Sunday, December 5, 1830.

SERMON XLVI.

THE MERCY OF GOD TO THOSE WHO FEAR

HIM.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. PSALM CIII. 17.

"LIKE as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more."1 What a contrast have we here, "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, upon them that fear him." He who knows the value of eternal life, has his refuge only in God. "To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them."2

1 Psalm ciii. 13-16.

2 Ibid verse 18.

We have here the character of God's family. Here let us admire the tenderness of God: you who are parents, may feel anxiety for the welfare of the souls of your children. You ask, Will these little ones be heirs of glory? Here is a cordial for you presented by the hand of God, and mixed with the sweetest ingredients of heaven," and his righteousness unto children's children." Give them proper instruction; for the blessings promised are connected with the use of means; pray for them, and let them see in you a good example. Parents, masters and mistresses of families, be living Bibles in your families, which all will be obliged to read; even the devil himself will be compelled to read them, and they will shew him he is shamefully defeated. The Bible, stereotyped in the human heart by the Spirit of God, is God's own edition of the Bible, and is destined to live for ever.

1. I SHALL CONSIDER THE FEAR OF GODWhat is it? Words cannot define it; we must know what it is, in possessing it, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. We must know it, in learning what is the evil and desert of sin, and with that the sweets of mercy. The fear of God is one of the greatest ornaments the creature can possess. We sometimes are led to envy the learning and the knowledge of others

in temporal things; but this is what we should most desire,—the fear of the living God. This fear is not the offspring of terror, but the child of love; not the fear of punishment, but of the principle of sin. The fear of one who is in a state of enmity with God, has punishment for its object; those who are now in hell, dread not the evil, but the penal consequences of sin. The fear of one who is reconciled to God, as a believer, dreads the evil, not the punishment of sin. The man of delicate integrity dreads the taint, the imputation of dishonesty; the thief, the fear of punishment. The honest man deprecates the principle of dishonesty, not the punishment. This hatred of the evil of sin, is the only satisfactory proof that we fear God. What is the most satisafctory proof to myself that I fear God? Is it the idea of sinning against God, that I dread? or is it hell? No, I have no fear of hell; it is the principle of evil that I dread. The fear of God, in scripture, involves every thing that is due from us to God, and every thing that is due from us to each other. "There is mercy with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Friends sometimes love each other as themselves; and where this is the case, how do they deprecate the idea of doing or saying anything that may give the other pain. This was the fear which inhabited

the bosom of our Saviour here on earth, in all his obedience. I do not speak of the fear he had in the garden; that was natural fear, the fear of pain. No being fears God, as Messiah does now in glory; and we must possess here corresponding principles. Men dream of going to heaven in their sins; God must be changed, or they must; or there will be no heaven for them. The food and element of this fear is mercy. Does it involve the perfection of obedience here? No; for no one loves and obeys here as he ought: we shall deprecate the principle of sin, more in heaven than any where else.

II. To consider THE MERCY OF GOD. If asked to define it, I should say, in the first place, it is the love of God in the highest degree; and, secondly, in its sublimest and most glorious exercise. Love is free, and only free, in God; "we love him because he first loved us." He is the only being who has all the sources of love in himself. With us this love is in the object; the source, if I may so express myself, is foreign. With God, the source of love is in himself. No created being could have existed, had not love existed. The most exalted intelligences could have possessed nothing to present him with, before they had

any existence. They were not only called into existence, but preserved by his free love. The creature, when left to himself, presents the most awful contrast; gratuitous hatred, and that exclusively, inhabits his bosom. Gratuitous love is to be found in God only. Gratuitous hatred in the creature exclusively; and in these truths we should view the doctrines of election and predestination, and then, many difficulties vanish. When we view God in all his glory, we view his mercy. We see love freely embracing the sinner, in the midst of his pollution; nothing less than this could reach "Who remembered us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever." 1 have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness, have I drawn thee." 2 The love that embraces the sinner, in the midst of all his iniquity, is nothing less than that love which embraces God in all his glory. I repeat this important truth again; What love visited us when we were living in sin? The love that embraces me, embraces Deity itself; it is, and must be so. This love of God calls into existence, and perfects for ever, the fear of which I have been speaking. The gift of the Son of God, as a sacrifice, proves this great

our case;

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1 Psalm cxxxvi. 23.

2 Jeremiah xxxi. 3