though wounded, are not dead; though forely beaten, they keep the field. Hostilities 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 stand your ground. You will prove successful, through the strength of your Leader. Jesus Chrift will make you more than conquerors.

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

I conclude this discourse with addressing, once more, those of my audience, who may be sensible that they have no peace with God. It were easy 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 resolutions, that you will try to be religious? Begin and persevere. 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 serve God, Why hale

you

you between two opinions? Reason and confcience say, that you ought to be religious. Follow their wife and sovereign dictate. What pretences does fin bring? She puts on a specious appearance to deceive and ruin. Hearken not to her song, for she would entice you to your own destruction. In the end, she will bite like a ferpent, and sting 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 Jesus Christ 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 interest; long continue our national peace; and above all, give us peace with himself, and make us happy, when thrones shall be cast down; through Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father, and the blessed 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 Ministers of the United Presbyterian
Churches in New-York.

PROV. xxiii. 17.

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

HERE is scarce any thing that has a more imme

THERE

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

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

Herein then, the religion of Jesus has the advantage over every other system of morality, in that it not only prescribes the most just and proper rules for this end, but provides the assistance 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 salvation; and directed and affisted 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 shall endeavour, by the aids of this Spirit,

I. To shew 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 stands opposed to hope. It is that passion 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 some evil, real or supposed; and in the words of our text, with many other places in sacred scripture, its immediate object is the evil and danger of finning against God; and the just displeasure of God, in confequence of offending him. To fear these, is to fear the Lord in the best sense of the phrase. This is the sense in which the churches are said to walk in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And And in the same sense, the fear of the Lord, is said 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 humble reverence for God.-A sense of his being, perfections and character; that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek 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 case of the angels themselves, as we learn from Ifaiah vi. 1.-3. I saw also, the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood 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 bis 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 observe, each one of these adoring spirits had fix wings. With twain they covered their faces-struck with the Majesty of God, and unable to behold his glory; and with twain they covered their feet-as unworthy to stand in his facred prefence, though immaculate, and the highest order of rational creatures known to us; and with twain they did flyimporting the alacrity, cheerfulness and expedition with which they execute the Divine commands. And the fource of this reverence, humility and obedience, we have, verse 3. It was the view they had of the holiness of the Divine nature. For one cried unto another, and faid, Holy,

boly,