Chapter 131

Child of God, thou that fearest God, here is mercy nigh thee, mercy enough, everlasting mercy upon thee. This is long-lived mercy. It will live longer than thy sin, it will live longer than temptation, it will live longer than thy sorrows, it will live longer than thy persecutors. It is mercy from everlasting to contrive thy salvation, and mercy to everlasting to weather it out with all thy adversaries. Now what can hell and death do to him that hath this mercy of God upon him? And this hath the man that feareth the Lord. Take that other blessed word, and O thou man that fearest the Lord, hang it like a chain of gold about thy neck—“As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” (Psa 103:11). If mercy as big, as high, and as good as heaven itself will be a privilege, the man that feareth God shall have a privilege.

Ninth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Psa 103:13).

“ The Lord pitieth them that fear him”; that is, condoleth and is affected, feeleth and sympathizeth with them in all their afflictions. It is a great matter for a poor man to be in this manner in the affections of the great and mighty, but for a poor sinner to be thus in the heart and affections of God, and they that fear him are so, this is astonishing to consider. “In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.” In his love and in his pity! “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old” (Isa 63:9). I say, in that he is said to pity them, it is as much as to say, he condoleth, feeleth, and sympathizeth with them in all their afflictions and temptations. So that this is the happiness of him that feareth God, he has a God to pity him and to be touched with all his miseries. It is said in Judges, “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (Judg 10:16). And in the Hebrews, he is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and can “succour them that are tempted” (4:15, 2:17,18).

But further, let us take notice of the comparison. “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Here is not only pity, but the pity of a relation, a father. It is said in another place; “Can a woman,” a mother, “forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may, yet will not I forget thee.” The pity of neighbours and acquaintance helpeth in times of distress, but the pity of a father and a mother is pity with an over and above. “The Lord,” says James, “is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Pharaoh called Joseph his tender father,[21] because he provided for him against the famine, but how tender a father is God! how full of bowels! how full of pity! (James 5:11; Gen 41:43). It is said, that when Ephraim was afflicted, God’s bowels were troubled for him, and turned within him towards him. O that the man that feareth the Lord did but believe the pity and bowels that are in the heart of God and his father towards him (Jer 31:18-20).

Tenth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—“He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them” (Psa 145:19). Almost all those places that make mention of the men that fear God, do insinuate as if they still were under affliction, or in danger by reason of an enemy. But I say, here is still their privilege, their God is their father and pities them—“He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him.” Where now is the man that feareth the Lord? let him hearken to this. What sayest thou, poor soul? will this content thee, the Lord will fulfil thy desires? It is intimated of Adonijah, that David his father did let him have his head and his will in all things. “His father,” says the text, “had not displeased him at any time in (so much as) saying, Why hast thou done so?” (1 Kings 1:6). But here is more, here is a promise to grant thee the whole desire of thy heart, according to the prayer of holy David, “The Lord grant thee, according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.” And again, “The Lord fulfil all thy petitions” (Psa 20).

O thou that fearest the Lord, what is thy desire? All my desire, says David, is all my salvation (2 Sam 23:5), so sayest thou, “All my salvation” is “all my desire.” Well, the desire of thy soul is granted thee, yea, God himself hath engaged himself even to fulfil this thy desire—“He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry, and will save them.” O this desire when it cometh, what a tree of life will it be to thee! Thou desirest to be rid of thy present trouble; the Lord shall rid thee out of trouble. Thou desirest to be delivered from temptation; the Lord shall deliver thee out of temptation. Thou desirest to be delivered from thy body of death; and the Lord shall change this thy vile body, that it may be like to his glorious body. Thou desirest to be in the presence of God, and among the angels in heaven. This thy desire also shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt be made equal to the angels (Exo 6:6; 2 Peter 2:9; Phil 3:20,21; Luke 16:22, 20:35,36). O but it is long first! Well, learn first to live upon thy portion in the promise of it, and that will make thy expectation of it sweet. God will fulfil thy desires, God will do it, though it tarry long. Wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Eleventh Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—“The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him” (Psa 147:11). They that fear God are among his chief delights. He delights in his Son, he delights in his works, and takes pleasure in them that fear him. As a man takes pleasure in his wife, in his children, in his gold, in his jewels; so the man that fears the Lord is the object of his delight. He takes pleasure in their prosperity, and therefore sendeth them health from the sanctuary, and makes them drink of the river of his pleasures (Psa 35:27). “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (Psa 36:8). That or those that we take pleasure in, that or those we love to beautify and adorn with many ornaments. We count no cost too much to be bestowed on those in whom we place our delight, and whom we make the object of our pleasure. And even thus it is with God. “For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people,” and what follows? “he will beautify the meek with salvation” (Psa 149:4).

Those in whom we delight, we take pleasure in their actions; yea, we teach them, and give them such rules and laws to walk by, as may yet make them that we love more pleasurable in our eyes. Therefore they that fear God, since they are the object of his pleasure, are taught to know how to please him in everything (1 Thess 4:1). And hence it is said, that he is ravished with their looks, that he delighteth in their cry, and that he is pleased with their walking (Can 4:9; Prov 15:8, 11:20).

Those in whom we delight and take pleasure, many things we will bear and put up that they do, though they be not according to our minds. A man will suffer that in, and put up that at, the hand of the child or wife of his pleasure, that he will not pass by nor put up in another. They are my jewels, says God, even them that fear me; and I will spare them, in all their comings-short of my will, “even as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Mal 3:16,17). O how happy is the man that feareth God! His good thoughts, his good attempts to serve him, and his good life pleases him, because he feareth God.

You know how pleasing in our eyes the actions of our children are, when we know that they do what they do even of a reverent fear and awe of us; yea, though that which they do amounts but to little, we take it well at their hands, and are pleased therewith. The woman that cast in her two mites into the treasury, cast in not much, for they both did but make one farthing; yet how doth the Lord Jesus trumpet her up,[22] he had pleasure in her, and in her action (Mark 12:41-44). This, therefore, that the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, is another of their great privileges.

Twelfth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? the least dram of that fear giveth the privilege to be blessed with the biggest saint—“He will bless them that fear the Lord, small and great” (Psa 115:13). This word small may be taken three ways—1. For those that are small in esteem, for those that are but little accounted of (Judg 6:15; 1 Sam 18:23). Art thou small or little in this sense, yet if thou fearest God, thou art sure to be blessed. “He will bless them that fear him, small and great,” be thou never so small in the world’s eyes, in thine own eyes, in the saints’ eyes, as sometimes one saint is little in another saint’s eye; yet thou, because thou fearest God, art put among the blessed. 2. By small, sometimes is meant those that are but small of stature, or young in years, little children, that are easily passed by and looked over: as those that sang Hosanna in the temple were, when the Pharisees deridingly said of them to Christ, “Hearest thou what these say?” (Matt 21:16). Well, but Christ would not despise them, of them that feared God, but preferred them by the Scripture testimony far before those that did contemn them. Little children, how small soever, and although of never so small esteem with men, shall also, if they fear the Lord, be blessed with the greatest saints—“He will bless them that fear him, small and great.” 3. By small may sometimes be meant those that are small in grace or gifts; these are said to be the least in the church, that is, under this consideration, and so are by it least esteemed (Matt 25:45). Thus also is that of Christ to be understood, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me” (1 Cor 6:4).

Art thou in thine own thoughts, or in the thoughts of others, of these last small ones, small in grace, small in gifts, small in esteem upon this account, yet if thou fearest God, if thou fearest God indeed, thou art certainly blessed with the best of saints. The least star stands as fixed, as the biggest of them all, in heaven. “He will bless them that fear him, small and great.” He will bless them, that is, with the same blessing of eternal life. For the different degrees of grace in saints doth not make the blessing, as to its nature, differ. It is the same heaven, the same life, the same glory, and the same eternity of felicity that they are in the text promised to be blessed with. That is observable which I mentioned before, where Christ at the day of judgment particularly mentioneth and owneth the least—“Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least.” The least then was there, in his kingdom and in his glory, as well as the biggest of all. “He will bless them that fear him, small and great.” The small are named first in the text, and are so the first in rank; it may be to show that though they may be slighted and little set by in the world, yet they are much set by in the eyes of the Lord.

Are great saints only to have the kingdom, and the glory everlasting? Are great works only to be rewarded? works that are done by virtue of great grace, and the abundance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost? No: “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his (a disciple’s) reward.” Mark, here is but a little gift, a cup of cold water, and that given to a little saint, but both taken special notice of by our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 10:42). “He will give reward to his servants the prophets, and to his saints, and to them that fear his name, small and great” (Rev 11:18). The small, therefore, among them that fear God, are blessed with the great, as the great, with the same salvation, the same glory, and the same eternal life; and they shall have, even as the great ones also shall, as much as they can carry; as much as their hearts, souls, bodies, and capacities can hold.

Thirteenth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? why, the Holy Ghost hath on purpose indited for thee a whole psalm to sing concerning thyself. So that thou mayest even as thou art in thy calling, bed, journey, or whenever, sing out thine own blessed and happy condition to thine own comfort and the comfort of thy fellows. The psalm is called the 128th Psalm; I will set it before thee, both as it is in the reading[23] and in the singing Psalms—

“ Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children, like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion; and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.”

AS IT IS SUNG.

Blessed art thou that fearest God, And walkest in his way: For of thy labour thou shalt eat; Happy art thou, I say! Like fruitful vines on thy house side, So doth thy wife spring out; Thy children stand like olive plants Thy table round about.

Thus art thou blest that fearest God, And he shall let thee see The promised Jerusalem, And her felicity. Thou shalt thy children’s children see, To thy great joy’s increase; And likewise grace on Israel, Prosperity and peace.[24]

And now I have done with the privileges when I have removed one objection.

Object. But the Scripture says, “perfect love casteth our fear”; and therefore it seems that saints, after that a spirit of adoption is come, should not fear, but do their duty, as another Scripture saith, without it (1 John 4:18; Luke 1:74,75).

Answ. Fear, as I have showed you, may be taken several ways. 1. It may be taken for the fear of devils. 2. It may be taken for the fear of reprobates. 3. It may be taken for the fear that is wrought in the godly by the Spirit as a spirit of bondage; or, 4. It may be taken for the fear that I have been but now discoursing of.

Now the fear that perfect love casts out cannot be that son-like, gracious fear of God, that I have in this last place been treating of; because that fear that love casts out hath torment, but so has not the son-like fear. Therefore the fear that love casts out is either that fear that is like the fear of devils and reprobates, or that fear that is begot in the heart by the Spirit of God as a spirit of bondage, or both; for, indeed, all these kinds of fear have torment, and therefore may be cast out; and are so by the spirit of adoption, which is called the spirit of faith and love, when he comes with power into the soul; so that without this fear we should serve him. But to argue from these texts that we ought not to fear God, or to mix fear with our worship of him, is as much as to say that by the spirit of adoption we are made very rogues; for not to fear God is by the Scripture applied to such (Luke 23:40). But for what I have affirmed the Scripture doth plentifully confirm, saying, “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” And again, “It shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.” Fear, therefore; the spirit of the fear of the Lord is a grace that greatly beautifies a Christian, his words, and all his ways: “Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed, and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts” (2 Chron 19:7).

I come now to make some use and application of this doctrine.

THE USE OF THIS DOCTRINE.

Having proceeded thus far about this doctrine of the fear of God, I now come to make some use and application of the whole; and my

[USE FIRST, of Examination.]

FIRST USE shall be a USE OF EXAMINATION. Is this fear of God such an excellent thing? Is it attended with so many blessed privileges? Then this should put us, every soul of us, upon a diligent examination of ourselves, to wit, whether this grace be in us or not, for if it be, then thou art one of these blessed ones to whom belong these glorious privileges, for thou hast an interest in every of them; but if it shall appear that this grace is not in thee, then thy state is fearfully miserable, as hath partly been manifest already, and will further be seen in what comes after. Now, the better to help thee to consider, and not to miss in finding out what thou art in thy self-examination, I will speak to this—First. In general. Second. In particular.

First. In general. No man brings this grace into the world with him. Every one by nature is destitute of it; for naturally none fear God, there is no fear of God, none of this grace of fear before their eyes, they do not so much as know what it is; for this fear flows, as was showed before, from a new heart, faith, repentance and the like; of which new heart, faith, and repentance, if thou be void, thou art also void of this godly fear. Men must have a mighty change of heart and life, or else they are strangers to this fear of God. Alas, how ignorant are the most of this! Yea, and some are not afraid to say they are not changed, nor desire so to be. Can these fear God? can these be possessed with this grace of fear? No: “Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God” (Psa 55:19; Psa 36:1; Rom 3:18).

Wherefore, sinner, consider whoever thou art that art destitute of this fear of God, thou art void of all other graces; for this fear, as also I have showed, floweth from the whole stock of grace where it is. There is not one of the graces of the Spirit, but this fear is in the bowels of it; yea, as I may say, this fear is the flower and beauty of every grace; neither is there anything, let it look as much like grace as it will, that will be counted so indeed, if the fruit thereof be not this fear of God; wherefore, I say again, consider well of this matter, for as thou shalt be found with reference to this grace, so shall thy judgment be. I have but briefly treated of this grace, yet have endeavoured, with words as fit as I could, to display it in its colours before thy face, first by showing you what this fear of God is, then what it flows from, as also what doth flow from it; to which, as was said before, I have added several privileges that are annexed to this fear, that by all, if it may be, thou mayest see it if thou hast it, and thyself without it if thou hast it not. Wherefore I refer thee thither again for information in this thing; or if thou art loath to give the book a second reading, but wilt go on to the end now thou art gotten hither; then

Second and particularly, I conclude with these several propositions concerning those that fear not God.

1. That man that is proud, and of a high and lofty mind, fears not God. This is plain from the exhortation, “Be not high-minded, but fear” (Rom 11:20). Here you see that a high mind and the fear of God are set in direct opposition the one to the other; and there is in them, closely concluded by the apostle, that where indeed the one is, there cannot be the other; where there is a high mind, there is not the fear of God; and where there is the fear of God, the mind is not high but lowly. Can a man at the same time be a proud man, and fear God too? Why, then, is it said God beholdeth every one that is proud, and abases him? and again, He beholds the proud afar off? He therefore that is proud of his person, of his riches, of his office, of his parts, and the like, feareth not God. It is also manifest further, for God resisteth the proud, which he would not do, if he feared him, but in that he sets him at such a distance from him, in that he testifies that he will abase him and resist him, it is evident that he is not the man that hath this grace of fear; for that man, as I have showed you, is the man of God’s delight, the object of his pleasure (Psa 138:6; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Mal 4:1).

2. The covetous man feareth not God. This also is plain from the Word, because it setteth covetousness and the fear of God in direct opposition. Men that fear God are said to hate covetousness (Exo 18:21). Besides, the covetous man is called an idolater, and is said to have no part in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And again, “The wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth” (Eze 33:31; Eph 5:5; Psa 10:3). Hearken to this, you that hunt the world to take it, you that care not how you get, so you get the world. Also you that make even religion your stalking-horse to get the world, you fear not God. And what will you do whose hearts go after your covetousness? you who are led by covetousness up and down, as it were by the nose; sometimes to swear, to lie, to cozen, and cheat and defraud, when you can get the advantage to do it. You are far, very far, from the fear of God. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses,” for so the covetous are called, “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

3. The riotous eaters of flesh have not the fear of God. For this is done “without fear” (Jude 12). Gluttony is a sin little taken notice of, and as little repented of by those that use it, but yet it is odious in the sight of God, and the practice of it a demonstration of the want of his fear in the heart: yea, so odious is it, that God forbids that his people should so much as company with such. “Be not,” saith he, “among wine-bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh” (Prov 23:20). And he further tells us, that they that are such, are spots and blemishes to those that keep them company, for indeed they fear not God (2 Peter 2:13; Rom 13:13; 1 Peter 4:4). Alas! some men are as if they were for nought else born but to eat and to drink, and pamper their carcasses with the dainties of this world, quite forgetting why God sent them hither; but such, as is said, fear not God, and so consequently are of the number of them upon whom the day of judgment will come at unawares (Luke 21:34).

4. The liar is one that fears not God. This also is evident from the plain text, “Thou hast lied,” saith the Lord, “and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart: have not I held my peace even of old,” saith the Lord, “and thou fearest me not?” (Isa 57:11). What lie this was is not material; it was a lie, or a course of lying that is here rebuked, and the person or persons in this practice, as is said, were such as feared not God; a course of lying and the fear of God cannot stand together. This sin of lying is a common sin, and it walketh in the world in several guises. There is the profane scoffing liar, there is the cunning artificial liar, there is the hypocritical religious liar, with liars of other ranks and degrees. But none of them all have the fear of God, nor shall any of them, they not repenting, escape the damnation of hell—“All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8). Heaven and the New Jerusalem are not a place for such—“And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie” (v 27). Therefore another scripture says that all liars are without—“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Rev 22:15). But this should not be their sentence, judgment, and condemnation, if they that are liars were such as had in them this blessed fear of God.