1. We are 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 de- gree, but is as fierce and cruel as ever it was. Gal. iv. 29. " As " then he that was born after the flesh persecuted 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. Miilti adhuc qui clavum sanguine Ahelis riihentem adhuc circumferunt^ Cain's club is to this day canned up and down the world, stained with the blood of Abel, as Bucholtzer speaks. 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 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 shewn by them, or could be rationally expected from them, Psal. cxxiv. 1, 2, 3, 4,, 5, 6. We live among lions, and them that are set on fire of hell, Psal. Ivii. 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. AVe 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 blood of his saints : how well soever he loves them, yet hath he often delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and suffered them to perpetrate and act the greatest cruelties upon them ; the best men have suffered the worst things, and the histo- ries of all ages have delivered down unto us the most tragical rela- tions of their barbarous usage.
4. We are conscious to ourselves how far short we come in holi- ness, 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 : we know also there is no promise in the scriptures to which they had not as good a claim and title as ourselves. With us are found as great, yea, greater sins than in them ; and therefore have no reason to please ourselves with the fond imaginations of extraordinary ex- emptions. If we tliink these evils shall not come in our days, it is
268 A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
like many of them thouglit so too ; and yet they did, and we may find it quite otherwise. Lam. iv. 12. " Who would have thought ** that the enemy should have entered in at the gates of Jerusalem .?*' 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. viii. S8. God's presence with us in our troubles, as that Psal. xci. 15. his m.oderation of our troubles to that measure and degree, in which they are supportable, Isa. xxvii. 8. and the safe and comfortable outlet and final deliverance from them all at last; according to that in Rev. vii. 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.
Cause 5. Our immoderate love of life, and the comforts and con- veniences 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 the other : did we love our lives less, we should fear and tremble less than we do. It is said of those renowned saints, Rev. xii. 11. " They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the " word of their testimony, and they loved not their hves 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 enjoined it upon all his disciples and follow- ers, to hate their own lives, Luke xiv. 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 trials 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 spirits, 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 XX. 24, 25. " None of these things move me," saith he. Great soul ! not moved with bonds and afflictions ! how did he at- tain so great courage and constancy of mind, in such deep and
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR. 269
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. It is a low- prized commodity in my eyes, not worth the saving, or regarding on such sinful 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 soon 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, 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. xxv. 32. " Behold, I am at the point to die, (said Esau) and what profit " shall this birth-right do to me.?"