There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
~ Psalm 53:5
My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
~ Malachi 2:5
Shewing the Various Uses of Fear, Both Natural, Sinful, and Religious, by John Flavel. The following contains Chapter Three of his work, “A Practical Treatise of Fear”.
Say ye not, A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy; neither fear ye (their fear) nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; And he shall be for a sanctuary.— Isa. 8:12, 13, 14a
CHAPTER III
Having taken a brief view of the several kinds and sorts of fear that are found among men, our next work will be to open the uses of them in the government of this world: for one way or other they all subserve the most wise and holy purposes of God therein. And we will first enquire into.
1. The use of natural fear
Which if we well consider, it will be found exceeding necessary and useful to make man a governable creature by law; and consequently the order, comfort, and tranquillity of the world necessarily depend upon it. How immorigerous and intractable would the corruptions of man’s nature make him, uncapable of any moral restraint from the most flagitious and barbarous crimes, had not God planted such a passion as this in his nature, which, like a* bridle, curbs in the corrupt propensions thereof. If fear did not clap its manacles and fetters upon the wild and boisterous lusts of men, they would certainly bear down all milder motives, and break loose from all ingenious bands of restraint; the world would inevitably be filled with disorders, tumults, rapines, thefts, murders, and all manner of uncleanness and unrighteousness, nec hospes ab hospite tutus, i.e. the lodger is not safe from the person entertaining him;* men would become like the fishes of the sea, as the prophet complains, Habak. 1:14. where the greater swallow up a multitude of the smaller fry alive at one gulp; propriety could not be maintained in the world, no man’s person could be safe or inviolate; power and opportunity to do mischief would measure out to men their lot and inheritance, and consequently all societies must disband and break up. We say, and the observation is sure, He that fears not his own, may easily be master of another man’s life. It is the law and fear of punishment that keeps the world in order: men are afraid to do evil, because they are afraid to suffer it; they see the law hath inseparably linked penal and moral evils together; if they will presume upon the one, they must necessarily pull the other upon them too; and this keeps them in some order and decorum: there would be no order or security without law; but if laws had not annexed penalties to enforce them, and give them their sanction, as good there were no laws; they would have no more power to restrain the corruptions of men’s hearts, than the new cords or green withs had to bind Samson. And yet, if the severest penalties in the world were annexed to, or appointed by the law, they could signify nothing to the ends of government without fear. This is that tender, sensible power or passion on which threatenings work, and so brings men under moral government and restraint, Rom. 13:3, 4. “Magistrates are a terror to evil works; wilt thou not then be afraid of the power? But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain.” And by this means a world of evils is restrained and prevented in the world.
It was the custom and policy of the Persians, (I cannot say laudable) at the death of their kings, to give every man liberty for the space of five days to do what he would; and such mischiefs were done every-where by the unbridled lusts of men in those days, that it made the people long and pray for the instalment of their next king: it exceedingly endeared government to them. Blessed be God for law and government, for curbing by this means the raging lusts of the hearts of men, and procuring rest and comfort for us in the world this way.
2. The use of sinful fear
This is formally evil and sinful in its own nature, as well as the fruit of sin, and offspring of sinful nature; yet the Lord knows how to over-rule in his providential government of the world to his own wise and holy purposes. And he doth so,
1. By making it his scourge to punish his enemies. If men will not fear God, they shall fear men; yea, they shall be made a terror to themselves. And indeed it is a dreadful punishment for God to deliver a man up into the hands of his own fears. I think there is scarce a greater torment to be found in the world than for a man to be his own tormentor, and his mind made a rack and engine of torture to his body. We read in 2 Kings 17:25. that God sent lions among the people; but certainly that is not so bad as for God to let loose our own fears upon us. No lion is so cruel as this passion, and therefore David esteemed it so great a deliverance to be delivered-from all his fears, Psal. 34:4. It is a dreadful threatening which is recorded in Deut. 28:65, 66, 67. against the disobedient and rebellious, “Thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even; and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning, for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.” When fear hath once seized the heart, you may see death’s colours displayed in the face. What a dismal life do they live, who have neither any peace by day, nor rest by night, but wearisome days and nights are appointed them! The days of such men are tiresome days; they wish for the night, hoping it may give them a little rest; but their fears go to bed with them, their hearts pant and meditate terror; and then, Oh that it were day again!
2. By fear God punisheth his enemies in hell: it is that flagellum Dei, terrible scourge of God, by which a great part of the torment of the damned is inflicted on them. Divines use to make this tripartite distinction of hell-torments, and tell us, God punishes the wicked there partly by remembrance of what is past, viz. the mercies and means they once had, but are there irrecoverably lost; partly by the sense of things present, even the wrath of God overlaying soul and body; and partly by the fear of what is to come; and sure this is not the least part of the misery of these wretched cast-aways. Oh that fearful* expectation of fiery indignation! more and more of God’s wrath still coming on, as the waves of the sea, thrusting forward one on another; yea, this is that which makes the devils tremble, James 2:19. φρισσουσι, the word signifies such a noise as the roar of the sea, or the roaring of the waves when they break themselves against the rocks, and this is occasioned by the fears which are continually held as a whip over them.
3. Providence makes use of the slavish fears and terrors of wicked men, to dissipate and scatter them, when they are combined, and confederated against the people of God; by these have they been routed, and put to flight, when there hath been no other visible power to do it: it is said Psalm 78:55. God cast out the heathen before his people Israel; and by what means were those mighty nations subdued? Not by the strength of multitudes of the Israelites, but by their own fears; for it is said, Josh. 24:11, 12.”The Lord sent the hornet before them, which drave them out†.” These hornets were the fears and terrors of their own guilty and presaging minds, which buzzed and swarmed in their own breasts, and stung them to the heart, worse than the swords of the Israelites could do. “‡Theodoret relates a memorable story of Sapores king of Persia, who had besieged many Christians in the city Nisibis, and put them to great straits, so that little hopes of safety were left them; but in the depth of their distress, God sent an army of hornets, and gnats, among their enemies, which got into the trunks of their elephants, and ears, and nostrils of their horses; which so enraged them, that they brake their harness, cast their riders, and put them all to the rout, by which providence the Christians escaped.” These hornets were terrible to them, but fears, which are hornets in a figure, are ten thousand times more terrible; they will quell, and sink the very hearts of the stoutest men; yea, they will quickly make those that in their pride and haughtiness, took themselves rather to be gods, and almighty powers, to know themselves to be but men, as it is, Psal. 9:20. “Put them in fear, O Lord, that they may know themselves to be but men.” One fright will scare them out of a thousand fond conceits and idle dreams.
3. The use of religious fear
If God can make such fruit to grow upon such a bramble as the sinful, slavish fear of man is, what may we expect from religious fear, a choice root of his own Spirit’s planting? The uses and benefits hereof are innumerable, and inestimable; but I must contract, and will only instance in three special uses of it.
1. By this fear the people of God are excited to, and confirmed in the way of their duty. Eccles. 12:13. “Fear God, and keep his commandments.” It is, custos utriusque tabulœ, the keeper of both tables, because the duties of both tables are influenced by it. It is this fear of God that makes us have a due respect to all his commands, and it is as powerful to confirm us in, as it is to excite us to our duties. Jer. 32:40. “I will put my fear into their inwards, and they shall not depart from me.” Look, as he that soweth doth not regard the winds, but goes on in his labour, whatever weather the face of heaven threatens; so he that fears God, will be found in the way of his duty, let the aspect of the times be never so lowring and discouraging: and, truly, this is no small advantage, in times of frights and distractions. Slavish fear sets a man upon the devil’s ground, religious fear upon God’s ground: And, how vast an odds is there in the choice of our ground, when we are to endure a great fight of affliction!
2. Another excellent use of this fear is, to preserve the purity and peace of our consciences, by preventing grief and guilt therein, Prov. 16:6. “The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil.” See how it kept Joseph, Gen. 39:9. and Nehemiah, chap.5:15. And this benefit is invaluable, especially in a day of outward calamity and distress. Look, in what degree the fear of God prevails in our hearts, answerable thereunto will the serenity, peace, and quietness of our consciences be; and proportionable unto that will our strength and comfort be in the evil day, and our courage and confidence to look dangers in the face.
3. To conclude, a principal use of this fear of God is, to awaken us to make timely provisions for future distresses, that whensoever they come, they may not come by way of surprize upon us. Thus “Noah, being moved with fear, prepared an ark,” Heb. 11:7. It was the instrument of his and his family’s salvation. Some men owe their death to their fears, but good men, in a sense, owe their lives to their fears; sinful fears have slain some, and godly fears have saved others. “A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, (saith Solomon) but a fool rageth and is confident. His fears give him a timely alarm before the enemy fall into his quarters, and beat them up; by this means he hath time to get into his chambers of security and rest before the storm fall: But the fool rageth, and is confident,” he never fears till he begin to feel; yea, most time he is past all hope before be begin to have any fear.
These are some of the uses God makes of the several kinds of fear.
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