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SERMON I.

The wisdom of fearing GOD.

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Јов XXVIII. 28.

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

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Ankind is generally ambitious to be thought wife and intelligent. Knowledge is the pride of human nature; and there is nothing that we bear so ill as the imputation of ignorance and folly. To be reproached on the account of external things, such as a mean extraction, and a mean _condition, a deformed body, or a nar

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row fortune, is not at all agreeable: but

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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 expose themselves rather than us; and betray their own weakness and folly, in despising us for things which give no just occafion for contempt, because they do not detract from real merit. But want of judgment and difcretion argues either dulness and stupidity, or negligence and inattention: both of which are fo disgraceful, and so 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 uneasiness and disturbance.

Most men are willing to be reputed wife: but in vain do they pretend to wisdom, whilst they are destitute of the fear of the Lord; for it is this which God himself hath distinguished by the name of wisdom. And unto man he said, i. e. God faid, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wifdom. Job had before been difcourfing concerning the wisdom of God in the works of creation; which he acknowledges to be above the comprehenfion of any creature, and only to be fathomed 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 sea faith it is not with me. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and Seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he 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 he said, 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 description of the fear of

the Lord.

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

Thirdly, Make application.

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First,

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

By the fear of the Lord is meant religion and virtue. It is a term that frequently occurs in the old testament; and it is put for the whole of our duty. Solomon says, that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, Prov. VIII. 13. God says to Abraham, Gen. XXII. 12. Now I know that thou fearest God, feeing thou hast not withheld thy fon, thine only fon from me. 'Tis as if he had said, 'thy obedience in so difficult and

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trying a case, is an undeniable proof * of thy being a good and religious man.' It is faid, I Kings XVIII. 3. Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. And it is obfervable, that the historian justifies this character which he had given of him, by instancing in an act of kindness which he did to the servants of God; ver. 4. For it was so 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 oppressed prophets, is made use 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 same thing may be argued from Pfalm CXI. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wifdom; 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 verse, is expressed by doing his commandments in the latter. And so in the text, to depart from evil, in the last clause, is plainly of the fame import with the fear of the Lord, in the first. 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 vast importance, that it deserves to be more partily explained.

I. The fear of the Lord supposes the belief of some principles: and particularly these two; viz. that there is a God, and that he will reward virtue and goodness. Thus the apostle 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 testament

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