Four books on the eleventh of Matthew

And another Use is this. If Christ accounts his ways easy, let not men make them hard, take heed how you make the ways of Christ harder than Christ makes them, though it is true, you cannot make them hard, I but, you do what you can to make them hard, as thus; you have an Apprentice, or a Child, or a Friend, or a Kinsman, that is looking after the ways of Christ, Do not you do what you can to make the ways Christ hard to them? you scorn at them, and scoff at them, and rail at them. ⟨p. 747⟩and smite them, and take all advantage you can against them, you do what you can to vex their spirits, and to make Christs ways hard to them. Saith Christ, I came into the world to that end to bring souls to me, to carry them on comfortably to Heaven, but here is a Wretch, so soon as any one looks towards Heaven, he doth what he can to make his life uncomfortable, a child that you respected before, and lived sweetly with you before, now you do what you can to make them live worse lives than formerly they lived, and so the Wife of your bosom, or your Husband, and the like; and thus you do what you can to draw them off from the ways of Christ, and if they would come off from those ways, then you would do what you can to make their lives more comfortable, O! Wretch, Wretch that thou art to cross the ways of Christ, thou dost in this thing but act the part of the Devil, for what doth the Devil? the Devil will make his ways as easy as he can, and the ways of Christ to be as hard as he can, and that is the reason that many young Christians are troubled with more temptations now than before, because the Devil sees they are getting away from him, and he doth what he can to make their getting away to be as troublesome as can be. As a Jailer, when the Jailer hath a Prisoner, if he be in Prison he takes no notice, but if he be a plotting how o get out of the Prison, then he comes and lays fetters upon him; So when men are in the Dungeon of the Devil, and the Devil hath them fast, then he is at quiet with them, but when they come to enquire after the ways of Heaven, and labour to get out of their bondage, then the Devil comes with Darts, and Suggestions, to make their lives uncomfortable, and as the Devil doth, so do wicked men.