Faith Heb. 10.22 And truly to comfort Saints Consciences with their attaining less then this except in singular cases and conditions of great relapses and sore desertions is to comfort them with their reproach O ye of little faith Is this to lead sad Saints into paths of pleasantness and peace Or rather to hoodwinck them and so leave them in the dark unto the Devil to fright them Is this to comfort and cure Saints weak hearts Or rather to keep them weak and valetudinary Or is it not to play the Mountebanks with them And by indulging their fears and doubts to take a course to have them alwaies visiting us for our weak Physick when as Christ hath left us and all his mighty strong Consolations and Cordials and that with a Probatum est thereupon the probation and experience of every New-Testament Saint But I will shew you Scripture Divinity and not sparingly neither for what I plead 1 Joh. 1.3 And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Vers 4. And these things write we to you that your joy might be full Chap. 2.5 Hereby know we that we are in him Chap. 3.2 Beloved now we are the Sons of God Vers 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the Brethren Vers 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him Vers 24. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Chap. 4.13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit Vers 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us Chap. 5.13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal life Vers 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Vers 15. And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petitions that we desired of him Vers 19. And we know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness Vers 20. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal life Here is the right description of a New Testament Gospel-Saint and the nature of his confidence which he holds to the end maugre all the terrours of Death or Devil Upon all which let me say thus much for I am labouring to have the Axe laid at the root of all horrid fears of Death do but consider it seriously and then judg whether to comfort souls with puny lazy and easie reflections on that which is sadly short of what those Scriptures speak to be the attainment of Gods Children whether I say it be not to keep souls fully as unholy as truly comfortless for so it is if Eph. 3.17 18.19 do hold out these Doctrines which you will find they do as first That great faith is necessary to the working of a great and an awakened affection in our hearts for God and Christ Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith roots us and grounds us in a sincere and powerful love of God Secondly That such a mighty affection in us for God is necessary to the begetting in us a larger assurance of his love to us For love thinks no ill but expects much good especially from God That ye saies the Apostle being rooted and grounded in love might even thereby be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ even as all eminent Saints have known it that is his love to us in particular as the Apostle Paul phrases it Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Thirdly That great assurance of Gods love to us is needful unto our perfecting of holiness if so be we would be filled with all the fulness of God Now who that have any fear of God or pity to souls dare use any other method of comforting then God uses Oh let none comfort others or themselves with poor weak tokens of being in a good state and by never urging home an absolute necessity of the full assurance of faith even leave them under perpetual guilt and so unto those fears which make them walk unworthy of the state hope or name of Christians Surely he that delivers from the fears of Death leaves not poor souls to be torn and tost with extream doubtings of his love to them Well I leave this particular Information Behold the possibility of attaining this freedom from the fears of Death with all that appertains to it being clear from the necessity of our duty it being required of us and from the many examples of Saints so freed to encourage us For with Christ the great Deliverer this is possible and it is every childs portion ready purchased and it may be had for going for to him He is both able willing and ready to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him Use 2 Now I come to the second Use and that is of Exhortation in two words First Let every poor soul look to it to get grace to be in the number of real Saints for whom Christ intercedes as before my Text saying Behold I and the children which thou hast given me This Text speaks no comfort to any carnal wicked persons In the time of Pestilence and an hour of sudden Death they have no fence against the Devils fiery darts and the flashes of hell no Antidote against the killing fears of Death But let them flee penitently and believingly to Christ for refuge yea to Christ first for grace for repentance unto life and for faith in his bloud and then for safety and if the Son make you Sons and so free ye shall be free indeed Secondly I beseech you that are Saints Gods children though but a little flock little children yet do not you dread Death I do not say Do not think of Death Alas who can but think of it I do not say neither Be not seriously sensible of it But I beseech you for the sake of Jesus Christ for his honour sake who is your King and your own who are his Souldiers I say quit your selves like men stand to it stoutly sink not under the fears of Death Alas you are not to fear your last encounter if God hath given you any victory over your greatest and truly mortal enemies the World Flesh and Devil Saints at last should be like experienced Souldiers used to encounters and warrisht with spiritual Combates so that they should rather scorn then fear the last and harmlessest enemy Death But
so by Gods grace and the power of Christ they might conquer the fears of Death And it is evident though God is no respecter of persons yet all Gods Children have not equal attainments herein Well I know it and for the most part nay I might safely say alwaies long of themselves either they resist God more or seek him less than other Saints or are foolishly and idly ignorant of his good will and their own duty and happiness Alas alas Is it not sad to see how Protestants by a simple distinction or at least simple use of it are in this even turned Papists There is say they Certitudo objecti not subjecti A certainty of Saints salvation but not of its evidence to them as if indeed in this valley of tears the Saints eyes be always so bleared that they cannot see one of a thousand such a mystery and secret The white stone it is true hath a new name written in it which none can read indeed but him that hath it What nor he neither scarce at all is it written in such very small Letters as cannot be seen by the ordinary illumination of Gods people Such say Saints salvation no doubt is certain in it self but seldom or never clearly evident to them to this purpose or effect too many wrong God and themselves too Well listen to this too much and run this dark black notion down into its blind consequences and palpable inconveniences which will scarce be avoided errour in this world multiplying much faster than truth This I I tell you will be one said Consequence the Devil comes on you and if God permits him as such a strange misunderstanding of the Gospel provokes him to it then I assure you he will shake you sorely with the fears of death But pray you now consider at length Is making of Calling and Election sure making it sure in it self or to our selves secure and evident is it our duty sufficient to draw near unto God with faith or rather also with the full assurance of it Is indeed God bound in his Covenant to give the Saints more and more grace but no comfort at all Surely as well not one as not the other and the same hinders one as well as the other even our ignorance and unwillingness who as we oft refuse to return to the Lord so also much oftener do we refuse to be comforted How come we to be commanded to rejoyce in the Lord alwaies Yea to count it all joy when we fall into divers Temptations If no promise of ability from God to enable us to rejoyce Hath not God confirmed his Covenant by an Oath that we should have strong consolation as well as strong graces Heb. 6.17 18. Is not joy one of the fruits of Christs Spirit Doth not the Kingdom of Christ and government of our hearts consist in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Doth not an Apostle use his Authority thus Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies Rom. 14.17 and again I say rejoyce Who dares then preach Gods Word otherwise And clip the Scripture language and tell people it is enough or that it is pretty well if a Saint can say thus I desire to be Gods child though I cannot call God Father Alas there can be but poor joy in thy desires of being Gods child if thou knowest not but God is thy enemy Will this be a comfort to thee that thou desirest to be Gods child whilst thou knowest that thou neglectest a strict command of rejoycing in the Lord alwaies flatly rebelling against a Conscience binding Gospel-Law and putting God off with a Complement that such Commands are too good for thee I am sure they are too good to be disobeyed But to return Dost thou desire to be Gods Child Let thy desires be like a childs desires obedient desires Dost thou desire to be a dutiful Child Then rejoyce in thy Father alwaies and again I say rejoyce Whether is ground of comfort thinkest thou thy disobedient desires or Gods free pardoning love Truly I question whether there be not a dream in such kind of fancies fancies I call them if taken for comforts and rested in For how canst thou say if thou knowest what thou sayest that thou lovest God as a Child if thou hast no evidence that God loves thee as a Father This is to give the Apostle John the lye who saies plainly that we love him because he first loved us Some may think it modesty for a Saint to say I desire to be Gods child but dare not call God Father Modesty for a child not to own his true Father and his real evident love the sensiblest thing that is felt of God in the world for God is love This I know that something like it is but ignorance pride and sloathful resting in miserable attainments all sadly put together not that I am any the least friend to a rash peremptory constant and sudden assertion My God and my Father But such an one I contend for as springs from a serious meditation of Gods unspeakable love revealed in the Covenant of grace and from the due exercise of Grace especially in the actual worshipping of God wherein most Scripture Saints have exprest their highest confidence in God as a Father even at their Devotions And also such an assertion I plead for of a Saints interest in God as a Father which together with all the rest arises from a peculiar operating presence of the witnessing Spirit whereby a Saint is enabled to cry Abba Father Which Spirit dwelling in the Saints and enabling them in all Acts of Worship yea of their life more or less cannot but give them a sweet sence all along alwaies in their hearts of Gods being their Father unless they have so sinned as David driven away the Comforter and so need to pray with him Restore O Lord the Joys of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Therefore let Ministers especially and all those who ought to comfort one another let Gods Heralds I say and Preachers of Gospel glad Tydings abhor to be like the Devils Goalers to feed the Saints with weak cold comforts like bread and water of affliction that will certainly betray them to the power of the Devil and the fears of Death What Comfort and bolster up a Communicant one that having many years professed true Christianity may now be called within an hour to heaven What I say to comfort such an one with his ABC his rudiments that it is a matter of content and rest to him that he desires to be Gods Child though he cannot call God Father We may shut up our Bibles and cease preaching comfort if this be enough Every the least Saint may quickly attain to this for it is the least that true grace can do it may be as quickly done as said by a true Saint But surely there is something more in drawing near to God in following on to seek the Lord even full assurance of
but hope he would trust in him for he knew his Redeemer lived David though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death would fear no ill for God was with him even Christ his great shepherd The three Children feared Death neither before they were cast into the fiery furnace nor after because a fourth was with them in form like the Son of God The Apostle Paul was perswaded that neither Death nor life no not death could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus and thereupon manifested such freedom from fear that he saies of himself and many others In all these things amongst which were manifold deaths we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us yea and for this purpose gave Christ for us Rom. 8.37 even we though killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter v. 36. yet we in this condition that multiplies other mens fears are more than Conquerours Therefore O Saints see the valour of your fellow souldiers who have no other Captain or weapons than you have Christ is no respecter of persons but able and willing to save you as well as them from the fears of Death But to come to the second part of my Method Secondly I am now to proceed to another most pleasing and satisfactory account and to discover how Christ doth so dwell raign and rule in the Saints hearts as to eject thence these potent enslaving fears the fears of Death how he works them out of his childrens hearts and rids them of such troublesome Guests that when they are found in unregenerate men do as it were lay violent hands on them For the fears of Death in many are one sort of Deaths executioners or at least as Serjeants to arrest them for the Grave and that with such a clap and damp that makes uncontrolable way for death and quite overthrows them Now how doth Christ cast and bar out these killing fears of death Many waies First By Faith a gift flowing as all other grace from Christs fulness of which we receive grace for grace Christians see your strength 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith The world comprehending the miseries arising from a dying life and from death it self yea Devil too for these are the enemies and forces the world breeds maintains and fights us with whilst we are in it But faith is our victory and surely if it makes us Conquerours it makes us not to fear This excellent grace of Faith hath so great a stroke in the Saints conquering that it is called the conquest and victory it self Nay farther Saints in this life are said to be kept by the power of God through FAITH unto Salvation because what ever is done by Gods and Christs power for our Salvation or Redemption from any or all our miseries first and last is accomplished not without our faith Thus Christ applies and conveys to us the merit vertue and power of his conquering death Christ hath shed his bloud but by faith he warms our hearts with it against the cold fears of death This was that which made the Apostle Paul so crow over Death He was perswaded that as not life so neither death could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus This perswasion was his faith that made him triumph over death without fears of it come when it would Thus is Christ the Author and finisher of our faith unto this particular conquest and victory over Death and over all its horrid fears For Christ is not contented himself thus to conquer unless he makes all his Servants not only that eminent Apostle Paul but also all Believers his Seconds in the encounter that they should conquer as well as he Nay in respect of any expected Death be more than Conquerours Oh! Faith in Christs bloud gives Saints a noble courage against Death I shall urge this with the citation of a truly Heroick and spiritual expression dictated by a most learned and pious Divine of our Protestant Religion which is this Siquis animum pacare non possit mortis contemptu is sciat parum se adhuc profecisse in Christi fide that is saies he If a man cannot quiet his soul or still that turbulent passion of fear with the contempt of Death Let that man know he hath made but little proficiency in the faith of Christ Thus he concerning a Professour too fearful of Death To such an one I think also it may be truly and justly said with a smart rebuke O thou of little faith To this purpose I shall propose a Scripture-passage most worthy of special notice It is that of Christ himself concerning the Apostle Peter Luk. 22.31 32. Simon Satan hath desired saies Christ to have you that he may fift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not How did Satan sift and shake him Truly with fears of suffering death of faring like his Master so that for fear he denied him and swore to boot Thus Satan shook him with strong blasts of Temptations to fear death he blew him like a shaking leafe with his fears Well how did he recover I have prayed saies the Lord that thy faith fail not That was his Case this his cure fear of death cured by faith in him whom he forsook when Death was near Saies Luther Quantò major fides est tantò mors est imbecillior Quanto autem fides minor tantò mors est acerbior That is The greater Faith is the weaker is Death The less Faith is the bitterer is Death Have then a strong faith in Christ and your hearts shall not be troubled with any disquieting fears of Death for these will certainly be too weak to hold your spirits in bondage if your hearts be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Secondly Christ by putting into and maintaining in our hearts that divine and mighty principle of love a love in our souls for himself doth thereby banish the fears of Death and garrison them out Perfect love saies the Apostle John casteth out fear Joh. 4.18 There is a very eminent Divine of our English Nation that gives us a very rational and remarkable account of the occasion upon which this Apostle writ this whole Epistle or at least that Expression yet truly I conceive the former not hard to imagine inasmuch as the Gnosticks whom that Person saies this Apostle here confuted did hold that Christians in danger to save their lives might under fears of Death deny Christ outwardly so they owned him in their hearts a devillish Notion like that Ye shall not surely dye Therefore the Apostle most pertinently deals with these Gnosticks in many close touches and therefore he speaks so highly of believing in Christ that is professing or confessing openly that Jesus is the Son of God and particularly that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Joh. 5.1 Now we are apt
fruits of the Spirit and of Heaven which do render Death to those that taste them more desirable than formidable The first is First Communion with Christ That of it which Saints have in this world is very sensible and sweet Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ You know it is the holy boast of a holy man the Apostle John concerning himself and other real Saints and it is sweet Communion as in the next words These things write we unto you that your joy might be full Thus true joy comes into the heart even unparallel'd gladness by Gods lifting up the light of his Countenance The wicked whore cries Let us take our fills of love in unclean Communion but Christs Spouse's design is that her joy might be full in holy Communion with God and Christ The first misses joy altogether meets with only vanity and vexation of Spirit but the other loses her dumpish sorrow and never enjoys that Communion with Christ much but she meets also with joy unspeakable and full of glory and yet in this world never enough Therefore they that taste it most do most earnestly long to be dissolved and to be with Christ as the Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ He professes indeed that he had his Conversation in heaven as to real foretasts thereof which were enough to set him a longing not fully to satisfie and therefore he confesses that whilst in the body he was in great measure absent from the Lord. And would he not be present Yes even with all his heart and farewell body till the Resurrection that he might kiss his sweet Jesus his feet that he might be ever with the Lord. This this was the Apostle Pauls holy passion Oh! Then sincere Christians for two or three of you to be with Christ and he with you in prayer according to his promise and in other Ordinances yea in any divine exercises of grace This this must needs make your souls long to depart and to be with Christ This notion you must know flows not from a doubtful or pretended experience but from positive express Gospel Doctrine 1 Thes 4.17 18. And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words It is mighty comfort against death and judgment there spoken of to consider the happiness of being ever with the Lord. If it was the joy and boast of the enamoured Spouse Cant. 2.9 to view Christ shewing himself through the Lattess how can she but long to see him with open face to see him as he is in glory Surely that soul that by faith and love cleaves to Christ can never much fear death which it knows will never separate such lovers as Christ and a believing soul are but rather indeed bring it into heaven and force it only to be more happy in a more intimate close yea constant Vision and fruition of Christ Secondly Freedom from sin though but in some tolerable manner attained gives us a sweet foretaste of heaven where all just mens souls do enter but no unclean thing with them So much freedom from sin is so much heaven upon earth but the reliques of sin still pestering us till death make us if true Saints the more eagerly long for perfect freedom from it in heaven which huge longing is an holy extasie I confess and found only I think in those whose Consciences do not reproach them whilst they live They of all men even they that labour to the utmost to subdue sin do long to get rid of it altogether though it be by death Therefore the Apostle Paul expresses himself after this manner And not only they Rem 8.23 but we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the body reckoning upon not much mattering yea quite overlooking death having the eye on a sweet deliverance of soul and body from sin at the Resurrection sith in this life both of them are most sadly infected therewith Therefore saies he we groan but how Even as the Creature to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption And which is very remarkable We our selves who have the first fruits of the Spirit c. What are they The thirteenth verse a little before will clear that in these words If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Blessed souls are they and they shall be blessed who have received the first fruits of the Spirit in the mortification of sin for they groan within themselves till that happy time come after death when soul and body shall no more sin They that have tasted how sweet the life-bloud of one sturdy lusty sin is can never be satiated till they have the bloud of all the rest the dam and all original sin insatiably crying out O when shall we be delivered from the body of this Death which indeed is far more dreadful than natural death But O how sweet is it for a Saint to see Necis artificem arte perire suâ sin killing it self with its own murthering-piece killing its enemy and it self with one blow How joyfully do Saints see the death of all their sins approach full as fast as the death of their bodies Well then the Saints with Sampson would gladly dye that so all their sins and therefore to be sure more might be utterly destroyed at their death than ever they could slay all their life time A true and thorough Saint fears to sin more than to dye therefore he feares not so much to dye and sin no more as to live yet and sin O thou that hast faithfully mortified any lust and art sure of it Death cannot wound nor astonish thee for certainly more comfort arises to the Saints from the mortality of sin then terrour from the mortality of the body Thirdly The blessed graces of the Spirit of God the possession of which is our participation of the Divine nature the exercise of which is our Conversation in heaven These Graces of the Spirit of God are indeed the very first fruits of heaven and cannot well be at rest till they have carried the soul into their own Element Heaven it self for from above it is whence every good and perfect gift doth descend and would as naturally carry the soul endued therewith up thither as the fire mounts upwards So that those Divine souls whose vigorous graces do make them hunger and thirst after righteousness will not stick to venture at Gods call a bodily life to satisfie that thirst in heaven The Apostle Paul was very desirous to attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Phil. 3.11 compared with ver 21. Oh! how he longed to be more holy here in this world to be quickly in the number of the dead in the Lord He cared not how soon Perfect he saies he was not yet nor likely to be perfect here below but yet he contended hard running to
honour to suffer for Christs name stocks stripes and imprisonments yea miserable Deaths Their noble eye piercing into Eternity immortality and glory could read a meaning in that Text Count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations yea when into the Grave and Pit it self Heb. 10.34 And ye took joyfully the spoyling of your goods as knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance Into a full possession of which Death at worst could but put them So that the Saints spiritual courage will quickly swallow up their natural fears The Case is evident enough in those Worthies recorded in that Gospel-Chronicle or rather little book of Martyrs Heb. 11. whose natures abhorred Death as much as any of ours yet whose spirits would not ACCEPT of deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Thirdly The Saints may be and are more than others wisely sensible of Gods hand do humble themselves under it mourn and grieve and yet fear not this slavish fear Were the Saints as stocks and stones without sence they would not only be wanting to their duty of fearing God but truly in such a case would there be no spiritual courage or valour in enduring To say they are Stoicks and unsensible of misery were to deny the power of Christ in upholding his Saints and Martyrs of all Ages in their suffering great evils The Lord Jesus the greatest Sufferer and Conflicter with Death had his sence of evil or acute pain in crying out My God! but he feared none of this fear the distracting fear that divides or alienates the soul from God For he said My God my God that twice but once only Why hast thou forsaken me Which evidently shews his fear was no other than filial upon confidence of his sure interest in Gods love as his God and Father and also that it was less than his pain For his pain was excessive his fear not so but moderated with the highest fortitude and courage And so Christ in that he himself suffered being Tempted is able to succour them that are tempted True Saints are anointed with the very same Unction wherewith Christ was anointed And as he had some of their sence of Pain so they likewise have some of his Courage under it Fourthly Saints may fear God in an affliction though not an affliction it self God at or in death but not death it self Be it known to the worst and greatest enemies of Christ and Christians it is not the frown of a Tyrant or the black visage of Death that chils and damps a Saints heart but rather his doubtful and dark apprehensions of God in afflictions are they that weaken his heart Oh! that is a sad Sob Psal 90.7 We are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled If God smile the Saints fear not Prisons Stocks spoyling of goods Death it self occasions little fear If Gods favour set them a singing and his countenance glad their hearts what can sadden It is Gods anger in judgments that makes the Saints fear whilst others reckon only on Gods hatred the Saints not daring to do so do yet judge that it is but rational and safe to conclude of Gods anger and displeasure in judgments which seldom proclaim any thing more How often have you in the Scriptures this proved Sometimes that the wrath of the Lord was enkindled as naturally evident in Plagues and judgments and at the end of many sad descriptions of Gods judgments by the Prophets the sum of each dreadful visitation is this For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Now though the Saints through faith in Christ do not suffer their hearts to be troubled with fears of Gods hatred yet they are troubled at his anger and displeasure A Child when his Fathers anger is legible indeed in stripes concludes not that his Father hates him yet trembles at his anger And indeed it is no valour in the world not to fear Gods consuming anger To this I might add That Saints may fear some sin visited by a mortal sickness and the like which they might never sufficiently know was a sin or themselves guilty of it if indeed they did know it to be a sin or that they have not duly repented of it or fully forsaken it Or they may fear their own unpreparedness for weakness and insufficiency to grapple with affliction pain and Death it self And all this is not to fear the power of any mortal calamity or of Death it self But I dare scarce take any occasion though of pertinent enlargements hoping that God will supply all my defect in your serious Meditations Fifthly Will you have a distinction betwixt the wicked hypocrites and the Saints fears Be pleased to take it Saints fear not with an utter despair at the worst but so doth every wicked man The wicked either altogether presume in Prosperity or in great adversity altogether despair Just as it was with Nabal his heart over night was huge merry within him at a Kingly Feast but the next morning when his wine was gone out of him saies the Scripture and but at the report of a past danger his heart died within him as a stone So many men in their Cups have a courage springing from the Tap who drown their cares and fears in the Hogshead whilst Saints drown theirs in Christs bloud Alas what spirit have wicked men when their Wine is gone out of them The Saints hearts may quake and be shaken a little but yet they are at Anchor when as the very first evil tydings of vengeance from God and of a dreadful mortality drive the wicked's fearful hearts as Chaff before the wind or as a poor tattered Ship without Anchor before a Tempest Bring the Saints to their worst fears so that they sin to escape and make a supply of weak faith with a foolish carnal stratagem yet still their fears are not the fears of the wicked for First Saints have even then some hope in God which laies real hold on God though but little and God accepts yea fails not that little Therefore God was good to David and delivered him from Achish and made him not ashamed though his hope in God was little and his sin great Saies David at that very time Psal 34.4 I sought the Lord there is some hope necessarily implied and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears Many fears little hope yet some he had for he sought God But yet it is very remarkable in Scripture how God hath in the utmost extremity of his people even eminently prospered their sins of little hope and great fears for their escape though afterward he punished them forely for both Secondly Whereas the wickeds fears encrease with their dangers and calamities and the nearer approach of their unavoydable ruine yet the grace of Gods Children in such extremities recovers it self again and their fears decrease the more their miseries multiply Wicked
I shall only add That this freedom from the fears of Death is a priviledge Christ hath purchased for this present state for this life NOw what Saint can find in his heart to lose so great a Legacy left by Christ so great a purchase and benefit of his Death So great a Deliverance And foolishly multiply to himself self-willed fears or which is worse self-willed grounds of fear as lust passion worldly incumbrances or worldly mindedness idleness vain frothy foolish actions and carriage or if not so then it may be ignorant suspicions of Gods mercy All these things do but arm Death and thine own Conscience to wound thee oh look to thy self make haste for Death hastens apace O! what true Child of God but would so long to be rid of this disingenuous temper of fearing Death as to be even hourly on his knees begging of Christ this benefit of his gloriously conquering death which if a Child of God receives not in this short and now if ever uncertain life he will altogether miss that which is so goodly a part of the Saints Portion which is proper to and fitted for this present life even before Death comes to encounter us Well abandon these fears with the grounds of them and then though Death come quickly yet through Christ you will grapple well enough with it And oh that men were wise to get from Christ by all constant importunity some of this blessed deliverance from the fears of Death and oh that by a continual carelesness because not presently seized by the Plague or any other mortal sickness they would not desperately venture it and so sadly abandon themselves to the frights of the Devil in an hour of sudden death Now if any be awakened either by Gods Word or Providence to look after this great benefit of Christs death which is to be delivered from the servile fears of their own then let such consider this Counsel which the Scripture gives in the Case First Have a care of harbouring one moment any known or knowable guilt For it receives from the condemning Law strength to arm Death with I wonder not that those Saints who have at any time much guilt upon their spirits do then fear Death If sin be not examined and found out which is not done by many Saints who even justifie themselves in some sins not judging them to be sins nor much caring to examine lest they should prove sins and so to be parted with contrary to a dear humour and so calling good evil and evil good no wonder in such a case that the Woe belonging to such when executed as well as threatned frights them If Saints for want of due consideration and examining themselves do not only commit but continue in sin unrepented of as the Plagued Corinthians no wonder that they are surprized not only with the fears of death but with sudden death it self Oh! shake your Consciences rouze them up to discharge their office faithfully let your heart smite you for the least sin or evil thought and oh harbour not guilt let it not lodge with you one night no not an hour for so long you will be liable to horrid fears of dying It is so and the very truth of many Saints condition Therefore find out that which troubles your peace and provokes God to leave you to the fears of Death finding it out labour for the assistance of Christs Spirit for one look from Christ for one manifestation of Gods love that may break your hearts and make you weep bitterly repent and grieve throughly thus shall not sin come upon you with an afterclap with a repentance to be repented of Weep for sin according to the demand of the Gospel which requires not a little grief though less then sin deserves for it deserves hells weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Do this Believe and Repent Repent and Believe and then you will find in your hearts little or no fears of Death For peace of Conscience will thus become firm and will cast and keep them out yea defend the heart through Christ I say therefore dayly yea hourly exercise faith together with repentance that is to say a vigorous faith which is never forlorn or forsaken of good works and such a faith in Christ will be your victory over all base fears of Death Be not then O souls too hasty in your exercise of faith Believe again and again really and truly presenting to your selves the severity of the last and solemn judgment of God Believe not only till some ease come but till you be willing to dye if the Lord will presently For did you arraign your selves in bitter Confession of sin as before Gods Tribunal indeed No less faith would serve your turn then such as would carry you boldly from your knees through Death to Judgment for you may so examine and judge your selves as to be confident in Christ that you shall never be judged of the Lord. Secondly Resist the Devil I mean these his temptations to fear death resist both him and all his temptations as those to sin to despair of its pardon and to fear its wages Death Have an It is written for him if not to wound him yet to gag him If nothing be readier dart this Text into his foul mouth to stop it this Text managed with faith will fright the Devil more than he can fright you This Text is in this case like Goliahs Sword none like it Take Gods Word for it will wound him and make him run too by the power of the Spirit of Christ Well thus resist the Devil fear him not he is a conquered enemy Christ hath destroyed him that hath the power of death saies the Apostle And therefore I desire you to resist him for two reasons First Because your Captain hath done it It is fit for Souldiers to fight against such as their General Charges It is not fit for you to yield to the Devils temptations to fear Death when as Christ the Captain of your salvation hath overcome him as his and your Enemy destroying him that had the power of Death This were to raise arms with the Devil and to strengthen him against Christ and your own lives too But Secondly I advise this because it is the way of Christ his Method of ridding his children from fear He first destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and all this that he might deliver his people from fear of dying So do you follow Christs Methods of war Would you be delivered indeed by Christ from the bondage fears of Death Then do as Christ resist him that hath the power of Death The Promise you know encourages this stoutness Resist the Devil and he will flee from you which when he doth your fears of Death will flee after him because it is he only that hath this power of Death As one saies Timor attrahit ad se Daemonas Fear or Cowardize invites the Devil to
healthful lively grace of hope First Labour to know well God and Christ with the design merit and power of his death There is nothing knowable of God as the truth is in Jesus but it conduceth to a Saints confidence labour therefore to know as much of God as thou canst Psal 9.10 They that know thy name will put their trust in thee And indeed who will trust a stranger that he knows not See further Prov. 22.17 18 19. Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge Vers 18. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee they shall withall be fitted in thy lips Vers 19. That thy trust may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day even to thee Vers 20. Have I not written to thee excellent things in Counsels and knowledge And all this excellent instruction from Christ is to this very purpose that thy trust may be in God Read Gods word much labour to understand his blessed pregnant promises his wisdom power and faithfulness especially his love to comprehend with all Saints the breadth and length and depth and height of it Know God much and you will trust him the more as Psal 9.10 They that know thy name will put their trust in thee For thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Thy faithfulness O Lord is so experienced who that knows in but must trust in thee How came Job to trust God though he should slay him to be so fearless of any death Truly he had excellent knowledge of God yea and of Christ too He knew his Redeemer lived But let thy knowledge of God and Christ be such as includes Eternal life for the Devils know God they believe and tremble Let not thy knowledg be like the knowledge of the filthy Devils but like the knowledge of the pure God let it shine and sparkle in all holiness of heart and life Be good and do good as well as know good be like God and do like God Get a renewed heart and a reformed life that so beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord you may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Oh continue beholding Christs glory as in a glass till you see your selves somewhat like him and then you cannot see any thing to fright you for as you have it Psal 64.10 The RIGHTEOUS shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the UPRIGHT in heart shall glory Now surely Death and its fears shall not for bid it and make this Scripture a lye Secondly Use thy self to it to trust in God Exercise thy self extraordinarily unto this part of Godliness so no changes will put thee out no not thy last change Job could trust God in one sad condition after another though sadder and sadder And then at length he could do so as well even at death though God himself too should slay him he could not be put by his good use and holy custome of trusting in God Psal 62.8 Trust in him at all times And if thou dost I will assure thee thou wilt at no time much fear death or ought else but God But Thirdly Especially in times of danger as when War Plague Famine is begun or any other mortal Calamity When thou art in the valley of the shadow of death then it is high time to trust much in God and to pluck up thy heart Psal 2.12 When his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him That take warning betime and return to him that smites them that cling to him and kiss the Rod at the first sight or the first lash at least Oh that men did but know the things which do belong to their peace to their speedy averting of Gods dreadful judgments Oh that men would trust in God and cleave unto him yea to his feet humbling themselves under his mighty hand when he begins to plague them that so he may not be provoked to chasten in his hot displeasure This David earnestly prayed against and as earnestly laboured alwaies to prevent For the very enkindling of Gods anger is dreadful but its waxing hot most lamentable desolating and full of horrour who can dwell with everlasting burnings Oh therefore saies a wise David that had felt Gods anger when his anger is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Fourthly Trust in God when thou findest thy heart most fearful That is the very nick of time that makes thy duty of trusting God most seasonable and advantagious to thee and therefore an hour wherein thou mayst expect the assistance of Gods Spirit to bear thee up according to Davids confidence grounded on good experience Psal 56.3 What time I am affraid I will trust in thee Why art thou disquieted O my soul Hope in God And again This I call to mind What Truly that my strength and hope was perished from the Lord yet therefore have I hope As God so a gracious soul will be seen in the mount God helps in extremity lest the Spirit he hath made should fail before him as the Prophet admirably therefore let thy trust in God be at work when to be sure Gods power is at work too and that is in extremity set in with God and thy Spirit shall be sustained When the fear of near approaching Death charges thee home and thy heart sinks within thee O let it not sink like a stone as Nabals but pluck it up and charge it again with a more lively hope in God This do master thy fears and conquer For it is often found that Cowards when they can master themselves and their own fears turn most valiant and daring against their enemies Fifthly Clear up thy interest in God and in Christ A Child trusts his Father best a Loyal Subject his good Lord and King To trust in such a relation is an easie because a genuine and natural work Psal 7.1 O Lord my God in thee do I put my trust Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me What is the matter The matter alas War Pestilence is at the door Peace O soul hope in God Alas but how shall I Away away how shalt thou not Dost thou not know that God is the health of thy Countenance and thy God Yet this very David could cry out sometimes as forsaken of God as if cut off from Gods eyes Oh that Gods People now a daies would not imitate Scripture Saints only in their complaints and weeping but also in their rejoycing and singing not follow them only in their diffidence but in their confidence also and not only in their dark paths but in their Lucidis intervallis as Isaiah phrases it Walking with them in the light of the Lord. O be not like Scripture Saints in their
spiritual swooning away but in their coming again to themselves be like them not only in their desertions or dejections but their more usual assurance of Gods love Oh labour to speak the Dialect of Gods Children with David either in the phrase of Psal 3.7 or 119.94 either thus Save me O MY God Or thus I AM THINE save me Sixthly Rely on nothing else Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Pro. 3.5 That is to the devices of thy heart for security refuge help preservation in danger Some trust in horses saies the Psalmist and some I may say in Country houses and air Go to them in time of Pestilence they may but only in case duty and necessary business bind them not to the contrary He that flees the Plague and runs from his Duty may most likely but rush into the Plague as I may say or worse whatever he now thinks Some trust to their invention of Antidotes against the Plague to their own or other mens devices for help and succour in time of danger use them they may but trust to them and their danger is a hundred times the greater for cursed is man that trusteth in man much more that trusteth in himself that leans to his own understanding for he that doth so would if he prospered which it is pity therefore he should I say he would sacrifice to his own net as well as lean to his own understanding Seventhly Praise God much even with thy soul and all that is within thee under the greatest Judgments It is a duty most of all seasonable necessary and advantagious to thee Art thou alive Praise God as the living the living should do especially I say in time of danger Therefore Jacob in his time of danger and fears began his prevalent and successful prayer for deliverance with Less then the least of all Gods mercies For a thankful and chearful acknowledgment feeds faith and hope with former good experience and dispels fear of evil to come with a joy in the Lord who is the presentest and the greatest good Be careful for nothing saies the Apostle How so What remedy against disquieting care and fean Truly Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving In dangers and troubles I judge it very fitting to begin our Prayers with Thanksgivings thanking God for what we have when all seems to be a going and we our selves too who are less then the least of all Gods mercies But especially because by Praises in the beginning of our Prayers we sing out our fears and tune our hearts to pray in faith But seeing both Praise and Prayer are so useful to increase faith and blast fear I will never contend for the priority of either e'n put them together let them never go asunder To conclude then Oh pray much The admirablest way under heaven by Christs blessing to conjure all base fears quite out of the heart For if ever faith be emboldened it is in prayer Prayer it is the improver as of all grace so especially of faith Psal 62.8 Trust in the Lord at all times But how shall we do that It follows Ye people pour out your heart before him then he adds God is a Refuge for us That is certain as the Prophet thinks Oh the confidence in God that they arrive to who in danger can pour out their hearts before him Faith when we pray aright doth in every Petition get faster and faster hold of God Thus the soul in Prayer works it self even into Gods arms of mercy and Christs bosome of love Thus in danger we nestle closer into the Clefts of our blessed Rock till the indignation be overpast You know that excellent Counsel Isa 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as is were for a moment untill the indignation be overpast Wouldst thou be so safe Then as Christ counsels Mat. 6.6 Do thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which seeth in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly There is to this purpose a very edifying inference may be easily gathered from 1 Tim. 5.5 Where you have the Apostle's good widow mentioned and that she trusted in God but that is not all It is not a poor rash flourish I trust in God and I hope in the Lord Jesus which is but a dream nay a vain and empty breath the poor ignorant prophane perfons hope which quickly gives up the Ghost But saies the Apostle The good widow she trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day Thus she upholds her Confidence in God both day and night Woe be to those that say they trust in God day and night and yet scarce pray at all in good earnest day nor night The Apostle saies indeed that this good widow is desolate hath none to help her but yet to facilitate her faith you know God hath especially revealed his tender care of widows yet their even their trust in God if they will make any thing on 't must be raised and enlivened through continual supplications night and day So must every one of us do who make God our refuge in times of danger I think every one of our hearts tells us without asking what need we have to trust in God under this sad Visitation and sore Judgment of the Plague we may quickly sit in our Families as a desolate widow yea how quickly may we be shut up in them as many are at this time Well if we would approve our Consciences to God in this duty of trusting in him which is our wisest and safest practice let us be exceeding fervent yea constant too in our supplications and prayers day and night It is the use you sadly know as of old when a poor forlorn Family is shut up for the Plague to make upon the door a Red Cross and to write over or by it Lord have mercy c. But as you love your lives both before and after infection instead of that Red Cross have faith in the bloud of Jesus get your souls well sprinkled with it And that which effectually cures the Plague of the heart can more easily and quickly cure the Plague of the body And so Christ may be your Passeover indeed the destroying Angel may pass over you and not touch those that are careful by faith to get their hearts well sprinkled with the bloud of this immaculate Lamb of God And then instead of that short Lord have Mercy do you pour out your souls before the Lord who poured out his heart bloud for poor sinners And to encourage you in the whole even in all your labours to attain such a faith and confidence in Christ as may by his power work out of your hearts the slavish fears of Death Take that excellent place of Scripture Nahum 1.7 The Lord is good A strong hold in the day of trouble AND HE KNOWETH THEM THAT TRUST IN HIM to be sure that trust in him like Job though he stay them Be assured of it your Father which seeth in secret in the secret Closet nay in the secret Chamber and house shut up he that seeth in secret will reward you openly So that if you do indeed firmly believe in God and believe also in Christ you shall be able to say and that from some sweet and great experience that in very deed When his Wrath is kindled but a little blessed YEA THRICE BLESSED are all they that put their trust in him FINIS