Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…

3. Cause.

3. We see what a forge of Fears a guilty Conscience is, and no less is the sin of Unbelief, the real and proper cause of most distracting and afflictive fears; so much as our Souls are empty of faith, they are in times of trouble filled with fear: We read of some that have died by no other hand but their own fears; but we never read of any that died by fear, who were once brought to live by faith: If men would but dig to the root of their fears, they should certainly find unbelief there, Matth. 8. 26. Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? The less faith still the more fear: Fear is generated by unbelief, and unbelief strengthened by fear, as in nature there is an observable [Greek or Hebrew] circular generation, vapours beget showers, and showers new vapours; so it is in things moral, and therefore all the skill in the world can never cure us of the disease of fear, till God first cure us of our unbelief: ⟨p. 37⟩Christ therefore took the right method, to rid the disciples of their fear, by rebuking their unbelief. The remains of this sin in Gods own people is the cause and fountain of their fears, and more particularly to show how fear is generated by unbelief, let a few particulars be heedfully adverted.

3. We see what a forge of Fears a guilty Conscience is, and no less is the sin of Unbelief, the real and proper cause of most distracting and afflictive fears; so much as our Souls are empty of faith, they are in times of trouble filled with fear: We read of some that have died by no other hand but their own fears; but we never read of any that died by fear, who were once brought to live by faith: If men would but dig to the root of their fears, they should certainly find unbelief there,