better help in this matter know that God himself hath set bounds to this fear and has concluded that after the spirit of Adoption is come that other fear is wrought in thy heart by him no more Rom. 8.15 2 Tim. 1.7 Again before I leave this let me tell thee that if thou dost not well bestir thee in this matter this bondage fear to wit that which is like it though not wrought in thee by the Holy Ghost will by the management and subtilty of the Devil the author of it haunt disturb and make thee live uncomfortably and that while thou art an heir of God and his Kingdom This is that fear that the Apostle speaks of That makes men all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.14.15 For though Christ will deliver thee indeed at last thou having imbraced him by faith yet thy life will be full of trouble and death though Jesus hath abolished it will be alwaies a living bug-bear to thee in all thy waies and thoughts to break thy peace and to make thee to draw thy loins heavily after him Thirdly wouldest thou grow in this Godly fear then as thou shouldest learn to distinguish of fears so thou shouldest make conscience of which to entertain and cherish If God would have his fear and it is called his fear by way of eminency that his fear may be before you that you sin not Exo. 20.20 Jer. 32.4 I say if God would have this his fear be with thee then thou shouldest make conscience of this and not so lightly give way to slavish fear as is Common for Christians to do There is utterly a fault among Christians about this thing That is they make not that conscience of resisting of slavish fear as they ought they rather cherish and entertain it and so weaken themselves and that fear that they ought to strengthen And this is the reason that we so often lie grabling under the black and amazing thoughts that are engendred in our hearts by unbelief For this fear nourisheth unbelief that is now it doth to wit if we give way to it after the spirit of Adoption is come readily closeth with all the fiery darts of the wicked But Christians are ready to do with this fear as the Horse does when the tines of the fork are set against his side even lean to it untill it entereth into his belly We lean naturally to this fear I mean after God has done good to our souls it is hard striving against it because it has even our sence and feeling of its side But I say If thou wouldest be a growing Christian growing I say in the fear that is Godly in the fear that is is alwaies so then make conscience of striving against the other and against all these things that would bring thee back to it Wherefore should I fear said David in the day of evil when the iniquities of my heels compasseth me about Psal. 49.5 What! not fear in the day of evil what not when the iniquities of thy heels compasseth thee about no not then saies hee that is not with that fear that would bring him again into bondage to the law for he had received the spirit of Adoption before Indeed if ever a Christian has ground to give way to slavish fear it is at these two times to wit in the day of evil and when the iniquitie of his heels compasseth him about But you see David would not then no not then give way thereto nor did hee see reason why he should Wherefore should I said he I wherefore indeed since now thou art become a Son of God through Christ and hast received the spirit of his son into thy heart crying father father Fourthly wouldest thou grow in this grace of Godly fear then grow in the knowledge of the new covenant for that is indeed the girdle of our reins and the strength of our souls Hear what Zacharias saith God saies he hath raised up to us an horn of salvation in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets which have been since the world began But what was it what was it that he spake Why That he would grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear without this slavish bondage fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the daies of our life But upon what is this princely fearless service of God grounded Why upon the holy covenant of God upon the oath that he swore unto Abraham Luk. 1.69 70 71 72 73 74 75. Now in this covenant is wrapped up all thy salvation in it is contained all thy desire and I am sure that then it containeth the compleat salvation of thy Soul and I say since this covenant is confirmed by promise by oath and by the blood of the son of God and that on purpose that thou mightest serve thy God without slavish fear Then the knowledge and faith of this covenant is of absolute necessity to bring us into this liberty and out of our slavish terrors and so consequently to cause us to grow in that son-like Godly fear which became even the Son of God himself and becomes all his Disciples to live in the growth and exercise of Fifthly wouldest thou grow in this Godly fear then labour even alwaies to keep thine evidences for Heaven and of thy salvation alive upon thy heart for he that loseth his evidences for heaven will hardly keep slavish fear out of his heart but he that hath the wisdom and grace to keep them alive and apparent to himself he will grow in this godly fear See how David words it from the ends of the earth saith he will I cry unto thee when my heart is over-whelmed lead me to the rock that is higher then I. For thou hast been a shelter to mee and a strong tower from the enemy I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever For thou God hast heard my prayer thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name Psal. 61.5 Mark a little David doth by these words in the first place suggest that some times to his thinking he was as far off of his God as the ends of the earth are asunder and that at such times he was subject to be over-whelmed afraid Secondly The way that he took at such times to help himself was 1. To cry to God to lead him again to Jesus Christ lead me to the rock that is higher than I. for indeed without faith in him and the renewing of that faith there can be no evidence for Heaven made to appear unto the soul. This therefore he prays for first 2. Then he puts that faith into exercise and that with respect to the time that was past and also of the time that was to come For the time past sayes hee thou hast been a shelter to me and a strong tower from the enemy And for the time to come he said
have our fear of God guided and directed for by them we are taught how to please him in every thing 3. It is to be called a fearful word because of the truth and faithfulness of it The Scriptures cannot be broken Hear they are called the Scripturs of truth the true sayings of God and also the fear of the Lord for that every jot and tittle thereof is for ever settled in Heaven and stands more stedfast than doth the world Heaven and Earth said Christ shall pass away but my word shall not pass away Matth. 24. Those therefore that are favoured by the Word of God those are favoured indeed and that with the favour that no man can turn away but those that by the word of the Scriptures are condemned those can no man justifie and set quit in the sight of God Therefore what is bound by the text is bound and what is released by the text is released also the bond and release is unalterable Dan. 10.21 Revel 19.9 Matth. 24.35 Psal. 119.89 Joh. 10.35 This therefore calleth upon Gods people to stand more in fear of the Word of God than of all the terrours of the World There wanteth even in the hearts of Gods people a greater reverence of the Word of God than to this day appeareth amongst us and this let me say that want of reverence of the word is the ground of all disorders that are in the heart life conversation and in Christian Communion Besides The want of reverence of the word layeth men open to the fearful displeasure of God Who so despiseth the Word shall be destroyed but he that feareth the word shall be rewarded Prov. 13.13 All transgression beginneth at wandring from the word of God but on the other side David saith Concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer Psal. 17.4 Therefore Solomon saith My Son attend to my words eneline thine ear unto my sayings let them not depart from thine eyes keep them in the midst of thy heart for they are life to them that find them and health to all their flesh Prov. 4.20 21. Now if indeed thou wouldest reverence the Word of the Lord and make it thy Rule and Director in all things Believe that the Word is the Fear of the Lord the Word that standeth fast for ever without and against which God will do nothing either in saving or damning of the souls of sinners But to conclude this 1. Know that those that have not due regard to the Word of the Lord and that make it not their dread and their fear but the Rule of their life is the lusts of their flesh the desire of their eyes and the pride of life are sorely rebuked by this Doctrine and are counted the fools of the world For Lo they have rejected the Word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them Jer. 8.9 That there are such a people is evident not only by their irregular lives but by the manifest testimony of the Word As for the Word of the Lord said they to Jeremiah which thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth Jer. 44.16 Was this only the temper of wicked men then is not the same spirit of rebellion amongst us in our daies doubtless there is for there is no new thing The thing that hath been is that that shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun Eccles. 1.9 Therefore as it was then so it is with many in this day As for the Word of the Lord it is nothing at all to them their lusts and whatsoever proceedeth out of their own mouths that they will do that they will follow Now such will certainly perish in their own rebellion for this is as the sin of witchcraft it was the sin of Corah and his company and that which brought upon them such heavy judgments yea and they are made a sign that thou shouldest not do as they for they perished because they rejected the Word the Fear of the Lord from among the Congregation of the Lord and they became a sign The Word which thou despisest still abideth to denounce its woe and judgment upon thee and unless God will save such with the breath of his Word and 't is hard trusting to that they must never see his face with comfort 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Numb 26.9 10. 2. Are the words of God called by the name of the Fear of the Lord Are they so dreadful in their receipt and sentence then this rebukes them that esteem the words and things of men more than the words of God as those do who are drawn from their respect of and obedience to the Word of God by the pleasures or threats of men Some there be who verily will acknowledge the authority of the Word yet will not stoop their souls thereto such whatever they think of themselves are judged by Christ to be ashamed of the Word wherefore their state is damnable as the other Whosoever saith he shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this sinful and adulterous Nation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of the Father with the holy Angels Mark 8.38 3. And if these things be so what will become of those that mock at and professedly contemn the words of God making them as a thing ridiculous and not to be regarded shall they prosper that do such things from the promises it is concluded that their judgment now of a long time slumbreth not and when it comes it will devour them without remedy 2 Cor. 36.15 If God I say hath put that reverence upon his Word as to call it The Fear of the Lord what will become of them that do what they can to overthrow its authority by denying it to be his Word and by raising cavils against its authority such stumble indeed at the Word being appointed thereunto but it shall judge them in the last day 1 Pet. 2.8 John 12.48 But thus much for this Having thus spoken of the Object and Rule of our Fear I should come now to speak of FEAR as it is a grace of the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people but before I do that I shall shew you that there are divers sorts of fear besides For man being a resonable creature and having even by nature a certain knowledge of God hath also naturally something of some kind of fear of God at times which although it be not that which is intended in the text yet ought to be spoken to that that which is not right may be distinguished from that that is Of several sorts of fear of God in the heart of the Children of men There is I say several sorts or kinds of fear in the hearts of the
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 unchangable 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 it self being established upon so good a foundation and therefore standeth in it self 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 daies 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 they shall all know me from the least to the greatest for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more Heb. 8.10 11 12. Now if God will do thus unto those that he hath comprized 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 is 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 compleat before God in the righteousness of Christ for that is an apparent contradiction 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 unchangable 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 it self being established upon so good a foundation and therefore standeth in it self 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 daies 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 they shall all know me from the least to the greatest for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more Heb. 8.10 11 12. Now if God will do thus unto those that he hath comprized 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 is 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 compleat before God in the righteousness of Christ for that is an apparent contradiction Quest. But may it not come again as a spirit of bondage to put me into my first fears for my good Ans. 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 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 by Ans. By the spirit of the Devil who alwaies labours to frustrate the faith and hope and comfort of the godly Quest. How doth that appear Answ. 1. By the groundlesness of such fears 2. By the unseasonableness of them 3. By the effects of them 1. By the groundlesness 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
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 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 Gods 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 Sam. 12. 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 is 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 a rod and their iniquities with stripes nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take away from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Psal. 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 2. 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 waies saith she Doubtless thou art our Father Doubtless thou art though this be our case and though Israel should not acknowledge us for such Isa. 63.16 17. That sin dissolveth not the relation of Father and Son is further evident see Gal. 4.4 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 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. Suppose a child doth grevously 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 ignonorance cry and say this man is now no more my father is he therefore now no more his Father doth not every body see the folly of 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 chastizement of a Father And what Son as he whom the father chasteneth not It is worth your observation That the Holy Ghost checks those who under their chastizements for sin forgot to call God their Father You have saith Paul forgotten the Exhortation that 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 Gods chastizing of his children for their sin is 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 chastizeth 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 cheks 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 what ever happeneth to thee I mean as a chastizement for sin after the spirit of adoption is come thou oughtest to hold fast by faith the relation of Father and Son 1. 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 daies of old Deut. 32.6 2. 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 God of my youth Jer. 3.1 7. 3. Remember also that eminent text made mention of in 1 Sam. 12. 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 't is evident have not known what 't 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