Part 60

_Fourthly_, If ye are christians, what promises of the divine presence and help you have in the bible, and when the mighty God has given such divine encouragement, he chides his people into courage; Is. li. 12, 13. _I, even I am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass? And forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor?_ A generous and divine cordial to keep the soul from fainting! The presence of God is an effectual support. St. Paul found it so; _for when all men forsook him, the Lord stood by and strengthened him_; 1 Tim. iv. 16, 17. Alas! we are poor, feeble, trembling soldiers, our hands hang down, and our faces gather paleness: But we dare to confront the terrors of this world, if we taste and feel such divine encouragements. We know that a weak christian can do wonders with an almighty Saviour and an all-sufficient promise. When St. Paul had this word given him, _My grace is sufficient for thee_, he could _glory even in infirmities_, that the _power of Christ might rest upon him_; 2 Cor. xii. 9. The little feeble man, of a _contemptible presence_, could do _all things through Christ strengthening him_; Phil. iv. 13. And every believer has the same Almighty Helper, the same gospel, and the same promises.

In the last place, consider the large and never-fading crown of glory, that awaits the conqueror at the end of the christian conflict. _Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life_; Rev. ii. 10. Consider the honour and triumph, those riches of glory, and that everlasting inheritance, that shall be your reward in the future world, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; _He that overcometh shall sit down with me on my throne_, &c. Rev. iii. 21. _He that overcometh shall inherit all things_; chap. xxi. 7. Put all these together in the balances, with a few crosses and disappointments, a little trouble and uneasiness, nay, though you should add torture and death in the same scale, you may easily judge which will outweigh. Gaze at your crown of life, and your immortal hopes, till you feel your souls divinely animated to the combat: Learn from the apostle, and assume that glorious language; _Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment_, are scarce to be mentioned or named _with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that shall be revealed_; 2 Cor. iv. 17. _Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach_; therefore we bear all present sorrows with holy courage, because we look not at the things that are seen, little things that are temporal; but look at the great unseen things that are eternal; 2 Cor. iv. 18.

The fourth and last general head of discourse shall now furnish us with some sacred remedies against this slavish fear. The passion of fear in general, is wisely wrought by the great God into human nature: It is a disturbance both of our animal composition, and of the mind upon the apprehension of some approaching evil, or upon the apparent danger of it. This is an excellent provision, which the God of nature has made, to guard us from many mischiefs. It is innocent and useful when it is fixed on a proper object, and exercised in a proper degree. It becomes a part of our religion when God is the object of our fear, whereby we maintain such a holy awe of his majesty, as awakens a constant desire to please him, joined with a temper of holy love.

But when we suffer creatures to raise and influence our fears upon every occasion, so as to ruffle and disquiet our spirits to throw the soul from off its rest, and to turn us aside from the steady course of duty, then it becomes a sinful and forbidden passion, and we should make it our business to watch against it, and suppress it. There are some persons so feeble in their native constitutions, or their spirits are so weakened by the distempers of the flesh, that fear is a constant tyrant over them: Their case is to be pitied indeed, but they ought to stir up themselves as far as possible to shake off this bondage, lest it withhold them from the practice of necessary duties, and rob them of all the comforts of religion. This slavish fear is a disease of the mind, as well as a weakness of nature; and besides, our summoning together all the powers and precepts of reason, we should also apply the remedies of religion, in order to remove it: If the divine Spirit concur with his blessing, the following methods may be made happily successful:

I. See to it that ye are christians indeed, that you have the power of religion wrought in your hearts, otherwise you will never be able boldly to maintain the form and the profession of it, in an hour of danger. Fear will prevail over every thing but true faith: And if your religion be not inward and sincere and built on solid foundations, it will tremble and totter, and be in great danger of being utterly lost. One hard name, one biting reproach, one witty scoff or ugly slander, will dash the hypocrite out of countenance, and he dares not stand up for his God and Saviour.

And remember also that your faith must be always kept awake and lively. See to it that your hope be not only well established, but you must preserve your evidences for heaven ever clear, that ye may look upon yourselves as the care and charge of Christ, and under the special eye and protection of God your Saviour. This was the divine foundation on which the great apostle raised his courage in the gospel to so high a degree. I am neither afraid to suffer these things, says he, that is, bonds and imprisonments; nor am I ashamed of this gospel, for I know whom I have believed, I know him as my Saviour, and I am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against the day of his appearance; 2 Tim. i. 12.

If you would raise your spirits to a sublime pitch of holy fortitude, brighten your faith and hope daily, by a frequent examination of the frame of your hearts, by watchful walking before God, by committing your souls afresh into the hands of Jesus and his Spirit, for pardoning and renewing grace, that you may believe on just and solid grounds, that you are the children of God, and that Jesus is your salvation. A lively faith gives divine courage. Faith is a noble shield to ward off fear, and our helmet is the hope of salvation.

Take heed of defiling yourselves with sensuality: Take heed of any false biasses on your spirit, and wrong designs in your actions, lest you bring fresh guilt upon your consciences. Guilt will create fear, and fill the soul with a perplexing tumult of thoughts. But when the terrors of this world assault you on every side, reproaches and threatenings, the frowns of your friends, and the rage of your enemies, you may be all serene and peaceful within, while you maintain a sacred consciousness of soul, that you have been seeking the light of truth, and pursuing the path of duty. When I can say, God is my witness that I am sincerely labouring in his service, when I can look up to heaven, though my friends scorn me, and say, my record is on high; I may imitate the faith and courage of Job in his best hours, and leave all my interests in the hand of my God. Let our faith be active then, and our conscience clear, that we may read our title to all the promises, and apply them to our own case with courage and assurance. _The God of hope will fill us with all joy and peace in believing_; Rom. xv. 13.

The covenant of grace is a blessed treasury: There is armour of defence to be found against every assault and danger. If the promises of the covenant be ours, we shall be secured of a happy final issue of all our sufferings: _All things shall work together for our good_; Rom. viii. 28. _If God be for us who shall be against us?_ verse 31. If we behold God engaged on our side, we may defy a legion of adversaries in the name of the Lord our God. _Thou art my glory_, says the Psalmist, _and my shield, and the lifter up of my head_; Ps. iii. 3. The little word, my, shews his own interest in his God, and then he can grow brave in the very centre of a thousand deaths and dangers. _I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about_; verse 6.

II. Get a large and general acquaintance with the promises of the gospel[32], that in every special time of need you may have some suitable word of refuge and support. From xl. to the xlv. chapters of Isaiah, there is a variety of rich encouragements against slavish fear: And there is another treasure of them from the l. to lv. Many a christian has been able to live upon them, in the most dangerous and distressing seasons. They are divine springs of courage, and they overflow with consolation. The assurances of holy David in the midst of his perils, have been a glorious support to the fearful soul. Several of his Psalms are filled with the same heavenly cordials. You can hardly find three of them together, without some triumphs of faith in them. In the writings of the evangelists, and in the epistles you may read many precious promises scattered abroad, to allay your fears. In the second and third chapters of the _Revelation_, they stand thick as the spangles of heaven: They sparkle like stars in the firmament at midnight, and they ever shine brightest in the darkest sky. It is with unknown pleasure that the soul of a christian contemplates and surveys those heavenly lights in the most gloomy and dismal hours, and they turn the shadows of death into morning.

Though it is of excellent use, to have the mind and memory well stored with the various promises of the covenant, yet in some special seasons of trial, it is of eminent advantage to keep the mind and thoughts fixed upon some single promise, that is most suited to the present danger or suffering; and to the present taste and relish of the soul. In such a season, the running speedily from one promise to another, and skimming over them with a slight survey, will not be so effectual a relief, as fixing upon some peculiar and proper word of grace, and living upon it for a whole day together. Thus every morning you may take some new comforter with you, and let it abide upon your heart all day, and it will whisper to your soul with divine sweetness in the dark and solitary watches of the night. When some special terror possesses your thoughts, and the heavy oppression returns often upon your spirits, or when any fresh assault comes on you from without or within, fly to the word you have chosen for your refuge; repeat it often, and cleave to it by meditation. _The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe_; Prov. xviii. 10. And remember God has magnified his own word above all the rest of his name; Ps. cxxxviii. 2. Try this method, it has been successful and well approved, and I doubt not but that you will be able to attest the success of it through the aids of divine grace.

III. Preserve the spirit of prayer always in exercise, and the spirit of fortitude will descend on you. Address the throne of God with earnestness and faith, and cry to the Lord the God of your salvation without ceasing. It is he gives spirits to renew the battle, when we are almost tired and grow weary; Is. xl. 28, 29. He gives courage in the midst of terrors, for he can preserve and secure us in the extremest perils. _We despaired of life_, saith the apostle, _and had the sentence of death in ourselves, but we were delivered, for we trusted in him that raiseth the dead_; 2 Cor. i. 8, 9, 10. It is he that repels the most imminent danger, it is he that rebukes the spirit of fear, and gives us the spirit of power, and holy fortitude; 2 Tim. i. 7. _Wait on the Lord, and be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait I say on the Lord_; Ps. xxvii. 14.

But be sure in all your addresses to the mercy-seat, have an eye to Christ Jesus the Mediator, your advocate at the throne, and the Captain of your Salvation, who is engaged to see you brought safe to heaven. The Father has entrusted you as sheep in his hand, and he will not suffer you to perish. Look to him as your great High-priest and Intercessor in heaven; and _since you have such a High-priest as Jesus the Son of God, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need_; Heb. iv. 14, 15, 16. Many a feeble christian who has gone to the mercy-seat, trembling and terrified under huge apprehensions of danger, and almost overwhelmed with tumultuous fears, has risen up from his knees with a heavenly calmness and composure: The army of his fears has vanished at once, and he has gone out to face the most formidable of his adversaries, with divine resolution and courage. “I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him and were enlightened, and their faces were not ashamed. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him;” Ps. xxxiv. 4-8. “In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me: and didst strengthen me with strength in my soul;” Ps. cxxxviii. 3.

IV. Get a greater degree of weanedness from the flesh, and from all the delights and satisfactions that belong to this mortal life: Then as you will not feel so great a pain in being stripped of them, so neither will your soul be filled with terror, when you are in danger of losing them. Learn to put off a little of that sinful tenderness for self, which we brought into the world with us. One of the first lessons in the school of Christ, is self-denial; Mat. xvi. 24. If any man will come after me, that is, be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

It is a certain tender fondness for our flesh that makes us afraid of pain. It is a fondness for our name and reputation that makes us afraid of reproaches. It is a fondness for our possessions, and our easy circumstances in the world that makes us afraid of poverty: And too great a fondness for life makes us afraid of dying. Whensoever therefore the cause of Christ plainly calls us to risk our name and honour in the world, to part with our wealth or our ease, and to venture and to expose life itself, we shrink from the command; slavish and sinful fear prevails mightily upon us, because we love earth, and self, and flesh better than we ought to do. We must subdue this self-love, and unmanly softness, if we would approve ourselves as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and gain a spirit of sacred courage and resolution. We must be dead to the things of flesh and sense, and gain a victory over the complaints and groanings of nature. We must go as far as we can toward

## parting with right-hands, and right-eyes, in every sense of the words,

if we would be christians indeed.

V. Endeavour to keep yourselves always employed in some proper work, that your fears may be diverted when they cannot immediately be overcome. If our thoughts and hands are idle and empty we lie open to the invasion and tumult of our fears, and we give them leave to assault us on all sides.

The passion and principle of this slavish fear, is mingled with our flesh and blood, and therefore we must employ even our flesh and blood in some better business, that we may turn the current of animal nature, and leave the imagination no leisure to sit brooding over its own terrors. Want of occupation and engagement of the powers of nature, exposes the mind of man to the inroad of all the frightful images, that fancy can furnish out, and to all the terrifying suggestions of a watchful and malicious tempter. That wicked spirit has some strange and unknown methods of access to our souls: He will worry the sheep of Christ with terrors, when he is not suffered to devour or destroy them; and an unbusied mind is prepared to admit his worst temptations.

But while I am pressing you to find out some employment for yourselves, take care that it be such as may approve itself to God and your own consciences. We must be ever found in the way of duty, as I hinted before, if we would support a holy courage. It is only the righteous that has just reason to be bold as a lion. Be ready to meet Christ the judge, and his glorious appearance at all times, and then you need not fear all that earth or hell can do against you.

[If this Sermon be too long, it may be divided here.]

Let us proceed now to propose some further remedies against this slavish passion of fear.

VI. Keep your eye fixed on the hand of God in all the affairs of men. View his powerful and over-ruling providence in all things, even in those things that awaken your most troublesome fears. Think with yourselves, that you put creatures in the place of God, if you fear them more than God, as though they were the sovereign lords and disposers of all your comforts. Learn to see God in all things, and behold him in all things as your God, and then creatures will have but little influence to awaken any of the passions of the soul, or to raise distressing fears within you.

Are your spirits so weak, that thunder and lightning, and the storms of the air affright you? Think who it is that commands the tempests to arise, and quashes the storms at his pleasure. In whose hand is the thunder? Who kindles the lightning? Who directs the flashes, and guides every sweeping blast of wind or fire to its appointed place? Remember the disciples in the midst of the storm, and the language of Jesus walking upon the water, _It is I, be not afraid_; Mat. xiv. 27.

Or if the public commotions of the world awaken your fears, read the name and presence of God, even your God, in the xlvi. Psalm, and rejoice and stand firm amidst the tumult and shaking of the nations. _God is our refuge and strength, a very present help, in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea_, verses 2, 3. _The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice, the earth melted_; verse 6. _The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge_; verse 11. _Selah_[33].

Or perhaps more particular and personal dangers and afflictions threaten your good name, your estate, your flesh, your life. Well, the name of God in his presence is an universal spring of comfort and courage, a wide spreading shield against every mischief.

Are you terrified at the thoughts of personal reproach and slander, know that the tongues of men are within the reach of the hand of God, and he can cast a bridle of restraint upon them, but if he take off that restraint, and leave them to their own perverseness and rage, learn to say as good David, when Shimei cursed him; the hand of the Lord is in it, God hath given him a loose to curse me: And thus sweetly compose yourselves to an acquiescence in the providential will of your heavenly Father.

Is poverty and want the thing you dread? But is not God your heavenly Father? And can you not trust him to provide for his children? Will he give the young ravens their food, when they cry, and will he not feed his sons and his daughters? It is true you may be reduced to bread and water, and brought down to the very lowest circumstances, and you must submit to his will: God will feed your nature, though he will not feed your pride.

Are you affrighted at the thoughts of sickness and pain? Remember diseases are the servants of our Lord Christ, he can bid pains and anguish of body go or come as he pleases; nor can they seize you without his commission, nor tarry with you beyond his appointed moment. Commit your flesh to him as well as your spirit: He is a wise physician, and he will deal tenderly with you: He has worn flesh and blood, and has a sympathising heart, nor will he grieve his own members beyond what his wisdom and his love sees needful.

Are you afraid of persecuting enemies, that hunt you from place to place, and would pursue you even to the death? Remember that they are but the slaves of Satan, and they and their master are all in a chain, under the sovereign dominion of Christ your Lord. The wicked of the earth, in this sense, are called the hand of God; Ps. xvii. 14. They are but as instruments to execute his divine purposes, and they cannot move nor act beyond his permission. He put a hook in the nostrils of Sennacherib, that Assyrian wild beast, and a bridle into his jaws; he suffered him to come and gaze at Jerusalem, then in one night the angel of death destroyed all his army, and the Lord put a song of triumph into the mouth of his people.

In a time of persecution in the last century, some pious ministers were met together, expressing their mutual fears, and consulting how to provide for their own safety: When one stood up in the spirit of faith, and said, _We are all immortal till our work is done_; whereby he declared his lively sense of the restraining power of God over the malice of men, and his assurance that God would preserve them in life, so long as he had any service to employ them in. This was in truth a sublime thought: A Roman orator or a Greek poet would have been admired and celebrated for it by all the critics: This was the language of faith, and it had a sublime and glorious effect, it dispersed their fears at once, and they went away rejoicing.