But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
~ Luke 21:9
The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
~ Proverbs 18:10
Prescribing the Rules to Cure our Sinful Fears, and Prevent These Sad and Woful Effects of Them, by John Flavel. The following contains Chapter Six of his work, “A Practical Treatise of Fear”.
Say ye not, A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy; neither fear ye (their fear) nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; And he shall be for a sanctuary.— Isa. 8:12, 13, 14a
CHAPTER VI
Sect. I. We are now come to the most difficult part of the work, viz. the cure of the sinful and slavish fear of creatures in times of danger, which if it might, through the blessing of God be effected, we might live at heart’s ease in the midst of all our enemies and troubles, and, like the sun in the heavens, keep on our steady course in the darkest and gloomiest day. But before I come to the particular rules, it will be necessary, for the prevention of mistakes, to lay down three useful cautions about this matter.
Cautions
1 Caution. Understand that none but those that are in Christ are capable to improve the following rules to their advantage. The security of our souls is the greatest argument used by Christ to extinguish our fears of them that kill the body, Matth.10:28. But if the soul must unavoidably perish when the body doth, if it must drop into hell before the body be laid in the grave, if he that kills the body doth, by the same stroke, cut off the soul from all the means and possibilities of mercy and happiness for ever, what can be offered in such a case, to relieve a man against fear and trembling?
2 Caution. Expect not a perfect cure of your fears in this life; whilst there are enemies and dangers, there will be some fears working in the best hearts: If our faith could be perfected, our fears would be perfectly cured; but whilst there is so much weakness in our faith, there will be too much strength in our fears. And for those who are naturally timorous, who have more of this passion in their constitution than other men have, and those in whom melancholy is a rooted and chronical disease, it will be hard for them totally to rid themselves of fears and dejections, though in the use of such helps and means as follow, they may be greatly relieved against the tyranny of them, and enabled to possess their souls in much more tranquillity and comfort.
3 Caution. Whosoever expects the benefit of the following prescriptions and rules, must not think the reading, or bare remembering of them will do the work, but he must work them into his heart by believing and fixed meditation, and live in the daily practice 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
Rules
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 bond 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.
A covenant is more than a naked promise; in the covenant, God hath graciously consulted our weakness, fears, and doubts, and therefore proceeds with us in the highest way of solemnity, confirming his promises by oath, Heb. 6:13, 17 and by his seals, Rom. 6:11. Putting himself under the most solemn ties and engagements that can be, to his people, that from so firm a ratification of the covenant with us, we might have strong consolation, Heb. 6:18. He hath so ordered it, that it might afford 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. 31:33. Heb. 8:10. 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 exigencies of our lives. This God expects we should improve by faith, as the most sovereign antidote against all our fears in this world, Isa. 43:1, 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. 41:10. “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. 23:5. “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 should the covenant of God enable thee to exert amidst all these fears! If God be thy God, then thou hast an Almighty God on thy side, and that is enough to extinguish all these fears, Psal. 118:6 “The Lord is on my side, I will not “fear what man can do unto me.” Your fears come in the name of man, but 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. 49:15. no; “He withdraweth not his eye from the “righteous,” Job 36:7. 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. 16:9.
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. 32:40. “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 religion: 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 dungeon 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. 32:40. “I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Here is another 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, 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.
4. Or are you afraid what the church shall do? And what will become of the ark of God? Do you see a storm gathering, winds begin to roar, the waves to swell; and are you afraid what will become of that vessel the church, in which you have so great an interest?
It is an argument of the publicness and excellency of thy spirit, to be thus touched with the feeling sense of the church’s sufferings and dangers. Most men seek their own things, and not the things that are Christ’s, Phil. 2:21. But yet it is your sin so to fear, as to sink and faint under a spirit of despondency and discouragement, which yet many good men are but too apt to do. I remember an excellent passage in a letter of* Luther’s to Melancthon upon this very account. ‘In private troubles, saith he, I am weaker, and thou art stronger; thou despisest thy own life, but fearest the public cause: but for the public I am at rest, being assured that the cause is just and true, yea, that it is Christ’s and God’s cause. I am well nigh a secure spectator of things, and esteem not any thing these fierce and threatening Papists can do. I beseech thee by Christ, neglect not so Divine promises and consolations, where the scripture saith, Cast thy care upon the Lord, wait upon the Lord, be strong, and he shall comfort thy heart.’† And in another epistle! ‘I much dislike those anxious cares, which, as thou writest, do almost consume thee. It is not the greatness of the danger, but the greatness of thy unbelief. John Huss and others were under greater danger than we; and if it be great, he is great that orders it. Why do you afflict yourself? if the cause be bad, let us renounce it; if it be good, why do we make him a liar who bids us be still? as if you were able to do any good by such unprofitable cares. I beseech thee, thou that in other things art valiant, fight against thyself, thine own greatest enemy, that puts weapons into Satan’s hand.’
You see how good men may be even overwhelmed with public fears; but certainly if we did well consider the bond of the covevant that is betwixt God and his people, we should be more quiet and composed. For by reason thereof it is, 1. That God is in the midst of them, Psal. 46:1, 2, 3, 4. When any great danger threatened the reformed church in its tender beginning, in Luther’s time, he would say, Come let us sing the 46. Psalm; and indeed it is a lovely song for such times: it bears the title of A song upon Alamoth, or a song for the hidden ones; God is with them to cover them under his wings. 2. And it is plain matter of fact, evident to all the world, that no people under the heavens have been so long and so wonderfully preserved as the church hath been; it hath over-lived many bloody massacres, terrible persecutions, subtle and cruel enemies; still God hath preserved and delivered it, for his promises obliged him to do it, amongst which those two are signal and eminent ones, Jer. 30:11. Isa. 27:3. And it is obvious to all that will consider things, that there are the self-same motives in God, and the self-same grounds and reasons before him, to take care of his church and people, that ever were in him, or did ever lie before him from the beginning of the world. For (1.) The relation is still the same. What though Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those renowned believers, be in their graves, and those that succeed be far inferior to them in grace and spiritual excellency; yet saith the church, doubtless thou art our Father. There is the same tie and bond betwixt the Father and the youngest weakest child in the family, as the eldest and strongest. (2.) His pity and mercy is still the same, for that endures for ever: his bowels yearn as tenderly over his people in their present, as ever they did in any past afflictions or straits. (3.) The rage and malice of his and his people’s enemies is still the same, they will reflect as blasphemously and dishonourably upon God now, should he give up his people, as ever they did. Moses’ argument is as good now as ever it was, What will the Egyptians say? and so is Joshua’s too, What wilt thou do unto thy great name? Oh! if these things were more thoroughly studied and believed, they would appease many fears.
2. Rule. Work upon your hearts the consideration of the many mischiefs and miseries men draw upon themselves and others, both in this world and that to come, by their own sinful fears.
1. The miseries and calamities that sinful fear brings upon men in this world are unspeakable: this is it that hath plunged the consciences of so many poor wretches into such deep distresses: this it is that hath put them upon the rack, and made them roar like men in hell among the damned. Some have been recovered, and others have perished in these deeps of horror and despair. “*In the year 1550 there was at Ferrara in Italy one Faninus, who by reading good books was by the grace of God converted to the knowledge of the truth, wherein he found such sweetness, that by constant reading, meditation, and prayer, he grew so expert in the scriptures, that he was able to instruct others; and though he durst not go out of the bounds of his calling to preach openly yet by conference and private exhortations he did good to many. This coming to the knowledge of the pope’s clients, they apprehended and committed him to prison, where he renounced the truth, and was thereupon released: but it was not long before the Lord met with him for it; so as falling into horrible torments of conscience, he was near unto utter despair; nor could he be freed from those terrors before he had fully resolved to venture his life more faithfully in the service of Christ.”
Dreadful was that voice which poor Spira seemed to hear in his own conscience, as soon as ever his sinful fears had prevailed upon him to renounce the truth. “Thou wicked wretch thou hast denied me, thou hast renounced the covenant of thine obedience, thou hast broken thy vow; hence, apostate, bear with thee the sentence of thine eternal damnation.” Presently he falls into a swoon, quaking and trembling, and still affirmed to his death, “That from that time he never found any ease or peace in his mind:” but professed, “that he was captivated under the revenging hand of the Almighty God: and that he continually heard the sentence of Christ, the just Judge against him; and that he knew he was utterly undone, and could neither hope for grace, or that Christ should intercede for him to the Father.”
In our dreadful Marian days, Sir John Cheek, who had been tutor to King Edward VI. was cast into the tower, and kept close prisoner, and there put to this miserable choice, either to forego his life, or that which was more precious, his liberty of conscience; neither could his liberty be procured by his great friends at any lower rate than to recant his religion: This he was very unwilling to accept of, till his hard imprisonment, joined with threats of much worse in case of his refusal, at last wrought so upon him, whilst he consulted with flesh and blood, as drew from him an abrenunciation of that truth which he had so long professed, and still believed: Upon this he was restored to his liberty, but never to his comfort; for the sense of his own apostasy, and the daily sight of the cruel butcheries exercised upon others for their constant adherence to the truth, made such deep impressions upon his broken spirit, as brought him to a speedy end of his life, yet not without some comfortable hopes at last.
Our own histories abound with multitudes of such doleful examples.
Some have been in such horror of conscience that they have chosen strangling rather than life; they have felt that anguish of conscience that hath put them upon desperate resolutions and attempts against their own lives to rid themselves of it. This was the case of poor Peter Moon, who being driven by his own fears to deny the truth, presently fell into such horror of conscience, that seeing a sword hanging in his parlour, would have sheathed it in his own bowels. So Francis Spira, before-mentioned, when he was near his end, saw a knife on the table, and running to it, would have michiefed himself, had not his friends prevented him; thereupon he said, O! that I were above God, for I know that he will have no mercy on me. He lay about eight weeks (saith the historian) in a continual burning, neither desiring or receiving any thing but by force, and that without digestion, till he became as an anatomy; vehemently raging for drink, yet fearing to live long; dreadful of hell, yet coveting death; in a continual torment, yet his own tormentor; and thus consuming himself with grief and horror, impatience and despair, like a living man in hell, he represented an extraordinary example of God’s justice and power, and so ended his miserable life.
Surely it were good to fright ourselves by such dreadful examples out of our sinful fears; is any misery we can fear from the hands of man like this? O, reader! believe it, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.” Hadst thou ever felt the rage and efficacy of a wounded and distressed conscience, as these poor wretches felt it, no fears or threats of men should drive thee into such an hell upon earth as this is.
2. And yet, though this be a doleful case, it is not the worst case your own sinful fears will cast you into, except the Lord overcome and extinguish them in you by the fear of his name, they will not only bring you into a kind of hell upon earth, but into hell itself for evermore; for so the righteous God hath said in his word of truth, Rev. 21:8. “but the fearful and unbelieving, &c. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Behold here the martial law of heaven executed upon cowards and renegadoes, whose fears make them revolt from Christ in the time of danger. Think upon this, you timorous and faint-hearted professors: you cannot bear the thoughts of lying in a nasty dungeon, how will you lie then in the lake of fire and brimstone? You are afraid of the face and frowns of a man that shall die, but how will you live among devils? Is the wrath of man like the fury of God poured out? Is not the little finger of God heavier than the loins of all the tyrants in the world? Remember what Christ hath said, Mat.10:33. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Reader, the time is coming when he that spake these words shall break out of heaven with a shout, accompanied with myriads of angels, and ten thousands of his saints, the heavens and the earth shall be in dreadful conflagrations round about him; the last trump shall sound, the graves shall open, the earth and sea shall give up the dead that are in them. Thine eyes shall see him ascend the awful throne of judgment, his faithful ones that feared not to own and appear for him in the face of all enemies and dangers, sitting on the bench, as assessors with him; and then to be disclaimed and renounced for ever by Jesus Christ, in the face of that great assembly, and proclaimed a delinquent, a traitor to him, that deniedst his name and truths, because of the frowns of a fellow-creature, long since withered as the grass. Oh how wilt thou be able to endure this! Now put both these together, in thy serious consideration, think on the terrors of conscience here, and the desperate horror of it in hell; this is a par-boiling, that as a roasting in the flames of God’s insufferable wrath: these as some scalding drops sprinkled before-hand upon thy conscience, that tender and sensible part of man; that as the lake burning for ever with fire and brimstone. Oh! who would suffer himself to be driven into all this misery, by the fears of these sufferings which can but touch the flesh; and for their duration, they are but for a moment!
Think, and think again upon those words of Christ, Mark 8:35. “He that will save his life shall lose it.” It may be a prolonging of a miserable life, a life worse than death, even in thine own account; a life without the comfort or joy of life; a life ending in the second death; and all this for fear of a trifle, compared with what thou shalt afterwards feel in thine own conscience, and less than a trifle, nothing, compared with what thou must suffer from God for ever.
Rule 3. He that will overcome his fears of sufferings, must foresee and provide before-hand for them.
The fear of caution is a good cure to the fear of distraction; and the more of that, the less of this; this fear will cure that, as one fire draws forth another, Heb. 11:7. “Noah being moved with fear, prepared an ark.” In which he provided as much for the rest and quiet of his mind, as he did for the safety of his person and family. That which makes evils so frightful as they are, is their coming by way of surprize upon us. Those troubles that find us secure, do leave us distracted and desperate. Presumption of continued tranquillity proves one of the greatest aggravations of misery. Trouble will lie heavy enough when it comes by way of expectation, but it is intolerable when it comes quite contrary to expectation. It will be the lot of Babylon to suffer the unexpected vials of God’s wrath, and I wish none but she and her children may be so surprized. Rev. 18:7. Oh! it were well for us, if, in the midst of our pleasant enjoyments, we would be putting the difficultest cases to ourselves, and mingle a few such thoughts as these with all our earthly enjoyments and comforts.
I am now at ease in the midst of my habitation, but the time may be at hand when my habitation shall be in a prison. I see no faces at present but those of friends, full of smiles and honours; I may see none shortly but the faces of enemies, full of frowns and terrors. I have now an estate to supply my wants, and provide for my family; but this may shortly fall as a prey to the enemy, they may sweep away all that I have gathered, reap the fruits of all my labours.—Impius has segetes. I have yet my life given me for a prey; but oh! how soon may it fall into cruel and blood- thirsty hands! I have no better security for these things than the martyrs had, who suffered the loss of all these things for Christ’s sake. A double advantage would result to us from such meditations as these, viz. the advantage,
1. Of acquittance with Troubles
2. Of preparation for
1. Hereby our thoughts would be better acquainted with these evils; and the more they are acquainted with, the less they will start and fright at them. We should not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, as it is, 1 Pet. 4:12. It is with our thoughts as it is with young colts; they start at every new thing they meet; but we cure them of it, by bringing them home to that they start at, and making them smell to it; better acquaintance cures this startling humour. The newness of evil*, saith a late grave and learned divine, is the cause of fear, when the mind itself hath had no preceding encounter with it, whereby to judge of its strength, nor example of another man’s prosperous issue, to confirm its hopes in the like success; For, as I noted before out of the Philosopher†, experience is instead of armour, and is a kind of fortitude, enabling both to judge, and to bear troubles; for there are some things which are μορμολυκεια και προσωπεια, scare-crows and vizors, which children fear only out of ignorance; as soon as they are known they cease to be terrible.
I know our minds naturally reluctate and decline such harsh and unpleasant subjects: It is hard to bring our thoughts to them in good earnest, and harder to dwell so long as is necessary to this end upon them. We had rather take a pleasant prospect of future felicity and prosperity in this world; of multiplying our days as the sand, and at last dying quietly in our nest, as Job speaks. Our thoughts run nimbly upon such pleasant fancies, like oiled wheels, and have need of trigging; but when they come into the deep and dirty ways of suffering, there they drive heavily, like Pharaoh’s chariots dismounted from their wheels. But that which is most pleasant is not always most useful and necessary; our Lord was well acquainted with griefs, though our thoughts be such great strangers to them; he often thought and spake of his sufferings, and of the bloody baptism with which he was to be baptized, Luke 12:50. and he not only minded his own sufferings before-hand, but when he perceived the fond imaginations and vain fancies of some that followed and professed him, deluding them with expectations of earthly prosperity and rest, he gave their thoughts a turn to this less pleasing, but more needful subject, the things they were to surfer for his name; instead of answering a foolish and groundless question, of sitting on his right and left hand, like earthly grandees, he rebukes the folly of the Questionist, and asks a less pleasing question, Mat. 20:22. “But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask; are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I shall be baptized with? q. d. You do but abuse yourselves with such fond and idle dreams, there is other employment cut out for you in the purposes of God; instead of sitting upon thrones and tribunals, it would become you to think of being brought before them as prisoners to receive your doom and sentence to die for my sake; these thoughts would do you a great deal more service.
2. As such meditations would acquaint us better, so they would prepare us better to encounter troubles and difficult things when they come. Readiness and preparation would subdue and banish our fears; we are never much scared with that for which our minds are prepared. There is the same difference in this case, as there is betwixt a soldier in complete armour, and ready at every point for his enemy; and one that is alarmed in his bed, who hath laid his clothes in one place, and his arms in another, when his enemy is breaking open his chamber door upon him. It was not therefore without the most weighty reason, that the apostle presses us so earnestly, Eph. 6:13, 14. “Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” We see the benefit of such previsions and provisions for suffering, in that great example of courage and constancy, Acts 21:13. “I am ready, (saith Paul) not only to be “bound, but to die at Jerusalem.” And the same courage and constancy remained in him, when he was entering the very lists, and going to lay his very neck upon the block, 2 Tim. 4:6. “I am ready to be offered up, the time of my departure is at hand.” The word σπενο͂ομαι, properly signifies a libation or drink-offering, wherein some conceive he alluded to the very kind of his own death, viz. by the sword; his heart was brought to that frame, that he could with as much willingness pour out his blood for Christ, as the priests used to pour out drink-offerings to the Lord. It is true, all the meditations and preparations in the world, made by us, are not sufficient in themselves to carry us through such difficult services; it is one thing to see death as our fancy limns it out at a distance, and another thing to look death itself in the face. We can behold the painted lion without fear, but the living lion makes us tremble: but yet, though our suffering-strength comes not from our own preparations or forethoughts of death, but from God’s gracious assistance; yet usually that assistance of his is communicated to us in and by the conscientious and humble use of these means; let us therefore be found waiting upon God for strength, patience, and resolutions to suffer as it becomes Christians, in the daily serious use of those means whereby he is pleased to communicate to his people.
Rule 4. If ever you will subdue your own slavish fears, commit yourselves, and all that is yours into the hands of God by faith.
This rule is fully confirmed by that scripture, Prov. 16:3. “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” The greatest part of our trouble and burden, in times of danger, arises from the unsettledness and distraction of our own thoughts; and the way to calm and quiet our thoughts is to commit all to God. This rule is to be applied for this end and purpose, when we are going to meet death itself, and that in all its terrible formalities, and most frightful appearances, 1 Pet. 4:19. “Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” And if this committing act of faith be so useful at such a time, when the thoughts must be supposed to be in the greatest hurry, and fears in their full strength; much more will it establish the heart, and calm its passions in lesser troubles. You know what ease and relief it would be to you, if you had a trial depending in law for your estates, and your hearts were overloaded and distracted with cares and fears about the issue of it: if one whom you know to be very skilful and faithful, should say to you at such a time, trouble not yourself any farther about this business, never break an hour’s sleep more for this matter; be you an unconcerned spectator, commit it to me, and trust me with the management of it; I will make it my own concernment, and save you harmless. O what a burden, what an heavy load would you feel yourselves eased of, as soon as you had thus transferred and committed it to such a hand! then you would be able to eat with pleasure and sleep in quietness: much more ease and quietness doth your committing the matter of your fears to God give, even so much more as his power, wisdom, and faithfulness is greater than what is to be found in men. But to make this rule practicable and improveable to peace and quietness of heart in an evil day, it will be necessary that you well understand,
1. What the committing act of faith is.
2. What grounds and encouragements believers have for it.
1. Study well the nature of this committing act of faith, and what it supposes or implies in it; for all men cannot commit themselves to God, it is his own people only that can do it: nor is it every thing they can commit to God; they cannot commit themselves to his care and protection in any way but only in his own ways. Know more particularly,
1st, That he who will commit himself to God, must commit himself to him in well doing, as the apostle limits it in 1 Pet. 4:19. and in things agreeable to his will; else we would make God a patron and protector of our sins: Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing. We cannot commit our sins, but our duties to God’s protection; God is so great a friend to truth and righteousness, that in such a case he will not take your part, how dear soever you be to him, if truth be found on your enemies part, and the mistake on yours. Think not to entitle God to your errors and failings, much less to any sinful designs; you may commit a doubtful case to him to be decided, but not a sinful case to be protected. It is in vain to shelter any cause of your own under his wings, except you can write upon it, as David did, Psal. 74:22. Thine own cause, O Lord, as well as mine. Lord, plead thine own cause.
2dly, He that commits his all to God supposes and firmly believes that all events and issues of things are in God’s hands; that he only can direct, over-rule, and order them all as he pleaseth. Upon this supposition the committing acts of faith in all our fears and distresses are built: I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said, Thou art my God, my times are in thy hand, deliver me from the hands of my enemies, and from them that persecute me. His firm assent to this great truth, That his times were in God’s hands, was the reason why he committed himself into that hand. If our times, or lives, or comforts were in our enemies’ hands, it were to little purpose for us to commit ourselves into God’s hands. And here the contrary senses and methods of faith and unbelief are as conspicuous as in any one thing whatsoever: unbelief persuades men that their lives and all that is dear to them is in the hands of their enemies, and therefore persuades them the best way they can take to secure themselves, is by compliance with the will of their enemies, and pleasing them: but faith determines quite contrary, it tells us, We and all that is ours, is in God’s hand, and no enemy can touch us, or ours, till he give them a permission; and therefore it is our duty and interest to please him, and commit all to him.
3. The committing ourselves to God implies the resignation of our wills to the will of God, to be disposed of as seems good in his eyes: So David commits to God the event of that sad and doubtful providence, which made him fly for his life, from a strong conspiracy, 2 Sam. 15:25. “And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it and his habitation: but, if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good to him;” q. d. Lord, the conspiracy against my life is strong, the danger great, the issue exceeding doubtful; but I commit all into thy hand; if David may be yet used in any farther service for his God, I shall see this city and thy lovely temple again; but if not, I lie at thy foot, to be disposed either for life or death, for the earthly or the heavenly Jerusalem, as seemeth best in thine eyes. This submission to Divine pleasure is included in the committing act of faith. Christian, what sayest thou to it? Is thy will content to go back, that the will of God may come on, and take place of it? It may be thou canst refer a difficult case to God, provided he will determine and issue it according to thy desires; but, in truth, that is no submission or resignation at all, but a sinful limiting of, and prescribing to God. It was an excellent reply that a choice Christian once made to another, when a beloved and only child lay in a dangerous sickness at the point of death, a friend asked the mother, What would you now desire of God in reference to your child? would you beg of him its life or its death, in this extremity that it is now in? The mother answered, I refer that to the will of God. But, said her friend, if God would refer it to you, what would you chuse then? Why truly, said she, if God would refer it to me, I would even refer it to God again. This is the true committing of ourselves and our troublesome concerns to the Lord.
4. The committing act of faith implies our renouncing and disclaiming all confidence and trust in the arm of flesh, and an expectation of relief from God only. If we commit ourselves to God, we must cease from man, Isa. 2:22. To trust God in part, and the creature in part, is to set one foot upon a rock, and the other upon a quicksand. Those acts of faith that give the entire glory to God, give real relief and comfort to us.
2. Let us see what grounds and encouragements the people of God have to commit themselves and all the matters of their fears to God, and so to enjoy the peace and comfort of a resigned will; and there are two sorts of encouragements before you, let the case be as difficult and frightful as it will, you may find sufficient encouragement in God, and somewhat from yourselves, viz. your relation to him, and experiences of him.
1. In God there is all that your hearts can desire to encourage you to trust him over all, and committ all into his hands. For,
1. He is able to help and relieve you: let the case be never so bad, yet “let
Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is plenteous redemption,” Psal. 130:7, 8. Plenteous redemption, i.e. all the stores of power, choice of methods, plenty of means, abundance of ways to save his people, when they can see no way out of their troubles: therefore hope, Israel, in Jehovah.
2. As his power is almighty, so his wisdom is infinite and unsearchable; “He is a God of judgment, blessed are all they that wait for him,” Isa. 30:18. When the apostle Peter had related the wonderful preservation of Noah in the deluge, and of Lot in Sodom, one in a general destruction of the world by water, and the other in the overthrow of those cities by fire; he concludes, and so should we, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,” 2 Pet. 2:9. Some men have much power, but little wisdom to manage it, others are wise and prudent, but want ability; in God there is an infinite fulness of both.
3. His love to, and tenderness over his people, is transcendent and unparalleled: and this sets his wisdom and power both at work for their good: hence it is, that his eyes of providence run continually throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose hearts are perfect, i.e. upright towards him, 2 Chron.16:9. Thus you see how he is every way fitted as a proper object of your trust.
2. Consider with yourselves, and you shall find encouragements to commit all to God. For,
1. You are his children, and to whom should children commit themselves in dangers and fears but to their own father? Doubtless thou art our Father, saith the distressed church, Isa. 63:15, 16. yea, Christian, Thy Maker is thy husband, Isa. 54:5. Is not that a sufficient ground to cast thyself upon him? What! a child not trust its own father? a wife not commit herself to her own husband?
2. You have trusted him with a far greater concern already than your estates, liberties, or lives; you have committed your souls to him, and your eternal interests, 2 Tim. 1:12. Shall we commit the jewel, and dispute the cabinet; trust him for heaven, and doubt him for earth?
3. You have ever found him faithful in all that you trusted him with, all your experiences are so many good grounds of confidence, Psal. 9:10. Well then, resolve to trust God over all, and quietly leave the disposal of every thing to him: he hath been with you in all former straits, wants, and fears, hitherto he hath helped you, and cannot he do so again, except you tell him how? Oh! trust in his wisdom, power, and love, and lean not to your own understandings. The fruit of resignation will be peace.
Rule 5. If ever you will get rid of your fears and distractions, get your affections mortified to the world, and to the inordinate and immoderate love of every enjoyment in the world.
The more you are mortified, the less you will be terrified: it is not the dead, but the living world, that puts our hearts into such fears and tremblings; if our hearts were once crucified, they would soon be quieted. It is the strength of our affections that puts so much strength into our afflictions. It was not therefore without great reason that the apostle compares the life of a Christian to the life of a soldier, who, if he mean to follow the camp, and acquit himself bravely in fight, must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, 2 Tim. 2:4. Sure there is no following Christ’s camp, but with a disentangled heart from the world; for, proportionable to the heat of our love, will be the strength and height of our fears about these things; more particularly, if ever you will rid yourselves of your uncomfortable and uncomely fears, use all God’s means to mortify your affections to the exorbitant esteem and love of,
1. Your estates. 2. Your liberty. 3. Your lives.
1. Get mortified and cooled hearts to your possessions and estates in the world. The poorest age afforded the richest Christians and noblest martyrs. Ships deepest laden are not best for encounters. The believing Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and enduring substance, Heb. 10:34. They carried it rather like unconcerned spectators, than the true proprietors; they rejoiced when rude soldiers carried out their goods, as if so many friends had been bringing them in. And whence was this but from an heart fixed upon heaven, and mortified to things upon earth? Doubtless, they esteemed and valued their estates, as the good providences of God for their more comfortable accommodation in this world; but it seems they did, and O that we could look upon them as mercies of the lowest and meanest rank and nature. The substance laid up in heaven was a better substance, and as long as that was safe, the loss of this Did not afflict them.
They could bless God for these things which for a little time did minister refreshment to them, but they knew them to be transitory enjoyments, things that would make to themselves wings and flee away, if their enemies had not touched them; but the substance laid up for them in heaven, that was an enduring substance. So far as those earthly things might further them towards heavenly things, so far they prized and valued them, but if Satan would turn them into snares and temptations to deprive them of their better substance in heaven, they could easily slight them, and take the spoiling of them joyfully. In a stress of weather, when the ship is ready to sink and founder in a storm, all hands are readily employed to throw the richest goods overboard; no man saith it is pity to cast them away, but reason dictates to a man in that case, Better these perish, than I perish with and for them. These be the wares that some will not cast overboard, and therefore they are said to drown men in perdition, 1 Tim. 6:9. Demas would rather perish than part with these things, 2 Tim. 4:10. But, reader, consider seriously what comforts they can yield thee, when thou must look upon them as the price for which thou hast sold heaven, and all the hopes of glory; even as much as the price of blood yielded Judas; and so they will ensnare thee, if thy unmortified heart be overheated with the love of them as his was.
2. Be mortified to your liberty, and take heed of placing too great an esteem upon it, or necessity in it. Liberty is a desirable thing to the very birds in the air; accommodate them the best you can in your cages, feed them with the richest fare, they had rather be cold and hungry with their liberty in the woods, than fat and warm in your houses. But yet, as sweet as it is, there may be more comfort and sweetness in parting with it, than in keeping it, as the case may stand. The doors of a prison may lock you in, but they cannot lock the Comforter out. Paul and Silas lost their liberty for Christ, but not their comfort with it; they never were so truly at liberty, as when their feet were made fast in the stocks, they never fared so deliciously as when they fed upon prisoner’s fare. God spread a table for them in the prison, sent them in a rich feast, yea, and they had music at their feast too, and that at midnight, Acts 16:25.
Patmos was a barren island, and a place designed for banished persons; it lay in the Egean sea, not far from the coast of the Lesser Asia*: it was inhabited by none, because of the exceeding barrenness of it, but such who were appointed to it for their punishment; so that here John could meet with no more earthly refreshment than what the barren rocks, or wild and desperate persons condemned to live upon it, could afford. Ay, but there, there it was, that Christ appeared to him in inexpressible glory; there it was that he had those ravishing visions, and saw the whole scheme of Providence in the government of this world; there he saw the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, as a bride prepared for her husband. This made a Patmos become a Paradise; never did any place afford him such comfort as this did. So that Christians may not think there is so strict and necessary a connexion betwixt liberty and comfort, that he that takes away the first, must needs deprive them of the other.
Again, Suppose we should be so fond of our liberty as to exchange truth and a good conscience for it; cannot God so imbitter it to you, yea, hath he not so imbittered it to many, that they were quickly weary of it, and glad of an opportunity to change it for a prison. Our own Martyrology furnishes us with many sad examples of it. Oh, what will you do with your bitter, dear-bought liberty, when your peace is taken away from the inward man? when God shall clap up your souls in prison, and put your consciences into his bonds and fetters, then will you say as the martyr did, “I am in prison till I be in prison.”
3. Be mortified to the inordinate and fond love of life, as ever you expect relief against the fears of death. Reason thyself into a lower value of thy life. Methinks you have arguments enough to cure your fondness in this point. Have you found it such a pleasant life to you, for so much of it as is past? You know how the apostle represents it, 2 Cor. 5:4. “We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burthened.” And is a burthened and a groaning life so desirable? You know also, as he speaks in the next verse, that “whilst you are at home in the body, you are absent from the Lord.” And is a state of absence from Jesus Christ so desirable to a soul that loves him? Can you find much pleasure so far from home? You may fancy what you will, but, upon serious recollection, you will never be out of the reach of Satan’s temptations, never freed from your own indwelling corruptions, these conflicts cannot have an end till life be ended. You also stand convinced, that till you be dead, your souls cannot be satisfied, nor your desires be at rest, have what comforts soever from God in the way of faith and course of duties, your hearts are still off the centre, and will still gravitate and gasp heavenward. You also know that die you must, and the time of your departure is at hand; and of all deaths, if you might have your choice, none is more honourable to God, or like to be so evidential and comfortable to you, as a violent death for Christ; therein you come to him by consent and choice, not by necessity and constraint; therein you give a public testimony for Christ, which is the highest use that ever our blood can be put to, or honoured by; and for the pain and torment, as the martyr said, He that takes away from my torment, takes away from my reward. But even in that point God can make it easier to you than a natural death would be; he will be with you in your extremity, and administer such reviving cordials as other men must not look to taste, at least not ordinarily, they being prepared and reserved for such, against such an hour.
Oh then, work out the inordinate love of life, by working in such mortifying considerations upon your own hearts; and if once you gain but this point, you will quickly find all your pains and prayers richly answered in the ease and rest of your hearts, in the most scaring and frightful times.
Rule 6. Eye the encouraging examples of those that have trod the path of sufferings before you, and strive to imitate such worthy patterns.
Behold the cloud of witnesses encompassing you round about: a cloud like that over the Israelites to direct you; yea, a cloud for multitude of excellent persons to animate and encourage you, Heb. 12:1. “Oh take them for an ensample in suffering affliction and patience,” James 5:10. Examples of excellent persons that have broken the ice, and beaten the path before us, are of excellent use to suppress our fears, and rouse our courage in our own encounters.
The first sufferers had the hardest task; they that first entered the lists for Christ, wanted those helps to suppress fear which they have left unto us. Strange and untried torments are most terrible, for magnitudinem rerum consuetudo subducit, trial and acquaintance abates the formidable greatness of evils; they knew not the strength of that enemy they were to engage, but we fight with an enemy that hath been often beaten and triumphed over by our brethren that went before us. Certainly we that live in the last times have the best helps that ever any had to subdue their fears; we have heard of the courage and constancy of our brethren, in as sharp trials of their courage as ever we can be called to; we have read with what Christian gallantry they have triumphed over all sorts of sufferings and torments, how they have been strengthened with all might in the inner man unto all patience and long-suffering, with joyfulness, Col. 1:11. how they have gone away from the courts that censured and punished them, rejoicing that they were honoured to be dishonoured for Christ, as the strict reading of that text is, Acts 5:41*. counting the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, Heb. 11:26. which at that time was the magazine of the world for riches: You read what “trials they have had of cruel mockings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments; how they were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, wandered about in sheep’s skins, and goat’s skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented, Heb.11:36, 37. In all which they obtained a good report; they came out of the field with triumphant faith and patience; and this was not the effect of an over-heated zeal at the first outset, but the same spirit of courage was found among Christians in after ages, who have put off their persecutors with a kind of pleasant scorn and contempt of torments.
So did Basil, truly sirnamed the Great, when Valens the emperor in a great rage threatened him with banishment and tortures; as to the first said he,† I little regard it: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; and as for tortures, what can they do upon such a poor thin body as mine, nothing but skin and bone? And at another time‡, when Eusebius, governor of Pontus, told him in a great rage, he would tear his very liver out of his bowels: Truly, said Basil, you will do me a very good turn in it, to take out my naughty liver; which inflames and diseaseth my whole body. Their enemies have professed the Christians put them to shame, by smiling at their cruelties and threatenings. Ignatius’s love to Christ had so perfectly overcome all fears of sufferings, that when he was going to be thrown for a prey among the lions and leopards, he professed he longed to be among them, and, said he, if they will not dispatch me the sooner, I will provoke them, that I may be with my sweet Jesus. And if we come down to later ages, we shall find as stout champions for Christ. The courage and undauntedness of Luther is trumpeted abroad throughout the Christian world, it would swell this small tract too much, but to note the most eminent instances of his courage for Christ: the last he gave was by his sorrow in his last sickness, that he must carry his blood to the grave. The like heroic spirit appeared in divers persons of honour and eminence, who zealously espoused the same cause of reformation with him. Remarkable to this purpose is that famous epistle written by Ulricus ab Hutten, a German knight, in defence of Luther’s cause against the cardinals and bishops assembled at Worms. ‘I will go through (said he) with what I have undertaken against you, and will stir up men to seek their freedom: such as yield not to me at first, I will overcome with importunity; I neither care nor fear what may befal me, being prepared for either event; either to ruin you, to the great benefit of my country, or myself to fall with a good conscience; therefore that you may see with what confidence I contemn your threats, I do profess myself to be your irreconcilable enemy, whilst ye persecute Luther and such as he is. No power of yours, no injury of fortune shall alter this mind in me; though you take away my life, yet this well-deserving of mine towards my country’s liberty, shall not die. I know that my endeavour to remove such as you are, and to place worthy ministers in your room, is acceptable to God; and in the last judgment, I trust it will be safer for me to have offended you, than to have had your favour.’
It was also a brave heroic spirit by which John duke of Saxony was acted to defend the reformation, who despising all the favours and offers of the court, and of Rome, and the terrors of death itself; appeared, as my author speaks, in its behalf against all the devils, and the pope*, in three public imperial assemblies, saying openly to their faces, I must serve God, or the world; and which of these two do ye think is the better? And as soon as Luther’s sermons were forbidden, he hasted away, saying, I will not stay there, where I cannot have my liberty to serve God.
And now reader, thou hast a little taste of the courage and zeal of those worthies who are gone before thee in defence of that cause for which thou fearest to suffer. Most men, saith Chrysostom, that read or hear such examples, are like the spectators of the Roman gladiators, who stood by and praised their courage, but durst not enter the lists to do what they did. If ever thou wilt get like courage for Christ, thus improve such famous examples.
1. Make use of them to obviate the prejudice of singularity; you see you have store of good company, the same things you are like to suffer for Christ, have been accomplished in the rest of your brethren in the world, 1 Pet. 5:9.
2. Improve them against the prejudice of all that shame that attends sufferings, here you may see the most excellent persons in the world reckoning it their glory to suffer the vilest things for Jesus Christ, Acts 5:31. Heb. 11:26.
3. Improve them against the conceit of the insupportableness of sufferings. Lo here, poor weak creatures which have been carried honourably and comfortably through the cruelest and difficultest sufferings for Christ. Our women and children, not to speak of men, (saith Tertullian) overcome their tormentors, and the fire cannot fetch so much as a sigh from them.
4. Improve them against thine own unbelief and staggerings at the faithfulness of God in that promise, Isa. 43:2. “When thou passest through the fire, I will be with thee,” &c. Lo here you have the recorded and faithful testimonies of such as have tried it, with one voice witnessing for God, Thy word is truth, thy word is truth.
5. Improve them against the sensible weakness of your own graces; are you afraid your faith, love, and patience are too weak to carry you through great trials? Why doubtless so were many of them too, they were men of like fears, troubled with a bad heart and a busy devil as well as you, they also had their clouds and damps as you have; yet the almighty power of God supported them; and out of weakness they were made strong: despond not therefore, but get a judgment satisfied, Psal. 44:22. a conscience sprinkled, 2 Tim. 1:7. and a call cleared, Dan. 6:10. Exercise faith also with respect to Divine assistances and everlasting rewards as they did: and doubt not but the same God that enabled them to finish their course with joy, will be as good to you as he was to them. Consider, Christ hath done as much for you as he did for any of them, and deserves as much from you as from any of them; and hath prepared the same glory for you that he prepared for them: O that such considerations might provoke you to shew as much courage and love to Christ as any of them ever did.
Rule 7. If ever you will get above the power of your own fears in a suffering day make haste to clear your interest in Christ, and your pardon in his blood before that evil day come.
The clearer this is, the bolder you will be; an assured Christian was never known to be a coward in sufferings; it is impossible to be clear of fears till you are cleared of the doubts about interest in, and pardon by Christ. Nothing is found more strengthening to our fears than that which clouds our evidences; and nothing more to quiet and cure our fears than that which clears our evidences. The shedding abroad of God’s love in our hearts will quickly fill them with a spirit of glorying in tribulations, Rom. 5:5. When the believing Hebrews once came to know in themselves that they had an enduring substance in heaven, they quickly found in themselves an unconcerned heart for the loss of their comforts on earth, Heb. 10:34. and so should we too. For,
1. Assurance satisfies a man that his treasure and true happiness is secured to him, and laid out of the reach of all his enemies; and so long as that is safe he hath all the reason in the world to be quiet and cheerful, “I know (saith Paul) whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day,” 2 Tim. 1:12. And he gives this as his reason why he was not ashamed of Christ’s sufferings.
2. The assured Christian knows that if death itself come, (which is the worst men can inflict) he shall be no loser by the exchange; nay he shall make the best bargain that ever he made since he first parted with all his afflictions, to follow Christ. There are two rich bargains a Christian makes; one is, when he exchanges the world for Christ in his first choice at his conversion, in point of love and estimation: the other is, when he actually parts with the world for Christ at his dissolution: both these are rich bargains, and upon this ground it was the apostle said, “To me to live is “Christ, and to die is gain,” Phil. 1:21. The death of a believer in Christ, is gain unspeakable, but if a man would make the utmost gain by dying, he shall find it in dying for Christ, as well as in Christ: and to shew you wherein the gain of such a death lies, let a few particulars be weighed, wherein the gain will be cast up in both; he that is assured he dies in Christ, knows,
1. That his living time is his labouring time, but his dying time is his harvest time; whilst we live we are plowing and sowing in all the duties of religion, but when we die, then we reap the fruit and comforts of all our labours and duties, Gal. 6:8, 9. As much therefore as the reaping time is better than the sowing and plowing time, so much better is the death than the life of a believer.
2. A believer’s living time is his fighting time, but his dying time is his conquering and triumphing time, 1 Cor. 15:55, 56. The conflict is sharp, but the triumph is sweet; and as much as victory and triumph are better than fighting, so much is death better than life to him that dieth in Jesus.
3. A believer’s living time is his tiresome and weary time, but his dying time is his resting and sleeping time. Isa. 57:2. Here we spend and faint, there we rest in our beds, and as much as refreshing rest in sleep is better than tiring and fainting, so much is a believer’s death better than his life.
4. A believer’s living time is his waiting and longing time, but his time of dying is the time of enjoying what he hath long wished and waited for, Phil. 1:23. here we groan and sigh for Christ, there we behold and enjoy Christ, and so much as vision and fruition are better and sweeter than hoping and waiting for it; so much is a believer’s death better than his life.
2. As the advantage a believer makes of death is great to him by dying only in Christ; so it is much greater, and the richest improvement that can be made of death, to die for Christ as well as in Christ: for compare them in a few particulars, and you shall find,
1. That though a natural death hath less horror, yet a violent death for Christ hath more honour in it. To him that dies united with Christ, the grave is a bed of rest; but to him that dies as a martyr for Christ, the grave is a bed of honour. “To you (saith the apostle) it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake,” Phil. 1:22. To you it is granted as a great honour and favour to suffer for Christ; all that live in Christ have not the honour to lay down their lives for Christ. It was the great trouble of Ludovicus Marsacus*, a knight of France, to be exempted because of his dignity from wearing his chain for Christ, as the other prisoners did: and he resented it as a great injury. “Give me (saith he to his keeper) my chain as well as they, and create me a knight of that noble order.”
2. By a natural death we only submit ourselves to the unavoidable consequence of sin, but in dying a violent death for Christ, we give our testimony against the evil of sin, and for the precious truths of Jesus Christ. The first is the payment of a debt of justice due by the fall of Adam; the second is the payment of a debt of thankfulness and obedience due to Christ, who redeemed us with his own blood. Thus we become witnesses for God, as well as sufferers, upon the account of sin: in the first, sin witnesseth against us, in this we witness against it; and indeed it is a great testimony against the evil of sin: we declare to all the world that there is not so much evil in a dungeon, in a bloody ax, or consuming flames, as there is in sin: that it is far better to lose our carnal friends, estates, liberties, and lives, than part with Christ’s truths and a good conscience, as† Zuinglius said, “What sort of death should not a Christian chuse, what punishment should he not rather undergo; yea, into what vault of hell should he not rather chuse to be cast, than to witness against truth and conscience.”
3. A natural death in Christ may be as safe to ourselves, but a violent death for Christ will be more beneficial to others; by the former we shall come to heaven ourselves, but by the latter we may bring many souls thither. The blood of the martyrs is truly called the seed of the church.
Many waxed confident by Paul’s bonds, his sufferings fell out to the furtherance of the gospel, and so may ours: in this case a Christian like Samson, doth greater service against Satan and his cause, by his death, than by his life.
If we only die a natural death in our beds, we die in possession of the truths of Christ ourselves: but if we die martyrs for Christ, we secure that precious inheritance to the generations to come, and those that are yet unborn shall bless God, not only for his truths, but for our courage, zeal, and constancy, by which it was preserved for them, and transmitted to them.
By all this you see that death to a believer is great gain, it is great gain if he only die in Christ, it is all that, and a great deal more added, if he also die for Christ: and he that is assured of such advantages by death either way, must needs feel his fears of death shrink away before such assurances; yea, he will rather have life in patience, and death in desire; he will not only submit quietly, but rejoice exceedingly to be used by God in such honourable employment*. Assurance will call a bloody death a safe passage to Canaan through the Red sea. It will call Satan that instigates these his instruments, and all that are employed in such bloody work by him, so many Balaams brought to curse, but they do indeed bless the people of God, and not curse them. The assured Christian looks upon his death as his wedding-day, Rev. 19:7. And therefore it doth not much differ whether the horse sent to fetch him to Christ be pale, or red, so he may be with Christ, his love, as Ignatius called him.
He looks upon death as his day of enlargement out of prison, 2 Cor. 5:8. and it is not much odds what hand opens the door, or whether a friend or enemy close his eyes, so he have his liberty, and may be with Christ.
O then, give the Lord no rest, till your hearts be at rest by the assurance of his love, and the pardon of your sins; when you can boldly say the Lord is your help, you will quickly say what immediately follows, I will not fear what man can do unto me, Heb. 13:6. And why, if thy heart be upright, mayest thou not attain it? Full assurance is possible, else it had not been put into the command, 2 Pet. 1:10. The sealing graces are in you, the sealing Spirit is ready to do it for you, the sealing promises belong to you;
but we give not all diligence, and therefore go without the comfort of it. Would we pray more, and strive more, would we keep our hearts with a stricter watch, mortify sin more thoroughly, and walk before God more accurately; how soon may we attain this blessed assurance, and in it an excellent cure for our distracting and slavish fears.
Rule 8. Let him that designs to free himself of distracting fears, be careful to maintain the purity of his conscience, and integrity of his ways, in the whole course of his conversation in this world. Uprightness will give us boldness, and purity will yield us peace. Isa. 32:17. “The work of righteousness shall be peace, and “the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.” Look as fear follows guilt and guile, so peace and quietness follow righteousness and sincerity, Prov. 28:1. The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. His confidence is great, because his conscience is quiet, the peace of God guards his heart and mind. There are three remarkable steps by which Christians rise to the height of courage in tribulations, Rom. 5:1, 2, 3, 4. First they are justified and acquitted from guilt by faith, ver. 1. Then they are brought into a state of favour and acceptation with God, ver. 2. Thence they rise one step higher, even so a view of heaven and the glory to come, ver. 3. and from thence they take an easy step to glory in tribulations, ver. 4.
I say, it is an easy step; for let a man once obtain the pardon of sin, the favour of God, and a believing view and prospect of the glory to come; and it is so easy to triumph in tribulation, in such a station as that is, that it will be found as hard to hinder it, as to hinder a man from laughing when he is tickled.
Christians have always found it a spring of courage and comfort, 2 Cor. 1:12. “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity, and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.” Their hearts did not reproach them with by-ends in religion: their consciences witnessed that they made not religion a cloak to cover any fleshly design, but were sincere in what they professed: and this enabled them to rejoice in the midst of sufferings. An earthen vessel set empty on the fire will crack and
fly in pieces, and so will an hypocritical, formal, and mere nominal Christian: but he that hath such substantial and real principles of courage as these within him, will endure the trial, and be never the worse for the fire.
The very Heathens discovered the advantage of moral integrity, and the peace it yielded to their natural consciences in times of trouble.
Nil conscire tibi, nulla pallescere culpa,
Hic murus ahcneus esto.—*
It was to them as a wall of brass. Much more will godly simplicity, and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon our consciences secure and encourage our hearts. This atheistical age laughs conscience and purity to scorn; but let them laugh, this is it which will make thee laugh when they shall cry. Paul exercised himself, or made it his business, “To have always a conscience void of offence, both towards God and towards man,” Acts 24:16†. And it was richly worth his labour, it re-paid him ten thousand fold in the peace, courage, and comfort it gave him in all the troubles of his life, which were great and many.
Conscience must be the bearing shoulder on which the burden must lie, beware therefore it be not galled with guilt, or put out of joint by any fall into sin, it is sad bearing on such a shoulder; instead of bearing your burdens, you will not be able to bear its pain and anguish. To prevent this carefully, observe these rules.
1. Over-awe your hearts every day, and in every place with the eye of God. This walking as before God will keep you upright, Gen. 17:1. If you so speak and live as those that know God sees you, such will be your uprightness, that you will not care if all the world see you too. An artist came to Drusius, and offered to build him an house, so contrived, that he might do what he would within doors, and no man see him: Nay, said Drusius, so build it that every one may see.
2. Do no action, undertake no design, that you dare not preface with prayer; this is the rule, Phil. 4:6. Touch not that you dare not pray for a blessing upon; if you dare not pray, dare not to engage; if you cannot spend your prayers before, be confident, shame and guilt will follow after.
3. Be more afraid of grieving God, or wounding conscience, than of displeasing or losing all the friends you have in the world besides; look upon every adventure upon sin to escape danger to be the same thing as if you should sink the ship to avoid one that you take to be a pirate; or as the fatal mistake of two vials, wherein there is poison and physic.
4. What counsel you would give another, that give yourselves when the case shall be your own; your judgment is most clear, when interest is least felt. David’s judgment was very upright when he judged himself in a remote parable.
5. Be willing to bear the faithful reproofs of your faults from men, as the reproving voice of God; for they are no less when duly administered. This will be a good help to keep you upright, Psal. 135:23, 24. “Let the righteous smite me, &c. It is said of Sir Anthony Cope, that he shamed none so much as himself in his family-prayers, and desired the ministers of his acquaintance not to favour his faults; but tell me, said he, and spare not.
6. Be mindful daily of your dying-day, and your great audit-day, and do all with respect to them. Thus keep your integrity and peace, and that will keep out your fears and terrors.
Rule 9. Carefully record the experiences of God’s care over you, and faithfulness to you in all your past dangers and distresses, and apply them to the cure of your present fears and despondencies. Recorded experiences are excellent remedies, Exod. 17:14. “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.” There were two things in that record; the victory obtained over Amalek, and the way of obtaining it by incessant prayer: and there are two things to be done to secure this mercy for their use and benefit in future fears, it must be recorded and rehearsed, preserved from oblivion, and seasonably produced for relief.
There are two special assistances given us against fear by experience. 1. It abates the terror of sufferings.
2. It assists faith in the promises.
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 fordable; 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 reports 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 faithful men given, who have searched and tried these things! 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 Algerius give of his stinking prison at Lyons in France! dating all his letters whilst he was there, From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison; and when carried to Venice, in a letter from the prison there, he writes thus to his Christian friend; I shall utter that which scarce any will believe, I have found a nest of honey in the entrails of a lion, a paradise of pleasure in a deep dark dungeon, in 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 encouraging letters: ‘Oh how my heart leaps (saith he) that I am so near to eternal bliss! God forgive me my unthankfulness and unworthiness of so great glory. I have so much joy of the reward 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 Lord be praised.’
Others have given the signals agreed upon betwixt them and their friends in the midst of the flames, thereby, to the last, confirming this truth, that God makes the inside of sufferings quite another thing to what the appearance and outside of them is to sense. Thus the experience of others abates the terrors of sufferings to you; and all this is fully confirmed by the personal experience you yourselves have had of the supports and comforts of God, wherein soever you have conscientiously suffered for his 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 before 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 experiences, 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 can never free yourself from sinful fears, till you thoroughly believe and consider Christ’s providential 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 government in his hands? Mat. 28:18. Phil 2:9, 10, 11, 12. John 17:2. Were this dominion of Christ, and dependence of all creatures on him, well studied and believed, it would cut off both our trust in men, and our fear of men; we should soon discern 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 power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? q. d. Refusest 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 impotent 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. 1:17. they are bounded and limited by Christ, Rev. 2:10. Providence hath its influences upon their hearts and wills immediately, Jer. 15:11. Psal. 106:46. so that they cannot do whatever they would do, but their wills as well as their hands are ordered by God. Jacob was in Laban’s and in Esau’s hands; both hated him, but neither could hurt him. David was in Saul’s hand, who hunted for him as a prey, yet is forced to dismiss him quietly, blessing instead of slaying him. Melancthon and Pomeron both fell into the hands of 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; enemies, like wild horses, 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 19:28. 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. 1:22, 23. our consulting head; and it were a reproach and dishonour to Christ, to fill our heads with distracting 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 hitherto; no truth is more manifest than this, that there hath been a wisdom beyond your own, that hath guided your ways, Jer. 10:23. a power above your own, that hath supported your burdens, Psal. 73:26. a spring of relief out of yourselves that hath supplied all your wants, Luke 23:35. He hath performed all things for you.
4. Jesus Christ hath secured his people by many promises to take care of them, how dangerous soever the times shall be, Eccl. 8:12. Psal. 76:10.
Amos 9:8, 9. Rom. 8:28. 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 promises, and so are justly left in the hands of our own fears to be afflicted for it.
Rule 11. Subject your carnal reasonings to faith, and keep your thoughts more under the government of faith, if ever you expect a composed and quiet heart in distracting evil times. He that 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 appearances of second causes, your hearts shall have no rest day nor night: this alone will keep you in continual alarms.
And yet how apt are the best men to measure things by this rule, and to judge of all God’s designs and mysterious providences 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 argumentatrix sibi videtur ratio humana? 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 confidence in them, Exod. 5:22, 23.
2. It is this that boldly limits the divine power, and assigns it boundaries of its own fixing, Psal. 78:20, 41.
3. It is carnal reason that draws desperate conclusions from providential appearances and aspects, 1 Sam. 27:1. and prognosticates our ruin from them.
4. It is this carnal reason that puts us upon sinful shifts and indirect courses to deliver and save ourselves from danger, which do but the more perplex and entangle us, Isa. 30:15, 16.
5. 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. 94:16. and 42:1.
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. Though there be nothing in the matters of faith or providence contrary to right reason, yet there are many things in both, quite above the reach, and beyond the ken of reason, Isa. 55:8. And,
2. The confident dictates of reason are frequently confuted by experience all the world over: it is every day made a liar, and the frights it puts us into, proved to be vain and groundless, Isa. 51:13.
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 my 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. 32:40.
2. Doth sinful fear plunge men into such distresses of conscience? Why, the fear of God will preserve your ways clean and pure, Psal. 19:9. 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. 11:7.
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, Mal. 3:16. They feared God, and thought upon his name, i.e. they meditated on his name, which 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. 5:15.
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. 12:15.
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 9:31.
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. 16:6. and 23:17.
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, Mal. 3:16.
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 difficultest times, Eccles. 8:12.
11. Doth our trusting in our own reason, and making it our rule and measure, breed so many fears? Why, 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 very 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 him your fear.
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