It is a vain charge that men bring against God's law, that it is rigorous, sever, and difficult. Besides the fact that this contradicts Jesus' own testimony that "My yoke is easy," and that "My burden is light," it also contradicts plain reason and experience. Is it not more difficult to be vicious, covetous, violent, cruel, than to be virtuous, charitable and kind? What does Satan and the world engage us in, but those things that are full of molestation to the soul and hazardous to the body? Is it a sweet thing to continually combat against our own conscience, and resist our own reason, and to always argue against inward voice, as we do when we sin? What does God require of us but to "do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 Those things work to the honor of God and the welfare of the world, and the security of our own souls, and are easier to practice than acts of disobedience. Do not men disown God when they walk in ways hedged with thorns, wherein they meet with the arrows of conscience, at every turn, in their sides; and slide down to an everlasting punishment, sink under an intolerable slavery, to contradict the will of God; when they prefer a sensual satisfaction, a violation of their reason, gnawing cares and weary travels BEFORE the honor of God, the dignity of their natures, the happiness of peace and health, which might be preserved at a cheaper rate? No, it is far more rigorous and sever and difficult to disobey rather than obey.
[adapted from Stephen Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Publishing, Reprint 1979] pg. 111-112
