laps, without any defign and endeavour on their part; and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God fhould fnatch them up to heaven when they die. But though the commandments of God be not grievous, yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus eafy. 4. All the difficulties of religion are very much allayed and fweetened by hope and by love.. By the hopes of a mighty reward; fo great as is enough to raise us above ourselves, and to make us break through all difficulties and difcouragements. And by the love of God, who hath taken all imaginable ways to endear himself to us. He gave us our beings; and when we were fallen from that happiness to which at firft we were defigned, he was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it, by fending his only Son into the world to die for us. So that if we have any fense of kindness, we cannot but love him who hath done fo much to oblige us; and if we love him entirely, nothing that he commands will be grievous to us: nay, fo far from that, that the greatest pleasure we are capable of, will be to please him. For nothing is difficult to love. It will make a man deny himself, and cross his own inclinations, to pleasure them whom he loves. It is a paffion of a ftrange power where it reigns, and will cause a man to fubmit to thofe things with delight, which in other circumstances would feem grievous to him. Jacob ferved for Rachel seven years, and after that feven years more; and they feemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. Did but the love of God rule in our hearts, and had we as real an affection for him as fome men have for their friends, there are no fuch difficulties in religion but what love would conquer; and the feverest parts of it would become easy, when they were once undertaken by a willing mind. 5. There is incomparably more trouble in the ways of fin and vice, than in those of religion and virtue. Every notorious fin is naturally attended with fome inconvenience of harm, or danger, or difgrace; which the finner feldom confiders, till the fin be committed, and then he is in a labyrinth; and, in feeking the way out of a prefent inconvenience, he intangles himself in more. He is glad to make use of indirect arts, and laborious crafts, crafts, to avoid the confequence of his faults; and many times is fain to cover one fin with another; and the more he strives to difintangle himself, the more is he fnared in the work of his own hands. Into what perplexities did David's fin bring him? fuch as by all his power and arts he could not free himself from. He was glad to commit a greater crime, to avoid the fhame of a lefs; and could find no other way to conceal his adultery, but by plunging himself into the guilt of murder. And thus it is proportionably in all other vices. The ways of fin are crooked paths, full of windings and turnings: but the way of holiness and virtue is a high-way, and lies fo plain before us, that wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, If. xxxv. 8. There needs no kill to keep a man's felf true and honest, if we will but refolve to deal justly, and to speak the truth to our neighbour: nothing in the whole world is eafier; for there is nothing of artifice and reach required, to enable a man to fpeak as he thinks, and to do to others as he would be dealt withal himself. And as the ways of fin are full of intricacy and perplexities, fo likewife of trouble and difquiet. There is no man that wilfully commits any fin, but his conscience smites him for it, and his guilty mind is frequently galled with the remembrance of it; but the reflexion upon honest and virtuous actions, hath nothing of regret and difquiet in it. No man's confcience ever troubled him for not being dishoneft; no man's reason ever challenged him for not being drunk; no man ever broke his fleep, or was haunted with fears of divine vengeance, because he was conscious to himself, that he had lived foberly, and righteously, and godly, in the world. But with the ungodly it is not fo. There is no man that is knowingly wicked, but he is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him, but he hath received a sting into his foul, which makes him reftlefs, fo that he can never have any perfect cafe and pleasure in his mind. I might have defcended to particular inftances, and have fhewn, how much more troublesome the practice of every fin and vice is, than the exercise of the contrary grace grace and virtue. But that would be too large a fubject to be brought within the limits of a fingle difcourfe. 6. Let but virtue and vice, a religious and wicked courfe of life, be put in equal circumstances; do but fuppofe a man to be as much accustomed and inured to the one as he has been to the other: and then I doubt not but the advantages of cafe and pleasure will be found to be on the fide of religion. And if we do not put the cafe thus, we make an unequal comparifon for there is no man but, when he first begins a wicked courfe, feels a great deal of regret in his mind; the terrors of his confcience, and the fears of damnation, are very troublefome to him. It is poffible that by degrees a man may harden his confcience, and, by a long cuftom of finning, may in a great measure wear off that tender fenfe of good and evil which makes fin fo uneafy: but then, if in the practice of a holy life a man may, by the fame degrees, arrive to far greater peace and tranquillity of mind, than ever any wicked men found in a finful courfe; if by custom virtue will come to be more pleafant than ever vice was, then the advantage is plainly on the fide of religion. And this is truly the cafe. It is troublefome at first for a man to begin any new courfe, and to do contrary to what he hath been accustomed to: but let a man but habituate himself to a religious and virtu ous life, and the trouble will go off by degrees, and unfpeakable pleafure fucceed in the room of it. It is an excellent rule which Pythagoras gave to his scholars, Optimum vitæ genus eligito; nam confuetudo faciet jucundiffimum: "Pitch upon the beft courfe of life, (refolve always to do that which is most reafonable and virtu66 ous), and cuftom will foon render it the most easy." There is nothing of difficulty in a good life, but what may be conquered by cuftom, as well as the difficulties of any other course; and when a man is once used to it, the pleasure of it will be greater than of any other courfe. Let no man then decline or forfake religion for the pretended difficulties of it, and lay afide all care of God's commandments, upon this fuggeftion, that they are impoffible to be kept; for you fee they are not only poffible, but easy. And those who, upon pretence of the the trouble and difficulties of religion, abandon themfelves to a wicked courfe of life, may eafily be convinced, that they take more pains to make themselves miferable, than would ferve to bring them to happiness. There is no man that is a fervant to fin, and a flave to any bafe luft, but might, if he pleased, get to heaven with less trouble than he goes to hell. So that, upon confideration of the whole matter, there is no reason why any man should be deterred from a holy and virtuous life, for fear of the labour and pains of it; because every one that is wicked, takes more pains in another way, and is more industrious only to a worse purpose. Now, he that can travel in deep and foul ways, ought not to say that he cannot walk in fair. He that ventures to run upon a precipice, when every step he takes is with danger of his life and his foul, ought not to pretend any thing against the plain and fafe paths of religion; which will entertain us with pleasure all along in the way, and crown us with happiness at the end. SERM VII. Of the obligation of Chriftians to a holy life,' 2 TIM. ii. 19. every one that nameth the name of Chrift depart from iniquity.i T HE whole verfe runs thus: Nevertheless, the foundation of God ftandeth fure, having this feal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Chrift depart from iniquity. In which words the Apostle declares to us the terms of the covenant between God and man. For the word Buenos, which is here tranflated foundation, according to the ufual fignification of it, is likewife, as learned men have obferved, fometimes used for an instrument of contract whereby two parties do oblige themselves mutually ta to each other. And this notion of the word agrees very well with what follows concerning the feal affixed to it; which is very fuitable to a covenant, but not at all to a foundation. It is true indeed, as the learned Grotius hath obferved, there ufed anciently to be infcriptions on foundation-ftones; and the word oppas, which we render feal, may likewife fignify an infeription: and then the fenfe will be very current, thus: The foundation of Gad ftandeth fure, having this infcription. But it is to be confidered, that though repay is may fignify an infcription, yet it is only an infcription upon a feal; which hath no relation to a foundation, but is very proper to a covenant or mutual obligation. And accordingly the feal affixed to this inftrument, or covenant between God and man, is, in allufion to the custom of those countries, faid to have an infcription on both fides, agreeable to the condition of the perfons contracting. On God's part there is this imprefs or infcription, The Lord knoweth them that are his; that is, God will own and reward those that are faithful to him: and on our part, Let every one that nameth the name of Chrift depart from iniquity. Let every one that nameth the name of Chrift; that is, that calls himself a Christian. For to name the name of any one, or to have his name called upon by us, does, according to the use of this phrase among the Hebrews, fignify nothing else but to be denominated from him. Thus it is frequently used in the Old Teftament; and fometimes in the New: Do they not blafpheme that worthy name, by the which ye are called? Jam. ii. 7.; that is, the name or title of Chriftians. And that expreffion, f ve be reproached for the name of Chrift, 1 Pet. iv. 14. is at the 16th verfe varied, If any man fuffer as a Chriftian. So that to name the name of Chrift is to call ourselves Chriftians. Let every one that nameth the name of Chrift depart from iniquity. The word dnia is often taken ftrictly, for injuftice or unrighteousness; but fometimes ufed more largely, for fin and wickedness in the general. And fo it feems to be ufed here in the text; because there is no reafon from the context to restrain it to any particular kind of fin or vice, and because Chriftianity lays an equal obligation upon men to abstain from all fin. Let every one |