Thirdly, A complacential Love to, 1and Delight in your Work, is a great furtherance of it. A wicked Man serves God grudgingly, he murmurs at Duties, and looks upon them only as Tasks and Burdens, thinking every thing he ⟨p. 218⟩doth for God too much, too heavy and weighty. The Commands of God are all of them hard Sayings and grievous Impositions that he cannot bear; he could believe Christ sooner in any thing than when he tells him,2 My Yoke is easy and my Burden is light. Here he cannot believe Christ. Thus much time, saith the slothful Sinner, must I spend in Prayer, and there must I humble my self to God whom I hate, and confess before him those Sins that I love, and beg that Grace that I have slighted; so much time must I spend in reading the Law that I never mean to observe, perusing over only the Sentence of my Condemnation; and so often must I fix and dwell upon holy and spiritual Thoughts, which never at any time darted into, or passed intransiently, but they did discompose me, and leave me a damp and sadness upon my Spirit behind them; and therefore because there is not a holy complacency and delight in the Service of God, all such Mens Endeavours are both faint, inconstant and languish while they are about them, and seldom do they re-assume them again. But a true Christian works with abundance of Delight and ⟨p. 219⟩Cheerfulness in the Service of God, in every Duty his Soul is filled full of holy Affections, by which it soars up to Heaven: Duties are Meat and Drink to him, spiritual Manna, in which he takes more satisfaction and contentment than wicked Men do in their Sins, and therefore he performs these Duties so earnestly, because he doth it with complacency: All that he repines at, is, that natural Necessity, sinful Weakness and Infirmities and worldly Employments, that do purloin so much of his time from this great Work. Now when once the Heart is brought to such a frame and temper as this, thus to delight in Obedience and in the Work and Service of God, then will this working for Salvation go on with Power.
Thirdly, A complacential Love to, 1and Delight in your Work, is a great furtherance of it. A wicked Man serves God grudgingly, he murmurs at Duties, and looks upon them only as Tasks and Burthens, thinking every thing he ⟨p. 218⟩doth for God too much, too heavy and weighty. The Commands of God are all of them hard Sayings and grievous Impositions that he cannot bear; he could believe Christ sooner in any thing than when he tells him,2 My Yoke is easy and my Burthen is light. Here he cannot believe Christ. Thus much time, saith the slothful Sinner, must I spend in Prayer, and there must I humble my self to God whom I hate, and confess before him those Sins that I love, and beg that Grace that I have slighted; so much time must I spend in reading the Law that I never mean to observe, perusing over only the Sentence of my Condemnation; and so often must I fix and dwell upon holy and spiritual Thoughts, which never at any time darted into, or passed intransiently, but they did discompose me, and leave me a damp and sadness upon my Spirit behind them; and therefore because there is not a holy complacency and delight in the Service of God, all such Mens Endeavours are both faint, inconstant and languish while they are about them, and seldom do they re-assume them again. But a true Christian works with abundance of Delight and ⟨p. 219⟩Chearfulness in the Service of God, in every Duty his Soul is filled full of holy Affections, by which it soars up to Heaven: Duties are Meat and Drink to him, spiritual Manna, in which he takes more satisfaction and contentment than wicked Men do in their Sins, and therefore he performs these Duties so earnestly, because he doth it with complacency: All that he repines at, is, that natural Necessity, sinful Weakness and Infirmities and worldly Employments, that do purloin so much of his time from this great Work. Now when once the Heart is brought to such a frame and temper as this, thus to delight in Obedience and in the Work and Service of God, then will this working for Salvation go on with Power.
- 13. Love to our Work makes it easy.3. Love to our Work makes it easie.
- 2Mat. 11.28.
