A30211:225
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.
Object. But since I was sealed to the day of redemption, I have grievously sinned against God, have not I therefore cause to fear, as before? may not therefore the spirit of bondage be sent again to put me in fear as at first? sin was the first cause, and I have sinned now.
Answ. No, by no means, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. That is, God hath not given it us, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. 1.7.
If therefore our first fears come upon us again, after that we have received at Gods hands the spirit of love, of power, and of a sound mind, it is to be refused though we have grievously sinned against our God. This is manifest from, 1 Sam. 12. Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness. That is, not with that fear which would have made them fly from God as concluding that they were not now his people.
And the reason is, because sin cannot dissolve the covenant into which the Sons of God by his grace is taken.