perform holy Duties and keep their sins both together and this now they find very easie There is nothing in holy Duties that is against their sin yea there is somthing in holy Duties that makes for their sins I do not say holy Duties in their own natures makes for their sins but their performing of them makes for their sins makes them the more quiet in their sins As thus It makes more for their sins and they have more quiet in them upon two Peasons As first by this means sometimes their corruption and sin is hidden as you that have many Servants that are naught and vile they will be very forward in good things and go to Sermons and Prayer and the like that they might hide much of their sin that they might not be uspected to be such and such therefore they perform Duties of Religion and now these Duties must needs be very easie to them And so it is with many Hypocrites that go beyond civill men and the Duties of Religion that that they perform are more than civill men do they will not only come to Church but seem to be affected not only be exâ—ercised in the ordinary Duties but in extraordinary Fasting and Prayer not only come to hear the word but repeat it in their Families afterwards not only pray here but pray in their Families and Closets yet so as to cover their corruption to cover their very filthiness now these Duties are very easie Or Secondly which is a amore close way Because it satisfies their Consciences their Consciences would not be at quiet except they did somthing a Man and Woman that walks in a carnall way that hath a vile Spirit a sensuall spirit in his constant way and course if such a one should not do some good thing having some enlightening of mind his Conscience being somwhat awakened and stirred he could not be at quiet if he did not now and then pray and now and then come to hear the word and desire Sacraments his Conscience would fly in his face and would not be at quiet now having many secret corruptions that he is loth to part with he is content to do somthing to take a Book and read a Chapter and go into his Closet and pray in his Family and will not neglect the word but come to hear the word all the Lords day come twice and thrice to hear the word now all these things are very good and they are to be encouraged in them but now examin I beseech you whether all the good and comfort that you find is not only this that by these things your Consciences are quieted and so you go on more easie in some sinfull way because of this you can with the more ease let out your heart unto the world you can with more ease take liberty to some haunt of evil that you are conscious of some secret sin you can take the more liberty because you have been exercised in holy Duties at another time I beseech you examin your heart in this there is a great deal of secret corruption in this it is not very rare not an extraordinary thing that I am speaking of but I fear it is an ordinary thing that I am speaking of that many people take the more liberty in some secret haunt of evil because they have been exercised in holy Duties at other times they have been at fasting and prayer and perhaps their hearts have been stirred in Fasting Prayer but now what use make they of this it is that they may be more sluggish at other times this is a cursed ease an ease that may stand not only with your corruptions but an ease to your corruptions make you to go on in the way of sin more quietly What a horrid sin is this for a Man Woman to make no other use of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ than this to this end that he may go on more quietly in the waies of sin now this is an abhorring thing to a gracious heart a gracious heart finds ease in the way of Duty but it is more easie because it strikes at their corruptions and mortifies their corruptions Oh! blessed be God for his Ordinances for before I came to be exercised in them and had power and life in the use of them I had ease in my sin but since the time I set my self to follow God indeed in his Ordinances and have had communion with God in his Ordinances I thank God I can have no ease in my sin that though my corruptions sometimes overcome me yet by the performance of holy Duties I find it makes my corruptions more burdensome to me and God that knows my heart knows this it is my desire that I may never find ease in any sinfull way and I love all the waies of God better because they will not let me be at quiet in the waies of sin And this is the reason that you that come to the word of God many times you hear many things that you like well and you love them wel but because they disquiet your corruptions and you cannot have quiet in your sinfull way therefore you sit at home and you wil not come to hear the word Oh many men they would love Sermons and love to hear such a man but only for this one thing that they wil not let them be at quiet they cannot go on fo quietly in some sinfull way which their hearts hanker after and therefore those Sermons that do not disquiet them in this kind Oh they love them exceedingly it is that I have observed you shall have many Women ignorant People and others when they come to hear a Sermon that hath a great deal of Latin and quaint expressions in it Oh how they commend this and what an excellent Sermon was this and what an excellent Man was this It may be said of those Sermons as Bradford said of the Mass The Mass doth not bite therefore you love it and so men used to love the common Prayer alas it did not bite they would come and stand and hear a man read out of a Book a while this did not bite whereas a Prayer that comes from the heart and fearcheth into mens hearts that stirs their corruptions and therefore they do not love it And so it is in regard of the word let the word come to search the heart and come neer to divide between the marrow and the bones to come into the secret of the hearts of men and women then for the soul to love the word so much the more and to say Oh! this is the word of God that gives ease to my soul I find more ease by such a ministry then I find by any ministry this is the ease of a Gracious heart but a corrupt heart wil have ease only in that way that is most subservant to his own lusts That is the third difference Fourthly Another difference is this The ease that a corrupt heart hath
God themselves complain that there is a great deal of difficulty in the waies of God and do they not oftentimes complain of the hardness of them Yea and what though some things may be easie yet some others are very hard As you will say to the Discipline of Christ in his Church Is that easie Is not that hard and what will you say to the sufferings that Christ requires of his people Doth it not seem very hard Answ Now to clear the point from all these difficulties either what Christ saith of the straitness of the way to Heaven or what the Saints of God find or what may be said in regard of the Discipline of Christ in his Church or what in regard of the suffering that Christ requires notwithstanding all these yet we hope we shall make it cleer that yet his yoke is easie and his burden is light and further we are to shew how it comes to be easie and light But first to cleer the Point from all these difficulties First That of Christ That the way to Heaven is a strait way a very strait way there must be crowding and taking a great deal of pains It is true It is strait it is a very strait way to men that are but naturall that are not his Disciples it must needs be a strait in their apprehensions in the esteem of the world the way that Christ doth propound to come to Heaven it must needs I say be very strait and a very difficult way in the esteem of the men of the world and that upon these grounds 1. They do not know wherein the true spirituall excellencâ—es of the waies of Christ dorh consist they do not understand what the excellency of Christs waies are 2. The things that are required are unsutiable to them they are not suitable to what there is in their spirits and to put a man upon a work that is no way suitable to his spirit must needs be difficult must needs be tedious it is not suitable to them Yea it is contrary to them contrary to the spirits of those that are natural cross unto the grain they go quite contrary to their own spirits when they venture upon doing what is required in the waies of God 3. They are weak and have not the strength that should carry them on in the waies of God indeed it must needs be difficult to think to do that which is supernatural have nothing but a natural strength it must needs be hard to nature that hath nothing but weakness it must needs be hard to the men of the world for they have a great many prejudices against the waies of Christ they must denie themselves in many things that are as dear to themselves as their very Souls and their lives and they have nothing to make up their comforts they must denie their comforts and have nothing to make up their comforts this must needs be difficult and hard and so many grounds might be shewn that the way to Heaven is hard to the men of the world a hard thing for them to enter upon the way to Heaven and so it is strait to them in their esteem Quest I but further Is it not strait unto the Saints even to the very Disciples of Christ Do not they find difficulties in the waies of God Answ Now for the answering of that to shew how the waies of God are easie notwithstanding what even those that are the people of God find in them and notwithstanding all their complaints those that are Godly they say they find much difficulty in the waies of Religion 1. It may be the difficulty thou speakest of it is but in opinion rather than reality it is but an imaginary difficulty when thou lookest upon a Duty a great way off Oh! thou thinkest it is very hard but when thou comest to it thou dost not find it so hard I appeal to those that are acâ—uainted with the waies of God Hath it not been so with you that things have seemed to be hard and difficult a great way off but when you have come unto them ventured upon them you have not found them so It is just in this case for all the world like as it was with the women that we read of in Mark 16. that went to the Sepulchre of Christ as they were going at verse 3. O! they were very solicitous about the Stone that was rouled upon the Sepulchre Who shall roâ—l away the Stone but now when they came to the Sepulchre the Stone was rouled away So it is here when there are many Duties to be done it may be you cry out Oh it is very hard and how shall we be able to do such a thing such a poor weak body as I am how shall I be able to do it but when you come to the Duty you do not find it so I suppose there are many that at first thought it a very difficult Duty to keep a watch over their heart and to pray in their Families and Closets and to keep close to God but when they have come to the thing somtimes when you have had no heart to pray when you have thoughts to go to prayer and you have thought it impossible for you to make any work of it but when you have come to it you have found it before you have done to be a very sweet and comfortable Duty you have found a stone hardness of heart and indisposition to the Duty before you have come to the Duty but when you have come to the work you have found the stone rouled away and the work not so hard As we read of Peter in Acts 12. 10. When he was coming out of the City and those with him When they came to the Iron Gate in was open It may be if they had known there had been such an Iron Gate to pass through they might have been troubled Oh how shal we get through but when they came there the Iron Gate was open so that the difficulty is before we come to make tryall rather than when we make tryal 2. But you will say It is reall not in opinion but reall I but it is so but at the entrance at the beginning and it may be the greatest difficulty is but to get the neck into the collar to get the yoke upon the neck there lies the great difficulty when once you are in the yoke then you will find it easie the greatest difficulty many find in the waies of Religion it is their first entrance because they have not been accustomed to such things You shall have many times some kinds of Bullocks that come into their yoke there is more stir to get their necks in to get their yokes upon their necks then there is for them to bear it afterwards So there is with many men and women a great deal of stir and a great deal of do to get their necks under Christs yoke to come under the burden of the
yoke of Christ but were they come in they would not find it so difficult Somtimes indeed the work of God in converting of a Soul comes to it so as the Soul finds a great deal of difficulty The Ministry of John by way of preparation comes in a terrible way to make smooth the rough paths and level the lofty hils comes in a fiery way to prepare them many times it is very terrible and they find a great deale of difficulty much trouble of conscience and terrour at first I but this is but to get â—hy neck into the yoke this is not the difficulty of Christs yoke but it is the bringing thee under the yoke of Christ therfore let not those that God is beginning to stir them in awaknâ—ng their Consciences be offended because they find difficulty because they find the waies of God terrible to them and conscience terrible to them and they find the flashes of Hell upon their spirits be not offended because thou hast more trouble now then before it is but in getting that unruly spirit of thine under the yoke of Christ if once thy spirit be subdued to Jesus Christ and brought under his yoke thou wilt not find it so terrible and it may be the more terrour thou hast now the more sweetness and comfort thou wilt find afterwards Thirdly Thou complainest of difficulty that thou findest in Gods waies do not therefore complaine of the yoke of Christ it may be it is from the distemper of thine own heart not from Christs yoke we know that a light yoke to one that hath a sore neck seemes to be very grievous but the fault is not in the yoke but in the soreness of the neck if the neck were sound and made whol the yoke would seem light so it is with many that profess religion and it may be have true grace they find the yoke very haâ—d to them and they complain of the yoke and think that which Christ requires of them is greivous to them but truly it is the distemper of thy heart and the unsoundness of thy spirit that makes it so if so be thy heart were but healed if thy hearâ— were but sound thou wouldest not find any such difficulty in any way of Christ In 2 Tim. 1. 7. There the spirit of power of love and of a sound mind are joyned together where there is a sound mind a sound spirit theâ—e will be power there will be strength there will be love and sweetness but where the mind and the heart is unsound and disteâ—pered there you will find a great deal of difficulty in the yoke of Christ so that I say where you find the yoke of Christ difficult do not complain of that so much as of your own heart and labor to heal your own soul and then it it will not be so difficult and that is the third answer I would give to the Godly that yet find difficulty in the waies of religion it is not because of the yoke but it is because you are not enough under the yoke that is the difficulty if your hearts were under it more then it is it would not be so difficult and this expression may serve to enlighten us into the fourth answer which is this Fourthly the yoke of Christ may seem to be hard but it is because of the disordered carriage of thy spirit when thou art under it not only from a distempered heart that thy heart hath distempers and habitual corruptions but now when thou art doing a duty thou dost behave thy self in a disorderly way in the performance of the duty the disorderly behavior of thy heart in the performance of duty As now we know it is with some Bullocke some creatures that are unruly when they are in the yoke they keep such a stir and riggle this way and that way and they are so unquiet when they are under the yoke that they toil and trouble themselves abundantly more then another that can carry the yoke quietly that goes on quietly with his yoke so it is with many Christians when they are in the performance of duty if they cannot do it as they would they do so vex and frett and are so disquieted in their spirits and so tumultuous in their spirits and are ready to cast it off Conscience will keep it on and they are ready to cast it off there is such a disorderliness of spirit and such tumultuousness of spirit this makes duties difficult whereas now when thou art in performance of duties if thou couldest be under the yoke of Christ with a calme quiet Spirit and carry it in a meek way Oh! the sweetness that thou wouldest find there how many times shall you have many people that when they go to prayer if they cannot pray as they would do then they vex and fret and are ready to think to pray no more and why should they pray any more they are so disturbed in the duty they think it is better to cast it off and they begin to have hard thoughts of the duty and so their spirits are all in a dâ—stemper and disorderly working presently and there is the difficulty Whereas another though he cannot do what he would yet he hath an humble dispose to God and thinkes I will try another time may be God may come in another time still I love the duty the law is good the duty is just and good and though through the untowardness of my spirit I cannot do it now yet I hope God will come at another time I will do my duty and leave it to God to come in when he pleaseth as you heard before when the Bullock or the Heifer that beares the yoke if he goes on quierly his yoke is not so grievous but if he flings this way and that way and turnes to this side and that side every way he makes his yoke grievous to him and so it is with many Christians it is the disorderly carriage of people under this yoke that makes it so difficult Fiftly Thou complainest and sayest this yoke is hard consider that the casting of the yoke off would be a great deal harder and therefore there is no cause to complain can a man in a rational way complain of a yoke to be hard whenas the casting of the yoke off would be a harder thing then the bearing of it therefore the Hebrew word that signifies sin signifies also labor and trouble there is more trouble if thou shouldest cast off the yoke thou wouldest find more distress of spirit and more difficulty in casting off the yoke then to be under the yoke It is true those that be carnal and wicked do not find it so but if thou hast Grace if thou shouldest cast off the duty because of the difficulty thou wouldest find it more difficult to be without the duty then to perform it As I will instance to your own experiences you fiend sometimes that your hearts are loth to come off to prayer
in a morning or if you do pray you do it sleightly now do not you find your hearts off the hooks al the day long after have not you more trouble all the day long when your conscience tells you that you should go and seek God and pray I but other things are more easy and that is a hard thing and therefore you neglect it now do not you find it more dificult to be with out prayer in a morning then is in all the labour of prayer compare one day with another and see which is the easyest The yoke of Christ that was upon David might be somwhat hard to the flesh but the casting off the yoke broke his bones therefore in Psal 51. He cries to God to restore to him the joy of his Salvation and to heale those Bones of his that were broken That the Bones that thou hast broken may rejoyce that expression the Prophet hath Psalm 51. vers 8. Make me to hear joy and Gladness that the Bones that thou hast broken may rejoyce so that it broke the very Bones of David the casting off the yoke of Christ the trouble that David felt in his heart it was such a burden to him as broke his bones now when did ever any duty that David performed break his bones though it might a little paine his flesh and be a little burdensom to his flesh yet it was not that which broke his bones the casting off the yoke of Christ is a greater burden and more troublesom to a gracious heart then to keep it on Sixthly Thou complainest of difficulty in duty in Christs yoke may be it is not the yoke of Christ that is upon thee that is so heavy upon thee if thou examinest it again perhaps thou shalt find it is not Christs yoke that is upon thee 1. May be it is a yoke that thou hast taken upon thy self perhaps somthing that thou hast put upon thy self that Christ never required of thee then it may be grievous to thee if we will put that upon our selves that Christ never required as Papists do that put that upon themselves that Christ never required who required these things at your hands It may be some men have put somthing upon you that Christ never required of thee it may be thou puttest upon thy self a duty at this time that is not the duty of this time but is the duty of some other time when thou wilt enjoyne thy self to do such a duty that is not the duty of this time but the duty of another time then it may be troublesom as many poor Christians are pestered this way when God would have them do such a duty conscience puts them upon another duty God calls them to a duty of their calling but conscience puts them upon prayer now that is not the duty it may be of this time and this is the way of Satan of the Devil to weary them and tire them by putting them upon duty unseasonably when he cannot by temptation hinder them from duty then he labors to weary and tire them by putting them unseasonably upon duty As I have known some they could not be at their work a quarter of an hour but suddenly they must leave all and go to prayer and they thought it was the motion of Gods Spirit and the dictates of conscience and they thought they must not neglect it and so made their lives uncomfortable upon that ground whereas the Spirit of God puts people upon duty seasonably every thing in its right order and right way and in its due time it will put you upon prayer in a fit time and put you upon duties of your calling in a fit time and when it comes unseasonably to disquiet you it is rather a suggestion of Satan to disquiet you then to make you to obey Christs yoke 2. May be it is not the yoke of Christ but meerly the yoke of the Law as thus though it may be the same thing that Christ would have you do yet you may have it laid upon you in a legal way to do it meerly out of fear of the wrath of God and damnation and so it may be as a scourge to force you to it and so to look upon every duty as if your eternal estate depended upon it as if you were to be cast or saved by the meer performance of your duty this is rather the yoke of the Law then the yoke of Jesus Christ to be put and hurryed upon duty as if your eternal estate did depend upon your duty and you were to be cast in your eternal estate by that rather then any thing here is the yoke of Moses not the yoke of Christ Christ puts you upon duty for the honor of God yet so as the hazard of your eternal estate is over and thou art not to be cast upon the performance of the duty this way or that way that if thou failest thou wert to be cast for ever to everlasting destruction upon thy failing he doth not bring you before God as before a severe and revenging judg but puts you upon service as a Child is put upon doing service by a Father now it is a great deale easyer for a child to do service to a father then for a slave to do service to one that hath him in bondage that will be continually lashing him and beating him black and blue so indeed the yoke of the Law which we are to speak of afterwards when we come to speak of the easiness of Christs yoke that is greivous and many Christians they do their duties meerly in a legal way and so it is rather Moses yoke then the yoke of Jesus Christ and so it comes to be hard whereas when thou comest to understand what the yoke of Christ is and what the duties are that are required by Jesus Christ and so to take them from him by a covenant of Grace for so they are required there is no duty in the Morral Law but is required of you in the Gospel and in a stronger bond then ever it was required upon the first Covenant but in another way coming unto it in another way in Christ and through the hand of the mediatour Jesus Christ so it comes to be a great deal more easy and when duties are taken up in an evangelical way then they are easy but so long as you take them up in a legal way then they come to be very grievous that is the Sixth Answer Seventhly Another answer is this that difficulty that you find it is not the Yoke of Christ if you consider That now Corruption is more Stirred then ever it was before the difficulty is in the discovery of corruption in the Stirring of your corruption more then before so that your Corruption through this by means of the yoke of Christ comes to be more stirred then formerly it was As thus now sometimes I think I have given you this Similitude if there be a few embers
one duty lets in another and this is the difference between one that is truly acquainted with the waies of religion and an Hypocrite the one when he sets upon one duty that one duty so tires him that he hath no mind to another but now a godly heart one duty doth but let him in another by performing one duty he is fitted to another duty and this is a sign you performe duty in a right way when it is thus with you it is true the outward man may be tired but yet the heart is in a better frame to performe duty the next time one duty is an in let into another and helps on the other that is a Third Fourthly The waies of Christ they are easy because they bring strength with them and encreaseth strength certainly that work must needs be an easy work that a man gets strength by his work and the more he works the more strength he gets It is true great works come to be difficult because you do not only not get strength but you spend strength but now the waies of religion the more you work the more strength you have and the more work you do the more strength comes in It is true the natural strength may be spent I but there is inward strength comes in encreaseth and is supplied by Jesus Christ the Body that carries the Soul I but the Soul is no burden to the Body the Soul supports the Body and enables the body to move and makes it lighter if the Soul were gone the body would be a heavy lump heavier than when the soul lives in it so such a kind of burden is the waies of Religion to a gracious soul no other burden than the soul is to the body when the soul is there it is no burden but it rather helps the Body it makes the Body lighter and so when any work of Grace is added more than before the burden comes to be lighter and easier In Prov. 10. 29. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright their very way is strength surely then their way is easie that which is strength cannot be a hard way now the way of the Lord is strength to the upright an Hypocrite indeed if he wil meddle with the way of God he is tired as those in Malachi What a weariness is the waies of God to them I but it is to an Hypocrite but the way of the Lord is strength to the upright A man that hath a carnal heart he is tired presently you that complain for want of strength and you have no heart to set about Duties of Religion because you say you are weak the more ye set about these Duties the more strength you shall have There is many a Man and Woman that praies away their strength in prayer and strengthens their sin in prayer and I shewed you how to carnal hearts their very duties may be easie to their sins but now a gracious heart doth not pray away his strength but he shal have more strength in his Soul for the present and he shall see it afterwards You wil say How shall I know that for my body is weary and tired if you get but a litle time to refresh your body with sleep or the like when you come to prayer again you wil have more strength to the Duty there was more strength in your Spirit then when you were in the Duty only your natural strength did fail and therefore do as much as you can in holy Duties do not fear tiresomness in them you will do more than you did before That is the fourth thing that makes them to be easie because they beget strength Fifthly They must needs be easie because that in all the waies of Religion there is ever more good fuccess a gracious heart evermore finds success in the waies of Godliness now that way that a man alwaies hath success in is very easie to him you count that work very easie work that alwaies thrives in your hand and that you may certainly know that it wil succeed before you go about it If a man go about a work and he is uncertain in the success and he thinks I may take a great deal of pains but I know not how I shall speed Oh that is tedious I but now when he goes out to the work of the Lord where he knows he shal never fail of success this work is very easie to him In the first Psalm it is said that a Godly man prospers in every thing that be doth whatever he doth shall prosper it is true we may set upon outward things and not have success but there was never any gracious action since the beginning of the world but had success here is the difference between your outward imployment and your gracious imployment your earthly and your spiritual imployment in one though we work never so well according to the Rules of our Art yet there wil not be success in what we do alwaies but now let us perform any holy Duty we shal never lose any action though we may not see it yet we shal certainly prosper in it and therefore there is a great deal of ease Sixthly A great deal of ease must needs be in Gods waies because that a gracious heart is continually receiving his wages in all his work Now that is a very easie work ye shal not need be working all the day and receive no wages at night but a Godly man is receiving his wages continually while he is working In 1 Pet. 9. Receiving the end of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls Receiving the end of your Faith he doth not say that ye shal hereafter receive the end of your Faith but ye are now receiving every moment in every Duty ye perform you are receiving the end of your Faith there is no holy action but there is somwhat of the Glory of Heaven in it and the Soul doth receive somwhat of the Glory of Heaven in every holy action so that he shall not need to stay for Heaven hereafter that indeed were enough one would think to make any of the waies of God easie the beleeving the Glory we shal hereafter have in Heaven it were enough to make any journey easie that we shal have a Crown at the end of it but it is not so with the Saints they have not ease because they know that they shal have Glory hereafter but they have a Heaven while they are doing their holy Duties therefore are easie in regard of their end as many things may be easie in regard of that that comes afterwards and so may be good in regard of the good which is to come but the actions of Religion are part of the happiness and of the Glory of the Soul and if we were well principled in this it would be a great means to help us to go on with a great deal of ease in the duties of Religion That it is the happiness and Glory of
humbled for our sins in an evangelical way as wel as performe duty in an evangelical way Now evangelical humiliation it is a sorrow for sin not that we might purchase pâ—â—don for that sorrow as we must not perform a duty to think to purchase Heaven neither must we sorrow for sin to think to satisfie for sin and to purchase pardon for our sin but our very sorrow for sin must have a sweetness from Christ in it it must be out of love our very mourning must be a fruit of love and not come from the fear of being destroyed eternally for such sins that is legal sorrow I have sinned against God and therefore am afraid that God will destroy me eternally and therefore I am sorry No but I have sinned against the Lord a gracious and a merciful Father and the Lord yet hath made a Covenant with me that he will not take advantage of my sin that he will not destroy me and therefore my soul mourns and laments the rather for my sin that I have sinned so much against the grace of the Gospel as I have done Sorrow evangelically and then your sorrow wil have more sweetness in it then all the joy that the men of the world have when all their Corn and Wine and Oyl is encreased not only when God lifts up the light of his countenance but even the very sorrow of your heart for sin may have more sweetness in it then all the men of the world have when their Corn and Wine and Oyl encreaseth Many Christians have much bitterness in their sorrow but certainly Evangelical sorow the tears of it is Rose water that hath a great deal of sweetness it is sweet both unto God and sweet unto the soul even while the soul is sorrowing there is sweetness in the heart and this is the difference between legal terror and Evangelical sorrow the one hath nothing but bitterness and gal in it and the other nothing but sweetness That is the first thing Secondly Another way to facilitate and make easie that we do is this Labor to keep our hearts in a constant readiness and preparation to every duty Duties are very hard because we fall upon them unprepared we are not in a readiness continually unto every good work you know when you are set about any work and if you have many things to prepare and to look for when you should go about your work it will go off but heavily and it will be more troublesom but now when every thing is prepared in a readiness then how soon and how easie doth the work go on when you are going to Sea there is making a great deal of preparation aforehand now when the Ship is rigged and trimmed every thing ready then you are at an instant able to put off and set saii and go away when al things are ready you go off with ease If you would entertain Guests if they come upon you suddenly and you have nothing ready what a deal of stir is in the house what running up and down this way and that way but now if things be ready when they come they are entertained with a great deal of delight and all things in the house are in order and things go off very easily and there is no trouble in it Truly thus it should be with a Christian he should not only perform duties now and then but his life should be a constant walking with God so that he should be alwaies in readiness for every duty that God requires of him so it comes to be easie As now for the duty of Prayer you should keep your hearts in a praying frame continually and then prayer would be easie it would be an easie thing for you to pour forth your souls to God when you keep your hearts in a praying frame all the day long It may be when you go to prayer you find a great deal of trouble within you your thoughts wander and your affections are dead and dul and you rise up discouraged But what is the reason you do not keep your heart all the day long in a praying frame in a heavenly temper and frame in the day time and therefore when you come to pray at night there is no readiness in your hearts to the duty but you are altogether indisposed to it And so to come unto the Sacrament you find it a great labor and toyl to prepare for the Sacrament as you should I speak of those that make conscience of preparation many times they find it a mighty toyl a hard work I but Christians should keep themselves alwaies in a Sacramental disposition a Sacramental frame alwaies having their spirits savoring of the meditation of the death of Jesus Christ that nothing should be more familiar to a Christians Soul than the meditation of the death of Christ and of discerning the Lords Body and the Covenant of grace and giving it self likewise to God in a Covenant of grace this should be continually and then if you should receive the Sacrament every day you might be fit for it or every week you would be fit for it Now People think it a great matter and make a great deal of do about receiving of it often whereas the truth is the Saints of God they should be in as great a readiness to receive the Sacrament as to hear the word or to pray and that would be a mighty ease unto them therefore if things were as they should certainly it would be more convenient to have it more ordinary and constant every Lords day the Sacrament The Christians in the primitive times would receive it every day in the year and they kept their heart in readiness to such kind of duties let it be what work it wil be You should be patient in affliction if affliction come upon you and your heart is not in a readiness to alter your condition Oh! it wil be a grievous burden to exercise patience it wil be a hard thing for you now you should keep your hearts ready for every condition that is the true work of grace in the Soul to keep the soul in a constant bent Godward and that Soul wil do things very easily Somtimes you have much ado with your children when strangers come to keep them in good order the reason is you neglect them at other times and that is the reason that they trouble you when strangers come but keep them in a good order at all times and then you wil have them right at those times So it is with the heart keep the heart prepared and ready to every good work and then every work wil be easie Object But you wil say That is a great deal of toyl and labor to keep our hearts alwaies bent and ready to good works To that I answer at first it may be some labor and toyl but those that have once got their hearts into a readiness find it not so hard but have a great deal
doth order the heart according to this knovvledg therefore the Scripture speaks of humbleness of mind in Collos 3. 12. To be low in our mind First the mind must be lovv before the Heart be lovv in the judging of our selves vve must judg of our selves right before the heart can lie lovv vve must judg of our selves by the right rule by no false rule but by examining of our selves according unto the vvord according to vvhat the vvord of God doth reveal concerning us after Serious Faithfull and strict examination of our selves then follovvs the vvork of Humiliation a right judging of our selves first A Heathen Phylosopher being ask'd What is the hardest thing in the World He ansvvers Noscere teipsum to knovv thy self the bravest thing in the World for a man to knovv himself and indeed vve that profess our selves to be Christians vve may find it by experience to be so the hardest thing in the World to know our selves The heart of man is deceitfull above all things and who can know it The heart of man is Grande profundum a very great depth there 's not one of ten thousand that knovvs himself there is a great Art and Skil in being able to know ones self and that is the reason that there is so little Humility in the World because we do not knovv our selves every proud man is a Fool a Fool in this Because he knovvs not himself he doth not give a right judgment of himself Now for the way of knowing our selves and what the word of God doth help us to know our selves in that we shal not speak of in this place but only to shew the ground of Humility it is the knowledg of our own vileness and the judging of our selves according to what we know of our selves not according to what others think of us A humble man doth not much go according to what any body else knows of him or esteems of him but according to what he knows and esteems of himself It was a Speech of another Heathen Do not beleeve others of thy self more than thy self of thy self It is a Foolish thing for any man to go by the esteem that others have of him and not by the esteem that he hath of himself upon right examination it may be other men may in Charity judg that thou hast this and this such and such Graces and such excellencies while in the mean time thou mai'st know thy self to be a vile mean wretched base Creature Novv a proud heart will rather go according to what others think of him than indeed according to what he knovvs of himself it may be other men that live vvith thee that see but the outside they give a good report of thee But vvhat report doth thy ovvn Conscience give of thee What dost thou knovv of thy self That thou should'st look most after While our friends do rejoyce in those excellencies they esteem us to have in the mean time thou mai'st see the cause to be confounded in thine ovvn thoughts and to be ashamed before the Lord and to have such thoughts of thy self that if the Lord should discover unto thy friends that now esteem highly of thee what thou knowest of thy self thou would'st think that they would kick and spurn thee out of their Company and be ready to spit in thy face I make no question but those that look into their own hearts and observe the workings of their own spirit those that know what is within and are acquainted with themselves many times when others have high esteems of them they see cause to look upon themselves with such shame as to beleeve that if others should but see the inside if God should turn their insides outward all their friends that have such esteems of them now would be ready to abhor them and be ready to loath them if they did but know what they are of themselves And indeed it is a great Argument for to make those that have any acquaintance with their own hearts to be humble to suffer any outward meanness to be willing to suffer any thing that might make them low outwardly Why Because of the great mercy of God to conceal from men what evill is in them Thou art loth to suffer some outward affliction but if God should discover to all the world all that evill that is in thee and that thou art conscious to thy self of Yea take the best Man and Woman that is if all the evill that they themselves are conscious to themselves of were discovered it would make them more vile than any mean condition that ever God put them into Yea than any outward affliction can possibly put them into God rather doth esteem of us wil rather judg us according to what we esteem of our selves than according to what others think of us And therefore in 1 John 3. 20. that place that is well known If our Consciences condemn us God is greater than our Consciences and knoweth all things It is no matter what others say others may justifie us others may think we have excellent Gifts and exccellent Graces and we perform duties in an excellent manner but in the mean time our own Consciences may condemn us Now the behavior of a proud heart is rather according at what others think of him then what he thinks of himself though he knows never such vileness in his own heart as now in Duty he joyns with us in Prayer perhaps he hath excellent expressions in Duty in Prayer that the hearts of those that are with him are taken with him and bless God for the Gift of God in him and what Graces he exerciseth in Prayer and so others are blessing God for him and highly esteeming of him and themselves happy that they joyn with him now upon that he hath a proud heart and blesseth himself in that and rejoyceth in that while in the mean time his Conscience tels him that he hath a base heart a proud spirit an empty heart and a dead heart and that all this while there hath been a mighty unsutableness between his heart and the expressions Now if his heart be humble he will not look what others speak of him in this kind but be ashamed and confounded in his ovvn spirit because of vvhat he knovvs of himself Certainly vve may see some ground vvhy others should think vvell of us and yeâ— vve may be most vvretched and abominable and loathsome in the eyes of God at that present vvhen other Godly people have high thoughts of us Do not rest in that not only others but vvise men and Godly men have high thoughts of us and yet in the mean time we may be wretched abominable in the sight of God and our ovvn Consciences may condemn us We read of the spirit of Man in Prov. 20. 27. it is said of the spirit of Man That it is the Candle of the Lord searching all the the inward parts of the Belly Now you know that
men for that you are humbled but when you can be humbled for the first stirring of your heart towards pride here is a sign of Humility But this I shall not stand upon because I will take occasion to handle this sin and shew the foulness of this sin more largely and therefore all I wil now do shall be to work this upon your hearts that you may become the Schollars of Christ to be lowly as Christ was It is a Use of Exhortation That we would all labor for Lowliness of heart Know it is that that is necessary for us all that we do else is nothing except we come to learn this of Christ we learn nothing of him you cannot be said to be a Christian whatever your profession is all your brave Duties and performances are nothing I remember Chrisostome hath such an expression saith he If a man be able to raise the dead cure the Lame cleanse the Leaper yet if he be not humble he is the most filthy thing in the world this is the Grace that we have constant need of upon every occasion in what state soever Doth God afflict you then you have a great deal of need of this Grace to bear your affliction patiently if you be lifted up then you have need of this Grace to carry your self so as you be not raised up against God Oh! that you would have care of that when you find God coming in most upon you that is the time to keep your heart down most As we read of the Devill to Christ in Matth. 3. After Christ had that Testimony from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and the Spirit of God came upon him like a Dove the next words in the beginning of Chap. 4. is Then was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil just then thus it is with Christians as it was with Christ somtimes in Duties in Prayer they are mightily enlarged and have mighty comforts and God comes in abundantly unto them and doth even as it were say this is my beloved Son and my beloved Daughter I have chosen you to life but expect the very next thing will be the Devill wil take and set thee upon a Pinacle of the Temple to tempt thee and tempt thee especially to Pride If God imploy you in any great service then you have need of Humility it was the beginning of Christs publick work of his Ministry that the Devill came to tempt him then the Devill fell upon him So if God imploy a man in publick service Oh! then the Devil will fall upon him and tempt him most of all then I remember Luther when God began to work upon him and he appeared to stand up in witnessing for God it was one special Prayer of his Oh that God would deliver me from Pride and those that God imploies in publick works had need to pray for this If God take a man off from any service he had need have much humility then and so I might instance in al kinds of things that Humility must have an ingredient in them I remember Bernard hath such an expression That except it doth come before and accompany and follow Pride doth extort all out of our hands and spoil all Humility is to come before any thing you do to accompany any thing you do and it is to follow any thing you do or else all is spoiled And in this Exhortation consider that you cannot come all of you to be eminent do what you can you that are weak do all what you can you shall never come to have any great parts you cannot have great Estates do what you can but it is possible for you to come to be humble You would think it a great matter you that are weak if one could shew you how you should come to have excellent parts gifts memory the like you that are poor to be rich eminent in the place where you live to be above others Now God will not grant you these things but here I can shew you how you can come to be as humble as any man and that is as much as if God gave you Ships and they brought home to you the Riches of the Indies you may come all to be humble though you cannot come all to be eminent in the world Quest You wil say How shal we come to get an humble heart Answ First Labor to set the excellency of this Grace before your Souls set this Grace in the excellency of it much before you and meditate on the beauty and excellency of this Grace of Humility so as to account your excellency to be in Humility that which a man accounts his excellency to be in he is in a good forwardness to get it especially in morals Look upon Humility as your excellency as a glorious beautifull Grace and set it before your Soul as that that hath a great deal of beauty and excellency in it to be in love with this Grace As sin prevails in the heart by meditation a corrupt heart by meditating and plotting about a corruption or sinfull distemper comes to defile it self with that corruption So a gracious heart by meditation of the sweetness and excellency of a Grace comes to be adornd with that Grace How comes it that men fall into wickedness and sin but at first this is the beginning of it they by meditation suck out the sweetness of sin into their Souls and look upon it as that which they may get so much good by now by delighting in the thoughts of a sin they come to fall into a sin therefore take heed of delighting in the thoughts of sin it is the way to come to fal into a sin So by delighting of our selves in the meditation of the excellency of Grace we may come to have that Grace Secondly Labor to convince thy Soul of the emptiness and vanity of all those outward excellencies that are the usuall things that puff up the heart it is nothing but wind that puffs up any mans heart if they had what is truly excellent their hearts would not be puffed up but that that puffs up the heart is wind Now consider all things in the world under these three Notions 1. They are things beneath the true excellency of an immortall Soul the way to cure sinful pride is to have a holy gracious pride Now a Holy pride is to know what is the end of a rational Creature what he is capable of to enjoy communion with Father Son and Holy Ghost the knowledge of this will take off the heart from all things below look upon these things as Dogs meat if you could but take off your heart from al these things it would keep your hearts Low 2. Another Notion is this Consider That al these outward Excellencies make no great difference between man and man it may be you have more parts than another you have more Estate
time he is overcome with any corruption with any sin he is like one in the Gally Oh this soul considers I am in a different way from what I was wont to be I was wont to be in the service of Jesus Christ and my heart had soul satisfying contentments while I was there but O what a difference is there in this work here is a base drudgery in comparison of what I was wont to have Oh the sweet communion I had with Jesus Christ while my heart kept close to him but now now I am raking in kennells and rowing in Gallies Oh! wretched man that I am who shal deliver me from this burden now this is a wide a broad difference between the easiness of the yoke of Christ to one and to the other one finds a great deal of ease in the yoke but the other finds all one if he goes amongst company that are vaine and sleight and prophane and when he comes to hear the word to read or receive the Sacrament almost all one and indeed if there be any difference his greatest ease is in that of sin he hath ease in the duties of religion in performing duties but his greatest ease is in the other way I but now the ease of a Saint is such as cannot stand with the ease of sin a child of God can beare the yoke of Christ with ease but he cannot beare the yoke of sin it is death to him to beare the yoke of sin that is the First Secondly Another difference is this a carnall heart may have some ease in duties of religion in the yoke of Christ but it is because he mistakes the yoke of Christ it is because he doth not know the yoke of Christ he thinks that the yoke of Christ is only some external duties that Christ requires or to keep from some grosse sins and now and then to say his prayers and now and then to read a chapter and come to Church and to receive Sacraments he thinks this is all that Christ requires of him what needs any more to do then this May not I go to Heaven as well with this as with keeping so much a do as others do and he thinks here is the yoke of Christ and this is fine and easy indeed If this were the way that would bring to Heaven it were a very easy matter to go to Heaven that is for a man to keep from a gross foul sin that would make him odious in the place where he lives and for him only to come from his house and sit an hour or two and heare a Sermon and come at Easter and other times and receive the Sacrament this is the easiest thing in the world who would not go to Heaven if this were all But now if thou wert acquainted with the spiritualness of holy duties that Jesus Christ requires with the power of Godliness that there is in holy duties that Christ requires in the word mortification of thy Lust and the keeping of thy thoughts and of thy heart holy and spiritual he requires that thou shouldest serve the Lord thy God withal thy heart and all thy might if thou knewest I say the spiritualness of holy duties and the power of Godliness that is in holy duties then it would be an intolerable burden to thee it would be very grievous to a carnall heart to put it self under the spirituall acts of Religion to put it self under the outward acts of Religion that is easie but to put it self upon the inward acts of Religion they would find that to be somwhat indeed For one that hath learned a Prayer to go and say it over and read it in a Book What an easie matter is that part of Religion for a man in the morning and evening to go and turn over two or three Leaves and shake himself and go away and then there is Religion for all that day But now if you would set your selves to the power of Godliness in Prayer that is when you come to Prayer to meditate what an Infinite and Glorious and eternall God you have to deal withall in Prayer I am now coming to tender up that high respect that I owe to the infinite God that which the Creature ows to an infinite Creator now I am coming to open my Soul to God to search out all the corruptions of my heart and I am now coming to bewail them in the presence of the infinite God and to set my self before the Lord as in my self a condemned Creature before an infinite Judg I am coming now to plead with God for my life for my Soul for my eternall estate I am now coming to engage my Soul to God that as ever I expect mercy in the day of Christ so I am willing to give up my self to God here is some power of Godliness in this now I would have you put your selves to this divine ease the more a Gracious heart doth this the more ease he hath in Prayer as I will appeal to you Take a carnall heart such a one thinks he must pray and so he comes in the morning and speaks a few words such words as he was wont to do and such words as may be he hath heard other men speak when he joyns with others in prayer and he hears some expressions in prayer from them and he gets them and comes in the morning and speaks them and perhaps gets into his Closet and barely speaks them over now if it be one that hath true Grace alas he is in a troublesome condition all the day after if he find not the power of Godliness in it such a one hath no quiet in his Spirit al the day after Why because there hath not been the power of Godliness in his Duty and therefore he is troubled all the day long But now let such a one come to Prayer to purpose in the morning and stir up the life and power of Godliness in Prayer worshipping God as a God Oh! the ease and quiet that such a one hath all the day he can go on in his work and can sing at his work So that the ease of a Gracious heart comes from the power of Godliness in a Duty and from the spiritualness that is in a Duty but the ease of a carnall heart comes from the formality of a Duty as because the Duty is formall and he thinks that it is the Yoke of Christ and this is pretty wel it is easie indeed to have no other Yoke than this to worship God in a few words and not to have the power of Godliness in the Duty And so we might instance in the hearing of the word you come to the word barely you rise out of your bed and come and sit here an hour that is easie enough but now if you come to the word with preparation and think now I am going into the presence of God to hear what God hath to say to my Soul this morning Oh my Soul
thy soul and other sins the sin of thy passion and the sin of thy giving liberty to thy thoughts may be as a thorn to thy foot to make thy way very hard unto thee No marvel though thou complainest the way is hard it is not the hardness of thy path but the tenderness of thy foote that makes thee to think the way hard therefore let every Christian if he would go on with ease in the waies of religion as soon as ever a thorn is got into the conscience Oh! get it out presently do not let it lye and fret in the flesh Oh! if we would as soon as we had committed sin get it out of the conscience presently then repentance would not be so difficult and you would find your heart at a mighty deal of ease When a man goes with pain and hee lookes upon his foote and pulls the thorn out he goes with ease then As the beast when you go in the way and your beast halts and shufflles you will have him searched if you cannot see it your selfe then when you come to the next Smith you have him searched so do you find the waies of God difficult that you cannot go the pace you were wont to go search your hearts see whether there be not a stone in your hearts or some gravel see if there be any particular sin that you know to be a sin and particularly repent of that and that will make the way of God easy to you the often renewing of repentance will make the way of God easy 6. Labor by wisdom to order the duties of your condition that is thus Labor for wisdom to know what is suitable to your condition and order the duties about that condition many think Oh! if I were in such a place as such a one is I would doe thus and thus but you should look upon the duties of your present condition what is the condition that I am now in I am a servant what is my duty in that condition not what is the duty of a governour And so in a single estate what is the duty of this condition not what is the duty of a marryed Condition and so in a Married Condition what is the duty of that And so when you are in affliction what is your duty at that time or if so be that God cal you to humiliation you should mind the duty of humiliation And when God calls you to rejoycing you should know the duty of that time Some when God calls them to rejoycing they think they must be humbled and when they are called to be humbled they think they should rejoyce and when they are called to beleeving then they wil be poring upon their corruptions and when God calls them to searching of their hearts they have thoughts of matter of joy Now wisedom to suite our duty to our condition and to apply our duty to that condition is a great ease to the soul Now many times we are thinking of a duty at one time that is not the duty of that time may be when one is sick Oh! they are many times troubled that they cannot go to heare the word and meere with Gods people and spend so much time in prayer and meditation and reading as they were wont to do and upon this they trouble themselves now this is not the duty of your condition the duty of your condition at that time is to fanctify Gods name in your affliction and to quiet your heart under the hand of God and the duty of your condition is not to go to heare sermons now but to think of what you have heard heretofore the duty of your condition now is not to spend so much time in your closet in prayer as when you were in health and you are troubled for the want of this we often trouble our selves about those duties that are not the duties of our present condition and that makes them difficult now wisdom in ordering our duties wil much help to facilitate them 7. Another Rule is this In the performance of duties you should ease your selves of the care of the success of what you do about success or discouragement for want of success nothing makes our lives more troublesom and our work more difficult than our carking care about success I wil do this and this but I am afraid I shal not have success or if I have success not such as I desire but now if you would perform duties in a gracious manner look to the duty perform that and cast the care wholly upon God it is enough for me to do what is required of me as a creature to do and let God himself take care of that that belongs to him and that is the success I told you in the opening of the ease that there is certain success and yet we might trouble our selves in carking about success now if we can go on in performance of duty and never be troubled about success it wil be exceeding easie but Christians find somtimes that though they have been diligent in performance of duty yet they do not find success they find nothing comes of it and this troubles them this makes them go heavily to the duty at another time I but observe that whatever duty you perform if you do not find present success you must not conclude that there wil be no success the carking about the success in things makes the work extraordinary difficult now if we could bring our hearts to this Lord I am where thou wouldst have me and doing what thou wouldst have me and as for the success that belongs not to my work but to thy self I walk according to that that is thy wil and as for success I will leave that to thy self 8. Another rule is this do not tye your selves to what Christ doth not tie you unto there are many Christians bring upon themselves many snares that way by tying themselves to that which Christ doth not tie them to tying themselves to such a time of prayer to spend so much time in such a duty we must take heed of laying a yoke upon our selves do not put a yoke upon Christs yoke It is a great question to many and it s to me a question whether in the Gospel there is required any Vows at all to vow any thing that is not a duty before we have vowed it indeed to strengthen our selves to do what God requires as David I have sworn to keep thy righteous Laws we may engage our selves that way but properly in the Law it was a free will Offering but for a Vow now I do not find that the Gospel hath any such thing for men to bind themselves to that that they were not bound to before by the word Indeed whatever we are bound to by the word that we are to engage our selves to the utmost but now to bind our selves to any thing else as that we will as long as we live keep such a day this
THE THIRD And FOURTH BOOK ON MATTHEW 11. VIZ I. Christ the Humble Teacher of those that come to Him II. The Only Easie Way to Heaven Wherein is shewed 1 What Humility or Lowliness is Not. 2 What that Lowliness of Heart is that Christ would have us to Learn of Him 3 Arguments from the Lowliness of Christ to work Lowliness of spirit in us 4 The properties of an humble heart towards God 5 The properties of an Humble and Lowly heart in respect of our selves 6 The properties of Humility in respect of others 1. It is fearful of giving or taking offence 2. It gives due honor to all 3. It is tender to others 4. It 's not needlesly singular from them 7 The Excellencies of Humility 8 Humility brings REST unto the soul 9 Means to get Humility In the only Easie Way to Heaven Is shewed 1 The Way to Heaven that Jesus Christ teacheth is an Easie way Six Evidences thereof 2 The Difference between the EASE a Carnal heart hath and the EASE a gracious soul hath in Religion 3 The Reason why some gracious souls complain of difficulty in Gods waies 4 What it is that makes the Waies of God so Easie 5 Consequences from the Easiness of Gods waies 6 Directions how we may make the Waies of God Easie By JEREMIAH BURROUGHS Preacher of the Gospel at Stepney and Cripple-Gate London London Printed by Peter Cole Printer and Book seller at the Sign of the Printing-press in Cornhil neer the Royal Exchange 1659. M R Burroughs Easie way to Heaven THE CONTENTS OF The Third and Fourth Book On Math 11. CHAP. 119. Lowliness what Negatively in Five Particulars 1 Not in Poverty 2 Nor in Words only 3 Nor Carriage 4 Nor Habit. 5 Nor Baseness of Spirit Page 477 Chap. 120 Lowliness of heart what it is positively and what it is in Christ in six particulars 1 He became Mediator 2 Man 3 Born of a poor Virgin 4 A Servant 5 A Curse Yea Sin 6 He was lowly in his carriage to men 490 Chap. 121 Six Arguments from the Lowliness of Christ to work Lowliness of spirit in our hearts 1 It was one special end of his coming into the world 2 His Humility makes pride in man a desperate Evil 3 The greatest excellency stands with the greatest Humility 4 His Lowliness stands with the greatest Wisdom 5 It is infinitly pleasing to God 6 It may stand with doing of great things 505 Chap. 122. The ground of Humility A knowledg and sense of our own vileness 513 Chap. 123. Of the behavior of humility before God in ten Particulars 1 It acknowledgeth the infinite distance between God and a Sinner 2 It hath a trembling Heart before God 3 A relenting Spirit 4 It makes Gods will its Rule 5 It is willing God should choose its condition 6 It is willing God should be advanced in all his waies 7 It admires the least mercy 8 It is willing to be put in a mean and hard employment 9 It is willing to wait upon God 10 It is willing to do what it can to honor God 521 Chap. 124. Twelve Properties of a Lowly heart in respect of it self 1 It is very suspicious of it self 2 It is willing to know the worst of it self 3 It is willing to look to his beginning 4 It is ashamed of it self 5 It loaths it self 6 It judgeth it self unworthy 7 It denies it self 8. It keeps down it self 9. It hides it self 10 Goes out of it self 11 Bemoans it self 12 Afflicts it self 541 Chap. 125. Three Consequences from the former Point 556 Chap. 126 The first Property of Humility in respect of others is that it thinks better of others then it self Which is laid open in divers Particular answers unto several doubts and Objections 558 Chap. 127 A second Property of Humility in respect of others is To be fearful of giving offence 570 Chap. 128. Other Properties of Humility in respect of others 3 It gives due Honor to all with whom it doth converse 4 It rejoyceth in their good 5 It is willing to receive good from them 6 It is tender towards others 7 It is not needlesly singular from them 576 Chap. 129. The excellency of Humility in thirteen particulars 1 God prizeth it 2 It is a convincing Grace 3 By it we walk worthy of the Gospel 4 It is an Evidence of Election 5 Better than Sacrifices 6 It serveth for the prevailing of Prayer 7 It is a tried heart 8 It is fit for great Services 9 It is the Ornament of all graces 10. It preserves all Graces 11 It makes all Duties and Crosses easie 12 It makes the life comfortable 13 It is most useful to give God the Glory of the new Covenant 586 Chap. 130. Humility brings Rest unto the Soul in Eight Particulars 1. It ventures upon nothing before it sees Gods call 2 The Heart of such is lower than their condition 3 He is never disappointed in the World 4. He would have God have his Glory 5 It freeth from opposition or maketh the Heart yeild to it 6 It makes the Heart rejoyce in the property of others 7 It is under many promises 8 All Crosses are smal to an humble Heart 605 Chap. 131. Exhortation to Humility with five several means to get it 1 Labor to see the excellency of it 2 Convince the Soul of its emptiness 3 Get the knowledg of God 4 Of Christ 5 Of our selves 609 Chap. 132. The knowledg of our selves further prosecuted with Six Means to get it 1. Consider what once we were 2. What we might have been 3. What it cost God to bring us out of that condition 4 What we are 5. What we would be if God should leave us a little to our selves 6 In what case we shall certainly be in one day 624 THE Contents of the Fourth Book on Matth. 11. 30. VIZ. The only Easie Way to Heaven CHAP. 133. The words in the 30. verse Opened and Explained Page 633 Chap. 134. Doct. The way of the Gospel that brings to Heaven is an easie way This confirmed and explained in six particulars 637 Chap. 135. Six Evidences of the former Doctrine in the last Chapter 1. Because the word that injoyns these waies is Sweet 2. A Gracious Soul counts his Duties his priviledges 3 He would rather come under any other Burden than cast off the Yoke of Christ 4 Because Christ whose Yoke it is is Gentle 5 Never any that truly put their neck under this Yoke would willingly take it out again 6 The Experience of all the Saints of God prove the Point 641 Chap. 136. The Second Particular mentioned Is opened in two differences between a Carnal heart and a Gracious Soul in the waies of God 1 The Hypocrite finds ease in the waies of God and Sin both 2 The Hypocrite hath some ease because he mistakes the Yoke of Christ contenting himself with the outward forme of Godliness but the beleevers ease comes from the power of it 649 Chap.
137. Containeth a third and fourth Difference between the ease of an Hypocrite and true Beleever in the waies of God For 1. They are easie even to the Corruptions of an Hypocrite 2. He takes up the waies of God partially 658 Chap. 138. Containeth Six differences more of the former Point 5 A Carnal heart can take up and lay down duties when he will 6 He hath ease in the remissness of his Spirit 7 His ease is al alike 8 The more ease he hath the more sluggish he is 9 He hath but one principle in the heart that acteth him both in the waies of God and the waies of the world 10 His ease comes from the performance of duties in his own Strength 663 Chap. 139. Divers Objections answered The easiness of the waies of Christ which is the third particular mentioned in Chap. 139. 672 Chap. 140 Sheweth the Reasons of the Discipline and Government of Christ and Objections against the same are answered 687 Chap. 141. Of the easiness of the Yoke of Afflictions for the Name of Christ 698 Chap. 142 What the things are that makes the waies of Christ easie which is the fourth point in Chap. 139. opened in five particulars 1 They are such as a gracious Soul wil impose upon himself 2 He comes freely off to them 3 The waies of Christ are even and not contrary one to another 4 They bring Strength with them 5 In them all there is good Success 6 In them a gracious heart is alwaies receiving his wages 7 He hath all the passages of Gods providence to help him 8 They bring ease to the Conscience 9 They free the Soul from cares 10 They make all other things easie 703 Chap. 143. The Yoke of Christ easier than the Yoke of the Law For 1. The Ceremoniall Law required abstinence from the comforts of the Creature 2 Its Service was chargeable 3 The Ceremonies were beggarly Rudiments 719 Chap. 144. The Yoke of Christ easier than the Yoke of Sin and Antichrist 726 Chap. 145 Eight Consequences from the former Doctrin 1. The world is mistaken about the service of Christ 2 A great sin to reject Christ 3 Bless God for this easie Yoke 4. Bring not an evil report upon the waies of Christ 5. Christ wil expect much Service it being so easie 6. Make not the Yoke of Christ hard 7 We should give up our Selves to Christ 8. It is an accursed thing to be an Apostat 737 Chap. 146. The means to make the waies of Christ easie to our selves 1 Our obedience must be Evangelical 2 Keep the heart in a readiness to every duty 3 Get the heart in love to the duty 4 Lose not your encouragements 5 Continue not in the guilt of any sin 6 Order the duties of your Condition 7 Leave the Success wholly to God 8 Bind not your self to what Christ doth not 9 Lay hold upon al opportunities 10 Preserve all experiences 11 Beware of disturbing passions 12 Entertain communion with the Saints 13 Exercise much faith 14 Get strength of Grace 750 THE THIRD AND FOURTH BOOK On Math. 11. VIZ I. Christ the Humble Teacher of those that come to him II. The only Easie way to Heaven CHAP. CXIX Lowliness what Negatively in Five Particulars 1. Not in Poverty 2. Nor in Words only 3. Nor Carriage 4. Nor Habit. 5. Nor Baseness of Spirit WE have Finished that great and excellent Doctrine of Meekness we are now to come to the next lesson that we are to Learn of Christ Lowliness of Heart and this of a lowly Heart is of very near affinity unto a meek heart yea the truth is a lowly Heart is the Mother of Meekness though Meekness is set before in my Text yet in some other Scriptures where we have Meekness and Humility joyned together we have Meekness set after and Humility and Lowliness set before as in Coloss 3. 12. Put on therefore as the Elect of God Holy and beloved Bowels of Mercy Kindness Humbleness of mind Meekness Humbleness of mind Meekness there Humbleness is set before and that is indeed the true Christian Meekness that doth come from Lowliness Lowly in heart The word here Lowly in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies one even lying upon the ground ready to be Trodden on as some Learned observe Lowly in Heart In 2 Cor. 7. 6. There you have this word here Translated Lowly Cast down one Cast down Nevertheless God that comforteth those that are Cast down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word that is here Translated in my Text Lowly is there Cast down such whose Heart is Cast down And in 2 Cor. 10. and the first Now I Paul my self beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presence am Base among you Who am Lowly or Base so you have the signification of the word and what it is in other Scriptures Lowly But Lowly in Heart Learn of me for I am Lowly in Heart First Not in a low condition I do not require of you that you should be in the low condition of Poverty and the like as I am some falsly would imitate Christ to be in such a low condition because that he had possest nothing in the world therefore they would not and so ground their superstitious vows of a voluntary poverty Indeed the word Translated in Heart signifies somtimes the low condition of a man As in 1 James 9. Let the Brother of Low degree Rejoyce in that he is Exalted That is in a Low condition But many men are in a low condition and yet far from being Lowly in Heart There may be a very low condition and yet a very high proud Heart there may be Humiliation where there is no Humility Humiliation and Humility are two several things a man or Woman may be Humbled and yet not at all Humble Many people that are very low in their condition Yet Oh! the pride of their Heart in their low condition what vexing and fretting of Heart is there against the waies of Gods providence towards them and disposing of them Now thou art in a low condition and thy Heart vexing and froward thy heart is not a whit low by thy condition Many men that heretofore have been in a high condition and God hath brought their estates lower but not their hearts a whit Oh Happy happy were it for those Men and Women if he had brought their hearts low this is the way to make Gods bringing them low in condition to be a great blessing to them You that are marriners when you meet with storms and tempests you would think it a very absurd and foolish thing to have your top Gallent and top sailes spreading to the ful all open in a storme No now you narrow your Sailes and take them all in and take them down when the storm is up Now this is a foolish condition of many that God pleaseth to bring into a low condition that when God causeth storms and tempests to
of any mercy as Hieram of the Cities that Solomon gave him what are these my Brother But what am I that I should have such a mercy Many because they have not what they would have they reject what they have as thus because they have not ful assurance of saving grace though God be putting them into the way that he useth to lead them that he purposeth to save this is nothing all is nothing Now thou shouldest say Lord Who am I that I should have the least mercy from thee This is the work of an humble spirit And if any affliction befal thee to be so far from thinking thy affliction great to say never any had such affliction as I Oh that is from the pride of thy heart it is because of thy pride that the affliction is so great were thy heart humbled the affliction would not seem so great but the mercy of God would seem great unto thee As now put a ball into a great Vessel and it seems to be nothing but put it into a little vessel and it wil seem greater so when the heart is little by humility then Gods mercy seems great and the truth is the lesse the heart is the mercy of God will seem the greater and the affliction seem the lesser it is because we are not sensible of our own vilenss and wretchedness and of what our condition might be that our afflictions are so great in our eyes as they are That is the next thing of an humble Spirit that it admires at the least mercy that it is so much and wonders at the greatest affliction that it is no more I am less then the least of all thy mercies 8. An humble spirit it is willing that God should put him into mean imployment and into hard imployment and into imployment that it can see no Reason for but only the wil of God Yea if the Lord should put him into the lowest work that ever creature was put into an humble spirit submits and thinks it is well if I may be in any service at al Let me be but as the hired Servant saith an humble Spirit As it was with the Gibeonites they were content that they might be but as Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water So they might but live The very Angels shew themselves humble in this kind to be willing to be Ministring Spirits to the poorest Saint in the world the poorest Saint in the world hath a guard of Angels about him night and day this shews the Lowliness of Angels and therefore we should be willing to be serviceable from their example in the lowest work for God and not think that my parts and my Spirit is fit to be imployed in higher waies As a Servant to think why am not I a Govenor I but to think that it is the condition God hath put me into this is his Duty And so for Services hard to Flesh and Blood Yet an humble Spirit will go on and the truth is humility in the behavior of the Spirit towards God appears in this to be content to obey God in what I see no Reason for in the world I know it is the mind of God and though I can see no Reason for it yet I will be content to do it here is subjection of the heart to God not stand wrangling Why should I perform Duties And why should I do so and so No but this is that that shal sway my Reason and all because God cammands it Now these are the main frames of an humble heart tovvards God and as long as vve go along Oh that vve vvould examine hovv far short vve come of Lovvly hearts it may bâ— vve vvere taught before that vve ought to be lovvly but here vve may that vve find come short and there vve may find matter of humiliation in our Prayers 9. An Humble Spirit and one Lowly in heart is willing to wait upon God his own time and in whatever way or means God shall please to work in it is fit that I should wait upon God for any thing I have who am so unworthy of any mercy and the Lord being so high above me between whom and my self there is such an infinite distance in Isa 27. 8. saith the Church there humbling it self before the Lord they do manifest their Humility thus Yea in the way of thy judgments O! Lord have we waited it is easie to wait upon God in the way of his Mercy but not so easie to wait upon him in the way of his judgments but an humble Spirit is willing to wait upon God even in the way of his judgments So in Lament 3. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth An humble heart is willing to wait upon God in the waies of his judgments as wel as in the way of his mercies 10. The behavior of an humble heart in respect of God is this That it is resolved to do what it can to honor God whatever God doth with it though God destroy me and that everlastingly yet I desire to keep this resolution in my heart I will do what I can to Honor Him Many that are afflicted and troubled in Conscience they have some kind of Humiliation wrought but their Spirits have some kind of bitterness and sowrness against God and because they think somtimes God will cast them off therefore they are ready to cast off Duty too now that is an evident sign the heart is not throughly humbled so far as thou findest thy heart work thus when thou art afraid that God wil cast thee off therfore thou thinkest that it is best for thee to cast off Duty and to do no more Here is an Argument that thy heart is not humbled But now when thy heart is wrought to this that even at that tâ—me when thou art afraid that God will cast thee off for ever thou shalt resolve let God do with me what he wil though I perish for ever yet I am resolved I wil do what I can to Honor Him this is one that hath a lowly heart now the heart is brought low indeed such a heart is prepared for Gods mercies when it is in such a condition as this and this is that God expects from us we must not indent with God we must not thus stand upon our Tearms with God as many in time of trouble of Conscience when we speak to them to wait upon Him I they wil say they would be content to wait never so long if they might be sure at last that God would grant Mercy to them But wilt thou not be willing except thou maist be sure Thou must wait though thou art not sure it is thy Duty to wait though God do not for the present assure thee of Mercy Indeed if God were so much bound to thee as thou art bound to him then thou mightest
it in himself In 1 Corin. 15. 9 For I am the least of the Apostles that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the the Church of God I am the least of the Apostles Saith Paul and yet as somtimes I have said upon other occasions there was no man since the begining of the world that ever did God more Service then Paul We may safely say it no man upon the Face of the Earth that was a meer man that ever did God more service then this man did and yet he was the least of the Apostles Well But though he may be the least of the Apostles yet he may have high thoughts of himself enough Mark then the 1 of Tim. 1. 15. This is a Faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief The least of the Apostles but chief of Sinners he looks upon himself as Chief of Sinners Yea yet one diminution to be the chiefest of sinners it shewes he was low in his own Eyes and that is in Ephes 3. 8. Vnto me who am less then the least of all Saints Mark to be the least of the Apostles was somwhat but to be the Least of Saints is more but to be less then the least of al Saints here Paul would Teach Gramarians a new Grammar Lesson Gramarians know but three degrees of Comparison but Paul had a fourth here he had one beyond the superlative the least Minimus it is the superlative you know to be the least of al but here beyond the superlative less then the least or I am the worst So it is in the Greek Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the superlative in the Greek Tongue but here is a comparison beyond the superlative less then the least less then the least of all Saints thus you see it was with Paul one that did God more Service then thousands and ten thousands of the best that we know and never are like to do God that Service as this Paul and yet he is the least of all Saints in his own Eyes here is a lowly heart In Judges 8. 2. We have Gideon likewise an example of Lowliness of Spirit in his own Eyes we might name a great many others when some were provoked and Angry with him he said unto them what have I done now in comparison of you is not the gleaning of the Grapes of Ephraim better then the vintage of Abiezer By this means he pacified his angry Brethren saith he we account our selves but as the Gleanings of the Grapes of Ephraim to the vintage of Abiezer And by that means he quieted his Brethren that were provoked Well but for the opening of this the Lowly heart doth judg others better then himself First If so be that there appear any evil in others if the evil be not apparent in other men a Lowly heart wil be ready to judg the best of any one and think there is more good secretly If there appear but a little good yet it will be ready to think that others have more good in secret then he hath himself I know how little good I have in secret in mine own heart saith a lowly Soul Well but I do not know but such and such may have a great deal more good in secret then I have their thoughts may be more holy more spiritual then mine not so wandring in Duties as mine are I have no Reason to think any in the world have so many wandring thoughts and such uncleanness and filthiness in their thoughts as I have It is ready to think that the affections of others are a great deal more cleane then his and more Heavenly and spiritual and prepared more for holy duties and that their hearts are in a better temper in holy Duties then his is And if so be that there be any good done by others he is ready to think that surely there is in them better principles that acts better in their minds then there is in me they do such and such good things I and their hearts are more sincere and are carried on by divine principles in what they do I am conscious to my self of a great many of base and vile principles that act in me I know no such evil in others and therefore I am to hope that there is not the like in them as there is in me If he sees any good in another a lowly heart is ready to think that there are other things correspondent to the good that doth appear unto him as there appears such a good thing so there is all other things answerable unto that good that doth appeare but as for it self it saies I find though I do somthing that is good Yet I am conscious to my self that there is a great deal of non-correspondency in me that though there be such and such particular good things yet other things are not answerable unto that that doth appear Thus because one that is lowly knows much evil of it self and knows more evil of it self then it doth of any other therefore it sees cause to judg of others better then it self I do not know that such have such secret evils as my self I do not know that they have such base principles that act them as in my self that there is such a non-correspondency to good as in my self upon this ground because it knows more evil of it self then others know therefore it is ready to think better of others then of it self Object I but you wil say Suppose I see a great deal of Evil in others that I know and am conscious to my self that I am not guilty of shall I think better of others then of my self then Answ I Answer stil for all this I am to think of others better then my self First Because though I see others outwardly evil yet I do not know whether there be such inward evil in them as in my self it is true they do break into outward evils more then I do I but there may be swarmes of evils within me that I know I am guilty of now because I know more evil inwardly in my self then I can know in any in the world therefore I am bound to judg of others better then of my self Secondly And further Though I see some evil in others that I am not guilty of yet how do I know what temptations they have and how can I tel but that if I had as great temptations as they I might commit as great evils and greater then they and therefore though they do commit greater evils then I do yet I am bound to judg of them better then my self because I do not know but if I had as strong temptations as they I might commit greater evils Yea Thirdly Though they do commit evils greater then I do yet I know that it is the restraining hand of God upon me and that if God should but leave me to my self a
Logs so an humble heart will get somthing from the meanest he will go away blessing God for the comfort he hath by the company of those that are meaner than himself Mark Paul saith he in Jesus Christ that you would strive together with God for me What! this Apostle that was so much above them for them to strive together with God for him Yes thus it is with a true gracious heart I remember I have read of a German Divine when he lay sick and some of his friends came to him and would be speaking to him and they thought it would be grievous to him because he was so weak Oh saith he though they were but those that you cal Lay-people if so be that when I die I shall learn any thing of any body I should account my departure more sweet to me And so it was the Speech of Oecolampadius If a truth come though by a Child by the meanest we must not refuse But know sometimes that God may speak by a poor body when he doth deny to speak by those of greater abilities and therefore we do not know what we lose by contemning those that are under us for God I say many times may speak that to our hearts by those that are beneath us when he denies to speak it by those that are above us Now an humble Spirit is willing to learn of every body of the meanest Oh if there were such a temper in the hearts of Men Women what abundance of sweetness and peace might we have Now by that we have said you may see how the promise may be fulfilled if we had but an humble heart there would be abundance of rest that we should have in this Oh the abundance of peaceableness that there would be in the world were it not for this pride of heart it is Pride of heart that makes all this ado and combustion in the world and were we thus carrying our selves lowly in heart one towards another Oh! the rest that there would be in the world and in our own Spirits Sixthly Another is this An humble heart is a tender heart towards others a lowly heart is a melting heart In Colos 3. 12. you have those two put together Put on therefore as the elect of God Holy and beloved bowels of mercies and kindness humbleness of mind Bowels of mercies and humbleness of mind are put together an humble Spirit is merciful towards others is of a tender heart either to forgive others or to give unto others he readily passeth by the offences done by others he forgives others he reasons with himself What am I that I should think it so great a matter for me to be offended that hath sinned so much against God as I have done Who am I to take so much upon me against my Brother that hath offended when I deserve to be roaring and yelling in Hell I that have so many talents forgiven me Why should not I forgive to others And then for giving unto others he considers Who hath made the difference between me and others Why is it that I should be able to give and not to have need of others Why should my Brother be in such a poor condition and I have such accomodations An humble hearâ— loves such reasoning hath his bowels yern towards the necessities of his Brethren whereas a proud Spirâ—t thinks all is for himself Shall I give my bread and my flesh and my Beer that I have provided for my Servants saith Nabal but an humble heart thinks all that he hath is mercy and therefore gives to others That which makes men and women stand so much upon it that they will not forgive wrongs and makes them so merciless towards others in misery it is from the pide of their Spirits an humble heart is a heart tender and melting towards others Seventhly And then the last that I shall name is this That an humble heart is not needlessly singular from others abundance of pride appears in singularity there is a singularity that is of necessity that is we must do our Duty what Conscience requires in Duty towards God though none in the world should do the like So we should be singular What singular thing do you but I say an humble heart is not needlesly singular from others and that you have in Rom. 12. 16. it is a notable Scripture for this Be of the same mind one towards another mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate Now the words I confess as they are in your Books do not seem to hold forth that I bring it for yet if it be examined as the learned know in the originall it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is translated Go the same way with those that are of a low estate go on in the same way together with them Do not go in a singular way by your selves there is the danger of Pride for men to go in the way of those that are not mean they will go on in the way of those that have credit and esteem in the world they will not be singular from them here is the Pride of singularity for men to be singular from poor Godly Gracious People thou Professest thy self to be a Christian and thou canst comply with men that are full of Pomp and Glory of the world and wilt not be singular from them but thou wilt be singular from those that are mean Godly and gracious souls that is Pride we must go on in the way with those that are most Godly and most Holy and most Gracious Now there is a great deal of Pride in singularity in going in waies from them that are Holy Godly in matter of things that are indifferent and you your selves acknowledg it and yet you must have a peculiar Garb by your selves as some have a singular tone of speech and an affected gate and strange kind of fashion and a sullen kind of way of keeping what they have had heretofore many yeers though there be no body else have the same thing yet they think it is humility when indeed there is a sullenness of Spirit and a proud singularity in it and wilfulness when they wil go in a different way even from the way of Godly Holy and Gracious Christians and would have somwhat peculiar to themselves For any man to affect singularity in things wherein he may lawfully suit himself with others this is Pride wherever it is and especially those that are Godly they should suit themselves with others wherein they can because there is something wherein their Conscience will not give them leave to suit with others being bound in Conscience they have not that liberty that other men have to do this or that to go this way or that way that other men can do or go in for their own ends that which they apprehend to be according to the Rule they must go on to the utmost in every thing whatever men do that they
live amongst but now because in some things thou art bound up having a tender Conscience that you must go according to the Rule therefore it should be thy wisdom in all things wherein thou canst condescend and suit thy self with other men lawfully to do it because hereby thou shalt convince the world that when thou dost differ from them it is not out of proud singularity but out of Conscience they will think that if thou couldest in thy Conscience suit with them thou wouldest because in all things wherein thou canst thou suitest with them and indeed those that are Christians should in as much as they can be Servants to every one that is yeild to every one and suit themselves with every one upon this ground that they may by this convince al the world that where they are different from other men it is not out of honor and pride but meerly out of obedience to Jesus Christ Thus you have seen the behavior of an humble Spirit in reference to God in reference to himself and in reference to other men CHAP. CXXIX The excellency of Humility in thirteen particulars 1. God prizeth it 2. It is a convincing Grace 3. By it we walk worthy of the Gospel 4. It is an Evidence of election 5. Better than Sacrifices 6. It serveth for the prevailing of Prayer 7. It is a tryed heart 8. It is fit for great Services 9. It is the ornament of all Graces 10. It preseves all Graces 11. It makes all Duties and Crosses easie 12. It makes the life comfortable 13. It is most usefull to give God the Glory of the new Covenant THe excellency of this Grace of Humilty Learn of me for I am meek and Lowly in heart This Grace is above all Graces next to Faith it self and mightily extolled in Scripture and it is proper indeed to Christianity if you read in Phylosophers that speak of moral vertues you shall find high commendations of Justice Vertue and the like and little or nothing said of Humility No it is the Christian that counts Humility to have an Excellency in it it is Christ that is come from the Bosom of his father into the world to be an example and a pattern to hold forth the excellency and glory of this Grace before the world and that was one Reason why Christ came into the world Namely to hold forth the Glory and excellency of his Grace Humility may say but little of its own praise God takes care for the Glory of it it will discover it self by the fragrancy of it self as violets discover themselves by the sweetness of them though they be covered with Leaves so the excellency of humility will discover it self by its sweetness and no man or Woman needs to take care for the discovery of its excellency and therefore it is abundant folly for a man or woman to be proud of their humility or to shew themselves humble that others may take notice of it and so commend them for it but true humility shews forth it self and it must not be forced but let it alone and let it appear in it self in a genuine way and its excellency of its self wil be best discovered Let us see theâ— wherein the true excellency of a Lowly heart appears that we may be in Love with this Grace First There is no grace in Scripture that God speaks more honorably of that the Lord hath a more honorable esteem of In Prov. 16. 19. See what the Testimony of God is of an humble spirit Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the Spoile with the proude .. Here is Gods Testimony here is two sortes of people compared one with another the humble spirit and he that divides the Spoile with the proude there is no time wherein the heart of man is more lifted up than when a man hath overcome his enemy and is triumphing and dividing the spoil Oh Now his spirit is above Now saith God you poor creatures when you can get victory and make a prey of your enemies then your hearts are lifted up and you think such a man hath a brave conquest over his enemy and now he is triumphing Well saith God there is a poor humble contrite heart that the world takes no notice of and I count it better for one to be of an Humble Spirit with the Lowly than to divide the Spoil with the proud Take men in their greatest jollity and height and glory and lustre that ever men were in the world yet the poor humble Lowly spirited men are more glorious in mine Eyes I count a poor Sâ—ul a Child a Servant that hath gotten into a hole humbling their Souls before me I look upon these as a more glorious object for me to behold than great Alexander and Caesar and the greatest conqueror in the world We cal the proud happy but the Lord cals the humble happy And so in Isa 66. That Famous place The Lord that dwels on high be looks on him that iâ— of an humble and contrite spirit As if there were no object for the Eye of God to feed upon to be pleased withal but the humble spirit whereas the proud he looks afar off upon them Psalm 138. 6. Though the Lord be high yet he hath respect unto the Lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off The humble he looks upon as if God should say there is nothing in all the world that is worth my looking upon but an humble spirit yea and God loves to be neer to them in Psal 34. 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite Spirit He loves to be neer one that is of an humble spirit Yea and he loves to dwel with them In Isai 57. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwel in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and an humble spirit God lifts up himself and saith twice first that he is high and lofty in himself and then that he dwels in the high and lofty place and yet faith he I dwel in an humble spirit it may be an humble spirit is such a one as proud men scorn their company cannot indure their company Well but God loves to dwel in the House where thou art let it be never so poor a cottage he loves to dwel there God hath but two Houses he hath the highest Heavens and the lowest heart those are the two Houses God dwels in the Heavens above and the heart that is low and the lower the heart is the more the Lord loves to dwel there Secondly The excellency of an humble spirit appears in this that it is a grace that most convinceth men even a proud man sees a lustre of humility in others one proud man hates another proud man whereas one humble man loves another humble man humility is that that glaires in
further sence in it God gives a Grace to that God puts a Beauty and Ornament upon the Humble for Humility doth so beautifie a Christian that whatever they do they do it with a Grace there is no Christian that doth things with such a Grace as the Humble and it is that that doth adorn all Graces Humility Graceth all Graces whatsoever Tenthly And then it is that that preserves all Graces too and so some take the word there to come from a word that signifies a knot because it ties all Graces as it were with fast knots together as I find some Interpreters carry the word it unites and knits and strengthens all Graces Paul walked humbly with God walked constantly with him whatever fell out it did not hinder them from serving God As in Acts 20 the place I named before when he called together the Elders of Ephesus at verse 19. when they were come he speaks to them thus Serving the Lord with all Humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews whatever temptations did befall Paul yet he was able to go through them for he served the Lord with all Humility it is the proud swollen heart that is the backsliding heart but the humble heart is the heart that keeps constant with God it preserves all the Graces of the Spirit of God in vigor and in strength uniting of them together and uniting the Soul to the Fountain of all Grace it is the preservative of all Grace Eleventhly And again Humility it is that that makes all Duties and all Afflictions to be easie therefore this follows that I shall speak to afterwards Learn of me and be lowly in heart and then My Yoak is easie and my Burden is light it is an easie thing for a man to do any thing that God sets him about if he be once humble there is no difficulty that a man finds in the service of God but it is through pride of heart And so there is an ease in all Afflictions in being humble that that yeilds you know can bear opposition without any great noise indeed the tall Cedars are broken with winds but the poor shrubs below they do not suffer so much but these two will fall more seasonably in when we come to shew how humility gives quiet and rest unto the Soul Twelfthly Again There is nothing that makes the life of a man and woman more joyful and more comfortable than Humility You think the proud have the jolly lives and the comfortable lives No but the humble have most comfortableness because it makes them to prize the least mercy Chrisostome upon Acts 7. hath this expression None saith he live so comfortably as the humble and he gives the reason for it Because the least thing he enjoyes he sets such a price upon the mercy and therefore rejoyceth in it you shall observe it come to a poor Godly Family and you hear nothing but blessing and praising of Gods mercy and wondring at Gods mercy you that have great Houses and great Tables furnished you are wrangling and snarling at this and the other thing but an humble heart is praising and blessing God for his mercy and enjoy more of the mercies of Gods that they have than you do in all your abundance If a man have his flesh swollen he will not be able to bear it but it will be mighty toublesome to him So when the heart is swollen it will bring trouble to thee but this likewise will come more fully in when we come to speak of the Promise I will give you rest But now there is only one thing more for opening the excellency of this Grace and that is the many gracious Promises in Scripture that are made to humble hearts as now to name a few That God will guide the humble in their way Psal 25. 9. I confess your Books have it Meek and so I made use of it in opening Meekness but the word in the Hebrew is Humble and you may take it both waies and therefore in Prov. 11. 2. you have an excellent Scripture there With the Lowly there is Wisdom No man or woman hath that Wisdom for the guiding and governing of their waies as the Lowly Proud men will run on upon their own heads rashly because they be conceited of their own waies but the Lowly will examin and wait and suspect themselves they wil try and examin their waies and go in an humble way With the Lowly there is Wisdom Oh! into what Labyrinths straits aed extremities do proud people hurry themselves but now the Lowly they have the guidance of the Spirit of God carrying them on in their way and therefore they can quiet their hearts and listen to know what the mind of God is And another Promise is That God will revive the Humble the humble is ready to be trod under foot but in Isay 57. 15. The Lord saith he will revive the humble And another is that in Peter He will give Grace to the Humble And that same Promise that you have in Prov. 3. That he will give Grace to the Lowly Thou wouldest have more Grace it is taken for the Graces of Gods Spirit you would fain have more Grace to subdue your corruptions Are you thankful for what you have An humble heart will take notice of every little it hath wait upon God for more Make use of this Promise true Lord I have not such Grace as I would have but I have my heart subdued to this condition then here is the Promise The Lord will give Grace to the Humble And then there is the Promise of Exaltation in Prov. 15. 33. and Math. 23. 12. Those that do most abase themselves shall be most exalted by God It was an Answer that a Phylosopher gave to one that asked him What God did in Heaven he gives this Answer He is beating down the Proud and lifting up the Humble that is the thing that he is doing in Heaven and therefore those in Scripture that have been lowest you see how afterwards God hath exalted them Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt you in due time in 1 Pet. 5. 6. speaking there of Humility there is but one word in the Greek there for due time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the opportunity of time God will exalt you when a fit opportunity comes And then there is the Promise of safety also to the humble in Job 22. 29. God makes a Promise there to keep those that are humble in a safe condition whatever danger is abroad the Lord will preserve them When men are cast down then thou shalt say there is a lifting up and he shall save the humble Person the Lord wil save the humble Person in time of trouble He shall find mercy frrom God in troublesom times And so in Zeph. 3. 12. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor People and
that God should be glorified in his own way this is hard now let this and the other fal out I but yet saith a Lowly heart it is fit God should have his Glory which way he pleaseth and therefore he is not troubled Fifthly Humility brings a great deal of quiet because it freeth us from opposition or if it come it makes us yeild to the opposition it freeth us from opposition of men for so I told you in the opening of it an humble heart is afraid to give any offence and so it is not likely that others will offend him but if opposition do come a Lowly heart yeilds to it and when there is a yeilding in time of opposition when a blustring wind comes yet if there be a yeilding to it it doth no great hurt and so the heart that yeilds to opposition it hath quiet and Rest Sixthly Humility brings a great deal of quiet because it makes us rejoyce in the prosperity of others the great trouble and disquiet of the spirits of men in the world is that others are above them now an humble heart blesseth God that any are above it Seventhly An humble heart is under a great many of promises and there must needs be Rest and quiet to that Soul Eightly All crosses are smal to an humble Soul because he is smal in his own Eyes according to what proportion a man bears to his own Eye so his crosses are if his Crosses be great in his own eye then they are great crosses to him and therefore you account your afflictions great if you account your affliction in your own Eye I but now if you were smal in your own Eyes you would count your afflictions smaller But we cannot open the particulars of these except we go further in the opening of the Grace of humility and therefore as ever you would have Rest and quiet in these troublesome and restless times labor for humble and quiet spirits CHAP. CXXXI Exhortation to humility with five several means to get it 1. Labor to see the Excellency of it 2. Convince the Soul of its emptiness 3. Get the knowledg of God 4. Of Christ 5. Of our selves NOw then we come to the Use and Application some time might be spent in speaking about Examination to shew whether we are humble or not and then to shew the difference between being humble and humbled many are humbled by affliction brought low or by Terror Tormented but their hearts are not humble there is a great deal of difference between Humiliation and Humility but I shal refer that as a seasonable point to be handled at another time Certainly God hath made many people to be humbled and yet not humble in their Spirits And then another use may be to humble our Souls for the want of humility and indeed that is a good Humiliation to be humble for the want of humility to be humbled for our pride is an argument of the truth of humility as much as any thing whatsoever and certainly if I should go back and open the Particulars of the behavior of an humble Soul towards God its self and others Certainly never a Man and Woman but may lay his hand upon his Mouth and say Lord have mercy upon me how have I failed in the behavior of my spirit towards God my self and others Lord my heart hath not answered to that that hath been spoken in the word the truth is the best of us all have cause to be humbled before God because they are not humble as they ought To be proud of heart one compares it to an Onion that if you pill off one part of it there is another pil afterwards pill off that and there is another still and another and another til you come to the end so when there is some pride take off one and under that pride there lies more take off that and under it there lies more and take off that and under it lies more continually more and more pride there lies in the heart of Men and Women and that man and woman that thinks they have not proud hearts I dare challenge them in the Name of God that they have proud hearts As John saith 1 John 1. and last vers If we say we have not sin we Lie so if we say we have not pride it is an evident Argument we Lie and it is an evident Argument we have pride Pride is like the Garment the first that is put on and the last that is put off and it is that that the heart sticks more in then any thing else and therefore Christ saith of his Disciples that were humbled they denyed al for Christ and yet mark what Christ saith concerning them In Matth. 18. There they inquired who should be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus takes a little Child and sets him in the midst of them and saith Verily Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shal not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now were not they become as little Children Had not they humility They were gracious and godly I but this is true of one that is gracious and humble he hath a great deal of pride stil and he had need be converted and become as little Children to be humbled more and more It is an excellent frame of Spirit that we read of in Hezekiah he had an humble Spirit and yet lifted up in Pride yet mark what the Text saith in 2 Chron. 32. 25. 26. Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the Pride of his heart it is said in ver 25. But Hezekiah rendred not according to the benefit done to him for his heart was lifted up Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the Pride of his heart It is true the best of all have Pride in their hearts But can you say I have humbled my self for the Pride of my heart that you are jealous of your own hearts You are afraid of the Pride of your hearts and you watch over your hearts that upon the first stirring of your heart you labor to keep it down that you find your heart humbled for your Pride if you have this you have that that an Hypocrite hath not the least of either to be jealous over his heart or to keep down his heart or to watch over his heart or to observe the stirrings of his heart An Hypocrite hath not the least of this Now if you find this perhaps you find temptation prevails with you to commit a great sin for that you are humble and to neglect your Duty for that you are humble I but are you humbled for the Pride of your own hearts when you can charge your Souls for the Pride of your hearts between God and your Soul when you can search your heart and find it out and go lament it in the bitterness of your heart this is a good sign Perhaps when the pride of your heart breaks out and shames you before
the righteous have a plain path to Heaven but the wicked they are upon the stones they are upon the dirt when one comes upon the stones and it be dirty too that is more difficult But the way of righteousness is plain And there is one Scripture more remarkable than these and that is in 1 John 5. 3. And his commandments are not grievous the commands of God have no grievousness in them there is nothing in Gods Commandments to be so much as grieving to a Gracious Soul It is said in the Scripture that God delights not to grieve the Children of Men certainly there is nâ—thing that God requires of thee if thou understandest it aright that will grieve thee when you tender a Child or a Friend you wil not require of them any thing that may grieve them now Christ hath so tender regard unto you that are the Servants of God that he will require nothing of you that wil grieve you and therfore if nothing be grievous in Gods Commandments surely his Yoke is eâ—sie and his Burden is light But now for the opening of this Point for there is a great deal that had need to be said to it for the opening of it and making it usefull and profitable I shall cast what my meditations have been about this Point into these Six heads The first is To give you some Evidences of it that this is so And then the second thing is The differences that there are between the ease that a carnall heart finds in the waies of Religion and the ease that a true Gracious heart finds in the waies of Religion those that are carnall and take up but a meer formality of Religion they find not ease but those that are truly religious they find rest And the third is this If the waies of God be easie How comes it to pass that many that we hope are truly Gracious and Godly yet make such complaints of so much difficulty as they do find in Gods waies And then fourthly We are to open which is the principal of all in the explication wherein the easiness of Gods waies appears what are those things that do make the waies of God so easie and in what particulars doth consist the easiness that there is in the waies of Religion And then fifthly Some Consequences that are to be drawn from this which is by way of Application And sixthly and lastly Some Directions what we should do to make the waies of God easie These are the six Heads that I cast the handling of this Point into CHAP. CXXXV Six Evidences of the former Doctrine in the last Chapter 1. Because the word that injoyns these waies is Sweet 2. A Gracious Soul counts his Duties his priviledges 3. He would rather come under any other Burden than cast off the Yoke of Christ 4. Because Christ whose Yoke it is is Gentle 5. Never any truly that put their neck under this Yoke would willingly take it out again 6. The Experience of all the Saints of God prove the Point FOr the first then The Evidences that do demonstrate that certainly the waies of God are easie and his Burden is very light unto those that have indeed submitted their necks unto the Yoke of Jesus Christ Evidence 1. First The first Evidence is this Surely Gods waies are easie unto them for there is none that is truly Gracious but they account the word of God that doth require them to walk in those waies very sweet unto them and they prize it highly now if there were difficulty and a harshness in Gods waies Certainly though the word of God may be accounted just and righteous yet it would not be sweet and comfortable unto the Soul but there is nothing more sweet and comfortable unto a Gracious heart than the word of God that doth require such waies of him Ye know the expression of David that It is sweeter than the Hony and the Hony Comb more precious than Silver or Gold or any riches of the world read but Psal 119. and there in every verse almost you find such expressions of much sweetness that David did find in the word of God if the word be sweet and delightful certainly the waies of God must needs be sweet and delightfull that are required in the word that is the first Evidence 2. Secondly Surely they are sweet and delightful for those that are in Gods waies do not account what they do only to be Duties but Priviledges they look upon every thing that Christian Religion requires of them not only as Duties but as Mercies as that wherein their happiness consists I have received mercy from the Lord that I may be faithful saith Paul I do not say I have received mercy from the Lord that I may go to Heaven that I may be rewarded and have such and such blessings but I count it mercy from the Lord that he makes me faithfull in this way not only dutifull but faithfull The Saints of God do not account the bonds of obedience to be fetters to them they account them chains of Gold about their necks for Ornament not bonds of necessity to tie them to obedience because otherwise they would not obey them but I say every Law of God is counted by the Saints of God to be as chains of Gold Ornaments to them that they account their Glory as wel as their Duty therefore in the Revelation we find the new City is described thus that her streets is paved with Gold that is the very way path of the Saints it is a Golden way it is paved with Gold it is a glorious way now that which a man accounts his Priviledg and Dignity Glory that must needs be easie their suffering actively and passively Paul counts his sufferings Glorious and Moses counts his sufferings more than the riches of Egypt If so be that you had given unto you as much Gold as you could carry the weightier the bag the lighter would your heart be you would count the burden so much the more lighter by so much the more was in it Certainly the suffering for Christ and dying for Christ is riches it is so to a Gracious heart may be this may be a Riddle to carnal hearts many carnall hearts think they must do such good things and if they do not they must perish and go to Hell and therefore they force themselves upon Duty I but it is otherwise with a Godly heart he doth not think I must do this but his work is wages every work that a Child of God doth is wages to him the man works hard I but he expects the more he expects wages So an Hypocrite may work he may do somthing but he expects wages but a Gracious heart his work is wages Receiving the end of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls there is receiving continually while we are working Saith Christ in Joh. 17. 4. Father I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do So the
very work that the Father set Christ upon Christ did count it to be a Gift from the Father and so the work that Christ sets us upon if we have the Spirit of Christ in us we wil count it a Gift from Jesus Christ Christ doth give it and this by the way would be a special Evidence of true Grace in the heart the soul that shall count Gods waies Priviledges as well as Duties surely hath true Grace truly they are easie then if they be Priviledges as wel as Duties that is the second Evidence 3 Thirdly And the third Evidence is this The Yoke of Christ is easie and his Burden is light for there is no gracious heart but would rather come under any Yoke any Burden in the world than willingly to cast off any Yoke and Burden of Jesus Christ name what Yoke you will what Burden you will rather than a gracious heart will be from under Christs Burden and Christs Yoke O! saith he let me come under that Yoke and that Burden Yea further If God doth put any Yoke any Burden of affliction upon one that is Gracious if that Yoke and Burden of affliction may but bring his neck more under the Yoke of Christ than before and bring him more under Christs Burden than before a gracious heart doth think it well worth the bearing thinks himself fully recompensed in the bearing of any Yoke if it may any way further him to come under the Yoke of Christ more as thus before I had a wanton Spirit and I could not get my self to put my neck under the Yoke of Christ to be quiet as I ought to have been Well but now the Lord Christ hath laid the Yoke of affliction upon me and that hath in some measure subdued my heart so that I can come and put the Yoke of Christ upon me better O! blessed be God that ever I had the Yoke of affliction upon me that now brings me under the yoke of Christ more Canst thou say so blessed be God for this affliction Surely then the Yoke of Christ is easie that a heart is willing to bear any Yoke that may but further it to the bearing of the Yoke of Christ that is the third Evidence 4. Fourthly It is an easie Yoke certainly for it is Christs Yoke it must needs be easie because it is Christs and that upon these two grounds First Christ himself is Gentle and Sweet and Lovely Christ himself hath no Rigidness no Sowrness in him towards People as you heard at large when we opened the Meekness and Lowliness of Christ now if Christ be meek and lowly he loves no bitterness and rigidness If I had to deal with a man that I were sure had all the Meekness and al the Love and all the Gentleness in him of all the men in the world that ever lived put all their Meekness and Gentleness and Sweetness together into one man and I were sure I should never have any Yoke upon me but what that man should lay upon me truly I would never fear any rigidness One man hath Meekness and Gentleness I but he hath Rigidness too and another man hath one drop and another another drop I but put all these into one and surely that man hath a great deal of Meekness now Jesus Christ hath all in him and if it be his Yoke then it must needs be easie And Secondly Consider what was the end of Christs coming into the world the end of Jesus Christs coming into the world was this he saw poor wretched man that he was under a Burden of sin and misery and he was content to come and take their natures upon him and deliver their souls from pain and trouble and misery he came not into the world to impose Iron Yokes but he came into the world to bring the mercy of the Father to bring the treasure of the riches of the Father into the world and was anointed by the Father to that end that he might open Prison doors to Captives and that he might powr oyle upon them to supple souls that was his end saith he I came not into the world to condemne it but to save it that I might bring the mercy of my father into the world that I might open the passages of the infinite mercy of my Father that by your sins was shut up though there was an infinite ocean of mercy in my Father yet not one drop could issue out from him therefore I came to open the sluces as it were and let them out upon you and if there be any other end it is rather by accident then that which Christ aymed at but that Christ aymed at was to open the sluces of the infinite mercy of God upon man Now if this were the end of Christs comming into the world then certainly those that are deare to him and that he was willing to lay down his life for they shal find nothing from him but gentleness he will lay no yoke or burden upon them but what is very easy and very light therefore it must needs be easy because it is Christs that is a fourth Evidence Evidence 5. Fiftly It must needs be easy and light for there was never any in the world that put his neck under this Yoke especially if you take it for the yoke of obedience never any put his neck under this yoke that would have his neck out again that would wish Christs yoke otherwise then it is for his active obedience and they would have the passive too but in the conclusion they would never repent them that ever they were under it but especially for the former there was never Godly Christians when they were themselves and did consider of things except it were in time of temptation but take them at that time when they are themselves I say there was never any that could wish their neck out of Christs yoke that could wish the yoke of Christ easier then it is they would be freed from nothing that Christ requires when they are themselves and understand things It is true Ignorantly and when they do not understand things and in time of temptation then they may do otherwise but take a Christian and let him be himself and let him consider and understand the thing and there was never any that could wish his neck out of the yoke or wish it easier then it is It is true a gracious heart may be weary of himself because he cannot beare the yoke of Christ as he would do but he is never weary of Christs yoke he may be weary of the corruptions of his heart that hinder him from bearing the yoke as he should do but he would not have the yoke less then it is Take one that is Godly though he be weak you will say it is true they that are strong wil not wish it less but those that are weak they may well consider it thus a gracious heart he would be glad to have more strength to
go under Christs yoke more comfortably but he would not have Christs yoke less that is there is no duty that Christ requires of a gracious heart that it would be freed from I appeal to you that are gracious hearts what one duty that Christ requires of you when you are your selves that you would be freed from Look through the whol book of God and you shal find it so of the Saints And here is a great difference now between an Hypocrite and a Gracious man an Hipocrite would fain do this duty but not that and omit this but not that but a gracious heart saith Lord I am not willing only to do what thou requirest of me but Lord whatsoever thou requirest of me I would chuse it if I had my choice but I leave that till I come further only now to shew that it is easy because no gracious heart that will ever take up any other yoke but saith let me alwaies be here surely it must needs be easy then that is a fifth Evidence Evidence 6 And the Sixth and Last Evidence is this it is taken from the experience of the Saints and that is as great a demonstration as any thing that which I have found experimentally that I find so it is taken from the experience of the Saints there is none that are truly Gracious though they may be afflicted with temptation especially when they are grown in the waies of Christianity but they have some experience of it perhaps at first they find it somwhat hard to get their necks under but afterwards they will say well I never found that rest that ease that quiet upon my â—oul as since I got my neck fully under the yoke of Christ since I brought my self to resign my self fully wholly to the ways of Jesus Christ I bless God I have had great ease and rest Just as it is with your ships if your ship Stick fast in the Sands and water the Waves come and beat against your ship and it is ready to break but now if it is got off from the Sands and wholly upon the Water then away it goes and you may hold a cup of wine in your hands and it goes away with ease so it is with a Godly heart when he is part in Gods waies and part in the mudd and doth not fully give up himself to Gods waies then he findes trouble and his Conscience flies in his Face and he cannot sleep quietly but let the Soul fully resign it self to Christ to be guided by him Oh! the unspeakable joy that there is in this Heathens may talk and have witty discourses about tranquillity of mind but only the true Cristian can have the true tranquillity of mind never could the soul say till now my soul returne unto thy rest let there be never such commotions in the world and troubles and stirs in the World yet I can retire to God and I can bless my self in God and bless God in what I injoy when I can say as in the presence of God to my soul O my Soul return to thy rest I never had such rest and quiet in any waies as I find in these Surely these Six things do evidence the truth that his yoke is easy and his burden light CHAP. CXXXVI The Second Particular mentioned Chap. 13. Is opened in two differences between a Carnal heart and a Gracious Soul in the waies of God 1 The Hypocrite finds ease in the waies of God and Sin both 2. The Hypocrite hath some ease because he mistaks the Yoke of Christ contenting himself with the outward forme of Godliness but theb eleevers ease comes from the power of it BUt now many carnal hearts they think it easie Gracious hearts may think this point at first hearing very strange but carnal hearts they think I we like this point wel enough for men keep such a do and make the waies of God so difficult to go on in a faire way that is easy but to be put to so much trouble and pains there must be Such praying and humbling and such strict keeping of the Sabbaths this is that disturbs now because civil men they find ease as well as carnal hearts that will be the next thing for Indeed I was loth to speak so much of the easiness of the waies of Christ without shewing the difference between the rest and ease of a carnal heart or an Hipocrite and a true Gracious heart an Hipocrite and a carnal heart shal find no ease and rest at al though a gracious heart shal Wherfore the differences between that ease which a carnal heart finds and that which a gracious heart finds in Gods ways they are many First of al a carnal heart finds ease in Christs yoke and ease in the yoke of sin both they find ease in both yokes when they have a temptation to sin that is comfortable to them when it is suitable to their own ends to their own waies when they come to performe duty and come to the Church and somtimes pray and receive Sacraments and the like they think they find a great deal of ease there they are content with both now it is quite otherwise with a gracious heart a gracious heart finds ease in the yoke of Christ but there is nothing more burdensom to a gracious heart then the yoke of sin the yoke of Christ is such an ease as cannot stand with ease under the yoke of any sin but the yoke of sin it is burdensome and intollerable unto the heart that hath true ease in the yoke of Jesus Christ Yea and the more ease any gracious heart hath in bearing the yoke of Christ the more intolerable is the burden that such a heart hath when it is under the yoke of sin if at any time sin doth prevail with one that is come under subjection to Jesus Christ O! how greivous is that sin and therefore greivous because such a foul knows what the difference is between the yoke of Christ and the yoke of sin therefore it is grievous It is not only greivous because it brings terror to the soul through fear of judgment and fear of hell but it is grievous because the soul knows a difference between the yoke of Christ and the yoke of sin As now if a man hath been acquainted with a service to some Noble man or Prince and hath a great deale of Honor and respect and gained very much and afterwards this man should come to be a slave in the Gallies Oh how burdensom would this be to him upon this ground because he once knew a better service he knew what it was to serve such a Prince that was a gracious Prince and loved him and delighted in him and required nothing of him but that that was very suitable to him now if such a one comes to the Gally it will be very greivous Truly thus it is a true Gracious heart that hath been acquainted with the yoke of Christ if at any
what is it that is in thee amiss What is it that thou wouldest fain have the word come close unto to help thee against What is the speciall corruption thou wouldest have the word to mortifie in thee If now you set your selves before you come to the word to examin your hearts and when you are there to attend to the word as that which is your life upon which your eternall estate depends and so to sanctifie the name of God in his word and not to dare to cast off any truth knowing that your Soul may lie upon that very truth and to drink in the word of God in every thing that is revealed according to Gods mind this will be a very hard thing you will complain of almost an intolerable Burden But now a gracious heart finds more ease when it Sanctifies God in the power of Godliness in hearing the word than in a formall Duty Alas when such a one comes in a formall way and goes away and gets nothing such a one is troubled at such a Sermon it brings more Burden and grief to such a heart to come to the word and not find profit by the word than any other thing can do almost nothing can be more difficult than this You find no difference you come to the word and you get nothing and you go away with as much comfort as at other times it is as easie to you but now a Gracious heart cannot find ease except he finds Christ in the Duty but you can find ease in holy Duties though you never find Jesus Christ in holy Duties I appeal to you if this thing God would be pleased to settle upon the hearts of Men and Women it might be a very great settlement to their hearts you perform holy Duties What is the ease in holy Duties meerly the performance of the Duty but now if your ease were that which is the ease of a true Gracious heart it comes from the meeting with Jesus Christ in holy Duties And so for the Sabboth how easie is it to keep the Sabboth to do as the most it is easie Why Because you do not now work in your calling as other daies you do and you put on your best Cloaths and come and meet with your Neighbors and so you come to Church and home again and have better fare at your Tables than other daies and somtimes walk up and down the Fields this is easie But now the Saints find the ease of the Sabboth to be this that whereas upon the week day I am busied about other things and so have not that immediate Communion with Jesus Christ as at other times now upon the Sabboth my Soul comes to enjoy more immediate communion with Jesus Christ when I awake I am put upon it more to mind spirituall things to prepare my heart for him And now this whol day is dedicated for my converse with Jesus Christ and it is no more to me but the very Type and forerunner of that eternall Sabboth that I hope to enjoy in the highest Heavens hereafter and so it is easie to me Now methinks whatever trouble I have in the week time in my business in my calling the Sabboth day that refresheth me again and makes me fit for my calling and my heart that was so perplexed with outward crosses and with the troubles of the world that did so dead and dul my Spirit the Sabboth quickens me again and adds new strength again for I have found Christ refreshing my Soul Now is there not a wide difference between the ease of a carnall heart and a Gracious heart in holy Duties The one meerly mistakes the Yoke of Christ And so for the Sacrament It is an easie thing for a man to come in his best Cloaths and take a piece of Bread and a cup of Wine but he knows not what is the power of Godliness in such a holy Duty he thinks that the outward coming to the Sacrament makes amends for all though he hath been a wicked carnall wretch the week before now if he comes to the Sacrament the meer performing the Duty that makes amends though there be no preparation before no spiritualness in the Sacrament no discerning of the Body of Jesus Christ and the Mysteries of Jesus Christ no closing of his heart with Jesus Christ in the Sacrament no engaging his Soul to God no renewing his Covenant with God as he comes to receive the Seal of Gods Covenant with him no such things But now a Gracious heart cannot find ease in taking the Sacrament except it find Christ the ease it hath in the Sacrament it is in preparing the Soul for communion with Jesus Christ it is in the exercise of Faith and repentance the more Faith is exercised and the more Repentance exercised the more the heart is broken in the Sacrament the more ease a man hath and the more he gets his heart engaged to God in the Sacrament and the more he hath renewed his Covenant the more ease he hath I when a man can go to the Sacrament and do this O! this is a good day indeed And indeed this I am speaking upon is as great a point of Religion for the helping of you to know the frame disposition of your hearts how things stand between God and your Souls as any thing I know What it is in holy Duties that brings most ease to your Souls whether it be the bare externall performance of them or the spirituall performance of them is the power of Godliness in them that holy Duties for the matter of them cannot satisfie your heart except you find your hearts sanctified by them and Gods name sanctified â—n them that is the second note of difference between the ease a carnall heart finds in the waies of God and the ease a gracious heart finds CHAP. CXXXVII Containeth a third and fourth Difierence between the ease of a Hypocrite and true Beleever in the waies of God For 1. They are easie even to the Corruptions of a Hypocrite 2. He takes up the waies God partially THirdly Another Difference is this The ease a carnall heart finds it may not only stand with the ease under the Yoke of sin to the Flesh but the truth is even the Duties of Religion are easie to their corruptions to their very corruptions not only may stand with their corrupt waies but are easie to the very corruption it self to the very sinfull distemper of their hearts this is a very evill and vile ease for to perform holy Duties so as to be easie to the very flesh to the fleshly part Indeed the Yoke of Christ is easie unto the Saints but it is not easie unto the flesh I mean to the corrupt part it is not easie to that I but the waies of Religion to carnall hearts is easie to their very corruption to their corrupt part For First There is agreement enough between any Duty they perform and their secret sins they can
in the waies of God it is that ease that he hath in taking up the waies of God but by holiness it is in partial obedience it is but in part of the yoke of Christ it is not in all the yoke of Christ he can take up some part some pieces of the yoke of Christ but if you come to urge him to take up all the ways of God then he crys out what must we make Conscience of all our thoughts of al our words and all our actions must we answer for every action before the judgment seat of Christ Oh! this he counts to be hard greivous to him he could be content with somthing but to take up the ful yoke and all the yoke of Jesus Christ that he thinks an intollerable burden that he must have the scripture the word of God to be the rule of all his actions that is somwhat hard But now a gracious heart finds the greatest ease when he comes up unto all Gods commands It is true indeed saith he I cannot come to that pitch as to obey them perfectly but yet my heart is so far brought off as to subject my self to all the commands of God if at somtimes he yields to some and then at other times unto others that brings more trouble to his spirit but now when he can find his heart submitting to all the precepts of God then he finds most rest all the waies of wisdom are pleasant A Child of God finds no one thing in the waies of God that is not easy and the more it comes to an universal obedience in every thing the more ease it hath when indeed it doth but begin to make some enterance upon Gods waies and takes up some duties and not all then it finds trouble but when it comes to take up all and comes to yeild universal obedience then it finds ease Now examin your hearts in this you find it may be some ease in the waies of religion O! but it is but partial obedience you take this and leave that observe this a partial obedience is an easy obedience to a carnal heart but an universal obedience is the most easy obedience to any Gracious heart CHAP. CXXXVIII Containeth Six differences more of the former Point 5 A Carnal heart can take up and lay down duties when he will 6 He hath ease in the remissness of his Spirit 7 His ease is al alike 8 The more ease he hath the more sluggish he is 9 He hath but one principle in the heart that acteth him both in the waies of God and the waies of the world 10. His ease comes from the performance of duties in his own Strength Fiftly Another is this A carnal heart finds ease from the liberty of taking up and laying down the duty it is easy because he can take it up and lay it down when he will if a beast have a yoke that he can shift the collar when he wil it is easy when he can put in his head when he will and slip out his head when he please this is no grievousness to the beast so it is with carnal hearts the waies of God are easy to them why because somtimes they can take up duties and somtimes lay them down when they are in a good mood then they can take up duties and read and pray and the like if any thing vex and trouble them then they can lay them down again and somtimes when they list they can come and heare Sermons and when they list they can go into bad company go into the Tavern and the like but now a gracious heart finds the greatest ease when it can be constant in the waies of God when I can bring my heart to this that there is an evenness and proportion between what I do at one time and what I do at another time there is the greatest ease to a gracious heart and indeed there can be no true comfort in any holy duty where the heart is not constant the constancy and the evenness of spirit and the proportion that there is between one thing and another is that that makes the waies of God easy unto the Saints As in going in any way or common path if a man have one ledg long and another short or if the way be uneven somtimes plain somtimes rugged somtimes down hill and somtimes uphil that is hard to a man in his walking and so it is with the work of a Christian that that makes it difficult is this Oh I cannot find my heart in a constant evenness were my heart so then I should find ease but that which makes it most difficult it is the unevenness of my heart on the contrary put now a carnal heart to this to a constancy in any duty or work for God O! it will cry out of weariness in Gods waies perhaps he wil be content to be a while in holy duties to hear a short Sermon and go away again but to spend the whol Sabboth that is wearisom to him Nay perhaps he could be content to keep one Sabboth but to keep Sabboth after Sabboth that is burdensom to him and perhaps he could be content to pray one morning in his family but to pray every morning and every night and to go on from morning to morning and from day to day and from week to week and from yeare to yeare Oh! this is wearisom truly we have no reason to grudge God any service all our daies but thus it is with a carnal heart Sixtly The ease that a carnal heart hath it is in his remissness in duty in the remissness of his spirit in his moderation that he pleads for there lyes his ease but for the other the extension of duty that he pleads not for you shal have a carnal heart plead for holy duties but with moderation we must be moderate and if we do somthing that God requires though we be not so hot and fiery as others I hope it is wel enough doth not vertue consist in the middle way As I like not the profaneness of some men that are Swearers and drunkards whoremongers on the one side so I do not like your precise men on the other side so that his ease lyes in the remissness in the lukewarmness of his spirit in holy duties But now the ease of a gracious heart lyes in the exactness of his spirit to come to the very top of holy duties It is with a gracious heart as it is with many fowls you shall have many fowls that fly when they are low they flutter and it is a trouble to them to get on high but when they are aloft then it is no trouble to them so it is with a gracious heart to get up his heart is some trouble to him but now when he hath got up his heart then he is in his element there he can fly swiftly when he hath got up into the highest region there he gets the most ease It is
quite otherwise with a carnal heart when he pleads for moderation this vertue of moderation that he pleads for it is not a middle of participation the middle in which virtu consists it is not a middle that doth participate of a degree of both the contraries but a denying of the extreams of both as the true virtue of liberality consists not between prodigallity and covetousness but denies the extreams of both it will have nothing to do with either of both the etreames but that which a carnal heart calâ— for in moderation is the mixture of both extreames together and so makes up a religion of the mixture as thus there is open profaneness that is one kind of extream and there is deadness of spirit the other way that that is opposite unto the open profaneness in wickedness of many people that of drunkennhss and uncleanness and the like they will none of this And then there is the Strictness of power and life in the waies of God in the other way that that is in their hearts is a deadness of spirit there is a mixture there is some profaneness of heart though they would have somwhat of religion too of that which is the hypocrisy not the power of religion there is hipocrisy and profaneness those are the too extteams he will not be a profane man in the grossness of it nor will he be strict in the waies of God in the exactness of them but mix them both he will not be only profane and only have a shew in religion but he will retain some profaneness of heart that is though he wil not be drunk prophane yet he wil retain an inward prophaneness of heart that is when he comes to perform holy duties he counts them but as common things the blood of Jesus Christ he counts it as a common thing and so he hath a profaneness of heart when he comes to perform holy duties and yet he will not be profane neither and so he will have a mixâ—ure of both and this makes up a civil man and yet the civil man will cry out for both he thinks he is not an hipocrite and he thinks he is not profane but he is a middle man a mixture of a profane person and a strict person he is between both But now a gracious heart equally opposeth profaneness and hipocrisy so that the right moderation is such a moderation as is a middle between two evills and partakes of none the ease of a carnal heart lyes in his moderation of holy duties and therefore those duties that would lift up the heart high those are troublesom unto him As now you shal find in some beasts a horse that is a jade and tyred wil go pretty well in some smoth way but if he come to the least rising of a hill Oh how hard is it for such a beast to draw and how ready is he to stand still perhapps when the way is down hill he will draw but at no rising or up-hil now it is otherwise with a horse of mettle you shal find no difference between one way another nay he will go better up-hill then down hill So it is with Carnal hearts perhaps in some kind of things that may be suitable to them and are smoth they may go apace but in that that raiseth his spirit that that is uphill Oh that is difficult but now a Godly heart is lively and spiritual and joyful and finds most quiet and ease when he riseth highest Seventhly A carnal heart the ease that it hath in Gods waies it is all a like aswel one time as at another time it is not so with the Saints they have ease but they do not find it all alike when indeed they can be constant in Gods waies then they find constant ease but because sometimes they find corruption prevail then indeed the waies of God are difficult more difficult then at other times when they find a temptation that overcomes their hearts they find a great deal of difficulty before they can get it off but this will discover many men to be naught when you find your corruptions prevail you can have as much ease as at other times As suppose you have been the last week drunk or have been committing uncleaness or have been in Company and you can come to the Sacrament on the Lords day and joyne with the Minister when at prayer you can come and put on your sunday clothes as you cal them and sit at the word and it is as easy to you as any other thing surely now thy heart is but carnal wert thou spiritual if thy heart were conscious of some sin committed the week before when thou wert in company Oh! when thou comest to the word thou wouldest find the word as a dagger stuck to thy soul thou wouldest find the presence of God terrible to thee in prayer and in the word and Sacrament but canst thou give way to thy sin in the week time and God knows that thou hast not been humbled before the Lords day and yet canst thou come and joyn in prayer and the word and Sacrament with ease this is a sign of a carnal heart that thou art not acquainted with God or any of his waies but it is otherwise with a gracious heart he hath ease the presence of God is comfortable unto him so long as he can keep his reckoning even between God and his Soul but if he should give way to sin and draw the power of the devil upon him when he comes into the presence of God he finds the presence of God terrible unto him Eightly Another Difference between the ease of a carnal heart and a gracious heart is this In the effect of it there are other manner of effects that are produced by the ease of a Gracious heart than of any carnall heart As thus A carnall heart the more ease he hath the more sluggish he is and the more barren he is but a gracious heart the more ease it hath in Gods waies the more fruitfull it is As we say of States and Kingdomes that peace in States and Kingdomes brings plenty and so it doth we have had experience of it so peace in the Conscience of one that is Gracious makes him plentifull in all good works a heart that is truly Godly is never so fruitfull in the waies of God as when he hath the most ease and rest in Gods waies but now take a carnall heart if his Conscience be troubled Oh then he will set upon holy Duties but if he be at ease and quiet he grows more barren and more sluggish by how much the more ease he hath I do not know any one thing to help you better to exam in your own hearts in a great case of Conscience than this How do I know when I have peace and quiet whether it comes from presumption or from true Faith I bless God I have hope of Gods mercy and so I have quiet
in my Conscience well but now here is the case of Conscience whether is this quiet that I have in my Conscience from the hope I have of Gods mercy from presumption in me or from true Faith It concerns every one to get this case of Conscience answered Now I know no greater help for the answering this case of Conscience than this one thing that I have spoken of Hast thou quiet and ease and hast thou hope of Gods mercy and doth that bring thee quiet if it be but presumption it makes thee secure it makes thee barren and sluggish but on the other side if thou hast ease and quiet in thy Spirit and thou findest that the more that ease and quiet encreaseth the more fruitfull thou art in all good works it makes thee the more active and stirring in all good works this is a sign that it comes from Faith as you heard before a gracious heart hath the more activeness in it the more ease it hath now as his activeness in goodness causeth easiness in his heart so the easiness in his heart causeth activeness in goodness there is a mutuallness in these two and indeed this latter is the more facile for people to exam in themselves by perhaps every one cannot group to that activeness of heart but now hath it this power upon your hearts that you are more fruitfull than before This is the ease of a gracious heart if it doth so Ninthly And then the ease that a carnall heart hath in the waies of God is from hence because he hath but only one principle in his heart when he is in the waies of God and when he is in the waies of the world he is acted but by the same principle in both there is not a contrary principle in his heart one that carries him one way and another that carries him another way but the ease of a gracious heart is this that he finds a stronger principle that overcomes a contrary principle of corruption in him there lies his ease a carnall heart goes on and performes Duties and hath not divers principles in his heart to cary him this way or that way but hath only one principle a carnal principle that carries him on to serve his own ends and somtimes he can serve his ends in one thing somtimes in another thing but one that is Godly finds ease from hence from the power of Gods Grace that doth overcome his corruption I find a stirring in my heart but I thank God I can get the victory the ease of a Godly heart comes from the victory that it gets but it is not so with a carnall heart your civill men do not find ease from their victory because what they do is not suitable to them but a Godly man finds that there is a principle of Grace that opposeth the principle of lust and corruption and therefore can say since I set my heart towards God and his waies I have found more corruption than before stirring but I thank God I have got victory over them I find a conquest gotten over the corruption that is stirring in my Soul and that is my ease another man he finds no corruption stirring in his heart and therefore no marvell if he find ease but now a Godly man finds a contrary principle to that which is good stirring in his heart and then finds Gods Grace coming in upon his heart to help him against that corruption and this brings ease and quiet to him Tenthly And then the last is this That the ease the one hath comes from this that all that he doth he preformes in his own strength and he doth not see any need of any further strength than that which he hath in himselelf to enable him to perform Duties and so he finds ease As a man finds his Trade to be easie if he trades with his own stock and hath nothing but his own stock to trade with and trades in no higher things then what himself can reach unto whereas another man that must have the stocks of other men to trade with finds a great deal more trouble that sees his trade requires more stock than his own It is so with a Gracious heart he sets upon duty so as needs he finds he more stock than his own his trade is beyond his own strength but now a Godly heart when he comes to want strength he fetcheth strength from Christ he fetcheth strength from the Covenant of Grace he fetcheth strength from the Promise and when he hath got strength from Christ from the Covenant of Grace from the Promise Oh now he finds rest and ease in his Duty and you shall see the reason of it in the next Point why the Sants finds difficulties many times they will think to be trading with their own strength and their own stocks whenas the things they trade about is beyond their own strength but now when they can look higher and see a fulness in Jesus Christ in the Mediator of the new Covenant and of his fulness we must receive Grace for Grace and fetcheth strength from this Oh! then here is quiet and ease when the Soul comes to trade with another stock Observe this you will find it as certain as can be all those that are meer civill People that find it so easie to go on in the waies of God they were never sensible of any need they have of any more strength than their own whereas the Yoke of Christ is heavier than any naturall strength is able to bear and therefore if you find ease in that you have strength of your own to perform it Certainly it is not the Yoke of Christ But now when you find your own strength too short when you go to perform any Duty and find a great deal of difficulty you can go to Christ and to the Covenant of Grace and to the Promise and there fetch in strength you have ease and quiet Oh that you were acquainted with this Mystery of Godliness that when you go out to perform Duties and you find them difficult and hard that then you can go out to Christ and the Covenannt of Grace and the Promise and fetch strength from them to perform Duties this is the ease of a Godly heart when it finds ease in Gods waies after this manner and all you that are acquainted with this Mystery of Godliness know that whatsoever ease you have found hitherto it is not the ease of a Gracious heart but rather of a carnal heart CHAP. CXXXIX Divers Objections answered The easiness of the waies of Christ which is the third particular mentioned in Chap. 139. QUEST BUT do we not find that Christ hath said in his word that the way to Heaven is difficult and the Gate to Heaven is strait and narrow and do we not find Preachers ordinarily speaking so that the way to Heaven is difficult and strait according to what is in Scripture yea do we not find that the People of
they never knew the difference between the comforts of the world and the comforts of God so much as then when they suffered Saith Ignatius when the wild beasts crusht his bones between their teeth Now I begin to be a Christian And another profest he had rather be a Martyr than work miracles and therefore there is no such difficulty or heavy burden in suffering for Christ as ye are afraid of Many poor Christians when they hear what things others have suffered they think Oh if I should be called to suffer such things I should never go through them Be not discouraged the more sensible thou art of thy weakness the better Poor women and children that have been afraid to suffer as well as you when they have come to suffer it hath been given to them to suffer a mighty presence hath come from Jesus Christ upon them and it hath been easie to them indeed the thing that is difficult to one that is weak is easie to one that is strong Now when you come to suffer for Christ there comes in a great deal of strength from Christ and therein you will find ease for certainly Christ never calls us to do hard things but he will give us strength proportionable and then that which appeared more difficult will appear more easie than before CHAP. CXLII What the things are that makes the waies of Christ easie which is the fourth point in Chap. 139. opened in five particulars 1. They are such as a gracious Soul wil impose upon himself 2. He comes freely off to them 3. The waies of Christ are even and not contrary one to another 4. They bring Strength with them 5. In them all there is good Success 6. In them a gracious heart is alwaies receiving his wages 7. He hath all the passages of Gods providence to help him 8. They bring ease to the Conscience 9. They free the Soul from cares 10. They make all other things easie BUt now we are to proceed to a further thing to shew you what there is in the way of Christ that makes it easie which wil be a further manifestation of the ease that there is in the waies of Christ that it is so that hath been shewed you before but now that it must needs be so and how it comes to be so how it comes to pass that the waies of Christ should have such ease to a gracious heart Certainly there is a great many Grounds for it First They are such waies as have much in them that if a gracious heart were put to it freely that he may either impose them upon himself or not he would rather impose them upon himself than otherwise supposing him to be himself that is his mind enlightened and his heart in a good frame he would take them upon himself and certainly this is no hard thing that if a man were left to his liberty he will take it upon himself rather than not Let any Christian lay this to his heart and consider what way of Jesus Christ he would be without every gracious heart is a Law to himself that Law is not a very hard Law that a man would make to himself so the Scripture saith of the Godly that they are a Law to themselves a Godly heart chooseth the waies of Christ not as one chooseth the less evil of the two so you may say he may chuse them as the less evil for he may be put to chuse â— but I say if he were left free not put to it of necessity if there were neither Hel nor Heaven I do not know any thing in the waies of Jesus Christ and dare challenge any one to tel me that if there were no Hel oâ— Heaven that any thing is in the waies of Christ but he would choose them What is there that Christ requires of any Soul but without any such consideration such a heart would chuse Would not he go rather according to the rules of equity and righteousness than iniquity and injustice Is it not better to walk according to the rules of right reason than to walk in irrational waies But then a Beleever one that hath Faith acts from a Principle above Reason a Principle that is supernatural and look as one that is a rational creature would chuse those things that have the most agreement with the rules of right reason so one that hath a higher principle a divine Principle he would chuse that that is according to the Principles of Divinity according to the Divinity as I may so say that he hath in his heart Yea Afflictions when we bring our hearts to Gods will have no great burden in them but are easie but they are not so easie as Gods waies are for Afflictions though they come to be easie yet they are such as if a Godly heart were put to it he would and he ought rather to choose to be without them Here is the difference between Afflictions and Duties that if God would set a gracious heart free he should choose rather to be without afflictions though it is true in regard of the good that God brings about in them so they are good but in themselves they are evil and so a Godly man should rather desire to be without them but now for the duties of religion Godliness there we are not to desire wish to be without them or that they were otherwise then they are A gracious heart is not to wish any command of Jesus Christ to be otherwise then it is and when at any time you find such a rising in your hearts as to wish that such a thing were not a duty know that now temptation comes and corruption stirrs You may not do it perhaps but you may have a corruption stir so farr as to wish it were otherwise certainly this is a great temptation when the heart is in a right frame it would not wish any thing in the waies of Christ otherwise then they are if he were left to himself he would himself choose them That is the first Secondly When he hath chose them this makes them easy because they are such waies as himself comes freely on unto what a man comes freely on unto that is easy and all the people of God are a willing people in Psal 110. Now when he comes freely on perhaps you will say a man may come freely on to a thing yet when he is come on he may find more difficulty then he thought of Therefore in the second place they are easy in this respect because they are suitable unto the temper and disposition of a gracious heart such a one finds the waies of Christ very suitable and agreeable to him Now Similis Simili gaudet every like thing doth rejoyce in that which is like a Godly heart finds the counterpane as I may so speak of the Lord Jesus Christ written in his own heart that as it was in the first creation there the Law of God the Morral Law
it was written in the heart of man fully and that that we have written in scripture it is but as it were an extract and counterpaine of what was written in the heart of man in the first creation now by sin a great part of it is blotted out but now when the soul comes to Jesus Christ then Christ writes again the Law of God in the heart of the siner writes it faire out againe writes the Law as it comes to be Evangelical in an evangelical way for so it is the Gospel comprehends all that holyness that was in the Law before the same holyness that was in the Law the Gospel that takes it in and makes it more compleat and raiseth it up higher and makes it more spiritual and hath more of God in it and doth shew us how to enjoy God in a higher better and fuller way that the Law of the Gospel is written in the heart of beleevers as the Morrall Law was in the heart of Adam at first was when he was made and the Law of the Gospel takes in the holiness of Gods Law and adds a further spiritualness and shews a higher way of enjoyment of God then before was when man at first was created now therefore it must needs be easy in that respect It is easy for a fish to swim in the water and it is easy for a bird to fly in the aire for it is their own element so the waies of the Gospel are the proper element of a true godly gracious heart And as we say nullum corpus grave in suo loco no element is heavy in his own proper place It is true the waies of Godlyness is a heavy burden to a carnal heart Why because he is not in his element when he is in holy duties and sanctifying the Sabboth he is not in his element when he is in wicked company drinking and Swearing then he is in his element but now that which is your elements is but sand to a Godly heart and that is the reason that you think that such Godly people are dumpish and heavy and Melancholy because they are not merry as you are it is because of your company they are not in their element when they are amongst company that they can converse withall and talk of Godlyness and shewing and discovering one anothers hearts and telling the experiences of Gods working in their hearts one to another and so breathing graces one upon another and praying one with another then they can be as merry and be as delightful in such things as you can be amongst your companions swearing rioting and the like you think it is impossible they should be so but it is so that is their proper element as the other is your element and therefore it is as easy for a Saint to go on in the waies of religion as for a fish to swim in the water so farr as the regenerate part prevails all Satisfaction flows from a suitableness between the faculty and the object now the waies of God are the most suitable things to a gracious heart that can be therefore there is a great deal of ease in them there is nothing required in them but he finds it in his heart before it is required It is said in Prov. 18. 2. Of a fool that he doth not receive the way of Wisdom the instruction of Wisdom it is in your books a fool hath not delight in understanding but that his heart may discover it self but I find it translated in the old vulgar Latin that a fool receives not understanding receives not what you say to him except those things that are in his heart be spoken except you speak to him such things as are in his heart so they turn it and so it is true in this speak to any man any thing if there be not a principle in his heart to close with the thing that you speak he will not easily receive it therefore a fool will not receive that which you speak to him of because it is not suitable to his heart But now a Godly man when you speak to him the things of God and what the waies of Christ are such a man receives them because you speak to him that that is in his heart it is in his heart before you speak to his heart and he finds somwhat in his heart that comes presently to close with it which makes it easy there is in his heart such a principle as upon mentioning any thing of the waies of Christ he closeth with it and takes hold upon it there being the same thing in his heart for though there be an object seen except there be something in the eye suitable to the object to close with it there would be no sight so the heart of a Christian makes the waies of God easy and readily imbraceth them because there is somthing in the heart that is like to Gods waies and therefore it is ready to receive and close with them As now if you bring fire to a stick that hath some fire in it as soon as ever you bring the fire the fire that was in the stick before will come out to the other fire that you bring neare to it and will joyne together and so grow into a flame If you bring a candle that hath some fire remaining upon it unto a fire it lights presently so it is with the heart of a Godly man a gracious heart sets before him the excellency of the waies of God now there is a holy principle a principle of holiness in the heart that comes out unto what is said in the word of the waies of God and so closeth with them I these are the things that I find in my heart now these things must needs be easy because they are the very element of a gracious heart and they are suitable to his heart there is a freeness to chuse That is the Second Thirdly Another thing that makes them easy is this The waies of Christ there is an evenness in them there is a proportion in all the waies of Jesus Christ there is not one thing contrary unto another but every thing helps one another and so they come to be easy You know in other things when you are going in any path where there lyes things to interrupt you there lyes a great deal of Difficulty in your going but when the way is so laid as that there is no one thing in it but helps to another if you take one step that helps you to another and that step helps you to another and so there is such an evenness and proportion as one helps to another If you be drawing a thing that one link helps another and one lets into another this makes it easy when every action of a mans work is such as the first makes the second easy and the second the third and the third the fourth that work must needs be easy so in all the waies of Jesus Christ
then it is now And then the Last thing is to speak especially to young ones those that complain of hardness in the waies of Christ for the present and feel their work very difficult that say Oh that I could find what you say is in the waies of Jesus Christ that I could find them so what a happy life should I live Now be convinced there is such a way what should be done to facilitate and make easy this way Now what rules we should observe to make the waies of Christ easy that we may go on with ease sweetness and comfort in them is the next thing I shal come unto CHAP. CXLVI The meanes to make the waies of Christ easy to our selves 1. Our obedience must be evangelical 2. Keep the heart in a readiness to every duty 3. Get the heart in love to the duty 4. Loose not your incouragements 5. Continue not in the guilt of any Sin 6. Order the duties of your condition 7. Leave the Success wholly to God 8. Bind not your self to what Christ doth not 9. Lay hold upon all opportunities 10. Preserve all experiences 11. Beware of disturbing passions 12. Entertaine communion with the Saints 13. Exercise much faith 14. Get strength of Grace THe last thing that I intend in this point is To shew how we may come to facilitate the waies of Godliness to our selves that is how we may come to live so under the yoke of Christ as to make it easy unto our selves for certainly though Christs yoke be easy yet many people of God find more difficulty in Gods waies then they need there is an art a skill a mystery of Godlyness which if you come to hit on right you may carry on the work of Godliness with power and yet with a great deal of ease and sweetness As you know a workman that is skillful in his trade indeed and can handle his tools well and is exercised in it he carries on his work with ease it goes on before him delightfully whereas an unskilful young workman that cannot tell how to handle his tools he will keep a bungling and stir and tires himself and doth not carry his work on with ease and doth but a little work and doth it not wel neither those Workmen that do their work well with most ease they do the most work Now for those rules to be observed that may help us to make the waies of Christ easy to us they are these 1. Be sure that all your obedience be evangelical obedience when you are tendering up any service to God let it be I say an evangelical service you will say what is the meaning of an evangelical work or evangelical obedience or service certainly the want of the knowledg of Christ is the chiefe thing that makes the waies of God difficult to Godly people their obedience is legal not evangelical I have already in the former part of the invitation of Christ shewed much of the difficulty that there is in legal obedience I will give you but the heads of some four or five things for evangelical obedience and shew what it is or what ease there is in evangelical obedience in comparison of the other First Evangelical obedience is an obedience that the child tenders up unto the father when you come to do any work do not look upon God as a severe Judge passing judgment and condemning of you But look upon God as a father and all your obedience to be nothing but the obedience of a child to his father this wil make it easy it is a greater ease for a child to obey his father when he knows that he is a loving and tender father then for a gally slave to obey him that hath the power over him Secondly Evangelical obedience is to know that the Gospel accepts of uprightness where there is not perfection many Christians are exceedingly troubled in the duties of religion and they are very difficult to them because they think that God being an infinite Holy God he looks for absolute perfection from them in their duties and if there be any imperfection in their duties they think they shall not be accepted but now Evangelical obedience accepts of uprightness when there is not perfection if there be uprightness this is accepted of God Thirdly Evangelical obedience the Duties of the Gospel hath ever a promise going along with them whatever the Gospel requires it joyns a promise to it as it is in the body there is an Artery that goes along together with the Veins in the body that carries the blood and the Spirits through the body we must look upon every Duty as having a promise joyned to it and this will make our obedience easie evermore joyn promises unto commands Fourthly Evangelical obedience it bears the heart upon the strength of Jesus Christ upon Christs strength to look up to him when we go to Duty not to be tiring our selves and think to carry it out by main strength of our own but to look up to him and bear our selves upon Christ upon his strength Fifthly Evangelical obedience it is not an obedience upon which our eternal life depends we are not to look upon what we do as any part of the Covenant of eternal life as that which our eternal life depends not as a covenant of works upon which eternal life depends but the safety of our Souls and eternal life is in another way and all that which we do is rather in way of thankfulness unto God for the mercy that God hath granted to us and the eternal life that Christ hath purchased for us already this is Evangelical obedience now if our obedience and Duties were after this manner performed they would be very easie if we would but do thus this it is to obey evangelically If we could come as children to obey our Father and know that the uprightness of our hearts is accepted and to look upon every Commandment as having a promise annexed to it and to bear our selves upon the strength of Christ and to look upon every Duty only as a testimony of our thankfulness to God for eternal life purchased for us rather then a part of the Covenant of eternal life Now this obedience hath a great deale of ease in it But because we have spoken largely heretofore about the difficulty of the burden of the Law and of the rest of the Soul from under it it shal be sufficient to namâ— it at this time but if we would have ease in the waies of Christ we must performe all our obedience in an Evangelical way and I will add this one thing to it As our obedience so our humiliation for want of obedience must be evangelical for many Christians may find their obedience somwhat easy to them I but when they do not obey then the sorrow for their sin that is grievous their humiliation that is a burden to their Spirits sin lyes upon them as a burden I but we should be
of ease As now it is a great deale of toyl for one that neglects his accounts he is not ready but his accounts are intangled if he be called to give a perfect account it is a great deal of toyl to him but now let a man get over the difficulty and make all his accounts cleer now for him every day to keep his Books streight and cleer this wil not be so great a trouble This is the difference between one Christian and another for all the world one that shall take his pleasure all the week long and ride this way and the other way and neglects his Books and but one day in the week will look them over he wil have a great deal of trouble and it wil break his head somtimes when he hath multitude of business But now the other Merchant looks into his Books every day spends half an hour or a quarter of an hour every day and he goes on with a great deal of cheerfulness So it is with many Christians they think on the Lords day they must have their hearts in a good frame and temper but all the week they have no thoughts of God and of the word and now when the Sabbath comes or Sacrament and holy duties come they are burdensome to them whereas another that keeps his heart in a holy frame he rejoyceth in the Sabbath for he hath had a Sabbath day frame of heart all the week long Luther saith a Christians life should be a perpetuall Sabbath And that is the second means to facilitate every good work 3. Another is this Labor to inflame your hearts with love unto the Duty Do not do duties because you must do them but use all the means that you can for to kindle in you a love unto the duty never satisfie your selves with this I see I must do duty Conscience puts me upon duty therefore I must do it so it may be burdensom but labor to use all arguments you can to make you in love with the duty A Schollar that is in love with his Book will not cry when he goes to the School and especially if he delight in it and be in love with his Master there is many that are put to go to School that dare not go Oh their Father will be angry and their Master wil be severe if they should not learn and so they learn but with much ado they had rather do any thing in the world than go to School neither love their Books nor love their Master and so seldom come to any eminence of learning Love takes away all difficulty love is ashamed to complain of difficulty at any time as now take a man that loves recreation that loves that kind of sport of hunting or hawking if he love it he wil be running in the dirt all the day long though it be a hot day run over hedg and ditch whereas now if such a man had not a love to such a thing but were injoyned to such a thing that you must all the day from morning to night eate not a bit of bread but all the day long run after doggs over hedg and ditch and through waters it would take away the love that such a one should have in his sports and what a miserable bondage would this be so it is in the waies of God let there be love to the waies of God then whatever difficulty there may seem to be in them it is taken away presently love to the person of Jesus Christ will take away the difficulty of the waies of Christ you know when Jacob loved Rachel he cared not how long he served for her the hard nights were not hard to him Love God and love Christ and then his waies will not be difficult 4. Another rule is this do not loose your incouragements that that you have had from what good God doth bestow upon you and inable you to do take heed of loosing that incouragement many Christians are altogether looking upon what they ought to do what God requires of them to do and because they have had not yet attained unto what they ought to do and what is required of them to do therefore they find no incouragement from what the Lord hath already bestowed upon them what the Lord hath already inabled them to do they wholly neglect that and never think of it they think of what they want and what they should have and what they should do and so they are labouring to get what they should have and to do what they should do but for what God hath inabled them to do already or what God hath given them already that they do not think of and for want of those incouragements they make their endeavours for the getting of more to be burdensome to them but now when we are endeavouring to do more we should go on in the strength of this incouragement Oh blessed be God for any little You shal have Christians thinking of what they should do and therefore they think all the grace they have is nothing Oh! say they that which I have done what is it It is true if we were looked upon in the way of the Covenant of works it is nothing but in the way of the Covenant of Grace it is a great deal now that wil be a great ease to your souls labour to get more and do more for God but stil carry along with you the incouragement of what God hath done for you when you pray for any grace bless God for any grace you have Take notice of al the incouragement that God doth give you and that will help you to go on in any further work that God calls you unto and the want of this makes the lives of many Christians to be very greivous and burdensome unto them because they neglect those incouragements they might have from what God hath inabled them to do and from what God hath done already for them 5. Take heed of lying in the guilt of any sin I meane though in respect of God the guilt is taken away from beleevers but of lying so in any sin as not to cleer up all between God and your soul for the discharge of it of having any thing not cleered up in your own consciences take heed of lying in any sin unrepented of that is my meaning every sin that a man commits excepting those daily incursions and infirmities of the Saints which they cannot while they are here in the flesh be altogether without but every other sin it is as a thorne at least a thorn â—n the foot every sin that a man hath committed by strength of temptation it is a thorn in the foot and if it be a greater sin it is a gash in his flesh Now a man that hath a thorn in his foot he cannot go very fast but especially if he have a gash in his flesh when thou hast been overcome with a great sin thou hast given a great gash unto