MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 421. In such instances as these, there is an easy way to find whe- ther our zeal be more selfish or divine. Let me ask my own heart, " Should I have been so angry with this youth, if he had neglected another friend's pious advice in the same case wherein he has neglected mine ?"¡and yet the sin against God would have been the sane. Again, " Should I have grown so warm against Calumnio for reproaching my fellow - christian on account of his devotions, as I am for reproaching me ?" and yet his offence against the gospel had been the same still. Thus by putting self out of the case, we guard against the deceit of self-love, and pass a juster sentence on our own actions. Now if upon due search we find that our wrath is awakened rather because an action offends us, than because it offends God, this is a work of the flesh, and must be mortified ; our passions should all be pure. Our blessed Lord Jesus bore a load of per- sonal reproaches falling heavy upon himself, and opened not his mouth ; but when the Jewish buyers and sellers profaned his Father's house of prayer, then indeed he assumed an extraordi- nary character, and gave an instance of severe zeal by scourging them out of the temple ; John ii. 17. Secondly, Take care of giving up the reins entirely to any passion, though it pretend sin for its object, lest it run to au un- governable excess. It is St. Paul's counsel, " Be angry and sin not ;" Eph. iv. 26. so hard it is to be angry upon any account without sinning. It was a happy comparison, whosoever first invented it, that the passions of our Saviour were like pure water in a clear glass : shake it never so much, and it is pure still; there was no defilement in his holy soul by the warmest agitation of all those powers of his animal nature; but ours are like water with mud at the bottom, and we can scarce shake the glass with the gentlest motion, but the mud arises, and diffuses itself abroad, polluting both the water and the vessel. Our irascible passions can scarce be indulged a moment, but they are ready to defile the whole man. We may find whether our anger arise to a sinful excess or no, by such enquiries as these : Does it fire my blood into rage, and kindle my spirits into a sudden blaze, like a train of gunpowder? Then it looks too much like a work of the flesh, and may create a just suspicion of the pious purity of it ; for this has not the appearance of a christian virtue. Our holy religion is a more reasonable, a more gentle thing, and never teaches us to act with a thoughtless vio- lence, though it sometimes calls the active powers of flesh and blood in to the assistance of sincere zeal. Does it transport us away to the practice of any thing unbe- coming our character ? Does it arm our tongues with vile and scandalous names, or our hands with hasty weapons of outrage
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