The fourth (and last) volume of discourses, or sermons, on several scriptures

O God, the mighty and terrible God, that keepest Covenant and Mercy. Let us now consider what there is in the Mercy and Favour of God, as he is a reconciled God unto us and in Covenant with us, that may justly render him to be the Object of our Fear.

¹First, The consideration of that dreadful way and method that God took to manifest his Mercy towards us, is sufficient to affect our Hearts with Fear, though we stand fully possessed of his favour. In Gen. 28. when God had made many gracious Promises all along that Chapter unto Jacob, of blessing of him, and keeping him ⟨p. 257⟩in all his ways, of multiplying his Seed as the dust of the Earth, you would think this was no terrible Thing; and yet because God reveals this Mercy to him in an awful and amazing manner, a Gap is opened in Heaven, a bright Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven; God on the top of it, Angels on every Round of it; though the Message was joyful, yet the strange kind of delivering of the Message makes Jacob cry out, How dreadful is this place, it is no other than the Gate of Heaven! The very Gate of Heaven becomes dreadful when it is represented in such a Majestical manner. But now the way that God took for his Mercy to arrive at us, is much more dreadful than any such Dream or Vision, and therefore we should be the more deeply affected with Fear and Trembling, even then when God speaks Peace and Pardon to us; for if we consider either the Terms upon which he is become ours, or the way by which he discovereth himself to be ours; both of them are full of Dread and Terror.

1. 11. That dreadful way that God took to manifest his mercy to us, may justly cause us to fear him.