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SERM.
XXXII.]
OR
REMEDIES AGAINST FEAR.
33
calmness
under
all the gloomy
and painful events
of
pro
vidence.
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
go-
vernment
of
ourselves
by
a holy
fortitude and
calm
sub-
mission
to the
will
of God. This
will
make sorrows
lighter, and the heaviest
afflictions
become more
tole-
rable.
Whereas,
if
we
give
a
loose to fear,
it
throws the
whole
frame
of
nature
into
a
tumultuous hurry and
con-
fusion,
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
everyadversary.
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
test 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
re-
proaches
:
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
huit
your
best
interest;
VOL.
II.
D