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" of Chrift; and it doth not yet appear what we "shall be; but we know, that when he shall pear, we fhall be like him, for we fhall fee him as he is: "We fhall behold his glory, the "glory as of the only begotten of the Father, "full of grace and truth. "The throne "of grace and truth, the throne of God "and of the Lamb, fhall be there; and his "fervants fhall ferve him; and they fhall fee "his face; and his name fhall be on their "forehead."

SERMON IV.

The fear of the Divine goodness..

By JOHN SCOTLAND, V. D. M..

HOSEA, iii. 5.

Afterward fhall the children of Ifrael return, and feek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness,. in the latter days.

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Shall fear the Lord, and his goodness.

HE prophet Hofea was fent to reprove the people of God for their idolatry and other fins. He denounces against them the divine judgements; and, in particular, threatcns them, as in the preceding verfe, with the lofs of all their public privileges, civil and reli-gious a threatening that was literally fulfilled, upon the people of the ten tribes, when they were carried captive by the king of Affyria; upon the Jews, when they were carried captive into Babylon; and afterwards, ftill more remarkably, in their utter defolation by the Romans. But in the midst of their threaten-ings, thefe holy men, the prophets are directed to mingle confolation. They fuggeft to the chofen people the hopes of recovery upon their repentance; and this principally by pointing.

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out the coming of the Meffiah, that great deliverer, in whom their defires fhould center.

It was indeed foreseen, that when he fhould. appear, the people of the Jews, difappointed. in their carnal expectations, would generally reject him. At the fame time, it was alfo foretold, that the happy period fhould arrive when, the eyes of their understanding, being enlightened, they would as generally receive him, and. "all Ifrael fhould be faved *." And in the verfe where the text lies, the prophet gives an account of their behaviour on that occafion : "Afterward fhall the children of Ifrael return, "and feek the Lord their God, and. David "their king," (the Meffiah fo called, of whom David was an eminent type), " and fhall fear "the Lord and his goodness in the latter ❝ days.”

The phrafe," fhall fear the Lord and his "goodness," is a Hebrew manner of speech, where a fubject and its quality, instead of being connected under that form, are connected as two fubjects. Thus Samuel reproving Saul for difobeying the command of God, faith, "Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry † the fame as if it had been faid, "Idolatrous " iniquity." And thus, in the paffage before us, "to fear the Lord and his goodness," fimply means "to fear the divine goodness."

As thefe words refer to the times of the gofpel, and are plainly defcriptive of that spirit which belongs to the Chriftian character, it : Rom. xị. 26.

↑ 1.Sam. xv. 23•.

will be of importance for us to confider this matter, and the ufe to which it ought to be improved. This, therefore, I fhall attempt in your hearing.

"THEY fhall fear the Lord, and his good-: " nefs."

Perhaps it may be thought, that as goodness is the proper object of love, and the gospel is the most illuftrious difplay of the divine goodnefs, it would have been fitter if the prophet had mentioned love, rather than fear, as the: movement to be here excited. But the prophet! knew well what he faid: he knew the false bias of the human heart, and fuited his expreffion accordingly. There is a fear belonging to the fervice of an arbitrary mafter, which is the fear of a flave. There is a fear that men have in a tedious and rigorous fervice, a failure in which fubjects them to certain and prefent punifhment; and fuch was the fear of the Jews under the Mofaic law. But there is alfo a fear: of which goodness itfelf is the object, and which very properly belongs to the difpenfation of the gofpel. The mildnefs and mercy of that difpenfation ftrongly folicit our love. But love may be true, or it may be spurious. All men are naturally affected with the bleffings of goodnefs; but all are not affected as they ought to be. And therefore, fuppofing men to love, in fome fort, the bleffings of the divine goodness, the prophet takes care that their love be of a virtuous fort, by fuggefting

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the exercise of fear of fear, by no means incompatible with love; but, on the contrary, an effential part of it.

The affection excited in our fouls by the divine goodness, implies delight, reverence, and fear of offending: all which are intimately connected, and all of them included in love. For, the love of God is a mixed affection; though, to mark the diftinction between the feveral parts more strongly, delight hath commonly appropriated the term love, while the other two have been expreffed, as in the text, by fear. I fhall be frequently obliged to speak, for the fake of accuracy, agreeably to this diftinction; while yet it is the purpose of this difcourfe to fhow, that where love is genuine, reverence, and fear of offending, are neceffarily implied.

WHEN our benefactor among men is of a rank much fuperior to our own, we look up to him with awe, as well as with love. And is not this natural and proper? or, on the contrary, muft the one be fuppofed to deftroy the other? Common language, one should think, might teach men otherwife; and that it is the nature of love, in fuch a cafe, to breed awe, while nothing is more usual than to fay of one who loves another, though an equal, or even an inferior, that he treats him with respect. When it is not a creature, then, but the Creator, the Most High over all the earth, who conferreth upon us the bleffings of his good

nefs;