Sermon 43

Psalm 119. Verse 38. Establish your word to your servant, who is devoted to your fear.

In these words observe, 1. A request: Establish your word to your servant. 2. A motive to enforce it: Who is devoted to your fear. The motive is taken from the qualifications and disposition of the person who makes the request.

In the request you have, 1. The matter prayed for: Establish your word. 2. The person for whom: To your servant, that is, to me who am so.

I shall begin with the first of these, the benefit asked: Establish your word. David had prayed before, "Establish me according to your word" (verse 28). Now he says, "Establish your word to me."

By the word is meant the word of promise. Now the promise of God is established when it is confirmed and made good. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established — that is, accounted valid and firm (2 Corinthians 13:1). And in 2 Samuel 7:25, when he speaks of God's promises he prays, "Establish it forever, and do as you have said." Look as on the one side, we are said to establish the law of God when we observe it, for so it runs (Deuteronomy 27:26): "Cursed be he that confirms, or establishes not all the words of this law to do them." The law is then confirmed when it has its force and effect upon us; whereas otherwise when they observe it not, it is said to be void. That sentence is repealed by the apostle thus (Galatians 3:10): "Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Well then, the promise is established when it is made good.

Question. But why does David pray thus, "Establish your word to me"? Since God's word is most certain, and stable in itself, so as it cannot be more — as in 2 Peter 1:19, "We have a more sure, or a more stable word of prophecy" — how can the word be more stable than it is?

Answer. It is sure in regard of God from whom it comes, and in itself. In regard of the things proposed it cannot be more or less stable, it cannot be fast and loose. But in regard of us, it may be more or less established, and that two ways: 1. By the inward assurance of the Spirit increasing our faith. 2. By the outward performance of what is promised.

First, by the inward assurance of the Spirit, by which our faith is increased. Great is the weakness of our faith, as appears by our fears, doubts, and distrusts, so that we need to be assured more and more. We need to say with tears, as he does in the Gospel (Mark 9:24), "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," and to cry out with the apostles, "Lord, increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). There is none who believes so much but he may yet believe more. And in this sense the word is more established when we are confirmed in the belief of it, and look upon it as a sure ground for faith to rest upon.

Secondly, by actual performance, when the promise is made good to us. Every event which falls out according to the word is a notable testimony of the truth of it, and a seal to confirm and strengthen our faith. Three ways may this be made good.

1. The making good of some promises at one time strengthens our faith in expecting the like favor at another. Christ was angry with his disciples for not remembering the miracle of the loaves when they fell into a like strait again (Matthew 16:9): "Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves," etc. We are to seek upon every difficulty; whereas former experience in the same kind should be a means of establishment to us (2 Corinthians 1:10): "He has delivered, and does deliver; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." In teaching a child to spell, we are angry if when we have showed him a letter once, twice, and a third time, yet when he meets with it again he still misses it. So, God is angry with us when we have had experience of his word in this, that, and the other providence, yet still our doubts return upon us.

2. The accomplishment of one promise confirms another; for God who keeps his word at one time will do so at another (2 Timothy 4:17): "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion; and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me blameless to his heavenly kingdom." In such a strait God failed not, and surely he who has been true up to now will not fail at last.

3. When the word is performed in part, it assures us of the performance of the whole. It is an earnest given us of all the rest (2 Corinthians 1:21-22): "For all the promises of God in him are Yes, and in him Amen." A Christian has a great many promises, and they are being performed daily — God is delivering, comforting, protecting him, speaking peace to his conscience — but the greater part are yet to be performed. Present experiences do assure us of what is to come. Thus, "Establish your word" — that is, make it good by the event, that I may learn to trust another time either for the same or other promises, or the accomplishment of your whole word.

Doctrine. That it is a matter of great consequence to have the word of God established to us, or to be confirmed in a certain belief of his promises.

David asks it here as a very necessary thing: "Establish your word to your servant; give me, Lord, to look upon it as a stable and firm thing." This will appear if you consider the convenience, necessity, utility, and the profit of this establishment.

First, the convenience and suitableness of it. It is very convenient that we should build strongly upon a strong foundation: that sure truths should be entertained with a certain faith, and things taken as they are uttered. There is Certitudo Objecti, a certainty of the object itself, and Certitudo Subjecti; the certainty of the subject, our being persuaded of the certainty of it, the one warrants the other, and both are necessary to our comfort, (that is) as the Word is certain in itself, so it should be certain to us. No matter how strong the foundation be, if the building upon that foundation be weak, down it falls. The Word of God is stable in itself, but if we are not persuaded it is so, we are soon shaken with temptations. To stay a ship from being tossed upon the rocks, it is necessary the anchor hold be good in itself, and be fastened upon somewhat that is firm; therefore (Hebrews 6:18-20) the Apostle speaks first of the stability of the ground, and then of the strength of the anchor. There's a firm rocky ground to build upon, the immutable promises of God; and a solid strong anchor, which is our faith and affiance. As faith without the promises is nothing but groundless and fruitless conceit, so the promises yield us no comfort without faith. The promises are Yes and Amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). And then presently (Now he who establishes us with you in Christ is God) it is not sufficient that the promises be established, but we must be established upon them. They are Yes and Amen in Christ, but what's that to us? God may lose the glory of his truth, and we the comfort, if we be not established.

Second, the necessity of it will appear, if we consider, 1. How natural unbelief is to us all, and 2. How weak the faith of most is.

1. If we consider how natural unbelief is to us, it is a sin we suck in with our milk. When our first parents sinned against God, his Word was not believed, and thereupon the sin was committed (Genesis 3:4). The Devil contradicted that which God delivered with his own mouth; his no prevails above God's yes, ("You shall not surely die") that was what let in the first sin. And ever since it is very natural to us (Hebrews 3:12), ("Take heed lest there be an evil heart of unbelief in you, in departing from the living God") — unbelief is the special part of the heart's wickedness. Partly because we have wronged God, therefore are apt to suspect him, for men are always jealous of those whom they have wronged; and that they cannot mean well to them, from whom they have received ill; we have wronged God and therefore are suspicious of him, and of his goodwill to sinners. And partly because the truths of God lie cross to our lusts and carnal interest, which makes us so ready to pick quarrels with him. Ahab would not hear Micajah, not because he prophesied falsely, but evil. (John 3:20) They will not come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. I say, such strict rules, such close and quickening truths as God has published in the gospel, men could wish they were not true; that there were no heaven, nor hell, nor world to come; and therefore because it lies so cross to our lusts, our wishes gain upon our understanding, and blind us, and we are not apt to believe these things. Who will close with that which makes against him? Men that are loath the Word of God should prove true, are therefore slow of heart to believe it (Luke 24). And partly, because ever since we were born, we have been trained up to live by sense; and are affected only with the things we see, hear, and feel; and therefore are little skilled in faith which is the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), which carries us to things above sense, to the concerns of another world. In short then, for these reasons; because it is natural to us to live by sense; to indulge our own lusts; and to suspect those whom we have wronged, therefore unbelief of God is so rife in the world.

2. The necessity of establishment in the Word of God will appear, if we consider how weak the faith of the most is. There are few that entertain the Word as a sure and certain truth. There are several degrees of assent: there is conjecture, opinion, weak faith, and faith that is stronger, and that which comes up to an assurance of understanding as the Apostle calls it.

There is conjecture, or a lighter inclination of the mind to the Word of God, as possibly, or probably true; a suspicious knowledge of things, or bare guess at them, when we go no higher than it may be so, that all this is true which God has spoken concerning Christ and salvation. There is beyond this, opinion, when the mind is more inclined to think it true, when we are so convinced of the truth of it, that we are not able reasonably to contradict it; we think it true, but there is still a fear of the contrary that it is not true which prevails over us and taints our practice, and weakens our affections and withdraws them from things to come. Then beyond this there is faith, or a firm and undoubted persuasion of the truth of God's Word, which also has its latitude: there's weak faith which has its incident doubts. And there is beyond this, receiving the Word in much assurance as the expression is (1 Thessalonians 5:1). Still we may increase higher in the degree of our assent: for in this life there is never so much but there may be more, there is not so much faith but there may be more: there is something lacking to our faith, and it is not easy to grow up to the riches of the full assurance of understanding. The best have but a fluctuating doubting knowledge of spiritual truths. Not a full assurance and persuasion of them. Therefore we need to ask establishment.

Thirdly, consider the utility and profit of it: when once the Word is established to us, we shall know how to live and how to die, and upon what terms to maintain comfort and holiness, whereas otherwise men live loosely and carelessly (Hebrews 4:2). The word profited not, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Until the word of God be owned as it is a divine and infallible truth, it has no efficacy upon us. When it is received merely by conjecture as a possible truth it works but weakly. Yes, but then it profits when we receive the word of God as the Word of God, as a certain truth, when the soul comes to determine, surely these are truths in which I am deeply concerned; upon which my eternal life or death does depend; without this God can have no service, and we no comfort, but are at a great uncertainty of spirit. On the other side, let me tell you, that all our coldness in duty, and all our boldness in sinning, it comes from unbelief.

1. Our coldness in duty. What is the reason when God offers such great things to us as the eternal enjoyment of himself, glory, comfort and happiness as much as heart can wish, that men are so dead-hearted, lifeless and careless in the ways of God, when our work is so good, our ways so excellent — what is the reason of all our coldness and carelessness in the profession of religion? We have not a lively sense of eternity, we do not believe God upon his word; if we did, it would put life into us. Says the Apostle (Philippians 3:14), "This one thing I mind, and I press towards the work" — why? — "for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ." When we mind our work, seriously and above all other things, not superficially and by the by, when we can see the prize of our high calling, as to run and hold the eye upon the mark, then he presses onward that he may not lose the garland. So when we feel the rewards of grace, when we are persuaded of them, this puts spirit into us, and encourages us against all deadness and faintness — I press onward then with a great deal of vehemency and earnestness. So (1 Corinthians 15:58), "Be steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" — here is the description of a godly man. How shall we do to keep the heart in such an earnest frame? By a sound belief of the promises, for so it follows: "for as much as you know that your labor shall not be in vain in the Lord." If holiness does not flourish, there is a worm at the root — atheism and unbelief lies at the heart, and the want of such an assent to those great and glorious promises which God has made known to us in Christ.

2. Our boldness in sinning. Why do men go on securely in ways of disobedience against God? Because they do not know whether the Word be true, yes or no. If a man had heaven and hell in his eye, if he were soundly persuaded of these things, certainly he would not venture the loss of heaven for a trifle; and would not upon such small temptations run the hazard of everlasting torments. You cannot drive an ass, the most stupid creature, into the fire which is burning before his eyes; so if these things were before our eyes we would not be so bold with God, and so daring as we are. Temptation to sin must needs prevail with us when we have not faith; for when the temptation is strong, and faith weak, where are we? A man will yield to his base lusts; for there is present profit, present pleasure, and we have no undoubted certainty of the rewards of obedience, and of the promises which are to be set against the temptation. But now when we consider, we have so great and precious promises — this will make us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; we will not easily sin against God, kick against the pricks, and run upon danger laid before our eyes. In vain is the snare laid in the sight of a bird.

Use 1. To reprove us for looking so little after the establishment of the Word. There are many that content themselves with a loose profession of the name of Christ, but are not established in a sound belief of the Scriptures. Ask them why they are of this and that religion? They have been taught so — been brought up in it; and so they might have been Mahometans upon the same account that they are Christians, if they had been bred there where the name of Mahomet is of more request than the name of Christ. But then there are others that live by guess, and carry on some natural devotion, but their souls were never acquainted with the mystery of grace, never soundly established in it — they have a conjecture. There are others that can dispute for their religion, that see a reasonableness in the Christian faith, and why they should be of this opinion rather than that. Yes, but their hearts were never subdued to God. Has the Spirit established divine truths upon your soul, and wrought these things upon your heart? Has it convinced your judgment? Has it awakened your conscience? Has it changed your heart? Has it given you any taste of God's love in Christ? Has it drawn you out of the world into near and sweet communion with God? Truths are by him established to us, and represented with evidence and power (1 Corinthians 2:4). Alas! all else we can attain to is but cold and fruitless notion, which will not warm the heart; some cursory opinions that will not hold your heart under the awe of God, and guide you in the paths of holiness to eternal life. Therefore rest not in this, that you have some knowledge concerning Christ, and privileges by him. But are your hearts established? Have you a sense of these truths wrought in you by the Holy Ghost?

Use 2. It exhorts us to use the means by which the Word may be established.

1. Chiefly observe experiences — how it is accomplished in the course of God's providence, and inward feeling of your own heart. What answers of prayer have you, when you have been wrestling with God and putting his promises in suit at the throne of grace? Every day God is fulfilling one promise or another, to train us up to look for more at his hands; that we may trust him for our inheritance, and our final blessing, he first gives us a proof of his truth in lesser matters. The more you observe the dealings of God with your own souls, and the fulfilling his Word to you, the more will your heart be confirmed against atheism, and established in the belief of the divine authority of Scripture. It concerns us much to look to this, that our hearts be firmly settled against atheism, especially when such errors are abroad, and divisions in the church, and the name of God is blasphemed. Now by these daily mercies does God establish his Word, makes it good to your souls; (Psalm 18:30) The Word of the Lord is a tried word — there is more than letters and syllables, God stands to it, it is a tried word. When you have challenged him you have found the Scripture fulfilled upon appeals to God, and applications to the throne of grace. When you have been pleading with God: Lord, is not this your handwriting, the promises you have made to your people? The Lord has answered this from heaven, and said, indeed, this is my promise. He has given in an answerable promise.

2. It engages you to dependence and assurance of faith. (Psalm 9:10) They that know your name will put their trust in you: for you, Lord, have not forsaken them that seek you. Whoever has observed God's dealings, will see God is to be trusted, he may be depended upon; if he has said anything in his Word, they that know your name — they that have acquainted themselves with God and the course of his dispensations. The promises will not lie by as a dead stock. (Psalm 116:1-2) God has heard my voice and my supplications, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. This is that which will quicken you to rejoice in God, and to a holy thankfulness, when you compare his Word with the effects of it, when you see how it is made good. (Psalm 56:10) In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word. A single mercy is not so much, nor so engaging upon our hearts to thankfulness, as when observing the mercy has been the fruit of a promise. This has been the practice of God's saints: Joshua takes notice of it. (Joshua 23:14) Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. (1 Kings 8:56) There has not failed one word of all his good promises, which he has promised by the hand of Moses his servant. You will often find the very letter of the promise made good in the course of God's dealings, and if you would but observe his daily providence, you would be trained up in more waiting upon God for your final blessings.

Secondly, let us come to the person for whom he prays: Establish your Word — but to whom? To your servant. Here note,

Doctrine: That particular application of general promises is necessary.

This word which he would have to be established was most likely to be a promise of sanctification, for in the former verse he had prayed for mortification, and vivification, and now for sanctification. But be it any other promise, certainly that word which was made to others, was likewise made to me, as if he had been specified therein by name. Thus must general truths be taken home by particular application, that they may lie the closer to our hearts. In Psalm 27, the offer of God's favor is general ("seek my face") but the application is particular to himself: Lord I will seek your face — David takes it as spoken to him in particular. So in Psalm 116:15: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, and then, truly Lord I am your servant, and the son of your handmaid. The comfort concerned all God's children; the life and death of the saints is very precious in the eyes of God, he has a particular care over them, and tells all their bones; now Lord says David, let me have the comfort of this promise, I am your servant. So in 1 Timothy 1:15: This is a faithful saying, etc., of whom I am chief. This holy art should we learn — of creeping under the cover of a promise; and working ourselves by faith into the comfort of it.

But rather secondly, you may observe the character that he puts upon himself: "Your servant." David was a king, but at the throne of grace he styles himself God's servant — the fittest title that he could use when he prays for grace. Hence note,

Doctrine: He that is a servant of God may seek and expect grace from him.

Here I shall show: 1. Who is God's servant? 2. Why we must use this plea when we come to have promises accomplished.

First, who is God's servant? I answer: He that dedicates himself to God's use, and he that lives under a sense and conscience of his dedication.

1. He that dedicates himself to God's use. We are God's servants by covenant and voluntary contract. 'Tis true, our service is due to him upon other accounts, but we enter into it by contract. It is due by virtue of creation, for he made us out of nothing, therefore we owe him all that we have, and thus all creatures were made for God's service. (Psalm 119:91) They continue this day according to your ordinances: for all are your servants. Heaven and earth, and sun and moon, and stars, and beasts, and every creeping thing, and every plant and herb, they all serve God according to the ends for which they were made. But especially men and angels, they were made for God's use immediately. Other things were made ultimately and terminatively for God; man immediately for God. (Psalm 103:21) The angels are his ministers, and so is man God's servant. And then by the right of redemption, we are bound to serve him as the captive was to serve the buyer; he that bought another out of slavery — all his time and strength belonged to him. (1 Corinthians 6:20) You are bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your souls and bodies. But this shows only de jure, what we ought to be — we ought all to be God's servants, as he created us, and redeemed us by the blood of Christ. But de facto, none are his servants but those who resign and yield up themselves to his use. (Romans 6:13) Yield up yourselves to the Lord. God will have his right and title confirmed by our consent, and therefore he that is a servant of God, one time or other has entered into covenant with God — he has consented to yield up himself to walk with God in a strict obedience. All that thus yield up themselves to be God's servants do it with shame; they are ashamed they did not sooner think of their Creator in their youth, at their first coming to the use of reason, and think of him that bought them by his blood. (1 Peter 4:3) For the time past of our lives may suffice us to have worked the will of the Gentiles, etc. They have too long dishonored God, destroyed their own souls, and kept their Creator out of his right. And they do it too with a sense of God's love, in the new title he has by redemption. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) For the love of Christ constrains us, etc.

2. He is one that lives under a sense and conscience of his dedication; not as his own but God's. When you have given up yourselves to God's service, you must not walk as you list, but as your Master pleases. Aristotle makes it the property of a servant to be one that cannot live as he would, that has no will of his own, but has given up himself to be commanded and directed by another, and sometimes contrary to his own inclination. They are rebels and not servants that said, our tongues are our own (Psalm 12:3). Your tongues are not your own to speak what you please; not your hearts your own to think what you please; not your hands your own to do what you please. You are God's servants, therefore must be wholly at his will. The angels that are God's ministers, when they are described, do his pleasure (Psalm 103:21). So your business is to do the will of God; not to please yourself, men, or the flesh, but to please God, to do the will of God without any respect to your own inclinations, and worldly interests. And therefore your hearts will rise against sin upon this account, when you are tempted to do anything that is contrary to the will of God — O I am not my own, these members are Christ's. You look upon everything as God's to be employed to his service.

Secondly, those that would have the Word to be established — why must they be servants of the Lord?

1. God does not look to the work, but to the qualification of the person. God will not accept a man for one good work, one prayer, but he looks to the qualification of his person. (The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, Proverbs 28:9.) How is that? Not only when it is managed in a careless fashion, when a wicked man prays wickedly; no, let him do his best, for it is said (Proverbs 21:27) — The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind. At best it is an abomination; God will not accept of a sacrifice at his hands, and therefore the qualification of the person is to be regarded when we pray for a blessing promised. (James 5:16) There is the qualification of the prayer — it must be fervent, effectual, a prayer driven with life and motion, that has spirit and life. Indeed, but it must be of a righteous person. As naturalists speak of a jewel, which if put into a dead man's mouth loses all its virtue and efficacy: so prayer in the mouth of a wicked carnal man loses its efficacy with God. When one that had revolted from the Romans sent gifts to the Roman General, he made him this answer: he should first return to his obedience to the state of Rome. So God says to wicked men, first let them be God's servants, and then they shall have the blessing of his promises.

2. It is agreeable to the covenant, for the covenant is mutual: I will be your God and you shall be my people. All promises relate to a covenant. Now in every covenant there is ratio dati and accepti — something required as well as something given, for it binds mutually. Therefore if we would have God give us grace we must yield obedience. Precepts and promises go hand in hand, and therefore they that would have promises performed, they must observe precepts. And mingle resolutions of duty with expectations of mercy — that's the covenant way of dealing with God. There must be a sincere purpose and endeavor to serve God. I am your servant, therefore establish your Word to me.

Use: To press you to become God's servants. I might bring motives both from the time past, present, and to come.

1. From the time past; you are obliged to be so. You are his creatures, you have life, being, and all things from him. We cannot receive a small kindness from man, but it does produce respect — I am your servant. Shall a kindness from God less affect us, who made us, and gives us life, breath, and all things? We take no notice of what comes from an invisible hand. Here's the wonder, that the great God who has no need of us, so often provoked by us, that is of such excellent majesty, so far above us, should take notice of us: therefore, if God made us, keeps us, and maintains us from day to day, and that he abases himself to behold us, to look after us, this should engage us. And then from what is present, the honor that is put upon you — it is a great advancement to be God's servant. The meanest offices about princes are accounted honorable. Jesus Christ himself as Mediator has this title put upon him (my righteous servant, Isaiah 53:11) and the angels are your fellow servants (Psalm 103:2), they are called ministers of God. Likewise for the present you have free access to God; God's servants may stand in his presence, and they have liberty to ask anything they need of. The Queen of Sheba said concerning Solomon in (1 Kings 10:8), 'Happy are these your servants, which stand continually before you, and hear your wisdom.' Much more may it be said concerning God's servants: blessed are those that stand in his presence, that have such free leave to hold communion with God — to come and have assurance of welcome whenever they come. And for the time to come, God's service will issue itself into everlasting blessedness: God's servants have excellent wages (John 12:26), 'If any man serve me, he shall be there where I am, and my Father will honor him.' Christ and his Father will study what honor they can put upon him. Therefore be God's servants that you may please him for the present, and comfortably wait for his everlasting blessing. Thus I have gone over the first thing, namely the request, Establish your word to your servant.

Secondly, the motive and argument: who is devoted to your fear. The word may be rendered either 'which' or 'who,' as relating either to 'your word' or 'your servant.'

1. Your word; for in the original Hebrew the posture of the verse is thus: Establish to your servant your word, which is to the fearing of you. That is, given that you may be feared. There being in the word of God the greatest arguments and inducements to fear and reverence, and obey him. The word of God was appointed to this use — to plant the fear of God in our hearts, and to increase our reverence of God — not that we may play the wantons with promises, and feed our lusts with them. I rather take our own translation as more fitting, and it has such a sense as that (Psalm 109:4): 'But I give myself to prayer' — in the original it is, 'But I prayer.' 2. Establish your word to your servant, who is to your fear. Our translators add, to make the sense more full, 'addicted, devoted to your fear' — that is, that makes it his business, care, and desire to stand in fear of God.

Now this is added as a true note and description of God's servants, as being a main thing in religion (Psalm 111:10): 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' — the first in point of order, and it is the first thing when we begin to be wise, to think of God, to have awful thoughts of God; it is a chief point of wisdom, the great thing that makes us wise to salvation. And it is added as an argument of prayer (Nehemiah 1:11): 'O Lord let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servants, who desire to fear your name.' The more any is given to the fear of God, the more assurance they have of God's love, and readiness to hear them at the throne of grace. The point is this,

Doctrine: That man is indeed God's servant who is devoted to his fear.

There may be weaknesses and failings, but for the main he is swayed by the fear of God. 1. What it is to fear God. 2. Why this is a sure note of God's servant, because it removes all the lets of obedience.

First, what it is to fear God. There is a servile and a filial fear — a fear of wrath which the worst may have (James 2:19): 'The devils believe and tremble' — and a fear of offending which the best must have (Proverbs 28:14): 'Blessed is he that fears always' — a reverent disposition of heart towards God as our sovereign Lord and Master, indeed, as our Father in Jesus Christ.

For the first of these.

1. A fear of wrath. Every fear of wrath is not sinful; it is a duty rather than a sin, all God's children are bound to have a tender sense of God's wrath or displeasure against sin, to make them careful and serious in the spiritual life, as in (Hebrews 12:27): "Let us serve God with reverence and godly fear" — mark upon that account and consideration, as He is a consuming fire; that should have an influence upon our godly fear. And (Matthew 10:28): "Fear not them that can but kill the body: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell." The words do not only contain a description of the person who ought to be feared, but the ground and reason why he is to be feared, and therefore it is not simply the fear of wrath that is sinful, but it is the servility and slavishness of it. Now what is the servility and slavishness of the fear of wrath? Partly when our own pain and terror is feared more than the displeasing of God; and they have a mind to sin but are afraid of Hell, and it is fear accompanied with hatred. Servile fear, though it keep us from some sins, as a wolf may be scared from the prey, yet keeps its devouring nature. It is accompanied with hatred of God; all that fear God in this servile way hate him; and indeed they could wish there were no God, none to call them to account; they could wish he were not so just and holy as he is. And so here lies the evil of it, not so much as fear of wrath (for that is a grace rightly exercised about its object) but as it tends to this hatred of God. And partly too, servility lies in this, as it makes us shy of God, and run away from him, rather than draw near to him, as Adam ran into the bushes to hide himself. Holy fear is an awe of God upon the soul, but that keeps us in a holy communion with him: "I will put my fear into their hearts, and they shall not depart from me." But that fear which makes us fly from God is slavish, and partly as it has torment and perplexity in it, and so hinders us in God's service. "Fear has torment in it." The fear of wrath that is a duty — but slavish fear is such a fear of wrath which makes us hate God, and shun his presence, and afraid more of wronging ourselves than wronging God, and such a fear that has torment and perplexity in it, that cannot serve God so cheerfully.

2. There is a filial fear, a fear of reverence. This fear of God was in Christ as Mediator (Isaiah 11:1-2). Among other graces there reckoned up which belong to Jehovah the Branch, to Christ Jesus, this is one — "the fear of the Lord." Christ as man had a reverent affection to his Father whom he served, and this fear continues to all eternity in the blessed spirits that are in heaven. The saints and angels have this kind of fear, a dread of the holy God, and a reverent and awful respect to his majesty. It is an essential respect which passes between the creature and the Creator, and can never be abolished. Now this fear of reverence consists in a high esteem of God, of his majesty, glory, and power, and in the sense and continual thoughts of his presence. And then a loathness to sin against God, or to offend in his sight, to do anything that is unseemly when God is a looker on. What! can a man sin freely that lives in the sight of the holy God, when he has a deep sense of his excellence imprinted in his heart? This is that fear which is the mark of God's servants.

Secondly, this must needs be the mark of God's servants because it is the great principle that both hinders us from sin, and quickens us to duty. The fear of God is one of the radical and essential graces which belongs to a Christian. It is a mighty restraint from sin. The beasts were made to serve men, and how are they held in subjection and obedience to man? ("The dread of you," says God, "shall be upon every beast of the earth" (Genesis 9).) So we are made for the service of God. Now how are we kept in subjection to God? When the fear of God is upon our heart, that will not allow us freely to do anything that is displeasing to God (Exodus 20:20): "God is come to prove you, that his fear may be before your faces that you sin not." It is a great remedy against all temptation of gain, and worldly profit, and temporal convenience. Look as that man that had a fear of the King upon his heart (2 Samuel 18:12): "Why did you not smite him to the ground?" says Joab; and the man answered, "Though I should receive a thousand shekels, yet would I not put forth my hand against the King's son." Just such a fear has a child of God of his heavenly King: "No, though I should have never so much offered me to tempt me from my duty; no, I dare not, the Lord has charged me to the contrary." Or, as when the Rechabites were tempted to drink wine; pots were brought before them to inflame their appetite: "No, we dare not." These passages express the workings of heart in one that fears God: though temptation be present, and never so much convenience thereby, yet how can they do this wickedness and sin against God?

Use: It informs us who are God's servants. Those that have most of this fear of God planted in their hearts (Nehemiah 7:2): "He was a faithful man, and feared God above many." And then that they express it in their conduct; God will not take it as planted in our hearts, if we do not obey him in those things that are contrary to our interests and natural affections. When God tried Abraham, that was to offer his Isaac (Genesis 22): "Now I know that you fear me, since you have not withheld your only son," etc. Why was Abraham unknown to God before that time? As Peter told Christ, "Lord, you know all things" — cannot God see the inward springs and motions of our souls, and what affections are there? Could not God tell what was in Abraham? "But now I acknowledge." For God will not acknowledge it in this sense until we express it. They are the true servants of God, that have his fear planted in their hearts, and express it upon all occasions.