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.
VII. Recollect your own experiences of the goodness of God in carrying
you through former seasons of danger and sorrow. _I will remember_, says
David, _the works of the Lord, and his wonders of old_; Ps. lxxvii. 11.
I will remember the special deliverances I have obtained in times of
most imminent peril. Think with yourselves how high the tempest of your
fears has sometimes risen, and God has sunk them at once into silence.
Think how extreme your danger has been, when you have been perplexed in
a wilderness of thorns, and have seen no way for your escape, but the
eye of God hath found a path of safety for you, a path which the eagle’s
eye hath not seen: He has led you as one that was blind, by the way that
you knew not, he has made darkness light before you, and crooked things
straight, according to his promise; Is. xlii. 16.
And remember also, that sometimes when the very evil which you feared
has fallen upon you, it has not been half so heavy and painful as your
fears have represented it, and you have been enabled to bear that which
you thought was intolerable. Remember the years of ancient time, and
rejoice in that God who has often disappointed your fears of
destruction, and has outdone all your hopes in a way of deliverance. _I
said, I am cut off from the earth, and shall go to the gates of the
grave: I reckoned from night till the morning that he will cut me off
with pining sickness, from day even to night, he will make an end of me:
But in love to my soul, O Lord, thou hast delivered it from the pit of
corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back._ Perhaps
your own experience may teach you to sing this song of Hezekiah, as it
is recorded; Is. xxxviii. 10-17. Or to join with holy David, and repeat
his hymns of praise. And thus, beside your own experiences you may
review the happy experiences of the saints of old, or of Christians in
later times, and encourage your faith in opposition to all your fears.
VIII. Charge your conscience solemnly with the authority of the divine
command to suppress your fears. Remember that the exercises of faith,
courage, and holy firmness of soul, are duties as well as blessings.
Read how often the great God forbids his people to indulge their fears;
Is. xl. 10-13, 14. xliii. 1-5. xliv. 2-8. Fear not, is a command
perpetually repeated, because God well knew how prone our feeble natures
are to be affrighted at every appearance of danger: And even when he
calls his people Jacob a _worm_, and confesses the extreme weakness of
their nature under that emblem, yet he insists on the same precept
still, _Fear not thou worm Jacob_; Is. xli. 14.
Our blessed Lord joins frequently in the same prohibition of a slavish
fear; Mat. x. 28. _Fear not them which can kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul; but fear him rather, who can destroy body and
soul in hell._ And Peter, who once wanted courage, and denied his Lord,
in his elder and better days, grew bolder for the name of Christ, and he
forbids us _to be afraid or troubled at the terror of men_; 1 Pet. iii.
13. He repeats the charge of the prophet Isaiah, _sanctify the Lord of
hosts in your heart_; Is. viii. 13. The Lord of hosts alone is the
proper object of our supreme fear. This will over-rule and abolish all
other fears, as the little noises of earth are lost in the thunders of
heaven. The fear of God in a sublime degree will be an effectual cure of
our sinful fear of creatures.
It is true, the principal of fear is a natural affection, it is rooted
in flesh and blood, it grows high and domineers, especially in some
constitutions, and when the natural spirits are enfeebled, it still
gains the greater ascendancy over us: But if it be indulged and
encouraged, it soon becomes sinful, for it seems to stand opposite to
the grace of faith, and too often prevails over it. Therefore Christ
chides his disciples, when they were affrighted in the storm while he
was in the ship: _Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no
faith?_ Mark iv. 40. And even when Peter was walking upon the water, and
Christ was near him, he saith, _O thou of little faith, wherefore didst
thou doubt?_ Mat. xiv. 31. For a christian to give himself up to the
wild tyranny of his fears, is contrary to the very spirit and design of
the gospel of Christ; Rom. viii. 15. Ye have not received the spirit of
bondage to fear, but the spirit of adoption. The spirit of power and
love; 2 Tim. i. 7. Remember then you are the sons and daughters of God:
It is below the dignity of your character to yield to this slavery, and
your Father himself reproves, and your Redeemer forbids it.
IX. Think of the many advantages that arise from a holy fortitude of
spirit in the midst of dangers. This divine temper of mind will
establish your feet on a rock in the midst of storms, it will animate
you to practise every duty, and to prevent many of the mischiefs you
fear. This will preserve the soul in a sacred serenity and calmness
under all the gloomy and painful events of providence. Without this
firmness of spirit you can never practise what Christ commands his
disciples, and that is, _to possess their souls in patience in the hour
of their distress_; Luke xxi. 19. But we may keep up the government of
ourselves by a holy fortitude and calm submission to the will of God.
This will make sorrows lighter, and the heaviest afflictions become more
tolerable.
Whereas, if we give a loose to fear, it throws the whole frame of nature
into a tumultuous hurry and confusion, it takes away the use of prudence
to contrive the proper means for our escape, it cuts the sinews of our
most active powers, and enfeebles our whole nature, so that we become an
easy prey to every adversary. The more we are affrighted, the less able
are we to defend ourselves.
Fear is a dreadful bondage of the soul, and it holds the man in chains:
Therefore in the text just now cited, the spirit of fear is called a
spirit of bondage. It is this that brings the soul down to taste the
bitterness, and to feel the smart of those very evils which affright us
at a distance, and which perhaps never come near us. Those very
sufferings which are prevented by the mercy of God, we endure them in
our thoughts, and feel the pain of them by an indulgence of an excessive
fear. We suffer an affliction once, if we are overwhelmed with the
terror of it: And if at last it does really overtake us, we double the
suffering, and make the pain the longer. Oftentimes in cases of bodily
distempers, the fear itself brings the disease, and aggravates all the
symptoms. If we could read the records of the grave, we should find that
many a person has been oppressed, and sunk down to death, by the
excessive fear of dying.
The last remedy of fear which I shall mention, is this, suppose the
worst that can come, and be calmly prepared for it: This will be a
mighty relief against the tyranny of our fears.
You are afraid of losing your honour among men, afraid to bear the
scourge of their tongues, and bitter reproaches. But think with
yourselves, when slander and falsehood have done their worst, it is but
the wind of the breath of man, and this cannot hurt your best interest,
while you stand approved of God. Infamy amongst men is but a trifling
evil if compared with praise honour and glory among the saints before
the throne, and the applause of Jesus and his angels at the last great
day.
You are frighted with the hideous appearance of poverty, because scorn
attends it as well as want. But our blessed Lord had not where to lay
his head; he was fed by the bounty of kind friends and pious women, who
ministered to him of their substance. The great and the wise, the rich
and the learned of that day, made him their mockery: The very finger of
scorn pointed at him in the streets: And why should the disciple think
it necessary that he should be above his Lord. Ye may be _poor in this
world, and at the same time rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom_;
James ii. 5.
You are afraid of sickness and pains of the flesh, and your life becomes
a burden to you, by reason of your constant dread of some infectious
distempers. You shift your dwellings, you hide yourselves at home, and
yet you enjoy no peace. Suppose the distemper should seize you, has not
sickness often brought your soul nearer to God? And if your outward man
has decayed, your inward man and your best interest have had a rich
advancement thereby.
You are terrified at the threatening of bloody men. It must be granted,
that flesh has a strong empire over the soul where dangers of torment
and death appear. But suppose men of violence kill the body, then you
will be dismissed at once from all their fury, and from your own fears.
Their terror cannot reach beyond the grave; that is a safe and peaceful
hiding-place.
But perhaps you are frighted at the thoughts of dying, even in the
common way of nature: It may be, the king of terrors dresses himself in
formidable airs, and shakes your very frame: But would you live here on
earth for ever? A christian who has hopes and interests, and possessions
beyond the regions of time and sense, should not be afraid to enter upon
them. Remember that death itself, even in its most formidable
appearance, is ordained of God to open the door of heaven for you, and
let your souls into the joy of eternal life: The grace of your Redeemer,
and the epistle of St. Paul, join to teach you this song, _O death,
where is thy sting?_ And _O grave, where is thy victory?_ 1 Cor. xv. 55.
Thus, by keeping your soul in a ready preparation for the worst events
that your fear can imagine, you overcome this tyrant of the soul, and
triumph over this slavish passion. Thus you transform your very terrors
into joys, and gather honey out of the lion, as Samson did. The more
fatal your dangers are, the nearer is your final deliverance. Say to
yourself, Is my feeble flesh tottering into the grave? Then my soul is
so much nearer to the gates of glory. This is the holy skill of turning
evil into good. Such a faith, kept in lively exercise can make roses
spring out of the midst of thorns, and change the briars of the
wilderness into the fruit-frees of paradise. O what a state of divine
and sacred peace does that christian enjoy, who can look stedfastly upon
the face of danger, in its most frightful forms, and say through grace,
I am prepared! _Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for my God is with me_, and he will be with me for
ever.