The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

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 (1 Sam 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 (2 Sam 15:37, 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 (Can 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.”

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

Answ. 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” (Prov 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