صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

this means the raging lusts of the hearts of men, and procuring reft and comfort for us in the world this way.

2. The use of finful fear.

This is formally evil and finful in its own nature, as well as the fruit of fin, and offspring of finful nature; yet the Lord knows how to over-rule it in his providential government of the world to his own wife and holy purposes. And he doth fo,

1. By making it his scourge to punisn his enemies. If men will not fear God, they shall fear men; yea, they shall be made a terror 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 tormentor, and his mind made a rack and engine of torture to his body. We read in 2 Kings xvii. 25. that God sent lions among the people; but certainly that is not to bad as for God to let loose our own fears upon us. No lion is so cruel as this passion, and therefore David esteemed it so great a deliverance to be delivered from all his fears, Pfal. xxxiv. 4. It is a dreadful threatening which is recorded in Deut. xxviii. 65, 66, 67. against the disobedient and rebellious, "Thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the fole " of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trem

[ocr errors]

bling heart, and failing of eyes, and forrow of mind, and thy "life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day " and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even; and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning, for the fear " of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the fight of "thine eyes which thou shalt see." When fear hath once feized the heart, you may fee death's colours displayed in the face. What a difmal life do they live, who have neither any peace by day, nor reft by night, but wearisome days and nights are appointed them! The days of such men are tiresome days; they with for the night, hoping it may give them a little rest; but their fears go to bed with them, their hearts pant and meditate terror; and then, Oh that it were day again!

2. By fear God punisheth his enemies in hell: it is 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 tripartite distinction of hell-torments, and tell us, God punishes the wicked there partly by remembrance of what is past, viz. the mercies and means they once had, but are there icrecoverably loft; partly by the sense of things present, even the

wrath of God overlaying foul and body; and partly by the fear of what is to come; and sure this is not the least part of the misery of these wretched cast-aways. Oh that fearful ‡ expectation of fiery indignation! more and more of God's wrath still coming on, as the waves of the fea, thrusting forward one on another; yea, this is that which makes the devils tremble, James ii. 19. Φεισσεσι, the word signifies such a noise as the roar of the sea, or the roaring of the waves when they break themselves against the rocks, and this is occafioned by the fears which are continually held as a whip over them.

3. Providence makes use of the flavish fears and terrors of wicked men, to dissipate and scatter them, when they are com bined, and confederated against the people of God; by these have they been routed, and put to flight, when there hath been no other visible power to do it: it is faid Plalm lxxviii. 55. God cast out the heathen before his people Ifrael; and by what means were those mighty nations subdued? Not by the strength of multitudes of the Ifraelites, but by their own fears; for it is faid, Josh. xxiv. 11, 12. "The Lord sent the hornet before

[ocr errors]

them, which drave them out *." These hornets were the fears and terrors of their own guilty and presaging mind, which buzzed and swarmed in their own breasts, and stung them to the heart, worse than the swords of the Ifraelites could do. " + The" odoret relates a memorable story of Sapores king of Perfia, " who had besieged many Chriflians in the city Nifibis, and put "them to great straits, so that little hopes of fafety were left

[ocr errors]

them; but in the depth of their distress, God fent an army of " hornets, and gnats, among their enemies, which got into the "trunks of their elephants, and ears, and nostrils of their hor

[ocr errors]

fes; which so enraged them, that they brake their harness, "caft their riders, and put them all to the rout, by which pro"vidence the Christians escaped." These hornets were terrible to them, but fears, which are hornets in a figure, are ten thou

‡ The mind, anxious about futurity, is in a calamitous state, and miferable before miseries come. Sen.

* Hornets, by a metaphor, signify sudden fear which was raised in their guilty minds by God. Lavat. on the place.

+ Sapores rex Percarum cum urbem Nisibin in qua erant Chriftiani, obsedisset; eamque affligeret, magna vis crabonum et culicum repente venit, et in promufcides cavas Elephantorum confedit, complevitque aures equorum, ita ut feffores excufferint, et turbatores ordines in fugam converterint, Hift. lib. 2. cap. 30,

sand times more terrible; they will quell, and fink the very hearts of the ftoutest 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, Plal ix. 20. "Put them in fear, O Lord, that they may " know themselves to be but men." One fright will scare them out of a thousand fond conceits and idle dreams.

3. The use of religious fear.

If God can make such fruit to grow upon fuch a bramble as the sinful, slavish fear of man is, what may we expect from religious fear, a choice root of his own Spirit's planting? The uses, and benefits hereof, are innumerable, and inestimable; but I must contract, and will only instance in three special uses of it.

1. By this fear the people of God are excited to, and confirmed in the way of their duty. Ecclef. xii. 13. "Fear God, " and keep his commandments" It is, custos utriusque tabulae, the keeper of both tables, because the duties of both tables are influenced by it. It is this fear of God that makes us have a due respect to all his commands, and it is as powerful to confirm us in, as it is to excite us to our duties. Jer. xxxii. 40. " I will put my fear into their inwards, and they shall not

[ocr errors]

depart from me." Look, as he that foweth doth not regard the winds, but goes on in his labour, whatever weather the face of heaven threatens; fo he that fears God, will be found in the way of his duty, let the aspect of the times be never so lowring, and discouraging: and, truly, this is no small advantage, in times of frights, and distractions. Slavish fear sets a man upon the devil's ground, religious fear upon God's ground: And, how vast an odds is there in the choice of our ground, when we are to endure a great fight of affliction!

2. Another excellent use of this fear is, to preserve the purity and peace of our confciences, by preventing grief and guilt therein, Prov. xvi. 6. "The fear of the Lord is to depart from "evil." See how it kept Joseph, Gen. xxxix. 9. and Nehemiah, chap. v. 15. And this benefit is invaluable, especially in a day of outward calamity and distress. Look, in what degree the fear of God prevails in our hearts, answerable thereunto will the serenity, peace, and quietness of our confciences 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 provifions for future distresses, that whensoever they come, they may not come by way of surprize upon us. Thus "Noah, being moved with fear, prepared an "ark," Heb. xi. 7. It was the instrument of his and his families salvation. Some men owe their death to their fears, but good men, in a sense, owe their lives to their fears; finful fears have lain some, and godly fears have faved others. "A wife " man feareth and departeth from evil, (faith Solomon) but a " fool rageth and is confident." His fears give him a timely alarm before the enemy falls into his quarters, and beat them up; by this means he hath time to get into his chambers of security and rest, before the storm fall: "But the fool rageth, and is confi" dent;" he never fears till he begins to feel; yea, most times he is past all hope before he begin to have any fear.

These are some of the uses God makes of the several kinds of fear.

[blocks in formation]

Wherein the springs and causes of finful fear are searched out, and the evils of fuch fears thence discovered.

Sect. 1.

HAVING shewn before, the kinds, and uses

of fear;

it remains, that next we search out the springs from which these waters of Marah are derived, and fed. And, Caufe 1. First, We shall find the finful fears of most good men to spring out of their ignorance, and the darkness of their own minds; all darkness disposes to fear, but none like intellectual darkness. You read, Cant. iii. 8. how Solomon's lifeguard had every man his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night. The night is the frightful season, in the dark every bush is a bear; we fometimes smile by day, to see what filly things those were that scared us in the night. So it is here; were our judgments but duely informed, how soon would our hearts be quieted?

Now there is a five-fold ignorance, out of which our fears are generated :

1. Ignorance of God: Either we know not, or at least do not duely confider his Almighty Power, vigilant care, unspotted faithfulness, and how they are all engaged, by covenant, for his people. This ignorance, and inconfiderateness, lay at the root of their fears, Ifa. xl. 27, 28. "My way (faith Zion) is "hid from the Lord, and my judgment passed over from my God: Words importing a fufpicion that God hath left 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, thoroughly understood, and believed, what power there is in God's hand to defend us, what tenderness in his bowels to commiserate us, what faithfulness in all the promises, in which they are made over to us, O how quiet and calm would our hearts be! Our courage would quickly be up, and our fears down.

2. Our ignorance of men generates our fears of men; we fear them, because we do not know them; if we understood them better, we would fear them less; we over-value them, and then fright at them. They say the lion is painted more fierce than he is; I am fure our fancy paints out man more dreadful than indeed he is; if wicked men, especially if multitudes of wicked men be confederated against us, our hearts fail, and presently apprehend inevitable ruin. "The floods of "the ungodly made me afraid," faith David, (i. e.) the multudes of them which he thought, like a flood or mighty torrent of water, must needs sweep away such a straw, such a feather, as he was, before them; but, in the mean time, we know, or confider not that they have no power against us, but what is given them from above, and that it is usual with God to cramp their hands, and clap on the bands of restraint upon them, when their hearts are fully fet in them to do mischief: did we fee, and confider them as they are in the hand of our God, we should not tremble at them as we do.

3. Ignorance of ourselves, and the relation we have to God, creates flavish fears in our hearts, Ifa. li. 12. for did believers but thoroughly understand how dear they are to God, what relations they sustain to him, of what account, and value, they are in his eyes, and how well they are secured by his faithful promises, and gracious presence, they would not start and tremble at every noise, and appearance of danger, as they do. God reckoned it enough to cure all Abraham's finful fears, when he told him how his God stood engaged for his defence. Gen. xv. 1. "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield."

And noble Nehemiah valued himself in times of danger and fear, by his interest in God, as his words import, Neh. vi. II. The confpiracy against him was strong, the danger he and the faithful with him at that time were in, was extraordinary; some, therefore, advised to flee to the temple, and barracado themselves there, against the enemy: But Nehemiah understood himself better; Should fuch a man as I flee? And who, being as I am, should flee? faithhe, y. d. A man fo called of God to this service,

« السابقةمتابعة »