A30211:317
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 the grace of fear, more immediately intended in the text.
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.
4. This fear is called a fountain of life. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death, Prov. 14.27.
It is a fountain, or spring, which so continually supplieth the soul with variety of considerations of sin, of God, of death, and life eternal, as to keep the soul in continual exercise of virtue, and in holy contemplation. It is a fountain of life, every operation thereof, every act and exercise thereof hath a true, and natural tendency to spiritual ⟨p. 95⟩and eternal felicity. Wherefore the wise man saith in another place, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and be that hath it shall abide satisfied, he shall not be visited with evil, Prov. 19.23. It tendeth to life even as of nature; every thing hath a tendency to that which is most natural to it self, the fire to burn, the water to wet, the stone to fall, the sun to shine, sin to defile &c. Thus I say, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life; the nature of it is to put the soul upon fearing of God, of closing with Christ, and of walking humbly before him.
It is a fountain, or spring, which so continually supplieth the soul with variety of considerations of sin, of God, of death, and life eternal, as to keep the soul in continual exercise of vertue, and in holy contemplation. It is a fountain of life, every opperation thereof, every act and exercise thereof hath a true, and natural tendency to spiritual ⟨p. 95⟩and eternal felicity. Wherefore the wise man saith in another place, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and be that hath it shall abide satisfied, he shall not be visited with evil, Prov. 19.23. It tendeth to life even as of nature; every thing hath a tendency to that which is most natural to it self, the fire to burn, the water to wet, the stone to fall, the sun to shine, sin to defile &c. Thus I say, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life; the nature of it is to put the soul upon fearing of God, of closing with Christ, and of walking humbly before him.