But yet evil, as evil, is rather the object of hatred, than of fear, it must be an imminent or near approaching evil, which we see not how to escape or put by, that provokes fear, and rouses this Lion. And therefore the Saints in glory are perfectly freed from fear, because they are out of the reach of all danger: Nor do we that are here in the midst of evils fear them till we see them approaching us, and we see not how to avoid them. To hear of Fire, Plague, or the Sword in the Indies, doth not affright us, because the evil is so remote from us: It's far enough off, we are in no danger of it; but when it is in the Town, much more when within our own dwellings, we tremble. Evil hurts us not by a simple apprehension of its nature, but of its union; and all propinquity is a degree of union as a learned Divine speaks.1 And its worth Observation that all carnal security is maintained by putting evils at a great distance from us. As it is noted of those secure Sensualists Amos 6. 3. they put far from them the evil day. the meaning is not that they did, or could put the evil, one minute farther from them in reality, but only by imagination and fancy, they shut their own eyes and would not see it, lest it should give an unpleasing interruption to their mirth; and this is the reason why death puts the living into no more fear, because it is apprehended as remote, and at an undetermined distance, whereas if the precise time of death were known, especially if that time were near, it would greatly scare and terrify.
But yet evil, as evil, is rather the object of hatred, than of fear, it must be an imminent or near approaching evil, which we see not how to escape or put by, that provokes fear, and rouzes this Lion. And therefore the Saints in glory are perfectly freed from fear, because they are out of the reach of all danger: Nor do we that are here in the midst of evils fear them till we see them approching us, and we see not how to avoid them. To hear of Fire, Plague, or the Sword in the Indies, doth not affright us, because the evil is so remote from us: It's far enough off, we are in no danger of it; but when it is in the Town, much more when within our own dwellings, we tremble. Evil hurts us not by a simple apprehension of its nature, but of its union; and all propinquity is a degree of union as a learned Divine speaks.1 And its worth Observation that all carnal security is maintained by putting evils at a great distance from us. As it is noted of those secure Sensualists Amos 6. 3. they put far from them the evil day. the meaning is not that they did, or could put the evil, one minute farther from them in reality, but only by imagination and fancy, they shut their own eyes and would not see it, lest it should give an unpleasing interruption to their mirth; and this is the reason why death puts the living into no more fear, because it is apprehended as remote, and at an undetermined distance, whereas if the precise time of death were known, especially if that time were near, it would greatly scare and terrifie.
- 1Dr. Reynolds.
