(2.) The fear of caution is also called the fear of God, when we carry on the business of salvation with all possible solicitude and care. For it is no easy thing to please God and save our souls : Phil. ii. 12, * Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.' In the time of our sojourning here we meet with many temptations ; baits without are many, and the flesh within us is importunate to be pleased, and our account at the end of the journey is very exact : 1 Peter i. 17, ' And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.' A false heart is apt to betray us, and the entertainments of sense to entice and corrupt us, and we are assaulted on every side, and salvation and eternal happiness is the thing in chase and pursuit ; if we come short of it we are undone for ever : Heb. iv. 1, ' Having a promise of rest left with us, let us fear lest we come short of it.' There is no mending errors in the other world ; there we shall be convinced of our mistakes to our confusion, but not to our conversion and salvation.
2. The influence it hath upon keeping God's precepts.
[1.] In general, this is one demonstration of it, that the most emi- nent servants of God have been commended for their fear of God : Job, chap. i. 1, is said to be ' a man perfect and upright, one that feared God, and eschewed evil.' He had a true godliness, or a filial awe of God, which kept him from sin, and the temptations whereby it might insin- uate itself into his soul. So Obadiah, Ahab's steward, is described to be a man ' that feared God greatly,' 1 Kings xviii. 3 ; and of one Hananiah it is said, Neh. vii. 2, that ' he feared God greatly, above many others.' Men are more holy as the fear of God doth more prevail in their hearts, their tenderness both in avoiding and repenting of sin increaseth according as they entertain the awe and fear of God in their hearts, and here is the rih;e and fountain of all circumspect walking. As the stream is dried up that wanteth a fountain, so godliness ceaseth as the fear of God abateth.
[2.] More particularly.
(1.) It is the great pull-back and constant preservative of the soul against sin, as the beasts are contained in their subjection and obed- ience to man by the fear that is upon them : Gen. vii. 2, ' The dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, that they shall not hurt you ;' so the fear of God is upon us : Exod. xx. 20, ' God is come to prove you, that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.'
'174 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXXI.
Joseph is an instance : Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' Abraham could promise himself little security in a place where no fear of God was : Gen. xx. 11, ' I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake.' Therefore, Prov. xxiii. 17, ' Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.'
(2.) It is the great excitement to obedience.
(1st.) Duties of religion will not reverently and seriously be performed unless there be a deep awe of God upon our souls : ' God will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him,' Lev. x. 3. Now, what is it to sanctify God in our hearts, but to fear his majesty and greatness and goodness ? Isa. viii. 13, ' Sanctify the Lord God of hosts in your hearts, and make him your fear/ Therefore David desireth God to call in his straggling thoughts and scattered affections : Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, 'Unite my heart to the fear of thy name;' so the serious wor- shippers are described to be those that ' desire to fear his name,' Neh. i. 11.
(2d.) Duties towards men will not be regarded in all times and places, unless the fear of God bear rule in our hearts ; as servants, when their masters are absent, neglect their work : Col. iii. 22, ' Ser- vants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.' A Christian is alike everywhere, because God is alike everywhere. He that feareth God needeth no other theatre than his own conscience^ nor other spectators than God and his holy angels. So to hindei; us from contriving mischief in secret, when others are not aware of it : Lev. xix .14, ' Thou shalt not curse the deaf man, nor lay a stumbling- block before the blind, but shalt fear the Lord thy God.' The deaf hear not, the blind seeth not ; but God seeth and heareth, and that is enough to a gracious heart to bridle us when it is in our power to hurt others ; as Joseph assureth his brethren he would be just to them, ' for I fear God,' Gen. xlii. 18. Nehemiah did not convert the pubhe treasures to his private use : Neh. v. 15, ' So did not I, for I fear God.' This grace, when it is hazardous to be faithful to men, makes us to slight the danger : Exod. i. 17, ' The midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them ;' that kept them from obeying that cruel edict, to their own hazard. Neither hope of gain nor fear of loss can prevail where men fear God.