Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

4. If it be so, that usually they are pensive and sad, it is not because of Religion, but because they are not more Religious; because they find so much want of godliness in their own hearts;¹ this was the cause of Pauls heaviness, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And yet know, that all these sadnesses are true preparatives to joy; and therefore in the very next words, the Apostle breaks out into that sweet Doxology, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Never was true sorrow for sin, but it ended in rejoicings, and praises, and thanksgiving to God,

4. If it be so, that usually they are pensive and sad, it is not because of Religion, but because they are not more Religious; because they find so much want of godliness in their own hearts;¹ this was the cause of Pauls heaviness, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And yet know, that all these sadnesses are true preparatives to joy; and therefore in the very next words, the Apostle breakes out into that sweet Doxology, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Never was true sorrow for sin, but it ended in rejoycings, and praises, and thanksgiving to God,

1. 1Rom. 7.24.

Why then be convinced; Ah deceived souls! say not that God is an hard Master, reaping where he sowed not, and gathering where he strawed not; say not that his ways are tedious, and irksome, and uncomfortable ways; but rather taste, and see, and try how good the Lord is; experience the truth of these words, My Yoke is easy, and my Burden is light: What is lighter than that Burden, which instead of burdening Cheers up the party on which it is laid? Just like those burdens of Cinnamon, that refresh those that carry them through the deep sands of Arabia. An holy Divine once endeavouring to convince men of the sweetness and pleasantness of Gods ways by his own experiences; I call Haven and Earth to Record (saith he) that these things are truths of God; they are not notions, or conceits, but certain realities: Another flies somewhat higher; If men would in earnest (says he) abandon the Devils service, and give up their names to Christ in truth; and try, I dare assure them in the Word of Life and Truth, they would not exchange the saddest hour of all their life afterward, with the prime and flower of all their former sensual pleasures,