Heb. 12.28 Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Fear you must know is a comprehensive word it is more then a particular grace it contains Faith and Love too though perfect love casteth out tormenting fear 1 Joh. 4.18 yet perfect love casts in obeying fear When Abraham had offered up his son Isaac that was a work of mighty faith but yet when God commends him for it he doth not say Now I know thou hast a great faith but Now I know thou fearest God Gen. 22.12 Fear is all duty 't is every grace it carries every particular duty and grace in the womb of it Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man or a◠is in the Hebrew This is the whole man this is that which maketh a perfect and a complear Christian a Christian indeed But then thirdly and lastly as the true fear and service of God are in Scripture sometime conjoyned so are they likewise confounded and taken promiscuously the one for the other as reciprocal and convertible terms fearing of God is worshipping or serving of God You may see this clearly by two texts of Scripture conferred or compared together Matth. 4.10 saith Christ there to the devil Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Compare this now with Deut. 6.13 and there you shall have it thus exprest Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his Name That which in the one place is worship in the other is fear So again Matth. 15.9 saith Christ there In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Now the Prophet Isaiah from whence that Scripture is taken expresseth it thus Isa 29.13 at part Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men They worship me according to the precepts of men saith Christ Their fear is taught by the precepts of men saith the Prophet So that fear and worship or fear and service are identical one and the same thing And thus have you here the Point confirmed by Scripture That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God I shall now answer an Objection and so proceed unto Application The Objection is this briefly How do you say That the true and faithful servants of God are fearers of God or that the service of God and the fear of God are coupled together yea that they are one and the same thing whenas in Scripture we are required to serve God without fear as namely Luke 1.74 by this text it appears that the service of God and the fear of God do not commingle much less are one and the same thing If our service must be done without fear how then do fear and service go together This is the Objection Beloved by way of answer we must learn to distinguish of Fear Qui benè distinguit we say benè docet he that distinguisheth well teacheth well There is a hellish fear and there is a holy fear a slavish fear and a son-like fear The hellish or slavish fear is such as slaves have of those or towards those to whom they are in bondage 't is a respect they carry to those in whose power and under whose command they are they do indeed that which is enjoyned them but they neither love their commanders nor take any complacencie or delight in that which is commanded them what they do they do by coaction and enforcement and in fear of the whip Such is the fear of God in reprobates and in wicked men they are stricken with a kinde of awe of Gods great and terrible majestie they do even tremble at his judgements they do it may be what is required but their obedience proceedeth not out of any love to God or out of any true affection to the service Thus Cain Esau Pharaoh Ahab Judas and others feared they had some apprehensions of the terrour of the Lord and that wrung something from them in which otherwise of themselves they took no manner of delight Cain cast down his countenance Esau wept Pharaoh let the children of Israel go Ahab humbled himself Judas repented as I could shew you from several Scriptures But then secondly there is a holy filial and childlike fear and 't is a fear to offend arising out of the sense and feeling of the love of God as when the experience I have had in mine own soul of Gods merciful and gracious dealing with me makes me to entertain a fear lest I should abuse his love and turn his grace into wantonness and do ought that might displease his Majestie as I shewed you before in the opening of the Doctrine And this kinde of fear may be where is the greatest and firmest yea the most respective love as betwixt the father and the son the husband and the wife This distinction of Fear being thus premised it will be easie to untie the knot or to solve the Querie When we are required to serve God without fear we are to understand the foresaid hellish servile or slavish fear When Zacharies meaning in that Luk. 1. is this whereas the face of God is naturally a terrour to us even as the face of a Judge is to a malefactor and whereas our services are so full of defects and blemishes as that we can have no courage to present them unto God nor hope that he will accept them This is the end of our Redemption that being certainly perswaded of the favour of God in Christ and of remission of sins by him this servile and slavish fear must be laid aside and we may come boldly unto the throne of grace and comfortably assure our selves that God for Christs sake will accept even our imperfect and scant measure of obedience This servile fear now and the true service of God cannot stand together yea they are opposite and contrary one to another But now when I say in the Doctrine That the true and faithful servants of God are fearers of God and that the fear and service of God are joyned together I intend as I told you before a holy filial child-like and reverential fear and with such a fear every true servant of God fears God The fear and the service of God are put together and must ever go together nay without it we can never serve God truly and as we ought to do And thus having answered the Objection I should in the next place proceed unto Application The Uses of the Point shall be three 1. For Information 2. Of Examination 3. Of Exhortation But the ordinary time being spent I shall adjourn the prosecution of them unto the after-noon Let this suffice for the present The first Use shall be for Information Is it so That the true and faithful servants of God are fearers of God Why then it will in the first place follow by
subtil Enchantress and rather hearken to the voice of Gods Spirit in the verse immediately following vers 17. Be not over much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time Pray observe the Antithesis or opposition Be not wicked over-much saith he in opposition to the former Be not righteous over-much neither be foolish in opposition to neither make thy self over-wise for why shouldst thou die before thy time in opposition to why shouldst thou destroy thy self This is the voice of heaven wherewith we are to stop the mouth of that wisdom which descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish 2. If you intend to keep in with Christ then deny your selves in your carnal friends and relations who will be ready enough to prompt you as Peter did once Christ Matth. 16.22 they will be ready to bid you to be good to your selves and not to run the hazard of disgrace or disadvantage Now for a counter-poyson let us consider that there is no friend like God and there is no foe like unto him Eli you know paid dear for displeasing the Lord to please his children 1 Sam. 2.29 30 and following verses And it was like to have cost Moses his life for forbearing to circumcise his child lest he should anger his wife Exod. 4.24 Thirdly Deny your selves in your Liberties Micaiah though he were sure to kiss the Stocks and there to be fed with the bread and water of affliction until Ahab returned in peace yet would he not be byassed for any mans pleasure nor vote with the rest of Ahab's Parasitical Prophets 1 King 22.26 27 28. And Then last of all deny your selves in your lives if called unto it What cared the three children for Nebuchadnezzar's wrath though it burned seven times hotter then his furnace Kill them he might possibly but hurt them he could not He that truely sears God and thinks upon his Name dreads no danger fears no colours he will take Christ's cross upon his shoulders a faggot in his arms and his life in his hand and so follow Christ thorow thick and thin thorow fire and water or any thing else that stands in his way And this is the second assistant Direction The third and last is this Let us think sadly and seriously upon our high and heavenly calling and labour to walk worthy of it as the Apostle often exhorts us to do Every calling hath a decorum a seemliness or comeliness appertaining unto it A Gentleman hath another manner of behaviour then a Scullion a Prince then a Peasant so should a Christian too a man that fears God should not behave himself like other men he should demean himself nobly bravely gallantly worthy of God and as becometh a Saint a Citizen of heaven and a Burgess of the new Jerusalem not clownishly basely or cowardly 'T is some singular thing that God looks for from his people and that which is above vulgar and common atchievement And therefore to winde up all in a word you that fear God and think upon his Name look to your selves that you lose not those things which you have wrought but that you receive a full reward The ends of the world you see are come upon us we are cast upon the last and worst times of all even those perilous times which the Apostle long since prophesied of wherein iniquity aboundeth and the love of many is waxen cold How many amongst us are fallen from the love of the Gospel How is Religion turned with many into meer formality and matter of discourse our ancient heat and forwardness to a general coldness in profession lukewarmness in Religion denying the power of it in our lives and conversations Well I shall say but little more unto you then this That which you have already hold fast until Christ comes and seeing you know these things beforehand take heed lest you also be pluckt away with the errour of the wicked and fall from your own stedfastness Beware of turbulencie of spirit of despising dignities and dominion of resisting lawful Authority live peaceably in the State and in your several places but take heed that you prove not men and women of polluted lips by living among a people of polluted lips learn not to swear with Joseph by conversing with Swearers or to curse with Peter by being a while among the ruffianly companions The worse the more corrupt or erroneous yea the less comfortable that any times are the better should we be and the oftener in Gods presence the more religiously should we contend for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints even then with those fearers of God here in my Text should we speak often one to another And thus much of this Point taken from the copulative or connexive particle Then in the front of the Text. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another c. And thus far of the duty here performed in reference to the first circumstance of it the circumstance of Time included in the connexive particle Then I shall now handle it in relation to its second circumstance the circumstance of Persons who they were or what they were that spake thus often one to another in those corrupted and depraved times and they are described by a double property or periphrasis 1. They were such as feared the Lord. 2. They were such as thought upon his Name This day I shall speak onely of the first of them the fearers of the Lord Then they that feared the Lord c. The fearers of the Lord or which is all one Then they that feared the Lord spake c. Now whereas the Spirit of God by our Prophet makes this the mark note or distinguishing character between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not I observe this Doctrine for our instruction namely That every true and faithful servant of God is a fearer of God Every such a one hath his heart seasoned and possessed with the fear of God And here I shall 1. Open the Point 2. Confirm it And Last of all apply it For the better understanding of the Doctrine I must distinguish of fear There is a threefold fear spoken of in Scripture 1. Natural 2. Carnal 3. Holy and spiritual I shall shew you the nature of each of these and then tell you which of them is to be understood in the Doctrine Natural fear is caused by the apprehension of some evil imminent or at hand 't is such an affection as whereby men are stricken by reason of some dangerous and hurtful evil either real or onely imagined that is the definition of natural fear In it self it is neither good nor evil it was in the man Christ Heb. 5.7 Christs fear was onely a natural passion which he assumed and took upon him when he took upon him our nature Now there are four special effects which this fear worketh upon the body The first is the
perfect Thus more generally But more particularly as to the grace in hand considering that to fear God is a supernatural gift go to God for it and pray with David Psal 86.11 later part of the verse Unite my heart to fear thy Name q. d. my heart of it self is wofully divided and scattered up and down upon lying vanities Oh now do thou unite my heart to fear thy Name The Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make my heart one i.e. apply it onely and constantly to thy fear let not my heart be divided between thy fear and things of a lower consideration let it not be floating between two different ways as if I had two hearts but unite my heart to fear thy Name let the fear of thy great Name be the one onely thing that my heart is carried after Eliphaz alleadgeth the neglect of this duty of prayer as the reason why men cast off this fear of God 't is saith he because they restrain prayer from God Job 15.4 He that throws up the duty of prayer nay he that shortneth or abateth prayer for the word garang in the Hebrew signifieth not onely to withdraw or keep back but to lessen and diminish So that I say whosoever holdeth prayer from God or lesseneth and abateth prayer must never expect to grow up in this grace Nay to fear God and to seek God are frequently in Scripture especially in Psal 34. used for one and the same thing as you may observe if you will but compare together verse 9. and 10. of that Psalm this being the ready way to that Do but see in the last place concerning the benesits and contents of the new Covenant Ezek. 36.37 one clause of which covenant is this I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Now saith the Lord verse 37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them And thus Beloved have you heard the means both how you may get this holy fear of God as also how you may grow up in this grace more and more I am loth by reason the time is almost spent to enter upon a new Point at this present and therefore in the last place I shall adde some few signs of this growth and so commend you to God and to this Word of his grace Well then here the Question will be How a soul may come to know whether or no he do thrive in this grace And here in the first place I might touch at that which was spoken of both in the Motives and in the Means 1. A man may know it by his conscionable use of the Means and Ordinances of growing If we will but measure unto God in sincerity in Hearing Reading Praying and Receiving no doubt but God will measure unto us in the plenty of his blessing We need no more doubt whether our souls do grow in this grace if we can bring constant affections to the means then we need whether the bodies of our children would grow if they have good Nurses and do suck the brests well To this purpose tend such Scriptures as these Isa 64 5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy ways Those that remember thee in thy ways what is that i.e. in thy glorious diâ—pâ—nsations we may refer it either to the dispensations of the rod or to the dispensations of the Word Thoâ—e that remember God in either of these ways those that make a holy use of either them will God meet Thou meetest those that remember thee in thy ways And what will he shake them onely by the hand no he will shake â—hem by the heart too he will bless his Ordinances to their hearts and make them profitable and of great consequence to their growth as 't is yet more fully expressed Mic 2.7 later part of the verse Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly i. e. My words will do good to him and as other good so this good it will make him grow as you have it 1 Pet. 2.2 So then that is the first sign of growth 2. We might discern this further by our disrelishing of sin by our distasting of the world According to the measures and degrees that the sweetness of sin decays and abates in us doth grace grow and thrive in us As there is no vacuum in Nature so neither is there in grace As corruption increaseth so this grace of the fear of God increaseth 3. We may know this likewise by our faith and confidence in God Jer. 17.7 8. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit q d. he shall grow 4. We may know it by our constancy and frequency in good works either of piety or mercy for saith our Saviour in this case Matth. 13.12 Whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath 5. We may know this likewise by our frequency in communion with God by our delight in drawing neer to him this is the way to grow up to an holy temple in the Lord and in the Lords temple you may be sure all will prosper well I might enlarge upon these several symptomes but the ordinary time is spent and therefore a word or two more and I have done In the sixth place we may try our growth in this grace by our humility look as we thrive in the one so do we thrive in the other God hath promised not onely to give grace but to give more grace to the humble Jam. 4.6 But he giveth more grace or he giveth abundance of grace Humble persons shall not onely have a being in grace but they shall receive increases of grace 7. And then last of all we may know likewise whether we grow in this grace by our love and affection to the godly This love is the very bond of perfection Col. 3 14. 'T is not onely a means of that true and perfect union which ought to be among believers but 't is a means of their growth yea and a trial of their growth too in any other grace And thus have I finished this Point as also the first property or periphrasis of those godly ones here in my text they were such as feared the Lord. I should now proceed unto the second they were such as thought upon his Name But of this another time For the opening of which property I shall consider 1. An Object 2. An Act. The Object The Name of God The Act Thinking