The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil; for his Dominion is maintained by the Allurements and Terrors of the World. Though Men do not explicitly acknowledge his Sovereignty, yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing Temptations, they are really his Slaves. And the apprehension of temporal Evils, especially of Death, dressed up in a frightful representation with its bloody Pomp,¹ is the strongest snare to the Soul. The Faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial: For the timorous Spirit being wholly ⟨p. 28⟩intent how to avoid the incursion of a present Evil, forgets or neglects what is indispensably to be done, and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity. How many have been terrified from their clearest Duty and resolved Constancy? To escape Death, they have been guilty of the most insufferable Impieties, by renouncing God their Maker and Saviour, and worshipping the Devils for Deities. Every Age presents sad Spectacles of many that choose Iniquity rather than Affliction, ²that relinquish their Duty, and by wicked Compliances save their Lives and lose their Souls. Carnal Desires, and carnal Fears, are the Chains of Hell that retain Men Satan's Captives. But what folly, what madness is it, for the avoiding the impotent fury of the Creature, to venture on the powerful Wrath of God, that exceeds all the Terrors that can be conceived by Fear? This renders them more brutish than the Horse, that starting at his Shadow, springs over a desperate Precipice. The Fearful are excluded from Heaven, ³and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for ever.

2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil; for his Dominion is maintain'd by the Allurements and Terrors of the World. Though Men do not explicitly acknowledg his Soveraignty, yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing Temptations, they are really his Slaves. And the apprehension of temporal Evils, especially of Death, dress'd up in a frightful representation with its bloody Pomp,¹