ing, whose principle is love, attributes nothing to itself; its first impression is, to annihilate within us every high thought of ourselves; to efface all idea of the man, and to substitute God alone, in his place.

Still, how seldom is it that man is not dazzled with empty applause! " Rejoice not," said our Lord, to his disciples, because the spirits are "subject unto you, but rather rejoice, because

your names are written in heaven." It is, alas! but too true, that we applaud ourselves, when our exhortations, whether public or personal, produce any apparent good-an effect which is to be attributed entirely to God-whilst we look with indifference on the infirmities which debase, and the passions which defile, our own character; and, after having striven with unremitted assiduity, to prevail with your flocks, to make their peace with God, that their names may be written in the book of life, we ourselves may be called into another scene of existence, before we are become the objects of God's mercy. What instances, even of the most successful labour, can be compared to that which attended the ministry of the great Apostle? Cities and provinces were brought, by his unwearied exertions to the knowledge of the truth? Notwithstanding he was apprehensive that, after labouring to instruct and confirm mankind, in the faith of the Gospel, he himself might be rejected-" Lest," he says, "after having preached "to others, I, myself, should become a cast-away." To himself he arrogated nothing: but he feared,

lest the gifts of God should make him forget the weaknesses of the man.

The zeal, then, which we are describing, is persuaded, that God refuses to other men these external gifts, only, that he may enrich them more abundantly with the inward and inestimable blessings of his love, and of his grace: far from exalting us above them, by secret comparisons, it disposes us to contemplate, with complacency, their more perfect state of holiness and righteousness, whilst it considers itself as a channel often dry, after hav-ing refreshed the adjoining soil with its waters. Great talents do not necessarily imply the greatest virtues in their possessors: they render us more useful to men, but we do not always become thereby the most acceptable to God. "He who giveth "to every man severally, as he will," hath, with such infinite wisdom, dispensed his blessings, that not always those to whom he seems to have allotted the largest portion, do most abound in the graces of his spirit; on the other hand, those to whom he refuses the most shining talents, he recompences by an abundance of grace, known to himself alone, and often infinitely more deserving of admiration, than that external shew, which attracts the applause of men, and which, by these very means, leaves us, not infrequently, devoid of grace, and full of ourselves, before God.

The last character of zeal I shall mention, is, that "it thinketh no evil."

Sixthly. It is a fault, peculiar to men actuated by an intemperate zeal, to consider some sinners, who seem insensible to their instructions, negligent of their advice, and deaf to their remonstrances, as in a state of inevitable perdition; and the more solicitous they are for the salvation of those unhappy people, the less hope they entertain of promoting it. They imagine, that they see God's seal of reprobation engraven on the hearts of those infatuated men the warmth of their language confirms the temerity of their thoughts; they loudly lament over them, as men already judged; and, as though they were acquainted before hand with the counsels of Heaven, or the Lord's mercies were not more abundant, than their uncharitableness; they look upon those as lost, whom God is, it may be, about to receive into his favour, and bless with his protection. To entertain such sentiments is an outrage, committed against the power of his grace; it is to regard the atonement, made by the blood of his Son, as ineffectual; it is to make the time of this life, which is the period of repentance and mercy, a season of his wrath and vengeance. The children of the kingdom may be cast out; and God may, of very stones,of hearts, the most hard and insensible,―raise up children unto Abraham. The conversion of Satan alone, and of his angels, are the only things we are forbidden to hope for; but as to our brethren, who live still among us, and for whom Christ died, however sinful, and however wicked-the blood of the true Abel may cry for them towards heaven,

and supplicate, not their punishment, but their salvation and their deliverance.

And you, who judge your brother before God has passed sentence upon him, how know you, whether, strong as you may appear in the power of the Lord, you may not fall upon your own stedfastness, never to rise again; and whether your brother, whom you consider as fallen, everlastingly, from the favour of God, may not rise, to fall no more? Who hath revealed to you the unfathomable depths of the mercy and justice of God, towards men!" Judge nothing," says the Apostle, "before the time :"-May we all work out our own salvation, with fear, and labour to promote that of others, with diligence!

Let us never forget, my Brethren, that the zeal of charity, "like charity itself, suffereth long, and "is kind; that it envieth not; that it vaunteth "not itself; is not puffed up; is not easily pro"voked; thinketh no evil." Let us banish all odious characters from our zeal; let us humble our own spirit; and may the spirit of God, alone, work and act in us! Zeal hath vanquished the world, in the mouths of the first Preachers of the Gospel; it will again in ours, if the Spirit of God inspire us with what we shall think, and what we shall speak. The world shewed a greater repugnance to the truth, when first proclaimed by the Gospel the severity of laws, the rage of superstition, the wisdom of philosophy, all, with

their united force, opposed to it, and all acknowledged its irresistible power; and it would, again, be honoured with the same triumphs, were it entrusted with the same Ministers. Let us enter into the spirit of our holy predecessors, and we shall enter into the success of their labours: let us imitate the same zeal, and we shall gather the same fruit from it: the world is not more vicious; -No! the ministers of the Gospel are less holy, and less diligent. Let us render ourselves worthy of being the preachers of the truth, and we shall once more be enabled to deliver the world, by the power of its evidence, and the efficacy of its per

suasion.