the Soul a destructive Evil that will undoe and destroy it 2. To be an evil hardly to be escaped It sees the Soul to be in danger of it every day and every hour Evil as Evil is not the Object of Fear but Evil that we are in danger of Evil as Evil is the Object of Hatred not so of Fear there 's no Fear of Sin in Heaven because there 's no danger of it To hear of the Plague or Sword or Famine or Earthquakes or Fire in the Indies or any other remote parts of the World this doth not move Fear it 's far enough off us we are in no danger of it But when the Plague is in the Town when the next House is on Fire then we are startled 3. To be an Evil not to be endured an intolerable Evil Hereupon the Heart shrinks back from it and is in pain till it can be secured against it 5. There is foresight in it Fear is of future Evil apprehended to be coming on Prov. 22.3 A prudent Man foreseeth the Evil. This prudent Man is the very same with this fearing Man as appears by the next words and hideth himself 't is Fear that makes Men hide A bold Sinner is blind and cannot see afar off 2 Pet. 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pur-blind that can see things very near but through the weakness of his Eyes cannot see at a distance he is but short-sighted Sinners are Men for the present and they look not to what comes after But sayes the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.18 We look on the things that are not seen as on the Good things so on the Evil not seen He that Fears God sees what 's out of sight to the blear-ey'd World He sees Evils in the beginning of them he sees Midnight in the Evening he sees the Winter in the Autumn He sees Evils in the causes of them he sees the Storms in the Cloud the Birth in the Conception James 1.15 Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death What is there in a Thought What is there in a Lust or an evil Motion Who would fright himself with Fancies saith the Pur-blind World I but what will this Thought or this Lust bring forth Who knows saith the Fearing Soul what a numerous Brood may spring forth out of this pregnant Womb Lust when it hath conceived brings forth Sin any Sin the worst that can be imagined multitudes of Sins all manner of Iniquities Lust will bring forth Sin and what will Sin bring forth Why Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death A prudent Man foreseeth all this sees Sin 's last in its first its Fruits in its Root he sees the product and issues of things that do appear the burning down of the House in the first Spark that kindles in the Thatch in the entrance of the Thief in at the Door he sees all the rifling and bloodshed that afterwards follows Sinner how is it that thou art so secure Friend what seest thou Some it may be will answer as the Prophet's Servant when he first went up to Carmel 1 Kin. 18.43 I see nothing Others will answer as he did at his last going up I see a Cloud but it 's but a little one no bigger than a Man's hand But the Prophet saw a great Rain in that little Cloud Sinner thou that yet seest nothing nothing to trouble thee nothing to make thee afraid look again and again even unto seven times Dost thou yet see a Cloud rising do not say it is a little one take heed if thy foresight do not thy sense will quickly tell thee what a Storm there is in it Christian how is it that thou art so secure where be thine eyes art thou blind also Dost thou not see the Spark in the Thatch Dost thou not see the Thief at the Door Hast thou a Treasure within hast thou a God a Conscience a Soul hast thou Grace hast thou Peace hast thou Hope And dost thou not see the Thief breaking in and the Fire breaking out that Lust that is in thine Heart and the Temptations that are at the Door ready to steal away or burn up every good thing thou hast How is it that there is no Cry heard within thee Fire Fire Thieves Thieves Look to thy self save thy self O my Soul from the mischiefs and miseries that are coming upon thee We may give a Judgment of what Sin is bringing forth by observing what it hath brought forth Fear will conclude that what hath been may be It 's like to be my case which hath been the case of others What hath Sin done upon the World How hath it filled them with all Vnrighteousness Fornication Covetousness Wickedness Maliciousness Envy Murder Debate Deceit Malignity c. Rom. 1.29 What Fools and Bruits and Stocks hath it made them fit for nothing but to be Fuel for the Eternal Fire And what hath it done even upon Christians or the Professors of Christianity How low hath it held many of them so low that they can hardly tell whether they are alive or dead and those that have seem'd to be gotten up a little higher how often hath it pull'd them down again even to Death's Door Some Professors it hath slain out-right The Christianity they seem'd to have is dead and buried O Friends when you see what Sin and the Temptations thereof have done to others is it not to be feared what it may do to you May I not say to you as Peter did to Saphira if you look not the more carefully to it Acts 5.19 The Feet of those that have buried thy Husband are at the Door to carry thee out The same Sins the same Temptations that have slain your Friends and buried them behold their feet are at the Door waiting for your Souls also Open your eyes a little and look who there are round about you Behold the Pleasures of Sin waiting for you behold the Gains of Unrighteousness waiting behold your Carnal Friends and Sinful Companions behold the Persecutions and Scoffs and Scorns the Bonds and Imprisonments that are waiting at the Door and what wait they for but to carry out your Souls also dead to those that you have seen slain before you Hast thou seen what hath become of others and dost not therein foresee what may become of thee and canst thou yet be secure Christians you are Men of like Passions and subject to the same Temptations with other Men there 's the same Pride the same Lust after the World the same love of Carnal Pleasures the same fears of Fleshly Sufferings rooted in your Natures And do you not feel these Evil Roots sometimes budding these Fires kindling And have you not often suffered loss by them Yet you hope you have a little Faith some Love to Christ some Hope towards God some Conscience of Sin some Affection for Things Above let Lust alone a-while venture on upon Temptations a-while and O what leanness of
mens misery and it may be said with respect to these Happy is the Man that never feareth But what is the Blessed Fear or what is there in it In short it is this It is such on aversation of the Heart from all manner of future Evils whether of Sin or of Misery which we apprehend our selves in danger of as puts the Soul upon making the best Provision it can for its security against them The Matter or Object of this Fear is Sin together with all the Fruits of it The Form or proper Nature of it is an aversion or starting back or shrinking in from it The Effect of it is to put the Soul to its shifts for its own security against it There are implyed or included in it these following Particulars 1. There is Vnderstanding in it Psal 111.10 The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom a good Vnderstanding have they that do it They are wise and understanding Men that Fear As we Love not so neither do we Fear but whom or what we have some apprehension of our Affections follow our Apprehensions as our Love we cannot love but what we apprehend to be good so our Fear we cannot fear but what we apprehend to be evil Our mistakes are the ground of the inordinate workings of our Affections when we apprehend that to be good which is not good we love what we should not love when we apprehend that to be evil which is not evil we fear what we should not fear when we apprehend that to be good which is evil we love what we should fear and when we apprehend that to be evil which is good we fear what we should love The reason of our sinful Fear is our Ignorance Ignorance both causes us to fear when we should not and leaves us without fear of what we should fear 1. Ignorance is the reason why we fear what we should not How is it that there is so much Fear of Men in the World Why it is because we understand them not what a vain thing what a weak thing they are how short their power is and how little 't is that Man can do Did we know more how great the Power of God is how terrible the Wrath of God is sure there would be more fear of God in the World And did we know how little there is in the Power of Man and in the Wrath of Man we should ease our selves of much of that Carnal Fear which now torments our Spirits Isa 2.22 Cease ye from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Cease ye from Man as from trusting in him so from fearing him for wherein is he to be accounted of How little is it that he can do for or against you There 's little help in him and there 's little hurt that he can do Men pretend to be great and make great boasts of their Power So did Pilate to Christ John 19.10 Knowest thou not that I have power to Crucifie thee and I have power to Release thee What art thou so sullen and so stubborn that thou wilt not speak to me Consider Man the Power of Liberty and Bonds the Power of Life and Death are in my hands Dost thou not know me Yes I know thee well enough sayes Christ Thou hast no Power but what is given thee and therefore limited thee from Above It 's for those that know thee not to fear thee I know thee well enough 2. Mens Ignorance is the reason why they fear not what they should fear Why is it that the ungodly fear not S n O it 's because they know it not Psal 14.4 Have the workers of Iniquity no knowledg Sure enough they have none for they eat up my People as they eat Bread such Morsels would scald their Mouths they would not dare to be such Persecutors and Destroyers of the People of God they would be afraid to touch them if they did but know what they did How bold are Sinners upon Sin How venturously do they run on They Lie they Swear they commit Adultery they Covet they Defraud they Oppress they Persecute But how is it that they are not afraid to do thus O! they know not what they do They are the Men of Understanding that Fear to transgress Christians those whose Minds are enlightned dare not do as others do they see what Sin is they see it to be an unclean thing odious and abominable in the sight of God they see it to be a dangerous and deadly thing They know God and thereby understand Sin which is contrary to him They know the kindness of God and the terrors of the Lord and see that Sin is an unworthiness and abusing of kindness and disobliging of goodness that makes a forfeit of the Divine Love and exposes to his Wrath and Indignation They know the worth of a Soul they have learn'd from their Lord Matth. 16.26 that the whole World is not a price for it neither sufficient to be its Ransom nor to recompence its loss They live in the Invisible World and have taken a view both of that life which is the reward of the Righteous and of that Death which is the recompence of the Sinners They see that Sin is the loss and the death of the Soul the only poison that can kill that immortal part by this alone Immortality is swallowed up of Death They understand that sin as it is the Worm that gnaweth at the root of all their hopes for hereafter so it is the Wormwood which imbitters all their Comforts here this is the Rust that cats out all their Treasures the Moth that frets out all their Garments the Stain that marrs all their Beauty In fine this is it that hath fill'd the World with vanity and vexation of Spirit and Hell with torment And hence it is that they fear it and fly from it Dost thou not fear Sin Sure thou dost not know it O what a light thing doth the World make of it to sin against God! how open do our hearts lie to it how easily doth it beset us we are surpriz'd by it every day and hour Sin lies at the door lies in wait for us in our Fields in our Houses at our Tables in our Closets and how often doth it take us and carry us away for Captives and still we make nothing of it neither feeling the mischief it has done us nor fearing those ruines which it is further bringing upon us We can talk of the evil of Sin of the folly of it of the filthiness of it but we cannot tremble at it sure we do not know it whatever we talk The World would be all up in Arms against this Enemy or else betake themselves to their heels running away from it were it throughly understood 2. There is Faith in this Fear It is but little that we can see of the evil of Sin our understandings at the best have much dimness upon them the
the Devil what harm will it be to take his Money or his Pleasure Why this may be the case In all those little things as thou countest them there may be poison in the Cup there may be the Devil in the Company the Pleasures that are before thee the Money that is before thee these may be the price the Devil is offering thee for thy life May it be so I but I do not think 't is so my Soul may be safe enough for all that why therefore fear that there may be such danger and you never know or suspect it Nay this Devil lies still in wait not only in those places and wayes which look like suspicious places and suspicious ways but he 's every-where at hand even where he is least suspected When could Men think themselves more secure from the Devil than when they are with God in Duties and Ordinances But doth he never meet them there Hath the Devil never met thee in thy Closet or in the Congregation of the Lord How is it at this very hour Now that we are come together before the Lord now that the Lord is instructing us and warning us of the danger we are in Is there not one standing behind and out of sight either stealing away your hearts from minding the Warnings or else contradicting the Word of the Lord Come ccme these are but words and conceits the Devil is far enough off thou art in no such danger of him are there no such whisperings in none of your ears at this time Why whose Voice is this you little think whose 't is 'T is the Devil that thus speaks to the end you may lose this Warning and so he may have his advantage upon you Lord open the eyes of these Men to use that Prayer for you which the Man of God did for his Servant 2 Kings 6.17 So the Lord opened his eyes and he saw all the Mountains full of Angels Chariots of Fire and Horses of Fire If God should so open our eyes I trust we should see this House full of the Angels of God ministring to us but withal we should see this House full of Devils attempting to mischief us a Devil at every Ear a Devil at every Heart trying his skill to stop the one and harden the other from receiving this Word of the Lord. We are never an one of us more secure than Joshua the High-Priest of whom we read Zech. 3.1 That when he was standing before the Lord Satan stood at his right hand to resist him You 'l say again it may be you do not think 't is so why therefore Fear that the Devil should be so near and so busie with you and you neither understand nor will believe it though it be told you Such Ignorance is cause enough of Fear If any of you should have been told ten or twenty years ago how the Devil would serve you how he would hinder any word of Counsel or Instruction from prospering with you how he would hold you under this Ignorance of God and hardness and impenitence of Heart you would have been like enough to answer I hope not I hope to get more of the knowledg of God I hope God will bring me to Repentance one time or other I hope his Word will prosper with me And yet you see how 't is he hath sufficiently plaid the part of a Devil with you you were not so blind or so dead or so hard in your hearts many years ago but you are every way as bad or worse at this day and because you had not this foresight to discern that thus it might be had you not the more reason to Fear it would be so And what say you now as to the time to come If it should be said unto you at this day He that hath dealt thus by you hitherto will be like enough to deal as bad or worse by you to the end of your dayes so that you shall never be brought to Repentance nor ever recover your selves out of the snares of the Devil will you yet again say I hope not I fear it not that very word is enough to make you tremble If the God of this World had not blinded your Minds he could never have thus hardned your Hearts If you that have known Christ and have been in Christ many years ago If some of you should have been told that if you look'd not the better to it the Devil would meet you at the very threshold of Christianity and hold you there from making any farther entrance in would keep you Babes and Infants in the Grace of God that he would keep you all this time so weak in the Faith so cold in your Love so barren in your Life that all this while you should have gotten no more victory over this World and the fleshliness of your Minds and Hearts nor no more intimate acquaintance with God and your own Souls than some of you have at this day If when you had been told you were in danger of being serv'd thus If you had then answered I do not Fear it I should have made bold to tell you You do not know what a Devil he is with whom you had to do and now that you may know him better by observing how he hath dealt by you hitherto you will at length I hope learn to Fear What if the Devil should now appear to you in some bodily monstrous shape would it not fright you Why you may see his foot though you do not see his face you may see him in what he hath done in his temptations of you and the unhappy success of them upon you in that ruinous state your Souls are hereby in and surely Friends to those that understand him The Devil in a secret temptation is more formidable than the Devil in an Apparition the prints of his Hoofs are a more dreadful sight than the Horns of his Head 2. Another reason why we should Fear is because of the deceitfulness of our Hearts What-ever our dangers are from without what-ever designs or devices the Devil or the World have against us yet if all were true within us if our Hearts were true to us our hazard were not so great but saith the Prophet Jer. 17.9 The Heart of Man is deceitful above all things So that we may not only say with the Prophet Micah 7.5 Trust ye not in a Friend put not confidence in a Guide but with Solomon also Prov. 28.26 He that trusteth his own Heart is a Fool. The deceitfulness of the Heart stands 1. In its Treachery 2. In its Subtilty 1. In its Treachery The Heart of a Man is false to it self it is like the Devil a lying Spirit there is no believing it what-ever it speaks It 's full of all guile and will if left to it self betray it self into the hands of its Enemies 2. In its Subtilty It is a crafty Heart it hath many plots and devices to deceive Prov. 19.21 There are