Page:Devotions - Donne - 1840.djvu/147

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thy fear; for the fear of the Lord is his treasure[1]. 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 failth[2]? 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[3]. Such thou sendest farther than so; thither from whence they never return: The fearful, and the unbeliering, wto that burning lake which is a second death[4]. There is a fear, and there is a hope, which are equal abominations to thee; for they were confounded, because they hoped[5], 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. Bat in thy fear, my God, and my fear, my God, and my hope, is hope, and love, and confidence, and peace, and every limb and ingredient of happiness enwrapped; for joy includes all, and fear and joy consist together, nay, constitute one another. 7he women departed from the sepulchre[6], the women who were made supernumerary apostles, apostles to the apostles; mothers of the church, and of the fathers, grandfathers of the church, the apostles themselves; the women, angels of the resurrection, went from the sepulchre with fear and joy; they ran, says the text, and they ran upon those two legs, fear and joy; and both was the right leg: they joy in thee, O Lord, that fear thee, and fear thee only, who feel this joy in thee. Nay, thy fear and thy love are inseparable, still we are called upon, in infinite places, to fear God; yet the commandment, which is the root of all, is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; he doeth neither that doeth not both; he omits neither, that does one. Therefore

  1. Isaiah, xxxiii. 6.
  2. Matt. viii. 26.
  3. Judges, vii. 3.
  4. Rev. xxi. 8.
  5. Job, vi. 20.
  6. Matt. xxviii. 8.