4. Jesus Christ hath secured his people by many promises to take care of them, how dangerous soever the times shall be, Eccl. viii. 12. Psal. Ixxvi. 10. Amos ix. 8, 9. Rom. viii. 28. Oh ! if these things were thoroughly believed and well improved, fears could no more distract or afflict our hearts, than storms or clouds could trouble the upper region : but we forget his providences and pro- mises, and so are justly left in the hands of our own fears to be af- flicted for it.
Rule 11. Subject your ca7"nal reasonings tojaith^ and keep your thoughts more binder the government of faith ^ fever you expect a composed and quiet heart in distracting evil times.
He tliat layeth aside the rules of faith, and measures all things by the rule of his own shallow reason, will be his own bugbear ; if reason may be permitted to judge all things, and to make its own inferences and conclusions from the aspects and appL^arances of second causes, your hearts shall have no rest day nor night : this alone will keep you in continual alarms.
And yet liow apt are the best men to measure things by this rule, and to judge of all God's designs and mvstc ous providences
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by it ! In other things it is the judge and arbiter, and therefore we would make it so here too ; and what it concludes and dictates we are prone to believe, because its dictates are backed and befriended by sense, whence it gathers its inteligence and information. O quam sapiens argumcntairia: sib'i videhir ratio humana f How wise and strong do its arguments and conclusions seem to us ! saith Luther. This carnal reason is the thing that puts us into such confusions of mind and thoughts. It is this that,
1. Quarrels with the promises, shakes their credit, and our confi- dence in them, Exod. v. 22, 23.
2. It is this that boldly limits the divine power, and assigns it boundaries of its own fixing, Psal. Ixxviii. 20, .41.
4. It is carnal reason that draws desperate conclusions from pro- vidential appearances and aspects, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. and prognosti- cates our ruin from them.
4. It is this carnal reason that puts us upon sinful shifts and in- direct courses to deliver and save ourselves from danger, which do but the more perplex and entangle us, Isa. xxx. 15, 16.
0. It is mostly from our arrogant reasonings that our thoughts are discomposed and divided ; from this fountain it is that they flow into our hearts in multitudes when dangers are near, Psal. xciv. 16. and xlii. 1.
All these mischiefs owe themselves to the exorbitant actings and intrusions of our carnal reasons ; but these things ought not to be so, this is beside rule. For,
1. Thouo>h there be nothing in the matters of faith or provi- dence contrary to right reason, yet there are many things in both, quite above the reach, and beyond the ken of reason, Isa. Iv. 8. And,
2. The confident dictates of reason are frequently confuted by experience all the world over : it is every day made a har, and the frights it puts us into, proved to be vain and groundless, Isa. H. 13.
Nothing can be better for us, than to resign up our reason to faith, to see all things through the promises, and trust God over all events.
Rule 12. To conclude, exalt the fear of God in your hearts, and let it gain the ascendant over all your other fears.
This is the prescription in ray text for the cure of all our slavish fears, and indeed all the fore-mentioned rules for the cure of sinful fears run into this, and are reducible to it. For,
1. Doth the knowledge and application of the covenant of grace cure our fears ? The fear of God is both a part of that covenant, and an evidence of our interest in it, Jer. xxxii. 40.
2. Doth sinful fear plunge men into such distresses of conscience ?
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AVhy, the fear of God will preserve your ways clean and pure, Psal. xix. 9. and so those mischiefs will be prevented.
3. Doth foresight and provision for evil days prevent distracting fears when they come ? Nothing like the fear of God enables us to such a prevision and provision for them, Heb. xi. 7.
4. Do we relieve ourselves against fear by committing all to God ? Surely it is the fear of God that drives us to him as our only asylum and sure refuge, Mai. iii. 16. They feared God, and thought ttpon Ms name, i. c. they meditated on his name, whicli was their refuge, his attributes their chambers of rest.
5. Must our affections to the world be mortified before our fears can be subdued.^ This is the instrument of mortification, Neh. V. 15.
6. Do the worthy examples of those that are gone before us, tend to the cure of our cowardice and fears ? Why, the fear of God will provoke in you an holy self-jealousy, lest you fail of the grace they manifested, and come short of those excellent patterns, Heb. xii. 15.
7. Is the assurance of interest in God, and the pardon of sin such an excellent antidote against slavish fear.? Why, he that walks in the fear of God, shall walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost also, Acts ix. 31.
8. Is integrity of heart and way such a fountain of courage in evil times ? Know, reader, no grace promotes this integrity and uprightness more than the fear of God doth, Prov. xvi. 6. and xxiii. 17.
9. Do the reviving of past experiences suppress sinful fears ? No doubt this was the subject which the fear of God put them upon, for mutual encouragement, Mai. iii. 16.
10. Are the providences of God in this world such cordials against fear ? The fear of God is the very character and mark of those persons over whom his providence shall watch in the difRcult- est times, Eccles. viii. 12.
11. Doth our trusting in our own reason, and making it our rule and measure, breed so many fears ? AVhy, the fear of God will take men off from such self-confidence, and bring them to trust the faithful God with all doubtful issues, and events, as the \cYy scope of my text fully manifests. Fear not their fear : their fear, moving by the direction of carnal reason, drove them not to God, but to the Assyrian for help. Follow not you their example in this. But how shall they help it ? Why, sanctify the Lord of Hosts, and make Mm your fear.
S12 A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
Answering the most material pleas for slavish Jears, and dissolving the common objections against courage and constancy of mind in tivies of danger.