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"eth out fear, becaufe fear hath torment: he that feareth "is not made perfect in love."* In proportion as the love of God prevails, the firft fort of fear is banished, but the other is fo far from being banished, that it rather increafes. This is no other than a profound veneration of the unspeakable greatness and glory of God, and particularly of his holiness and purity, which fhould bring every creature proftrate before him. We find in the vifion of Ifaiah, the heavenly hafts reprefented as deeply penetrated with fuch a discovery: "In the year that king Uzziah "died, I faw the Lord fitting upon a throne high and lifted "up, and his train filled the temple: above it flood the "feraphims; each one had fix wings; with twain he "covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and "with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and "faid, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, is the Lord of hofts, the whole "earth is full of his glory."+

This not only may, but ought, in us to be accompanied with a fear of the punishment incurred by fin; at the fame time it must be infeparably connected with, or rather founded upon a sense of the holiness of his nature, the purity of his law, and the juftice of his vengeance. On the contrary, that fear of God which prevails in the unregenerate, is founded only on the terror of his power, as a natural attribute. It is like the struggling of a chained flave, who" gnaws his tongue for pain," who is not fatisfied with the equity of the law, which he has tranfgreffed, and cannot admit the juftice of that fentence, the execution of which he apprehends.

There is no inconfiftency at all between the fear and love which terminate on the correfpondent attributes of God, majefty and mercy. A chriflian may, and ought, to grow in a fenfe of the divine prefence, and reverential dread of the divine majefty, and fo be still more afraid of finning; at the fame time, he may alfo grow in a sweet calm and compofure of mind, a fiducial truft and reliance on the divine faithfulness and mercy; juft as, on the other hand, fome finners evidently increase both in pre

* 1 John iv. 18. + Ifaiah vi. 1, 2, 3.

fumption and timidity. During a great part of their lives they act without reflection and without reftraint, and yet, at particular feafons, they are in a manner diftracted with terror: nay, though it often happens that grofs wicked. nefs fears the confcience, and produces an infenfibility and hardness of heart, there are inftances of the greatest profligates being liable to the moft alarming fears.* Let us never, therefore, confound things fo very oppofite as a fear of the living God, joined to an inward and hearty approbation of his commands, and that unwilling obedience or abftinence which views him as a ftern tyrant, and trembles at the thoughts of his wrath.

It will be farther necessary to observe, that, as a flavish fear is to be entirely diftinguished from that which is filial and dutiful, fo no doubt there is often, even in real chriftians, a mixture of the fpirit of bondage itself, though they are fupremely, governed by a better principle. This is not to be wondered at, fince they are fanctified but in part. There is a strong remainder of fin and corruption in them of different kinds, and, among the rest, a very blameable degree of unbelief and diftruft. How many are there whole comfort is leffened, and whofe hands hang down, through an exceffive fear of death, the laft enemy What a refreshment fhould it be to all fuch, to think of this end of our Saviour's coming, to" deliver them who, "through fear of death, were all their life-time subject "unto bondage?" For their fakes, I am perfuaded, it will not be difagreeable that in the clofe of this fection, I lay down a few marks, by which they may be enabled to judge whether this flavish fear predominates or not.

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ift then, Christians, whether or not is your fear of wrath immediately connected with a fenfe of the evil of fin? Do you fee thefe two things in their infeparable relation to, and mutual influence upon one another? Do you fear

* We are told that Nero, one of those monsters called Roman emperors, though he adventured to perpetrate fome of the most horrid crimes, was yet fo eafily terrified, that a thunderftorm used to make him hide himfelf under a bed.

↑ Heb. ii. 15.

wrath as the effect of fin, and fin as the juft caufe of wrath? Have you no fault to find with this connection? Do you plead guilty before God, and confefs that you are without excufe? Is fin truly hateful in itfelf, and your own unhappy proneness to it an habitual burden? The language of a believer is the fame with that of the apoftle Paul: "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, “and just, and good. Was then that which is good made "death unto me? God forbid. But fin, that it might "appear fin, working death in me by that which is good, "that fin by the commandment might become exceeding finful. For we know that the law is fpiritual, but I am "carnal, fold under fin."* In thofe who are under the dominion of fear, there is no juft sense of the evil of fin, there is a pronenefs to extenuate it, and inclination to justify it, and a continual attempt to forget or conceal it. The crime is ftill fweet, though the punishment is terrible. They are not fatisfied to find that God is fo holy, fo juft, and fo powerful. With them his government is arbitrary, his law is fevere, his nature implacable; and, instead of changing their own difpofition, they would much rather wifh a change in his will.

2. Whether does your fear of God drive you from his prefence, or excite a ftrong defire of reconciliation and peace? The flavifh fear which is not attended with any juft views of the divine mercy, clothes God with terror, and makes him the object of averfion. This is plainly the first effect of fin. It was fo in the cafe of Adam, who, as foon as he had loft his integrity, when he heard God's voice in the garden, fled and hid himfelf. We find the fame fentiment expreffed by the men of Bethfhemesh, upon an extraordinary token of divine power and jealoufy: "And the men of Bethfhemesh faid, Who is able "to ftand before this holy Lord God, and to whom fhall he "go up from us?" Nay, the fame feems to have been the view of the apoftle Peter, when furprifed with an af tonishing evidence of his master's power and Godhead. "When Simon Peter faw it, he fell down at Jefus' feet,

Rom. vii. 12, 13, 14. † 1 Sam. vi. 20.

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faying, Depart from me, for I am a finful man, O "Lord."*

This difpofition is daily manifeft in many who are under the dominion of fear. The worship of God is painful to them, his fervice is a burden, his prefence is terrible they keep at a distance, therefore, as much as they can or dare. Their peace and compofure is chiefly owing to their lofing themselves, and occupying their minds entirely with different objects. No fign will more furely discover the nature and influence of flavifh fear than this. There is a gloom and melancholy fpread over every thing in religion to them; when they are engaged in facred duties, it is a heavy tiresome task, and they rejoice in getting them over, as a bullock when he is loofed from the yoke. On the other hand, real chriftians, though burdened with finful fear, cannot take refuge in any thing elfe than God; they dare not take their reft in the creature, but say with Job, "Though he flay me, yet will I "trust in him;"t or with the Pfalmift David, "Yet the "Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, "and in the night his fong fhall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." Nothing gives relief to fuch, till they attain to a view of the divine mercy, and a humble hope of peace and reconciliation.

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3. Whether have you comfort and fatisfaction in a sense of God's favor, as well as a diftreffing fear of his wrath? This alfo will ferve to diftinguish between those who have no other religion than what fear produces, and those in whom it only maintains a conflict with a better principle. There are some who are restrained from fin, and compelled to many duties, by fear, who may easily fee what governs them, because they are altogether ftrangers to joy and fatisfaction in God. This is not, indeed, what they aim at. They have never yet feen his favor as the object of fupreme defire. They only believe fo far as to tremble, and would fain by compofition, fo to fpeak, and fome degree of compliance, though reluctant and backward, avoid the divine wrath. A coldnefs and constraint runs through Pfal. xlii. 7.

* Luke v. 8. ↑ Job xiii. 15. VOL. I. R

all their performances, and they are apt to call in queftion the reality of joy in God, and communion with him, because they are altogether strangers to it themselves. But all the real children of God defire a fenfe of his love, as well as grieve or fear under a sense of his displeasure. The light of his reconciled countenance gives them more joy and gladness than the greatest affluence of corn or of wine; and under the severest chastisement, instead of flying from his presence, they fay with Job, "O that I knew "where I might find him, that I might come even to his "feat; I would order my cause before him, and fill my "mouth with arguments."* Nothing, indeed, can be more proper than calling the one a filial, and the other a flavish fear for great is the difference between a child fearing the displeasure of a parent whom he fincerely loves, and a flave dreading the refentment of an enraged tyrant, whofe service he abhors.

SECT. IV.

From this metaphor, EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and other parallel expressions in the holy scriptures, we may learn that the change here intended is SUPERNATURAL.

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HEN I fay it is a fupernatural change, I mean that it is what man cannot by his own power effect without fuperior or divine aid. As we are by nature in a state of enmity and oppofition to God, so this is what we cannot "of ourselves" remove or overcome. The exercife of our own rational powers, the perfuafion of others, the application of all moral motives of every kind, will be ineffectual, without the fpecial operation of the Spirit and grace of God. Thus the apoftle John describes those who believe in the name of Chrift: "Which were born not of "blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, "but of God." And thus the apoftle Paul expreffes himfelf: "Not by works of righteoufnefs which we have

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