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thy former loving-kindness, and even then I was afraid.'

Such is the history with which our text stands connected; and it is the history of an event that extends its consequences to the present day. Sin caused a separation between man and his Maker. The transgression of the command produced in the offender an aversion from him who had given it, and taught him to shun the Being in whom alone he could find his happiness. This propensity of a fallen nature was communicated, together with that nature itself, to all the posterity of Adam; and hence it comes to pass, that the heart of man, which is by nature prone to evil, and subject to the consciousness of guilt, is disposed, in proportion as it yields to the dominion of sin, to shrink from the presence of a heart-searching God, and even to regard that great Being with feelings of aversion and dismay.

There are some persons who may, perhaps, deem it needless to dwell upon this subject. It is, however, one of those truths to which the Most High has called the attention of mankind in the word of revelation; and this fact alone is sufficient to warrant, or rather to command, a diligent consideration of it. But, besides this, serious reflection on this subject is evidently adapted, by God's grace, to promote the virtues

of humility, gratitude, and zeal :-humility, because it will partially disclose to us the horrors of the state from which we have been, or at least from which we may be, rescued; gratitude, because it may give us a lively idea of the love of him who stooped and suffered to relieve us; and christian zeal, because it will say unto us, If such, O man! was the misery of thy state, and such the love of thy Saviour,-then haste thee to lay hold on the hope set before thee; haste thee to let thy Redeemer see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied!'

There exists in the heart of guilty man a certain alienation from God, founded on a feeling of terror. That is our position. But let us not take it up hastily and inconsiderately; let us consider how far it may be confirmed by experience. In order to do this fairly, we must take notice of various classes and descriptions of men ; and, in some cases, we must look beneath the surface of character. The subject, therefore, requires somewhat of a close attention; but, if properly considered, it will amply repay us for all the pains we may bestow upon it. What, then, does experience teach us concerning the natural feelings of fallen and guilty man with respect to the Most High? Adam, after he had sinned, was afraid of God. Does this terror continue to

be the attendant of ignorance and sin, or does it not?

I. Let us look at man, first, in his lowest and most debased condition,-as an untutored savage. He possesses, it is true, some notion of a God; he has, for the most part, an idea of some superior Being in whose hand are his present and future destinies; who rules the existing order of things, and will hereafter reign in the now invisible world. He knows, perhaps, thus much; but then, observe in how many cases this knowledge is only just enough to make him tremble: for immediately his diseased imagination distorts the idea of the Supreme, and arrays him in all the terrors of a cruel tyrant, or a malignant demon. This poor, untaught descendant of Adam fashions an idol of wood, or of stone; and, in so doing, he betrays his ignorance. He assigns to his idol some hideous form, or he frames it in some threatening posture; and hence appear the natural apprehensions of his heart, and the gloomy thoughts with which he contemplates the Almighty. Imagination can hardly paint forms more terrific than those of some heathen idols. You may see a threatening frown, malignant features, the colour of blood or of fire, or some other horrible device, adapted to disgust or to affright; and from this

you are to learn what kind of Being the ignorant worshipper imagines his God to be, and what are the feelings with which he ventures to approach him. Fear is the basis of superstition; it is the mainspring upon which many a false system of religion is made to turn; and the less enlightened is the system, the greater, for the most part, are the terrors with which it clothes the object of its worship.

II. It were well if rude and uninstructed tribes were the only people to whom God is an object of terror; but if we pass from them to nations that have received the clearest revelation concerning the nature and attributes of the Supreme, we find too many who still remain at a distance from him, and who dread him as a tyrant. The pious fear of the Lord is, indeed, the beginning of wisdom; and in this fear, as the wise man observes, "is strong confidence." This, however, is entirely different from that slavish dread of the Almighty, and consequent aversion from him, to which we are alluding. It is one thing to be afraid to offend our God, and another thing to be afraid of God himself because we know that we have offended, and are offending. The former is that love and dread of the Almighty for which the church encourages us to pray; the latter is that fear whereof it is distinctly and solemnly

affirmed that it "hath torment." Let us proceed to consider some cases in which that fear betrays itself, on the part of men who are living within sound of the Gospel.

And here, in the first place, we advert to the case of the open and bold blasphemer. blasphemer. It is seldom, indeed, that we hear the voice of the daring unbeliever who curses God to his face; seldom do we hear the horrible words of him who says there is no God, or no Providence,-who sports with death, and mocks at judgment,-who avowedly laughs at hell, and despises heaven. And if we were at any time to hear the impious language of a person so profane, we should feel, it is true, that his heart was wofully estranged from God; but, at first, perhaps, we should not suspect him to be really afraid of the Almighty; we should hardly suppose that one who could venture with his lips to make so light of the majesty and power of the Most High, was really, in his heart, afraid of him. But yet, it is even so. The daring words of a blasphemer are, perhaps more often than otherwise, the effusions of a frenzied spirit, confounded by the dread of impending vengeance, and rushing, with the fury of desperate cowardice, against the Invincible Avenger. Such an one strives to imagine, and professes to believe, that there is no God, only because God, as he is, is a Being too dreadful, a fire too consuming, with re

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