wofold yoke, of doctrine and discipline, that
is, the yoke of Christ's commandments and laws, which both, in his love
and wisdom, he hath imposed upon us, for the regulation of our lives? And
this we are to take on by an obedience cheerful, willing, and constant.
But there is another yoke mentioned in scripture, namely, the yoke of his
chastisements and correcting, such a one as Ephraim (Jer. xxxi. 18) was
tried with, and was long or he could learn to bear it. It is good for a
man to bear this yoke in his youth, Lam. iii. 27. Now whether or not this
be meant here, I do not contend. The first is the chief intent, and it is
not needful to exclude this altogether, since it is not the smallest point
of Christianity to take up the one yoke by submission, as well as to take
up the other by obedience. How ever it be, obedience must be taken so
largely, as it cannot but comprehend the sweet compliance, and submission
of the will to God's will in all cross-dispensations, which is no little
probation of the loyal and obedient temper of the heart. Both yokes must
be taken up, for so Christ speaks of his cross, "If any man will be my
disciple, he must take up his cross and follow me," Matt. xvi. 24, 25. It
must be lifted up upon our shoulders, as it were, willingly, and
cheerfully, we actually concurring, as it were, to the bearing of it, and
the receiving it. But there is this difference between the one yoke and
the other, the one cannot be imposed upon us, neither can we bear it,
except we actively and with our own consent and delight take it up. Though
God may impose laws upon us, and give us righteous and faithful
commandments, which indeed lay a strait obligation and tie upon us under
pain of disloyalty, and rebellion, to walk in them, yet it never becomes
our yoke, and is never carried by us, until there be a subsequent consent
of the soul, and a full condescension of the heart, to embrace that yoke
with delight. Till we yoke ourselves unto his commandments, by loving and
willing obedience, we have not his yoke upon us. "Thy people shall be made
willing in the day of thy power." It is not terrors and constraints, but
the bands of love will bind us to this yoke. It must be bound upon us by
the cords of love, not of fear. He is a true king, not a tyrant, he loves
_imperare volentibus_, "to rule every man with his own consent," but a
tyrant "rules every man against his will," _nolentibus imperat_. But as to
the other yoke of his di