CHAP. II.

What the fear of death includes-The passion of fear in general considered-The special causes that make death so fearful; it is an evil universally known, and certainly future - The bondage of men from the fear of death-Reasons why they are not always under the actual fear of death.

THE next thing to be considered is, What the fear

of death includes, and the bondage consequent upon it. This I shall explain and amplify, by considering four things.-(1) The nature of fear in general, as applicable to the present subject.—(2) The particular causes that render death so fearful.-(3) The degree of this fear expressed by bondage.-(4) How it comes to pass that men are not always under the actual fear of death, but subject to the revolutions of it all their lives.

I. I will consider the nature of fear in general, as applicable to the present subject.

Fear is a passion implanted in nature, that causes a flight from an approaching evil. Three things are requisite to qualify the object, and to make it fearful.

(1) The evil must be apprehended. Knowledge, or at least suspicion excites fear, by representing an

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evil that is likely to seize upon us. Till the mind discerns the danger, the passions are unmoved; and imaginary evils by the mere apprehension, are as strongly feared as real.

(2) The evil must be future. For the mere theory of the most pernicious evil does not wound the soui, but the apprehension of falling under it. If reason can open an expedient to prevent an evil, this passion is quiet; and fear precisely regards its object as to come. Present evils induce grief and sorrow. Past evils by reflection affect with joy, and give a quicker relish to present felicity. Approaching evils alarm us with fear.

(3) The evil must be apprehended as prevalent to make it fearful. For if by comparison we find our strength superior, we either neglect the evil for its lightness, or determine to encounter it; and resistance is the proper effect of anger, not of fear. But when impending evil is too hard for us, the soul shrinks and recoils from it.

Now all these qualifications that make an object fearful concur in death.

On

1. It is an evil universally known. The frequent funerals are a real demonstration that speaks sensibly to our eyes, that death reigns in the world. every side death is in our view, and the shadow of it darkens our brightest days.

2. It is certainly future. All the wretched accidents of this life, such as concern us in our persons, relations, estates and interests; a thousand disasters.

CHAP. H]

Fear of Death.

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that a jealous fear and active fancy will extend and amplify; as they may, so they may not happen to us. And from this mixture of contrary possibilities, from the uncertainty of event, hope, that is an insinuating passion, mixes with fear, and derives comfort. For as sometimes a sudden and unexpected evil surprise us, so often the evil that was sadly expected, never comes to pass. 'But what man is he that lives, and shall not see death?' Psal. lxxxix. 4. Who is so vain as to please himself with an imagination of immortality here? Though men are distinguished in the condition of living, yet all are equal in the necessity of dying. Human greatness of every kind, nobility, riches, empire cannot protect from the sudden and sovereign hand of death, that overthrows all. The most conspicuous difference in this world is between the victorious, and the vanquished prostrate at their feet but death makes them equal. Then the wretched captive shall upbraid the proud conqueror ; 'Art thou become weak as we? Art thou become like us?' The expressions of scripture concerning the frailty of man are often literally and precisely verified. He is like the grass; in the morning it flourishes and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth.'

3. Death is a prevalent and insuperable evil. Hence the proverbial expression, Strong as death that subdues all, cruel as the grave that spares none. It is in vain to struggle with the pangs of death. No simples in nature, no compositions of art. no in

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fluence of the stars, no power of angels, can support thy dying body, or retain the flitting soul. No man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit ; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war.' Eccles. viii. 8. The body sinks in the conflict, and death feeds on its prostrate prey in the grave.

II. Consider more particularly the causes that render death so fearful to men in the apprehension of nature, and in the apprehension of conscience.

1. In the apprehension of nature, death bath this name engraven in its forehead, the supreme of terrible things; and that on several accounts.

(1) Because usually sickness and pains, languishing or tormenting, make the first changes in the body, and the natural death is violent. This Hezekiah complained of with a mournful accent: He will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night thou wilt make an end of me. I reckoned till morning, that as a lion, so will he break all my bones.' Isai. xxxviii. A troop of diseases are the forerunners of this king of terrors. There is a preceding encounter, and sometimes a very fierce one, so that nature feels the cruel victory before it yields to this enemy. As a ship that is tost by a mighty tempest, and by the concussion of the winds and waves, loses its rudder and masts, takes in water in every part, and gradually sinks into the ocean; so in the shipwreck of nature, the body is so shaken and weakened by

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the violence of a disease, that the senses, the animal and vital operations decline, and at last are extinguished in death.

(2) Death considered in the strictest propriety, as destructive of that natural being which is our first and most valuable good in the order of nature, is the just object of fear. The union between soul and body is very intimate and dear, and like David and Jonathan they part unwillingly. Nature has a share

in the best men, and works as nature. St. Paul declares, we would not be unclothed; would not finally put off the body, but have it glorified in conjunction with the soul. Our blessed Saviour, without the least impeachment of the rectitude and perfection of his nature, expressed an averseness from death; and with submission to the divine will desired a freedom from it. His affections were holy and human, and moved according to the quality of their objects.

(3) The natural consequences of death render it fearful. Life is the foundation of all natural enjoyments; and the loss of it induces the loss of all for ever. It is from hence that such evils as are consistent with life, and deprive us only of some particular content and pleasure, are willingly chosen rather than death. The forfeiture of estate, the degrading from honour, the confinement to a perpetual prison, the banishing from our native country, are less penalties than death.

There is in man a natural love of society, and