SERM. account. Perfecution and murder of the fincere proLXXXII. feffors of religion, are damnable fins; and no zeal

for God and religion can excuse them, or take away the guilt of them; zeal for God will justify no action that we do, unless there be difcretion to justify our zeal.

There is nothing oftner misleads men, than a misguided zeal; it is an ignis fatuus, a false fire, which often leads men into bogs and precipices; it appears in the night, in dark and ignorant and weak minds, and offers itself a guide to those who have lost their way; it is one of the most ungovernable passions of human nature, and therefore requires great knowledge and judgment to manage it, and keep it within bounds. It is like fire, a good servant, but a bad master; if it once get head, it confumes and dévours all before it, and the great danger and mischief of it is, that it is most commonly found where it should not be, and poffefses those most, who are least fit to govern it; and most frequently employed about what it should not be; and ten to one but it is either mistaken in the object, or in the measure and degree of it; and even when it is a virtue, it is a nice and dangerous one; the wisest men are apt to mingle their own paffions and interests with their zeal for God and religion. So that it is not enough that men are acted by a zeal for God, and do fincerely follow the dictates of their confciences; but they must be careful to inform their confciences, and not fuffer themselves to be violently transported and hurried on by their own passions and prejudice, and by a blind and furious zeal without knowledge.

for

But what then? Would we have men not follow

their own confciencies, or act contrary to them? No,

by

1

الله

=!

by no means: for though confcience be not our rule; SERM. yet it is our immediate guide; and he does ill, who LXXXII. does act against his confcience. But men must be careful how they fettle their practical judgment of things, and conclude things to be lawful or unlawful, duties or fins, without reason and good ground.

GOD hath given us understandings, to try and examine things, and the light of his word to direct us in this trial; and if we will judge rafhly, and fuffer ourselves to be hurried by prejudice or pafsion, the errors of our judgment become faults of our lives: for God expects from us that we should weigh and confider what we do; and when he hath afforded us light enough to difcern between good and evil, that we should carefully follow the direction of it; that we should be fufpicious of our selves, when our zeal carries us to do things that are furious and cruel, false and treacherous, and have a horrid appearance even to the light of nature; we should question that zeal which is so contrary to christian goodness and meekness, to peace and charity, and which tends to " confufion and every evil " work."

1

I will conclude all with that excellent passage of St. James, which will shew us how little regard is to be had to many mens pretences of zeal for religion, Jam. iii. 13. "Who is a wife man, and en"dued with knowledge amongst you? Let him "shew out of a good conversation his works with " meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter zeal " and strife in your hearts; glory not, and lie not "against the truth. This wisdom defcendeth not " from above; but is earthly, fenfual, devilish. For "where zeal and strife is; there is confufion, " and every evil work. But the wisdom which is

:

Dd 3

" from

:

" from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, " and easy to be entreated; full of mercy and good "fruits; without partiality, and without hypocrify: " and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of " them that make peace."

Preached

on No

vember 5.

1686.

SERM.
LXXXIII.

SERMON LXXXIII.

4

The best men liable to the worst treat

ment, from mistaken zealots.

JOHN XVI. 2.

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God fervice.

T

HESE words were spoken by our bleffed SAVIOUR, when he was about to leave the world; at the thoughts whereof, finding his disciples to be exceedingly troubled, he comforts them by the confideration of the great benefit and advantage which from thence would accrue to them; he tells them that he was going to heaven to intercede for them, and to make way for their admission there; and withal promiseth, that his Father would send the Holy Ghost, who should abundantly supply the want of his prefence with them: but he tells them at the same time, that they should meet with very ill entertainment and usage from the world: but so had he, chap xv. 18. "If the world hate you, ye know " that

LXXXIII.

" that it hated me, before it hated you; " and whySERM. should they expect to be better treated than he was? ver. 20. "Remember the word that I faid unto you, " the servant is not greater than the LORD; if they " have perfecuted me, they will also perfecute you."

And at the beginning of this chapter he tells them, that he did on purpose forewarn them of these things, to prepare their minds beforehand, and to arm them against the worst that might happen, ver. 1. "Thefe " things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not " be offended." And then he declares more particularly, how far the rage and malice of men should proceed against them, and in what kind they should fuffer: " they shall put you out of the synagogues;

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yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you " will think that he doth God service."

So that our SAVIOUR here foretels two forts of persecution, which his disciples should be exercised withal excommunication; "they shall put you out " of their synagogues:" and excifion; "yea the " time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will " think that he doth God service." And these perhaps were but several kinds and degrees of excommunication; for the clearer understanding whereof it will be requifite, briefly to explain the three degrees of excommunication among the Jews.

The first called Niddui, is that which our SAVIour here means, by "putting out of the fyna

gogue;" and which he elsewhere expresseth by ἀφόρισμος, or feparation. Luke vi. 22. "Bleffed " are ye when men shall hate you, and when they "shall separate you from their Company." And the effect of this excommunication was to exclude men from the communion of the church and people of God, and from his service, which was a great difgrace;

Dd 4

SERM. disgrace; because after this sentence, none of the Jews were to converse with them, but to look upon them as heathens and publicans.

LXXXIII,

The second degree of this censure was called Cherem; which included the first, but extended farther, to the confiscation of goods into the sacred treasury, and devoting them to God; after which there was no redemption of them. And of this we find express mention, Ezra x. 7, 8. where it is said, "that

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they made proclamation throughout Judah, and " Jerufalem, unto all the children of the captivity, " that they should gather themselves together unto "Jerufalem; and that whosoever would not come " within three days, according to the counsels of "the princes and elders, all his substance should be "dovoted, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away."

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The third degree was Shammatha when the rebellious and contumacious perfon was anathematized and devoted, and, as some conceive, according to the law (Lev. xxvii. 29.) was to be put to death; though other very knowing men in the Jewish learn ing think it amounted to no more than a final fentence, whereby they were left to the judgment of GOD, by fome remarkable judgment of his to be cut off from the congregation of Ifrael.

Of the first and last of these degrees of excommunication, our SAVIOUR seems here to speak; but whether in both instances in the text, he alludes in the one to the lowest, and in the other to the highest degree of excommunication among the Jews, is not so certain. To the first he plainly does, when he says, "they shall put you out of the synagogues : and then he adds, that they should proceed much higher against them, even to put them to death;

"the