ces; but pride, and infolence, and contempt of others, do infallibly defeat their own defign. They aim at respect and esteem, but never attain it; for all mankind do naturally hate and flight a proud man.

What more reafonable than patience and contentednefs; and that we should in all things refign up ourselves to the will of God, who loves us as well as we do ourfelves, and knows what is good for us better than we do ourfelves? This certainly is the best way to prevent anxiety and perplexity of mind, and to make the worst condition as tolerable as it can be, and much more easy than it would be otherwise.

As for that peculiar law of Christianity which forbids revenge, and commands us to forgive injuries, and to love our enemies, no man can think it grievous who confiders the pleasure and fweetness of love, and the glorious victory of overcoming evil with good, and then compares thefe with the restlefs torment and perpetual tumults of a malicious and revengeful spirit.

And, laftly, felf-denial for the caufe of God and religion. This is neither unreasonable, nor to our disadvantage. If we confider our infinite obligations to God, we have no reason to think much to facrifice to him our dearest interests in this world; efpecially if we confider withal how difproportionably great the reward of our fufferings fhall be in another world. Befides that the intereft of religion is of fo great concernment to the happiness of mankind, that every man is bound for that reafon to affert the truth of it with the hazard of any thing that is most valuable to him in this world.

II. We are not deftitute of fufficient power and ftrength for the performing of God's commands. Had God given us laws, but no power to keep them, his commandments would then indeed have been grievous. It is true, we have contracted a great deal of weakness and impotency by our wilful degeneracy from goodness; but that grace which the gofpel offers to us for our af fiftance is fufficient for us. And this feems to be the particular reafon why the apostle fays here in the text, that his commandments are not grievous; becaufe he offers us an affiftance proportionable to the difficulty of his commands, and the neceffity of our condition: for

it

it follows immediately after the text, For whofoever is born of God, overcometh the world. Therefore the commandments of God are not grievous; because every child of God, that is, every Christian, is endued with a power whereby he is enabled to refift and conquer the temptations of the world. The fame apostle elsewhere encourages Christians upon the fame confideration: Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. Tho' we be encompaffed with many and potent enemies, who make it their bufinefs to tempt and to deter us from our duty; yet our cafe is not hard, fo long as we have a greater strength on our fide. And this the apostle tells us is the cafe of every Chriftian: Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world, 1 John iv. 4. Are there legions of devils who are continually defigning and working our ruin? there are alfo myriads of good angels, who are more chearful and officious to do us good. For I doubt not, but as thofe who are bent to do wickedly will never want tempters to urge them on, and to push them forward in an evil courfe; fo, on the other hand, those who apply themselves ferioufly to the business of religion, and yield themselves tractable to good motions, will find the good Spirit of God more ready and active to encourage them than the devil can be to pull them back; unless we think that God hath given a greater power and a larger commiflion to the devil to do men mifchief, than to his Holy Spirit and his holy angels for our affiftance and encouragement. But then we are to understand, that this affistance is only offered to men, and not forced upon them whether they will or no. For if we beg God's grace, but neglect to make use of it; if we implore his affiflance for the mortifying of our lufts, but will not contribute our own endeavours, God will withdraw his grace, and take away his Holy Spirit from us: nay, if, after we have begun wel, we do notoriously flacken our endeavours, we forfeit the divine affistance. If when, by God's grace, we have in a good measure conquered the first difficulties of religion, and gained fome habitual ftrength against fin; if after this we grow careless and remifs, and neglect our guard, and lay ourselves open to temptations, God's Spirit will not always ftrive with us. Notwithstanding all the promises of the go

fpel,

fpel, and the mighty affiftances there offered to us, if we love any luft, and will, with Samfon, lay our head in Delilah's lap, we fhall be infenfibly robbed of our Strength, and become like other men.

III. We have the greatest encouragement to the obfervance of God's commands. Two things make any course of life eafy; prefent pleasure, and the assurance of a future reward. Religion gives part of its reward in hand, the present comfort and fatisfaction of having done our duty; and for the reft, it offers us the best fecurity that heaven can give. Now, these two must needs make our duty very eafy; a confiderable reward in hand, and not only the hopes, but the affurance, of a far greater recompence hereafter.

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1. Prefent peace and fatisfaction of mind, and inexpreffible joy and pleasure, flowing from the teftimony of a good confcience. This is prefent payment, befides that it is the earnest of a future and greater happiness. And this does naturally spring up in the mind of a good man: Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing hall offend them. All acts of piety and virtue are not only delightful for the prefent, but they leave peace. and contentment behind them; a peace that no outward violence can interrupt or take from us. The pleasures of a holy life have, moreover, this peculiar advantage. of all worldly joys, that we shall never be weary them; we cannot be cloyed by the frequent repetition of these pleasures, nor by the long enjoyment of them. I know that fome vices pretend to bring great pleasure along with them, and that the delights of a fenfual and voluptuous life make a glorious fhow, and are attended with much pomp and noife; like the fports of children and fools, which are loud and clamorous; or, as Solomon elegantly compares them, like the crackling of thorns under a pot, which makes a little noise, and a sudden blaze, that is prefently over. But the ferious and the manly pleasures, the folid and fubftantial joys, are only to be found in the ways of religion and virtue. The moft fenfual man that ever was in the world never felt his heart touched with fo delicious and lafting a pleafure, as that is which fprings from a clear confcience, and a mind fully fatisfied with its own actions.

2. But the great encouragement of all is, the affurance of a future reward; the firm perfuafion whereof is enough to raise us above any thing in this world, and to animate us with courage and refolution against the greatest difficulties. So the apostle reafons: His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. The belief of a future happiness and glory was that which made the primitive Chriftians fo victorious over the world, and gave them the courage to refift all the pleafures and terrors of fenfe. It cannot be denied, but that a religious course of life is liable to be incumbered with many difficulties, which are naturally grievous to flesh and blood. But a Chriftian is able to comfort himself under all these with the thoughts of his end, which is everlasting life. He confiders the goodness of God, which he believes would not deny him the free enjoyment of the things of this world, were it not that he hath fuch joys and pleafures in ftore for him as will abundantly recompence his present felf-denial and fufferings.

Let us now put both thefe together, the pleasures of religion, and the rewards of it, and they cannot but appear to be a mighty encouragement. With what pleafure does a man that lives a holy and a virtuous life defpife the pleasures of fin, and, notwithstanding all the allurements of fenfe, perfik refolutely in his course? And how is fuch a man confirmed in his purpose, and animated in his holy resolution, when he finds that God and his own confcience do applaud his choice; when all along, in the courfe of religion and a virtuous life, in his conflicts with fin, and resistance of temptations, he hath for his prefent reward the two great pleafures of innocence and of victory, and for his future encouragement the joyful hopes of a crown and a kingdom? recompence fo great, ás is fufficient to make a lame man walk, enough to make any one willing to offer violence to his strongest paffions and inclinations. A man would be content to strive with himself, and to conflict with great difficulties, in hopes of a mighty reward. What poor man would not chearfully carry a great burden of gold and filver, that were affured to have the greatest VOL.I. fhare

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fhare of it for his pains, and thereby be made a man for ever? Whatever difficulties religion is attended withal, they are all sweetened and made eafy by the propofal of a great and eternal reward.

But are there no difficulties then in religion? Is every thing so plain and eafy? Are all the ways of virtue fo fmooth and even as we have here reprefented them? Hath not our Saviour told us, that trait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leads to life, and few there be that find it? Matth. vii. 14. Does not the apostle fay, That through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God? Acts xiv. 22.; and that all that will live godly in Chrift Jefus, shall fuffer perfecution? 2 Tim. iii. 12. And does not the fcripture every where speak of Striving, and wrestling, and running, and fighting; of labouring, and watching, and giving all diligence? And is there nothing grievous in all this?

This is a very material objection; and therefore I fhall be the more careful to give a fatisfactory answer to it. And that I may do it the more diftinctly, be pleased to confider thefe fix things. 1. That the fuffering of perfecution for religion is an extraordinary cafe, which did chiefly concern the firft ages of Christianity. 2. That this difcourfe, concerning the eafinefs of God's commands, does all along fuppofe and acknowledge the difficulties of the entrance upon a religious course. 3. Nor is there any reafon it fhould exclude our after care and diligence. 4. All the difficulties of religion are very much mitigated and allayed by hope and by love. 5. There is incomparably more difficulty and trouble in the ways of fin and vice, than in the ways of religion and virtue. 6. If we do but put virtue and vice, a religious and a wicked course of life, in equal circumftances; if we will but fuppofe a man as much accustomed and inured to the one as he has been to the other; then I fhall not doubt to pronounce, that the advantages of eafe and pleasure will be found to be on the fide of religion.

1. The fuffering of perfecution for religion is an extraordinary cafe, and did chiefly concern the firft ages of Christianity. And therefore the general fayings of our Saviour and his apoftles concerning the perfecuted

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