no wish : they rest in external services ; and substitute them in the place of an inward change of heart, and a thorough con- version unto God. And though we are not shocked at such views, as we are at the proposals of the Jew, yet are they, in fact, as derogatory from the Divine honour, and as unsuitable to the end proposed, as the grosser conceptions that are ex- pressed in the text. The inquiries may be considered as two- fold ; first, How shall I obtain reconciliation with God ? and next, How shall I walk so as to please him ? Now is there any thing in external ceremonies, of whatever kind they be, calcu- lated to answer either of these ends ? Can superficial penitence, and ritual observances, worthless as they are in themselves, and still further debased by a presumptuous affiance in them, stand in the place of deep contrition, humble faith, and universal obedience ? ]
Their futility will appear from,
II. The answer of God to them —
God "has shewn to every person what is good" — [It is true that God did require offerings and sacrifices under the law : but he did not require them in lieu of obe- dience6; nor in preference to obediencef; nor at all for their own sake8: when used in any of these views, they were even hateful in his sight h : and on account of the abuse made of them, he calls them " statutes which were not good1." He had declared by Moses, that the thing which alone he required, and to which all the ceremonial ordinances were subservient, was, the obedience of a humble and devoted heartk.]
And the things specified in the text have an exclu- sive title to that character —
[Our blessed Lord, apparently referring to these words, throws the true light upon them1. He shews that the Phari- sees substituted ceremonial in the place of moral obedience : and that, while punctilious and exact in outward observances, they neglected those things which God principally required, " judgment, mercy, and faith? These are the very things men- tioned in the text: for the "walking humbly with God" evi- dently implies a humble and believing dependence on him.
Behold, then, what the Lord our God requires of us. First, we must " do justly." It is in vain to think that we can ever please God, if we be not honest and just in all our dealings.
e Isai. i. 10—17. f 1 Sam. xv. 22.
s Ps. 1. 4 — 14. (Here is the same controversy as in the text,) and Ps. li. 16, 17.
h Amos v. 21 — 24. Isai. lxvi. 3. » Ezek. xx. 25.
k Deut. x. 12, 13. l Matt, xx i. 23.