Sermons upon death and eternal judgment

4. How comes it to pass that Men are not always under the actual fear of Death, but subject to the revolutions of it all their Lives.

The Seeds of this Fear, are hid in the guilty Breasts of Men, and at times, especially in their Calamities, break forth and kindle upon them. In their leisure and Retirement, intercurrent thoughts of Death and Judgment sting them by fits, and make them uneasy. The flashes of Conscience, like moments of Lightning, startle them, but they relapse into their habitual stupidity. And the account of it will be clear, by considering the following Particulars.

1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life, and look upon Death at a ⟨p. 44⟩great distance. Tho' there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons, tho' we live in a world of Casualties, and Death lie in ambush to surprise us every day, yet we are secure: because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness. A Petty Constable that is troublesome and vexatious, is more feared by his Neighbours, than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners. As remote Objects, though of vast bigness, are lessened to our sight, so through the supposed interval of many years, Death is looked on with a diminution of its Terror. But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them, how formidable is its appearance! Saul tho renowned for his Valour, yet when he understood by Revelation, that to morrow he and ⟨p. 45⟩his Sons should be in the state of the dead,¹ there was no strength in him, but he fell straight-way all along on the Earth; struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistines. Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jollity,