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 be- comes terrible to men ; yea, as Job calls it, the king of' terrors^ Job xviii. 14. The black prince, or the prince of clouds and dark- ness, as some translate those words : Yea, so terrible is death upon this account, that the very fear of it hath sometimes precipitated men into the hands of it, as we sometimes observe in times of pes- tilence, 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 ghastly representation and frightful form, in its scarlet robes, and ten-ifying formalities ; in a violent death, all the barbarous cruelty that the
* Galen reports, that some have died suddenly through fear : It is not therefore a thing tQ be wondered at, in the opinion of Aristotle, 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 on death, p. 167.
S70 A I'RACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
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 slow and deliberate paces, that they feel every tread of its foot, as it advanceth towards them. Moriatur, ut sentiat se mori ; Let him so die, (said the tyrant) that he may feel himself to die ; yea, and how he dies by inch-meal, or slow, lingering degrees, and this is exceeding fright- ful, 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 against it with the assurance of a better life, and sweeten these bitter apprehensions by the fore- tastes of it. This is enough to put even sanctified nature into con- sternation, and make a very gracious heart to sink, 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 ene- mies 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 bre- thren in times past.
Cause 6. To conclude : many of our sinful fears and consterna- tions flow from the influences of Satan upon our phantasies. They say winds and storms are oft-times raised by Satan, both by sea and land ; and 1 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 the 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 raise more terrible storms and tempests within us, than ever we heard or felt without us : he can, by leave from God, approach our phantasies, disturb and trouble them exceedingly by forming frightful ideas there ; for Sa- tan 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 soul, he influences the passions of it, and puts it under very dreadful ap- prehensions and consternations. Now if Satan can provoke and exasperate 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 storms of fear can he shake our hearts withal ! and if God give him but a per- mission, how ready will he be to do it, seeing it is so conducible to his design ; for by putting men into such frights, he at once
A PEACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR. 271
weakens their hands in duty, as is plain from his attempt this way upon Nehemiah, chap. vi. 13. and if he prevail tliere, he drives them into the snares and traps of his temptations, as the fisherman and fowler do the birds and fishes in their nets, when once they have flushed and frighted them out of their coverts. And thus you have some account of the principal and true causes of our sinful fears.
Laying open the shifid and lamentable effects of slavish and inor* dinatejear^ both in carnal and regenerate persons.
Sect. I. JtIAVING taken a view in the foniier chapters of the kind 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 consider these following and deplorable effects of fear, to excite us to apply ourselves the more concernedly to those directions that follov; in the close of this treatise, for the cure of it. And,
Effect 1. The first effect of this sinful and exorbitant passion is distraction of mind and thoughts in duty : Both Cicero and Quin- tilian will have the v/ord tumultiis, a tumult, to come from timor omdtus^ much fear, it is a compound of those two words ; much fear raises great uproars and tumults in the soul, and puts all into hurries and distractions, so that we cannot attend upon any service of God witli 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 dis- tractions, till we can serve him without the slavish 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 ad- vice to the Corinthians about marriage in those times of perse- cution and difficulty, he commends them to a single life as most eligible : where it may be without sinful inconveniencies, and that principally for this reason, " That they might attend upon the " Lord without distraction/"* 1 Cor. vii. 35. He foresaw what
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