13 proper and natural effect and operation of the goodness of God upon the mind of man. For,

All the expreffions of God's good will to him; all his mercies in the courfe of nature, grace and glory;

Benefits.

as they are the greateft that can be, fo they fix this for the fenfe of his foul, that God is his great benefactor. Thus all the duties of religion are very much fweetened by the love of God, who hath taken all imaginable ways to endear himself to us. He gave us our beings, and when we were fallen from that happiness to which at firft we were defigned, he was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it, by fending his only Son into the world to die for us. So that. if we have any fenfe of gratitude, we cannot but love him who hath done fo much to oblige us.

And

Fruits.

If our love of God be fincere, we fhall entertain high and admiring thoughts of him, according to those difcoveries which he hath made of himself: we shall reverence him as the most perfect being; and give him the glory of his excellencies, as we turn our thoughts either to the works of nature in our creation, or to the wonders of grace in our redemption, or the profpects of glory in the world to come. This love of God for his own perfection, though it is not ordinarily the first act of love to be discerned in a repenting finner; yet it is indeed the greatest and most noble of all others: the new nature difpofes to it, and will certainly rife to it; if not at firft, yet in the practice thereof; for where there is a supreme affection for God, a mind fo rightly difpofed will efteem real excellence, even where there is no apprehenfion of self-intereft; tho' it gives life to affection, when we can confider fuch excellence, as conducing to our own happiness and by how much the more an object is fuited to our interest and advantage, so much the more will our hearts be united to it. Accordingly love to God includes this, that we fix upon him as our chief good. When any thing is judged a fuitable good to us, love will act differently, as that good is attainable, or in actual poffeffion. And fo in this cafe, Love to God expreffes itself in ftrong defires of his favour, while an interest in him is doubtful, or the contrary feared. Such a foul will fay, I fee that God alone can be my portion :

in

taken.

in his favour is my life; without that though I had all the world I should be destitute and miferable. This love engages earnest desires, that he may have God for his reconciled God and Father; and, that he may share in his pardoning merсу, he is content to part with all for this, and it is his aim and business, to fecure this more than any thing else. On the other hand, love to God acts in a way of delight, as far as a man can hope that he may call God his. He can be at reft in God, when he has fuch views of him; and rejoices in divine favour, more than if he could call the whole world his own : though it may be obferved, the love of most chriWhen mif- ftians, through the darkness of their understandings, weakness of their faith, or the disorders of a melancholy body, and especially from the imperfection of their finful state, and the defects of their obedience, fhews itfelf more now, in defires to make their peace with him, and to clear up their interest, and in mourning for their offences, and his displeasure, than in the acts of delight and joy. Whereas, There ought to be a thankful difpofition from the fenfe of God's actual goodness and love to us. In esteeming him for his own excellency, we love him for his own fake: in fixing upon him, we love him only for our own fakes: but in gratitude for his kindness and love, there is a mixture of both. His love works on us from a fenfe of our own interests, and that sets us upon thoughts of fuitable returns. This love arifes from the sense of benefits received. It is like the filial love of a dutiful child to a tender and indulgent parent, upon a review of his care and kindnefs, in preferving him, providing for him, doing him all the good that lies in his power: which engages him to study to requite his parents in the best manner he can. love of God found in a pious foul. But

How to be practifed.

Such is the

X. The first thought we conceive of God is, Fear of God. that he is just and powerful: from whence we learn even by the light of nature to fear him, who is able to destroy both body and foul in hell. Fear is a paffion that is most deeply rooted in our natures, and flows immediately from that principle of self-preservation, which God hath planted in every man. Every one defires his own prefervation

and

and happiness, and therefore hath a natural dread and horror of every thing that can destroy his being, or endanger his happiness. And the greatest danger is from the greateft power, and that is omnipotency. So that the fear of God is an inward acknowledgment of a holy and juft being, which is armed with an almighty and irresistible power; God having hid in every man's confcience, a fecret awe and dread of his infinite power and eternal juftice. And confequently fear brings us into fubjection to authority, and enforces the practice of our duty, for the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil.

There are two bridles or reftraints which God hath put upon human nature, fhame and fear. Shame is It's power. the weaker, and hath place only in those in whom there are some remains of virtue. Fear is the ftronger, and works upon all who love themselves, and defire their own prefervation. Therefore in this degenerate state of mankind, fear is that paffion, which hath the greatest power over us, and by which God and his laws take the surest hold of us : our defire, and love, and hope, are not fo apt to be wrought upon by the representation of virtue, and the promises of reward and happiness, as our fear is from the apprehenfions of divine displeasure. For though we have loft in a great meafure the relish of true happiness, yet we still retain a quick fense of pain and mifery. So that fear relies upon a natural love of ourselves, and is interwoven with a neceffary defire of our own preservation. And therefore religion ufually makes it's first entrance into us by this paffion; hence perhaps it is, that Solomon more than once calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. And yet,

The fear of men will not be a fufficient plea and excufe for men; it will not be enough to fay, this I was awed into by the apprehenfion of danger, by the fear of Danger. fufferings; to avoid an inconvenience, I knowingly committed fuch a fin; for fear of being perfecuted, I violated my confcience, and chofe rather to truft God with my foul, than men with my estate; to fave my life, I renounced my religion, was ashamed of Christ, and denied him before men: though our Saviour hath told us plainly, whofoever fhall be ahamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and finful generation,

generation, of him alfo fhall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy gels. And Rev. xxi. 8. in that catalogue of finners which fhall be caft into the lake of fire and brimstone, the fearful and unbelievers are particularly mentioned. And indeed, they who out of fear of men offend God, are guilty of this folly, they incur the danger of a greater evil, to avoid a less; and to fave their eftates or their lives, they plunge themselves into hell; whilst they are endeavouring to escape the hands of men that shall die, they fall into the hands of the living God.

Do we fear the wrath of man, whose breath is in his noftrils, who can but afflict a little, and for a little while; and is not the wrath of the eternal God much more dreadful? is not deftruction from the Lord, a terror to thee? confidered in thy finful ftate; for, as we are finners, our fear is juftly increafed from the holinefs of his nature, the juftice of his government, and the threatnings of his laws. In such a state we have room to apprehend the fevere marks of his displeasure in time.

the gospel.

Though we are relieved against these fears by Relieved by the grace of the gofpel, and the mediation of Christ; fo that the greatest of finners ought not fo to dread the wrath of an offended God, as to despair of his mercy upon repentance: yet still so long as they remain in their fins, they ought to reprefent to their minds the terrors of the Lord, as well as the riches of his grace, to excite them to return to their father. The gofpel, with the good tydings it brings, makes a fuller reprefentation than ever was made of the severity of God's wrath against finners: The wrath of God is there revealed from heaven, against all ungodlinefs, and unrighteousness of men. And a forer punishment is threatened in many places to thofe, who reject the gospel, than to other finners, to the end that it may awaken fuitable fears in their minds. And,

No man can get above fuch fears, farther than Influence on he hath evidence of his own fincere return to God. good men. For even good men themselves, while the divine nature in them is fo very imperfect, will have a mixture of

hope

hope and fear about their own fincerity; and this mixture can hardly fail to produce fome fears of God's wrath, along with their hopes of his mercy in Christ.

It's ufe.

And indeed the fcripture reprefents it as useful for the best men in this life, to entertain foine apprchenfions of their own ftate, and, upon that fuppofition, of their final ruin. And confequently he who believes on God, hopes to enjoy his promifes, fears his punishments, and loves God above all things, will naturally grant that it is our duty to put our whole trust in him. Let us then confider things impartially, and fear him most, who hath the greatest power, and confequently whom of all other perfons in the world it is moft dangerous to offend. Let us fet before us God and men; the fingle death of the body, and the forest and most fenfible torments of body and foul together; temporal afflictions and fufferings, and eternal pains and anguifh: and when we are apt to fear what men can do unto us, let us confider how much more he can do, to whom power belongs, if for fear of men we will venture to provoke him to plague us with divers difeafes and fundry kinds of death, and to execute vengeance in the day of his wrath.

The folly of fearing man more than

God.

It may with forrow be observed, that the fear of men, or a dread not to provoke them, is too often stronger than the fear of God; tho' God is infinitely more to be dreaded than man: Which is the leffon we are taught by Christ himself, who fays, fear not them that can kill the body; that is, fear not men fo much as God, fear him infinitely more. It is very lawful for us to fear men, and to ftand in awe of their power, because they can kill the body, and death is terrible; but when the power of man comes in competition with omnipotency, and what man can do to the body in this world, with what God can do to the body and foul in the other; there is no comparifon between the terror of the one and of the other.

God's providence is continually vigilant over us, and unless it feem good to the divine wisdom to permit men, they cannot touch or hurt us. They can but kill the body, that is, they can only injure the worst and least confiderable part of us. power of the devil reaches no farther than this: the

The

C

worst