fervable xvxoymais, circular generation, vapours beget fhowers, and fhowers new vapours; fo it is in things moral, and therefore all the fkill in the world can never cure us of the difeafe of fear, till God first cure us of our unbelief; Chrift therefore took the right method to rid his difciples of their fear, by rebuking their unbelief. The remains of this fin in God's own people is the cause and fountain of their fears, and more particularly to fhew how fear is generated by unbelief, let a few particulars be heedfully adverted to. 1. Unbelief weakens and stumbles the assenting act of faith, and thereby cuts off from the foul, in a great measure, its principal relief against danger and troubles. It is the use and office of faith to realize to the foul the invisible things of the world to come, and thereby encourage it against the fears and dangers of the present world: Thus Mofes forfook Egypt, `not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as feeing him that is invifible, Heb. xi. 27. If this affenting act of faith be weakened or ftaggered in the foul, if once invifibles feem uncertainties, and vifibles the only realities, no wonder we are fa fcared and frighted when thefe vifible and fenfible comforts are exposed and endangered, as they often are and will be in this mutable world. That man must needs be afraid to ftand his ground that is not thoroughly perfuaded the ground he stands on is firm and good; it is not to be wondered that men should tremble, who feem to feel the ground shake and reel under them. 2. Unbelief fhuts up the refuges of the faul in the divine promises, and by leaving it without thofe refuges, must needs leave it in the hand of fears and terrors. That which fortifies and emboldens a Chriftian in evil times, is his dependance upon God for a protection, Pfal. cxliii. 9. I fly unto thee to hide me. The cutting off this retreat (which nothing but unbelief can do) deprives the foul of all thofe fuccours and fupports which the promises afford, and confequently fills the heart with anxi ety and fear. 3. Unbelief makes men negligent and careless in providing for troubles before they come, and fo brings them by way of furprise upon them; and the more furprising any evil is, the more frightful it is always found to be we cannot think that Noah was fo affrighted at the flood, when it began to fwell a bove all the hills and mountains, as all the rest of the world was; nor was there any reason that he should, having forefcen * Multa fidem promiffa levant, i. e. Many promifes fupport faith it by faith, and made provision for it, Heb. xi. 7. By faith Noab, being warned of God, prepared an ark. Auguftine relates a very pertinent and memorable story of Paulinus, bishop of Nola, who was a very rich man both in goods and grace: he had much of the world in his hands, but little of it in his heart; and it was well there was not, for the Goths, a barbarous peo ple, breaking into that city, like fo many devils, fell upon the prey; those that trusted to the treasures which they had, were deceived and ruined by them, for the rich were put to tortures to confess where they had hid their monies: This good bishop fell into their hands, and lost all he had, but was fcarce moved at the lofs, as appears by his prayer, which my author relates thus: Lord, let me not be troubled for my gold and filver: thou knoweft it is not my treasure; that I have laid up in heaven, according to thy command. I was warned of this judgment before it came, and provided for it; and where all my intereft lies, Lord, thou knoweft. Thus Mr. Bradford, when the keeper's wife came running into his chamber fuddenly, with words able to have put the moft men in the world into a trembling posture: Oh, Mr. Bradford! I bring you heavy tidings; to-morrow you must be burned, and your chain is now buying: He put off his hat, and faid, Lord, I thank thee; I have looked for this a great white, it is not terrible to me; God make me worthy of fuch a mercy. See the benefit of a profpect of, and preparation for fufferings ! 4. Unbelef leaves our deareft interefts and concerns in our own hands, it commits nothing to God, and confequently must needs fill the heart with diftracting fears when imminent dangers threaten us. Reader, if this be thy cafe, thou wilt be a Magor miffabib, furrounded with terrors, whenfoever thou shalt be furrounded with dangers and troubles. Believers in this, as well as in many other things, have the advantage of thee, that they have committed all that is precious and valuable to them into the hands of God by faith, to him they have committed the keeping of their fouls, 1 Pet iv. 19. and all their eternal concernments, 2 Tim. i. 16. And thefe being put into fafe hands, they are not distracted with fears about other matters of lefs value, but can trust them where they have entrusted the greater, and enjoy the quietnefs and peace of a refigned foul to God, Prov. xvi. 3. But as for thee, thy life, thy liberty, yea, which is infinitely more than all thefe things, thy foul will ly upon thy hands in the day of trouble, and thou wilt not know what to *Aug. de Civitat. Dei, lib. 1. cap. 10, do with them, nor which way to difpofe of them. Oh! these be the dreadful straits and frights that unbelief leaves men in; it is a fountain of fears and diftractions. And indeed it cannot but diftract and confound carnal men, in whom it reigns, and is in its full strength, when fad experience fhews us what fears and tremblings the very remains and reliques of this fin begets in the best men, who are not fully freed from it. If the unpurged reliques of unbelief in them can thus darken and cloud their evidences, thus greaten and multiply their dangers; if it can draw fuch fad and unfrightful conclufions in their hearts, notwithstanding all the contrary experience of their lives, as we see in that fad inftance, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. What panic fears, and unrelieved terrors must it put those men under, where it is in its full strength and dominion? Caufe 4. Moreover, we fhall find many of our fears raised and provoked in us by the promiscuous administrations of providence in this world, when we read in fcripture, that "there is one " event to the righteous and to the wicked, and all things come "alike to all," Eccl. ix. 2. that when the fword is drawn, God fuffers it to cut off the righteous and the wicked, Ezek. xxi. 3, The sword makes no difference where God hath made fo great a difference by grace; it neither diftinguishes faces, nor breafts, but is as foon fheathed in the bowels of the best as the worst of men. When we read how the fame fire of God's indignation devours the green tree and the dry tree, Ezek. xx. 47. how the baskets of good figs (the emblem of the best men of those times) were carried into Babylon as well as the bad, Jer. xxiv. 5. how the flesh of God's faints hath been given for meat to the fowls of heaven, and to the beafts of the field, Pfal. xcvii. 12. and how the wicked have devoured the man that is more righteous than himself, as it is Hab. i. 13. I fay, when we observe such things in fcripture, and find our observations confirmed by the accounts and hiftories of former and later ages; when we reflect upon the unspeakable miferies, and butcheries of thofe plain-hearted and precious fervants of Chrift, the Albigenfes and Waldenfes, how they fell as a prey to their cruel adverfaries, notwithstanding the convincing fimplicity and holiness of their lives, and all their fervent cries and appeals to God; how the very flower of the reformed Proteftant interest in France was cut off with more than barbarous inhumanity, so that the streets were washed, and the canals of Paris ran with their precious blood. What horrid and unparalleled torture the fervants of God felt in that cruel maffacre in Ireland, a history too tragical for a tender-hearted reader to ftay long upon; and how, in our own land, the most eminent minifters, and Chriftians, were fent to heaven in a fiery chariot, in thofe doleful Marian days: I iay, when we read, and confider fuch things as thefe, it rouzes our fears, and puts us. into frights, when we fee ourselves threatened with the fame. enemies and danger; when the feet of them that carried out the dear fervants of God in bloody winding-fheets to their graves, stand at the door, to carry us forth next, if providence loose their chain, and give them a permiffion fo to do; and our fears, on this account, are heightened, by confidering and involving thefe four things in our thoughts, which we are always more inclined to do, than the things that should fortify our faith, and heighten our Chriftian courage. As, 1. We are apt to confider, that as the fame race, and kind of men, that committed these outrages upon our brethren, are ftill 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. iv. 29. "As then he that was born after the flesh perfecut"ed him that was born after the fpirit, even fo it is now." So it was then, and juft fo it is ftill: the old enmity is entailed upon all wicked men, from generation to generation. Multi adbuc qui clavum fanguine Abelis rubentem adhuc circumferunt, Cain's Club is to this day carried up and down the world, stained with the blood of Abel, as Bucholtzer fpeaks. It is a rooted antipathy, and it runs in a blood, and will run, as long as there are wicked men, from whom, and to whom it shall be propagated, and a devil in hell, by whom it will not fail to be exafperated, and irritated. 2. We know, alfo, that nothing hinders the execution of their wicked purpofes against us, but the reftraints of providence; fhould God loose the chain, and give them leave to act forth the malice, and rage that is in their hearts, no pity would be fhewn by them, or could be rationally expected from them, Pfal. cxxiv. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We live among lions, and them that are fet on fire of hell, Pfal. Ivii. 4. The only reafon of our fafety is this, that he who is the keeper of the lions, is, alfo the fhepherd of the sheep. 3. We find, that God hath many times let loose these lions upon his people, and given them leave to tear his lambs in. pieces, and fuck the blood of his faints: how well foever he loves them, yet hath he often delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and suffered them to perpetuate, and act the greatest cruelties upon them; the beft men have fuffered the worst things, and the hiftories of all ages have delivered down unto us the most tragical relations of their barbarous usage. 4. We are conscious to ourselves, how far short we come, in holiness, innocency, and fpiritual excellency, of thofe excellent perfons who have fuffered these things; and therefore have no ground to expect more favour from providence, than they found: we know, alfo, there is no promife in the fcriptures, to which they had not as good a claim, and title, as ourselves, With us are found as great, yea, greater fins, than in them; and therefore have no reafon to please ourselves with the fond imaginations of extraordinary exemptions. If we think these evils fhall not come in our days, it is like many of them thought fo too; and yet they did, and we may find it quite otherwife. Lam. iv. 12. "Who would have thought that the enemy "should have entered in at the gates of Jerufalem?" The revolving of these, and fuch like confiderations, in our thoughts, and mixing our own unbelief with them, creates a world of fears, even in good men, till, by refignation of all to God, and acting faith upon the promises that affure us of the fanctification of all our troubles, as that Rom. viii. 28. God's presence with us in our troubles, as that Pfal. xci. 15. his moderation of our troubles, to that measure, and degree, in which they are fup. portable, Ifa. xxvii. 3. and the fafe, and comfortable outlet, and final deliverance from them all at last; according to that in Rev. vii. 17. We do, at laft, recover our hearts out of the hands of our fears again, and compofe them to a quiet, and fweet fatisfaction in the wife, and holy pleasure of our God. Gaufe 5. Our immoderate love of life, and the comforts, and conveniencies thereof, may be affigned as a proper, and real ground, and caufe of our finful fears, when the dangers of the times threaten the one, or the other: did we love our lives lefs, we should fear, and tremble lefs than we do. It is faid of those renowned faints, Rev. xii. 11. " They overcame by the blood "of the Lamb, and by the word of the teftimony, and they "loved not their lives unto the death." They overcame not only the fury of their enemies without them, but their finful 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 reafon, that our Lord enjoined it upon all his difciples, and followers, to hate their own lives, Luke xiv. 26. not abfolutely, but in comparison, and competition with him, i. e. to love it in fo remifs a degree, as to flight, and undervalue it, as a poor, low thing in such a comparison: he forefaw what sharp trials, and fufferings were |
