by William Bates
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
And unto man he said, behold the fear of the Lord, that it wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. - Job 28:28.
IF you look back to the twelfth verse, you shall find an inquiry made after wisdom; and in the following verses, there is a description of the wisdom of God's providence, whereby he doth marshal and rank the innumerable sorts of creatures that are in the world. This wisdom of providence directs us to the wisdom of the law: this world being the school of rational spirits, every part of it, every creature, reads unto us a lecture of divinity. But the question is, what is that voice, that is conveyed to us by all these things; the answer is, "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." If you look into this great volume, the book of the creatures, which is written within and without, written within with invisible essences, the angels, &c. written without with corporeal substances, all the visible objects of nature; and if you would know what is God's design in all these, it is this, that man should learn to fear him, that being the chiefest wisdom, and to depart from, evil, that being the most eminent understanding. This is the connexion of the words. In that part, which at the present, I intend to prosecute and treat of, you may observe first the subject, The fear of the Lord. Secondly, The predicate, that is wisdom.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
I. The nature of the fear of God
II. The objects of the fear of God
III. The difference between servile and filial fear
IV. The effects of filial fear
V. The consistency between the fear of God and other graces
VI. How threatenings and judgments should operate upon the fears of a christian
VII. An exhortation to the fear of God
VIII. What heavenly wisdom is
IX. How the fear of God is wisdom
X. On the false wisdoms of this world
XI. The folly of worldly wise men in their pursuits
XII. Human knowledge insufficient to make a man wise
XIII. Mere speculation of divine truths also insufficient
XIV. Warning against hardness of heart, and presumption, which quench the fear of God
XV. On the evil of slavish fear
XVI. On the evil of superstitious fear