SERMON

Eafinefs of Religion.

XII.

[From Bishop TAYLOR'S "Life of Christ.”]

MATT, xi. 29, 30.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye fhall find reft unto your fouls:

For my yoke is eafy, and my burden is light.

UR bleffed Saviour came to break

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off from our necks two great yokes; the one, of fin, by which we were fettered and imprisoned in the condition of flaves and miferable perfons; the other of Mofes' law, by which we were kept in pupilage and a state of imperfection; and afferted us into the glorious liberty of the fons of God,

The empire of fin was the government of a tyrant: the discipline of Mofes' law was as that of a schoolmaster, it was ftrict and fevere, but in order to a farther good,

yet

yet nothing pleasant in the fufferance and load.

And now Chrift, having taken off these two, hath put on a third. He quits us of our burden, but not of our duty; and hath changed the former tyranny, and the lefs perfect difcipline, into the fweetness of paternal government, and the excellency of fuch an inftitution, whofe every precept carries. part of its reward in hand, and affurances of after glories.

Mofes law was like fharp and unpleafant phyfick, certainly painful, but uncertainly healthful. For it was not then communicated to them by promife and univerfal revelations, that the end of their obedience fhould be life eternal; but they were full of hopes it might be fo, as we are of health when we have a learned and wife phyfician. But as yet the reward was in a cloud, and the hopes in fetters and confinement. But the law of Christ is like Chrift's healing of diseases; he doth it cafily, and he doth it infallibly. The event is certainly confequent, and the manner of cure is by a touch of his hand,

or

or a word of his mouth, without pain and vexatious inftruments. That is to fay, Christianity, by the affiftance of Chrift's fpirit, which he promised and gave to us in the gospel, is made very easy to us; and yet a reward fo great is promifed, as would be enough to make us endure the greatest burden; a reward fo excellent, as to make us willing to do violence to all our inclinations and affections. The holy Spirit is given to enable us, and heaven is promised to encourage us; the one makes us able, and the other makes us willing: and when we have power and affections, we cannot complain of preffure.

And this is the meaning of our bleffed Saviour's invitation: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your fouls: For my yoke is eafy, and my burden is light. Which St. John alfo obferved: This is the love of God, fays he, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous: For whatfoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory that over

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cometh the world, even our faith; that is, our belief of God's promifes, the promise of the Spirit for prefent aid, and of heaven for the future reward, is ftrength enough to overcome all the world.

But befides that God hath made his yoke eafy by exterior fupports, more than ever was in any other religion; Christianity is of itself, according to human estimate, a religion more easy and defirable by our natural and reasonable appetites, than fin in the midst of all its pleasures and imaginary felicities. Virtue hath more pleasure in it than fin, and hath all fatisfactions to every defire of man, in order to reafonable and prudent ends. Which I fhall represent in the confideration of these particulars :

I. I propofe to fhew, That to live according to the laws of Chrift, is in fome things the most natural to us.

II. That it is most reasonable.

III. That there is in it lefs trouble than in fin, And,

IV. That it conduceth infinitely to the content and fatisfaction of our lives.

AND all this, befides the confideration of a glorious and happy eternity.

I. To live according to the laws of Chrift, is, in fome things the most natural to us. We do very ill, when inftead of making our natural infirmity an inftrument of humility, and of recourfe to the grace of God, we pretend the fame as an excufe for our fins. The evils that we feel in this refpect, are from the rebellion of our appetite againft reason, or against any religion that puts restraint upon our defires. And therefore in carnal and fenfual inftances, accidentally we find the more natural averfenefs, because God's laws have put our faculties in fetters and reftraints; yet in matters of duty, which are of fpiritual concernment, all our natural reason is a perfect enemy and contradiction to vice.

It is natural for us to love our parents; and they who do not, are unnatural: they do violence to thofe difpofitions, which

God