may enforce a holy Awe and Fear of him and indeed if ever it was necessary to press Men to a due Fear and Awe of God it is so now since on the one Hand the open Prophaneness of ungodly Men and on the other Hand the pert Sauciness of some notional Professors are apt to think that Communion with God consists in a familiar Rudeness doth plainly testifie to all the World that there is little Fear or Reverence of him in their Hearts And now whilst I am shewing what reason there is that Gods dearest Children should fear him as a reconciled Father let wicked Men in the mean while sadly consider with themselves what great cause then they have to fear him who is their sworn Enemy if God's Smiles are tempered with that Majesty that makes them awful surely his Frowns then must needs carry in them an astonishing Terror that makes them insupportable We may observe how unexpectedly sometimes from the Goodness and Mercy of God that is the sweetest and most natural attractive of Love the Scripture draws an Inference to fear God Psal 130.4 Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Not only a Sin-revenging but a Sin-pardoning God is here set before us as the Object of our Fear these two Sister Graces Fear and Love are nourished in the Soul by the same Attribute God's pardoning Mercy The great Sinner in the Gospel is said to love much because much was forgiven her and here much Fear as well as much Love is the result and issue of God's pardoning Grace And so you have it in Hos 3.5 Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness And in Exod. 15.11 Moses describing the most glorious Attributes of God tells us That he is glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises even then when we are to praise God for his Mercy yet are we to fear him as being fearful in Praises And therefore Nehemiah Neh. 1.5 in Nehem. 1.5 praying to God says he O Lord the great and the terrible God Wherein Is it in overwhelming Kingdoms in bringing upon them decreed Destruction Is it in the fierce execution of his Wrath against Sinners No says he O Lord the terrible God that keepest Covenant and Mercy for them that love him So again in Chap. 9.32 O God the mighty and terrible God that keepest Covenant and Mercy Let us now consider what there is in the Mercy and Favour of God as he is a reconciled God unto us and in Covenant with us that may justly render him to be the Object of our Fear 1. That dreadful way that God took to manifest his mercy to us may justly cause us to fear him First The consideration of that dreadful way and method that God took to manifest his Mercy towards us is sufficient to affect our Hearts with Fear though we stand fully possessed of his favour In Gen. 28. when God had made many gracious Promises all along that Chapter unto Jacob of blessing of him and keeping him in all his ways of multiplying his Seed as the dust of the Earth you would think this was no terrible Thing and yet because God reveals this Mercy to him in an awful and amazing manner a Gap is opened in Heaven a bright Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven God on the top of it Angels on every Round of it though the Message was joyful yet the strange kind of delivering of the Message makes Jacob cry out How dreadful is this place it is no other than the Gate of Heaven The very Gate of Heaven becomes dreadful when it is represented in such a Majestical manner But now the way that God took for his Mercy to arrive at us is much more dreadful than any such Dream or Vision and therefore we should be the more deeply affected with Fear and Trembling even then when God speaks Peace and Pardon to us for if we consider either the Terms upon which he is become ours or the way by which he discovereth himself to be ours both of them are full of Dread and Terror 1. The terms upon which God becomes ours are full of Terror First It cannot but strike our Hearts with Fear to reflect upon those dreadful Terms upon which God is contented to be induced to become our God His Mercy towards us is procured upon Terms of infinite Justice and Severity Divine Vengeance arrests our Surety and exacts from him the utmost Satisfaction that Curse that would for ever have blasted and withered the Souls of all Mankind seizeth upon Christ in all its malignity that Wrath some few Drops of which scalds the Damned in Hell was given him to drink off in a full and overflowing Cup He did bear the chastisement of our Peace and by his Stripes we are healed nor would God upon lower Terms have consented to a Reconciliation betwixt wretched Man and himself than the precious Blood of his only Son As of Old Friendship betwixt two Persons was wont to be attested and sealed by a Sacrifice as we find it both among Heathen Authors and also in Scripture an Instance of which we have of Laban in Gen. 31.54 where Laban and Jacob returning to Amity make a Ratification of it by a Sacrifice So the Attonement that God made betwixt us and himself is solemnized by a Sacrifice even the Sacrifice of his own Son As a Lamb without spot or blemish in this Blood the Treaty betwixt God and Man stands ratified and confirmed Oh! dreadful Mercy that clasps and embraces us about with Arms died red in the Blood of Jesus Christ But now is not this Ground enough to cause a holy Fear of God to seize upon every Soul that shall but seriously consider this sad Tragedy of pardoning Grace If a King resolve to forgive a Malefactor upon no other Terms than a Pardon writ with the last drop of the Heart-blood of his dearest Friend who is there that is so hardned that will not tremble at such a Mercy as this is though it save him So is the Case betwixt God and us the Contents of the Pardon are joyful but it is written all with the Blood of Jesus Christ reaking warm from his very Heart 2. The way by which God discovers himself to be ours is dreadful and may make us to fear him and who then would not fear even a forgiving God Secondly Consider the way and method that God takes with us when he becomes our God and that is most dreadful and must needs make the most confirmed Heart to shake with Fear and Trembling Indeed God deals not with us in such Rigour as he dealt with Jesus Christ his Son but yet usually when he becomes our God when he enters upon us as his Possession first he shakes all the Foundations of our Hearts breaths in Flames of Fire into our very Marrow cramps our Consciences and unjoints our Souls O the Tempests and Storms of Wrath that God pours into a wounded
as we are to speak to him who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh The holy Angels in Heaven stand always ministring in the presence of God and Prayer doth in some kind associate us with them it brings us to lye prostrate at the Feet of God at whose Feet also Angels and all the Powers in Heaven do with much more Humility than we fall down and worship him we and they fall down together at the Feet of the great God we in Prayer and they in Praises This Priviledge cost Jesus Christ dear for it is through him as the Apostle speaks that we have access with boldness unto the Throne of Grace All Access thither was barred against Sinners till Christ opened a Passage for us by his own Death and most precious Blood And shall not we make use of a Priviledge purchased for us at so dear a Rate as that is Hath Christ shed his Blood to procure us liberty to pray and shall not we spend our Breath in praying Hath Christ died such a cursed cruel Death to purchase liberty for us to pray and shall we rather choose to die an eternal Death than make use of it This is to despise the Blood of Jesus Christ to offer an high Affront and Indignity unto him to account it a vile and contemptible Thing when we make no more esteem of that for the purchase of which he shed his precious Blood We look upon it as a great Priviledge to have free and frequent access to those that are much our Superiors and shall we not reckon it a much higher Priviledge that we may at all times approach the presence of him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and higher than the highest as we may do at all times in Prayer 3. Prayer is a sovereign Remedy for an afflicted Mind Thirdly Prayer it is the most sovereign Medicine and Remedy for an afflicted Mind Nothing is so desirable in this World as a faithful Friend to whom we may at all times unbosom our selves and make all our Secrets and Grievances known Now Prayer directs us to go to God himself he is our most faithful Friend that can best counsel and best help us and Prayer is a means whereby we reveal the Secrets and Troubles of our Souls unto him Prayer it is our discoursing with God When our Hearts swell with Grief and are ready to break within us how sweet is it then to take God apart and give our Hearts vent Prayer it is a making our Case known to him and a spreading our Wants before him casting all our Burthens upon him who hath promised to sustain us Fourthly consider 4. Prayer is a means appointed by God for all Mercies that we want Prayer is a means appointed by God for the obtaining of those Blessings and Mercies that we stand in need of for all Things are Gods he is the great Lord and Proprietor both of Heaven and Earth whether they be spiritual or temporal Mercies that we desire if it be Wealth Strength or Wisdom all are his If we would have spiritual Blessings conferred upon us our Faith our Love our Patience our Humility strengthned and encreased he is the God of all these Graces and Prayer it is a means appointed by God to convey all these unto us Our Prayers and God's Mercy are like two Buckets in a Well while the one ascends the other descends So while our Prayers ascend to God in Heaven his Mercies and Blessings descend down upon us 5. We are always in want therefore we should pray always Fifthly consider All our Supplies are only for our present Exigences to serve us only from Hand to Mouth the stock of Mercy is not ours but God's he still keeps it in his own Hands and this he doth that he might keep us in a constant Dependence upon him and in a constant Expectation of Mercy from him Our Wants grow up very thick about us and if we did but observe it we should find every Day yea every Hour new cause to present new Requests and Supplications unto God and therefore as our Necessities never cease so neither should our Prayers 6. They â—hat will not Pray shall Howl Sixthly consider this If you will not be persuaded to pray you shall one Day be made to howl You that will not now look up to Heaven in Prayer shall hereafter look up in Blaspheming Isai 8.21 Isai 8.21 They shall fret themselves says the Prophet and curse God and their King that is in their horrid Despair and Anguish they shall Curse and Blaspheme both God and their King that is the Devil and they shall look upwards Tho' now wicked Men will not look to Heaven yet then God will force them to look upwards There may Two Objections possibly be made against this Duty of Prayer Object 1 First God doth before-hand know all our Wants and Desires and therefore what Necessity is there of Prayer Answ To this I answer with St. Augustine God says he doth require that we should pray to him not so much to make known what our Will and Desire is for that he cannot be ignorant of but it is for the exercise of our Desires and to draw forth our Affections towards those Things that we beg at his Hands that thereby we may be made fit to receive what he is ready to give Object 2 Secondly Say some It is in vain to pray because all our Prayers cannot alter the course of God's Providence we cannot by our most fervent Prayers change the method of God's Decrees if he hath resolved from Eternity to bestow such a Mercy upon us we shall receive it whether we pray or pray not if he hath resolved we shall never partake of it if we do pray all our Prayers will be in vain Answ I have long since Answered this Objection and told you That it is true God's Providence is immutable But the same Providence that orders the End to be obtained hath likewise ordered the Means by which it must be obtained As God hath decreed Blessings to us so he hath decreed that they should be obtained by Prayer and therefore we must pray that we may obtain those Blessings for that is the Means God hath decreed for the obtaining of them Directions how we must Pray so as to be accepted Some possibly may say If we must thus pray without ceasing how shall we be assured that God will hear us If it be our Duty to pray how shall we pray so as that our Prayers may become acceptable unto God I Answer 1. They that hear God God will hear them First If you would have God hear you when you pray you must be sure to hear him when he speaks See that place Prov. 1.24 28. Because I have called and you have refused and have set at nought all my Counsels therefore says God you shall call but I will not answer you shall seek me early but shall not
so should a Christian pass from one Duty to another and draw forth the sweetness of Communion with God from every one of them 3. To work for Salvation a difficult Work Thirdly To evince the greatness of this Work consider it is a Work that must be carried on against many Encounters and strong Oppositions that a Christian will certainly meet with within are strong Corruptions without are strong Temptations you have a treacherous and deceitful Heart within and this Traitor holds Intelligence and League with your great Enemy the Devil without You are sure to meet with Difficulties Affronts and Discouragements from a peevish ill-condition'd World in which you live Never any yet could scape free to Heaven without meeting with these Things And doth not all this call upon you to work and strive for Salvation Is it a time to sit still when you have all this Opposition to break through so many Temptations to resist so many Corruptions to mortify Satan that old Serpent to repel and make him become a flying Serpent Doth not all this require a morose Constancy and a kind of sour Resolvedness to go thorough the ways of Obedience notwithstanding all Opposition These great Things are not to be atchieved without great Pains and Labour and therefore if you resolve to do no more than a few heartless Wishes no more than a few more heartless Duties will amount to never raise your Expectations so high as Salvation for let me tell you Salvation will not be obtained at such a rate as this no there must be great Struglings and Labour with earnest Contendings if ever you intend to be saved And thus much for the first Argument taken from the consideration of the greatness of the Work To work Salvation out is a great Work and requireth great Pains But lest the setting out the greatness of this Work should rather deter and fright Men from it than excite and quicken their Endeavours to it let me add a second Thing And that is to consider what an infinite 2. It is infinite Mercy that Sinners may work for Salvation incomparable Mercy it is that God will allow you to work for your Lives that he sets Life and Death before you and gives them into your Hands to take your Choice If you will indulge your Sloth then you choose Death but Life may be yours if you will It will indeed cost you much Pains and Labour but yet it may be yours And is it not infinite Mercy that Salvation and Happiness may be yours though upon any Terms Wicked Men are apt to say O how happy had we been if God had never commanded us to Work if he had never required from us such harsh and difficult Duties if we were but once free from this hard Task and heavy Burden of Obedience But alas foolish Sinners they know not what they say as happy as they count this to be yet if God required no working from them he should then shew them just so much Mercy as he doth to the Devils and damned Spirits and no more from whom God requires no Duty as well as from whom he receives no Duty and unto whom he intends no Mercy You think it a hard Restraint possibly to be kept under the strict Commands of the Law Oh! that God required no such Observances from you But what do you desire herein but only the unhappy Priviledge of the Damned to be without Law and without Commands But should God send to the Spirits now imprison'd and should he declare to them that if they would Work they should be saved oh how would they leap in their Chains at such glad Tidings as these are and count it part of Salvation that there was but a possibility of it No but God commands nothing from them because he intends nothing but Wrath upon them he will not vouchsafe so much Mercy to them as to require those Duties from them that you repine and murmur at as grievous And furthermore consider this if you do not now work but perish under your Sloth in Hell you will think it an infinite Mercy if God would command you more rigid and severe Obedience than ever he commanded from you on Earth It would be a great Mercy there if it might be your Duty to Repent and Pray and Believe nay you would count a Command then to be as comfortable as a Promise for indeed there is no Command but connotes a Promise No but these things shall not so much as be your Duty in Hell for there you shall be freed for ever from this rigorous and dreadful Law of God that now you so much complain of and murmur against Oh! therefore be persuaded while you are yet under the Mercy of the Law give me leave to call it so and while you have so many Promises couched in every Command before God hath left off his merciful Commanding before the time of Duty be expired be persuaded to Work Delay not you know not how long God will vouchsafe to require any thing from you and as soon as that ceaseth truly you are in Hell And this is the second Argument to press this Duty upon you Work and that speedily too while you may Work there is hope that upon your working you may be saved and therefore while God calls upon you and whilst he will accept of Obedience from you it is time for you to begin to work 3. Time to work for Salvation in is very short Thirdly Consider what a short scantling of Time is allowed you to do your great Work in And this I shall branch out into two Particulars First Consider how sad it will be for your Time to be run out before your great Work be done Alas what are threescore Years if we were all sure to live so long from the date of this present moment How short a space is it for us to do that which is of eternal Concernment in and yet how few of us shall live to that which we so improperly call old Age Our Candle is lighted and it is but small at the best and to how many of us is it already sunk in the Socket and brought to a Snuff and how soon the Breath of God may blow it out neither you nor I know Night is hastning upon us the Grave expects us and bids other Corpses make room for us Death is ready to grasp us in its cold Arms and to carry us before God's Tribunal and alas how little of our great Work is done What can any shew that they have done Where are the actings of Faith the labour of Love the perfect Works of Patience Where are those Graces that are either begotten or increased Where are the Corruptions that you have mortify'd These are Works that require Ages to perform them in and yet you neglect them that have but a few Days nay possibly but a few Minutes to do them in But what is God severe Is God unjust to require so
6.24 29. How they should do to work the Works of God Our Lord tells them This is the Work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent Nay further as a Faith of Adherence or Acceptance gives a Right and Title to Salvation so a Faith of full Assurance is this Salvation it self Heb. 11.1 For Faith is the substance of Things hoped for the Evidence of Things not seen In its justifying Act it gives a Title to Salvation in its assuring Act it gives the substance of the Thing it self for it is much at one to a strong Faith to believe Heaven and to enjoy it Secondly Faith doth compendiously further and promote the working out of our Salvation in actual possession and that because Faith is that Grace which fetcheth all that ability and strength from Christ whereby a Christian is inabled to work Faith is not only a Grace of it self but it is Steward and Purveyor for all other Graces and its Office is to bring in Provision for them while they are working and therefore as a Mans Faith grows either stronger or weaker so his Work goes on more or less vigorously When other Graces are in want and cry Give Give then Faith betakes it self to Christ and saith Lord such a Grace stands in need of so much Strength to support it and such a Grace stands in need of so much Support to act it and I have nothing to give it my self and therefore I come to fetch Supplies from thee And certainly this Faith that comes thus empty-handed unto Christ never goes away empty-handed from Christ What is it that you complain of Is it that the Work stands at a stay and you cannot make it go forward Is it that Temptations are strong and violent that Duties are hard irksome and difficult Why set Faith on work to go to Christ and there you may be sure to have Supply because Faith is an omnipotent Grace All things are possible to him that believeth and that because all things are possible to that God and to that Christ on whom Faith is acted There is no Grace nor no Supply nor Mercy laid up in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is all in the Hands of a Believer's Faith and he may take from thence whatsoever he needs to supply the present Wants and Necessities of his Soul Secondly Another working Grace is the fervent actings of Love Love is the great Wheel of the Soul that sets all the rest a moving and makes it like the Chariots of Aminadab to run swiftly towards its desired Object There is a mutual dependence between Faith and Love in their working Love depends upon Faith to strengthen it and Faith depends again upon Love to act it As we love not that which we do not know and our knowledge of God and of the Things of Eternity is by Faith not by Vision so those Things which we do know and which we do believe yet if we love them not we shall never endeavour after them The Apostle therefore tells us that Faith worketh by Love Now there is a threefold spiritual Love required to expedite our great Work First A transcendent Love of God Secondly A regular Love of our selves Thirdly A complacential Love unto and Delight in our Work it self Now when the Affections go out after these Objects of Love this will much facilitate our great Work First The Love of God is a great help to our Duty Our Saviour therefore urgeth Obedience upon this very account If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15 1 John 5.3 And says the Apostle this is the Love of God that is this is a certain Sign or it is the constant effect of our Love to God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous they are not grievous because they are his Commandments who is the Love and Joy of our Souls Divine Love always conforms it self to divine Precepts and that for two Reasons First Because this Grace as it desires the beatifical Union to God in Glory hereafter for Love is the desire of Union so now it causes an unspeakable Union of Will and a supernatural simpathy of Affection betwixt God and the Soul which Union cannot be a Union of Equality or Entity as is in the Persons of the blessed Trinity and therefore it is a Union of Subordination of a Christians Will to the Will of God Now what is this Will of God Why the Apostle tells us 1 Thes 4.3 This is the Will of God says he even your Sanctification And the same Apostle tells us in another place Eph. 2.10 We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And is this Gods Will and shall it not be our Work Hath God ordained that we should walk therein and shall we be averse from or slothful thereunto How can we pretend we love God while we neglect the only Thing he requires from us Holiness and Obedience God wills our Holiness because there is no better a thing that he can Will next unto himself the Image of God next to himself is the most excellent and chiefest Good every thing the nearer it approacheth unto God the more desirable it becomes in it self Now that which comes most near unto God and advanceth the Soul in some resemblance and similitude to him is Holiness and Endeavours after Obedience whereby we become conformable unto God and attain some faint Shadows and Essays of the divine Perfections The Soul wills in order unto Gods Will God now wills Holiness because it is most desirable and we must will our own Holiness because if we love God as we pretend to do our Wills must be conformable to his holy Will Secondly Love to God is a Help to Duty because it is in and by Duty that we enjoy the Presence of God and have Communion and Fellowship with him These are the Lattices through which God appears to the longing Soul and though he many times vouchsafes but half Smiles and little Glances yet in these reserved Communications the Soul finds so much sweetness as ingageth it to a constant performance of Duties all its Days Here says the Soul God was wont to walk in his Sanctuary here have I heard his Voice here have I seen his Face his Spirit hath here breathed upon me his Consolations have here refreshed me and therefore here will I wait upon him as long as I live I remember well says the Soul when in Prayer and Meditation my Heart hath been filled by him poured out to him and accepted with him I remember when he filled me first with Sighs and then with Songs and both alike unutterable and therefore I will keep to the performance of these Duties waiting for the further Discoveries and Manifestations of my God unto me Secondly As Love to God so a regular Self-love will much help and further our Obedience and Duty And then is
little nearer to Conscience and Practice These very Men that thus make their impotency a pretence for their Sloth they do not indeed believe what they pretend and assert here they do not believe that they are thus impotent no it is in the inward and secret Thoughts of them all that they have a Power to work out their own Salvation and therefore whether they have or have not Power yet still they are inexcusable if while they think they have Power yet they will not strive and endeavour to put it forth Those Men who thus plead impotency and want of power to Obey and work out their Salvation though they speak these things yet they believe not a word of what they say and therefore they are inexcusable if they strive not to put forth that Power that they suppose they have into Act. Although a Man's Feet be chain'd and fetter'd that he cannot walk nor stir yet if he thinks himself at Liberty and yet will sit still judge you whether the Fault be not wholly to be imputed to his want of Will and not to his want of Power for he thinks himself free and able to move but will not try So is it here wicked Men do think they have Power to Work however they speak otherwise sometimes and therefore they are utterly inexcusable if they do not Work this is as clear as the Light and their Slothfulness therefore proceeds not from their Weakness but from their Wilfulness And I shall endeavour by some Arguments to convince Sinners that they do indeed think and believe that they have this Power to work out their own Salvation whatever they may pretend to and therefore they are inexcusable if they do not strive and endeavour for to do it And First Did you never when God hath shaken his Rod over you promise and resolve to work By his Rod I mean either some Convictions or Afflictions have not these made you to enter into Ingagements with God that you would obey him and walk more holily and strictly for the future And did you not really thus resolve to do Few I believe there are but have some time or other under some Fit of Sickness or some pang of Conscience thus done And what did you resolve all this and yet at the same time think and believe you could do nothing at all Did you only mock God Did you only dally and play with your own Consciences No certainly Conscience was too much provoked too much inraged and too broad awakened to be so jested withal We find this very Temper in the Israelites when they were affrighted with the terrible Voice of God from Mount Sinai in the 5th of Deutronomy See how confidently under that Conviction Deut. 5.27 they promised and resolved Speak thou unto us what the Lord our God shall say unto thee and we will do it And so the Jews also when they were in great Distress and Calamity when the Whip and the Rod was over them then they take up large Resolutions and make great Promises what they will be and do Jer. 42.2 Whether it be good or whether it be evil say they we will obey the voice of the Lord our God And oh how many pious Purposes and holy Resolutions have the Dangers Fears and sick Beds of many Men been Witnesses unto Have they not heard Sinners cry out Lord spare a little give us some space try us once more Lord and we will reform our sinful Lives and perform neglected Duties never more will we return to Folly And are not these Resolutions and Promises evident Convictions that you thought you had Power to do what you thus resolved to do Who is there but hath some time or other under some Trouble and Affliction taken up such Resolutions of Obedience as these And certainly you dare not so much mock God and dally with your own Consciences under such Convictions as to make such Promises but that you think you can perform what you promise And that is one Argument Secondly Did you never in your whole lives perform a Duty to God Did you never pray to him Are there any so desperately Prophane so utterly lost as to any shews and appearances of Goodness as not to have prayed or performed one Duty unto God in his whole Life Why now to what end have you prayed and performed these Duties that you have done Was it not for Salvation And did you work for Salvation and at the same time believe you could not work No this is impossible that ever any Mans Practice should maintain such a contradiction What ever Mens Opinions are yet their works shew that they think they have Power for somthing must be done though it be but formally though but a slight cold heartless Lord have Mercy on me or a customary Lord forgive me yet something Conscience requires and this Men reckon and account the working out Salvation Thirdly Wherefore is it that you trust to and rely upon your works if indeed you think you have no Power to work out your own Salvation by them Would it be so hard and difficult to take Men off from leaning too much upon their Works if they did not believe they had a Power to work out their own Salvation by them Men do apprehend some worth some value and sufficiency in what themselves do in order to Eternity For bid them forgo and renounce their own Works their own Righteousness this is a hard saying and they can as easily renounce and forgo all Hopes of Happiness and Salvation as renounce their own Works Now whence is it that Men are so difficultly brought unto the renouncing their own Works Why it is because by them they Hope to obtain Salvation And can there be such a Principle in Men and yet at the same time believe and think that they cannot work out their own Salvation It is very evident therefore whatever Notions Men may take up to stop the Mouth of a clamorous Conscience when it calls them to working and labouring yet they do not themselves believe what they say concerning their impotency but do really think they have a Power to work out their own Salvation Fourthly Did you never when the Spirit of God hath been dealing with your Hearts and Consciences when it hath been persuading you to enter upon a Course of Obedience did you never procrastinate and use Delays Did you never stifle the Breathings and resist the Motions of the Holy Spirit thinking it time enough to do what it puts you upon hereafter What need I begin so soon to vex Flesh and Blood What deny the Pleasures of my Life as soon as I come to relish and taste them When Sickness and gray Hairs admonish me and tell me I am near Eternity when old Age promiseth me that the severity and strictness of Religion shall not last long to trouble me then will I repent and believe and work out my own Salvation Speak truly and deal plainly with your own
from him He that asks timorously only begs a Denial from God But yet that this boldness may not degenerate into rudeness and irreverence he requires that our Freedom with him be tempered with an awful Fear of him We must come in all Humility and Prostration of Soul with broken Hearts and bended Knees to touch that golden Scepter that he holds forth to us Thus you see in these five Things how consistent the Grace of Fear is with other Graces of the Spirit it is no Impediment to a full Assurance it s no Hinderance to Love it s no Impediment to a Spirit of Adoption nor to a holy Rejoycing no nor to a holy Boldness Wherein slavish and filial Fear differ Now because I have made frequent mention of filial and slavish Fear that you may the better understand what each of these means I shall briefly give you the difference betwixt them In their Concomitants and in their Effects Now they differ in their Concomitants and in their Effects 1. In their Concomitants First Slavish Fear hath always two dreadful Concomitants and they are Dispair and Hatred or Enmity against God 1. In slavish Fear there is always some degree of Dispair In slavish Fear there is always some degree of Dispair Now this slavish Fear is joined with dreadful expectations of Wrath. A Slave that hath committed a Fault expects no other than to be punished for it without Mercy So those that lie under this slavish Fear apprehend and account of God no otherwise than the slothful Servant as a severe Lord and a cruel Tyrant that will exact Punishment from them to the utmost of their Deserts they expect no other but that certainly God's Wrath will kindle upon them and burn them eternally and this makes them live as the Apostle speaks in Heb. 10.27 In certain fearful Expectations of Wrath and Indignation that shall devour them as Adversaries This kind of horrid Fear I doubt not but is common to most wicked Men and though they brave it out and most of them speak high Matters of their hopes of Heaven and Salvation yet at the same time their own Hearts and Consciences tell them sad and misgiving Stories of Hell and everlasting Wrath. But now a true and filial Fear of God looks at the Wrath of God with Dread and Terror but not with Expectation there 's the Difference Slavish Fear looks upon the Wrath of God and expects it Filial Fear looks upon it as due but not with Expectations that it should be inflicted upon it 2. Slavish Fear is accompanied with hatred of God 2. Slavish Fear is always accompanied with some degree of Enmity and Hatred against God It is natural for us to hate those that we fear with a slavish Fear He that thinks God will certainly punish him must out of self-love needs be provoked to hate God Hence is it that the Soul that lies under the Terrors of the Law wisheth that there was no such thing as Hell and eternal Damnation nay that there was no God to inflict this upon it This proceeds from this slavish Fear of God But now a reverent Fear of God is joined with a holy Love as Children who love their Parents but yet stand in awe of them So much for the Concomitants of this Fear 2. They differ in their Effects Secondly For their Effects and that both as to Sin and as to Duty 1. As to Sin 1. As to Sin Slavish Fear dreads nothing but Hell and Punishment but godly Fear dreads Sin it self The one fears only to burn the other fears for to sin As Austin saith well He fears Hell only who fears not to sin but fears to burn but he fears to sin who hates sin as he would hate Hell 2. Slavish Fear usually restrains only from external and those also the more gross and notorious Acts of sin but holy Fear over-awes the Heart from inward and secret Sins yea from the least Sins whatsoever And then as for Duty also 2. As to Duty in two Things briefly First A slavish Fear of God makes Men to consult how they may fly from God As Adam did when he had brought Guilt upon his Conscience by his Fall he hides himself from God in the Garden Guilt loves not the presence of its Judge But godly Fear is still exciting the Soul to approach near to God in Duty And therefore David saith Psal 5.7 In thy Fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple The Fear of God encourageth the Soul in the performance of Duty Secondly Slavish Fear contents it self with external Performances Just so much as will serve the turn to satisfie the Demands of Conscience but holy Fear sanctifies the Lord in Duty as well as satisfies Conscience And therefore you have it in Isa 8.13 Sanctify the Lord of Host in your Hearts and let him be your Fear and your Dread Thus much briefly for the difference betwixt filial and slavish Fear Use 1 I come now to the Application And the first Use shall be by way of Corollary If the consideration of God as a consuming Fire ought to affect the most assured Christian with a holy Fear and Dread of God how much more then may it shrink and shrivel up the Hearts of ungodly Sinners If it make God's own Children to tremble to look into Hell and to see those heaps of miserable Wretches that are there burning for ever shall it not much more make you to tremble who are liable every moment to be bound in Bundles and to be cast in to burn among them When a City is on Fire it is terrible to see it rage afar off to see it spue up Smoak and Flames tho' at a distance and he that is not affected with it is Inhuman but he is more than stupid that doth not tremble to see it devour whole Streets before it ruining all till it approach near his own Dwelling Why Sirs this consuming Fire hath already seized upon Millions of others and burnt them down into the lowest Hell Do not you hear Dives in the Gospel cry Fire Fire The greatest part of the World is already burnt down and if their Case makes not your Hearts to shake and tremble yet methinks your own should This Fire is catching and kindling upon your Souls and the next moment may make you Brands in Hell But alas what hope is there to affright Men that are fast asleep Such a dead Security hath seized upon the Hearts of most that it is almost impossible to rouze them and but little hope but that they will be burnt in this their Sleep Yet if it may be possible to awaken you consider 1. God's Wrath against Sinners makes him terrible to his Saints First That it is only God's Wrath against Sinners that makes him terrible to his Saints They are afraid of that fiery Indignation that burned against the Wicked and shall not the Wicked then much more be afraid that must