1. Experience greatly abates the terror of sufferings, and makes them less formidable and scaring than otherwise they would be. Fear saith, they are great waters, and will drown us ; experience saith, they are much shallower than we think, and are safely ford- able ; others have, and we may pass through the Red sea, and not be over-whelmed. Fear saith, the pains of death are unconceivable, sharp, and bitter, the living little know what the dying feel ; and to lie in a stinking prison in continual expectation of a cruel death, is an unsupportable evil : Experience contradicts all these false re- ports which make our hearts faint, as the second spies did the daunting stories of the first ; and assures us prisons and death are not, when we come home to them for Christ, what they seem and appear to be at a distance. O what a good report have those faith- ful men given, who have searched and tried these things f who have gone down themselves into the valley of the shadow of death, and seen what there is in a prison, and in death itself, so long as they were in sight and hearing, able by words or signs to contradict our false notions of it. Oh what a sweet account did Pomponius Alge- rius give of his stinking prison at Lyons in France ! dating all his letters whilst he was there. From the delectable orchard of the Leon- ine prison ; and when carried to Venice, in a letter from the prison there, he writes thus to his Christian friend ; / shall utter that which scarce any will believe^ I have found a nest of honey in the entrails of a lio7i, a paradise of pleasure in a deep darlc dungeon^ iii a place of sorrow and death, tranquillity of hope and life. Oh ! here it is that the Spirit of God and of glory rests upon us.
So blessed Mr. Philpot, our own martyr, in one of his sweet en- couraging letters : ' Oh how my heart leaps (saith he) that I am ' so near to eternal bliss ! God forgive me my unthankfulness and
* un worthiness of so great glory. I have so much joy of the re-
* ward prepared for me, the most wretched sinner, that though I
* be in the place of darkness and mourning, yet I cannot lament,
* but am night and day so joyful, as though I were under no cross
* at all ; in all the days of my life I was never so joyful, the name
* of the I^ord be praised.'
Others have given the signals agreed upon betwixt them and their friends in the midst of the flames, thereby, to the last, con- firming this truth, that God makes the inside* of sufferings quite another thing to what the appearance and outside of them is to
S08 A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
sense. Thus the experience of others abates the terrors of suffer^ ings to you ; and all this is fully confirmed by the personal ex- perience you yourselves have had of the supports and comforts of God, wherein soever you have conscientiously suffered for hig sake.
2. And this cannot but be a singular assistance to your faith ; your own and others experiences, just like Aaron and Hur, stay up the hands of faith on the one side and the other, that they hang not down, whilst your fears, like those Amalekites, fall be- fore you. For what is experience, but the bringing down of the divine promises to the test of sense and feeling ? It is our duty to believe the promises without trial and experiments, but it is easier to do it after so many trials ; so that your own and others expe- riences, carefully recorded and seasonably applied, would be food to your faith, and a cure to many of your fears in a suffering day.
Rule 10. You€an never free yourself from sinful fear s^ till yoio thorouglily believe and consider Chrisfs j^rovidential kingdom over all the creatures and affairs in this lower world.
Poor timorous souls ! is there not a King, a supreme Lord, under whom devils and men are ? Hath not Christ the reins of go- vernment in his hands? Mat. xxviii. 18. Phil. ii. 9, 10, 11, 12. John xvii. 2. Were this dominion of Christ, and dependence of all creatures on him, well studied and believed, it would cut oft* both our trust in men, and our fear of men ; we should soon dis- cern they have no power either to help us or to hurt us, but what they receive from above. Our enemies are apt to over-rate their own power, in their pride, and we are as apt to over-rate it too in our fears. Knowest thou not (saith Pilate to Christ) that I have jjower to crucify thee^ and I have power to release thee ? q. d. Re- fusest thou to answer me ? dost thou not know who and what I am ? Yes, yes, saith Christ, I know thee well enough to be a poor im- potent creature, who hast no power at all but what is given thee from above ; I know thee, and therefore do not fear thee. But we are apt to take their own boasts for truth, and believe their power to be such as they vainly vogue it to be ; whereas in truth all our enemies are sustained by Christ, Col. i. 17. they are bound- ed and limited by Christ, Rev. ii. 10. Providence hath its in- fluences upon their hearts and wills immediately, Jer. xv. 11. Psal. cvi. 46. so that they cannot do whatever they would do, but their wills as well as their hands are ordered by Ood. Jacob was in Laban's and in Esau's hands ; both hated him, but neither could hurt him. David was in Saufs hand, who Ijunted for him as a prey, yet is forced to dismiss him quietly, blessing instead of slay- ing him. Melancthon and Pomeron both fell into the hands of
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR. 309
Charles V. than whom Christendom had not a more prudent prince, nor the church of Christ a fiercer enemy ; yet he treats these great and active reformers gently, dismisseth them freely, not once forbidding them to preach or print the doctrine which he so much opposed and hated.
Oh Christian ! if ever thou wilt get above thy fears, settle these things upon thy heart by faith.
1. That the reins of government are in Christ's hands; ene- mies, like wild liorses, may prance and tramp up and down the world, as though they would tread down all that are in their way ; but the bridle of providence is in their mouths, and upon their proud necks, 2 Kings xix. 28. and that bridle hath a strong curb.
2. The care of the saints properly pertains to Christ; he is the head of the body, Eph. i. 22, 23. our consulting head ; and it were a reproach and dishonour to Christ, to fill our heads with dis^ tracting cares and fears, when we have so wise an head to consult and contrive for us.
3. You have lived all your days upon the care of Christ hither- to; no truth is more manifest than this, that there hath been a wisdom beyond your own, that hath guided your ways, Jer. x. 23. a power above your own, that hath supported your burdens, Psal. Ixxiii. 26. a spring of relief out of yourselves that hath supplied all your wants, Luke xxiii. 35. He hath performed all things for you.