of your high calling," till you have actually finished your course, and obtained the crown which is to be awarded to you''.]
In CONCLUSION, let me say to every individual amongst you—
1. Have a zeal for God —
[God is not to be served vdth lukewarmness' He
requires the heart, the whole heart™: and surely he is worthy of it; and his service well deserves it. See what zeal men display in the pursuits of this world ; the student, for know- ledge ; the merchant, for his gains ; the soldier, for honour : and will you be behind any one of them ? Does our blessed Lord and Saviour deserve less at your hands, than this vain and perishing world can do ? The burnt-offerings, you know, were wholly consumed upon God's altar : they were wholly God's ; and the priests had no part in them. Such offerings are ye to be : and to be devoted thus exclusively to God is " your reasonable service"." Give yourselves up, then, entirely to God ; and " whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might°."]
2. Let "your zeal be according to knowledge" —
[Ignorant zeal will only deceive and ruin you, as it did the Pharisees of old p. There is a great deal of zeal in the world : else whence come the penances and pilgrimages of the Papists ? and whence the accursed cruelties of the Inquisition ? Who knows not the persecutions that Christianity has sus- tained from heathens ; or the miseries that Popery, under the name of Christianity, has inflicted on those who would not yield to its abominations? In all these things, the agents " have imagined that they did to God an acceptable service i." Nor can I deny that even good men have sometimes been betrayed into a very erroneous line of conduct, from a mistaken notion, that they were serving God, whilst anathematizing those who differed from them in some matters of subordinate importance. But be not satisfied, brethren, even though Je- honadab himself be embarked in the same cause with you. It is not by man's judgment or example that you are to stand or fall, but by the judgment of your God, according to his written word. Endeavour, then, to have your mind and spirit regu- lated by the only standard of right and wrong. And especially be on your guard against a fiery zeal. " The zeal of our
k Phil. iii. 13, 14. 1 Rev. iii. 15, 16.
™ Prov. xxiii. 26. Hos. x. 2. " Rom. xii. 1. » Eccl. ix. 10.
P Rom. x. 2, 3. q John xvi. 2.