It seems to me as if this grace of fear was the darling grace, the
grace that God sets his heart upon at the highest rate. As it were,
he embraces and lays in his bosom the man that hath and grows strong
in this grace of the fear of God.
This grace of fear is the softest and most tender of God's honor of
all the graces. It is that tender, sensible, and trembling grace,
that keepeth the soul upon its continual watch. To keep a good watch
is, you know, a wonderful safety to a place that is in continual
danger because of the enemy. Why, this is the grace that setteth the
watch, and that keepeth the watchman awake.
A man cannot watch as he should, if he be destitute of fear: let him
be confident, and he sleeps; he unadvisedly lets into the garrison
those that should not come there.
This fear of the Lord is the pulse of the soul; and as some pulses
heat stronger, some weaker, so is this grace of fear in the soul.
They that beat best are a sign of best life; but they that beat
worst, show that life is present. As long as the pulse beats, we
count not that the man is dead, though weak; and this fear, where it
is, preserves to everlasting life. Pulses there are also that are
intermitting; to wit, such as have their times of beating for a
little, a little time to stop, and beat again: true, these are
dangerous pulses, which, nevertheless, are a sign of life. This fear
of God also is sometimes like this intermitting pulse; there are
times when it forbears to work, and then it works again. David had
an intermitting pulse; Peter had an intermitting pulse, as also many
other of the saints of God. I call that an intermitting pulse, with
reference to the fear we speak of, when there is some obstruction by
the workings of corruption in the soul: I say, some obstruction from
and hinderance of the continual motion of this fear of God; yet none
of these--though they are various, and some of them signs of
weakness--are signs of death, but life. "I will put my fear in their
heart, and they shall not depart from me."
Where the fear of the Lord and sin are, it will be with the soul as
it was with Israel when Amri and Tibni strove to reign among them
both at once. One of them must be put to death, they cannot live
together. Sin must down, for the fear of the Lord begetteth in the
soul a hatred against it, an abhorrence of it; therefore sin must
die, that is, as to the affections and lusts of it.
"Thy heart shall fear and be enlarged"--enlarged towards God,
enlarged to his ways, enlarged to his holy people, enlarged in love
after the salvation of others. Indeed, when this fear of God is
wanting, though the profession be never so famous, the heart is shut
up and straitened, and nothing is done in that princely free spirit,
which is called "the spirit of the fear of the Lord," but with
grudging, legally, or with desire of vain glory. Psa. 51:12; Isa.
11:2.
If a king will keep a town secure to himself, let him be sure to man
sufficiently the main fort thereof. If he have twenty thousand men
well armed, if they lie scattered here and there, the town may be
taken for all that; but if the main fort be well manned, then the
town is more secure. What if a man had all the parts, yea, all the
arts of men and angels, that will not keep the heart to God.
But when the heart, this principal fort, is possessed with the fear
of God, then he is safe, not else.
O they are a sweet couple, to wit, a Christian conversation coupled
with fear.
Your great, ranting, swaggering roysters, that are ignorant of the
nature of this fear of God, count it a poor, sneaking, pitiful,
cowardly spirit in men to fear and tremble before the Lord. But
whoso looks back to jails and gibbets, to the sword and the burning
stake, shall see in the martyrs THERE the most mighty and invincible
spirit that has been in the world.
This grace of fear can make the man that in many other things is not
capable of serving God, serve him better than those that have all
else without it. Poor Christian man, thou hast scarce been able to
do any thing for God all thy days, but only to fear the Lord. Thou
art no preacher, and so canst not do him service that way: thou art
no rich man, and so canst not do him service with outward substance:
thou art no wise man, and so canst not do any thing that way; but
here is thy mercy, thou fearest God. Though thou canst not preach,
thou canst fear God. Though thou hast no bread to feed the belly,
nor fleece to clothe the back of the poor, thou canst fear God. O
how blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, because this duty of
fearing of God is an act of the mind, and may be done by the man
that is destitute of all things but that holy and blessed mind.
Blessed, therefore, is that man; for God hath not laid the comfort
of his people in the doing of external duties, nor the salvation of
their souls, but in believing, loving, and fearing God. Neither hath
he laid these things in actions done in their health, nor in the due
management of their most excellent parts, but in the receiving of
Christ, and fear of God; the which, good Christian, thou mayest do,
and do acceptably, even though thou shouldst lie bedrid all thy
days; thou mayest also be sick and believe, be sick and love, be
sick and fear God, and so be a blessed man.
And here the poor Christian hath something to answer them that
reproach him for his ignoble pedigree, and shortness of the glory of
the wisdom of the world. True, may that man say, I was taken out of
the dunghill, I was born in a base and low estate; but I fear God. I
have no worldly greatness, nor excellency of natural parts, but I
fear God.
When Obadiah met with Elijah, he gave him no worldly and fantastical
compliment, nor did he glory in his promotion by Ahab the king of
Israel, but gravely and after a gracious manner said, "I thy servant
fear the Lord from my youth." Also, when the mariners inquired of
Jonah, saying, "What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou;
what is thy country, and of what people art thou?" this was the
answer he gave them: "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of
heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land." Jonah 1:8, 9.
Indeed this answer is the highest and most noble in the world, nor
are there any, save a few, that in truth can thus express
themselves, though other answers they have enough: most can say, I
have wisdom, or might, or riches, or friends, or health, or the
like; these are common, and are greatly boasted in by the most; but
the man that feareth God can say, when they say to him, "What art
thou?" "I thy servant do fear the Lord:" he is the man of many, he is
to be honored of men, though this, to wit, that he feareth the Lord,
is all that he hath in this world. He hath the thing, the honor, the
life, and glory, that is lasting; his blessedness will abide when
all men's but his is buried in the dust, in shame and contempt.
Dost thou fear God? The least DRACHM of that fear giveth the
privilege to be blessed with the greatest saint: "He will bless them
that fear the Lord, small and great." Psalm 115:13. Art thou in
thine own thoughts, or in the thoughts of others, of these last
small ones, small in grace, small in gifts, small in esteem upon
this account? Yet if thou fearest God, if thou fearest God indeed,
thou art certainly blessed with the best of saints. The least star
stands as fixed as the brightest of them all, in heaven. "He shall
bless them that fear him, small and great." He shall bless them,
that is, with the same blessing of eternal life. For the difference
in degrees of grace in saints doth not make the blessing, as to its
nature, differ. It is the same heaven, the same life, the same
glory, and the same eternity of felicity, that they are in the text
promised to be blessed with. Christ at the day of judgment
particularly mentioneth and owneth the least: "Inasmuch as ye did it
not to one of the least." The least then was there, in his kingdom
and in his glory, as well as the greatest of all.
Dost thou fear God? Why, the Holy Ghost hath on purpose indited for
thee a whole psalm to sing concerning thyself. So that thou mayest
even as thou art, in thy calling, bed, journey, or whenever, sing
out thine own blessed and happy condition to thine own comfort, and
the comfort of thy fellows. The psalm is called the 128th Psalm.
"Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; he is their help and
their shield." Psalm 115:11. Now what a privilege is this: an
exhortation in general to sinners, as sinners, to trust in him, is a
privilege great and glorious; but for a man to be singled out from
his neighbors, for a man to be spoken to from heaven as it were by
name, and to be told that God has given him a license, a special and
peculiar grant to trust in him, this is abundantly more; and yet
this is the grant that God has given that man that feareth the Lord.
"O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that
fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that
seek the Lord"--that fear him--"shall want no good thing." Psalm
34:9, 10.
Not any thing that God sees good for them, shall those men want that
fear the Lord. If health will do them good, if sickness will do them
good, if riches will do them good, if poverty will do them good, if
life will do them good, if death will do them good, then they shall
not want them; neither shall any of these come nigh them, if they
will not do them good.
Sinner, hast thou deferred to fear the Lord? Is thy heart still so
stubborn as not to say yet, Let us fear the Lord? O, the Lord hath
taken notice of this thy rebellion, and is preparing some dreadful
judgments for thee. "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the
Lord; shall not my soul be avenged of such a nation as this?"
Sinner, why shouldst thou pull vengeance down upon thee? why
shouldst thou pull vengeance down from heaven upon thee? Look up;
perhaps thou hast already been pulling this great while, to pull it
down upon thee. Oh, pull no longer; why shouldst thou be thine own
executioner? Fall down upon thy knees, man, and up with thy heart
and thy hands to the God that dwells in the heavens; cry, yea, cry
aloud, "Lord, unite my heart to fear thy name, and do not harden
mine heart from thy fear." Thus holy men have cried before thee, and
by crying have prevented judgment.