the Fear of god, Part 5
What this fear of God flows from.
I come now to the second thing, to wit, to shew you what this fear of God flows from.
First, This fear, this grace of fear, this son-like fear of God, It flows from the distinguishing love of God to his elect. I will be their God, saith he, and I will put my fear in their hearts. None other obtain it but those that are inclosed and bound up in that bundle. Therefore they, in the same place are said to be those that are wrapt up in the eternal or everlasting covenant of God, and so designed to be the people that should be blessed with this fear. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, saith God, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me, Jer. 32.40.
This covenant declares unto men, that God hath, in his heart, distinguishing love for some of the children of men, for he saith, he will be their God, that he will not leave them, nor yet suffer them to depart, to wit, finally from him. Into these mens hearts he doth put his fear, this blessed grace, and this rare, and effectual sign of his love, and of their eternal salvation.
2. This fear, flows from a new heart. This fear is not in men by nature; the fear of Devils they may have, as also an ungodly fear of God; but this fear is not in any, but where there dwelleth a new heart, another fruit and effect of this everlasting covenant, and of this distinguishing love of God.
An new heart also will I give them, a new heart, what a one is that? why? the same Prophet saith in another place, A heart to fear me, a circumcised one, a sanctified one, Jer. 32.39. Ezek. 11.19. Chap. 36.26.
So then, until a man receive an heart from God, an heart from Heaven, a new heart; he has not this fear of God in him. New wine must not be put into old bottles, lest the one, to wit, the bottles mar the wine, or the wine the bottles, but new wine must have new bottles, and then both shall be preserved, Matth. 9.17.
This fear of God must not be, cannot be found in old hearts, old hearts are not bottles out of which this fear of God proceeds, but 'tis from an honest and good heart, from a new one, from such an one that is also an effect of the everlasting covenant, and love of God to men.
I will give them an heart to fear me, there must in all actions be heart, and without heart no action is good, nor can there be faith, love or fear, from every kind of heart; these must flow from such an one, whose nature is to produce, and bring forth such fruit; Do men gather Grapes of thorns, or Figs of thistles? so from a corrupt heart there cannot proceed such fruit as the fear of God as to believe in God, and love God, Luke 6.43, 44, 45.
The heart naturally is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, how then should there flow from such an one, the fear of God? it cannot be. He therefore that hath not received at the hands of God, a new heart, cannot fear the Lord.
3. This fear of God, it flows from an impression, a sound impression that the word of God maketh on our souls; for without an impress of the word, there is no fear of God. Hence it is said that God gave to Israel good laws, statutes and judgements, that they might learn them, and in learning them, learn to fear the Lord their God. Therefore saith God in another place, Gather the people together, men, women and children, and the stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God, Deut. 6.1, 2. Chap. 31.12.
For as a man drinketh good doctrine into his soul, so he feareth God. If he drinks it in much, he feareth him greatly; if he drinketh it in but little, he feareth him but little; if he drinketh it not in at all, he feareth him not at all.
This therefore teacheth us how to judge who feareth the Lord; they are those that learn, and that stand in awe of the word: those that have by the holy word of God the very form of it self engraven upon the face of their souls, they fear God, Rom. 6.17. But on the contrary, those that do not love good doctrine, that give not place to the wholsom truths of the God of Heaven revealed in his testament, to take place in their souls, but rather despise it, and the true professors of it, they fear not God. For as I said before, this fear of God, it flows from a sound impression that the word of God maketh upon the soul; and therefore
4. This godly fear, it floweth from faith, for where the word maketh sound impression on the soul, by that impression, is faith begotten, whence also this fear doth flow. Therefore right hearing of the word, is called the hearing of faith, Galla. 3. verse 2. Hence it is said again; By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an Ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith, (Heb. 11.7.) The word, the warning that he had from God of things not seen as yet, wrought, through faith therein, that fear of God in his heart that made him prepare against unseen dangers, and that he might be an inheritour of unseen happiness.
Where, therefore, there is not faith in the word of God, there can be none of this fear; and where the word doth not make sound impression on the soul, there can be none of this faith. So that as vices hang together, & have the links of a chain, dependance one upon another, even so the graces of the spirit also, are the fruits of one another, and have such dependance on each other, that the one cannot be without the other.
No faith, no fear of God: Devils faith, Devils fear, Saints faith, Saints fear.
5. This godly fear, it also floweth from sound repentance for and from sin, godly sorrow worketh repentance, & godly repentance produceth this fear. For behold, saies Paul, This self same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing of your selves, yea what indignations, yea what fear, 2 Cor. 7.10, 11. Repentance is the effect of sorrow, and sorrow is the effect of smart, and smart the effect of faith: now therefore fear must needs be an effect of, and flow from repentance.
Sinner, do not deceive thy self, if thou art a stranger to sound repentance, which standeth in sorrow and shame, before God, for sin, as also in turning from it, thou hast no fear of God, I mean none of this godly fear, for that is the fruits of, and floweth from sound repentance,
6. This godly fear, it also flowes from a sense of the love and kindness of God to the soul. Where there is no sense or hope of the kindness, and mercy of God by Jesus Christ, there can be none of this fear, but rather wrath and despair, which produceth that fear that is either devilish, or else that which is only wrought in us by the spirit, as a spirit of bondage, (but these we do not discourse of now) wherefore the godly fear that now I treat of, it floweth from some sense or hope of mercy from God by Jesus Christ. If thou Lord, saies David, shouldest mark iniquity, O Lord, who should stand, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared, Psal. 130.3, 4.
There is mercy with thee. This the soul has sense of an hope in, and therefore feareth God. Indeed, nothing can lay a stronger obligation upon the heart to fear God, than sense of, or hope in mercy. See Jer. 33.8, 9.
This begetteth true tenderness of heart, true godly softness of spirit; this truly endeareth the affections to God: and in this true tenderness, softness, and indearedness of affection to God, lieth the very essence of this fear of the Lord, as is manifest by the fruit of this fear when we shall come to speak of it.
7. This fear of God, flows from a due consideration of the judgments of God, that are to be executed in the world, yea upon professors too: yea further, Gods people themselves, I mean, as to themselves, have such a consideration of his judgments towards them, as to produce this godly fear.
When Gods judgments are in the earth, they effect the fear of his name, in the hearts of his own people, My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am, said David, afraid of thy judgments, Psal. 119.120. When God smote Vzza, David was afraid of God that day, Chron. 13.12. Indeed many regard not the works of the Lord, nor take notice of the opperation of his hands, and such cannot fear the Lord. But others observe and regard, and wisely consider of his doings, and of the judgments that he executeth, and that makes them fear the Lord.
This God himself suggesteth as a means to make us fear him. Hence he commands the false Prophet to be stoned: That all Israel might hear, and fear. Hence also he commanded that the rebellious Son should be stoned: That all Israel might hear and fear. False Witness was also to have the same judgment of God executed upon him: That all Israel might hear and fear. The man also that did ought presumptuously was to die: That all Israel might hear and fear, Deut. 13.11. Chap. 21.21. Chap. 17.13. Chap. 19.20.
There is a natural tendency in judgments, as judgments to beget a fear of God in the heart of man as man: but when the observation of the judgments of God, is made by him that hath a principle of true grace in his soul, that observation being made, I say, by a gracious heart, produceth a fear of God in the soul, of its own nature, to wit, a gracious or godly fear of God.
8. This godly fear it also flows from a godly remembrance of our former distresses, when we were distressed with our first fears; for though our first fears were begotten in us by the spirits working as a spirit of bondage, and so are not alwaies to be entertained as such, yet even that fear leaveth in us, and upon our spirits, that sense and relish of our first awakenings and dread, as also occasioneth, and produceth this godly fear. Take heed, saies God, and keep thy soul deligently, lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the daies of thy life, but teach them thy Sons, and thy Sons Sons. But what was the things that their eyes had seen, that would so damnify them, should they be forgotten? The answer is, The things which they saw at Horeb; to wit, the Fire, the Smoke, the Darkness, the Earthquake, their first awakenings by the Law, by which they were brought into a bondage fear; yea they was to remember this especially. Especially, saith he, the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord thy God said unto thee, gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my Words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the Earth, Dut. 4.9, 10, 11. The remembrance of what we saw, felt, feared and trembled under the sense of, when our first fears were upon us, is that which will produce in our hearts this godly filial fear.
9. This godly fear, it flows from our receiving of an answer of prayer, when we supplicated for mercy at the hand of God. See the proof for this. If there be in the Land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be Catterpillars; if their Enemies besiege them in the Land of their Cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be: What prayer and supplication soever be made, by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands towards this house: Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his waies, whose heart thou knowest (for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the Children of men,) that they may fear thee all the daies (of their life,) that they live in the Land which thou gavest unto our Fathers, 1 King. 8.37, 38, 39, 40.
10. This grace of fear also flows from a blessed conviction of the alseeing eye of God. That is, from a belief that he certainly knoweth the heart, and seeth every one of the turnings and returnings thereof; this is intimated in the text last mentioned. Whose heart thou knowest; That they may fear thee, To wit, so many of them as be, or shall be convinced of this. Indeed without this conviction this godly fear cannot be in us; the want of this conviction made the Pharisees such hypocrites. You are they, said Christ, that justifie your selves before men, but God knoweth your hearts, (Luk. 16.15.) The Pharisees, I say, were not aware of this, therefore they so much preferred themselves before those, that by far, were better than themselves, and it is for want of this conviction that men go on in such secret sins as they do, so much without fear either of God or his judgments.
11. This grace of fear also flows from a sense of the impartial judgment of God upon men according to their works. This also is manifest from the Text mentioned above. And give unto every man according to his works or waies, that they may fear thee, &c. This is also manifest by that of Peter, 1 Pet. 1.17. And if ye call upon the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every mans works pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. He that hath godly conviction of this, will fear of God, will fear before him: by which fear their hearts are poised; and works directed with trembling, according to the will of God.
Thus you see what a weighty, and great grace this grace of the holy fear of God is, & how all the graces of the Holy Ghost yield mutually their help and strength to the nourishment and life of it; and also how it flows from them all, and hath a dependance upon every of them for its due working in the heart of him that hath it. And thus much to shew you from whence it flows. And now I shall come to the third thing, to wit, to shew you what flows from this godly fear.