upon thee, he can make thy feet fast in the stocks, and make thee a
gazing-stock to men and angels (Lam 3:7,53,55; Job 13:27; Nahum 3:6).
Fifth. God can tell how to cause to cease the sweet operations and
blessed influences of his grace in thy soul, and to make those gospel
showers that formerly thou hast enjoyed to become now to thee nothing
but powder and dust (Psa 51; Deut 28:24).
Sixth. God can tell how to fight against thee “with the sword of his
mouth,” and to make thee a butt for his arrows; and this is a
dispensation most dreadful (Rev 2:16; Job 6:4; Psa 38:2-5).
Seventh. God can tell how so to bow thee down with guilt and distress
that thou shalt in no wise be able to lift up thy head (Psa 40:12).
Eighth. God can tell how to break thy bones, and to make thee by reason
of that to live in continual anguish of spirit: yea, he can send a fire
into thy bones that shall burn, and none shall quench it (Psa 51:8; Lam
3:4, 1:13; Psa 102:3; Job 30:30).
Ninth. God can tell how to lay thee aside, and make no use of thee as
to any work for him in thy generation. He can throw thee aside “as a
broken vessel” (Psa 31:12; Eze 44:10-13).
Tenth. God can tell how to kill thee, and to take thee away from the
earth for thy sins (1 Cor 11:29-32).
Eleventh. God can tell how to plague thee in thy death, with great
plagues, and of long continuance (Psa 78:45; Deut 28).
Twelfth. What shall I say? God can tell how to let Satan loose upon
thee; when thou liest a dying he can license him then to assault thee
with great temptations, he can tell how to make thee possess the guilt
of all thy unkindness towards him, and that when thou, as I said, art
going out of the world, he can cause that thy life shall be in
continual doubt before thee, and not suffer thee to take any comfort
day nor night; yea, he can drive thee even to a madness with his
chastisements for thy folly, and yet all shall be done by him to thee,
as a father chastiseth his son (Deut 28:65-67).
Thirteenth. Further, God can tell how to tumble thee from off thy
deathbed in a cloud, he can let thee die in the dark; when thou art
dying thou shalt not know whither thou art going, to wit, whether to
heaven or to hell. Yea, he can tell how to let thee seem to come short
of life, both in thine own eyes, and also in the eyes of them that
behold thee. “Let us therefore fear,” says the apostle,—though not with
slavish, yet with filial fear—“lest a promise being left us of entering
into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Heb 4:1).
Now all this, and much more, can God do to his as a Father by his rod
and fatherly rebukes; ah, who know but those that are under them, what
terrors, fears, distresses, and amazements God can bring his people
into; he can put them into a furnace, a fire, and no tongue can tell
what, so unsearchable and fearful are his fatherly chastisements, and
yet never give them the spirit of bondage again to fear. Therefore, if
thou art a son, take heed of sin, lest all these things overtake thee,
and come upon thee.
Object. But I have sinned, and am under this high and mighty hand of
God.
Answ. Then thou knowest what I say is true, but yet take heed of
hearkening unto such temptations as would make thee believe thou art
out of Christ, under the law, and in a state of damnation; and take
heed also, that thou dost not conclude that the author of these fears
is the Spirit of God come to thee again as a spirit of bondage, to put
thee into such fears, lest unawares to thyself thou dost defy the
devil, dishonour thy Father, overthrow good doctrine, and bring thyself
into a double temptation.
Object. But if God deals thus with a man, how can he otherwise think
but that he is a reprobate, a graceless, Christless, and faithless one?
Answ. Nay, but why dost thou tempt the Lord thy God? Why dost thou sin
and provoke the eyes of his glory? Why “doth a living man complain, a
man for the punishment of his sins?” (Lam 3:39). He doth not willingly
afflict nor grieve the children of men; but if thou sinnest, though God
should save thy soul, as he will if thou art an adopted son of God, yet
he will make thee know that sin is sin, and his rod that he will
chastise thee with, if need be, shall be made of scorpions; read the
whole book of the Lamentations; read Job’s and David’s complaints; yea,
read what happened to his Son, his well-beloved, and that when he did
but stand in the room of sinners, being in himself altogether innocent,
and then consider, O thou sinning child of God, if it is any injustice
in God, yea, if it be not necessary, that thou shouldest be chastised
for thy sin. But then, I say, when the hand of God is upon thee, how
grievous soever it be, take heed, and beware that thou give not way to
thy first fears, lest, as I said before, thou addest to thine
affliction; and to help thee here, let me give you a few instances of
the carriages of some of the saints under some of the most heavy
afflictions that they have met with for sin.
[Carriages of some of the saints under heavy afflictions for sin.]
First. Job was in great affliction and that, as he confessed, for sin,
insomuch that he said God had set him for his mark to shoot at, and
that he ran upon him like a giant, that he took him by the neck and
shook him to pieces, and counted him for his enemy; that he hid his
face from him, and that he could not tell where to find him; yet he
counted not all this as a sign of a damnable state, but as a trial, and
chastisement, and said, when he was in the hottest of the battle, “when
he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.” And again, when he was
pressed upon by the tempter to think that God would kill him, he
answers with greatest confidence, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust
in him” (Job 7:20, 13:15, 14:12, 16, 19:11, 23:8-10).
Second. David complained that God had broken his bones, that he had set
his face against his sins, and had taken from him the joy of his
salvation: yet even at this time he saith, “O God, thou God of my
salvation” (Psa 51:8,9,12,14).
Third. Heman complained that his soul was full of troubles, that God
had laid him in the lowest pit, that he had put his acquaintance far
from him, and was casting off his soul, and had hid his face from him.
That he was afflicted from his youth up, and ready to die with trouble:
he saith, moreover, that the fierce wrath of God went over him, that
his terrors had cut him off; yea, that by reason of them he was
distracted; and yet, even before he maketh any of these complaints, he
takes fast hold of God as his, saying, “O Lord God of my salvation”
(Psa 88).
Fourth. The church in the Lamentations complains that the Lord had
afflicted her for her transgressions, and that in the day of his fierce
anger; also that he had trodden under foot her mighty men, and that he
had called the heathen against her; she says, that he had covered her
with a cloud in his anger, that he was an enemy, and that he had hung a
chain upon her; she adds, moreover, that he had shut out her prayer,
broken her teeth with gravel stones, and covered her with ashes, and in
conclusion, that he had utterly rejected her. But what doth she do
under all this trial? doth she give up her faith and hope, and return
to that fear that begot the first bondage? No: “The Lord is my portion,
saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him”; yea, she adds, “O Lord,
thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life”
(Lam 1:5, 2:1,2,5, 3:7,8,16, 5:22, 3:24,31,58).
These things show, that God’s people even after they have received the
spirit of adoption, have fell foully into sin, and have been bitterly
chastised for it; and also, that when the rod was most smart upon them,
they made great conscience of giving way to their first fears wherewith
they were made afraid by the Spirit as it wrought as a spirit of
bondage; for indeed there is no such thing as the coming of the spirit
of bondage to put us in fear the second time, as such, that is, after
he is come as the spirit of adoption to the soul.
I conclude then, that that fear that is wrought by the spirit of
bondage is good and godly, because the ground for it is sound; and I
also conclude, that he comes to the soul as a spirit of bondage but
once, and that once is before he comes as a spirit of adoption: and if
therefore the same fear doth again take hold of thy heart, that is, if
after thou hast received the spirit of adoption thou fearest again the
damnation of thy soul, that thou art out of Christ and under the law,
that fear is bad and of the devil, and ought by no means to be admitted
by thee.
[How the devil worketh these fears.]
1. Quest. But since it is as you say, how doth the devil, after the
spirit of adoption is come, work the child of God into those fears of
being out of Christ, not forgiven, and so an heir of damnation again?
Answ. 1. By giving the lie, and by prevailing with us to give it too,
to the work of grace wrought in our hearts, and to the testimony of the
Holy Spirit of adoption. Or, 2. By abusing of our ignorance of the
everlasting love of God to his in Christ, and the duration of the
covenant of grace. Or, 3. By abusing some scripture that seems to look
that way, but doth not. Or, 4. By abusing our senses and reason. Or, 5.
By strengthening of our unbelief. Or, 6. By overshadowing of our
judgment with horrid darkness. Or, 7. By giving of us counterfeit
representations of God. Or, 8. By stirring up, and setting in a rage,
our inward corruptions. Or, 9. By pouring into our hearts abundance of
horrid blasphemies. Or, 10. By putting of wrong constructions on the
rod, and chastising hand of God. Or, 11. By charging upon us, that our
ill behaviours under the rod, and chastising hand of God, is a sign
that we indeed have no grace, but are downright graceless reprobates.
By these things and other like these, Satan, I say, Satan bringeth the
child of God, not only to the borders, but even into the bowels of the
fears of damnation, after it hath received a blessed testimony of
eternal life, and that by the Holy Spirit of adoption.
[The people of God should fear his rod.]
Quest. But would you not have the people of God stand in fear of his
rod, and be afraid of his judgments?
Answ. Yes, and the more they are rightly afraid of them, the less and
the seldomer will they come under them; for it is want of fear that
brings us into sin, and it is sin that brings us into these
afflictions. But I would not have them fear with the fear of slaves;
for that will add no strength against sin; but I would have them fear
with the reverential fear of sons, and that is the way to depart from
evil.
Quest. How is that?
Answ. Why, having before received the spirit of adoption; still to
believe that he is our father, and so to fear with the fear of
children, not as slaves fear a tyrant. I would therefore have them to
look upon his rod, rebukes, chidings, and chastisements, and also upon
the wrath wherewith he doth inflict, to be but the dispensations of
their Father. This believed, maintains, or at least helps to maintain,
in the heart, a son-like bowing under the rod. It also maintains in the
soul a son-like confession of sin, and a justifying of God under all
the rebukes that he grieveth us with. It also engageth us to come to
him, to claim and lay hold of former mercies, to expect more, and to
hope a good end shall be made of all God’s present dispensations
towards us (Micah 7:9; Lam 1:18; Psa 77:10-12; Lam 3:31-34).[14]
Now God would have us thus fear his rod, because he is resolved to
chastise us therewith, if so be we sin against him, as I have already
showed; for although God’s bowels turn within him, even while he is
threatening his people, yet if we sin, he will lay on the rod so hard
as to make us cry, “Woe unto us that we have sinned” (Lam 5:16); and
therefore, as I said, we should be afraid of his judgments, yet only as
afore is provided as of the rod, wrath, and judgment of a Father.
[Five considerations to move to child-like fear.]
Quest. But have you yet any other considerations to move us to fear God
with child-like fear?
Answ. I will in this place give you five. 1. Consider that God thinks
meet to have it so, and he is wiser in heart than thou; he knows best
how to secure his people from sin, and to that end hath given them law
and commandments to read, that they may learn to fear him as a Father
(Job 37:24; Eccl 3:14; Deut 17:18,19). 2. Consider he is mighty in
power; if he touch but with a fatherly touch, man nor angel cannot bear
it; yea, Christ makes use of that argument, he “hath power to cast into
hell; Fear him” (Luke 12:4,5). 3. Consider that he is everywhere; thou
canst not be out of his sight or presence; nor out of the reach of his
hand. “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord.” “Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven
and earth? saith the Lord” (Jer 5:22, 23:24). 4. Consider that he is
holy, and cannot look with liking upon the sins of his own people.
Therefore, says Peter, be “as obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he
which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if
ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according
to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” 5.
Consider that he is good, and has been good to thee, good in that he
hath singled thee out from others, and saved thee from their death and
hell, though thou perhaps wast worse in thy life than those that he
left when he laid hold on thee. O this should engage thy heart to fear
the Lord all the days of thy life. They “shall fear the Lord, and his
goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5). And now for the present, I
have done with that fear, I mean as to its first workings, to wit, to
put me in fear of damnation, and shall come, in the next place, to
treat
OF THE GRACE OF FEAR MORE IMMEDIATELY INTENDED IN THE TEXT.
I shall now speak to this fear, which I call a lasting godly fear;
first, by way of explication; by which I shall show, FIRST. How by the
Scripture it is described. SECOND. I shall show you what this fear
flows from. And then, THIRD. I shall also show you what doth flow from
it.
[How this Fear is described by the Scripture.]
FIRST. For the first of these, to wit, how by the Scripture this fear
is described; and that, First. More generally. Second. More
particularly.
First. More generally.
1. It is called a grace, that is, a sweet and blessed work of the
Spirit of grace, as he is given to the elect by God. Hence the apostle
says, “let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with
reverence and godly fear” (Heb 12:28). For as that fear that brings
bondage is wrought in the soul by the Spirit as a spirit of bondage, so
this fear, which is a fear that we have while we are in the liberty of
sons, is wrought by him as he manifesteth to us our liberty; “where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” that is, where he is as a
spirit of adoption, setting the soul free from that bondage under which
it was held by the same Spirit while he wrought as a spirit of bondage.
Hence as he is called a spirit working bondage to fear, so he, as the
Spirit of the Son and of adoption, is called “the Spirit of the fear of
the Lord” (Isa 11:2). Because it is that Spirit of grace that is the
author, animater, and maintainer of our filial fear, or of that fear
that is son-like, and that subjecteth the elect unto God, his word, and
ways; unto him, his word, and ways, as a Father.
2. This fear is called also the fear of God, not as that which is
ungodly is, nor yet as that may be which is wrought by the Spirit as a
spirit of bondage, but by way of eminency; to wit, as a dispensation of
the grace of the gospel, and as a fruit of eternal love. “I will put my
fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer
32:38-41).
3. This fear of God is called God’s treasure, for it is one of his
choice jewels, it is one of the rarities of heaven, “The fear of the
Lord is his treasure” (Isa 33:6). And it may well go under such a
title; for as treasure, so the fear of the Lord is not found in every
corner. It is said all men have not faith, because that also is more
precious than gold; the same is said about this fear—“There is no fear
of God before their eyes”; that is, the greatest part of men are
utterly destitute of this godly jewel, this treasure, the fear of the
Lord. Poor vagrants, when they come straggling to a lord’s house, may
perhaps obtain some scraps and fragments, they may also obtain old
shoes, and some sorry cast-off rags, but they get not any of his
jewels, they may not touch his choicest treasure; that is kept for the
children, and those that shall be his heirs. We may say the same also
of this blessed grace of fear, which is called here God’s treasure. It
is only bestowed upon the elect, the heirs and children of the promise;
all others are destitute of it, and so continue to death and judgment.
4. This grace of fear is that which maketh men excel and go beyond all
men, in the account of God; it is that which beautifies a man, and
prefers him above all other; “Hast thou,” says God to Satan,
“considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a
perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?”
(Job 1:8, 2:3). Mind it, “There is none like him, none alike him in the
earth.” I suppose he means either [that Job was the only most perfect
and upright man] in those parts, or else he was the man that abounded
in the fear of the Lord; none like him to fear the Lord, he only
excelled others with respect to his reverencing of God, bowing before
him, and sincerely complying with his will; and therefore is counted
the excellent man. It is not the knowledge of the will of God, but our
sincere complying therewith, that proveth we fear the Lord; and it is
our so doing that putteth upon us the note of excelling; hereby appears
our perfection, herein is manifest our uprightness. A perfect and an
upright man is one that feareth God, and that because he escheweth
evil. Therefore this grace of fear is that without which no part or
piece of service which we do to God, can be accepted of him. It is, as
I may call it, the salt of the covenant, which seasoneth the heart, and
therefore must not be lacking there; it is also that which salteth, or
seasoneth all our doings, and therefore must not be lacking in any of
them (Lev 2:13).
5. I take this grace of fear to be that which softeneth and mollifieth
the heart, and that makes it stand in awe both of the mercies and
judgments of God. This is that that retaineth in the heart that due
dread, and reverence of the heavenly majesty, that is meet should be
both in, and kept in the heart of poor sinners. Wherefore when David
described this fear, in the exercise of it, he calls it an awe of God.
“Stand in awe,” saith he, “and sin not”; and again, “my heart standeth
in awe of thy word”; and again, “Let all the earth fear the Lord”; what
is that? or how is that? why? “Let all the inhabitants of the world
stand in awe of him” (Psa 4:4, 119:161, 33:8). This is that therefore
that is, as I said before, so excellent a thing in the eyes of God, to
wit, a grace of the Spirit, the fear of God, his treasure, the salt of
the covenant, that which makes men excel all others; for it is that
which maketh the sinner to stand in awe of God, which posture is the
most comely thing in us, throughout all ages. But,
Second. And more particularly.
1. This grace is called “the beginning of knowledge,” because by the
first gracious discovery of God to the soul, this grace is begot: and
again, because the first time that the soul doth apprehend God in
Christ to be good unto it, this grace is animated, by which the soul is
put into an holy awe of God, which causeth it with reverence and due
attention to hearken to him, and tremble before him (Prov 1:7). It is
also by virtue of this fear that the soul doth inquire yet more after
the blessed knowledge of God. This is the more evident, because, where
this fear of God is wanting, or where the discovery of God is not
attended with it, the heart still abides rebellious, obstinate, and
unwilling to know more, that it might comply therewith; nay, for want
of it, such sinners say rather, As for God, let him “depart from us,”
and for the Almighty, “we desire not the knowledge of his ways.”
2. This fear is called “the beginning of wisdom,” because then, and not
till then, a man begins to be truly spiritually wise; what wisdom is
there where the fear of God is not? (Job 28:28; Psa 111:10). Therefore
the fools are described thus, “For that they hated knowledge and did
not choose the fear of the Lord” (Prov 1:29). The Word of God is the
fountain of knowledge, into which a man will not with godly reverence
look, until he is endued with the fear of the Lord. Therefore it is
rightly called “the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom
and instruction” (Prov 1:7). It is therefore this fear of the Lord that
makes a man wise for his soul, for life, and for another world. It is
this that teacheth him how he should do to escape those spiritual and
eternal ruins that the fool is overtaken with, and swallowed up of for
ever. A man void of this fear of God, wherever he is wise, or in
whatever he excels, yet about the matters of his soul, there is none
more foolish than himself; for through the want of the fear of the
Lord, he leaves the best things at sixes and sevens, and only pursueth
with all his heart those that will leave him in the snare when he dies.
3. This fear of the Lord is to hate evil. To hate sin and vanity. Sin
and vanity, they are the sweet morsels of the fool, and such which the
carnal appetite of the flesh runs after; and it is only the virtue that
is in the fear of the Lord that maketh the sinner have an antipathy
against it (Job 20:12). “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil”
(Prov 16:6). That is, men shun, separate themselves from, and eschew it
in its appearances. Wherefore it is plain that those that love evil,
are not possessed with the fear of God.
There is a generation that will pursue evil, that will take it in,
nourish it, lay it up in their hearts, hide it, and plead for it, and
rejoice to do it. These cannot have in them the fear of the Lord, for
that is to hate it, and to make men depart from it: where the fear of
God and sin is, it will be with the soul, as it was with Israel when
Omri and Tibni strove to reign among them both at once, one of them
must be put to death, they cannot live together (see 1 Kings 16): 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; for as Solomon says in another case,
“where no wood is, the fire goeth out.” So we may say, where there is a
hatred of sin, and where men depart from it, there it loseth much of
its power, waxeth feeble, and decayeth. Therefore Solomon saith again,
“Fear the Lord, and depart from evil” (Prov 3:7). As who should say,
Fear the Lord, and it will follow that you shall depart from evil:
departing from evil is a natural consequence, a proper effect of the
fear of the Lord where it is. By the fear of the Lord men depart from
evil, that is, in their judgment, will, mind, and affections. Not that
by the fear of the Lord sin is annihilated, or has lost its being in
the soul; there still will those Canaanites be, but they are hated,
loathed, abominated, fought against, prayed against, watched against,
striven against, and mortified by the soul (Rom 7).