To this, then, we must carefully attend : for if, whilst pro- fessing to serve the Lord, we " sacrifice to our own net, and burn incense to our own drag''," be the service what it may, God will say, "Who hath required this at your hands^?" yea, it will be no better, in his sight, than " the cutting off a dog's neck, or the offering of swine's blood ^."]
2. When it is partial —
[In this respect, also, Jehu's zeal notoriously failed. He was sent to punish Ahab's wickedness ; and yet himself joined in the idolatry which he was ordered to abolish % and indulged in all the sins which he was commissioned to correct''. Zeal, if pure, will extend to every part of our duty : it has respect to God's will ; and therefore will operate in reference to all his commands ; to those which require self-denial, no less than to those which may administer to our personal gratification. Zeal will be in the soul what the soul is in the body : its operation
will be uniform and abiding Whether our actions be
public or private, and whether our duties be of an active or passive kind, it will stimulate us to approve ourselves to the heart-searching God : and, if it fail of this, at least in our en- deavours, it is evidently not such as has God for its author, nor such as God will ultimately approve.]
3. When it is transient —
[The stony-ground hearers manifest a great degree of zeal for a season : " they anon with joy receive the word ; but, having no root in themselves, they believe only for a while, and in time of temptation fall away *=." But it is not suflicient for any man to " riin well for a season only"^." "We must endure unto the end, if ever we would be saved ^." We are " not to look back, after having once put our hand to the plough^." " We are never to be weary in well-doing :" " never, under any circumstances, to faint." On this our future remu- neration altogether depends s. " The man who draws back, draws back unto perdition'^:" and he whose zeal will not carry him to the last extremity, even to the enduring of the most cruel death, will fail of obtaining the aj^probation of his God'. I must, therefore, guard you against ever relaxing in your zeal even for a moment. Whatever your attainments be, and whatever you may have done or suffered in the service of your God, you must " forget the things that are behind, and reach forward unto that which is before, and press on for the prize
^ Hab. i. 16. y Isai. i. 11, 12. ^ Isai. Ixvi. 3.
a ver. 29. ^ ver. 31. " Luke viii. 13.
1 Gal. V. 6. e Matt. x. 22. f Luke ix. 62.
s Gal. vi. 9. ^ Heb. x. 38, 39. * Luke xvii. 33.