The Beatitudes - Thomas Watson
An appendix to the beatitudes
His
commandments are not grievous
You have seen
what Christ calls for poverty of spirit, pureness of heart, meekness,
mercifulness, cheerfulness in suffering persecution, etc. Now that none may
hesitate or be troubled at these commands of Christ, I thought good (as a
closure to the former discourse) to take off the surmises and prejudices in
men's spirits by this sweet, mollifying Scripture, `His commandments are not
grievous.'
The censuring
world objects against religion that it is difficult and irksome. `Behold what a
weariness is it!'. {Mal 1:13} Therefore the Lord, that he
may invite and encourage us to obedience, draws religion in its fair colours and represents it to us as beautiful and pleasant,
in these words: `His commandments are not grievous.' this may well be called a
sweetening ingredient put into religion and may serve to take off that asperity
and harshness which the carnal world would put upon the ways of God.
For the
clearing of the terms, let us consider:
1. What is
meant here by commandments?
By this word,
commandments, I understand gospel-precepts; faith, repentance, self-denial etc.
2. What is
meant by `not grievous?'
The Greek
word signifies they are not tedious or heavy to be borne. There is a meiosis in
the words. `His commands are not grievous', that is, they are easy, sweet,
excellent.
Hence observe
that none of God's commandments are grievous, when he calls us to be meek,
merciful, pure in heart. These commandments are not grievous. `My burden is
light'. {Mt 11:30} The Greek word there for
`burden', signifies properly `the ballast of a ship' which glides through the
waves as swiftly and easily as if the ship had no weight or pressure in it.
Christ's commandments are like the ballast of a ship, useful, but not troublesome.
All his precepts are sweet and facile, therefore called `pleasantness'. {Pr 3:17} To illustrate and
amplify this, consider two things:
1. Why Christ
lays commands upon his people.
2. 2. That
these commands are not grievous.
1. Why Christ
lays commands upon his people. There are two reasons.
(i) In regard of Christ, it is suitable to his dignity and
state. He is Lord paramount. This name is written on his thigh and vesture,
`King of kings'. {Re 19:16} And shall not a king
appoint laws to his subjects? It is one of the regal rights, the flowers of the
crown, to enact laws and statutes. What is a king without his laws? And shall
not Christ (by whom `kings reign', Pr 8:15) put forth his royal edicts by which the world
shall be governed?
(ii) In
regard of the saints, it is well for the people of God that they have laws to
bind and check the exorbitancies of their unruly
hearts. How far would the vine spread its luxuriant branches were it not pruned
and tied? The heart would be ready to run wild in sin if it did not have
affliction to prune it and the laws of Christ to bind it. The precepts of
Christ are called `a yoke'. {Mt 11:30}
The yoke is useful. It keeps the oxen in from straggling and running out. So
the precepts of Christ as a yoke keep the godly from straggling into sin.
Whither should we not run, into what damnable opinions and practices, did not
Christ's laws lay a check and restraint upon us? Blessed be God for precepts!
That is a blessed yoke which yokes our corruptions. We should run to hell were
it not for this yoke. The laws of Christ are a spiritual hedge which keeps the
people of God within the pastures of ordinances. Some that have broken this
hedge and have straggled are now in the devil's pound. Thus we see what need
the saints have of the royal law.
2. The second
thing I am to demonstrate is that Christ's commands are not grievous. I confess
they are grievous to the unregenerate man. To mourn for sin, to be pure in
heart, to suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, is a hard word, grievous
to flesh and blood. Therefore Christ's commands are compared to bands and
cords, because carnal men look upon them so. God's commands restrain men from
their excess and bind them to their good behaviour.
Therefore, they hate these bonds and instead of breaking off sin, say, `Let us
break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us'. {Ps
2:3} A carnal man is like an untamed heifer which will not endure
the yoke, but kicks and flings, or like a `wild bull in a net'. {Isa 51:20} Thus to a person in the
state of nature Christ's commands are grievous.
Nay, to a
child of God, so far as corruption prevails (for he is but in part regenerate),
Christ's laws seem irksome. The flesh cries out that it cannot pray or suffer.
`The law in the members, rebels against Christ's law. Only the spiritual part
prevails and makes the flesh stoop to Christ's injunctions. A regenerate
person, so far as he is regenerate, does not count God's commandments grievous.
They are not a burden, but a delight.
Divine
commands are not grievous if we consider them first positively in these eight
particulars:
(1) A Christian consents to God's commands, therefore they are not
grievous. `I consent to the law that it is good'. {Ro
7:16} What is done with consent is easy. If the virgin gives her
consent, the match goes on cheerfully. A godly man in his judgement approves of
Christ's laws, and in his will consents to them. Therefore they are not
grievous. A wicked man is under a force; terror of conscience hales him to
duty. He is like a slave that is chained to the galley. He must work whether he
will or no. He is forced to pull the rope, tug at the oar. But a godly man is
like a free subject that consents to his prince's laws and obeys out of choice
as seeing the equity and rationality of them. Thus a gracious heart sees a
beauty and equity in the commands of heaven that draws forth consent, and this
consent makes them that they are not grievous.
(2) They are
Christ's commands, therefore not grievous. `Take my yoke'. {Mt
11:29} Gospel commands are not the laws of a tyrant, but of a
Saviour. The husband's commands are not grievous to the wife. It is her
ambition to obey. This is enough to animate and excite obedience, Christ's
commands. As Peter said in another sense, `Lord if it be thou, bid me come unto
thee upon the water', {Mt 14:28} so says a gracious soul;
`Lord, if it be thou that wouldest have me mourn for
sin and breathe after heart purity; if it be thou (dear Saviour) that biddest me do these things, I will cheerfully obey. Thy
commandments are not grievous'. A soldier at the word of his general makes a
brave onset.
(3)
Christians obey out of a principle of love, and then God's commandments are not
grievous. Therefore in Scripture serving and loving of God are put together.
`The sons of the strangers that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him and
to love the name of the Lord...'. {Isa 56:6}
Nothing is grievous to him that loves. Love lightens a burden; it adds wings to
obedience. An heart that loves God counts nothing
tedious but its own dullness and slowness of motion. Love makes sin heavy and
Christ's burden light.
(4) A
Christian is carried on by the help of the Spirit, and the Spirit makes every
duty easy. `The Spirit helpeth our infirmities'. {Ro 8:26} The Spirit works in us `both
to will and to do'. {Php 2:13} When God enables us to do
what he commands then `his commandments are not grievous'. If two carry a
burden it is easy. The Spirit of God helps us to do duties, to bear burdens. He
draws as it were in the yoke with us. If the scrivener guides the child's hand
and helps it to frame its letter, now it is not hard for the child to write. If
the loadstone draw the iron, it is not hard for the
iron to move. If the Spirit of God as a divine loadstone draw and move the
heart, now it is not hard to obey. When the bird has wings given it, it can
fly. Though the soul of itself be unable to do that which is good,
yet having two wings given it like that woman in the Revelation, {Re 12:14} the wing of faith and the
wing of the Spirit, now it flies swiftly in obedience. `The Spirit lifted me
up'. {Eze 11:1} The heart is heavenly
in prayer when the Spirit lifts it up. The sails of a mill cannot move of
themselves, but when the wind blows then they turn round.
When a gale of the Spirit blows upon the soul, now the sails of the affections
move swiftly in duty.
(5) All
Christ's commands are beneficial, not grievous. `And now, O Israel, what doth
the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to love him, to
keep his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good'. {De 10:12,De
10:13} Christ's commands carry meat in the mouth of them, and then surely they are not grievous. Salvation runs along in every
precept. To obey Christ's laws is not so much of duty as our privilege. All
Christ's commands centre in blessedness. Physic is in itself very unpleasant, yet because it tends to health no
man refuses it. Divine precepts are to the fleshy part irksome, yet, having
such excellent operation as to make us both holy and happy, they are not to be
accounted grievous. The apprentice is content to go through hard service,
because it makes way for his freedom. The scholar willingly wrestles with the
knotty difficulties of arts and sciences because they serve both to ennoble and
advance him. How cheerfully does a believer obey those laws which reveal
Christ's love! That suffering is not grievous which leads to a crown. This made
Saint Paul say, `I take pleasure in infirmities, in persecutions'.
{2Co 12:10}
(6) It is honourable to be under Christ's commands. Therefore they
are not grievous. The precepts of Christ do not burden us but adorn us. It is
an honour to be employed in Christ's service. How
cheerfully did the rowers row the barge that carried Caesar! The honour makes the precept easy. A crown of gold is in itself heavy, but the honour of
the crown makes it light and easy to be worn. I may say of every command of
Christ, as Solomon speaks of wisdom, `She shall give to thine head an ornament
of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee'. {Pr 4:9} It is honourable working at court. The honour
of Christ's yoke makes it easy and eligible.
(7) Christ's
commands are sweetened with joy and then they are not grievous. Cicero
questions whether that can properly be called a burden which is carried with
joy and pleasure? When the wheels of a chariot are oiled
they run swiftly. When God pours in the oil of gladness, how fast does the soul
run in the ways of his commandments! Joy strengthens for duty. `The joy of the
Lord is your strength'; {Ne 7:10} and the more strength, the
less weariness. God sometimes drops down comfort and then a Christian can run
in the yoke.
(8) Gospel
commands are finite, therefore not grievous. Christ will not always be laying
his commands upon us. Christ will shortly take off the yoke from our neck and
set a crown upon our head. There is a time coming when we shall not only be
free from our sins, but our duties too. Prayer and fasting are irksome to the
flesh. In heaven there will be no need of prayer or repentance. Duties shall
cease there. Indeed in heaven the saints shall love God, but love is no burden.
God will shine forth in his beauty, and to fall in love with beauty is not
grievous. In heaven the saints shall praise God, but their praising of him
shall be so sweetened with delight that it will not be a duty any more, but
part of their reward. It is the angels' heaven to praise God. This then makes
Christ's commands not grievous; though they are spiritual, yet they are
temporary; it is but a while and duties shall be no more. The saints shall not
so much be under commands as embraces. Wait but a while and you shall put off
your armour and end your weary marches. Thus we have
seen that Christ's commands considered in themselves are not grievous.
Let us
consider Christ's commands comparatively, and we shall see they are not
grievous. Let us make a fourfold comparison. Compare Gospel commands:
1. With the
severity of the moral law,
2. With the
commands of sin,
3. With the
torments of the damned,
4. With the
glory of heaven
1. Christ's
commands in the gospel are not grievous compared with the severity of the moral
law. The moral law was such a burden as neither we nor our fathers could bear.
`Cursed is every one that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them'. {Ga 3:10} Impossible it is that any
Christian should come up to the strictness of this. The golden mandates of the
gospel comparatively are easy. For:
(1) In the
gospel, if there be a desire to keep God's commandments, it is accepted. `If
there be first a willing mind it is accepted'. {Ne
1:11 2Co 8:12} Though a man had had never
so good a mind to have fulfilled the moral law, it would not have been
accepted. He must `de facto' (in actual deed) have obeyed. {Ga
3:12} But in the gospel God crowns the desire. If a Christian says
in humility, `Lord, I desire to obey thee, I would be more holy', {Isa 26:8} this desire springing from
love passes for current.
(2) In the
gospel a surety is admitted in the court. The law would not admit of a surety.
It required personal obedience. But now, God so far indulges us that, what we
cannot of ourselves do, we may do by a proxy. Christ is called `a surety of a
better testament'. {Heb 7:22} We cannot walk so exactly.
We tread awry and fall short in everything, but God looks upon us in our
surety, and Christ `having fulfilled all righteousness', {Mt
3:15} it is all one as if we had fulfilled the law in our own
persons.
(3) The law
commanded and threatened, but gave no strength to
perform. It Egyptianized, requiring the full tale of brick, but gave no straw.
But now God with his commands gives power. Gospel-precepts are sweetened with
promises. God commands, `Make you a new heart'. {Eze 18:31} Lord, may the soul
say, I make a new heart? I can as well make a new world. But see Eze 36:26, `A new heart also will I
give you'. God commands us to cleanse ourselves: `Wash you, make you clean'. {Isa 1:16} Lord, where should I have
power to cleanse myself? `Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?'. {Job 14:4} See the precept turned into
a promise: `From all your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you'. {Eze 36:25} If, when the child
cannot go, the father takes it by the hand and leads it, now it is not hard for
the child to go. When we cannot go, God takes us by the hand, `I taught Ephraim
also to go, taking them by their arms'. {Ho
11:3}
(4) In the
gospel God winks at infirmities where the heart is right. The law called for
perfect obedience. It was death to have shot but an
hairbreadth short of the mark. It were sad if the same
rigour should continue upon us. Woe to the holiest man
that lives (says Augustine) if God comes to weigh him in the balance of his
justice. It is with our best duties as with gold. Put the gold in the fire and
you will see dross come out. What drossiness in our holy things! But in the
gospel, though God will not endure haltings, yet he
will pass by failings. Thus Christ's commands in the gospel are not grievous
compared with the severity of the moral law.
Christ's
commands are not grievous compared with the commands of sin. Sin lays an heavy yoke upon men. Sin is compared to a talent of lead
{Zec 5:7} to show the
weightiness of it. The commands of sin are burdensome. Let a man be under the
power and rage of any lust (whether it be covetousness or ambition), how he
tires and excruciates himself! What hazards does he run, even to the
endangering of his health and soul, that he may satisfy his lust! `They weary
themselves to commit iniquity'. {Jer
9:5} And are not Christ's precepts easy and sweet in
comparison of sin's austere and inexorable commands? Therefore Chrysostom says
well that virtue is easier than vice. Temperance is less burdensome than
drunkenness. Doing justice is less burdensome than violence. There is more
difficulty and perplexity in the contrivement {Mic 2:1} and pursuit of wicked ends
than in obeying the sweet and gentle precepts of Christ. Hence it is that a
wicked man is said to `travail with iniquity', {Ps
7:14} to show what anxious pain and trouble he has in bringing about
his wickedness. What tedious and hazardous journeys did Antiochus Epiphanes
take in persecuting the people of the Jews! Many have gone with more pain to
hell than others have to heaven.
3. Christ's
commands are not grievous compared with the grievous torments of the damned.
The rich man cries out `I am tormented in this flame'. {Lu
16:24} Hell fire is so inconceivably torturing that the wicked do
not know either how to bear or to avoid it. The torment of the damned may be
compared to a yoke and it differs from other yokes. Usually the yoke is laid
but upon the neck of the beast, but the hell-yoke is laid upon every part of
the sinner. His eyes shall behold nothing but bloody tragedies. His ears shall
hear the groans and shrieks of blaspheming spirits. He shall suffer in every
member of his body and faculty of his soul, and this agony though violent yet
perpetual. The yoke of the damned shall never be taken off. `The footprints
show no return' Sinners might break the golden chain of God's commands, but
they cannot break the iron chain of his punishments. It is as impossible for
them to file this chain as to scale heaven.
And are not
gospel-commands easy in comparison of hell-torments? What does Christ command?
He bids you repent. Is it not better to weep for sin than bleed for it? Christ
bids you pray in your families and closets. Is it not better praying than
roaring? He bids you sanctify the Sabbath. Is it not better to keep an holy rest to the Lord than to be for
ever without rest? Hell is a restless place. There is no intermission of
torment for one minute of an hour. I appeal to the consciences of men. Are not
Christ's commands sweet and facile in comparison of the insupportable pains of
reprobates? Is not obeying better than damning? Are not the cords of love
better than the chains of darkness?
4. Gospel
commands are not grievous compared with the glory of heaven. What an infinite
disproportion is there between service and reward! What are all the saints, labours and travails in religion compared with the crown of
recompense? The weight of glory makes duty light.
Behold here
an encouraging argument to religion. How may this make us in love with the ways
of God! `His commandments are not grievous'. Believers are not now under the
thundering curses of the law, no, nor under the ceremonies of it, which were
both numerous and burdensome. The ways of God are equal, his statutes eligible!
He bids us mourn that we may be comforted. He bids us be poor in spirit that he
may settle a kingdom upon us. God is no hard Master. `His commandments are not
grievous.' O Christian, serve God out of choice. {Ps
119:3} Think of the joy, the honour, the
reward of godliness. Never more grudge God your service. Whatever he
prescribes, let your hearts subscribe.
It reproves them
that refuse to obey these sweet and gentle commands of Christ. `Israel would
none of me'. {Ps 81:11} We may cry out with
Augustine that the generality of men choose rather to
put their neck in the devil's yoke than to submit to the sweet and easy yoke of
Christ. What should be the reason that, when God's `commandments are not
grievous', his ways pleasantness, his service perfect freedom, yet men should
not vail to Christ's sceptre nor stoop to his laws?
Surely the
cause may be that inbred hatred which is naturally in men's hearts against
Christ. Sinners are called `God-haters'. {Ro
1:30} Sin begets not only a dislike of the ways of God, but hatred;
and from disaffection flows disloyalty. `His citizens hated him and sent a
message after him, saying, We will not have this man
to reign over us' {Lu 19:14}
Besides this
inbred hatred against Christ, the devil labours to
blow the coals and increase this odium and antipathy. He raises an evil report
upon religion as those spies did on Canaan. `They brought up an evil report of
the land'. {Nu 13:32} Satan is implacably
malicious, and as he sometimes accuses us to God, so he accuses God to us, and
says, He is an hard Master and his commandments are
grievous. It is the devil's design to do as the sons of Eli, `who made the
offering of God to be abhorred'. {1Sa 2:17}
If there be any hatred and prejudice in the heart against religion, `an enemy
hath done this'. {Mt 13:28,Mt
13:38} The devil raises in the hearts of men a twofold prejudice
against Christ and his ways:
(1) The
paucity of them that embrace religion. The way of Christ is but a pathway, {Ps 119:35} whereas the way of
pleasure and vanity is the roadway. Many ignorantly conclude that must needs be
the best way which most go. I answer: There are but few that are saved, and
will not you be saved because so few are saved? A man
does not argue thus in other things: there are but few rich, therefore I will
not be rich; nay, therefore, he the rather strives to be rich. Why should not
we argue thus wisely about our souls? There are but few that go to heaven,
therefore we will labour the more to be of the number
of that few.
What a weak
argument is this: there are but few that embrace religion, therefore you will
not! Those things which are more excellent are more rare.
There are but few pearls and diamonds; in Rome, few senators. The fewness of
them that embrace religion argues the way of religion excellent. `It is not
every man than can get to Corinth.'
We are warned
not to sail with the multitude. {Ex 23:2}
Most fish goes to the Devil's net.
(2) The ways
of religion are rendered deformed and unlovely by the scandals of professors.
I answer: I
acknowledge the lustre of religion has been much
eclipsed and sullied by the scandals of men. This is an age of scandals. Many
have made the pretence of religion a key to open the
door to all ungodliness. Never was God's name more taken in vain. This is that
our Saviour has foretold. `It must needs be that offences come'. {Mt 18:7} But to take off this
prejudice, consider: scandals are not from religion, but for want of religion.
Religion is not the worse, though some abuse it. To dislike religion because
some of the professors of it are scandalous is as if one should say, Because
the servant is dishonest, therefore he will not have a good opinion of his
master. Is Christ the less glorious because some that wear his livery are scandalous? Is religion the worse because some of her
followers are bad? Is wine the worse because some are intemperate? Shall a
woman dislike chastity because some of her neighbours
are unchaste? Let us argue soberly. `Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement'. {Joh 7:24}
God sometimes
permits scandals to fall out in the church out of a design:
(1) As a just
judgement upon hypocrites. These squint-eyed devotionists who serve God for
their own ends, the Lord in justice suffers them to fall into horrid debauched
practices that he may lay open their baseness to the world and that all may see
they were but piebald Christians, painted devils; Judas, first a sly hypocrite,
afterwards a visible traitor.
(2) Scandals
are for hardening of the profane. Some desperate sinners who would never give God
a good word, they would not be won by religion, they shall be wounded by it.
God lets scandals be to be a break neck to men and to engulf them more in sin.
Jesus Christ (' God blessed for ever') is to some a `rock of offence'. {Ro 9:33} His blood, which is to some
balm, is to others poison. If the beauty of religion does not allure, the
scandals of some of its followers shall precipitate men to hell.
(3) Scandals
in the church are for the caution of the godly. The Lord would have his people
walk tremblingly. `Be not high-minded, but fear'. {Ro
11:20} When cedars fall, let the `bruised reed' tremble. The
scandals of professors are not to discourage us but to warn us. Let us tread
more warily. The scandals of others are sea-marks for the saints to avoid. And
let all this serve to take off these prejudices from religion. Though Satan may
endeavour by false disguises to render the gospel
odious, yet there is a beauty and a glory in it. God's `commandments are not
grievous'.
Let me
persuade all men cordially to embrace the ways of God. `His commandments are
not grievous'. God never burdens us but that he may unburden us of our sins.
His commands are our privileges. There is joy in the way of duty, {Ps 19:11} and heaven at the end.
End.