A30211:222
A treatise of the fear of God showing what it is, and how distinguished…A treatise of the fear of God shewing what it is, and how distinguished…
A treatise of the fear of God showing what it is, and how distinguished from that what is not so : also whence it comes, who has it, what are the effects, and what the privileges of those that have it in their hearts / by John Bunyan.A treatise of the fear of God shewing what it is, and how distinguished from that what is not so : also whence it comes, who has it, what are the effects, and what the priviledges of those that have it in their hearts / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for N. Ponder, 1679
Of several sorts of fear of God in the heart of the Children of men.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I conclude then, as I began, that the fear that the Spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage worketh, is good, and godly, not only because of the Author, but also because of the ground and effects; but yet it can last no longer as such (as producing the aforesaid conclusion,) then till the spirit, as the spirit of adoption comes, because that then the soul is manifestly taken out of the state and condition, into which it had brought it self by nature and sin, and is put into Christ, and so by him into a state of life, and blessedness by grace. Therefore if first fears come again into thy soul after that the spirit of adoption hath been with thee, know they come not from the Spirit of God, but apparently from the spirit of the Devil, for they are a lie in themselves, and their effects are sinful and devilish.
Object. But I had also such wickedness as those in my heart at my first awaking, and therefore by your argument neither should that be but from the Devil.
Answ. So far forth as such wickedness ⟨p. 68⟩was in thy heart, so far did the Devil and thine own heart seek to drive thee to despair, and drown thee there, but thou hast forgot the question, the question is not whether then thou wast troubled with such iniquities, but whether thy fears of damnation at that time were not just and good, because grounded upon thy present condition, which was, for that thou wast out of Christ in thy sins, and under the curse of the Law, and whether now, since the spirit of adoption is come unto thee, and hath thee, and hath done that for thee as hath been mentioned, I say, whether thou oughtest for any thing whatsoever to give way to the same fear, from the same ground of damnation; it is evident thou oughtest, not because the ground, the cause is removed.