that is your season His killing and breaking time is your weeping and mourning time but when his healing time comes then is your time to laugh and dance Be willing therefore to be slain by the coming of the Commandment Rom. 7.9 and to lye dead under the Spirits wounds till the healing and reviving time comes Is there not a promise that the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and that he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing Psal 126.6 bringing his sheavs with him And therefore do not dare to use any indirect means in hopes of relief he that would see a good issue of this work must stay the time Lam. 3.26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. 4. While you are under the Yoke of the Spirit give diligence to make a right use of it by improving your convictions while you are under them lest the Spirit cease his work and leave you and so your convictions die and wither and come to nothing This is a very common case for whence is it that convictions do so seldom end in conversion Many are convinced and yet few converted they have many and strong convictions yet perish under them they are made to see their lost estate and yet never come to Jesus Christ Now whence is this but from the slighting and not improving their convictions Of all duties therefore be sure make Conscience of this when the Spirit strives then do you strive when he works then is your time to work I pray consider four things First Prov. 17.16 What a price to get wisdom this work of the Spirit puts into our hands and shall it be a price in the hand of fools that have no heart to it no desire to obtain it The strivings of the Spirit time your seasons of grace For though every day is a time to repent and believe in yet a man hath not his special seasons and opportunities for this every day Opportunity is more than time it is the nick and season of time it is time fitted for action a conjunction of time and means together to bring a thing about When God shews a man his undone condition by reason of sin and makes a tender of Christ to him and the Spirit strives with him to bring him to accept the tender then is his season As the Lord said to David 2 Sam. 5.24 When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees then thou shalt bestir thy self for then shall the Lord go out before thee Secondly Consider how easie the conversion is of those sinners that comply with and duly improve the seasons of the Spirit All things are easie in the Spirits seasons Great births are brought forth with easie travail How came Sarah barren Sarah to have a Son at ninety years old Gen. 18.10 why God came according to the time of life and Isaac is born So when the Spirit comes according to the time of life when his season is to bring life to a dead Soul then it lives you must know that Isaac was not so much the Son of Abrahams loyns as of Gods promise begotten by the Power of God making good the promise and therefore called a child of promise Gal 4.28 So is every Believer born not of the will of the flesh Joh. 1.13 but of God By the power of God put forth through the promise And hence all things in conversion become easie How difficult soever they are to the Creature yet in the Spirits season they are easie because of a Divine power How hard a work is it to repent and turn from sin a very difficult duty therefore compared to cutting off a limb But yet in the Spirits season how easie is it Zacheus says Christ make haste and come down Luk. 19. â— here is the season of Christ upon his Soul and how easily is his repentance brought about vers 8. Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have taken ought fiom any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold How hard a work is the work of believing no duty more difficult It is easier to keep all the commands of the Law than that one command of believing And yet when the season of the Spirit comes how easie is it For now all things concur to bring it about the Commandment comes the eyes are opened sin is made burdensom the need of Christ is felt and by these means the Spirit draws and then the sinner runs Ah how easie are all things in conversion made by the Spirits seasons to the Soul that complies with them and improves them Thirdly Consider this is the highest and last of means for conversion 1 It is the highest it is that which puts efficacy into all other means which without it can operate nothing It is that which can make the weakest means as successful against the proudest lusts as the Rams horns were against Jericho though her walls reached to Heaven 2 It is the last means that God ever uses to convert sinners he hath appointed no other means to succeed this and therefore if you sin against your convictions you quench the Spirit and he may be so quenched as never to be kindled again and then your conversion becomes a thing impossible And therefore Fourthly Consider what a mischief it brings upon you not to improve the convictions of the Spirit Is it not a mischief when all the Ordinances and means of Grace are rendred fruitless and unsuccessful This is an effect of not improving the Spirits convictions Nay is it not a mischief to turn the edge of that Word against your Souls that was designed against your sins This is a fruit of not improving the Spirits convictions Is it not a mischief when the heart grows harder and harder under softning means This is a fruit of not improving the Spirits convictions Is it not a mischief to be delivered up to a cannot in believing Why he that improves not the convictions of the Spirit provokes him finally to depart and then the sinner is delivered up to a cannot in believing Therefore they could not believe Joh. 12.39 Is it not a mischief when the Oath of God seals up a persons or a peoples destruction Why thus it is when the convictions of the Spirit are not improved I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Psal 95.11 And who were these They were a people that had long resisted the strivings of the Spirit O therefore be diligent to improve your convictions while you are under them And if you ask me how they must be improved I shall give only this one answer and that is By hastening to Jesus Christ for pardoning and converting Grace You never improve your convictions aright till you are brought by them to a saving
pray against his sin as it is said Austin did in his Natural State who was afraid that God should grant his request He prayed one thing and desired another But he prays as David did wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Psal 51.2 Oh the sighs and groans that a gracious heart sends up to God under the load and burden of sin We groan being burdened 2 Cor. 5.4 Hence that of the Apostle Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death never did poor Prisoner more long and wish to be freed from his chains then the Believer doth to be rid of his sins None can know what the wrestlings of a gracious heart are with God against Corruption but they that have been wearied with the burden of it 2. He mourns and sorrows under it as the daily burden of his Soul Grace softens the heart and then sin makes it mourn They shall be on the mountains like Doves of the valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity Ezek. 7.16 And this is sorrow of the right kind There is a great deal of sorrow caused by sin that is not right therefore the Apostle speaks of being made sorry after a Godly manner I rejoyced not that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to Repentance for ye were made sorry after a Godly manner 2. Cor. 7.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye sorrowed according to God And it is known from all other sorrow By its object and that is sin Sin more than any thing and special sin more than any sin 1. Sin more than any thing more than suffering more than affliction more than Hell Nothing in the world causes that sorrow in a gracious heart as sin doth Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight sayes the poor prodigal Luk. 15.21 he doth not say I am full of wants ready to famish for bread but here is his wound father I have sinned So as it was with David 2 Sam. 24.10 I have sinned greatly in that I have done and now I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant He doth not say take away this judgment this pestilence nay he is willing to bear it ver 17. Lo I have sinned and done wickedly but those Sheep what have they done Let thine hand be against me He is willing to indure the smart so as God would remove the guilt He would quietly bear his hand in chastisement for sin so that his heart were but towards him in the pardon of sin It is not smart but guilt that is the chief cause of sorrow in a gracious heart Now the hypocrite cryes out more because of smart then guilt Punishment causes sorrow when sin doth not Pharaoh is under a plague of Frogs and he presently calls for Moses and Aaron and what must they do Intreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me Exod. 8.8 he doth not say that he may take away my sin from me he was very sensible of the plague of frogs but had no sense of the plague of his heart So that here you see the difference between David and Pharaoh David is for the taking away of sin rather then of judgment Pharaoh is for the taking away of judgment but not a word of the taking away of sin 2. True sorrow for sin is more for special sins then for any other sin Though all sin is matter of sorrow yet special sins above all And it must needs be so for by these God hath been most dishonoured By these he hath so often broke with Jesus Christ By these he hath given the deepest wounds to his own Conscience By these Satan hath so long maintained his power and rule in the Soul And so easily insnared and overcome him The hypocrite never sorrows for his special sins His sorrow as it is feigned so it is either for some petty sins or such as are common to him with others But he feels no remorse for his bosom lusts nor comes near to that which is the chief cause of controversie between God and his Soul His beloved lust lies secure in his heart without the least disturbance or notice taken of it 3. He maintains a constant conflict against sin And this is a natural effect of hatred for hatred stirreth up strife Prov. 10.12 hence ye read of striving against sin Heb. 12.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a military word and implies an opposing and fighting as against an enemy to whom a man is resolved not to yield And the enemy is here said to be sin which is the greatest enemy in the world and makes the fiercest war for it wars against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 against the grace of the Soul against the peace and comfort of the soul against the life and salvation of the Soul Hence it is that the life of a Christian is a continual warfare The Age that men observe in Civil Wars is from sixteen years old to sixty but this war commences from the first moment of taking up the Yoke of Christ to the last moment that a man lives in the world Every man that is born again is born a man of strife as Jeremy speaks in another sense he keeps up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 15.10 a truceless war with sin Cant. 6.13 what is the company of two armies in the Shulamite but the lusts of the Flesh and the Graces of the Spirit in continual conflict and opposition of each other So the Apostle explains it Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh And mark the Tense it is not said it did lust viz. at the first working of grace or it will lust viz. when grace is come to more strength and maturity but it lusteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present Tense and so it notes two things 1. That so soon as ever Grace is wrought in the heart it shews it self in strifes and contests with lust and corruption it lusteth against the Flesh or else it is not Grace 2. That this contest once begun will never end so long as any one lust remains in the heart Nor can it for this hatred of sin wrought by grace in the heart is so radicated in the new nature and so essential to it that as grace is increased so this hatred is heightened and needs it must for all hatred springs from love amor odii causa it is love to God and Christ which works to hatred of sin and therefore as love grows stronger so our hatred of sin still grows greater so that this contest can never end but in the death and destruction of every lust Other enemies a Christian can love and pity and forgive and pray for but he hath no pity for sin It is a hatred wrought by the Spirit of God which is full of indignation and revenge What indignation it wrought in you yea
to a right end CHAP. XVII Exhorts to perseverance under the yoke of Christ with arguments to press it and directions to guide in it HAving put on the Yoke of Christ Duty third never cast it off again Having begun in the spirit do not end in the flesh He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God Luk. 9.62 Art thou bound as the Apostle saies in another case seek not to be loosed The Yoke of Christ is to be put on betimes but never to be put off again The gospel that puts this yoke upon us is the everlasting gospel not temporary or cessant Rev. 14.6 but a fixed rule for the whole life and therefore we are to serve God in righteousness and holiness all our dayes Luk 1.74 75. Let me propound some arguments to press this duty and then some directions to help in it and I shall dismiss this branch of the use 1. Consider the great advantage of a persevering obedience whether you look at the honour that attends it or the peace that comes by it or the safety that is in it or the reward that is intailed upon it the advantage is great on all these accounts 1. It is your honour to persevere in your obedience to Christ to the end This is clearly intimated in that counsel of Christ to the Church of Philadelphia Revel 2.11 Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown The Crown here some take for the crown of glory in heaven Others take it for that honour God had put upon her ver 9. I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee But I take her crown here to be her perseverance in faith and obedience to Christ for perseverance is a Christians crown it crowns all grace therefore saith our Lord Christ hold fast that which thou hast That profession thou hast made that grace thou hast received that obedience which thou hast wrought For I know thy works thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denyed my name Hold fast that which thou hast there is the counsel of Christ and the argument he urgeth it upon is least she should lose her Crown Perseverance in the wayes of Christ is the crown and honour of a Christian 2. If you respect the peace and comfort of your state nothing secures and promotes it more then your constancy in obedience As there is a peace which flows from justification Rom. 5.1 so there is a peace resulting from persevering obedience Great peace have they that love thy Law Psal 119.165 He don't say only that do it but that love it for he that loves it will do it and never depart from it Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace shall be upon them and mercy Constant obedience brings in constant peace and comfort 3. It is of great advantage in point of safety Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way but wickedness overthroweth the sinner Prov. 13.6 Ah what fools are sinners who run into sin to avoid suffering it is as if a man should venture his head to save his hat or sink the Ship to avoid the storm It is He that keepeth the commandment that keepeth his own soul Prov. 19.16 There is no safty but in the way of duty We are sure of Gods protection so long as we make conscience of Gods precepts So sayes the Prophet Isa 33.15 16. He that walketh uprightly he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of Rocks And Prov. 1.33 Whoso hearkneth to me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil 4. It is your advantage in point of reward The promises are made to perseverance To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Rom 2.7 The date of your service is short but eternity is the date of your recompence So that great is the advantage of your keeping close to Christ in the way of obedience and therefore he that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is holy let him be holy still Rev. 22.11 2. Consider on the other hand the danger and mischief of Apostacy from Christ As perseverance in his service is attended with great advantages so casting off his yoke hath in it very mischievous effects and that both with respect to Jesus Christ and to our selves 1. With respect to Christ It is the greatest reproach that can be laid upon Christ for any one that hath taken up his yoke to cast it off again For it is a leaving and rejecting him after choice profession and experience 1. Subjection to Christs yoke is an act of choice for Christ forceth none into his service Now choice is of the best things Of evils a man chooseth the least but of good things a man chooseth that which is best So that he that chooseth the service of Christ doth therein acknowledge the goodness and beauty of his ways And therefore for a man to cast off his yoke is to repent of his choice And this is a great reproach to Jesus Christ for a man to choose his precepts and afterwards to reject them 2. Casting off the yoke is a forsaking Christ after an open Profession for there can be no Apostacy but by such as have first owned Christ and made a profession of him the drunkard the unclean wretch c. that hath been vile all his days living in a course of sin from his youth up he can't be said properly to be an Apostate if he lives and dyes in his sins and lusts he may be said to live and dye a Reprobate but no Apostate But he is an Apostate that hath known and owned the wayes of Christ and afterward turned the back upon them that hath given his neck to the Yoke of Christ and then cast it off again that hath vomited up his filthiness and then turned to his own vomit again 2 Pet. 2.22 Such an Apostate was Judas Demas c. Now for a man to take up a professed subjection to Christ and then forsake him must needs be a great reproach for he seems to say that he is not a good Master it is no profit to serve him 3. It is a leaving Christ after experience for there is no man that hath taken up Christs Yoke but hath seen an equity and goodness in his Precepts he hath found some peace of Conscience in so doing he hath tasted somewhat of the Heavenly gift and been made partaker of some operations of the Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the World to come Heb. 6.4 5. Now for a man to have experience of Christ and then cast him off is the greatest reproach that can be cast upon him The Apostle calls
branches thus inobled I know it is the matter of your Prayers and let me beg you to joyn thereunto your utmost indeavours by a strict and pious education the common want of which hath stained the present age with as debauched a Nobility and Gentry as ever any time brought forth And Madam if to all this you shall add the winning motive of your own example so walking in all the Precepts of Christ and in all the virtues of the Holy Spirit that they may be won into the ways of God by the beauty of your feet O what an honour and rejoycing would this be to you in the near approaching day of Christ Jesus How many children have been brought into love with the ways of God by the holy example of Godly Parents And many more have perished by the contrary who are now cursing the Parents that begat them and the loyns that brought them forth I no way doubt of your Honours ready acceptance of this Present how mean soever it be Seeing it is a great bravery of mind as well to accept little kindnesses from them that have no better within their reach as to confer great ones For as by the latter you oblige love so by the former you incourage duty Thus the full Sea stocks Clouds richly while they pay again but by drops We have a pattern of it in God himself who as he gives the greatest Boons so he doth not disdain the least returns though they are made in Mites Luk. 21.2 3. Goats hair and Rams skins are as acceptable an Offering from them that were no better provided for the building the Tabernacle Exod. 23.4 5. as Purple and Scarlet so as it came from a willing heart Madam it is for the compleating the Temple of God in your soul that this Offering is made and though it is neither Purple nor Scarlet yet such as it is it comes from as willing a mind as ever Israelite offered from him that brought Gold and Silver to him that brought Goats hair and Rams skins And if your Honour be dispositioned like my Master you will accept of payment in Mites where it is the utmost and the All that is within the reach of a short arm But though it cannot reach so far as I would Prayer can For how incapable soever we are of other offices of respect and gratitude yet in Prayers and good wishes we stand next to immensity and infiniteness And it is nothing less then the great things of both worlds summed up in the blessed injoyment of God himself here much and hereafter much more that can be an answer to his Prayers who without ceasing bows the knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for this Blessing for you Madam and your Honourable and Honoured Relations as becomes Stepney Novemb. 15th 1682. Madam Your Honours highly obliged and humbly devoted Servant Matthew Mead. The Epistle to the READER Good Reader THough thy concern lies not much in knowing the reason of the publication of this Treatise yet it may not be amiss to give thee this short account of it That in April 1674 A Gentleman who was till then a stranger to me came with an earnest request that I would undertake the Preaching of a Sermon yearly on every May-day to the younger people I desiring to know his reason why to them rather then to others and why on that day rather then upon any other he told me that it had often been the grief of his Soul to behold the vitious and debauched practises of Youth on that day of liberty And did hope that many might be induced either by their own inclinations or by the counsels of their Parents or Masters rather to spend their time in hearing a Sermon then in drinking and gaming c. by which means many might be converted and saved The design being so honest and the reason so cogent I was perswaded to comply with it and began upon the following May Day and so it hath been continued ever since and I may say it not in any boast but to the praise of the glory of the grace of God with great success On May-day 1680 I took the Scripture here insisted on for the subject of my discourse and having then shewed the great advantage of bearing the Yoke of vfflictions and also the Yoke of the Spirit in conviction of sin in youth I did promise God granting life and liberty to treat of the Yoke of Christ in conversion in the next Anniversary course But before that day came I was much sollicited both by young and old they best know why to make publick the first Sermon which I had so Preached and it was fairly transcribed and sent to me by several hands for that end which yet I judged very improper but to answer their importunity I did promise that when I had finished the subject I would comply with their desires And therefore finding that I could not compass my design in the second May-day course I did for some Lords days following insist on the same subject till I had finished it And that thou hadst it no sooner the Bookseller is accountable and not I. However if it may be of any advantage to thy soul in breaking off the yoke of sin and lust and bringing thee under the yoke of Christ it comes in good time and to good purpose And when thou findest this benefit by it then pray for him that loves thy soul and desires thy Salvation and therein is November 15. 1682. Thy Real Friend Matthew Mead. THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. SOmewhat praeliminary The Yoke explained What it is Litterally taken what taken Metaphorically CHAP. II. Afflictions called a Yoke in what sense they are good and for whom CHAP. III. Shewing the difference between the Yoke of the Spirit and the Yoke of Christ What the Spirits Yoke is Why convictions are compared to a Yoke Why sinners must come under the Yoke of the Spirit Why it is good to come under it betimes CHAP. IV. Contains some counsels and directions to persons of several Denominations with respect to the Yoke of the Spirit CHAP. V. The chief Doctrine propounded Christ hath his Yoke Wherein it consists The nature and properties of this Yoke VVhy the commands of Christ called a Yoke CHAP. VI. Holdeth forth the reasons of the Doctrine CHAP. VII Holdeth forth the last reason viz. from the good of obedience It is a necessary good a profitable good an honourable good a comfortable good CHAP. VIII Answers some objections against Early Obedience CHAP. IX More objections against Early Obedience answered CHAP. X. Wherein the reasons of slighting Christ are inquired into the evil of it aggravated CHAP. XI Wherein the Tryal of our state is pressed with seven reasons for it CHAP. XII Several rules for the knowledge of our estate are laid down both negatively and affirmatively CHAP. XIII Sheweth the truth of our subjection to Christ by such things as are necessarily antecedent to it
a Slave to sin to reject the Reign of Christ to resist the Spirit to slight the Grace of the Gospel to gratifie the Devil and to undo thy own soul O think of that word He that sins against me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speruit animam suam Vatab. in loc wrongs his own soul Prov. 8.36 And where lies the wrong He refuses the Yoke of Christ and so lays himself under the wrath of Christ and ye perish from the way if his wrath be kindled but a little Psal 2.12 And what greater wrong can any one offer to his own soul than to lay it under a necessity of damnation by a willing subjection to the Yoke of sin rather than that of Christ Therefore it is so far from being good that it is the greatest evil to bear this Yoke Be not ye the Servants of sin But then there is a threefold Yoke which it is good for a man to bear in his youth There is The Yoke of affliction The Yoke of the Spirit in conviction of sin The Yoke of subjection and obedience to Jesus Christ CHAP. II. Afflictions called a Yoke In what sense they are good and for whom 1. AFflictions may be called a Yoke and so they are often in Scripture Lev. 26.13 I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt and I have broken the Bonds of your Yoke and made you go upright He speaks of the great afflictions with which Israel was so oppressed and burthened in Egypt that their backs were bowed down and they were even sunk and broken under them and this God calls their affliction I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt Exod. 3.7 and Deut. 26.6 7. The Egyptians evilly entreated us and afflicted us and when we cried to the Lord he heard our voice and looked on our affliction and oppression And this seems to be the Yoke intended in the Text at least to the Church of the Jews that were then in Babylonish bondage which the Holy Ghost calls a Yoke Jer. 27.12 Bring your necks under the Yoke of the King of Babylon And Jer. 30.8 It shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of Hosts that I will break his Yoke from off thy neck and burst thy bonds And accordingly the Church here calls her present affliction and misery by reason of her captived state a Yoke Lam. 1.14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand The yoke of my transgressions that is the punishment procured by my transgressions as if he should say God hath laid upon me a heavy Yoke of affliction as the just reward of my sin Now this is a Yoke that it is good for a man to bear in his youth Afflictions have in them matter of real advantage This seems a Paradox to sense and no wonder for even good men can hardly make sense of it Therefore let us a little enquire In what sense afflictions are good and For whom they are good Quest 1. In what sence are afflictions good Answ They are not good in themselves they are not bona though they may work in bonum they are not good things though they may work to good ends In their own nature they are evil and so called in Scripture Amos 3.6 Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Isai 45.7 I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Mic. 1.12 The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evil came down from the Lord unto the Gate of Jerusalem That which is a fruit of sin a part of the curse introduced upon the breach of the first Covenant must needs be in it self evil But so is affliction It is evil in it self and evil to the Creature evil in its nature and evil in its tendency But yet as afflictions are ordered and directed by God and under the management of his Spirit so they are good they serve to good purposes But I shall give a more distinct Answer to the Question in four gradual Conclusions 1. Nothing Man mistakes more about than Concl. 1 the matter of good This is most evident from the differing opinions of the Ancients about it Austin reckons up 288. which all shew that man is acted herein very much by fancy and present appearances insomuch that if God should give a man his own wish he would ruine himself with evil under the shew of good Brine preserves many things which would rot in Sugar and yet sense is all for pleasing the sweet tooth But no wise Body will give a sick man what he desires but what the Physician directs As God sometimes in judgment pleases a man to his ruine Psal 106.15 He gave them their request but sent leanness into their souls So he sometimes in mercy crosses him to his advantage We are short sighted and distempered with passions and therefore call that good which would be our bane and deprecate that as evil which would be a real benefit Doubtless Joseph could not but regret at and being a good Youth pray against his Brethrens unnatural cruelty as having nothing in it in appearance but evil and vassalage What for a young Stripling to be fold for a Slave to be barter'd away out of his Father's bosome into a strange Country never like to be heard of more then cast into Prison and exposed to all severities Can there be any good in this Sense and opinion say no But pray consider How had he been raised to such a price if he had not been first made so cheap how had he been made a Prince by Strangers if he had not been made a Slave by his Brethren nay how many had perished for bread had not he been sent for merchandise into Egypt So Joseph afterwards acknowledges Gen. 45.5 Ye sold me hither but God sent me before you to preserve life And Gen. 50.20 As for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive God many times takes away for our good strips us for our advantage casts us down and seemingly casts us off and all for our benefit Opinion says with old Jacob All these things are against me Gen. 42.36 and yet they were all for him and therefore Concl. 2 Good is to be estimated not by its suitableness to sense but by its reference to the soul That is the truest good which promotes the interest of the better part no mans condition can be made good by any outward circumstances while the case of his soul is desperate for that is the better part of us and therefore good men have always valued themselves more upon their inward indowments than any outward acquisitions and have set more store by a Dram of Grace than by all outward comforts Good is to be judged by its conducency to Concl. 3 the chief good God is the chief good and
then they came to him 6. It teaches them to see the emptiness of the Creature and what a vain thing the World is In our ease and prosperity we are apt to surfeit by excess in sensual fruitions The lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are the young mans Trinity Hence that of the Apostle 1 John 2.14 15 16. I write to you young men though the expression there hath a spiritual sense and what doth he write unto them Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father This is a rare Lesson for young men but how seldome do any learn it till they come into the School of affliction How have I known many young ones wholly given to pride and pleasure but when God hath brought them under the Rod fetter'd them with afflictions made their Bed upon the Brink of the Grave O how have they then cryed out of their follies their mispending precious time their neglecting God and their souls their regarding lying vanities and so forsaking their own mercies and what strong resolutions have they then made never to return to these follies again And these things are great Preparatories to conversion Now then if afflictions obviate those evils which through the corruption of our Natures are occasioned by prosperity if they are inlightening and helpful to great discoveries and if they are preparatory to Grace and conversion then surely it must be good for a man to bear the Yoke of affliction betimes CHAP. III. Shewing the difference between the Yoke of the Spirit and the Yoke of Christ What the Spirits Yoke is Why convictions are compared to a Yoke Why Sinners must come under the Yoke of the Spirit Why it is good to come under it betimes THE next sense in which I am to speak of this Yoke is that of conviction of sin to make way to the last Notion of it which more especially design to insist upon and that is the Yoke of Gospel obedience and subjection the one is the Yoke of the Spirit the other is the Yoke of Christ These two are not the same but very different Yokes especially in these four things First The Yoke of the Spirit is grievous the Yoke of Christ is not grievous 1 John 5.3 the Yoke of the Spirit is very heavy the Yoke of Christ is very light Matth. 11.30 Secondly It is the heaviness of the Spirits Yoke which makes Christ's Yoke easie It is not easie to all no they that never felt the Spirits Yoke to them Christ's Yoke is a burthen And therefore when Christ says My Yoke is easie it points to them whom he calls to come and take it up and who are they Why the heavy laden and weary ver 28. They who are wearied by the Spirits Yoke shall thereby find ease under Christ's Yoke Thirdly The Yoke of the Spirit is but for a time and then to be taken off and never put on again but the Yoke of Christ is always to be kept on never to be put off the soul is under a perpetual obligation to Duty and obedience to Christ Jesus Fourthly The Yoke of the Spirit is to prepare us for the Yoke of Christ for Christ's Yoke can never be put on till the Spirit by his Yoke hath fitted the neck for it The soul will never obey Christ till it be conquered to Christ and that will never be till the Spirit in conviction put his Yoke and Fetters upon it I shall now speak somewhat of the Spirits Yoke and if ever the Lord give such another Call to this Work then I shall speak of Christ's Yoke more largely And in speaking of the Yoke of the Spirit in conviction I would insist a little upon these four things First That the Spirit hath his Yoke Secondly Why the convictions of the Spirit upon the soul of a Sinner are compared to a Yoke Thirdly Every Sinner that shall be saved must come under this Yoke of the Spirit Fourthly Therefore it is good to come under it betimes and why First That the Spirit hath his Yoke There is such a thing upon the consciences of Sinners at one time or other as the Yoke of the Spirit As the Spirit hath his joys and comforts so he hath his Yokes and Bonds as he hath a liberty which he brings some into so he hath a thraldom which he brings some under And it is first bondage and then liberty He is a Spirit of liberty to none but to whom he is first a Spirit of bondage The Spirits Yoke described And if you ask me What this Yoke of the Spirit is It is that state he brings the Sinner into and holds him in before his conversion to prepare him for his conversion and that is a state of sensibleness of sin and wrath which flows from the convincing work of the Spirit The Spirit of the Lord whereever he comes to work a saving change doth first put his Yoke upon the Sinners neck that is he doth convince the soul of the evil of sin and of its liableness to the wrath of God and so fills it with fear and horrour so that the poor Creature looks upon it self as utterly lost and undone so long as it abides in that state This is the Spirits Yoke It is called so in Scripture Lam. 1.14 The Yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand they are wreathed and come upon my neck the Lord hath delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up Into their hands that is into the hands of sin and she was not able to rise up from under them Prov. 5.22 and why Because the Spirit had bound them upon her as a Yoke Secondly Why are the convictions of the Spirit compared to a Yoke First A Yoke is very heavy and burdensome So is sin when once the conscience is truly convinced of it Mine inquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me Psal 38.4 And therefore a soul under the sense of sin is said to be heavy laden Matth 11.28 Secondly A Yoke bows the Back by reason of its weight Hence is that expression of the kindness of God to Israel Lev. 26.13 I have broken the Bonds of your Yoke and made you go upright implying that the Yoke causes a man to bow and stoop under it so doth conviction of sin it bows the soul under it I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Psal 38.6 Thirdly A Yoke is a galling wounding thing so is conviction O how it wounds with the sense of sin and dread of wrath Prov. 18.14 and a wounded Spirit who can bear Foarthly A Yoke is a taming thing It tames the wildest Beast so conviction tames the most unruly Sinner though he be never so raging
in his lusts yet when the Spirit of God doth but set sin close to the conscience O how pliable is he So it was with Saul he breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord Acts 9.1 but Christ no sooner smites him with a word from Heaven but how tame and pliable is he He trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do v. 6. And hence the convictions of the Spirit are fitly compared to a Yoke Thirdly Every Sinner that ever shall be saved must come under this Yoke of the Spirit he must be brought to a conviction of his lost estate There is a necessity for this and I will shew you why Reason 1. Because it is essential to sound conversion What is conversion but a turning from sin to God and how can a man turn from sin without a true sense of sin or how can he turn to God till he be made to see and feel the want of God therefore it is absolutely necessary Reas 2. It is the constant method of God with all that are capable of the work First He shews man his sin then his Saviour first his wound then his cure first his malady then his remedy first his danger then his Redeemer Gen. 3.10 15. Thus God began with Adam and Eve he first opens their eyes to see their sin and misery their nakedness and shame and then makes them a promise of the seed of the Woman God will have sense of misery go before the participation of mercy He look upon man and if any say I have sinned and it profited me not he will save his soul from going down to the pit and his life shall see the light Job 33.27 28. The Israelites are first stunâ— with the fiery Serpents Numb 21.6 8. and then the Brazeâ— Serpent is set up for them to look to for healing Peter's three thousand Converts werâ— first pricked in their hearts and then he applies the promise Acts 2.37 39. The Gaolâ— is first struck with a Spirit of trembling anâ— then Jesus Christ is held out to him for salvâ—tion Acts 16.29 31. Reas 3. God will not frustrate and makâ— void the use of the Law There would be 〈◊〉 conviction of sin no sight of the misery of natural state but for the Law therefore say St Paul I had not known sin but by the Law Rom. 7.7 How could he what should discover it to him Sin had not been sin but for the Law and therefore nothing can discover it but the Law which is Index sui obliqui 1 Joh. 3.4 for sin is a transgression of the Law The Spirit himself could not fasten this Yoke upon the Sinners neck but by the bond of the Law Rom. 5.13 for sin is not imputed where there is no Law Look how the Needle goes before to pierce the Cloth and so makes way for the Thred to sew it so the Law goes before to break the heart and so makes way for the Gospel to heal it The Spirit makes use of it as a School-master to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 Bonnerges makes way for Barnabas and John for Jesus Reas 4. The soul lyes under no promise of good from Christ till it come under the Yoke of the Spirit Then it is sensible of sin and sensible Sinners lye under the promise of Christ There is not one promise in all the Gospel made of Christ to a Sinner as he is a Sinner if there were it would be in vain For as such he could not receive it nor can it belong to him for he is under another Covenant Reas 5. Without this he can never set a true estimate upon the blood and Grace of Jesus Christ The Pearl of Pardoning Grace shall never be cast before Swine that wallow in their sins Though Christ be free of his bloud yet we shall see the want of it before we have it that we may know the worth of it when we enjoy it He discovers himself in such a way as the Sinner may prize him most and when is that but when sin lyes with the greatest load upon conscience When the Yoke of the Spirit is heaviest then redemption by Christ is sweetest When he sees his Case at worst then he prizes Christ most When he is made to know how wretched his state is then he considers how precious the bloud of Christ is Reas 6. Till the soul comes to bear the Yoke of the Spirit it can never be brought to close with Christ upon Gospel terms It is sense of sin and misery that must bow the soul to Gods conditions of mercy The reason why so many Sinners perish under the Call of Christ is not because they totally reject him but because they don't make a right close with him they don't come up to God's terms There are stated Conditions which every one that would have Christ and benefit by Christ must come up to and what are they Why he that would have Christ must have whole Christ Christ in all his Offices not only as Priest but as King and Prophet And this necessarily suposes a renouncing all sin and lust a resolute owning and adhering to his Truths and Ordinances and an unfeigned resignation of heart and soul to his will in all things This is the right receiving of Christ Now there are but few that can come up to this they would have Christ but they would not part with their lusts they would have a justifying Christ but not a sanctifying Christ a Christ to pardon and save them but not to purge and cleanse them There is such a close League between the natural man and his lust that till conscience be convinced and sin imbittered the soul will not be divorced and so long Christ can't be received therefore there is a necessity that every Sinner that would be saved should come under the Spirits Yoke Fourthly It is good to come under the Spirits Yoke betimes to bear the Yoke in a mans Youth A mans Youth may have a twofold respect either to the earliness of profession or to the earliness of being First To the earliness of profession Our first entrance into the ways of God is called in Scripture our Youth Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth that is of her first espousals to God as the next words explain it It is a blessed thing when our profession of God and Religion begins in sound and thorow convictions It is good to bear the Yoke of conviction in the Youth of our profession For that profession of Religion that is not founded in conviction of sin will never hold out it cannot last long it is Seed sown in stony ground which though it may spring up for a while yet when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word it will wither away for want of depth of Earth to take root in Mat. 13.20 21. It is good therefore to found an early profession in sound
convictions Secondly It may respect the earliness of being And that seems rather to be the sense of the place Vatablus renders it from his Youth taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 early impressions upon the conscience by the convictions of the Spirit are a great good to the soul It is good to bear this Yoke betimes for three reasons 1. Because the sooner it is done the easier it is done the longer we are before we come under it the harder it will be to bear it The longer thou continuest in sin the harder it will be to bear repentance If thy conscience be so charged with guilt that thou darest not look into it at ten or twenty years old what will it come to if thou lettest it run on till fifty or sixty The longer the Debt stands in the Book the heavier the account when we come to reckon for all the arrears of so many years actual sins added to the grand Debt of original sin Therefore it is good to bear this Yoke in your Youth Strength to bear it is then greatest and the burden to be born is then lightest Guilt of sâ—n encreases by lying and new guilt daily added to the old makes the burden still the heavier therefore it is good to comply with the spirit of God betimes Reas 2. The sooner it is begun the sooner it will be done the sooner this Yoke is put on the sooner it will be put off For it is but for a time that the soul bears it but how long or how little while is uncertain Paul lay under it three days and nights Acts 9.9 Acts 16.33 the Goaler for ought I can find not above an hour the three thousand in Acts 2. not above the length of one Sermon But some now adays are held days and months and years according as the Case requires But the sooner we come under this Yoke the less while it is like to lye Reas 3. How rich do such grow in Grace that by early conviction pass through the new Birth betimes He that sets up soonest is like to get the fairest estate if be improve his opportunities Ford of Bondage p. 75. If one go to be an Apprentice when he is a man there is a double inconvenience in it First His service will be much more irksome and tedious Secondly The prime of his days will be gone wherein he should have been trading for himself had he been his own man Though the work of the Spirit be better late than never yet it is an unknown loss the soul sustains by a late work He loses much joy and peace the thought of his living so long without God becomes many times a new wound when the old is healed the after pains of the new birth do abide upon some to their dying day And in this Case there is but little comfort though the work be real He loses much sweet communion with God He loses many rich experiences He loses a great accession of Grace Growth in Grace is a work of time and he that hath but little time can make but little improvement He loses many opportunities of service Nay he loses much in the degrees of Glory Hadst thou had more time to sow thy Harvest would have been â—â—â—ater for as a man sows so shall he reap 〈◊〉 â—â—â—refore he that spends the best of his time in the service of the flesh if he should be converted at last which yet few are he is like to prove but a feeble Christian The more our opportunities of service are if improved and the more our seasons of communion are if used aright the richer must we needs be both in grace experience and comfort therefore it is the most thrifty course to be an early Convert to bear the Spirits Yoke in our Youth CHAP. IV. Containing some useful counsel and directions to persons of several denominations with respect to the Yoke of the Spirit THere are three sorts of persons I would speak somewhat to by way of counsel and direction in this matter First To such as have born the Yoke of the Spirit with good success to whom the Spirit of bondage hath at last become the Spirit of adoption who are passed from a state of fear and terrour into a condition of hope and comfort Your Duty lyes chiefly in these three things be thankful be humble be fruitful First Study thankfulness and give the Glory of this work to the Spirit of God We are very apt to ascribe too much to means to this or that Minister alas they are but poor Instruments Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed 1 Cor. 3.5 even as the Lord gave to every man They have but the place of Instruments God is the great Agent and therefore all supernatural effects are to be ascribed to him alone Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease And therefore the Apostle Paul having called the Church of Corinth his Epistle in 2 Cor. 3.2 he doth in v. 3. call them the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Pen and Ink but with the Spirit of the living God Ministers are but as Pens it is the Spirit of the living God that writes his Law in the heart by them and thus they become the Epistle of Christ and therefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1.31 Is there not a cause Especially if it he considered 1. What a heart thine was when the Spirit of the Lord first took it in hand how hard how stubborn how dead how obstinate how long was the light opposed that shined in darkness and the attempts of the Spirit frustrated how great were the resistances made by it against Grace and how many the strong holds of Satan which were pulled down to bring about the Conquest Think how often the Spirits motions were slighted his counsels set at nought his strivings resisted Think how often he knocked how loud he called before he could be heard think how much unbelief how many confederacies with corruption what strong lusts what enmity to God and holiness lay in the way to obstruct the Spirits design O what a mighty power did he put forth to make sin a burthen and to fasten his Fetters upon the soul without which thy resistances had never been conquered nor thy thoughts brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 And hast thou not cause to be thankful 2. How many miscarry under the same convictions which have issued in a sincere conversion to thy soul Many by their sights of sin and Hell have been driven into utter despair as Cain and Spira Many have laid violent hands on their own lives as Judas many have stifled and sinned away their convictions and thereby have provoked the Spirit finally to withdraw and give them up to hardness of heart many have mistaken their convictions for
conversion resting in them and so perishing in the place of the breaking forth of children Hos 13.13 Now that others should eternally miscarry under those means that have been blessed to thy conversion that they should perish under the same convictions which have been to thee the pangs of the new birth O what mercy is this While some despair and others presume thou art brought by a sight of sin to close with Christ upon Gospel terms And hast thou not cause to be thankful 3. This Yoke of the Spirit being once taken off shall never be put on again thou shalt never come under it more Doth not the Scripture say as much Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear In whomsoever the spirit of bondage once becomes a spirit of adoption he is never a spirit of bondage more in that soul If after he hath once sealed our adoption to us he should again impress fears of eternal wrath upon us he would herein be contrary to himself Object But are not many of the Children of God after Grace wrought full of fears and apprehensions of Hell and wrath Answ We must distinguish between bondage by desertion and bondage by the Spirit in conviction A Believer under desertion may be in bondage by his own spirit but not by the spirit of God When God doth suspend the wonted influences of Grace and comfort a mans own conscience may fill him with fears of Hell and dread of wrath but this is not from the suggestions of Gods spirit but from the mistake of his own He can never be a spirit of bondage more And is not this cause of thankfulness 4. How great the advantage is that comes by complying with and yielding to the spirit in convincing work For where he is complyed with in the beginning he carries it on to perfection If he convinces of sin and the soul fall under it by humiliation and repentance he will convince of righteousness too and so raise it up again by faith and dependance Nay by an early compliance with the strivings of the spirit when he first comes to discover to thee thy lost estate thou hast secured his presence for ever and he shall carry on this work of conviction so long as there is any one lust remaining A Believer hath need of the convictions of the spirit so long as he lives It is a mistake to think the convincing work of the Spirit is over when it hath discovered to a man his lost estate and so brought him to a close with Christ there is a great deal of convincing work yet to be done as there is a sinful estate so there is a sinful frame of heart Now though the Believer can no more need the convictions of the Spirit as to the former for his estate is changed yet he always needs them as to the latter Though he was convinced of the filthy nature and damning consequences of sin to prepare him for Christ and conversion yet there are convictions of necessary use to the carrying on and compleating the work of sanctification There is a great deceitfulness in sin more than the Believer ever yet saw and therefore he wants conviction of that There is a great power in remaining lusts to draw the heart from Christ he wants further conviction of that There is a gradual secret hardening of heart which in-dwelling sin works to even in the regenerate he wants further conviction of that Nay how many secret spiritual lusts hidden and close corruptions are there in the heart which at first entrance into a state of Grace the Believer never saw they lye in the heart undiscerned till the Spirit comes in with further light So that a Believer always needs the convincing work of the Spirit it is essentially necessary to the perfecting of Grace and holiness Now he that yields to the convictions of the Spirit at first doth thereby secure them to the last He shall never cease enlightening striving counselling so long as there is any one lust remaining His influences shall abide till he hath got the mastery of every sin and judgment be sent forth to victory over every corruption He dwelleth with you Matth. 12.20 and shall be in you John 14.17 O what cause of thankfulness have such as have born the Spirits Yoke with success Secondly Your Duty is to be humble Remember your Bonds so doth the Church Lam. 3.19 20. Remembring mine affliction and my misery the Wormwood and the Gall my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me One excellent means to cure spiritual pride is to look often back to the days of your soul distresses therefore God when his people were settled in the promised Land often remembers them of their wilderness state that they might not pride themselves in their present possessions Deut. 8.2 Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee in the Wilderness to humble thee And ver 3. He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger And ver 14 15. Beware lest thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought where there was no water that he might humble thee No man will be lifted up under his present mercies that doth but seriously and frequently reflect upon his lost estate and the means and manner of his deliverance O think often of the sighs and sorrows the tears and terrours the griefs and groans of thy sinking Spirit in the Day when the Arrows of God stuck there How long thou hast formerly lain at God's foot begging for one Drop of the bloud of Christ to pardon sin one Dram of Grace to secure thy Estate one glympse of comfort to refresh thy wearied and heavy laden spirit and then be proud if thou canst Thirdly Labour to be fruitful This is the great end of the Spirit in all his convictions He convinceth of sin to break off the Sinner from it he convinceth of righteousness that the Sinner may seek after it and he convinces of the necessity of holiness that he may get it and grow up in it so that ye sin against and frustrate the whole design of the Holy Ghost in his work in the heart without this For ye are therefore made free from sin and become servants to God that ye might have your fruit unto holiness Rom. 6.22 And the same Apostle tells you cap. 7.4 Ye are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that ye should bring forth fruit to God Labour therefore to be fruitful for this is that which secures the Spirits influences to your great advantage Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit John 15.2 Secondly This Doctrine affords matter of counsel to such as never were under the
Spirits Yoke I would commend to such three things especially First Be perswaded of the necessity of a true and sound conversion Think often of what Christ so solemnly averreth John 3.3 Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God And in order to this think seriously what a miserable state an unconverted state is It is a state of enmity to God it is a state wherein all the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed the least whereof deserves Hell lyes upon the soul and binds it over to eternal damnation It is a state wherein the bloud and righteousness of Christ cannot avail us for he pardons none whom he doth not change and convert 1 Joh. 5.6 he comes whereever he comes by bloud and water It is a state which mingles a curse with all your blessings To the unbeliving is nothing pure It is a state of death for every unconverted Sinner is spiritually dead he cannot do any one act that is spiritually good It is a state wherein the Sinner is not only liable to damnation as an Heir of Hell but he is condemned already John 3.18 36. the Law condemns him though the final Sentence be not yet passed upon him and if he dyes in that state without a real conversion God will most certainly judge as the Law judgeth so that he is as sure to be damned as ever he was born And all this the Word of God plainly attests And is not there a necessity of a sound conversion Is such a state as this a state to be rested in No not for a day Gen. 19.15 17. Arise escape for thy life lest thou be consumed Secondly Hearken no longer to the Devils suggestions and counsels his great design is to keep thee secure in a carnal condition to ward off all serious thoughts of spiritual and eternal concernment and he hath innumerable methods and devices for the carrying on of this design Sometimes by fascination of the senses with carnal pleasures sometimes by incumbring the mind with worldly businesses as in Luke 14.18 19 20. so that we have no leisure for God and our souls How often doth the Spirit knock but cannot be heard how loud doth he call but receives no Answer how freely hath he tendred his counsels Prov. 1.25 but they have been set at nought Satan by the noise of bewitching pleasures or incumbring cares makes the Sinner turn a deaf ear to all the Spirits calls and counsels Or if the Sinner do at any time bethink himself of his soul and salvation then he labours to perswade him there is no danger he is secure as to that by what Christ hath done and suffered for him if he doth sin so do the best that live and if he begs forgiveness God is full of mercy Thus he keeps men from repentance and salvation by perswading them they are safe already and if he can but hide their danger from them which he industriously endeavours to do he knows he hath them fast enough For who will mind the Physician that knows of no disease he hath who will think of turning back that concludes he is in the right way who will stoop to the convictions of the Spirit that is perswaded his sins are pardoned and his condition safe Thus as Nebuchadnezzar put out Zedechiah's eyes and carried him captive to Babylon Jer. 39.7 so doth Satan blind Sinners to their eternal destruction Thirdly Do what in you lies to come under the convictions of the Spirit As you value your souls and would have the way of the Lord prepared into your hearts be willing to be made truly sensible what a lost state you are in For you must know that it is one thing to be a Sinner it is another thing to be convinced of it it is one thing to be lost in our condition it is another thing to be lost in our apprehension There is a great difference between a state of bondage and a Spirit of bondage Every Sinner is in a state of bondage but few come under the Spirit of bondage The state of bondage is a great curse the Spirit of bondage may be a real blessing for the Spirit of bondage is to deliver us out of a state of bondage It hath been so to thousands and therefore why not to thee Therefore do what in you lyes to come under the convictions of the Spirit Object But have you not said that every Sinner is dead in sin by nature And if so then what can a dead Sinner do to obtain the Spirit and the convictions of the Spirit Answ There is somewhat in the order of means that men may do towards the obtaining of the Spirit of God For though every man in a natural state is dead spiritually and therefore can do no spiritual act yet he can do the acts of that life he hath He is a living man though he be dead in sins and God commands us to shew our selves men Isai 46.8 that is by acting rationally though we cannot act spiritually Though we cannot do any thing to compel the Spirit because he is free yet we may use those means in which God is wont to vouchsafe his Spirit As for instance First There is an attendance upon the Word preached And this is the great Ordinance of God for the convincing and converting Sinners the way by which the Spirit doth ordinarily work upon the souls of men Though he is not tyed to means yet God hath appointed them and he will put honour upon his own appointments How many thousands were pricked in their hearts and so convinced to conversion by that Sermon of Peter Acts 2.37 How was Lydia converted but by attending to the things that were preached by Paul Acts 16.14 These weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds 2 Cor. 10.4 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 Now this is every mans duty to attend upon the Word and there is no Sinner but is able to do this as well as any other natural or moral action Who is not as able to go to a Sermon as to a Play And to frequent God's House as well as a Drinking-House and to read God's Book as seriously as a News Book Secondly There is a diligent intention of mind to be exercised in attending on the Ordinances of God that we may understand and apply the things revealed as the counsel of God concerning us And this every man that hath the use of reason is able to do In other matters we can weigh things and consider them according to their weight and importance and why not in things that concern our souls and our everlasting happiness Cannot a natural man reason thus Either these truths of the Word of God signifie something or nothing if nothing why hath the wise God ordained them to be thus earnestly pressed If they do signifie any thing why should
close with Jesus Christ In conviction of sin the Soul is pursued with the avenger of blood and if he overtakes him he slays him there is no escaping but by fleeing to the City of refuge So Christ is called Heb. 6.18 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used doth import two things 1 An apprehension and sense of impendent danger putting a man upon flight for deliverance lest the evil feared should overtake him 2 Speed and diligence in that flight to the place where he expects to find succour and safety And where is the place of safety for a sinner under guilt and pursued by the Curse of the Law and dread of the wrath of God but only in the Lord Jesus Christ Hence is that counsel of the Holy Ghost Turn ye to the strong hold ye prisoners of hope Zech. 9.12 O make haste to Jesus Christ so did Zacheus when Christ called him Luke 19.5 He made haste and came down and received him joyfully v. 6. You that are young and have had early strivings of the Spirit early convictions of sin see that ye improve them by an early seeking after Jesus Christ otherwise the Spirit may cease striving and depart and never return again thy convictions may die and never revive again thy day of Grace may be sinned away and then it can never be recalled again Other things a man may lose and recover them again He may lose his health and recover it again he may lose his estate and recover it again but if thy day of Grace be once lost thou canst never recover that again no not for any price thou canst not pray it back again nor weep it back again Esau's tears come too late Heb. 12.17 no sorrow no repentance will recover it and therefore blessed are they that have improved the Yoke of the Spirit into a saving union with Jesus Christ that by being made to feel the burden of sin and the weight of Gods wrath and so seeing their lost and undone state as in themselves have been outed of themselves and made willing to accept of Christ upon Gods conditions and in Gods season and so have believed in him to the saving of their Souls CHAP. V. The Doctrine laid down Christ hath his Yoke What it is The Nature and Properties of this Yoke Why the Commands of Christ are called a Yoke WHen I entred upon these words the last year on this occasion I told you of a threefold Yoke that it is good for a man to bear in his youth The Yoke of Affliction The Yoke of Conviction by the Spirit The Yoke of Subjection to Jesus Christ The Yoke of Affliction I have spoken to and shewed you the good of bearing that betimes I have also spoken of the Yoke of Conviction of sin and have shewed you that every one that would be saved must come under this Yoke of the Spirit and that this Yoke is necessary to prepare the Soul for the Yoke of Christ I now therefore am to speak of this Yoke And the Doctrine upon which I shall found my discourse shall be this Doct. That it is good for young ones to come under the Yoke of Christ betimes I shall speak to the Doctrine in these parts 1. That Jesus Christ hath his Yoke 2. Why are the Commands of Christ called a Yoke 3. Why is it the concernment of every one to take up the Yoke of Christ in his Youth 4. Remove some stumbling blocks out of the way of this duty 5. Bring home all to our selves by application 1. That Jesus Christ hath his Yoke For he is a King as well as a Priest and a Prophet As he redeemed us by his Blood so he rules us by his Power As he is a Priest upon his Throne Zech. 6.13 so he sits and rules upon his Throne And therefore in Revel 1.13 he is described as cloathed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle These long garments were especially used by two sorts of persons Kings and Priests as you may see by comparing Isai 22.21 with Mark 12.38 So that it sets out his Dominion joyntly with his Satisfaction and Intercession These Offices are for ever united in Christ they may be distinguished but cannot be divided He is a Priest to none where he is not a King there can be no sharing in his Mercy but by submitting to his Authority The benefit of his Death and Blood is limited to the acknowledgment of his Scepter Where Christ cannot be a Head he will not be a help where he cannot rule he will not relieve where he can be no King he will be no Jesus Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Luke 19.27 Slight his Power and you incur his displeasure reject his Authority and you become Traitors to his Crown and that is death without mercy He pardons none whom he doth not rule saves none that do not submit But here are two Questions 1. What is this Yoke of Christ 2. Why is it called a Yoke Quest 1. What is this Yoke of Christ Answ It consists of his Commands especially those Conditions which the Lord Christ puts upon every soul in order to the obtaining of that Salvation and Glory which he hath purchased For Christ hath not so purchased Salvation for any as that they should be saved meerly upon the account of his Death There were certain Terms and Conditions of Salvation agreed upon between the Father and the Son in that Covenant of Redemption that passed between them and none can be saved by all which Christ hath done and suffered but upon these Conditions and they are Self-denial Faith Repentance taking up the Cross Obedience all the necessary duties of Religion These are the unalterable Conditions of Life and Salvation and these Conditions of Salvation are the Yoke of Christ Take my yoke upon you Mat. 11.29 And this Yoke is variously expressed in Scripture sometimes it is called a Way The way of the Lord Prov. 10.29 The way of righteousness Prov. 8.20 The way of holiness Isai 35.8 The good old way Jer. 6.16 The way everlasting Psal 139.24 Sometimes it is called a Burden Mat. 11.30 Revel 2.24 Sometimes it is called a Rule Gal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16 But most commonly this Yoke is called a Law and so points to the Soveraignty of God over man in common with the rest of the Creatures For all Creatures that ever God made are under a Law The most glorious part of the Creation of God was the humane Nature of Christ and yet that was made in a state of subjection to a Law Made under the Law Gal. 4.4 The Scriptures speak of three Heavens the airy Heaven the starry Heaven and the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 called the Heaven of heavens Deut. 10.14 and all the Creatures in each Heaven are under a Law Look into the Heaven of heavens there dwell the Angels
of an ingaged Providence 3. Is that profitable which brings its own reward with it This Religion doth In keeping thy commandments there is great reward Psal 19.11 The Prophet seems here not to intend the future recompence of reward which the obedient shall receive at last in Heaven for that is a reward for keeping his commandments though it is a reward not of merit but of grace but this is a reward in keeping his commandments The full harvest will be hereafter but yet the Christian hath a present reaping time for God meets them that rejoyce and work righteousness that remember him in his ways Isai 64.5 Our Lord Christ tells Peter Mark 10.30 31. That whoever hath left house or relations or lands for his sake and the Gospel's shall receive an hundred fold now in this life So that there is a reward in obedience as well as for it As beaten Spices recompense the pains by their grateful smell so the practice of Religion causes a sweet reflection upon the Soul and is thereby its own recompence Therefore David elsewhere speaks of what he had as a reward of obedience as well as what he hoped for Psal 119.56 This I had because I kept thy precepts This I had but he doth not tell you what but that may easily be guessed at by the dealings of God with him He had peace of Conscience he had the quicknings of God he had increase of grace he had frequent communion with God he had joy in the Holy Ghost he had many great experiences many deliverances and salvations and all this was the fruit of his obedience This I had because I kept thy precepts to be sure it was some great Boon because he mentions it so gratefully as a reward of mercy for his close walking with God So that the obedient Christian hath not all in hope there is much in hand he possesses much though he expects more For godliness hath both the promise of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 4. Is that profitable which fills the Soul with such joy as nothing else can This Religion doth It reconciles the Soul to God stamps it with his image lays it in with Divine principles whereby he is inabled to take the testimonies of God for his heritage for ever which become the rejoycing of his heart Psal 119.111 The Promises believed do not only create a joy in the Soul filled with peace and joy in believing Rom. 15.13 but the Precepts obeyed minister joy also The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Psal 19.8 So that the good mans joy arises from a double spring Faith secures his interest in the promise and so he rejoyces in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 Holiness subjects him to the precept and so he rejoyces in his conformity to the will of God I rejoyced in the way of thy testimonies more than in all riches Psal 119.14 This is a joy appropriated to the Children of God none partake of this oyl of gladness but they who have the oyl of grace in their vessels Disobedient sinners are strangers to this joy Prov. 14.10 Theirs is a joy arising either out of perishing comforts the joy of corn and wine and oyl Psal 4.7 or which is worse out of sinful acts and objects Who rejoyce to do evil Prov. 2.14 Now this is a poor weak unfruitful joy it wets the mouth but cannot warm the heart In the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful Prov. 14.13 It is rather revelling than rejoycing and therefore the Wise-man calls it mad mirth I have said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it Eccles 2.2 What satisfaction doth it afford what profit doth it bring with it Will it ease the smart of affliction will it remove the fears and doubts of Conscience will it bear us up against reproaches will it help us against the fear of death and judgment If not then what doth it it emasculates the spirits discomposes the judgment displaces reason feeds the senses and starves the Soul and the end of that mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 So that carnal joy is but a cold armful as one saith of a bad wife * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Sophocl in Antig. Like Adonijah's feast 1 Kings 1.9 49. that began in mirth but ended in fear 2 Sam. 13.26 82. or like Amnon's entertainment at Absolom's sheep-shearing who met with death at the banquet Solomon compares it to the crackling of thorns under a pot Eccles 7.6 where there is much noise but little fire much light but little heat and soon extinct As Comets make a great blaze but when their exhaled matter is spent they end in a pestilent vapor Such is the sinners joy soon lighted and soon wasted when his candle is put out as it quickly will be it leaves a stink behind Wo to you that laugh now for ye shall mourn Luke 6.25 The sinner purchases his joy with guilt and shame possesses it with an accusing vexing Conscience and at last it is extinguished if not in present terrors yet to be sure in eternal torments But the joy of obedience and holy walking is another thing it is a spiritual and heavenly joy wrought by a spiritual power drawn out by spiritual arguments fixed upon a spiritual object and serves to spiritual ends and uses to give check to worldly lusts to extinguish sensual appetite and abate the relish of carnal pleasures to support under losses wants reproaches to fence against the quarrels of Conscience to arm us against the fear of death and damnation In all these things the joy of the Lord is the good mans strength Nehem. 8.10 and therefore it is called strong consolation Heb. 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prevailing consolation It is prevalent against all opposition both from corruption within and temptation without It gives relief against all fears doubts and troubles either it prevents them or prevents the mischief of them by supporting the Soul under them This is such a good that as no good can match it so no evil can over-match it A heart full of grace and a conscience full of comfort makes a man sit either for doing or suffering it makes him insuperable under durances and unsatisfiable in duties for that hereby every cross becomes tolerable and light and every command delectable and sweet 5. Is that profitable that at once serves our temporal our spiritual and our eternal interest and advantage This Religion doth First It serves our temporal interest Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 In the Christians Charter the World is put in as well as Heaven and things present as well as things to come 1 Cor. 3.21 22. It is said of Wisdom that is Christ Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3.16 And what doth Christ do with
the case is not the same for we are bound to answer Gods precepts but he is not bound to answer our requests and yet we make him tarry our sinful leisure in the business of duty though we think much to tarry his holy leisure in the case of mercy Secondly It is down-right disobedience he that delays a duty transgresses the precept and slights the divine Authority The season is as much a part of the command as the thing commanded If God says return ye now every one from his evil way Jer. 18.11 the now is as much a duty as the returning If the Father says to his Son go work to day in my vineyard Matt. 21.28 it is flat disobedience to defer it till to morrow for the time of working is as much a duty as the work it self Thirdly It is the highest ingratitude for Christ did not adjourn his love to us one day his heart was to us from everlasting I was set up from everlasting rejoycing in the habitable parts of the earth and my delights were with the sons of men Prov. 8.23.31 He gave himself in the Covenant of Redemption to dye for sin and redeem sinners from the first day that sin entred And therefore he is said to be a lamh slain from the foundadation of the world Revel 13.8 Though he came not to dye actually till the fullness of time Galat. 4.4 yet in the decree of God the Father and in the consent of God the Son he was a Saviour from the beginning and his Blood was as efficacious to Salvation before ever it was shed as after he was a Saviour and Redeemer from the first entrance of sin Adam Noah Abraham and all the Saints that lived before his Incarnation were saved by his Blood as well as we His love bears date from everlasting and it breaks forth very early in the overt acts of it to particular persons Christ begins with sinners betimes who knows how soon puts upon many of them a federal holiness betimes seals them for his betimes puts his spirits into them betimes and calls them to an actual close with him betimes it is hard to say how soon but it appears to be very early in that many have been converted from their very childhood as Samuel and Timothy and others O the earliness of the love of Christ and shall we adjourn our obedience as if we were afraid of closing with him too soon he took up our burden betimes and shall we delay the taking up his Yoke for the last work of our lives This is great ingratitude Fourthly It is manifest injustice and a fraudulent detaining of Christs right For whose you are his your strength and service is and are ye not the Lords hath he not redeemed you and that both by price at the hands of God and by power out of the hands of Satan ye are the redeemed of the Lord and therefore you are his your time is his your gifts and parts are his your affections are his your estates are his your strength is his your youth is his your body and soul are his your all is his and therefore not to give up your selves body and soul to him not to love and fear and serve him is a crying injustice Nay to delay it one day one moment is to deny him his right Many boast of their honesty they are just to all and wrong none yes you wrong your redeemer you are unjust to Jesus Christ and that is the highest injustice in the world To delay any man in that which is his right is a great sin the wages of the hireling must be paid at the day and it must be done before the sun be set Deut. 24.14 15. It is a maxim in the Law minus solvit qui minus tempore solvit not to pay at the time is to pay the less because there is so much advantage for improvement lost Is it such a sin to detain a servants right what is it then to detain our Lords right must we not withhold wages for a servants work till the sun be set and yet dare we withhold doing our Lords work till the sun of our lives is setting O what base injustice is this Fifthly It is altogether unreasonable there is no man living can give a reason to excuse him from this duty You cannot say it is the wrong way to Heaven for it is the way the Lord Christ hath directed and chalked out You cannot say it is a needless Yoke for there is no Salvation without taking it upon you You cannot say it is a dangerous Yoke for it hath salvation certainly intailed upon it You cannot say it is a fruitless Yoke Matt. 11.28 for it yields perfect peace and lasting joy to all that come under it You cannot say it is an impossible Yoke for as you have the command of Christ to undertake it so you have the promise of Christ to help and inable you to bear it So that you cannot give one reason why you should neglect it and therefore he that refuses to take it up is without excuse Whoever remains graceless in a day of Grace will be found speechless in the Day of Judgement Matt. 22.12 Sixthly It is downright madness for you refuse Heaven because you will not be holy You will rather lose the eternal injoyment of God than be made like God You will rather chuse to perish under the wrath of Christ than you will consent to come under the Yoke of Christ You will be contented to be damned so you may go a pleasant way to Hell And is not this madness to the height to chuse rather to perish eternally than be tied to love and serve your maker and redeemer O what a base and low opinion have you of God and Heaven how can ye degrade and dishonour him more If a man should publish it as his opinion that darkness is better than light that Hell is rather to be chosen than Heaven that he had rather be in an everlasting society with Devils and damned Spirits than with God and Christ in the glory above what would you say of such a one but that he talked like a mad man why then reflect upon your selves a little for mutato nomine do teâ— Fabula narratur you that prefer the pleasures of sin to the service of Christ that will renounce your part in God and Christ and eternal happiness to satisfie a base lust that will stake your Souls for a few minutes of sinful delights can any man be guilty of greater madness do ye know what ye do or what ye speak when ye say in your hearts this lust shall reign but Christ shall not reign let us break his bonds Psal 2.3 and cast his cords far away from us this is treason against the Crown of Heaven your Blood Luk. 19.27 your Life your Soul must go for this Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them out and
a temporal Kingdom which they expected Christ would set up and who should be greatest in it so Mark explains it chap. 9.34 therefore our Lord tells them they shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven without a new conversion they must be converted from their carnal frames as well as from a carnal state hence you may learn that a man may have a right to Heaven and yet be very unfit for it there must be a double right jus haereditarium and aptitudinarium a right of inheritance and a right of fitness in our first conversion we derive a right of inheritance for then our state is changed but a right of fitness lies in after conversions by which our carnal frames are subdued We need but one conversion as to the former but we need many as to the latter First Because this though the former cannot is a conversion that may be lost a man may be in a quickned frame to day and under deadness to morrow he may be spiritual in this duty and yet carnal in the next Secondly Because it is a conversion that admits of degrees a man cannot be less or more converted as to his state but as to his frame he may there is no one believer more born of the spirit than another and yet one believer may be more spiritual than another and he that is so yet considered as to the measure of spiritual mindedness which is attainable and which he is appointed and called unto may himself be said to be carnal and may be filled with complaints because of the shortness of his attainment This I take to be the meaning of that complaint of the Apostle I am carnal Rom. 7.14 Doth he therein condemn his state no that had been sin But he bewails the frame of his heart that in such a spiritual condition into which by Grace he was brought he should have in him such a carnal disposition and frame of spirit Secondly A Believer is not to judge himself by what is unfixed and mutable for so the frame of the heart is what more volatile and unstable now caught up to Heaven anon sunk down to the Earth Cant. 6.12 now like the Chariots of Aminadab agil and swift to run the way of Gods Commandments anon like Pharaohs Chariots that drove heavily having their wheels took off Exod. 14.25 or like the wheels in Ezekiels Vision that sometimes went Ezech. 1.21 and sometimes stood still one while the acts of Faith are high another while giving way to Unbelief Oh how inconstant are the frames of good mens hearts look on David and now his mountain stands strong Psal 30.7 and the next word is thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled At one time you shall find him rejoycing in God at another why art thou cast down O my soul was it not so with Peter Matt. 26. V. 35. V. 72. Lord though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee And by and by I know not the man so that he who judges himself by the frame of his spirit will change the opinion of his state as often as the frame of his heart changes And therefore when you find your hearts dead and carnal your duty is to make this matter of mourning but you ought not to make it matter of doubting You must pray and strive and use all Gods means for the removing it but you ought not to judge your state by it lest you deny the Grace of God in you because of it This is another false rule of tryal Many more I might instance in but these may suffice to shew you how carnal and ignorant persons are apt to misjudge their state by false rules on the one hand and how weak believers are apt to misjudge theirs by false rules on the other and to caution you on both sides And now I come to shew you which is the true and right rule you are to judge your selves by and that is the word of God I do not mean the moral Law that is not a proper rule to try weak Grace and imperfect obedience by for that condemns for the least sin Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them Galat. 3.10 The Law indeed is a rule to know sin by I had not known sin but by the Law Rom. 7.7 and to know our natural and undone estate by Rom. 7.9 It inlightens convinces accuses condemns and kills but it is not a rule to judge our estate in Christ by or the truth of our Grace by For by the Law nothing is Grace but what is perfect nothing goes for obedience though our sincerity be never so great if our failing be never so little And therefore he that trys himself by this rule must needs condemn all the Grace of God in him as no Grace because it is not perfect Grace he must be continually tormented in his own spirit about his state because the least sin subjects him to the wrath of God A Believer is under the Law for conduct but not for judgment it is the guide of his path but not the judge of his state The Believer is bound to obey it but he is not to stand and fall by it It is a rule of life and for the substance of it it is moral and eternal and can no more be abrogated than the nature of good and evil can be altered And therefore it obliges Believers as much as others though upon other motives and to other ends for they are not to expect life and favour from it nor fear the death and rigour that comes by it the Law hath no power either to justifie a Believer or condemn him and therefore can be no rule to try his state by We should labour to live to the precepts of the Law but try our state by the rule of the Gospel for that is the rule we are to stand and fall by And it is a comfortable rule for in the sense of it affections go for actions and indeavours for performances so that if our affections be real and our indeavours sincere the rule adjusts our state and gives us confidence before God The ready way to come to a right determination about our condition is wisely to apply to our selves those Characters and marks which the word lays down concerning state and state for it describes both the natural and spiritual man it characterizes both a state of Nature and a state of Grace it shews by positive signs who are subjects to his Yoke or Rebels to his Government So that it is easie for a man by a right use of this rule to make a judgment what his state is As a wicked man by applying the characters of the natural state may certainly know that he is out of Christ an enemy to him and that his condition is a lost condition for the works of the flesh are manifest Galat. 5.19 So would the good man but wisely
Conscience may not witness it s witnessing act may for a time be suspended and this is frequently so Partly from the contraction of new guilt when sin is committed Conscience is silenced guilt spoils the testimony Partly from the hidings of God for Conscience speaks no peace to us unless God speak peace to that And therefore it is very possible that a good man may not always know his own state and yet he may have the witness in himself And would he but be careful to keep Conscience clean from guilt and defilement and be diligent to attend to its testimony he would quickly attain to satisfaction in his spiritual state for Conscience purged and sanctified is a faithful witness that will not lye especially when joyned in its testimony to that which is the great witness of all and that is the spirit Rom. 8.16 The spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God And that brings me to the last general rule to be observed in this tryal Rule 9. The way to come to a true satisfaction about your state is to call in the assistance of the spirit of God beg his testimony for there is no witness like his And that First Whether ye look to the clearness of it no testimony can be so full It is such a testimony as removes all perplexing doubts and fears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost what room for questionings and hesitancies against the spirits testimony * Culverwell's Whitt Stone p. 113. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit 1 John 4.13 No witness so satisfying as this if God should send an Angel from Heaven as he did to Daniel Dan. 9.23 to tell us we are greatly beloved it would not be so full and satisfying as this Secondly It is a sure testimony and that 1. Whether you look to the object of his testimony the work of God in the heart he never witnesses to the goodness of that state where there is not a work of Grace wrought and therefore to talk of comforts and ravishing joys from the spirit without a true conversion to Christ first wrought is a meet self delusion the spirit of God hath no hand in it and so to boast of the comforts of the spirit while we walk not in the counsels of the spirit it is a meer pretence there is no such thing found among Christians as this The spirit witnesses to his own work and therefore cannot be deceived in the object of his testimony 2. If you look to the nature of the testimony for it is the witness of him who is truth it self and therefore he is called the spirit of truth John 16.13 the testimony that he gives to the goodness of a believers state is infallible and certain Thirdly It is a prevailing testimony that bears down all the testimonies that can any way be brought against us As the intercession of Christ in Heaven for us prevails over all charges that are brought there against us sin may charge and Satan may charge and the Law may charge but yet the intercession of Christ prevails against all and silences all Who is he that condemns it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Rom. 8.34 So is the testimony of the spirit in the heart a prevailing testimony the believer hath many adversaries wicked men whose tongues are set on fire of Hell reproaching traducing of them and ready to witness falsely against them And Satan is not wanting to bring in new charges against them but this blessed witness of the spirit in the heart prevails against and carrys the Soul above all Fourthly It is an abiding testimony that lasts till testimonies shall be needed no more There would be no need of witnesses if things were clear and not apt to be called in question but so it is with the work of God in the heart it is ever and anon called in question and hence arises the need of the spirits testimony There will be no need of this way of witness in Heaven for there is no doubts nor fears nor calling our state into question but during the present state it is necessary for new hidings and new temptings and new sinnings will cause new doubtings and questionings concerning our state and therefore the testimony of the spirit shall abide and out last all our doubts and fears I know this testimony may be and is sometimes suspended a good man may not have it at all times it is rare that any one hath Sometimes nay too often he sins it away sometimes for wise ends God takes it away for it is an arbitrary priviledge but he that hath had it once really shall never lose it finally though it may be suspended it shall never be totally lost for it is an abiding witness and therefore he that hath it is said to he sealed to the day of redemption Ephes 4.30 this sealing is not to be taken for the regenerating work of the spirit but for his witnessing work for it is a sealing that follows after believing After that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise Ephes◠1.13 and this seal shall never be broken off it shall abide to the Day of redemption And therefore above all things beg the testimony of the spirit concerning your condition for neither the word of God nor Conscience can evidence the goodness of our state without the witness of the spirit nay the highest measure of Grace wrought in the heart cannot of it self be an evidence of the goodness of our state without the spirits testimony as Grace cannot act it self without the spirits help so nor can it evidence it self with out the spirits light as the being of Grace is from the work of the spirit renewing so the evidence of Grace is from the work of the spirit witnessing And therefore in this work rely much upon the testimony of the spirit And thus I have answered the question more generally CHAP. XIII Shews the truth of our subjection to Jesus Christ by some things necessarily antecedent to it Secondly I come now to a particular and distinct answer to the question How a man may know that he is indeed under the Yoke of Christ There are two ways by which you may make a judgment of your selves A Priori A Posteriori 1. By such things that always precede it and are antecedent to it or causal of it 2. By such things as are the natural effects and consequences of it First By such things as are antecedent to it For you must know that taking up Christs Yoke is not presently done it is not the next work of a carnal sinner there are many things to be done in him and upon him before this work can be done by him No natural man as such can bear Christs Yoke it is impossible
three heads and speak a little distinctly to each of them that so you may know how to make use of them in the tryal of your state The first is The enlightening the mind The second is The convincing the Conscience The third is The inclining the will 1. There is a saving illumination of the mind There can be no coming to Christ out of the darkness of a natural state till the light of God break in to shew us the way Spiritual things cannot be discerned by natural light The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned The object is supernatural God in Christ and the mysteries of the Kingdom and therefore cannot be discern'd but by a supernatural light Psal 36.9 In thy light we shall see light By nature we know little of God but nothing of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 or the mind of Christ till God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness shine into our hearts The first creature that God made in the World was light and the first work of God in the soul is light The will of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational appetite it is acted by the guidance of the mind and therefore God deals first with the mind and understanding of man And hence it is that Christ is made a Prophet as well as a King he doth not subdue the will meerly by an unaccountable power but by a saving light And because the mind must first be inlightned in this work therefore Christ first appears in the office of a Prophet not only revealing the will of God as a rule of obedience but inlightening the mind to see the reasonableness of complying with the rule He doth not only bring light unto the soul by the revelation of the word but he brings light into the soul by the communication of his spirit We have received the spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God 1 Cor. 2.22 This I call a saving illumination for that light which the Lord works in such as are brought home to Christ is of a saving nature and hath saving effects First It is in its own nature as saving as any Grace in the will or affections for it is a work of the same spirit and wrought for the same end to bow the soul to Christ It is an essential part of that Image of God after which we are renewed Colos 3.10 And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him So that this light differs not only gradually but specifically from the highest light that is in hypocrites and formal professors A hypocrite may have much notional knowledge great measures of light in spiritual things from the common work of the spirit but in the highest degree of it it is not saving for as to saving light so he is in darkness until now Secondly It hath saving operations and effects and that both as to believing and obeying First As to believing They shall all be taught of God and what then John 6.45 every man that hears and learns of the father comes to me This coming to Christ is believing and this believing is the fruit of Gods teaching so that this is a saving operation Secondly As to obedience As it is said of the two blind men whom Christ cured that as soon as they had received their sight straight way they arose and followed him Matt. 20.34 David says the sun arises and man goes out to his labour till the evening Psal 104.22 23. when the sun of righteousness arises in the heart it is so So that this is a saving operation Now let this be a rule of tryal for young ones have you been prepared for subjection to Christ by a saving illumination do you know any thing of being called out of darkness into his marvelous light 1 Pet 2.9 can you say I was blind John 9.25 but now I see the soul that is savingly inlightened it sees that in sin it never saw before it sees that in Christ it never saw before That soul is far from the Yoke of Christ that was never inlightened with the light of Christ 2. The second thing is the convincing of the conscience Where the soul is brought to take up the Yoke of Christ it is the fruit of through convictions There must be a threefold conviction wrought upon the sinner before ever he will stoop to Christ A conviviction of sin a conviction of righteousness and a conviction of judgment this is through conviction and all conviction short of this leaves the soul short of Christ And therefore when ever the spirit of God comes to convince the soul to conversion he convinces of all these as you see John 16 8. When he is come he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment First He convinces of sin This is the next end of illumination He sets up a light to see sin and then applys the guilt of sin to the Conscience for though a man lies under the infinite guilt of sin and the dreadful wrath of God for it yet till the spirit of God do set this home upon a mans Conscience he never sees his condition nor considers with himself what to do No it is the being pricked at heart that causes this Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart and what then then they cry out men and brethren what shall we do And therefore the spirit first deals with a man about his sins so he did to the first sinners he opens their eyes to see their nakedness and shame their sin and misery before the seed of the woman is promised Gen. 3.10.15 There is one instance instead of a thousand and that is of Paul I call it so because he tells you that Jesus Christ set him up for a pattern in his dealing with sinners 1 Tim. 1.16 And therefore look how Christ dealt with him to bring him under his Yoke and so he deals with all Now the first great work upon Paul was conviction of sin The Spirit of Christ by the word set sin home upon his Conscience and there the work began This is meant by the coming of the Commandment Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin revived and I dyed You may see it more particularly expressed in Acts 9.3 4 5 6. There shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou Lord and the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks And he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me do Here 's a light and a voice there shined
it a Crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to open shame Heb. 6.6 It is a less evil to refuse the first tenders of grace then to reject Christ after he hath been professed and own'd the former may be from ignorance and prejudice but to cast him off upon tryal argues his yoke to be uneasy and his Commandments grievous he sayes in the language of his action there is not that good to be found in God as he expected nor that comfort in his ways as was promised And what greater contempt can be put upon Christ then this 2. It hath mischievous effects with respect to our selves 1. It proves the unsoundness and hypocrisie of our hearts and shews they were never right with God They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us 1 Joh. 2.19 He that at any time shall cast off the yoke of Christ shews that his heart was never right in taking of it up In a Marriage relation love increases and firms the bond but adulterous love is only hot while new 2. Another mischievous effect is in those unspeakable losses we sustain by casting off Christs yoke 1. A loss of all we have done or suffered for Christ when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned Ezekiel 18.24 thy Faith thy Prayers thy Alms-deeds thy Fastings thy striving against sin thy zeal and fervour for Christ will all come to nothing it shall never be mentioned all thy labour and obedience and duties are lost though they have been never so many and great When a Nazarite under the Law had separated himself to the Lord if any defilement came upon him all was lost and counted for nothing Numb 6.12 He shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation that is he shall begin all again but the days that were before shall be lost because his separation was defiled So it is with professors of Religion if they draw back all is lost In Christianis non initia quaeruntur sed finis It is not only how we begin but how we finish And therefore it is excellent counsel the Apostle gives 2 Epist Joh. ver 8. 2 Epist Joh. Look to your selves that ye lose not those things which yee have wrought 2. A loss of that honour and reputation which doth ever attend sincerity and perseverance as an Apostate loses the profit and comfort of all his duties so he loses the honour of his profession Ye did run well who hindered you Gal. 5.7 Demas hath forsaken us 2 Tim. 4.10 and imbraced this present world it is recorded as an act of perpetual infamy and dishonour So Christ saith of him that begins to build and is not able to finish that all that behold it shall mock at him saying This man began to build and was not able to finish Luk. 14.29 30. The Crown of profession is only secured by perseverance Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy Crown Ne honorem perseverantiae amittas Gro. Revel 3.11 3. A loss of gifts and parts and of that expediteness for service which we once had When men withdraw from and forsake Christ he causes his Spirit in his wonted operations and influences to withdraw from and forsake them So that they are not the men they once were How hath the experience of the present Age verified this Do we not see many that once had great gifts of the Spirit for praying teaching and edifying of others who by turning their backs upon Christ to a dead way of formal Worship have sinned away the gifts of the Spirit and are now become utterly dead and lifeless and thus is that of our Lord made good Mark 4.25 He that hath not not improved from him shall be taken away that which he hath Thus Christ took away the Talent from the unprofitable servant Mat. 25.28 4. A loss of that tenderness of Conscience which is necessary to a true repentance for when a man doth reject and cast off Christs yoke usually Conscience is laid wast it is sinned out of office and so lets a man sin on without check or controul And how shall that man repent who hath sinned away all tenderness of Conscience therefore the Apostle sayes It is impossible if such fall away to renew them again to Repentance Heb. 6.4 6. 5. A loss of Heaven and the salvation of their souls There are two sorts of persons that are for ever shut out of Heaven Such as never believed and such as make Shipwrack of Faith Such as never would take up the yoke of Christ and such as having taken it up do finally cast it off again If you forsake God he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15.2 This is willful sinning and how dreadfully hath God expressed himself against this Heb. 10.26 If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries you therefore that have taken up the yoke of Christ let that severe threatening of Christ fasten it for ever upon you Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of the Father with his Holy Angels These are the Arguments the Directions follow Direct 1. Would you not cast off Christs Yoke Then do not be weary of his service Do not count it burdensome No man loves to bear what is burdensome it makes him weary and wearyness causeth fainting Hence that of the Apostle Heb. 12.3 Consider him that indured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds There is a weariness from contrariety of Spirit to the work Mal. 1.13 Ye have said what a weariness is it And there is a weariness from despondency of Spirit under discouragements in the ways of God by reason of contradictions and sufferings but nothing should make us weary of Christs work Gal. 6.9 Be not weary of well-doing 2 Thes 3.13 Christ speaks it to the commendation of that Church of Ephesus Rev. 2 3. For my name sake thou hast laboured and hast not fainted Scaliger sayes lassitudo est deficientia virtutis moventis Weariness is from a failure in the moving Principle and that is the love of God in the heart So that weariness in the work of God shews that the heart is not right with God Direct 2. Look to your first undertaking in giving your selves up to Christ that it be in sincerity and uprightness of heart How can that man hold out in the service of Christ to the end
temptation Be always employed that when Satan comes he may not find thee at leisure Many have been kept from great temptations by being diligent in their Callings and many by idle diversions have fallen into great temptations and snares Dinah wanders abroad and is deflowred before she comes home Tertullian tells of a Christian Woman who going to see a Play was there possessed by the Devil and when he was asked by some who came to her and set themselves to pray him out how he durst possess one that was a Christian He answered I found her in my own Ground Oh how should this warn young ones to take heed of the Play-houses These are the Devils Ground and what he finds upon his own Ground he will possess as his own He is the Lord of that Mannor and being so the Waifs and Estrays are all his Let young ones therefore take up the Yoke of some lawful Calling betimes But this Civil Yoke is not the Yoke in the Text. Secondly The Yoke as Metaphorically taken is used in a Moral or Religious sense and so there is a threefold Yoke which it is not good to bear and a threefold Yoke which it is good to bear There is a threefold Yoke which is not good to bear The Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies The Yoke of Antichristian Impositions The Yoke of sin and lust First The Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies This in its day was a strict Yoke a heavy Yoke a Yoke as the Apostle Peter says which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 But this Yoke the Lord Christ hath freed us from the Ceremonial Law was abolished by him and had no use after his death but by accident as he who builds a Vault lets the Centrels stand till he puts in the Key-stone and then pulls them away So that now the Rule is Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again in the Yoke of bondage Gal. 5.1 Secondly There is the Yoke of Antichrist which is made up of humane inventions and impositions in the Worship of God on which foundation all the Will-worship Superstition and Idolatry which at this day obtain in the World do stand This is a heavier Yoke than the former for that had once the sanction of God and there the authority made the subjection reasonable though burthensom but this never had and therefore more grievous because herein we are made Slaves to the lusts of men whereas in that we were Subjects to the will of God And therefore to be imposed upon by Ceremonies of mens devising when we are actually freed by Christ from the Ceremonies that were once of Gods appointing Bagshaw's Great Question about things indifferent is a very heavy Yoke a Yoke which one says is in the Imposer tyranny and in the Persons imposed upon burden and bondage And therefore a Yoke which without sin in transgressing the Precept of our Lord Christ Mat. 23.8 and his Apostle we may not submit to 1 Cor. 7.23 Because hereby we owne a power in the Imposers over conscience which God never gave to any and so abet them in their sinful usurpations upon the Prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 2.6 Isai 9.6 Matth. 28.18 who alone is King and Head of the Church and hath the Government upon his shoulders And also because we make our selves to be what in things appertaining to the worship of God we are commanded not to be viz. the Servants of men Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 This then is another Yoke which we ought not to bear When once humane inventions become Impositions and lay a necessity upon that which God hath left free then may we lawfully reject them as Plants of mans setting and not of Gods owning and which he will therefore in his time assuredly root up Matth. 15.13 Thirdly There is the Yoke of sin and lust For though Sinners are said to be Children of Belial that is without Yoke * So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jugum quasi absque jugo scilicet Legis Divinae Clarius Tralatio à bubus jugum subire nolentibus Drusius And accordingly the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet none under such a Yoke as they for as the service of Christ is perfect freedom so to be free from righteousness is the basest thraldom Rom. 6.20 If sin breaks one Yoke off it ever puts another on They have broken the Yoke and burst the Bonds Jer. 5.5 there is one Yoke cast off and then it follows in the next Verse Their transgressions are many their backslidings are encreased there is another Yoke put on As in conversion Christ breaks off the Yoke of sin and Satan and puts his own upon a man so the Sinner breaks off the Yoke of God Psal 2.3 Luke 19.14 27. and subjects himself to Satans Yoke and therefore some say wicked men are called Children of Belial making Belial the name of the Devil Quidam Belial nomen esse Daemonis contendunt ductum à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ascendet quia nos ascendere sursum non permittet What concord hath Christ with Belial i. e. with Satan says the Syriac Version And hence Sinners are said to be taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 And he is said to work that is with power and success in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 And this is the Reign of Satan in the soul of a Sinner for as the Lord Christ reigns in the hearts of his people by the power of Grace and righteousness so Satan reigns in the hearts of wicked men by the power of sin and lust Now it cannot be good in any sense to bear this Yoke because it every way tends to the hurt and mischief of the soul 1. As it breaks off the Yoke of God which is everyway suited to the good and advantage of man For the commandment is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 holy as it is the expression of the will of the holy God iust in that it commands nothing but what is equal and fit to be obeyed good as it promotes the advantage and happiness of the soul that obeys it 2. As it inslaves the Creature to the basest bondage and most unreasonable vassalage in the World O what a noble Creature was man while he did bear the Image of God lived in his will and enjoyed a constant fellowship with him But alas How is the Gold become dim and the fine Gold changed Lam. 4.1 How hath sin debased his Excellency defaced the Image of God shut him out of favour and out of fellowship So that now he is become a Slave to Satan and all manner of lusts And can it be good to bear this Yoke What! to oppose God to be
can any way stead us to communion with God unless our end be good One end in all duties is to obtain communion with God There is Commerce and Communion Commerce is when one man Trades with another for private advantage and so a man will maintain commerce with a stranger or an enemy But communion supposes love and delight in the object A carnal man may have commerce with God in duties for selfish ends as they that followed Christ for the loaves Joh. 6.26 but a man can have no communion with God in duty unless his ends be right He puts himself seven times farther from God by an unholy end than by a holy action he seemed to draw nigh to him Our ends therefore are to be narrowly looked unto The best action is corrupted by a bad end and our civil and natural actions have a holiness upon them and are tinctured with religion when they are done to a right end Therefore the Apostle counselling servants in their duty to man bids them make the glory of Christ their end Ephes 6.5 Servants be obedient to your masters in singleness of heart as unto Christ And ver 6. Not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ And again ver 7. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men The great design of the Apostle's counsel is to sublimate and enoble their ends that the meanest act of their servile state may reach to Christ Be obedient as unto Christ And as the servants of Christ and as to the Lord. What ever a man doth whether in civil or spiritual performances if his ends be not right his heart cannot be right There is a twofold end in obedience which commends it to God the one is subordinate to the other as the ultimate The subordinate end is the honour and credit of the gospel the good of our neighbour the edification of the Church and our own salvation That when we have done all we be not cast awayes 1 Cor. 9.27 2 Ep. Joh. 8. losing all that we have wrought but that we receive a full reward Then there is the ultimate end of our obedience and that is the honour and glory of God which is the chief end of all Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 If the stream of every action empty not it self into the sea of Gods glory it runs wast This is the mark of a hypocrite self love is his highest principle and self-seeking is his utmost end But the Christians true character is in this Love to God is the great principle he acts by and the glory of God is the great end he aims at I might here answer a case of conscience Case of Conscience whether a man ought alwayes actually to intend his ultimate end that is whether he ought to have his eye continually upon the glorifying of God in every particular duty which he performs Answ 1 A. 1. Affirmative precepts though they alwayes bind yet they bind not to all times now this being a duty by virtue of an affirmative precept it is alwayes a duty yet not absolutely necessary in every particular act Indeed as the affirmative doth include a negative so it binds ad semper to all times so that we must at no time do any thing against Gods glory that may reflect any dishonour upon him 2. There is need of a distinction for the fuller resolution of this case Aims and intentions with respect to their end are either habitual or actual or virtual 1. Habitual The work of grace in the heart is to change and sublimate our end so that wherever grace is there is an habitual scope and aim at Gods glory as the end of all obedience But this is not sufficient 2. There is an actual aim at the glory of God in each particular performance Now this cannot be the duty of a believer in his present imperfect state for three reasons 1. Because it would leave no place for other duties 2. It is not absolutely necessary in every particular act though it ought to be frequently done yet it is not so necessary in every duty as that it ceases to be an act of obedience if it be not actually done If a man make a voyage to the Indies his aim and design is to be there in such a time and accordingly he sets sail in pursuance of his end Yet his end is not in his eye in every action he doth in steering and guiding the vessel So it is in this case The design of a Christian is the glory of God in all his actions though he may not actually aim at it in every particular performance 3. It is impossible to perform it where there is a constant lusting of the flesh against the spirit as is in every believer Gal. 5.17 and therefore a further work of grace must pass upon the regenerate soul then can be attained in this state to enable it hereto and that is in glorification whereby grace is compleated and freed from all mixtures of flesh and interruption in its acts by temptation Saints in heaven do actually intend the glory of God in every thing they do and no wonder for they see face to face They are held close to God by an immediate and uninterrupted vision Therefore the holy Ghost puts these two sight and service together Revel 22.3 4. His servants shall serve him and they shall see his face They shall serve him so they do here I but there they shall serve him perfectly with purity of intention and compleatness of performance and how so they shall see him immediately and injoy him fully God is never perfectly served till he is fully injoyed 3. There is a virtual aim and intention which is more then habitual And though it is not actual yet the action hath thereby such a tendency as naturally referrs to the glory of God He that in alms-giving actually intends the good and comfort of his poor neighbour doth therein virtually aim at the glory of God When a man by his repentance and mourning for sin actually aims at the obtaining of pardon and forgiveness the tendency of his action is to an end subordinate to the glory of God For it is the glory of God to forgive sin So then I would resolve the case thus To intend the glory of God habitually is not enough for a believer to do To intend it in every particular duty actually is more then a believer can do But to intend it in each duty virtually and as oft as we can actually this is a believers present duty and obedience thus performed shall certainly find acceptation with God And so much for the second direction to such as are under Christs Yoke that they would labour to bear it becomingly which is done when obedience is from right principles and consists in proper performances and all is done in a due manner