of our duty into a few commands which are as it were the quintessence and heart of the whole The Hebrew Doctors observe that there are in the Law of Moses six handred and thirteen precepts All these say they David comprehends in the compass of eleven Psalm 15. Our duty is sometimes reduced to a few heads in the holy Scripture The Prophet Isaiah again brings them into a smaller compass and reduces them to six heads which you may read in Isa 33.15 V. Gemara in Maccoth cap. 3. In Micah they are more compacted into three naming this place which I am discoursing of In Isaiah again they are brought to two Isa 56.1 Keep ye judgement and do justice though our Saviour hath better epitomized them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. and thy neighbour as thy self And then comes the Prophet Amos and he thrusts all into one Amos 5.4 Seek ye me and ye shall live But the Prophet Habakuk comes after and does it better according to some of their opinions saying The just shall live by faith Hab. 2.4 which last place is much cited by the Apostle Saint Paul and you see what is the sense of some of the Hebrews concerning it that it is a compendious manner of speaking and includes in its comprehension all that which God speaks in other places Thus much false Christians might learn of their enemies that faith is not such a lean and meagre thing as they make it but is full of obedience to all Gods will And according to this notion I must look upon this part of my Text as expressing in a few words that which we must seek for at large in other parts of holy Writ as representing to us our whole duty toward God and towards all men yea and towards our selves also For the opening of which three things may be expected to be distinctly handled 1. What it is to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God 2. That God requires these things of us 3. That they are Good and it is no unkindness in God to exact them But for brevity sake I will do all these three together and as I shew what is meant by doing justly c. subjoyn some arguments for their being due to God and likewise good to us TO do justly 1 What it is to do justly is to give every one that which is his own And it contains in it all the duties of the second Table especially of the eighth Commandment Sometimes justice or righteousness is taken largely for all Religion Sometimes more strictly for our duty toward our neighbour as to matters of right And sometimes most strictly for the duties of the eighth Commandment to defraud no man to with-hold from none what we owe them nor rob them or take away from them that which they have in their possession And here it may
it to be a matter of high desert but think that thou only doest as becomes a man and thou dost thy self a great deal of right and kindness in it and what thou dost it is from God who gives both the will and ability to do it 2. Bewail thy imperfections Mourn and lament over thy self Think lowly of thy self when thou art at the best and then moan over and bemoan thy self that thou art no better This is called in Ahab humbling of himself which though it were but outward yet was answered with an outward blessing And thus they are joyned together Jam. 4.9 10. 3. Obey Gods commands Readily subject thy self to all Gods commands He that truly mourns and is sad that he is no better strives most sincerely and uses all means to be as good as he can His heart rises not against any of Gods commands he thinks nothing too strict which God enjoyns He willingly gives up his liberty and choice to God which is an act of the greatest humility imaginable Not my will Lord but thy will be done is not only his language but the sense of his soul And what greater subjection can there be in a man then to have no will of his own but to part with it unto another This makes all sin so abominable because it bids defiance to God and disowns in a proud sort his authority and this makes goodness so acceptable because it makes us lay our selves at Gods feet to know his pleasure and debases us to nothing We claim no power over our selves or any thing that we have own no right at all to dispose of any thing as we please when we humbly walk with God 4. And in particular Worship him with reverence we must reverently worship him by all Acts of prayer and praises O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker Psal 95.6 A Psalm not unfitly appointed to be used heretofore in the beginning of divine service to remember us how reverently and solemnly we should address our selves unto Gods worship And let me tell you this that it becomes us to enter into the place where we tender out services unto God with more humility and composedness then ordinarily now appears It is not a sign of a good Spirit to come either with an haughty and high look or with a careless and garish eye much less laughing and talking when we are going to humble our selves and fall down before the Lord. But we ought to enter even into the place where we intend to perform our obeysance to him with reverent thoughts submissive looks and a bashful countenance as being deeply sensible of our unworthiness to approach into his presence There is a tradition among the Hebrews that David learnt but two things of Achitophel and he made him his master his friend and his privy-counsellour for them And the one of them was by way of reproof because he came into the School the house of Teaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his head lifted up V. P. Fagium in Pirk. Av. cap. 6. which had the face of rashness and pride in it Oh that men would now profit so much by reproofs and count them their friends that tell them of their faults and that they would learn likewise to come into the house of God with more becoming reverence in their faces then ordinarily they do 5. 5 Exercise meekness in afflictions Meekly submit to Gods corrections As thou must not chuse thy work so neither must thou chuse thy usage All impatience comes from pride and our murmurings are bred by too goodly thoughts of our own selves Alas what are we more then many others that we should expect to be so tenderly handled What great matters can we do with that health or riches or credit which we would never have to absent themselves from us Nay what condition is bad enough for such wretches What a wonder is it that such unprofitable creatures are not banished out of the world If we thought thus oft-times with our selves we should become very humble i e. meek patient and contented under all that befalls us One act of humility begets another and he that thinks meanly of himself will not be angry that he is afflicted 6. Subjection to our Governors Be peaceable and obedient to Governors who are gods in the world and to whom God hath bidden us that we should subject our selves Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supream or unto Governors c. 1 Pet. 2.13 It is an high act of pride and insolency to controle the authority that is over us and to set up our own wills above Gods vicegerents For it is a great contempt of the majesty of God whose image they more remarkably bear and with whose effigies they are more visibly stampt then other men We must alway therefore do what they command us or else suffer what they inflict upon us And if we chuse the latter we must suffer as meekly and peaceably as if it was an immediate hand of heaven upon us For if Solomon say of every man That proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath Prov. 21.24 then much more is he to be branded in the for-head for a man superlatively proud who cannot endure to be touched in body or estate but it casts him into the highest inflammations of anger even against the highest powers 7. Temperance and sobriety in the use of what we enjoy Moderately and temperately use Gods mercies The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be temperate is applyed frequently to the mind in opposition to pride and self-conceitedness For sobriety indeed proceeds from an humble sense that nothing is ours but all that we have is Gods and that we have right to nothing but what he gives and as he allows And all drunkenness wantonness and whatsoever other intemperance there is in the world is commonly the issue of an haughty giant-like temper of spirit which makes men look upon themselves as Lords and owners and all creatures as their proper goods which are perfectly at their disposal The crown of pride and the drunkards of Ephraim are both names for the same persons Isa 28.1 3. For besides that such men have no regard to a supream being they look bigg upon all their inferiours and no beasts likewise do kick more against the reproofs or counsels of Gods Prophets then such as they 8. Modesty in looking for a reward Modestly expect a reward from God when thou hast done these and all other good actions That word which is here in my text rendred humble doth frequently occurr in the Jewish writings for shamefac'tness and modesty And therefore I add this at the last as the top of all that when we have done all our work with the greatest strictness yet we must look for our wages from
humble acknowledgements that he was their great Landlord of whom they held the land of Canaan and from whom they received whatsoever they did enjoy 2. And so Secondly their Sacrifices taught them to consider that they should consecrate and offer themselves unto him seeing that they were his no less then their sheep or calves which they brought to his Altar These sacrifices being their tribute which they paid to their supream Lord did express that they were tyed to him in any services that he would require of them They could not think that he would be pleased with an Ox more then with a man and that he would hold them excused if they rebelled against him to whom they made these constant acknowledgments They did not hereby pay their debts but confess that they were indebted They were not discharged by these from all obligations but testified a sense that they and all theirs were engaged to him 3. And Thirdly they promoted true holiness as they shewed the hatefulness of sin and the guilt which it brought upon those that did commit it For what need was there that these poor creatures should suffer for their faults if God was not much offended by their disobedience The cries and struglings of the beasts might put them in mind what necessity sin brought upon them of suffering and how cruelly it would use those who continued in it And it would be easie to shew that there was no punishment threatned for the breach of any of the ten commandments whether stoning or strangulation or cutting of the throat or burning for there were but these four but it was represented in the death of these beasts which were thrown on the pavement tyed about the throat slain and burned either in whole or in part upon the Altar 4. And fourthly these Sacrifices and all other outward ceremonies might well teach them how far they ought to keep from all inward difilements who were to be so remote from all fleshly pollutions They that were under such a constant discipline of God and taught by such holy men could not whithout a strange neglect be so sottishly stupid as to imagine that God took no care of the soul who would have the body so clean and pure If a beast must not have any blemish in it nor the man that offered it any legal uncleaness upon him he might easily think that God expected his mind should be holy and not in a worse condition then his beast or his body If they were to wash themselves and their sacrifices then the soul sure was not to be dirty and impure If they were to be seperated from all unclean persons then much more from bad company And if they might not so much as eat with a Gentile then much less might they partake with them in their sins and impieties Apud Photium in Biblioth pag. 887. I know not what truth there is in the observation of Eulogius but he wonders why there being so many clean creatures allowed by God to be eaten in the Law there were only five viz. a Goat a Sheep an Ox a Turtle and a Pigeon which were used in sacrifices unless it had an aenigmatical and figurative meaning to denote our five senses which we are to purifie and cleanse that we may adhere to God and be fit to draw near unto him 5. And therefore fifthly we may look upon the law of ceremonies as an hedge to the Law of moral precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the ten commandments Some things as Aristoâ—le well observes are good in themselves and to be beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their own sakes L. 1 Ethic. and others are good and lovely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sake of the former as they are either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effective and operative of them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in some sort a preservative and guard to them or as they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hindrances of their contraries and forbid that which would destroy them Now though the things that we are speaking of were not good in themselves nor had any proper worth in them as justice mercy and humility have yet they were of this latter sort of goods and served to maintain these greater things in their sacredness and to prohibit them from infringing any of the rights belonging unto them God kept the Israelites at a great distance from violating these commands by making them observant of lesser injunctions Their fear of these meaner offences was intended as a guard and security to the greater sanctions and commands As a man that dare not leap over an hedge into our pasture will not venture one would think to climb over the wall into our garden so he that durst not break through and transgress the bounds of these outward precepts it was to be presumed would never be so bold as to tread under feet and contemn the more divine Laws God intended mainly to preserve the holiness of the moral laws and spiritual precepts and so he set the ceremonial as a thornie fence about them to keep them from being broken Their not eating of blood must needs make them to have a natural abhorrence of murder Gen. 9.4 5. and their not marrying within such degrees of consanguinity was an exercise of their chastity and a great security against adultery and such like wickedness Their taking no use of their poor Brethren and leaving them the corners of the fields when they reaped c. was a means to make them not to covet nor be greedy of the world Their observing of so many daies in memory of Gods mercies must needs teach them to have the Sabbath in great reverence which was in memory of the creation of the world and their deliverance out of Aegypt Seeing they must break down so many mounds and banks as were cast up about the eternal Law it might reasonably be supposed that they would never attempt to destroy it at least not as long as they kept these entire 6. And in particular these things kept them from Idolatry which was the highest contempt of God that could be Orat. 42. They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen saith of the whole Law a wall set up between God and Idols to keep them from running unto strange worship A partition which they must break down before they and the Gods of the heathens could meet together And this Maimon doth conceive to be the reason of those precepts which carry not their reason in themselves that God might make them abhor to participate in the Religion of the nations that were about them For he well observes that God commands them such things as were quite contrary to their practice so that what the heathens loved that they were to abominate and what they reverenced the Jews were to have for daily use and they were not so much as to worship toward the same quarter of heaven but whereas the world generally had their
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
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