never ponder it, to tremble at it, or to rejoice in it, who cannot be moved either to Joy or Grief for fpiritual Things; neither Law nor Gospel moves the moft Part of you. I fay, here is all your Gain, ye shall receive a Reward with Gentiles and Pagans; yea, ye fhall be in a worfe Cafe nor they in the Day of the Lord. The civil Chriftian fhall be worse than the prophane Turk, and ye shall not then boaft that ye were Chriftians, but shall defire that ye had dwelt in the Place where the Gospel had never been preached. It is a Character of the Nations, that they call not on God, and of Heathen Families, that they pray not to bim, Jer. x. 25. and Wrath must be poured on them. What then are the moft Part of you? Ye neither bow a Knee in fecret, nor in your Families to God, your Time is otherways employed, ye have no Leisure to pray twice or thrice a Day alone, except when ye put on your Cloaths ye utter fome ordinary Bablings; ye cannot be driven to Familyworship; fhall not God rank you in Judg. ment with these heathen Families? Or fhall it not be more tolerable for them nor for you? And are not the most Part of you every one given to Covetousness, your Heart and Eye after it, feeking Gain and Advantage more than the King. dom of Heaven? Doth not every one of you, as you have Power in your Hand, opprefs one another? wrong one another? Now, our End in speaking thus to you, is not to drive you to Defparation: No indeed, but as there was a Word of the Lord sent to fuch by Isaiah, fo we bring a Word unto you. That which ruins you, is your carnal Confidence; ye are prefumptuous as this People, and cry, The Temple of the Lord, the Work of the Lord, &c. as if these would fave you: Know therefore, that all these will never cover you in the Day of Wrath; know there is a Neceffity to make Peace with God, and your Righteousness muft exceed the Righteoufness of a Profeffion, and external Privileges and Duties, or elfe ye shall be as far from the Kingdom of Heaven, as Sodom and Gomorrab. We speak of Rulers Sins, that ye may mourn for them, left ye be judged with them; if ye do not mourn for them in fecret, know that they are your Sins, ye are Companions with them: Many fret, grudge, and cry out against Oppreffion, but who weeps in fecret? Who prays and deprecates God's Wrath, leaft it come upon them? And while it is fo, the Oppreffion of Rulers becomes the Sin of the oppreffed themselves. Hear the Word of the Lord] It were a fuitable Preparation for any Word that is fpoken, to make it take Impreffion, if it were looked on as the Word of the Lord, and Law of our God, And truly no Man can hear aright, unless he hear it fo. Why doth not this Word of the Lord return with more Fruit? Why doth not Men tremble or rejoice at it? Certainly, because it is not received as God's Word. There is a practical Herefy in our Hearts, which rather may be called Atheism; we do not believe the Scriptures. I do not fay, Men call it in Queftion; but I fay, ye believe them not. It is one Thing to believe with the Heart, another Thing not to doubt of it; ye doubt not of it, not be caufe ye do indeed believe it, but because ye do not at all confider it. It is one Thing to confefs with the Mouth, and another Thing to believe with the Heart; for ye confefs the Scriptures to be God's Word, not because ye believe them, but Zzz be because ye have received fuch a Tradition from your Fathers, have heard it from the Womb unquestioned. Oh that this were engraven on your Heart, that thefe Commands, thefe Curfes, these Promifes are divine Truths, the Words and the Oath of the holy One. If every Word of Truth came ftamped with his Authority, and were received in the Name of God himfelf, what Influence would it have on the Spirits and the Practices of Men? This would be a great Reformer, would reform more in a Month, than Church and State hath done these many Years. Why are Rulers and People not converted and healed for all that is fpoken? Here it is, Who believes our Report? Who believes that our Report is thy own Teftimony, O Lord? When Minifters threaten you in God's Name, if his Authority were ftamped on the Threatning, if Men did ferioufly apprehend it were God's own Voice, would they not tremble? When the Gof pel and the joyful Sound comes forth, if ye apprehended that fame Authority upon it, which ye who are convinced, believes in the Law, would ye not be comforted? Finally, I may fay, it is this Point of Atheism, of Inconfideration and Brutishness that deftroys the Multitude, makes all Means ineffectual to them, and retards the Progrefs of Chriftians. Men do not confider, that this Word is the Word of the eternal and true and faithful God, and that not one Jot of it will faill. Here is a Point of Reformation I would. put you to; if ye mind indeed to reform, let this enter into your Hearts and fink down, that the Law and Gospel is the Word of God, and refolve to come and hear Preachings fo, as the Voice of Jefus Chrift the true and faithful Wit nefs: If ye do not take it fo now, yet God will judge you fo at the End. He that defpifeth you, defpifeth me, and be that bears not you, bears not me. If ye thought ye had to do with God every Sabbath, would ye come fo carelefly, and be fo ftupid and inconfiderate before the Judge of all the Earth: But ye will find in the End, that it was God whom ye knew not. SERMON IX. Ifa. i. 11. To what Purpose is the Multitude of your Sacrifices to me, faith the Lord, &c. ΤΗ HIS is the Word he calls them to hear, and a strange Word. faiab asks, What means your Sacrifices? God will not have them. I think the People would fay in their own Hearts, what means the Prophet? What would the Lord be at? Do we any Thing but what he commanded us? Is he angry at us us for obeying him? What means this Hand, and the fecond in the Left. Thefe Word? Is he not repealing the Statute and are fo entirely conjoin'd,that if you receive Ordinance he had made in Ifrael? If he not both, ye cannot receive any truly. had reproved us for Breach of Com- Secondly, It takes in all the Man, his mands, for Omiffion and Neglect of Sa- Soul and Spirit as well as his Body; nay, crifices, we would have taken with it; it principally includes that which is Prin but what means this Reproof for Well- cipal in the Man, bis Soul and Spirit, doing? The Lord is a hard Mafter, if we bis Mind and Affections. If ye divide neglect Sacrifices, and offer up the worst thefe, ye have not a Man present but a of the Flock, he is angry: If we have Body; and what Fellowship can Bodies a Care of them, and offer them punctual- have with him who is a Spirit: If ye dily, and keep appointed Days precisely, vide these among themselves, ye have he is angry What fhall we do to not a Spirit indeed prefent: If the Mind please him? I think many of you are put be not prefent, furely the Heart cannot, to as great a Non-plus, when your Pray. but if the Mind be, and the Heart away, ers and Repentance and Fafting are quar- Religion is not Religion, but fome empty reled: Do ye not fay in your Hearts, Speculation: The Mind cannot serve but we know not what to do. Minifters are by the Heart: Where the Heart is, there angry at us if we pray not,and our Prayers a Man is reckoned to be. Thirdly, It they cry out against; they command us takes in Jefus Chrift as all, and excludes to repent and faft, and yet fay, that God altogether a Man's felf. He worships will abhor both thefe. This is a Myftery, God in the Spirit, but he rejoices not and we shall endeavour to unfold it to in himfelf, and in his Spirit, but in Jesus you from the Word. It concerns us to Chrift, and bath no Confidence in bim know how God is pleased with our pub- Self, or the Flefb, Phil. iii. 3, 8. It indick Services and Faftings: For the most cludes the Scul and Spirit, and all the Part of People have no more Religion. Commands, but it denies them all, and Ye all, I know, defire to know what embraces Jefus Chrift by Faith, as the true Religion is: Confult the Scriptures, only Object of glorying into, and trustand fearch them, for there ye fhall finding into. All a Man's Self becomes eternal Life. We frame to ourselves a Drofs in this Confideration. Now the wrong Pattern and Copy of it, and fo firft of thele is drawn from the last, we judge ourselves wrong. Our narrow therefore it appears rft; I fay, an EnSpirits do not take in the Latitude of the deavour in walking in every Thing comScripture's Religion, but taking in one manded, of conforming our Way to the Part, it excludes another, and thinks God prefent Rule and Pattern, is a Stream rigid if it be not taken off our Hand fo. flowing from the pure Heart within: A But I pray confider these three Things, Man's Soul and Affections must once be which feem to make up the good Old purified, or it fends out fuch Streams in Way, the Religion of the Old and New Converfation. And from whence doth Teftament. Firf, Religion takes in all that pure Heart come? Is it the Fountain the Commands, it is univerfal, bath Re- and Original? No certainly, the Heart Spect to all the Commandments, Pfal. is defperately wicked above all Things cxix. 6. It carries the two Tables in and how will it cleanse itself? But this both Hands, the firft Table in the right Purity proceeds from another Fountain, Zzz 2 fom End; and fo, tho' they fancied that they obeyed, and pleafed God, yet really they wholly perverted his Meaning and Intention in the Command; therefore doth the Lord plead with them in this Place for their Sacrificing, as if it had been Murder. They used to object his Commands. What, fays the Lord, did I command thefe Things? Who required them? Meaning certainly, who required them for fuch an End, to take away your Sin? who required them but as a Shadow of the Subftance to come? Who required them but as Signs of that Lamb and Sacrifice to be offered up in the Fulnefs of Time? And forafmuch as ye pafs over all thefe, and think to please me with the external Ceremony, was that ever my Intent or Meaning? Certainly ye have fancied a new Law of your own, I never gave fuch a Law; therefore it is faid, Pfal. 1. 13. God pleads juft after this Manner, Will I eat the Flefb of Bulls, or drink the Blood of Goats? &c. and Micab vi. 7. Will the Lord be pleafed with Thousands of Rams, or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil? He who hath no Pleasure in finful Men, what Pleasure can he have in Beafts? Therefore, it was to fignify to them, (who thought God would be pleaf from Faith in Jefus Chrift: And it is this that lies nearest the uncreated Fountain, Chrift himself; it is the most immediate Conduit, the Mouth of the Fountain, or the Bucket to draw out of the deep Wells of Salvation: All these are conjoined in this Order, 1 Tim. i. 5. The End of the Command is Love. Ye know Love is faid elsewhere to be the fulfilling of the Law: And when we fay Love, we mean all Duties to God and Man, which Love ought immediately to principle. Now this Love proceeds from a pure Heart, cleanfed and fanctified, which pure Heart proceeds from Faith unfeigned. So then, we must go up in our Searching from external Obedience all alongs, till we arrive at the inward Fountain of Chrift dwelling in us . by Faith: And then have ye found true Religion indeed. Now, ye may think poffibly, we have ufed too much Circumlocution: What is all this to the prefent Purpose? Yes, very much. Ye fhall find the Lord rejecting this People's publick Worship and folemn Ordinances upon thefe three Grounds, either they did not join with them the Obfervation of weightier Commands, or they did not worship him in them with their Spirits, had not Souls prefent, or they knew not the End and Ufe for whichGod had appointed thefeed with them for their Offering,) that Sacrifices and Ceremonies, they did not fee to the End of all, which was Jefus Chrift. First then, I fay, the People was much in external Sacrifices and Ceremonies, commanded of God, but they were ignorant of the End of his Commands, and of the Ufe of them: Ye know in themfelves they had no Goodness, but only in relation to fuch an End as he pleafed they fhould lead to; but they stayed upon the Ceremony and Shadow, and were not led to use it as a Means for fuch an he could not endure them; it was worfe to him to offer him fuch a Recompence, than if they had done none at all: He is only well pleafed in his well-beloved Son; and when they separate a Lamb or a Bullock from the well-beloved, what was it to him more nor a Dog's Neck or Swine's Flefb? It was his Creature, as thefe are, and no more, Isa. lxvi. 3. Now that they looked never beyond the Ceremonies, it is evident, because they boasted in them, they used to find out thefe these as a Remedy of their Sins, and a Mean to pacify God's Wrath, Micab vi. 6. Paul bears witness of it, 2 Cor. xiii. 14. Mofes had a Vail of Ceremo nies over his Face, and the Children of Ifrael could not ftedfaftly look to the End of that Myftery, Chrift Jefus, but their Minds were blinded, and is fo to this Day in the reading of the Scriptures: And this Vail of Hardness of Heart fhall be done away when Chrift returns them a gain. Now, I fay, it is just so with us, there was never a People liker other nor we are like the Jews: We have many external Ordinances, Preaching, Hearing, Baptifm, Communion, Reading, Singing, Praying in Publick, extroardinary Solemnities of Fafting and Thanksgiving, Works of Difcipline and Government, publick Reproof to Sinners, Confeffions and Abfolutions. What would ye think if we fhould change the Terms of Sacrifices and new Moons, and speak all this to you? To what Purpose is the Multitude of your Faits and Feafts, of your Preachings and Communions, of your praying in fecret, and in your Families, of Confe rence and Prayer with others, of running to and fro to hear Preaching, to partake of the Lord's Table? I am full of them, I delight not in them: When ye.come here on the Sabbath, who required at your Hand to tread my Courts? Come no more to hear the Word, run no more after Communions, feek no more Baptifm to your Children, call no more foleran Affemblies, it is all Iniquity. Oh fay ye that is a ftrange Preaching indeed, must we pray no more? hear no more? fing no more? Did not God command these? why do ye discharge them? We do not mean fo, that these should not be, but they should be in another Way: All thefe want the Soul and Life of them, which is Jefus Chrift in them. Do ye. not think yourselves religious, because ye frequent thefe? The Multitude of the People think that these please God, and pa--cify his Wrath: Ye have no other Thing in your Mind but thefe. If ye can attain any Sorrow or Grief for Sin, or any Tears to fignify it, prefently you abfolve yourfelves for your Repentance. The fcandalous who appear in Publick, thinks the paying of a Penalty to the Judge, and bowing the Knee before the Congregation, fatisfies God. Ye mifs nothing when ye have these: I fpeak to the Profeffors of Religion alfo, who pretend to more Knowledge than others, when ye have gone about fo many Duties, ye are well fatisfied if ye get Liberty in them: If ye can fatisfy yourselves, ye doubt not of God's Satisfaction; and if ye do not fatisfy yourselves, in your Duties, ye cannot believe his Satisfaction. Ye get the Ordinance, and mifs nothing. Now, I fay, in all this ye do not reach to the End of this Miniftry, Jefus Chrift, ye do not stedfaftly behold him, to empty yourselves in his Bofom to turn over all the Unrighteousness of your holy Things upon him who bears it; that which pleafeth you, is not be in whom the Father is well pleased, but the Measure of your own Duty. O! the establishing of our own Righteousness is the Ruin of the vifible Church: This is the grand Idol, and all Sacrifice to it. Know therefore, that the moft Part of your Performances are Abomination and Iniquity, because ye have fo much Confidence in them, and put them not upon Chrift as filthy Rags, or do not cover them with his Righteousness, as well as your Wickedness. I know ye will fay, that ye are not fatisfied with them, and that is ftill the Matter of your Exercife. Well, I affirm, in the Lord's Name, from |