for knowing the Truth. 255 doarine rightly underftood, if that was taken SERM. for fulfilling the defign of it. The firft and X. great commandment of the law, which the"--v--J yews alfo confeffed, was, to love the Lord God with all their heart, and with all their foul, and with all their mind. And the fecond was like it, Thou (halt love thy neighbour as thyfelf*. And the fubuiance ofwhat God required by the prophets was, to do juflly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God -j-. This was declared in the Old Teftament to be batter than facrifice, and the knowledge of God, the fear of him, and obedience to his moral precepts, more valuable than burnt - offerings and all ceremonial obfervances. Here then was the defe &of the yews, which principally occa- fioned theirdifbelief of chriftianity : Not that they came fhort of a warm zeal for the honour of their religion as divine. They contended for it even furioufly : or of a punClual obfervance of the pofitive Mofaic inftitutions ; they ful- filled them to the minute circumftances of tithing mint, annife, and cummin exactly, and added to them traditions of their own : But they neglefted faith, and judgment, and mercy, and the love of God, the weightier * Mat, xxii. 37, 39 f Micah vi. 8. e mat-
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