he is the Deity that I adore, that is, my worship and my religion; and because the new colony of Assyrians did not do so, at the beginning of their dwelling there," they feared not the Lord," that is, they worshipped other gods, and not the God of Israel, therefore God sent lions among them, which slew many of them". Thus far fear is not a distinct duty, but a word signifying something besides itself; and therefore cannot come into the consideration of this text. Therefore, 3. Fear, as it is a religious passion, is divided as the two Testaments are; and relates to the old and new covenant, and accordingly hath its distinction. In the law, God used his people like servants; in the Gospel, he hath made us to be sons. In the law, he enjoined many things, hard, intricate, various, painful, and expensive; in the Gospel, he gave commandments, not hard, but full of pleasure, necessary and profitable to our life, and well-being of single persons and communities of men. In the law, he hath exacted those many precepts by the covenant of exact measures, grains and scruples; in the Gospel, he makes abatement for human infirmities, temptations, moral necessities, mistakes, errors, for every thing that is pitiable, for every thing that is not malicious and voluntary. In the law, there are many threatenings, and but few promises, the promise of temporal prosperities branched into single instances; in the Gospel, there are but few threatenings, and many promises: and when God by Moses gave the ten commandments, only one of them was sent out with a promise, the precept of obedience to all our parents and superiors; but when Christ în his first sermon recommended eight duties', Christian duties to the college of disciples, every one of them begins with a blessing and ends with a promise, and therefore grace is opposed to the law. So that, upon these differing interests, the world put on the affections of servants, and sons: they of old feared God as a severe Lord, much in his commands, abundant in threatenings, angry in his executions, terrible in his name, in his majesty and appearance, dreadful unto death ; and this the Apostle calls πνεῦμαδουλείας, "the spirit of bondage," or of a servant. But we have not received that Spirit, ais pó6ov," unto fear," not a servile fear, i Matt. v. ad v. 10. k John i. 17. Rom. vi. 14, 15. h2 Kings xvii. 25. "but the Spirit of adoption" and filial fear we must have'; God treats us like sons, he keeps us under discipline, but designs us to the inheritance: and his government is paternal, his disciplines are merciful, his conduct gentle, his Son is our Brother, and our Brother is our Lord, and our Judge is our Advocate, and our Priest hath felt our infirmities, and therefore knows how to pity them, and he is our Lord, and therefore he can relieve them: and from hence we have affections of sons; so that a fear we must not have, and yet a fear we must have; and by these proportions we understand the difference: "Malo vereri quàm timeri me à meis,” said one in the comedy," I had rather be reverenced than feared by my children." The English doth not well express the difference, but the Apostle doth it rarely well. For that which he calls vεvμα dovλeias in Rom. viii. 15. he calls #vēžμa dɛidías, 2 Tim. i. 7. The spirit of bondage is the spirit of timorousness, or fearfulness, rather than fear; when we are fearful that God will use us harshly: or when we think of the accidents that happen, worse than the things are, when they are proportioned by measures of eternity: and from this opinion conceive forced resolutions and unwilling obedience. Χείρους δὲ ὅσοι οὐ δὶ αἰδῶ, ἀλλὰ διὰ φόβον αυτὸ δρῶσι, καὶ φεύγοντες οὐ τὸ αἰσχρόν, ἀλλὰ τὸ λυπηρόν, said Aristotle; "Good men are guided by reverence, not by fear, and they avoid not that which is afflictive, but that which is dishonest;" they are not so good whose rule is otherwise. But that we may take more exact measures, I shall describe the proportions of Christian or godly fear by the following propositions. 1. Godly fear is ever without despair;-because Christian fear is an instrument of duty, and that duty without hope can never go forward. For what should that man do, who, like Nausiclides, οὔτε ἔας, οὔτε φίλους ἔχει, • hath neither spring nor harvest,' friends nor children, rewards nor hopes? A man will very hardly be brought to deny his own pleasing appetite, when for so doing he cannot hope to have recompense; when the mind of a man is between hope and fear, it is intent upon its work; "At postquam adempta spes est, Jassus, curâ confectus, stupet," "If you take away the hope, 1 Rom. viii. 15. : the mind is weary, spent with care, hindered by amazements:" "Aut aliquem sumpserimus temeraria in Deos desperatione," saith Arnobius; "A despair of mercy makes men to despise God:" and the damned in hell, when they shall for ever be without hope, are also without fear; their hope is turned into despair, and their fear into blasphemy, and they curse the fountain of blessing, and revile God to eternal ages. When Dionysius the tyrant imposed intolerable tributes upon his Sicilian subjects, it amazed them, and they petitioned and cried for help and flattered him, and feared and obeyed him carefully; but he imposed still new ones, and greater, and at last left them poor as the valleys of Vesuvius, or the top of Etna; but then, all being gone, the people grew idle and careless, and walked in the markets and public places, cursing the tyrant, and bitterly scoffing his person and vices; which when Dionysius heard, he caused his publicans and committees to withdraw their impost for now (says he) they are dangerous, because they are desperate,' νῦν γὰρ, ὅτε οὐδὲν ἔχουσιν, καταφρονοῦσιν ἡμῶν. When men have nothing left, they will despise their rulers: and so it is in religion; "Audaces cogimur esse metu." If our fears be unreasonable, our diligence is none at all; and from whom we hope for nothing, neither benefit nor indemnity; we despise his command, and break his yoke, and trample it under our most miserable feet and therefore, Eschylus calls these people Seppoùs, hot,' mad, and furious, careless of what they do, and he opposes them to pious and holy people. Let your confidence be allayed with fear, and your fear be sharpened with the intertextures of a holy hope, and the active powers of our souls are furnished with feet and wings, with eyes and hands, with consideration and diligence, with reason and encouragements: but despair is part of the punishment that is in hell, and the devils still do evil things, because they never hope to receive a good, nor find a pardon. : 2. Godly fear must always be with honourable opinion of God,-without disparagements of his mercies, without quarrellings at the intrigues of his providence, or the rough ways of his justice; and therefore it must be ever relative to ourselves and our own failings and imperfections. Θαρσεῖτ'· οὔπω Ζεὺς αὐχένα λοξὸν ἔχειν "God never walks perversely towards us, unless we walk crookedly towards him:' and therefore persons,-that only consider the greatness and power of God, and dwell for ever in the meditation of those severe executions, which are transmitted to us by story, or we observe by accident and conversation, are apt to be jealous concerning God, and fear him as an enemy, or as children fear fire, or women thunder, only because it can hurt them; "Sæpius illud cogitant, quid possit is, cujus in ditione sunt, quam quid debeat facere" (Cicero pro Quinctio): They remember oftener what God can do, than what he will;' being more affrighted at his judgments, than delighted with his mercy. Such as were the Lacedæmonians, whenever they saw a man grow popular, or wise, or beloved, and by consequence powerful, they turned him out of the country and because they were afraid of the power of Ismenias, and knew that Pelopidas and Pherenicius and Androclydes could hurt them, if they listed, they banished them from Sparta, but they let Epaminondas alone, ús dià μὲν φιλοσοφίαν ἀπράγμονα, διὰ δὲ πενίαν ἀδύνατον, as being studious and inactive, and poor, and therefore harmless it is harder when men use God thus, and fear him as the great justiciary of the world; who sits in heaven, and observes all we do, and cannot want excuse to punish all mankind. But this caution I have now inserted for their sakes, whose schools and pulpits raise doctrinal fears concerning God; which, if they were true, the greatest part of mankind would be tempted to think, they have reason not to love God; and all the other part, that have not apprehended a reason to hate him, would have very much reason to suspect his severity, and their own condition. Such are they, which say, That God hath decreed the greatest part of mankind to eternal damnation; and that only to declare his severity, and to manifest his glory by a triumph in our torments, and rejoicings in the gnashing of our teeth. And they also fear God unreasonably, and speak no good things concerning his name, who say, That God commands us to observe laws which are impossible; that think he will condemn innocent persons for errors of judgment, which they cannot avoid; that condemn whole nations for different opinions, which they are pleased to call heresy; that think God will exact the duties of a man by the measures of an angel, or will not make abatement for all our pitiable infirmities. The precepts of this caution are, that we remember God's mercies to be over all his works, that is, that he shews mercy to all his creatures that need it; that God delights to have his mercy magnified in all things, and by all persons, and at all times, and will not suffer his greatest honour to be most of all undervalued; and therefore as he, that would accuse God of injustice, were a blasphemer, so he that suspects his mercy, dishonours God as much, and produces in himself that fear, which is the parent of trouble, but no instrument of duty. 3. Godly fear is operative, diligent, and instrumental to caution and strict walking:-for so fear is the mother of holy living; and the Apostle urges it by way of upbraiding: "What! do we provoke God to anger? Are we stronger than hem?" meaning, that if we be not strong enough to struggle with a fever, if our voices cannot outroar thunder, if we cannot check the ebbing and flowing of the sea, if we cannot add one cubit to our stature, how shall we escape the mighty hand of God?' And here, heighten our apprehensions of the Divine power, of his justice and severity, of the fierceness of his anger and the sharpness of his sword, the heaviness of his hand and the swiftness of his arrows, as much as ever you can; provided the effect pass on no farther, but to make us reverent and obedient: but that fear is unreasonable, servile, and unchristian, that ends in bondage and servile affections, scruple and trouble, vanity and incredulity, superstition and desperation: its proper bounds are "humble and devout prayers," and "a strict and a holy piety" according to his laws, and "glorifications of God," or speaking good things of his holy name; and then it cannot be amiss: we must be full of confidence towards God, we must with cheerfulness rely upon God's goodness for the issue of our souls, and our final interests; but this expectation of the Divine mercy must be in the ways of piety: "Commit yourselves to God in well-doing as unto a faithful Creatorn." Alcibiades. was too timorous; who being called from banishment refused to return, and being asked, If he durst not trust his country, answered, Τὰ μὲν ἄλλα πάντα, περὶ δὲ ψυχῆς τῆς ἐμῆς οὐδὲ τῇ μητρί μήπως ἀγνοήσασα, τὴν μέλαιναν ἀντὶ τῆς λευκῆς |