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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50489	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.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1683 (1683)	Wing M1555; ESTC R19143	252,739	482

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

here all the day idle and they answer because no man hath hired us but as soon as he calls they come Do you come in and believe in Christ at the first call as the Thief here did if God calls not till the eleventh hour he that comes in at the eleventh hour comes in good time but he that is called at the first or third hour may come too late if he puts it off till the eleventh if thou darest sinfully say it is too soon to day it may be God may judicially say it is too late to morrow And therefore this instance of the Thief on the Cross is most ignorantly and impertinently urged which doth no way reach the case of impenitent sinners under Gospel Grace and the daily and loud calls of God The Thief never put off the work of repentance and conversion that we find to the last hour this thou dost The Thief never purposed to repent hereafter that he might thereby the better enjoy his lusts at present this thou dost The Thief came into Christ at the first call but thou hast been often called and yet hast refused to come and therefore what is this instance to thee it doth not at all concern thy case it is falsly urged and vainly pleaded And therefore instead of incouraging thy self from this single instance of the Thiefs being at last hour received to mercy thou shouldst consider and tremble at that dreadful threatning of God against such as slight and stand out against the calls and offers of mercy Prov. 1. from the 24. verse to the last Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh And vers 28. They shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me And vers 32. The turning away of the simple shall slay them that is their turning away from the calls of God and offers of Grace will be their Condemnation at the last And therefore remember this it is seldome if ever that any adventure so near the brink of Hell as to put off repentance and closing with Christ to the last hour thinking to come off safe but that they drop in at the last CHAP. X. Wherein the reasons of slighting Christ are inquired into and the evil of it aggravated USE of reproof to such as delay and put off the putting on Christs Yoke O what folly is this and yet there is nothing more natural Few there are that do downright refuse Christ but many there are that put him off till hereafter from one time to another from childhood to youth from youth to manhood from manhood to old age from old age to the death bed till there is no room left for this great work They while away one season after another till the season of Grace is past and gone In the managing this use I will do three things 1. Inquire into the causes why men deal thus with Christ 2. Charge the sinner with such aggravations of this evil as may set home the reproof 3. Propound some Considerations for a thorough conviction First Let us inquire into the causes why men deal thus with Christ whence is it that any do refuse his Yoke break his bonds and cast his cords from him It may be reduced to these five heads chiefly First Ignorance This is one cause of all the slights that are put upon Christ this our Lord Christ intimates in that passage to the Samaritan woman John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God A Soul that hath a right knowledge of Christ cannot but owne him and bow to him They that know thy name will trust in thee Psal 9.10 Knowledge begets love and love begets obedience If you did but know Christ his undertakings for you his relation to you his dominion over you you would not thus reject his Yoke and despise his Command It is your blindness that is the reason of your disobedience What is thy beloved more than another beloved Cant. 5.9 In 1 Cor. 2.8 the Apostle charges all their contemptuous carriage to Christ upon their ignorance whom none of the Princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucifyed the Lord of glory Did you know Christ you would not refuse his call nor reject his Yoke Oh how many that are accounted men of understanding and parts and esteemed the wits of the age yet are grosly ignorant of the mystery of Christ and the Gospel and so Rom. 1.22 professing themselves wise they become fools The God of this world hath blinded their minds left the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them 2 Cor. 4.4 Secondly It is from that root of unbelief that grows in every carnal heart men don't believe the things of the invisible world the Glory to be revealed or the Misery threatned and the necessity of Faith and Holiness for the securing the one and avoiding the other and that is the reason The Apostle says 2 Cor. 5.7 we walk by faith and not by sight but the generality of men walk by sight not by faith their hearts are fixed upon present things 2 Pet. 1.9 they cannot see afar off Did men believe that sinful pleasures will end in eternal torments that the lusts of the flesh cannot be indulged at any easier rate than the loss of the Soul that there is no relief from the bondage and burden of sin but by a Saviour and that he is a Saviour to none whom he does not rule Heb. 5.9 to none but them that obey him you would hearken to his call and come under his Yoke Psal 17.14 2 Tim. 4.10 Most men are men of this world as David calls them they are for a portion in this life Demas hath imbraced this present world and there is no greater token of a carnal unbelieving heart than for a man to fix upon a present happiness when God hath propounded an eternal felicity in another world The good man is for the Yoke of Christ here and a Crown hereafter the unbeliever is for present ease and satisfaction and therefore takes up with the pleasures of sin that are but for a season Heb. 11.25 3. It is from that general unconcernedness that is in men about the matters of the world to come Amos. 6.3 They put far from them the evil day and things at a distance don't affect us they are like the discharging a gun a great way off we hear the report without concernedness but the same set to our breasts and discharg'd would make us tremble A clap of thunder in a remote part of the Heavens doth not startle us so much as when it is just over our heads Next to the want of a

what revenge 2 Cor. 7.11 Hence it is that he is so conversant and constant in the use of Ordinances his great end is to subdue and weaken lust under all First He uses the word to this end for this is the sword of the Spirit Eph. 6.17 and in conflicts either with corruption within or with Temptation without there is none to that No man was ever overcome either by Corruption or Temptation so long as he kept close to the word I write to you young men because ye are strong and have overcome the wicked one 1 Epist John 2.13 Here is an evidence of their strength their overcoming the wicked one But where lies their strength that is intimated ver 14. I write to you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abides in you and ye have overcome the wicked one The abiding of the word in the heart implies the power and virtue of the word taking hold of the heart and there it is mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 The abiding of the word in the heart includes every part of the word precepts promises and threatenings and the Believer makes use of all to subdue lust 1. The Precepts of the word where all sin is forbidden Hath God forbid sin and shall I indulge to it ought not his word to be my rule can I be true to God and transgress his Precepts what is sin but a transgression of the law 1 Joh. 3.4 and shall I dare to invade the rights of God and deny his Sovereignty Thus his heart stands in awe of the word Psal 119.161 2. The promises of the word he makes use of them to incourage hope and hope purifies the heart 1 Epist John 3.3 Hath God made such promises so many so great of this life of that to come and all to incourage the Soul to dye to sin and shall I live in it and so frustrate my hope in the promise Hath God so often promised Heaven and Glory to such as mortifie sin and shall I live to the Flesh and dye Thus having these promises 2 Cor. 7 1. he labours to be cleansed from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit 3. He makes use of the threatenings of the word as an incentive to fear for by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil Prov. 16.6 Thus the law of his God is in his heart so that none of his steps shall slide Psal 37.31 Secondly He uses the Sacraments for this end both Baptism and the Lords Supper 1. His Baptism he reflects upon it as a token and seal of that Covenant wherein God hath made himself over to him to be his God and in which God requires a forsaking of all sin and by his owning this Covenant he hath taken God for his God and devoted himself to live to his will and therefore looks upon himself as strictly ingaged against every lust and for this cause labours daily to put off the body of the sins of the Flesh Col. 2.11 2. The Lords Supper here by Faith he sees Christ Crucified for sin and how can this but make him hate sin and heighten his rage and indignation against it shall Christ dye for my sins and shall I suffer any lust to live that had a hand in his death Besides this Supper is a solemn renewing of Covenant with God and no man can renew Covenant with God but he must solemnly ingage to hate and renounce all the lusts of the Flesh Thus the Christian uses and improves every Ordinance to carry on the contest against sin that so he may mortifie and destroy it 4. His hatred of sin appears in his purposes and resolutions against it The Covenant with Hell and Death is now broken and he resolves never to say a confederacy to the lusts of the flesh any more When he is at any time surprized by sin as sometimes he is he hates it the more and it causes him to issue out a practical decree for God like that of David I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not Psal 39.1 When once a man hath truly taken up the Yoke of Christ the resolve and bent of his Will is never to sin more Though a Believer cannot promise absolutely not to sin yet he may fully purpose not to sin So did David I am purposed my mouth shall not transgress Psal 17.3 No man can be said to hate sin that doth not purpose against it and he that doth not hate sin his heart is not right with God And this is one of those fruits of subjection to the Yoke of Christ whereby judgment may be made a posteriori Now I would to God that young ones would try themselves by this Character What is the disposition of your heart towards sin do ye make it your work to search out sin do ye labour to know more of your secret lusts and carnal frames and deceitful hearts this every one that is under Christs Yoke doth Do ye accuse and charge your selves home before God for sin and is it done freely and in sincerity and brokenness of heart this every one that is under Christs Yoke doth Do ye hate sin with a hatred of abomination I so as to loath and turn from sin and is it from all sin and do ye hate it with a hatred of enmity do ye pray against it do ye mourn under it do ye keep up the spiritual conflict striving against sin and using means of Grace and Ordinances to keep down sin this every one that is under Christs Yoke doth Is the bent and resolution of your soul against sin have you taken up fixed purposes never to live to the lusts of the flesh more thus every one that is under the Yoke of Christ doth By this then every one may make a judgment whether ever he hath taken up the Yoke of Christ or not 2. It may be known by living to God in a course of Holy Obedience Whoever hath truly put on the Yoke of Christ makes it his work and business to live to Christ there is such a Principle of grace infused that obedience becomes natural And this obedience is an infallible sign of your subjection to Jesus Christ and therefore a fit medium to try your State by For 1. What better Testimony can there be of our subjection to Christ than that which evidences the work of holiness in the heart Now obedience in the life is a sure evidence of the work of holiness within It is the natural fruit of the feed of God sowed in the good ground of an honest heart Holiness is an inward frame obedience is an overt act proceeding from it Holiness is the Divine Nature planted in us Obedience is the fruit that grows upon that Root Holiness is our Conformity to the nature of God Obedience is our Conformity to the will of God And nothing can prove our participation of the divine nature like our subjection