Serm. L. but perfect the Lam of Mofes. 357 ftian Religion, is witneffedby the Law and the Prophets. And indeed the Prophets everywhere do flight and undervalue the Ritual and Ceremonial part ofReligion, in comparifonofthe pratlice of Moral Duties. Ifa. r. r I. To what purpofe is the mul- titudeofyour Sacrifices unto me ? bring no more vain oblations ; your New Moons and your appointed Feafts myfoul hateth. But what then are the things that are acceptable toGod ? He tells us at the i 6 ver. wafhye, make you clean, put away the evil ofFur doings from before mine eyes, ceafe to do evil, learn to do well; feel¿judgment, re.'ieve theOpprefd, judge the.Fatherlefs, pleadfor the Widow. And by the Prophet Jeremiah God tells that People, that the buinefs of Sacrifices was not the thing primarily deigned by God, but obedience to the Moral Law ; the Ritual Law carne inupon occafion,forthe prevention of Idolatry,and by way of condefcention to the temper of that People; and thus Maimonides and the Learned Jews underhand thefe words, Jer.7. 22,2 3. Ifakenotunto your Fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land ofEgypt, concerning Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices ; but this thing commandedI them, faying, obeymy voice, and walk in all the ways that Ihave commanded, and Iwill beyour God and yepall be my People. So likewife in the Pro- phet Hofea,God plainly prefers the Moralbefore the Ritual part of Religion,as that which was principally defigned and intended by him, Hof. 6.6. I defiredMercy,and not Sacrifice ; and the knowledgeofGod more than Burnt-Offerings; but molt plainly and exprefly, Mich. 6.6. Wherewithfhalll come before the Lord ? Shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings? Willthe Lord be pleafed with thoufands ofRams, and ten thoufands ofRivers of Oyl ? He hath fhewed thee0 Man, what is good ; and what Both the Lord require of thee, but to do jufily, and to love mercy, and t, walkhumbly with thy God? Thefe it feems were the great things which God flood upon and requi- red of Men evenunder that imperfe&difpenfation and thefe, are the very things which the Chriftian Religion doth fo ftri&ly enjoy) and command ; fo that this Righteoufnefs which the Gofpel requires, was witnefed to by the Law and the Prophets. I proceed to the Second Point, That the Law ofMofes, or the difpenfation of the7ewifh Religion, was comparatively very weak, and infuffi,ient to make Men truly good, and for the promoting of real and inward righteoufnefs 5 it gave Laws indeed to this pur- pofe, but thofe not fo clear and perfe&, or at leaft not fo clearly unlerflood, as they are now under the Gofpel ; and it made no exprefs prornifes of inward Grace, and aflìftance, to quicken and ftrengthen us in the doing of our Duty ; it made no explicit promifesof any ble(fingand reivard to the doing of our duty beyond this Life; fo that the heft and moll powerful Arguments and Encourage - inenrs to Obedience, were either wholly wanting or very obfcurely revealed un- der this difpenfation. And this infufficiency of the 7ewifh difpenfation, both to our juftiication and fan&ification, to the reconciling ofus to God, and the makingof us really good, the Apoftle frequently inculcates in the New Teflament; St. Paul, Ails 13. 38, 39. Be it known unto you therefore, Men and Brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgivenefs offans, and by him all that believe are juflified.from all thofe things, fromwhichye could not bejuflified by the Lain of Mofes, and Rom. 8. 3. What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the fte/h; that is, by reafon of the carnality of that difpenfation,confifting in the purificationof the body. Gal. 3. 21. he calls it a Law unfit to give Life; If there had been a Law which could have given Life, verily Righteoufnefi had been by the Law. And the Apoftle to the Hebrews, Ch. 8. 6,7,8, &c. finds fault with the difpenfation of the Law, for the lownefs and mean- nefs of its Promifes, being only of Temporal good things ; and for want of con- ferring an inward and a powerful Principle to enable Men to obedience; but now bath he obtained (£peaking of Chrift) a more excellent Minflry, by how much alfo he is the Mediator of a better Covenant, which was ef%ablifhed upon better Promifes ; for if that firfCovenant had beenfaultlefs, then fhould no place have been fought for afecond; and thisfecond and betterCovenant, he tells us, was foretold by the Prophets of the Old Teftawent 5 for finding fault with them, hefaith, behold the days come, faith the Lord, when Iwill make a newCovenant with the Houle of Ifrael, andthe Houfe ofYu' doh ; not according to the Covenant which Imade with their Fathers. For this is the Covenant whichIwill make with theRolfe of Ifrael after thofe days, faith the Lord. I will
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