that dared to stand by him : " Every one of them forsook him." And God alone knows how any of us should act, if, like Daniel or the Hebrew Youths, we were called to seal the truth with our blood.]
But to be governed by this principle, is both im- pious and absurd —
[God expressly commands us not to harbour it in our bosoms : " Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled V He cautions us against it as a fatal snare : " The fear of man bringeth a snarec." He represents it as quite absurd : "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and forgettest the Lord, thy Maker d? And in our text he shews how impotent man is, and unworthy to be regarded as an object of fear6. Man may prevail so far as to kill our bodies ; but this is the utmost that he can do. In doing this, he may exercise his ingenuity to put us to the most cruel tor- ture : but God has graciously appointed that the body should not endure all that our enemies might wish to inflict : the soul will take its flight, if the body be too violently assailed, and will leave the body insensible to all that the most insatiate malice can devise f. Now we grant that this is an evil : the Christian cannot be indifferent to pain, and anguish, and death ; but still these things are not so formidable as to justify his being influenced by the fear of man. If, indeed, there were no state beyond the present, and no Being that was superior to man, and able either to recompense our sufferings or to inflict others more severe, then there were some reason why we should fear man : but]
God is the more proper object of fear —
[Him we ought to fear; indeed "he is very greatly to be feared;" for "with him is terrible majesty:" we should therefore " stand in awe of him," and " fear him always," and " walk in his fear all the day long." We should do nothing without considering first whether it will please or displease him : if we have reason to think that it will displease him, we should not for the whole world presume to do it ; nor should we neglect any thing which our conscience tells us will be pleasing in his sight. In every thing that we do, we should have respect to his will, as the reason; his word, as the rule; and his glory, as the end, of our actions. In comparison of his favour, all earthly considerations should dwindle into nothing: the allurements or the terrors of the world should be alike contemptible in our eyes : they should weigh no more with us than the small dust upon the balance.]
» 1 Pet. iii. 14. c Prov. xxix. 25. d Isai. li. 7, 8, 12, 13.
e Compare Isai. li. 13. with the text. f Job iii. 17 — 19.