hand. Thus concerning sacrifice, God plainly tells us, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, i. e. I will have mercy rather than sacrifice, Hosea vi. 6. And the wise man assures us, that to do justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice, Prov. xxi. 3. And to the same purpose our Saviour himself pronounceth, even before that ceremonial worship was abolished, that to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our understanding, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices, Mark xii. 33. But for the clearer demonstration of this great and necessary truth, I shall endeavour, first, to prove the truth of it by some scripture arguments; secondly, to assign the reasons of it. As for the proof of it, the following particulars will be abundantly sufficient.

First, That the scripture plainly declares, that the great design of all the doctrinals of religion hath always been, to move and persuade men to the practice of moral goodness.

Secondly, That the main drift and scope of all the positive duties of religion hath been always to improve and perfect men to moral goodness.

Thirdly, That God expresses in scripture a great contempt of all the positive duties of religion, whenever they are separated from moral goodness.

Fourthly, That wherever we find the whole of religion summed up in a few particulars, they are always such as are instances of moral goodness.

Fifthly, That wherever such persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described in scripture, their characters always consist of some instances or other of moral goodness.

Sixthly, That the scripture plainly declares, that at the great account between God and our souls, the main inquisition will be concerning our moral good or evil.

I. The scriptures expressly declare, that the great design of the doctrines of religion is to move and persuade men to moral goodness. For so the apostle speaking of the grace of God, i. e. the gospel, assures us that its great design is, to teach men to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, Titus ii. 12. And if we consider the doctrines in particular, we shall find that they all conspire in this great design. For so the doctrine of eternal life is proposed by God, to persuade us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor. vii. 1. So also the doctrine of our future punishment is leveled against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, Rom. i. 18. And as for those doctrines which concern the transactions of our Saviour, they are all proposed to us as arguments to persuade us to piety and virtue. For it was for this cause that Christ was manifested, to destroy the works of the Devil, 1 John iii. 8. It was for this purpose that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness, 1 Pet. ii. 24. It was for this end that he rose from the dead, that thereby he might prevail with us to walk in newness of life, Rom. vi. 4. And it is for this end that he intercedes for us at the right hand of God, that thereby he might encourage us to come to God by him, Heb. vii. 25. And in a word, for this cause, he hath told us, he will come to judgment, to reward every man ac

cording to his works, that thereby he might stir us up to sobriety and vigilance, and to all holy conversation and godliness, Matt. xxiv. 42. compared with 2 Pet. iii. 12. Thus you see all the doctrines of religion are only so many topics of divine persuasion, whereby God addresses himself to our hope and fear, and every other affection in us that is capable of persuasion, to excite us to comply with the eternal obligations of morality; and there is no one article in all our religion that is matter of mere speculation, or that entertains our minds with dry and empty notions that have no influence on our wills and affections. For since the design of religion in general is to bind and fasten our souls to God, we may be sure that there is no part of it but what doth in some measure contribute hereunto. Since therefore it is moral goodness that God chiefly recommends to us by the persuasions of religion, we may be sure that what his arguments do chiefly persuade us to, that his commands do chiefly oblige us to.

II. From scripture it is also evident, that the main drift and scope of all the positive duties of religion is to improve and perfect men in moral goodness. We find the Jewish religion exceedingly abounded with positive precepts; for such were all those sacred rites and solemnities of which the bark and outside of that religion consisted; of all which it is true what the Psalmist saith of sacrifices in particular, Thou desirest not sacrifices, thou delightest not in burnt offerings, Psalm li. 16. that is, thou takest no delight in them, upon the score of any internal goodness that is in them, but desirest them merely as they are instituted means and instruments of moral goodness. For so many of the rites of the H h

VOL. I.

Mosaic law were instituted in opposition to the magical, unclean, and idolatrous rites of the eastern heathen. As particularly that prohibition of sowing their fields with mingled seed, Lev. xix. 19. in opposition to that magical rite which the heathens used as a charm for fructification. So also that command of sprinkling the blood of their sacrifices upon the ground like water, and covering it with dust, in opposition to that idolatrous rite of gathering the blood into a trench or vessel, and then sitting round it in a circle, whilst they imagined their gods to be licking it up. And to name no more of this kind, the prohibition of seething a kid in his mother's milk, Exod. xxiii. 19. was in opposition to a custom of the ancient heathens, who at the ingathering of their fruits were wont to take a kid and seethe it in the milk of its dam, and then in a magical procession to sprinkle all their trees and fields and gardens with it, thereby to render them more fruitful the following year. Besides all which, you may find a world of other instances in Maimonides, More Nevoch. 1. iii. who tells us, that the knowledge of the opinions and customs of these eastern churches was porta magna ad reddendas præceptorum causas, "the great ra"tionale of the Mosaic precepts ;" and that multarum legum rationes et causæ mihi innotuerint ex cognitione fidei rituum et cultus Zabiorum, i. e. " that by

66

being acquainted with the opinions and customs of "those eastern heathens, he understood the grounds "and reasons of many of the laws of Moses," More Nevoch. lib. iii. cap. 29. So that though these precepts were not moral, yet were they set up as so many fences by God to keep the people from stragling into those heathenish immoralities.

Again, there are other rites of their religion which were instituted to shadow out the holy mysteries of the gospel; the great design of which mysteries was to invite and persuade men to comply with the eternal laws of morality. Thus their laws of sacrifice were instituted to represent to them the great transactions of their future Messias; his incarnation and immaculate life, his death and resurrection, ascension and intercession at the right hand of God. So also their festival laws, and particularly their laws of jubilee, were made to shadow out their doctrines of our redemption and eternal life; and their pouring out water in their sacrifices, and their ritual purgations from uncleanness, were intended for obscure intimations of the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of remission of sins; all which doctrines carry with them the most pregnant invitations to piety and virtue.

Lastly, There are other rites of that law which were appointed to instruct them in moral duties. For God finding them not only a perverse, but a dull and sottish people, as those generally are that have been born and bred in slavery, apprehended that the most effectual way to instruct them would be by signs and material representations, even as parents do their children by pictures. And accordingly in Isa. xxviii. 10. he tells us, that he gave them line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, with a stammering tongue; i. e. he looked upon them as children, and so condescended to their weakness, and spake to them in their own dialect. And this way of instructing them by outward and visible signs, being much in use in the eastern countries, and more espe