deducible from the Everlasting Rules of SERM. Juftice and Goodness, Mercy and Truth.

But the fame will be ftill more evident

against all Exception from the second Application of these Words in the 12th of St. Matthew; by which Chrift vindicates his. Disciples against the fame Objectors, when charging them with the Breach of the Sabbath. There likewife may be seen the Divine Authority instituting the Sabbath acknowledged, and the Tranfgreffion of that Commandment directly confefs'd; and yet a Justification infifted upon from the Neceffity of Hunger, and the general Indulgence of God's Mercy to his Creatures; and that too founded on the fame Place of Hofea, I will have Mercy, and not facrifice. This, I fay, confirms what I have propounded, how large the Acceptation of the Word Sacrifice in the Text, or (which is all one) the immediate Inference from it ought to be.

And now that is stated, there needs the lefs to be faid concerning Mercy; because it is fo obvious, that fince it is opposed to Sacrifice, both the Nature of Expreffion and of the Thing gives it a Senfe of an

I.

n

SERM. Extent proportionable to that; and that

I.

as one, because it is a principal Part of
External Honour and Worship, ferves to
denote all the reft of its own Kind; fo
does the other, for the like Reason, all
Actions flowing from Internal Holiness
that is, our Obedience to God in the
Practice of every Moral Virtue. But be
caufe this Sort of Proof is reciprocal, here
we may remember the Sentences I before
alledged out of the Prophets Amos and
Ifaiab, when I propofed at firft the gene-
ral State of the Matter; where thefe Vir-
tues are enumerated, and their Value
raised far above all Oblations and Ceremo
nial Services. For fuch Paffages do not
only prove the Thing itself, but give a
great Inducement to take the Words, which
they appear to parallel, in the fame Lati→
tude of Signification. For which Reason
I fhall add yet one more, as I might di-
It is the 3d
vers of the like Nature.
Verfe of the 21ft of Proverbs, To do
Justice and Judgment is more acceptable to
the Lord than Sacrifice. Nor was this
Doctrine unacknowledged by the Jewish
Mafters themfelves, however they were

blind to the just Application of it, in par- SERM, ticular Cafes, where Envy and Jealoufy I excluded the Means of Conviction: An Example whereof we have in the difcreet Anfwer of that Scribe to our Lord's Declaration of the two great Commandments, St. Mark xii. 32, 33. Well, Master, thou haft faid the Truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but be. And to love bim with all the Heart, and with all the Understanding, and with all the Soul, and with all the Strength; and to love his Neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices.

Therefore, thirdly, to confirm our Propofition, and facilitate fuch Applications, let us confider how the Reafon of the Thing it felf agrees with the one and leads to the other. Now the Nature of religious Duties appears to be twofold; Neceffary and Unchangeable; or Arbitrary (with refpect to the Law-giver) and Changeable; and the latter Sort to hold the Rank of Means only, as the former does that of the End, which gives thofe Means their Value and Sanctity. The Love of God and of our Neighbour, rightly understood,

VOL. I.

SERM. comprehends the more excellent Sort ; I. and the inferior confifts of Preliminaries, and Inftruments, and Modes of Worship, and every Part, Condition, or Circumstance appointed; as it did likewife, when it pleased God to govern a Nation by a political Law of his own giving, of the particular Rules and Methods of doing or receiving Justice, and reftraining Impiety and other Crimes, exprefs'd in that Law. Now if the whole Kind of these is mutable, and the other (from their Nature likewife) not mutable; it will give us a good Reason, why one is difpenfable for the Sake of the other; why God, who hath indeed enjoined them both, will rather have Juftice or Mercy fhewed to his Creature, than Sacrifice, or any other external Service paid himself.

To prove that thefe laft are changeable, it must be fufficient to fhew that they have been in Fact changed; that we can affign the Times before, and the Times when they were commanded, with thofe of their Continuance in Force, and of their Abrogation. Thus we find in Scripture the Dates of almost every Inftitution

of

མ་

I.

of that Kind, the Circumcifion, and Paf- SERM. fover, the other Festivals, and Oblations, Abstinences, Purifications, and all the Rites of the Ark and Temple-Service; and find also, that the Patriarchs in elder Times ferved God acceptably without the Ufe or Knowledge of them. The fame Scripture informs us, when these were abolifhed, and the Sacraments of the Chriftian Church, and whatever there is new and positive in our Oeconomy, introduced in their Room, and promulged to the whole Earth. But the Fear of God, Juffice, and Charity, were the Duties of Mankind before the Flood as well as now; and Violence and Corruption of Manners were the Crimes that brought it. These Things were ever held of the fame Account, both in the Sight of God, and the Judgment of the Reafon he hath given to Men. As to them, the Old

World and the New differ not in the Obligations Men were under ; but the Laws of Nature, and of Mofes, and the Gofpel it felf, are one; and Noah and our Lord Jefus Chrift were Preachers of the fame Righteousness.

C 2

The