si« rIoik 'I1l ¢yI and in the way to his favour and eternal life ; and yet we have our Saviour's own word for it ; John xvi. 2. Whosoever killeth you, will think he loth God service, that is, lie sincerely thinks so. I grant Christ foretels this eminently concerning the Jews:' The unbelieving Jews persecuted the christians even to death, in the sincerity of their zeal for God, and dyed their hands in the blood of christians; in order to render themselves.more ac- ceptable to the God of Israel. St. Paul himself tells you, that he was one of them. Acts xxvi. 9, 10. I verily thought with my- self, that I ought to do many thingscontrary to the nameof Jesus of Nazareth. Many of the saints did I shut up in prison, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I perse- cuted them even to strange cities." And Gal. i. 1a, 14. "Being exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers, I did perse- cute the church of God beyond measure and wasted it. Phil. 6. It' I may speak of my zeal, I have sufficient proof of that, being a persecutor of the church. Was Paul in the way to ob- traiudivine favour by such cruel and inhuman methods as these ? Could such guilty practices against his fellow-creatures render him a worthy'object of the divine love, or obtain foe_ him eternal life, because he was sincere in them ? It leas been sometimes observed, that persons under the unhappy influence of these evil principles of religion, have grown up to be most fierce and barbarousmurderers, in proportion to their sincerity and zeal : But surely they are not accepted with God inproportion to these bloody practices. That sincere zeal in a false religion 'will not obtain justifica.. tion in the sight of Gool is sufficiently declared by the apostle Paul, to all that believe the scriptures : For he pronounces con- cerninghimself, that he was the chiefof sinners upon this account, viz. his zealous persecuting the christians; 1 Tim. i. 13, 15. And that lie didbut just obtain pardoningmercy because 'he.did it ignorantly ; but he does not pretend to the least claimof merit on the accountof his sincere zeal. Ile bears witness alsoconcerning the Jews his countrymen,' that they had a zeal for God, though it *as a blind one, andwithout knowledge ; Rom. x. 2. They followed after righteousness, that is, tò obtain justification by the works of the law, but they did not attain to the law of righte- ousness, that is, they could not find justification or acceptance with God in their way of procedure, because they souàht it not by faith ; Rom. ix. 31-33. ar in the appointedway of the gospel. IV. If sincerity in the practice of a false religion were suffi- cient to entitle us to the favour of God, yet no person eau lay claim to the favour of God on this account, sinceImayventure to say, no mail ever wets constantly sincere inpractising every twilit
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