SERMON XIII.

PSALM CXXX. 4.

For there is mercy with thee, therefore shalt thou be feared.

FROM the consideration of the nature, the conditions, and the extent, of the divine mercy, enough having been said, I trust, to satisfy the most timorous and distrustful mind, of the truth of the proposition, that "there is mercy with thee," I now proceed to examine the inference, "therefore shalt thou be feared."

It may at first sight appear somewhat unaccountable, that the richest treasures of the Lord should be the object of alarm; that the exercise of that first, that most holy attribute of the Almighty, should create apprehension and dismay; that the Majesty of heaven, even in its dispensations of mercy, should be arrayed in the terrors of vengeance. As love is the cause, so should it be the effect of mercy; to the assurance of pardon we flee with gratitude and joy, to the

threatenings of punishment we bow with submission and dread. Where then can be the connection between mercy and fear, and wherefore shall the blessing of the one, be alloyed by the curse and distractions of the other?

Strange, however, as the inference at first may appear, on a careful examination of the quality of that fear, the difficulty will vanish; and when we consider it in reference to the nature, the conditions, and the extent of the divine mercy, we shall readily admit the justice of the reasoning, and acquiesce in the deduction of the Psalmist, "there is mercy with thee, therefore shalt thou be feared.":

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The fear of God is not as the fear of man. our connection with the world, in its joys and sorrows, in the triumphs of success, and the vexations of disappointment, every fresh object is the cause of fresh alarm; our fears are the slaves of circumstances, and are varied with every changing scene, in which we are doomed to sustain a part. The fear of God is a steady and a permanent principle of action. In the dark and troubled ocean of human events, it directs its view to that Almighty power, at "whose command the stormy wind ariseth," who speaketh the word, and "the waves thereof are still."

The fear of man has for its object a being subjected to the dominion of lust, weakened by

the conflict of contending passions, at one mo ment proud, positive, unrelenting; at another, the creature of wavering, capricious irresolution; himself, the constant victim of that very terror, which he strikes into those around him. The fear of man is the service of a slave, a slave under the empire of sin, and the powers of darkness. The fear of God is the call of liberty, the voluntary sacrifice of a free agent, before the throne of perfect freedom, before that great Being," who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" constant alike in its object, and its application, it bows to no other Lord, but the God of heaven and of earth; it knows no other law, but that of his eternal, immutable will; it follows no other path, but that which he has pointed out. It listens to the promises, it hears the threatenings of its eternal Lord. Assured at once of the fulfilment of his mercies, and the infliction of his vengeance, it reposes itself on the justice of infinite perfection. The fear of God is the devotion of a free creature to the will of an omnipotent Creator; the rational submission of man to the power, the promises, and the commands of that eternal Being, "who was, and is, and is to come." It is founded on the contemplation of his majesty, whose brightness cannot be extinguished; it relies on the perfections of his attributes; it is dependant on a re

velation of that will, which in time and in eternity rests unchanged. As it is the result of reason, so is it the parent, and the beginning of wisdom.

Far other is that terror and dismay, which possesses those who lie under the tortures of a guilty conscience, that terror which is the forerunner of despair, and is deeply tinctured with all the malignity of that dreadful passion. Its motive is not the forgiveness, but the wrath of God; its effect is not duty, but desperation; not obedience, but aversion; not adherence to God, bnt a departure from him.

The fear of God, is not that slavish and servile feeling which is termed by the apostle" the spirit of bondage," and in respect of which it is declared by St. John, that "he who fears is not perfect, but that perfect love casteth out fear;" now, on the contrary, where this slavish fear is predominant, it expels and casts out love, so direct a contrariety is there between these two affections, that the increase of the one, is founded. on the decrease and absence of the other. fear of God, is attended with neither horror nor dismay, unless guilt and a wounded conscience arm it with unnatural terrors. They arise from a false notion of God, from an envious and insufficient apprehension of his high attributes. Till we have a right, a reasonable, and a scriptural

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notion of God, we fly from we know not what; we seek refuge we know not where; we are the perpetual prey of that ignorant and superstitious terror, which distracts the unsettled and unthinking mind. From this sad state of mental depravation, it is in vain to seek for satisfaction till we know God, till we can say to our hearts, "we know him in whom we have trusted." This is that holy and reverential fear, unalloyed with terror and confusion; this is that freedom of mind, to which infidelity and superstition, are equal strangers. The infidel may boast his se curity from anxious and degrading terrors, he live on in the confidence of idle presumption, and the hardihood of contemptuous ignorance; but blind security is no wiser, nor safer, a harbour for the human mind, than blind apprehension. Doubt and uncertainty, must be the sum and substance of infidelity: and where there is doubt, there must be alarm. His reason tells him, there may be, his conscience tells him, there must be, a day of retribution and judgment. Deism itself must suggest the awful apprehension, that, "if thou, O Lord, shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who shall abide it?" From this state of terror and uncertainty, which no sophistry can evade, no human strength diminish; it is Revelation alone that can release the captive mind, and proclaim in the words of the