SERMON XXXI.

THE NATURE OF THE LORD'S INVITATION TO ALL THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN.

BY MR. J. KEENE.

Mathew xi. 29.

"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." In considering the preceding verse, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest "(page 10), we noted the following doctrines to be deduced therefrom; 1st, that the Lord is no tyrant, and that his every dispensation is merciful; 2ndly, that all are invited to come unto him, to be relieved from the labour and heavy burthens with which they are laden; 3rdly, that this labour and this burthen are sin; 4thly, that our compliance with the Lord's command, "Come unto me," is the only means of release therefrom; 5thly, that such compliance is not exemplified by our moving here or there as to our material body, but learning his precepts, loving and doing them; 6thly, in considering the manner of the precept, we concluded in favour of the perfect freedom of the human will, for it has no dictatorial character in it; it is a forcible and a powerful persuasion, because it has the force of love or paternal affection and the power of truth, but it has no dictatorial determination about it, but has all the character of being addressed to such as are free to obey or not to obey, but to such as ought to obey, and such as can find happiness or rest in no other way; 7thly, then we concluded that happiness or misery depends on man's voluntary choice; that if he choose the Lord, that is, a life in conformity with his Word, he will be happy; but if he choose self and the world, that is, a life in disobedience to the Word of truth, misery -eternal misery, is the inevitable result.

We could easily adopt the same course of argument with the present verse, and find it equally confirmative of the same positions; but we have at present a different object in view, viz. to explain other matters elicited; and first and chiefly, the yoke of Christ,

"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." What is a yoke? and, What is the yoke of Christ? Is it a yoke of bondage? The term yoke seems to imply somewhat of bondage; but this is only an appearance, as regards the yoke of Christ. This is not a yoke of bondage, but one of perfect freedom, which it will be my object, on the present occasion, to shew.

Yoke is frequently used in the Scripture, and is always used as a correspondence. It sometimes implies bondage or slavery, but in its highest sense perfect freedom; 1st, the wicked are under the yoke of bondage or slavery; 2ndly, those who are being regenerated are under the yoke of duty; and 3rdly, those who are regenerated, are under the yoke of their voluntary adoption, and are in perfect freedom; this is the yoke of the Lord, who says, "My yoke is easy and my burthen is light." We read in Scripture of a yoke of iron, of the yoke of affliction and crosses, of which it is said to be good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth; of the yoke of punishment for sin; speaking of which the prophet Jeremiah says, "The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand;" and of the yoke of God's commandments, of which our Lord speaks, when he says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; my yoke is easy, and my burthen light."

Yoke, in its most literal acceptation, is a bond for the neck. Oxen are yoked together. Slaves have been yoked with iron. These yokes are matters of human tyranny, and of human history; they form in Scripture, as such, the basis and continent of spiritual ideas,ideas of spiritual states and conditions. When man is under the bondage of sin we use the term yoke to express it. What word so expressive? every man is at all times under some yoke or other. Whatever he wills or desires, depends on some condition of mind, together with external things appertaining thereto; his condition, whether that of freedom or slavery, depends on things internal and external, from neither of which can he be separated, without losing that condition, whether it be that of happiness or misery. The devils of hell are yoked to hell, and all the conditions of hell, and they hate their yoke; it is a yoke of bondage and slavery, and they cannot get out of their yoke, though they continually desire to do so, and their infernal misery therefore cannot be abated. Now mark the difference, the angels are yoked as well as devils; they are yoked to heaven, and all the conditions of heaven; but they voluntarily choose their yoke, it is one of their own adoption, they love it, and are therefore in a state of perfect freedom; they cannot get out of their yoke, they cannot cease to obey God or to observe his commandments, without losing their

condition of angelic felicity; but this obedience is their felicity, a felicity of which the delight once tasted, can never cease to be desired; therefore they have no wish to change their condition, and therefore also their happiness is perpetual. This is the yoke of Christ; the yoke of God's commandments; a yoke freely adopted, a yoke of obedience from love, a yoke of peace, a yoke which never tires, but which keeps the heavens in the perpetual community of brotherhood, which makes them one continuous out-flowing of the divine perfections, conveying, continually, ineffable light and love to its joyous recipients, of which all are partakers to the fulness of extatic bliss.

Nothing is without a yoke truly considered, neither the ox nor the slave, nor the master who yokes them. The ox and the slave have the yoke, literally considered; but every man set free from literal bondage is under a spiritual yoke, he is under the yoke of the law, every breach of which brings its own penalty; every thing animate and inanimate is bound by certain laws. The same is the case with intellectual man; of the latter, the evil pursue their own depraved wills, and find a yoke they despise; the good seek the will of God, and find a yoke it is their delight to be under, one that they cannot rid themselves of without acting contrary to their own desires, which is impossible.

Let us, then, consider this yoke as applied to intellectual man. Man is a recipient vessel, capable of receiving or refusing divine love and wisdom, and, in his lowest state of sensuality, and in all degrees thence up to the highest state of intellectuality, he is under a yoke there is no exception to this condition; everywhere the Lord rules, and all are subject to his laws.

1st. Man in a sensual degree is under the yoke; he is first the slave of his passions, and a yoke superior thereto is found when disease and misery punish him for his disobedience of those physical laws, by which alone his natural body can be nourished and sustained in health and vigour. This is a burthensome yoke; as he advances in rational discrimination, he finds every thing opposing his selfish desires; he would have every thing according to his predilections, and he finds he cannot; immutable truth is impressed on every thing: all things that are, must be as they are, and cannot be altered, because they are as infinite wisdom made them. Were men, in their grossly sensual state, free from the pains and penalties their own evils procure them, they would be in a deplorable state of depravity indeed. We know nothing of the

excesses to which men would go, but for those wholesome restraints, the dread of which keep them within due bounds.

It may be thought unjust of Providence, to give men desires, and then to punish them for gratifying them; but let such carry out their reasoning to the extreme, and they will find that the incapability of desiring things they ought not to enjoy, would be an entire deprivation of that only attribute, by which human beings are distinguished from insensate brutes. The brutes in this condition are subject to laws expressly suitable to them, and these they cannot disobey. Man is, in a higher order of creation, suited to choose his own condition, and capable of choosing and enjoying to eternity, that of heavenly felicity. Could heaven be a reward, or hell a terror, in any other state? Could heaven be heaven; could its felicity be enjoyed unless freely chosen? The basis of heaven is human freedom. Man cannot oppose the laws of God; even the infernal regions are subject to them: God is everywhere, everywhere is his power manifested, his wisdom and his mercy. The only difference betwixt the evil and the good is, that the one is constrained in his every action-of mercy constrained, that he may not pursue the means of his own destruction, that he may not sink into endless perdition; and the other pursues freely without any hindrance, but with divine aid, all his pure desires, because they are conformable to the law of God, and promotive of his will among men.

2ndly. Men find a greater punishment than bodily sufferings, when enabled rationally to perceive the faculties with which they are endowed. When awakened from the grave of sensuality, they find that time has run its course, unproductive to them of those noble attainments for which their faculties qualify them. Conscience then brings its dreadful penalty; they have been pursuing, under the name of pleasure, vain shadows; all have passed away, leaving nothing behind; no solace, no pleasurable reminiscences of good actions. The commandments to them are a terror. In the vigour of health the sensitive appetites are all actively hungering after the various false and unmeaning luxuries in which they have been accustomed to indulge. But time moves on, waiting for no one. Old age is advancing, the termination of all is evidently near at hand, and there is no hope beyond the grave, to cheer life's decline. Shall I pursue the same course I hitherto have pursued? the awakened sinner asks himself. What is the profit of such a course? Have I enjoyed it hitherto? or have I, in ignorance, only

fancied that I have enjoyed it? He finds, on due consideration, that no pleasure of life has been really enjoyed; he finds that he has never felt what real enjoyment is. The man of self and the world is always anticipating pleasure, but never enjoying it. For him new sources of pleasure are continually being sought after, they are longed for: the night of frivolity passes away, and the light of the next dawn obliterates the whole. Well, what shall I do? says he ; my passions hurry me one way, my conscience leads and persuades me another. But the one way is death; however long a life I may enjoy to be thus spent, is mere emptiness-my life past is as nothing—that which is to come, however long it may endure, will be as nothing; but the commandments are a yoke hard to be endured. If we duly reflect, we shall find, most of us who know the commandments, and the necessity of observing them, that our prevailing propensities run counter thereto, we yet think it is hard to observe them, that the yoke is very heavy; but our Lord, in his Word of truth assures us, that his yoke is easy and his burthen is light; by which we are assured, that if we could overcome our present evil propensities, we should find the commandments of God easy of observance, and that righteousness and truth are not burthensome; the service of sin is burthensome, but not the service of God.

3rdly. This yoke implies, spiritually considered, the uniting of the will and the understanding. The yoke of Christ is not the knowledge only of the laws of God in the understanding, but a will in conformity therewith. It is possible for a person to know the whole of Scripture, and yet not take upon himself the yoke of Christ. Many there are who read the Scriptures not as a book concerning themselves, but something else. Some read a chapter every morning and evening, they call it a good book, they say that God is good, but they do not read the Word as though it concerned themselves. Such reading, however, is of no good whatever, nor is attendance at church, as a mere customary duty; a yoke of iron round the neck would be of equal benefit. All these things, if we would desire to derive from them any solid good, must be accompanied by internal examination; we must read the Scriptures, not only to know that God is good, and to know his laws, but to know whether or not we are rightly disposed to observe these laws; and this should be the object of our attendance at church, or we may as well pursue any idle vanity as these things, for in this case they are but vanity. Also in our prayers

we often think of God as great and powerful, wise and good, when