of ease As now it is a great deale of toyl for one that neglects his accounts he is not ready but his accounts are intangled if he be called to give a perfect account it is a great deal of toyl to him but now let a man get over the difficulty and make all his accounts cleer now for him every day to keep his Books streight and cleer this wil not be so great a trouble This is the difference between one Christian and another for all the world one that shall take his pleasure all the week long and ride this way and the other way and neglects his Books and but one day in the week will look them over he wil have a great deal of trouble and it wil break his head somtimes when he hath multitude of business But now the other Merchant looks into his Books every day spends half an hour or a quarter of an hour every day and he goes on with a great deal of cheerfulness So it is with many Christians they think on the Lords day they must have their hearts in a good frame and temper but all the week they have no thoughts of God and of the word and now when the Sabbath comes or Sacrament and holy duties come they are burdensome to them whereas another that keeps his heart in a holy frame he rejoyceth in the Sabbath for he hath had a Sabbath day frame of heart all the week long Luther saith a Christians life should be a perpetuall Sabbath And that is the second means to facilitate every good work 3. Another is this Labor to inflame your hearts with love unto the Duty Do not do duties because you must do them but use all the means that you can for to kindle in you a love unto the duty never satisfie your selves with this I see I must do duty Conscience puts me upon duty therefore I must do it so it may be burdensom but labor to use all arguments you can to make you in love with the duty A Schollar that is in love with his Book will not cry when he goes to the School and especially if he delight in it and be in love with his Master there is many that are put to go to School that dare not go Oh their Father will be angry and their Master wil be severe if they should not learn and so they learn but with much ado they had rather do any thing in the world than go to School neither love their Books nor love their Master and so seldom come to any eminence of learning Love takes away all difficulty love is ashamed to complain of difficulty at any time as now take a man that loves recreation that loves that kind of sport of hunting or hawking if he love it he wil be running in the dirt all the day long though it be a hot day run over hedg and ditch whereas now if such a man had not a love to such a thing but were injoyned to such a thing that you must all the day from morning to night eate not a bit of bread but all the day long run after doggs over hedg and ditch and through waters it would take away the love that such a one should have in his sports and what a miserable bondage would this be so it is in the waies of God let there be love to the waies of God then whatever difficulty there may seem to be in them it is taken away presently love to the person of Jesus Christ will take away the difficulty of the waies of Christ you know when Jacob loved Rachel he cared not how long he served for her the hard nights were not hard to him Love God and love Christ and then his waies will not be difficult 4. Another rule is this do not loose your incouragements that that you have had from what good God doth bestow upon you and inable you to do take heed of loosing that incouragement many Christians are altogether looking upon what they ought to do what God requires of them to do and because they have had not yet attained unto what they ought to do and what is required of them to do therefore they find no incouragement from what the Lord hath already bestowed upon them what the Lord hath already inabled them to do they wholly neglect that and never think of it they think of what they want and what they should have and what they should do and so they are labouring to get what they should have and to do what they should do but for what God hath inabled them to do already or what God hath given them already that they do not think of and for want of those incouragements they make their endeavours for the getting of more to be burdensome to them but now when we are endeavouring to do more we should go on in the strength of this incouragement Oh blessed be God for any little You shal have Christians thinking of what they should do and therefore they think all the grace they have is nothing Oh! say they that which I have done what is it It is true if we were looked upon in the way of the Covenant of works it is nothing but in the way of the Covenant of Grace it is a great deal now that wil be a great ease to your souls labour to get more and do more for God but stil carry along with you the incouragement of what God hath done for you when you pray for any grace bless God for any grace you have Take notice of al the incouragement that God doth give you and that will help you to go on in any further work that God calls you unto and the want of this makes the lives of many Christians to be very greivous and burdensome unto them because they neglect those incouragements they might have from what God hath inabled them to do and from what God hath done already for them 5. Take heed of lying in the guilt of any sin I meane though in respect of God the guilt is taken away from beleevers but of lying so in any sin as not to cleer up all between God and your soul for the discharge of it of having any thing not cleered up in your own consciences take heed of lying in any sin unrepented of that is my meaning every sin that a man commits excepting those daily incursions and infirmities of the Saints which they cannot while they are here in the flesh be altogether without but every other sin it is as a thorne at least a thorn â—n the foot every sin that a man hath committed by strength of temptation it is a thorn in the foot and if it be a greater sin it is a gash in his flesh Now a man that hath a thorn in his foot he cannot go very fast but especially if he have a gash in his flesh when thou hast been overcome with a great sin thou hast given a great gash unto
yoke of Christ but were they come in they would not find it so difficult Somtimes indeed the work of God in converting of a Soul comes to it so as the Soul finds a great deal of difficulty The Ministry of John by way of preparation comes in a terrible way to make smooth the rough paths and level the lofty hils comes in a fiery way to prepare them many times it is very terrible and they find a great deale of difficulty much trouble of conscience and terrour at first I but this is but to get â—hy neck into the yoke this is not the difficulty of Christs yoke but it is the bringing thee under the yoke of Christ therfore let not those that God is beginning to stir them in awaknâ—ng their Consciences be offended because they find difficulty because they find the waies of God terrible to them and conscience terrible to them and they find the flashes of Hell upon their spirits be not offended because thou hast more trouble now then before it is but in getting that unruly spirit of thine under the yoke of Christ if once thy spirit be subdued to Jesus Christ and brought under his yoke thou wilt not find it so terrible and it may be the more terrour thou hast now the more sweetness and comfort thou wilt find afterwards Thirdly Thou complainest of difficulty that thou findest in Gods waies do not therefore complaine of the yoke of Christ it may be it is from the distemper of thine own heart not from Christs yoke we know that a light yoke to one that hath a sore neck seemes to be very grievous but the fault is not in the yoke but in the soreness of the neck if the neck were sound and made whol the yoke would seem light so it is with many that profess religion and it may be have true grace they find the yoke very haâ—d to them and they complain of the yoke and think that which Christ requires of them is greivous to them but truly it is the distemper of thy heart and the unsoundness of thy spirit that makes it so if so be thy heart were but healed if thy hearâ— were but sound thou wouldest not find any such difficulty in any way of Christ In 2 Tim. 1. 7. There the spirit of power of love and of a sound mind are joyned together where there is a sound mind a sound spirit theâ—e will be power there will be strength there will be love and sweetness but where the mind and the heart is unsound and disteâ—pered there you will find a great deal of difficulty in the yoke of Christ so that I say where you find the yoke of Christ difficult do not complain of that so much as of your own heart and labor to heal your own soul and then it it will not be so difficult and that is the third answer I would give to the Godly that yet find difficulty in the waies of religion it is not because of the yoke but it is because you are not enough under the yoke that is the difficulty if your hearts were under it more then it is it would not be so difficult and this expression may serve to enlighten us into the fourth answer which is this Fourthly the yoke of Christ may seem to be hard but it is because of the disordered carriage of thy spirit when thou art under it not only from a distempered heart that thy heart hath distempers and habitual corruptions but now when thou art doing a duty thou dost behave thy self in a disorderly way in the performance of the duty the disorderly behavior of thy heart in the performance of duty As now we know it is with some Bullocke some creatures that are unruly when they are in the yoke they keep such a stir and riggle this way and that way and they are so unquiet when they are under the yoke that they toil and trouble themselves abundantly more then another that can carry the yoke quietly that goes on quietly with his yoke so it is with many Christians when they are in the performance of duty if they cannot do it as they would they do so vex and frett and are so disquieted in their spirits and so tumultuous in their spirits and are ready to cast it off Conscience will keep it on and they are ready to cast it off there is such a disorderliness of spirit and such tumultuousness of spirit this makes duties difficult whereas now when thou art in performance of duties if thou couldest be under the yoke of Christ with a calme quiet Spirit and carry it in a meek way Oh! the sweetness that thou wouldest find there how many times shall you have many people that when they go to prayer if they cannot pray as they would do then they vex and fret and are ready to think to pray no more and why should they pray any more they are so disturbed in the duty they think it is better to cast it off and they begin to have hard thoughts of the duty and so their spirits are all in a dâ—stemper and disorderly working presently and there is the difficulty Whereas another though he cannot do what he would yet he hath an humble dispose to God and thinkes I will try another time may be God may come in another time still I love the duty the law is good the duty is just and good and though through the untowardness of my spirit I cannot do it now yet I hope God will come at another time I will do my duty and leave it to God to come in when he pleaseth as you heard before when the Bullock or the Heifer that beares the yoke if he goes on quierly his yoke is not so grievous but if he flings this way and that way and turnes to this side and that side every way he makes his yoke grievous to him and so it is with many Christians it is the disorderly carriage of people under this yoke that makes it so difficult Fiftly Thou complainest and sayest this yoke is hard consider that the casting of the yoke off would be a great deal harder and therefore there is no cause to complain can a man in a rational way complain of a yoke to be hard whenas the casting of the yoke off would be a harder thing then the bearing of it therefore the Hebrew word that signifies sin signifies also labor and trouble there is more trouble if thou shouldest cast off the yoke thou wouldest find more distress of spirit and more difficulty in casting off the yoke then to be under the yoke It is true those that be carnal and wicked do not find it so but if thou hast Grace if thou shouldest cast off the duty because of the difficulty thou wouldest find it more difficult to be without the duty then to perform it As I will instance to your own experiences you fiend sometimes that your hearts are loth to come off to prayer
what you do now and if they see that since you began to go to Sermons and to make more profession of Religion that your lives are more filled with discomfort and vexing and fretting and discouragement than before What will they say What waies are these Who would come into these waies they make theâ— mad and make them fools and unfit them for any business Oh this is a shame to he waies of Christ though it is true now thou seest more cause of humiliation than before but for all this know that this is not legal humiliation but evangelical humiliation and there is sweetness in that bitter of sin if thou understandest it in an evangelical way and though thou shouldest mourn for thy sin yet thou shouldest carry thy self with that gentleness and humility and meekness in thy spirit thou shouldst discover that sweetness of heart and cheerfulness and activeness in your callings going about your business better than ever before that they may say surely the way of Christ is easie and so others may be in love with them but if others shal see you to be more high and lofty in your spirits more proud more disdaining more neglective in your callings and more cross in your carriage than before then they will be kept off from those waies Consequence 5. Again if the waies of Christ be so easie certainly Jesus Christ will expect a great deal of service from you because he gives you much ease a man that walkes at liberty he may walk apace a Porter that hath a great burden upon him whilst that that burden is upon him he cannot go so fast if one should come and say to him Why do not you go faster he would answer if you had such a burden upon you as â— have you would go as softly as I do A cart that hath a great load upon it cannot go apace so here hath Jesus Christ laid no weight upon you in his waies then let us run the waies of Gods commandments Beleevers in the time of the Law they had Shackles they had a weight a burden upon them and therefore no marvel we do not read of so much holiness and spiritualness in the waies of the Godly in the times of the Law generally because I say their yoke was heavy and therefore they did drive very slowly on but now when Jesus Christ is come into the world and hath taken our yoke from us certainly Christ expects that we should now go on freely in his waies and abound in the work of the Lord and do more than they did in the times of the Law Read the Book of the Psalmes and see the sweetness of Davids spirit had David had the Epistles of Paul and had known all of Christ and heard so much of the Gospel opened to him How would he have said O! how sweet is thy Law and if his heart was enlarged he could run the waies of Gods commandments I but David he was under the burden of the ceremoniall Law for it is not that which is revealed in the Gospel certainly he had not the knowledg of the Gospel the things revealed there though he had a more then ordinary measure of knowledg and if he walked so freely and cheerfully in the waies of Christ certainly we should do much more Service for the Lord now the yoke is taken from us as the ceremonial Law in respect of charge we are freed from a great deal of charge that they were at therefore we should be more free when God requires it of us And they spent so much time in outward things in meer outward things then shall we grudge god our time in spiritual communion or grudg God time in our Families a quarter of an hour to Worship God in our Families morning and evening In the Lavv they spent abundance of time in the Service of God it may be you think it much to rise and come to hear the Word they vvere fain to go long journies to Worship at Jerusalem vvherever they lived in the country to go to Jerusalem to worship and yet their worship was but an external thing and in the greater part but bodily labor when they went thus to worship they had not the Mysteries of the Gospel opened to them as you have to recompence your labor therefore I say be more abundant in the service of God We have a notable Scripture for this in Acts 9. 31. of the state of the Church when once they had ease and rest marke what came of it Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galâ—lee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost weâ—e multiplied Here is the fruit of their rest The ease of a secure heart is that that makes it more barren in Gods waies but now the Church had rest through all Judea What then then they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost and were multiplied and doth God give rest unto your Soul and peace to you then walk in the fear of the Lord and be edified and built up more and more and multiply the service of God more and more there is a promise that the people of God should be fat and well-liking in the times of the Gospel and flourish in the Courts of the Lord. There is two things that causeth Fatness the one is much Feeding the other is a great deal of rest and ease when men feed much and then have a great deal of ease this causeth fatness if there be either want of food or if there be never so much food yet if a great deal of labor it keeps them from fatness but when there is ease and food that causeth bodily fatness Now Christ expects in the times of the Gospel that all Christians should be fat and well liking that they should not be lean in their souls Why for 1. They have as plentifull food as ever was since the world began never had they better diet and more ful diet and wholsome diet than now And 2. He hath revealed likewise the blessed ease of the Gospel there was never a time wherein the Mystery of the Gospel was so much revealed to make the waies of Christ so easie as now there is a revealing indeed of the waies of the Gospel to be easie sensually and loose but wo to those that are thus at ease but I say there is a revealing of the Gospel and the waies of Christ to be easie spiritually Certainly formerly many went to Heaven more hardlier than we not only in respect of suffering but in respect of horror of sin the spirit of bondage there were scarce any brought to Jesus Christ but were brought with abundance of horror and had much of the spirit of bondage upon them and God did recompence them afterwards abundantly and we find this that it is true that many true Christians never knew so much horror of
humbled for our sins in an evangelical way as wel as performe duty in an evangelical way Now evangelical humiliation it is a sorrow for sin not that we might purchase pâ—â—don for that sorrow as we must not perform a duty to think to purchase Heaven neither must we sorrow for sin to think to satisfie for sin and to purchase pardon for our sin but our very sorrow for sin must have a sweetness from Christ in it it must be out of love our very mourning must be a fruit of love and not come from the fear of being destroyed eternally for such sins that is legal sorrow I have sinned against God and therefore am afraid that God will destroy me eternally and therefore I am sorry No but I have sinned against the Lord a gracious and a merciful Father and the Lord yet hath made a Covenant with me that he will not take advantage of my sin that he will not destroy me and therefore my soul mourns and laments the rather for my sin that I have sinned so much against the grace of the Gospel as I have done Sorrow evangelically and then your sorrow wil have more sweetness in it then all the joy that the men of the world have when all their Corn and Wine and Oyl is encreased not only when God lifts up the light of his countenance but even the very sorrow of your heart for sin may have more sweetness in it then all the men of the world have when their Corn and Wine and Oyl encreaseth Many Christians have much bitterness in their sorrow but certainly Evangelical sorow the tears of it is Rose water that hath a great deal of sweetness it is sweet both unto God and sweet unto the soul even while the soul is sorrowing there is sweetness in the heart and this is the difference between legal terror and Evangelical sorrow the one hath nothing but bitterness and gal in it and the other nothing but sweetness That is the first thing Secondly Another way to facilitate and make easie that we do is this Labor to keep our hearts in a constant readiness and preparation to every duty Duties are very hard because we fall upon them unprepared we are not in a readiness continually unto every good work you know when you are set about any work and if you have many things to prepare and to look for when you should go about your work it will go off but heavily and it will be more troublesom but now when every thing is prepared in a readiness then how soon and how easie doth the work go on when you are going to Sea there is making a great deal of preparation aforehand now when the Ship is rigged and trimmed every thing ready then you are at an instant able to put off and set saii and go away when al things are ready you go off with ease If you would entertain Guests if they come upon you suddenly and you have nothing ready what a deal of stir is in the house what running up and down this way and that way but now if things be ready when they come they are entertained with a great deal of delight and all things in the house are in order and things go off very easily and there is no trouble in it Truly thus it should be with a Christian he should not only perform duties now and then but his life should be a constant walking with God so that he should be alwaies in readiness for every duty that God requires of him so it comes to be easie As now for the duty of Prayer you should keep your hearts in a praying frame continually and then prayer would be easie it would be an easie thing for you to pour forth your souls to God when you keep your hearts in a praying frame all the day long It may be when you go to prayer you find a great deal of trouble within you your thoughts wander and your affections are dead and dul and you rise up discouraged But what is the reason you do not keep your heart all the day long in a praying frame in a heavenly temper and frame in the day time and therefore when you come to pray at night there is no readiness in your hearts to the duty but you are altogether indisposed to it And so to come unto the Sacrament you find it a great labor and toyl to prepare for the Sacrament as you should I speak of those that make conscience of preparation many times they find it a mighty toyl a hard work I but Christians should keep themselves alwaies in a Sacramental disposition a Sacramental frame alwaies having their spirits savoring of the meditation of the death of Jesus Christ that nothing should be more familiar to a Christians Soul than the meditation of the death of Christ and of discerning the Lords Body and the Covenant of grace and giving it self likewise to God in a Covenant of grace this should be continually and then if you should receive the Sacrament every day you might be fit for it or every week you would be fit for it Now People think it a great matter and make a great deal of do about receiving of it often whereas the truth is the Saints of God they should be in as great a readiness to receive the Sacrament as to hear the word or to pray and that would be a mighty ease unto them therefore if things were as they should certainly it would be more convenient to have it more ordinary and constant every Lords day the Sacrament The Christians in the primitive times would receive it every day in the year and they kept their heart in readiness to such kind of duties let it be what work it wil be You should be patient in affliction if affliction come upon you and your heart is not in a readiness to alter your condition Oh! it wil be a grievous burden to exercise patience it wil be a hard thing for you now you should keep your hearts ready for every condition that is the true work of grace in the Soul to keep the soul in a constant bent Godward and that Soul wil do things very easily Somtimes you have much ado with your children when strangers come to keep them in good order the reason is you neglect them at other times and that is the reason that they trouble you when strangers come but keep them in a good order at all times and then you wil have them right at those times So it is with the heart keep the heart prepared and ready to every good work and then every work wil be easie Object But you wil say That is a great deal of toyl and labor to keep our hearts alwaies bent and ready to good works To that I answer at first it may be some labor and toyl but those that have once got their hearts into a readiness find it not so hard but have a great deal
will prove to be a snare to you God requires it not it may be that day that you would observe for one duty God may require it for another duty may be you will keep a day of fast for such a great deliverance for such a great mercy certainly it may prove a snare unto you God may call you to another duty on that day to the duty of thanksgiving Many will vow to keep such a day and when they have vowed it they know not how to go back And so many will vow they will do so much every morning and so much that day this may bring a snare upon you labor to do all what you can for Christ all the day long consider your duties and lay the word upon you but to put upon your selves that which Christ puts you not upon it is that that makes the duties of Religion very tedious and many have done it that way not foreseeing the inconveniences that may come upon it and yet they dare not go back Therefore I would rather advise Christians to take heed of such things as those are but to walk in the way of Christ according to that the Lord requires for the present and not to bring themselves into a snare and so they shal make the way of God more easie 9. Another Rule is this Take all advantages take all opportunities and advantages all the gales of Gods Spirit do not neglect the opportunities you have the neglect of opportunities may bring us to woful difficulties As in voyages if a â—arriner neglect the opportunity of the gale of wind it is a difficult voyage and then he cries out I may thank my self for all this had I taken such an opportunity such a wind then I had been freed from this hardship that now I meet withall So it is with a Christian many times the spirit of God comes with a gracious gale and gives them opportunity to go on with cheerfulness in the waies of God hadst thou taken the opportunity the gale of the spirit Oh what a deal of trouble mightest thou have avoided Those that are watchful for al opportunities find the waies of God easie It was the speech of Alexander because he carried things so easie as he did in a little time conquered al the world when it was asked him how he could do so great things and carry on things with so great ease his answer was by neglecting nothing he meant by neglecting no advantage There are many men that when God helps them a little they carry the work on with ease but then they do not follow on their work and so they bring themselves into streights As now we cry out of these wars what a great deal of trouble they put the Nation to and one main thing is for want of taking advantages and following advantages We say somtimes Oh if such a victory had been followed such a victory that we had at Brainford and York and other places we might have delivered our selves from abundance of trouble and tediousness of war but when God gives advantages and we do not follow them no marvel that we find trouble So it is with many Christians you find many troubles in Religion Oh it is because you do not follow your advantages if you had ever since you were young and ever since God revealed himself to you followed the gale of Gods spirit your old age might have been spent in nothing but gales of joy comfort and the like but now no marvel you act with so much difficulty in the waies of God 10. Another Rule is this Preserve all your experiences that you have had of the goodness of Gods waies when your hearts have been most enlarged and you have walked most close with God and God hath come in to your soul Preserve those experiences keep them by that they may help you against an il day it may there be may be a time a coming that you may be in spirituall desertion and that may be grievous to you but if you had kept the experiences you had of God when your heart kept close to God it would much help you sweeten your hearts to think of the daies of old As David when he was in desertion he would many times be thinking of the daies of old So if Christians would be very careful to observe and lay up all the experiences that they have of God and his waies the sweet and good of them it would mightily facilitate them in holy duties and be a continuall Cordial to them and put spirits into them to make them go on with ease in any duty God requires of them 11. Another Rule is this Take heed in any duty of disturbing passion the disturbance of passion puts people ouâ— of frame that they are fit for nothing when they are passionate passionate with God passionate with men because they cannot have what they would have fling up all As Children that when they cannot have their desires fling a way all this makes every thing hard but if you could but keep your selves in a constant quietness you should have every condition and every duty delightful but I have spoken of that you know of the evil effects of it and of meekness the gracious effects of that but I bring it only now as a rule that you may present all these rules together As now suppose a company that are in a Boat and there cometh a strong wind and tosseth the Boat you shall have some silly people that wil be shriking out and mightily troubled and through their passion will be rising up in the Boat and be ready to tumble down all through their passionate carriage in the Boat whereas those that have skil wil sit stil and be quiet and give up themselves to the stream and that is the best way to come with the greatest ease you make the Boatmans labor so much the more dâ—fficult by your unquietness in the Boat So certainly you make the work of God more difficult when your hearts are unquiet Let the thing be what it wil you wil say Oh no bodies condition is so as mine Certainly your unquietness will not help you you wil not come the sooner to your landing place if people toss from one side of the Boat to the other and be unruly in their carriage they wil not come the sooner to their landing place the quieter they sit in the Boat the sooner they will come to land So it is in a Christians course he must not think to come to have his desires satisfied by his froward carriage to be angry with God or man or the means that they do not work as they would have them but the quieter they sit and give up themselves to God the sooner they come to their desires 12. Another Rule is this Communion with the Saints spirituall Communion Heavenly Communion not frothy Communion but a spiritual holy gracious communion with the Saints wil facilitate the waies