0A.03. Chapter II.
Chapter II. What the Fear of Death Includes. The passion of fear in general considered. The special causes that make death so fearful.
It is an evil universally known.
It is certainly future. The bondage of men from the fear of death. The reasons why men are not always under the actual fear of death. The next thing to be considered is, what the fear of death includes, and the bondage that is consequent to it. This I shall explain and amplify, by considering four things:
1. The nature of fear in general, as applicable to the present subject.
2. The particular causes that render death so fearful.
3. The degree of this fear expressed by bondage.
4. How it comes to pass that men are not always under the actual fear of death, but subject to the revolutions of it all their lives.
1. I will consider the nature of fear in general, as applicable to the present subject. Fear is a passion implanted in nature, that causes a flight from an approaching evil. Three things are requisite to qualify the object, and make it fearful:
(1.) The evil must be apprehended. Knowledge, or at least suspicion, excites fear, by representing an evil that is lively to seize upon us. Until the mind discerns the danger, the passions are unmoved; and imaginary evils by the mere apprehension, are as strongly feared as real evils.
(2.) The evil must be future. For the naked theory of the most pernicious evil does not wound the soul, but the apprehension of falling under it. If reason can open an expedient to prevent an evil, this passion is quiet. And fear precisely regards its object as to come. Present evils induce grief and sorrow; past evils by reflection affect with joy, and give a quicker relish to present felicity. Approaching evils alarm us with fear.
(3.) The evil must be apprehended as prevalent to make it fearful. For if by comparison we find our strength superior, we either neglect the evil for its levity, or determine to encounter it; and resistance is the proper effect of anger, not of fear. But when an impendent evil is too hard for us, the soul shrinks and recoils from it.
Now all these qualifications that make an object fearful, concur in death.
1st. It is an evil universally known. The frequent funerals are a real demonstration that speaks sensibly to our eyes, that death reigns in the world. On every side death is in our view, and the shadow of it darkens our brightest days.
2dly. It is certainly future. All the wretched accidents of this life, such as concern us in our persons, relations, estates and interests; a thousand disasters that a jealous fear and active imagination will extend and amplify; as they may, so they may not happen to us. And from this mixture of contrary possibilities, from the uncertainty of events, hope, that is an insinuating passion, mixes with fear, and derives comfort. For as sometimes a sudden evil surprises, not forethought of; so, often the evil that was sadly expected, never comes to pass.
"But what man is he who lives, and shall not see death?" Psa 89:4. Who is so vain as to please himself with an imagination of immortality here? Though men are distinguished in the conditions of living—yet all are equal in the necessity of dying. Human greatness in every kind, nobility, riches, empire cannot protect from the sudden and sovereign hand of death which overthrows all. The most conspicuous difference in this world is between the victorious, and the vanquished prostrate at their feet; but death makes them all equal. Then the wretched captive shall upbraid the proud conqueror, "Have you become weak as me? Have you become like us?" The expressions of Scripture concerning the frailty of man are often literally and precisely verified, "Man is like the grass, in the morning it flourishes and grows up, in the evening it is cut down and withers."
3dly. Death is an actual and unconquerable evil; hence the proverbial expression, "strong as death that subdues all, cruel as the grave that spares none." It is in vain to struggle with the pangs of death. No remedies in nature, no compositions of art, no influence of the stars, no power of angels—can support the dying body, or retain the flitting soul. "There is no man has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war." Ecc 8:8. The body sinks in the conflict, and "Death feeds on its prostrate prey in the grave."
2. I shall consider more particularly, the causes that render death so fearful to men:
1. In the apprehension of nature.
2. In the apprehension of conscience.
1. In the apprehension of NATURE, death has this name engraved in its forehead—the supreme of terrible things, upon several accounts:
(1.) Because usually sickness and pains languishing and tormenting, make the first changes in the body, and the natural death is violent. This Hezekiah complained of with a mournful accent, "My life has been blown away like a shepherd’s tent in a storm. It has been cut short, as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom. Suddenly, my life was over. I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as though by lions. Suddenly, my life was over." Isa 38:12-13 A troop of diseases are the forerunners of this "King of terrors." There is sometimes a very fierce encounter, that nature feels its cruel defeat before it yields to this enemy. As a ship that is tossed by a mighty tempest, and by the concussion of the winds and waves loses its rudder and masts, takes in water in every part, and gradually sinks into the ocean; so in the shipwreck of nature, the body is so shaken and weakened by the violence of a disease, that the senses, the animal and vital operations decline, and at last are extinguished in death.
(2.) Death considered in the strictest propriety, as destructive of the natural being, which is our first and most valuable good in the order of nature—is the just object of fear. The union between soul and body is very intimate and dear, and like David arid Jonathan they part unwillingly.
Nature has a share in the best men, and works as nature. Paul declares, "we would not be unclothed," not finally put off the body, but have it glorified in conjunction with the soul. Our blessed Savior, without the least impeachment of the rectitude and perfection of his nature, expressed an averseness from death, and with submission to the divine will, desired a freedom from it. His affections were holy and human, and moved according to the quality of their objects.
(3.) The natural consequents of death render it fearful. Life is the foundation of all natural enjoyments; and the loss of it induces the loss of all forever. It is from hence that such evils as are consistent with life, and deprive us only of some particular contentment and pleasure—are willingly chosen rather than death. The forfeiture of estate, the degrading from honor, the confinement to a perpetual prison, the banishing from our native country—are less penalties than death.
There is a natural love of society in man, and death removes from all society. The grave is a frightful solitude. There is no conversation in the territories of darkness. This also Hezekiah in his apprehensions of death speaks of with tears, "I shall see man no more in the land of the living." Isa 38:11. As in the night the world is a universal grave, all things are in a dead silence—palaces, court of justice, temples, theaters, schools, and all places of public conversation are shut up; the noise and rumor that keeps men in continual observation and action ceases. Thus when the sun of this present life is set, all the affairs and business, all the vain joys of company, feasting, dancing, music, gaming, cease! Every one among the dead is confined to his sealed obscure cell, and is alone an entertainment for the worms! The psalmist says of princes, "Their breath goes forth, they return to the earth, in that very day their thoughts." Their glorious encompassing thoughts, "perish." This the historian observes was verified in Julius Cesar; after his assuming the imperial dignity, he thought to reduce the numerous laws of the Romans into a few volumes, comprising the substance and reason of them all; to enrich and adorn the city of Rome, as was befitting the regent of the world; to epitomize the works of the most learned Grecians and Romans for the public benefit. And while he was designing and pursuing these, and other vast and noble things, death surprised him, and broke off all his enterprises! At the terrible gate that opens into eternity, men are stripped of all their honors and treasures, "and as naked as they come into the world, go out of it." "Do not be dismayed when the wicked grow rich and their homes become ever more splendid. For when they die, they take nothing with them. Their wealth will not follow them into the grave. In this life they consider themselves fortunate and are applauded for their success. But they will die like all before them and never again see the light of day. People who boast of their wealth don’t understand; they will die, just like animals." Psa 49:16-20
Death equally vilifies, makes loathsome and ghastly the bodies of men, and reduces them to sordid dust. In the grave, the dust of one is as equally worthless as of another.
Civil distinctions are limited to the present time. The prodigious statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, Dan 2:32-35. while it was upright, the parts were really and visibly distinct, "The head was of fine gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part of clay. But when the stone cut out without hands, smote the image upon the feet, then were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff the wind carries away." Who can distinguish between royal dust taken out of magnificent tombs—and plebeian dust from common graves? Who can know who were rich and who were poor, who had power and command, who were vassals, who were remarkable by fame, who by infamy? "They shall not say this is Jezebel," 2Ki 9:37. They shall not know this was the daughter and wife of a king. The king of Babylon, styled Lucifer the bright star of the morning, who possessed the first empire in the world, was degraded by death, humbled to the grave, and exchanged all his glorious state for worms and putrefaction! "The worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you." Isa 14:11. In short, death separates men from all their admired charming vanities.
Now considering man merely in the order of nature, what reflection is more fearful and tormenting, than the necessity which cannot be overruled, of parting forever with all the delights of life? Those who have ascended to the throne, that are arrived at the height of temporal happiness—what a melancholy prospect is before them of death and the dark grave? When all things conspire to make men happy here, the sensitive faculties and their fruitions are ebbing and declining, until they sink into death—the whirlpool that will shortly swallow them up forever! This renders the thoughts of mortality so frightful, and checks the freest enjoyments of carnal pleasures!
2. Death is fearful in the apprehension of CONSCIENCE, as it is the most sensible mark of God’s wrath, which is heavier than death, and a summons to give an account of all things done in this life, to the Righteous Judge of the world. "It is appointed to all men once to die, and afterward the judgment." Heb 9:27. This penal fear is very wounding to the conscience. When the awakened sinner presently expects the citation to appear before the tribunal above, where no excuses, no supplications, no privileges avail—where the cause of eternal life or death must be decided, and the awards of justice be immediately executed. O the convulsions and agonies of conscience in that hour! when the diseased body cannot live, and the disconsolate soul dare not die—what anxieties surround it? This redoubles the terrors of death, that the body transmits to the soul that which was figured by it.
O the dismal aspect of Death riding on a pale horse, with Hell the black attendant following. This fear surprised the sinners in Zion, "Who among us can dwell with devouring fire? Who among us can remain with everlasting burnings?" This made a heathen, the governor of a province, to tremble before a poor prisoner, "While Paul discoursed of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled." Acts 24:25. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," who lives forever, and can punish forever. Heb 10:31. None are so powerful as God, and nothing is so fearful as the guilty conscience.
3. The degrees of this fear are expressed by bondage. Fear, when regular in its object and degree, is excellently useful; it is a wise counselor and faithful guardian, that plucks off the mask from our enemies, and keeps reason vigilant and active to prevent a threatening evil, or to sustain it in the best manner.
It is observable in the brute creatures, that the weak and fearful are most subtle and ingenious to secure themselves, and supply the lack of strength with artifice. But when fear is inordinate, it is tyrannous master which vexes the weary soul, and hinders its free and noble operations.
Caesar chose rather to be exposed to sudden death, than to be continually harassed with fear how to avoid it. The Greek word implies the binding of the spirit, that causes an inward slavery. And in the apostle’s writing "the spirit of fear" and "the spirit of bondage," Rom 8:15, 2Ti 1:7; are equivalent.
Ishbosheth, when Abner provoked by the charge about Saul’s concubine, imperiously threatened to translate the kingdom to David, was struck "with such a fear, that he could not answer Abner a word." 2Sa 3:10-11. The sudden passion stifled his reply, and reduced him to a defenseless silence. Now the fear of death, as it is remiss or vehement, such are the degrees of bondage from it.
(1.) It embitters the enjoyments of the present life, and makes the most prosperous in the world, "even in the fullness of their sufficiency, to be in straits." Though the senses are pleased with the quick sweetness of change from one object to another—yet the soul cannot have a delightful undisturbed fruition, foreseeing that the stream of pleasure will issue into the dead sea. "Truly light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold the sun." Ecc 11:7. But how short is this life with all its pleasures—in comparison of "the days of darkness" that follow. Now though it is our best wisdom and truest liberty to rejoice "in this world as if we rejoiced not," and frequently to meditate on the cooling doctrines of "death and judgment" to repress the transports of the voluptuous appetite; yet since the comforts of this life are liberally indulged to us by the love of God, to be the motives of our grateful and affectionate obedience, to sweeten our passage to Heaven—we may with tranquility of spirit make a pure and cheerful use of them in his service; and it is an oppressing bondage when the disquieting anxious fears of death hinder our temperate enjoyment of his favors and blessings.
(2.) The fear of death oppresses the souls of men under a miserable bondage to the devil; for his dominion is maintained by the allurements and terrors of the world. Though men do not explicitly acknowledge Satan’s sovereignty—yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing temptations, they are really his slaves. And the apprehension of temporal evils, especially of death, dressed up in a frightful representation with its bloody pomp, is the strongest snare to the soul. The faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial; for the timorous spirit being wholly intent how to avoid the incursion of a present evil, forgets or neglects what is indispensably to be done, and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity. How many have been terrified from their clearest duty and resolved constancy? To escape death, they have been guilty of the most insufferable impieties, by renouncing God their Maker and Savior, and worshiping the devils for deities.
Every age presents sad spectacles of many "that choose iniquity rather than affliction" Job 36:21; that relinquish their duty, and by wicked compliances save their lives, and lose their souls. Carnal desires, and carnal fears are the chains of Hell, that retain men Satan’s captives. But what folly, what madness is it, for the avoiding the impotent fury of the creature, to venture on the powerful wrath of God, that exceeds all the terrors that can be conceived by fear? This renders them more brutish than the horse, that startling at his shadow, springs over a desperate precipice. "The fearful are excluded from Heaven, and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone forever." Rev 21:1-27.
(3.) The extreme fear of death and judgment dejects and discourages the soul from the use of means to prevent eternal misery, and induces a most woeful bondage. Fear anticipates and exasperates future evils; for as knowledge excites fear—so fear, increases knowledge, by the incessant workings of the thoughts upon terrible objects. The fearful mind aggravates the foreseen evil, and distills the poison from all the circumstances and consequences of it. And when the evil is apprehended as insuperable and indeclinable, all endeavors to escape are cut off.
What a philosopher observes of an earthquake, compared with other destructive evils, is true in this case. There may be a safe retreat from fire, from inundations, from storms, from war, from pestilence; but an earthquake astonishes with so violent a perturbation, which stops our flight from the imminent danger, so the vehement impressions of fear from the approaches of death, and the severe executions upon the sinner after it, distract the mind, and disable from "fleeing from the wrath to come."
These fears are more heavy by the suggestions of Satan, who represents God so terrible in his majesty, inexorable in his justice, and unchangeable in his threatenings, that all hopes of obtaining his favor are lost. As the "Egyptian darkness" was not merely from the absence of the sun, but from feculent vapors condensing the air, that it might be felt; so these dark and fearful expectations of the divine wrath are not only from the withdrawing the light of God’s countenance, but from the prince of darkness, that foul spirit. As we read of the Egyptians, that "no man arose from his place for three days;" as if they had been buried in that darkness, and deprived of all active power and motion; so the despairing soul sits down mourning at the gates of death, totally disabled from prosecuting the things "that belong to its peace."
It is hope which inspires and warms us with alacrity and encourages our endeavors; despair blunts the edge of our industry. The soul suffers the hardest bondage, and the condition is inexpressibly sad under the tyranny of this fear. O how enthralled, how desolately miserable! Despair does meritoriously and effectually ruin the soul. For whereas there is no attribute more divine, no clearer notion of the Deity than love and mercy; this passion disparages his mercy, as if sin were more omnipotent than his power to pardon; and all the tears that flow from it, are so far from expiating, that they increase guilt. Whereas the believing view of Christ would as completely and presently recover the soul-wounded sinner, as the Israelites were by looking to the ordained visible sign of their salvation—despair turns away the eye from our deliverer, and fixes it upon misery as remediless and final.
4. How does it come 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 hidden in the guilty hearts of men, and at times, especially in their calamities, break forth and kindle upon them. In their leisure and retirement, intermittent 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 soon relapse into their habitual stupidity. And the account 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 great distance. Though there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest people, though we live in a world of casualties, and death lies 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 neighbors, than the king 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 itself before men ready to dispatch them, how formidable is its appearance!
Saul, though renowned for his valor—yet when he understood by revelation, that tomorrow he and his sons would be in the state of the dead, "there was no strength in him, but he fell immediately 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, attended with a thousand lords, and his herd of concubines, inflamed with wine, and therefore less capable of fear—yet upon the sight of the fatal hand writing on the wall a few unknown characters, which his guilty conscience (before the prophet Daniel came) interpreted to be the sentence of present death—then how fearfully was his countenance changed, pale as a carcass? How suddenly did his blood congeal, and his warmest quickest spirits die in his heart? His whole body was seized by such a vehement trembling, that his joints were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. This is a representation of those who bid defiance to death at a distance; but when the fatal hour is come, and they hear the sentence decreed against them, "God has numbered your days, and finished them; you are weighed in the balance," (all your words and actions, your thoughts and affections) "and are found wanting;" and your soul shall be divided from your body, the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying worm of conscience, the other to the grave, to be a prey to the worms of corruption—how are they overcome with horror!
(2.) The continual succession of the pleasures and business of the world divert the mind from the attentive strong contemplation of death and the consequences of it. Pensive thoughts are unwelcome, and we studiously endeavor to cancel the memory of such things as afflict us. It is said of the wicked, that "God is not in all their thoughts." The consideration of the holy inspector and judge of their actions is tormenting, therefore they fill their minds with earthly imaginations, to exclude the divine presence. We read of those, who to "put far away the evil day, chanted to the sound of the violin and drank wine in bowls." Amo 6:3-4. They are rocked to sleep with the motion of fantastic vanities. And sleep takes away fear, but gives no safety.
It is recorded of Marius, that after his overthrow by Sylla, he was always in consternation, as if he heard the sound of the trumpets, and the noise of the victorious army pursuing him; and his fears were no longer quiet than while charmed with wine and sleep; he therefore was continually drunk, that he might forget himself, his enemy, and his danger.
Thus men make a pitiful shift to forget their latter end; and while they are following either secular affairs, or sensual pleasures, are unconcerned for what is to be hereafter. But this diversion will shortly be at an end, for in their languishing hours, when the wasted body fails the carnal mind, and sensual desires fail the man—then conscience that spoke with a low voice before, is loud and terrible, and like the rigid exacter in the parable that took his debtor by the throat, requires them to pay what they owe.
(3.) Some are so hardened in infidelity, that the powers of the world to come make no impression on their hearts. They mind but little, and are less affected with invisible things. They fortify themselves with gross thoughts that the spirit of man vanishes with his breath, that death is the end of this life, and not the beginning of another, "and feed without fear." Place one in the midst of destructive evils, but unseen or not believed, and he is as fearless as a blind person walking on the brink of a deep pit. Indeed there are none less disturbed with the terrors of death, than the eminently good, or the extremely bad; for the one sort have a blessed hope that death will be to them an entrance into life, and live like the angels, "with a joy unspeakable and glorious." The others are as sensual and secure as the beasts that perish, having extinguished the fear of eternal future evils, which is the proper passion of reason. The apostle declares, "That knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (to be reconciled to him, before the season of mercy be expired.) 2Co 5:11. But those who have suppressed the natural notions of eternal judgment, as they think it beneath their wisdom to be persuaded by the promises of Heaven, so beneath their courage to be terrified with the threatenings of Hell, and triumph over the ruins of conscience. But though wicked infidels slight God’s threatenings, they shall not escape His vengeance!.
We read of Noah, "That being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, he prepared an ark for the saving of his house." His fear was the native outcome of his faith. But the profane world, in whom sense was predominant, who despised the oracle, and trembled at no judgments but what were acting on the visible stage, "they ate and drank, married and were given in marriage," until they were swept away by the unfeared inundation.
We read that Lot being certified by an embassy of angels, that a deluge of fire would in a few hours pour down from Heaven upon Sodom, he most earnestly solicited his sons in law, "Arise, depart out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city!" But they entertained his compassionate advice with derision, "he seemed to them as one that mocked," and were surprised by those fearful flames that dispatched them from a temporal Hell to that which is eternal!
Thus it was prophesied, "That in the last days there shall come scoffers; walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?" But let them blaspheme and scorn the most sacred and terrible truths, let them perpetuate their excess of riot, and wild mirth while they live—death will surely come, and judgment as sure as death. "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." Heb 9:27