ve the
oppressed, did not walk soberly, did not mortify sinful lusts, &c. Alas,
we deceive ourselves with the noise of a covenant,(285) and a cause of
God; we cry it up as an antidote against all evils, use it as a charm,
even as the Jews did their temple; and, in the mean time, we do not care
how we walk before God, or with our neighbours: well, thus saith the Lord,
"Trust ye not in lying words," &c. Jer. vii. 4, 5, 6. If drunkenness reign
among you, if filthiness, swearing, oppression, cruelty reign among you,
your covenant is but a lie, all your professions are but lying words, and
shall never keep you in your inheritances and dwellings. The Lord tells
you what he requires of you. Is it not to do justly, and walk humbly with
God? Mic. vi. 7. This is that which the grace of God teaches, to deny
"ungodliness and worldly lusts," and to "live soberly, righteously, and
godly, towards your God, your neighbour, and yourself," Tit. ii. 11, 12;
and this he prefers to your public ordinances, your fasting, covenanting,
preaching, and such like.(286) "Is not this to know me?" saith the Lord,
Jer. xxii. 15, 16. You think you know God when you can discourse well of
religion, and entertain conferences of practical cases. You think it is
knowledge to understand preachings and scripture; but thus saith the Lord,
to do justly to all men, to walk humbly towards God, to walk soberly in
yourselves, is more real knowledge of God, than all the volumes of doctors
contain, or the heads of professors. Is this knowledge of God to have a
long flourishing discourse containing much religion in it? Alas, no! to do
justly, to oppress none, to pray more in secret, to walk humbly and
soberly, this is to know the Lord. Practice is real knowledge indeed: it
argues, that what a man knows, he receives in love, that the truth hath a
deep impression on the heart, that the light shines into the heart to
inflame it. What is knowledge before God? As much as principles,
affection, and action, as much as hath influence on your conversations; if
you do not, and love not what you know, is that to know the Lord? Shall
not your knowledge be a testimony against your practice, and no more?

Sermon X.

Isaiah i. 16.--"Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your
doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil," &c.

If we would have a sum of pure and undefiled religion, here it is set down
in opposition to this people's shadow of religion, tha