A Body of Practical Divinity

5. To make God to be a God to us, is to fear him, Deut. 28.58. That thou mayest Fear this glorious and fearful Name, the Lord thy God. This fearing of God is, 1. To have God always in our eye, Psal. 16.8. I have set the Lord always before me. And Psal 25.15. Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord. He who fears God, imagines that whatever he is doing, God looks on, and as a Judge, weighs all his Actions. 2. To fear God, is when we have such an Holy awe of God upon our Hearts that we dare not sin, Psal. 4.4. Stand in awe and sin not. The Wicked sin and fear not; the Godly fear and sin not, Gen. 39.9. How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Bid me sin, bid me drink Poison. It is a Saying of Anselm, If Hell were on one side, and sin on the other, I would rather leap into Hell, than willingly sin against my God. 1. This glorious and fearful Name: He who fears God will not sin, though it be never so secret, Levit. 19.14. Thou shalt not curse the Deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the Blind, but shalt fear thy God. Suppose you should curse a Deaf Man, he cannot hear you curse him: Or if you lay a Block in a Blind Mans way, and make him fall, he cannot see you lay it. Ay, but the fear of God will make you avoid those sins which can neither be heard nor seen by Men. 2. Where the fear of God is, it destroys the fear of Man: The three Children feared God, therefore they feared not the Kings Wrath, Dan. 3.16. The greater noise drowns the less; the noise of Thunder drowns the noise of a River: So when the fear of God is superintendent in the Soul, it drowns all other carnal Fear. This is to make God to be a God to us, when we have an Holy Filial fear of him; that thou mayest fear.

5. To make God to be a God to us, is to fear him, Deut. 28.58. That thou maist Fear this glorious and fearful Name, the Lord thy God. This fearing of God is, 1. To have God always in our eye,