Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

:

SERMON I.

The wisdom of fearing GOD.

JOB XXVIII. 28.

And unto man he faid: behold the fear of the Lord, that is wif dom; and to depart from evil, is understanding.

M

Ankind is generally ambitious to be thought wife and intelligent. Knowledge is the pride of human nature; and there is nothing that we bear fo ill as the imputation of ignorance and folly. To be reproached on the account of external things, fuch as a mean extraction, and a mean condition, a deformed body, or a narrow fortune, is not at all agreeable: but

[blocks in formation]

yet, irksome as it is, it is more tolerable than to be upbraided with want of judgment and good fenfe. For if men deride us upon any of the former accounts, they expofe themselves rather than us; and betray their own weaknefs and folly, in defpifing us for things which give no juft occafion for juft occafion for contempt, because they do not detract from real merit. But want of judgment and difcretion argues either dulnefs and ftupidity, or negligence and inattention: both of which are fo difgraceful, and fo much tend to fink a man's character and reputation, that it is not to be wonder'd at if a charge of this nature gives great uneafinefs and disturbance.

Moft men are willing to be reputed wife but in vain do they pretend to wisdom, whilst they are deftitute of the fear of the Lord; for it is this which God himself hath diftinguished by the name of wisdom. And unto man be faid, i. e. God faid, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wif dom. Job had before been difcourfing concerning the wifdom of God in the works of creation; which he acknowledges to be above the comprehenfion any creature, and only to be fa

of

thomed

thomed by God himself the great author of them. Where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of underStanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth faith it is not in me, and the fea faith it is not with me. God underftandeth the way thereof, and be knoweth the place thereof. For be looketh to the ends of the earth, and feeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, and be weigheth the waters by measure. When be made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then did be fee it and declare it, be prepared it, yea and fearched it out. But tho this is a wisdom peculiar to the divine being, yet there is another wisdom which is proper to man, and attainable by him. And unto man be faid, behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

In handling this subject I will,

First, Give a defcription of the fear of the Lord.

Secondly, Prove that the fear of the Lord is wisdom.

Thirdly, Make application.

B 2

First,

First, I will give a description of the fear of the Lord.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

By the fear of the Lord is meant religion and virtue. It is a term that frequently occurs in the old teftament; and it is put for the whole of our duty. Solomon fays, that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, Prov. VIII. 13. God fays to Abraham, Gen. XXII. 12. Now I know that thou feareft God, feeing thou haft not withheld thy son, thine only fon from me. "Tis as if he had faid, thy obedience in fo difficult and trying a cafe, is an undeniable proof of thy being a good and religious man.' It is faid, 1 Kings XVIII. 3. Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. And it is obfervable, that the hiftorian juftifies this character which he had given of him, by inftancing in an act of kindness which he did to the fervants of God; ver. 4. For it was fo when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. His tender and compaffionate regard to the poor oppreffed prophets, is made ufe of as an argument to prove that he feared the Lord. And if mercy,

.

which is but one branch of religion, gives a man a right to this character, how much more does the practice of universal virtue? The fame thing may be argued from Pfalm CXI. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wif dom; a good understanding have all they who do his commandments. Where you fee what is called the fear of the Lord in the former part of the verfe, is expreffed by doing his commandments in the latter. And fo in the text, to depart from evil, in the last clause, is plainly of the same import with the fear of the Lord, in the firft. Ecclef. XII. 13. Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole of man. So that to fear God, and to keep his commandments, are synonymous phrases. But the fear of the Lord, is a thing of that vaft importance, that it deferves to be more partily explained.

I. The fear of the Lord fuppofes the belief of fome principles: and particularly these two; viz. that there is a God, and that he will reward virtue and goodness. Thus the apoftle to the Hebrews teaches us, Heb. XI. 6. He that cometh to God, i. e. he who is religious (for coming to God in the new

B 3

teftament

« AnteriorContinuar »