Luke 12:4-5 And I say to you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.… I. CONSIDER THE POWER OF MAN, AND WHAT IS HE CAN DO. 1. He can kill the body, and take away our lives, which includes a power of doing whatever is less. 2. He can do not even this, however, without the Divine permission. 3. If permitted to do his worst, he can do but this. "After that they have no more that they can do."(1) "They can but kill the body," that is, they can only injure the worst and least considerable part of us. (2) When they have killed the body, by doing this, they do but prevent nature a little, they do but antedate an evil a few moments, and bring our fears upon us a little sooner; the:; kill that which must die within a few days, though they should let it alone; they do but cut asunder that thread which would shortly break of itself by its own weakness and rottenness. (3) "They can but kill the body"; and what argument of power is this, to be able to kill that which is mortal? as if you should say, " They can break a glass; they can throw down that which is falling."(4) The killing of the body does not necessarily signify any great mischief or harm in the issue and event. "They can kill the body," that is, they can knock off our fetters, and open the prison doors, and set us at liberty; they can put us out of pain, thrust us out of an uneasy world, put an end to our sins and sorrows, to our misery and fears; they can "give the weary rest," and send us thither where we would be, but are loath to venture to go. (5) "They can but kill the body"; when they have done that, they may give over, here their proud waves must stop; here their cruelty and malice, their power and wit, must terminate, for they can reach no farther. (6) "They can but kill the body," they cannot do the least harm to the soul, much less can they annihilate it, and make it cease to be. (7) And lastly, "They can but kill the body," that is, they can but inflict temporal misery upon us; their power, as it is but small, so it is of a short continuance, it reacheth no farther than this life, it is confined to this world. II. CONSIDER HOW MUCH THE POWER OF GOD EXCEEDS THE POWER OF MAN; which our Saviour declares in these words, "Who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell." Which in general signifies, that His power is infinite and unlimited. 1. God's power is absolute, and independent upon any other. 2. His power reaches to the soul as well as the body. 3. In the other world He can raise our bodies again, and reunite them to our souls, and cast them into hell, and torment them there. 4. God can punish for ever. I proceed now to apply this serious and weighty argument, and to draw some useful inferences from it. I. That religion doth not design to annihilate and to root out our passions, but regulate and govern them; it does not wholly forbid and condemn them, but determines them to their proper objects, and appoints them their measures and proportions; it does not intend to extirpate our affections, but to exercise and employ them aright, and to keep them within bounds. II. We may infer likewise from hence, that it is not against the genius of true religion, to urge men with arguments of fear. No man can imagine there would have been so many fearful threatenings in Scripture, and especially in the gospel, if it had not been intended they should have some effect and influence upon us. Fear is deeply rooted in our nature, and immediately flows from that principle of self-preservation which is planted in every man; it is the most wakeful passion in the soul of man, and so soon as anything that is dreadful and terrible is presented to us, it alarms us to flee from it; and this passion doth naturally spring up in our minds from the apprehension of a Deity, because the notion of a God doth include in it power and justice, both which are terrible to guilty creatures; so that fear is intimate to our being, and God hath hid in every man's conscience a secret awe and dread of His presence, of His infinite power and eternal justice. Now fear being one of the first things that is imprinted upon us from the apprehension of a Deity, it is that passion, which, above all other, gives the greatest advantage to religion, and is the easiest to be wrought upon. III. THE FEAR OF GOD IS THE BEST ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE FEAR OF MEN. IV. IF GOD BE INFINITELY MORE TO BE DREADED THAN MEN, THEN, "WHO IS TO BE OBEYED, GOD OR MEN? JUDGE YE." I speak not this to diminish our reverence to magistrates and their authority; for by persuading men to fear God, who commands obedience to magistrates, we secure their reverence and authority; but when the commands of men are contrary to God's, and come in competition with them, shall we not hearken to Him who is supreme, the greatest and most powerful? Shall we not obey Him who hath the most unquestionable authority over us, and right to command us? Shall we not dread Him most who is to be feared above all, who can be the best friend and the sorest enemy, is able to give the greatest rewards to our obedience, and to revenge Himself upon us for our disobedience by the most dreadful and severe punishments? V. IF GOD BE THE GREAT OBJECT OF OUR FEAR, LET ALL IMPENITENT SINNERS REPRESENT TO THEMSELVES THE TERRORS OF THE LORD AND THE POWER OF HIS ANGER. This consideration, if anything in the world will do it, will awaken them to a sense of the danger of their condition, and of the fatal issue of a wicked life, (Archbishop Tillotson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. |
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