fignify the whole of religion; fometimes it fignifies that awe and veneration of the facred majefty of God with which every one of his fervants ought to be habitually poffeffed. I fhall briefly confider it in both thefe views, there not being the leaft oppofition between them, and both carrying in them the most important and falutary inftruction.

If we take the fear of God in the text to fignify the whole of that duty and obedience we owe to him, then the connection between forgiveness with God and his being feared, appears from these two confiderations.

1. A discovery of the mercy of God is ab folutely neceffary to his being loved and ferved by those who have once been finners. Defpair of mercy drives the finner from God, presents him only as the object of terror and averfion; and, inftead of having the leaft influence in bringing us to obedience, confirms the guilty in his rebellious oppofition to his maker. This must be manifeft to every hearer. There can be no religion at all, either in inclination or performance, if there be no forgiveness with God. How fhould any fo much as attempt what they believe to be an unprofitable labour?

Though this is a truth which none will deny, I am afraid it is a truth not fufficiently attended to, either in its certainty or influence. It tends greatly to illuftrate the whole plan of falvation, by the riches of divine grace, or the free, unmerited, unfolicited, love of God. How much does it add to the beauty and meaning of feve

ral

ral paffages of scripture ! as 1 John iv. 10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but "that he loved us, and fent

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ter,

his Son to be the propitiation for our fins," Rom. v. 8. "But "God commendeth his love towards us, in that "while we were yet finners, Chrift died for " us." And the 10th verfe of the fame chap"If when we were enemies, we were recon"ciled to God by the death of his Son; much "more being reconciled, we fhall be faved by "his life." Guilt is of a fufpicious nature. It is even obferved in offences committed by one man against another, that he who hath done the injury is always hardest to be reconciled. The fame thing appears very plainly in the difpofition of finners towards God. A gloomy fear, a defpondent terror, greatly hinders their return to him; nor can they ever take one step towards him, till, by the display of his mercy, this infuperable obftruction is removed.

2. As a difcovery of the mercy of God is abfolutely neceffary to our ferving him at all, fo it is perhaps of all others the most powerful motive to induce us to ferve him in fincerity. Nothing whatever more illuftrates the divine glory. It prefents him as the proper object of worship, of confidence, and of love.

When a

finner is once burdened with a sense of guilt, fees the demerit of his tranfgreffions, and feels. the juftice of his own fentence, what an inconceivable relief must it give him to fee the divine mercy and how infinitely amiable muft this God of mercy appear in his eyes! Others

may

may reafon at their eafe upon the fubject, he is transported with unfpeakable joy on the profpect. His heart is immediately taken captive: he feels its constraining power, and yields himfelf willingly to every demand of duty and gratitude. See, to this purpose, the expreffions of the prophet Hofea, ch. xi. 4. "I drew them "with cords of a man, with bands of love, " and I was to them as they that take off the

yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto "them." The fame thing is every where in the New Teftament reprefented as the great commanding principle of obedience, 2 Cor. v. 14. "For the love of Chrift constraineth us, "because we thus judge, that if one died for “all, then were all dead." 1 John iv. 16. "And we have known and believed the love "that God hath to us. God is love; and he "that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and "God in him." And verfe 19. of the fame chapter, "We love him, because he firft loved " us."

But further, even taking fear in a more limited fenfe, as fignifying a holy reverence and dread of the power and majefty of God, there being forgivenefs with him, is fo far from weakening, that it ftrengthens this fear; and that on the two following accounts.

1. The infinite obligations we lie under to divine mercy, muft ferve to improve our fense of the evil of fin, as committed against fo good and fo gracious a God, and to increase our ab

horrence

horrence of it. The mercy of God to the guilty, at the fame time that it brings unfpeakable confolation, as delivering them from the wrath to come, ferves to humble them, by a view of their own unworthy and undutiful conduct. When an awakened convinced foul, under the apprehenfion of eternity approaching, begins to contemplate the mercy of God as the ground of forgiveness, he immediately thinks upon this mercy, as having all along spared him in the midft of his provocations. What a wonder of mercy is it, does he fay to himfelf, that I was not immediately cut off in my wickedness, at fuch a time, or at fuch a time, which now return full upon his memory! He cannot easily separate the remembrance of past crimes from the mercy that with-held immediate vengeance. And furely nothing will ferve more to make the finner tremble and ftand aftonifhed at his own guilt, than reflection on that for bearance of a patient God, which did not doom him to inftant and deferved deftruction, but fpared him to hear the glad tidings of peace.

Thus the unfpeakable grace of God in the gospel opens the fprings of penitential forrow, and makes them flow more fweetly indeed, but more freely, and more copioufly, than before. You may observe the ftrong picture of penitence and love, which is drawn with inimitable beauty by the evangelift Luke, ch. vii. 37. 38. “And behold, a woman in the city, which was "a finner, when he knew that Jefus fat at

"meat

"meat in the Pharifce's house, brought an ala"bafter-box of ointment, and ftood at his feet "behind him weeping, and began to wash his "feet with tears, and did wipe them with the "hairs of her head, and kiffed his feet, and a"nointed them with the ointment." Was it not in grace and mercy that the fuffering Sa. viour looked upon Peter, which immediately confounded him? Luke xxii. 61. 62. "And "the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter; "and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, "how he had faid unto him, Before the cock

crow, thou fhalt deny me thrice. And Peter "went out, and wept bitterly." What is it elfe that is represented by the prophet as having fo strong an effect upon the believer in producing penitential forrow, but the love of our Redeemer? Zech. xii. 10. "And I will pour upon the "houfe of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerufalem, the spirit of grace and of fupplica"tions, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they fhall mourn for "him, as one mourneth for his only fon, and "fhall be in bitterness for him, as one that is “in bitterness for his first-born."

2. Forgiveness with God tends to increase our fear and reverence of him, from the manner in which, and the condition on which it is bestowed. Every circumstance in this difpenfation of divine mercy is calculated to abafe the finner, and leave him nothing whereof to glory before God. Forgivenefs is always declared to be an act of fovereign grace, If. xliii. 25. "I,