their wants, and to apply to him for that purpose, who was yet able and willing to relieve them.

And in the verse where the text lies, he lets them know, that even so severe an admonition was the fruit of kindness and goodwill: "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." 'I have said this, not as pronouncing your condition desperate, but faithfully to warn you of your danger, that this negligence in religion may not be your ruin:' Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Since this is really your condition, and I have warned you, out of pure grace, of the dreadful consequences of such a temper persisted in; therefore, repent that you have trifled so much hitherto, and be zealous for time to come.'

Zeal is a qualification necessary in Christ's disciples.
Upon which argument, I would,

I. Explain the disposition to which we are exhorted. And,

II. Shew the obligations which lie upon Christ's disciples to such a temper.

I. It is very necessary that the disposition should be explained, to which we are here exhorted. We are here required to be zealous. But, in other places, we are warned against zeal, and the word is often used in an ill sense, and the most wicked and pernicious fruits are represented as proceeding from it. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance, that we should carefully attend to scripture-light, for the due stating of this matter, where we should be zealous, and where not; and what regulations our fervour should be under, for the degrees and measures of it, the principal seat of it, the persons that may be concerned in it, and the proper ways expressing it. The following particulars may help to discover our duty in this matter.

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1. It should be our first care to be well assured that the cause is good for which our zeal is employed; that is, that what we are zealous for is really truth or duty; and that what we are zealous against, is certainly false or evil: "It is good to be always zealously affected in a good thing," Gal. iv. 18. But the greater our fervour is in a wrong way, so much the more hurt we are like to do to ourselves and others.

Indeed, heat without light, or rash and blind zeal, is the most extravagant and mischievous thing in the world. And, therefore, careful examination should always go before the actings of zeal; otherwise, we may be found fighting against God, when we think to do him good service; and active instruments in the devil's service through ignorance, while we flatter ourselves that we are animated by a zeal for God. Such was the zeal so often taken notice of in the Jews at the beginning of Christianity. They had a mighty regard for their ceremonial law, and for their ritual traditions: and because the gospel insisted not on the observance of these, but directed them for acceptance with God to faith in Christ, without the works of the law, they set themselves against it with the greatest warmth and eagerness. And this their bigotry and fury is called their zeal. So the original word is, where our translators have rendered it by indignation or envy. So Acts v. 17, 18. "The high-priest and his companions were filled with zeal, and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison." And chap. xiii. 45. "When the Jews saw the multitudes that came to hear Paul preach, they were filled with zeal, and spake against those things that were spoken by Paul." And when the same apostle endeavoured to convince the Jews at Thessalonica, that Jesus was the Messiah, Acts xvii. 5. "The Jews which believed not, moved with zeal, took unto them certain lewd fellows, and made an uproar." Here was fiery hot zeal; and the apostle assures us, that it was a zeal of God, or for God, Rom. x. 2. “I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God; but then it was not according to knowledge." They had not examined the evidences of Christianity, and so blindly and madly opposed it. St Paul could the better bear this testimony of his countrymen, because it had lately been his own case. He had been " exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers," Gal. i. 14. And " And "touching zeal, persecuting the church," Phil. iii. 6. But when he came to himself, this misplaced zeal was so far from giving him any comfort that it was his grief and his shame he calls himself for it a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, and even the chief of sinners," 1 Tim. i. 13—15.

To be zealous for we know not what, is as bad as to worship we know not what." And however positive and

confident we may be, after all our warmth, we may be on the wrong side, if our assurance be not the result of a sincere and impartial inquiry. And, indeed, if we should happen to be in the right, yet a blind and random zeal, even for truth itself, cannot be acceptable to God, because it is rather by chance, than upon reasonable evidence, that our zeal is on the right side.

Every man, therefore, is bound, before he gives a loose to his zeal, to use the best helps in his power for discovering the mind of God: and no man should suffer his zeal to outrun his knowledge, or to exceed the evidence he has of the truth or falsehood, of the good or evil of things.

2. Zeal should bear a proportion to the value and importance of things. Indeed, the least truth, of which we are convinced, must not be given up; nor should we act contrary to known duty in the least instance, upon any worldly consideration. But all truths or duties are not of equal moment or concern, either to ourselves or others, to the honor of God or the interest of religion. While a warm zeal, therefore, is not only allowable, but commendable, in reference to matters of importance; yet there is room for the exercise of moderation, as a virtue in relation to things of small consequence.

This difference in the value or importance of things should be measured, either by the plain declarations of God in his word concerning the necessity of some points of belief or practice to salvation; or by their obvious tendency to promote or hinder practical godliness, by their plain influence upon the welfare of mankind, either in this or in the next world.

Now, really it is no good sign of sincerity, much less of a regular zeal, to be very warm and earnest about little matters, while there is a plain coldness about things of the greatest moment. To be all on fire about rituals and ceremonials, either for them or against them, when we are negligent and indifferent about the very vitals of religion; to lay a mighty stress upon doubtful things, or the mere dictates of men, and yet to make a small account of the undoubted precepts of God, and even the plain dictates both of natural and revealed religion; to be exceeding eager upon such points as are confessed by all thinking men to be attended with great obscurity and difficulties, upon knotty and perplexing questions, but slightly to pass over the clear and obvious truths and duties of

religion; this is an untoward and a monstrous zeal. Nothing, indeed, which appears to bear the stamp of divine authority, is to be received by us with an absolute indifference: but as God has laid a different stress upon things, so should we, and endeavour to follow his declared judgment of their importance, as near as we can. We shall do well in this case to lay to heart Christ's reproof to the Scribes and Pharisees, in Matt. xxiii. 23, 24. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have ommitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”

3. Zeal is first to be considered in the temper of the soul, and then in the proper expressions of it in the tenor of the practice. It stands, in the first place, opposed to indifference or lukewarmness in the heart and affections. So it is eminenly to be understood in the text, as appears from the context. But if there be inward life and vigour, this ought to be, and will be, expressed by correspondent effects in practice. And so zeal stands opposed to slothfulness, Rom. xii. 11. “Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." It is the reverse of doing the work of the Lord negligently, of every thing in the outward course that might discover a coldness in affection to God, or in resolution for him, or in hatred of sin, or in our regards to God's honour and interest.

Now, though one man cannot judge of another's zeal, more than of any other inward disposition, by any measure beside visible and becoming fruits; yet the fervour of the soul is principally to be considered with respect to divine acceptance. No seeming warmth of zeal for God in pious discourse, no appearance of vigorous acting for him, will pass with God for any thing better than hypocrisy, if all be not animated with the inward fire of holy zeal. It is not enough "with the mouth to shew much love to God, if the heart goeth after covetousness," or something else more than God, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. To be forward and ready in religious conversation, to lament the sins of the times, and the decay of piety, is a becoming instance of Christian zeal; and charity, without good evidence to the contrary, will induce us to believe concerning

another, that "out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." But if he who knows all things should know it to be otherwise, he will abhor the vile dissimulation. To be diligent in attendance upon the institutions of divine worship; to be active in endeavours to propagate God's truths and interest, and to prevent the progress of sin and error, are natural fruits of religious zeal. But if we should only design thereby to approve ourselves to men; if the language of our hearts should be like Jehu's, "Come, see my zeal for the Lord,' 2 Kings x. 16. this is vain ostentation, and not holy zeal.

4. The first and principal province of Christian zeal, is in relation to ourselves and to other people only in the second place, as we have only a secondary concern in them.

I am afraid, by this observation I meet with a very common mistake among people that speak much in commendation of zeal; I doubt they consider it, as if it chiefly related to the conduct of other people, rather than to their own. But, in truth, though the province of zeal extends farther than ourselves, yet not only its first, but its main business, is at home. Zeal, as well as charity, is to begin here in keeping up the fervour of our own spirits in religion, and the intenseness of our own personal obedience.

It should principally operate in ardent desires and endeavours after the increase of light and useful knowledge in our own minds; "in following on to know the Lord, increasing in the knowledge of God" and his will; that we may know our duty better, in order to the direction of our practice; and be more fully instructed in the truths of the gospel, that our persuasion of them may be firmer, and their influence more strong and forcible upon our souls.

Christian zeal is the sprightly vigour and strenuous activity of every holy affection and disposition; an earnestness and intenseness in every spiritual act, of faith and love, of hope and trust, of resignation to God, and resolution for him. It is the performance of every act of devotion with life and close application of thought, as those who are in earnest in it, and with the exercise of those pious dispositions which are suitable to it. To praise God with admiring and adoring thoughts of his excellencies, with inward gratitude for his benefits, and with a lively sense of our own unworthiness; to confess our sins with a truly broken and contrite spirit, with pungent