't is most easy because agreeable to the Nature of Society In this respect our Saviour hath given us an Epitome of all he requires of us in very few words To do as we would be done unto Matth. 7.12 This is the Law and the Prophets which he came to fulfil and perfect Mat. 5.17 So Mat. 22.39 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self How safe and easy must every Man be in all his Concerns and Interests by Observation of these Rules We should never offend one another but if it should so happen to forgive and forget is the next thing we would do for that certainly every Man would have done to himself were he the Offender The Apostle St. Paul gives us all our Duty to one another in this one word Love and proves it to be so Rom. 13.8 9. There is no Fear or Jealousy one of another in Love but perfect Love casteth out such tormenting Passions as these are and makes Men confident in one another and that is the great Security and Perfection of Society In a word There are but two things which make Men uneasy to one another Aptness to provoke and to be provoked How effectually our Religion hath provided against these we read in 1 Cor. 13. It makes Charity the Root or Spring of all our Religious Actions so necessary that without it we are nothing neither can we do any thing in Religion ver 1 2 3. and then tells us how it secures the World against both these troublesome Humours Verse the 4th Charity suffereth long and is kind therefore is not easily provoked envies not vaunteth not it self therefore is not apt to provoke ver 5. doth not behave it self unseemly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rudely or disobligingly seeketh not her own therefore does not provoke is not apt to be exasperated so is the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinketh no Evil but candidly interpreteth but if the Evil be evident it rejoiceth not in it ver 6. but in the Truth or Goodness of any Body therefore not easily provoked Verse 7. Beareth all things because it believeth all things may be well meant at least hopeth so of all things but if the Evil or Malice be apparent and indisputable then Charity endureth all things as long as pleaseth God so that Charity can never fail to make Men easy to themselves and one another and fits Men for a happy Enjoyment of one another here as well as the blessed Enjoyment of God altogether hereafter Thus I think it is clearly demonstrated that Christ's Yoke is easy and his Burden light because 't is agreable to our Natures considered either in our private or publick Capacity either in our selves both in respect of our Souls and Bodies or in our mutual Relation to one another And as an indisputable Confirmation of all I have said from this Topick be pleased often to read and consider Tit. 2.11 12. where the Apostle tells us that the great Lesson the Gospel teacheth us is to deny all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World These three Words soberly righteously and godly mean all that I have said upon this Subject and thus used as they are here are an undeniable Confirmation of it Object But it may be objected Doth not our Saviour himself say we must pluck out our right Eye and cut off our right Hand in order to eternal Life if they happen to stand in our way to it which supposeth they may do so And doth he not Luke 14.26 27. tell us we must hate our dearest Relations and our own Lives for his sake and take up our Cross and come after him or else we cannot be his Disciples Are not these hard Sayings very uneasy and difficult to be born if not immoral and sinful and also that the Gate is narrow and many shall seek to enter and not be able Answ Because the time will not give me leave to make a nice and distinct Explication of the words I shall only tell you that by hating Father and Mother c. and our own Life is not hating in a proper and strict sense but loving of them less than our Saviour or his Religion which he valued above his own Life And so it is expressed Matth. 10.37 He that loveth Father and Mother more than me c. And so Gen. 29.30 31. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah in ver 30 31. 't is said and when the Lord saw that Leah was hated I now proceed to my Answer 1. Though the Words thus taken import nothing that is sinful or immoral but what is very rational because our Saviour loved us so as to dye for us and his Religion for our sakes so as to seal it with his Blood yet they do signify something that is not easy and do seem to put upon us a Burden too heavy for us to bear 1. But then consider in the first place When a Man is sick mortally and his Physicians tell him if he will take such a Medicine it will certainly or at least very probably cure him and no other will If he believes his Physicians will he not readily suffer this Medicine to be applied to him will not the bitterest Potion in this case be tollerable if not pleasant And will not a Man in his Wits chuse it rather than a more pleasant or more gustful draught And what we have reason to make matter of our choice may in a just sense be called easy or light to us This case if we apply it our Religion is our own our Soules are mortally sick and wounded by our Sins our Religion the only Medicine that can help us restores us to our Health and that certainly will do it if we apply it Now though this requires of us to live no longer to this World or our selves but to him that died for us is it not a plain case what we are in Reason to do and doth not the Plainness of the case make our Duty if not easy yet not intollerable But the following Reasons make it easy 2. The great strength it affords us that may be to a Man but a Diversion which to a Child is insupportable no Man ever had more Difficulties put upon him than St. Paul. The utmost sense of the Objection was his frequent Exercise How many times did he venture his Life for the Gospel of Christ yet he made it easy 2 Cor. 11.23 to 28. as sorrowful yet always rejoicing 2 Cor 6.10 and he gives a very good reason for it in Phil. 4.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can do all things easily so the Word imports through Christ which strengtheneth me And this strength wherewith Christ assisted him was no less than the Power of his Resurrection chap. 3.10 that is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead made him do all things easily for this was an experimental Knowledg as the whole Verse demonstrates That this is our case as
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
well as St. Paul's is evident by many places of Scripture I shall name two or three 2 Cor. 3.6 The Gospel is called the Ministration of the Spirit in opposition to the Law which was but the Ministration of the Letter which signifies that by the Law of Moses there was no inward Assistance of the Spirit of God for our Assistance in Religion as there is under the Gospel for the Performance of all the Duties it requires of us and that every Christian as well as St. Paul is to know experimentally the Power of our Saviour's Resurrection or is assisted with that Power which raised Christ from the dead He himself tells us in Rom. 8.9 11. where he makes it an essential Character of our Christianity to have the Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead in us And Col. 2.12 he attributes our being buried with him in Baptism and raised again to Newness of Life which contains all that the Gospel requires of us to the Faith of the Operation of God who raised our Saviour from the dead Philosophy tells us that Sublunary Bodies are influenced by the Heavens as Celestial Bodies Is it not as reasonable to believe that our Souls are influenced and enlivened by God Cannot the Father of Spirits as easily and naturally assist our Spirits as the Celestial Bodies these below If so then what Yoke can possibly be uneasy to us or what Burden heavy or troublesome I do not say insupportable when in all our religious Actions we act in Conjunction with our Creator 3. The Greatness of the Reward proposed in the most emphatical but intelligible Expressions of Felicity As Crowns of Glory Inheritances incorruptible and that fade not away Immortality Eternal Life and for these light Afflictions which last but for a Moment a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 And whatever we lose here we are promised for it an hundred fold hereafter If we venture and lose into the bargain our Lives in the dispute for our Saviour and his Religion we lose but crasy heavy painful Bodies for Bodies spiritual healthful and incorruptible Sin and Sickness and Putrifaction for Holiness and Health and Incorruption these Tabernacles of Clay daily declining and dissolving into the Earth of which they were at first made and subject to be broken by many accidental Violences and Knocks they are like to meet with in the hurry of this World for a Building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 4.1 Who would not chuse to be thus unclothed to be clothed upon with those everlasting Robes of Light and Glory A full Perswasion of this Reward hath made Fire and Faggot Swords and wild Beasts and all the cruellest Instruments of Death not only eligible Heb. 11.35 but easy to many hundreds of Christians that they might obtain a better Resurrection And we have reason to believe it from common Experience of humane Affairs for we daily see that neither Seas nor Rocks nor Storms nor Tempests will discourage Men from making very desperate Adventures when they have but probable Expectations of a great Reward but here is all the Assurance God that cannot lye can give us And whilest we are here in the consciencious and sincere Practice of our Religion we have that Peace of God which passeth all Understanding and is able to make every Yoke easy and every Burden light our Saviour hath any where in his Religion layed upon us 4. It affords us the most powerful Examples God himself Matth. 5.45 to the end where our Saviour commands us to love our Enemies c. that we may be the Children of our Heavenly Father and in the last verse perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect Now who would stick at any thing that may advance him not only to the Similitude but Perfection of God himself The Duty is something difficult but the Example is a sufficient Reward to make any labour or pains delightful and easy to us The Son of God took upon him our Nature to be an Example to us and here we have an Example of our own Nature in the Practice of the hardest Duties in the midst of Opposition and the worst of times and of more than he requires of us namely laying down his Life for his Enemies and all for our sakes that we might be encouraged in our Duty Complanatur itur vestigiis Domini said Tertullian To this Example the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews directs us chap. 12. ver 2 3 4. lest we be weary and faint in our Minds In chap. 11. he proposes the Examples of very great and wise Men Noah Abraham Moses and divers others and both what great things they did and suffered and in chap. 12. ver 1. he doth as it were sum up the Evidence that this so great a Cloud of Witnesses in storms of Persecution assist us with to make it easy to lay aside the Sin that so easily besets us and then reinforceth the whole Argument with the Example of our Saviour in the following verses before mentioned In chap. 6.12 Be not slothful saith the same Apostle but Followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises He is certainly strangely degenerated and sunk into the Ground of which he was at first made that finds it an uneasy thing not to be slothful And the Apostle plainly here tells us that any body else will follow those great Examples our Religion affords us and by Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Examples all Men acknowledg and all Experience demonstrates are a most effectual way of perswading and in these Examples we have all the advantage the Reverence of Persons or the Reason of the Thing can assist us with 5. It supplies us with the most pregnant and efficacious Principle of doing or suffering any thing it requires of us This the serious Consideration of our Religion must necessarily beget in us if we really believe the Truth of it for it is nothing else but God's so loving the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life Joh. 3.16 And this his only begotten Son so loving it as to be crucified for it These two Articles contain the substance of the Revelation given us in the Gospel of our Religion Now if Love begets Love can we believe and think of this Religion without being constrain'd to live no longer to our selves but to him that dy'd for us to live to him and die for him when he requires it of us And the Constraints of Love are the Extasies and Triumphs of it which make every thing easy and delightful Thus our Christianity without us impresseth its own Characters within us and becomes the Gospel of Christ written in our Hearts and our Faith removeth Mountains and makes all ways plain and overcometh the World and crucifieth the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts working by the Love