Quest. How does that appear?
Answ. 1. By the groundlessness of such fears. 2. By the unseasonableness of them. 3. By the effects of them.
1. By the groundlessness of such fears. The ground is removed, for a grounded fear of damnation is this—I am yet in my sins, in a state of nature, under the law, without faith, and so under the wrath of God. This, I say, is the ground of the fear of damnation, the true ground to fear it, but now the man that we are talking of is one that hath the ground of this fear taken away by the testimony and seal of the spirit of adoption. He is called, justified, and has, for the truth of his condition, received the evidence of the spirit of adoption and has been thereby enabled to call God "Father, Father." Now he that hath received this has the ground of the fear of damnation taken from him; therefore his fear, I say, being without ground, is false, and so no work of the Spirit of God.
2. By the unseasonableness of them. This spirit always comes too late. It comes after the spirit of adoption is come. Satan is always for being too soon or too late. If he would have men believe they are children, he would have them believe it while they are slaves, slaves to him and their lusts. If he would have them believe they are slaves, it is when they are sons and have received the spirit of adoption and the testimony, by that, of their sonship before. And this evil is rooted even in his nature—"He is a liar, and the father of it"; and his lies are not known to saints more than in this, that he labors always to contradict the work and order of the Spirit of truth (John 8).
3. It also appears to be the effects of such fears. For there is a great deal of difference between the natural effects of these fears, which are wrought indeed by the spirit of bondage, and those which are wrought by the spirit of the devil afterward. The one, to wit, the fears that are wrought by the spirit of bondage, causeth us to confess the truth, to wit, that we are Christless, graceless, faithless, and so at present; that is, while he is so working in a sinful and damnable case; but the other, to wit, the spirit of the devil, when he comes, which is after the spirit of adoption comes, he causeth us to make a lie; that is, to say we are Christless, graceless, and faithless. Now this, I say, is wholly, and in all part, a lie, and HE is the father of it.
Besides, the direct tendency of the fear that the Spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage, worketh in the soul, is to cause us to come repenting home to God by Jesus Christ, but these latter fears tend directly to make a man, he having first denied the work of God, as he will, if he falleth in with them, to run quite away from God, and from his grace to him in Christ, as will evidently appear if thou givest but a plain and honest answer to these questions following.
[This fear drives a man from God.]
Quest. 1. Do not these fears make thee question whether there was ever a work of grace wrought in thy soul? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 2. Do not these fears make thee question whether ever thy first fears were wrought by the Holy Spirit of God? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 3. Do not these fears make you question whether ever thou hast had any true comfort from the Word and Spirit of God? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 4. Dost thou not find intermixed with these fears plain assertions that thy first comforts were either from thy fancy or from the devil and a fruit of his delusions? Answ. Yes, verily, that I do. Quest. 5. Do not these fears weaken thy heart in prayer? Answ. Yes, that they do. Quest. 6. Do not these fears keep you from laying hold of the promise of salvation by Jesus Christ? Answ. Yes, for I think if I were deceived before if I were comforted by a spirit of delusion before, why may it not be so again? So, I am afraid to take hold of the promise. Quest. 7. Do not these fears tend to the hardening of thy heart and making thee desperate? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 8. Do not these fears hinder you from profiting from hearing or reading the Word? Answ. Yes, verily, for whatever I hear or read, I think nothing good belongs to me. Quest. 9. Do not these fears tend to the stirring up of blasphemies in thy heart against God? Answ. Yes, to the almost distracting of me. Quest. 10. Do not these fears make thee sometimes think that it is in vain for thee to wait upon the Lord any longer? Answ. Yes, verily, and I have almost concluded that I will no longer read, pray, hear, be in company with God's people, or the like.
Well, poor Christian, I am glad that thou hast so plainly answered me, but, prithee, look back upon thy answer. How much of God dost thou think is in these things? How much of His Spirit and the grace of His Word? Just none at all, for it cannot be that these things can be the true and natural effects of the workings of the Spirit of God: no, not as a spirit of bondage. These are not his doings. Dost thou not see the very paw of the devil in them; yea, in every one of thy ten confessions? Is there not palpably high wickedness in every one of the effects of this fear? I conclude, then, as I began, that the fear that the spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage, worketh, is good and godly, not only because of the author, but also because of the ground and effects; but yet it can last no longer as such, as producing the conclusion mentioned above, than till the Spirit, as the spirit of adoption, comes; because that then the soul is manifestly taken out of the state and condition into which it had brought itself by nature and sin, and is put into Christ, and so by him into a state of life and blessedness by grace. Therefore, if first fears come again into thy soul, after that the spirit of adoption hath been with thee, know they come not from the Spirit of God, but apparently from the spirit of the devil, for they are a lie in themselves, and their effects are sinful and devilish.
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