John Bunyan :: Use Second. An Exhortation to Fear God

USE SECOND, AN EXHORTATION TO FEAR GOD.

SECOND USE. My next word shall be AN EXHORTATION TO FEAR GOD. I mean an exhortation to saints—“O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him.” Not but that every saint doth fear God, but as the apostle saith in another case, “I beseech you, do it more and more.” The fear of the Lord, as I have showed you, is a grace of the new covenant, as other saving graces are, and so is capable of being stronger or weaker, as other graces are. Wherefore I beseech you, fear him more and more.

It is said of Obadiah, that he feared the Lord greatly: every saint fears the Lord, but every saint does not greatly fear him. O there are but few Obadiahs in the world, I mean among the saints on earth: see the whole relation of him (1 Kings 18). As Paul said of Timothy, “I have none like-minded,” so it may be said of some concerning the fear of the Lord; they have scarce a fellow. So it was with Job, “There is none like him in the earth, one that feareth God,” etc. (Job 1:8). There was even none in Job’s day that feared God like him, no, there was not one like him in all the earth, but doubtless there were more in the world that feared God; but this fearing of him greatly, that is the thing that saints should do, and that was the thing that Job did do, and in that he did outstrip his fellows. It is also said of Hananiah, that “he was a faithful man, and feared God above many” (Neh 7:2). He also had got, as to the exercise of, and growth in, this grace, the start of many of his brethren. He “feared God above many.” Now then, seeing this grace admits of degrees, and is in some stronger, and in some weaker, let us be all awakened as to other graces, so to this grace also. That like as you abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I will labour to enforce this exhortation upon you by several motives.

• First. Let God’s distinguishing love to you be a motive to you to fear him greatly. He hath put his fear in thy heart, and hath not given that blessing to thy neighbour; perhaps not to thy husband, thy wife, thy child, or thy parent. O what an obligation should this consideration lay upon thy heart greatly to fear the Lord! Remember also, as I have showed in the first part of this book, that this fear of the Lord is his treasure, a choice jewel, given only to favourites, and to those that are greatly beloved. Great gifts naturally tend to oblige, and will do so, I trust, with thee, when thou shalt ingeniously consider it. It is a sign of a very bad nature when the contrary shows itself; could God have done more for thee than to have put his fear in thy heart? This is better than to have given thee a place even in heaven without it. Yea, had he given thee all faith, all knowledge, and the tongue of men and angels, and a place in heaven to boot, they had all been short of this gift, of the fear of God in thy heart. Therefore love it, nourish it, exercise it, use all means to cause it to increase and grow in thy heart, that it may appear it is set by at thy hand, poor sinner.
  
  

• Second. Another motive to stir thee up to grow in this grace of the fear of God may be the privileges that it lays thee under. What or where wilt thou find in the Bible, so many privileges so affectionately entailed to any grace, as to this of the fear of God? God speaks of this grace, and of the privileges that belong unto it, as if, to speak with reverence, he knew not how to have done blessing of the man that hath it. It seems to me as if this grace of fear is the darling grace, the grace that God sets his heart upon at the highest rate. As it were, he embraces the hugs, and lays the man in his bosom, that hath, and grows strong in this grace of the fear of God. See again the many privileges in which the man is interested that hath this grace in his heart: and see also that there are but few of them, wherever mentioned, but have entailed to them the pronunciation of a blessing, or else that man is spoken of by way of admiration.
  
  

• Third. Another motive may be this: The man that groweth in this grace of the fear of the Lord will escape those evils that others will fall into. Where this grace is, it keepeth the soul from final apostasy, “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer 32:40). But yet, if there be not an increase in this grace, much evil may attend, and be committed notwithstanding. There is a child that is healthy, and hath its limbs, and can go, but it is careless; now the evil of carelessness doth disadvantage it very much; carelessness is the cause of stumblings, of falls, of knocks, and that it falls into the dirt, yea, that sometimes it is burned, or almost drowned. And thus it is, even with God’s people that fear him, because they add not to their fear a care of growing more in the fear of God, therefore they reap damage; whereas, were they more in his fear, it would keep them better, deliver them more, and preserve them from these snares of death.
  
  

• Fourth. Another motive may be this: To grow in this grace of the fear of God, is the way to be kept always in a conscientious performance of Christian duties. An increase in this grace, I say, keeps every grace in exercise, and the keeping of our graces in their due exercise, produceth a conscientious performance of duties. Thou hast a watch perhaps in thy pocket, but the hand will not as yet be kept in any good order, but does always give the lie as to the hour of the day; well, but what is the way to remedy this, but to look well to the spring, and the wheels within? for if they indeed go right, so will the hand do also. This is thy case in spiritual things; thou art a gracious man, and the fear of God is in thee, but yet for all that, one cannot well tell, by thy life, what time of day it is.^[28] Thou givest no true and constant sign that thou art indeed a Christian; why, the reason is, thou dost not look well to this grace of the fear of God. Thou dost not grow and increase in that, but sufferest thy heart to grow careless, and hard, and so thy life remiss and worldly: Job’s growing great in the fear of God made him eschew evil (Job 1; Job 2:3).
  
  

• Fifth. Another motive is: This is the way to be wise indeed. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil. It doth not say a wise man hath the grace of fear, but a wise man feareth, that is, putteth this grace into exercise. There is no greater sign of wisdom than to grow in this blessed grace. Is it not a sign of wisdom to depart from sins, which are the snares of death and hell? Is it not a sign of wisdom for a man yet more and more to endeavour to interest himself in the love and protection of God? Is it not a high point of wisdom for a man to be always doing of that which lays him under the conduct of angels? Surely this is wisdom. And if it be a blessing to have this fear, is it not wisdom to increase in it? Doubtless it is the highest point of wisdom, as I have showed before, therefore grow therein.
  
  

• Sixth. Another motive may be this: It is seemly for saints to fear, and increase in this fear of God. He is thy Creator; is it not seemly for creatures to fear and reverence their Creator? He is thy King; is it not seemly for subjects to fear and reverence their King? He is thy Father; is it not seemly for children to reverence and fear their Father? yea, and to do it more and more?
  
  

• Seventh. Another motive may be: It is honourable to grow in this grace of fear; “When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel” (Hos 13:1). Truly, to fear, and to about in this fear, is a sign of a very princely spirit; and the reason is, when I greatly fear my God, I am above the fear of all others, nor can anything in this world, be it never so terrible and dreadful, move me at all to fear them. And hence it is that Christ counsels us to fear—“And I say unto you, my friends,” saith he, “be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” Aye, but this is a high pitch, how should we come by such princely spirits? well, I will forewarn you whom you shall fear, and by fearing of him, arrive to this pitch, “Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him” (Luk 12:4-5). Indeed this true fear of God sets a man above all the world. And therefore it saith again, “Neither fear ye their fear,” - but “sanctify the Lord God” in your hearts, “and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isa 8:12-13).

  • Your great ranting, swaggering, roysters ^[29] that are ignorant of the nature of the fear of God, count it a poor, sneaking, pitiful, cowardly spirit in men to fear and tremble before the Lord; but whoso looks back to jails and gibbets, to the sword and burning stake, shall see, that there, in them, has been the most mighty and invincible spirit that has been in the world!
    
    

  • Yea, see if God doth not count that the growth of his people in this grace of fear is that which makes them honourable, when he positively excludeth those from a dwelling-place in his house, that do not honour them that fear him (Psa 15:4). And he saith moreover, “A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” If the world and godless men will not honour these, they shall be honoured some way else. Such, saith he, “that honour me I will honour,” and they shall be honoured in heaven, in the churches, and among the angels.
    
    

• Eighth. Another motive to grow in this fear of God may be: This fear, and the increase of it, qualifies a man to be put in trust with heavenly and spiritual things, yea, and with earthly things too.

  • 1. For heavenly and spiritual things. “My covenant,” saith God, “was with [Levi] of life and peace, and I gave them to him, for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name” (Mal 2:5).

    • Behold what a gift, what a mercy, what a blessing this Levi is intrusted with; to wit, with God’s everlasting covenant, and with the life and peace that is wrapped up in this covenant. But why is it given to him? the answer is, “for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.” And the reason is good, for this fear of God teaches a man to put a due estimation upon every gift of God bestowed upon us; also it teaches us to make use of the same with reverence of his name, and respect to his glory in most godly-wise, all which becomes him that is intrusted with any spiritual gift. The gift here was given to Levi to minister to his brethren doctrinally thereof, for he, saith God, shall teach Jacob my statutes and Israel my law. See also Exodus 18:21 and Nehemiah 7:2, with many other places that might be named, and you will find that men fearing God and hating covetousness; that men that fear God above others, are intrusted by God, yea, and by his church too, with the trust and ministration of spiritual things before any other in the world.
      
      

  • 2. For earthly things. This fear of God qualifies a man to be put in trust with them rather than with another. Therefore God made Joseph lord of all Egypt; Obadiah, steward of Ahab’s house; Daniel, Mordecai, and the three children, were set over the province of Babylon; and this by the wonderful working hand of God, because he had to dispose of earthly things now, not only in a common way, but for the good of his people in special. True, when there is no special matter or thing to be done by God in a nation for his people, then who will (that is, whether they have grace or no) may have the disposal of those things; but if God has anything in special to bestow upon his people of this world’s goods, then he will intrust it in the hands of men fearing God. Joseph must now be made lord of Egypt, because Israel must be kept from starving; Obadiah must now be made steward of Ahab’s house, because the Lord’s prophets must be hid from and fed in despite of the rage and bloody mind of Jezebel; Daniel, with his companions, and Mordecai also, they were all exalted to earthly and temporal dignity, that they might in that state, they being men that abounded in the fear of God, be serviceable to their brethren in their straits and difficulties (Gen 42:18; Gen 41:39; 1Ki 18:3; Est 6:10; Dan 2:48; Dan 3:30; Dan 5:29; Dan 6:1-3).
    
    

• Ninth. Another motive to grow in this grace of fear is, Where the fear of God in the heart of any is not growing, there no grace thrives, nor duty done as it should.

  • There no grace thrives, neither faith, hope, love, nor any grace. This is evident from that general exhortation, “Perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Co 7:1). Perfecting holiness, what is that? but as James says of patience, let every grace have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing (Jas 1:4).
    
    

  • But this cannot be done but in the fear of God, yea, in the exercise of that grace, and so consequently in the growth of it, for there is no grace but grows by being exercised. If then you would be perfect in holiness, if you would have every grace that God has put into your souls, grow and flourish into perfection; lay them, as I may say, a-soak in this grace of fear,^[30] and do all in the exercise of it; for a little done in the fear of the Lord is better than the revenues of the wicked. And again, the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous, the soul that liveth in the fear of the Lord, to famish, but he casteth away the abundance of the wicked. Bring abundance to God, and if it be not seasoned with godly fear, it shall not be acceptable to him, but loathsome and abominable in his sight; for it doth not flow from the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
    
    

  • Therefore, where there is not a growth in this fear, there is no duty done so acceptably. This flows from that which goes before, for if grace rather decays than grows, where this grace of fear is not in the growth and increase thereof, then duties in their glory and acceptableness decay likewise.
    
    

• Tenth. Another motive to stir thee up to grow in the increase of this grace of fear is, It is a grace, do but abound therein, that will give thee great boldness both with God and men. Job was a man a none-such in his day for one that feared God; and who so bold with God as Job? who so bold with God, and who so bold with men as he? How bold was he with God, when he wishes for nothing more than that he might come even to his seat, and concludes that if he could come at him, he would approach even as a prince unto him, and as such would order his cause before him (Job 23:3-7; Job 31:35-37). Also before his friends, how bold was he? For ever as they laid to his charge that he was an hypocrite, he repels them with the testimony of a good conscience, which good conscience he got, and kept, and maintained by increasing in the fear of God; yea, his conscience was kept so good by this grace of fear, for it was by that that he eschewed evil, that it was common with him to appeal to God when accused, and also to put himself for his clearing under most bitter curses and imprecations (Job 13:3-9; Job 13:18; Job 19:23-24).

  • This fear of God is it that keeps the conscience clean and tender, and so free from much of that defilement that even a good man may be afflicted with, for want [archaic: read "lack" - BLB Ed.] of his growth in this fear of God. Yea, let me add, if a man can with a good conscience say that he desires to fear the name of God, it will add boldness to his soul in his approaches into the presence of God. “O Lord,” said Nehemiah, “I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and servants, who desire to fear thy name” (Neh 1:11). He pleaded his desire of fearing the name of God, as an argument with God to grant him his request; and the reason was, because God had promised before “to bless them that fear him, both small and great” (Psa 115:13).
    
    

• Eleventh. Another motive to stir you up to fear the Lord, and to grow in this fear is, By it thou mayest have thy labours blessed, to the saving of the souls of others. It is said of Levi, of whom mention was made before, that he feared God and was afraid before his name—that he saved others from their sins. “The law of truth was in his mouth, and he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn away many from iniquity” (Mal 2:6). The fear of God that dwelt in his heart, showed its growth in the sanctifying of the Lord by his life and words, and the Lord also blessed this his growth herein, by blessing his labours to the saving of his neighbours.

  • Wouldest thou save thy husband, thy wife, thy children, &c., then be greatly in the fear of God.
    
    

  • This Peter teaches, “Wives,” saith he, “be in subjection to your own husbands, that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled with fear” (1Pe 3:1-2). So then, if wives and children, yea, if husbands, wives, children, servants, &c., did but better observe this general rule of Peter, to wit, of letting their whole conversation be coupled with fear, they might be made instruments in God’s hand of much more good than they are. But the misery is, the fear of God is wanting in actions, and that is the cause that so little good is done by those that profess. It is not a conversation that is coupled with a profession—for a great profession may be attended with a life that is not good, but scandalous; but it is a conversation coupled with fear of God—that is, with the impressions of the fear of God upon it—that is convincing and that ministereth the awakenings of God to the conscience, in order to saving the unbeliever. O they are a sweet couple, to wit, a Christian conversation coupled with fear.
    
    

  • The want of this fear of God is that that has been a stumbling-block to the blind oftentimes. Alas, the world will not be convinced by your talk, by your notions, and by the great profession that you make, if they see not, therewith mixed, the lively impressions of the fear of God; but will, as I said, rather stumble and fall, even at your conversation and at your profession itself. Wherefore, to prevent this mischief, that is, of stumbling of souls while you make your profession of God, by a conversation not becoming your profession, God bids you fear him; implying that a good conversation, coupled with fear, delivers the blind world from those falls that otherwise they cannot be delivered from. “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord” (Lev 19:14). But shalt fear thy God, that is the remedy that will prevent their stumbling at you, at what else soever they stumble. Wherefore Paul says to Timothy, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee” (1Tim 4:16).
    
    

• Twelfth. Another motive to fear, and to grow in this fear of God is, This is the way to engage God to deliver thee from many outward dangers, whoever falls therein (Psa 34:7). This is proved from that of the story of the Hebrew midwives. “The midwives,” said Moses, “feared God,” and did not drown the men-children as the king had commanded, but saved them alive. And what follows? “Therefore God dealt well with the midwives; and it came to pass because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses” (Exo 1). That is, he sheltered them and caused them to be hid from the rage and fury of the king, and that perhaps in some of the houses of the Egyptians themselves for why might not the midwives be there hid as well as was Moses even in the king’s court?^[31] And how many times are they that fear God said to be delivered both by God and his holy angels? as also I have already showed.
  
  

• Thirteenth. Another motive to fear and to grow in this fear of God is, This is the way to be delivered from errors and damnable opinions. There are some that perish in their righteousness, that is an error; there be some that perish in their wickedness, and that is an error also. Some again prolong their lives by their wickedness, and others are righteous over-much, and also some are over-wise, and all these are snares, and pits, and holes. But then, sayest thou, how shall I escape? Indeed that is the question, and the Holy Ghost resolves it thus, “He that feareth God shall come forth of them all” (Ecc 7:18).
  
  

• Fourteenth. Another motive to fear, and to grow in this fear of God, is, Such as have leave, be they never so dark in their souls, to come boldly to Jesus Christ, and to trust in him for life. I told you before, that they that fear God have in the general a license to trust in him; but now I tell you, and that in particular, that they, and they especially, may do it, and that though in the dark; you that sit in darkness and have no light, if this grace of fear be alive in your hearts, you have this boldness—“Who is among you that feareth the Lord,” mark, that feareth the Lord, “that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God” (Isa 50:10). It is no small advantage, you know, when men have to deal in difficult matters, to have a patent or license to deal; now to trust in the Lord is a difficult thing, yet the best and most gainful of all. But then, some will say, since it is so difficult, how may we do without danger? Why, the text gives a license, a patent to them to trust in his name, that have his fear in their hearts—“Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.”^[32]
  
  

• Fifteenth. Another motive to fear and grow in this grace of fear, is, God will own and acknowledge such to be his, whoever he rejecteth. Yea he will distinguish and separate them from all others, in the day of his terrible judgments. He will do with them as he did by those that sighed for the abominations that were done in the land—command the man that hath his ink-horn by his side “to set a mark upon their foreheads,” that they might not fall in that judgment with others (Eze 9). So God said plainly of them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name, that they should be writ in his book—“A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name; and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Mal 3:16-17). Mark, he both acknowledges them for his, and also promises to spare them, as a man would spare his own son; yea, and moreover, will wrap them up as his chief jewels with himself in the bundle of life. Thus much for the motives.
  
  

[28] How familiar but striking an illustration. Reader, look well to the mainspring, and see also that the wheels are not clogged. We ought to be living epistles, known and read of all men.—Ed.

[29] “A royster”; a violent, riotous, blustering, turbulent, fellow—a species of men now much out of date, as are jails and gibbets, sword and burning stake. How great and true that courage which could look at, and expect, such trials, without shrinking, when they were threatened as a reward for love to Christ and holy obedience to his gospel!—Ed.

[30] This is a very strong and striking expression. “To soak,” means to imbibe as much as we can contain; and as to the influence of godly fear, happy shall we be in proportion as we are enabled to follow Bunyan’s advice.—Ed.

[31] The words, “he made them houses,” we humbly suggest, may not only mean that these God-fearing women had safe dwelling-places, but, in a more extensive sense, God made them the heads of honourable families, see 1Sa 2:35; 2Sa 7:11; 2Sa 7:13; 2Sa 7:27; 2Sa 7:29; 1Ki 2:24; 1Ki 11:28. So David’s prayer was, “Let my house be established before thee; thou, O my God, wilt build me an house” (1Ch 17:24-25).—Ed.

[32] Royal patents, in Bunyan’s time, were lucrative but most oppressive, conferring upon favourites, or their nominees, an exclusive right to deal in any article of manufacture. But the patent to God’s fearers, to trust in him when involved in darkness and distress, is a blessed privilege, injurious to none.—Ed.