of Christ shed abroad and rooted and grounded in our Hearts This one Article of Christ crucified thus digested in Succum Sanguinem into the Temper and Nourishment of our Souls producing the most pleasing Acts as all the Acts of Love are upon the most perfect and Satisfactory Object God thus manifested in the Flesh must needs give Power to the faint and to them that have no Might increase Strength So that they shall mount up with Wings like Eagles and run the Ways of our Saviour's Commandments and not be weary and walk continually in them and not faint as the Prophet Isaiah speaks in another case This is a great Demonstration that our Saviour's Yoke is easy and Burden light because when we see our Saviour's Love to us stronger than the bitterest Death in him our Love to him must needs be as strong as any Death can be in us 6. And lastly From the kind Acceptance of our Heavenly Father he requireth not Perfection but Sincerity He knows our Frame and remembers we are but Dust Psal 103.14 remembers how he at first framed Man of the Dust of the Ground And ver 13. As a Father pityeth his Children so the Lord pitieth those that fear him The Apostle saith the same thing in other words 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing Mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath and not according to that he hath not Now no Man can pretend difficulty in Sincerity our Wills are more our own than any thing else we call ours our inward Thoughts and Inclinations the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that belong to us the Philosopher will tell us Lying and Dissimulation plainly are a force upon us and we feel it so when ever we are guilty Hypocrisy is stoutness against God and Cowardise to Man as my Lord Bacon tells us and is not this the most unnatural and uneasy thing in the World Our own Experience will assure us that 't is much easier to act our selves than the Person of another we act our selves often to our disadvantage because we do it extempore before we are aware but to act another Men learn and try Practice before-hand some time before they will venture to do it in publick This also demonstrates being so acceptable to God that our Saviour's Yoke is easy and his Burden light Thus I have finish'd what I proposed in the second place which was to demonstrate That although the Christian Religion be a Yoke and a Burden yet this Yoke is easy and this Burden light I shall apply it as briefly and seasonably as I can Then let us not make it more uneasy to one another than our Saviour hath made it 1. In respect of our common or ordinary Conversation there is an old Proverb too true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men are Devils to one another to tempt one another to Sin. Hab. 2.15 Wo unto him that giveth his Neighbour Drink that puttest thy Bottle to him and makest him drunk also that thou mayst look on his Nakedness Where the Prophet plainly threatens that sort of Men that make a Mock of Sin especially of that beastly Sin of Drunkenness and for their Sport and Diversion tempt one another to it and vie one with another for the Victory in the commission of it notwithstanding the Prophet Isaiah's Woe which he pronounceth against those who are mighty to drink Wine and Men of strength to mingle strong Drink Isa 5.22 There is the same Reason against our tempting one another to any Sin for by so doing we make the Yoke of Christ much more sharp and uneasy and the Burden of Christ much heavier to one another than otherwise it would be that is our Conversion and Regeneration Heb. 10.24 the Apostle tells us we are to consider one another to provoke unto Love and to Good Works Thus we shall bear one anothers Burdens Gal. 6.2 and so help one another to fulfil the Law of Christ to make his Yoke easy and his Burden light 2. Upon the Account of our Religion which at first I said was the Yoke and Burden mention'd in the Text. We make this uneasier than Christ hath made it to one another 1. When we impose as necessary Articles of our Faith either what it is certain our Saviour and his Apostles never imposed or uncertain whether they did or no. Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation can derive Authority from none but God he only can tell us what will be acceptable to himself so that the Scriptures only of the Old and New Testament by all Protestants being the Revelation that God hath given of his Will in this case to us Whatsoever is made necessary that is not here must be a very uneasy Yoke and heavy Burden for 't is not in a Man's power to believe as Men would have him we cannot believe beyond our Evidence and our Evidence must be as we can understand it So that what is necessary must be supposed to be intelligibly reveal'd to all concern'd in the belief of it This hath often made me think that we should be easier to one another were the Articles of our Faith given us in the very words of the Scripture I am sure that both the Orthodox and the Arrians in the Council of Nice concurred in this that all the Mischiefs of the Church of God were caused by bringing in words into the Creeds of the Church which were not in the Scriptures Consequences indeed are as sure as the express Terms of the Scriptures but Infallibility in these Consequences seems to be necessary for Articles of Faith because infallible Authority only can create them Certainty may satisfy a Man's Conscience for his own Sense and Compliance but for Terms of Communion that may not be sufficient because that is so according to Mens different Capacities and Apprehensions And 't is Humility and Piety to consent with Antiquity but still this will recur we cannot be sure of our Revelation because nothing is infallible but the Word of God. And upon this account the Papists objecting to us the uncertainty or insecurity of our Faith would be to their purpose did not we attribute the same infallible Authority to the Word of God which they do to the Determinations of their Church And did not the Word of God declare what is nececessary to be believed as intelligibly as their Church ever did or can express it self But this necessarily follows that we are to believe no more than the Word of God declares to us and also as it declares it and if we desire more of one another we make Christ's Yoke more uneasy and his Burden heavier than he hath made it I cannot see how this Consequence can be avoided But I speak all this with Submission This sufficiently confutes and condemns the Tyranny of the Church of Rome in making the grand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Character of her Communion the belief of innumerable Contradictions in that one Article of
Dr. BRINGHVRST's SERMON BEFORE THE LORD-MAYOR Pilkington Mayor Martis xviii die Junii 1689. Annoque R. Rs. Rnae Will mi Mariae Angl. c. primo This Court doth desire Dr. Bringhurst to Print his Sermon lately preached at the Guild-hall Chappel before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe THE EASINESS and DIFFICULTY OF THE Christian Religion IN A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor AND Court of ALDERMEN of the City of LONDON At Guild-Hall Chappel on Sunday May 26. 1689. By ISAAC BRINGHVRST D. D. Rector of Toddington in Bedfordshire London Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX To the Right Honourable S ir THOMAS PILKINGTON Kt. LORD MAYOR And to the Right Worshipful The ALDERMEN OF THE City of LONDON My Lord and Gentlemen IN Obedience to your Order I here present You with this Sermon I had done it sooner but that my necessary Affairs detain'd me so long in London I present You with this Subject because I could not think any other more seasonable at this time How uneasy are we still both in our selves and to one another notwithstanding all that God has done for us by his Providence as well as our Saviour by his Religion But it must be because we love our selves more than God as well as better than one another The great Example in the Text a Man might rationally think if but publickly read over to our Congregations might make us more kind and easy to one another than we are If I have contributed any thing to that purpose by this mean Discourse upon such an excellent Subject I have contributed so much to the Security of our Church and Reformed Religion for if we are divided against our selves and continue so we cannot stand I was before I was aware anticipated by the Time which made me break off abruptly but I have added no new Sense but expressed what I then delivered more intilligibly May your Lordship and you the worthy Magistrates of this great City see Jerusalem at Peace within it self and may you in your Stations be instrumental to it that the present Age may honour your Persons and Posterity your Memory in this World and the Felicity of Heaven may be your Reward in the World to come is and shall be the hearty Prayer of My Lord and Gentlemen Your most Obedient Servant Isaac Bringhurst June 17. 1689. A SERMON preached before the LORD-MAYOR MATTH xi ver 30. For My Yoke is easy and my Burden light IN the 27th Verse our Saviour tells us All things are given to him of the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father save the Son and he to whom the Son shall reveal him Thus by first asserting his Ability to receive them that is to govern and teach them he encourageth weary and heavy laden Sinners to accept of his gracious Invitation which he makes in the following Verse Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Having before told them his Ability to make good this Promise he now gives them the Promise to encourage them to come unto him And in the 29th Verse he asserts his Willingness For I am meek and lowly in Heart therefore very apt to sympathize with you and consequently as willing as I am able to give you rest to your Souls My Text assures them of the Truth of this Promise thus repeated in the 29th Verse from the Goodness of his Doctrine and Government the means of giving them this Rest My Yoke is easy and my Burden light That these two Metaphors Yoke and Burden are used in the Scriptures as well as other Authors to signify Doctrine or Law or Government I shall for Brevities sake prove only by one or two places Acts 15.10 The Law or Doctrine of Circumcision is said to be a Yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear And Gal. 5.1 The Ceremonial Law of the Jews a Yoke of Bondage Zach. 9.1 The Word of God is called the Burden of the Word of the Lord and so Mal. 1.1 The Burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachy So the Christian Religion is here to be understood For our better Understanding the sense of the Text I shall I. Shew in what sense the Christian Religion may be said to be a Yoke or a Burden II. Demonstrate that this Yoke is easy and this Burden light III. Make some seasonable Reflections for our Practice at this time I. In what sense the Christian Religion may be said to be a Yoke or Burden Which will be evident If we consider the natural Frame and Constitution of Man. And here both Scripture and Reason and our own Experience concur to inform us that Man consists of two parts very different from one another One Heavenly and from God more immediately spiritual or intellectual the other from the Earth of which it is made called often in Scripture carnal or sensual Gen. 2.7 We have also the same Assurances that the Rectitude and Prefection of Mans Nature consists in the Prefection and Subjection of this Earthly and Sensual Principle to that which is Heavenly and Spiritual The State of Innocency was nothing else but this Consent and Conformity of the inferiour Faculties to the superiour But in this honourable and healthful state Gen. 3. Man did not long continue but in a little time became like the Beast that perisheth The Serpent working upon his Curiosity and Sensuality perswades him to remit the Government of himself to his inferiour Faculties They sensible of their strength run away with the Reines and meeting daily with these following Advantages or Provocations notwithstanding the Spirit lusteth against the Flesh as well as the Flesh against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 have gotten such Head that they bid fair for an unaccountable Soveraignty and Dominion 1. The Temptations of this World so applied by that old Serpent which first tempted them with Success that he prevailed upon them to take their Liberty that they are not only kept waking and on their guard but daily excited and exasperated These are innumerable provoke us continually and are in our way where-ever we go we are surrounded with them in all places whilst we inhabit these Bodies and dwell in this World. Heb. 12.1 We read of Sin that doth so easily beset us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin well circumstanced that is the Temptations are near us present to us of that likeness of Nature that our Bodies presently close with them sympathize with them and so they more effectually entice us and work upon our Senses and Affections than spiritual Objects can do upon our Understandings Heaven and the Felicities of the other World are at a distance and Men cannot tell when they shall come there And our Apprehensions of that state are indistinct and obscure Neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive the Blessedness of
they have published the Fruits of their Industry the Truths they have discovered to the World abundantly demonstrate I cannot particularize these things at this time Silence and Solitude Recess and Separation from the World and Sense are the Opportunities for God and Truth and nothing so prevents the discoveries of Truth as the clamorous importunities of Riches and Honour or the gross and foul Suffusions of Sensuality The first anticipate our Time which is absolutely necessary for Truth the Philosopher rightly tells us lies in the bottom of a deep Well The second thicken and obstruct the Mind and indispose it as foggy Steems and Mists our bodily Organs that the pure Light and Spirit of Truth cannot be sensible to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pious Man that exquisite Philosopher Therefore the Philosophers tell us Vertue is absolutely necessary for the acquiring of Truth because that regulates all the inferiour Faculties and Inclinations quiets and retrenches all the Exorbitancy of the Passions and Affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Antoninus the Soul is tinctured and dy'd with the Objects it most converseth with Now how doth our Religion dispose us for this the Apostle tells us 1 Thess 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of Evil How doth it caution us against it 1 Cor. 7.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 species forma the Shew or Form or Beauty of this World passeth away as if the World were nothing but a great piece of Pageantry or a Dream or a Fancy of something that is not or an Apparition without any Substance passing by us and seen no more Many places more to this purpose I might produce And for Sensuality 1 Pet. 2.11 Fleshly Lusts are said to war against the Soul therefore the Apostle beseeches the Christians as Strangers and Pilgrims to abstain from them And how many severe Threatnings do we read of in the Scriptures against all that do not crucify the Flesh with the Lusts of it 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.3 to ver 8. and many other to keep our Minds even and pure and then they are fit and ready both for the search after and Contemplation of Truth The second thing I mention'd for which our Souls are created was the Enjoyment of God in this World and that which is to come Omnis intellectus tendit in Deum saith the Philosopher and it cannot be otherwise for all this World is too little for their Satisfaction as infinite Experience demonstrates The Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing Men run from one thing to another and never pleased always mistaken knock at the wrong door for Happiness as drunken Men mistake another Man's House for their own Antoninus one of the greatest and happiest Emperors not only that Rome but the World ever enjoyed thus expresseth the Insufficiency of this World for our Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What do I care to live in a World void of God and void of Providence Yet no Man ever enjoyed more of the World's Glory and Happiness than he did which demonstrates that only God is the natural Felicity of our Souls How carefully then is our Nature restor'd and perfected by our Religion The two great Obstacles to our Enjoyment of God it endeavours to set at the greatest distance from us imaginable These are love of the World and excess of bodily Pleasures James 4.4 Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God. How smartly doth the Apostle assert the great Inconsistency of God and the World together in our Hearts and repeats it twice in the same Verse and when he speaks never so mildly he still tells us the same thing 1 Joh. 2.15 And for Sensuality The very Character of a Christian is to crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts of it Gal. 5.24 And Purity of Heart is made absolutely necessary to our seeing of God by our Saviour Mat. 5.8 Very many places more out of the Scriptures might be produced to this purpose All which demonstrate our Religion must be natural to our Souls because if we would observe it it would make our Souls free and open to receive the comfortable Emanations of the Divine Goodness as a clear Air the Light and Influences of the Sun and so in this respect our Saviour's Yoke must be easy and his Burden light Besides what admirable matter of our Contemplation doth it afford us 2 Cor. 4.6 The Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and when by the exceeding great and precious Promises of the Gospel we apprehend what Interest we may have in this Glory Heaven it self is anticipated our Souls are in Conjunction with their Center our Consciences are easy and chearful and we are filled with all Joy in believing For it doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.2 But we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Thus in respect of our Souls the Text is demonstrated because our Religion fits us for the Enjoyment of God here and hereafter the Complement and Perfection of our Natures 2. In respect of our Bodies Intemperance is the worst Disease we are capable of The most searching Pains and accutest Torments are the Effects of it it is a Womb a Mine of all the Diseases of the Body so that to indulge our Lusts makes them their own Executioners as well as ours for when Nature is overborn all Pleasure and Delight is extinguish'd Now our Religion gives us the plainest Precepts imaginable for Sobriety and Temperance and Purity I should be too tedious to name the places they are almost every-where in the New Testament and written with the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness Those I mention'd under the last two Heads are sufficient where it utterly excludes from the Kingdom of Heaven all irregular and intemperate Prosecutions of the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life as St. John tells us 1 Joh. 2.15 16. And by doing thus our Bodies have no more reason to complain than our Souls as if our Religion denied or envied them their proper Diversions or Satisfactions for all this is nothing but the restoring of us to our natural Health and Strength for it requires of us only to recover and maintain our Original Frame and Constitution the Consent and Harmony of our Carnal and Inferiour Faculties and Inclinations to those within us which are more Noble and Spiritual And being of this Nature and for these Ends even in this case also this Yoke must be easy and this Burden light Thus we have seen that if we consider Man in his private Capacity our Saviour's Yoke is easy and his Burden light In the second place II. I now come to consider him in his Politick or Publick Capacity and here at first sight