their Horses which so enraged them that they brake their harness cast their Riders and put them all to the rout by which providence the Christians escaped These Hornets were terrible to them but Fears which are Hornets in a figure are ten thousand times more terrible they will quell and sink 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 to be but men as it is Psal. 9. 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 If God can make such fruit to grow upon such a bramble as the sinful slavish fear of man is what may we expect from Religious Fear a choice root of his own spirits 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 Eccles. 12. 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 'T 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 Ier. 32. 40. I will put my fear into their inwards and they shall not depart from me Look as he that soweth doth 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 so lowring and discourageing and truly this is no small advantage in times of frights and distractions Slavish fear sets a man upon the Devils ground Religious fear upon Gods ground and how vast an odds is there in the choice of our ground when we are to endure a great fight of affliction 2. Another excellent use of this Fear is to preserve the purity and peace of our Consciences by preventing guilt and grief therein Prov. 16. 6. The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil See how it kept Ioseph Gen. 39. 9. and Nehemiah chap. 5. 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 thereunto will the serenity peace and quietness of our Consciences be 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 whensoever they come they â—ay not come by way of surprize upon us Thus Noâ—h being moved with fear prepared an Ark Heb. â— 1. 7. It was the instrument of his and his Families salvation Some men owe their death to their fears â—ut good men in a sense owe their lives to their fears â—â—nful fears have slain some and godly fears have saâ—ed others A wise man feareth and departeth from â—â—vil saith Solomon but a fool rageth and is conâ—â—dent His fears give him a timely Alarm before the â—nemy fall into his quarters and beat them up by 〈◊〉 his means he hath time to get into his chambers of â—â—curity and rest before the storm fall but the fool â—â—ageth and is confident he never fears till he begin 〈◊〉 feel yea most times he is past all hope before 〈◊〉 begin to have any fears These are some of the uses God makes of the seveâ—al kinds of Fear 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 â—â—om which these waters of Marah are derived and â—â—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 hiâ— 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 ouâ— 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 theiâ— fears Isai. 40. 27 28. My way saith Sion is hiâ— from the Lord and my judgment passed over from my God words imparting a suspicion that God had leâ—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 woulâ— our hearts be Our courage would quickly up anâ— our fears down 2. Our ignorance of men generates our fears oâ— 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 For did believers but throughly understand how dear they are to God what
Prisoner and there put to this miserable choice either to forego his life or that which was more precious his liberty of Conscience neither could his liberty be procured by his great friends at any lower rate than to recant his Religion this he was very unwilling to accept of till his hard imprisonment joyned with threats of much worse in case of his refusal at last wrought so upon him whilst he consulted with flesh and bloud as drew from him an Abrenunciation of that truth which he had so long professed and still believed Upon this he was restored to his liberty but never to his comfort for the sense of his own Apostasie and the daily sight of the cruel butcheries exercised upon others for their constant adherence to the truth made such deep impressions upon his broken spirit as brought him to a speedy end of his life yet not without some comfortable hopes at last Our own Histories abound with multitudes of such doleful examples Some have been in such horror of Conscience that they have chosen strangling rather than life they have felt that anguish of Conscience that hath put them upon desperate resolutions and attempts against their own lives to rid themselves of it This was the case of Peter Moon who being driven by his own fears to deny the truth presently fell into such horrour of Conscience that seeing a sword hanging in his Parlor would have sheathed it in his own bowels So Francis Spira before mentioned when he was near his end saw a knife on the Table and running to it would have mischieved himself had not his friends prevented him thereupon he said O that I were above God for I know that he will have no mercy on me He lay about eight weeks saith the Historian in a continual burning neither desiring nor receiving any thing but by force and that without digestion till he became as an Anatomy vehemently raging for drink yet fearful to live long dreadful of hell yet coveting death in a continual torment yet his own Tormentor and thus consuming himself with grief and horror impatience and despair like a living man in hell he represented an extraor dinary example of Gods justice and power and so ended his miserable life Surely it were good to fright our selves by such dreadful examples out of our sinful fears is any misery we can fear from the hands of man like this O Reader believe it it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God Hadst thou ever felt the rage and efficacy of a wounded and distressed Conscience as these poor wretches felt it no fears or threats of men should drive thee into such an Hell upon earth as this is 2. And yet though this be a doleful case it is not the worst case your own sinful fears will cast you into except the Lord overcome and extinguish them in you by the fear of his name they will not only bring you into a kind of hell upon earth but into hell it self for evermore For so the righteous God hath said in his word of truth Rev. 21. 8. But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Behold here the Marshal Law of Heaven executed upon Cowards and Renegadoes whose fears make them revolt from Christ in the time of danger Think upon this you timorous fainthearted professors you cannot bear the thoughts of lying in a nasty Dungeon how will you lie then in the lake of fire and brimstone You are afraid of the face and frowns of a man that shall die but how will you live among Devils Is the wrath of man like the fury of God poured out Is not the little finger of God heavier than the loyns of all the Tyrants in the World Remember what Christ hath said Matth. 10. 33. But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven Reader The time is coming when he that spake these words shall break out of Heaven with a shout accompanied with myriads of Angels and ten thousands of his Saints the Heavens and the Earth shall be in dreadful conflagrations round about him The last Trump shall sound the Graves shall open the Earth and Sea shall give up the dead that are in them Thine eyes shall see him ascend the awful throne of judgment his faithful ones that feared not to own and appear for him in the face of all enemies and dangers sitting on the bench as Assessors with him and then to be disclaimed and renounced for ever by Jesus Christ in the face of that great assembly and proclaimed a delinquent a Traitor to him that deniedst his name and truths because of the frowns of a fellow Creature long since withered as the grass O how wilt thou be able to endure this now put both these together in thy serious consideration think on the terrors of Conscience here and the desperate horror of it in Hell thiâ— as a perboiling that as a roasting in the flames of Gods insufferable wrath These as some scalding drops sprinkled before hand upon thy Conscience that tender and sensible part of man that as the lake burning for ever with fire and brimstone O who would suffer himself to be driven into all thiâ— misery by the fears of those sufferings which can but touch the flesh and for their duration they are but for a moment Think and think again upon those words of Christ Mark 8. 35. He that will save his life shall lose it It may be a prolonging of a miserable life a life worse than death even in thine own account a life without the comfort or joy of life a life ending in the second death and all this for fear of a trifle compareâ— with what thou shalt afterwards feel in thine own Conscience and less than a trifle nothing compareâ— with what thou must suffer from God for ever 3. Rule He that will overcome his fears of sufferings muâ—â— foresee and provide before hand for them The fear of Caution is a good cure to the fear of Distraction the more of that the less of this this fear will cure that as one fire draws forth another Heb. 11. 7 Noah being moved with fear prepared 〈◊〉 Ark. In which he provided as much for the rest anâ— quiet of his mind as he did for the safety of his person and family That which makes evils so frightful as they are is their coming by way of surprize upon us Those troubles that find us secure do leave us distracted and desperate Presumption of continued tranquillity proves one of the greatest aggravations of misery Trouble will lie heavy enough when it comes by way of expectation but it is intolerable when it comes quite contrary to expectation It will be the Lot of Babylon to suffer the unexpected Vials of Gods wrath and I wish none but she and her children may be so surprized
fears troubled with a bad heart and a busie devil 〈◊〉 well as you they also had their clouds and damps as you have yet the Almighty power of God supported them and out of weakness they were made strong Despond not therefore but get a judgment satisfied Psal. 44. 22. A Conscience sprinkled 2 Tim. 1. 7. And a Call cleared Dan. 6. 10. Exercise Faith also with respect to Divine assistances and everlasting rewards as they did and doubt not but the same God that enabled them to finish their course with joy will be as good to you as he was to them Consider Christ hath done as much for you as he did for any of them and deserves as much from you as from any of them and hath prepared 〈◊〉 same glory for you that he prepared for them â— that such considerations might provoke you to shew as â—uch courage and love to Christ as any of them ever 〈◊〉 7. Rule If ever yi will get above the power of your own fears in a â—â—ffering day make haste to clear your interest in Christ and your pardon in his blood before that evil day com The clearer thâ—â—s the bolder you will be an assured Christian wâ—â—â—never known to be a coward in sufferings It is impoâ—â—â—ble to be clear of fears till you are cleared of the â—â—ubts about interest in and pardon by Christ. Nâ—thing is found more strengthening to our fears thâ—â— that which clouds our evidences and nothing â—â—re to quiet and cure our fears than that which clears â—r evidences The shedding abroad of Gods love iâ— our hearts will quickly fill them with a spirit of gâ—â—rying in tribulations Rom. 5. 5. When the beliâ—â—ing Hebrews once came to know in themselves tâ—â—t they had an enduring substance in Heaven they quickly found in themselves an unconcerned heart for the loss of their comforts on earth Heb. 10. 34. and so should we too For 1. Assurance satisfies a man that his treasure and true happiness is secured to him and laid out of the reach of all his enemies and so long as that is safe he hath all the reason in the world to be quiet and chearful I know saith Paul whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. And he gives this as the reason why he was not ashamed of Christs sufferings 2. The assured Christian knows that if death it self come which is the worst men can inflict 〈◊〉 shall be no loser by the exchange nay he shall 〈◊〉 the best bargain that ever he made since he 〈◊〉 parted with all in his afflictions to follow Christ There are two rich bargains a Christian makes 〈◊〉 is wheâ— he exchanges the world for Christ in his â—â—rst choice at his conversion in point of love and stimation the other is when he actually parts witâ—'he world for Christ at his dissolution both thâ—e are rich bargains and upon this ground it waâ—â—the Apostle said To me to live is Christ and to die is â—â—ain Phil. 1. 21. The death of a believer in Chrâ—â— is gain unspeakable but if a man would maâ—â— the utmost gain by dying he shall find it in dyinâ— for Christ as well as in Christ And to shew you werein the gain of such a death lies let a few particulâ—â—â— be weighed wherein the gain will be cast up in bâ—â—h he that is assured he dies in Christ knows 1. That his living time is hiâ—â—labouring time but his dying time is his harvest tiâ—â— whilst we live we are plowing and sowing in all teâ—â— duties of Religion but when we die then we reap 〈◊〉 fruit and comfort of all our labours and duties Gal. 6. 8 9. As much therefore as the reaping time is better than the sowing and plowing time so much better is the death than the life of a believer 2. A Believers living time is his fighting time but his dying time is his conquering and triumphing time 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. The conflict is sharp but the triumph is sweet and as much as victory and triumph is better than fighting so much is death better than life to him that dieth in Jesus 3 A Believers living time is his tiresome and weary time but his dying time is his resting and sleeping time Isai. 57. 2. Here we spend and faint there we rest in our beds and as much as refreshing rest in sleep is better than tiring and fainting so much is a Believers death better than his life 4. A Believers living time is his waiting and longing time but his time of dying is the time of enjoying what he hath long wished and waited for Phil. 1. 23. Here we groan and sigh for Christ there we behold and enjoy Christ and so much as vision and fruition is better and sweeter than hoping and waiting for it so much is a believers death better than his life 2. As the advantage a Believer makes of death is great to him by dying only in Christ so it is much greater and the richest improvement that can be made of death to die for Christ as well as in Christ For compare them in a few particulars and you shall find 1. That though a natural death hath less horrour yet a violent death for Christ hath more honour in it To him that dies united with Christ the grave is a bed of rest but to him that dies as a Martyr for Christ the grave is a bed of honour To you saith the Apostle it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake 1 Phil. 29. To you it is granted as a great honour and favour to suffer for Christ all that live in Christ have not the honour to lay down their lives for Christ. It was the great trouble of Ludovicâ—s Marsacus a Knight of France to be exempted because of his dignity from wearing his chain for Christ as the other Prisoners did and he resented it as a great injury Give mâ— saith he to his Keeper my chain as well as they and create me a Knight of that noble Order 2. By a natural death we only submit our selves to the unavoidable consequence of sin but in dying a violent death for Christ we give our testimony against the evil of sin and for the precious truths of Jesus Christ. The first is the payment of a debt of justice due by the fall of Adam the second is the payment of a debt of thankfulness and obedience due to Christ who redeemed us with his own bloud Thus we become witnesses for God as well as sufferers upon the account of sin In the first sin witnesseth against us in this we witness against it and indeed it is a great testimony against the evil of sin We declare to all the world that there is not so much evil in a Dungeon in a bloudy Ax or consuming flames as there is in sin That it is far better to
lose our carnal friends estates liberties and lives than part with Christs truths and a good Conscience as Zuinglius said What sort of death should not a Christian chuse what punishment should he not rather undergo yea into what vault of hell should he not rather chuse to be cast than to witness against truth Conscience 3. A natural death in Christ may be as safe to our selves but a violent death for Christ will be more beneficial to others by the former we shall come to heaven our selves but by the latter we may bring many souls thither The bloud of the Martyrs is truly called the seed of the Church Many waxed confident by Pauls bonds his sufferings fell out to the furtherance of the Gospel and so may ours In this case a Christian like Samson doth greater service against Satan and his cause by his death than by his life If we only die a natural death in our beds we die in possession of the truths of Christ our selves but if we die Martyrs for Christ we secure that precious inheritance to the generations to come and those that are yet unborn shall bless God not only for his truths but for our courage zeal and constancy by which it was preserved for them and transmitted to them By all this you see that death to a Believer is great gain it 's great gain if he only die in Christ it 's all that and a great deal more added if he also die for Christ And he that is assured of such advantages by death either way must needs feel his fears of death shrink away before such assurances yea he will rather have life in patience and death in desire he will not only submit quietly but rejoyce exceedingly to be used by God in such honourable imployment Assurance will call a bloudy death a safe passage to Canaan through the Red Sea It will call Satan that instigates these his instruments and all that are imployed in such bloudy work by him so many Balaams brought to curse but they do indeed bless the people of God and not curse them The assured Christian looks upon his death as his wedding day Rev. 19. 7. And therefore it doth not much differ whether the horse sent to fetch him to Christ be pale or red so he may be with Christ his love as Ignatius call'd him He looks upon death as his day of enlargement out of Prison 2 Cor. 5. 8. and it is not much odds what hand open the door or whether a friend or enemy close his eyes so he have his liberty and may be with Christ. O then give the Lord no rest till your hearts be at rest by the assurance of his love and the pardon of your sins when you can boldly say the Lord is your help you will quickly say what immediately follows I will not fear what man shall do unto me Heb. 13. 6. And why if thy heart be upright mayest thou not attain it Full assurance is possible else it had not been put into the command 2 Pet. 1. 10. The sealing graces are in you the sealing spirit is ready to do it for you the sealing promises belong to you but we give not all diligence and therefore go without the comfort of it Would we pray more and strive more would we keep our hearts with a stricter watch mortifie sin more throughly and walk before God more accurately how soon may we attain this blessed assurance and in it an excellent cure for our distracting and slavish fears 8. Rule Let him that designs to free himself of distracting fears be careful to maintain the purity of his conscience and integrity of his ways in the whole course of his conversation in this world Uprightness will give us boldness and purity will yield us peace Isa. 32. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Look as fear follows guilt and guile so peace and quietness follows Righteousness and sincerity Prov. 28. 1. The wicked flee when none pursueth but the righteous are bold as a Lyon His confidence is great because his Conscience is quiet the peace of God guards his heart and mind There are three remarkable steps by which Christians rise to the height of courage in tribulations Rom. 5. 1 2 3 4. First they are justified and acquitted from guilt by faith v. 1. Then they are brought into a state of favour and acceptation with God v. 2. Thence they rise one step higher even to a view of Heaven and the glory to come V. 3. and from thence they take an easy step to glorying in tribulations v. 4. I say 't is an easy step for let a man once obtain the pardon of sin the favour of God and a believing view and prospect of the glory to come and it is so easy to triumph in tribulation in such a station as that is that it will be as hard to hinder it as to hinder a man from laughing when he is tickled Christians have always found it a spring of courage and comfort 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing even the testimony of our Consciences that in all sincerity and godly simplicity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in this world Their hearts did not reproach them with by-ends in Religion their Consciences witnessed that they made not Religion a cloak to cover any fleshly design but were sincere in what they professed and this enabled them to rejoyce in the midst of sufferings An earthen vessel set empty to the fire will crack and fly in pieces and so will an hypocritical formal and meer nominal Christian but he that hath such substantial and real principles of courage as these within him will endure the trial and be never the worse for the fire The very Heathens discovered the advantage of Moral integrity and the peace it yielded to their natural Consciences in times of trouble Nil câ—nscire tibi nullâ pallescere culpa hic murus aheneus estc It was to them as a wall of brass much more will godly simplicity and the sprinkling of the bloud of Christ upon our Consciences secure and encourage our hearts This Atheistical Age laughs Conscience and purity to scorn but let them laugh this is it will make thee laugh when they shall cry Paul exercised himself or made it his business To have always a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men Acts 24. 16. And it was richly worth his labour it repayed him ten thousand fold in the peace courage and comfort it gave him in all the troubles of his life which were great and many Conscience must be the bearing shoulder on which the burden must lie beware therefore it be not galled with guilt or put out of joynt by any fall into sin 't is sad bearing on such a shoulder Instead of bearing your burdens you will not be able
with a great and terrible God and is scared with apprehensions of his infinite and eternal wrath Than which no evil is or can be greater You see at what height Christs conflict with it wrought when it made him sweat as it were great clots of bloud Of all temporal evils death is the greatest and therefore Iob calls it the King of terrours Iob 18. 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 bloudy sweat from all parts of his body Another is of a Young man condemned for a small matter by Sixtus Quintus who was so vehemently terrified with the fears of death that he shed a kind of bloudy tears These are strange and terrible effects of fear but vastly short of what Christ felt and suffered who grapled with a far greater evil than the Terrors of death even the wrath of an incensed God poured 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 see 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 approching us and we see 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 's far enough off we are in no danger of it but when it is in the Town 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 learned Divine speaks And its worth Observation that all carnal security is maintained by putting evils at a great distance from us As it is noted of those secure Sensualists Amos 6. 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 lest it should give an unpleasing interruption to their mirth and this is the reason why death puts the living into no more fear because it is apprehended 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 terrifie This is the nature of natural Fear the infelicity 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 an high degree upon us Indeed all constitutions and tempers admit not the same degrees of fear some are naturally couragious and stout like the Lyon for magnanimity and fortitude others exceeding timorous and faint-hearted like the Hare or Hart one little dog will make an hundred of them fear and flee before him Luther was a man of great courage and presence of mind in dangers Melancthon very timorous and subject to despondency 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 any thing these fierce and threatning Papists I much dislike those anxious cares which as thou writest do almost consume thee There might be as great a stock of grace in one as in the other but Melancthon's grace had not the advantage of so stout and couragious 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 infelicity 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 fear wherewith carnal and unbelieving men do fear when dangers threaten them and the sinfulness of it lies in five things 1. In the spring and cause of it which is unbelief and an unworthy distrust of God when we dare not rely upon the security of a divine promise nor trust to Gods protection in the way of ouâ— duty This was the very case of that people Isai. 30. 15. Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength and ye would not but ye said no for we will flee upon horses therefore shall ye 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 distress God assures them by the mouth of the Prophet That in returning and rest they should be saved in quietness and confidence should be their strength The meaning is never perplex your selves with various councels and projects to secure your selves 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 Garisons or any creature defence in the World one act of faith shall do you better service than Pharaoh and all his forces can do But ye 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 men do thus forsake God and cleave to the creature in time of trouble so there is found a spice of this distrustfulness of God producing fear and trouble in the best men It was in the Disciples themselves Matth. 8. 26. Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith A Storm had befallen them at Sea 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 a man can but 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
disorders tumults rapines theft murders and all manner of uncleanness and unrighteousness nec hospes ab hospite tutus men would become like the fishes of the sea as the Prophet complains Habak 1. 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 mans person could be safe or inviolate power and opportunity to do mischief would measure out to men their Lot and inheritance and consequently 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 mans life 'T is 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 no annexed penalties to inforce them and give them their Sanction as good there were no Laws they would have no more power to restrain the corruptions of mens hearts than the new cords or green wit hs had to bind Samson And yet if the severest penalties in the world were annexed to or appointed by the Law they could signifie nothing to the ends of Government without Fear This is that tender sensible power or passion on which threatnings work and so brings men under moral government and restraint Rom. 13. 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 evil is restrained and prevented in the world It was the custom and policy of the Persians I cannot say laudable at the death of their Kings to give every man liberty for the space of five days to do what he would and such mischiefs 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 Blessed be God for Law and Government for curbing by this means the raging lusts of the hearts of men and procuring rest and comfort for us in the world this way 2. The Use of Sinful Fear This is formally evil and sinful in its own nature as well as the fruit of sin and offspring of sinful nature yet the Lord knows how to over-rule it in his providential Government of the world to his own wise and holy purposes and he doth so First by making it his scourge to punish his enemies If men will not fear God they shall fear men yea they shall be made a terrour to themselves And indeed it is a dreadful punishment for God to deliver a man up into the hands of his own fears I think there is scarce a greater torment to be found in the world than for a man to be his own Tormenter and his mind made a Rack an Engine of torture to his Body we read in 2 Kings 17. 25. that God sent Lyons among the people but certainly that is not so 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. 34. 4. It is a dreadful threatning which is recorded in Deut. 28. 65 66 67. against the disobedient and rebellious Thou shalt find no ease neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart 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 sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see When fear hath once seized the heart you may see deaths colours displayed in the face What a dismal life do they live who have neither any peace by day nor rest by night but wearisom days and nights are appointed to them The days of such men are tiresome days they wish for the night hoping it may give them a little rest but their fears go to bed with them their hearts pant and meditate terrour and then O that it were day again 2 By Fear God punisheth his enemies in hell It is that flagellum 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 triparâ—ite distinction of hell torments and tells us God punishes the wicked there partly by remembrance what is past viz. the mercies and means they once had but are there irrecoverably lost partly by the sense of things present even the wrath of God overlaying soul and body and partly by the fear of what is to come and sure this is not the least part of the misery of those wretched cast-aways O that fearful expectation of fiery indignation more and more of Gods wrath still coming on as the waves of the Sea thrusting forward one another Yea this is that which makes the Devils tremble Iames 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies such a noise as the rote of the sea or the roaring of the waves when they break themselves against the rocks and this is occasioned by 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 combined and confederated against the people of God by these have they been routed and put to flight when there hath been no other visible power to do it It 's said Psal. 78. 55. God cast out the Heathen before his people Israel and by what means were those mighty nations subdued not by the strength or multitudes of the Israelites but by their own fears for it s said Ioshuah 24. 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 minds which buzzed and smarmed in their own breasts and stung them to the heart worse than the swords of the Israelites could do Theodoret relates a memorable story of Sapores King of Persiâ— who had besieged many Christians in the City â— Nisibis and put them to great straits so that little hopes of safety 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
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 sâ—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 Nehemiâ— understood himself better Should such a man as I flee And who being as I am would flee saith he q. d. a maâ— so called of God to this service a man under such proâ—mises a man of such manifold and manifest experâ—â—ences should such a man flee Let others who havâ— no such encouragements flee 〈◊〉 they will for my part I will noâ— flee I remember it was an arguâ—ment used by Tertullian to quieâ— 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 judgâ— 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 anâ— value it is in such times of danger and fear wheâ— 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 thingâ— 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 't is 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. 'T is Seneca's obserservation That a guilty Conscience is a terrible whip and torment to the Sinner 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 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
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 't is 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 faâ— 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 â— we know also there is no promise in the Scriptures tâ— which they had not as good a claim and title as ouâ—â—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 't is 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. 'T is 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 oâ— 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 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 't is 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 â—gain as much cruelty as ever they have done upon ouâ— 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 ofâ— 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 〈◊〉 â—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 CHAP. V. Laying open the sinful and lamentable effects of slavish and inordinate Fear both in carnal and regenerate persons SECT I. HAving taken a view in the former Chapters of the Kinds and Causes of Fear and seen what lies at the root of Slavish Fear and both breeds and feeds it what fruit can we expect from such a cursed Plant but gall and wormwood fruit as bitter as death it self Let us then in the next place examine and well consider these following and deplorable effects of Fear to excite us to apply our selves the more concernedly to those directions that follow in the close of this Treatise for the cure of it And 1. Effect The first Effect of this sinful and exorbitant passion is distraction of mind and thoughts in duty both Cicero and Quintilian will have the word tumultus a tumult to come from timor multus much fear 't is a compound of those two words much fear raises great uproars and tumults in the Soul and puts all into hurries and distractions so that we cannot attend upon any service of God with profit or comfort It was therefore a very necessary mercy that was requested of God Luk. 1. 74. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear For it is impossible to serve God without distractions till we can serve him without the slavish fear of enemies The reverential fear of God is the greatest â—pur to duty and choicest help in it but the distracting fears of men will either wholly divert us from our duty or destroy the comfort and benefit of our duties 't is a deadly snare of the Devil to hinder all comfortable intercourse with God It is very remarkable that when the Apostle was giving his advice to the
at the tormenting of Marcus Bishop of Arethusa told the Apostate to his face We are ashamed O Emperor the Christians laugh at your cruelty and grow more resolute by it So Lactantius also testifies of them our women and children saith he not to speak of men overcome their torments and the fire cannot fetch so much as a sigh from them If carnal fear once get the ascendant over us all our courage and resolution will flag and melt away we may suffer out of unavoidable necessity but shall never honour Christ and Religion by our sufferings 5. Effect Carnal fear is the very root of Apostacy it hath made thousands of professors to faint and fall away in the hour of temptation it is not so much from the fury of our enemies without as from our own fears within that temptations become victorious over us from the beginning of fears Christ dates the beginning apostacy Matth. 24. 9 10. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name sake and then shall many be offended When troubles and dangers come to an height then fears begin to work at an height too and then is the critical hour fears are high and faith is low temptation strong and resistance weak Satan knocks at the door and fear opens it and yields up the soul to him except special aid and assistance come in seasonably from heaven so long as we can profess Religion without any great hazard of life liberty or estates we may shew much zeal and forwardness in the ways of godliness but when it comes to the sharpes to resisting unto bloud few will be found to own and assert it openly in the face of such dangers The first retreat is usually made from a free and open to a close and concealed practice of Religion not opening our windows as Daniel did to shew we care not who knows we dare worship our God and are not ashamed of our duties but hiding our principles and practices with all the art and care imaginable reckoning it well if we can escape danger by letting fall our profession which might expose us to it But if the inquest go on and we cannot be secured any longer under this refuge we must comply with false worship and give some open signal that we do so or else be marked out for ruine then saith Fear give a little more ground and retreat to the next security which is to comply seemingly with that which we do not allow hoping God will be merciful to us and accept us if we keep our hearts for him though we are forced thus to dissemble and hide our principles Eamus ad communem errorem said Calderinus when going to the Mass Let us go to the common error and as Seneca adviseth about worshipping the Roman Gods in animi religione non habeat sed in actibus fingat let us make a semblance and shew of worshipping them though our hearts give no Religious respect to them But if still the temptation hunt us further and we come to be more narrowly sifted and put to a severer Test by subscribing contrary Articles or renouncing our former avowed principles and that upon penalty of death and loss of all that is dear to us in this World now nothing in all the world hazards our eternal salvation as our own fears will do this is like to be the rock on which we shall split all and make an horrible shipwrack both of truth and peace This was the case of Cranmer whose fears caused him to subscribe against the dictates of his own Conscience and cowardly to betray the known truth and indeed there is no temptation in the world that hath overthrown so many as that which hath been backt and edged with fear the love of Preferments and honours hath slain its thousands but fear of sufferings its ten thousands 6. Effect Sinful Fear puts men under great bondage of Spirit and makes Death a thousand times more terrible and intolerable than it would otherways be to us You Read of some Heb. 2. 15. Who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage i. e. It kept them in a miserable anxiety and perplexity of mind like slaves that tremble at the whip which is held over them Thus many thousands live under the lash so terrible is the name of death especially a violent death that they are not able with patience to hear 〈◊〉 mentioned which gave the ground of that saying Praestat semel quam semper mori It s better to die once than to be dying always And surely there is not a more miserable life any poor creature can live than such a trembling life as this is For 1. Such a bondage as this destroys all the comfort and pleasure of life no pleasure can grow or thrive under the shadow of this cursed Plant Nil ei beatum cui semper aliquis terror impendeat saith Cicero All the comforts we possess in this World are imbittered by it 'T is storied of Democles a flatterer of Dionysius the Tyrant that he told him he was the happiest man in the World having Wealth Power Majesty and abundance of all things Dionysius sets the Flatterer in all his own pomp at a Table furnished with all dainties and attended upon as a King but with an heavy sharp sword hanging by a single Horse hair right over his head this made him quake and tremble so that he could neither eat nor drink but desired to be freed from that estate The design was to convince him how miserable a life they live who live under the continual terrors of impending death and ruine It was a sore judgment which God threatned against them in Ier. 5. 6. A Lion out of the forrest shall slay them and a Wolf of the evening shall spoil them a Leopard shall watch over their Cities every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces What a miserable life must those people live who could not stir out of the City but they presently were seized by Lions Wolves and Leopards that watch'd over them and lurked in all the Avenewes to make them a prey and yet this is more tolerable than for a mans own fear to watch continually over him 2. And yet I could wish this were the worst of it and that our Fears destroyed no better comforts than the natural comforts of this life but alas they also destroy our spiritual comforts which we might have from Gods promises and our own and others experiences which are incomparably the sweetest pleasures men have in this World But as no creature comfort is pleasant so no promise relishes like it self to him that lives in this bondage of Fear when the terrors of death are great the consolations of the Almighty are small In the written word are found all sorts of refreshing strengthening and heart-reviving promises prepared by the wisdom and care of
communicate to his people 4. Rule If ever you will subdue your own slavish fears Commit your selves and all that is yours into the hands of God by Faith This Rule is fully confirmed by that Scripture Prov. 16. 3. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established The greatest part of our trouble and burden in times of danger arises from the unsetledness and distraction of our own thoughts and the way to calm and quiet our thoughts is to commit all to God This Rule is to be applied for this end and purpose when we are going to meet Death it self and that in all its terrible formalities and most frightful appearances 1 Pet. 4. 19. Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator And if this committing act of Faith be so useful at such a time when the thoughts must be supposed to be in the greatest hurry and fears in their full strength much more will it establish the heart and calm its passions in lesser troubles you know what ease and relief it would be to you if you had a Trial depending in Law for your Estates and your hearts were overloaded and distracted with cares and fears about the issue of it If one whom you know to be very skilful and faithful should say to you at such a time trouble not your self any further â—bout this business never break an hours sleep more for this matter be you as an unconcerned Spectator commit it to me and trust me with the management of it I will make it my own concernment and save you harmless O what a burden what an heavy load would you feel yâ—â—r selves eased of assoon as you had thus transferred and committed it to such a hand then you would be able to eat with pleasure and sleep in quietness Much more ease and quietness doth your committing the matter of your fears to God give even so much more as his power wisdom and faithfulness is greater than what is to be found in men But to make this Rule practicable and improveable to peace quietness of heart in an evil day it will be necessary that you well understand 1. What the committing act of Faith is 2. What grounds and encouragements Believers have for it 1. Study well the nature of this committing act of Faith and what it supposes or implies in it for all men cannot commit themselves to God 't is his own people only that can do it nor is it every thing they can commit to God they cannot commit themselves to his care and protection in any way but only in his own ways Know more particularly 1. That he who will commit himself to God must commit himself to him in well doing as the Apostle limits it in 1 Pet. 4. 19. and in things agreeable to his will else we would make God a Patron and Protector of our sins Let tâ—â—m that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well doing We cannot commit our sins but our duties to Gods protection God is so great a friend to truth and righteousness that in such a case he will not take your part how dear soever you be to him if truth be found on your enemies part and the mistake on yours Think not to entitle God to your errors or failings much less to any sinful designs You may commit a doubtful case to him to be decided but not a sinful case to be protected It is in vain to shelter any cause of your own under his wings except you can write upon it as David did Psal. 74. 22. Thine own cause O Lord thine own as well as mine Lord plead thine own cause 2. He that commits his all to God supposes and firmly believes that all events and issues of things are in Gods hands that he only can direct over rule and order them all as he pleaseth Upon this supposition the committing acts of Faith in all our fears and distresses are built I trusted in thee O Lord I said thou art my God my times are in thy hand deliver me from the hands of my enemies and from them that persecute me His firm assent to this great truth that his times were in Gods hands was the reason why he committed himself into that hand If our times ourlives or comforts were in our enemies hands it were to little purpose for us to commit our selves into Gods hands And here the contrary sences and methods of Faith and unbelief are as conspicuous as in any one thing whatsoever Unbelief perswades men that their lives and all that is dear to them is in the hands of their enemies and therefore perswades them the best way they can take to secure themselves is by complyance with the will of their enemies and pleasing them But Faith determines quite contrary it tells us we and all that is ours is in Gods hand and no enemy can touch us or ours till he give them a permission and therefore it is our duty and interest to please him and commit all to him 3. The committing of our selves to God implies the resignation of our wills to the will of God to be disposed of as seems good in his eyes So David commits to God the event of that sad and doubtful providence which made him flie for his life from a strong conspiracy 2 Sam. 15. 25. And the King said unto Zadock Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him q. d. Lord the conspiracy against my life is strong the danger great the issue exceeding doubtful but I commit it all into thy hand if David may yet be used in any further service for his God I shall see this City and thy lovely Temple again but if not I lie at thy foot to be disposed either for life or death for the earthly or the heavenly Ierusalem as seemeth best in thine eyes This submission to Divine pleasure is included in the committing act of Faith Christian what sayest thou to it Is thy will content to go back that the will of God may come on and take place of it It may be thou canst refer a difficult case to God provided that he will determine and issue it according â—o thy desires but in truth that is no submission or resignation at all but a sinful limiting of and prescribing to God It was an excellent reply that a choice Christian once made to another when a beloved and only Child lay in a dangerous sickness at the point of death a friend asked the mother what would you now desire of God in reference to your Child Would you beg of him its life or
easily slight them and take the spoiling of them joyfully In a stress of weather when the Ship is ready to sink and founder in a Storm all hands are readily imployed to throw the richest goods over-board No man faith it's pity to cast them away but reason dictates to a man in that case better these perish than I perish with and for them These be the wares that some will not cast overboard and therefore they are said to drown men in perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. Demas would rather perish than part with these things 2. Tim. 4. 10. But Reader consider seriously what comfort they can yield thee when thou must look upon them as the price for which thou hast sold Heaven and all the hopes of glory even as much as the price of bloud yielded Iudas and so they will ensnare thee if thy unmortified heart be overheated with the love of them as his was 2. Be mortified to your liberty and take heed of placing too great an esteem upon it or necessity in it Liberty is a desirable thing to the very birds of the air accommodate them the best you can in your cages feed them with the richest fare they had rather be cold and hungry with their liberty in the woods than fat and warm in your houses But yet as sweet as it is there may be more sweetness and comfort in parting with it than in keeping it as the case may stand The doors of a Prison can lock you in but they cannot lock the comforter out Paul and Silas lost their liberty for Christ but not their comfort with it they never were so truly at liberty as when their feet were made fast in the stocks they never fared so deliciously as when they fed upon Prisoners fare God spread a Table for them in the Prison sent them in a rich feast yea and they had musick at their feast too and that at midnight Acts 16. 25. Patmos was a barren Island andâ— place designed for banished persons it lay in the Aegean Sea not far from the coast of the Lesser Asia it was inhabited by none because of the exceeding barrenness of it but such who were appointed to it for their punishment so that here Iohn could meet with no more earthly refreshment than what the barren rocks or wild and desperate persons condemned to live upon it could afford Ay but there there it was that Christ appeared to him in unexpressible glory there it was that he had those ravishing visions and saw the whole Scheme of Providence in the Government of this world there he saw the New Ierusalem coming down from God out of heaven as a bride prepared for her husband This made a Patmos become a Paradice never did any place afford him such comfort as this did So that Christians may not think there is so strict and necessary a connection betwixt Liberty and Comfort that he that takes away the first must needs deprive them of the other Again Suppose we should be so fond of our Liberty as to exchange truth and a good Conscience for it cannot God so imbitter it to you yea hath he not so imbittered it to many that they were quickly weary of it and glad of an opportunity to exchange it for a Prison Our own Martyrology furnishes us with many sad examples of it O What will yo do with your bitter dear bought Liberty when peace is taken away from the inner man When God shall clap up your souls in Prison and put your Consciences into his bonds and fetters then you will say as the Martyr did I am in Prison till I be in Prison 3. Be mortified to the inordinate and fond love of life as ever you expect relief against the fears of death Reason thy self into a lower value of thy life Methinks you have arguments enough to cure your fondness in this point Have you found it such a pleasant life to you for so much of it as is past You know how the Apostle represents it 2 Cor. 5. 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened And is a burthened and a groaning life so desirable You know also as he speaks in the next Verse that whilst you are at home in the body you are absent from the Lord and is a state of absence from Jesus Christ so desirable to a soul that loves him Can you find much pleasure so far from home You may fancy what you will but upon serious recollection you will be able to tell your selves that till you be dead you will never be out of the reach of Satans temptations never freed from your own in-dwelling corruptions these conflicts cannot have an end till life be ended You also stand convinced that till you be dead your Souls cannot be satisfied nor your desires be at rest have what comforts soever from God in the way of faith and course of duties your hearts are still off the center and will still gravitate and gasp heaven-ward You also know that die you must and the time of your departure is at hand and of all deaths if you might have your choice none is more honourable to God or like to be so evidential and comfortable to you as a violent death for Christ therein you come to him by consent and choice not by necessity and constraint therein you give a publick testimony for Christ which is the highest use that ever our bloud can be put to or honoured by and for the pain and torment as the Martyr said He that takes away from my torment takes away from my reward But even in that point God can make it easier to you than a natural death would be he will be with you in your extremity and administer such reviving cordials as other men must not look to taste at least not ordinarily they being prepared and reserved for such against such an hour O then work out the inordinate love of life by working in such mortifying considerations upon your own hearts and if once you gain but this point you will quickly find all your pains and prayers richly answered in the ease and rest of your hearts in the most scaring and frightful times 6. Rule Eye the encouraging examples of those that have â—rod the path of sufferings before you and strive to imitate such worthy patterns Behold the cloud of witnesses encompassing you round about a cloud like that over the Israelites to direct you Yea a cloud for multitude of excellent persons to animate and encourage you Heb. 12. 1. O take them for an ensample in suffering affliction and patience Iames 5. 10. Examples of excellent persons that have broken the ice and beaten the path before us are of excellent use to suppress our fears and rouze our courage in our own encounters The first sufferers had the hardest task they that first entred the lists for Christ wanted those helps to suppress fear which they have left unto us Strange and untried torments are
to bear its pain and anguish To prevent this carefully observe these rules 1. Over-awe your hearts every day and in every place with the eye of God this walking as before God will keep you upright Gen. 17. 1. If you so speak and live as those that know God sees you such will be your uprightness that you will not care if all the world see you too An Artist came to Drusius and offered to build him an house so contrived that he might do what he would within doors and no man see him nay said Drusius so build it that every one may see 2. Do no action undertake no design that you dare not preface with Prayer this is your rule Phil. 4. 6. Touch not with that you dare not pray for a blessing upon if you dare not pray dare not to engage If you cannot send your prayers before be confident shame and guilt will follow after 3. Be more afraid of grieving God or wounding Conscience than of displeasing or losing all the friends you have in the world besides look upon every adventure upon sin to escape danger to be the same thing as if you should sink the Ship to avoid one that you take to be a Pirate or as the fatal mistake of two vials wherein there is poyson and physick 4. What counsel you would give another that give your selves when the case shall be your own your judgment is most clear when interest is least felt Davids judgment was very upright when he judged himself in a remote parable 5. Be willing to bear the faithful reproofs of your faults from men as the reproving voice of God for they are no less when duly administred This will be a good help to keep you upright Psal. 135. 23 24. Let the Righteous smite me c. It is said of Sir Anthony Cope that he shamed none so much as himself in his family Prayers and desired the Ministers of his acquaintance not to favour his faults but tell me said he and spare not 6. Be mindful daily of your dying day and your great Audit day and do all with respect to them Thus keep your integrity and peace and that will keep out your fears and terrors 9. Rule Carefully record the experiences of Gods care over you and faithfulness to you in all your past dangers and distresses and apply them to the cure of your present fears and despondencies Recorded experiences are excellent remedies Exod. 17. 14. Write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshuah There were two things in that Record the victory obtained over Amalek and the way of obtaining it by incessant prayer And there were two things to be done to secure this mercy for their use and benefit in future fears it must be recorded and rehearsed preserved from oblivion and seasonably produced for relief There are two special assistances given us against fear by experience 1. It abates the terror of Sufferings 2. It assists Faith in the promises 1. Experience greatly abates the terror of sufferings and makes them less formidable and scaring than otherwise they would be fear saith they are deep waters and will drown us experience saith they are much shallower than we think and are safely fordable Others have and we may pass through that Red sea and not be overwhelmed Fear saith the pains of death are unconceivable sharp and bitter the living little know what the dying feel and to lie in a stinking Prison in continual expectations of a cruel death is an insupportable evil Experience contradicts all these false reports which make our hearts faint as the second Spies did the daunting stories of the first and assures us Prisons and Death are not when we come home to them for Christ what â—hey seem and appear to be at a distance O what a good report have those faithful men given who have searched and tried these things Who have gone down themselves into the valley of the shadow of death and seen what there is in a Prison and in death it self so long as they were in sight and hearing able by words or signs to contradict our false Notions of it O what a sweet account did Pomponius Algerius give of his stinking Prison at Lions in France Dating all his Letters whilest he was there From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine Prison And when carried to Venice in a Letter from the Prison there he writes thus to his Christian friends I shall utter that which scarce any will believe I have found a nest of honey in the entrails of a Lyon a Paradise of pleasure in a deep dark Dungeon in the place of sorrow and death tranquillity of hope and life O here it is that the Spirit of God and of glory rests upon us So Blessed Mr. Philpot our own Martyr in one of his sweet encouraging Letters O how my heart leaps saith he that I am so near to eternal bliss God forgive me my unthankfulness and unworthiness of so great glory I have so much joy of the reward prepared for me the most wretched sinner that though I be in the place of darkness and mourning yet I cannot lament but am night and day so joyful as though I were under no cross at all in all the days of my life I was never so joyful the name of the Lord be praised Others have given the signals agreed upon betwixt them and their friends in the midst of the flames thereby to the last confirming this truth that God makes the inside of sufferings quite another thing what the appearance and outside of them is to sense Thus the experience of others abates the terrors of sufferings to you and all this is fully confirmed by the personal experience you your selves have had of the supports and comforts of God wherein soever you have consciientiously suffered for his sake 2. And this cannot but be a singular assistance to your faith your own and others experiences just like Aaron and Hur stay up the hands of Faith on the one side and the other that they hang not down whilst your fears like those Amalekites fall before you For what is experience but the bringing down of the Divine promises to the test of sense and feeling It is our duty to believe the promises without tryal and experiments but it is easier to do it after so many trials so that your own and others experiences carefully recorded and seasonably applied would be food to your faith and a cure to many of your fears in a suffering day 10. Rule You can never free your selves from sinful fears till you throughly believe and consider Christ providential Kingdom over all the creatures and affairs in this lower world Poor timorous soul is there not a King a Supreme Lord under whom Devils and men are Hath not Christ the reins of Government in his hands Matth. 28. 18. Phil. 2. 9 10 11 12. Iohn 17. 2. Were this dominion of Christ and dependence
small according to the assisting grace we receive from above if he leave us in a common and light trial to our own strength it will be our over-match and if he assist us in great and extraordinary trials we shall be more than Conquerours At one time Abraham could offer up his only son to God with his own hand at another time he is so afraid of his life that he acts very unsuitable to the character of a Believer and was shamefully rebuked for it by Abimelech At one time David could say Though an Host encamp against me I will not fear At another time he feigns himself mad and acted beneath himself both as a man and as a man enriched with so much faith and experience At one time Peter is afraid to be interrogated by a Maid at another time he could boldly confront the whole Council and own Christ and his truths to their faces In extraordinary trials we may warrantably expect extraordinary assistances and by them we shall be carried through the greatest how often soever we have failed in smaller trials 2. The design and end of God in giving us experience of our own weakness in lesser troubles is not to discourage and daunt us against we come to greater which is the use Satan here makes of it but to take us off from self-confidence and self-dependence to make us see our own weakness that we may more heartily and humbly betake our selves to him in the way of faith and fervent supplication 4. Plea But some will object that they cannot help their fears and tremblings when any danger appears because fear is the disease at least the sad effect and Symptome of a disease with which God hath wounded them a deep and fixed melancholy hath so far prevailed that the least trouble overcomes them If any sad afflictive providence befal or but threaten them their fears presently rise and their hearts sink sleep departs thoughts tumultuate the bloud boyls and the whole frame of nature is put into disorder If therefore the Lord should permit such great and dreadful trials to befal them they can think of nothing less than dying by the hand of their own fears before the hand of any enemy touch them or which is a thousand times worse be driven by their fears into the net of temptation even to deny the Lord that bought them Answer This I know is the sad case of many gracious persons and I have reason to pity those that are thus exercised O 't is an heavy stroke a dismal state a deep wound indeed But yet the wisdom of God hath ordered this affliction upon his people for gracious ends and uses hereby they are made the more tender and watchful circumspect and careful in their ways that they may shun and escape as many occasions of trouble as they can being so unable to grapple with them I say not but there are higher and nobler motives that make them circumspect and tender but yet the preservation of our own quietness is useful in its place and 't is a mercy if that or any thing else be sanctified to prevent sin and promote care of duty This is your clog to keep you from straying 2. And when you shall be called forth to greater trials that which you now call your snare may be your advantage and that in divers respects 1. These very distempers of body and mind serve to imbitter the comforts and pleasures of this world to you and make life it self less desirable to you than it is to others they much wean your hearts from and make life more burdensome to you than it is to others who enjoy more of the pleasure and sweetness of it than you can do I have often thought this to be one design and end of Providence in permitting such distempers to seize so many gracious persons as labour under it and providence knows how to make use of this effect to singular purpose and advantage to you when a call to suffering shall come this may have its place and use under higher and more spiritual considerations to facilitate death and make your separation from this world the more easie to you for though it be a more noble and raised act of faith and self denial to offer up to God our lives when they are made most pleasant and desirable to us upon natural accounts yet it is not so easie to part with them as it is when God hath first imbittered them to us Your lives are of little value to you now because of this burdensome clog you must draw after you but if you should increase your burden by so horrid an addition of guilt as the denying of Christ or his known truths would do you would not know what to do with such a life it would certainly lie upon your hands as a burthen God knows how to use these things in the way of his providence to your great advantage 2. Art thou a poor melancholy and timorous person Certainly if thou be gracious as well as timorous this will drive thee nearer to God and the greater thy dangers are the more frequent and fervent will thy addresses to him be Thou feelest the need of everlasting arms underneath thee to bear thee up under and to carry through smaller troubles that other persons make nothing of much more in such deep trials that put the strongest Christians to the utmost of their faith and patience And 3dly What if the Lord will make an advantage out of your weakness to display more evidently his own power in your support you know what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12. 9 10. And he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me for when I am weak then am I strong If his infirmities might serve as a foil to set off the grace of God with a more bright and sparkling lustre he would rejoyce in his infirmities and so should you Well then let not this discourage you the infirmity of nature you complain of may make death the less terrible it served to that purpose to blessed Basil as you heard before when his enemy threatned to tear out his Liver he thought it a kindness to have that Liver torn out that had given him so much trouble It may drive thee nearer to God and minister a fit opportunity for the display of his grace in the time of need 5. Plea But what if God should hide his face from my soul in the day of my streights and troubles and not only so but permit Satan to buffet me with his horrid temptations and injections and so I should fall like the Ship in which Paul sailed betwixt these two boisterous Seas what can I suspect less than a shipwrack of my soul body and all the comforts of both in this world and in that to come Answer 1. So far
as the fears of such a misery awaken you to prayer for the prevention of it it may be serviceable to your souls but when it only works distraction and despondency of mind it is your sin and Satans snare The Prophet Ieremy made a good use of such a supposed evil by way of deprecation Ier. 17. 17. Be not a terror unto me thou art my hope in the day of evil q. d. In the evil day I have no place of retreat or refuge but thy love and favour Lord that is all I have to depend on and relieve my self by I comfort my self against trouble with this confidence that if men be cruel yet thou wilt be kind if they frown thou wilt smile if the world cast me out thou wilt take me in but if thou shouldest be a terror to me instead of a comforter if they afflict my body and thou affright my soul with thy frowns too what a deplorable condition shall I be in then Improve it to such an end as he did to secure the favour of God and it will do you no harm 2. It is not usual with God to estrange himself from his people in trouble nor to frown upon them when men do The common experience of Believers stands ready to attest and seal this truth that Christians never find more kindness from God than when they feel most cruelty from men for his sake consult the whole cloud of witnesses and you will find they have still found the undoubted verity of that tried word in 1 Pet. 4. 14. That the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon sufferers The expression seems to allude to the Dove that Noah sent forth out of the Ark which flew over the watry world but could not rest self any where till she returned to the Ark. So the Spirit of God called here the Spirit of Glory from his effects and fruits viz. his chearing sealing and reviving influences which makes men glory and triumph in the most afflicted state This spirit of God seems like that Dove to hover up and down to flee hither and thither over this person and that but resteth not so long upon any as those that suffer for righteousness sake there he commonly takes up his abode and residence 3. And what if it should fall out in some respect according to your fears that heaven and earth should be both clouded together yet it will not be long before the pleasant light will spring up to you again Psal. 112. 4. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness You shall have his supporting presence till the comforter do come When Mr. Glover came within sight of the stake he suddenly cries out O Austin he is come he is come 6. Plea O but what if my trial should be long and the siege of temptations tedious then I am perswaded I am lost I am no way able to continue long in a Prison or in tortures for Christ I have no strength to endure a long siege my patience is too short to hold out from month to month and from year to year as many have done O! I dread the thoughts of long continued trials I tremble to think what must be the issue Answer 1. Cannot you distrust your own strength and ability but you must also limit Gods What if you have but a small stock of Patience cannot the Lord strengthen you with all might in the inner man unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness according to his glorious power 1 Coll. 11. And is it not his promise to confirm you to the end 1 Cor. 1. 8. You neither know how much nor how long you can bear and suffer It is not inherent but assisting grace by which your suffering abilities are to be measured God can make that little stock of patience you have to hold out as the poor Widows cruise of oyl did till deliverance come he can enable your patience unto its perfect work i. e. to work as extensively to all the kinds and sorts of trials as intensively to the highest degree of trial and as protensively to the longest duration and continuance of your trials as he would have it If this be a marvellous thing in your eyes must it be so in Gods eyes also 2. The Lord knows the proper season to come in to the relief of your slideing and fainting patience and will assuredly come in accordingly in that season for so run the promises The Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone and that there is none shut up or left Deut. 32. 36. Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses In the mount of difficulties and extremities it shall be seen The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the Righteous lest the Righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity Psal. 125. 3. Ubi desinit humanum ibi incipit divinum auxilium Gods power watches the opportunity of your weakness 7. Plea But what if I should be put to cruel and exquisite tortures suppose to the rack to the fire or such most dreadful sufferings as other Christians have been what shall I do do I think I am able to bear it Is my strength the strength of stone or are my bones brass that ever I should endure such barbabarous cruelties Alas death in the mildest form is terrible to me how terrible then must such a death be Answer Who enabled those Christians you mention to endure these things They loved their lives and sensed their pains as well as you they had the same thoughts and fears many of them that you now have yet God carried them through all and so he can you Did not he make the devouring Flames a bed of Roses to some of them Was he not within the fires Did he not abate the exâ—remity of the torment and enable weak and tender persons to endure them patiently and chearfully some singing in the midst of flames others clapping their hands triumphantly and to the last sight that could be had of them in this world nothing appeared but signs and demonstrations of joy unspeakable Ah friends we judge of sufferings by the outside and appearance which is terrible but we know not the inside of sufferings which is exceeding comfortable O when shall we have done with our unbelieving ifs and buts our questionings and doubtings of the power wisdom and render care of our God over us and learn to trust him over all Now the just shall live by faith and he that lives by faith shall never die by fear The more you trust God the less you will torment your selves I have done the Lord strengthen stablish and settle the trembling and feeble hearts of his people by what hath been so seasonably offered for their relief by a weak hand Amen THE END THE RIGHTEOVS MAN'S REFUGE IN THE Evil Day OR A Treatise upon the Attributes of GOD as they are opened in his Promises and Providences
the terrible voice of his judgments startle and rouze the secure world more than all the warnings and exhortations of his Ministers could ever do Those that slept securely under our Ministry will fear and tremble under his rods those that are without faith are not without sense and feeling their own eyes will affect their hearts though our words could make no impression on them SECT II. BUt of what use soever these National Judgments are to others to be sure they shall be beneficial to Gods own people when others die by fear they shall live by faith If they be baneful poison to the wicked they shall be healthful physick to the Godly For 1. By these calamities God will mortifie and purge their corruptions this Winter weather shall be useful to destroy and rot those rank weeds which the Summer of prosperity bred Isa. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Physick in its own nature is griping and unpleasant but very useful and necessary to purge the body from noxious and malignant humours which retained may put life it self in hazard and it is with the body Politick as with the body Natural 2. National Judgments drive the people of God nearer to him and one to another they drive the people of God to their knees and make them pray more frequently more fervently and more feelingly than they were wont to do in this posture you find them in ver 8 9. of this Chapter Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early 3. In a word by these distractions and distresses of Nations the people of God are more weaned from the world and made to long more vehemently after heaven being now convinced by experience that this is not their rest When all things are tranquil and prosperous Gods own people are but too apt to fall asleep and dream of pleasure and rest on earth to say as Iob in his prosperity I shall die in my nest I shall multiply my days as the sand And then are their heads and hearts filled with many projects and designs to promote their comforts and make provision for their accommodations on earth The multiplicity of earthly cares and comforts take up their time and thoughts too much and make them that they mind death and eternity too little But saith God this must not be so things must not go on at this rate the prosperous world must not thus enchant my people I must imbitter the earth that I may thereby sweeten heaven the more to them when they find no rest below they will surely seek it above These and such like are the gracious designs and ends of God in shaking the world by his terrible judgments but yet though National troubles must necessarily come the wisest of men cannot positively determine the precise time of those judgments we may indeed by the signs of the times discern their near approach yet our judgment can be but probable and conjectural seeing there are tacite conditions in the dreadfullest threatnings Ier. 18. 7 8. Ionah 3. 9 10. And such is the merciful nature of God that he oft times turns away his anger from his people when it seems ready to pour down upon them Psal. 78. 38. The consideration whereof no way indulges security but encourages to repentance and greater fervency in Prayer CHAP. III. Opening and confirming the second Proposition viz. That Gods own people are much concerned in and ought to be suitably affected with those Iudgments that befal the Nation wherein they live SECT I. IF Gods people have no concernment in these things why are they called upon in this Text to run into their chambers hide themselves and shut their doors till the indignation be overpast Certainly though God hath better provided for them than others yet they are two ways concerned in these cases as much as others Viz. Account 1. Upon a Political 2. Upon a Religious 1. Upon a Political account as they are members of the community and so are equally concerned in the good or evil that befal the Nation in which they live their Cabbins must follow the fate of the Ship in which they Sail their Lives Liberties Estates and Interest sink and swim with the publick The good figs were carried away with the bad Ier. 24. 5. In these outward respects it often times bears as hard upon the righteous as upon the wicked Ezek 21. 3. I will draw forth my sword out of his Sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked In these outward respects as it is with the good so with the sinner Eccles. 9. 2. The same fire that burns the dry tree oftentimes burns the green tree too Ezek. 20. 47. Grâ—ce is above all hazards but creature enjoyments and comforts are not The sins of the Sodomites involve not only their own houses and estates but Lots also in the ruine and overthrow wicked men often fare the better for the company of the godly and the godly often fare the worse for the company of the wicked And it is not to be wondered at if we consider that even the Saints themselves have an hand in the provocation of these judgments as well as others Deut. 32. 19. And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters We have contrihuted to the common heap guilt and therefore must justifie God if we partake with others in the common calamity 2. They are greatly concerned in such judgments upon a Religious and Christian account for it is usual for the floud of Gods judgments not only to sweep away our civil and natural but our spiritual and best enjoyments and comforts Thus the Ordinances of God ceased in Babylon and there the faithful bewailed their misery upon that account Ps. 137. per totum we wept when we remembred thee O Zion Not only Israel flies but the Ark is taken prisoner by the enemy 1 Sam. 4. 11. And you find the people of God more deeply concerned upon this account than for all their outward losses and other sufferings Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them of thee that are sorrowful for the Solemn assemblies to whom the reproach of it was aburthen For by how much our souls are more excellent than our bodies and the concerns of Eternity over ballance those of time by so much more are we concerned in the loss of our spiritual more than of our temporal mercies and enjoyments Grace indeed cannot be lost but the means and instruments by which it is begotten may the golden candlestick is one of the moveables in Gods house Rev. 2. 5. Thus you see a twofold concernment that the people God have in the effects of National Judgments SECT II. THis being So how
perfoming his Promises we shall find it is built upon stable and unshaken pillars viz. 1. The Holiness of his Nature 2. The All-sufficiency of his Power 3. The Honour of his Name 4. The Unchangeableness of his Nature 1. The Faithfulness of God is built upon the perfect Holiness of his Nature by reason whereof it is impossible for God to lie Tit. 1 2. Heb. 6. 18. The deceitfulness of men flows from the corruption of the Humane Nature but God is not as man that he should lye neither as the son of man that he should repent â—hath he said and shall he not do it Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good Numb 23. 19. If there be no defect in his Being there can be none in his working if his Nature be pure Holiness all his ways must be perfect Faithfulness 2. It is built upon the All-sufficiency of his Power whatsoever he hath promised to his people he is able to perform it men sometimes falsifie their promises through the defects of ability to perform them but God never out-promised himself if he will work none can lett Isa. 43. 13. He can do whatsoever he pleaseth to do Psal. 135. 6. The Holiness of his Nature engageth and the Almightiness of his Power enables him to be Faithful 3. The glory and Honour of his Name may assure us of his Faithfulness in making good the Promises and all that good which is in the promises to a tittle for wherever you find a Promise of God you also find the Name and Honour of God given as security for the performance of it and so his name hath ever been pleaded with him by his people as a mighty argument to work for them Ioshuah 7. 9. What wilt thou do to thy great name q. d. Lord thine Honour is a thousand times more than our lives it is no such great matter what becomes of us but ah Lord it is of infinite concernment that the glory of thy Name be secured and thy faithfulness kept pure and unspotted in the world So again Exod. 32. 11 12. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mifchief did he bring them out to â—lay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people q. d. It will be sad enough for the hands of the Egyptians to â—all upon thy people but infinitely worse for the tongues of the Egyptians to fall upon thy Name 4. The unchangeableness of his Nature gives us the fullest assurance of his Faithfulness in the Promises Mal. 3. 6. I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Gods unchangeableness is his peoples indempnity and best security in the midst of dangers whilst there is not yea and nay with God there should be no ups and downs offs and on s in our faith that which gives steadiness to the Promises should give steadiness also to our expectations for the performance of them and so much briefly of the Faithfulness of God absolutely considered in the Nature and grounds of it 2. Next let us view the Faithfulness of God as it relates to the many great and precious Promises made unto his people for their security both in their Concernments 1. Temporal 2. Spiritual 1. We find the Faithfulness of God pawned and pledged for the security of his people in their Spiritual and eternal concernments against all their dangers and fears threatning them on that account and that more especially in these three respects 1. It is given them as their great and best security for the Pardon of their sins 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confâ—ss our siâ—â—s he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse â—s from all unrighteousness Our greatest danger comes from sin Guilt is a fountain of Fears a pardoned Soul only can look other troubles in the face boldly As Guilt breeds fear so Pardon breeds Courage and Gods Faithfulness in the Covenant is as it were that Pardon-office from whence we fetch our discharges and acquittances Isa. 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake The promises of remission are made for Christs sake and when made they must be fulfilled for his own that is his Faithfulness sake 2. It is engaged for the perseverance of the Saints and their continuance in the ways of God in the most hazardous and difficult times this was the encouragement given them 1 Cor. 1. 8 9. Who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Iesus Christ our Lord. Ah Lord might those Corinthians say the Powers of the World are against us Suffering and Death before us a Treacherous and fearful heart within us Ay but yet fear not Christ shall confirm you whosoever opposes you though the World and your own hearts be deceitful yet comfort your selves with this your God is Faithful 3. The Faithfulness of God is given by promise for his Peoples security in and encouragement against all their sufferings and afflictions in this World â— Thes. 3. 2 3. That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith but the Lord is faithful who shall stablish you and keep you from evil He prays they may be delivered from absurd treacherous and unfaithful men who would trapan and betray them to ruine but this is proposed as their relief that when the treachery of men shall bring them into trouble the Faithfulness of God shall support them under and deliver them out of those troubles they shall have Spiritual supports from God under their deepest sufferings from men 1 Pet. 4. 19. 2. Gods Faithfulness is engaged for his peoples indempnity and security amidst the Temporal and outward evils whereunto they are liable in this world and that either to preserve them from troubles Psal. 91. 1 2 3 4. or to open a seasonable door of deliverance out of trouble 1 Cor. 10. 13. In both or either of which the hearts of Christians may be at rest in this troublesome world for what need those troubles fright us which either shall never touch us or if they do shall never hurt much less ruine us SECT III. HAving taken a short view of Gods Faithfulness in the Promises it will be a lovely sight to take one view of it more as it is actuated and exerted in his Providences over his people believe it Christians the Faithfulness of God runs through all his works of providence whenever he goes forth to work in the World Faithfulness is the girdle of his loins Isa. 11. 5.