is under the protection of the Almighty. And hope of sharing in his bounty, will teach us to imitate it by the tenderest exercise of humanity and compassion. Thus influenced, those of higher rank would be public blessings and examples: their inferiors would love and honour his image impressed upon them: and all would endeavour to fill worthily whatever station the wisdom of Providence allotted them: discharging conscientiously the duties of the most laborious, and counting it an honour to serve God in the least considerable.

But let us now inquire,

II. What effect the fear of God must have on the enjoyment of our lives.

Unquestionably it will make bad people uneasy. But then it is both for the world's good and their own, that they should be so. It is not their thinking of their condition, that renders it a dreadful one. The less they feel it the worse it is: and feeling it to purpose will be the happiest thing possible for them. Farther this fear doubtless restrains persons from dissolute pleasures, and dishonourable means of obtaining profit, power, advancement. But so doth virtue so for the most part doth common prudence. And religion never forbids us even a hurtful gratification, but it offers us happiness hereafter in return for our present self-denial. Farther still: we must own, it gives a peculiar seriousness and awe to the mind of man. But we have need to be kept in order by a sense of God's parental authority and without it should quickly become ungovernable, mischievous, and wretched. He requires us not in the least to be gloomy and comfortless; or full of terrors, while we mean to do well: but freely permits us the cheerfullest use of all our faculties, that is con

sistent with innocence, and with making improvement in goodness our chief care, as it will be our chief felicity.

And if the thought of him doth moderate the liveliness of over-gay dispositions; it prevents, by so doing, many great evils, into which they would otherwise hurry us; and fills us with much more inward and deeply-felt satisfactions, than those light and trifling ones, that only play upon the surface of an inconsiderate mind. Or did that composure, which piety introduces, lessen our enjoyments for a time; yet, being what our state on earth, which is in many respects a serious one, demands, if we are wise we shall gladly conform ourselves to the condition which God hath placed us in; and trust him that the consequences will be happy.

Such indeed will every one, who makes the trial, soon find them. What pleasure can be greater, than a full persuasion, that our behaviour is approved by Him who knows our hearts, and will reward with his friendship whatever we do aright? The world is generally a negligent spectator, and too often an unfair interpreter, of the best actions. This cannot but give uneasiness and discouragement to virtue, unless it be animated by nobler views. But the recollection, that God looks on with esteem, sets us above the censures of men, and even above their applauses. For were all mankind to join in doing justice to exalted merit; how poor would the recompense be, and how low the delight, compared with his, who can lay open his principles and his behaviour, with humble confidence before the Judge of all!

Then as to the sufferings of this life, which very frequently make up a great share of it, religion en

tirely prevents many of them, by withholding us from the sins and follies that commonly bring them upon us. And it wonderfully diminishes the rest, by loosening our attachments to what we must expect to be disappointed in, or separated from; and leading us from the broken cisterns of worldly comfort, to God the fountain of living waters *; in the assurance of whose grace, our great interest is safe, under every change; and by the superintendency of whose providence all things work together for our good ↑. What are the poor consolations of philosophy, or the amusements which thoughtless minds take refuge in, to deceive their sorrows, compared with such cheering reflections as these! Still, what is naturally painful, must be felt so: but the insupportable part of every affliction is taken away, when we consider it as ordered by Him, whose right to dispose of us we must acknowledge, and of whose kind intention to us we may always be sure.

A heart, habitually formed to such meditations as these, with what serenity must it pass through its allotted pilgrimage here below! It hath nothing to fear it hath nothing to hide, from others or itself. It can bear solitude, and its own inspection. It can even rejoice in the sense of his presence, who is to others inexpressibly terrible; but to the pious soul an immovable ground of security, an inexhaustible source of happiness. For, indeed, what greater happiness can we wish to ourselves, than to be placed under the fatherly guidance of infinite foresight and power; borne up under all the calamities of life; and, which is the great point, exalted with the noblest hopes of what shall follow after death!

⚫ Jer. ii. 13.

+ Rom. viii. 28.

Our time on earth is so short; and our pleasures at best so languid and rare, and mixed with so many anxieties, pains and sorrows; that surely it is a melancholy view, to think of ending here; and after a very few days are gone over our heads, becoming for ever, as if we had never been. Yet this is much more than irreligious persons can possibly promise themselves. Could there be no God, they would have no certainty, but that their beings might continue, and might be miserable. For what is there that may not be, on the supposition of an ungoverned world? But since there is a God, slighting and disobeying him must be crimes, and must be punished. We may have little attention to this perhaps, in the tumult of youthful fancies and worldly pursuits. But when the close of the scene approaches, and age or sickness rouses up reflection from its sleep, then will the sinner, in all likelihood, see, with terror unspeakable, those awful realities, of which, if he is never convinced in this world, he will only be the more wretched in the next. But the darkest hour to such may, with reason, be the joyfullest to him, who having faithfully acknowledged God in all his ways, perceives that now his work is over, and his reward at hand. Undoubtedly it is best to use no stronger expressions on this subject, than the less experienced may feel to be just else, words want force to describe the difference between these two conditions. It is true, not all pious souls are conscious of it, just at the time of their departure. Frequently their setting sun is obscured by insensibility: sometimes overcast by doubts and fears. But they shall instantly behold it rising again, to shine with unclouded and increasing lustre to all eternity. For light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in

heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness*.

Such then is the good influence of the fear of God: and his genuine fear can have no bad one. Reverence of a wise and holy Being will never mislead men into any thing wicked or weak. False religion, indeed, may do both: and so may false notions of virtue or friendship, or any other valuable quality. But this was never thought an argument in any case besides, against being governed by the true; and yet less ought it in the present. God must be worshipped by us in spirit and in truth *, let others worship him as wrongly as they will: and his laws must be obeyed, let ever so many mistake errors of their own for such. The danger of superstition is a very powerful reason, why religious belief and practice should be watched over, and directed right but cannot possibly be a reason, why dissolute profaneness should be encouraged or suffered. Let rational piety be thoroughly established, and superstition falls of course. But if the former be rooted out, the latter will certainly grow up in its place. There is a natural bent in human minds to believe and respect an invisible power: and if it be turned aside from pointing, in a proper manner, towards its proper object, it will soon acquire some other form; probably an absurd and pernicious one. Infidelity promises great freedom and enjoyment of life: but in fact it proves, in proportion as it prevails, a state of madness and confusion, of perpetual danger from others, of discomfort and desperate resolutions within men's own breasts: and therefore, after some trial of it, they will eagerly run away from it into the opposite extreme.

• Psalm xcvii. 11, 12.

† John iv. 24.