"Christ's Yoke an easy Yoke, and yet the Gate to Heaven a straight
Gate: in two excellent Sermons, well worthy the serious Perusal of
the strictest Professors. By a Learned and Reverend Divine. Heb.
xi. 4.: _Who being dead yet speaketh_. London, printed for F.
Smith, at the Elephant and Castle, near the Royal Exchange in
Cornhill, 1675."
Pp. 92., Exclusive of Preface.
Facing the title-page is a portrait of Bishop Taylor, engraved by Van
Hove. The Preface, without mentioning the author's name, informs the
reader that the two sermons following, "by means of a person of Honour
yet living, are now come into the press for public use and benefit." The
first sermon is on Matt. xi. 30.: "For my Yoke is easy, and my Burthen
is light;" and is contained in Taylor's _Life of Christ_ (Eden's edit.
of his _Works_, vol. ii. pp. 515-528.). The second sermon is on Luke
xiii. 23, 24., and begins "The life of a Christian is a perpetual
contention for mastery;" and ends, "If we strive according to his holy
Injunctions, we shall certainly enter, according to his holy promises,
but else upon condition." This sermon does not appear, as far as I have
been able to discover, in any collection of Taylor's Works, nor amongst
his Sermons in the new edition; nor do I find the volume itself noticed
by any of his biographers. It would be extraordinary if, when so much
has been printed as part of his works which did not belong to him, a
sermon indisputably his should have been omitted by all his various
editors; a sermon, too, which every reader will allow to be a fine one.
Perhaps the rev. editor of the new edition of Taylor's _Works_ can
explain the reason of this omission. I shall be glad to be corrected if
I have overlooked the sermon in any part of the Bishop's collected
Works.