Two Treatises, Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
Wherein the springs and causes of Sinful Fear are searched out, and the evil of such fears thence discovered.
SECT. I.
HAving shewn before the Kinds and uses of Fear, it remains that next we search out the springs …om which these waters of Marah are derived, and …d. And,
1. Cause.
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. 3. 8. how Solomon's Life-guard had every man hi… 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 see what silly things those were that scared us in the nigh; so it is here, were our judgment but duly informed, how soon would our hearts be quieted?
Now there is a five fold Ignorance out of which ou… fears are generated.
1 Ignorance of God, either we know not, or at least, duly consider not his Almighty power, vigilant care, unspotted faithfulness, and how they are all engaged by Covenant for his people: This ignorance and inconsiderateness lay at the root of thei… fears, Isai. 40. 27, 28. My way, (saith Sion) is hi… from the Lord, and my judgment passed over from my God, words imparting a suspicion that God had le…t her out of the account of his providence, and the Catalogue of those whom he would look after and take care for.
But were it once throughly understood and believed what power there is in Gods 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 woul… our hearts be! Our courage would quickly up, an… our fears down.
2. Our ignorance of men generates our fears o… 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 quail, and presently apprehend inevitable ruine. The floods of the ungodly made me afraid, saith David, (i. e.) the multitudes of them, which he thought like a flood or mighty torrent of waters, must needs sweep away such a straw, such a feather as he was before them; but mean time we know or consider not that they have no power against us, but what is given them from above, and that it's 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 see and consider them as they are in the hand of our God, we should not tremble at them as we do.
3. Ignorance of our selves, and the relations we have to God, creates slavish fears in our hearts.Isai. 51. 12. For did believers but throughly 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 s…ood engaged for his defence, Gen. 15. 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, Nehem. 6. 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 Nehemi… understood himself better, Should such a man as I flee And who being as I am, would flee? saith he, q. d. a ma… so called of God to this service, a man under such pro…mises, a man of such manifold and manifest exper…ences; should such a man flee? Let others who hav… no such encouragements flee … they will, for my part I will no… flee. I remember it was an argu…ment used by Tertullian Tertul. de fuga. Times hominem Christiane, quem timeri oportet ab Angelis, Siquidem Angelos judicaturus es: quem timeri oportet à Demoniis, siquidem & in Demoniis, accepisti potestatem: quem timeri oportet ab univers… mundo, siquidem & in te mundus judicatur.to quie… the fears, and stay the flight … Christians in those bloudy times▪ Art thou afraid of a man, O Christian, when devils are afraid … thee, as a Prisoner is of his Judge, … whom the whole world ought … fear, as being one that shall judg… the world: O that we could without pride and vanity but value our selves duly, according to our Christian dignities, and priviledges which if ever it be necessary to count over an… value, it is in such times of danger and fear, whe… the heart is so prone to dejection and sinking fears.
4. Ignorance of our dangers and troubles cause our frights and terrours, we mistake them, and therefore fright at them; we are ignorant of two thing… 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; 'tis a Lion to the eye at a distance, but open it, and there is honey in its belly. Paul and Silas met that in a prison that made them sing at midnight, and so have many more since their day.
And as we are 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. 68. 20. he knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptation, 2 Pet. 2. 9. he can with every temptation make away to escape, 1 Cor. 10. 13. the poor captive exile cast upon nothing but dying in the pit, making their graves in the land of their captivity, Isai. 51. 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 Kings heart, to make him dismiss them freely contrary to all rules of State policy, Isai. 45. 13.
5. But especially the fears of good men arise out of their ignorance and inconsiderateness of the Covenant of Grace. If we were better acquainted with the nature, extent, and stability of the Covenant, our hearts would be much freed thereby from these tormenting passions, this Covenant would be a Panacea, a universal remedy against all our fears, upon spiritual or temporal accounts, as will be made evident hereafter in this discourse.
2. Cause.
2. Another cause and fountain of Sinful Fear, is guilt upon the Conscience: A servant of sin cannot but first or last be a slave of Fear, and they that have done evil, cannot chuse but expect evil, no sooner had Adam defiled and wounded his Conscience with guilt, but he presently trembles and hides himself, so it is with his children, God calls to him not in a threatning, but gentle dialect, not in a tempest, but in the cool of the day, yet it terrifies him, there being in himself mens conscia facti, a guilty and condemning Conscience, Gen. 3. 8. 'Tis Seneca's obserservation, That a guilty Conscience is a terrible whip and torment to the Sinner,Malè facinorum conscientia flagellari, & plurimum illi tormen torum esse, eo quod perpetuo illam solicitudo urget, ac verberat quod sponsoribus securitatis suae non potest credere. Senec. Epist. 97. perpetually lashing him with solicitous 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 jealouzeh all; of such it is said, Iob 15. 21. That a dreadful sound 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 Pro. 28. 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,Si recludantur mentes Tyrannorum posse aspici laniatus & ictus. Annal. their mind, and conscience, many terrible stripes and wounds would be found there; and it's said, Isai. 33. 14. The sinners in Sion are afraid trembling taketh hold on the hypocrite fear; and trembling as naturally ariseth out of guilt, as the sparks do out of a fiery charcoal, Histories abundantly furnish us with sad examples of the truth of this observation. Catiline that monster of wickedness would start at any suddain noise, being haunted with the furies of his own evil conscience. Charles the IX. after his bloudy and barbarous Massacre of the Protestants, could neither sleep nor wake without musick to divert his thoughts. And our Richard the Third after the murther of his two innocent Nephews, saw divers images or shapes like Devils in his sleep, pulling and haling him. Mr. Ward tells of a Iesuit in Lancashire who being followed by one 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 of Cardinal Cresentius who fancied the devil walking in his chamber, and sometimes couching under his Table as he was writing Letters to Rome against the Protestants. Impius tantum metuit, quantum nocuit, so much mischief as Conscience tells them they have done, so much it bids them expect. Wolfius tells us of one Iohn Hofmeister who fell sick with the very terrours of his own Conscience in his Inn, as he was travelling towards Auspurge 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 sound mind, mentioned 2 Tim. 1. 7. God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind; A sound mind, is in this place the same thing with a pure and peaceable Conscience, a mind or Conscience not infirmed or wounded with guilt, as we say a sound or heal body which hath no disease to infirm it, such a mind is opposed to the spirit of fear; it will make a man bold as a Lion; Nil conscire tibi, nullâ Pallescere culpâ, hic mu… aheneus esto—
An evil and guilty Conscience foments fears and terrours three ways.
1. by aggravating small matters and blowing them up to the height of the most fatal and destructive evils; so it was with Cain, Gen. 4. 14. Every one that meets me will slay me. Now every child was a Giant in his eye, and any body he met, his over-match. A guilty Conscience gives a man no sight of his enemy, but through a magnifying, or a multiplying glass.
2 It begets Fears, by interpreting all doubtful cases in the worst sense that can befastened upon them; Pessimus in dubiis Augur timor. If the Swallows do but chatter in the chimney, Bessus interprets it to be a discovery of his crime, that they are telling take of him, and saying, Bessus killed a man. Nay,
3 If a guilty Conscience have nothing to aggravate, and magnifie, 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 … not like the rules in Arithmetick where many nothings make nothing, but fear can make something out of nothing, yea, many thing… and great things out of nothing at all.in metu & periculo plura & majora videntur metuentibus, cum creduntur facilius, tum singuntur impunius. Cicero. Psal. 53, 5. there wer… they in great fea… where no fear was; here was a great fear raise… or created out of nothing at all… had their fear been examined, an… hunted home to its original, it would have bee… found a pure creature of fancy, a Chimaera have… no fundamentum in re, no other foundation but … troubled fancy, and a guilty Conscience; thus it … with Pashur, he was a very wicked man, and a bit… enemy to the Prophet Ieremy, and if there be none … fright and terrifie from abroad, rather than he … want it, he shall be a terror to himself, Ier. 20. 3, 4. he was his own bug bear, 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. O the effic…cy 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 absolvitur.
1. Object. But may not a good man whose sins are pardoned be affrighted with his own fancies, and scared with his own imaginations?
Sol. 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 ill habited bodies as shall afflict 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 a Feaver can be so cured. Thus Physicians tell us when adust choler and melancholy overflows and abounds in the body,Fernel. Pathiol. lib. 2. c. 16. Corporis habitus siccus & macilentus, aspectus inconstans, horridus ac moestus, in morbis animimetus & moestitia, taciturnitas, solitudo, inanis rerum commentatio somnus turbulentus, horrendis i… somniis fluctuans, & agitatus spectris rerum nigrarum; &c. as in the Hypochondriacal distemper, &c. what sad effects it hath upon the mind as well as upon the body, there is not only a sad and fearful aspect or countenance without, but sorrow, fear and afflicting thoughts within; this is a sore affliction to many good men whose Consciences are sprinkled with the bloud of Christ from guilt, but yet God sees good to clog them with such afflictions as this for their humiliation, and for the prevention of worse evils.
2. Object. 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, they can look death it self 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 seared as with an hot iron, 2. Tim. 4. 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.
3. Cause.
3. We see what a forge of Fears a guilty Conscience is, and no less is the sin 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 should certainly find unbelief there, Matth. 8. 26. Why are ye fearful, Oye of little faith? The less faith still the more fear: Fear is generated by unbelief, and unbelief strengthened by fear, as in nature there is an observable foreign circular generation, vapours beget showers, 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 the disciples of their fear, by rebuking their unbelief. The remains of this sin in Gods 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.
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 dangers and troubles. It is the use and office of Faith to reallize 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, as seeing him that is invisible, Heb. 11. 27. If this assentting act of Faith be weakned or staggered in the soul, if once invisibles seem uncertainties, and visibles the only realities, no wonder we are so scared and frighted when 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 throughly perswaded the ground he stands on is firm and good; 'tis not to be wondred 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,multa fidem promissa levant. must needs leave it in the hands of fears and terrors. That which fortifies and emboldens a Christian in evil times, is his dependence upon God for protection, Psal. 143. 9. I flie unto thee to hide me. The cutting off of this retreat (which nothing but unbelief can do) deprives the soul of all those succours and supports which the promises afford, and consequently fills the heart with anxiety and fear.
3. Unbelief makes men negligent and careless in providing for troubles before they come, and so brings them by way of surprize upon them, and the more surprizing 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 above all the hills and mountains as all the rest of the world was, nor was there any reason that he should, having foreseen it by Faith, and made provision for it, Heb. 11. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God, prepared an Ark. August. decivit. Dei, lib. 1. c. 10.Augustine relates a very pertinent and memorable story of Paulinus Bishop of Nola, who was a very rich man, both in goods and grace, he had much of the world in his hands, but little of it in his heart, and it was well there was not; for the Goths a barbarous people 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 to confess where they had hid their moneys: 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 my gold and silver, 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. Lord thou knowest.
Thus Mr. Bradford, when the Keepers wife came running into his Chamber suddenly, with words able to have put the most men in the world into a trembling posture, O Mr. Bradford, I bring you heavy tidings, to morrow you must be burned, and your chain is now buying; he put off his hat and said, Lord I thank thee I have looked for this a great while, it is not terrible to me, God make me worthy of such a mercy, see the benefit of a 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 distracting fears when eminent dangers threaten us. Reader, if this be thy case, thou wilt be a Magor missabib surrounded with terrours, 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, 1 Pet. 4. 19. and all their eternal concernments, 2 Tim. 1. 12. And these being put into safe hands, they are not distracted with fears about other matters of less value, but can trust them where they have intrusted the greater, and enjoy the quietness and peace of a resigned Soul to God, Prov. 16. 3. but as for thee, thy life, thy liberty, yea, which is infinitely more than all these things, thy Soul will lie upon thy hands in the day of trouble, and thou wilt not know what to do with them, nor which way to dispose of them; O these be the dreadful streights and frights that unbelief leaves men in, 'tis a 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 us what fears and tremblings the very remains and relicts of this sin begets in the best men, who are not fully freed from it. If the unpurged relicts of unbelief in them, can thus darken and cloud their evidences, thus greaten and multiply their dangers, if it can draw such sad and frightful conclusions in their hearts, notwithstanding all the contrary experiences of their lives, as we see in that sad instance, 1 Sam. 27. 1. What panick fears, and unrelieved terrors must it put those men under, where it is in its full strength and dominion.
4. Cause.
Moreover, we shall find many of our Fears raised and provoked in us by the Promiscuous administrations of providence in this world, when we read in Scripture, That There is one…vent to the righteous and to the wicked, and all things come alike to all, Eccles. 9. 2. That when the sword is drawn, God suffers it to cut off the righteous and the wicked, Ezek. 21. 3. The Sword makes no difference, where God hath made so great a difference by grace, it neither distinguishes faces, nor breasts, but is assoon sheathed in the bowels of the best, as of the worst of men; when we read how the same fire of Gods indignation, devours the green tree and the dry tree, Ezek. 20. 47. How the basket of good figs (the Embleme of the best men of those times) were carried into Babylon as well as the bad, Ier. 24. 5. How the flesh of Gods Saints hath been given for meat to the fowls of heaven, and to the beasts of the field, Psal. 97. 12. and how the wicked have devoured the man that is more righteous than himself as it is Habak. 1. 13. I say when we observe such things 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 Albingenses and Waldenses, 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 of Paris ran with their precious bloud.
What horrid and unparallelled tortures 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 eminent Ministers and Christians were sent to heaven in a fiery chariot in those doleful Marian day: I say when we read and consider such things as these, it rouzes our fears, and puts us into frights when we see our selves threatned with the same enemies and dangers; when the feet of them that carried out the dear servants of God in bloudy winding sheets to their graves, stand at the door to carry us forth next, if providence loose their chain, and give them a permission so to do; and our fears on this account are heightned by considering and revolving these four things in our thoughts, which we are always more inclined to do, than the things that should fortifie our faith, and heighten our Christian courage; as,
1. We are very apt to consider that as the same race and kind of men that committed these outrages upon our brethren, are still in being and that their rage and malice is not abated in the least degree, but is as fierce and cruel as ever it was, Gal. 4. 29. As then he that was born after the flesh, perseouted him 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 sunt qui clavum sanguine Abelis rubentem adhuc circumferunt. Cain's club is to this day carried up and down the world stained with the bloud of Abel, as Bucholtzer speaks; 'tis a rooted antipathy, and it runs in a bloud, 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 shewen by them, or could be rationally expected from them, Psal. 124. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We live among Lions, and them that are set on fire of hell, Psal. 57. 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 suck the bloud of his Saints; how well soever he loves them, yet hath he often delivered them into the hands of his 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 unto us the most tragical relations of their barbarous usage.
4. We are also conscious to our selves how fa… 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 t… which they had not as good a claim and title as ou…selves: With us are found as great, yea, greater sin than in them, and therefore have no reason to please our selves with the fond imaginations of extraordinary exemptions. If we think these evils shall not come in our days, 'tis like many of them thought so too, and yet they did, and we may find it quite otherwise, Lam. 4. 12. Who would have thought that the enemy should have entered in at the gates of Ierusalem? The revolving of these and such like considerations in our thoughts, and mixing our own unbelief with them creates a world of fears even in good men, till by resignation of all to God, and acting faith upon the promises that assure us of the sanctification of all our troubles, as that, Rom. 8. 28. Gods presence with us in our troubles, as that Psal. 91. 15. his moderation of our troubles to that measure and degree in which they are supportable, Isai. 27. 8. And the safe and comfortable outlet and final deliverance from them all at last, according to that in Rev. 7. 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 wise and holy pleasure of our God.
5. Cause.
5. Our immoderate love of life, and the comforts and conveniencies thereof may be assigned as a proper and real ground and cause of our sinful fears, when the dangers of the times threaten the one or other: did we love our lives less, we should fear and tremble less than we do. It is said of those renowned Saints, Rev. 12. 11. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their 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 atchieved by 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 injoyned it upon all his disciples and followers, to hate their own lives, Luke 14. 26. not absolutely, but in comparison and competition with him, (i. e.) to love it in so remiss a degree, as to slight and undervalue it as a poor low thing in such a comparison, he foresaw what sharp tryals and sufferings were coming upon them, 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 spirit though 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 a man who was rather a spectator than a sufferer, Acts 20. 24, 25. none of these things move me, saith he, Great soul! not moved with bonds and afflictions? how did he attain so great courage and constancy of 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 so he tells us in the next words, I count not my life dear unto me; q. d. 'Tis a low priz'd commodity in my eyes, not worth the saving or regarding on such sinful terms: O 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 o… fears in times of danger, and that from this excessive love of life, we are rack'd and tortured with ten thousand terrors. For,
1. Life is the greatest and nearest interest men naturally have in this world, and that which wraps up all other inferiour interests in it self, Iob 2. 4. Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life. It is a real truth, though 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. 25. 32. Behold, I am at the point to die, (said Esau) and what profit shall this birthright 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 evil that can befall him; on this account death becomes terrible to men, yea, as Iob calls it, the King of Terrors, Iob 18. 14. The black prince or the prince of clouds and darkness, as some translate those words: Yea, so terrible is death upon this account, that the very fear of it hath sometimes precipitated men into the hands of it, as we sometimes observe in times of pestilence,Nonnullos ob timorem morte subitanea periisse refert Galenus. Quod igitur homo, timore mortis quae est terribilissima, ex sententia Aristotleis aliorum que penè omnium, moriatur, mirandum non est. Fuga mali, ipsum interdum accersit, quod liquet exemplis eorum, quorum metus mortem à judice ipsis designatam prevenit. Stern. de mort. p. 167. 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 bloudy death by the hands of cruel and merciless men, is the most terrible form that death can appear in; 'tis now the King of terrors indeed, in the most ghastly 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 contrived into one, and it oftentimes approaches men by such slow and deliberate paces, that they feel every tread of … foot as it advanceth towards them. Moriatur, ut sentiat se mori, Let him so die, (said the Tyrant) that he may feel himself to die, yea, and how he dies by inch-meal or slow and lingring degrees; this is exceeding frightful, especially to those that are of a more soft and tender nature and temper, who must needs be struck through with the terrours of death, except the Lord arm them against it with the assurance of a better life, and sweeten these bitter apprehensions by the foretasts of it. This is enough of put even sanctified nature into a consternation, and make a very gracious heart to sink, unless it be so upheld by Divine strength and comfort: And hence come many, very many of our fears, and terrors, especially when the same enemies that have been accustomed to this bloudy work, shall be found confederating and designing again to break in upon us, and act over … gain as much cruelty as ever they have done upon ou… brethren in times past.
6. Cause.
To conclude, many of our sinful fears and consternations flow from the influences of Satan upon our phantasies. They say winds, and storms are of… times raised by Satan both by sea and land, and I never doubted but the Prince of the power of the air by Gods permission can, and often doth put the world into great frights and disturbances by such tempests, Iob 1. 19. He can raise the loftiest winds, pour down roaring showers, rattle in the air with fearful claps of thunder, and scare the lower world with terrible flashes of lightning. And I doubt not but he hath by the same permission a great deal of influence and power upon the fansies and passions of men. and can raise more terrible storms and tempests within … …han ever we heard or felt without us: he can by leave from God approach our Phantasies, disturb and trouble them exceedingly by forming frightful Idea's there; for Satan not only works upon men mediately by the ministry of their external senses, but by reason of his Spiritual angelical nature, he can have immediate access to the internal sense also, as appears by diabolical dreams, and by practising upon that power of the Soul, he influences the pastions of it, and puts it under very dreadful apprehensions and consternations: Now if Satan can provoke and exasperate the fury and rage of wicked men, as it is evident he can do, Rev. 2. 10. and so disturb our Fansies and influence our passions, as there is no reason to doubt but by leave from God he can do, as well as he can go to the magazines and store-houses of thunder, lightnings, and storms. O what inward storms of Fear, can he shake our hearts withal, and if God give him but a permission how ready will he be to do it? seeing it is so conducible to his design: for by putting men into such frights he at once weakens their hands in duty as is plain from his attempt this way upon Nehemiah, Chap. 6. 13. and if he prevail there, he drives them into the snares, and trains of his temptations, as the fisherman and fowler do the birds and fishes into their nets, when once they have flusht and frighted them out of their coverts. And thus you have some account of the principal and true causes of our Sinful Fears.