A SERMON CONCERNING The Wisdom of Fearing GOD; Preached at SALISBURY, ON SUNDAY, July XXX. 1693.  
BEING The Time of the Assizes.  
By E. YOUNG, Fellow of Winchester-College, and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties.  
Published at the Request of the Lawyers.  
LONDON, Printed by T. W. for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1693.   

TO THE Worthily Honoured THE SERGEANTS, And other Council of the WESTERN CIRCUIT.  
SIRS,  
WHEN I received Notice of your Desire, That this Sermon should be published, under the Style of being published at the Request of the Lawyers (as is prefixed in the Title Page) I looked upon it as a Desire intended to express not so much your Approbation of the Preacher, as your Zeal for the Subject, and the stipulation of your Assistance to promote the Fear of God, and a declaration of yourselves to be Professors of the Religious, as well as you are of the Civil Wisdom: This being a Design suitable to the Honour of your Profession, and to your known Personal Abilities; which as they give you greater Power to serve the Interests of Religion, so they lay a greater Obligation upon you to do it. Wherefore in combination with your Piety, as well as obsequiousness to your Desire, I publish my Thoughts upon this Subject; not as mine, but (as they are by Espousal) Yours; to the end that Your Reputation may give them Credit, and make way for their Reception, and confer on them the Felicity of doing Good in the World. If they shall do any Good (which is a most desirable, but casual Event) I must impute it to your asserting them; for Authority may reach men's Affections, when bare Arguments cannot: And therefore I humbly recommend them to that part of your Patronage, and yourselves to the Blessing of God for a Requital: Who am, with all Respect,  
SIRS, Your very Humble Servant, E. YOUNG.   

A SERMON CONCERNING The Wisdom of Fearing GOD; PREACHED At SALISBURY, July 30. 1693.  JOB xxviii. 28. And unto man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. 
THE fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; is a Sentence we meet with in several places of Scripture, and delivered by several of the holy Writers; so that it seems to have been in proverbial use amongst the Ancients; and it is a probable Conjecture, that they derived this Proverb by Tradition from GOD himself, and that Adam was the Man in the Text, to whom it was first spoken: For when Adam had eaten the forbidden Fruit, which he was induced to do from the hopes of being made wise by it, it was then (as some have thought) that God thus admonished him, The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; this Admonition properly serving to set before him the grossness of his Mistake, when he thought that any thing which made him sin, could possibly make him wise.  
If this were spoken to our First Parent, we cannot doubt, but that the Truth of it entered into his Soul with a full conviction: The shame and terror which he felt within himself; for having departed from the fear of God in one instance, throughly convinced him, that there was nothing so wise, as to fear him always.  
And there are certain Seasons, wherein every Son of Adam, even the most loose and careless, does readily deliver himself up to the same Conviction: Scarce any one in the World, when lying under the sense of Gild, or the fear of Punishment, or the destitution of Worldly Comforts, or the apprehension of Approaching Death, but will soon acknowledge, That the fear of God is the true Wisdom, and that all other Attainments are but Folly, in comparison of it. What therefore all men at some time or other confess for a Truth, and most men with a Regret, that they have no more considered it, That it is the prudent man's part to consider at all times, and to set it before him for a governing Principle of his Life.  
We may observe by the way. That if the Fear of God be Wisdom, it is a happy step and advantage towards the Duty, that Nature has planted in us a common Ambition to be wise. To be wise, is the thing we long for above all other; as (on the contrary) to be accounted Fools is the most hated of all Reproaches: And this is an Appetite as univerfal as Hunger itself: So that the difference betwixt Wisemen and Fools lies not so much in the difference of their Affections towards Wisdom, but only in the Controversy about what Wisdom is, and wherein it consists. Which Controversy my Text comes in to determine, and I shall deliver the full sense of it in these two Propositions.  

I. That the fear of the Lord is wisdom; and,  
II. That it is the Only Wisdom; for so much the emphasis of the Relative imports,— The fear of the Lord that is wisdom: As much as to say, There is no Wisdom without it.   
I. I begin with the first,— The fear of the Lord is wisdom.  
To fear God (if we will state the nature of it) consists in the having such a due sense of the Majesty, and Holiness, and Justice, and Goodness of God, as shall make us throughly fearful to offend him; for each of these Attributes of God are proper to raise a suitable Fear in every considering Mind: His Majesty, a Fear lest we affront it by being irreverent; his Holiness, a Fear lest we offend it by being carnal; his Justice, a Fear lest we provoke it by being presumptuous; and his Goodness, a Fear lest we lose it by being unthankful. But through all, the ceasing to offend God is necessary, for otherwise we cannot be said to fear Him: And therefore in the Holy Scripture we have the Fear of God defined by departing from evil; as if its very Essence consisted in this necessary Effect. So Solomon tells us, The fear of God is to depart from evil: And the same definition is employed in the Text, where the fear of the Lord, and to depart from evil, are used only as two different expressions to signify the same thing.  
And from this Observation it follows, that Wicked Men can never be said to fear God, tho' they do certainly fear his Punishment; but where the Punishment only is feared, there the Person is properly hated. I confess, that to hate God carries a Horror in the very sound of it, and implies a Gild of such a die, as few Sinners will own to have been in their Intention. But when we consider that a Man cannot continue in deliberate Sin, but that in the mean time his Heart must needs give him to wish, that there were no God to punish him; and that such a Wish is Formal Hatred: all we can conclude upon it is this, That our Sins are seldom stinted by our own Intention, but when we give Gild leave to go so far, it will go farther without our leave; and so those ill habits will insensibly lead us on to pure Enmity with God, in which, at first, we intended no more than the bare pleasing of our Passions. But the Fear of God is a sure Guard against all these Mischiefs; for, when once this Fear has made us take care not to offend God, our Souls will naturally tend to love him, from the prospect of those gracious Promises, wherein such as fear him are secure of a growing Interest.  
Now, the Wisdom of fearing God will be manifested, 1 sty, by considering the Reasonableness, and, 2dly, the Advantages of it.  
1st, I shall consider the Reasonableness of the Duty. God Almighty gave us the passion of Fear on purpose to make us wise; and its subserviency to Wisdom is visible in the whole course of Human Affairs: For, set aside Fear, and there is no Providence in management, no Weight in Counsel, no Prudence in Election, no Discretion in Acting; all runs to Rashness and Folly, and ends in exposing us to all manner of Evils. As therefore in a Town alarmed by an Enemy, a Sentinel is set to watch their Approaches, and to prevent the danger of a surprise; so, in regard of those many Evils and Dangers to which we are obnoxious in this Life, God has set Fear in our Soul for a Sentinel, to watch when and which way they come, and to give us Caution that we may avoid them. But the same God that has given us Fear for a Caution against Evils in general, has, in the mean time, given us notice, That His Displeasure is the greatest of all Evils: and therefore as we account it a point of Wisdom to be watchful against other Evils, so it is necessarily the chiefest point of Wisdom to be watchful against this.  
The Fear of God is of so great importance to us, that God seems to have intended a gracious intimation of it in every motion of our Natural Fears. Our Natural Fears (we know) are either sudden or deliberate; the sudden are such as come upon us surprisingly, and without deliberation, and of these we may observe, that they are very often immoderate, boundless, and ungovernable; and as they prevent our deliberation in their coming, so they often baffle it being come, and are not to be controlled by any power of Reasoning. How wonderfully will a man sometimes be affected at the hearing of a sudden noise in the Night? his Blood runs back, his Spirits sink, his Soul melts within him, and a Horror passes through every part of his Body. Now, such a Fear as this seems absolutely unreasonable, a Wise and Good Man would not fear any Accident of Life, no, nor Death itself, at such a rate; and yet a Wise and Good Man cannot sometimes hinder such a Fear from rising upon a mere Bugbear occasion. Now, how unreasonable soever this Fear seems to be, it carries a most reasonable Admonition along with it. And as the Sentinel, when set, has a Word given him, whereby to distinguish his proper Officer; so GOD, when he set this Fear in us, seems to have given it his own Word, a Word which it whispers to us upon each of its surprising motions, (viz.) Thus it is that a man ought to fear God; Thus it is that a Man ought to fear God, because even as a man feareth, so is his displeasure: Even as a Man feareth, when he feareth most boundlessly, most extravagantly, so is his displeasure; his Displeasure bears proportion to such a Fear as this, tho' nothing in Nature does so besides it. Thus God has made nothing in vain, no, not our vainest Fears, from whom, if we will give ourselves leisure to reflect, we may learn so important a Lesson.  
Our deliberate and just Fears are as just to the same intimation; and each of their motions point out God to the first glance of our Reasoning: For, if it be reasonable to fear Want, how much more reasonable is it to fear Him, whose Bounty is the Fountain of all our Supplies? If it be reasonable to fear Disappointments, how much more to fear Him, whose Providence disposes the issue of all we project? If it be reasonable to fear Disgrace, how much more to fear Him, whose estimation imports more towards it than that of all the World beside? If it be reasonable to fear Pain, and other Inconveniences of Life, how much more to fear Him, whose Pleasure determines both all our Ease, and all our Sufferings? In a word, if it be reasonable to fear them that can kill the body, how much more him, who after he hath killed, can cast into hell? This then is the Moral, and this is the Lesson of all our Fears, Fear God: And if it be not Wisdom to do so, it is equally no Folly to kick against the Pricks, to embrace a Scorpion, to run under a falling Tower, into the mouth of a Lion, into the bottomless Pit.  
Thus much for the Reasonableness of the Duty; let us, 2dly, consider its Advantages.  
And to give my Thoughts a Track in this wide Field, I shall confine them to this Particular, viz. That the Fear of God is the cure of all other Fears; and when I have said this, I have employed a mighty Advantage, because Fear (when loose from God) is undoubtedly both the greatest Burden and the greatest Snare that Human Life is acquainted with. I call Fear the greatest Burden of Life, because of its natural torturing power; and I call it the greatest Snare of Life, because of its moral corrupting power. Let us reflect a little upon them both.  
1. Fear carries with it such a torturing power, that could we but estimate the Conditions of all men together, we should find that the World is at all times more miserable from what it fears, than from what it feels. Nay, Fear is such a Tyrant, that let us feel never so much, it will still heap on weight, and make that which may be worse than that which is. As the Author of the Book of Wisdom tells us concerning the Egyptians, That when they lay under their grievous Plague of Darkness, yet their Fear was more grievous than the Darkness.  
But, 2. Beside this torturing power, Fear has in it a corrupting and debauching power, whereby its moral Mischiefs come to be excessive; for, Fear is the main Rock upon which most men split their Faith, their Honour, their Integrity; all are sacrificed to some sort of cowardly compliances, and Men become vicious perhaps less from the love of being so, than from want of Courage to be otherwise. And this is a sufficient Reason why, Rev. 21. 8. the Fearful are set first in the List of those that go to Perdition.  
So that tho' Fear was given us on purpose to make us wise, yet it never effects that purpose, till such time as it is fixed upon God, and receives Virtue from that supreme Object, to govern its motions, in reference to all the rest; for the fear of God, like a wise Monarch set up in a disturbed State, composes all the Tumults of vulgar Fears, and keeping them subordinate to itself, renders them both harmless and useful to their proper Ends.  
'Tis a sad mistaken Project (tho' yet it be a common one) to cast off the Fear of God in order to be free; for, in so doing, Men only pass from one Fear which is without Torment, to a multitude that are without Relief: As Cain, when he had departed from the Presence of God, became terrified with the presence of every thing he met. And tho' all men in Cain's case are not so fearful as Cain was, yet they make the mischief equal by being more stupid than he.  
How galling must the Fears about the things of this Life needs be to one who carries no eye to the Blessings of a future? They make the World look like a Shaft thrust into a man's Body, which grieves and tortures while it stays in, and when it is drawn out, draws away Life along with it: But he that fears God has a Preservative against the fear of all Worldly Evils; for he fears them not before they come, because he is secure of the Good Providence of God on his side, and when they come, he has wherewithal to break their blow, because he has assurance of Recompense at least, if not of Relief.  
But especially, how amazing must the fear of Death be to him that fears not God? Death! that, like a dark passage to a comfortless Prison, puts an end to all he would have, and a beginning to all he would not. I confess indeed, that Sin, even while it is drawing on such formidable Consequences as these, has likewise Arts to fence off their Affrightment: For, as there is sometimes an Excess of Fear, that betrays all the Succours of Reason, so there is sometimes on the other hand such a Hardiness, and want of Fear, as stifles all the Actings of Reason: And hence it comes to pass, that some Men, who are altogether careless how they live, do yet seem as indifferent about the Concern of dying. The Scripture gives us the Emblem of such hardy Spirits, in a Horse rushing to the Battle, and an Ox going to the slaughter; Creatures that are not frighted with Consequences, because they are not capable of thinking: Which may likewise serve for an intimation to us, That when a man fears not God, and at the same time fears not Death, it is not Courage in him, but Brutality; for, it is impossible there should be any Guard against the Fear of Dying, to those who are reasonable, and aware of the Issues of Dying, but only the Fear of God, which secures against all other Fears: And as to this in particular, it makes Death resemble a Viper, when its Poison is whipped out; its very form indeed brings some Horror to our Nature, but Reason tells us in the mean time, That it is so far from doing harm, that it is altogether medicinal and restorative.  
By the way, it is remarkable, how this Passion of Fear will not suffer itself to be slighted by any of the Children of Pride, and therefore it takes a mocking Revenge upon those that seem to slight it most: for we may observe, concerning such as fear not GOD, and pretend likewise not to fear Death, that yet they extremely fear the vain Breath of the vainest Men, which they falsely set up to be the Standard of Honour: This Breath (as despisable as it is) they fear as much as any others can fear Death, and will run themselves into greater Mischiefs to escape it. Whereas, in truth, nothing is honourable neither, but only the Fear of God, and such Offices as are consequential to it, if God himself may pass for the Standard, who says, Them that honour me I will honour. And therefore whatsoever is acted contrary to this Principle, and whatsoever Men dare, contrary to the Rules of Piety, it can be no other than dishonourable and weak.  
As for the debauching power of Fear, it is deplorable what Multitudes it brings under captivity to Sin. The Fear of being laughed at, of being reproached, of being frowned upon; the Fear of Contempt, of Hardships, of Poverty, of Shame, of Death, are each of them Cords that draw Men daily from their Integrity; and tho' they are all of different strengths, yet by means of opportunity they all equally serve the Ends of the Tempter; insomuch, that as many are debauched by the Fear of being laughed at, as by the Fear of being undone.  
But the Fear of God is Armour of Proof against all these Temptations; it fortifies the Mind, and works it to firmness, such a firmness as was glorious in the three Israelites in Babylon, who when the Question was put, Whether they would worship the Image, or be cast into the Furnace, they replied with all composedness, Oh Nabuchadnezzar, we are not solicitous to answer thee about this matter: As much as to say, The Question which thou, O King, takest to be so puzzling to us, by reason of its Terror, is not worthy the shortest of our Deliberations; we can resolve in an instant what to do in this case, because we were resolved long ago to suffer any thing rather than God's Displeasure.  
I have thus far shown the Reasonableness and the present Advantages of the Fear of God, in order to evidence the Wisdom of it; but I must carry the Argument a little farther. For, altho' almen did not only desire to be wise (as certainly they do) but would allow us this Point too, That the fear of God is wisdom; yet this would not convince them, that they must necessarily fear God, in order to be wise, unless it appear likewise that they cannot be wise any other way: For, as when there are several Meats of several tastes, one Man's choosing what he likes best does not tax the Discretion of a second for choosing of another kind; so, supposing there are several kinds of Wisdom, ungodly men may acquit their Pretences to Wisdom, by choosing to be wise after their own Palate, and in their own way. I shall show therefore in the next place, That no such Choice is to be had; but that the Fear of God is so essential to Wisdom, that there is no Wisdom without it.  
It is the design of holy Job, in the Chapter of my Text, to put us in mind, that there is a mighty Difference betwixt to know and to be wise: He tells us, That Man findeth out the veins of silver, and the ore of gold, and the beds of sapphires: That He cutteth out rivers among the rocks, and his eye seeth every precious thing: That He bindeth the floods from overflowing, and the thing that is hid he bringeth forth to light. But amidst all this, Where (says he) shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it to be found in the land of the living. In which Passage the Holy Man intimates, that Wisdom is the pure Gift of God, and that it cannot be found by the most curious Inquiries into Nature: And we may add, That neither can it be found by the most curious Inquiries into Truth itself, whether Moral or Divine, till such time as Grace accompanies the Enquiry: For, a Man may know all the Offices and Bounds of Virtue, and all the Precepts and Ends of Religion, and yet not be wise, because Wisdom is not the Speculation of these things, but the Love and Practice of them. Wisdom is not only Light, but Strength, to the Understanding, whereby it is enabled to govern the Passions, and make the Life regular; whereas a bare Knowledge leaves the Understanding as weak in Government, and the Life as irregular as before; and (indeed) serves to nothing so much as the more inexcusable conviction of our Folly.  
In ancient Rome, when the Empire was come to its height, and Learning and Arts were grown into reputation among them, it was the Fashion for such as aimed at the Credit of being Accomplished Gentlemen, to frequent Conferences, and entertain the Company with Discourses of Philosophy, and all other Specimens of Study and Wit: In consequence to this it happened, that others, who had neither Parts nor Industry to accomplish themselves on this manner, and yet were ambitious to have a share in every thing that made Men look Great; made it their Practice to buy some Learned Slaves out of Greece, and to carry those about with them into Company, and there whatsoever Wit or Learning the Slaves could produce, that their Masters looked upon as their own, and took the Glory of it unto themselves. How ridiculous soever the affectation of this Practice may seem, it is but too just an Emblem of the Generality of Mankind, priding themselves in the attainment of mistaken Wisdom: For, while we please ourselves with the knowledge of Arts, and Laws, and Policies, and Business, nay, of Virtue and Religion too, yet in the mean time our Understanding, the Faculty where this Treasure of Knowledge lies, is very often no other than a Slave, held in servitude to our Lusts and Passions: These rule and command, like the Roman Gallant, and that only serves, like the poor Greek, to furnish Matter for our Vanity; insomuch, that we are not really the wiser for all the Wisdom we carry about us. And thus it must be; nor can it ever be otherwise, till such time as the Fear of God presides over what we know, and directs it to the Purposes of a Holy Life.  
As for the Opinion of the World in this present matter, which conferrs the Character of Wisdom upon several human Endowments, however found separate from the Fear of God; well may it pass for a Courtesy, but its passing for a Due we have this Consideration to hinder, (viz.) That not any of those Endowments, no, nor all of them together, can prevent a Man from being a Fool.  
And this is a Truth I shall choose to prove by Example, Example being a good Remembrancer, and this being a matter which we are not so like to doubt of, as to forget.  
I shall begin with the Example of the Rich Man, mentioned St. Luke 12. who according to the vulgar Standard, must certainly pass for a Wise Man; for, he understood Business, and Improvements, and Managery, as we may guests by the increasing of his Estate, and the enlarging of his Barns. And another piece of reputed Wisdom he was Master of too, that is, he resolved to enjoy what he had: And yet how emphatically is this man called Fool, in his peremptory Summons from God? Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and than whose shall those things be that thou hast provided?  
The next I shall mention is Achitophel, a man of such sagacity and insight into Affairs, that (as the Sacred Story tells us) his Counsel upon all occasions was, As if a man had enquired at the oracle of God; and yet this Great Man, for all his mighty Talon of Wisdom, had so little as to make a violent end of himself upon a small Affront, and so at one Act to cut himself off both from all the Enjoyments of this Life, and all the Hopes of a Future: Too great a Proof of being a Fool!  
I shall end with the Example of Solomon, whose Character for Universal Wisdom is this; That there never was the like before him, nor ever shall be after him; and yet so soon as he turned his Back upon the Fear of God, see whither he sunk; His heart clavae unto strange women; he had seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines: and forasmuch as most of them were Idolaters, he complied with them all, in worshipping their several Idols. And now say how the weakest man in the World could have showed himself a greater Fool than Solomon did in these Extravagances. Well might he take it for his Motto, as he does in the Book of Ecclesiastes (which he is supposed to have written after his Recovery out of this Infatuation) All is vanity,— but the fear of God.  
And tho' perhaps few of those that fear not God have Appetites to carry them to the Extravagances of Solomon, and fewer to the Desperateness of Achitophel: yet none of them can escape the Folly of the first Instance; that is, to have their Soul stripped of all its Enjoyments together, without the provision of any to succeed.  
And therefore we may conclude, That whatever commendable things Human Wisdom may do by the buy, yet it certainly fails of its main pretence; that is, of making a Man wise: For, it is not some Actions, done with the semblance of Discretion, in matters of smaller moment, but the Discretion a man shows in actions of chief concern, that must give him his Character. And what then must be the Character of those that always want Discretion in the main?  
And now I shall leave the whole matter upon your Thoughts, under the illustration of this sensible Image, (viz.) Human Wisdom, (in the prospect of its whole management) looks like a man showing great Skill in the choice of curious Paintings and Hangings, and other Rarities, wherewith to furnish his House, when all the while an Enemy is burning the Town: For, thus it is that Human Wisdom provides noble Furniture for the Soul, but never reflects that the Soul itself lies perishing at the same instant. Knowledge, and Art, and Reasoning, and Experience, and Dexterity, are excellent Furniture, and these Human Wisdom brings in. But, in the mean time, what need of all this Sail to run against a Rock? What needs the Pomp of all these excellent Qualities to be undone, when a Man may be undone less reproachfully without them? For, it is certain that all these Qualities do not in the least prevent a Man's being undone; 'tis only the Fear of God that can do that; and therefore we may most confidently determine, That the Fear of God is the only Wisdom.  
This is Wisdom, not in Semblance, but in Deed; not Parcel-Wisdom, but Wisdom entire; not Wisdom for the Buy, but Wisdom for the Main; not Wisdom for a Day, but Wisdom for Ever.  
To God, that is the Only Giver of this Wisdom, and of every Perfect Gift, be all Glory, etc.  
AMEN.   

Sermons written by the same Author, and sold by Walter Kettilby.  
A Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, Feb. 4. 1682. on St. Mat. V. 3.  
A Sermon, exhorting to Union in Religion, preached at Bow-Church, May. 20. 1688. on St. John XVI. 31, 32.  
A Sermon preached before the Queen on Easter-day, on 1 Thess. IV. 18.