H. T.
THE PREFERENCE OF DUTIES
MORALS BEFORE RITUALS.
But go ye and learn ivliat that meanetli, I will have mercy ^ and not sacrifice. — Mat. IX. 13.
These words are part of Christ's plea for liis converse with publicans and sinners, at which the pharisees took offence. Three answers he maketh : —
1. From their necessity, represented in a proverbial speech : ' The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.'
2. From the end of his commission : ' I came not,' as the doctor of the church, ' to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'
3. Here is a third, suggested in the words read to you, by a saying of the prophet Hosea, chap. vi. 6, where a general reason is intimated, that a ceremony of the Levitical law must not hinder a necessary duty of the moral law. Therefore his conversing with them for their edification was not unlawful nor uncomely, for all rituals must give way to morals ; and so those laws of not accompanying with a heathen, or an unclean person, were never intended to be a bar to an act of mercy or charity, especially spiritual mercy and charity. And there- fore, though they held the publicans profane, and unworthy their con- versation (therein also stretching the law), yet Christ, without any breach of decorum, might converse with them for their good ; for if acts of mercy and charity are to be preferred before the ceremonies of the worship of God, this act of rescuing and saving a soul is to be preferred before all these ritual restraints of conversation with those who were supposed to be unworthy or legally unclean. And it is notable, these words are brought, not only to vindicate this fact of Christ, but secretly to tax the pharisaical hypocrisy of those who place religion in rituals more than morals. Elsewhere you find Christ at this argument again on another occasion, but to the same end and purpose : Mat. xii. 7. When the pharisees frowned because the dis- ciples plucked ears of corn for their necessity on the Sabbath-day :
' If you had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.' So that this
6 THE PKEFEnENCE OF DUTIES I [MaT. IX. 13.
one sentence is notably useful to condemn plmrisaism, or, which is all one, close hypocrisy, and withal to set us ri^ht in the true religion. In the words observe : —
1. Christ's preface.
2. The wortis of the prophet quoted.
Christ's preface is to be regarded : ' Go ye, learn what that meaneth.' And in the other place, ' If you had known what this nicaneth.' This showeth that it is a point which deserveth well to be studied by lis — this saying of the Lord by the prophet, ' I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.'
Where observe : —
1. The form is negative, but in the sense it is to be understood comparatively: 'I will have mercy rather than sacrifice.' So when Paul saith, 1 Cor. i. 17, ' Christ sent me, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel ' — not chiefly to baptize, but rather to preach the gospel ; so here it is not a simple negation, but a comparative, that he ap- proved of moral duties more than sacrifice.
2. Observe the two things compared — mercy and sacrifice. In the prophet Hosea there is another word, ' I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.' Mercy comprchendeth the duties of the second table, as the knowledge of God the duties of the first table. Now this piety towards God, and charity towards our neighbour, was more acceptable service towards God than all the rites of their external worship.
Doct. There is much to be learned from God's expressing himself in his word that he liketh mercy to them that stand in need of it, better than the offering of the richest sacrifice.
I frame the point so as it may comply ^^ ith Christ's scope and purpose.
Three things especially we learn in it : —
I. The respective value and preference of duties.
II. The guise of hypocrites, as our Saviour pincheth and taxetli the pharisees often by this point.
III. The excellency of mercy.
I. I shall speak to the respective value and preference of duties, and there I shall lay down these propositions.
1. All that God commandeth must be respected, and obedience endeavoured, partly because his laws are all holy, just, and good : Kora. vii. 12, ' The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good' — viz., that law by which he was convinced, and winch had brought such trouble in his heart ; holy, as being the copy and draught of God's holiness ; just, as doing no wrong, no infringement of our just freedom ; good, as profitable to direct and perfect our operations — nothing therein is in vain or useless. And partly because they are all ratified by the same authority : Exod. xx. 1, ' God spake all "these words,' not tlicfie words, but all these ivorcJs : ' lie that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Tliou shalt not steal ; ' as the apostle improveth the observation: James ii. 11, Tor he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.' God hath ex- pressed his will in one thing as well as another. And partly because in conversion we have grace given to obey all : Eph. iv. 24, ' The new man is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.' It