An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters…

For the meaning of of the words:¹ For I desired mercy] the word signifies to desire and to will a thing with a great complacency, or delight; as if God should say, mercy is a thing so pleasing to me, that I desire it at my heart; the word in the Original is fuller than is expressed in our English translation,² nothing in the world is so pleasing unto me as mercy. There is Gods great mercy in reconciling the world unto himself by Jesus Christ, and this is more worth than all the sacrifices in the world; but this is not the mercy meant in the text, Heb. 10.5, 6, Burnt offerings, and sacrifices thou hadst no pleasure in, but a body hast th•u prepared: there is no mercy like this, the mercy of God in his Son Jesus Christ.³ But the mercy here meant in the text, it is the mercy of man, and the word here, mercy, is the same word in the Original with that in the 4. verse, your goodness is as the morning cloud that passeth away; so that I desire mercy, that is not the mercy of God, but mercy to Man, and that mercy to our selves, so Christ interprets it, in Mat. 12.7. I• ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not h•ve condemned the guiltless. As if Christ should say, God in some cases would have men provide for themselves, though they neglect the keeping of the Sabbath, I will have mercy, as to our selves so to others, mercy to men, either to their bodies or to their souls; mercy to the body every one will grant, but it ought to be especially to the soul: warranted from Christs other quotation of these words, Mat. 9.13. Go ye, and learn what that meaneth, I will ⟨p. 600⟩have mercy and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance: This word mercy