A30211:395
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
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.
Seventhly, There flows from this godly fear of God, compassion and bowels, to those of the Saints that are in necessity and distress. This is manifest in good Obadiah. It is said of him. That he took an hundred of the Lords Prophets and hid them by fifty in a Cave, and fed them with Bread and Water in the days when Jezebel that Tyrant sought their lives to destroy them, 1 King. 18.3, 4. But what was it that moved so upon his heart as to cause him to do this thing? why, it was this blessed grace of the fear of God.
Seventhly, There flows from this godly fear of God, compassion and bowels, to those of the Saints that are in necessity and distress. This is manifest in good Obadiah. It is said of him. That he took an hundred of the Lords Prophets and hid them by fifty in a Cave, and fed them with Bread and Water in the daies when Jezebel that Tyrant sought their lives to distroy them, 1 King. 18.3, 4. But what was it that moved so upon his heart as to cause him to do this thing? why, it was this blessed grace of the fear of God.
Now Obadiah, saith the text, Feared the Lord greatly, for so it was, when Jezebel cut off the Prophets of the Lord that Obadiah took an hundred Prophets and hid them by fifty in a Cave and fed them with Bread and Water. This was charity to the distressed, even to the distressed for the Lords sake.
Had not Obadiah served the Lord, yea, had he not greatly feared him, he would not have been able to do this thing especially as the case then stood with him, and also with the Church at that time; for then Jezebel sought to stay all that indeed feared the Lord; yea, and the persecution prevailed so much at that time, that even Elijah himself thought that she had killed all but him. But now, even now, the fear of God in this good mans heart, put forth it self into acts of mercy though attended with so eminent danger.