rt. It is obvious that the fear of punishment is not a
sufficient restraint to deter man, at all times, from sin; for in the
ebullition of impetuous passions, the intellect becomes offuscated and
impeded in the exercise of its functions, or frequently is itself
pressed into the service of the predominating passion. Not so the awe
and reverence inspired by the majesty of the Supreme King of the
universe. It pervades all the heart, disposes it to feelings of
submission and obedience, convinces it that man is at all times in the
presence of his Maker, and thus prevents inordinate material appetites
from bursting forth and rising forcibly to uncontrollable preponderance.
Hence it is that the fear of God, taken in the latter sense, is a
powerful prop which supports the religious edifice, is the most
effectual and valuable lesson we derive from the revelation of the
Divine attributes.

LXXXII. From these two principal duties, spring, as corollaries, others
of no less importance, which come, also, within the sphere of the first
cardinal point of biblical revelation, the knowledge of God. He, who
truly loves and fears God, will surely feel the necessity of placing in
Him exclusively all his trust, for he is convinced that there is no
being in nature, besides God, that can offer an infallible support to
human hopes. He will find in his heart an almost irrepressible impulse
to praise the Divine perfections, to extol His glory, to offer sincere
homage to the Sovereign of the universe, to worship and serve Him with
purity of heart, to thank Him for favours received, to supplicate Him
for help, to confess to Him sins committed, and to ask His pardon with
contrite spirit. All these and other like acts of filial dependence and
piety, find their expression in that elevated form of external worship
called _prayer_, which, whether exercised publicly in appropriate and
consecrated temples, or recited in the solitude of the domestic
closet,[4] whether strictly following an established formulary, or
pouring out the impulsive feelings of the heart, is always an urgent
want and an indispensable duty of every religious man. Lastly, the true
love and fear of God imply the obligation of avoiding, in all that
pertains to Divine worship, everything that might have the appearance of
idolatry, of intrusion of intermediate powers, or of any superstition
whatever; above all clearly emerges the duty of not abusing the holy
name of God, either by utte