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Slavish fear and servile hope not the springs of true obedience.
Nom. But stay, sir, I pray you, would you not have believers to eschew evil and do good, for fear of hell, or for hope of heaven?
Evan. No, indeed, I would not have any believer to do either the one or the other; for so far forth as they do so, their obedience is but slavish. 1 And therefore though, when they were first awakened and convinced of their misery, and set foot forward to go on in the way of life, they, with the prodigal, would be hired servants; yet when, by the eye of faith, they see the mercy and indulgence of their heavenly Father in Christ, running to meet them and embrace them; I would have them, with him, to talk no more of being hired servants, (Luke 16). I would have them so to wrestle against doubting, and so to exercise their faith as to believe, that they are by Christ "delivered from the hands of their enemies," both the law, sin, wrath, death, the devil, and hell, "that they may serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives," (Luke 1:74,75). I would have them so to believe God's love to them in Christ, as that thereby they may be constrained to obedience. 2
Nom. But, sir, you know that our Saviour says, "Fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," (Matt 10:28). And the apostle says, "We shall receive of the Lord the reward of the inheritance," (Col 3:24). And is it not said, that "Moses had respect unto the recompense of reward"? (Heb 11:26).
Evan. Surely the intent of our blessed Saviour, in that first Scripture, is to teach all believers, that when God commands one thing, and man another, they should obey God, and not man, rather than to exhort them to eschew evil for fear of hell. 3 And for those other Scriptures by you alleged, if you mean reward, and the means to obtain that reward, in the Scripture sense, then it is another matter; but I had thought you had meant in our common sense, and not in Scripture sense.
Nom. Why, sir, I pray you, what difference is there betwixt reward, and the means to obtain the reward, in our common sense, and in the Scripture sense?
Evan. Why, reward, in our common sense, is that which is conceived to come from God, or to be given by God; which is a fancying of heaven under carnal notions, beholding it as a place where there is freedom from all misery, and fullness of all pleasures and happiness, and to be obtained by our own works and doings. 4 But reward in the Scripture sense, is not so much that which comes from God, or is given by God, as that which lies in God, even the full fruition of God himself in Christ. "I am," says God to Abraham, "thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward," (Gen 15:1), and "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" says David; "and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee," (Psa 73:25); and "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness," 5 (Psa 17:15). And the means to obtain this reward is, not by doing, but by believing; even by "drawing near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith," (Heb 10:22); and so indeed it is given freely. 6 And therefore you are not to conceive of that reward which the Scripture speaks of, as if it were the wages of a servant, but as it is the inheritance of sons. 7 And when the Scripture seemeth to induce believers to obedience, by promising this reward, you are to conceive that the Lord speaks to believers as a father does to his young son, Do this or that and then I will love thee; whereas we know, that the father loveth the son first, and so does God; and therefore this is the voice of believers, "We love him, because he first loved us," (1 John 4:19). The Lord doth pay them, or at least gives them a sure earnest of their wages, before he bid them work; 8 and therefore the contest of a believer [according to the measure of his faith] is not, what will God give me? but, what shall I give God? "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his goodness? For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth," (Psa 116:12, 26:3).
Nom. Then, sir, it seems that holiness of life, and good works, are not the cause of eternal happiness, but only the way thither?
Evan. Do you not remember that our Lord Jesus himself says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"? (John 14:6); and doth not the apostle say to the believing Colossians, "As ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in him"? (Col 2:6); that is, as ye have received him by faith, so go on in your faith, and by his power walk in his commandments. So that good works, as I conceive, may rather be called a believer's walking in the way of eternal happiness, than the way itself; but, however, this we may assuredly conclude, that the sum and substance both of the way, and walking in the way, consists in the receiving of Jesus Christ by faith, and in yielding obedience to his law, according to the measure of that receiving. 9
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[1] As for what concerns the hope of heaven, the author
purposely explains that matter, that he would not have any believer to
eschew evil or do good for fear of hell; the meaning thereof plainly
is this, you being a believer in Christ, ought not to eschew evil and
do good, for fear you be condemned, and cast into hell. So far as a
believer doth so, the author justly reckons his obedience accordingly
slavish. This is the common understanding and sense of such a phrase,
as when we say, The slave works for fear of the whip. Some men abstain
from stealing, robbing, and the like, for fear of the gallows; they
eschew evil, not from love of virtue, but for fear of punishment, as
the heathen poet says of his pretender to virtue,
Tu nihil admittes in te formidine poenae.
Horat. Epist. 16.
Which may be thus Englished:
From love of virtue flows,
While nothing vicious minds controls
But servile fear of blows.
This is quite another thing than to say, that a believer in doing
good, or eschewing evil, ought not to regard threatenings, nor be
influenced by the threatening of death. For though believers ought
never to fear that they shall be condemned and cast into hell, yet
they both may and ought awfully to regard the threatenings of the holy
law: and how they ought to regard them, one may learn from the Westm.
Confess. chap. 19, art. 6, in these words, "The threatenings of it
[viz: the law] serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what
afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from
the curse thereof threatened in the law." Thus they are to regard
them, not as denunciations of their doom, in case of sinning, but as a
looking-glass wherein to behold the fearful demerit of their sin; the
unspeakable love of God in freeing them from bearing it, his fatherly
displeasure against his own for their sin, and the tokens of his anger
to be expected by them in that case. So will they be influenced to
eschew evil and do good, being thereby filled with hatred and horror
of sin, thankfulness to God, and fear of the displeasure and frowns of
their Father, though not with a fear that he will condemn them, and
destroy them in hell; this glass represents no such thing.
Such a fear in a believer is groundless. For (1.) He is not under the
threatening of hell, or liable to the curse. If he were, he behoved
that moment he sinneth to fall under the curse. For since the curse is
the sentence of the law, passing on the sinner, according to the
threatening, adjudging, and binding him over to the punishment
threatened; if the law say to a man, before he sinneth, "In the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," it says unto him, in the
moment he sinneth, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things written in the law, to do them." And forasmuch as believers sin
in every thing they do, their very believing and repenting being
always attended with sinful imperfections, it is not possible, at this
rate, that they can be one moment from under the curse; but it must be
continually wreathed about their necks. To distinguish in this case,
betwixt gross sins and lesser sins, is vain; for as every sin, even
the least, deserves God's wrath and curse, [Short. Cat.,] so, against
whomsoever the curse takes place, [and by virtue of God's truth, it
takes place against all those who are threatened with hell or eternal
death] they are cursed for all sins, smaller or greater: "Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things": though still there is a
difference made betwixt greater and lesser sins, in respect of the
degree of punishment, yet there is none in respect of the kind. But
now believers are set free from the curse. (Gal 3:13), "Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."
(2.) By the redemption of Christ already applied to the believer, and
by the oath of God, he is perfectly secured from the return of the
curse upon him, (Gal 3:13), [see before,] compared with (Isa 53,
54:9), "For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for, as I have
sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so
have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee."
Therefore he is perfectly secured from being made liable any more to
hell or eternal death. For a man, being under the curse, is "so made
liable to the pains of hell for ever." Short. Cat. (3.) He is
justified by faith, and so adjudged to live eternally in heaven. This
is unalterable, "for the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance," (Rom 11:29). And a man can never stand adjudged to
eternal life, and to eternal death, at one and the same time. (4.) One
great difference betwixt believers and unbelievers lies here, that the
latter are bound over to hell and wrath, the former are not: (John
3:18), "He that believeth is not condemned: but he that believeth not,
is condemned already"; not that he is in hell already, but bound over
to it. Now, a believer is still a believer, from the first moment of
his believing; and therefore it remains true concerning him, from that
moment for ever, that he is not condemned or bound over to hell and
wrath. He is expressly secured against it for all time to come, from
that moment. (John 5:24), "He shall not come into condemnation." And
the apostle cuts off all evasion by distinctions of condemnation here,
while he tells us in express terms, "There is no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus," (Rom 8:1). (5.) The believer's union with
Christ is never dissolved. (Hosea 2:19), "I will betroth thee unto me
for ever": and being in Christ he is set beyond the reach of
condemnation, (Rom 8:1). Yea, and being in Christ, he is perfectly
righteous for ever; for he is never again stripped of the white
raiment of Christ's imputed righteousness; while the union remains, it
cannot be lost: but to be perfectly righteous, and yet liable to
condemnation before a just Judge, are inconsistent.
Neither is such a fear in a believer acceptable to God; for, (1.) It
is not from the Spirit of God, but from one's own spirit, or a worse;
(Rom 8:15), "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear"; namely, to fear death or hell. (Heb 2:15), "Who through fear of
death were all their life-time subject to bondage." (2.) It was the
design of the sending of Christ, that believers in him might serve God
without that fear, (Luke 1:74). That "We, being delivered out of the
hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear." Compare (1 Cor
15:26), "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." And for
this very cause Jesus Christ came, "That through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and
deliver them, who, through fear of death, were all their life-time,"
namely, before their deliverance by Christ, "subject to bondage," (Heb
2:14,15).
(3.) Though it is indeed consistent with, yet it is contrary to faith;
(Matt 8:26), "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith!" And to love
too; (1 John 4:18), "Perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath
torment."—(2 Tim 1:7), "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but
of power, of love, and of a sound mind."
(4.) As it is not agreeable to the character of a father, who is not a
revenging judge to his own family, to threaten to kill his children,
though he threaten to chastise them: so such a fear is no more
agreeable to the spirit of adoption, nor becoming the state of sonship
to God, than for a child to fear that his father, being such a one,
will kill him. And therefore, "the spirit of bondage to fear" is
opposed to "the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,"
(Rom 8:15).
"Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, whereby all those that
are justified are received into the number of his children, have his
name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, [receive the
spirit of adoption, Westm. Confess. chap. 12,] are under his fatherly
care and dispensation, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of
the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with
Christ in glory." Larg. Cat. q. 74.
"The LIBERTY which Christ has purchased for believers under the
gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the
condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law, as also in their
free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto him, not out of
slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind. All which were
common also to believers under the law." Westm. Confess. chap. 20,
art. 1. By the guilt of sin here, must needs be understood obligation
to eternal wrath.
"The end of Christian liberty is, that being delivered out of the
hands of our enemies, we might 'serve the Lord without fear.'" Ibid.
art. 3.
"The one [viz: justification] doth equally free all believers from the
revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they
never fall into condemnation." Larg. Cat. q. 77.
"Though a soul be justified and freed from the guilt of eternal
punishment, and so the spirit is no more to be afraid and disquieted
for eternal wrath and hell." Rutherford's Trial and Triumph, &c. Ser.
19, p. 261.
"The believer hath no conscience of sins; that is, he in conscience is
not to fear everlasting condemnation, that is most true." Ibid. p.
266.
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[2] And no marvel one would have them do so, since that is what
all the children of God with one mouth do daily pray for, saying "Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
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[3] There is a great difference betwixt a believer's eschewing
evil for fear of hell, and his eschewing it from the fear of God, "as
able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The former respects the
event as to his eternal state, the latter not. To this purpose the
variation of the phrase in the text is observable,—"fear not them
that KILL the body": this notes the event, as to temporal death by the
hands of men, which our Lord would have his people to lay their
account with; but with respect to eternal death, he says not, fear him
which destroys, but, "which is able to destroy both soul and
body in hell." Moreover, the former is a slavish fear of God as a
revenging judge; the believer eschewing sin for fear he be damned: the
latter is a reverential fear of God as of a Father with whom is awful
dominion and power. The former carries in it a doubtfulness and
uncertainty as to the event, plainly contrary to the remedy prescribed
in this same case: (Prov 29:25), "The fear of man bringeth a snare;
but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." The latter is
consistent with the most full assurance of one's being put beyond all
hazard of hell, (Heb 12:28,29), "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming
fire." A believer, by fixing his eyes on God, as able to destroy both
soul and body in hell, may be so filled with the reverential fear of
God, his dreadful power and wrath against sin, as to be fenced against
the slavish fear of the most cruel tyrants, tempting him to sin;
though in the mean time he most firmly believes that he is past that
gulf, can never fall into it, nor be bound over unto it. For, so he
hath a lively representation of the just deserving of sin, even of
that sin in particular unto which he is tempted; and so must tremble
at the thought of it, as an evil greater than death. And as a child,
when he seeth his father lashing his slaves, cannot but tremble, and
fear to offend him, so a believer's turning his eyes on the miseries
of the damned, must raise in him an awful apprehension of the severity
of his Father against sin, even in his own; and cause him to say in
his heart, "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of
thy judgments," (Psa 119:120). Thus also he hath a view of the
frightful danger, he has escaped; the looking back to which must make
one's heart shiver, and conceive a horror of sin; as in the case of a
pardoned criminal, looking back to a dreadful precipice from which he
was to have been thrown headlong, had not a pardon seasonably
prevented his ruin; (Eph 2:3), "We were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others."
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[4] Thus, to eschew evil and do good for hope of heaven, is to
do so in hope of obtaining heaven by our own works. And certainly
"that hope shall be cut off, and be a spider's web," (Job 8:14); for a
sinner shall never obtain heaven but in the way of free grace: "But if
it be of works, then it is no more grace," (Rom 11:6). But that a
believer may be animated to obedience by eying the reward already
obtained for him by the works of Christ, our author no where denies.
So indeed the apostle exhorts believers to run their Christian race,
"looking unto Jesus, who, for the joy that was set before him," [to be
obtained by his own works, in the way of most proper merits] "endured
the cross," (Heb 12:1,2).
"Papists," says Dr. Preston, "tell of escaping damnation, and of
getting into heaven. But Scripture gives other motives [viz: to good
works]: Thou art in Christ, and Christ is thine; consider what he hath
done for thee, what thou hast by him, what thou hadst been without
him, and thus stir up thyself to do for him what he
requireth."—Abridg. of his Works, p. 394.
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[5] "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for
ever." Short. Cat.—"Believers shall be made perfectly blessed in full
enjoying of God to all eternity." Ibid.
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[6] (Rom 4:16), "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by
grace; to the end the promise [viz: of the inheritance (verse 13,14),]
might be sure to all the seed." Otherwise it is not given freely; for
"to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt," (verse 4).
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[7] The apostle's decision in this case seems to be pretty
clear: (Rom 6:23), "for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God
is eternal life": he will not have us to look upon it as the wages of
a servant too. The joining together of both these notions of the
reward was, it seems, the doctrine of the Pharisees; (Mark 10:17),
"Good Master, what shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" And
how unacceptable it was to our blessed Saviour, may be learned from
his answer to that question. "The Papists confess that life is merited
by Christ, and is made ours by the right of inheritance: so far we go
with them. Yea, touching works, they hold many things with us; (1.)
That no works of themselves can merit life everlasting. (2.) That
works done before conversion, can merit nothing at God's hand. (3.)
That there is no merit at God's hand, without his mercy, no exact
merit as often there is amongst men. The point whereabout we dissent
is, that with the merit of Christ and free promise, they will have the
merit of works joined, as done by them who are adopted
children."—Bayne on Ephesians 2:8).
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[8] Namely, in the way of the covenant of grace.
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[9] Our author, remembering Nomista's bias towards good works,
as separated from Christ, puts him in mind, that Christ is the way;
and that the soul's motion heaven-ward is in Christ; that is, a man
being once united to Christ by faith, moveth heaven-ward, making
progress in believing, and by influences derived from Jesus Christ,
walking in his holy commandments. The Scripture acknowledges no other
holiness of life, or good works; and concerning the necessity of these
the author moves no debate. But as to the propriety of expression,
since good works are the keeping of the commandments, in the way of
which we are to go, he conceives they may, with greater propriety, be
called the walking in the way, than the way itself. It is certain that
the Scripture speaks of "walking in Christ," (Col 2:6), "walking in
his commandments," (2 Chron 17:4), and "walking in good works," (Eph
2:10); and that as these terms signify but one and the same thing, so
they are all metaphorical. But one would think the calling of good
works the way to be walked in, is further removed from the propriety
of expression, than the calling them the walking in the way. But the
author waiving this, as a matter of phraseology, or manner of speaking
only, tells us, that assuredly the sum and substance, both of the way
to eternal happiness, and of the walking in the way to it, consists in
the receiving Jesus Christ by faith, and in yielding obedience to his
law, according to the measure of that receiving. Herein is
comprehended Christ and holiness, faith and obedience; which are
inseparable. And no narrower is the compass of the way and walking
mentioned, (Isa 35:8,9), "It shall be called the way of holiness—the
redeemed shall walk there."—"The way of holiness, or the holy way,
[according to an usual Hebraism,] as it is generally understood by
interpreters, is the way leading to heaven, says Piscator; namely,
Christ, faith, and the doctrine of a holy life." Fererius apud Pol.
Synop. in loc. And now that our author, though he conceives good works
are not so properly called the way, as the walking, yet does not say,
that in no sense they may be called the way, but does expressly assert
them to be the soul's walking in the way of eternal happiness; he
cannot justly be charged here [more than any where else in his book]
with teaching, that holiness is not necessary to salvation, unless one
will, in the first place, say that though the way itself to eternal
happiness is necessary to salvation, yet the walking in the way is not
necessary to it; which would be Antinomian with a witness.