nature of that happiness which is prepared for the children of God in the life to come. It is purely fpiritual, as it is perfectly holy: it confifts in the knowledge of God, in the exercife of love to him, in conformity to his nature, and the execution of his will. Those who are under the dominion of fear, who have no love to God, but only defire to avoid his wrath, will certainly find, that, though it were poffible for them to escape hell, they neither deserve, nor are able to relifh, the employment and happiness of heaven. As the commands of God are a burden to them on earth, his immediate prefence would be a ftill more infupportable burden in heaven.-From all this I hope it appears evidently, that a character may be formed upon religious principles, and yet, if it is never carried further than a restraint by fear, it is not that change which is necessary to salvation.

It will not be improper, or rather it will be abfolutely neceffary, to make a reflection or two upon this branch of the fubject for its improvement, and to prevent its being mistaken or misapplied. For this purpose let it be obferved, That we must carefully distinguish the flavish dread above explained, from that dutiful reverential fear which every, child of God is still bound to preserve upon his mind of his Father who is in heaven. Of the firft kind it is faid, "There is

" no

"no fear in love, but perfect love cafteth out "fear, because fear hath torment: he that fear"eth 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 greatnefs and glory of God, and particularly of his holiness and purity, which should bring every creature proftrate before him. We find in the vifion of Ifaiah, the heavenly hofts reprefented as deeply penetrated with fuch a difcovery: "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 ftood 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 † Isaiah vi. 1, 2, 3.`

* 1 John iv, 18,

unregenerate,

unregenerate, is founded only on the terror of his power, as a natural attribute. It is like the ftruggling 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 christian may, and ought, to grow in a sense of the divine prefence, and reverential dread of the divine majefty, and fo be ftill more afraid of finning; at the fame time he may also grow in a fweet calm and compofure of mind, a fiducial trust and reliance on the divine faithfulness and mercy juft as, on the other hand, fome finners evidently increase both in prefumption and timidity. During a great part of their lives they act without reflection and without reftraint, and yet, at particular feasons, they are in a manner diftracted with terror: nay, though it often happens that grofs wickedness fears the confcience, and produces an infenfibility and hardness of heart, there are inftances of the greateft profligates being liable to the moft alarming fears *. Let us

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

never,

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 stern 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 spirit 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 ftrong remainder of fin and corruption in them of different kinds, and, among the reft, a very blameable degree of unbelief and diftruft. How many are there whose comfort is leffened, and whofe hands hang down, through an exceffive fear of death, the last enemy? What a refreshment should 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-timesubject unto bondage *.' For their fakes, I am perfuaded, it will not be difagreeable that, in the close of this fection, I lay down a few marks, by which they may be enabled to judge whether this flavish fear predominates or not.

* Heb, ii. 15.

18

ift then, Chriftian, whether or not is your fear of wrath immediately connected with a fenfe of the evil of fin? Do you see these two things in their infeparable relation to, and mutual influence fear wrath as the upon, one another? Do you effect of fin, and fin as the just cause of wrath? Have you no fault to find with this connection? Do you plead guilty before God, and confess that you are without excuse? Is fin truly hateful in itself, 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

66

juft, 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 com"mandment might become exceeding finful. "For we know that the law is fpiritual, but I

am carnal, fold under fin *." In those who are under the dominion of fear, there is no juft fenfe of the evil of fin, there is a proneness to extenuate it, an 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, so just, and so powerful. With them his govern ment is arbitrary, his law is fevere, his nature Rom. vii, 12, 13, 14.

implacable;