please him: "That we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." We shall then serve God universally, in every thing. When we fear, we shall watch unto every duty, against every sin. "This do and live, for I fear God," Gen. 42: 18, said Joseph to his brethren; as if he had said, Do not you fear to find falsehood or any evil-dealing from me, for I fear God; I dare not be false to you; you may trust me, you may take my word, for I fear God. We shall then walk before the Lord steadily. When we fear, we shall be firm, and hold fast in an even frame and course. Fear will be our ballast; while love fills our sails, fear will ballast our vessel. How are slight and frothy spirits tossed up and down-whither do they not wander! How many hearts and faces and frames have they every day! What contradictions are they to themselves! The reverence of God upon them would fix them and hold them in a more even and equal poise. We should then serve the Lord more honorably. When we fear, we shall show forth the character of God before the world; the more we have of the reverence of God, the more have we of his holiness. The presence of a Christian walking in the fear of the Lord, is as the presence of God; the reverence of God upon his heart casts a beam of divine majesty into his face, and oftentimes begets an awe and reverence of him in the hearts of the worst of sinners; they reverence, even while they revile and persecute him.

Of John the Baptist, who was a man of a just, holy, and austere life, it is said that Herod feared

him and observed him. Mark 6:20. The austerity and holiness of his life commanded respect from a Herod's heart. Such Christians' ways are a conviction, and their very countenances are a rebuke to the wanton world; they speak with authority, they exhort with authority, they reprove with authority; and sin often hides itself from them, even as from the face of God.

(2.) Especially is this awe seen in our drawing nigh to God: "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." Psa. 89:7. "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me." Lev. 10:3. He that fears God, trembles at the word of God; and God loves he should. "To this man will I look, even to him that trembleth at my word." Isa. 66: 2. That which makes him tremble is, that he sees the word carrying upon it the holiness and the authority of God.

He reads the word as the epistle of God sent down to the world-his epistle commendatory, that sets forth the excellence and the glory of God, and his letters mandatory, that charge subjection and obedience upon him: he takes every word as coming from the mouth of the Holy One of Israel; he lies prostrate before the Lord; his soul bows the knee, his heart falls down at the feet of the Almighty. The more the word is considered as the word of God, the more awe it works upon him. Every look he casts upon his Bible, is a looking into heaven. He that fears God, fears when he comes to worship, reverences

his sanctuary: "In thy fear will I worship." Psa. 5:7. That which works this fear is, that he looks upon the duties and ordinances of worship as the institutions of God and his application unto God.

Put

"This," he says, "is that which the Lord hath sanctified: behold his image and superscription; here he has directed me to wait for him; here he has appointed to meet my soul; now I am going up to the mount of God; the mount of God is everywhere where the worship of God is. My soul, where art thou? I am before the Lord of the whole earth. off thy shoes from thy feet, the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. I am before the high and holy One, the God of all the earth; and upon transactions of eternal consequence, to do my homage to the everlasting King, to kneel before the Lord my Maker, to kiss the golden sceptre, to beg my life at his hands, to behold his goings in his sanctuary; his wisdom, and his mercy, and his goodness are all passing before me. How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven. How dreadful is this word! This is none other but the word of God. How dreadful is this ordinance! This is none other but the door of glory. Tremble, thou heart, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob."

2. Abhorrence of evil for the Lord's sake, is the other part of the fear of God. Here we shall consider its object and its ground.

(1.) The object of this abhorrence in general is evil: "Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which

is good." Rom. 12:9. Good is the object of love, evil of fear. Evil is twofold, present, or to come. The former is the object of grief, the latter of fear. Particularly, the objects of this abhorrence are, the wrong to God, the loss of God.

First, the wrong to God. The great and only wrong to God is sin. Sin is the turning away of the heart from God. The great thing in all the world which God respects and requires as his own, is the heart: "My son, give me thy heart. Keep thy heart with all diligence." Prov. 4:23. Keep thy heart; that is, keep it for me-keep it clean for God, and keep it safe for God; see that it be not defiled nor carried away. When the heart is gone, all is gone with it. If the world has got men's hearts, if Satan has got their hearts, let them take all else, saith God; let me have their heart or nothing: they are sure to have all, that have the heart. The heart, wherever it goes, carries all with it. Where we bestow our hearts, we bestow all that we have. Sin is the turning away of the heart. This is the very nature of sin, the heart's departing from the living God. Heb. 3:12. And therefore this is the great wrong to God. There is but one thing in the world that God regards; and this sin steals away.

Sin is the insurrection and rebellion of the heart against God; it turns from him, and turns against him; it runs over to the camp of the enemy, and there takes up arms against God. Sin is a running from God, and a fighting against God; it would spoil the Lord of all the jewels of his crown. It opposes

the sovereignty of God. A sinful heart would set up itself in God's throne, it would be king in his stead, and have the command of all. Sinners would be their own gods: "Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?" God shall not be God where sin is risen up as lord. It assaults the wisdom of God. Vain man would be wise, wiser than his Maker. It charges the Lord with folly, and proclaims itself the only wise. Sinners pretend to know how to choose for themselves, and order things to their advantage, better than God. "If God would let me alone to myself, to be at my own ordering, it should quickly be better with me. If every thing might be with me as I would have it, my case would be well mended from what it is, now that every thing must go as God will have it." All our complainings at Providence, all our murmurings and discontents at our lot, are our heart charging the Lord with folly. It casts reproach on the holiness of God, it disparages the goodness of God; it abuses his mercy, violates his justice, despises his power. In sum, it disgraces the throne of his glory, lays his honor in the dust, and sets the Almighty below the lowest of his creatures.

Every companion shall be respected more than God; every pleasure shall be loved more than God; the devil shall be feared more than God. Where is his love? Where is his fear? Where is his honor? Nay, where were the Lord himself, might sin have its way? Sin alone wrongs God, and this wrong is the especial object of the saints' abhorrence. A gracious heart would do no wrong, he would not wrong his