r ' !?.78 On the Natiyity. ' ufeful, yet the fear of our own n1ifery is nbt to be condetnned: it is ufeful, not on– ly to \7vicked perfons, 'whon1 tho{1gh it dorh not n1ake good, yet it keeps then1 fron1 be-_ ing worfe; but alfo ·to holy perfons, \vhon1 the fear of hell bath ri1any tin1es helped ·forward to" heaven. Our Saviour himfdf advifi:th us to fear hint who can cafl hody and foul into hell-fire. And, that we may not forget it, he drives it home with an in- . gemination, Yea, I Jay unto you, Fear him; where \Ve are to obferve, that qui imports as n1uch as quia: the- defcription of the perfon carrieth the reafon for which v~'e ought to fear him. It were indeed to be wifhed that our fouls wece knit unto God by the n1ore noble and generous paffion of love, and that \Ve needed neither rewards to draw us to our duty, nor punifhn1ents · r to chafe us to our happinefs; and that we loyed goodnefs as Cato was faid to do virtue, becaufe he could not do otherwife. But this is, with the hifl:orian, votum accomoda– ;.e, non hifloriam; to prefent a wifh, rather than .a charaCter of an ordinary chriftian ; or, as Xenophon did with Gyrus, to de!Cribc rather what he fhould be, t~an what he is. P erjefl love, as St. John tells us, cajleth out a!I fiar.· bt~t while our love is in1perfccr,
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