Sérm. CXCVII. SERMON CXCVIIL The Reafonablenefs offearing God more than Maná 641 LUKE XII. q., 5. And I fay unto you; my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can dó. But I Will forewarn you whom ye fhall fear r Fear him which after he loath killed, bath power to call into hell, yea, I fay unto you, Fear him. Proceed now to applythis ferions and weightyArgument, and to draw fome ufe- The scone ful Inferences from it. Sermon on I. That Religion loth not defign to annihilate and to root put our Paffions , but thu regulate and govern them ; it does not wholly forbid and condemn them, but de- termine them to their proper obje&s, and appoint them their meafures and propor- tions 5 it does not intend to extirpate our affe&ions, but to exercife and employ them aright; and to keep themwithin bounds. Religion does not aim to extirpate Our love, and joys and hope, and fear ; but to purifie and dire& them ,, telling us how we Ihould love God with the highest and aloft intenfedegree of afe&ion, as the fuprerne Good deferves, with all our Hearts, and with all our Souls, and with all our Minds, and with all our Strength, and other things only in fubordination to him. Religion refines our joy and delight from the dregs of fenfual pleafure; rai- ling them to bettet objefts; requiring us to rejoyce in the Lord evermore, and to re- joyce that sin names areewritten in heaven; it raifeth our hopes above the favour of Men, and tells us whom we should fear above all, the great and terrible God; vhofe Power is infinitely above thePower ofMen. Now that which propounds Obje&s to our Paílìons, and fets bounds to them, did never intend the utter extirpa- tion of them ; but this Religion doth. II. We may infer ]ikewife from hence , that it is not against the Genius of true Religion, to urge Men witharguments offear. No Man can imagine therewould Live been fo many fearful threatnings in Scripture, and efpécially in the Gofpel, if it had not been intended they should have fome effe& and influence upon use Some look upon all arguments of fear as legal, and gend'ring to bondage, as contra- ry tothegenuine Spirit and Temper of the Gofpel; and look upon Preachers; who urge Men with consderations taken from theJustice of God, and the terrors ofthe Lord, as of anunevangelical Spirit, as the Children ofthe bondwoman, and not of the free, as thofe who would bring Men back again to mount Sinai, to thunder and lightning, to blackness, and darknefs , and teinpefi : but will fuch Men allow our Saviour andhis Apoftles to have been Evangelical Preachers ? If fo, it is not con- trary to the Gofpel to úfearguments ofterror ; they thought themvery proper to deter Men from fin, and to bring them to Repentance, Ads 17. 3o, 31. But now cómmandeth all Men every where tò repent i becaufe he bath appointeda day, in the Which he willjudge the world in Righteoúfnefs. And the fame Apostle tells us; that one principal thing which made the Gofpel fo powerful for the Salvation of Men, was the terrible threatningsofit becaufe therein the wrath ofGod is revealed from ¡leaven; again? all ungodlinefs and unrighteoufiefs ofmen, Raim I. 16: And 2 Cdr. 5. io. the Apostle puts Chriftians in mind of the Judgment of Chrift We mull all fland before the 7udgmint Seat of Chrilll. And left-any should doubt whether this were a proper Argument to work upon Chriftians under the Gofpel, he tells us, that he mentioned it for this very purpofe. ver. r I. Knowing therefore the terrors ofthe Lord, We perfiradeMen Nnnr? Somc
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