And there are three things that, eminently, make his presence dreadful to us.
1. The first is God's own greatness and majesty; the discovery of this, or of himself thus, even as no poor mortals can conceive of him, is altogether unsupportable. The man dies, to whom he therefore discovers himself. "And when I saw him," says John, "I fell at his feet as dead" (Rev 1:17). It was this, therefore, that Job would have avoided in the day that he would have approached unto him. "Let not thy dread," says he, "make me afraid. Then call thou, and I will answer; or let me speak, and answer thou me" (Job 13:21,22). But why doth Job thus speak to God after this manner? Why! It was from a sense that he had of the dreadful majesty of God, even the great and terrible God that keeps covenant with his people. The presence of a king is terrifying to the subject, yea, though he carries it never so condescendingly; if then there be so much glory and dread in the presence of the king, what fear and dread must there be, think you, in the presence of the eternal God?
2. When God gives his presence to his people, his presence causes them to appear to themselves more what they are than at other times, by all other light they can see. "O my lord," said Daniel, "by the vision, my sorrows are turned upon me." why was that but because by the glory of that vision, he saw his own vileness more than at other times. So again: "I was left alone," says he, "and saw this great vision," and what follows? Why, "and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Dan 10:8,16). By the presence of God, when we have it indeed, even our best things, our comeliness, our sanctity, and righteousness, all do immediately turn to corruption and polluted rags. The brightness of his glory dims them as the clear light of the shining sun puts out the glory of the fire or candle and covers them with the shadow of death. See also the truth of this in that vision of the prophet Isaiah. "Wo is me," said he, "for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amid a people of unclean lips." Why, what is the matter? How came the prophet by this sight? Why, says he, "mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isa 6:5). But do you think this outcry was caused by unbelief? No, nor yet begotten by slavish fear. This was to him the vision of his Saviour, with whom also he had communion before (vv 2-5). It was the glory of that God with whom he had now to do that turned, as was noted before of Daniel, his comeliness in him into corruption, and that gave him a yet greater sense of the disproportion that was betwixt his God and him, and so a greater sight of his defiled and polluted nature.
3. Add to this the revelation of God's goodness, and it must needs to make his presence dreadful to us; for when a poor defiled creature shall see that this great God hath, notwithstanding his greatness, goodness in his heart, and mercy to bestow upon him: this makes his presence yet the more dreadful. They "shall fear the Lord and his goodness" (Hosea 3:5). The goodness and the greatness of God doth beget in the heart of his elect an awful reverence of his majesty. "Fear ye, not me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence?" And then, to engage us in our soul to the duty, he adds one of his wonderful mercies to the world for a motive, "Fear ye not me?" Why, who are thou? He answers, Even I, "which have" set, or "placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?" (Jer 5:22). Also, when Job had God present with him, manifesting the goodness of his great heart to him, what doth he say? How doth he behave himself in his presence? "I have heard of thee," says he, "by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5,6). And what means the trembling, the tears, those breakings and shakings of heart that attend the people of God, when eminently they receive the pronunciation of the forgiveness of sins at his mouth, but that the dread of the majesty of God is in their sight mixed in addition to that? God must appear like himself and speak to the soul like himself; nor can the sinner, under these glorious discoveries of his Lord and Saviour, keep out the beams of his majesty from the eyes of his understanding. "I will cleanse them," saith he, "from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me." And what then? "And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it" (Jer 33:8,9). Alas! There is a company of poor, light, frothy professors in the world that carry it under that which they call the presence of God, more like to antics than sober, sensible Christians; yea, more like to a fool of a play than those that have the presence of God. They would not carry it so in the presence of a king, nor yet of the lord of their land, were they but receivers of mercy at his hand. They carry it even in their most eminent seasons, as if the sense and sight of God, and his blessed grace to their souls in Christ, had a tendency in them to make men wanton: but indeed, it is the most humbling and heart-breaking sight in the world; it is fearful.
