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

And this was the evil against which Christ cautioned his own Disciples in Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. q. d. Have a care you never fear any man, be he armed with never so much power, and rage; as if the power of making or marring you for ever were in his hands, as if you lay at the feet of his will and pleasure to be saved or ruined for ever. Fear not him that can only touch your bodies as if he would damn your souls, invest not any creature with the sovereign and incommunicable power of God.

4. The sinfulness of Fear consists in the distracting influence it hath upon the hearts of men, whereby it discomposeth and unfits them for the discharge of their duties.

Fear sometimes puts men into such an hurry, and their thoughts into such disorder, that for the present they have scarce any succour or relief from their graces, or from their reason; for under an extraordinary fear both grace and reason like the wheels of a watch wound above its due height, stand still, and have no motion at all. It is rare to find a man of that largeness and constancy of heart and mind in a day of fear, that was found in Jehoshaphat, 2 Chro. 20. 2, 3. ⟨p. 17⟩Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat saying, there cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea, on this side Syria, and behold they be in Hazazon Tamar which is Engedi, and Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord. He set himself (i. e.) he composed and fixed his heart for Prayer in the time of so great a fright, and terrible an Alarm: But it is rare to find such constancy and evenness of mind as this; in like cases it is with most in great frights, as the Prophet describes the condition of the Jews,