fear that it may be worse? _Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil?_[77] says thy servant David. Though his own sin had made them evil, he feared them not. No? not if this evil determine in death? Not though in a death; not though in a death inflicted by violence, by malice, by our own desert; _fear not the sentence of death_,[78] if thou fear God. Thou art, O my God, so far from admitting us that fear thee to fear others, as that thou makest others to fear us; as _Herod feared John, because he was a holy and a just man, and observed him_.[79] How fully then, O my abundant God, how gently, O my sweet, my easy God, dost thou unentangle me in any scruple arising out of the consideration of thy fear! Is not this that which thou intendest when thou sayest, _The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him_;[80] the secret, the mystery of the right use of fear. Dost thou not mean this when thou sayest, _we shall understand the fear of the Lord_?[81] Have it, and have benefit by it; have it, and stand under it; be directed by it, and not be dejected with it. And dost thou not propose that church for our example when thou sayest, the church of Judea _walked in the fear of God_;[82] they had it, but did not sit down lazily, nor fall down weakly, nor sink under it. There is a fear which weakens men in the service of God. _Adam was afraid, because he was naked._[83] They who have put off thee are a prey to all. They may fear, for _Thou wilt laugh when their fear comes upon them_, as thou hast told them more than once.[84] And thou wilt make them fear where no cause of fear is, as thou hast told them more than once too.[85] There is a fear that is a punishment of former wickednesses, and induces more. Though some said of thy Son, Christ Jesus, _that he was a good man, yet no man spake openly for fear of the Jews_. Joseph was his disciple, _but secretly, for fear of the Jews_.[86] The disciples kept some meetings, but with doors shut for fear of the Jews. O my God, thou givest us fear for ballast to carry us steadily in all weathers. But thou wouldst ballast us with such sand as should have gold in it, with that fear which is thy fear; for _the fear of the Lord is his treasure_.[87] He that hath that lacks nothing that man can have, nothing that God does give. Timorous men thou rebukest: _Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?_[88] Such thou dismissest from thy service with scorn, though of them there went from Gideon's army twenty-two thousand, and remained but ten thousand.[89] Such thou sendest farther than so; thither from whence they never return: _The fearful and the unbelieving, into that burning lake which is the second death_.[90] There is a fear and there is a hope, which are equal abominations to thee; for, they were confounded because they hoped,[91] says thy servant Job; because they had misplaced, miscentred their hopes, they hoped, and not in thee, and such shall fear, and not fear thee.