476 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeII. CLVL
2. It needs to be pure, too ; such a fervent affection had need be right, for since it makes men so active and rcsohite, certainly it should go upon clear grounds. I showed before nothing hath done more mis- chief in the world than wild zeal; it is like lire out of its place, that sets all the house in a flame ; it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it, but it destroys and consumes all. But why must we have pure zeal ?
[1.] Because there is a false zeal, and a self-seeking zeal, which men have while they pretend much love to God and good of souls, but are really hunting after their own interest : Gal. iv. 17, ' They zealously affect you, but not well ; yea, they would exclude you that ye might affect them ;' that is, they sought to rend their affections from Paul, and from their faithful pastors, that they might affect them ; so he tells us, Phil. i. 15, ' Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife.' There may be a zeal that comes merely out of envy and strife ; Jehu could say, ' Come, see my zeal for the Lord,' 2 Kings x. 16.
[2.] This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief. It is a dishonour to God to pretend to him, and to put the varnish of our cause upon God. God himself is involved in the deceit, Jer. iv. 10. It is a strange expression to be used to God, ' Ah ! Lord God, surely thou hast greatly deceived this people.' The false prophets did it in his name. And it divides the church as well as dishonours God : Gal. iv, 17, ' They would exclude you, that ye might affect them.' The meaning is, they would rend you from the body of the Christian church, and alienate the minds of God's people, so as to devote them to a faction : Phil. i. 16, ' They preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds.' And it hardens the persons themselves, as Jehu boasted of his zeal, and it was only self-seeking, and the Lord counts it murder, Hosea i. 4.
Use. Have we this pure zeal, such a zeal as David speaks of ? There are many notes by which it may be discerned ; as —
1. When injuries done to God or religion affect us more than injuries done personally to ourselves ; when we carry ourselves in an indifferency in our own cause, but not in God's. Compare Num. xii. 13, with Exod. xxxii. 19. Moses could with a meek spirit bear all the injuries done to himself, but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God, but breaks the tables.
2. When the same enemies are God's enemies and ours. David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his enemies, but that which most troubled him was because they were God's enemies and forsook his words. David was not so much troubled at Absalom's rebellion, as dying in his sins.
3. When there is a compassion mingled with our zeal Fleshly anger is all for destruction ; holy anger is for conversion, when they grieve, and seek to redress the matter.
4. True zeal is universal ; it is most against their own sins, and the sins of those that are nearest, and runs out upon weighty things. But those that tithe mint and cummin, and neglect weighty things, they have not true zeal. There are many instances of this false dispro- portionate zeal of a conscience, taken up for a turn. When there is a partial conscience— in some things men are mighty scrupulous, and strain at a gnat and swallow a camel — it discovers the hypocrisy that
VeK. 140.] SERMONS UPON I'SALM CXIX. 477
lights upon the professors of religion, full of heinous outcries upon small things, yet dashing upon things that are against the fundamentals of the covenant.
SERMON CLVII.
Thy luord is very pure : therefore thy servant loveih it. — Ver. 140.
There are three things in this verse : —
1. The excellency of the word, thy ivord is very pure.
2. David's respect to it, thy servant loveth it.
3. The connection between Loth, in the illative particle, therefore.
1. The excellency of the word, * Thy word is very pure.' That which we render ' very pure,' signifieth tried in the fire and refined ; the Septuagint reads it, TreTrupto/jbivov Xoyiov aov acpoSpa, thy word is set on fire ; and so you may see it explained, Ps. xii. G, ' The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times/ The expression may import two things — (1.) The infallible certainty of the word ; (2.) The exact purity.
[1.] The infallible certainty of the word, as gold enduretli in the fire when the dross is consumed. Vain conceits comfort us not in a time of trouble, but the word of God, the more it is tried, the more you will find the excellency of it. The promise is tried, as well as we are tried, in deep afilictions ; but wdien it is so, it will be found to be most sure. In the old translation it is, Thy word is proved most pure : Ps. xviii. 30, ' The word of the Lord is tried ; he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.' So Pro v. xxx. 5, ' The word of the Lord is pure ; he is a shield to all that trust in him.' As pure gold suffers no loss by the fire, so the promises suffer no loss when they are tried, but stand to us in our greatest troubles.