mercy impotent He could do no mighty work Mark 6.5 you make the Lamb turn Lion you lay your selves under a necessity of damnation for all wilful refusers of Christ must perish Thirdly It is necessary to preserve the rectitude of Nature if a man would be under the government of mind and understanding and keep reason in the Throne and be able to subdue the inordinacy of appetite he must come under the Yoke of Christ nothing else can do it Philosophy may give rules but it is Religion that gives power How like a brute is man that is led by sense and governed by appetite the glory of his Being is lost A beast in the shape and figure of a reasonable Creature man without but brute within There is no middle thing every man is either a Saint or a Beast If he don't conform to Christ which is the truest improvement of mind and will he is under the government of sense and swayed by appetite and what makes a man more a beast than this Fourthly It is necessary to prove your right to and interest in Christ The pretence and claim to this is very common but right and interest is very rare therefore it is good to put things out of doubt Let every man prove his own work Gal. 6.4 Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 How may this be known why the Apostle tells you 1 Joh. 2.3 Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments And v. 5. Whoso keepeth his word in him is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him Your obedience is the best test of your interest nothing proves your relation to his Person like your subjection to his Precepts Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 Joh. 3.19 Many boast great things about their interest in Christ and have great joys and transports flowing from it and yet all may be but the birth of a dream the fruit of fancy and fond opinion and it is no other where subjection to Christ is left out He that saith I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 1.4 That is a sharp rebuke of Christ to those false Disciples Luke 6.46 Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Christ hates their pretences of relation to him while they slight his Precepts and disown his Government Fifthly It is necessary to shew our gratitude to a Redeemer which can no way be expressed as it ought but by a dutiful subjection to his precepts Let us not love in word and in tongue says the Apostle but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3.18 We never express our thankful sense of redeeming love to the life till we make his Laws the rule of our life And thus doth David Psal 116.8 9. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living The greatest love that ever God shewed was to give Jesus Christ And the greatest grace that ever Christ manifested was the grace of Redemption when he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 And the highest obedience the Creature can act is when it springs from a grateful sense of the Fathers love in giving Christ and of Christs grace in giving himself When we lay the foundation of our obedience where God hath laid it in the Blood of his Son when we love God from a sense of his love to us in Christ 1 Joh. 4.19 When mercy melts and wins us Rom. 12.1 When the grace of God appearing teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.11 12. and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world this is excellent The Apostle says That faith worketh by love Gal. 5.6 And it doth so two ways by way of gratitude and by way of instrumentality It first apprehendeth love and leaves the impression of it upon the Soul and so begets such a love in the Soul to God as works a dutiful subjection to all his Precepts This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 The end of Redemption is duty Christ had no design to diminish the Soveraignty of God or lessen mans duty in any of his undertakings but to make us more capable of service and to render duty more easie There is mercy provided for our failings but no relaxation of obedience the Gospel requires as perfect holiness as ever the Law did yet we have a double relief provided by sincerity on our part and mercy on God's Though there be no indulgence by Christ to the least sin yet there is pardon provided for the greatest Christ came not to be a minister of sin to deliver us from obedience but he came to deliver us from the slavery of obedience not that we might not serve God but that we might serve him without fear Luk. 1.74 that is with peace of Conscience and joy of heart And therefore great is the gratitude we owe to Christ and it can no way be expressed but by a voluntary resignation to his will and subjection to his Yoke Sixthly It is necessary for the confirming our Faith in the promises of God There is an inseparable connexion between the Precepts and Promises the one is as essential a part of the Covenant of Grace as the other there is you shall as well as I will I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people Heb. 8.10 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them Ezek. 36.27 There is obedience injoyned as well as mercy promised The Covenant is of Gods contriving not ours he prescribes the conditions and propounds the rewards not we Our work is intire submission and hearty consent we are neither to alter nor debate And in this Covenant our eternal happiness is secured by an unfeigned consent of will to take Christ upon the conditions God hath prescribed and what are they Christ and his Yoke that is Christ to rule as well as to save for he came not only to be a Saviour but a Law-giver The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us Isai 33.22 As Law-giver he prescribes the rule of obedience as King he rules by the Law he prescribes as Judge he will try us by the Law of his Government and save those that have sought his precepts Psal 119.94 and therefore our faith in the promise of eternal rewards must be supported by our faithfulness to the commands the greater our obedience the higher is our hope of acceptance I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept
by and we shall stand or fall according as they are sound or corrupt The Apostle hints this to us Rom. 2.16 in telling us that at the day of judgment God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Now principles are the great secrets of men hid from all but God and a mans own heart Nothing is more latent they are as the spring to a Clock you see the hand move but that which causes the motion is not seen Actions are manifest and may be seen by all but principles are secret and discerned by none but God takes strict notice of them and will judge us according to them Nothing therefore concerns a man more than to see that the principles of his obedience be right Now the great principles that a man is acted by and that carry him on in gospel obedience are these three Faith Love Self denial 1. Faith This is the great principle of all acceptable obedience without which no obedience can please God the Apostle is peremptory in it Heb. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God And therefore all gospel obedience is called the obedience of faith Rom. 16.26 There is a twofold obedience to the gospel 1. Obedience to the call of the gospel whereby fallen sinners are invited and by various methods of grace perswaded to return to God and live Now there can be no obeying the gospel in this sense without faith For how can a man turn from his sins and take Christ upon the terms of the gospel resigning himself to the guidance of his word and spirit without faith 2. There is obedience to the rule of the gospel which directs and guides us how to live and walk so as to approve our wayes to God For the gospel is not only the power of God to salvation Rom. 1 16. but it is the will of God also for our guidance and direction and all obedience to it as such is the fruit of faith Therefore we are said to live by faith Gal. 2.20 and to walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 And living and walking take in the whole course of a Christians obedience in the language and sense of the Scripture As the gospel hath not only its credenda but its agenda not only truths to be imbraced but duties to be practised so faith hath both a receptive and a dispensing property it receives the truths of the gospel and imbraces them 1 Thes 2.13 Ye received the word not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God And it hath a dispensing property too whereby it payes homage to Christ in all capacities it doth not only receive the Law at his mouth as a Prophet and rest upon his merits as a Priest but subjects to his yoke as a King Faith is an active principle it doth as freely submit to the government of Christ as it readily accepts of pardon and salvation by him By faith Abraham obeyed Heb 11.8 This is one principle of obedience 2. Another principle is love And this is of as great importance as the other nay faith it self is deficient without this for faith works by love Gal. 5.6 This love as it is the Christians badge and character Let them that love thy name be joyful in thee Psal 5.11 So it is the great principle of obedience The Law being a ministration of death 2 Cor. 3.7 Eccles 12.13 the great principle of obedience there was fear Fear God and keep his commandments but the gospel is a ministration of life and glory and the great principle there is Love if a man love me he will keep my words Joh. 14.23 Love is vertually all obedience and therefore our Lord Christ reduces all the precepts to this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Matt. 22.37 39. and thy neighbour as thy self So that the substance of Religion is contained in this It is not Circumcision as the Jew would nor uncircumcision as the converted Gentile would but faith that works by love Gal. 5.6 There is no such principle of obedience as Love This will be evident if you consider but eight properties of it 1. It is an appretiative principle that prefers and values Jesus Christ above all It sees such a beauty and excellency in him that it counts all loss and dung in comparison of him Phil. 3.8 And he that thus loves Christ can't but obey him 2. Love is an opening principle Open to me my sister Cant. 5.2 and ver 6. I opened to my beloved Christ can have no entrance into the heart if love do not let him in This is the opening grace It is so in God the Father What makes him open his eternal counsels and purposes of grace and mercy to poor creatures but love It is so in God the Son What made him open heaven and come into the world open the virgins womb and be born open his side and let out his blood and so open a new and living way for us to the Father Heb. 10.20 What makes him open his arms to receive returning sinners and open the gates of glory for them but love It is so in God the Holy Ghost What makes him open blind eyes and deaf ears and hard hearts but love And look how love works in God to us so it works in us to God it opens the ear to hearken to him it opens the mouth to speak for him it opens the hand to work for him it opens the heart to entertain and imbrace him 3. Love is a liberal principle it is all for giving it is the most bountiful affection Love is all for laying out upon its object It is so with God Divine love expresses it self in acts of bounty Joh. 3.16 Luk. 11.13 Psal 84.11 Heb. 8.10 Ephes 2.5 God so loved the world that he gave his son He gives Christ He gives his Spirit He gives grace and glory He gives himself I will be their God So it is said of Christ He loved us and gave himself for us And look how love acts in God and Christ so it acts in all that are born of God he that loves God gives all to God he gives not only his time and strength and talents but he gives himself I am my beloveds Cant. 6.3 4. Love is a laborious principle It is alwayes doing Amor nescit ferias it hath no days of leisure it sets all the wheels of the soul in motion And therefore the holy Ghost joyns love and labour together God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love Heb. 6.10 Your work of faith and labour of love 1 Thes 1.3 As the word of God is objectum practicum a thing not only to be known but obeyed so love is principium operativum not a meer notion swimming in the brain but a devout affection quickning the heart to obedience I have lifted up my hands to thy commandments which I have loved Psal 119.48 If any thing keep a
man close to God in duty it is love 2 Cor. 12.10 for this will spend and be spent as it is right in regard of its object so it is laborious in its motion and doth so inlarge the dispositions and resolutions of the heart for God that as it knows it cannot do enough so it is apt to overlook all it doth as nothing And this is many times the reason of those complaints that are found among Christians that it is not with them as in time past they cannot pray nor act nor walk nor work for God as once they could and did the complaint arises meerly out of an improv'd affection not because duty is lessened but because love is increased He that loves but little will think he doth enough when he doth least but as love is increased so duty will be diminished in our esteem though it be inlarged in our endeavour 5. Love is a regulated principle it acts by rule and direction The motions of love are voluntary and free but its offices and acts are bounded by the commandment As the Promise is the rule of faith so is the Precept the rule of love Love to God is not a love of equals but of inferiours and therefore comes under a law it is our duty to act it but it is Gods prerogative to govern and guide it The expressions of our love are to be wholly regulated by what God requires and commands of us what ever is done otherwise though in the service of God yet it hath not love for its principle Many supererogate in the service of God and think this love to God as the Papists and among our selves how zealous are many for ceremonies and superstitious observances and think this is their love to God whereas it is in the language of God himself a hating of him as you see in the second commandment Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me Exod. 20.5 6. Who they are that hate him the former part of the command tells you they are such as corrupt the worship of God by any manner of will worship or humane institutions Though every sin hath a degree of hatred of God in it yet false worship is in a peculiar manner said to be a hating of him because it is a down right invading the rights of his Soveraignty to whom alone it belongs to prescribe how he will be worshipped and hence one says it is a less sin in the worship of God not to do what God commands than to practise what he hath not commanded because in the former we shew our weakness to do the will of God but in the latter we shew our impudence in making our selves wiser than God 1 Joh. 5 3. Herein is love that we keep his commandments 6. Love is a commanding principle it swayes the heart Every man is acted by the power of love That which gives sin its dominion in the soul is the love of it So much as a man loves sin so much power it hath over the heart and so much as we love Christ so much he rules in us for Christ and lust rule by love As love to sin abates the power of sin decays and as love to Christ increases so his interest and government advances in the soul Therefore it is that God bespeaks us to give him our hearts Prov. 23.26 My son give me thy heart and to love him with all our hearts Matt. 22.37 Because he knows that if he hath our hearts he hath all 7. Love is an induring principle It beareth all things indureth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 Jacob served twice seven years for Rachel and indured hard things and yet the time was short Gen. 29.20 and his burden light all was nothing because of the love he had to her Nescit amor molimina love knows no difficulties how can it when it makes hard things easie Is it not a hard thing to keep the respects of the soul fixed upon God when he hides from it or frowns upon it Amare Deum cum se praebet inimicum This Luther counted a very hard work but love makes it easie Is it not a hard thing to indure reproaches and persecutions for Christ yet love makes it easie I take pleasure in reproaches and persecutions and distresses for Christs sake 2 Cor. 12.10 There is no man can take pleasure in these things for themselves no but for Christs sake It is love to Christ that sweetens all Is it not a hard thing to lay down our lives for Christ and yet love makes it easie I count not my life dear sayes Paul so that I may finish my course with joy Acts 20.24 They loved not their lives to the death Rev. 12.11 there is no part of Christs Yoke grievous to love no duty burthensom Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 8. Love is a lasting principle The holy Ghost sayes it never faileth 1 Cor. 13.8 it is sure to hold out and persevere to the last Nay it shall not only be a principle of obedience in Saints while they are in this world but in heaven for ever A believer is acted by some principles in the present state that shall cease in heaven but love shall never cease it shall be a principle of obedience in heaven to Eternity O what an excellent principle of obedience is love and therefore see that your love to Christ be sincere and that all your services to Christ flow from this principle for without it all ye do is nothing If I give my body to be burned and have not love it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 3. The third principle of obedience to Christ is self denial There is a self denial before closing with Christ which is necessary in order to the taking up his Yoke As Christ finds every sinner in himself so he first calls him out of himself to close with him If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Matt. 16.24 A man must come out of himself to Christ And there is a self denyal which is the effect of closing with Christ that follows upon our believing and is an essential part of sanctification None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself Rom. 14.7 Self-opinion self-will self-love self-confidence all must be denyed every imagination and every high thing must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Nay righteous self too is as much to be denyed in point of dependance as carnal self is in point of indulgence for trusting to self-righteousness hath undone many Not only our unrighteousness will undo us if we abide init but our very righteousness will undo us also if we trust to it and why because hereby we thrust Christ out of office Rom. 10.3 and make void his righteousness Let
he tastes in it So it is with a regenerate man sweetness becomes a motive to obedience and duty is drawn forth by delight I delight to do thy will O my God And mark whence this delight springs Thy Law is within my heart Psal 40.8 The Law was not only his Command but his nature God writes his Law in the Word and so it becomes our rule but when he writes it in our hearts then it becomes our nature And this is it that makes obedience sweet and pleasant because it is now natural There is an inward Principle suited to the outward Precept Thirdly Consider the pleasures with which this service is attended It is not more natural for sin to bring forth sorrow and trouble than for Religion to afford pleasure and sweetness It denies no lawful pleasure which others injoy It affords pleasures which others cannot injoy First It denies no lawful pleasures which others injoy doth the sinner take pleasure in the creature So doth the good man more truly for Religion moderates the affections and teaches the right use of the creature and thereby heightens the pleasure of the injoyment it curbs and restrains our excesses and moderated affections make our fruition the more sweet because hereby sin is excluded which imbitters the injoyment There is no pleasure which a wicked man sins in injoying but a good man may injoy without sin and where there is least sin there is most sweetness Nay farther Religion spiritualizeth the injoyment and thereby a good man hath more sweetness in the creature than any other can have as the Bee hath more delight in the flower than other creatures can because they have only the sweetness of the scent but the Bee hath the sweetness of the honey with the scent Natural man hath only a natural sweetness but the spiritual man hath a spiritual sweetness with the natural and so injoys a higher pleasure in the creature than any natural man can Secondly Religion hath its peculiar pleasures which none but good men can partake of It gives pleasure and delight in God when the creature affords none The sensual man is beholden to the Fig-tree and the Vine and the Olive to the Field the Fold and the Stall if these fail his comfort fails But the good man hath a never-sailing Spring of delight when all these streams are cut off Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall sail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Here are all his streams cut off now where is his never-failing Spring why it is in God Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Habak 3.17 18. No delight so sweet as delight in God The dim light of Moon and Stars are a comfortable ministry in a dark night and we are glad to walk by the light of them but when once the light of the Sun breaks out who regards the Moon or Stars then Creature-comforts are pleasant things to a sensual Spirit that knows no better injoyment but when once God discovers himself to the Soul and sheds abroad his love in the heart Rom. 5.5 what poor things are these then The pleasure of walking with God and the pleasure of a witnessing Conscience without naming any more outvie all the pleasures in the World for sweetness and delight And these are peculiar to Religion and a life of godliness Prov. 14.10 no stranger intermeddles with this joy 1. In Religion and the practice of Godliness a good man walks with God There is a twofold walking with God and both exceeding sweet In Holiness and Obedience In Comfort and Experience First There is a walking with God in Comfort and Experience and this consists in sensible communion and fellowship with God This is that our Lord Christ injoyed much of John 16.32 I am not alone because the Father is with me He had much of it in that Voice from Heaven Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased He had much of it in the Transfiguration Mat. 17.2 He was transfigured before them this imports a wonderful letting forth of the glory of God upon him and so speaks an high degree of communion Exod. 34.29 Moses had a great measure of this transfiguring communion in the Mount when his face shone and Paul when he says he cannot tell whether he was in the body or out of the body 2 Cor. 12.3 4. but speaks as though he had been really in Heaven These are extraordinary manifestations of God which are fitted only to special seasons and though they are exceeding sweet and fill the Soul with great transports of joy yet they are not designed for continuance nor alotted to many But there is a more ordinary communion with God which every good man may lay claim to The Apostle John speaks of it as the undoubted priviledge of every Believer 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And Christ promises it to all that obey his Commands John 14.21 He that hath my commandments and keepeth them loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him And v. 23. We will come unto him and make our abode with him These expressions import a special presence of God and peculiar emanations of his love filling the Soul with such a sweetness and delight as none else can experience Hence that of Judas not Iscariot to Christ in v. 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not to the world This is a comfort the world knows nothing of Indeed a Believer himself hath no security of injoying it always As one Believer injoys it more than another and the same Believer injoys it more at one time than another so sometimes he injoys it not God never promised to any man such a vouchsafement of his comsorting presence as should know no interruption for if so then God would leave himself without a liberty to shew his dislike of sin That promise Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee secures to a Believer the duration of his union but not of his communion it intitles him to the certainty of his presence and care of his Providence but not to the light of his countenance It makes over to him the constant supports of his Power and Grace but not always the actual possession of joy and comfort Secondly There is a walking with God in Holiness and Obedience Thus it is said Enoch walked with God three hundred years Gen. 5.22 that is by an holy conformity to his will * To live to the will of God loving what God loves hating what God hates doing what God commands this is the highest kind of walking and communion with God
A Religion devised by Mahomet b With the assistance of Sergius a Nestorian Monk and some other Jews and Hereticks that Impostor and made up for the most part of foolish Precepts and as ridiculous rewards c To the observers of his Laws he promises a Paradise furnished with pleasant rivers fruitful trees silken carpets beautiful women choice musick good chear rich wines c. designed chiefly to gratifie the flesh Compare it with the Popish Religion and how much more pure is it than that both in Doctrine Worship and Discipline Their Doctrine is impure It is in many things contrary to the Scriptures as about Venial sins Merits of Works Supererogation forbidding to Marry their seven Sacraments Purgatory c. And in some things it is contrary to reason and sense as in that ridiculous Doctrine of Transubstantiation Their Worship is impure witness their Prayers to Saints and Angels their Image-worship their making their publick Prayers in a Language the people understand not their Masses their denying the Cup in the Lords Supper to the people Their Discipline is impure for whereas the Church is to be governed by Christ his Laws only they have contrived a Discipline of their own and make their Canons and Constitutions to take place of the appointments of Jesus Christ thus the man of sin sits as God in the temple of God 1 Thess 4.4 O what a corrupt filthy Religion is that of Rome an intolerable Yoke and therefore our Forefathers did righteously cast it off and never let us their children any more put it on Secondly This Yoke of Christ is a spiritual Yoke it reacheth the soul as well as the senses There is an intra as well as an extra an internal power binding the heart as well as an external that aweth the outward man The Laws of men have no spiritual power they govern the outward man but can't reach to the heart and conscience A man may love sin meditate mischief think treason and yet liable to no humane Law without overt-acts But Christ's Law reaches the inwards it is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart It binds the soul to its behaviour Heb. 4.12 as well as the senses so that a man may be a transgressor of the Law though he refrains all open wickedness For the Law is spiritual Rom. 7.14 and therefore requires not only outward obedience in word and deed but inward in mind and heart Thirdly It is a strict and absolute Yoke it lays the soul under an absolute subjection allows of nothing to be done but what is according to the will of God what God doth either command or warrant nor doth it abate ought of what God would have performed Though the Grace of the Gospel passes by many sins Rom. 5.16 the free gift is of many offences to justification yet the Precepts of the Gospel allow of no sin Though the young Man kept many commands yet because he failed in one thing one thing thou lackest all was nothing â—â—â—k 10.21 The Covenant of Works did not require a more strict obedience when it was for life than the Law of Christ doth It leaves the Creature no liberty for the least sin It is a yoke of absolute subjection without conditions or reserves and when we give up our selves to the government of the Divine will it is to a subjection that is absolute we are to have no other God Exod. 20.3 he is to be Lord alone If you have a servant and bid him do this or that it may be he will tell you it is not my work it was none of my bargain I am content to serve in the Chamber but not in the Kitchin or to be your Steward but not to serve in the Stable But the yoke of Christ admits of none of these conditions for the Law is indivisible You may number the commands but you may not divide them for they are but the various significations of the same Divine will The Precepts of the Gospel are not to be taken disjunctim but completive not singly but all together and so they make one intire Law of Righteousness And therefore he that wilfully slights any one command of Christ breaks the yoke he violates totam legem Jam. 2.1 though not totum legis the whole Law though not every command As he that breaks one link breaks the whole chain Or as he that breaks a mans arm wrongs the whole man though he doth not break every limb Fourthly It is an extensive Yoke It comprehends the whole of mans obedience It prescribes every duty we have no need to run to humane inventions to direct our obedience both the credenda and the agenda whatever is to be believed and done in order to life eternal is prescribed in the Word Thy commandment is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 Will you see in a few things where the latitude of it lies First It reaches from Heaven to Earth It directs our carriage and behaviour to God and man and teaches us to keep a conscience void of offence towards both The grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to live righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. Holiness to God is not enough without Righteousness to man nor righteousness to man without holiness to God that obedience doth not answer the end of the command that is not extended to both some will make conscience of the first Table and not of the second and some are second Table Christians but not first Some are strict in their devotions but very unrighteous in their dealings They will not bow to an Idol nor allow of the inventions of men in the worship of God but yet make no conscience of breaking the commands of God that are given to govern their dealings with men they will not neglect an Ordinance nor swear an Oath but yet will lie and deceive be uncharitable and cruel forgetting that command of God to deal justly and love mercy Mic. 6.8 As if that Law of loving thy neighbour as thy self were abrogated to let in a liberty for self to compass its own ends upon all without regard to any On the other hand some are very just and equal in their dealings with men but very neglectful and regardless of God they will not bow down to a Harlot but yet will bow down to an Idol They will not defile their bodies with fornication and uncleanness and yet in love to an unclean worship drink daily of the wine of Babylons fornication Rev. 17.2 they will not wrong their neighbour of a farthing and yet stick not to rob God of all that trust love Isai 30.10 fear and worship that is due to him they will not lye nor deceive among men and yet love a lying and deceitful Religion This is the fashion of the world to be in with one duty and out with another Some labour to keep conscience void of offence to man but
pleasure in Unrighteousness no but the contrary Who can reckon up the clamours it causes without and within Who can number the troubles of strife and variance How great is the pain of malice and envy What torments and horrours do blood and murder fill the Soul with Add to this that while unrighteousness is the bane of conversation which turns the world into a den of savage beasts where one devours another righteousness is the bond of humane Society which consults glory to God honour to Religion quietness to Conscience and happiness to Mankind And the same may be said of Godliness there can be nothing so truly pleasant and sweet Look upon the knowledge of God in Christ and how pleasant is that The Scripture calls it life eternal Joh. 17.3 One part of the pleasure of Heaven consists in knowing God and therefore this light must needs be sweet here And if it be sweet to know him how sweet is it to be united to him And that whether ye consider the misery of a state of distance and enmity Heb. 12.29 in which God is a consuming fire and we as briars and thorns and this is the state of every man by nature Eph. 2.12 without God in the world Or whether you consider the objects to which all are united that are not in union to God Their union is with their corruptions they are in Covenant with sin their Souls are glewed to their lusts some to pride some to covetousness some to uncleanness and how transcendently sweeter must the pleasure of union to God be than this Or whether ye consider the nature of this union as it is spiritual and indissoluble It is a spiritual union and therefore the pleasure of it is spiritual it is not to be seen nor felt nor tasted by common senses and therefore the natural man is so far from receiving it 1 Cor. 2.14 Prov. 24.7 1 Cor. 1.18 that he scoffs at and derides it Such wisdom is too high for a fool and therefore it is to him foolishness but the more spiritual and sublime the greater must the pleasure of it be to the Heaven-born Soul It is an inseparable union which can never be dissolved nothing can break it Death it self which can untye all other unions that of friend and friend that of man and wife that of body and soul which of all is the nearest yet it cannot râ—â—ch to dissolve this though the Soul and the body part yet God and the Believer part not neither as to body nor Soul for while the Soul is hereby taken up into a full communion the body is not left alone in the grave Rom. 8.38 39. Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ. Therefore ye read of the dead in Christ 1 Thess 4.16 Mark it dead and yet in Christ though Dead This is meant of the body for the spirit dies not The body is in union to God when rotting in the dust therefore it is said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thess 4.14 O how sweet must union to God be upon this account that it is indissoluble though it had a beginning it shall never have an end Or whether ye look to the many and great blessings which flow from this union to God Such as pardon of sin the grace of Adoption the indwelling of the Spirit a participation of all Grace a title to all the Promises and blessings of the Gospel Oh how pleasant and sweet must these things needs make out union to God to be And where there is this union to God how delightful and sweet must all worship and service and all obedience to his commands be For by virtue of this union to God the Believer derives such power and strength from him as makes every duty not only possible but pleasant And where a man is much in obedience he is much in communion and much communion with God brings in much comfort and much comfort makes the life sweet and pleasant Therefore no life to the life of godliness Is there pleasure in living in Heaven Why a life of godliness is a conversation in Heaven our conversation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 Hath God pleasure in his own life why godliness is the life of God Eph. 4.18 As Holiness is the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 so the acting of Holiness is the Divine life Now as the life of God being the highest life must necessarily be filled up with the highest pleasures and delights so a Believer partaking of the life of God which is of all the highest must proportionably partake of the pleasures of God which are of all the greatest And thus you have the first consideration which makes the Yoke of Christ pleasant and that is the matter of his service Secondly Consider the state in which this service is commanded and this Yoke injoyned to be put on and that is a state of regeneracy and renovation Without this obedience is not only difficult but impossible The proud neck of nature cannot bow to the Yoke of Christ Luke 19.14 Mat. 12.33 We will not that this man rule over us The tree must be good before the fruit can be good Good works don't make a man good they prove his state to be good but they do not make it good that is God's work Hence that in Ezek 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them So that it is first a new heart and a new spirit and then a new life first a good tree and then good fruit first spiritual habits and then spiritual acts In Creation every creature is fitted and furnished with such faculties and powers as are suitable to those actions which are proper to its nature So it is in the new Creation We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 First a new creation and then a new conversation and this makes Duty a delight Things are easie or unpleasant according to the inclination and poise of our spirits All pleasure and delight in doing arises from a suitableness between the heart and the work if there be Precepts upon us and a defect of Principles within us much may be done but there can be little pleasure in doing A sick man may eat and drink as a healthful man doth but he hath no pleasure in it all things are savourless and against stomach he hath no delight in it But it is for other ends that nature may be supported and life preserved he can't live without taking something But a man of a sound body and healthful temper acts not only his judgment in eating but his pleasure and delight his appetite is stirred up by the sweetness that
up and walk and immediately his feet and ankle-bones received strength Acts 3.2 6 7. There is a power conveyed by the Precept So it is here and therefore we should do as the lame man did How is that the eighth verse tells you He stood and walked and entred into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God Secondly The Law required a righteousness vested in the person It must not be anothers doing but our own The Law admitted of no days-man no Mediator no helper Anothers doing could no way be reckoned as ours nor anothers righteousness be any benefit to us Every man must stand upon his own bottom But the Gospel-Covenant admits of a Mediator one to come in between God and man therefore he is called The Mediator of the new Testament Heb. 9.15 and Heb. 12.24 Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant It admits of anothers righteousness instead of our own and allows us as real benefit by it as if it had been done in our own persons He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners that is Law so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5.19 this is pure Gospel And hence Jesus Christ is stiled The Lord our righteousness Jer. 23.6 And hence we are said to be accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1.6 and to be compleat in him Col. 2.10 And how pleasant doth this make the Yoke of Christ to be Thirdly Under the Law it was not enough that obedience was personal unless it was also perfect and perpetual Any one sin done at any time marr'd all All his righteousness shall be forgotten Ezek. 18.24 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 A man perished as really by the guilt of one sin as of ten thousand The judgment was by one to condemnation Rom. 5.16 that is by one sin for so the next words explain it but the free gift is of many offences to justification The Apostle here commends the grace of the Gospel by comparing it with the Laws rigour The Gospel justifies from many offences when the Law condemns for any one He that fails in any one thing is gone for ever Nothing is accepted but what is perfect The best affections will not excuse failure in actions nor desires to do eke out the weakness of doing But under the Gospel where there is a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man hath where the arm is short it is made up by uprightness of heart Where the will is beyond the power God accepts the will and passes by the weakness If a man sincerely desires and endeavours to do what he cannot do the truth of affection is accepted for action and God counts the desire of a man to be his kindness Prov. 19.22 Though that plea of the Apostle Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not finds no room under the Law yet it is a good plea under the Gospel O how sweet is this Fourthly Under the Law there was no room for repentance One transgression disannulled that Covenant and no repentance no sorrow no tears could ever make it up again Where personal perfect obedience is the condition of life there can be no room for repentance But this is one of the great priviledges of the Gospel-Covenant that failures in obedience may be made up by repentance And hence it is that we are so often called to return with a promise of healing our backslidings Jer. 3.22 Did God ever call Adam under the first Covenant to return when he ran away from God no never but drove him out of Paradise Gen. 3.24 So he drove out the man and he placed at the East of the garden Cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life But under the Gospel how frequently are we called to return and repent Though the first Covenant was dissolved by one sin yet many sins cannot dissolve the Gospel-Covenant For the free gift is of many offences to justification Rom. 5 16. This makes the Yoke of Christ pleasant that their failures and neglects may be repented of and find forgiveness For God hath exalted Christ to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins Acts 5.31 Fifthly The cords that bound on the Yoke of the first Covenant were threats and terrours The Law requires obedience upon pain of a Curse Cursed be he that makes a graven image which is an abomination to the Lord Deut. 27.15 Cursed be he that setteth light by father or mother v. 16. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 and this Curse is eternal death But the cords that bind on the Yoke of Christ are not terrors but love and mercy I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your selves a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service Rom. 12.1 And this makes the Yoke of Christ far more sweet and pleasant than the Yoke of the Law 2. Let 's compare the Yoke of Christ with the Yoke of Sin and it will appear infinitely more pleasant than that can be The pleasures of sin hold no comparison with the pleasure of Religion and godliness First The pleasures of sin are sensual pleasures such as gratifie only the flesh and please the brutish part and the more any man gives himself up to them the more he puts off man and sinks down into the nature of beast and therefore many Heathens have upon meer principles of reason abandoned sensual pleasures as inferior to them and have judged him unworthy the name of a man that could spend one day in pursuit of them But the pleasures of Religion are rational pleasures they are such as are suited to the rules of right reason pleasures that gratifie the inward man and feed the love and delight of an immortal Soul Secondly The pleasures of sin are debasing pleasures and this follows from the former The more sensual any man is the more doth he debase his nature Luke 1◠16 He is like the Prodigal feeding upon husks with the Swine and hence it is that the Lord by Amos calls those Rulers in Samaria Kine of Bashan Amos 4.1 Hear this word ye kine of Bashan that are in the mountain of Samaria Because they forgot the Lord and gave themselves up to their lusts and sensual pleasures therefore he reckons them among the beasts Kine of Bashan more like beasts than men The pleasures of sin are a very debasing thing Hence the same word in the Hebrew which the Scripture uses for a sensual Glutton is used for a vile person This our son is a glutton Deut. 21.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
glad for great is your reward in heaven Matt. 5.11 12. 8. You that are ashamed to owne Jesus Christ and his ways and to put on his Yoke because of the scoffs and jeers of an ungodly World I pray think seriously on that word of Christ Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the Son be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels CHAP. IX More Objections against early Obedience answered Object 6. ANother stumbling block that hinders young Ones from taking up the Yoke of Christ is the diversity of opinions and the many differences which are found among the professors of Religion I would take up the Yoke of Christ if I knew which was the right way But how shall I that am young be able to judge one is for this way another is for that one says lo here is Christ another says lo he is there Matt. 24.23 and Christ says believe them not One pleads for this Doctrine another for that a third denys both One is for this way of Worship another for that another is neither for this nor that but above all So that I see whom to avoid but I see not whom to follow Therefore till Professors are agreed it is better to be of no side Answ I confess it is a great advantage which Satan takes to prejudice young ones against Religion by the differences that are among the professors of Religion But I would have such consider five things 1. A man may with as much reason disclaim the light of the Sun because the Dials differ about the time of the Day as disclaim Religion because of mens differing opinions about it What is it in this World that men differ not about all men differ in their reasonings shall I therefore abandon my reason and become a brute all mens faces differ shall I therefore renounce humanity because all are not of one complexion all mens appetites and palates differ shall I therefore refuse my meat till all palates relish one thing because men differ in their fashions shall I therefore cast off the use of rayment till all come to the same garb how foolish and absurd is this and is it not the same because some men differ in some things of Religion therefore to cast off all Religion 2. Is this any new thing hath it not been so in all ages of the Church if therefore Religion had been disclaimed till the minds of all men had been united in the profession of it it had long ere this been shut out of the World The Scripture tells you there must be heresies 1 Cor. 11.19 it doth not say only there will be heresies importing the certainty of them but there must be heresies importing the necessity of them And we have a double reason render'd for this in the Word First That they which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 they are the touchstone of sincerity God loves to try the sincerity of his Peoples Graces this being the glory of every Christian and a disposition highly pleasing to God Were there but one opinion in matters of Faith one way of Worship among all Christians to owne this would be no great matter but to owne and cleave to the truths of God against all the errours that oppose them to stick to the pure Worship of God against all the humane Devisings and Antichristian Impositions of men this shews the power of faith the zeal of love the greatness of self-denial and the uprightness of the heart in all As the Stars shine brightest in the darkest night so do the Graces of the Saints who are the lights of the world appear in their greatest lustre under the darkness of false Worship and errour That is one reason why there must be heresies Secondly Another is this for the detecting and insnaring of false hearted hypocrites Hereby unsound Professors are discovered errour and heresie have a great hand in detecting hypocrisie This is a time of temptation in which they fall away Matt. 13. So did they 1 John 2.19 They went out from us there 's the discovery but they were not of us there 's their hypocrisie for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us And as errours and heresies serve to discover unsound professors so also to insnare and destroy them for there are damning opinions as well as damning practices When men of bad lives and worse hearts grow weary of the power of truth God suffers corrupt Doctrines to spring up that may gratifie their lusts and suit their vicious inclinations and in a fond compliance herewith truth suffers lust thrives and the soul perishes This is the very reason rendered why God at the first appearing of Antichrist in the World gave men up to his damning delusions Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all may be damned who have not believed the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess 2. 10 11 12. Thirdly Consider from whence these differences do arise not from Religion it self which is in all matters of faith and practice direct and certain the rule which is the word of God is the same to all and gives perfect directions to guide us to life and blessedness The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Psal 19.7 8. And therefore the differences that are found among the professors of Religion are either from the different measures of knowledge to which Christians have attained or from their different capacities or else which is worse from the Pride and Lusts of some of its professors that will dare to be wise above what is written setting their posts by Gods posts and teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of men would men but allow Christ to be head of the Church and sole Lord of Conscience and receive the word at his mouth and stoop to his Authority and not set up their wills and inventions for a rule of Worship the most of our differences would be at an end Fourthly All differences in Religion are not inconsistent with Salvation indeed errours in the fundamental Principles of Godliness are damning and therefore all sincere Christians shall be kept from falling into such errour they have received the spirit of truth to guide them into all truth necessary to salvation John 16.13 but it is possible that good men may fall into many errours you read of some that hold the foundation who yet build wood and hay and stubble upon it yet these shall be saved as holding the foundation though their works shall
sound belief the want of a serious consideration is the great cause why men dally with God For as Faith makes invisible things evident Heb. 11.1 and future things present so consideration makes them great and gives them their due weight Consideration is an intimate view of things it ponders matters fully their natures events and tendencies It compares one thing with another kind with kind cause with cause circumstance with circumstance issue with issue how they begin and how they end Sin and lust are indeliberate and sudden they must have a present compliance they allow of no consideration they consider not that they do evil Eccles 5.1 He considers not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell says Solomon of the simple sinner Prov. 9.18 Consideration would break the force of lust and spoil Satans design Would men but seriously ponder what sin is and what the Soul is how deceitful how vain how unsatisfying how brutish the one and how noble how precious how immortal the other they would not stake and pawn them to every base lust as they do Would they but consider of the nearness of death and eternity that within a few days or hours they must be in Heaven or Hell that there is nothing between but a little breath which the next morsel he eats may stop all hangs upon a small thred of life which the next disease may fret in sunder they could not dally with duty and slight conversion and a life of holiness as they do What is the reason that men are better upon a sick bed than at another time that Jesus Christ is then prized and repentance sought and holiness desired which in health were slighted and put off the reason is the sense of their condition their case makes them considerate and consideration gives death and eternity a near approach and than they do make other kind of impressions than when we look on them at a distance Had we but the same thoughts of these things in health as we shall have in sickness we should labour for Grace and Holiness as much now as we shall then wish we had I tell you you don't consider enough of the nearness of death and eternity and he that puts the evil day far off will put the Yoke of Christ off too and so he is undone by his own security 4. It is from the unsuitableness that is betwixt the things of Christ and the temper of a sinner Christs Yoke doth no way fit a carnal heart and where there is unsutableness there will be dislike Matt. 16.23 They savour not the things that be of God A carnal heart is satisfyed with carnal contentments and delights a rattle will please a child and a toy be more welcome to a fool than a Crown Every nature delights in things sutable to it self and therefore it is that the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8.7 that it neither is nor can be subject to the law of God for how can spiritual things be sutable and relishing to a carnal heart If Christ should come to the ambitious man and say follow me and I will give thee all the honour and grandeur of this world or to the voluptuous man and say follow me and I will give thee all the pleasures of sense and flesh or to the covetous man and say follow me and I will fill thy Bags and thy Barns I will bless the Ship and the Shop I will give thee the treasures of the Earth and the Sea this would do more than all the motives of the Gospel The young man had never left Christ as he did had he but urged such an argument as this for his heart to close with It is the base love of this present world that makes the call of the Gospel so unsuccessful and ineffectual you may see it in that parable Matt. 22.5 They make light of the tenders of Christ and what is the reason why the Farm and the Oxen and the Merchandise were in the case these must not be left for Christ where lust hath the casting voice O how sad is this if Christ should offer you riches and honours you would come and yet for Heaven and Glory you will not 5. It is because they are deceived and beguiled partly by the cunning of Satan who puts a false varnish upon things Partly by the deceitfulness of their own hearts which turns them aside that they cannot see and say it is a lye which they have in their right hand Isai 44.20 Partly from the delusive appearances of things which by reason of both the former seem other than they are Bernard distinguishes of four sorts of things 1. Some things are good and pleasant so is communion with God for there is the chiefest goodness and the highest sweetness 2. Some things are good but not pleasant as repentance and mortification and self-denial 3. Some things are neither good nor pleasant as utter despair in the present State it is a thing full of sin and sorrow 4. Some things are pleasant but not good and such are the delights of sin they are sweet but not safe they please but they deceive It is the sweetness of sin that gives it countenance it would never be committed if there were no pleasure in it And herein the deceitfulness of sin consists Heb. 3.13 it allures by fair baits and kills by a sharp hook it tempts by its sweets and destroys by its snares Sin is like poyson very luscious but very dangerous the pleasant taste invites and the sinner can't refrain though that which is sweet in the mouth be in the belly bitter as wormwood Many are so bewitched to their lust that though they know it will cost them their Souls yet they can't renounce its pleasures Now these five things put together namely Ignorance Unbelief Security Unsutableness of spiritual things and the deceitfulness of Sin are the causes why so many slight the Yoke of Christ Secondly Let me in the next place having shewed you the causes of it lay before you the aggravations of it for it is a sin of a very hainous nature to put off and slight coming under Christs Yoke First it is base disingenuity for we don't deal with God as we would have him deal with us When we want any mercy we must be heard at first call but God calls for duty again and again and we hear him not We are impatient if God delays us and yet we make no scruple to delay him When we have any thing for God to do that must be done speedily In the day when I call answer me speedily Psal 102.2 But when God hath any thing for us to do there we take leisure If we would have mercy that must be to day but if God calls for duty we put him off till the morrow Now this is basely disingenuous that when we can't bear Gods delays yet we make him bear ours although
that was not right in the beginning Job sayes of the Hypocrite will he always call upon God Job 27.10 No he will not where the heart is not made right with God by renewing grace it can never hold out long in the ways of Obedience Sappy Timber in the building will quickly fail Counterfeit Grace cannot last There is something in the beginning of the way and something in the end that distinguishes every true Believer from a Hypocrite He begins in sincerity and that never any hypocrite did He perseveres to the end and that never any Hypocrite could Direct 3. Practise daily the duty of Mortification of sin not this or that or another sin but every sin for if there be any one Lust indulged in the heart that one Lust will at one time or other make the yoke of Christ an offence to you Therefore they that are Christs have Crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 Direct 4. Labour for weanedness of heart to all carnal and worldly interests that you may be able to say with David Psal 131.2 My Soul is even as a weaned child While our respects to worldly advantages are kept up in their strength we are sure to miscarry when a temptation comes This was Balaams bane he loved the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 And this caused Demas his downfall Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world 2 Tim. 4.10 This Scripture hath occasioned a great question and that is whether Demas was a good man or an Hypocrite whether his Apostacy was final or whether he did repent of his fall Some are of opinion that he was a good man and that though the love of the world prevailed upon him to leave the Apostle Paul in his troubles and to mind his present advantages yet he afterward repented of his sin and returned to the Apostle again And the ground of this opinion is from two Scriptures One is Col. 4.14 Luke the beloved Physitian and Demas greet you the other is Philemon 24. There salute thee Epaphras my Fellow-Prisoner in Christ Jesus Marcus Aristarcus Demas Therefore say they Demas his fall was but partial and though he fell yet he arose again But how weakly this opinion is founded appears in this that both those Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon were written before this second Epistle to Timothy which was written when Paul was in Bonds at Rome the second time as the conclusion of the Epistle which was but a few Months before his death doth make manifest And he tells you ver 6. The time of my departure is at hand And if so then those salutations of Demas to the Colossians and to Philemon were written while Demas was a Professor and before his fall and therefore can be no proof of his rising again by Repentance In all probability therefore Demas was but an Hypocrite who made a profession for carnal ends and such a one can never persevere in the ways of Christ He may follow him so long as Christs way and his lye together but where the way parts there the Soul departs from Christ From that time many of the Disciples went back and walked no more with him Joh. 6.66 Direct 5. Preserve tenderness of Conscience This is an excellent remedy against back-sliding It binds wherever God binds and gives every Precept its full force upon the Soul It consults neither safety nor danger but Gods honour and its own peace Nothing stands in competition in such a heart with the authority of God and the securing his favour Keep Conscience tender and that will keep thy path pure no man makes shipwrack of Faith but he first violenceth Conscience So sayes the Apostle Holding Faith and a good Conscience which some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwrack 1 Tim. 1.29 Direct 6. Live much in the lively exercise of Faith The Apostle saith in one place we walk by Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 that speaks its influence into our Obedience And he sayes in another place we stand by faith 2 Cor. 1.24 which imports its influence into our perseverance In nature standing is before walking but in grace walking is before standing Obedience must be before perseverance but both obedience and perseverance are by Faith We walk by faith and we stand by faith All Apostacy from Christ is the fruit of unbelief Heb. 3.12 Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Nothing can keep the heart close to duty in all conditions but Faith firmly fixed upon the Authority of the Precepts and the good of the promises By faith Abraham when he was called to go out obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went Heb. 11.8 Faith is an excellent Grace not only for the undertaking of duty but also for persevering in it There are but 2 things that make perseverance in the service of Christ difficult Some good which we can't not part with Some evil which we know not how to undergo Now there is no good but Faith can part with at Gods command By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son Heb. 11.17 And there is no evil but Faith will undergo at Gods call Through faith they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the Sword c. Hebrews 11.37 Faith fetches constant supplies from Christ as head of the body and he is not only a head of guidance for the way we are to walk in but a head of influence for strength to walk in it Therefore it is said Isa 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Direct 7. Take heed of first declensions and watch daily against them Apostacy begins in little decays at first nemo repente fit turpissimus A breach of waters which is but little at first may end in a great deluge Many a fair house goes to utter ruine which timely repairs might have prevented at a small charge A little breach made in the Conscience grows wider and wider It is easier to crush the egg then to kill the serpent And therefore it concerns us to watch against first declinings Is your Spiritual fervour abated doth love decay is duty omitted doth Conscience grow less tender This if let alone and not timely remedyed will end in a casting off the Yoke of Christ Hence that counsel of Christ to the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.2 Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to dye Direct 8. Remember the terms of the Covenant you are in with God and renew them often by a fixed and setled resolution There is no man takes up Christs Yoke but he doth therein enter into a Covenant with God and this Covenant stands in mutual agreements and
service and subjection therefore call'd Ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 and said to do his Commandments Psal 103.20 The Angel sayes to John Rev. 22.9 I am thy fellow-servant and of them which keep the sayings of this book So that the highest liberty is consistent with the service of God therefore David puts them together I will walk at liberty Ps 119.45 for I seek thy Precepts Many decline the ways of God and cleave fast to their Lusts for the sake of liberty Whereas it is the greatest slavery in the world to serve sin the little finger of lust is heavyer then the whole loyns of Christ Nothing makes a man such a slave as sin He that lives in the love and service and injoyment of God hath the truest freedom But every sinner is a vassal to lust at the command of every unclean motion Is not he a slave that is at the will and command of Satan That is moved and acted by Satan in his whole course You pity men made slaves by the Turks laid in chains condemned to the Gallyes grinding in Mills broken with burdens drub'd and beat after all I tell you it is an eligible condition to this Nay sin doth not only make a man a slave but a bruit for it bereaves him of all reason and judgment their is no judgment in their goings Isa 59.8 2. This finding rest under the yoke of Christ implyes an easiness in his service And so it follows Matt. 11.29 30. Ye shall find rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light A Believer in the ways of obedience hath those aids of God those divine quickenings those daily supplyes of the Spirit that Communion with God in all that no duty is difficult or burdensome 3. This finding rest to your souls implyes an after good by your present obedience There remains a rest for the people of God Heb. 4.9 The service of sin is best at first and worst at last Sin in the temptation is taking but sin in the conclusion is vexing It is sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly Satan shews the pleasure and profit of sin to insnare you and then comes the guilt of sin to torment you But now the service of Christ is worst at first and best at last All the difficulty is in the beginning but the end is peace Psal 37.37 4. This finding rest implyes an end of your service and duty as it is labour So sayes the Holy Ghost Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord Rev. 14.13 for they rest from their labour your yoke shall be put off then But when shall the vassalage of sin end This is such a yoke as shall never be put off an everlasting servitude The sinner goes from a present slavery to a worse His present condition is servile but hereafter it will be dreadful First chains of Lust then chains of death and at last chains of darkness Jude 6. The sinner lyes in yokes and chains for ever for what is guilt of Conscience This is a chain that binds wrath upon the soul for ever He shall be holden with the cords of his own sins Prov. 5.22 What is utter despair This is another Chain the sinner is held in What is Gods power that is another chain And what is the everlasting sentence Mat. 25.41 go ye cursed into everlasting fire He is an Eternal Prisoner there God shuts him up and there can be no opening Job 12.14 He hath the Keys of Hell and Death Rev. 1.18 and who can get them out of his hand O what an everlasting slavery doth sin bring upon the soul Will you therefore hearken to the counsel of Christ and take his Yoke upon you 1. Consider How reasonable a thing this is For 1. God commands nothing that is unsuitable to our reason Look upon this Yoke in such duties as refer more immediately to God Either in External Worship or Internal 1. In External Worship As Prayer how reasonable is it that an indigent creature should go to God for what he wants seeing he can't support himself let him go to him that can Hearing how reasonable it is that if God be to be obeyed and this obedience is not to be by the creatures arbitrement but by Gods precept that then I should labour to know what Revelation he hath made of this 2. Look on Internal Worship Faith How reasonable is it that he who is the Eternal Truth should have credence in all the discoveries of his will and that I should trust him upon the credit of his promise Love It is the most reasonable thing in the world I should love God because he is the chief good and because he is always doing me good Gods love to us comes under no reason but what is in himself but our love to God is founded in the greatest reason 1 Joh. 4.19 we love him because he first loved us The fear of God how rational a duty is it he being the highest Lord and his supremacy absolute He is great and therefore greatly to be feared Look upon the most difficult dutyes Repentance Self-denyal Mortification of lusts c. These may be troublesome to the flesh but not unreasonable What more equal than that I should do whatever God would have me do how contrary soever to flesh and blood and the dictates of a carnal mind 2. He commands nothing that is prejudicial to our interest The end of every Precept is our felicity both our spiritual and eternal good are promoted by it And is there any thing more reasonable then that a man should persue his own good 3. He commands nothing but what answers the end of our being The end though last in execution is first in intention Now what is the great end of your being young ones what do you do in the world let me say as God said to Elijah what make you here What do you think God gave you being for was it to please the flesh to suck the sweet of the creatures to pass away your years in mirth and jollity to live to your selves Hath an immortal soul no other end of being but this Surely yes as God is the Fountain of being so his glory should be the end of being You are come into this world to make provision for another to avoid the snares of death and lay hold on Eternal Life To walk so before God here as that you may secure his favour for ever This is the great end of being and how reasonable is it that every man should attend to that which he was born for and came into the world for Or else the being of man is in vain as David expostulates the case Psal 89.47 Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain 2. Consider the great advantage that comes by this and that whatever your condition be Suppose your extract be mean that you are a branch of a poor Family What an advantage will your subjection to Christ