Perhaps it may be imagined, that this is a state of blessedness attainable by few, if any, upon earth: some may urge the text against us, and say that this blessedness is promised only to perfect love, which mortals can never hope to attain; and that it is inconsistent with those numerous passages of Scripture, which admonish us of the necessity of fear; that in the admirable collect of our Church for this day, {137} we are instructed to pray for “a perpetual fear and love of God’s holy name.” How then can we possess the love which casteth out fear? I will endeavour to reply to these observations; and pray God that we may all derive, from the consideration of this subject, a more true and lively and abiding sense of the nature and necessity of that love towards Him, which, as His adopted children and the inheritors of His kingdom, we are absolutely bound to entertain. Unquestionably true it is, that the fear of God is, and ever has been, indispensable to all His faithful servants; as well under the mild dispensation of the gospel, as under the severer discipline of the law. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” {138a} “Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear Him.” {138b} “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in His wings.” {138c} And accordingly the Apostle observes, “In every nation, he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.” {138d} “His mercy is on them that fear Him, from generation to generation.” {138e} But what is the nature of this fear? It is not a slavish principle, not a disturbing and distressful feeling. It consists in an awful sense of God’s glorious perfections; of His divine Majesty, unspotted purity, infinite knowledge and power; of His presence pervading every part of the creation, even the very mind of every intellectual being; such a sense, as to fill us with the deepest humility, perceiving ourselves unworthy even to stand in the sight of Him, “who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;” such a sense, habitually impressed upon the heart, as inclines and constrains us to “follow the good” which He loves, and “depart from the evil” which He abhors. And this principle is plainly and entirely consistent with the sincerest love: our love indeed is powerfully increased by the reflection, that our heavenly Father, of whose attributes we form conceptions so awful and sublime, should condescend to bestow such regard upon His frail and fallen, His disobedient and rebellious children; it may teach us to exclaim with the liveliest emotions of gratitude, as well as with humble adoration and astonishment, “Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him?” {139} Good reason, therefore, had the framers of our Liturgy, for directing us to implore the united influence of a perpetual fear and love of God’s holy name.