what is it that is in thee amiss What is it that thou wouldest fain have the word come close unto to help thee against What is the speciall corruption thou wouldest have the word to mortifie in thee If now you set your selves before you come to the word to examin your hearts and when you are there to attend to the word as that which is your life upon which your eternall estate depends and so to sanctifie the name of God in his word and not to dare to cast off any truth knowing that your Soul may lie upon that very truth and to drink in the word of God in every thing that is revealed according to Gods mind this will be a very hard thing you will complain of almost an intolerable Burden But now a gracious heart finds more ease when it Sanctifies God in the power of Godliness in hearing the word than in a formall Duty Alas when such a one comes in a formall way and goes away and gets nothing such a one is troubled at such a Sermon it brings more Burden and grief to such a heart to come to the word and not find profit by the word than any other thing can do almost nothing can be more difficult than this You find no difference you come to the word and you get nothing and you go away with as much comfort as at other times it is as easie to you but now a Gracious heart cannot find ease except he finds Christ in the Duty but you can find ease in holy Duties though you never find Jesus Christ in holy Duties I appeal to you if this thing God would be pleased to settle upon the hearts of Men and Women it might be a very great settlement to their hearts you perform holy Duties What is the ease in holy Duties meerly the performance of the Duty but now if your ease were that which is the ease of a true Gracious heart it comes from the meeting with Jesus Christ in holy Duties And so for the Sabboth how easie is it to keep the Sabboth to do as the most it is easie Why Because you do not now work in your calling as other daies you do and you put on your best Cloaths and come and meet with your Neighbors and so you come to Church and home again and have better fare at your Tables than other daies and somtimes walk up and down the Fields this is easie But now the Saints find the ease of the Sabboth to be this that whereas upon the week day I am busied about other things and so have not that immediate Communion with Jesus Christ as at other times now upon the Sabboth my Soul comes to enjoy more immediate communion with Jesus Christ when I awake I am put upon it more to mind spirituall things to prepare my heart for him And now this whol day is dedicated for my converse with Jesus Christ and it is no more to me but the very Type and forerunner of that eternall Sabboth that I hope to enjoy in the highest Heavens hereafter and so it is easie to me Now methinks whatever trouble I have in the week time in my business in my calling the Sabboth day that refresheth me again and makes me fit for my calling and my heart that was so perplexed with outward crosses and with the troubles of the world that did so dead and dul my Spirit the Sabboth quickens me again and adds new strength again for I have found Christ refreshing my Soul Now is there not a wide difference between the ease of a carnall heart and a Gracious heart in holy Duties The one meerly mistakes the Yoke of Christ And so for the Sacrament It is an easie thing for a man to come in his best Cloaths and take a piece of Bread and a cup of Wine but he knows not what is the power of Godliness in such a holy Duty he thinks that the outward coming to the Sacrament makes amends for all though he hath been a wicked carnall wretch the week before now if he comes to the Sacrament the meer performing the Duty that makes amends though there be no preparation before no spiritualness in the Sacrament no discerning of the Body of Jesus Christ and the Mysteries of Jesus Christ no closing of his heart with Jesus Christ in the Sacrament no engaging his Soul to God no renewing his Covenant with God as he comes to receive the Seal of Gods Covenant with him no such things But now a Gracious heart cannot find ease in taking the Sacrament except it find Christ the ease it hath in the Sacrament it is in preparing the Soul for communion with Jesus Christ it is in the exercise of Faith and repentance the more Faith is exercised and the more Repentance exercised the more the heart is broken in the Sacrament the more ease a man hath and the more he gets his heart engaged to God in the Sacrament and the more he hath renewed his Covenant the more ease he hath I when a man can go to the Sacrament and do this O! this is a good day indeed And indeed this I am speaking upon is as great a point of Religion for the helping of you to know the frame disposition of your hearts how things stand between God and your Souls as any thing I know What it is in holy Duties that brings most ease to your Souls whether it be the bare externall performance of them or the spirituall performance of them is the power of Godliness in them that holy Duties for the matter of them cannot satisfie your heart except you find your hearts sanctified by them and Gods name sanctified â—n them that is the second note of difference between the ease a carnall heart finds in the waies of God and the ease a gracious heart finds CHAP. CXXXVII Containeth a third and fourth Difierence between the ease of a Hypocrite and true Beleever in the waies of God For 1. They are easie even to the Corruptions of a Hypocrite 2. He takes up the waies God partially THirdly Another Difference is this The ease a carnall heart finds it may not only stand with the ease under the Yoke of sin to the Flesh but the truth is even the Duties of Religion are easie to their corruptions to their very corruptions not only may stand with their corrupt waies but are easie to the very corruption it self to the very sinfull distemper of their hearts this is a very evill and vile ease for to perform holy Duties so as to be easie to the very flesh to the fleshly part Indeed the Yoke of Christ is easie unto the Saints but it is not easie unto the flesh I mean to the corrupt part it is not easie to that I but the waies of Religion to carnall hearts is easie to their very corruption to their corrupt part For First There is agreement enough between any Duty they perform and their secret sins they can
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
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
time he is overcome with any corruption with any sin he is like one in the Gally Oh this soul considers I am in a different way from what I was wont to be I was wont to be in the service of Jesus Christ and my heart had soul satisfying contentments while I was there but O what a difference is there in this work here is a base drudgery in comparison of what I was wont to have Oh the sweet communion I had with Jesus Christ while my heart kept close to him but now now I am raking in kennells and rowing in Gallies Oh! wretched man that I am who shal deliver me from this burden now this is a wide a broad difference between the easiness of the yoke of Christ to one and to the other one finds a great deal of ease in the yoke but the other finds all one if he goes amongst company that are vaine and sleight and prophane and when he comes to hear the word to read or receive the Sacrament almost all one and indeed if there be any difference his greatest ease is in that of sin he hath ease in the duties of religion in performing duties but his greatest ease is in the other way I but now the ease of a Saint is such as cannot stand with the ease of sin a child of God can beare the yoke of Christ with ease but he cannot beare the yoke of sin it is death to him to beare the yoke of sin that is the First Secondly Another difference is this a carnall heart may have some ease in duties of religion in the yoke of Christ but it is because he mistakes the yoke of Christ it is because he doth not know the yoke of Christ he thinks that the yoke of Christ is only some external duties that Christ requires or to keep from some grosse sins and now and then to say his prayers and now and then to read a chapter and come to Church and to receive Sacraments he thinks this is all that Christ requires of him what needs any more to do then this May not I go to Heaven as well with this as with keeping so much a do as others do and he thinks here is the yoke of Christ and this is fine and easy indeed If this were the way that would bring to Heaven it were a very easy matter to go to Heaven that is for a man to keep from a gross foul sin that would make him odious in the place where he lives and for him only to come from his house and sit an hour or two and heare a Sermon and come at Easter and other times and receive the Sacrament this is the easiest thing in the world who would not go to Heaven if this were all But now if thou wert acquainted with the spiritualness of holy duties that Jesus Christ requires with the power of Godliness that there is in holy duties that Christ requires in the word mortification of thy Lust and the keeping of thy thoughts and of thy heart holy and spiritual he requires that thou shouldest serve the Lord thy God withal thy heart and all thy might if thou knewest I say the spiritualness of holy duties and the power of Godliness that is in holy duties then it would be an intolerable burden to thee it would be very grievous to a carnall heart to put it self under the spirituall acts of Religion to put it self under the outward acts of Religion that is easie but to put it self upon the inward acts of Religion they would find that to be somwhat indeed For one that hath learned a Prayer to go and say it over and read it in a Book What an easie matter is that part of Religion for a man in the morning and evening to go and turn over two or three Leaves and shake himself and go away and then there is Religion for all that day But now if you would set your selves to the power of Godliness in Prayer that is when you come to Prayer to meditate what an Infinite and Glorious and eternall God you have to deal withall in Prayer I am now coming to tender up that high respect that I owe to the infinite God that which the Creature ows to an infinite Creator now I am coming to open my Soul to God to search out all the corruptions of my heart and I am now coming to bewail them in the presence of the infinite God and to set my self before the Lord as in my self a condemned Creature before an infinite Judg I am coming now to plead with God for my life for my Soul for my eternall estate I am now coming to engage my Soul to God that as ever I expect mercy in the day of Christ so I am willing to give up my self to God here is some power of Godliness in this now I would have you put your selves to this divine ease the more a Gracious heart doth this the more ease he hath in Prayer as I will appeal to you Take a carnall heart such a one thinks he must pray and so he comes in the morning and speaks a few words such words as he was wont to do and such words as may be he hath heard other men speak when he joyns with others in prayer and he hears some expressions in prayer from them and he gets them and comes in the morning and speaks them and perhaps gets into his Closet and barely speaks them over now if it be one that hath true Grace alas he is in a troublesome condition all the day after if he find not the power of Godliness in it such a one hath no quiet in his Spirit al the day after Why because there hath not been the power of Godliness in his Duty and therefore he is troubled all the day long But now let such a one come to Prayer to purpose in the morning and stir up the life and power of Godliness in Prayer worshipping God as a God Oh! the ease and quiet that such a one hath all the day he can go on in his work and can sing at his work So that the ease of a Gracious heart comes from the power of Godliness in a Duty and from the spiritualness that is in a Duty but the ease of a carnall heart comes from the formality of a Duty as because the Duty is formall and he thinks that it is the Yoke of Christ and this is pretty wel it is easie indeed to have no other Yoke than this to worship God in a few words and not to have the power of Godliness in the Duty And so we might instance in the hearing of the word you come to the word barely you rise out of your bed and come and sit here an hour that is easie enough but now if you come to the word with preparation and think now I am going into the presence of God to hear what God hath to say to my Soul this morning Oh my Soul
in the waies of God it is that ease that he hath in taking up the waies of God but by holiness it is in partial obedience it is but in part of the yoke of Christ it is not in all the yoke of Christ he can take up some part some pieces of the yoke of Christ but if you come to urge him to take up all the ways of God then he crys out what must we make Conscience of all our thoughts of al our words and all our actions must we answer for every action before the judgment seat of Christ Oh! this he counts to be hard greivous to him he could be content with somthing but to take up the ful yoke and all the yoke of Jesus Christ that he thinks an intollerable burden that he must have the scripture the word of God to be the rule of all his actions that is somwhat hard But now a gracious heart finds the greatest ease when he comes up unto all Gods commands It is true indeed saith he I cannot come to that pitch as to obey them perfectly but yet my heart is so far brought off as to subject my self to all the commands of God if at somtimes he yields to some and then at other times unto others that brings more trouble to his spirit but now when he can find his heart submitting to all the precepts of God then he finds most rest all the waies of wisdom are pleasant A Child of God finds no one thing in the waies of God that is not easy and the more it comes to an universal obedience in every thing the more ease it hath when indeed it doth but begin to make some enterance upon Gods waies and takes up some duties and not all then it finds trouble but when it comes to take up all and comes to yeild universal obedience then it finds ease Now examin your hearts in this you find it may be some ease in the waies of religion O! but it is but partial obedience you take this and leave that observe this a partial obedience is an easy obedience to a carnal heart but an universal obedience is the most easy obedience to any Gracious heart CHAP. CXXXVIII Containeth Six differences more of the former Point 5 A Carnal heart can take up and lay down duties when he will 6 He hath ease in the remissness of his Spirit 7 His ease is al alike 8 The more ease he hath the more sluggish he is 9 He hath but one principle in the heart that acteth him both in the waies of God and the waies of the world 10. His ease comes from the performance of duties in his own Strength Fiftly Another is this A carnal heart finds ease from the liberty of taking up and laying down the duty it is easy because he can take it up and lay it down when he will if a beast have a yoke that he can shift the collar when he wil it is easy when he can put in his head when he will and slip out his head when he please this is no grievousness to the beast so it is with carnal hearts the waies of God are easy to them why because somtimes they can take up duties and somtimes lay them down when they are in a good mood then they can take up duties and read and pray and the like if any thing vex and trouble them then they can lay them down again and somtimes when they list they can come and heare Sermons and when they list they can go into bad company go into the Tavern and the like but now a gracious heart finds the greatest ease when it can be constant in the waies of God when I can bring my heart to this that there is an evenness and proportion between what I do at one time and what I do at another time there is the greatest ease to a gracious heart and indeed there can be no true comfort in any holy duty where the heart is not constant the constancy and the evenness of spirit and the proportion that there is between one thing and another is that that makes the waies of God easy unto the Saints As in going in any way or common path if a man have one ledg long and another short or if the way be uneven somtimes plain somtimes rugged somtimes down hill and somtimes uphil that is hard to a man in his walking and so it is with the work of a Christian that that makes it difficult is this Oh I cannot find my heart in a constant evenness were my heart so then I should find ease but that which makes it most difficult it is the unevenness of my heart on the contrary put now a carnal heart to this to a constancy in any duty or work for God O! it will cry out of weariness in Gods waies perhaps he wil be content to be a while in holy duties to hear a short Sermon and go away again but to spend the whol Sabboth that is wearisom to him Nay perhaps he could be content to keep one Sabboth but to keep Sabboth after Sabboth that is burdensom to him and perhaps he could be content to pray one morning in his family but to pray every morning and every night and to go on from morning to morning and from day to day and from week to week and from yeare to yeare Oh! this is wearisom truly we have no reason to grudge God any service all our daies but thus it is with a carnal heart Sixtly The ease that a carnal heart hath it is in his remissness in duty in the remissness of his spirit in his moderation that he pleads for there lyes his ease but for the other the extension of duty that he pleads not for you shal have a carnal heart plead for holy duties but with moderation we must be moderate and if we do somthing that God requires though we be not so hot and fiery as others I hope it is wel enough doth not vertue consist in the middle way As I like not the profaneness of some men that are Swearers and drunkards whoremongers on the one side so I do not like your precise men on the other side so that his ease lyes in the remissness in the lukewarmness of his spirit in holy duties But now the ease of a gracious heart lyes in the exactness of his spirit to come to the very top of holy duties It is with a gracious heart as it is with many fowls you shall have many fowls that fly when they are low they flutter and it is a trouble to them to get on high but when they are aloft then it is no trouble to them so it is with a gracious heart to get up his heart is some trouble to him but now when he hath got up his heart then he is in his element there he can fly swiftly when he hath got up into the highest region there he gets the most ease It is
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
thy soul and other sins the sin of thy passion and the sin of thy giving liberty to thy thoughts may be as a thorn to thy foot to make thy way very hard unto thee No marvel though thou complainest the way is hard it is not the hardness of thy path but the tenderness of thy foote that makes thee to think the way hard therefore let every Christian if he would go on with ease in the waies of religion as soon as ever a thorn is got into the conscience Oh! get it out presently do not let it lye and fret in the flesh Oh! if we would as soon as we had committed sin get it out of the conscience presently then repentance would not be so difficult and you would find your heart at a mighty deal of ease When a man goes with pain and hee lookes upon his foote and pulls the thorn out he goes with ease then As the beast when you go in the way and your beast halts and shufflles you will have him searched if you cannot see it your selfe then when you come to the next Smith you have him searched so do you find the waies of God difficult that you cannot go the pace you were wont to go search your hearts see whether there be not a stone in your hearts or some gravel see if there be any particular sin that you know to be a sin and particularly repent of that and that will make the way of God easy to you the often renewing of repentance will make the way of God easy 6. Labor by wisdom to order the duties of your condition that is thus Labor for wisdom to know what is suitable to your condition and order the duties about that condition many think Oh! if I were in such a place as such a one is I would doe thus and thus but you should look upon the duties of your present condition what is the condition that I am now in I am a servant what is my duty in that condition not what is the duty of a governour And so in a single estate what is the duty of this condition not what is the duty of a marryed Condition and so in a Married Condition what is the duty of that And so when you are in affliction what is your duty at that time or if so be that God cal you to humiliation you should mind the duty of humiliation And when God calls you to rejoycing you should know the duty of that time Some when God calls them to rejoycing they think they must be humbled and when they are called to be humbled they think they should rejoyce and when they are called to beleeving then they wil be poring upon their corruptions and when God calls them to searching of their hearts they have thoughts of matter of joy Now wisedom to suite our duty to our condition and to apply our duty to that condition is a great ease to the soul Now many times we are thinking of a duty at one time that is not the duty of that time may be when one is sick Oh! they are many times troubled that they cannot go to heare the word and meere with Gods people and spend so much time in prayer and meditation and reading as they were wont to do and upon this they trouble themselves now this is not the duty of your condition the duty of your condition at that time is to fanctify Gods name in your affliction and to quiet your heart under the hand of God and the duty of your condition is not to go to heare sermons now but to think of what you have heard heretofore the duty of your condition now is not to spend so much time in your closet in prayer as when you were in health and you are troubled for the want of this we often trouble our selves about those duties that are not the duties of our present condition and that makes them difficult now wisdom in ordering our duties wil much help to facilitate them 7. Another Rule is this In the performance of duties you should ease your selves of the care of the success of what you do about success or discouragement for want of success nothing makes our lives more troublesom and our work more difficult than our carking care about success I wil do this and this but I am afraid I shal not have success or if I have success not such as I desire but now if you would perform duties in a gracious manner look to the duty perform that and cast the care wholly upon God it is enough for me to do what is required of me as a creature to do and let God himself take care of that that belongs to him and that is the success I told you in the opening of the ease that there is certain success and yet we might trouble our selves in carking about success now if we can go on in performance of duty and never be troubled about success it wil be exceeding easie but Christians find somtimes that though they have been diligent in performance of duty yet they do not find success they find nothing comes of it and this troubles them this makes them go heavily to the duty at another time I but observe that whatever duty you perform if you do not find present success you must not conclude that there wil be no success the carking about the success in things makes the work extraordinary difficult now if we could bring our hearts to this Lord I am where thou wouldst have me and doing what thou wouldst have me and as for the success that belongs not to my work but to thy self I walk according to that that is thy wil and as for success I will leave that to thy self 8. Another rule is this do not tye your selves to what Christ doth not tie you unto there are many Christians bring upon themselves many snares that way by tying themselves to that which Christ doth not tie them to tying themselves to such a time of prayer to spend so much time in such a duty we must take heed of laying a yoke upon our selves do not put a yoke upon Christs yoke It is a great question to many and it s to me a question whether in the Gospel there is required any Vows at all to vow any thing that is not a duty before we have vowed it indeed to strengthen our selves to do what God requires as David I have sworn to keep thy righteous Laws we may engage our selves that way but properly in the Law it was a free will Offering but for a Vow now I do not find that the Gospel hath any such thing for men to bind themselves to that that they were not bound to before by the word Indeed whatever we are bound to by the word that we are to engage our selves to the utmost but now to bind our selves to any thing else as that we will as long as we live keep such a day this