patience and meekness, his compassion and love towards the children of men, even towards his most inveterate enemies : these are to be the dispositions which we are to cultivate, and in which we are to grow up even to perfection'. Whatever we have attained, we are to "forget it all, and press forward for more*^," and to "grow up into him in all things as our living Head'." All this we are to do "in the fear of God." This expressio7i must be particularly marked : for in " the fear of God" the perfection of holiness consists. By " the fear of God," I understand that tenderness of conscience, and watch- fulness of mind, that guards against even a thought which would be displeasing to God. There is a susceptibility of impression (sucli as exists in the apple of the eye when touched by the smallest mote in the air), which we should keep alive in our hearts in reference to sin, and have in uninterrupted exercise. In this the Lord Jesus Christ himself pre-emi- nently excelled, being " of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord ™ :" and it is by this that God has engaged to perfect his work within us, " causing us to fear him for ever," and " putting his fear into our hearts that we may not depart from him"."
This is the crown of all Christian graces and attainments : without which nothing is of any value. It is the lowered tint which marks the ripeness and maturity of our choicest fruit : it is that by which the man of God is perfected, and the image of God is completed in the soul.]
The mention of the promises in connexion with this, leads me to shew, II. The use of the promises in the production of it —
St. Peter tells us, that '' by the promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature":" and to the same effect does St. Paul speak in the words before us. It is by the promises that we are to accomplish the task assigned us in the text. For this blessed work they are well fitted : for they operate,
1. In a way of motive —
[Who can contemplate the promises in the preceding context, and not feel his obligations to Almighty God so great as to outweigh every other consideration under heaven ? Does
* 1 Thess. V. 23. ^ phil. iii. 13, 14.
' Eph. iv. 15. ■>' Isai. xi. 2, 3.
" Jer. xxxii. 38 — 40. and Isai. xi. 2, 3. These passages should he carefully noticed and compared in this view. 0 2 Pet. i. 4.