and with all the mind, appear good and rational, and the obfervance of it will refine and fanctify both every duty and every enjoyment of life, Now to God the Father, Son, and SERMON VIII. PSALM ii. II. Serve the Lord with Fear, and rejoice with Trembling. T is a point of ferious confequence IT with regard to a man's general conduct, what notions he entertains of the Supreme Being: For fince the perfection of the human nature confifts in the refemblance it bears to the divine, (which it is therefore our duty to imitate in whatsoever it is imitable by us) unless our ideas of the great Original be drawn right, in vain shall we copy after it in our our lives and actions.. Such was the miferable state of the Heathens; who, having loft all knowledge of the one true God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, made no fcruple to indulge themselves in vices, the avowed patronage of which they had attributed to the Gods of their own deluded imaginations. But in a particular manner does it concern us to poffefs our fouls with just apprehenfions of the Deity, in order to the performance of an acceptable service to Him in our religious worship. And this is the subject to which the text more immediately leads me: For according to our conceptions of God, will our affections be towards Him; and fuch as our affections are, fuch will our devotion be. Whoever looks upon the Governor of the Universe as an arbitrary Omnipotent, will naturally approach Him with a fervile kind of dread; and he who thinks not aright of his majesty and holiness, will be apt to treat Him with an unbe coming familiarity and irreverence. Seeing then Fear and Joy are both prefcribed by the Pfalmift, as requifite ingre dients to Holy Worship, let us enquire, First, In what fenfe God is the object of our Fear, and in what of our Joy-whence it will appear, Secondly, The true meaning of this pious and judicious precept, "Serve the Lord with Fear, and rejoice unto Him with Trembling." 1. The first branch of our enquiry is, in what fenfe God is the object of our Fear, As As to which we may venture to pronounce, there is no attribute nor perfection in God, but what justly demands the fear of his rational creatures; conscious of their own weakness, and of the relation they bear unto Him, who is their Creator, their Preferver, and their Judge. The more we reflect upon his infinite wisdom, power, goodness, or justice, the greater reafon we fhall find for ferving Him in fear.- Shall not we, poor, dependant, accountable Beings, ftand in awe of Him, who knows all things, and can do all things; whose mercy is over all his works, but who will not fuffer the wicked to go unpunished? It is doubtless the firft and principal duty of man to fear his God. —'Tis the groundwork of Religion, of Virtue, and of Happiness. And fuch is the excellent character frequently afcribed to |