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have it in our power, not only to apply ourselves to the acquisition of knowledge, but, when the knowledge has been acquired, to direct the attention to the tendencies of the ascertained truths. If this be done, there is every likelihood that the truths will produce their right effects on the moral feelings; if this be neglected, the almost certainty is, that, whatever their nature, they will not call forth those emotions which they are both intended and calculated to excite. The truths of revelation are adapted, according to the constitution of our moral capacity, to rouse within us certain feelings. And by fixing the mind on these truths, when investigated and determined and this is adding consideration to knowledge-we may be said comparatively to insure the production of the feelings which naturally correspond to them, and thus vastly to diminish, if not to destroy, the probability that they will fail of effecting any change in the conduct.

You know sufficiently well, that, if you obtain a knowledge of circumstances which may exert an influence over your temporal condition, you can, and in most cases you do, give those circumstances your close consideration, and ponder them with unwearied assiduousness, in hopes of extracting some directions for your guidance in life. And if you were to fail to add consideration to knowledge, you would fairly be regarded as the authors of every disaster which might follow on your not turning knowledge to account; and the bankruptcy, in which you might be speedily involved, would excite no commiseration, as being altogether chargeable on your own indolence and indifference. So that, if you have knowledge, it is reckoned quite your own fault, if it rest inertly in the mind, in place of stirring up emotions and regulating energies. Your fellow-men deal with you as with free agents, possessing the power of considering what they know, and therefore answerable for all the consequences of a want of consideration.

And what we wished impressed upon you at this stage of our discourse is, that you must expect the same dealing at the tribunal of the Almighty, as you thus experience at the hands of your

fellow-men. If it be once shown that you had the knowledge, you will be tried as beings who might have had the consideration. To recur to our illustration-you have a thorough knowledge that you must die. There passes not a day which does not, in some shape or other, present this fact to your observation, and call upon you, by emphatic demonstrations of human mortality, to acknowledge your own frailty. Ye cannot be so sure that any combination of circumstances will issue in the derangement and bankruptcy of your affairs, as ye are, that, at a period which cannot be very distant, ye will be withdrawn altogether from these affairs, and ushered into an untried existence. And if, because you have not fastened attention upon circumstances which threaten you with temporal calamity, you are reckoned as having only yourselves to blame when that calamity bursts, like an armed man, into your households, assuredly you must hereafter be treated as your own wilful destroyers if you make no preparation for that dreaded visitant whom no force can repulse, and no bribe allure, from your doors. We admit that much has been taught, and boasted, in respect to the free-agency of man, which will no more bear the test of experience than of Scripture. But we cannot doubt that man is sufficiently a free agent to make the path of death, in which he walks, the path of his own choice; so that, just as he is free to consider what he knows in reference to the matters of this life, so is he free to consider what he knows in reference to the matters of the next life.

And we give it you all as a warning, whose energy increases with your acquaintance with the truths of revelation, that God has gifted you with an apparatus of moral feelings, to the excitement of which the announcements of Scripture are most nicely adapted; and has thus so fitted the Bible to your constitution, that, if the Bible be known, and you unconcerned, there is evidence of wilful indifference, or determined opposition, which will suffice for procuring condemnation at the judgment. The fact that we must give account hereafter for every action, is, of all others, fitted to serve as a lever

which may raise into activity the powers of the inner man. But then it is consideration, and not mere knowledge, of such fact which converts it into the lever. Knowledge only introduces it into the mind. But when introduced, it will lie there idle and powerless, unless taken up and handled by consideration. And forasmuch as you have full power of giving consideration to the fact for you can give your consideration to a fact of astronomy, or of chemistry; and therefore also, if you choose, to a fact of theology-you are clearly answerable for the ineffectiveness of the fact, if it never move the torpid energies; and can expect nothing but the being condemned at last, as having known, but not having considered.

But we have somewhat wandered from our text: at least, we have dwelt generally on the want of consideration, in place of confining ourselves to the instance which the passage exhibits. We go back to our proposition, that a fear of God will be the result of considering: "when I consider, I am afraid of him."

It is our earnest wish to bring the careless amongst you, those who have no dread of God, to a sense of the awfulness of that mysterious Being, whose existence indeed you confess, but of whom, notwithstanding, your whole life is one perpetual defiance. Your fault is, that, immersing yourselves in the business or pleasures of the world, you never sit down to a serious contemplation of your state: in other words, that, however intently you fasten your thoughts on vain and perish able objects, yet, as creatures who are just in the infancy of existence, you never consider. And we have but little hope of prevailing on you, by any urgency of remonstrance, to give yourselves to the considering what you know. We are too well aware that the prevailing on a man to consider his ways lies far beyond the power of human persuasion; seeing that the mind can evade all external control, and, if it do not bind itself, can defy every attempt to overrule or direct. But we can give you certain of those processes of thought which would almost necessarily be followed out, where there were deep and solemn musings upon

Deity. We may thus trace the connection asserted in our text between consideration and fear. Though this will not compel you to consider for yourselves, it will leave you with less excuse than ever if you rest content with mere knowledge; it will show you what ought to be going forward in your own minds, and thus take away the plea of ignorance, if any should be hardy enough to advance it.

With this object, we will examine how fear of God is produced by considering what we know of God, first in his nature, and secondly in his works.

Now we are all aware how powerful a restraint is imposed on the most dissolute and profane, by the presence of an individual who will not countenance them in their impieties. So long as they are under observation, they will not dare to yield to imperious desires: they must shrink into a solitude ere they will perpetrate crime, or give indulgence to lusts. We can feel confident in respect of the most worldlyminded amongst you, that, if there could be always at his side an individual of whom he stood in awe, and whose good opinion he was anxious to cultivate, he would abstain from many of his cherished gratifications, and walk, comparatively, a course of self-denial and virtue. He would be arrested in far the greater part of his purposes, if he knew that he was acting under the eye of this individual; and it would only be when assured that the inspection was suspended or withdrawn, that he would follow unreservedly the bent of his desires. But it is amongst the most surprising of moral phenomena, that the effect, which would be produced by a human inspector, is scarcely ever produced by a divine. If a man can elude the observation of his fellow-men, he straightway acts as though he had eluded all observation: place him where there is no other of his own race, and he will feel as if, in the strictest sense, alone. The remembrance that the eye of Deity is upon him, that the infinite God is continually at his side-so that there is absurdity in speaking of a solitude; every spot throughout the expansions of space being inhabited by the Almighty-this remembrance, we say, is without any practical effect; or rather

the fact, though universally known, is not considered; and therefore the man, though in contact with his Maker, fancies himself in loneliness, and acts as if certain of being unobserved.

But let consideration be superadded to knowledge, and there will necessarily be produced a fear or dread of the Creator. There is nothing so overwhelming to the mind, when giving it self to the contemplation of a great first cause, as the omnipresence of God. That, if I were endowed with unlimited powers of motion, so that in a moment I might traverse unnumbered leagues, I could never for a lonely instant escape from God; that he would remain at the spot I left, and yet be found at the spot I reached; of all truths this is perhaps the most bewildering and incomprehensible, seeing that, more than any other, it separates the Infinite Being from all finite. But let me consider this truth; let me, if it baffle my understanding, endeavor to keep it in active remembrance. Wheresoever I am, and whatsoever I do, "thou, O God, seest me." Then it is not possible that the least item of my conduct may escape observation; that I can be so stealthy in my wickedness as to commit it undetected. Human laws are often severe in their enactments; but they may be often transgressed without discovery, and therefore with impunity. But there is no such possibility in regard to Divine laws. The Legislator himself is ever at my side. The murkiness of the midnight shrouds me not from him. The solitariness of the scene is no proof against his presence. The depths of my own heart lie open to his inspection. And thus every action, every word, every thought, is as distinctly marked as though there were none but myself in the universe, and all the watchfulness, and all the scrutiny of God, were employed on my deportment. What then? "when I consider, I am afraid of him." The more I reflect, the more awful God appears. To break the law in the sight of the lawgiver; to brave the sentence in the face of the Judge; there is a hardihood in this which would seem to overpass the worst human presumption; and we can only say of the man who knows that he does this whensoever

he offends, that he knows, but does not consider.

Oh! we are sure that an abiding sense of God's presence would put such a restraint on the outgoings of wickedness, that, to make it universal were almost to banish impiety from the earth. We are sure that, if every man went to his business, or his recreation, fraught with the consciousness that the Being, who will decide his destiny for eternity, accompanies him in his every step, observes all his doings, and scrutinizes all his motives, an apprehension of the dreadfulness of the Almighty, and of the utter peril of violating his precepts, would take possession of the whole mass of society; and there would be a confession from all ranks and all ages, that, however they might have known God as the Omnipresent, and yet made light of his authority, when they considered God as the Omnipresent, they were overawed and afraid of him.

But again-it is not the mere feeling that God exercises a supervision over my actions, which will produce that dread of him which Job asserts in our text. The moral character of God will enter largely into considerations upon Deity, and vastly aggravate that fear which is produced by his omnipresence. Of course, it is not the certainty that a being sees me, which, of itself, will make me fear that being. There must be a further certainty, that the conduct to which I am prone is displeasing to him; and that, if persisted in, it will draw upon me his vengeance. Let me then consider God, and determine, from his necessary attributes, whether there can be hope that he will pass over without punishment, which cannot escape his observation.

We suppose God just, and we suppose him merciful; and it is in settling the relative claims of these properties, that men fancy they find ground for expecting impunity at the last. The matter to be adjusted is, how a being, confessedly love, can so yield to the demands of justice as to give up his creatures to torment; and the difficulty of the adjustment makes way for the flattering persuasion, that love will hereafter triumph over justice, and that threatenings, having answered their purpose in the moral government of God, will not be so rigidly exacted as

to interfere with the workings of unbounded compassion. But it is not by considering that men encourage themselves in the thought, that the claims of love and of justice will be found hereafter at variance, and that, in the contest between the two, those of love will prevail. Through not considering, men have hope in God; let them only consider, and we are bold to say they will be afraid of God.

go unvisited the impenitent, would be to forfeit the character of a righteous moral governor, and to proclaim to every rank of intelligence, in all the circuits of immensity, that law was abolished, and disobedience made safe. I consider; and I observe that a love, which triumphed over justice, could not be the love of a perfect being; for the love of a perfect being, whatever its yearnings over myself, must include love of justice; so that I trust to what God cannot feel, when I trust to a compassion which cannot allow punishment.

And thus, when I consider there is no resting-place for the spirit in the flattering delusion, that, in the moment of terrible extremity, when the misdoings of a long life shall have given in their testimony, mercy will interpose between justice and the criminal, and ward off the blow, and welcome to happiness. Every attribute of Deity, benevolence itself as well as justice, and holiness, and truth, rises against the delusion, and warns me that to cherish it is to go headlong to destruction. The theory that God is too loving to take vengeance, will not bear being considered. The notion that the judge will prove less rigid than the lawgiver, will not bear being considered. The opinion that the purposes of

If I do but reflect seriously on the love of my Maker, I must perceive it to be a disposition to produce the greatest amount of happiness, by upholding through the universe those principles of righteousness with whose overthrow misery stands indissolubly connected. But it is quite evident, that, when once evil has been introduced, this greatest amount of happiness is not that which would result from the unconditional pardon of every worker of evil. Such pardon would show the abandonment of the principles of righteousness, and therefore spread consternation and dismay amongst the unfallen members of God's intelligent household. A benevolence which should set aside justice, would cease to be benevolence: it would be nothing but a weakness, which, in order to snatch a few from deserved misery, overturned the laws of moral government, and exposed my. riads to anarchy and wretchedness. a moral government may have been anAnd yet further-unless God be faith-swered by the threatening, so as not ful to his threatenings, I have no warrant for believing that he will be faithful to his promises; if he deny himself in one, he ceases to be God, and there is an end of all reasonable hope that he will make good the other.

So that however, on a hasty glance, and forming my estimate of benevolence from the pliancy of human sympathies, which are wrought on by a tear, and not proof against complaint, I may think that the love of the Almighty will forbid the everlasting misery of any of his creatures; let me consider, and the dreamy expectation of a weak and womanish tenderness will give place to apprehension and dread. I consider; and I see that, if God be not true to his word, he confounds the distinctions between evil and good, destroys his own sovereignty, and shakes the foundations of happiness through the universe. I consider; and I perceive that to let

to need the infliction, will not bear being considered. And therefore, if I have accustomed myself to such a representation of Deity as makes benevolence, falsely so called, the grave of every other attribute; and if, allured by such representation, I have quieted anxiety, and kept down the pleadings of conscience; consideration will scatter the delusion, and gird me round with terrors; whilst I look only on the surface of things, I may be confident, but when I consider, I am afraid.

Oh! it is not, as some would persuade you, the dream of gloomy and miscalculating men, that a punishment, the very mention of which curdles the blood and makes the limbs tremble, awaits, through the long hereafter, those who set at naught the atonement effected by Christ. It is not the picture of a diseased imagination, nursed in error and trammelled by enthusiasm,

that of God, who now plies us with the overtures of forgiveness, coming forth with all the artillery of wrath, and dealing out vengeance on those who have done despite to the spirit of grace." We bring the dream to the rigid investigations of wakefulness; we expose the picture to the microscopes of the closest meditation; and when men would taunt us with our belief in unutterable torments, portioned out by a Creator who loves, (with a love overpassing language,) the very meanest of his creatures; and when they would smile at our credulity in supposing that God can act in a manner so repugnant to his confessed nature; we retort on them at once the charge of adopting an unsupported theory. We tell them, that, if with them we could escape from thought, and smother reflection, then with them we might give harborage to the soothing persuasion that there is no cause for dread, and that God is of too yearning a compassion to resign aught of humankind to be broken on the wheel or scathed by the fire. But it is in proportion as the mind fastens itself upon God that alarm is excited. Thought, in place of dissipating, generates terror. And thus, paralyze my reason, debar me from every exercise of intellect, reduce me to the idiot, and I shall be careless and confident: but leave me the equipment and use of mental faculties, and "when I considI am afraid of him."

er,

But the connection between considcration and fear will be yet more evident, if the works of God engage our attention. We have hitherto considered only the nature of God. But if we now meditate on either creation or redemption, under which two divisions we may class the works of God, we shall find additional proof of the truth of the saying," when I consider, I am afraid of him."

Now we readily admit that a fear, or dread, of the Almighty is not the feeling ordinarily excited by the magnificence of the heavens, or the loveliness of a landscape. It most frequently happens, unless the mind be so morally deadened as to receive no impressions from the splendid panorama, that sentiments of warm admiration, and of confidence in God as the benignant Parent of the universe, are elicited by

exhibitions of creative wisdom and might. And we are enough from designing to assert, that the exhibitions are not calculated to produce such sentiments. We think that the broad and varied face of nature serves as a mirror, in which the christian may trace much that is most endearing in the character of his Maker. We should reckon it fair evidence against the piety of an individual, if he could gaze on the stars in their courses, or travel over the provinces of this globe, and mark with what profusion all that can minister to human happiness is scattered around, and yet be conscious of no ascendings of heart towards that benevolent Father who hath given to man so glorious a dwelling, and overarched it with so brilliant a canopy. Where there is a devout spirit, we are sure that the placing a man whence he may look forth on some majestic development of scenery, on luxuriant valleys, and the amphitheatre of mountains, and the windings of rivers, is the placing him where he will learn a new lesson in theology, and grow warmer in his love of that Eternal Being "who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth."

But we speak now of what is adapted to the producing fear of God in the careless and unconverted man: and we say that it is only through want of consideration that such fear is not excited by the works of creation. The unconverted man, as well as the converted, can take delight in the beauties of nature, and be conscious of ecstasy of spirit, as his eye gathers in the wonders of the material universe. But the converted man, whilst the mighty picture is before him, and the sublime features and the lovely successively fasten his admiration, considers who spread out the landscape and gave it its splendor; and from such consideration he derives fresh confidence in the God whom he feels to be his God, pledged to uphold him, and supply his every want. The unconverted man, on the contrary, will either behold the architecture without giving a thought to the architect; or, observing how exquisite a regard for his well-being may be traced in the arrangements of creation, will strengthen himself in his appeal to the compassions of Deity, by

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