so securely in the way Eleventhly There flows from this grace of fear Hope in the mercy of God The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in them than hope in his mercy Psal. 147.11 The latter part of the Text is an explanation of the former as if the Psalmist had said They be the men that fear the Lord even they that hope in his mercy for true fear produceth hope in Gods mercy And it is further manifest thus Fear true fear of God inclineth the heart to a serious enquiry after that way of salvation with God himself hath prescribed now the way that God hath appointed by the which the sinner is to obtain the salvation of his soul is his mercy as so and so set forth in the word and godly fear hath special regard to the word To this way therefore the sinner With this godly fear submits his soul rouls himself upon it and so is delivered from that death into which others for want of this fear of God do headlong fall It is as I also hinted before the nature of godly fear to be very much putting the soul upon the enquiry which is and which is not the thing approved of God and accordingly to imbrace it or shun it Now I say this fear having put the soul upon a strict and serious enquiry after the way of Salvation at lest it finds it to be by the mercy of God in Christ therefore this fear putteth the soul upon hoping also in him for eternal life and blessedness by which hope he doth not only secure soul but become a porson of Gods delight The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his mercy Besides This godly fear carrieth in it Self-evidence that the state of the sinner is happy because possessed with this happy grace Therefore as John saith We know we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren 1 John 3.14 So here The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his mercy If I fear God and if my fearing of him is a thing in which he taketh such pleasure then may I boldly venture to roll my self eternal life into the Bosom of his mercy which is Christ. Thus fear also produceth hope if therefore poor sinner thou knowest thy self to be one that is possessed with this fear of God suffer thy self to be perswaded therefore to hope in the mercy of God for salvation for the Lord takes pleasure in thee And it delights him to see thee hope in his mercy Twelfthly There floweth from this godly fear of God An honest and conscientious use of all those means which God hath ordained that we should be conversant in for our attaining salvation Faith and hope in Gods mercy is that which secureth our justification and hope and as you have heard they do flow from this fear But now besides faith and hope there is a course of life in those things in which God hath ordained us to have our conversation without which there is no eternal life You have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life and again without holiness no man shall see the Lord Not that faith and hope are deficient if they be right but they are both of them counterfeit when not attended with a reverent use of all the means upon the reverent use of which the soul is put by this grace of fear Wherefore beloved said Paul as you have alwaies obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in mine absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Rom. 6.22 Heb. 12.14 Philip. 2.12 There is a Faith and Hope of mercy that may deceive a man Though the faith of Gods elect and the hope that purifies the heart never will because they are alone and not attended with those companions that accompany salvation Heb. 6.3 4 5 7 8. but now this godly fear carries in its bowels not only a moving of the soul to faith and hope in Gods mercy but an earnest provocation to the holy and reverent use of all the means that God has ordained for a man to have his conversation in in order to his eternal salvation Work out your salvation with fear Not that work is meritorious or such that can purchase eternal life for eternal life is obtained by hope in Gods mercy but this hope if it be right is attended with this godly fear which fear putteth the soul upon a diligent use of all those means that may tend to the strengthening of hope and so to the makeing of us holy in all manner of conversation that we may be meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light For hope purifieth the heart if fear of God shall be its companion and so maketh a man a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory Paul bids Timothy to fly pride covetousness doteing about questions and the like and to follow after righteousness godliness faith Love patience to fight the good fight of faith and to lay hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6. So Peter bids that we Add to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience to patience godliness to Godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly kindness charity Adding For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore the rather Brethren give deligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance sâ—all be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9 10 11. The sum of all which is that which was mentioned before to wit to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling For none of these things can be conscientiously done but by and with the help of this blessed grace of fear Thirteenthly There flows from this fear this godly fear A great delight in the holy commands of God that is a delight to be conformable unto them Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that greatly delighteth in his commandments Psal. 112.1 This confirmeth that which was said before to wit that this fear provoketh to a holy and reverent use of the means for that cannot be when there is not an holy yea a great delight in the commandments Wherefore this fear maketh the sinner to abhor that which is sin because that is contrary to the object of his delight A man cannot delight himself at the same time in things directly opposite one to another as sin and the holy commandment is therefore Christ saith of the servant he cannot love God and Mammon he cannot serve God and Mammon If he cleaves to the one he must hate and dispise the other there cannot at the same time be service to both because that themselves are at
forbid and rebuke it as he did Fear not said he for God is come to prove you they thought otherwise God saith he is come to prove you and that HIS fear may be before your faces Therefore that fear that already had taken possession of them was not the fear of God but a fear that was of Satan of their own misjudging hearts and so a fear that was ungodly Exod. 20.18.19 Mark you here is a fear and a fear a fear forbidden and a fear commended a fear forbidden because it engendered their hearts to bondage and to ungodly thoughts of God and of his word It made them that they could not desire to hear God speak to them any more ver 19.20 21. Many also at this day are possessed with this ungodly fear And you may know them by this They cannot abide conviction for sin and if at any time the word of the law by the preaching of the word comes near them they will not abide that preacher nor such kind of sermons any more They are as they deem best at ease when furthest off of God and of the power of his word The word preached brings God nearer to them than they desire he should come because whenever God comes near their sins by him are manifest and so is the judgment too that to them is due Now these not having faith in the mercy of God through Christ nor that grace that tendeth to bring them to him they cannot but think of God amiss and their so thinking of him makes them say unto him depart from us For we desire not the knowledge of thy waies Wherefore their wrong thoughts of God beget in them this ungodly fear and again this ungodly fear doth maintain in them the continuance of these wrong and unworthy thoughts of God and therefore through that devilish service wherewith they strengthen one another the sinner without a miracle of grace prevents him is drowned in destrustion and perdition 'T was this ungodly fear of God that carried Cain from the presence of God into the Land of Nod and that put him there upon any carnal wordly business if perhaps he might by so doing stifle convictions of the majesty and justice of God against his sin and so live the rest of his vain life in the more sinful security and fleshly ease This ungodly fear is that also which Samuel perceived at the peoples apprehension of their sin to begin to get hold of their hearts wherefore he as Moses before him quickly forbids their entertaining of it Fear not said he ye have done all this wickedness yet turned aside from following the Lord. For to turn them aside from following of him was the natural tendency of this fear But fear not said he that is with that fear that tendeth to turn you aside Now I say the matter that this fear worketh upon as in Adam and the Israelites mentioned before was their sin You have sinned saies he that 's true yet turn not aside yet fear not with that fear that would make you so do 1 Sam. 12.20 Note by the way sinner that when the greatness of thy sins being apprehended by thee shall work in thee that fear of God as shall incline thy heart to fly from him thou art possessed with a fear of God that is ungodly yea so ungodly that not any of thy sins for hainousness way be compared therewith as might be made manifest in many particulars but Samuel having rebuked this fear presently sets before the people another to wit the true fear of God fear the Lord saies he serve him with all your hearts ver 24. And he giveth them this incouragement so to do for the Lord will not forsake his people This ungodly fear is that which you read of in Isa. 2. and in many other places and Gods people should shun it as they would shun the devil because its natural tendency is to forward the destruction of the soul in which it has took possession Thirdly There is a fear of God which although it hath not in it that power as to make men flee from Gods presence yet it is ungodly because even while they are in the outward way of Gods ordinances their hearts are by it quite discouraged from attempting to exercise themselves in the power of religion Of this sort are they which dare not cast off the hearing reading and discourse of the word as others no nor the assembly of Gods children for the excercise of other religious duties for their conscience is convinced this is the way and worship of God But yet their heart as I said by this ungodly fear is kept from a powerful gracious falling in with God This fear takes away their heart from all holy and godly prayer in private and from all holy and godly Zeal for his name in publick and there be many professors whose hearts are possessed with this ungodly fear of God and they are intended by the slothful one He was a servant a servant among the servants of God and had gifts and abilities given him therewith to serve Christ as well as his fellows yea and was commanded too as well as the rest to occupy till his Master came But what does he why he takes his talent the gift that he was to lay out for his Masters profit and puts it in a napkin digs a hole in the earth and hides his Lords money and lies at a lazy manner at to-elbo all his days not out of but in his Lords Vineyard for he came among the servants also at last By which it is manifest that he had not cast off his profession but was slothful and negligent while he was in it But what was it that made him thus slothful what was it that took away his heart while he was in the way and that discouraged him from falling in with the power and holy practice of religion according to the talent he received why it was this he gave way to an ungodly fear of God and that took away his heart from the power of religious duties Lord said he behold here is thy pound which I have kept laid up in a napkin for I feared thee Why man doth the fear of God make a man idle and slothful no no that is if it be right and godly This fear was therefore evil fear it was that ungodly fear of God of which I have here been speaking of For I feared thee or as Matthew hath it for I was afraid Afraid of what of Christ That he was an hard man reaping where he sowed not and gathering where he had not strewed This his fear being ungodly made him apprehend of Christ contrary to the goodness of his nature and so took away his heart from all endeavours to be doing of that which was pleasing in his sight Luke 19.20 Matth 25.24 25. And thus do all those that retain the name and shew of religion but are neglecters as to the power and godly practice of it
and he will laugh at their fears I will laugh saith he at their destruction I will mock when their fear cometh when your fear cometh as disolation and your distruction like a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall you call upon me but I will not answer you shall seek me early but you shall not find me for that you hated knowledge and did not chuse the FEAR of the Lord Prov. 1.26 27 28 29. Sinner thou thinkest to escape the fear but what wilt thou do with the pitt Thou thinkest to escape the pit but what wilt thou do with the Snare The Snare say you what is that I answer it is even the work of thine own hands The wicked is snared in the works of his own hands he is snared by the words of his lips Psal. 9.16 Chap. 12.13 Sinner what wilt thou do when thou comest into this snare that is into the guilt and terror that thy sins will snaffle thee with when they like a cord are fastned about thy soul This snare will bring thee back again to the pit which is Hell and then how wilt thou do to be rid of thy fear The fear pit and the snare shall come upon thee because thou fearest not God Sinner art thou one of them that hast cast off fear poor man what wilt thou do when these three things beset thee whither wilt thou fly for help And where wilt thou leave thy glory If thou fliest from the fear there 's the pit if thou fliest from the pit there 's the snare The second use is an Exhortation to fear God My next word shall be an Exhortation to fear God I mean an Exhortation to Saints O fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Not but that every Saint doth fear God but as the Apostle saith in an other case I beseech you do it more and more The fear of the Lord as I have shewed you is a grace of the new covenant as other saving graces are and so is capeable of being stronger or weaker as other graces are Wherefore I beseech you fear him more and more It is said of Obadiah That he feared the Lord greatly every Saint fears the Lord but every Saint does not greatly fear him O there are but few Obadiah's in the world I mean among the Saints on earth See the whole relation of him 1 King 18. As Paul said of Timothy I have none likeminded so it may be said of some concerning the fear of the Lord They have scarce a fellow So it was with Job There is none like him in all the earth one that feareth God c. Job 1. Chap. 2. There was even none in Jobs day that feared God like him no there was not one like him in all the earth but doubtless there were more in the World that feared God but this fearing of him greatly that 's the thing that Saints should do and that was the thing that Job did do and in that he did outstrip his fellows It is also said of Hananiah That he was a faithful man and feared God above many Nehe. 7.2 He also had got as to the exercise of and growth in this grace the start of many of his Brethren He feared God above many Now then seeing this grace admits of degrees and is in some stronger and in some weaker let us be all awakned as to other graces so to this grace also That like as you abound in every thing in faith in utterance in knowledg and in all diligence and in your love to us See that ye abound in this grace also I will labour to inforce this exhortation upon you by several motives 1. Let Gods distinguishing love to you be a motive to you to fear him greatly He hath put his fear in thy heart and hath not given that blessing to thy neighbour perhaps not to thy Husband thy Wife thy Child or thy Parent Oh what an obligation should this consideration lay upon thy heart greatly to fear the Lord Remember also as I have shewed in the first part of this book that this fear of the Lord is his Treasure a choice Jewel given only to favorites and to those that are greatly beloved Great gifts naturally tend to oblige and will do so I trust with thee when thou shalt ingeniously consider it It is a signe of a very bad nature when the contrary shews it self Could God have done more for thee then to have put his fear in his heart This is better then to have given thee a place even in Heaven without it Yea had he given thee all faith all knowledge and the tongue of Men and Angels and a place in Heaven to boot They had all been short of this gift of the fear of God in thy heart Therefore love it nourish it exercise it use all meanes to cause it to increase and grow in thy heart that it may appear it is set by at thy hand poor sinner 2 Another motive to stir thee up to grow in this grace of the fear of God May be the priviledges that it laies thee under What or where wilt thou find in the Bible so many priviledges so affectionately intailed to any grace as to this of the fear of God God speaks of this grace and of the priviledges that belong unto it as if to speak with reverance he knew not how to have done blessing of the man that hath it It seems to me as if this grace of fear is the darling grace the grace that God sets his heart upon at the highest rate As it were he imbraces and hugs and laies the man in his bosom that hath and grows strong in this grace of the fear of God See again the many priviledges in which the man is intrested that hath this grace in his heart and see also that there are but few of them wherever mentioned but have intailed to them the pronunciation of a blessing or else that man is spoken of by way of Admiration 3. Another motive may be this The man that groweth in this grace of the fear of the Lord will escape those evils that others will fall into Where this grace is it keepeth the soul from final apostacy I will put my fear in their heart and they shall not depart from me Jer. 32.40 But yet if there be not an increase in this grace much evil may attend and be commited notwithstanding There is a child that is healthy and hath its limbs and can go but 't is careless now the evil of carelessness doth disadvantage it very much carelessness is the cause of stumblings of falls of knocks and that it falls into the dirt yea that somtimes 't is burned or almost drowned And thus it is even with Gods people that fear him because they ad not to their fear a care of growing more in the fear of God therefore they reap dammage whereas were they more in his fear it