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
Transubstantiation stantiation by her voluntary misinterpretation of one of the plainest places in the New Testament Mat. 26.27 28. where our Saviour useth the plainest way of speaking namely Metaphorical and the most intelligible Metaphors of Bread and Wine to signify to us by our very Senses the great Benefits of his Passion This must be very uneasy for our Souls feel a Contradiction as our Senses discern their proper Objects else we could never know the Reason of any thing we enquire after But this justifies the Moderation of the Church of England which in her publick Catechism makes the Articles of the Apostles Creed made up of nothing but Scripture only necessary to Salvation Where we do not put our Sense to God's Words and then Curse and Burn and Damn one another for dissenting as Mr. Chillingworth observes But 't is most evident they do in very many Articles of their Faith and then stamp the Character of Necessity upon them which undeniably makes the Yoke of Christ far more uneasy and his Burden much heavier than he hath made it 2. Thus also the same Church of Rome hath made our Saviour's Yoke much straiter and his Burden heavier than he hath made it in imposing innumerable Rites and external Observances in the Practice of Religion and the Worship of God. That the Worship of God under the Gospel is to differ from that under the Law called Heb. 9.10 Carnal Ordinances and there said to be imposed until the time of Reformation that is the Gospel in its Purity and Spirituality is clearly asserted by our Saviour Jo. 4.21 24. and proved from the Spirituality of God's Nature God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth not only in the Sincerity of our Hearts but with a sort of Worship as near as may be in its Nature and Constitution suitable to the Purity and Spirituality of the Nature of God which we apprehend as well as we can in this imperfect State we are in when we abstract from him all the Imperfections of Body or Matter and retain no other Conception of him but of a Being infinitely Perfect and one great End of Divine Worship is to impress and preserve this Notion of God sensibly and distinctly in our Minds by the gracious Influences of his particular Attributes and Perfections his infinite Mercy Righteousness Purity c. in our attendance upon him until we were changed into the same Image 2 Cor. 3.18 as we are capable Now though the publick Conduct of Divine Worship be left to the Governours of the Church yet at their Peril they are obliged not to institute any thing to the Preiudice of this blessed Effect of God's Worship and Service upon the Souls of Men. Corporeal Images and many bodily Rites or Ceremonies are great and manifest Inconveniences in this case for they are so contrary to the Spirituality and Purity of the Divine Nature that like a thick and condensed Cloud they so eclipse the Light of the Sun of Righteousness the Light of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that to worship God who is a Spirit in Spirit and in Truth by these must be a very uneasy Yoke and a Burden at least to the generality of Men insupportable The Church of Rome is greatly concern'd to take notice of this for such Tricks she plays in the Worship of God both with her Images and innumerable Ceremonies such Pageant Shews she sets off her Publick Devotions with that 't is reasonable to fear the far greatest part of her Communion instead of edifying their Minds with Divine Service with the gracious Influences of the Divine Attributes only divert and entertain their Senses and when they go to Church either worship nothing at all or they know not what or commit the grossest Idolatry in worshipping Pictures and Images Stocks and Stones guilded and printed And though they renounce the Names of Judaism or Heathenism in their Religious Worship yet they would oblige the World to an Equivolent in too strict a Sense to all the Superstitions of the Jews and the Idolatries of the Gentiles and so impose upon Mankind a Yoke far more uneasy and a much heavier Burden than our Saviour doth But we must not rest here For the Spirituality of God's Worship under the Gospel being a necessary Qualification of it some Men may possibly scruple without any Malice or ill Design some Rites or Usages in the Worship of God as being contrary to its Spirituality Nothing but Order and Decency may be design'd by them or some external Ornaments for the Service of God and by a fair and rational Interpretation they may be so used without being any Impediments to the Purity or Spirituality of Divine Worship Yet seeing all Men cannot have the same Sense of these things and seeing what a Man scruples he can never be edified by it we are to consider the Infirmities of our Brethren for Order and Decency here is best when they are in Subserviency to Edification Men are not made for Laws but Laws are made for Men. Our Ecclesiastical History is a Demonstration and many other Histories too that the World must be govern'd as it can and not as we will and it is to be considered the narrower the Fence is the more are excluded to attack it and what is often attack'd in this World we see by constant Experience tumbles down one time or other Unity only doth not create strength there must be a Conjunction of Unity and Number together But then as wise Builders consider what the matter will bear they are to make use of so must also the Builders or Edifiers of the Church and accordingly apply themselves to it or else before we are aware we impose a more uneasy Yoke and a heavier Burden upon one another than our Saviour hath Dr. Hammond out of Rabbi Joshua interprets the heavy Burdens of the Pharisees Superfluities of Worship and troublesome Rites introduced under-hand into the Jewish Religion And Maimonides he observes calls the Addittaments by which they made the Law heavy Plagas Severities Thus they made God's Yoke more uneasy to one another and his Burden heavier than God had made them It is our Duty not to imitate the Scribes and Pharises but our Saviour in the Text whose Yoke is easy and Burden light 3. Let us not make it more uneasy to our selves then our Saviour hath made it 1. In our private Capacities Let us not by evil Company or Customs habituate our selves to Sin and make it natural to us If ever our Religion doth us good it must reform us for Faith and Repentance are nothing less than Regeneration The longer we wear the Yoke of our Sins and carry the Burden of our Lusts about us the more uneasy will it be to put on our Saviour's though in themselves never so much easier or lighter than they Isa 28.7 8 9 10. The Priest and the Prophets erred through Wine they
this state Therefore these Objects work upon us only by Faith Devotion and Meditation which suppose great pains and care in our superiour Faculties and Restraint and Severities upon the Inclinations and our outward Man. But in the other case we may sit still those Objects are contiguous and they work extempore and continually and spontaneously like natural Agents so that every sensual Object is a Basilisk and looks us dead if we are not aware of it and do not consider the poisonous Influence of its Countenance before it looks upon us and the innocent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nature given us at first for our Nourishment and Diversion prove mortal to us unless we live under the daily caution of Touch not Taste not Handle not 2. Examples which every-where attend us and greatly encourage and enforce this Disorder and Rebellion of our inferiour Faculties These surprize us in our Infancy conduct and manage us in our Youth and Age so that before we are Men many times we are Beasts and young Devils before we are old Men. We are naturally apt to go quo itur non quo eundum est as Seneca observes therefore these more powerfully affect us than Laws or Precepts or the most rational or eloquent Lectures of our Duty Thus provoked by Temptations and animated by Examples this Rebellion is habitual for every Act strengthens the Habit and our Sins thus become exceeding sinful Jerem. 13.23 Can the Leopard change his Spots or the Black-moor his Skin then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Here Custom or Habit is represented as intractable as Nature it self according to the Proverb Custom is a second Nature Thus Man is fallen and so degenerated from the Rectitude and Integrity of his Original Frame and Constitution that had not God so loved the World as to send his Son into it to restore it and pass a new Creation upon it Man must have been for ever lost and buried in his own Ruins The doing of this is called Mortification Regeneration and when 't is done the new Man or new Creature These all signify Regret and Reluctancy to a great Degree unless a Man hath been so happy as to have born the Yoke in his Youth Now the Son of God doing this for us by his Religion from the Uneasiness of it at first it may well be exprest by these Metaphors in the Text of a Yoke or Burden II. But though it be so and there is such a plain Reason for it yet I shall evidently demonstrate that this Yoke is easy and this Burden light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Original which signifies gracious profitable fit and therefore must be easy and not only so but something a Man would not be without esteeming it his Ornamen rather than his Yoke So also the Word which in the Text is translated Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also Light that a Man may not only walk but run with it upon his Shoulders according to the Etymology of the Word And if there be any weight in it 't is only to poise us keep us steady our Security rather than our Encombrance Thus the Words in the Text naturally import I now come to demonstrate the Truth of the Proposition Though Christianity is a Yoke yet 't is an easy Yoke and though it is a Burden yet it is a light Burden For our more distinct Understanding what I shall say upon this Subject we are to remember that the Christian Religion is usually divided into two parts 1st The Credenda or Articles to be believed 2dly The Agenda or Duties to be done 1st The Credenda or Articles of Faith contained in the Christian Religion and these are so few and so plainly revealed that these can hardly be in any sense called a Yoke or Burden to any one that believes the Being of God and that he is a Being infinitely perfect The Apostles Creed is a summary of these and they are principally matters of Fact concerning the Nature or Person of our Saviour in opposition to Judaism and Heathenism so plainly related in the Holy Scriptures that they are understood as soon as read And where-ever the Scripture it self does impress a Character of Necessity either for Faith or Practice we cannot speak plainer to one another than that doth to us And if any thing be revealed which we cannot comprehend as for instance the Article of the Trinity yet the Revelation is plain And in all matters of Revelation we are to believe no more than is revealed and no otherwise of it than as it is revealed and thus to believe is no difficult thing nay 't is so easy that 't is impossible for any Man that acknowledgeth the Being of God not thus to believe because the very Notion of God necessarily implies an Impossibility of saying any thing to his Creatures which is not true And the difficulty of comprehending the nature of the thing revealed doth not make our Religion uneasy because we are not bound to understand that is to comprehnd it which also is no Objection to its Credibility because an Infinite Nature and all those Perfections which belong to it cannot be supposed to be comprehensible we cannot comprehend Eternity nor our own Souls by our finite Understandings But the Agenda the Matters of our Practice Duties to be done these are the Difficulties of our Religion and signified by these Metaphors in the Text of Yoke and Burden That this Yoke is easy and Burden light I demonstrate from these following Topicks 1. It is most agreeable to our Natures whatsoever is natural is easy and pleasant because Amor fecit Mundum the Creation is the Effect of God's Goodness as well as of his Power and he made nothing to be an Affliction or Torment to it self and the Goodness of every thing is to be fitted for its End and the Perfection of every thing is to be in Conjunction with it That the Christian Religion is thus suitable to our Natures will appear if we consider Man 1. In his Private 2. In his Publick Capacity I. In his Private Capacity Here we are to respect 1. His Soul 2. His Body 1. His Soul By this a Man is a busy active Being his Thoughts are restless his Desires are craving and stretching till they meet with that for which they were created which is the Contemplation of Truth in this World and the Enjoyment of God in this and that which is to come Here we feel his gracious Influences to our Support and Comfort hereafter we contemplate and enjoy him to our Everalasting Happiness and Satisfaction Of these two briefly 1. The Contemplation of Truth That this is natural to our Souls the great and indefatigable Pains and Hardships many have undergone for it the Extasies of Joy and perfect Satisfaction they have felt when they have found it the great Honours they have been courted with whilst they liv'd and even ador'd with after their Death when
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