MALACHI iii. 7.
_Ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them._
I. 1. BUT are there any _ordinances_ now, since life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel? Are there under the Christian dispensation, any _means_ ordained of God, as the usual channels of his grace? This question could never have been proposed, in the apostolical church, unless by one who openly avowed himself to be a Heathen; the whole body of Christians being agreed, that Christ had ordained certain outward means, for conveying his grace into the souls of men. Their constant practice set this beyond all dispute; for so long as _all that believed were together, and had all things common_, (Acts ii. 44.) _they continued stedfastly in the teaching of the apostles, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers_, ver. 44.
2. But in process of time, when _the love of many waxed cold_, some began to mistake the _means_ for the _end_, and to place religion, rather in doing those outward works, than in a heart renewed after the image of God. They forgot, that _the end of_ every _commandment is love, out of a pure heart, with faith unfeigned_: the loving the Lord their God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves; and the being purified from pride, anger, and evil desire, by a _faith of the operation of God_. Others seemed to imagine, that though religion did not principally consist in these outward means, yet there was something in them wherewith God was well pleased, something that would still make them acceptable in his sight, though they were not exact in the weightier matters of the law, in justice, mercy, and the love of God.
3. It is evident, in those who abused them thus, they did not conduce to the end for which they were ordained. Rather, the things which should have been for their health, were to them an occasion of falling. They were so far from receiving any blessing therein, that they only drew down a curse upon their head: so far from growing more heavenly in heart and life, that they were twofold more the children of hell than before. Others clearly perceiving, that these means did not convey the grace of God to those children of the devil, began from this particular case to draw a general conclusion. “That they were not means of conveying the grace of God.”
4. Yet the number of those who _abused_ the ordinances of God, was far greater than of those who _despised_ them, till certain men arose, not only of great understanding, (sometimes joined with considerable learning) but who likewise appeared to be men of love, experimentally acquainted with true, inward religion. Some of these were burning and shining lights, persons famous in their generations, and such as had well deserved of the church of Christ, for standing in the gap against the overflowings of ungodliness.
It cannot be supposed, that these holy and venerable men, intended any more at first, than to shew that outward religion is nothing worth, without the religion of the heart: that _God is a spirit, and they who worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth_: that therefore external worship is lost labour, without a heart devoted to God: that the outward ordinances of God then profit much, when they advance inward holiness, but when they advance it not, are unprofitable and void, are lighter than vanity: yea, that when they are used, as it were, _in the place_ of this, they are an utter abomination to the Lord.
5. Yet it is not strange, if some of these, being strongly convinced, of that horrid profanation of the ordinances of God, which had spread itself over the whole church, and well nigh driven true religion out of the world; in their fervent zeal for the glory of God, and the recovery of souls from that fatal delusion, spake as if outward religion were _absolutely nothing_, as if it had _no_ place in the religion of Christ. It is not surprising at all, if they should not always have expressed themselves with sufficient caution. So that unwary hearers may believe, they condemned all outward means, as altogether unprofitable; and as not designed of God to be the ordinary channels of conveying his grace into the souls of men.
Nay, it is not impossible, some of these holy men did at length themselves fall into this opinion: in particular, those who, not by choice, but by the providence of God, were cut off from all these ordinances: perhaps wandering up and down, having no certain abiding-place, or dwelling in dens and caves of the earth. These experiencing the grace of God in themselves, though they were deprived of all outward means, might infer, that the same grace would be given to them, who of set purpose abstained from them.