time to die a time to weep and a time to laugh c. v. 4. One hath this observation That there are two things Solomon allots no time for viz. for sin and for serving God He allots no time for sin because that ought never to be committed he allots no time for serving God because that ought never to be neglected Sin is never in season and obedience never is out of season It is not enough to shew our respect to the Command at one time and not at another it must reach to all times Psal 119.20 Psal 106.3 Blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doth righteousness at all times And this seems to be the sense of that 119. Psal 96. vers I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandment is exceeding broad the breadth of the Command is set in opposition to the finiteness of all Creature-perfections it is therefore exceeding broad because it ingages to that duty that is never throughly finished so long as we are in this world Therefore we are never to be weary of well doing Gal. 6.9 Why should we Is not Christ as sweet always at at first The Commands of God as equal The ways of God as lovely Heaven as desirable as ever However the Yoke of Christ be always the same yet a Christian in regard of himself hath more reason to keep it on than he had at first to take it up because by reason of use he hath had his senses exercised to discern between good and evil Heb. 5.14 He hath had such tastes of God in the course of his obedience as he was a stranger to at the first entrance His experiences are now greater Christ upon tryal is sweeter and the recompence of reward is nearer Your salvation is nearer than when ye first believed Rom. 13.11 Therefore there must be no declining The righteous shall hold on his way Job 17.9 He that hath once put his hand to the plow Luk. 9.62 must not look back this Yoke being once put on should never be put off till God take it off which e're long he will do and instead of a Yoke upon the neck put a Crown upon the head Rev. 2.10 and so reward your present obedience with an eternal blessedness Thus you have an account what the Yoke of Christ is It consists of the Commands of Christ which are the Conditions of our Salvation And this Yoke is pure spiritual absolute extensive laborious and lasting That is the first thing I will be briefer in the next Quest 2. Why are the Commands of Christ called a Yoke Answ 1. With respect to the corrupt nature of man 2. With respect to the nature of the Commands themselves 1. With respect to the corrupt nature of man which accounts them so They are the lusts of the flesh that make Duty a Yoke or else the Precept would be a Law but no Yoke As it is the soreness of the foot which makes the shooe a burden which otherwise would be an help The Angels in Heaven are under a Law but not under a Yoke and so are glorified Saints for in them there is no manner of unsuitableness to or regret at the will of God Man with respect to the Law of God is to be considered either as carnal or converted unregenerate or born again First As carnal and unregenerate and while he is in that state the Law of Christ is not only a Yoke but an intolerable Yoke flesh and blood cannot bear it because of that enmity that is between the Law of God and his lusts He is under the prevalency of a quite contrary Law the Law of Sin and where the Law of sin rules the Law of Christ can take no place He is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be Rom. 8.7 How can an evil tree bring forth good fruit How can darkness have communion with light How can the old nature do the works of the new creature The carnal mind can never bear Christs Yoke because of that opposition that is in lust to the Divine Law it is not only averse to it but adverse it doth not only draw the heart from God but opposeth him Christ commands one thing and the flesh another the Command says Mortifie the flesh Lust says Make provision for the flesh the Command is for self-denial Lust is for self-pleasure Christ is for obedience and holiness and therefore Lust says Luke 19.14 This man shall not rule Because the Law opposes lust therefore lust opposes the Law Jer. 23.34 it crys out The burden of the Lord Joh. 6.60 it complains of hard sayings and grievous commands Secondly Man is to be considered as in a regenerate state which yet is but the imperfection of Grace for though the new creature hath a perfection of parts yet it hath not a perfection of degrees there are remains of corruption in every part though lust be dethroned it is not ejected though it hath lost its regency yet it retains a residence it hath a great power though not a reigning power it hath the power of a Tyrant though not of a King and often captivates Rom. 7.23 though it don't command Now though so far as Grace prevails the command of Christ is no Yoke no burden no task it is a pleasure and delight Rom. 7.22 it is no more a Yoke than it is to an Angel in Heaven or than it was to Christ Is it a Yoke to a man to eat and drink to take his meals and satisfie his hunger No more is it to the renewed nature to obey the will of God I delight to do thy will O my God Psal 40.8 yet so far as corruption remains unsubdued and unmortified in a child of God so far the commands of Christ are a yoke still for though with the mind he serves the Law of God yet with the flesh he serves the Law of sin Rom. 7.25 the body of death will not bear the yoke of the Lord of life And this is the reason why the Soul so oft crys out and complains of it because it opposes and hinders that subjection to Jesus Christ which the Soul longs and labours to come up to He would be holy as God is holy that he might stand compleat to all the will of God but he finds a Law that when he would do good evil is present Rom. 7.21 2. The commands of Christ are called a Yoke with respect to the nature of the commands themselves which lay the strongest obligation upon the Creature both as to Sin and Grace First As to Sin it injoyns the mortifying every lust and that upon pain of eternal death Rom. 8.13 Secondly As to Grace it requires the getting of grace the growing in grace the exercise of grace and that through the whole course of our lives No such tye upon the Soul as the Yoke of Christ therefore some say Religio is à religando it
a Slave to sin to reject the Reign of Christ to resist the Spirit to slight the Grace of the Gospel to gratifie the Devil and to undo thy own soul O think of that word He that sins against me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speruit animam suam Vatab. in loc wrongs his own soul Prov. 8.36 And where lies the wrong He refuses the Yoke of Christ and so lays himself under the wrath of Christ and ye perish from the way if his wrath be kindled but a little Psal 2.12 And what greater wrong can any one offer to his own soul than to lay it under a necessity of damnation by a willing subjection to the Yoke of sin rather than that of Christ Therefore it is so far from being good that it is the greatest evil to bear this Yoke Be not ye the Servants of sin But then there is a threefold Yoke which it is good for a man to bear in his youth There is The Yoke of affliction The Yoke of the Spirit in conviction of sin The Yoke of subjection and obedience to Jesus Christ CHAP. II. Afflictions called a Yoke In what sense they are good and for whom 1. AFflictions may be called a Yoke and so they are often in Scripture Lev. 26.13 I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt and I have broken the Bonds of your Yoke and made you go upright He speaks of the great afflictions with which Israel was so oppressed and burthened in Egypt that their backs were bowed down and they were even sunk and broken under them and this God calls their affliction I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt Exod. 3.7 and Deut. 26.6 7. The Egyptians evilly entreated us and afflicted us and when we cried to the Lord he heard our voice and looked on our affliction and oppression And this seems to be the Yoke intended in the Text at least to the Church of the Jews that were then in Babylonish bondage which the Holy Ghost calls a Yoke Jer. 27.12 Bring your necks under the Yoke of the King of Babylon And Jer. 30.8 It shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of Hosts that I will break his Yoke from off thy neck and burst thy bonds And accordingly the Church here calls her present affliction and misery by reason of her captived state a Yoke Lam. 1.14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand The yoke of my transgressions that is the punishment procured by my transgressions as if he should say God hath laid upon me a heavy Yoke of affliction as the just reward of my sin Now this is a Yoke that it is good for a man to bear in his youth Afflictions have in them matter of real advantage This seems a Paradox to sense and no wonder for even good men can hardly make sense of it Therefore let us a little enquire In what sense afflictions are good and For whom they are good Quest 1. In what sence are afflictions good Answ They are not good in themselves they are not bona though they may work in bonum they are not good things though they may work to good ends In their own nature they are evil and so called in Scripture Amos 3.6 Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Isai 45.7 I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Mic. 1.12 The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evil came down from the Lord unto the Gate of Jerusalem That which is a fruit of sin a part of the curse introduced upon the breach of the first Covenant must needs be in it self evil But so is affliction It is evil in it self and evil to the Creature evil in its nature and evil in its tendency But yet as afflictions are ordered and directed by God and under the management of his Spirit so they are good they serve to good purposes But I shall give a more distinct Answer to the Question in four gradual Conclusions 1. Nothing Man mistakes more about than Concl. 1 the matter of good This is most evident from the differing opinions of the Ancients about it Austin reckons up 288. which all shew that man is acted herein very much by fancy and present appearances insomuch that if God should give a man his own wish he would ruine himself with evil under the shew of good Brine preserves many things which would rot in Sugar and yet sense is all for pleasing the sweet tooth But no wise Body will give a sick man what he desires but what the Physician directs As God sometimes in judgment pleases a man to his ruine Psal 106.15 He gave them their request but sent leanness into their souls So he sometimes in mercy crosses him to his advantage We are short sighted and distempered with passions and therefore call that good which would be our bane and deprecate that as evil which would be a real benefit Doubtless Joseph could not but regret at and being a good Youth pray against his Brethrens unnatural cruelty as having nothing in it in appearance but evil and vassalage What for a young Stripling to be fold for a Slave to be barter'd away out of his Father's bosome into a strange Country never like to be heard of more then cast into Prison and exposed to all severities Can there be any good in this Sense and opinion say no But pray consider How had he been raised to such a price if he had not been first made so cheap how had he been made a Prince by Strangers if he had not been made a Slave by his Brethren nay how many had perished for bread had not he been sent for merchandise into Egypt So Joseph afterwards acknowledges Gen. 45.5 Ye sold me hither but God sent me before you to preserve life And Gen. 50.20 As for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive God many times takes away for our good strips us for our advantage casts us down and seemingly casts us off and all for our benefit Opinion says with old Jacob All these things are against me Gen. 42.36 and yet they were all for him and therefore Concl. 2 Good is to be estimated not by its suitableness to sense but by its reference to the soul That is the truest good which promotes the interest of the better part no mans condition can be made good by any outward circumstances while the case of his soul is desperate for that is the better part of us and therefore good men have always valued themselves more upon their inward indowments than any outward acquisitions and have set more store by a Dram of Grace than by all outward comforts Good is to be judged by its conducency to Concl. 3 the chief good God is the chief good and
that is your season His killing and breaking time is your weeping and mourning time but when his healing time comes then is your time to laugh and dance Be willing therefore to be slain by the coming of the Commandment Rom. 7.9 and to lye dead under the Spirits wounds till the healing and reviving time comes Is there not a promise that the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and that he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing Psal 126.6 bringing his sheavs with him And therefore do not dare to use any indirect means in hopes of relief he that would see a good issue of this work must stay the time Lam. 3.26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. 4. While you are under the Yoke of the Spirit give diligence to make a right use of it by improving your convictions while you are under them lest the Spirit cease his work and leave you and so your convictions die and wither and come to nothing This is a very common case for whence is it that convictions do so seldom end in conversion Many are convinced and yet few converted they have many and strong convictions yet perish under them they are made to see their lost estate and yet never come to Jesus Christ Now whence is this but from the slighting and not improving their convictions Of all duties therefore be sure make Conscience of this when the Spirit strives then do you strive when he works then is your time to work I pray consider four things First Prov. 17.16 What a price to get wisdom this work of the Spirit puts into our hands and shall it be a price in the hand of fools that have no heart to it no desire to obtain it The strivings of the Spirit time your seasons of grace For though every day is a time to repent and believe in yet a man hath not his special seasons and opportunities for this every day Opportunity is more than time it is the nick and season of time it is time fitted for action a conjunction of time and means together to bring a thing about When God shews a man his undone condition by reason of sin and makes a tender of Christ to him and the Spirit strives with him to bring him to accept the tender then is his season As the Lord said to David 2 Sam. 5.24 When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees then thou shalt bestir thy self for then shall the Lord go out before thee Secondly Consider how easie the conversion is of those sinners that comply with and duly improve the seasons of the Spirit All things are easie in the Spirits seasons Great births are brought forth with easie travail How came Sarah barren Sarah to have a Son at ninety years old Gen. 18.10 why God came according to the time of life and Isaac is born So when the Spirit comes according to the time of life when his season is to bring life to a dead Soul then it lives you must know that Isaac was not so much the Son of Abrahams loyns as of Gods promise begotten by the Power of God making good the promise and therefore called a child of promise Gal 4.28 So is every Believer born not of the will of the flesh Joh. 1.13 but of God By the power of God put forth through the promise And hence all things in conversion become easie How difficult soever they are to the Creature yet in the Spirits season they are easie because of a Divine power How hard a work is it to repent and turn from sin a very difficult duty therefore compared to cutting off a limb But yet in the Spirits season how easie is it Zacheus says Christ make haste and come down Luk. 19. â— here is the season of Christ upon his Soul and how easily is his repentance brought about vers 8. Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have taken ought fiom any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold How hard a work is the work of believing no duty more difficult It is easier to keep all the commands of the Law than that one command of believing And yet when the season of the Spirit comes how easie is it For now all things concur to bring it about the Commandment comes the eyes are opened sin is made burdensom the need of Christ is felt and by these means the Spirit draws and then the sinner runs Ah how easie are all things in conversion made by the Spirits seasons to the Soul that complies with them and improves them Thirdly Consider this is the highest and last of means for conversion 1 It is the highest it is that which puts efficacy into all other means which without it can operate nothing It is that which can make the weakest means as successful against the proudest lusts as the Rams horns were against Jericho though her walls reached to Heaven 2 It is the last means that God ever uses to convert sinners he hath appointed no other means to succeed this and therefore if you sin against your convictions you quench the Spirit and he may be so quenched as never to be kindled again and then your conversion becomes a thing impossible And therefore Fourthly Consider what a mischief it brings upon you not to improve the convictions of the Spirit Is it not a mischief when all the Ordinances and means of Grace are rendred fruitless and unsuccessful This is an effect of not improving the Spirits convictions Nay is it not a mischief to turn the edge of that Word against your Souls that was designed against your sins This is a fruit of not improving the Spirits convictions Is it not a mischief when the heart grows harder and harder under softning means This is a fruit of not improving the Spirits convictions Is it not a mischief to be delivered up to a cannot in believing Why he that improves not the convictions of the Spirit provokes him finally to depart and then the sinner is delivered up to a cannot in believing Therefore they could not believe Joh. 12.39 Is it not a mischief when the Oath of God seals up a persons or a peoples destruction Why thus it is when the convictions of the Spirit are not improved I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Psal 95.11 And who were these They were a people that had long resisted the strivings of the Spirit O therefore be diligent to improve your convictions while you are under them And if you ask me how they must be improved I shall give only this one answer and that is By hastening to Jesus Christ for pardoning and converting Grace You never improve your convictions aright till you are brought by them to a saving
which the Gospel brings upon impenitent sinners Their Judge will be severer Their Hell will be hotter Their Season of Grace and time of the Spirits striving will be shorter For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth Rom. 9.28 Secondly The more profligate and desperate in sinning men grow under the Gospel the sooner will the Spirit cease striving For a man may and many a man doth by his own sin shorten his day of grace and provoke God to strive by his Spirit no more Eliphaz speaking of the sinners of the old World says They were cut down out of time and their foundation overflowed with a flood Job 22.16 And therefore what shall we think of England's Priviledges Will they last long I am afraid they will not considering the desperate wickedness of the Nation that reigns in all sorts this may justly cause God to cut them down out of time and cause a flood of judgments to overflow their foundations The abominable pride gluttony drunkenness uncleanness swearing lying Covenant breaking oppression injustice perjuries together with the Errours Heresies Schisms Blasphemies Idolatries and Atheism of the day and I will add the unrighteous persecution of the Ministers and Members of Christ for nothing but their adhering to the word and Kingly Office of Christ these things I fear have brought the Nations day and mercies to a near period And though I speak it with trembling yet I must say it That without a speedy repentance the Lord will shortly do one of these two things either he will remove this generation from the Gospel or else he will remove the Gospel from this generation Thus you see where the force of this reason lies delay of so great a Duty is greatly dangerous whether you look to the indisposition it works or to the uncertainty of life or to the uncertain duration of the day of grace which may be sinned away and then if you would come to Christ you cannot Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer Prov. 1.28 29 30. they shall seek me early but they shall not find me for that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof Salvation is not a thing to be had at your time but at Gods time and Gods time is now in your youth Most agree that it is a reasonable thing that sin should be forsaken that the Yoke of Christ should be taken up but not so soon it is too early and this is it upon which most men perish they slight Gods time When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered Hos 7.1 A man never discovers more iniquity and more love to sin than in setting light by Gods time of healing The foolish Virgins would fain have entred in with the Bridegroom but when they should have entred their oyl was to get and when they would have entred the door was shut Mat. 25.10 Ye read in Revel 10.1 2 6. of an Angel that hath in his hand a little book open and he swears by him that lives for ever and ever that time should be no longer This Angel is interpreted of Christ and the little book in his hand is the Gospel and it is said to be open because he makes known the whole counsel of God for our Salvation it is Christ that gives out the Gospel and means of grace and it is he that limits the time of mans injoying it beyond which he cannot injoy it for he sweareth that time shall be no longer CHAP. VII Containing the last Reason viz. from the good of Obedience It is a necessary good a profitable good an honourable good a comfortable good Reas 8 THE last but not the least reason is what is hinted here in the Text viz. the goodness of the undertaking there can be no greater reason of obedience than the goodness of it All true obedience springs from love and the object of love is good and when a man loves and obeys God because of the goodness of his Precepts this is excellent Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loves it Psal 119.140 There is nothing proves our regeneration and being made partakers of the divine nature like this 1 Pet. 1.4 for then we have the same object of love as God hath Purity and goodness is the object of Gods love and it cannot but be so because of its suitableness to his nature and therefore to have the same object of love with God argues the Soul changed into the likeness of God Carnal minds have no relish of heavenly things They that are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh Rom. 5.8 That man is undoubtedly born of God that loves the word because it is good and obeys it because it is pure The great argument by which Duty and Obedience is inforced upon the Creature is the good of obedience Deut. 5.29 The Lord commanded us to do all these Statutes to fear the Lord our God Deut. 6.24 Hear it and know it for thy good Job 5.27 And Deut. 10.12 13. What doth the Lord require of thee but to fear him and to walk in his ways and to love him and serve him with all thy heart and with all thy soul To keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good And here in the Text It is good for a man that he bear the Yoke in his youth And the great motive upon which good men labour to confirm themselves in heart and life to the precepts of God is the goodness of them The commandment is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 The mandatory part of the word hath an inviting loveliness Manton on Psal 119. p. 456. As the promises of pardon and eternal life suit with the hunger and thirst of the Soul and the natural desires of happiness so the holiness and righteousness of the precept suit with the notions of good and evil that are in mans heart and this draws forth compliance and consent I consent to the Law that it is good Rom. 7.16 It is good for me to draw near to God Psal 73.28 There is no likelier means to prevail upon considering minds to come under the Yoke of Christ betimes than to let them see how much duty is their real interest and that obedience is not burden so much as blessedness for that there is an universal good in Religion It is a necessary good a profitable good an honourable good a pleasant good First It is a necessary good Nothing in the world is of equal necessity with this there are many things useful but this is that one thing needful So our Lord Christ says One thing is needful Luke 10.42 and that is subjection to Christ Martha was careful about his entertainment but Mary sate at his feet one
therefore she is not proud but only loves to be neat and gent. To be a drunkard is a beastly thing therefore it must not be looked on as drunkenness but good fellowship and a free use of the creature Sin dares not be known by irs own name nor appear in its own complexion this argues it to be a base and dishonourable thing And needs it must for what honour can there be in sin that dishonours God Can that bring honour to a creature that brings the greatest dishonour to his Maker He that expects honour from sin may as well expect to make himself sweet by lying in a Jakes Can that bring honour to a man that blinds his mind besots his reason degrades him below himself and renders him a beast Eccles 3.18 That they might see that they themselves are beasts Can that be honour to a man that defiles his Conscience separates him from God and at last damns his Soul Ah what a base shameful dishonourable thing is sin Now all this sets off the honour of Religion for that is contrary to sin Young men would you get a good name in the world at your first setting out Would you have credit and repute abroad Would you be honoured of men of good men nay of God himself Why the only way is to be sober temperate to your selves just righteous merciful good among men devout humble holy and obedient to God There needs no other excellency in the world to give honour and reputation to a man than Religion in the power and practice of it What Diogenes said of Vertue is most true of Religion it makes poor men wealthy old men happy and young men honourable And this is a third branch of the reason why every man should take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth it is good as being honourable It shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace it Prov. 4.8 Fourthly Subjection to the Yoke of Christ is a pleasant good Every man is drawn by pleasure and delight especially young ones And therefore as Satan makes pleasure the bait of sin so the Holy Ghost makes it the motive to godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3.17 The great objection against Religion is the severity of its precepts and thereby the unpleasantness of its paths the life of Christianity is looked on as a sour and uncomfortable life whereas there is nothing in it but what is pleasant and sweet easie and light And under these properties Christ commends it to us Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you I but it is a heavy Yoke and his Commands an intolerable burden Now Christ seems to obviate such an objection as this in the next verse for my yoke is easie and my burden is light v. 30. And the Apostle tells us His commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 Not grievous in themselves nor grievous to them that love him if they are grievous to any it is to them to whom sin was never grievous whose hearts are so possessed by lust that the Precept hath no place it is a hard heart that makes duty hard and the love of sin that makes obedience a burden That I may make this a forcible Argument to draw young ones to take up Christs Yoke I shall make this out That subjection to God is matter of pleasure The whole of that task and duty which the Gospel requires of us is easie and delightful This I shall endeavour to make out three ways 1. Positively 2. Comparatively 3. By a Collation of Instances 1. Positively And there are three things to be considered which will make out the Yoke of Christ to be truly pleasant and delightful First The matter of his service What doth the Lord require of us but to fear the Lord and trust in him as David sums it up Psal 115.11 In Solomons phrase it is Fear the Lord and depart from evil Prov. 3.7 Our Lord Christ sums up all in one word Love Matt. 22.36 37 38 39. Luk. 1.75 Love to God and our Neighbour this is the fulfilling of the whole Law Zachary comprises all in two heads Holiness and Righteousness Micah ranks all under three heads To do justly Mic. 6.8 to love mercy to walk humbly with God The Apostles three Adverbs state the matter more distinctly living soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God viz. the Gospel that brings salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Sobriety doth right to a mans self Righteousness doth right to his Neighbour Godliness doth right to his Maker So that these three make up Christs Yoke They comprise the whole of a Christians duty and what unpleasantness is there in any of these duties Consider them distinctly What truer pleasure than in Sobriety which way soever it acts If it acts to moderate the judgment in Opinions concerning Religion to keep it from being carried away with abounding and prevailing Errors this must needs be sweet and pleasant if the mischievous nature and consequences of Error be but a little considered As it defiles the Judgment obstructs Communion with God gratifies Satan fills with pride self-conceit contempt of others strife and variance racks and tortures the Brain to maintain and defend it For if one Errour be espoused many will follow and he that maintains one is bound to maintain all that depend upon it If it acts to bound the appetite in meats and drinks it affords a great pleasure therein For no man injoys the creature with that delight and sweetness as he that injoys it without excess But who can express the mischiefs and maladies of gluttony and drunkenness the pains and diseases they breed in the body and the pangs and wounds they cause in the Soul If it acts to moderate the affections in the seeking and injoying the things of this life this must needs be a great pleasure and ease as it frees the Soul from many anxious thoughts many vexing cares many snares and temptations 1 Tim. 6.9 10. many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition and pierce them through with many sorrows So that sobriety is a great pleasure as it is the cure of spiritual giddiness the bar of intemperance the bridle of appetite the check of inordinate affections and the fence and guard of wisdom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Next consider the duty of Righteousness as it respects our Neighbour and how pleasant and delightful is the practice of it to be just in our dealings faithful in our trust merciful to the poor true in our testimony loving to all always exemplifying in our practice that golden Rule of Christ Mat. 7.12 Doing to others as we would that they should do to us Oh how sweet and pleasant must this be But is there that
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
he gives peace who can make trouble Job 34.29 All the world cannot give peace to a troubled Conscience Eccles 10.19 Solomon says Money answers all things But it can never answer the doubts and distresses of Conscience It is God that speaks peace there Psal 85.8 Thirdly To distinguish it from the worlds peace which is a carnal peace an outward peace a false peace but the peace God gives is a true peace an inward and spiritual peace John 14.27 2. It fills a man with the most lasting peace Therefore Solomon calls it a continual feast Prov. 15.15 Not a feast for a day as Nabals was Judg. 14.12 nor for seven days as Samsons was nor for an hundred and eighty days as that of Ahasuerus was Esth 1.4 but a continual feast without intermission and without end A Heathen could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good man is always feasting he hath the continual entertainment and delight of a quiet Conscīence He may meet with many troubles and sorrows and afflictions but his peace and joy shall out-live them all His estate may be wasted his name reproached his body burned but his peace and joy cannot be touched It lyes out of the world's reach It is from Heaven and will abide in the Soul till it be consummated by the testimony of Christ in that heart-ravishing Sentence Well done good and faithful servant Mat. 25.21 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Thus subjection and obedience to the Yoke of Christ appears to be a pleasant good whether ye look to the matter of his service or to the state in which this service is commanded or to the sweetness with which it is attended And thus you have the truth of it made out positively Secondly That the Yoke of Christ is matter of pleasure and delight may be made out comparatively 1. Compare it with the Yoke of the Law either Ceremonial or Moral First Compare it with the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law and Christs Yoke is much easier than that And this will appear If you look to the observances and impositions of one and the other How numerous and chargeable were the observances of that Law how many and how costly were their Sacrifices Some were gratulatory appointed to express their grateful sense of mercies received these you read of Lev. 7.12 c. Some were expiatory these were appointed to atone for sin to pacifie Gods anger to remove guilt and divert judgment and how many and various were they Some were to be of the herd as oxen and heisers some of the flock as sheep and lambs goats and kids Some of fowl as turtle-doves and pigeons Some were to be of what grew out of the earth as corn and wine oyl and spices And of these some were burnt-offerings some meat-offerings some sin-offerings some trespass-offerings And some of them were to be offered but once a year Levit. 16. Exod. 12. Levit. 23.16 Numb 29.12 Numb 28.11 Num. 28.9 Num. 28.3 4 5. some at their solemn Feasts as the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles Some every New-moon some every Sabbath day some were to be offered every day and that both morning and evening as the daily Sacrifice and some according to special occasions which were very many for if any man did but touch an unclean thing he must come and offer a Sacrifice From all which numerous observances that Yoke of Moses must needs be very burdensom if we now were for every sin to offer a Bullock or a Lamb what a burden should we account it if Conscience did not make sin a burden the charge and expence would and so it did to the Jews therefore it is called a Yoke and that a heavy one Acts 15.10 A yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear In calling these things a yoke too heavy to be born it shews their observance of them was more because God commanded them than because of any intrinsecal good that was in them They bore the Yoke till God took it off but it was a very heavy Yoke But the Yoke of Christ is easie on this account his commands are few and facil not burdensom but beneficial as really our priviledge as our duty And therefore the Apostle Paul comparing the state of the Church then with what it is under the Gospel calls it Bondage Gal. 4.3 when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world By the Elements of the world the carnal Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law are intended by which as by first rudiments God did then instruct the Church in its minority And accordingly he calls the state of the Gospel-Church a state of freedom Gal. 5.1 Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage O how sweet and easie is the service of the Gospel The Covenant of Grace is made with us without those burdens and bonds which became their bondage what a motive should this be to a willing and chearful obedience Christ hath therefore made us free that we should serve him freely Our freedom from bondage by the liberty of the Gospel should strengthen our bonds to all Gospel-obedience Secondly Compare the Yoke of Christ with the Yoke of the Moral Law as a Covenant of Works and it will appear far more easie if you consider five things First The Law requires very difficult service but contributes no assistance so that a mans work is above his strength and where duty is great and strength little it becomes a burden intolerable If a man should be set to remove a mountain to fetch a Star from Heaven to keep out the Tide of the Sea how impossible would this be So is obedience to the Law in our present state of impotency and hence it becomes a bondage and burden Why is the Land of Egypt called the house of bondage to Israel but because they were required to make the same tale of brick without straw as before they did when straw was provided for them So the Law requires the same obedience of fallen man in a state of weakness as it did of innocent Adam in his full strength But in the Gospel-Covenant there is no duty injoyned but there is a power of performance vouchsafed and no commandment can be grievous where the assistance is suitable to the service That one command of believing is in it self more difficult than any precept of the Law Eph. 2.8 but if faith be the gift of God then how easie is it to believe whatever God wills is easie to be done when he himself works in us to will and to do Phil. 2.13 This makes the Yoke of Christ easie that there is power conveyed with the precept jubet juvat It is with us as with the man that lay at the gate of the Temple who had been lame from the womb Peter commands him in the name of Jesus to rise
Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 Eighthly The pleasures of sin are distracting pleasures and this arises from the contrariety of one lust to another As all sins are contrary to grace so some sins are repugnant and contrary one to another Therefore you read of serving divers or differing lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.3 and from the repugnant commands of differing lusts the service of sin must needs fill the mind with distraction for in gratifying one lust the sinner displeases another if he serves pride he displeases covetousness c. But now in Religion there is nothing contrary Virtutes sunt inter se connexae there is a delightful harmony and correspondence among all the graces of the Spirit he that acts one grace doth not contradict another because of the harmony that is between them and this makes the pleasure of godliness greater than the pleasure of sin can be because it is a pleasure without distraction Indeed the mind may be and too often is distracted from the efficacy of indwelling lusts but not from any contrariety in the graces of the Spirit for one duty forwards another and helps another and makes another the more easie Ninthly The pleasures of sin are wasting and expensive pleasures they waste the strength of the sinner And thou mourn at the last day when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Prov. 5.11 They waste the estate sin is a very chargeable thing it cannot be maintained without great cost Some mens lusts cost them more in a day than their families do in a year many a man starves his wife and children to feed his lusts and many a wife robs her husband to gratifie her lusts and by this means many a fair Estate hath been brought to a morsel of bread But the pleasures of godliness are not so they neither waste the strength nor the estate Not the strength for though the youth faint and be weary and the young men utterly fail yet they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint Isai 40.30 31. Nor the estate for though Religion calls for open-handedness and honouring God with our substance yet it calls but for a part unless in extraordinary cases but lust will have all it is like the horsleech that always crys Prov. 30.15 Give give it is never satisfied One lust is more chargeable to a sinner to maintain than all the graces of the Spirit are to a Believer Godliness never wasted any man but one lust hath consumed many Estate and Body and Soul and all Tenthly The pleasures of sin are confuted pleasures The Word of God confutes them it calls them folly Prov. 15.21 madness Eccles 2.2 vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 lying vanities Jon. 2.8 Good men have confuted them by renouncing and disclaiming them espousing the worst of Religion rather than the best of sin Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 Wicked men have confuted them sometimes upon a dying bed sometimes under convictions Oh how have they cryed out then against the accursed pleasures of sin and of the folly and madness of their hearts for delighting in such swinish lusts Luther says one drop of an evil conscience swalloweth up a whole Sea of worldly joy * Vna guttula malae conscientiae totum mare mundani gaudii absorbet So that the pleasures of sin have had many confutations But whoever confuted the pleasures of godliness The Word of God never did no that commends and ratifies them Prov. 3.17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3.17 Good men never did no they justifie them and that living and dying Wisdom is justified of her children Mat. 11.19 The enemies of godliness never did nor could they may reproach and scoff at the ways of God but confute them they cannot Eleventhly The pleasures of sin are depending upon the creature a man must keep up a communion with carnal objects to maintain them But the pleasures of godliness are independent that is as to the creature the Soul need not be beholden to any creature whatever to support and feed them they flow from God himself In the pleasures of sin the creature lets out it self but in the pleasure of holiness God lets out himself and all the creatures in the world cannot let out so much sweetness as God nor such kind of sweetness as God doth The creature communicates but to sense but God communicates to the Soul Twelfthly The pleasures of sin are unsatisfying pleasures and needs they must because they are unsuitable and disproportioned to the Soul which is a Spirit whereas the pleasures of sin are suited to sense and flesh So that you may as soon make up a number with only cyphers or make a meal of a shadow as feed rational Spirits with sinful pleasures And this is the reason why the Soul makes such frequent diversions in its pursuit of carnal delights and goes from one pleasure to another it is not because it is better but because it is new Affectation of variety proceeds only from sense of want and is a confession upon tryal that there is not in such an injoyment what was expected But the pleasures of godliness are satisfying pleasures Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house how so thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures and he that drinks of this river cannot but be satisfied and satisfied abundantly He that drinks of the water I shall give him shall never thirst more Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit vina fugit John 4.14 The Soul takes up with these divine refreshments and looks no farther it crys out with Jacob I have enough Gen. 33.11 Thirteenthly The pleasures of sin are short and transient They are not only vain but vanishing The wicked mans prosperity is compared to a candle now how soon is the candle of the wicked put out Prov. 24.20 Therefore the triumphing of the wicked is said to be short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment Job 20.5 This was one reason why Moses and it was when he was grown to years of discretion too Heb. 11.24 25. chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to injoy the pleasures of sin because they were but for a season but momentany Therefore fitly compared to the crackling of thorns under a pot Eccles 7.6 much noise but little heat and soon extinct O what pleasure did the rich man take in his abundance but how long did it last He reckoned upon many years but it did not continue many hours Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Luke 12.20 It is impossible that the pleasure of sin should last long when the life of the sinner is so short Indeed
Christ You must be divorced from all sin or you cannot be Marryed to Christ therefore remove all hinderances to the duty Direct 3 Labour to be convinced of the absolute necessity of conversion A true sight of the dreadful condition you are in by nature will discover this And what is that you are by nature children of wrath under the curse from the very womb the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed lies upon you you are the devils bondslaves dead in sin Eph. 2.1 Eph. 4.18 under the power of lust alienated from the life of God Hasting to destruction there is but one step between you and Hell you stand upon the brink of the bottomless pit for whoever dies in an unconverted state shall assuredly perish the holy God hath said it and will make it good And is this a state to be rested in where is the sinner that dares dye and appear before the Righteous God in this condition therefore let this shew you the necessity of conversion Direct 4 Heartily accept of Jesus Christ as the Gospel tenders him Here is the turning point of thy Salvation Christ in bowels of pity to thy undone case tenders himself to thee as a universal remedy to pardon to purge to renew to sanctifie to save Young ones have any of you a heart thus to accept of Christ if so you are happy for ever and all your sins and lusts nay all the devils in hell can't hinder it Let an intire resignation follow this acceptation Direct 5 Having thus received Christ give thy self wholly up to Christ resolving that Body Soul and Spirit shall be the Lords so it is said of them 2 Cor. 8.5 They gave themselves up to the Lord. A hearty subjection must follow this resignation Direct 6 No man can be fully resigned that is not intirely subject Be sure therefore let Christ bear rule let the government be upon his shoulders let him give law to thy heart and life thy affections and actions do not part with some sins and retain others this is to hold fast deceit Jer. 8.5 and to refuse to return Do not obey Christ in this or that command but in all you must take all or none An imperfect obedience may be right and sincere but a partial obedience cannot I pray remember this the yoke of Christ is made up of every Commandment not this or that but every Commandment goes to the making up his yoke and when you become willingly subject to all the commands of Christ then have you taken up the yoke of Christ Lastly this must be done without delay Direct 7 The Text prompts to this It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth What sayes David I made hast and delay'd not to keep thy Commandments Psal 119.60 As Christ said to Judas in another case What thou doest do quickly Consider 1. It is a business of life and death and what a foolish thing it is for a man to deliberate whether he shall be saved or damned go to Heaven or Hell 2. By continuance in the ways of disobedience the heart is made more obstinate as a path becomes the harder by frequent treading Sin is of a hardening nature Heb. 3.13 So that if conversion to Christ be hard to day it will be harder to morrow and so every day adds to its difficulty because the heart grows harder and harder 3. You suffer great loss by delays What grace might you have gotten e're this had you begun betimes what victories over sin what experiences what communion with God what evidences for heaven 4. There are special seasons of grace which are but for a limited time and in complying with or slighting these the happiness or misery of man is fixed Because to every purpose there is time and judgment therefore the misery of man is great upon him Eccles 8.6 If your seasons of grace are lost they are never to be redeem'd Now I pray consider in what part of life is it most probable that in the wisdom of God these are placed in youth or in old age Can you think that God would chose the infirmities and dotages of life for his service rather then the strength and vigour of your days and affections 5. The slighting of your special seasons is the way to lose them Luk. 19.42 Gen. 6.3 These three years I come looking for fruit and find none And what follows cut it down why cumbers it the ground Luk. 13.7 Three years they had injoy'd Christs ministry and yet brought forth no fruit and therefore Christ casts them off O sirs how many years hath Christ been calling of you and waiting for fruit why stand ye all the day idle Remember the foolish Virgins and tremble and get Oyl while the Market is open 6. Thou dost not know how near thy day of account may be It is many times nearest when we think it is farthest off We are many times most secure when we are least safe 1 Thes 3.5 When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction c. My Lord delays his coming said the wicked servant Mat. 24.48 And what follows The Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of Little did the old world think of a flood so nigh when they gave themselves to sensuality Or Sodom of fire from Heaven when they burn'd in their lusts So shall it be when the son of man comes Luk. 17.30 Lastly Consider this If any of you that have heard these Sermons of taking up Christs yoke betimes shall dare yet to live in the neglect of this duty This word that I have spoken to you in the name of the Lord and this call that God hath made to you by me will be a dreadful witness against such refusers in the last day and that which I have intended for your conversion will turn to your destruction and damnation But God forbid what shall I run in vain and labour in vain nay shall the Lord Christ call in vain and his Blessed Spirit strive with you in vain Therefore I beseech you lay things to heart and let me know what you intend Will you at last be prevail'd with to submit to Christ and take up his yoke forthwith without any more delay if not let me tell you God will look upon you from this day as wilful refusers of his grace and love and it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah then for you But if you have a heart now to accept of Christ to be resigned to him and to take up his yoke without any more delay you have done your work you have saved your souls Now God is yours Christ is yours Peace Life Salvation all the good of the Covenant all the glory of Heaven is yours and therefore you are blessed and happy for ever For as your present choice is such shall your Eternal Condition be The Lord perswade sinners to know the things of their peace before they are hid from their eyes FINIS
THE GOOD of EARLY OBEDIENCE OR The advantage of bearing the Yoke of Christ betimes DISCOVERED In part in two Anniversary SERMONS one whereof was Preached on May-day 1681. And the other on the same day in the Year 1682. And afterwards inlarged and now published for common benefit By MATTHEW MEAD Mat. 11.29 Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls Ver. 30. For my Yoke is easie and my burden is light LONDON Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultrey near the Church 1683. To the Right Honourable the Lady Diana Alington the Blessings of the upper and nether Springs be multiplyed Madam WHere great Debts are contracted by insolvent persons it is usual to compound for a little rather then lose the whole The many great and undeserved favours you have conferred upon me have so far outdone not only my power to merit but my capacity to requite that unless your Honour will admit me to some small composition and so to pay as I am able by a grateful acknowledgment I must always be in arrearage to your Nobleness being no other way solvent then by hearty resentment I know Madam it is no pleasure to you to hear of your name from the house-top who have so carefully kept secret the works of your Right hand from the knowledge of your Left Let them therefore stand recorded in the Prayers of your Favourites and more durably in the notices of God until that day comes that shall both reveal them and reward them For the time of divulging such matters to the world as Mr. Ambrose said in an Epistle to your Honourable Grandfather will be best at the end of it and best done by him who shall render to every one according to his works Mat. 16.27 In the mean time being importuned to make this discourse publick to whom should I Dedicate it but to your Honour That you may not altogether miscarry in the purchase who have bid so high for the unprofitable respects of one made very inconsiderable by the present complexion of times and providences but much more by his own personal unworthyness The thing Madam which this treatise hath in design is to vindicate and promote if God will speed it to that purpose Obedience to the great Redeemer of the world in all especially in young ones in a true and timely subjection to his Yoke It being the great and open sin of the present day to profess him in word but in works to deny him by such as the Holy Ghost brands with the infamous Character of abominable disobedient Tit. 1.16 and to every good work void of judgment Never was that of the Prophet more verified then by the children of this Generation Isa 53.3 He is despised and rejected of men Not only by Jews Heathens and Mahometans but which is more sad even by Christians if they deserve that name almost of all sorts It is not only the sin of the poor that they are foolish Jer. 5.4 and have not known the way of the Lord but of the great men also who though they have known the judgment of their God yet they have altogether broken the Yoke and burst the bonds The wise slight Religion as a foolish thing The Nobles of the Earth think themselves degraded by stouping to this yoke The Rich men that should count all things dung for Christ â—â—il 3.8 do prefer the dung and dross of the earth before this Pearl of price The Voluptuary will not be perswaded to leave his swinish delights for all the pleasures of Godliness Oh how few are the sincere followers of the Blessed Jesus This is and ought to be for a lamentation Our lot is cast in a very brutish age wherein reason is buryed in sense judgment extinguished in appetite and wickedness reigns with reputation He who dares not be profane is a coward and that is but a dull soul that cannt burlesque the sacred Scripture and make a jest in Bible Or if he skills not to direct the poysonous arrow of a spiteful tongue at the Religion and Worship of Jesus Christ he is no ingenuous Archer So that our times are much of the complexion of those which Seneca unmasking the face of their corrupt State doth thus decypher The news of Rome take thus the Walls are ruined the Temples not visited the Priests are fled the Treasuries robbed old men are dead young men are mad Vices are Lords over all The Dictator faults the Consul the Consul chides the Censor the Censor blames the Proetor and because no man will acknowledge himself in fault we have no hope of better times Madam what an honour is it to you when the days are thus evil to be devoted in heart and soul to Jesus Christ It is recorded to the everlasting renown of Josiah that good Prince 2 Chron. 34 3. that while he was young he began to seek after the God of his Father So did your Honour Goodness is no diminution to greatness On the other hand it is charged as a reproach upon the Nobles of Judah Nehem. 3. â— That they put not their necks to the work of the Lord. Greatness gives no immunity from service Nay the higher God hath exalted you the more you become a Debtor to his goodness The God in whose hand thy breath is Dan. 5.23 and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified was a sad charge brought against one greater then your Honour It is the standing law of Heaven Luk. 12.48 To whomsoever much is given of them much shall be required Where your Honour allows the greatest wages there you expect the greatest fidelity and service and so doth the great God Wherefore Madam let holiness to the Lord be written upon all your Honour and all your enjoyments whatever is intrusted with you ought to be devoted to him or it can never be rightly injoyed nor duly improved God hath honoured you to be the fruitful mother of hopeful children but remember Madam that as they derive honour from your loyns in regard of your Station in this world so they derive guilt and pollution upon another account And what is worldly honour stained with a damning guilt which makes them children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 There is a nobility that is Divine and of a Heavenly Original which hath Religion for the Root and God for the top of the Kin. In comparison of which all other Nobility is but an empty shadow and all worldly grandure but as those apples that grow upon the banks of the dead Sea which under a tempting outside contain nought but dust This honour derives not from the first birth but the second and is peculiar to them only who are born not of blood Joh. 1.13 nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of man but of God Would your Honour have those pleasant
branches thus inobled I know it is the matter of your Prayers and let me beg you to joyn thereunto your utmost indeavours by a strict and pious education the common want of which hath stained the present age with as debauched a Nobility and Gentry as ever any time brought forth And Madam if to all this you shall add the winning motive of your own example so walking in all the Precepts of Christ and in all the virtues of the Holy Spirit that they may be won into the ways of God by the beauty of your feet O what an honour and rejoycing would this be to you in the near approaching day of Christ Jesus How many children have been brought into love with the ways of God by the holy example of Godly Parents And many more have perished by the contrary who are now cursing the Parents that begat them and the loyns that brought them forth I no way doubt of your Honours ready acceptance of this Present how mean soever it be Seeing it is a great bravery of mind as well to accept little kindnesses from them that have no better within their reach as to confer great ones For as by the latter you oblige love so by the former you incourage duty Thus the full Sea stocks Clouds richly while they pay again but by drops We have a pattern of it in God himself who as he gives the greatest Boons so he doth not disdain the least returns though they are made in Mites Luk. 21.2 3. Goats hair and Rams skins are as acceptable an Offering from them that were no better provided for the building the Tabernacle Exod. 23.4 5. as Purple and Scarlet so as it came from a willing heart Madam it is for the compleating the Temple of God in your soul that this Offering is made and though it is neither Purple nor Scarlet yet such as it is it comes from as willing a mind as ever Israelite offered from him that brought Gold and Silver to him that brought Goats hair and Rams skins And if your Honour be dispositioned like my Master you will accept of payment in Mites where it is the utmost and the All that is within the reach of a short arm But though it cannot reach so far as I would Prayer can For how incapable soever we are of other offices of respect and gratitude yet in Prayers and good wishes we stand next to immensity and infiniteness And it is nothing less then the great things of both worlds summed up in the blessed injoyment of God himself here much and hereafter much more that can be an answer to his Prayers who without ceasing bows the knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for this Blessing for you Madam and your Honourable and Honoured Relations as becomes Stepney Novemb. 15th 1682. Madam Your Honours highly obliged and humbly devoted Servant Matthew Mead. The Epistle to the READER Good Reader THough thy concern lies not much in knowing the reason of the publication of this Treatise yet it may not be amiss to give thee this short account of it That in April 1674 A Gentleman who was till then a stranger to me came with an earnest request that I would undertake the Preaching of a Sermon yearly on every May-day to the younger people I desiring to know his reason why to them rather then to others and why on that day rather then upon any other he told me that it had often been the grief of his Soul to behold the vitious and debauched practises of Youth on that day of liberty And did hope that many might be induced either by their own inclinations or by the counsels of their Parents or Masters rather to spend their time in hearing a Sermon then in drinking and gaming c. by which means many might be converted and saved The design being so honest and the reason so cogent I was perswaded to comply with it and began upon the following May Day and so it hath been continued ever since and I may say it not in any boast but to the praise of the glory of the grace of God with great success On May-day 1680 I took the Scripture here insisted on for the subject of my discourse and having then shewed the great advantage of bearing the Yoke of vfflictions and also the Yoke of the Spirit in conviction of sin in youth I did promise God granting life and liberty to treat of the Yoke of Christ in conversion in the next Anniversary course But before that day came I was much sollicited both by young and old they best know why to make publick the first Sermon which I had so Preached and it was fairly transcribed and sent to me by several hands for that end which yet I judged very improper but to answer their importunity I did promise that when I had finished the subject I would comply with their desires And therefore finding that I could not compass my design in the second May-day course I did for some Lords days following insist on the same subject till I had finished it And that thou hadst it no sooner the Bookseller is accountable and not I. However if it may be of any advantage to thy soul in breaking off the yoke of sin and lust and bringing thee under the yoke of Christ it comes in good time and to good purpose And when thou findest this benefit by it then pray for him that loves thy soul and desires thy Salvation and therein is November 15. 1682. Thy Real Friend Matthew Mead. THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. SOmewhat praeliminary The Yoke explained What it is Litterally taken what taken Metaphorically CHAP. II. Afflictions called a Yoke in what sense they are good and for whom CHAP. III. Shewing the difference between the Yoke of the Spirit and the Yoke of Christ What the Spirits Yoke is Why convictions are compared to a Yoke Why sinners must come under the Yoke of the Spirit Why it is good to come under it betimes CHAP. IV. Contains some counsels and directions to persons of several Denominations with respect to the Yoke of the Spirit CHAP. V. The chief Doctrine propounded Christ hath his Yoke Wherein it consists The nature and properties of this Yoke VVhy the commands of Christ called a Yoke CHAP. VI. Holdeth forth the reasons of the Doctrine CHAP. VII Holdeth forth the last reason viz. from the good of obedience It is a necessary good a profitable good an honourable good a comfortable good CHAP. VIII Answers some objections against Early Obedience CHAP. IX More objections against Early Obedience answered CHAP. X. Wherein the reasons of slighting Christ are inquired into the evil of it aggravated CHAP. XI Wherein the Tryal of our state is pressed with seven reasons for it CHAP. XII Several rules for the knowledge of our estate are laid down both negatively and affirmatively CHAP. XIII Sheweth the truth of our subjection to Christ by such things as are necessarily antecedent to it
temptation Be always employed that when Satan comes he may not find thee at leisure Many have been kept from great temptations by being diligent in their Callings and many by idle diversions have fallen into great temptations and snares Dinah wanders abroad and is deflowred before she comes home Tertullian tells of a Christian Woman who going to see a Play was there possessed by the Devil and when he was asked by some who came to her and set themselves to pray him out how he durst possess one that was a Christian He answered I found her in my own Ground Oh how should this warn young ones to take heed of the Play-houses These are the Devils Ground and what he finds upon his own Ground he will possess as his own He is the Lord of that Mannor and being so the Waifs and Estrays are all his Let young ones therefore take up the Yoke of some lawful Calling betimes But this Civil Yoke is not the Yoke in the Text. Secondly The Yoke as Metaphorically taken is used in a Moral or Religious sense and so there is a threefold Yoke which it is not good to bear and a threefold Yoke which it is good to bear There is a threefold Yoke which is not good to bear The Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies The Yoke of Antichristian Impositions The Yoke of sin and lust First The Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies This in its day was a strict Yoke a heavy Yoke a Yoke as the Apostle Peter says which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 But this Yoke the Lord Christ hath freed us from the Ceremonial Law was abolished by him and had no use after his death but by accident as he who builds a Vault lets the Centrels stand till he puts in the Key-stone and then pulls them away So that now the Rule is Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again in the Yoke of bondage Gal. 5.1 Secondly There is the Yoke of Antichrist which is made up of humane inventions and impositions in the Worship of God on which foundation all the Will-worship Superstition and Idolatry which at this day obtain in the World do stand This is a heavier Yoke than the former for that had once the sanction of God and there the authority made the subjection reasonable though burthensom but this never had and therefore more grievous because herein we are made Slaves to the lusts of men whereas in that we were Subjects to the will of God And therefore to be imposed upon by Ceremonies of mens devising when we are actually freed by Christ from the Ceremonies that were once of Gods appointing Bagshaw's Great Question about things indifferent is a very heavy Yoke a Yoke which one says is in the Imposer tyranny and in the Persons imposed upon burden and bondage And therefore a Yoke which without sin in transgressing the Precept of our Lord Christ Mat. 23.8 and his Apostle we may not submit to 1 Cor. 7.23 Because hereby we owne a power in the Imposers over conscience which God never gave to any and so abet them in their sinful usurpations upon the Prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 2.6 Isai 9.6 Matth. 28.18 who alone is King and Head of the Church and hath the Government upon his shoulders And also because we make our selves to be what in things appertaining to the worship of God we are commanded not to be viz. the Servants of men Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 This then is another Yoke which we ought not to bear When once humane inventions become Impositions and lay a necessity upon that which God hath left free then may we lawfully reject them as Plants of mans setting and not of Gods owning and which he will therefore in his time assuredly root up Matth. 15.13 Thirdly There is the Yoke of sin and lust For though Sinners are said to be Children of Belial that is without Yoke * So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jugum quasi absque jugo scilicet Legis Divinae Clarius Tralatio à bubus jugum subire nolentibus Drusius And accordingly the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet none under such a Yoke as they for as the service of Christ is perfect freedom so to be free from righteousness is the basest thraldom Rom. 6.20 If sin breaks one Yoke off it ever puts another on They have broken the Yoke and burst the Bonds Jer. 5.5 there is one Yoke cast off and then it follows in the next Verse Their transgressions are many their backslidings are encreased there is another Yoke put on As in conversion Christ breaks off the Yoke of sin and Satan and puts his own upon a man so the Sinner breaks off the Yoke of God Psal 2.3 Luke 19.14 27. and subjects himself to Satans Yoke and therefore some say wicked men are called Children of Belial making Belial the name of the Devil Quidam Belial nomen esse Daemonis contendunt ductum à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ascendet quia nos ascendere sursum non permittet What concord hath Christ with Belial i. e. with Satan says the Syriac Version And hence Sinners are said to be taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 And he is said to work that is with power and success in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 And this is the Reign of Satan in the soul of a Sinner for as the Lord Christ reigns in the hearts of his people by the power of Grace and righteousness so Satan reigns in the hearts of wicked men by the power of sin and lust Now it cannot be good in any sense to bear this Yoke because it every way tends to the hurt and mischief of the soul 1. As it breaks off the Yoke of God which is everyway suited to the good and advantage of man For the commandment is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 holy as it is the expression of the will of the holy God iust in that it commands nothing but what is equal and fit to be obeyed good as it promotes the advantage and happiness of the soul that obeys it 2. As it inslaves the Creature to the basest bondage and most unreasonable vassalage in the World O what a noble Creature was man while he did bear the Image of God lived in his will and enjoyed a constant fellowship with him But alas How is the Gold become dim and the fine Gold changed Lam. 4.1 How hath sin debased his Excellency defaced the Image of God shut him out of favour and out of fellowship So that now he is become a Slave to Satan and all manner of lusts And can it be good to bear this Yoke What! to oppose God to be
then they came to him 6. It teaches them to see the emptiness of the Creature and what a vain thing the World is In our ease and prosperity we are apt to surfeit by excess in sensual fruitions The lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are the young mans Trinity Hence that of the Apostle 1 John 2.14 15 16. I write to you young men though the expression there hath a spiritual sense and what doth he write unto them Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father This is a rare Lesson for young men but how seldome do any learn it till they come into the School of affliction How have I known many young ones wholly given to pride and pleasure but when God hath brought them under the Rod fetter'd them with afflictions made their Bed upon the Brink of the Grave O how have they then cryed out of their follies their mispending precious time their neglecting God and their souls their regarding lying vanities and so forsaking their own mercies and what strong resolutions have they then made never to return to these follies again And these things are great Preparatories to conversion Now then if afflictions obviate those evils which through the corruption of our Natures are occasioned by prosperity if they are inlightening and helpful to great discoveries and if they are preparatory to Grace and conversion then surely it must be good for a man to bear the Yoke of affliction betimes CHAP. III. Shewing the difference between the Yoke of the Spirit and the Yoke of Christ What the Spirits Yoke is Why convictions are compared to a Yoke Why Sinners must come under the Yoke of the Spirit Why it is good to come under it betimes THE next sense in which I am to speak of this Yoke is that of conviction of sin to make way to the last Notion of it which more especially design to insist upon and that is the Yoke of Gospel obedience and subjection the one is the Yoke of the Spirit the other is the Yoke of Christ These two are not the same but very different Yokes especially in these four things First The Yoke of the Spirit is grievous the Yoke of Christ is not grievous 1 John 5.3 the Yoke of the Spirit is very heavy the Yoke of Christ is very light Matth. 11.30 Secondly It is the heaviness of the Spirits Yoke which makes Christ's Yoke easie It is not easie to all no they that never felt the Spirits Yoke to them Christ's Yoke is a burthen And therefore when Christ says My Yoke is easie it points to them whom he calls to come and take it up and who are they Why the heavy laden and weary ver 28. They who are wearied by the Spirits Yoke shall thereby find ease under Christ's Yoke Thirdly The Yoke of the Spirit is but for a time and then to be taken off and never put on again but the Yoke of Christ is always to be kept on never to be put off the soul is under a perpetual obligation to Duty and obedience to Christ Jesus Fourthly The Yoke of the Spirit is to prepare us for the Yoke of Christ for Christ's Yoke can never be put on till the Spirit by his Yoke hath fitted the neck for it The soul will never obey Christ till it be conquered to Christ and that will never be till the Spirit in conviction put his Yoke and Fetters upon it I shall now speak somewhat of the Spirits Yoke and if ever the Lord give such another Call to this Work then I shall speak of Christ's Yoke more largely And in speaking of the Yoke of the Spirit in conviction I would insist a little upon these four things First That the Spirit hath his Yoke Secondly Why the convictions of the Spirit upon the soul of a Sinner are compared to a Yoke Thirdly Every Sinner that shall be saved must come under this Yoke of the Spirit Fourthly Therefore it is good to come under it betimes and why First That the Spirit hath his Yoke There is such a thing upon the consciences of Sinners at one time or other as the Yoke of the Spirit As the Spirit hath his joys and comforts so he hath his Yokes and Bonds as he hath a liberty which he brings some into so he hath a thraldom which he brings some under And it is first bondage and then liberty He is a Spirit of liberty to none but to whom he is first a Spirit of bondage The Spirits Yoke described And if you ask me What this Yoke of the Spirit is It is that state he brings the Sinner into and holds him in before his conversion to prepare him for his conversion and that is a state of sensibleness of sin and wrath which flows from the convincing work of the Spirit The Spirit of the Lord whereever he comes to work a saving change doth first put his Yoke upon the Sinners neck that is he doth convince the soul of the evil of sin and of its liableness to the wrath of God and so fills it with fear and horrour so that the poor Creature looks upon it self as utterly lost and undone so long as it abides in that state This is the Spirits Yoke It is called so in Scripture Lam. 1.14 The Yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand they are wreathed and come upon my neck the Lord hath delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up Into their hands that is into the hands of sin and she was not able to rise up from under them Prov. 5.22 and why Because the Spirit had bound them upon her as a Yoke Secondly Why are the convictions of the Spirit compared to a Yoke First A Yoke is very heavy and burdensome So is sin when once the conscience is truly convinced of it Mine inquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me Psal 38.4 And therefore a soul under the sense of sin is said to be heavy laden Matth 11.28 Secondly A Yoke bows the Back by reason of its weight Hence is that expression of the kindness of God to Israel Lev. 26.13 I have broken the Bonds of your Yoke and made you go upright implying that the Yoke causes a man to bow and stoop under it so doth conviction of sin it bows the soul under it I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Psal 38.6 Thirdly A Yoke is a galling wounding thing so is conviction O how it wounds with the sense of sin and dread of wrath Prov. 18.14 and a wounded Spirit who can bear Foarthly A Yoke is a taming thing It tames the wildest Beast so conviction tames the most unruly Sinner though he be never so raging
in his lusts yet when the Spirit of God doth but set sin close to the conscience O how pliable is he So it was with Saul he breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord Acts 9.1 but Christ no sooner smites him with a word from Heaven but how tame and pliable is he He trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do v. 6. And hence the convictions of the Spirit are fitly compared to a Yoke Thirdly Every Sinner that ever shall be saved must come under this Yoke of the Spirit he must be brought to a conviction of his lost estate There is a necessity for this and I will shew you why Reason 1. Because it is essential to sound conversion What is conversion but a turning from sin to God and how can a man turn from sin without a true sense of sin or how can he turn to God till he be made to see and feel the want of God therefore it is absolutely necessary Reas 2. It is the constant method of God with all that are capable of the work First He shews man his sin then his Saviour first his wound then his cure first his malady then his remedy first his danger then his Redeemer Gen. 3.10 15. Thus God began with Adam and Eve he first opens their eyes to see their sin and misery their nakedness and shame and then makes them a promise of the seed of the Woman God will have sense of misery go before the participation of mercy He look upon man and if any say I have sinned and it profited me not he will save his soul from going down to the pit and his life shall see the light Job 33.27 28. The Israelites are first stunâ— with the fiery Serpents Numb 21.6 8. and then the Brazeâ— Serpent is set up for them to look to for healing Peter's three thousand Converts werâ— first pricked in their hearts and then he applies the promise Acts 2.37 39. The Gaolâ— is first struck with a Spirit of trembling anâ— then Jesus Christ is held out to him for salvâ—tion Acts 16.29 31. Reas 3. God will not frustrate and makâ— void the use of the Law There would be 〈◊〉 conviction of sin no sight of the misery of natural state but for the Law therefore say St Paul I had not known sin but by the Law Rom. 7.7 How could he what should discover it to him Sin had not been sin but for the Law and therefore nothing can discover it but the Law which is Index sui obliqui 1 Joh. 3.4 for sin is a transgression of the Law The Spirit himself could not fasten this Yoke upon the Sinners neck but by the bond of the Law Rom. 5.13 for sin is not imputed where there is no Law Look how the Needle goes before to pierce the Cloth and so makes way for the Thred to sew it so the Law goes before to break the heart and so makes way for the Gospel to heal it The Spirit makes use of it as a School-master to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 Bonnerges makes way for Barnabas and John for Jesus Reas 4. The soul lyes under no promise of good from Christ till it come under the Yoke of the Spirit Then it is sensible of sin and sensible Sinners lye under the promise of Christ There is not one promise in all the Gospel made of Christ to a Sinner as he is a Sinner if there were it would be in vain For as such he could not receive it nor can it belong to him for he is under another Covenant Reas 5. Without this he can never set a true estimate upon the blood and Grace of Jesus Christ The Pearl of Pardoning Grace shall never be cast before Swine that wallow in their sins Though Christ be free of his bloud yet we shall see the want of it before we have it that we may know the worth of it when we enjoy it He discovers himself in such a way as the Sinner may prize him most and when is that but when sin lyes with the greatest load upon conscience When the Yoke of the Spirit is heaviest then redemption by Christ is sweetest When he sees his Case at worst then he prizes Christ most When he is made to know how wretched his state is then he considers how precious the bloud of Christ is Reas 6. Till the soul comes to bear the Yoke of the Spirit it can never be brought to close with Christ upon Gospel terms It is sense of sin and misery that must bow the soul to Gods conditions of mercy The reason why so many Sinners perish under the Call of Christ is not because they totally reject him but because they don't make a right close with him they don't come up to God's terms There are stated Conditions which every one that would have Christ and benefit by Christ must come up to and what are they Why he that would have Christ must have whole Christ Christ in all his Offices not only as Priest but as King and Prophet And this necessarily suposes a renouncing all sin and lust a resolute owning and adhering to his Truths and Ordinances and an unfeigned resignation of heart and soul to his will in all things This is the right receiving of Christ Now there are but few that can come up to this they would have Christ but they would not part with their lusts they would have a justifying Christ but not a sanctifying Christ a Christ to pardon and save them but not to purge and cleanse them There is such a close League between the natural man and his lust that till conscience be convinced and sin imbittered the soul will not be divorced and so long Christ can't be received therefore there is a necessity that every Sinner that would be saved should come under the Spirits Yoke Fourthly It is good to come under the Spirits Yoke betimes to bear the Yoke in a mans Youth A mans Youth may have a twofold respect either to the earliness of profession or to the earliness of being First To the earliness of profession Our first entrance into the ways of God is called in Scripture our Youth Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth that is of her first espousals to God as the next words explain it It is a blessed thing when our profession of God and Religion begins in sound and thorow convictions It is good to bear the Yoke of conviction in the Youth of our profession For that profession of Religion that is not founded in conviction of sin will never hold out it cannot last long it is Seed sown in stony ground which though it may spring up for a while yet when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word it will wither away for want of depth of Earth to take root in Mat. 13.20 21. It is good therefore to found an early profession in sound
convictions Secondly It may respect the earliness of being And that seems rather to be the sense of the place Vatablus renders it from his Youth taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 early impressions upon the conscience by the convictions of the Spirit are a great good to the soul It is good to bear this Yoke betimes for three reasons 1. Because the sooner it is done the easier it is done the longer we are before we come under it the harder it will be to bear it The longer thou continuest in sin the harder it will be to bear repentance If thy conscience be so charged with guilt that thou darest not look into it at ten or twenty years old what will it come to if thou lettest it run on till fifty or sixty The longer the Debt stands in the Book the heavier the account when we come to reckon for all the arrears of so many years actual sins added to the grand Debt of original sin Therefore it is good to bear this Yoke in your Youth Strength to bear it is then greatest and the burden to be born is then lightest Guilt of sâ—n encreases by lying and new guilt daily added to the old makes the burden still the heavier therefore it is good to comply with the spirit of God betimes Reas 2. The sooner it is begun the sooner it will be done the sooner this Yoke is put on the sooner it will be put off For it is but for a time that the soul bears it but how long or how little while is uncertain Paul lay under it three days and nights Acts 9.9 Acts 16.33 the Goaler for ought I can find not above an hour the three thousand in Acts 2. not above the length of one Sermon But some now adays are held days and months and years according as the Case requires But the sooner we come under this Yoke the less while it is like to lye Reas 3. How rich do such grow in Grace that by early conviction pass through the new Birth betimes He that sets up soonest is like to get the fairest estate if be improve his opportunities Ford of Bondage p. 75. If one go to be an Apprentice when he is a man there is a double inconvenience in it First His service will be much more irksome and tedious Secondly The prime of his days will be gone wherein he should have been trading for himself had he been his own man Though the work of the Spirit be better late than never yet it is an unknown loss the soul sustains by a late work He loses much joy and peace the thought of his living so long without God becomes many times a new wound when the old is healed the after pains of the new birth do abide upon some to their dying day And in this Case there is but little comfort though the work be real He loses much sweet communion with God He loses many rich experiences He loses a great accession of Grace Growth in Grace is a work of time and he that hath but little time can make but little improvement He loses many opportunities of service Nay he loses much in the degrees of Glory Hadst thou had more time to sow thy Harvest would have been â—â—â—ater for as a man sows so shall he reap 〈◊〉 â—â—â—refore he that spends the best of his time in the service of the flesh if he should be converted at last which yet few are he is like to prove but a feeble Christian The more our opportunities of service are if improved and the more our seasons of communion are if used aright the richer must we needs be both in grace experience and comfort therefore it is the most thrifty course to be an early Convert to bear the Spirits Yoke in our Youth CHAP. IV. Containing some useful counsel and directions to persons of several denominations with respect to the Yoke of the Spirit THere are three sorts of persons I would speak somewhat to by way of counsel and direction in this matter First To such as have born the Yoke of the Spirit with good success to whom the Spirit of bondage hath at last become the Spirit of adoption who are passed from a state of fear and terrour into a condition of hope and comfort Your Duty lyes chiefly in these three things be thankful be humble be fruitful First Study thankfulness and give the Glory of this work to the Spirit of God We are very apt to ascribe too much to means to this or that Minister alas they are but poor Instruments Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed 1 Cor. 3.5 even as the Lord gave to every man They have but the place of Instruments God is the great Agent and therefore all supernatural effects are to be ascribed to him alone Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease And therefore the Apostle Paul having called the Church of Corinth his Epistle in 2 Cor. 3.2 he doth in v. 3. call them the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Pen and Ink but with the Spirit of the living God Ministers are but as Pens it is the Spirit of the living God that writes his Law in the heart by them and thus they become the Epistle of Christ and therefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1.31 Is there not a cause Especially if it he considered 1. What a heart thine was when the Spirit of the Lord first took it in hand how hard how stubborn how dead how obstinate how long was the light opposed that shined in darkness and the attempts of the Spirit frustrated how great were the resistances made by it against Grace and how many the strong holds of Satan which were pulled down to bring about the Conquest Think how often the Spirits motions were slighted his counsels set at nought his strivings resisted Think how often he knocked how loud he called before he could be heard think how much unbelief how many confederacies with corruption what strong lusts what enmity to God and holiness lay in the way to obstruct the Spirits design O what a mighty power did he put forth to make sin a burthen and to fasten his Fetters upon the soul without which thy resistances had never been conquered nor thy thoughts brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 And hast thou not cause to be thankful 2. How many miscarry under the same convictions which have issued in a sincere conversion to thy soul Many by their sights of sin and Hell have been driven into utter despair as Cain and Spira Many have laid violent hands on their own lives as Judas many have stifled and sinned away their convictions and thereby have provoked the Spirit finally to withdraw and give them up to hardness of heart many have mistaken their convictions for
close with Jesus Christ In conviction of sin the Soul is pursued with the avenger of blood and if he overtakes him he slays him there is no escaping but by fleeing to the City of refuge So Christ is called Heb. 6.18 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used doth import two things 1 An apprehension and sense of impendent danger putting a man upon flight for deliverance lest the evil feared should overtake him 2 Speed and diligence in that flight to the place where he expects to find succour and safety And where is the place of safety for a sinner under guilt and pursued by the Curse of the Law and dread of the wrath of God but only in the Lord Jesus Christ Hence is that counsel of the Holy Ghost Turn ye to the strong hold ye prisoners of hope Zech. 9.12 O make haste to Jesus Christ so did Zacheus when Christ called him Luke 19.5 He made haste and came down and received him joyfully v. 6. You that are young and have had early strivings of the Spirit early convictions of sin see that ye improve them by an early seeking after Jesus Christ otherwise the Spirit may cease striving and depart and never return again thy convictions may die and never revive again thy day of Grace may be sinned away and then it can never be recalled again Other things a man may lose and recover them again He may lose his health and recover it again he may lose his estate and recover it again but if thy day of Grace be once lost thou canst never recover that again no not for any price thou canst not pray it back again nor weep it back again Esau's tears come too late Heb. 12.17 no sorrow no repentance will recover it and therefore blessed are they that have improved the Yoke of the Spirit into a saving union with Jesus Christ that by being made to feel the burden of sin and the weight of Gods wrath and so seeing their lost and undone state as in themselves have been outed of themselves and made willing to accept of Christ upon Gods conditions and in Gods season and so have believed in him to the saving of their Souls CHAP. V. The Doctrine laid down Christ hath his Yoke What it is The Nature and Properties of this Yoke Why the Commands of Christ are called a Yoke WHen I entred upon these words the last year on this occasion I told you of a threefold Yoke that it is good for a man to bear in his youth The Yoke of Affliction The Yoke of Conviction by the Spirit The Yoke of Subjection to Jesus Christ The Yoke of Affliction I have spoken to and shewed you the good of bearing that betimes I have also spoken of the Yoke of Conviction of sin and have shewed you that every one that would be saved must come under this Yoke of the Spirit and that this Yoke is necessary to prepare the Soul for the Yoke of Christ I now therefore am to speak of this Yoke And the Doctrine upon which I shall found my discourse shall be this Doct. That it is good for young ones to come under the Yoke of Christ betimes I shall speak to the Doctrine in these parts 1. That Jesus Christ hath his Yoke 2. Why are the Commands of Christ called a Yoke 3. Why is it the concernment of every one to take up the Yoke of Christ in his Youth 4. Remove some stumbling blocks out of the way of this duty 5. Bring home all to our selves by application 1. That Jesus Christ hath his Yoke For he is a King as well as a Priest and a Prophet As he redeemed us by his Blood so he rules us by his Power As he is a Priest upon his Throne Zech. 6.13 so he sits and rules upon his Throne And therefore in Revel 1.13 he is described as cloathed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle These long garments were especially used by two sorts of persons Kings and Priests as you may see by comparing Isai 22.21 with Mark 12.38 So that it sets out his Dominion joyntly with his Satisfaction and Intercession These Offices are for ever united in Christ they may be distinguished but cannot be divided He is a Priest to none where he is not a King there can be no sharing in his Mercy but by submitting to his Authority The benefit of his Death and Blood is limited to the acknowledgment of his Scepter Where Christ cannot be a Head he will not be a help where he cannot rule he will not relieve where he can be no King he will be no Jesus Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Luke 19.27 Slight his Power and you incur his displeasure reject his Authority and you become Traitors to his Crown and that is death without mercy He pardons none whom he doth not rule saves none that do not submit But here are two Questions 1. What is this Yoke of Christ 2. Why is it called a Yoke Quest 1. What is this Yoke of Christ Answ It consists of his Commands especially those Conditions which the Lord Christ puts upon every soul in order to the obtaining of that Salvation and Glory which he hath purchased For Christ hath not so purchased Salvation for any as that they should be saved meerly upon the account of his Death There were certain Terms and Conditions of Salvation agreed upon between the Father and the Son in that Covenant of Redemption that passed between them and none can be saved by all which Christ hath done and suffered but upon these Conditions and they are Self-denial Faith Repentance taking up the Cross Obedience all the necessary duties of Religion These are the unalterable Conditions of Life and Salvation and these Conditions of Salvation are the Yoke of Christ Take my yoke upon you Mat. 11.29 And this Yoke is variously expressed in Scripture sometimes it is called a Way The way of the Lord Prov. 10.29 The way of righteousness Prov. 8.20 The way of holiness Isai 35.8 The good old way Jer. 6.16 The way everlasting Psal 139.24 Sometimes it is called a Burden Mat. 11.30 Revel 2.24 Sometimes it is called a Rule Gal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16 But most commonly this Yoke is called a Law and so points to the Soveraignty of God over man in common with the rest of the Creatures For all Creatures that ever God made are under a Law The most glorious part of the Creation of God was the humane Nature of Christ and yet that was made in a state of subjection to a Law Made under the Law Gal. 4.4 The Scriptures speak of three Heavens the airy Heaven the starry Heaven and the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 called the Heaven of heavens Deut. 10.14 and all the Creatures in each Heaven are under a Law Look into the Heaven of heavens there dwell the Angels
the end The call begins in conversion it is carried on in sanctification and obedience it is compleated in glory and blessedness Whom he called them he justified Rom. 8. â—â— whom he justified them he also glorified It is not said whom he justified them he also sanctified which the order of things would seem to require I conceive the reason is because sanctification is included in glorification for it is the beginning of glory and therefore is so called in Scripture We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 i. e. from one degree of grace to another till grace be at last compleated in glory The eternal dignifying the soul with the glory of God is the ultimate end of the call of God So that to consider who it is that calls and what this call is adds a great force to the reason why every one should take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth Reas 2. Because of the nature of sin which gets great advantage by its continuance and uncontrouled possession It insinuates it self into the affections by its inticing pleasures and deceiving delights and when the affections are ingaged it is hard to disintangle them What shall reduce that Soul from compliance with sin which is linked to it by love and delight The power and strength which sin hath in us is by its interest in the affections hereby it steals into the Throne insensibly and so gives Law to the whole man And how shall a man stoop to the Yoke of Christ who is under the power and dominion of lust Mat. 6.24 No man can serve these two masters Therefore it is good to shake off the Yoke of sin betimes because of its incroaching nature it goes on by little and little and by repeated and multiplied acts it becomes a habit in the Soul and it is a very difficult thing to remove a habit as it is with a disease which taken at first may be easily cured but when by a long tract of time it hath corrupted the blood and setled it self in the body it is then turned to an ill habit and then the remedies which might have done at first come too late Bernard tells us of several steps and gradations by which a man comes to the highest degree of sin first sin is heavy then less heavy then light then sweet at length natural and unavoidable so that what at first was difficult to be done is at last impossible to be left undone The carnal heart is the seat of lust lust works to sinful acts Jam. 1.13 sinful acts repeated make a custom and out of custom not resisted issues necessity Hence that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.14 Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin Thus sin incroaches by degrees and by multiplied acts gathers more strength till at last it becomes unconquerable Like many waters which meeting in one stream swell to that greatness that they overflow the banks and bear down all before them There are three sorts of Sinners which rarely become true Converts Such as have long injoyed the means of Grace and are Sermon-proof Such as have made a profession of Religion and are fallen off And such as have long accustomed themselves to sin And therefore how blind were the Heathens in their reasonings who advised that young ones might have their fill of pleasure as the best way to wean them from it Alas they knew nothing of the corruption of nature and of indwelling sin of which this is a bait rather than a cure Sensual things are so suited to brutish appetite that you may as well go about to drown a fish by throwing it into the Sea as to extinguish carnal desires by sensual delights they may be cloyed but never satisfied they may be wearied in injoying but never weaned from lusting Besides these things interposing between God and the Soul do render it so sottish and sensual that it is wholly listless to any good and how can it then take up the Yoke of Christ Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may you that are accustomed to do evil learn to do well Jer. 13.23 Reas 3. The earlier the Yoke of Christ is taken up the easier it will be Any thing is the more easily compassed by the earliness of the undertaking A plant that is newly set is more easily removed than one that hath taken root Of all that were possessed with evil Spirits in Christ's time it is observed that none were so hardly cured as they that had been possessed from their child-hood Mark 9.21 29. Satan will not easily quit his hold especially where he hath had a long and quiet possession How seldom doth grace graft upon a withered stock That question of Nicodemus is not improper here Can a man be born when he is old Joh. 3.4 An old sinner is nearer to the second death than he is to the second birth If you break a Horse to the harness or a bullock to the Yoke it is while they are young if you teach one to write or play on the Musick ye don't defer it till the fingers are grown stiff but do it while they are more agil and nimble It is a thrifty course to be an early Convert delays make the work exceeding difficult For Hereby the mind is more blinded the will more stubborn the affections more soaked in sensual fruitions and thereby more alienated from God The Conscience more stupid and benummed till by custom in sinning it comes to be past feeling Eph. 4 19. like the hand that is hardned by much labour And how hard must the conversion of such an one be If it be a work of great difficulty to convert a hard heart which is in every man by nature what a difficulty is it then to convert a heart hardned by custom and continuance in sin Of all Sinners there is least hope of doing good upon those who by constant evil usages have contracted such a hardness that they can sin without fear or regret of Conscience Pliny says of the Tortoise that she floats so long upon the water till the beams of the Sun have so hardned her shell that she cannot sink so going on in sin under the Sun-shine of the Gospel doth so harden the heart that it cannot repent And this is the reason the Devil is for delaying repentance and a holy life that so sin may take its advantages by deeper rooting and firmer habits For these are the arms of the strong man whereby he makes the greater resistances against Christ rooted prejudices against Religion are very hardly extirpated Reas 4. Early obedience finds the kindest acceptance with God I remember the kindness of thy youth Jer. 2.2 God takes notice of the earliness of the work as well as of the work it self and hath a peculiar kindness for the kindness of our youth
was providing for her Saviour the other for her Soul and this was the most needful work Martha was cumber'd with much serving and this distracted her in her obedience which was the one thing needful It is more necessary to obey Christ than thus to serve him First It it necessary by a necessity of Precept that which is first pressed should be most chiefly endeavoured and that is the business of Religion First seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteousness Mat. 6.33 First before any thing else and first more than any thing else The Lord Christ here takes their hearts off from worldly cares by setting them upon a more necessary duty for as the body is more than raiment Mat. 6.25 so is the Soul more than the body hence that of our Lord Joh. 6.27 Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life God is a supreme Lord to whom we all owe obedience and this puts a must upon us as to duty so it did upon Christ himself I must work the works of him that sent me Joh. 9.4 This laid that necessity upon the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.16 Necessity is laid me It is necessary God should be obeyed whatever his precepts are his charge must be kept and his will fulfilled for he is Lord of all he is not only a Saviour but a Law-giver and therefore obedience is as necessary as trust and dependance Secondly It is necessary by a necessity of means He that would arrive at a designed end must pursue it by due and proper means Eternal life and salvation is the end which the great God propounds to all he would have all men to be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 But how by an absolute Decree No though many argue thus blindly If God hath decreed me to Salvation I shall be saved let me live how I list God never made any such Decree he hath as much decreed the means as the end conversion and subjection to Christ are as much decreed as Salvation and eternal life So that no man can be saved in an unregenerate state what can be more positive and plain than that of our Lord Christ Joh. 3.3 Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God He doth not say he is not like to see the Kingdom of God or he shall not see the Kingdom of God but he cannot see the Kingdom of God The Salvation of that man that cleaves to his lusts and refuses obedience to Jesus Christ is morally impossible he must perish and that upon a twofold necessity 1. A natural necessity For it is impossible that the holy God and unholy Sinners can dwell together Did God burn up Sodom and Gomorrha drown the old World cast Adam and Eve out of Paradise and the Angels out of Heaven for their sins and will he lay thee in his bosom in thy enmity and filth Darkness and light may as soon incorporate and contraries subsist together nay God may as soon change his nature and cease to be what he is as save a man in his sins and disobedience It is contrary to his Holiness Psal 101.7 if holy David would not suffer wicked persons to dwell in his house can we think the holy God will ever suffer them to dwell in Heaven 2. There is a legal necessity that he that continues in his lusts and unregeneracy must perish and that because of the Will and Law of God As God wills the Salvation of all that will turn to God and obey him so he wills the damnation of all that will not but hold fast their lusts and refuse to return As he hath made a Law that whoever will come to Christ and take up his Yoke shall find rest to his Soul and shall live for ever so he hath declared it as peremptorily that he that slights Christ and will not hearken to him and obey him shall be utterly cut off he shall perish in his enmity it shall be worse with him than with Sodom and Gomorrha he shall perish under the forest of punishments Heb. 10.29 And therefore there is as great a necessity that such should perish as there is that God should be true to his word for it is gone out of his mouth in righteousness and cannot return If God says 1 Cor. 6.9 No unrighteous thing shall inherit the kingdom of God why then the wicked must be shut out If God says He that believes not shall be damned Mar. 16.16 then damnation must be the portion of Unbelievers If God says Christ shall come in flaming fire taking vengeance on all that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Christ 2 Thess 1.8 then the disobedient must be the objects of his eternal vengeance If Christ says He that denies me before men I will deny him before my Father which is in heaven Mat. 10.33 then it is impossible that he who doth not obey his commands should have any benefit by his Intercession For God will never repeal any of those righteous Laws he hath made concerning good and evil Saints and Sinners Heaven and Hell Salvation and Damnation And if so what will be the end of them that obey not the Gospel 1 Pet. 4.17 What will become of those rebels that hold a counsel together against the Lord and his Christ that they may break their bands-asunder and cast their cords from them Psal 2.2 3. There is therefore the same necessity of Holiness as there is of Salvation Many think they may be saved without it live as they list and yet injoy God at last But what says the Scripture Without holiness no man shall ever see the Lord Heb. 12.14 There is the same necessity of taking upon you the Yoke of Christ as there is of injoying the presence of Christ Is the eternal happiness of the Soul necessary then so must the bearing Christs Yoke be for this is the means to the end non pervenitur ad finem nisi per media It doth not merit Heaven but it is the way to Heaven It is that which qualifies for glory Heaven is the purchase of Christs Blood a purchased possession Heb. 9.12 Eph. 1.14 but how can you hope for the benefit of his Blood if you do not stoop to his Yoke He is the Author of eternal salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 Slight Christ and you ruine your Souls We will not have this man to reign over us Luk. 19.14 And what is the fruit of it Christ will take you for the enemies of his Kingdom and Government and will deal with you as such Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me v. 27. O Sirs do ye know what ye do when ye despise and reject the Laws and Soveraignty of Christ You despise his Mercy ye dare his Justice you slight his Love ye trample his Blood under foot ye render
the faith 2 Tim. 4.7 8. there is his obedience henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness there is his confidence Remisness in obedience makes a waste upon our Faith let duty be omitted or lust indulged and Faith languishes and needs it must for sin in the conversation breeds doubts in the condition and it is as natural to do so as it is for a wound to cause pain Could a man obey without swerving he might believe without doubting the strictest holiness is usually attended with the sweetest peace and the highest assurance Isai 32.17 The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever And therefore when any pretend to strong hope in God and talk of their comfort in the Promises and great assurance and yet are careless and remiss in their walking with God and slack in their obedience those pretences are much to be suspected and the state of that man to be questioned For sin doth as naturally breed fear and distrust as obedience doth hope and peace How can a man hope in God when he doth not observe him or expect mercy when he provokes him to wrath by neglect of duty Therefore Satan doth two works at once when he tempts us to the practice of sin he stains our Souls and he weakens our trust He makes us fail in duty and doubt of mercy for sin leaves a guilt and guilt causes fear and the more our fear the less our faith as the one strengthens the other weakens they are like the two Buckets of a Well as one goes up the other goes down That sin that lessens our respect to the precept will proportionably weaken our faith in the Promise a man can never be much in dependance that is little in obedience Therefore duty is necessary for the maintaining our trust in God the Soul never attains to true rest but by taking up Christs Yoke Mat. 11.29 That is one branch of the reason why it is the concernment of every one to take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth because it is good It is a necessary good I have shewed you in six particulars the necessity of it It is necessary by virtue of the Precept Necessary as a means to the great End Necessary to preserve the rectitude of Nature Necessary to adjust our interest in Christ Necessary to manifest our gratitude to a Redeemer Necessary for the stablishing our Faith in the Promises of God Now that which is a good of so great necessity ought to be our greatest concernment we should mind it more than what is not so there are many things that are not necessary it is not necessary we should be rich or great in the world or that we should be gay and gawdy in our dresses or that we should have the cap and knee of by-standers or that we should wallow in pleasures and delights it will not be a pin to chuse e're long what part we have acted here when the Scepter and the Spade shall have one common grave and Royal dust shall be blended with the beggars ashes but it is necessary we should be born again it is necessary we should be acquainted with God and make him our portion it is necessary we should submit to the Yoke of Christ and owne his commands and live to the Lord there is nothing necessary but this Therefore we ought to make it our business to come under this Yoke betimes Secondly Subjection to the Yoke of Christ is a profitable good And there is no argument of greater prevalency than that which is taken ab utili A man will do any thing that he is convinced is for his benefit therefore God quickens us to a holy life by the consideration of our own benefit 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness is great gain Though God by virtue of his Soveraignty over us might have imposed what commands he pleased without the least injustice yet so gracious he is that he hath not acted by Soveraignty but with a respect to our advantage Not one command of God but the interest of the Creature is greatly promoted by it The most thrifty course a man can take in this world is to come under the Yoke of Christ betimes Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold she is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3.13 14 15 16. Religion is looked on by many with an evil eye upon this very account as standing in the way of their profit and as being an enemy to their particular advantages What profit shall we have if we pray to the Almighty Job 21.15 Most men follow Christ for the Loaves Joh. 6.26 no penny no Pater noster no profit no prayer Ye have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances Mal. 3.14 They look upon the service of Christ as a very poor trade and thriftless imployment whereas it is a business of the greatest benefit Nothing tends so much to our advantage as a life of godliness and obedience As for instance 1. Is that profitable which sanctifieth every condition to a man This Religion doth To the pure all things are pure Tit. 1.15 Religion sanctifies the heart and affections and all things are sanctified to a sanctified heart 2. Is that profitable which is beneficial to a man in all his circumstances So is Religion If a man abound with the good things of the present life Religion is of admirable advantage to direct the uses and injoyment to guard the heart from its snares by keeping the mind humble under it and setting the affections above it Phil. 4.12 It teaches how to be full and abound how to do good how to make friends of Mammon It makes outward prosperity to forward and promote our eternal interest by applying it to serve the honour of God and others necessities as well as our own If a man be poor Religion is no less useful to befriend a man in this case by teaching contentment with a little Phil. 4.11 by working the heart to a full resignedness to the will of God Phil. 4.12 by teaching how to want and suffer need by setting the heart upon things of a nobler nature and more necessary concernment upon God and heavenly things by fixing the Souls dependance upon those promises made to godliness which do as surely intitle a man to present sufficiencies 1 Tim. 4.8 as to eternal rewards So that when the needy sinner carks and cares murmurs and repines robs and deceives for a supply of his wants the good man having a sure interest in God rests confidently upon the never failing supplies
of an ingaged Providence 3. Is that profitable which brings its own reward with it This Religion doth In keeping thy commandments there is great reward Psal 19.11 The Prophet seems here not to intend the future recompence of reward which the obedient shall receive at last in Heaven for that is a reward for keeping his commandments though it is a reward not of merit but of grace but this is a reward in keeping his commandments The full harvest will be hereafter but yet the Christian hath a present reaping time for God meets them that rejoyce and work righteousness that remember him in his ways Isai 64.5 Our Lord Christ tells Peter Mark 10.30 31. That whoever hath left house or relations or lands for his sake and the Gospel's shall receive an hundred fold now in this life So that there is a reward in obedience as well as for it As beaten Spices recompense the pains by their grateful smell so the practice of Religion causes a sweet reflection upon the Soul and is thereby its own recompence Therefore David elsewhere speaks of what he had as a reward of obedience as well as what he hoped for Psal 119.56 This I had because I kept thy precepts This I had but he doth not tell you what but that may easily be guessed at by the dealings of God with him He had peace of Conscience he had the quicknings of God he had increase of grace he had frequent communion with God he had joy in the Holy Ghost he had many great experiences many deliverances and salvations and all this was the fruit of his obedience This I had because I kept thy precepts to be sure it was some great Boon because he mentions it so gratefully as a reward of mercy for his close walking with God So that the obedient Christian hath not all in hope there is much in hand he possesses much though he expects more For godliness hath both the promise of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 4. Is that profitable which fills the Soul with such joy as nothing else can This Religion doth It reconciles the Soul to God stamps it with his image lays it in with Divine principles whereby he is inabled to take the testimonies of God for his heritage for ever which become the rejoycing of his heart Psal 119.111 The Promises believed do not only create a joy in the Soul filled with peace and joy in believing Rom. 15.13 but the Precepts obeyed minister joy also The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Psal 19.8 So that the good mans joy arises from a double spring Faith secures his interest in the promise and so he rejoyces in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 Holiness subjects him to the precept and so he rejoyces in his conformity to the will of God I rejoyced in the way of thy testimonies more than in all riches Psal 119.14 This is a joy appropriated to the Children of God none partake of this oyl of gladness but they who have the oyl of grace in their vessels Disobedient sinners are strangers to this joy Prov. 14.10 Theirs is a joy arising either out of perishing comforts the joy of corn and wine and oyl Psal 4.7 or which is worse out of sinful acts and objects Who rejoyce to do evil Prov. 2.14 Now this is a poor weak unfruitful joy it wets the mouth but cannot warm the heart In the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful Prov. 14.13 It is rather revelling than rejoycing and therefore the Wise-man calls it mad mirth I have said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it Eccles 2.2 What satisfaction doth it afford what profit doth it bring with it Will it ease the smart of affliction will it remove the fears and doubts of Conscience will it bear us up against reproaches will it help us against the fear of death and judgment If not then what doth it it emasculates the spirits discomposes the judgment displaces reason feeds the senses and starves the Soul and the end of that mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 So that carnal joy is but a cold armful as one saith of a bad wife * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Sophocl in Antig. Like Adonijah's feast 1 Kings 1.9 49. that began in mirth but ended in fear 2 Sam. 13.26 82. or like Amnon's entertainment at Absolom's sheep-shearing who met with death at the banquet Solomon compares it to the crackling of thorns under a pot Eccles 7.6 where there is much noise but little fire much light but little heat and soon extinct As Comets make a great blaze but when their exhaled matter is spent they end in a pestilent vapor Such is the sinners joy soon lighted and soon wasted when his candle is put out as it quickly will be it leaves a stink behind Wo to you that laugh now for ye shall mourn Luke 6.25 The sinner purchases his joy with guilt and shame possesses it with an accusing vexing Conscience and at last it is extinguished if not in present terrors yet to be sure in eternal torments But the joy of obedience and holy walking is another thing it is a spiritual and heavenly joy wrought by a spiritual power drawn out by spiritual arguments fixed upon a spiritual object and serves to spiritual ends and uses to give check to worldly lusts to extinguish sensual appetite and abate the relish of carnal pleasures to support under losses wants reproaches to fence against the quarrels of Conscience to arm us against the fear of death and damnation In all these things the joy of the Lord is the good mans strength Nehem. 8.10 and therefore it is called strong consolation Heb. 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prevailing consolation It is prevalent against all opposition both from corruption within and temptation without It gives relief against all fears doubts and troubles either it prevents them or prevents the mischief of them by supporting the Soul under them This is such a good that as no good can match it so no evil can over-match it A heart full of grace and a conscience full of comfort makes a man sit either for doing or suffering it makes him insuperable under durances and unsatisfiable in duties for that hereby every cross becomes tolerable and light and every command delectable and sweet 5. Is that profitable that at once serves our temporal our spiritual and our eternal interest and advantage This Religion doth First It serves our temporal interest Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 In the Christians Charter the World is put in as well as Heaven and things present as well as things to come 1 Cor. 3.21 22. It is said of Wisdom that is Christ Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3.16 And what doth Christ do with
these blessings in his hand but bestow them upon those that keep his precepts with their whole heart And therefore the same thing is said of obedience v. 1 2. Let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace which comprehends all the rest shall they add unto thee Pray mind they are in the hand of Christ for the Father hath put all things into his hand and yet they are handed-out by the Commandments How is that why thus Obedience to the commands qualifies us to receive the blessings of the Promise and then Christ hands out to us the promised blessings Unless these things were in the hand of Christ obedience would never add them to us and unless we are found in the way of obedience Christ will never bestow them upon us for we have no claim It is Godliness that hath the promise of this life and so it serves our temporal interest Though the temporal rewards of godliness must be expected with much submission yet so far as they are good for us they are as much secured to us as Heaven and Glory He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 Secondly Godliness serves our spiritual interest and that is the thing we are chiefly to mind the Soul is far more than the body and therefore a spiritual good is to be preferred before a corporal Religion serves our spiritual interest two ways First It secures to us the chief good that good that is comprehensively all good and without which nothing can be good and that is God God with all his Attributes God with all his Treasures God with all his Promises if we perform our part of the Covenant God will not fail of his part Ye shall keep my judgments and do them And what then ye shall be my people and I will be your God Ezek. 36.27 28. Secondly It secures the life of the Soul And that is more worth than all the world This Christ intimates in that question Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Two things are here intimated 1. If a man should gain the whole world with the loss of his Soul it would be but a losing bargain 2. When the Soul is once lost nothing in the world can regain or redeem it And therefore what so profitable as Religion that secures the life of the Soul All the gold in the world can't secure the Soul but grace can Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivers from death Prov. 11.4 In the way of righteousness is life and in the path-way thereof there is no death Prov. 12.28 Thirdly Godliness serves our eternal interest It tends to an everlasting blessedness And herein the greatest gain of godliness consists in that it hath the promise of the life that is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 The Soul is immortal and therefore cannot be satisfied with any perishing good man that lives for ever must have a happiness that will endure for ever and there is but one way to secure it and that is by an obedient subjection to the Yoke of Christ This is the appointed means to that blessed end Being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 God hath not absolutely promised Salvation and eternal life to any but he hath annexed it to certain dispositions and qualifications without which we shall never share in the blessing promised Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord Psal 119.1 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 So that holiness and obedience is a necessary disposition for eternal blessedness For God will render to every man according to his works To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Rom. 2.6 7. And therefore it plainly appears how profitable a life of godliness is in that it hath so direct a tendency to our temporal to our spiritual and to our eternal benefit Why then should any one refuse to take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth Sixthly Is that profitable which will abide by us for ever which is a durable good Such grace and holiness is As of evils they are the most detrimental that are most durable and therefore sin is the worst of all evils because it is durable though the act of sin ceases yet it binds an eternal guilt upon the Soul of the wicked which shall never wear off And besides his corrupt nature and vicious disposition his hatred and enmity to God remain in him for ever And therefore of all evils sin is the most detrimental So in genere boni that is the most beneficial good that will abide by us for ever and such is grace and holiness It shall abide in the Soul for ever and hence it is called the true riches Luke 16.11 and durable riches Prov. 8.18 It may be thy riches lie in houses lands money ships or the like Alas these are not durable yet a little while and thy title to all these things will be extinguished but thy grace thy love to God thy holiness thy conformity to his will thy obedience shall never be extinguished From all that hath been said the benefit of Religion plainly appears and that conclusion of the Apostle stands firm 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness is profitable to all things And this is a second branch of the reason why every one should take up the Yoke of Christ betimes because it is a good so much conducing to our benefit As it sanctifies every condition As it is advantageous to a man in all his circumstances As it brings its own reward with it As it fills the Soul with such a joy as nothing else can As it serves our temporal spiritual and eternal interest As it abides by us for ever Therefore it is not in vain to serve God it is every way for your benefit to be early Converts and if so who would not be religious betimes and take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth seeing God is such a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Thirdly Subjection to the Yoke of Christ is an honourable good The Heathens made Honour the effect of goodness and the Egyptian Hieroglyphick painted it between humility and labour and the Romans so placed their Temples that he that would go to the Temple of Honour must pass through the Temple of Virtue Nothing is truly honour to a man but Religion and Vertue Prov. 22.4 By humility and the fear of the Lord and that takes in the whole of Religion and obedience are riches and honour and life And therefore in Scripture good men are called Vessels of honour 2 Tim. 2.21 And sanctification
and honour are put together 1 Thess 4.4 That you should know how to possess your vessel in sanctification and honour Nothing can be so great an honour to a man as Religion and Godliness 1. This makes a man like God The truest resemblance that man can carry to his Maker is in Holiness therefore one says Godliness is God-likeness it is the image of God in man Eph. 4.24 That ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And what greater honour than to resemble God especially in that which is the glory of all his perfections and that is holiness His holiness is his greatest honour and glory Who is like thee O Lord Exod. 15.11 among the Gods who is like thee glorious in holiness For this reason sin is the basest and most dishonourable thing in the world it blots out the image of God in man It robs him of his Holiness and what is a man without holiness Take holiness from an Angel and he becomes a Devil and man without holiness is like him 2. The Word every where puts such a difference and distinction between the godly and ungodly as speaks Religion to be very honourable Good men are called the precious The precious sons of Sion Lam. 4.2 Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable Isai 43.4 And evil men are called the vile Psal 15.4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned Dan. 11.21 In his estate shall stand up a vile person i. e. Antiochus And Jer. 15.19 If thou take forth the precious from the vile The righteous are called Wheat and the wicked Chaff Mat. 3.12 Others reprobate silver Jer. 6.30 Lam. 4.2 these fine gold others dross these Jewels Mal. 3.17 they bryars and thorns these a noble Vine Nay good men are called the excellent of the earth Psal 16.3 Outward ornaments or Titles of earthly Honour which set one above another in this world without the inward ornaments of Grace and Holiness are but like the Trappings of a Horse or the Chains of Gold about the necks of the Midianites Camels Judg. 8.26 they advance not a man one step above the beasts that perish 3. God himself honours such and he is the fountain of honour he whom God honours shall be honoured indeed 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me will I honour Psal 91.14 15. I will set him on high because he hath known my Name I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him 4. True honour begins in Religion and ends there When a man begins to owne and serve God there his honour begins And when a man casts off Religion his honour is lost He that despises me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown Rev. 3.11 A Crown is a token of the highest honour and what is the Christians Crown He hath two Crowns one present one future his future Crown is Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 His present Crown is godliness and sincerity in Religion if he falls from Religion his Crown falls 5. In that it is pretended to for by-ends where nothing of the truth and power of it is Having a form of godliness but denying the power What makes men hypocrites but because they would have the honour of Religion though they have nothing of the truth of it If a man would increase his trade and draw custom he pretends Religion If a man would draw Disciples after him in broaching any new Opinion he must be very strict and seem very religious for this gives a reputation to a person among the vulgar that judge by appearances and so promotes the Doctrine Now if Religion were not a thing of great honour and reputation men would never pretend to it that are enemies to the life and virtue of it 6. It is praised by them that love it not He that fondly hugs vice will yet commend vertue The Drunkard will commend sobriety he would not have his child or servant a drunkard The Deceiver commends Justice and though he practises deceit upon others he himself would not be served so He loves to buy by just weights and measures though he sells by false ones The Adulterer loves a chast wife and the filthy Strumpet would have her husband true to her bed though she be false to his 7. It puts honour upon a man in death The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psal 112.6 The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10.7 No man dyes in the bed of honour but he that perseveres in the ways of God whiles he lives Rom. 14.8 and dyes to the Lord when he dyes 8. Christ will put honour upon him at last When the wicked shall be cast out with shame and everlasting contempt from the glorious presence of God with a go ye cursed then shall the righteous be honoured with a come ye blessed of my Father c. And shall shine body and soul with the glory of Christ for ever O what an honour is it to be godly Let no man be ashamed of Christ and his Yoke What though Religion is scoffed at in the world it is only by them that know nothing of it and so are not fit to judge The Moon is never the less bright because the dogs bark at it It is sin that is the reproachful thing Prov. 14.34 Sin is a reproach to any people It is a dishonour Prov. 6.33 It is a shame Lest he walked naked and they see his shame Rev. 16.15 Sin is not a thing of good report is it any reputation to a man to be a drunkard unclean proud covetous profane Oh no. Sin hath an ill name in the world among all even sinners themselves unless it be among the vilest Torys and Debauchees and it becomes the more odious by their esteem and character If there be any honour in sin why do men hide it Why doth it seek corners and the covers of darkness They that are drunk are drunk in the night 1 Thess 5.7 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight saying No eye shall see me and disguises his face The morning is to them as the shadow of death if one know them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death Job 24.15 17. And Solomon says of the young man void of understanding that he goes to the harlots house In the twilight in the evening in the black and dark night Prov. 7.7 8 9. And why is not sin owned by its own name among its servants and abetters But it must be painted with vertues colours to render it taking This speaks it deformed and ugly in it self Covetousness is condemned of all I but frugality is a lovely thing and therefore griping and carking and caring and pinching is not covetousness but frugality A proud person is contemned of all I but neatness and decency is lovely
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
causes shame here Where there is any sense of God and ingenuity of Spirit consciousness of guilt puts the Soul to the blush when it would have to do with God in its approaches O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee for our iniquities are increased c. Ezra 9.6 So it is said of the Publican that when he went into the Temple to pray he stood afar off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven Luke 18.13 These are postures by which great shame and confusion of face is expressed Or if any be hardned under sin as not to be ashamed here yet Secondly He shall be ashamed before God hereafter Many that now dare though in their sins and lusts make solemn approaches to God will be ashamed and confounded to appear at the Judgment-seat of God David says Psal 1.5 The wicked shall not stand in judgment Psal 1.5 Indeed there are few that shall The great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Revel 6.17 Sinners that now are grown impudent in sin that have a Whores forehead that have took their degree in the Scorners chair Psal 1.1 that are past shame shall then be ashamed and confounded for ever And there are three things in the process of that day which shall cause it 1. The discovery of sin which shall then be made For all the wickedness that ever the sinner committed shall then be made known God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evil Eccles 12.14 There is not a closet-sin nor the most concealed iniquity but shall then be made publick God will then bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man that is every good man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4.5 But what shall become of sinners sure they shall be ashamed 2. The utter frustration of the sinners hope So long as hope lasts shame hath no place now many a mans hope lasts to the day of Judgment they maintain a confidence of the goodness of their estate which nothing but the light of that day can confute So did they in Mat. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works So did the foolish Virgins till the door was shut Mat. 25.10 3. The contempt that God shall put upon them when he shall eternally banish them his presence by the dreadful Sentence that he shall then pass against them Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 By the passing this Sentence they shall become the scorn and contempt of all the Saints and Angels in Heaven Therefore it is said They that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 Secondly Taking pleasure in sin causes shame before others God by one means or other will bring such sinners to open shame Jer. 13.26 I will discover thy skirts that thy shame may appear And Ezek. 16.37 I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure and all them thou hast hated Ezek. 23.29 and will discover thy nakedness to them that they may see all thy nakedness And to have the nakedness discovered is matter of shame Thirdly Taking pleasure in sin causeth shame before our selves Conscience under guilt torments the Soul with the shame of its own folly Hence that of the Apostle Rom. 6.21 What fruit had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Sin inticeth us before we commit it and afterwards fills the Soul with horrour and shame So our first Parents when they had sinned they were ashamed Gen. 3.7 But who was ever ashamed of the pleasures and delights he found in the ways of godliness A good man may be reproached and scoffed at for his strictness by the Ishmaels of the day but there can be no cause of shame For shame as the Philosopher defines it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A certain grief and trouble in ingenuous minds about unbecoming actions and such things as tend to our infamy and disgrace now there is nothing dishonourable in Religion it is only sin that can discredit and defame us where there is no sin there is no shame Fifthly The pleasures of sin are prohibited pleasures they are forbidden fruit If God hath forbid the doing of sin then much more the taking pleasure in sin For it is a greater evil to take pleasure in sin than it is simply to act sin to delight in it is worse than to do it To do sin may be only from weakness of grace but to delight in sin is from the strength of lust As it is a greater argument of grace to delight in obedience than to obey for a man may be much in the performance of duties that yet may have no delight in duty But where there is a delight in duty and obedience there the heart is indeed under the power of grace I delight to do thy will O my God thy Law is within my heart Psal 40.8 So it speaks the sinner more under the power of sin to delight in it than to do it The more of the affection there is in sin the more ready will the sinner be to comply with every temptation which leads to it Amor animae pondus and it is the cunning of Satan to suit his baits to our corrupt appetites and vicious dispositions he loves to take the advantage of wind and tide and when a man that delights in sin is tempted to sin then he goes with wind and tide Nay in this case a sinner needs no temptation his own vicious disposition will supply the place of a Tempter for the more any sin obtains upon the affections the more of the nature of a temptation doth it carry in it self Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed Jam. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper lust because though we have all a corrupt nature in common yet every sinner hath a particular several inclination to this or that sin rooted in his nature more than to any other and this is called his own lust And how easily doth he consent when he is inticed by his own lust he hath no power to resist or withstand for the more a man delights in sin the more naturally his desires and vicious inclinations do run to it And therefore God charges it as a high degree of sinning and makes it a great aggravation of sin to delight and take pleasure in it They have chosen their own ways that is bad and their soul delights in their abominations that is worse Isai 66.3 And God aggravates the sinfulness
the case is not the same for we are bound to answer Gods precepts but he is not bound to answer our requests and yet we make him tarry our sinful leisure in the business of duty though we think much to tarry his holy leisure in the case of mercy Secondly It is down-right disobedience he that delays a duty transgresses the precept and slights the divine Authority The season is as much a part of the command as the thing commanded If God says return ye now every one from his evil way Jer. 18.11 the now is as much a duty as the returning If the Father says to his Son go work to day in my vineyard Matt. 21.28 it is flat disobedience to defer it till to morrow for the time of working is as much a duty as the work it self Thirdly It is the highest ingratitude for Christ did not adjourn his love to us one day his heart was to us from everlasting I was set up from everlasting rejoycing in the habitable parts of the earth and my delights were with the sons of men Prov. 8.23.31 He gave himself in the Covenant of Redemption to dye for sin and redeem sinners from the first day that sin entred And therefore he is said to be a lamh slain from the foundadation of the world Revel 13.8 Though he came not to dye actually till the fullness of time Galat. 4.4 yet in the decree of God the Father and in the consent of God the Son he was a Saviour from the beginning and his Blood was as efficacious to Salvation before ever it was shed as after he was a Saviour and Redeemer from the first entrance of sin Adam Noah Abraham and all the Saints that lived before his Incarnation were saved by his Blood as well as we His love bears date from everlasting and it breaks forth very early in the overt acts of it to particular persons Christ begins with sinners betimes who knows how soon puts upon many of them a federal holiness betimes seals them for his betimes puts his spirits into them betimes and calls them to an actual close with him betimes it is hard to say how soon but it appears to be very early in that many have been converted from their very childhood as Samuel and Timothy and others O the earliness of the love of Christ and shall we adjourn our obedience as if we were afraid of closing with him too soon he took up our burden betimes and shall we delay the taking up his Yoke for the last work of our lives This is great ingratitude Fourthly It is manifest injustice and a fraudulent detaining of Christs right For whose you are his your strength and service is and are ye not the Lords hath he not redeemed you and that both by price at the hands of God and by power out of the hands of Satan ye are the redeemed of the Lord and therefore you are his your time is his your gifts and parts are his your affections are his your estates are his your strength is his your youth is his your body and soul are his your all is his and therefore not to give up your selves body and soul to him not to love and fear and serve him is a crying injustice Nay to delay it one day one moment is to deny him his right Many boast of their honesty they are just to all and wrong none yes you wrong your redeemer you are unjust to Jesus Christ and that is the highest injustice in the world To delay any man in that which is his right is a great sin the wages of the hireling must be paid at the day and it must be done before the sun be set Deut. 24.14 15. It is a maxim in the Law minus solvit qui minus tempore solvit not to pay at the time is to pay the less because there is so much advantage for improvement lost Is it such a sin to detain a servants right what is it then to detain our Lords right must we not withhold wages for a servants work till the sun be set and yet dare we withhold doing our Lords work till the sun of our lives is setting O what base injustice is this Fifthly It is altogether unreasonable there is no man living can give a reason to excuse him from this duty You cannot say it is the wrong way to Heaven for it is the way the Lord Christ hath directed and chalked out You cannot say it is a needless Yoke for there is no Salvation without taking it upon you You cannot say it is a dangerous Yoke for it hath salvation certainly intailed upon it You cannot say it is a fruitless Yoke Matt. 11.28 for it yields perfect peace and lasting joy to all that come under it You cannot say it is an impossible Yoke for as you have the command of Christ to undertake it so you have the promise of Christ to help and inable you to bear it So that you cannot give one reason why you should neglect it and therefore he that refuses to take it up is without excuse Whoever remains graceless in a day of Grace will be found speechless in the Day of Judgement Matt. 22.12 Sixthly It is downright madness for you refuse Heaven because you will not be holy You will rather lose the eternal injoyment of God than be made like God You will rather chuse to perish under the wrath of Christ than you will consent to come under the Yoke of Christ You will be contented to be damned so you may go a pleasant way to Hell And is not this madness to the height to chuse rather to perish eternally than be tied to love and serve your maker and redeemer O what a base and low opinion have you of God and Heaven how can ye degrade and dishonour him more If a man should publish it as his opinion that darkness is better than light that Hell is rather to be chosen than Heaven that he had rather be in an everlasting society with Devils and damned Spirits than with God and Christ in the glory above what would you say of such a one but that he talked like a mad man why then reflect upon your selves a little for mutato nomine do teâ— Fabula narratur you that prefer the pleasures of sin to the service of Christ that will renounce your part in God and Christ and eternal happiness to satisfie a base lust that will stake your Souls for a few minutes of sinful delights can any man be guilty of greater madness do ye know what ye do or what ye speak when ye say in your hearts this lust shall reign but Christ shall not reign let us break his bonds Psal 2.3 and cast his cords far away from us this is treason against the Crown of Heaven your Blood Luk. 19.27 your Life your Soul must go for this Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them out and
be deceived judgment ought not to be pronounced but upon a full hearing and a through debate ad pauca respicit qui cito pronunciat it is not judgment but fond opinion that is passed upon a matter without hearing all that is fit to be said about it therefore so great a matter as this is should not be determined but upon mature deliberation As it is said of counsel omne consilium in festinatione captum stultitia est all counsel taken in hast is folly The same may be said of judging our selves all hasty precipitate judgment is folly the way to come to a rational certainty is to make a full inquiry Hypocrites and carnal sinners overlook what is evil and judge by any good they find and weak Christians overlook what is good and judge themselves by the evil that is discovered this is judgement upon hearing but of one side and he that doth so is an unjust Judge though he should happen to pass a just judgment * Qui aliquid statuerit alterâ parte inauditâ aequum licet statuerit haud aequus est there must be a searching out the case that neither sin may be passed by on the one hand nor grace overlooked on the other Rule 2. Another thing in this inquiry is the light of the spirit this is very necessary in such a work Solomon says The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord Prov. 20.27 But the spirit of the Lord is the light of this candle without which he cannot see into the inward parts of the belly It is this that brings to light the hidden things of darkness and makes manifest the counsels of the heart 1 Cor. 4.5 What is the meaning of that Prayer of David Psal 139.23 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me He doth hereby beg for such a measure of the spirits light and aid which searcheth all things 1 Cor. â—2 10 as may enable him to such a search of his heart whereby he may be fully assured of the goodness of his estate You will never be able to come to a true knowledge of your state and heart but by the spirits light and help Rule 3. Another means is frequent and repeated tryals It is not enough for a man that would be satisfied of his spiritual condition to bring his heart to the touchstone now and then it must be done often according to the variety of conditions occasions and temptations In our Law a man can be but once tryed for one fact because his life shall not be always in hazard But in spiritual matters the oftner we are brought to the bar the better frequent tryals do not hazard our case but tend to put it out of hazard How should a man know much of his spiritual state that seldom converseth with his own heart It was a good rule Tecum habita A mans business lies most within doors and therefore he should often descend into himself Davids counsel is Commune with your own heart upon your bed Psal 4.4 The word in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak to your own heart the expression is not limited and therefore may take in all those ways of speaking by which a man may keep up a secret inward and profitable communion with his own soul And this is advised to be done upon the bed which notes Retiredness and Frequency First Retiredness In the bed a man is retired from the distracting noises and hurries of the World * Nox tempus accomodum est rebus considerandis diligentius examinandis tum enim animus sedatior esse solet Moller in Loc. and so is at leisure for the work Secondly Frequency As oft as a man lies down upon his bed he should go down into his heart and call himself to account every night where his heart has been and what it hath done every day Rule 4. Try till the matter be fully determined and you come to a rational and well grounded satisfaction in your selves that so you may have an answer in readiness to put all doubts and scruples to silence Rule 5. Another way is by observing and fixing upon the fittest seasons There is a time for every thing there is a time to try and a time to trust without tryal a time to look inward and a time when it is more proper to look upward Every time is not a fit season for this work sometimes the Soul is beclouded tempted deserted defiled by new sins and these are times wherein it is set against it self and now all is naught all is Hypocrisie praejudicium tollit judicium it is commonly seen so When Heman is under the hiding of God how is judgment blinded and all Grace is hid If David be under a cloud presently he is cast off He that looks upon his face in a broken glass will appear a most deformed creature As he that walks in a dark night is apt to think every bush a Thief he fansies nothing but objects of fear and terrour so it is in this case And therefore in such a condition it is better to call uppn the Soul as David did to trust and wait Multiply direct acts of Faith more and reflect less It is an excellent piece of wisdom to take the proper season for every duty Rule 6. If upon good evidence thou art able to prove the sincerity of thy heart to Christ don't question the goodness of thy state because of the Hypocrites carnal confidence The foolish Virgins thought their Oyl as good as that of the wise but the Oyl of the wise Virgins was of the right kind notwithstanding that Many a corrupt Judge passes a wrong sentence but a righteous Judge that guides himself by evidence and Law may do right for all that Many a man may be rich in a Dream but what then may not therefore a waking man know what his Estate is or whether it be his or not The Turk is confident of his Religion the Jew as confident of his the Papist is certain of his to an infallibility and yet this doth not hinder but that a Protestant may certainly know that he is in the true way and that they are wofully deceived and given up to believe lies Rule 7. Be sure to make use of a right rule to judge by for Rectum est index sui obliqui No man can make a true judgment but by a right rule if that be crooked or false the judgment that is made by it must needs be wrong If the touchstone be not right you can never judge of the metal Before I shew you which is the true rule let me warn you against some false rules which many try and deceive themselves by First Some measure themselves by themselves such the Apostle speaks of 2 Corinth 10.12 They measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves
outward profession of him is a very wrong rule For 1. How common is it to have the form separated from the power This the Apostle tells us is one of the sins that shall abound in the last Days and that shall make the times so perilous having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true form for forma est per quod res est id quod est The true form of Godliness consists in an inward change by a work of Grace and is that which denominates a man a godly man for forma dat esse rei And therefore it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies an outward shew a formality a vizor or mask of Godliness and what is that but a profession so that a man may wear the vizor of a profession all his days and yet be an Enemy to the power of Religion 2. That profession of Religion which may consist with a state of spiritual death can be no true measure of a mans subjection to Christ Now a man may maintain a high profession and yet be dead in sin thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Revel 3.1 alive to the World by an outward shew but dead to God for want of the substance What a lively professor was Judas and yet in a dead estate There is never an ordinance of the Gospel but a man may be found in the use of it and yet be all the while dead in sin No outward means of Grace did ever nor can it by any vertue or power of its own quicken one dead Soul How many sinners abide all their days under the loud calls of the word preached and yet perish in their lusts so that to many it is so far from working life that it superadds a second death To some we are a savour of death to death 2 Cor. 2.16 and therefore a profession of Religion is but a crooked rule to judge of your subjection to Christ by These are necessary cautions for carnal and ignorant persons that are apt to mis-judge their state and condition by errors on the left hand There are other cautions that are as necessary for weak believers who are as apt to err on the right hand by judging their case by false rules also whereby instead of true peace their souls are filled with groundless troubles I will name but four First One is degrees of Grace Grace in improvement this many make a rule to judge their case by And because Grace is weak and little therefore they judge it is false and counterfeit and they have no Grace Now this is a false rule to judge by for it is not the quantity of Grace that proves the state but the quality Will any man say a peny is not silver because a crown piece is bigger you do not judge of it by the bigness but by the goodness Will any man say it is not Day unless it be noon you don't judge of the Day by the heighth of the Sun but by the light of it We should try our selves as God trys us not by the scale for then we should be found too light there would be a Mene Tekel upon the best of us but he trys us by the Touchstone if Grace be true Grace if Obedience be sincere it is owned and accepted and shall pass the approbation of God though it be little yea though never so little Thus saith the Lord as the new wine is found in the cluster and one saith destroy it not for a blessing is in it so will I do for my servants sake Isai 65.8 He will not despise the day of small things nor should we Zech. 4.10 We should eye the weakness of Grace so as to labour to improve it but not so as to mis-judge our selves because of it If we would press forward Philip. 3.13 the way is to overlook attainments and leave them behind us but if we would know our state the way is not to overlook but to set them before us Our comfort lies in the increase of Grace but our salvation lies in the truth of Grace for God hath not promised salvation to such a measure but he hath promised it to Grace in any measure Therefore though a man ought not to rest satisfied with his Grace if it be never so much yet he ought not to be discouraged though it be never so little For though little Grace possibly may not afford much comfort yet it proves the goodness of our state and secures our Souls Secondly Another rule is comparing themselves with Saints of the highest attainments and because they are not come to their pitch and stature in Grace therefore judge they have no Grace As Hypocrites think their condition good by comparing themselves with such as come short of them so weak believers think their case bad because they judge themselves by such as have outgone them This is another false measure for as in nature so in Grace growth and stature is various Some are but children some are strong men some are aged and full of years different growths but the same life of various statures but one in kind So it is here some are children in Grace some are strong men some are fathers 1 John 2.12 13. here is Grace differing in degree but of the same kind The green fig is of the same nature with that which is ripe Cant. 2.13 and the tender grape with that which is ready for the press In Christs Orchard that is his Church there are trees of various growths Cant. 4.14 Spikenard and Saffron Calamus and Cinamon with all trees of Frankincense Myrrh and Aloes Brightman makes these to set forth the several sorts of Christians some are newly sprung up these are the Spikenard and Saffron Herbs that do appear but little above the ground Some are of a middle stature these are the Calamus and Cinamon Trees of about two Cubits high Some are tall and eminent in Grace these are the trees of Frankincense Myrrh and Aloes trees of different growth and yet all of the Lords planting Some are Lambs and some are Sheep and yet all are of the same flock of Christ Shall any one then say I have no Grace because I have not so much as another Is not thy faith true faith because it is not so strong as Abrahams who against hope believed in hope or wilt thou question the truth of thy obedience because thou canst not offer thy Son as he did May not God be thy God though thou canst not call him as David did Psal 43.4 God my exceeding joy wilt thou deny the truth of thy dependance because thou hast not the Apostle Pauls assurance mayst not thou be under the sanctifying work of the spirit as well as he though thou hast not the witnessing work of the spirit as he had though the spirit
concealed it is out of the reach of those means that should give check to it It is the most rational way to cure Soul troubles and settle our comfort Sin is like an impostume while it is gathering it is painful but when it is broke or lanced and runs then there is ease Or like a wind lockt up in the Earth which causes great Earthquakes till it finds a vent and then the Earth is quiet It commends the vertue of Christ's Blood when we open to him those mortal wounds which none but he can cure It puts an edge upon prayer he that hath no sin to acknowledge hath but little mercy to beg It is the next way to forgiveness If any say I have sinned and it profited me not he will deliver his Soul from going into the pit Job 33.27 28. In the first Covenant it was He that commits sin shall dye But in the second Covenant he that confesses sin shall be forgiven 1 Joh. 1.9 Confession speakes out such a sensibleness of sin as works the Soul to a ready compliance with any terms of deliverance And a heart brought over to submit to Gods remedies is in a fair way to a cure Though sin be a desperate Disease yet it is never deadly where the Patient is ready to use Gods Medicines This confession leaves such a dread of sin upon the heart that it dare not return to it as it was wont I do not say but that possibly a Believer may through the prevalency of lust and temptation fall into the same sin he hath confessed to God yet it shall not prevail as formerly But it is not every kind of Confession that speaks out an enmity to sin It is possible a man may often confess sin and yet ne-ver forsake it but persist in it all his days and perish in it at last Saul confessed and yet perished Judas confessed his sin and yet lost his Soul Therefore It must be free and voluntary not forced and extorted It must be in sincerity and uprightness of heart Psal 38.18 It must be with brokenness of heart I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for my sin It must be with a hearty resolution against sin This is another thing the Hypocrite comes short in he cannot thus confess sin he flatters himself in his own eyes till his iniquity be found to be hateful Psal 36.2 He covers his Transgression as Adam by hiding his iniquity in his bosom Job 31.33 3. This odds in Believers against sin appears in the hating of sin There is odium abominationis and odium inimicitiae One is a hatred that causes aversation the other is a hatred that causes opposition Both ways the Believer hates sin 1. He turns from it as being a thing offensive and loathsome to the Spiritual Appetite and Renewed Will. No natural man can thus hate sin because there is a sutableness between the Heart and Lust He may possibly hate that which is sin but he cannot hate it as it is sin for then he would hate all sin One of a tenacious gripple humour may hate pride and prodigality One that is prodigal and profuse may hate Covetousness And yet he may not hate sin formally considered though he hates that which materially considered is sin This kind of hatred of sin is usually for the sake of some other sin it is only a reserving the affections for some Lust that suits him better So that it may be said of Lust in this case as is said of the Sea what ground it loses in one place it gains in another Whilst he hates one sin he loves another whilst he turns from one he cleaves to another He cannot hate sin as sin this is peculiar to Believers There is no Hypocrite in the World that can unfeignedly hate every sin he cannot say with David Psalm 119.128 I hate every false way but the Believer can and doth I don't say that he ceaseth from all acts of sin that is impossible so long as Grace is imperfect and he carries a body of death about him but he hates all sin and darling sins above all as being the worst of sins for these are they whereby God hath been most dishonoured the Mind most blinded the Heart most bewitched Satan most gratified and the Soul most wounded To dislike some sins and not others is not hatred If the heart be right with God the same reasons that induce us to hate one sin will induce us to hate all God hates all and wherever the Divine Nature is wrought it shews it self in suitable dispositions It is a Universal Principle which as it inclines the heart to all good so it sets it against all sin And it must needs be so or else how can a man be said to be in subjection to Jesus Christ for one sin keeps possession for Satan as well as a thousand And this discovers many that would prove their subjection to Christ by their hating sin when as they do not hate all sin There is ever some lust in reserve of which they say as Jacob of his beloved Benjamin Gen. 42.38 He shall not go Or as Naaman of his bowing to Rimmon when I bow my self in the house of Rimmon 2 Kings 5.18 the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing Now suppose a Woman should love her Husband better than a thousand and a thousand men yet if there be any one that she loves and embraces and desires more than him would ye not say she was a harlot yes as really as she that prostitutes her self to all that pass by He that indulges to any one sin was never yet truly under the Yoke of Christ Though a Believer may possibly fall into many sins yet there is no Believer but hates every sin And let me tell you I know not a surer sign of a mans being under the power of Grace than this For what else is it that can make a man loath that sin that he loved as himself Many a man may be angry with sin but that is consistent with love Many a man may forbear sin for fear of shame or punishment But this is not to hate sin as sin When sin is loathed as being a violation of Gods Law a contempt of his Authority contrary to his Nature an Enemy to his Service and Honour a grief to the Spirit this is to hate sin as sin and he that thus hates sin must necessarily hate all sin for all sin violates his Law is contrary to his nature opposes his Service and grieves his Spirit Secondly as he hates it with a hatred of abomination so he hates it with a hatred of enmity and this appears in a vigorous activity against sin 1. He prays against it Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me Psal 119.133 Prayers and Tears are the Christians Weapons not only against the malice of enemies without but also against the mischief of sin within He don't
to the Divine Will Holiness is the being of the Spiritual Life in us Obedience is the operation of that Life according to the degrees of it in the Soul For there is a great difference in the degrees of Spiritual Life in Believers it is variously Communicated to one more to another less All Believers have it but some have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 and according to the measure of the life of holiness in us such is our strength to obey and according to the strength of our obedience such will the evidence of our subjection to Christ and his Yoke be 2. What greater evidence can there be of our subjection to Christ then that which is the proper and essential act of the new creature and that obedience is It is not more essential to the eye to see nor to the ear to hear then it is for a renewed heart to obey God A Believer doth but act his nature in obeying and that appears from that pleasure and delight which so far as renewed he takes in it Acts of nature are acts of delight hence that of the Apostle Rom. 7.22 I delight in the law of God after the inner man And that of David I delight to do thy will O my God And whence this delight arises the next words tell you Thy Law is within my heart Psal 40.8 The principle of grace within makes obedience to the law of God a delight and delight in obedience to the law of God proves the truth of that Principle within All delight in doing arises from a suitableness between the Principle and the Precept the heart and the work If there are precepts injoyned us and a defect of Principles in us much may be done but there can be no delight in doing the commands will be grievous But it is not every kind of Obedience that can prove the truth of our subjection to Christ A hypocrite may go far in the outward part of obedience he may have a form of Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 and what is that but a resemblance of a Christian in all the outward lineaments of Godliness He may be able to do all external acts of obedience in common with Believers But there are some things essential to Believers as such the goodness whereof doth adhere intrinsecally to this work done as to love God to fear God to trust in God to delight in God These mingled with our outward duties make them to be obedience of the right kind and these no hypocrite can attain to and therefore cannot perform any one act of true obedience For obedience consists in a full conformity to the will of God as revealed in his word from a Principle of holiness within Many profess subjection to Christ in word but deny it in works calling him Lord Lord but not doing the things which he sayes Luk. 6.46 And many have flexible knees but stiff necks bowing the former to the name Jesus but will not bow the latter to the Yoke of Jesus being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1.16 There is no such Testimony of your being under the Yoke of Christ as conformity to the will of Christ By this then you may make a judgment in this matter When the spies returned from searching the Land of Canaan they brought with them a cluster of Grapes and Pomegranates and Figs Numbers 13.23 and when they came to give an account of their search they shewed them the fruit of the Land and said surely it flowes with milk and hony and this is the fruit of it ver 27. q. d. the Land that yields such good fruit must needs be a good Land The fruit of being under Christs yoke is dying to sin and living to God in a Holy Obedience And by these two Characters your State may certainly be known The heart that yields such fruit is surely a good heart Pray observe that of the Apostle Rom. 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness It is not being Baptized into the name of Christ nor taking up the outward profession of Christ and Religion that can distinguish between the servants of Christ and Satan Here is a surer rule He that obeys sin is the servant of sin and he that obeys Christ is the servant of Christ CHAP. XV. Exhorts to thankfulness to God who inclined the heart to this Yoke The wisdom of taking up this Yoke manifested THE last use shall be of Exhortation and I shall direct it to two sorts of persons 1. To them that have taken up the yoke of Christ in their youth 2. To such as have never yet taken up the yoke of Christ to this day Exhortat 1. To them that have taken up the yoke of Christ in their youth that have made it their work to mind Religion betimes to remember their Creator in the dayes of their youth There are three duties I would commend to such by way of direction Duty 1. The first is thankfulness Though this contributes nothing to God yet it is that which he is delighted with It shews the honesty and integrity of the heart in ascribing effects to their proper causes Thankfulness diminishes the creature to himself and magnifies God It shews a man looks upon himself as nothing and God as all Therefore bless God and be thankful for this great mercy Is there not a cause For 1. How came you to take up Christs yoke Rom. 6.17 Isa 26.13 Time was when ye were the servants of sin other Lords had dominion over you Time was when you were slaves to lust How came you to take up the yoke of Christ It was not natural for by nature we are enemies to grace and holiness It was the fruit of the wisdom of God impressed upon the Soul it was he that gave thee counsel to make this choice and therefore bless him So David sayes in the like case I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel Psa 16.7 Counsel for what to take the Lord for his Lord and that implies taking up his yoke O my soul thou hast said to the Lord thou art my Lord ver â— thou art my Lord that implies subjection Thou hast said thou art my Lord that implyes a Covenant resignation So that here he chooses God for his portion and chief good and for his highest Lord and how he came to make this choice he tells you ver 7. It was the Lord that counselled him to this and therefore he resolves the praise and glory shall be to him I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel Go you and do likewise bless the Lord who hath perswaded and over power'd your hearts to close with Christ For no man comes to Christ except the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 2. It is the wisest choice that ever you made to choose Christ for your Lord and
1.14 Sacrificing was a duty commanded by God but he that corrupted his sacrifices came under a curse as they did that offered the blind and the lame and the sick to God ver 8. When men have not a rule from the word of God for a warrant of their worship that is a blind sacrifice When there is action without affection the lips without the heart that is a lame sacrifice When dutyes are done coldly without life and vigour that is a sick sacrifice and such a sacrificer is a deceiver because he doth not observe the right manner and cursed be the deceiver So Jeremy 48.10 Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully 1 Corinth 11.29 He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself And what the judgment is he tells you in the next verse For this cause many are sick and weak among you and many sleep Many were under soar diseases and many swept away by death for coming to the Lords table in an unworthy manner It is of great concernment therefore to see that your obedience be right for the manner Otherwise we may think we serve God when our very service becomes sin It is excellent counsel of the Apostle Heb. 12.28 Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably That which gives the acceptance is the manner of obedience Now there must be four things to make obedience right for the manner I. It must be a willing obedience duties are to flow from the heart freely like the drops that come from the hony comb without pressing it is a character peculiar to the subjects of Jesus Christ they are a willing people And herein the efficacy of grace is seen in taking away natural reluctancy and opposition and bringing the will into subjection to Christ And therefore it is said to be an effect of the day of his power in the soul Psal 101.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power God is more honoured by the obedience of the will than by all the service of the outward man Humane force may compell this but nothing but grace can rule the other Many obey but it is by constraint not by choice The influence of by ends or forreign motives or the compulsion of a natural conscience or fears of hell and wrath may compell them to do many things as Herod did but they are burthensome and grievous Ever as the will is such is the service and therefore God who in some cases accepts the will for the deed never accepts the deed in any case without the will 2 Cor. 8.12 In the duties of Gods service the will is all in all Thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind 1 Chron. 28.9 II. It must be an universal obedience And that both in respect to the subject and to the object 1. With respect to the subject it must be the obedience of the whole man Jesus Christ hath redeemed both body and soul and regeneration is a work upon the whole man All things are become new 2 Cor. 15.17 and therefore the service of the whole man is required 1 Cor. 6.20 Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Many give God an outward obedience but their hearts are set upon their lusts and many pretend their hearts are good and right with God but their lives are vitious and among the unclean but where the Yoke of Christ is truly taken up the whole man is the Lords 2 With respect to the object The whole will of God as revealed in his word Walk in all the wayes that I have commanded you that it may be well with you Jer. 7.23 There are affirmative precepts and negative commands for suffering as well as doing positive commands and relative greater commands and less None may be neglected It is said of David he fulfilled all Gnds wills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.22 i. e. his will in all his commands He had respect to all his commands Psal 119.6 Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless Luke 1.6 and it will be so wherever the heart is right with God For in regeneration the whole law of God is impressed upon the heart so that the soul is equally inclined to all the commands as to one and makes conscience of one as well as another I know in a legal sence no believer on earth can obey universally and fully for in many things we offend all But Evangelically and in the sense of the new covenant every believer keeps all the commands of God that is 1. In love and esteem I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right Psal 119.128 Now love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13.10 2. In unfeigned desire That which his soul longs after is Col. 4.12 to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes Psal 119.5 3. In purpose and resolution I will keep thy statutes Psal 119.8 All people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Micah 4.5 Thus they cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart Acts 11.23 4. In sincerity of indeavour and undertaking He sets no bounds to his obedience that is hypocrisie but forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before He presses toward the mark Phil. 3.13 14. and this according to the tenour of the new covenant is full and perfect obedience III. It must be an upright and sincere obedience Walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 in the margent it is be thou sincere or upright So that sincerity and uprightness is new covenant perfection The perfection of grace in heaven is glory but the perfection of grace on earth is sincerity One dram of this in the heart is worth a world It is that which God delights in Thou triest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness 1 Chron. 29.17 Nay he doth not only delight in uprightness but in the persons and performances of the upright The upright in their way are his delight Prov. 11.20 there you see his respect to their persons and from the person this delight of God passeth to their performances The prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15.8 God can take no pleasure in any duty without sincerity because all duties that are not done in sincerity are a lye It is said of those Israelites in Psal 78.34 36 37. When they sought God and returned and inquired early after him that they did but lye to him with their tongues and why Because their hearts were not right with him It is sincerity that commends every duty to God It supplies all other defects denominates a man a Saint under all his failings
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