though wounded, are not dead; though forely beaten, they keep the field. Hoftilities may cease; but they will be renewed. It is your duty, therefore, to watch, and to put on the whole armour of God. You have the greatest encouragement to ftand your ground. You will prove fuccessful, through the ftrength of your Leader. Jefus Christ will make you more than conquerors.

Exert all your talents, and use all your influence, to promote the declarative glory of God, and the falvation of men. Discountenance, and as far as in your power, prevent idleness of every kind, excess and profanity, fo difpleafing to God, and deftructive to free and popular governments. We have been brave, and, if virtuous, we will be a happy people.

I conclude this difcourfe with addreffing, once more, those of my audience, who may be fenfible that they have no peace with God. It were eafy to multiply arguments why you should return to God; but none will prevail unless He make them effectual. I have endeavoured to deal plainly and faithfully with you, as knowing that I must give an account. It would be improper to preach my foul away in a smooth and moral harangue. Your own good sense would condemn me for it now, and rise up in judgment against me in the day of the Lord. Have you formed any refolutions, that you will try to be religious? Begin and perfevere. You have the greatest encouragement. Let neither the number, nor the aggravation of your crimes, deter you from an application to the Saviour. On the contrary, if fin be your choice, there is no encouragement. How do you know that God will not leave you to yourselves, to fill up the measure of your iniquity? How do you know that he will not speedily require your fouls? Let not a moment then pass without refolving to ferve God. Why halt

you

you between two opinions? Reason and confcience fay, that you ought to be religious. Follow their wife and fovereign dictate. What pretences does fin bring? She puts on a fpecious appearance to deceive and ruin. Hearken not to her fong, for fhe would entice you to your own deftruction. In the end, she will bite like a serpent, and fting like an adder. She rewards all her votaries with unutterable wo and pain. But religion holds out to you every thing good and great. She will perfect and make happy your nature. Through Jefus Chrift you may obtain peace with God, and with your own consciences; peace in death, and throughout eternity. Why will you not, this day, accept and fign the peace through this Mediator? This would give you a true relish for all the gifts of Providence. Then might you fit every man under bis vine, and under his fig-tree, and none make you afraid. May God teach us all our true intereft; long continue our national peace; and above all, give us peace with himself, and make us happy, when thrones shall be caft down; through Jefus Chrift, to whom, with the Father, and the bleffed Spirit, one God, be glory now and forever more.

SER

SERMON XIV.

THE NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD.

BY

JOHN RODGERS, D. D.

One of the Minifters of the United Presbyterian
Churches in New-York.

T

PROV. xxiii. 17.

Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

HERE is fcarce any thing that has a more imme

diate influence upon our duty or our comfort, than the due government of the paffions. When they are properly directed, they serve as powerful springs of right action; but unguided by reafon and revelation, they are the fruitful fources of vice, guilt, and ruin.

Hence the wife and virtuous, in all ages, have employ ed themselves in forming rules for their regulation. But it has been found more eafy to prescribe, than to reduce thefe rules to practice.

Herein

Herein then, the religion of Jefus has the advantage over every other fyftem of morality, in that it not only prescribes the most just and proper rules for this end, but provides the affiftance that is requifite to enable us to comply with them.

This is the special business of the Spirit of grace, in the economy of man's falvation; and directed and affifted by him, we are enabled to be, and walk in the fear of the Lord all the day long, agreeably to the precept in our

text.

To enable you to understand and improve this important precept, in a proper manner, I fhall endeavour, by the aids of this Spirit,

I. To fhew you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

II. Enquire why we should study thus to be in the fear of the Lord.

I. I am briefly to shew you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

Fear is a paffion of the human mind, and ftands oppofed to hope. It is that paffion by which the author of nature guards us against danger; and in this view, when properly directed, is of fingular use in the conduct of life. It always has for its object fome evil, real or fuppofed; and in the words of our text, with many other places in facred fcripture, its immediate object is the evil and danger of finning against God; and the juft difpleasure of God, in confequence of offending him. To fear thefe, is to fear the Lord in the best sense of the phrafe. This is the fense in which the churches are faid to walk in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghoft.

And

And in the fame fenfe, the fear of the Lord, is fuid to be the beginning of wisdom.

But, to give you a fuller view of this grace, I beg your attention while I briefly obferve,

1. That it implies a bumble reverence for God.-A fenfe of his being, perfections and character; that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently feek bim. That he is a God of purer eyes than to behold evil. There is no view of God that contributes more to form the human heart to a true fear of him, and a devout reverence for him, than a believing view of the holiness of his nature. This is the cafe of the angels themselves, as we learn from Ifaiah vi. 1.-3. I faw alfo, the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it flood the feraphims; each one bad fix wings; with twain be covered his face, and with twain be covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and faid, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of bofts; the whole earth is full of his glory!

There cannot be a more lively description of reverence and godly fear, than that given us in the conduct of the seraphim, verse 2. You will please to obferve, each one of these adoring fpirits had fix wings. With twain they covered their faces-struck with the Majefty of God, and unable to behold his glory; and with twain they covered their feet-as unworthy to ftand in his facred prefence, though immaculate, and the higheft order of rational creatures known to us; and with twain they did fly— importing the alacrity, cheerfulness and expedition with which they execute the Divine commands. And the fource of this reverence, humility and obedience, we have, verfe 3. It was the view they had of the holiness of the Divine nature. For one cried unto another, and faid, Holy,

boly,