CHAP. VI. How far the filial feare of God may stand with the feare of Man.

THE filiall feare of God may stand,

1. With the feare of reverence, due unto men, as they are subor∣dinate unto God, as they are the Deputies of God on earth. God allowes that the sonne should honour his fa∣ther, and the servant his master; and on this very ground hee chal∣lenges feare and honor to himselfe. If then (sayth hee) I bee a Fa∣ther, Page  57where is my honor;*If I be a Master, where is my feare. This feare of Man Saint Paul im∣poseth on us all, Ren∣der to all their due,*feare to whom feare, honour to whom honour belongs: and his reason is in the fore-going verse. For they are Gods Ministers. Hee cannot feare and reverence God, whom doth not feare and re∣verence those that are Gods substitutes. And therfore Salomon knew what he did, when hee put these two duities together, My son, feare thou the Lord,*and the King. Feare the Lord Page  58first, and most; but yet feare the king too, who is Gods Vicegerent on earth. These two are not like the Arke and Dagon; they will both stand under the roof of one heart. Who feared God more than Da∣vid? and yet who fea¦red King Saul more than hee? his heart smot him for cutting off but the skirt of K. Saul. his garment.* Let the Pope, whose religi∣on is rebellion,* and whose faith is faction, perswade his mis-led fooles, and his sworne slaves, that to feare God, and to kill Kings Page  59at his command, are two vertues of one house.* They whose religion is from above, pure and peaceable, know, that light and darknesse, heaven and hell; God and the di∣vell may as well have fellowship together. The feare of God doth neither make voyd, nor weaken this feare of observance towardes man, but rather con∣firme and establish it.

2. Wee may filially feare God, and yet feare man, with a feare of caution: that is, wee may feare the per∣secution, and the so∣cietie Page  60of evill men.

1. Wee may feare their persecutions, our Saviour will justifie us in it. Behold (sayth he) I send you forth as sheepe in the midst of wolves;*Be yee therefore wise as Serpents, and beware of men: for they will deli∣ver you up to the Coun∣cels, & they wil scourge you in their Synagogues; But when they shall per∣secute you in one Citie, flye into another. Moses fled from Pharaoh, Da∣vid from Saul, Eliah from Iezebel; Nay, our Saviour himselfe from the Iewes,* when they would have cast him Page  61downe a hill. When Athanasius was perse∣cuted by the Arrians, hee made this motion to his friends,*Let us step aside for a time, till this tempest bee over∣past: it will not bee long afore this little cloud vanishes. And when his persecutors upbrai∣ded him with his flight, he returned this answer to them,*If it be a shame for me to flie, it is a grea¦ter shame for you to per∣secute me. Thus we may feare persecution.

2. We may feare the societie of bad men, both for the infection, and the danger of it,

1. We have just cause to feare the contagion of ill company.*When I have been among men, (sayth Seneca) I returne from them more inhu∣mane. Beware (sayth Christ) of false prophets who come to you in sheeps clothing,*but within are ravening wolves: Like our sneaking Masse-priests, that pretend a pitty towardes our soules,* but their end is to make us seven-fold more the children of the Divell. Heretickes act seducers under the habits of Counsellors. And of such Saint Paul forewarnes us, & gives Page  63us their Character, Traytors, heady,*high-minded, having a forme of godlinesse, but deny∣ing the power thereof: From such turne away.

2. We have authori∣ty for fearing as the in∣fection, so the danger of ill societie, by no lesse than a voyce from heaven, Come out from Babylon my people,*lest you bee partakers of her sins, and of her plagues. We read in Ecclesiasti∣call history, that S. Iohn the Apostle being in a Bath at Ephesus, wher∣in Cerinthus, a grand Hereticke, was bathing himselfe, he leaped out Page  64of the Bath, as if he had spied a serpent, and with these words in his mouth; I feare lest the ground should sink under me, whereon such a mor∣tall enemy of the truth stands.

So then, the feare of God may stand with; Nay, what if I say, it cannot stand without this kinde of feare of men?

Besides, I must adde, to prevent all mistake, that Gods dearest saints and servants may bee tempted, though not habitually, yet actual∣ly to feare Man more than God.

The feare of man mo∣ved Abraham to deny his wife Sarah,* so that shee might have beene exposed to Abimelechs lust. The feare of K ng Saul moved Samuel to refuse to goe at Gods command,* to annoynt David King. Davids feare of King Achish,* moved him, to the dis∣honour both of reli∣gion and manhood, to faine himselfe mad, to scrabble on the dores, and to let fall his spittle on his beard afore king Achish. Ionah the Pro∣phet,* his feare of the Ninivites moved him, when hee was sent by Page  66God one way, to flye another.* The feare of man moved Peter to deny Christ his ma¦ster with an oath,* and a bitter execration.

And yet when the Saints thus feare men,

1. The Spirit of the feare of God hath resi∣dence in them. Those that are in heaven are all spirit, and no flesh: the wicked on earth are all flesh, and no spirit. The saints on earth are partly flesh, and partly spirit: new converts are more flesh, lesse spirit. Ancient standers in the schoole of Grace, are more spirit, lesse flesh. Page  67In all the faithfull there is a combate betweene the flesh and the spirit.* The flesh and the spirit are contrary to each o∣ther, so that we cannot doe the things that we would. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weake. A Christian betweene these two, is like a peece of iron be∣tween two load-stones, the one drawes one way, and the other the other way; like a horse under an unskilfull ri∣der, that spurres him on, and reines him in Sometimes the spirit hath the better of the flesh; sometimes the Page  68flesh hath the upper hand of the spirit: sometimes the carnall feare of man prevailes against the filiall feare of GOD. When the Saints are thus shaken and winnowed by the reliques of sin in them, and by the temptation of Sathan, they are not hereby proved to bee chaffe, though it ap∣peares that they are not without chaffe.

2. As this feare of men in good men, is not separated from the true feare of God: so neither from the true love of God. When S. Peter denied Christ, Page  69he did not hate Christ,* only he loved himselfe too much, saith Saint Bernard. It is one thing for a man to fall throgh the feare of the world, another thing to fall through the love of the world: for he that loves the world, hates God, if wee beleeve S. Iames:* But hee that sometimes over-feares the world, may yet both dearly love, and sincerely feare God.

3. When hee that feares God doth thus over-feare man; hee doth it not with the un∣interrupted swing of his affection; but Page  70hee resists this carnall feare, and heartily de∣sires that it were whol∣ly expelled; and that the feare of God in him were perfect, and un∣mixed. Thy servants desire to feare thy name,* sayth Nehemiah. The feare of man in them is a tyrant, that forces their subjection, not their King, to whom they freely yeeld their homage.

4. When the filiall fearers of God doe fall thus through the feare of men, they fall not upon premeditation, but suddenly, beeing surprized by temptati∣on Page  71unawares. The Di∣vell takes them at an unexpected advantage. The storme comes a∣fore they have leasure to snatch their cloake about them. As a vali∣ant man may startle at the sudden discharge of a peece of Ord∣nance behind his back; who otherwise having time to collect & sum∣mon his spirits, would not feare to stand at the mouth of a charged Canon in a good cause. Saint Peter was chal∣lenged by the damosell suddenly, before hee could have respite to reach to his weapon of Page  72faith to draw it; where∣as had hee had never so little time to have re∣collected himselfe, his tongue wold never have so grosly transgressed its bounds.

5. Though a childe of God be thus for the present scared by man, yet let him alone a while, and hee will re∣turne to his true tem∣per, he will recover his guard againe, and his spirituall will conquer his carnall feare. As if you shake the Com∣passe, the Needle may bee turned from the North; but let the Compasse stand still a Page  73while, and then the Needle will poynt full toward the North∣starre. The most skil∣full Pilote may in a storme, be forced from his intended scope, and port, who when the windes are silenced, wil steere a right course again. Put oyle & wa∣ter into a glasse toge∣ther, & shake the glasse, the water it may bee, may get uppermost, but let the glasse stand a while, and the oyle will, like a triumphant liquor, recover the su∣pereminence. Though Saint Peter in the time of temptation, did de∣ny Page  74his master, yet pre∣sently after, when hee came to himselfe, hee wept bitterly for it: and after that hee con∣fessed Christ stoutly a fore a Councell, who before denied him a∣fore a Damosell: and he sealed his profession with his blood. Ecebo∣lius, who in Iulians time, revolted from the truth for the feare of man, did afterward cast himselfe downe in the sight of all, and cri∣ed in the hearing of all, Kick me unsavory salt.* And Archbishop Cran¦mer, who for feare, had subscribed to many Page  75popish Articles, after suffered for the truth; and hee first thrust that hand into the flame, wherewith hee had subscribed. Thus, as it was sayd of Gad, A Troope shall over∣come him,*but hee shall overcome at the last. So fleshly feare may for a time overcome a feare of God, but he who filially feareth God, shall overcome at the last.