what is according to Knowledge. I fhall now SERM. proceed,

III. To offer fome Motives, in order to our avoiding fuch a Religious Zeal, as is not according to Knowledge. And to excite us to the wellregulatingour Religious Zeal, it will be very proper to confider,

1. The Reasonablenefs, and excellent Usefulnefs, of Religious Zeal, when it is duely regulated. It is not left to our Choice, whether we will have a Zeal for God, and Religion, or not; but it is our Duty to form and nourish it in ourfelves: and fuch a Duty as we cannot but practice, and effectually compass, if we heartily fet about it. To have a Zeal for God, is to have a warm and affectionate concern for a Being to whom we have innumerable Obligations; who is the proper Object of all our Hopes, and Defires, and Expectations; and who has all poffible Claims to our whole Service. And to have a Zeal for the Substantials of Religion, is to have a great Regard for what deserves itmore than all other Things in the World; for what is truly pleafing to our Lord and Master, and can never be otherwise; for what is effentially neceffary to the Happiness of human Society here below, and to our own eternal Reward hereafter.

It

XI.

SERM.

It is juft and becoming, therefore, to XI. have a Zeal, and hearty Concern, for this great and important Business of Religion. And, to have this Zeal fo directed, as to pursue its End by none but proper and Religious Methods; by Nothing but what Reason and God himself recommend; is, to confult the true Honour of Religion, and the Service of that God who requires it of Us. No Scandal is brought, by fuch a Conduct, upon our Profeffion : but every Mouth bleffes it. And then, to have this Zeal founded on the Motives of eternal Mo-· ment, the Rewards of Heaven, and the Importance of Religion, and the Favour of God and Chrift, is to improve the Beauty and Loveliness of it yet more. Argument in the World, nor dow of an Objection made, which has God, and the Practice of Religion, for its Objects; which regards Thefe more than any Thing of leffer Confideration; which discovers itself only in the Ways and Methods recommended in the Gospel; and which works upon no other Principles but what the Gospel approves of. But, on the contrary,

There can be no

the leaft Sha

against a Zeal,

2. Let us confider the Unreasonableness, and the pernicious Confequences, of a Religious Zeal, not well-regulated; or, in the Apostle's Words, not according to Knowledge.

And

And here it is too obvious to Every Man's SER M. Obfervation, that Nothing has done more. XI. Mischief, or produced more lamentable Ef-w fects in the World, than this Sort of Zeal. It was this Zeal for the ceremonial Part of their Law, that kept the Jews from acknowledging our Saviour; nay, which induced Them to reject and crucify him. It was this Zeal for Matters of leffer Confideration, which, in very early Days, difunited the Churches of Christ from One Another; and in these later Ages, keeps up, with a fatal Heat, the Differences between the feveral Sorts of Difciples of Christ, in the World; and leads Chriftians, by degrees, to act against their Fellow-Christians, with a Spirit of Fury, and wicked Perfecution. It is this Zeal without Knowledge, and the Discovery of it in an undue and unchristian Manner, which has prejudiced many against the very Name of Chrift; and made the glad Tidings of Salvation a Scandal to Unbelievers.

But though it appears (as we have seen it to be, in the firft Part of this Discourse,) fo unreasonable, in itself; and has proved fo pernicious to the Cause of true Religion in the World; Yet, it has always had a Multitude of Votaries, who have loved and entertained it Themfelves; and who have abused and persecuted Others, who have not fhewn their Zeal in

the

XI.

SER M. the fame fevere, and inhuman Methods. Nothing could be of worse Confequence to the Jews, than this blind Zeal for their Ceremonial Law: and yet Nothing was in more Repute amongst them. And They who had it not; They, who believed that Sacrifice was of lefs Value than Mercy, or moral Duties of greater Moment than Ceremonies ; or the Salvation of the whole World of greater Concern than their Rites and Forms of Religion; were accounted falfe and perfidious; treated with Contempt, expofed and affronted, excommunicated, and banished from Society. And They have been followed, in this Path of Uncharitableness, ever fince, in all Ages and Countries, by Such as have followed them in their Zeal not according to Knowledge.

But, One of the Worft Confequences of this, I must not omit; because it is to be found wherever this blind Zeal is, even in the lowest Degree; That it naturally brings in, wherever it is univerfally embraced, an univerfal Neglect of the great and substantial Parts of Practical Religion. For when Men's Thoughts and Hearts are taken up with the Shadows of Things, and all their Heat and Vigour spent upon these; They have no Time, or Zeal, left for the greater Matters of the Gospel. Nay, it is often seen, that, when They are moft poffeffed with a Zeal

for

for the leffer Matters and Appendages of Reli- sER M. gion, They are most of all apt to forget the fa- XI cred Laws of Practice, and to tranfgrefs the Rules laid down in that very Religion which, they think They are propagating.

There cannot be any Confideration of more Weight with Chriftians, in the prefent Cafe, than This, That where the greatest Heat and Concern are expreffed about the infignificant Circumftances of Religion, there the essential Parts of it are seen moft to be neglected, in the Lives, and whole Behaviour, of the Profeffors of it. What Chriflian will not be moved to difcourage, and put what Check He can, to a Fire, which may, too probably, burn to the Deftruction of all that is valuable in that Religion itself, in whofe Caufe alone it pretends to burn?

It is, I confefs, a melancholy Confideration, that fome of the best Qualities and Affections of the Mind, fo easily degenerate into accurfed and wicked Paffions; and tend, in their Corruption, to the Ruine of the best and most important Things in the World. But this should excite our most serious Confideration; and induce us to make the great Strokes of Practical Religion the chief Objects of our Zeal; and to refolve to fhew this Zeal by Thofe Methods only,

which