{2d.) As to men. To do good is the employment of our lives : Eph. ii. 10, ' Created in Christ to good works,' &c. ; and this with a zeal, Titus ii. 14. Now that doctrine is good which only employeth men to do good. But to whom must we do good ? To all : Gal. vi. 10, ' Do good to all, especially to the household of faith ; ' yea, enemies not excepted : Mat. v. 44, ' Do good to them that hate you ; ' Rom. xii. 21, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' And this doing good God expecteth from us in every capacity and relation. Magistrates, Rom. xiii. 4, are ' the ministers of God to them for good,' deputy gods. So ministers : Acts xi. 24, ' Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost.' A man of a selfish temper and spirit hath not that zeal for God, that compassion for souls. So private christians to one another : ' I am persuaded that ye are full
SERMONS ON MICAH VI. 8. 401
of goodness,' Rom. xv. 14. Very kind these were ; it makes us most compassionate to the bodies and souls of one another. So people in an inferior quality — servants, when they are good : Eph. vi. 8, * Whatsoever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, bond or free.' If they make conscience of doing good in their callings, and go about their duties as service to Grod and out of compassion to men, God will take notice of it in the poor bond-servant. A principle of love and good- will in the heart doth make any service more acceptable and valuable than any outward pomp in what we do. A sincere honest heart is beyond all external advantages.
(3.) The means it useth to enforce these ; that is, what are the encouragements and helps ?
{1st.) The love of God in Christ is the great engine of the gospel, and the motive and encouragement which should persuade us to our duty, 2 Cor. v. 14, and Eom. xii. 1, Titus ii. 11, 12. God would be obeyed by his people, not as slaves, but as children ; and would have the great spring and rise of man's obedience to be love and gratitude ; and therefore doth he oblige us at so high a rate, and carry on the covenant of grace in such an astonishing way of mercy, that none of his commandments might be grievous to us, because sweetened by his love, 1 John v. 3. God will be served, not as an imperious sovereign, but as the God of love ; not with a grudging mind, but with delight and readiness; not as dragged and forced, but as excited and influenced by that deep sense that we have of God's goodness.
(2d.) We are inclined and enabled by the sanctifying Spirit. In the christian religion, not only the precepts are good ; but there goeth along with them the power of God to make us good : Ps. cxliii. 10, ' Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God ; thy Spirit is good.' The Spirit's direction hath strength joined with it. And he is a good Spirit, as he doth incline us to good. The Spirit is the only fountain of all goodness and holiness : Neh. ix. 10, ' Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them.' Why is he so often called the good Spirit, but that all his operations tend to make men good and holy ? Eph. V. 9, The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.' The phrase noteth both our thankfulness to God and beneficence to men.
(4.) How doth it fortify us against all temptations to the contrary, but by the proposal of good to us. So it keepeth us from the evil of sin. The great art which religion teacheth us is but the preferring of the greater good before a lesser. Do that, and you are safe ; for all the world miscarrieth by preferring a worse thing before a better. Three things religion mainly persuadeth us unto to keep us safe — (1.) To prefer God before the world ; (2.) The soul before the body ; (3.) Eternity, or a long life before a short one.
(Isf.) God before the world. Its great business is to get us to love God above all, that comparatively we may little esteem reputation, wealth, pre-eminence, grandeur, pleasure, in comparison of the favour of God and the fruition of God. Usually these are the things which all that perish prefer before God and immortality Now, if you could have an higher esteem of God, and say truly, with David, Ps. Ixxiii. 25, ' Whom
VOL XV. 2 c
402 SERMONS ON MICAH VI. 8.
have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee ; ' you have plucked up all temptations by the roots. See John V. 44, and John xii. 42, 1 Johnii. 15, 2 Tim. iii. 4. So that here is the great miscarriage of men, they have not digested this point of religion. They love the world more than God, the praise of men more than the praise of God, pleasures more than God. Is God that man's chiefest good who preferreth his lust, his wealth, or honour, or any base thing in the world before him ? A little fleshly delight or fear of man shall make him break with his God.