the groundwork of it is good. I told you before what this fear is;
namely, it is the fear of damnation. Now the ground for this fear is
good, as is manifest by these particulars. 1. The soul feareth
damnation, and that rightly, because it is in its sins. 2. The soul
feareth damnation rightly, because it hath not faith in Christ, but is
at present under the law. 3. The soul feareth damnation rightly now,
because by sin, the law, and for want of faith, the wrath of God
abideth on it. But now, although thus far this fear of God is good and
godly, yet after Christ by the Spirit in the word of the gospel is
revealed to us, and we made to accept of him as so revealed and offered
to us by a true and living faith; this fear, to wit, of damnation, is
no longer good, but ungodly. Nor doth the Spirit of God ever work it in
us again. Now we do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear,
that is to say, to fear damnation, but we have received the spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Father, Father. But I would not be mistaken,
when I say, that this fear is no longer godly. I do not mean with
reference to the essence and habit of it, for I believe it is the same
in the seed which shall afterwards grow up to a higher degree, and into
a more sweet and gospel current and manner of working, but I mean
reference to this act of fearing damnation, I say it shall never by the
Spirit be managed to that work; it shall never bring forth that fruit
more. And my reasons are,
[Reasons why the Spirit of God cannot work this ungodly fear.]
1. Because that the soul by closing through the promise, by the Spirit,
with Jesus Christ, is removed off of that foundation upon which it
stood when it justly feared damnation. It hath received now forgiveness
of sin, it is now no more under the law, but in Jesus Christ by faith;
there is “therefore now no condemnation to it” (Acts 26:18; Rom 6:14,
8:1). The groundwork, therefore, being now taken away, the Spirit
worketh that fear no more.
2. He cannot, after he hath come to the soul as a spirit of adoption,
come again as a spirit of bondage to put the soul into his first fear;
to wit, a fear of eternal damnation, because he cannot say and unsay,
do and undo. As a spirit of adoption he told me that my sins were
forgiven me, that I was included in the covenant of grace, that God was
my Father through Christ, that I was under the promise of salvation,
and that this calling and gift of God to me is permanent, and without
repentance. And do you think, that after he hath told me this, and
sealed up the truth of it to my precious soul, that he will come to me,
and tell me that I am yet in my sins, under the curse of the law and
the eternal wrath of God? No, no, the word of the gospel is not yea,
yea; nay, nay. It is only yea, and amen; it is so, “as God is true” (2
Cor 1:17-20).
3. The state therefore of the sinner being changed, and that, too, by
the Spirit’s changing his dispensation, leaving off to be now as a
spirit of bondage to put us in fear, and coming to our heart as the
spirit of adoption to make us cry, Father, Father, he cannot go back to
his first work again; for if so, then he must gratify, yea, and also
ratify, that profane and popish doctrine, forgiven to-day, unforgiven
to-morrow—a child of God to-day, a child of hell to-morrow; but what
saith the Scriptures? “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household
of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord;
in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit” (Eph 2:19-22).
Object. But this is contrary to my experience. Why, Christian, what is
thy experience? Why, I was at first, as you have said, possessed with a
fear of damnation, and so under the power of the spirit of bondage.
Well said, and how was it then? Why, after some time of continuance in
these fears, I had the spirit of adoption sent to me to seal up to my
soul the forgiveness of sins, and so he did; and was also helped by the
same Spirit, as you have said, to call God Father, Father. Well said,
and what after that? Why, after that I fell into as great fears as ever
I was in before.[12]
Answ. All this may be granted, and yet nevertheless what I have said
will abide a truth; for I have not said that after the spirit of
adoption is come, a Christian shall not again be in as great fears, for
he may have worse than he had at first; but I say, that after the
spirit of adoption is come, the spirit of bondage, as such, is sent of
God no more, to put us into those fears. For, mark, for we “have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” Let the word be true,
whatever thy experience is. Dost thou not understand me?
After the Spirit of God has told me, and also helped me to believe it,
that the Lord for Christ’s sake hath forgiven mine iniquities: he tells
me no more that they are not forgiven. After the Spirit of God has
helped me, by Christ, to call God my Father, he tells me no more that
the devil is my father. After he hath told me that I am not under the
law, but under grace, he tells me no more that I am not under grace,
but under the law, and bound over by it, for my sins, to the wrath and
judgment of God; but this is the fear that the Spirit, as a spirit of
bondage, worketh in the soul at first.
Quest. Can you give me further reason yet to convict me of the truth of
what you say?
Answ. Yes.
1. Because as the Spirit cannot give himself the lie, so he cannot
overthrow his own order of working, nor yet contradict that testimony
that his servants, by his inspiration, hath given of his order of
working with them. But he must do the first, if he saith to us—and that
after we have received his own testimony, that we are under grace—that
yet we are under sin, the law, and wrath.
And he must do the second, if—after he hath gone through the first work
on us as a spirit of bondage, to the second as a spirit of adoption—he
should overthrow as a spirit of bondage again what before he had built
as a spirit of adoption.
And the third must therefore needs follow, that is, he overthroweth the
testimony of his servants; for they have said, that now we receive the
spirit of bondage again to fear no more; that is, after that we by the
Holy Ghost are enabled to call God Father, Father.
2. This is evident also, because the covenant in which now the soul is
interested abideth, and is everlasting, not upon the supposition of my
obedience, but upon the unchangeable purpose of God, and the efficacy
of the obedience of Christ, whose blood also hath confirmed it. It is
“ordered in all things, and sure,” said David; and this, said he, “is
all my salvation” (2 Sam 23:5). The covenant then is everlasting in
itself, being established upon so good a foundation, and therefore
standeth in itself everlastingly bent for the good of them that are
involved in it. Hear the tenor of the covenant, and God’s attesting of
the truth thereof—“This is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into
their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a
God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every
man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord;
for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest; for I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
I will remember no more” (Heb 8:10-12). Now if God will do thus unto
those that he hath comprised in his everlasting covenant of grace, then
he will remember their sins no more, that is, unto condemnation—for so
it is that he doth forget them; then cannot the Holy Ghost, who also is
one with the Father and the Son, come to us again, even after we are
possessed with these glorious fruits of this covenant, as a spirit of
bondage, to put us in fear of damnation.
3. The Spirit of God, after it has come to me as a spirit of adoption,
can come to me no more as a spirit of bondage, to put me in fear, that
is, with my first fears; because, by that faith that he, even he
himself, hath wrought in me, to believe and call God “Father, Father,”
I am united to Christ, and stand no more upon mine own legs, in mine
own sins, or performances; but in his glorious righteousness before
him, and before his Father; but he will not cast away a member of his
body, of his flesh, and of his bones; nor will he, that the Spirit of
God should come as a spirit of bondage to put him into a grounded fear
of damnation, that standeth complete before God in the righteousness of
Christ; for that is an apparent contradiction.[13]
Quest. But may it not come again as a spirit of bondage, to put me into
my first fears for my good?
Answ. The text saith the contrary; for we “have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear.” Nor is God put to it for want of wisdom, to
say and unsay, do and undo, or else he cannot do good. When we are
sons, and have received the adoption of children, he doth not use to
send the spirit after that to tell us we are slaves and heirs of
damnation, also that we are without Christ, without the promise,
without grace, and without God in the world; and yet this he must do if
it comes to us after we have received him as a spirit of adoption, and
put us, as a spirit of bondage, in fear as before.
[This ungodly fear wrought by the spirit of the devil.]
Quest. But by what spirit is it then that I am brought again into
fears, even into the fears of damnation, and so into bondage?
Answ. By the spirit of the devil, who always labours to frustrate the
faith, and hope, and comfort of the godly.
Quest. How doth that appear?
Answ. 1. By the groundlessness of such fears. 2. By the
unseasonableness of them. 3. By the effects of them.
1. By the groundlessness of such fears. The ground is removed; for a
grounded fear of damnation is this—I am yet in my sins, in a state of
nature, under the law, without faith, and so under the wrath of God.
This, I say, is the ground of the fear of damnation, the true ground to
fear it; but now the man that we are talking of, is one that hath the
ground of this fear taken away by the testimony and seal of the spirit
of adoption. He is called, justified, and has, for the truth of this
his condition, received the evidence of the spirit of adoption, and
hath been thereby enabled to call God “Father, Father.” Now he that
hath received this, has the ground of the fear of damnation taken from
him; therefore his fear, I say, being without ground, is false, and so
no work of the Spirit of God.
2. By the unseasonableness of them. This spirit always comes too late.
It comes after the spirit of adoption is come. Satan is always for
being too soon or too late. If he would have men believe they are
children, he would have them believe it while they are slaves, slaves
to him and their lusts. If he would have them believe they are slaves,
it is when they are sons, and have received the spirit of adoption, and
the testimony, by that, of their sonship before. And this evil is
rooted even in his nature—“He is a liar, and the father of it”; and his
lies are not known to saints more than in this, that he labours always
to contradict the work and order of the Spirit of truth (John 8).
3. It also appears by the effects of such fears. For there is a great
deal of difference betwixt the natural effects of these fears which are
wrought indeed by the spirit of bondage, and those which are wrought by
the spirit of the devil afterwards. The one, to wit, the fears that are
wrought by the spirit of bondage, causeth us to confess the truth, to
wit, that we are Christless, graceless, faithless, and so at present;
that is, while he is so working in a sinful and damnable case; but the
other, to wit, the spirit of the devil, when he comes, which is after
the spirit of adoption is come, he causeth us to make a lie; that is,
to say we are Christless, graceless, and faithless. Now this, I say, is
wholly, and in all part of it, a lie, and HE is the father of it.
Besides, the direct tendency of the fear that the Spirit of God, as a
spirit of bondage, worketh in the soul, is to cause us to come
repenting home to God by Jesus Christ, but these latter fears tend
directly to make a man, he having first denied the work of God, as he
will, if he falleth in with them, to run quite away from God, and from
his grace to him in Christ, as will evidently appear if thou givest but
a plain and honest answer to these questions following.
[This fear driveth a man from God.]
Quest. 1. Do not these fears make thee question whether there was ever
a work of grace wrought in thy soul? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do.
Quest. 2. Do not these fears make thee question whether ever thy first
fears were wrought by the Holy Spirit of God? Answ. Yes, verily, that
they do. Quest. 3. Do not these fears make thee question whether ever
thou hast had, indeed, any true comfort from the Word and Spirit of
God? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 4. Dost thou not find
intermixed with these fears plain assertions that thy first comforts
were either from thy fancy, or from the devil, and a fruit of his
delusions? Answ. Yes, verily, that I do. Quest. 5. Do not these fears
weaken thy heart in prayer? Answ. Yes, that they do. Quest. 6. Do not
these fears keep thee back from laying hold of the promise of salvation
by Jesus Christ? Answ. Yes; for I think if I were deceived before, if I
were comforted by a spirit of delusion before, why may it not be so
again? so I am afraid to take hold of the promise. Quest. 7. Do not
these fears tend to the hardening of thy heart, and to the making of
thee desperate? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 8. Do not these
fears hinder thee from profiting in hearing or reading of the Word?
Answ. Yes, verily, for still whatever I hear or read, I think nothing
that is good belongs to me. Quest. 9. Do not these fears tend to the
stirring up of blasphemies in thy heart against God? Answ. Yes, to the
almost distracting of me. Quest. 10. Do not these fears make thee
sometimes think, that it is in vain for thee to wait upon the Lord any
longer? Answ. Yes, verily; and I have many times almost come to this
conclusion, that I will read, pray, hear, company with God’s people, or
the like, no longer.
Well, poor Christian, I am glad that thou hast so plainly answered me;
but, prithee, look back upon thy answer. How much of God dost thou
think is in these things? how much of his Spirit, and the grace of his
Word? Just none at all; for it cannot be that these things can be the
true and natural effects of the workings of the Spirit of God: no, not
as a spirit of bondage. These are not his doings. Dost thou not see the
very paw of the devil in them; yea, in every one of thy ten
confessions? Is there not palpably high wickedness in every one of the
effects of this fear? I conclude, then, as I began, that the fear that
the spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage, worketh, is good and godly,
not only because of the author, but also because of the ground and
effects; but yet it can last no longer as such, as producing the
aforesaid conclusion, than till the Spirit, as the spirit of adoption,
comes; because that then the soul is manifestly taken out of the state
and condition into which it had brought itself by nature and sin, and
is put into Christ, and so by him into a state of life and blessedness
by grace. Therefore, if first fears come again into thy soul, after
that the spirit of adoption hath been with thee, know they come not
from the Spirit of God, but apparently from the spirit of the devil,
for they are a lie in themselves, and their effects are sinful and
devilish.
Object. But I had also such wickedness as those in my heart at my first
awakening, and therefore, by your argument, neither should that be but
from the devil.
Answ. So far forth as such wickedness was in thy heart, so far did the
devil and thine own heart seek to drive thee to despair, and drown thee
there; but thou hast forgot the question; the question is not whether
then thou wast troubled with such iniquities, but whether thy fears of
damnation at that time were not just and good, because grounded upon
thy present condition, which was, for that thou wast out of Christ, in
thy sins, and under the curse of the law; and whether now, since the
spirit of adoption is come unto thee, and hath thee, and hath done that
for thee as hath been mentioned; I say, whether thou oughtest for
anything whatsoever to give way to the same fear, from the same ground
of damnation; it is evident thou oughtest not, because the ground, the
cause, is removed.
Object. But since I was sealed to the day of redemption, I have
grievously sinned against God, have not I, therefore, cause to fear, as
before? may not, therefore, the spirit of bondage be sent again to put
me in fear, as at first? Sin was the first cause, and I have sinned
now.
Answ. No, by no means; for we have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear; that is, God hath not given it us, “for God hath not
given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind” (2 Tim 1:7). If, therefore, our first fears come upon us again,
after that we have received at God’s hands the spirit of love, of
power, and of a sound mind, it is to be refused, though we have
grievously sinned against our God. This is manifest from 1 Samuel
12:20; “Fear not; ye have done all this wickedness.” That is, not with
that fear which would have made them fly from God, as concluding that
they were not now his people. And the reason is, because sin cannot
dissolve the covenant into which the sons of God, by his grace, are
taken. “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I
visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with
stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail” (Psa 89:30-33). Now, if sin
doth not dissolve the covenant; if sin doth not cast me out of this
covenant, which is made personally with the Son of God, and into the
hands of which by the grace of God I am put, then ought I not, though I
have sinned, to fear with my first fears.
Sin, after that the spirit of adoption is come, cannot dissolve the
relation of Father and son, of Father and child. And this the church
did rightly assert, and that when her heart was under great hardness,
and when she had the guilt of erring from his ways, saith she.
“Doubtless thou art our Father” (Isa 63:16,17). Doubtless thou art,
though this be our case, and though Israel should not acknowledge us
for such.
That sin dissolveth not the relation of Father and son is further
evident—“When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, [Abba, or] Father, Father.” Now mark, “wherefore thou art no
more a servant”; that is, no more under the law of death and damnation,
“but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal
4:4-7).
Suppose a child doth grievously transgress against and offend his
father, is the relation between them therefore dissolved? Again,
suppose the father should scourge and chasten the son for such offence,
is the relation between them therefore dissolved? Yea, suppose the
child should now, through ignorance, cry, and say, This man is now no
more my father; is he, therefore, now no more his father? Doth not
everybody see the folly of such arguings? Why, of the same nature is
that doctrine that saith, that after we have received the spirit of
adoption, that the spirit of bondage is sent to us again to put us in
fear of eternal damnation.
Know then that thy sin, after thou hast received the spirit of adoption
to cry unto God, Father, Father, is counted the transgression of a
child, not of a slave, and that all that happeneth to thee for that
transgression is but the chastisement of a father—and “what son is he
whom the father chasteneth not?” It is worth your observation, that the
Holy Ghost checks those who, under their chastisements for sin, forget
to call God their Father—“Ye have,” said Paul, “forgotten the
exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him.” Yea, observe yet further, that God’s chastising of his children
for their sin, is a a sign of grace and love, and not of his wrath, and
thy damnation; therefore now there is no ground for the aforesaid
fear—“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom he receiveth” (Heb 12). Now, if God would not have those that have
received the Spirit of the Son, however he chastises them, to forget
the relation that by the adoption of sons they stand in to God, if he
checks them that do forget it, when his rod is upon their backs for
sin, then it is evident that those fears that thou hast under a colour
of the coming again of the Spirit, as a spirit of bondage, to put thee
in fear of eternal damnation, is nothing else but Satan disguised, the
better to play his pranks upon thee.
I will yet give you two or three instances more, wherein it will be
manifest that whatever happeneth to thee, I mean as a chastisement for
sin, after the spirit of adoption is come, thou oughtest to hold fast
by faith the relation of Father and son. The people spoken of by Moses
are said to have lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation, which
rock is Jesus Christ, and that is a grievous sin indeed, yet, saith he,
“Is not God thy Father that hath bought thee?” and then puts them upon
considering the days of old (Deut 32:6). They in the prophet Jeremiah
had played the harlot with many lovers, and done evil things as they
could; and, as another scripture hath it, gone a-whoring from under
their God, yet God calls to them by the prophet, saying, “Wilt thou not
from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?”
(Jer 3:4). Remember also that eminent text made mention of in 1 Samuel
12:20, “Fear not; ye have done all this wickedness”; and labour to
maintain faith in thy soul, of thy being a child, it being true that
thou hast received the spirit of adoption before, and so that thou
oughtest not to fall under thy first fears, because the ground is taken
away, of thy eternal damnation.
Now, let not any, from what hath been said, take courage to live loose
lives, under a supposition that once in Christ, and ever in Christ, and
the covenant cannot be broken, nor the relation of Father and child
dissolved; for they that do so, it is evident, have not known what it
is to receive the spirit of adoption. It is the spirit of the devil in
his own hue that suggesteth this unto them, and that prevaileth with
them to do so. Shall we do evil that good may come? shall we sin that
grace may abound? or shall we be base in life because God by grace hath
secured us from wrath to come? God forbid; these conclusions betoken
one void of the fear of God indeed, and of the spirit of adoption too.
For what son is he, that because the father cannot break the relation,
nor suffer sin to do it—that is, betwixt the Father and him—that will
therefore say, I will live altogether after my own lusts, I will labour
to be a continual grief to my Father?
[Considerations to prevent such temptations.]
Yet lest the devil (for some are “not ignorant of his devices” ),
should get an advantage against some of the sons, to draw them away
from the filial fear of their Father, let me here, to prevent such
temptations, present such with these following considerations.
First. Though God cannot, will not, dissolve the relation which the
spirit of adoption hath made betwixt the Father and the Son, for any
sins that such do commit, yet he can, and often doth, take away from
them the comfort of their adoption, not suffering children while
sinning to have the sweet and comfortable sense thereof on their
hearts. He can tell how to let snares be round about them, and sudden
fear trouble them. He can tell how to send darkness that they may not
see, and to let abundance of waters cover them (Job 22:10,11).
Second. God can tell how to hide his face from them, and so to afflict
them with that dispensation, that it shall not be in the power of all
the world to comfort them. “When he hideth his face, who then can
behold him?” (Job 23:8,9, 34:29).
Third. God can tell how to make thee again to possess the sins that he
long since hath pardoned, and that in such wise that things shall be
bitter to thy soul. “Thou writest bitter things against me,” says Job,
“and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.” By this also he
once made David groan and pray against it as an insupportable
affliction (Job 13:26; Psa 25:7).