gion, than for the vital and effential parts of it; for the traditions of men, than for the commandments of God; for bodily feverities, than for the mortification of our lufts; for the means of religion, than for the end of it : a greater zeal against the omiffion and neglect of fome fenfelefs and fuperftitious practices, than against the practice of the groffeft immoralities; and against the deniers of the doctrines of transubstantiation, and the Pope's infallibility, an equal, if not a greater zeal, (I am fure a more fevere profecution), than againit those who deny our Saviour to be the true Meffias, and the Son of God: this certainly is not a zeal according to knowledge. Nor,

3. That which is profecuted by unlawful and unwarrantable means. That cannot be a zeal of God according to knowledge, which warrants the doing of evil, that good may come; the violating of truth and faith, and of the peace of human fociety, for the cause of the catholick church; and breaking the eternal and immutable laws of God, for the advancing of his glory. Nor,

4. An uncharitable zeal, which is an enemy to peace, and order, and thinks itself fufficiently warranted to fe parate from the communion of Christians, and to break the peace of the church upon every fcruple, and upon every fancy and conceit of unlawful impofitions, though in the most indifferent things; nay, upon this fingle point, because a thing which they acknowledge lawful, and indifferent in itself, is in the worship of God injoined by authority; the most unreasonable principle that I think ever was avowed among Christians: not to do a thing which otherwife they might do, only becaufe it is injoined; and to fancy that an indifferent thing becomes prefently unlawful, because it is commanded by lawful authority; and that it is a fin to do any thing in the worship of God, which is not left to their liberty, whether they will do it or not. This is not only a zeal without knowledge, but contrary to common fenfe. Nor,

5. A furious and cruel zeal, which St. James calls a bitter, or a wrathful zeal, and which tends to confufion and every evil work; which is blind with its own rage, and makes men, as St. Paul fays of himself, when he perfecuted the Christians, exceedingly mad against all that

differ from them, and stand in the way of their fierce and outrageous zeal.

6. and laftly, A zeal for ignorance is most certainly not a zeal according to knowledge. And this is a zeal peculiar to the church of Rome, by fuch ftrict laws to forbid people the use of the holy fcriptures in a known tongue; nay, not fo much as to allow them to understand what they do in the service of God; to require them to be prefent at their publick prayers, and to join with them in them, without letting them know the meaning of them; to pretend to teach them, by reading leffons to them in an unknown tongue: and all this under pretence of increafing their devotion; as if the lefs men understand of the fervice of God, the more they would be affected with it, and edified by it.

And yet there is nothing in which the church of Rome hath been more zealously concerned, than to keep the people in ignorance. Nothing they have opposed with more obftinacy, against the repeated application of princes and people, at the beginning of the reformation, than to allow the people the use of the fcriptures, and their publick prayers, in a known tongue. And their obftinacy in this point was not without reafon; nothing being more certain, than that if the people were once brought to understand the fcriptures, they would foon quit their religion, which in fo many things is fo directly contrary to the word of God. The

III. Third and last thing remains to be spoken to, viz. How far the doing of things out of a zeal for God, doth mitigate and extenuate the evil of them? For when the Apostle here teftifies concerning the Jews, that they had a zeal of God, he speaks this in favour of them, and by way of mitigation of their fault. I bear them record; I who was once acted by this ignorant and furious zeal which now poffeffeth them, and perfecuted the Chriftians in the fame outrageous manner as they ftill continue to do, and all this with a very good confcience, as I thought, and out of a zeal for God, and the true religion. So he tells us, Acts xxvi. 9. I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jefus of Nazareth. So that his zeal was fincere, and with a real intention to do fervice to God and religion; and yet,

for

for all that, was very faulty and finful; and, if he had persisted in it, damnable: fo that his confidence that he was in the right, and the fincerity of his zeal in acting according to the perfuafion of his confcience, did not alter the nature of the actions he did out of this zeal, and make them lefs wicked in themselves; though it was fome mitigation of the fault of the perfon, and rendered him more capable of the mercy of God by repentance, than if he had done contrary to his confcience, and the clear convictions of his own mind. ›

And therefore the best way to understand the great evil and wickedness of this furious and blind zeal, will be, to confider the account which St. Paul, after his converfion, gives of his own doings, and what load he lays upon himself, notwithstanding the fincerity of his zeal, and that he had acted according to his confcience. Acts viii. and ix. you have the hiftory at large of his outrageous doings, how he made havock of the church, entering into every houfe, and haling men and women to prifon; how he breathed out threatenings and flaughter against the difciples of the Lord. Acts xxii. 4. I perfecuted (fays he) this way unto the death, binding and delivering unto prifons both men and women; and chap. xxvi. 10. 11. Many of the faints did I fhut up in prison; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them: and I punished them often in every fynagogue, and compelled them to blafpheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I perfecuted them even unto ftrange cities. Gal. i. 13. 14. Te have heard (fays he) of my converfation in times paft, in the Jews religion, how that beyond meafure I perfecuted the church of God, and wafted it; being exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 1 Tim. i. 13. Who was before a blafphe mer, and a perfecutor, and injurious. So that he chargeth himself with the guilt of blafphemy and murder, and a moft furious and outrageous perfecution of good men; for which elsewhere he pronounceth himself the chief of finners. From whence it evidently appears, that men may do the most wicked and damnable fins out of a zeal for God.

And this was the cafe of many of the Jews, as our Saviour foretold, that the time should come, when they fhould kill men, thinking they did God good fervice. But yet,

for

for all this, the Apostles of our Lord make no fcruple to charge them with downright murder: Acts ii. 23. fpeaking of their putting our Saviour to death, Whom ye by wicked hands have crucified and flain; and A&ts vii. 52. The just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.

Yet notwithstanding their fin was of this high nature in itself, it was fome mitigation of the fault of the perfons, that they did these things out of an ignorant zeal, and rendered them more capable of the mercy of God upon their repentance. And upon this account our Saviour interceeded with God for mercy for them: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. St. Peter alfo pleads the fame in mitigation of their fault, Acts iii. 17. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did alfo your rulers. And St. Paul tells us, that he found mercy, upon his repentance, on this account: 1 Tim. i. 13. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, and in unbelief. But ftill, for all this, wicked things done out of confcience, and zeal for God, are damnable, and will prove fo, without repentance.

I fhall now draw fome inferences from this discourse by way of application.

1. If it be fo neceffary, that our zeal be directed by knowledge, this fhews us how dangerous a thing zeal is in the weak and ignorant fort of people. Zeal is an edge-tool, which children in understanding should not meddle withal; and yet it moft frequently poffeffeth the weakest minds and commonly by how much the lefs knowing people are, by fo much the more zealous they are. And in the church of Rome, where knowledge is profeffedly difcouraged and fuppreffed in the common people, zeal is mightily countenanced and cherifhed and they make great ufe of it; for this blind and furious zeal is that which infpires them to do fuch cruel and barbarous things, as were hardly ever acted among the Heathen. Zeal is only fit for wife men; but it is chiefly in fashion among fools.

:

Nay, it is dangerous in the hands of wife men, and to be governed and kept in with a ftrict rein; otherwise it will tranfport them to the doing of undue and irregular things. Mofes, one of the wifest and best of men, and

moft

moft likely to govern and manage his zeal as he ought, and to keep aloof from all excess and extravagance, being the meekeft man upon earth; yet he was fo furprifed, upon a fudden occafion, that, in a fit of zeal, he let fall the two tables of the law, which he had but juft received from God, and dashed them in pieces: A true emblem of an ungoverned zeal; in the tranfport whereof even good men are apt to forget the laws of God, and let them fall out of their hands, and to break all the obligations of natural and moral duties.

2. From hence we plainly fee, that men may do the worst and wickedest things out of a zeal for God and religion. Thus it was among the Jews, who ingroffed falvation to themselves, and denied the poffibility of it to all the world befides; and the church of Rome have taken copy by them, as in an arrogant conceit of themfelves, fo in the blindness, and fury, and uncharitablenefs of their zeal towards all who refufe to fubmit to their authority and directions.

And as the teachers and rulers of the Jewish church did of old, fo doth the church of Rome now: They take away the key of knowledge from the people, and will neither enter into the kingdom of heaven themselves, nor fuffer thofe that would, to enter in. They brand for hereticks thofe who make the holy fcriptures the rule of their faith and worship; as St. Paul tells us the Jews did in his time, Acts xxiv. 14. After the way which they call herefy, fo worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets. They establish the merit of their own righteoufnefs, not fubmitting to the righteousness of God, by the faith of Jefus Chrift. So St. Paul tells us the Jews did, in the verse inmediately after the text For they being ignorant of God's righteoufnefs, and going about to establish their own righteouf nefs, have not fubmitted themselves to the righteousness of God. And as the Jews anathematized and excommunicated the firft Chriftians, and perfecuted them to the death, as our Saviour foretold, that the time would come when they should put them out of their fynagogues, yea, and kill them, thinking they did God good fervice; fo the church of Rome hath, for many ages, ufed the fincere profeffors of the fame religion; perfecuting them, firft with exVOL. IV. K k communication,