The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…

The Lord Christ therefore lets in this fear, that look as the Lord when he came to conquer the Canaanites, Exod. 23.27, 28. He sent his hornets before him, which were certain fears, which made their hearts faint in the day of battle, and by this subdued them; so the Lord Christ when he comes to conquer a poor sinner that hath long resisted him, and would go on to his own perdition, lets in these fears, that the soul shrinks in with the thoughts of its woeful estate, and cries out secretly, Lord what will become of me if I dye in this condition?¹ Paul trembles astonished at his misery and wickedness, and now he begins to cry out;² the Jailer was very cruel against Paul, but when the Lord Jesus comes to rescue him from this condition, you shall see him trembling. The Lord had let in that ⟨p. 67⟩fear, that now he is content to do any thing to be saved from the danger he saw he was now in; when a man sees danger and great danger near and imminent, now man naturally fears it: before Christ come, the soul may see its misery, but it apprehends it far off, and hoping to escape it, and hence doth not fear it;³ but when the Lord Jesus comes, he presents a mans danger, death, wrath, and eternity near unto him, and hence hath no hope to escape it, as now he is, and therefore doth fear; and seeing the misery exceeding great, he hath an exceeding great (though oft times deep) fear of it; as men near death and apprehending it so, begin then to be troubled, and cry out when it is too late. The Lord Jesus deals more mercifully with the elect, and brings death and eternity near them before they draw near to it; whiles it is called to day:⁴ the poor Jailer began to think of killing himself when fears were upon him, and so many under this stroke of Christ, have the same thoughts, because they see no hope; but this measure is not in all,⁵