wicked to sink down, not to a godly sense of their infirmity, and holy remorse of the effects thereof; but yet lower than that, to a diffident jealousy, to a desperate acknowledgment, that they cannot stand in the sight of God: they shall have no true rest at last : they shall not stand; nay, they shall not have that half, that false comfort by the way; they shall not be able to flatter themselves by the way, with that imagination that they shall stand. : Now, both the ungodly, and godly too, must have changes: in matter of fortune, changes are common to them both and then, in all, of all conditions, Mortalitas mutabilitas, says St. Augustine: even this, that we must die, is a continual change. The very same word, which is here, kalaph, is in Job also: All the days of my appointed time, till my changing come. And because this word which we translate changing, is there spoken in the person of a righteous man, some translators' have rendered that place, Donec veniat sancti nativitas mea, Till I be born again : the change, the death of such men, is a better birth and so the Chaldee paraphrasts, the first exposition of the Bible, have expressed it, quousque rursus fiam, Till I be made up again by death: he does not stay to call the Resurrection a making up; but this death, this dissolution, this change, is a new creation; this divorce is a new marriage; this very parting of the soul, is an infusion of a soul, and a transmigration thereof out of my bosom, into the bosom of Abraham. But yet, though it is all this, yet it is a change; Maxima mutatio est mutabilitatis in immutabilitatem1, To be changed so, as that we can never be changed more, is the greatest change of all. All must be changed so far, as to die: yea, those who shall, in some sort, escape that death; those whom the last day shall surprise upon earth, though they shall not die, yet they shall be changed. Statutum est omnibus, semel mori", All men must die once; we live all under that law. But statutum nemini bis mori: since the promise of a Messiah, there is no law, no decree, by which any man must necessarily die twice; a temporal death, and a spiritual death too. It is not the man, but the sinner, that dies the second death: God sees sin in that man, or else that man had never seen the second 8 Job xiv. 14. 10 Bernard. 9 ⚫ Symmachus. 11 Heb. ix. 27. death. So we shall all have one change, besides those which we have all had; good and bad must die: but the men in this text, shall have two. But whatsoever changes are upon others in the world, whatsoever upon themselves; whatsoever they have had, whatsoever they are sure to have; yet, Quia non habent, non timent Deum; Because they have none now, they fear not God. And so we are come to our third and last part. They fear not God: this is such a state, as if a man who had been a schoolmaster all his life, and taught others to read, or had been a critic all his life, and ingeniosus in alienis, over-witty in other men's writings, had read an author better, than that author meant, and should come to have use of his reading, to save his life at the bar, when he had his book, for some petty felony, and then should be stricken with the spirit of stupidity, and not be able to read then. Such is the state of the wisest, of the learnedest, of the mightiest in this world: if they fear not God, they have forgot their first letters; they have forgot the basis and foundation of all power, the reason and the purpose of all learning. the life and the soul of all counsel and wisdom: for, The fear of God is the beginning of all. They are all fallen into the danger of the law; they have all sinned: they are offered their book, the merciful promises of God to repentant sinners, in his Word; and they cannot read, they cannot apply them, to their comfort: there is Scripture, but not translated, not transferred to them: there is Gospel, but not preached to them; there are epistles, but not superscribed to them. It is an hereditary sentence, and hath passed from David in his Psalms 12, to Solomon in his Proverbs 13, and then to him that gleaned after them both, the author of Ecclesiasticus, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All three profess all that, and more than that. It is blessedness itself, says the father, David; blessedness itself, says the son, Solomon; and Plenitudo sapientiæ, and Omnis sapientia, says the other, the fulness of wisdom, and the only wisdom. Job had said it before them all, Ecce, timor Domini, ipsa est sapientia's; The fear of the Lord, is wisdom itself: and the prophet Esay said it after, of Hezechias, 12 Psalm cxi. 10. 14 Ecclus. i. 16. 13 Prov. i. 7. 15 Job xxviii. 28. There shall be stability of thy times, strength, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; for, the fear of the Lord shall be thy treasure1. It is our supply, if we should fear want, and it is our reason that we cannot fear want; for he that fears God, fears nothing else. As therefore the Holy Ghost hath placed the beginning of wisdom in this fear; so hath he the consummation and perfection of this wisdom, even in the perfect pattern of all wisdom, in the person of Christ himself, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of God". For, without this fear, there is no courage, no confidence, no assurance: and therefore Christ begun his passion with a fear, in his agony, Tristis anima, My soul is heavy; but that fear delivered him over to a present conformity to the will of God, in his Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thine be done: and he ended his passion with a fear, Eli, Eli, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and that fear delivered him over to a present assurance, In manus tuas Domine, confidently to commend his spirit into his hands, whom he seemed to be afraid of. Since then the Holy Ghost, whose name is love; since God, who is love itself, disposes us to this fear, we may see in that, that neither God himself, nor those of whom God said, Ye are gods, that is, all those who have authority over others, can be loved so as they should, except they be feared, so as they should be too if you take away due fear, you take away true love. Even that fear of God, which we use to call servile fear, which is but an apprehension of punishment, and is not the noblest, the perfectest kind of fear, yet it is a fear, which our Saviour counsels us to entertain; Fear him that can cast soul and body into hell18; even that fear, is some beginning of wisdom. That fear Job had use of, when he said, Quid faciam cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus1? Here I may lay hold upon means of restitution; but when the Lord shall raise himself to judgment, how shall I stand? So also had David use of this fear, A judiciis tuis timui 20: However I was ever confident in thy mercy, yet I was 16 Isaiah xxxiii. 6. 17 Isaiah xi. 2. 19 Job xxxi. 14. 20 Psalm cxix. 120. in fear of thy judgment. It is that fear which St. Basil directs us to, upon those words, Timorem Domini docebo cos", I will teach you the fear of the Lord, Cogita profundum barathrum, To learn to fear God, he sends us to the meditation of the torments of hell. And so it is that fear, which wrought that effect in St. Hierome: Ego ob Gehenna metum carcere isto me damnari; For fear of that execution, I have shut myself up in this prison; for fear of perishing in the next world, I banish myself from this: there is a beginning, there is a great degree of wisdom, even in this fear. Now, as the fear of God's punishments disposes us to love him, so that fear which the magistrate imprints, by the execution of his laws, establishes that love which preserves him, from all disestimation and irreverence: for, whom the enemy does not fear, the subject does not love. As no peace is safe enough, where there is no thought of war; so the love of man towards God, and those who represent him, is not permanently settled, if there be not a reverential fear, a due consideration of greatness, a distance, a distinction, a respect of rank, and order, and majesty. If there be not a little fear, by justice at home, and by power and strength abroad, mingled in it, it is not that love, which God requires to be first directed upon himself, and then reflected upon his stewards and vicegerents: for, as every society is not friendship, so every familiarity is not love. But, to conclude: as he will be feared, so he will be feared, no otherwise, than as he is God: Non timuerunt Deum, is the increpation of the text, They feared not God. It is timor Dei, and not timor Jehova: God is not here expressed by the name of Jehovah, that unexpressible and unutterable, that incomprehensible and unimaginable name of Jehovah. God calls not upon us, to be considered as God in himself, but as God towards us; not as he is in heaven, but as he works upon earth and here, not in the school, but in the pulpit; not in disputation, but in application. It is not timor Jehova, nor it is not timor Adonai: God does not call himself in this place, the Lord: for, to be Lord, to be proprietary of all, this is Potestas tam utendi quam abutendi, It gives the Lord of that thing power, to do, absolutely, what he will 21 Psalm xxxiv. 4. with that which is his: and so, God, as absolute Lord, may damn without respect of sin, if he will; and save without respect of faith, if he will. But God is pleased to proceed with us, according to that contract which he hath made with us, and that law which he hath given to us, in those two tables, Tantummodo crede, Only believe, and thy faith shall save thee; and, Fac hoc et vives, Live well, and thy good works shall make sure thy salvation. Lastly, God does not call himself here Dominum exercituum, The Lord of hosts; God would not only be considered, and served by us, when he afflicts us with any of his swords, famine, war, pestilence, malice, or the like; but the fear required here, is to fear him as God, and as God presented in this name, Elohim; which, though it be a name primarily rooted in power and strength, (for El is Deus fortis, The powerful God; and as there is no love without fear, so there is no fear without power) yet properly it signifies his judgment, and order, and providence, and dispensation, and government of his creatures. It is that name, which goes through all God's whole work of the creation, and disposition of all creatures, in the first of Genesis: in all that, he is called by no other name than this, the name God; not by Jehovah, to present an infinite majesty; nor by Adonai, to present an absolute power; nor by Tzebaoth, to present a force, or conquest: but only in the name of God, his name of government. All ends in this; to fear God, is to adhere to him, in his way, as he hath dispensed and notified himself to us; that is, as God is manifested in Christ, in the Scriptures, and applied to us out of those Scriptures, by the church: not to rest in nature without God, nor in God without Christ, nor in Christ without the Scriptures, nor in our private interpretation of Scripture, without the church. Almighty God fill us with these fears, these reverences; that we may reverence him, who shall at last bring us, where there shall be no more changes; and hath already placed us in such a government, as being to us a type and representation of the kingdom of heaven, we humbly beg, may evermore continue with us, without changes, in government, or in religion. Amen. VOL. V. 21 |