Wherein the kinds, and nature, of fear are opened,
A Practical Treatise of Fear. midstofarmedtroops,and regiments, whilst he knows that the general of that army is his own father ? The more power this filial fear ofGodobtains in our hearts, the less will you dreadthe powerofthecreature. When the Dictator ruled at Rome, then all other officers ceased ; and so, in a great measure, will all other fears, where the fear of God is dictator in the heart.
This is the remedy.
3.And to enable us to apply this remedy in the worst, and most difficult times, we have a fingularencouragementproposed : ifwewillthus sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, by such an acknowledgment of, and child-likedependance on him in times of danger, then he will be to us for afanctuary, Afyli loco, (i. e.) he will surely protect, defend, and provide for us in the worst times,and cases *; then will the Lord " createuponeverydwel- " ling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud,
" and smokebyday, and the shining of a flaming firebynight :
" for upon all the glory shall be adefence, and there shall be " a tabernacle for a shadow in the day-time, from the heat,
"and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from the storm and " from rain."
Let the winds roar, the rain beat, the lightnings flash, you are in safety, and have a good roof over your heads. Hence these two pointsofdoctrine offer themselves :
Doct. 1. That the best men are too apt to be overcome with slavishfears, in times of imminent distress, and danger.
Doct. 2.That the fear of God is the most effectual means to extinguish thefinfulfear of men, and tofecureusfromdanger.
These two points take in the substance,and scope of the text; but because I design to treat, in the following chapters, of the kinds, nature, uses, causes, effects, and remedies of fear, I shall not distinctly prosecute them, but proceed in this order, in the following chapters.
CHAP.
II.
Wherein the kinds, and nature of fear, are opened, and particularly the distracting, flaviss fear of creatures.
Sect. I.THHERE is a threefold fear found in man, viz.
1. Natural.
2. Sinful.
3. Religious fear.
*Praeftabit vos inaccessos, et inviolabiles ab his regibus.
He will render you inaccessible, andpreserveyou frombeingvi olatedby these kings.
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1. Natural fear, of which all are partakers that partake of the common nature, not one excepted.
Natural fear is the trouble, orperturbation of mind, from the apprehension of approaching evil, or impondingdanger.
The word φόβος, comes from a † verb that signifies flight ; this is not always sinful, but it is always the fruit,and confequent of fin.
Since fin entered into our nature, there is no shaking off fear. No foonerhad Adamtransgressed, but he fearedandfled, hiding himself among the trees of the garden, Gen. iii. 8. When he had transgressedthe covenant,he presently feared the execution of the curse: first he eats, then he hides; and his afflictive passion is from him transmitted, and derived to all his children.
To this natural fear, it pleased our Lord Jesus Christ to subject himself, in the days of his flesh ; he was afraid, yea, he was fore amazed, Mark xiv. 33. for though his human nature was absolutely free from fin, yet he came in the " likness of sinful
" flesh," Rom viii. 3 .
This fear creates great trouble, andperturbationinthemind, 1 John iv. 18. Fear hath torment ; in proportion to the danger is the fear, and in proportion to the fear, the trouble, and distraction of the mind: if the fear be exceeding great, reason is displaced, and can conduct us no farther, as the pfalmist speaks of mariners in a storm, " they are at their wits end," Psal. cvii.
27. or, as it is varied in the ‡ Margin, all wisdom is swallowed up. And this is the meaning of Deut. xxviii. 25. that they should go out against their enemies one way,and " flee before " them seven ways," (i. e.) so great shall be the fright, and distraction, that they shall attempt now one way, then another, striving every way, but liking none ; for fear so far betrays the fuccours of reason, that their counsels are always in uncertainty, and at a loss, and the usual voice of a man in this condition is,
I know not what to do, I know not which way to turn.
Evil is the object of fear, and the greater the evil is, the stronger the fear must needs be, and therefore the terrors of an awakened and terified conscience must be allowed to be the greatest of terrors, because in that case am an hath to do with a great and terrible God, and is scarred with apprehenfions of his infinite and eternal wrath, than which, no evil is, or can be
+ φεβομαι fugio, perfect. med. πεφοβα, inde φοβος timor,fuga.
‡ Rector in incerto est, nec quidfugiatve petatve, invenit, Ovid.
Pavidifemperconfilia in incerto,
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greater. You fee at what height Christ's conflict wrought with it when it made him sweat as it were great clots of blood.
Of all temporal evils, death is the greatest, and therefore Job calls it the King of terrors, Job xviii. 14. or the most terrible of terribles.
Thuanus * relates two strange instances of the fear of death : " One of a certain captain, who was so terrified with " the fear of death, that he poured out a kind of bloody sweat,
" from all parts of his body.
Another is of a young man con- "demned for a small matter by + Sixtus Quintus, who was
" so vehemently terrified with the fears of death, that he shed a " kindofbloody tears."
These are strange and terrible effects of fear, but vastly short of what Christ felt and suffered, who grappled with a far greater evil than the terrors of death , even the wrath ofanincensedGodpoured out to the full, and that immediately upon him.
But yet evil, as evil, is rather the object of hatred than of fear, it must be an imminent or near approaching evil, which we fee not how to escape or put by, that provokes fear, and rouzes this lion. And therefore the saints in glory are perfectly freed from fear, because they are out of the reach of all danger: nor do we, that are here in the midst of evils, fear them till we see them approaching us, and we fee not how to avoid them. To hear of fire, plague or the sword in the Indies, doth not affright us, because the evil is so remote from us; it is far enough off, we are in no danger of it; but when it is in the tow a, much more when within our own dwellings, we tremble.
Evil hurts us not by a simple apprehension of its nature, but of its union; and all propinquity is a degree of union, as a I learned divine speaks. And it is worth observation, that all carnal security is maintained by putting evils at a greatdiftance from us; as it is noted of those secure sensualists, Amos vi. 3."They put far from them the evil day."
The meaning is not that they did, or could put the evil one minute farther from them in reality, but only by imagination and fancy; they shut their own eyes, and would not see it, left it should give anunpleasing interruption to their mirth; and this is the reason why death puts the living into no more fear,because it is appre- * Dux quid am in dig no mortis metu,adeo concuffusfuit, utfanguincumfudorem toto corporefudit. Hift. lib. 11 .
+Juvenis ob levem caufam a Six to V. damn at us, prae doloris vehementiafertur lacrymas cruentas fudiffe.
Lib. 80.
‡Dr. Reynolds.
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hended as remote, and at an undetermined distance, whereas if the precise time of death were known, especially if that time were near, it would greatly scare and terrify.
This is the nature of natural fear, the in felicity of nature, which we all groan under the effects of : it is in all the creatures in some degree, but among them all none suffer more by it than man, for hereby he becomes his own tormentor; nor is any torment greater than this when it prevails in a high degree upon us.
Indeed all constitutions and tempers admit not the fame degrees of fear; some are naturally couragious and stout, like the lion for magnanimity and fortitude; others exceeding timorous and faint-hearted, like the hare or hart, one little dog will make a hundred of them flee before him.
Luther was a man of great courage and presence of mind in dangers, * Melandthon very timorous and subject todespondency.
Thus the difference betwixt them is expressed in one of Luther's letters to him : " I am well nigh a secure spectator
" of things, and esteem not anything these fierce and threaten- " ing Papists say.
I much dislike those anxious cares, which, 66 as thou writest, do almost consume thee."
There might be as great a stock of grace in one as in the other, butMelancthon's grace had not the advantage of so stout and courageous a temper of body and mind as Luther's had. Thus briefly of natural fear.
Sect. II. There is a fear which is formally and intrinsically sinful, not only our felicity, but our fault, not our simple affliction and burden, but our great evil and provocation ; and such is the fear here dissuaded, called their fear (i. e.) the feat wherewith carnal and unbelieving men do fear, when dangers threaten them; and the finfulness of it lies in five things.
1. In the fpringand cause of it which is unbelief, and an unworthy distrust of God, whenwedare not rely upon the security ofadivinepromife, nor trust to God's protection inthewayof
: our duty.
This was the very case of that people, Ifa. xxx. 15.
" Thus faith the Lord God,the Holy One of Israel, in return- " ing and rest shallye be saved, in quietness and in confidence
" shall be your strength; an dye would not.
Butye said, no, " for we will flee upon horses; thereforeye shall flee: and we " will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you
" be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one," &c.
Thus stood the case: Sennacherib with a mighty host was ready to invade them; this puts them into a fright; in this
* Epist. ad Melanct. Ann. 1549 .
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distress God assures them, by the mouth of his prophet, that in"returning and rest they shall be saved, in quietness and " confidence should be their strength." The meaning is, never perplex yourselves with various counsels and projects to secure yourselves under the wings of Egypt or any other Protector, but with a composed, quiet, and calm temper of mind, rest upon my power by faith, take my promises for your security, this shall be your salvation and your strength, more effectual to your preservation than armies, garrisons, or any creaturedefence in the world; one act of faith shalldoyoubetter service than Pharaoh and all his forces can do.
Butye said no, q. d. we dare not trust to that, a good horse will do us more service at such a time than a good promise;
Egypt is a better security in their eye than Heaven.
This is the fruit of gross infidelity. And as wicked mendothus forfakeGod, and cleave to the creature in the time of trouble, fo there is found a spice of this distrustfulness of God, producing fear and trouble, in the best of men.
It was in the disciples themselves, Mat. viii. 26. " Why are ye fearful, O ye of little
" faith ?" A storm had befallen them at sea, and danger began to threaten them, and presently you find a storm within, their fears were more boisterous than the winds, and had more need of calming than the sea ; and it was all from their unbelief, as Christ tells them; the less their faith, the greater their fear.
If amancanbut rely upon God in a promise, so far as he is enabled to believe, so far he will reckon himself well secured.
* Illyricus, in his catalogue of the Witnesses, relates this remarkable passage of one Andreas Proles, a godly aged divine, who lived somewhat before Luther, and taught many points soundly, according to his light then; he was called to a Synod atMilan, and afterwards in the Lateran, where opposing a proposition of the Pope about burdening the church with a new holiday, he was brought into much danger, and escaping very narrowly from Rome, he bought him a bow and weapons; but as he was riding, he began to bethink himself, that the cause was not his but God's, and not to be maintained with sword and bow : and if it were, yet what could such a decripit old man do with weapons ? upon which he threw away his weapons, committed himself, his cause, and his journey to God, relied upon his promises more than fwordor bow, and came home safe, andafterwards died quietly in his bed.
B 2 * Illyrici Cat. Test. Lib. 19.
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2. The finfulness of fear lies in the excess andimmoderacyof it, when we fearmorethanwe ought; for it may be truly said of our fears, as the Philosopher speaks of waters, difficile fuis term in is continentur, it is hard to keep them within bounds; every bush is a bear, every pettytroubleputs us into a fright; our fear exceeds the value and meritofthe cause.
It is a great fin to love or fear any creature above the rate of a creature, as if they were masters of all our temporal and eternal comforts.
Thus when the men of Ifraelheardofthe confederacy and conjunction of their enemies against them, the text faith, " their
" hearts were moved, as the trees of the wood are moved with " the wind," Isa. vii. 1. or as we use to say proverbially, like an afpine leaf: It is a sad fight to beholdmen shaking and quivering as the trees do on a windy day; yetthusdidthehouseof
David, partly through the remembrance of past calamities, but especially through incredulity in God's protecting care in their present and future dangers ; yea, this is too often the fault of good men in creature-fear as well as in creature-love, to tranfgress the due bounds of moderation.
It is noted ofJacob, tho amanofmuch faith, and one that had the sweetest encouragement to strengthen it, both from former experiences, and God's gracious promises to be with him, yet when Efauwas come nigh, he was " greatly afraid and distressed," Gen. xxxii. 7. It was but a little before, that God had graciously appeared to him, and sent a royal guard of angels toattendhim, even two hosts or armies of angels, ver. 1, 2. and yet as soon as Efau approached him, he was afraid, yea greatly afraid, afraid and distressed, notwithstanding such an encouraging vision as this was .
3. The finfulness of our fears lies intheinordinacy of them; to fear it more than we ought is bad enough, but to magnify its power above the power of a creature; toexalt the power of any creature by our fears, and give it such an ascendant over us, as if it had an arbitrary and absolute dominion over us, or over our comforts, to do with them what it pleased ; this is to put the creature out of its own class and rank, into the place of God, and is therefore a very sinful and evil fear.
To trust in any creature, as if it had the power of a God to help us, or to fear any creature, as if it had the power of a God to hurt us, is exceeding sinful, and highly provoking to God: This inordinate trust is taxedand condemned, in Ilaiah xxxi. 3. They would needs go down to Egypt for help, and trust in their horses and horsemen, because they were strong; i. e. in their opinion, they were able to secure them against all
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thosedangerstheprophet from the Lord'sownmouthhadthreatenedthem with: but, to take them off from this sinful and inordinate dependence on the creature, he tells them, ver. 3.
"Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses " flesh, and not spirit: when the Lord shall stretch forth his
"hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that isholpen " shall fall down, and they shall fall together." q. d. It is a sinful and dangerous mistake for one creature, to give that trust and dependence to another creature, whichisdueonlytoGod, to look uponmen as it they were gods, and horses as if they were spirits : all creatures, even the strongest, are but as the hop, the vine, or the ivy; if they clasp about the pole, the wall or the oak, they may be supported, as you may also by leaning upon God; but if they depend and entangle themselves oneuponanother, as you and the Egyptians do, you shall fail,
( and fall all together.
And, as one creature is apt inordinately and finfully thus to trust and lean upon another, so there is as great a profaneness in the creatures inordinately to fear and dread each other, as if the creature feared were rather a god than am an, rather a spirit than flesh; and thus our fear magnifies andexalts the creature, and puts it, as it were, into the room and place of God. This was the finwhichGod rebuked in his own people, Ifa . li. 12,
13. " I, even I, am he that comforteth thee : Who art thou, " that thou shouldst be afraid of am an that shall die, and of "the son of man who shall be made as grass ? and forget test
" the Lord thy maker," &c.
See how fear exalts man, and depressethGod; it thinks upon the noxious power of men fo much, that it forgets the saving power of God, as if that stood for nothing : thus a mortal worm, that shall perish as the grass, eclipses the glory of the great God, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth.
And this was the evil against which Christ cautioned his own disciples, inMatth.x. 28. " Fear not them which kill the body,
" but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him,which is " able to destroy both foul and body in hell; " q. d. Have a care you never fear any man, be he armed with never fo much power and rage; as if the power of making or marring you for ever were in his hands, as if you lay at the feet of his will and pleasure to be saved or ruined for ever: fear not him that can only touch your bodies, as if he could damn your souls ; invest notanycreaturewith the sovereign and incommunicable power of God.
4. The finfulness of fear consists in the distracting influence
A Practical Treatise of Fear. it hath upon the hearts of men, whereby itdiscomposeth and unfits them for the discharge of their duties.
Fear sometimes puts menintosuchanhurry,and their thoughts into such disorder, that for the present they have scarce any fuccour or relief from their graces, or from their reason; for under an extraordinary fear both grace and reason, like the wheels of a watch, wound above its due height, stand still, and have no motion at all.
It is rare to find am an of that largeness and constancyof heart and mind, in a day of fear, that was found in Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 2, 3. "Then there came some
" that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a greatmulti- " tude against thee from beyond the sea,on this side Syria, and " behold they be in Hazazon-Tamar, which is Engedi ; andJe- " hoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord." He set himself, i. e. he composed and fixed his heart for prayer in the time of so great a fright, and terrible alarm: but it is rare to find such constancyand evenness of mind as this ; in like cases it is with most in great frights, as the prophet describes the condition of the Jews, Isa. xxii. 2, 3. when the city ofJerufalemwas besieged, and the enemy came under the walls of it ; that which a little before was the joyous city, or as some read, the revelling city, is now in such a panic fear, that it is full of ftirsand tumults, some run up to the tops of the houses, either to hide or bewail themselves, or take a view of the dreadful enemy without; others prevent the sword of the enemy, and die by fear before-hand, their own apprehenfions of misery killed them before the sword of any other enemy once touched them; but you read of none that ran into their closets to seek the Lord ; the city was full of stirs,but none of prayers, alas, fear made them cry to the mountains, rather than to God, ver,
5. The best men find it hard to keep their thoughts from wandering, and their minds from distraction, in the greatest calm of peace, but a thousand times harder in the hurries and tumults of fear.
5. The sinfulness of fear consists in the power it hath to dispose and incline men to the use of sinful means to put by their danger, and tocasttheminto the hands and power of temptation. "The fear ofmanbringeth asnare," Prov.xxix. 25. or puts and lays a snarebefore him: Satan spreads the net, and fear, like the stalking-horse,drives men right into it.
It was fear which drew Abraham, that great believer, into the snare of dissimulation, to the great difparagement of religion ; for it was somewhat an odd sight to see Abimelech, an Heathen, so schooling an Abraham for it, as he did, Gen.xx. 9. And for
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the fame evil you find God chidinghis people, in Ifa. Ivii. 11 .
" And of whom haft thou been afraid, or feared, that thou " haft lied, and haft not remembered me ?"
There is a double lieoccafionedby fear, one in words, and another in deeds : hypocrisy is a lie done, a practical lie, and our church-history abounds with fadexamples ofdissimulation through fear : it is
Satan's great engine to make his temptations victorious and successful with men, Sect. III. There is an holy and laudable fear, a fear which is our treasure, not our torment; the chief ornament of the soul, itsbeautyand perfection, not its in felicity or sin, viz. the awful filial fear of God; natural fear is a pure and simple passion of the soul; sinful fear is the disordered and corrupt passion of the soul; but this is the natural passion sanctified, and thereby changed and baptized into the name and nature of a spiritual grace.
This fear is also mentioned in my text, and prescribed as an antidote against sinful fears ; it devours carnal fears, as Moses's serpent did those of the enchanters.
It is one of the forest judgments to be in the fear of man day and night, Deut.
xxviii. 65, 66, 67. and one of the sweetest mercies to be in the fear of God all the day long, Prov. xxiii. 17. The fear of man shortens our days, Isa. xxii. 34. but the fear of the Lord prolongeth our days, Prov. x. 27. The fear of the Lord is afountainoflife, Prov. xiv. 27. But the fear of man a fountain of mischiefs and miseries : By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil, Prov. xvi. 6. but, by the fear of man, men run themselves into evil, Prov. xxix. 25.
This fear is a gracious habit orprincipleplanted by God in the soul, whereby the soul is kept under an holy awe of the eye of God, and from thence is inclined to perform and do what pleasethhim, and toShun and avoid whatsoever he forbids and hates.
1.It isplantedinthefoul asa permanent and fixed habit; it is not of the natural growth and production of man's heart, but of supernatural in fusion and implantation, Jer. xxxii. 40. " I will
" put my fear into their inward parts." To fearman is natural, but to fear God is wholly supernatural.
2. This gracious fear puts the soul under the awe of God's eye, Psal. cxix. 161. " My heart standeth in awe of thy
" word."
'Tis the reproach of the servants of men to be eyefervants, but it is the praise and honour of God's servants to be fo.
零 3. This respect to the eye of God,inclinesthem to perform and do whatsoever pleaseth him, and is commanded by him :
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Hence, fearing God, and working righteousness, are connected and linked together, Acts x. 35. If we trulyfearGod, we dare not but do the things he commands; and if his fear be exalted in our hearts to an high degree, it will enable us to obey him in duties accompanied with deepest self-denial, Gen. xxii. 12 .
" Now I know thou fearest God,seeing thou hast not withheld " thy son, thine onlysonfrom me."
4. This fear engageth, and in some degree enableth the soul, in which it is, to shun and avoid whatsoever is displeasing to God, and forbidden by him ; in this Job discovered himself a true fearer of God, he would not touch what God had forbid. den,and therefore washonoured with this excellent character,
" He was one that feared God, and eschewed evil," Job i. 3 .
And thus of the several kinds of fear.
CHAP.
III.
Shewing thevarioususes of Fear, both natural, sinful, and religi ous, in the government of the world by Providence.
HAVING taken a briefviewofthe several kinds and forts that are found among men, our next work will be to open the uses of them in the government of this world ; for one way or other they all subserve the most wife and holy purposes ofGodtherein. And we will first enquire into 1. The use ofnaturalfear.
Which if we well consider, itwillbefoundexceeding necessary and useful to makeman a governable creature by law, and consequently the order, comfort and tranquillity of the world necessarily depend upon it. How immorigerous and intractable would the corruptions of man's nature make him, uncapableofany moral restraint from the most flagitious and barbarous crimes, had not God plantedfuch apaffionas this in his nature, which, like a * bridle, curbs in the corrupt propenfions thereof.
Iffeardid not clap its manacles and fetters upon the wild and boisterous lusts of men, they would certainly bear down all milder motives, and break loose from all ingenuous bands of restraint; the world would inevitably be filled with disorders, tumults, rapines, thefts, murders, and all manner
* Fear is like a bridle, by which the horse is governed: if this passionoffearis removed, all other restraints will be broken down.
Lab at, on Prov.xxix. 25.
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ofuncleanness and unrighteousness, nechofpes ab hofpite tutus, i. e the lodger is not safe from the person entertaining him ;
†men would become like the fishes of the sea, as the prophet complains, Habbak. i. 14. where the greater swallow up a multitude of the smaller fry alive at one gulp; propriety could not be maintained in the world, no man's person could be tafe or inviolate; power and opportunity to do mischief would measure out to men their lot and inheritance, and consequentJy all societies must disband and break up.
We say, and the observation is sure, He that fears not his own, may easily be master of another man's life.
It is the law, and fear of punishment, that keeps the world in order : men are afraid to do evil, because they are afraid to suffer it; they see the law hath inseparably linked penal and moral evils together ; if they will presume upon the one, they must necessarily pull the other upon them too; and this keeps them in some order and decorum : there would be no order or security without law; but if laws had not annexed penalties to enforce them, and give them their sanction, as good there were no laws ; they would have no more power to restrain the corruptions ofmens hearts, than the new cords or green withs had to bind Sampson.
And yet, if the severest penalties in the world were annexed to, or appointed by the law, they could signify nothing to the ends of thegovernmentwithout fear.
This is that tender sensible power, or passion, on which threatenings work, and so brings men under moral government and restraint, Rom. xiii. 3 , 4. " Magistrates are a " terror to evil works ; wilt thou not then be afraid of the " power ? But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he
" beareth not the sword in vain." And by this means a world of evils is restrained and prevented in the world.
It was the custom and policy of the Persians, (I cannot fay laudable) at the death of their kings, to give everyman liberty for the space of five days, to do what he would; and such mitchiefs were done every-where by the unbridled lusts of men in those days, that it made the people long and pray for the instalment of their next king: it exceedingly endeared government to them.
BlessedbeGod for law and government, for curbingby † An intelligent creature, as a creature, has a Superior, to whose providence and disposal it is subjected; and as it is intelligent, it is capableofmoral government, by which it maybe directed to good, and restrained from evil; and such a law is absolutely necessary to it, that it may live suitably to its nature.
Suarez of laws, book 1. c. 3 .
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A Practical Treatise of Fear. this means the raging lusts of the hearts of men, and procuring reft and comfort for us in the world this way.
2. The use offinfulfear.
This is formally evil and sinful in its own nature, as well as the fruit of fin, and offspring of sinful nature; yet the Lord knows how to over-rule it in his providential government of the world to his own wife and holy purposes. And he doth fo, 1. By making it his scourge topunisn his enemies.
Ifmen willnotfearGod, they shall fear men ; yea, they shall be made a terror to themselves. And indeed it is adreadfulpunishment for God to deliver am an up into the hands of his own fears.
I think there is scarce a greater torment to be found in the world, than for amantobe his own tormentor, and his mind madearack and engine of torture to his body. We read in 2Kings xvii . 25. that God sent lions among the people; but certainly that is not to bad as for God to let loose our own fears upon us. No lion is so cruel as this passion, and therefore
David esteemed it so great a deliverance to be delivered from all his fears, Psal. xxxiv. 4. It is a dreadful threatening which is recorded inDeut. xxviii. 65, 66, 67. against the disobedient and rebellious, " Thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole
" ofthyfoothave rest, but the Lord shallgivethee there a trem- " blingheart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, and thy
" life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day " and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life.
In the " morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even ; and at " even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning, for the fear
" of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the fight of " thine eyes which thou shalt see."
Whenfearhath once seized the heart, you may fee death's colours displayed in the face.
What adifmal life do they live, who have neither any peace by day, nor reft by night, butwearisomedays and nights are appointed them ! The days of such men are tiresome days ; they with for the night, hoping it may give them a little rest; but their fears go to bed with them, their hearts pant and meditate terror; and then, Oh that it were day again !
2. By fear God punisheth his enemies in hell: it is thatflagellum Dei, terrible scourge of God, by which a great part of the torment of the damned is inflicted on them .
Divines use to make this tripartite distinction of hell-torments, and tell us, God punishes the wicked there partly by remembrance of what is past, viz. the mercies andmeansthey once had, but are there inrecoverably loft; partly by the sense of things present, even the
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wrathofGod overlaying foul and body; and partly by the fear of what is to come; and sure this is not the least part of the misery of these wretched cast-a ways. Oh that fearful ‡ expectation of fiery indignation ! more and more of God's wrath still coming on, as the wavesofthefea, thrusting forward one on another ; yea, this is that which makes the devils tremble,
James ii. 19. Φεισσεσι, the word signifies such a noise as the roar of the sea, or the roaring of the waves when they break themselves against the rocks, and this isoccafionedby the fears which are continually held as a whip over them.
3. Providence makes use of the slavish fears and terrors of wicked men, to dissipate and scatter them, when they are com bined, and confederated against the people of God; by these havetheybeen routed, and put to flight, when there hath been no other visible power to do it : it is said Plalm lxxviii. 55. God cast out the heathen before his people Israel ; and by what means were those mighty nations subdued? Not by the strength of multitudes of the Ifraelites, but by their own fears; for it is said, Josh. xxiv. 11, 12. " The Lord sent the hornet before " them, which drave them out *."
These hornets were the fears and terrors of their own guilty and presaging mind, which buzzed and swarmed in their own breasts, and stung them to the heart, worse than the swords of the Ifraelites could do.
+The- " odoret relates a memorable story of Sapores king of Perfia, "who had besieged many Chriflians in the cityNifibis, and put
" them to great traits, so that little hopes offafety were left " them; but in the depth of their distress,God sent an army of " hornets, and gnats, among their enemies, which got into the
" trunks of their elephants, and ears, and nostrils of their hor- " fes ; which so enraged them, that they brake their harness,
" cast their riders, and put them all to therout, by which pro- " vidence the Christians escaped."
These hornets were terrible to them,but fears, which are hornets ina figure, are ten thou-
‡ The mind, anxious about futurity, is inacalamitous state, and miserable before miseries come. Sen.
* Hornets, by a metaphor, signify sudden fear which was raised in their guilty minds by God.
Lavat. on the place.
+ Sapores rex Percarum cum urbem Nisibin in qua erant Chriftiani, obsedisset ; eamque affligeret , magna viscrabonum et culicum repente venit, et in promufcides cavas Elephantorum confedit, complevitque aures equorum, ita ut feffores excusserint, et turbatores ordines infugam converterint, Hift. lib. 2. cap.30, C2
A Practical Treatise of Fear. sand times more terrible ; they will quell, and fink the very hearts of the stoutest men; yea, they will quickly make those that in their pride, and haughtiness, took themselves rather to be gods, and almighty powers, to know themselves tobebutmen, as it is, Plal ix. 20. "Put them in fear, O Lord, that they may
" know themselves to be but men." One fright will scare them out of a thousand fond conceits and idle dreams.
3. The use of religious fear.
IfGodcanmake such fruit to grow upon such abramble as the sinful, slavishfear of man is, what may we expect from religious fear, a choice root of his own Spirit's planting ? The uses, and benefits hereof, are innumerable, and inestimable ; but I must contract, and will only instance in three special uses of it.
1. By this fear the people of God are excited to, and confirmed in the way of their duty .
Ecclef. xii. 13."Fear God, " and keep his commandments "
It is, custos utriusque tabulae, the keeper of both tables, because the duties of both tables are influenced by it.
It is this fear of God that makes us have a due respect to all his commands, and it is as powerful to confirm us in, as it is to excite us to our duties.
Jer. xxxii, 40. " I will put my fear into their inwards, and they shall not " depart from me."
Look, as he that fowethdoth not regard the winds, but goes on in his labour, whatever weather the face of heaven threatens ; so he that fears God, will be found in the way of his duty, let the aspect of the times be never fo low ring, and discouraging: and, truly, this is no small advantage, in times of frights, and distractions.
Slavish fear sets a manuponthedevil's ground, religious fear upon God's ground:
And, how vast an odds is there in the choice of our ground, when we are to endure agreatfight of affliction !
2. Another excellent use of this fear is, to preserve the purity and peace of our consciences, by preventing grief and guilt therein, Prov. xvi. 6. " The fear of the Lord is to depart from " evil."
See how it kept Joseph, Gen. xxxix. 9. and Nehemiah, chap. v. 15. And this benefit is invaluable, especially in a day of outward calamity and distress.
Look, in what degree the fear of God prevails in our hearts, answerable thereuntowill the serenity, peace, and quietness of our confciencesbe; and proportionable unto that will our strength and comfort be in the evil day, and our courage and confidence to look dangers in the face.
3. To conclude, a principal use of this fear of God is, to awaken us to make timely provisions for future distresses, that
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whensoever they come, theymaynot come byway ofsurprize upon us.
Thus " Noah, being moved with fear, prepared an " ark," Heb. xi. 7.
It was the instrument of his and his families salvation.
Some men owe their death to their fears, but goodmen, ina sense, owe their lives to their fears; sinful fears havelain some, andgodly fears have saved others. " A wife
" man feareth anddeparteth from evil, (faith Solomon) but a " fool ragethand is confident."
His fears give him a timelyalarmbeforetheenemyfalls intohisquarters, andbeatthemup; by this means he hath time to get into his chambers of security and rest, before the storm fall: " But the fool rageth, and is confi- " dent;" he never fears till he begins to feel; yea, most times he is past allhopebeforehebegintohaveany fear.
These are some of the uses God makes of the several kinds of fear.
CHAP.
IV.
Wherein the springs and causes offinful fear are searched out, and the evils offuchfears thence discovered.
Sect. 1.HAVING shewnbefore, the kinds, and uses of fear; it remains, that next we search out the springs from which these waters ofMarah are derived, and fed. And,
Cause 1. First, We shall find the sinful fears of most good men to spring out of their ignorance, and the darkness of their own minds ; all darkness disposes to fear, but none like intellectual darkness.
You read, Cant. iii. 8. how Solomon's lifeguardhadeveryman his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night.
The night is the frightful season, in the dark every bush is a bear; we sometimes smile by day, to fee what fillythings those were that scared us in the night. So it is here; were our judgments but duely informed, how soon would our hearts be quieted ?
Now there is a five-fold ignorance, out of which our fears are generated:
1. Ignorance of God: Either we know not, or at least do notduelyconfider his Almighty Power, vigilant care,unspotted faithfulness, and how they are all engaged, by covenant, for his people.
This ignorance, and inconfiderateness, lay at the root of their fears, Ifa. xl. 27, 28. " My way (faith Zion) is
" hid from the Lord, and my judgment passed over from my God: Words importing a fufpicionthatGodhath left her
A Practical Treatise of Fear. out of the account of his providence,and the catalogueofthose whom he would look after, and take care for.
But were it once thoroughly understood, and believed, what power there is in God's hand to defend us, what tenderness in his bowels to commiserate us, what faithfulness in all the promises, in which they are made over to us, O how quiet and calm would our hearts be ! Our courage would quickly be up, and our fears down.
2. Our ignorance of men generates our fears of men; we fear them, because we do not know them; if we understood them better, we would fear them less; we over-value them, and then fright at them.
They say the lion is painted more fierce than he is ; I am sure our fancy paints out man more dreadful than indeed he is ; if wicked men, especially if multitudes of wicked men be confederated against us, our hearts fail, and presently apprehend inevitable ruin .
"The floods of "the ungodly made me afraid," faith David, (i. 6.)the multudes of them which he thought, like a flood or mighty torrent of water, must needs sweep away such a straw, such a feather, as he was, before them; but, in the mean time, we know, or confider not that they have no power against us, but what is given them from above, and that it is usual with God to cramp their hands, and clap on the bands of restraint upon them, when their hearts are fully set in them to do mischief: did we fee, and consider them as they are in the hand of our
God, we should not tremble at them as we do.
3. Ignorance of ourselves, and the relation we have to God, creates lavish fears in our hearts, Ifa. li. 12. for did believers but thoroughly understand how dear they are to God, what relations they sustain to him, of what account, and value, they are in his eyes, and how well they are secured by his faithful promises, and gracious presence, they would not start and tremble at every noise, and appearance of danger, as they do.
God reckoned it enough to cure all Abraham's sinful fears, when he told him how his God stood engaged for his defence.
Gen. xv. 1. " Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield."
And noble Nehemiah valued himself in times of danger and fear, by his interest in God, as his words import, Neh. vi. 11 .
The conspiracy against him was strong, the danger he and the faithful with him at that time were in, was extraordinary; some, therefore, advised to flee to the temple, and barracado themselves there, against the enemy: But Nehemiah understood himself better; Should such a man as I flee? And who, being as I am, fhouldflee ? faith he, q. d. Am an so called of God to this service,
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am an under such promises, am an of such manifold andmanifelt experiences, should such a man flee ? Let others, who have nosuchencouragements, flee if they will; for my part, I will
'not flee. I remember it was an argumentufedby ‡ Tertullian, to quiet the fears, and stay the flight of Christians in those bloody times ; Art thou afraid of am an, O Christian ! when devils areafraidofthee, asap.isoner of his judge, and whom the world ought to fear, as being one that shall judge the world.
Othatwe could, without pride and vanity, but value ourselves duely, according to our Christian dignitiesand privileges, which, i fever it be necessary to count over, and value, it is in such times of danger and fear, when the heart is so prone todejection, and sinking fears.
4. Ignorance ofourdangersand troubles, causes our frights and terrors ; we mistake them, and therefore are frighted at them, we are ignorant of two things in our troubles among others, viz.
1. The comforts that are in them.
2. The outlets and escapes from them.
There is a vast odds betwixt the outward appearance, and face of trouble, and the inside of it; it is a lion to the eye at a distance, but open it, and there is honey in its belly.
Paul and Silas met that ina prison which made them sing at midnight, and fo have many more since their day.
And as we are not ignorant of the comforts that are sometimes found in our troubles, so of the outlets, and doors of escape,
God can, and often doth, open out of trouble ; " To God the " Lord, belong the issues from death," Psal. lxviii. 20. "He
" knowethhow to deliver the godly out of temptation," 2Pet. ii. 9. He can, with every temptation, make away to escape,
1 Cor. x. 13. the poor captive exile reckoned upon nothing, but dying in the pit, making their graves in the land of their captivity, Ifa. li. 14. for they could think upon none, but the usual methods of deliverance, power, or price, and they had neither; little did they dream of such immediate influences of God upon the king's heart, to make him dismiss them, freely, contrary to all rules of state policy, Ifa. xlv. 12 .
5. But especially the fears of good men arise out of their ig- †Art thou afraid of a man, O Christian ! who shouldst be feared by angels, fincethou art to judge angels ; who shouldst be feared by devils, sincethouhaft got power over devils; who shouldst be feared by all the world, since all the world is to be judged by thee,
Tertul, on Fear,
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norance and inconfiderateness of the covenant of grace.
If we were better acquainted with the nautre, extent, and stability of the covenant, our hearts would be much freed thereby, from these tormenting passions; this covenant would be a panacea, an universal remedy against all our fears, upon spiritual, or temporal accounts, as will be made evident hereafter in this discourse.
Cause 2. Another cause, and fountain of sinful fear, is guilt upon the conscience. A servant of fin cannot but, first, or last, be a slave of fear ; and they that have done evil, cannot chusebut expect evil. No sooner had A dam defiled, and wounded his conscience with guilt, but he presently trembles, and hides himself: So it is with his children; God calls to Adam, not ina threatening,but gentle dialect; not in a tempest, but in the cool of the day ; yet it terrifies him, there being in himself mens confcia fatti, a guilty, and condemning conscience,
Gen. iii . 8. " It is * Seneca's observation, that a guilty con- " science is a terrible whip, and torment to the sinner, perpe- " tually lashing him with follicitous thoughts and fears, that "he knows not where to be secure, nor dare he trust to any
" promises of protection,but distrusts all doubts, and is jealous " of all." Of such it is said, Job xv. 21. that a dreadful found is in their ears; noting not only the effects of real, but also of imaginary dangers : His own presaging mind, and troubled fancy, scares him, where no real danger is, suitable to that,
Prov. xxviii. 1. The wicked fleeth when none pursues, but the righteous is bold as a lion.
Just as they say of sheep, that they are affrighted by the clattering of their own feet, when once they are set a running; so is the guilty sinner with the noise of his own conscience, which sounds nothing in his ears but misery, wrath, and hell. We may say of all wicked men in their frights, as † Tacitus doth of tyrants, "That if it were
" possible to open their inside, their mind and conscience ; many terrible stripes, and wounds, would be found there: "
And it is said, Isa. xxxiii. 14. the sinners inSion are afraid, trembling taketh hold of the hypocrite.
Fear and trembling as naturally arise out of guilt, as the sparks do out of a fiery
* Malefacinorum confcientia flagellari, et plurimum ill i tormentorum effe,eo quodperpetuo illamfolicitudo urget, ae verberat quodfponforibus fecuritatis fuae non poteft credere.
Senec.
Epift . 97.
† Si recludantur mentes tyrannorum posse afpici laniatus et ittus.
Annal .
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charcoal.
Histories abundantly furnish us with sad examples of the truth of this observation.
Cataline, that monster of wickedness, would start at any sudden noise, being haunted with the furies of his own evil conscience.
Charles IX. after his bloodyandbarbarous massacre of the Protestants, could neither sleep nor wake without music to divert his thoughts. And our Richard III. after the murder of his two innocent nephews, fawdiversimages or shapes like devils in his sleep, pulling and hauling him.
Mr. Ward tells of a Jesuit in Lancashire, who being followedbyone that had found his glove, out of no other design but to restore it to him, but being pursued by his own guilty conscience also, he leaped over the next hedge, and was drowned.
And remarkable is that which Mr. Fox relates ofcardinalCrefcentius, who fancied the devil was walking in his chamber, and sometimes couching under his table, as he was writing letters to Rome against the Protestants.
Impius tantummetuit, quantumnocuit : fo much mischief as conscience tells them they have done, so much it bids them expect. Wolfiustells us of one John Hofmeister who fell sick with the very terrors of his own conscience in his inn, as he was travelling towardsAuspurge in Germany, and was frighted by his own conscience to that degree, that they were fain to bind him in his bed with chains ; and all that they could get from him was,
I am cast away for ever, I have grievously wounded my own conscience.
To this wounded and trembling conscience is opposed the spirit of a found mind,mentioned 2 Tim. i. 7. "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and ofa
" found mind : " A found mind is, in this place, the samething with apure and peaceable conscience, a mind or conscience not infirm, or wounded with guilt, as we faya found orhale body, which hath no disease attending it, such a mind is opposed to the spirit of fear ; it will make a man bold as a lion;
--Nil confcirefibi, nulla pallefcere culpa, Hicmurus aheneus efto.By this thy brazen bulwark of defence,
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence, Nor e'er turn pale with guilt.
Ho. 1. 1. ep. 1.
An evil and guilty conscience fomentsfears and terrors three ways.
1. By aggravating small matters, and blowing them up to theheightofthe most fatalanddestructive evils ; so it was with
Cain,Gen. iv. 14. " Every one that meets me will flay me."
VOL. IV.
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Now every child was a giant in his eye, and anybody he met his over-match . A guilty conscience gives a man no fight of his enemy, but through a magnifying or multiplying glass.
2. It begets fears, by interpreting all doubtful cales in the worst sense that can be fastened upon them; Peffimus in dubiis augur timor.
If the swallows do but chatter in the chimney, Beffus interprets it to be a discovery of his crime, that they are telling tales of him, and saying, Bessus killed am an. Nay,
3. Ifa guiltyconfcience hath nothing to aggravate and magnify, nor any doubtful matter to interpret in a frightful sense, it can, and often doth create fears and terrors out of nothing at all: the rules of fear are not like the rules in arithmetic, where many nothings make nothing, but fear can make something out of nothing, yea, many things, and great things out of nothing at all, Psal. liii. 5. there were they ingreatfear where no fear was ; here was a great fear raised or created out of nothing at all ; had their fear been examined and hunted home to its original*, it would have been found a pure creature of fancy, a chimera having no fundamentum in re, no other foundation but a troubled fancy, and a guilty conscience ; thus it was with Pashur, he was a very wicked man, and a bitter enemy to the prophet Jeremy, and if there be none to fright and terrify from abroad, rather than he shall want it, he shall be a terror to himself, Jer. xx. 3, 4. he was his own bugbear, afraid of his own shadow; and truly this is a great plague and misery; he that is a terror to himself, can no more flee from terrors than he can flee from himself.
Oh, the efficacy of conscience ! how doth it arrest the stoutest sinners, and make them tremble, when there is no visible external cause of fear ! Nemo sejudice, nocens abfolvitur ; i. e. No guilty man is absolved, even when himself acts the part of the judge.
Objection 1. But may not a good man, whose sins are pardoned, be affrighted with his own fancies, and scared with his own imaginations ?
Solution.
No doubt he may, for there is a twofold fountain of fears, one in the body, another in the soul, one in the constitution , another in the conscience ; it is the affliction and infelicity of many pardoned and gracious souls, to be united and married to such distempered and illhabitedbodies, as shall af- * In time of fear and danger, objects of terror appear to those who are terrified more numerous and greater than they are in reality; as such things are then more credulouslybelieved, and more easily imagined.
Cicero.
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Bict them without any real cause from within, and wound them by their own diseases and distempers ; and these wounds can no more be prevented or cured by their reason or religion, than any other bodily disease, suppose an ague or fever, can be so cured.
Thus * physicians tell us, when aduft choler or melancholy overflows and abounds in the body, as in the hypochondriacaldistempers, &c. what sad effects it hath upon the mind as well as upon the body, there is not only a fad and fearful aspect or countenance without, but sorrow, fear, and afflicting thoughts within ; there is a fore affliction to many good men, whose consciences are sprinkled with the blood of Christ from guilt, but yet God fees good to clog them with such affliction as this for their humiliation, and for the prevention of worse evils.
Object. 2. But many bold and daring sinners are found, who, notwithstanding all the guilt with which their consciences are loaded, can look dangers in the face without trembling, yea, theycanlookdeath itself, the king of terrors, in the face, with less fear than better men.
Sol. True, but the reason of that is from a spiritual judgment of God upon their hearts and consciences, whereby they are hardened, and feared as with a hot iron, 2 Tim. iv. 2. and so conscience is disabled for the present, to do its office, it cannot put forth its efficacy and activity now, when it might be useful to their salvation, but it will do it to purpose hereafter, when their case shall be remediless , Cause 3. We see what a forge of fears a guilty conscience is, and no less is the fin of unbelief, the real and proper cause of most distracting and afflictive fears ; so much as our souls are empty of faith, they are, in times of trouble, filled with fear :
We read of some that have died by no other hand but their own fears ; but we never read of any that died by fear, who were once brought to live by faith ; if men would but dig to the root of their fears, they would certainly find unbelief there,
Matth. viii. 26. Why areyefearful, Oye of little faith!
The less faith, still the more fear : Fear is generated by unbelief, andunbelief strengthened by fear, as in nature there is an ob- * Fernel. Pathiol. lib. 2. cap. 16. Corporis babitusficcus et macilentus, aspect us inconftans, horrid us ac mæstus, in morbis animi met us et mæftitia, taciturnitas,folicitudo, inn an is rerum commentatiofomnis turbulent us, horrendis infomnusfluctuans, et agitatus
Spectris rerum nigrarum, doc. D2
A Practical Treatise of Fear. fervable κυκλόγενησις, circular generation, vapoursbegetshowers, and showers new vapours; so it is in things moral, and therefore all the skill in the world can never cure us of the disease of fear, till God first cure us of our unbelief; Christ therefore took the right method to rid his disciples of their fear, by rebuking their unbelief.
The remains of this sin in God's own people is the cause and fountain of their fears, and more particularly to shew how fear is generated by unbelief, let a few particulars be heedfully adverted to.
1. Unbelief weakens and stumbles the assenting act of faith, and thereby cuts off from the soul, in a great measure, its principal relief against danger and troubles.
It is the use and of ficeof faith to realize to the soul the invisible things of the world to come, and thereby encourage it against the fears and dangers of the present world: Thus Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, asfeeinghim that is invisible, Heb. xi. 27.
If this affenting act of faith be weakened or staggered in the soul, if once invisibles seem uncertainties, and visibles the only realities, no wonder we are so scared and frightedwhen these visible and sensible comforts are exposed and endangered, as they often are and will be in this mutable world.
That man must needs be afraid to stand his ground that is not thoroughly persuaded the ground he stands on is firmandgood; it is not to be wondered that men should tremble, who seem to feel the ground shake and reel under them.
2. Unbelief shuts up the refuges of the soul in the divine promises, and by leaving it without those refuges, must needs leave it in the hand of fears and terrors .
That which fortifies and emboldens a Christian in evil times, is his dependance upon God for a protection, Psal. cxliii. 9. I fly unto thee to hide me.
The cutting off this retreat (which nothing but unbelief can do) deprives the soul of all those succours and supports which the promises afford, andconfequently fills the heart with anxi, etyand fear.
3. Unbelief makes men negligent and careless in providing for troubles before they come, and so brings them by way of surprise upon them ; and the more surprising any evil is, the more frightful it is always found to be : we cannot think that Noah was so affrighted at the flood, when it began to swell a bove all the hills and mountains, as all the rest of the world was; nor was there any reason that he should, having foreseen
*Multafidempromissa levant, i. e. Many promises support faith
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it by faith, andmadeprovision for it, Heb. xi. 7.ByfaithNoab, being warned of God, prepared an ark. *Augustine relates a verypertinentand memorable storyofPaulinus,bishop ofNola, who was a very rich man both in goods and gráce: he had much of the world in his hands, but little of it in his heart; anditwaswell there was not, for theGoths, a barbarous peo ple, breaking into that city, like so many devils, fell upon the prey; those that trusted to the treasures which they had, were deceived and ruined by them, for the rich were put to tortures toconfesswhere they had hid their monies: This good bishop fell into their hands, and lost all he had, but was scarce moved at the loss, as appears by his prayer, which my author relates thus: Lord, let me not be troubled for mygoldandfilver : thou knowest it is not my treasure ; that I have laid up in heaven, according to thy command. I was warned of this judgment before it came, and provided for it ; and where all my interest lies,
ㅕ Lord, thou knowest .
ThusMr. Bradford, when the keeper's wife came running into his chamber suddenly, with words able to have put the most men in the world into a trembling posture : Oh, Mr.Bradford! Ibringyou heavy tidings; to-morrow you must be burned, and yo your chain is now buying: He put off his hat, and said, Lord, I thank thee ; I have looked for this a great white, it is not terrible to me; God make me worthy offuch a mercy.
See the benefit ofa prospect of, and preparation for sufferings !
4. Unbelief leaves our dearest interests and concerns in our own hands, it commits nothing to God, and consequently must needs fill the heart with difstractingfearswhen imminent dangers threaten us. Reader, if this be thy case, thou wiltbe aMagor miffabib, surrounded with terrors, whensoever thou shalt be surrounded with dangers and troubles.
Believers in this, as well as in many other things, have the advantage of thee, that they have committed all that is precious and valuable to them into the hands of God by faith, to him they have committed the keeping of their souls, I Pet iv. 19. and all their eternal concernments, 2Tim. i. 16. And these being put into safe hands, they are not distracted with fears about other matters of less value, butcantrustthemwhere they have entrusted the greater, and enjoy the quietness and peace of arefigned foul to God, Prov. xvi. 3.
But as for thee, thy life, thy liberty, yea, which is infinitely more than all these things, thy soul will ly upon thy hands in the day of trouble, and thou wilt not know what to *Aug. de Civitat. Dei, lib. 1. cap. 10,
A Practical Treatise of Fear. do with them, nor which way to dispose of them. Oh ! these be the dreadful straits and frights that unbelief leaves men in; it isa fountain of fears and distractions.
And indeed it cannot but distract and confound carnal men, in whom it reigns, and is in its full strength,when sad experience shews uswhatfears and tremblings the very remains and reliques of this sin begets in the bestmen, who are not fully freed from it.
If the unpurged reliques of unbelief in them can thus darken and cloud their evidences, thus greaten and multiply their dangers ; if it can drawfuch sad and unfrightful conclusions in their hearts, notwithstanding all the contrary experience of their lives, as we fee in that fad instance, I Sam. xxvii. 1.
What panic fears, and unrelieved terrors must it put those men under, where it is in its full strength and dominion ?
Cause4. Moreover, we shall find many of our fears raised and provokedinusby the promiscuous administrations of providence in this world, when we read in scripture, that " there is one
66 event to the righteous and to the wicked, and all things come " alike to all," Eccl. ix. 2, that when the sword is drawn, God suffers it to cutoff the righteous and the wicked, Ezek . xxi. 3.
The swordmakesnodifferencewhereGod hath madesogreat a difference by grace; it neither distinguishes faces, nor breasts, but is as soon sheathed in the bowels of the best as the worst of men.
When we read how the same fire of God's indignation devours the green tree and the dry tree, Ezek. xx. 47. how the basketsofgood figs (the emblem of the best men of those times) were carried into Babylon as wellasthebad, Jer. xxiv. 5. how i the flesh of God'ssaints hath beengivenfor meat to the fowls of heaven, and to the beasts of the field, Psal. xcvii. 12. and how the wicked have devoured the man that is more righteous than himself, as it is Hab. i. 13. I say, when we observe fuchthings in scripture, and find our observations confirmed by the accounts and histories of former and later ages; when we reflect upon the unspeakable miseries, and butcheries of those plain-hearted and precious servants of Christ, the Albigenses andWaldenfes, how they fell as a prey to their cruel adversaries, notwithstanding the convincing simplicity and holiness of their lives, and all their fervent cries and appeals to God;how the very flower of the reformed Protestant interest in France was cut off with more than barbarous inhumanity, so that the streets were washed, and the canals ofParis ran with their precious blood.
What horrid and unparalleled torture the servants of God felt in that cruel massacre in Ireland, a history too tragical for a tender-hearted reader to stay long upon; and how, in our own land, the most
A Practical Treatise of Fear.
eminent ministers, and Christians, were sent to heaven in a fiery chariot, in those doleful Marian days : I iay, when we read, and confider such things as these, it rouzes our fears, and puts us into frights, when we fee ourselves threatened with the fame enemies and danger; when the feet of them that carried out the dear servants of God in bloody winding-sheets to their graves, i standatthedoor, to carry us forth next, if providence loose their chain, andgivethem a permission so to do; and our fears, on this account, are heightened, by considering and involving these four things in our thoughts, which we are always more inclined to do, than the things that should fortify our faith, and heighten our Christian courage. As, 1. We are apt to confider, that as the fame race, and kind of men, that committed these outrages upon our brethren, are still inbeing, and that their rage, and malice, is not abated, in the least degree, but is as fierce, and cruel, as ever it was.
Gal. iv. 29."As then he that was born after the flesh perfecut- " edhim that was born after the spirit, even so it is now." So it was then, and just so it is still : the old enmity is entailed upon all wicked men, from generation to generation.
Multi adhuc qui clavum sanguine Abelis rubentem adhuc circumferunt, Cain's Club is to this day carried up and down the world, stained with the blood of Abel, as Bucholtzer speaks.
It is a rooted antipathy, and it runs in a blood, and will run, as long as there are wicked men, from whom, and to whom it shall be propagated, and a devil in hell, by whom it will not fail to be exasperated, and irritated.
2. We know, also, that nothing hinders the execution of their wicked purposes against us, but the restraints of providence; should God loose the chain, and give them leave to act forth the malice, and rage that is in their hearts, no pity would be shewnby them, or could be rationally expected from them,
Plal. cxxiv. 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We live among lions, and them that are set on fire of hell, Psal. Ivii. 4.
The only reason of our safety is this, that he who is the keeper of the lions, is, also the shepherd of the sheep .
3. We find, that God hath many times let loose these lions upon his people, and given them leave to tear his lambs in pieces, and fuck the blood of his saints: how well soever he loves them, yet hath he often delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and suffered them to perpetuate, and act the greatest cruelties upon them; the best men have suffered the worst things, and the histories of all ages have delivered down uatousthe most tragical relations of their barbarous usage.
A Practical Treatise of Fear.
4. We are conscious to ourselves, how far short we come, in holiness, innocency, and spiritual excellency, of those excellent persons who have suffered these things ; and therefore have no ground to expect more favour from providence, than they found: we know, also, there is no promise in the scriptures, to which they had not as good a claim, and title, as ourselves.
With us are found as great, yea, greater sins, than in them; and therefore have no reason to please ourselves with the fond imaginations of extraordinary exemptions.
If we think these evilsshall not come in our days, it is likemanyof them thought so too; and yet they did, and we may find it quite otherwise.
Lam. iv. 12. " Who would have thought that the enemy " should have entered in at the gates of Jerusalem ?" The revolving of these, and such like considerations, in our thoughts, and mixing our ownunbelief with them, creates a world of fears, even ingoodmen, till, by resignation ofalltoGod, and acting faith upon the promises that assure us of the sanctification of all our troubles, as that Rom. viii. 28. God's presence with us in our troubles, as that Psal. xci. 15. his moderation of our troubles, to that measure, and degree, in which they are supportable, Ifa. xxvii. 8. and the safe, and comfortable outlet, and final deliverance from them all at last; according to that in Rev. vii. 17.
We do, at last, recover our hearts out of the hands of our fears again, and compose them to a quiet, and sweet satisfaction in the wife, and holy pleasure of our God.
Cause 5. Our immoderate love of life, and the comforts, and conveniencies thereof, maybe assigned as a proper, and real ground, and cause of our sinful fears, when the dangers of the times threaten the one,or the other: did we love our lives less, we should fear, and tremble less than we do. It is said of those renowned saints, Rev. xii. 11. " They overcame by the blood
" of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony, and they " loved not their lives unto the death. "
They overcame not only the fury of their enemies without them, but their sinful fears within them; and this victory was atchievedby their mortification to the inordinate, and immoderate love of life.
Certainly, their own fears had overcome them, if they had not first overcome the love of life : it was not, therefore, without very great reason, that our Lord enjoined it upon all his disciples, and followers, to hate their own lives, Luke xiv. 26. not absolutely, but in comparison, and competition with him, i.e. to love it in so remiss a degree, as to flight, and undervalue it, as a poor, lowthing in such a comparison: he forefawwhat sharp trials, and sufferings were
A Practical Treatise of Fear.
cominguponthem, and he knew if the fond, and immoderate love of life were not overcome, and mortified in them, it would make them warp, and bend under such temptations.
This was it that freed Paul from slavish fears, and made him so magnanimous, and undaunted; indeed he had less fear upon his spirits, tho' he was to suffer those hard, and sharp things, in his own person, than his friends had, who only sympathized with him, and were not farther concerned, than by their own love, and pity: he spake like am an who was rather a spectator, than a sufferer.
Acts xx. 24, 25. " None of these things move " me," faith he.
Great foul ! not moved with bonds, and afAictions! howdidhe attain so great courage, andconstancyof mind, in such deep, and dreadful sufferings ! It was enough to have moved the stoutest man in the world, yea, and to have removed the resolutions of any that had not loved Christ better than his own life : but life was a trifle to him, in comparison with Jesus Christ, for fo he tells us in the next words, " I count
" not my life dear unto me," q. d. It is a low-prized commodity in my eyes, not worth the saving, or regarding on such sinful terms. Oh ! how many have parted with Christ, peace, and eternal life, for fear of losing that which Paul regarded not.
And if we bring our thoughts closer to the matter, we shall soon find that this is a fountain of fears in times of danger, and that from this excessive love of life we are racked and tortured withtenthousand terrors.
For, 1. Life is the greatest and nearest interestmennaturallyhave in this world,and that whichwraps up all other inferior interests in itself, Job ii. 4. " Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath,
" will he give for his life."
It is a real truth, thought it came from the mouth of the father of lies ; afflictions never touch the quick, till they touch the life; liberty, estates, and other accommodations in this world receive their value and estimation from hence ; if life be cut off, these accidents perish, and are of no account, Gen. xxv. 32. " Behold I am at the point to die,
"(laidEsau) and what profit shall this birth-right do to me ?"
2. Life being naturally the dearest interest of men in this world, the richest treasure, and most beloved thing on earth, to a natural man; that which strikes at, and endangers life, must, in his eyes,be the greatest evilthatcanbefal him; on this account death becomes terrible to men; yea, as Job calls it, the king of terrors, Job xviii. 14. The black prince, or the prince of clouds and darkness, as some translate those words: Yea, so is terrible isdeathupon this account, that the very fear of it hath fomeVOL. IV.
A Practical Treatise of Fear. times precipitatedmeninto the hands of it, as we sometimes ob serve in times of pestilence, the excessive fear of the plague hath induced it *.
3. Though death be terrible in any shape, in the mildest form it can appear in ; yet a violent and bloody death, by the hands of cruel and merciless men, is the most terrible form that death can appear in; it is now the king of terrors indeed, in the mostghaftly representation and frightful form, in its scarlet robes, and terrifying formalities ; in a violent death, all the barbarous cruelty that the wit of our enemies can invent, or their malice inflict, is mingled together ; in a violent death are many deaths converted intoone, and it oftentimes approaches men by such flow anddeliberatedpaces, thattheyfeel every tread of its foot, as itadvanceth towards them.
Moriatur,utfentiat Jemori; Let him fo die, (said the tyrant) that he may feel himfelftodie; yea, and how he dies by inch-meal, or flow, lingering degrees and this is exceeding frightful, especially to those that are of most soft and tender nature and temper who must needs be struck through with the terrors of death, except, the Lord arm them against it with the assurance of a better life, and sweeten these bitter apprehenfions by the foretastes of it.
This is enough to put even sanctified nature into consternation, and make avery gracious heart to fink, unless it be so upheld by divine strength and comfort : And hence come many, very many of our fears and terrors, especially when the fame enemies that have been accustomed to this bloody work, shall be found confederating and designing again to break in upon us, and act over again as much cruelty, as ever they have done upon our brethren in times past.
Cause6. To conclude: many of our sinful fears andconster. nations flow from the influences of Sat an upon our phantafies.
They say winds, and storms are oft-times raised by Satan, both by feaand land; and I never doubted, but the prince of the power of the air, by God's permission,can, andoftendoth, put the world into great frights and disturbances by such tempests,
Job . i. 19.
He can raise the loftiest winds, pour down roaring showers, rattle in the air with fearful claps of thunder, and scare
*Galen reports, that some have died suddenly through fear : It is not therefore athing to be wondered at, in the opinionofAriftotle, and almost all others, that a man should die, through the fear of death. The fear of evil sometimes brings on men that which they dread; as is evident from the example ofthosewhose fear haspreventedthedeathappointedthembythejudge.Stern.on Death,p.167-