coming upon them, and he knew if the fond, and immoderate love of life 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 flavish fears, and made him so magnanimous, and undaunted; indeed he had less fear upon his spirits, tho' he was to fuffer 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 fufferer. Acts xx. 24, 25. "None of these things move

me," faith he. Great foul! not moved with bonds, and afflictions! how did he attain so great courage, and coustancy of mind, in such deep, and dreadful fufferings! 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 Chrift better than his own life: but life was a trifle to him, in comparison with Jesus Christ, for fo he tells us in the next words, " I count " not my life dear unto me," q. d. It is a low-prized commodity in my eyes, not worth the saving, or regarding on such finful terms. Oh! how many have parted with Christ, peace, and eternal life, for fear of losing that which Paul regarded not. And if we bring our thoughts closer to the matter, we shall foon find that this is a fountain of fears in times of danger, and that from this excessive love of life we are racked and tortured 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 inferior interests in itself, Job ii. 4. "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, " will he give for his life." It is a real truth, thought it came from the mouth of the father of lies; afflictions never touch the quick, till they touch the life; liberty, estates, and other accommodations in this world receive their value and estimation from hence; if life be cut off, these accidents perish, and are of no account, Gen. xxv. 32. "Behold I am at the point to die, " (laid Esau) and what profit shall this birth-right do to me?"

2. Life being naturally the dearest interest of men in this world, the richest treasure, and most beloved thing on earth, to a natural man; that which strikes at, and endangers life, must, in his eyes, be the greatest evil that can befal him; on this account death becomes terrible to men; yea, as Job calls it, the king of terrors, Job xviii. 14. The black prince, or the prince of clouds and darkness, as some translate those words: Yea, so is terrible is death upon this account, that the very fear of it hath someVOL. IV.

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times precipitated men into the hands of it, as we sometimes ob ferve in times of pestilence, the excessive fear of the plague hath induced it *.

3. Though death be terrible in any shape, in the mildest form it can appear in; yet a violent and bloody death, by the hands of cruel and merciless men, is the most terrible form that death can appear in; it is now the king of terrors indeed, in the most ghaftly representation and frightful form, in its scarlet robes, and terrifying formalities; in a violent death, all the barbarous cruelty that the wit of our enemies can invent, or their malice inflict, is mingled together; in a violent death are many deaths converted into one, and it oftentimes approaches men by such flow and deliberated paces, that they feel every tread of its foot, as it advanceth towards them. Moriatur, ut fentiat Je mori; Let him fo die, (faid the tyrant) that he may feel himfelf to die; yea, and how he dies by inch-meal, or flow, lingering degrees and this is exceeding frightful, especially to those that are of most soft and tender nature and temper who must needs be struck through with the terrors of death, except, the Lord arm them againft it with the affurance of a better life, and fweeten these bitter apprehenfions by the foretastes of it. This is enough to put even fanctified nature into consternation, and make a very gracious heart to fink, unless it be so upheld by divine strength and comfort: And hence come many, very many of our fears and terrors, especially when the same enemies that have been accustomed to this bloody work, shall be found confederating and designing again to break in upon us, and act over again as much cruelty, as ever they have done upon our brethren in times past.

Cause 6. To conclude: many of our finful fears and conster. nations flow from the influences of Satan upon our phantafies. They say winds, and storms are oft-times raised by Satan, both by sea and land; and I never doubted, but the prince of the power of the air, by God's permission, can, and often doth, put the world into great frights and disturbances by such tempests, Job. i. 19. He can raise the loftiest winds, pour down roaring showers, rattle in the air with fearful claps of thunder, and scare

* Galen reports, that some have died suddenly through fear: It is not therefore a thing to be wondered at, in the opinion of Ariftotle, and almost all others, that a man should die, through the fear of death. The fear of evil sometimes brings on men that which they dread; as is evident from the example of those whose fear has prevented the death appointed them by the judge. Stern.an Death, p.167the 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 fancies and passions of men; and can raife more terrible storms and tempests within us, than ever we heard or felt without us: he can by leave from God, approach our phantalies, disturb and trouble them exceedingly by forming frightful ideas 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 foul, he influences the paffions of it, and puts it under very dreadful apprehenfions and consternations. Now if Satan can provoke and exafperate the fury and rage of wicked men, as it is evident he can do, as well as he can go to the magazines and store-houses of thunder, lightnings, and storms: O what inward forms of fear can he shake our hearts withal, and if God give him but a permiffion, how ready will he be to do it, seeing it is so conducible to his defign: for by putting men into such frights, he at once weakens their hands in duty, as is plain from his attempt his way upon Nehemiah, chap. vi. 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 flushed and frighted them out of their coverts. And thus you have fome account of the principal and true causes of our finful fears.

CHAP. V.

Laying open the finful and lamentable effects of flavish and inordinate fear, both in carnal and regenerate perfons.

Sect. 1. 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 itself? Let us then, in the next place, examine and well confider these following and deplorable effects of fear, to excite us to apply ourselves the more concernedly to those directions that follow in the close of this treatife, for the cure of it. And,

Effect 1. The first effect of this sinful and exorbitant paffion is distraction of mind and thoughts in duty: Both Cicero and Quintilian will have the word tumultus, a tumult, to come from

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timor multus, much fear, it is a compound of those two words; much fear raises great uproars and tumults in the foul, 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, Luke i. 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 lavith fear of enemies. The reverential fear of God is the greatest spur 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; it 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 Corinthians, about marriage in those times of persecution, and difficulty, he commends to them a single life as moft eligible: Where it may be without finful inconveniencies, and that principally for this reason, "That they might attend upon "the Lord without distraction," 1 Cor. vii. 35. He forefaw what straits, cares, and fears must unavoidably distract them in • such times that were most clogged and incumbred with families and relations; when a man should be thinking, O what shall I do now to get my doubts and fears resolved about my interest in Christ? How may I so behave myself in my sufferings as to credit religion, and not become a scandal and stumbling-ftone to others? His thoughts are taken up with other cares and fears: O what will become of my wife and poor little ones? What shall I do with them, and for them, to fecure them from danger.

I doubt not but it is a great design of the devil to keep us in continual alarms and frights, and to puzzle our heads and hearts with a thousand difficulties, which possibly may never befal us, or if they do, shall never prove so fatal to us as we fancy them, and all this is to unfit us for our present duties, and destroy our com. fort therein; for if by frights and terrors of mind he can but once distract our thoughts, he gains three great points upon us, to our unspeakable loss.

1. Hereby he will cut off the freedom and sweetness of our communion with God in duties, and what an empty shell will the best duties be, when this kernel is wormed out by such a fubtle artifice? Prayer, as Damascen aptly expresses it is ̓Ανάβασις τε νε, the ascension of the mind or foul to God; but distraction clips its wings; he can never offer up his foul and thoughts to God, that hath not the possession of them himself

and he that is under distracting fears possesseth not himself. The life of all communion with God in prayer, consists in the harmony that is betwixt our hearts and words, and both with the will of God; this harmony is spoiled by distractions, and so Satan gains that point.

2. But this is not all he gains, and we lose, by distracting fears; for as they cut off the freedom and sweetness of our intercourse with God in prayer, so they cut off the foul from the fuccours and reliefs it might otherwise draw from the promises. We find when the Ifraelities were in great bondage, wherein their minds were distracted with fears and forrows, they regarded not the supporting promises of deliverance sent them by Mofes, Exod. vi. 3. David had an express and particular promife of the kingdom from the mouth of God, which must needs include his deliverance out of the hand of Saul, and all his stratagems to destroy him; but yet, when eminent hazards were before his eyes, he was afraid, and that fear betrayed the succours from the promise, so that it drew a quite contrary conclusion, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. " I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul :" And again he is at the same point, Pfal. cxvi. 11. " All men

are liars," not excepting Samuel himself, who had assured him of the kingdom. This is always the property and nature of fear (as I thewed before) to make men distrust the best security when they are in eminent peril: But oh! what a mischief is this to make us suspicious of the promises, which are our chief relief and support in times of trouble: Our fears will unfit us for prayer, they will also shake the credit of the promises with us; and fo great is the damage we receive both ways, that it were better for us to lose our two eyes, than two such advantages in trouble. But,

3. This is not all, by our present fears, we lose the benefit and comfort of all our past experiences, and the singular relief we might have from all that faithfulness and goodness of God, which our eyes have seen in former straights and dangers, the present fear clouds them all, Ifa. li. 12, 13. Men and dangers are so much minded, that God is forgotten, even the God that hath hitherto preserved us, though our former fears told us, the enemy was daily ready to devour us. All these sweet reliefs are cut off from us by our distracting fears, and that at a time when we have most need of them.

Effect 2. Dissimulation and hypocrify are the fruit of flavish fear; distraction you fee is bad enough, but diffimulation is worse than distraction, and yet as bad as it is, fear hath driven good men into this spare; it will make even an upright foul