There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
— Psalm 53:5
My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
— Malachi 2:5
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
— Ezekiel 11:16
Laying Open the Sinful and Lamentable Effects of Slavish and Inordinate Fear, Both in Carnal and Regenerate Persons, by John Flavel. The following contains Chapter Five of his work, “A Practical Treatise of Fear: Wherein the various kinds, uses, causes, effects and remedies thereof are distinctly opened and prescribed, for the relief and encouragement of all those that fear God in these doubtful and distracting times.” 1682.
CHAPTER V
Say ye not, A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy; neither fear ye [their fear] nor be afraid. 13. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; 14. And he shall be for a, sanctuary. — Isa. 8:12, 13. and part of ver. 14
Sect. I. Having taken a view in the former 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 follow in the close of this treatise, for the cure of it. And,
Effects
Effect 1. The first effect of this sinful and exorbitant passion is distraction of mind and thoughts in duty: Both Cicero and Quintilian will have the word tumultus, a tumult, to come from timor multus, 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 with profit or comfort. It was therefore a very necessary mercy that was requested of God, Luke 1:74. “That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear.” For it is impossible to serve God without distractions, 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 advice to the Corinthians about marriage in those times of persecution 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. 7:35. He foresaw what straits, cares, and fears must unavoidably distract those in such times that were most clogged and incumbered with families and relations; when a man should be thinking, O, what shall I do now to get my doubts and fears resolved about my interest in Christ? How may I so behave myself in my sufferings as to credit religion, and not become a scandal and stumbling-block to others? His thoughts are taken up with other cares and fears: O, what will become of my wife and poor little ones? What shall I do with them and for them, to secure them from danger.
I doubt not but it is a great design of the devil to keep us in continual alarms and frights, and to puzzle our heads and hearts with a thousand difficulties, which possibly may never befal us, or if they do, shall never prove so fatal to us as we fancy them, and all this is to unfit us for our present duties, and destroy our comfort therein; for if by frights and terrors of mind he can but once distract our thoughts, he gains three points upon us to our unspeakable loss.
1. Hereby he will cut off the freedom and sweetness of our communion with God in duties, and what an empty shell will the best duties be, when this kernel is wormed out by such a subtle artifice? Prayer, as Damascen aptly expresses it, is Ἀναβασις του νου the ascension of the mind or soul to God; but distraction clips its wings; he can never offer up his soul and thoughts to God, that hath not possession of them himself: and he that is under distracting fears possesseth not himself. The life of all communion with God in prayer, consists in the harmony that is betwixt our hearts and words, and both with the will of God; this harmony is spoiled by distraction, and so Satan gains that point.
2. But this is not all he gains and we lose by distracting fears; for as they cut off the freedom and sweetness of our intercourse with God in prayer, so they cut off the soul from the succours and reliefs it might otherwise draw from the promises. We find when the Israelites were in great bondage, wherein their minds were distracted with fears and sorrows, they regarded not the supporting promises of deliverance sent them by Moses, Exod. 6:3. David had an express and particular promise of the kingdom from the mouth of God which must needs include his deliverance out of the hand of Saul, and all his stratagems to destroy him; but yet, when imminent hazards were before his eyes, he was afraid, and that fear betrayed the succours from the promise, so that it drew a quite contrary conclusion, 1 Sam. 27:1. “I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul:” And again he is at the same point, Psal. 116:11. “All men are liars,” not excepting Samuel himself, who had assured him of the kingdom. This is always the property and nature of fear (as I shewed before) to make men distrust the best security when they are in imminent peril: But oh! what a mischief is this to make us suspicious of the promises, which are our chief relief and support in times of trouble: Our fears will unfit us for prayer, they will also shake the credit of the promises with us; and so great is the damage we receive both ways, that it were better for us to lose our two eyes, than two such advantages in trouble. But,
3. This is not all; by our present fears we lose the benefit and comfort of all our past experiences, and the singular relief we might have from all that faithfulness and goodness of God, which our eyes have seen in former straits and dangers, the present fear clouds them all, Isa. 51:12, 13. Men and dangers are so much minded, that God is forgotten, even the God that hath hitherto preserved us, though our former fears told us, the enemy was daily ready to devour us. All these sweet reliefs are cut off from us by our distracting fears, and that at a time when we have most need of them.
Effect 2. Dissimulation and hypocrisy are the fruit of slavish fear; distraction you see is bad enough, but dissimulation is worse than distraction, and yet as bad as it is, fear hath driven good men into this snare; it will make even an upright soul warp and bend from the rules of that integrity and candour, which should be inseparable at all times from a Christian: of whom (saith God to his Israel) hast thou been afraid, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me? God finds falsehood, and charges it upon fear, q. d. I know it was against the resolutions of my people’s hearts thus to dissemble, this certainly is the effect of a fright; who is he that hath scared you into this evil? It was Abraham’s fear that made him dissemble to the reproach of his religion, Gen. 20:2, 11. And indeed it was but an odd sight to see an heathen so schooling and reproving great Abraham about it, as he there doth.
It was nothing but fear that drew his son Isaac into the like snare, Gen. 26:7. And it was fear that overcame Peter against his promise, as well as principle, to say concerning his dear Saviour, I know not the man, Matth. 26:69. Had Abraham at that time remembered, and acted his faith freely upon what the Lord said to him, Gen. 17:1. Fear not Abraham, I am thy shield, he had escaped both the sin and the shame into which he fell, but even that great believer was foiled by his own fears; and certainly this is a great evil, a complicated mischief. For,
1. By these falls and scandals, religion is made vile and contemptible in the eyes of the world, it reflects with much reproach upon God and his promises, as if his word were not sufficient security for us to rely upon in times of trouble, as if it were safer trusting to our wit, yea, to sin, than to the promises.
2. It greatly weakens the hands of others, and proves a sore discouragement to them in their trials, to see their brethren faint for fear, and ashamed to own their principles; sometimes it hath this mischievous effect, but it is always improved by Satan and wicked men to this purpose. And,
3. It will be a terrible blow and wound to our own consciences, for such flaws in our integrity we may be kept waking and sighing many a night; O see the mischiefs of a timorous and faint spirit!
Effect 3. Slavish fears of the creature exceedingly strengthen our temptations in times of danger, and make them very efficacious and prevalent upon us, Prov. 29:25. The fear of man brings a snare. Satan spreads the net, but we are not within its reach, till our own fears drive us unto it; the recoiling of our spirits from some imminent dangers may cause the pulse of a true Christian to intermit and faulter, how regular soever it beats at other times: this will cause great trepidation and timidity in men that are sincere and upright, and that is it that brings the snare over their souls. Aaron was a good man, and idolatry he knew to be a great sin, yet fear prevailed with that good man to give too much way to that great evil, Exod. 32:22. Thou knowest the people that they are set upon mischief, saith he, in his own excuse in the matter of the golden calf, q. d. Lord, I durst do no otherwise at that time, the people were violently and passionately set upon it; had I resisted them, it might have cost me dear.
It was fear that prevailed with Origen to yield so far as he did in offering incense to the idol, the consideration of which fact brake his heart to pieces. It was nothing but fear that made David play the fool, and act so dishonourably as he did, 1 Sam. 21:12. Fear is a snare in which Satan hath caught as many souls as in any other of his stratagems and snares whatsoever.
It were easy to give instances, so many and so sad, as would enlarge this head even to tediousness, but I chuse rather to come to the particulars, wherein the danger of this snare of the devil consists. And
1. Herein lies the ensnaring danger of sinful fear, that it drives men out of their proper station, out of their place and duty, beside which there is none to be found, but what is Satan’s ground. The subtle enemy of our salvation is aware that we are out of gunshot, beyond his reach, whilst we abide with God in the way of our duty, that the Lord is with us whilst we are with him, and there is no attempting our ruin under the wings of his protection. If ever, therefore, he meaneth to do any thing upon us, he must get us off that ground, and from under those wings; and there is nothing like fear to do this: then we are as the birds that are wandering from their nests, Prov. 27:8. or like Shimei out of his limits.
2. Fear is usually the first passion in the soul that beats a parley with the enemy, and treats with the tempter about terms of surrender; and, as the French proverb is, The castle that parleys is half won. It is fear that consults with flesh and blood, whilst faith is engaged with God for the supply of strength to endure the siege. We have a sad and doleful instance of this in Spira; he tells us how his own fears betrayed him by parleying with the tempter: for thus Mr. Bacon, in the history of his life, records the occasion of his fall. ‘Whilst Spira was tossing upon the restless waves of doubts, without guide to trust to, or haven to flee for succour, on a sudden, God’s Spirit assisting, he felt a calm, and began to discourse with himself in this manner:’ “Why wanderest thou thus in uncertainties? Unhappy man! cast away fear, put on thy shield of faith; where is thy wonted courage, thy goodness, thy constancy? Remember that Christ’s glory lies at the stake, suffer then without fear, and he will defend thee, he will tell thee what thou shalt answer; he can beat down all danger, bring thee out of prison, raise thee from the dead; consider Peter in the dungeon, the martyrs in the fire,” &c.
‘Now was Spira in reasonable quiet, being resolved to yield to those weighty reasons; yet holding it wisdom to examine all things, he consults also with flesh and blood: thus the battle renews, and the flesh begins in this manner:’ “Be well advised, fond man, consider reasons on both sides, and then judge: how canst thou thus overween thine own sufficiency, as thou neither regardest the examples of thy progenitors, nor the judgment of the whole church? Dost thou not consider what misery this day’s rashness will bring thee unto? Thou shalt lose all thy substance gotten with so much care and travail, thou shalt undergo the most exquisite torments that malice itself can devise, thou shalt be counted an heretic of all, and to close up all, thou shalt die shamefully. What thinkest thou of the loathsome, stinking dungeon, the bloody ax, the burning faggot? Are they delightful?” &c. Thus through fear he first parleyed with the tempter, consulted with flesh and blood, and at last fainted and yielded.
3. It is fear that makes men impatient of waiting God’s time and method of deliverance, and so precipitates the soul, and drives it into the snare of the next temptation, Isa. 51:14. “The captive exile hasteth to be delivered out of the pit,” Any way or means of escape that comes next to hand, saith fear, is better than to lie here in the pit; and when the soul is thus prepared by its own fears, it becomes an easy prey to the next temptation: by all which you see the mischief that comes by fear in times of danger.
Effect 4. Fear naturally produceth pusillanimity and cowardliness in men, a poor, low spirit, that presently faints and yields upon every slight assault. It extinguisheth all Christian courage and magnanimity wherever it prevails: and therefore you find it joined frequently in the scriptures with discouragement, Deut. 1:21. “Fear not, neither be discouraged; with fainting and trembling.” Deut. 20:3. “Let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble;” with dismayedness, Deut. 31:6. and faint- heartedness, Isa. 7:4. these are the effects and consequents of sinful fear. And how dangerous a thing it is to have our courage extinguished, and faintness of heart prevail upon us in a time when we have the greatest need and use of courage, and our perseverance, peace, and eternal happiness rely and depend so much upon it, let all serious Christians judge. It is sad to us, and dishonourable to religion, to have the hearts of women, as it is said of Egypt, Isa. 19:16. when we should play the men, as the apostle exhorts us, 1 Cor. 16:13. We find, in all ages, those that have manifested most courage for Christ in time of trial, have been those whose faith hath surmounted fear, and whose hearts were above all discouragements from this world.
Such a man was Basil, as appears by his answer to Valens the emperor: who tempting him with offers of preferment, received this answer, offer these things, said he, to children: and when he threatened him with grievous sufferings, he replied; Threaten these things to your purple gallants, that give themselves to pleasure, and are afraid to die.
And this was the spirit of courage and magnanimity with which the generality of the primitive Christians were animated; they feared not the faces of tyrants, they shrunk not from the most cruel torments: and it redounded not a little to the credit of Christianity, when one of Julian’s nobles, present at the tormenting of Marcus, bishop of Arethusa, told the apostate to his face, We are ashamed, O emperor, the Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow more resolute by it. So Lactantius also testifies of them, Our women and children, saith he, not to speak of men, overcame their torments, and the fire cannot fetch so much as a sigh from them. If carnal fear once get the ascendant over us, all our courage and resolution will flag and melt away; we may suffer out of unavoidable necessity, but shall never honour Christ and religion by our sufferings.
Effect 5. Carnal fear is the very root of apostasy, it hath made thousands of professors to faint and fall away in the hour of temptation. It is not so much from the fury of our enemies without, as from our fears within, that temptations become victorious over us. From the beginning of fears, Christ dates the beginning of apostasy, Matt. 24:9, 10. “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake, and then shall many be offended.” When troubles and dangers come to an height, then fears begin to work at an height too, and then is the critical hour; fears are high, and faith is low; temptation strong, and resistance weak: Satan knocks at the door, and fear opens it, and yields up the soul to him, except special aid and assistance come in seasonably from heaven; so long as we can profess religion without any great hazard of life, liberty, or estates, we may shew much zeal and forwardness in the ways of godliness: but when it comes to the sharps, to resisting unto blood, few will be found to own and assert it openly in the face of such dangers. The first retreat is usually made from a free and open, to a close and concealed practice of religion; not opening our windows, as Daniel did, to shew we care not who knows we dare worship our God, and are not ashamed of our duties, but hiding our principles and practice with all the art and care imaginable, reckoning it well if we can escape danger by letting fall our profession which might expose us to it: but if the inquest go on, and we cannot be secured any longer under this refuge, we must comply with false worship, and give some open signal that we do so, or else be marked out for ruin; then saith fear, Give a little more ground, and retreat to the next security, which is to comply seemingly with that which we do not allow, hoping God will be merciful to us and accept us, if we keep our hearts for him, though we are forced thus to dissemble and hide our principles. Eamus ad communem errorem, said Calderinus, when going to the mass, Let us go to the common error; and, as Seneca adviseth about worshipping the Roman gods, In animo religionem non habeat, sed in actions fingat; let us make a semblance and shew of worshipping them, though our hearts give no religious respect to them. But if still the temptation hunts us farther, and we come to be more narrowly sifted and put to a severer test, by subscribing contrary articles, or renouncing our former avowed principles, and that upon penalty of death, and loss of all that is dear to us in this world; now nothing in all the world hazards our eternal salvation as our own fears will do; this is like to be the rock on which we shall split all, and make an horrible shipwreck both of truth and peace.
This was the case of Cranmer, whose fears caused him to subscribe against the dictates of his own conscience, and cowardly to betray the known truth; and indeed there is no temptation in the world that hath overthrown so many, as that which hath been backed and edged with fear: the love of preferments and honours hath slain its thousands, but fear of sufferings its ten thousands.
Effect 6. Sinful fear puts men under great bondage of spirit, and makes death a thousand times more terrible and intolerable than it would otherwise be to us. You read of some, Heb. 2:16. “who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage,” i.e. it kept them in a miserable anxiety and perplexity of mind, like slaves that tremble at the whip which is held over them: thus many thousands live under the lash; so terrible is the name of Death, especially a violent death, that they are not able with patience to hear it mentioned; which gave the ground of that saying, Præstat semel, quam semper mori; it is better to die once than to be dying always. And surely there is not a more miserable life any poor creature can live than such a trembling life as this is. For,
1. Such a bondage as this destroys all the comfort and pleasure of life; no pleasure can grow or thrive under the shadow of this cursed plant. Nil ei beatum cui semper aliquis terror impendeat, saith Cicero*, all the comforts we possess in this world are embittered by it. It is storied of Democles, a flatterer of Dionysius the tyrant, that he told him he was the happiest man in the world, having wealth, power, majesty, and abundance of all things: Dionysius sets the flatterer in all his own pomp at a table furnished with all dainties, and attended upon as a king, but with a heavy sharp sword hanging by a single horse hair right over his head; this made him quake and tremble, so that he could neither eat nor drink, but desired to be freed from that estate. The design was to convince him how miserable a life they live, who live under the continual terrors of impending death and ruin. It was a sore judgment which God threatened against them in Jer. 5:6. “A lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them; a leopard shall watch over their cities, every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces.” What a miserable life must those people live who could not stir out of the city, but they presently were seized by lions, wolves, and leopards, that watched over them, and lurked in all the avenues to make them a prey! and yet this is more tolerable than for a man’s own fear to watch continually over him.
2. And yet I could wish this were the worst of it, and that our fears destroyed no better comforts than the natural comforts of this life: but alas, they also destroy our spiritual comforts which we might have from God’s promises, and our own and others’ experiences which are incomparably the sweetest pleasures men have in this world: but as no creature-comfort is pleasant, so no promise relishes like itself to him that lives in this bondage of fear; when the terrors of death are great, the consolations of the Almighty are small.
In the written word are found all sorts of refreshing, strengthening and heart-reviving promises prepared by the wisdom and care of God for our relief in the days of darkness and trouble; promises of support under the heaviest burdens and pressures, Isa. 41:10. “Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right-hand of my righteousness.” A promise able to make the most timorous and trembling soul to shout with the joy of men in harvest, or as they that divide the spoil.
There are found the encouraging promises of defence and protection, Isa. 27:2, 3. and Isa. 33:2. promises that lead us unto the Almighty power of God, and put us under the wings of his care in time of danger.
Promises of moderation and mitigation in the day of sharp affliction, that we may be able to bear it, Isa. 27:8. 1 Cor. 10:13. Promises of deliverance out of trouble, if the malice of man bring us into trouble, the mercy of God will assuredly bring us out, Ps. 91:14, 15. and Psal. 125:3. And, which are most comfortable of all the rest, promises to sanctify and bless our troubles to our good, so that they shall not only cease to be hurtful, but, by virtue of the promise, become exceeding beneficial to us, Isa. 27:9. Rom. 8:28.
All these promises are provided by our tender Father for us against a day of straits and fears; and because he knew our weakness, and how apt our fears would be to make us suspect our security by them, he hath, for the performance of them, engaged his wisdom, power, care, faithfulness, and unchangeableness, 2 Pet. 2:9. Isa. 27:2, 3. 1 Cor. 16:9. 1 Cor. 10:13. Isa. 43:1, 2. In the midst of such promises so sealed, how cheerful and magnanimous should we be in the worst times! and say as David, Psal. 49:5. “Why should I fear in the day of evil?” Let those that have no God to flee to, no promise to rely upon, let them fear in the day of evil, I have no cause to do so. But even from these most comfortable refuges in the promises our own fears beat us; we are so scared that we mind them not so as to draw encouragement, resolution, and courage from them. Thus the shields of the mighty are vilely cast away.
S o for all the choice records of the saints experiences in all former troubles and distresses, God hath, by a singular providence (aiming at our relief in future distresses) preserved them for us; if danger threaten us, we may turn to the recorded experiences his people have left us of the strange and mighty influence of his providence upon the hearts of their enemies to shew them favour, Gen. 31:29. Psal. 16:4–6. Jer. 15:11.
T here are also found the ancient rolls and records of the admirable methods of his people’s deliverance, contrived by his infinite and unsearchable wisdom for them, when all their own thoughts have been at a loss, and their understandings posed and staggered, Exod. 15:6. 2 Chron. 20:12, 15. 2 Kings 19:3, 7.
There are the recorded experiences of God’s unspotted faithfulness, which never failed any soul that durst trust himself in its arms, Micah 6:4, 5. Josh. 7:9.
There are also to be found the records of his tender and most fatherly care for his children, who have been to him as a peculiar treasure in times of danger, Psal. 40:17 Deut. 32:10, 11, 12. Isa. 49:16. Jer. 49:16. and 36:7. 2 Chron. 16:9.
All these and many more supports and cordials are made ready to our hand, and provided for a day of trouble; but alas! to what purpose, if our own fears so transport us, that we can neither apply them, nor so much as calmly ponder and consider them.
3. To conclude; by these fears we are deprived of those manifold advantages we might gain by the calm and composed meditations of our own death, and the change it will make upon us; could we sit down in peace, and meditate in a familiar way upon death: could we look with a composed and well-settled mind into our own graves, and not be scared and frightened with the thoughts of death, and startle whenever we take it (though but in our thoughts) by the cold hand: To what seriousness would those meditations frame us? And what abundance of evils would they prevent in our conversations? The sprinkling of dust upon new writing prevents many a blot and blur in our books or letters: And could we thus sprinkle the dust of the grave upon our minds, it would prevent many a sin and miscarriage in our words and actions. But there is no profit or advantage redounding to us either from promises, experiences, or death itself, when the soul is discomposed and put into confusion by its own fears. And thus you see some of those many mischievous effects of your own fears.
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