John Bunyan :: Use Third. Of Encouragement

USE THIRD. OF ENCOURAGEMENT

USE THIRD. I come now to A USE OF ENCOURAGEMENT to those that are blessed with this grace of fear. The last text that was mentioned saith, “Happy is the man that feareth alway,” and so doth many more. Happy already, because blessed with this grace; and happy for time to come, because this grace shall abide, and continue till the soul that hath it is brought unto the mansion-house of glory. “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Therefore, as here it saith, Happy is he, so it saith also, It shall go well with him, that is, in time to come. “It shall be well with them that fear God” (Ecc 8:12).

First. Had God given thee all the world, yet cursed hadst thou been, if he had not given thee the fear of the Lord; for the fashion of this world is a fading thing, but he that feareth the Lord shall abide for ever and ever. This therefore is the first thing that I would propound for thy encouragement, thou man that fears the Lord. This grace will dwell in thy heart, for it is a new covenant grace, and will abide with thee for ever. It is sent to thee from God, not only to join thy heart unto him, but to keep thee from final apostasy—“I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer 32:40). That thou mayest never forsake God, is his design, and therefore, to keep thee from that wicked thing, he hath put his fear in thy heart. Many are the temptations, difficulties, snares, traps, trials, and troubles that the people of God pass through in the world, but how shall they be kept, how shall they be delivered, and escape? Why, the answer is, The fear of God will keep them—“He that feareth God shall come forth of them all.”

Is it not therefore a wonderful mercy to be blessed with this grace of fear, that thou by it mayest be kept from final, which is damnable apostasy? Bless God, therefore, thou blessed man, that hast this grace of fear in thy soul. There are five things in this grace of fear that have a direct tendency in them to keep thee from final apostasy.

• 1. It is seated in the heart, and the heart is, as I may call it, the main fort in the mystical world, man. It is not placed in the head, as knowledge is; nor in the mouth, as utterance is, but in the heart, the seat of all, “I will put my fear in their hearts.” If a king will keep a town secure to himself, let him be sure to man sufficiently the main fort thereof. If he have twenty thousand men well armed, yet if they lie scattered here and there, the town may be taken for all that, but if the main fort be well manned, then the town is more secure. What if a man had all the parts, yea, all the arts of men and angels? That will not keep the heart to God. But when the heart, this principal fort, is possessed with the fear of God, then he is safe, but not else.
  
  

• 2. As the heart in general, so the will in special. That chief and great faculty of the soul is the principle that is acted by this fear. The will, which way that goes, all goes; if it be to heaven or hell. Now the will, I say, is that main faculty that is governed by this fear that doth possess the soul, therefore all is like to go well with it. This Samuel insinuateth, where he saith, “If ye will fear the Lord.” Fearing of God is a voluntary act of the will, and that being so, the soul is kept from rebellion against the commandment, because by the will where this fear of God is placed, and which it governeth, is led all the rest of the powers of the soul (1Sa 12:14). In this will, then, is this fear of God placed, that this grace may the better be able to govern the soul, and so by consequence the whole man; for as I said before, look what way the will goes, look what the will does, thither goes, and that does, the whole man (Psa 110:3). Man, when his will is alienate from God, is reckoned rebellious throughout, and that not without ground, for the will is the principal faculty of the soul as to obedience, and therefore things done without the will are as if they were not done at all. The spirit is willing; if ye be willing; “she hath done what she could,” and the like; by these and such- like sayings the goodness of the heart and action is judged, as to the subjective part thereof. Now this fear that we have been speaking of, is placed in the soul, and so consequently in the will, that the man may thereby the better be kept from final and damnable apostasy.
  
  

• 3. This fear, as I may say, even above every other grace, is God’s well-wisher; and hence it is called, as I also have showed you, his fear. As he also says in the text mentioned above, “I will put my fear in their hearts.” These words, his and my, they are intimate and familiar expressions, bespeaking not only great favour to man, but a very great trust put in him. As who should say, this fear is my special friend, it will subject and bow the soul, and the several faculties thereof, to my pleasure; it is my great favourite, and subdueth sinners to my pleasure. You shall rarely find faith or repentance, or parts, go under such familiar characters as this blessed fear of the Lord doth. Of all the counsellors and mighties that David had, Hushai only was called the king’s friend (2Sa 15:37; 2Sa 16:16). So of all the graces of the Spirit this of the fear of God goes mostly, if not always, by the title of MY fear, God’s fear, HIS fear, &c. I told you before, if the king will keep a town, the main fort therein must be sufficiently manned: and now I will add, that if he have not to govern those men some trusty and special friend, such as Hushai was to David, he may find it lost when it should stand him in greatest stead. If a soul should be possessed with all things possible, yet if this fear of God be wanting, all other things will give place in time of rebellion, and the soul shall be found in, and under the conduct of hell, when it should stand up for God and his truth in the world. This fear of God, it is God’s special friend, and therefore it has given unto it the chief seat of the heart, the will, that the whole man may now be, and also be kept hereafter, in the subjection and obedience of the gospel. For,
  
  

• 4. This grace of fear is the softest and most tender of God’s honour of any other grace. It is that tender, sensible, and trembling grace, that keepeth the soul upon its continual watch. To keep a good watch is, you know, a wonderful safety to a place that is in continual danger because of the enemy. Why, this is the grace that setteth the watch, and that keepeth the watchmen awake (Sgs 3:7-8). A man cannot watch as he should, if he be destitute of fear: let him be confident, and he sleeps; he unadvisedly lets into the garrison those that should not come there. Israel’s fault when they came to Canaan was, that they made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, to wit, the Gibeonites, without asking counsel of God. But would they have done so, think you, if at the same time the fear of God had had its full play in the soul, in the army? no, they at that time forgot to fear. The grace of fear had not at that time its full stroke and sway among them.
  
  

• 5. This grace of fear is that which, as I may so say, first affects the hearts of saints with judgments, after we have sinned, and so is as a beginning grace to bring again that to rights that by sin is put out of frame. O it is a precious grace of God! I know what I say in this matter, and also where I had been long ago, through the power of my lusts, and the wiles of the devil, had it not been for the fear of God.

Second. But secondly, another encouragement for those that are blessed with this blessed grace of fear is this,—this fear fails not to do this work for the soul, if there in truth, be it never so small in measure. A little of this leaven “leaveneth the whole lump.” True, a little will not do, or help the soul to do those worthy exploits in the heart or life as well as a bigger measure thereof; nor, indeed, can a little of any grace do that which a bigger measure will; but a little will preserve the soul from final apostasy, and deliver it into the arms of the Son of God at the final judgment. Wherefore, when he saith, “I will put my fear in their hearts,” he says not, I will put so much of it there, such a quantity, or such a degree; but, “I will put my fear there.” I speak not this in the least to tempt the godly man to be content with the least degree of the fear of God in his heart. True, men should be glad that God hath put even the least degree of this grace into their souls, but they should not be content therewith; they should earnestly covet more, pray for more, and use all lawful, that is, all the means of God’s appointing, that they may get more.

There are, as I have said already, several degrees of this grace of fear, and our wisdom is to grow in it, as in all the other graces of the Spirit. The reasons why, I have showed you, and also the way to grow therein; but the least measure thereof will do as I said, that is, keep the soul from final apostasy. There are, as I have showed you, those that greatly fear the Lord, that fear exceedingly, and that fear him above many of their brethren; but the small in this grace are saved as well as those that are great therein: “He will bless” or save “them that fear him, both small and great.” This fear of the Lord is the pulse of the soul; and as some pulses beat stronger, some weaker, so is this grace of fear in the soul. They that beat best are a sign of best life, but they that beat worst show that life is [barely] present. As long as the pulse beats, we count not that the man is dead, though weak; and this fear, where it is, preserves to everlasting life. Pulses there are also that are intermitting; to wit, such as have their times for a little, a little time to stop, and beat again; true, these are dangerous pulses, but yet too a sign of life. This fear of God also is sometimes like this intermitting pulse; there are times when it forbears to work, and then it works again. David had an intermitting pulse, Peter had an intermitting pulse, as also many other of the saints of God. I call that an intermitting pulse, with reference to the fear we speak of, when there is some obstruction by the workings of corruptions in the soul; I say, some obstruction from, and hindrance of, the continual motion of this fear of God; yet none of these, though they are various, and some of them signs of weakness, are signs of death, but life. “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”

Question.

• But you may say, How shall I know that I fear God?

Answer.

• If I should say that desires, true sincere desires to fear him, is fear itself. I should not say amiss (Neh 1:11). For although a desire to be, or do so and so, makes not a man to be in temporal or natural things what he desires to be—for a sick, or poor, or imprisoned man may desire to be well, to be rich, or to be at liberty, and yet be as they are, sick, poor, or in prison—yet in spirituals, a man’s desire to be good, to believe, to love, to hope, and fear God, doth flow from the nature of grace itself.

I said before, that in temporals a man could not properly be said to be what he was not; yet a man, even in naturals or temporals, shows his love to that thing that he desires, whether it be health, riches, or liberty; and in spirituals, desires of, from love to this or that grace of God, sincere desires of it flow from the root of the grace itself—“Thy servants who desire to fear thy name.” Nehemiah bore himself before God upon this, “that he desired to fear his name.” And hence again it is said concerning desires, true desires, “The desire of man is his kindness” (Pro 19:22). For a man shows his heart, his love, his affections, and his delights, in his desires; and since the grace of the fear of God is a grace so pleasant in the sight of God, and of so sanctifying a nature in the soul where it is, a true sincere desire to be blessed with that grace must needs flow from some being of this grace in the soul already.

True desires are lower than higher acts of grace, but God will not overlook desires—“But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.” Mark, they desire a country, and they shall have a city. At this low place, to wit, sincere desires, God will meet the soul and will tell him that he hath accepted of his desires, that his desires are his kindness, and flow from grace itself: “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him.” Therefore desires are not rejected of God; but they would, if they did not flow from a principle of grace already in the soul; therefore desires, sincere desires to fear God, flow from grace already in the soul. Therefore, since thou fearest God, and it is evident by thy desires that thou dost so do, thou art happy now in this thy fear, and shalt be happy for ever hereafter in the enjoyment of that which God in another world hath laid up for them that fear him.

Third. Another encouragement for those that have this grace of fear is this; this grace can make that man, that in many other things is not capable of serving of God, serve him better than those that have all without it. Poor Christian man, thou hast scarce been able to do anything for God all thy days, but only to fear the Lord. Thou art no preacher, and so canst not do him service that way; thou art no rich man, and so canst not do him service with outward substance; thou art no wise man, and so canst not do anything that way; but here is thy mercy, thou fearest God. Though thou canst not preach, thou canst fear God. Though thou hast no bread to feed the belly, nor fleece to clothe the back of the poor, thou canst fear God. O how “blessed is the man that feareth the Lord”; because this duty of fearing of God is an act of the mind, and may be done by the man that is destitute of all things but that holy and blessed mind.

Blessed therefore is that man, for God hath not laid the comfort of his people in the doing of external duties, nor the salvation of their souls, but in believing, loving, and fearing God. Neither hath he laid these things in actions done in their health nor in the due management of their most excellent parts, but in the receiving of Christ, and fear of God. The which, good Christian, thou mayest do, and do acceptably, even though thou shouldest lie bed-rid all thy days; thou mayest also be sick and believe; be sick and love, be sick and fear God, and so be a blessed man. And here the poor Christian hath something to answer them that reproach him for his ignoble pedigree, and shortness of the glory of the wisdom of the world. True, may that man say, I was taken out of the dunghill, I was born in a base and low estate, but I fear God. I have no worldly greatness, nor excellency of natural parts, but I fear God.

When Obadiah met with Elijah, he gave him no worldly and fantastical compliment, nor did he glory in his promotion by Ahab the king of Israel, but gravely, and after a gracious manner, said, “I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.” Also when the mariners inquired of Jonah, saying, “What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou? what is thy country, and of what people art thou?” This was the answer he gave them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land” (Jon 1:8-9). Indeed this answer is the highest, and most noble in the world, nor are there any, save a few, that in truth can thus express themselves, though other answers they had enough; most can say, I have wisdom, or might, or riches, or friends, or health, or the like; these are common, and are greatly boasted in by the most; but he is the man that feareth God, and he that can say, when they say to him, What art thou? “I thy servant fear the Lord,” he is the man of many, he is to be honoured of men: though this, to wit, that he feareth the Lord, is all that he hath in the world. He hath the thing, the honour, the life, and glory that is lasting; his blessedness will abide when all men’s but his is buried in the dust, in shame and contempt.^[35]

A word to hypocrites.

Hypocrites, my last word is to you; the hypocrite is one that would appear to be that in men’s eyes that is nothing of in God’s—thou hypocrite, that wouldest be esteemed to be one that loves and that fears God, but does not; I have this to say to thee, thy condition is damnable, because thou art a hypocrite, and seekest to deceive both God and man with guises, vizards, masks, shows, pretences, and thy formal, carnal, feigned subjection to the outside of statutes, laws, and commandments; but within thou art full of rottenness and all excess.

Hypocrite, thou mayest by thy cunning shifts be veiled and hid from men, but thou art naked before the eyes of God, and he knoweth that his fear is not in thy heart (Luk 16:15).

Hypocrite, be admonished that there is not obedience accepted of God, where the heart is destitute of this grace of fear. Keeping of the commandments is but one part of the duty of man, and Paul did that, even while he was a hypocrite (Phl 3). To “fear God and keep his commandments, this is the whole duty of man” (Ecc 12:13). This “fear God” the hypocrite, as a hypocrite, cannot do, and therefore, as such, cannot escape the damnation of hell.

Hypocrite, thou must fear God first, even before thou dost offer to meddle with the commandments, that is, as to the keeping of them. Indeed, thou shouldest read therein, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord, but yet, “fear God” goes before the command to keep his commandments. And if thou dost not fear God first, thou transgressest, instead of keeping of the commandments.

Hypocrite, this word, FEAR GOD, is that which the hypocrite quite forgets, although it is that which sanctifies the whole duty of man. For this is that, and nothing without it, that can make a man sincere in his obedience; the hypocrite looks for applause abroad, and forgets that he is condemned at home, and both these he does because he wanteth the fear of God.

Hypocrite, be admonished that none of the privileges that are spoken of in the former part of the book belongs to thee, because thou art a hypocrite; and if thou hope, thy hope shall be cut off, and if thou lean upon thy house, both thou and it shall fall into hell-fire. Triumph then, thy triumph is but for awhile. Joy then, but the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment (Job 8:13, Job 8:15; Job 20:4-6).

Perhaps thou wilt not let go now, what, as a hypocrite, thou hast got; but “what is the hope of the hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul?” (Job 27:8). Hypocrite, thou shouldest have chosen the fear of God, as thou hast chosen a profession without it, but thou hast cast off fear, because thou art a hypocrite; and because thou art such, thou shalt have the same measure that thou metest; God will cast thee off, because thou art a hypocrite. God hath prepared a fear for thee because thou didst not choose the fear of God, and that fear shall come upon thee like desolation, and like an armed man, and shall swallow thee up, thou and all that thou art (Pro 1:27).

Hypocrite, read this text and tremble—“The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isa 33:13-14).

Hypocrite, thou art not under the fatherly protection of God, because thou art a hypocrite, and wantest his fear in thine heart. The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, to deliver them. But the fearless man or hypocrite is left to the snares and wiles of the devil, to be caught therein and overcome, because he is destitute of the fear of God.

Hypocrite, thou art like to have no other reward of God for thy labour than that which the goats shall have;^[36] the hypocrite, because he is a hypocrite, shall not stand in God’s sight. The gain of thy religion thou spendest as thou gettest it. Thou wilt not have one farthing overplus at death and judgment.

Hypocrite, God hath not intrusted thee with the least dram of his saving grace, nor will he, because thou art a hypocrite: and as for what thou hast, thou hast stolen it, even every man of you from his neighbour; still pilfering out of their profession, even as Judas did out of the bag. Thou comest like a thief into thy profession, and like a thief thou shalt go out of the same. Jesus Christ hath not counted thee faithful to commit to thee any of his jewels to keep, because thou fearest him not. He hath given his “banner to them that fear him, that it may be displayed because of the truth” (Psa 60:4).

Hypocrite, thou art not true to God nor man, nor thine own soul, because thou art a hypocrite! How should the Lord put any trust in thee? Why should the saints look for any good from thee? Should God give thee his Word, thou wilt sell it. Should men commit their souls to thee, thou wilt destroy them, by making merchandise of them, for thy own hypocritical designs. Yea, if the sun waxes hot, thou wilt throw all away, and not endure the heat, because thou art a hypocrite!

[35] “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.” Blessedness shall attend him all the way to heaven, in proportion as that fear abounds. It is a heaven on earth to live in the constant fear of God—to have a reverential awe and fear of his majesty immovably fixed and implanted in the soul. The grace of fear has an eminent influence in a Christian’s sanctification; it is a powerful restraint from sin. A holy fear of God, and a humble fear of ourselves, which are alike of Divine operation, will preserve us from sin and engage us to obedience. God will be our protector and instructor, our guide and our everlasting deliverer from all evil. Let us not rest satisfied with the greatest attainments short of “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”—Mason.

[36] By the goats we are to understand the hypocrites and the finally impenitent, who will depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; see Mat 25:32, Mat 25:33-41. Ed.