66 Of the Kingdom of God. S E R M. a feal of the covenant with God which every VI. man of Ifrael under a fevere penalty was `'\^j obliged to bear ; it was always held in great veneration ; and the yews, in their degenerate times, laid an undue ftrefs upon it, as what would fecure them the favour of God, and all the peculiar advantages which he had proinifed. It was the prevailing opinion, even among thofe of that nation who had embraced chriftianity, that they were Rill obliged to ufe it; and fome pleaded for an abfolute neceffity of it to their accept. ance. If then, circumcifion availeth no- thing, it could never he pretended that any other Mofaic rite was of importance; which is perfectly agreeable to our Saviour's own doârine ; for he laboured continually to call the yews off from their attachment to the ancient ceremonies, and their fatal error of placing religion in fuch things as external purifications, making broad phylateries, and tithing mint, annife, and cummin ; and íheweth them that real religion lay in, and their acceptance depended upon, the weigh- tier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, faith, and the love of God. But, perhaps, it may be thought that although the ceremonies of the Old Tefta- ment are of no confequence in the chriftian reli- ,
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