3 Caution. Whosoever expects the benefit of the following pre- scriptions and rules, must not think the reading, or bare remember- ing of them will do the work, but he must work them into his heart by believing and fixed meditation, and live in the daily prac- tice of them. It is not our opening of our case to a physician, nor his prescriptions and written directions that will cure a man, but he must resolve to take the bitter and nauseous potion, how much soever he loath it ; to abstain from hurtful diet, how well soever he loves it, if ever he expect to be a sound and healthful man. So it is in this case also. These things premised, the
1 Rule. The first rule to relieve us against our slavish fears, Is seriously to consider^ and more thoroughly to study the covenant of grace, within the blessed clasp and bwid -whereof' all believers are. I think the clear understanding of the nature, extent, and stability of the covenant, and of our interest therein, would go a great way in the cure of our sinful and slavish fears.
S82 A PRACTICAL TIIEATISE OF FEAK,
A covenant is more than a naked promise ; in the corenant, God hath graciously consulted our weakness, fears, and doubts, and therefore proceeds with us in the highest way of solemnity, con- firming his promises by oath, Heb. vi. 13, 17. and by his seals, Rom. vi. 11. Putting himself under the most solemn ties and en- gagements that can be, to his people, that from so firm a ratifica- tion of the covenant with us, we might have strong consolation, Heb. vi. 18. He hath so ordered it, that it might aiFord strong supports, and the most reviving cordials to our faint and timorous spirits, in all the plunges of trouble both from within and from without. In the covenant, God makes over himself to his people, to be unto them a God, Jer. xxxi. S3. Heb. viii. 10. Wherein the Lord bestows himself in all his glorious essential properties upon us, to the end that whatsoever his almighty power, infinite wisdom, and incomprehensible mercy can afford for our protection, support, deliverance, direction, pardon, or refreshment ; we might be assured shall be faithfully performed to us in all the straits, fears, and exi- gencies of our lives. This God expects we should improve by faith, as the most sovereign antidote against all our fears in this world, Isa. xliii. 1, 2. " Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O " Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not : for I have '' redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine; " when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,'' &c. Isa. xli. 10. " Fear not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for " I am thy God."
And if thou, reader, be within the bonds of the covenant, thou mayest surely find enough there to quiet thy heart, whatever the matter or ground of thy fears be : If God be thy covenant-God, he will be with thee in all thy straits, wants, and troubles, he will never leave, nor forsake thee. From the covenant it was that David encouraged himself against all his troubles, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. " Although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with ^' me an everlasting covenant, well ordered in all things and sure ; " this is all my salvation, and all my desire, though he make it not " to grow.'' He could fetch all reliefs, all comforts, and salvation out of it, and why cannot we ? He desired no more for the support of his heart ; this is all my desire ; and sure if we understood and believed it as he did, we could desire no more to quiet and comfort our hearts than what this covenant affords us. For,
1. Are we afraid what our enemies will do? We know we are in the midst of potent, politic, and enraged enemies; we have heard what they have done, and see what they are preparing to do again. We tremble to think what bloody tragedies are like to be acted over again in the world by their cruel hands : But O what heroic and noble acts of faith shoidd the covenant of God enable
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR. 283
thee to exert amidst all these fears ! If God be thy God, then thou hast an Almighty God on thy side, and tliat is enough to extinguish all these fears, Psal. cxviii. 6 " The Lord is on my side, I will not " fear what man can do unto me." Your fears come in the name of man, bat your help in the name of the Lord ; Let them plot, threaten, yea, and smite too ; God is a shield to all that fear him, and if God be for us, who can be against us ?
2. Are we afraid what God will do ; fear it not, your God will do nothing against your good : think not that he may forget you, it cannot be ; sooner may a tender mother forget her sucking child, Isa. xlix. 15. no; " He withdraweth not his eye from the " righteous," Job xxxvi. 7. His eyes are continually upon all the dangers and wants of your souls and bodies, there is not a danger or an enemy stirring against you, but his eye is upon it, 2 Chron. xvi. 9.
Are you afraid he will forsake and cast you off.'' It is true your sins have deserved he should do so, but he hath secured you fully against that fear in his covenant, Jer. xxxii. 40. " I will not turn " away from them, to do them good." All your fears of God's forgetting or forsaking you, spring out of your ignorance of the covenant.
3. Are you afraid what you shall do ? It is usual for the people of God to propose difficult cases to themselves, and put startling questions to their own hearts ; and there may be an excellent use of them to rouse them out of security, put them upon the search and trial of their conditions and estates, and make preparation for the worst ; but Satan usually improves it to a quite contrary end, to deject, affright, and discourage them. O, if fiery trials should come, if my liberty and life come once to be touched in earnest, I fear I shall never have strength to go on a step farther in the way of re- ligion : I am afraid I shall faint in the first encounter, I shall deny the words of the Holy One, make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience in the first gust of temptation. I can hear, and pray, and profess ; but I doubt I cannot burn, or bleed, or lie in a dun- geon for Christ. If I can scarce run with footmen in the land of peace, how do I think to contend with horses in these swellings of Jordan ?
But yet all these are but groundless fears, either forged in thy own misgiving heart, or secretly shuffled by Satan into it ; for God hath abundantly secured thee against fear in this very particular, by that most sweet, supporting, and blessed promise, annexed to the former in the same text, Jer. xxxii. 40. " I will put my fear into " their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Here is ano- ther kind of fear than that which so startles thee, promised to be put into thy heart, not a fear to shake and undermine thy assurance,
^84- A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR,
as this doth, but to guard and maintain it. And this is the fear that shall be enabled to vanquish and expel all thy other fears.