6. This government, which we so much stick at, is a blessed govern- ment. Christ himself pleadeth this. Mat. xi. 30, ' My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' It is sweet in itself, and sweet in the issue. It concerneth us much to have good thoughts of Christ's reign and government, for he doth not rule us for our hurt, or by needless laws, that have no respect to our good and safety. Look upon them in them- selves ; what hath he required but such a sincere obedience as consists in purity and charity ? Both which oppress not human nature, but perfect it, and put an excellency upon us, which others have not : Prov. xii. 26, ' The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour ; * Ps. xvi. 3, ' But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excel- lent, in whom is all my delight.' And look upon them in their event and issue ; all that he hath required is in order to our happiness. If repentance and faith, it is in order to our pardon and peace : Acts iii. 19, ' Repent, that your sins may be blotted out when times of refresh-
110 SERMON UPON LUKE XIX. 14.
ment shall come from the presence of the Lord.' If moral obedience, it is that by holiness he may lead us unto God, without which we cannot see him and enjoy him, Heb. xii, 14. So that if our sinful customs have not made us incompetent judges, this government should be submitted unto and chosen, before liberty and freedom from it ; for all these things are for our good.
III. What moveth and induceth men so much to dislike Christ's reign and government.
1. The evil constitution of men's souls. This government is contrary to men's carnal and brutish affections. Now the flesh is loath to be restrained and curbed, and therefore ' the carnal mind is enmity against God,' Eom. viii. 7. Part of this opposition remaineth in the re- generate : Kom. vii. 23, ' I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind ; ' and Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' There- fore no wonder if wicked men shake off that yoke which they cannot endure, and galleth them upon all occasions when they would fulfil their lusts. Hence is it they refuse to be subject to Christ.
2. It comes from an affectation of liberty. Men would be at their own dispose, and do whatsoever pleaseth them, without any to call them to an account : Ps. xii. 4, ' Who have said. With our tongue we will prevail ; our lips are our own ; who is lord over us ? ' They cannot endure strictly to consider what they should say and do. So they may please themselves, and advantage themselves, they will take no notice of what is right or wrong, or any superior to whom they are accountable. I remember it is said. Judges xxi. 25, ' In those days there was no king in Israel ; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.' So it is true here. Man, that is prone to all sin and wicked- ness, would have no king or lord over him, be under no government ; therefore ' We will not have this man to reign over us.' There is a false notion of liberty possesseth all our hearts. We take it to be a power to do what we list, not a power to do what we ought. The ab- surdity of it would soon appear if we considered the mischiefs it would produce in man's government. If men were under no rule and order, what monsters of wickedness would they grow ! And the world would soon prove a stage to act all manner of villanies upon. And the false- hood of it will more appear if we consider man in his relation to God. He hath no true liberty but such as becometh a creature, whose abso- lute dependence doth necessarily infer his subjection to God, to whom he is accountable for all his actions. So that his true liberty lieth in a readiness to obey his proper lord :. Ps. cxix. 45, ' I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts ; ' to will and do things pleasing to our creator, preserver, and redeemer. Again, if man have a liberty, it must be such a liberty as leaveth him in a capacity to pursue his chief good and last end. The more we are restrained from this, the more we are in bondage; the less, the more free. Certainly the reasonable nature is under a defect, as it is restrained and disabled from the fruition of God, or seeking after it ; for man was made for this end, and is so far fettered as he is kept from it. But this is little minded ; all our desire is to live at large, and to have none to control us.
SERMON UPON LUKE XIX. 14. Ill
3. It proceeds from the nature of Christ's laws — (1.) They are spiritual ; (2.) They require self-denial.