"with thousands of rams, or with ten "thousand of rivers of oil? Shall I give

my first-born for my tranfgreffion, "the fruit of my body for the fin of my "foul?" He intimates to them, that fuch coftly and inhuman oblations are of no avail toward fatisfying for fin, or obtaining the divine favour; which is not to be procured by a bare performance of the external offices of Religion, but by an actual reformation of their hearts and lives: " He hath fhewed thee, O "Man, what is good; and what doth "the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk "humbly with thy God."

It has ever been the vain hope of hypocrites to compound for criminal indulgencies by certain ceremonial subftitutions; and to evade the fatal confequences of vice by fome other way than, what is the only right one, repentance

and

and amendment. Such was the reliance of wicked Heathens on their Altars and Images; fuch the confidence of iniquitous Pharifees in their Tithes and Offerings; and fuch ('tis too well known) is the delufion of many corrupt Chriftians, who think to discharge their debts to God, as thofe to their Neighbour, by pecuniary confiderations; or at least to balance the account with long prayers and a form of godlinefs. In the mean while this is nothing more than a trick and impofition upon Reason and Conscience, which must know better; God having fhewn man as well by natural light, as by his laws, what is good; i.e. what is truly and effentially so, what is of neceffary and perpetual obligation. All of which the Prophet has here comprized under the three duties of Doing justly, of Loving Mercy, and of Walking humbly with God: The firft and fecond more immediately refpecting our Neigh

VOL. I.

bour, the third our Creator:-I proceed therefore to take each of these under diftinct confideration; In order to fet before you, as at one view, the great Outlines of that reasonable Service, which the Lord our God requires of us all.

1. And firft; Let no man conceit that true religion can fubfift without the obfervance of Justice; or that any pretences to religion can atone for the neglect of fo principal a duty. Juftice between man and man is one of thofe neceffary hinges on which the prefervation and welfare of all society depend, and upon which the whole commerce of the world turns. It is founded in truth, is indeed truth itself, discernible by the light of nature, and not wilfully to be violated without forcing and injuring our confciences. He that dares over-reach or "defraud his brother in any matter," may perhaps pride himself in the fuperi

ority of his understanding, and triumph in the fruits of it: But is he not all the while cheating himself? Is he not robbing his own better part, his foul, of that inward peace and felf-fatisfaction, which is only to be found in the paths of virtue and honefty? Whilft he acts. contrary to the dictates of universal reafon, and in open defiance to the exprefs laws of the fupreme Governor of the World, who hath faid, Thou shalt not Steal: In whofe eye the fcant meafure is abominable; and who "cannot count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights." Justice is of the effence of God; and as he must needs like thofe of his creatures best, who imitate him most in those things, in which he is imitable by us; so does he neceffarily hate all lying spirits, all workers of wrong, who are of their father the Devil; and will withhold the communication of his Spirit from

I 2

from the iniquitous and unjust. Befides with what face fhall they appear before his tribunal at the great day of accounts, who have made it their bufinefs to circumvent their fellow-creatures by falfhood and fraud ; have robbed them of their property; oppreffed them by violence; or flanderously stolen from their reputation and honour? Thefe are they, who by facrificing to their covetoufness or ambition, their envy or malice, confound the peace and harmony of the world; fill it with difcord and numberlefs vexations, adding forrow to the afflicted, and making the "widow's heart to fail." But the Lord is the avenger of all fuch; of whofe majefty it is altogether unworthy, and with whofe perfections it is abfolutely irreconcileable, that any one man fhould injure his neighbour, without being brought to an account fome time or other; or that any fingle perfon, just or

unjust,