Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

2. There is a slavish Fear of Death, which hath Torment in it, or which torments the Souls of men, which fills their hearts with terrors and distractions, which discomposeth their minds, and unfits them for the duties of their general or particular callings, and totally disables them from prosecuting the things that belong to their Peace and Welfare. This is that fear of Death of which the Text speaks, and from which the Children are delivered, such as genders unto bondage, and is servile or slavish; a fear of Death as penal, and drawing after it everlasting punishment: This fear of Death takes hold of carnal men; they are not so much afraid of Death, as of that which the Scripture calls the second Death; ¹'tis that which follows after death, that makes it so formidable to them; after Death (as that Text speaks) comes Judgment, when they must receive according to the things which they have done in the Body. When they dye, they must launch out into an endless Ocean, and go the way (as Job says) from whence they shall never return: ²And if Death overtakes them in their unregenerate state and condition, then it will be an entrance or inlet into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. These and such-like are the considerations that make Death so dreadful to the Children of Men, that give it the denomination of the King of Terrors, and of terrible things the most terrible; they are not (as one said) afraid to dye, but they are afraid to be damned. Hence it is, that though Death be terrible to all men, yet it is most terrible to those whose Consciences are awakened, and whose understandings are enlightened; who have been instructed in the Knowledge of God, and of a future State of Retribution. Death (as one observes) is not half so terrible to a Heathen, as it is to an ungodly Christian; Heathen men are in the dark, and see but little of that which is the true terror of Death: But enlightened Christians, who have been acquainted with the Scripture, who know that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; ³that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, that the wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all Nations and people that forget God;