With design to promote this blessed frame, in my own and others hearts in these frightful times, I meditated, and now publish this small tract, to which a dear friend (from whom I have often had the fair idea and character of your excellent spirit) hath occasioned the prefixing of your worthy name ; I beg pardon for such an un- usual presumption, as also your charity in censuring the faults that will appear in it, when it shall come under so exact and judicious an eye ; it may be useful though it be not elegant ; its seasonableness
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IS its best commendation, and its aim better than its performance. As for you, Sir, I hope faith hath really placed your soul in that serene and happy station where Seneca fancied moral virtue to have placed a good man, Fatendum est, camnnine Olympi constitutus, supra ventos et jwocellas, et omnes res humanas : Above the storms and tempests of this unquiet and distracting world. But there are many gracious persons at this day labouring under their own fears, and whose hearts are ready to fail with looking for those thino-s that are coming to try them that dwell upon the earth ; and possi- bly somewhat of relief may be administered to many such, by tliis discourse ; some bivious and staggering souls may be established ; some discouraged and fainting spirits may be revived ; some doubts may be dissolved that have long perplexed gracious hearts. What- ever use it may be to any, I humbly call in the aid of your prayers to my own, for a special blessing upon it, and remain. Sir,
Yours to honour, love, and serve you,
Isa. viii. 12, 13. and part ofwer. 14.
Ver. 12. Say ye not, A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy ; 7ieither fear ye [their fiar^ nor he cifrakl. 13. Sanctrfy the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him he your fear, and let him he your dread; 14. And he shall he for a sanctuary. —
Wherein ihe text and context are opened, the doctrines propounded ^ and the general method stated.
i HERE is not more diversity found in the outward features, than in the inward tempers and dispositions of men ; some are as timorous as hares, and start at every sound or yelp of a dog ; others as bold as lions, and can face dangers without trembling ; some fear more than they ought, and some before they ought, and others when they ought not at all. The carnal person fears man, not God ; the strong Christian fears God, not man ; the weak Christian fears man too much, and God too little.
There is a fear which is the effect of sin springing from guilt.
242 A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
and hurrying the soul into more guilt ; and there is a fear which is the effect of grace, spiinging from our love to God, and his in- terest, and driving the soul to God in the way of duty. The less fear any man hath, the more happiness, except it be of that fear which is our happiness and our excellency.
It cannot be said of any man, as it is said of Leviathan, Job xli. 33. that he is made without fear ; those that have most fortitude are not without some fears ; and when the church is in the storms of persecution, and almost covered with the waves, the stoutest passengers in it may suffer as much from this boisterous passion within, as from the storm without ; and all for want of thoroughly believing, or not seasonably remembering that the Lord high Ad- miral of all the ocean, and Commander of all the winds, is on board the ship, to steer and preserve it in the storm.
A pregnant instance hereof is furnished to our hands in this con- text, where you find the best men trembling in expectation of the worst events both on the church in general, and themselves in par- ticular. " Their hearts were moved like the trees of the wood " shaken with the wind,*' chap. vii. 2.
And, indeed, if their dangers were to be measured by sense only, their fears were not above the value of the cause, yea, their danger seemed to exceed their fears ; for it was the invasion of a foreign and cruel enemy, even the Assyrian, who were to break in upon them, like a breach of the sea, and ovei-flow the land of Im- manuel. Ver. 7. " The Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of *' the river, strong and many ; even the king of Assyria, and all ^' his glory, and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over '^ all his banks."' And as the 7th verse resembles the enemy to waters, which quickly drown the country into which they break, so the 8th verse tells you how far they should prevail, and how near it should come to a general and total ruin. " He shall pass through -' Judah, he sliali overflow and go over ; he shall reach even to the " neck, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of ^* thy land, O Immanuel." All the body shall be under water, except the capital city, which remained above water.
Having thus described the power and success of the invading €nemy, in the 9th and 10th verses, he derides their plots and com- binations, assuring them, that although God, for just and holy ends, would permit them, for a time, to afflict his people ; yet the issue of all these counsels and cruelties should recoil upon themselves, and end in their own ruin and confusion.
And thereupon Isaiah is commanded to encourage the feeble and trembling hearts of such as feared Gt)d in those distracting and frightful times. Ver. 11, 12, 13. " The Lord spake unto me " with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in
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^' the way of this ])eople, saying, Say ye not a confederacy," &c.
God speaking to the prophet by a strong hand, imports the strong and mighty impression that was made upon his heart, by the spirit of prophecy ; wlierein the Lord did, as it were, lay his hand upon him, as a man doth upon one to whom he is about to impart some special secret in a familiar way, q. d. Come hither, Isaiah, (drawing liim to him at the same instant, with a friendly hand) take deep notice of what I am now to give thee in charge, both with respect to thyself, and my elect people that follow thee ; ** Say not ye, A confederacy to all them to whom this people " shall say a confederacy,'"* i. e. let not these frightful tidings work upon you as they do upon Ahaz, and the common multitude with him, who are so terrified and scared with the approaching dangers, that all their counsels, thoughts, and studies, are taken up in pre- venting it, by making a confederacy or league with the Assyrian : Hos. V. 13. or if that cannot be, then with some foreign power that may secure them against the Assyrian : but their eyes are not at all to me for protection and deliverance ; they expect more from Egypt than from heaven ; from a broken reed, than from the rock of ages. Fear not you their fear; their fear drives them from God to the creature ; it first distracts them, and then ensnares them.