3. Believers. This subject is the food of your souls. You remember when you had dark, hard, and uncomfortable thoughts of God; but you have seen his glory in the person of Christ, you have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, (1 Cor. ii. 12,) that you may know the things that are freely given you of God. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, Eph. v. 8. Walk then as children of the light; remember your calling, your privileges, your obligations, your engagements. Let these all animate you to press forward, to endure the cross, to despise the shame. Let it not grieve you to suffer with Christ here, for hereafter you shall reign with him. The hour is swiftly approaching, when you shall be out of the reach of changes and sorrow for ever. Then "thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended," Isaiah lx. 20. SERMON IX. LABOURING AND HEAVY-LADEN SINNERS DE- Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.— Matt. xi. 28. WE read that when David was withdrawn into the wilderness from the rage of Saul, every one that was in distress, or in debt, or discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became their captain, 1 Sam. xxii. 2. This would be reckoned but small honour in the judgment of Saul and his court, to be the head of a company of fugitives. Those who judge by outward appearances, and are governed by the maxims of worldly wisdom, cannot have much more. honourable thoughts of the present state of Christ's mystical kingdom and subjects upon earth. The case of David was looked upon as desperate by those, who, like Nabal, (1 Sam. xxv. 10,) lived at their ease. They did not know, or would not believe, the promise of God, that he should be king over Israel; and therefore they preferred the favour of Saul, whom God had rejected. In like manner, though our Lord Jesus Christ was a divine person, invested with all authority, grace, and blessings, and declared the purpose of God concerning himself, and all who should obey his voice, that he would be their King, and they should be his happy people; yet the most that heard him saw no excellence in him, or need of him; their portion and their hearts were in this world, therefore they rejected him, and treated him as a blas phemer and a madman. A few, however, The text readily points out three inquiries: 3. What is implied in the promised rest? I. The persons are those who labour (the Greek expresses toil with weariness*) and are heavy-laden. This must, however, be limited to spiritual concerns, otherwise it will take in all mankind, even the most hardened and obstinate opposers of Christ and the gospel. For let your conscience speak, you that account the yoke of Christ a heavy burden, and judge his people to be miserable and melancholy, are not you wearied and burdened in your own way! Surely you are often tired of your drudgery. Though you are so wedded and sold to your hard master, that you cannot break loose; though you are so mad as to be fond of your chains; yet you know, and I know (for I remember the gall and wormwood of that state,) that you do not find all that pleasure in your wickedness which you pretend to. So much as you affect to despise hypocrisy, you are great hypocrites yourselves. You often laugh when you are not pleased; you roar out your boisterous mirth sometimes, when you are almost ready to roar with anguish and disquiet of spirit. You court the friendship of those whom in your heart you despise; and though you would be thought to pay no regard at all to the word of God, * Compare Luke v. 5, John iv. 6, where the original word is the same. there are seasons when (like him you serve) | but it must always press him down, night you believe and tremble. And farther, what and day, abroad or at home, sleeping (if sleep visible burdens do you bring upon your- in such a circumstance was possible) and selves? "The way of transgressors is hard," waking. How would the poor creature be Prov. xiii. 15. Your follies multiply your wearied! How could you comfort or give troubles every day. Confusion and uneasi- him ease, unless you could rid him of his ness in your families, waste of substance, loss burden? How desirable would the prospect of health and reputation, discord, strife, sor- of liberty be to such a one! and how great row, and shame; these are the bitter fruits his obligations and acknowledgments to his of your evil ways, which prey on your present deliverer! hours, and make your future prospects darker every day. Surely you are weary and heavy laden beyond expression. But this is not the case with others. You avoid gross vices, you have perhaps a form of godliness. The worst, you think, that can be said of you is, that you employ all your thoughts, and every means that will not bring you under the lash of the law, to heap up money, to join house to house, and field to field; or you spend your days in a thoughtless indolence, walk in the way of your own hearts, and look no farther: and here you will say you find pleasure, and insist on it, that you are neither weary nor heavy laden. I might enlarge on your many disappointments, the vain fears which are inseparable from those who live without God in the world, and the trouble we find from disorderly, restless, and unsatisfied passions. But, to wave these things, I say briefly, that if you are not labouring and heavy laden, then it is plain that you are not the persons whom Christ here invites to partake of his rest. And though you can rest without him now, think, O think, what rest you will find without him hereafter? If you now say, Depart, he will then say, Depart. And who will smile upon you when he frowns? To whom will you then flee for help? or where will you leave your glory? O that it would please him to touch your hearts, that, as weary and heavy-laden sinners, you might fall humbly at his feet, before his wrath burn like fire, and there be none to quench it! But to proceed: let us, 1. Explain the terms, what it is to labour and be heavy laden. 2. Show who are the persons that answer this description. First, the persons are said to be, 1. Labouring, toiling, weary. This is not hard to be understood. Weariness proceeds either from labour or from weakness; and when these are united, when a person has much to do, or to bear, and but little strength, he will soon be weary. The case or some, however, is. that when they are tired, they can lay down their burden, or leave off their work. But these are not only labouring, fainting, weary, but, 2. Heavy laden, likewise. As if a man had a burden which he was unable to bear a single minute, so fastened upon him, that he could not by any means be freed from it; Secondly, This representation is an emblem of the distresses, and burdens of those who seek to Jesus, that they may have rest in their souls; nor can any truly seek him till they feel themselves in such a state. They may be generally comprised under three classes: 1. Awakened sinners. None but those who have felt it can conceive how sinners labour, toil, and faint, under their first convictions. They are burdened, 1st, With the guilt of sin. This is a heavy load. When Jesus bore it, it made him sweat great drops of blood. It is true, he bore the weight of all his people's sins; but the weight of one sin is sufficient to press us down, if God permits it to lie heavy upon us. I suppose the best of us can remember some action, some incident or other, in our past lives, which we would wish to forget if we could. Now, how would you be distressed to have a person sounding in your ears, from morning till night, and every day of your lives, that worst thing that ever you did? Would it not weary you? This is a faint image of the convinced sinner's state. When conscience is truly awakened, it acts this officious and troublesome part; but its remonstrances are not confined to one sin, it renews the remembrance and the aggravations of multitudes. Nor is this the voice of a man, but indeed of God, who speaks in and by the conscience. The poor sinner hears and trembles: then the complaint of Job is understood: "Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth," Job xiii. 26. Do you wonder that such a one can no longer take pleasure in worldly things? It is impossible, unless you could silence this importunate voice, that they can bear themselves at all. Nay, often it is so strong and urgent, gives them such a lively sense of what sin is, and what it deserves from a righteous God, that they are almost afraid or ashamed to see any person that knows them. They are ready to think, that people can read in their faces what passes in their hearts, and almost expect that the ground should open under their feet. O how wearisome is it to be continually bowed down with such a burden as this! 2dly, With the power of sin. Perhaps they were once in some measure at ease in this respect; they saw others whom they suppos ed to be worse; and therefore trusted in them selves that they were righteous. But con- have felt them) the amazement and confusion victions rouse and inflame our sinful natures. that fills the mind. For a person who has St. Paul exemplifies this by his own case be- received a reverence for the name and attrifore conversion: "I was alive without the butes of God to be haunted from morning to law once, but when the commandment came, night, from day to day, with horrid imprecasin revived, and I died," Rom. vii. 9. He tions, so strongly impressed, that he often never was strictly without the law, for he ex- starts and trembles with an apprehension that pected salvation by obeying it; but he was he has certainly consented, and spoken them without the knowledge of its spirituality, de-aloud with his lips,-this is irksome and termands, and sanction; and while he remained rifying beyond description. thus, he was alive, that is, his hope remained good, and he was satisfied with his obedience. But when the commandment came, when its extent, purity, and penalty were brought home to his conscience, sin revived, and he died. He found all his pretensions to liberty, obedience, and comfort were experimentally confuted by what he felt in himself. The more an awakened sinner strives against his corruptions, the more they seem to increase. This wearies him; for, besides the greatness of the toil itself, he finds himself weak, weak as water, weaker and weaker. And he is not only weary, but heavy laden; for this likewise is a burden which he cannot shake off. He sees that he cannot succeed, yet he dares not desist. 2dly, When the foundations of faith and experience are attacked. Many who have thought themselves grounded in the truth, who have hoped that they had surely tasted that the Lord is gracious, and have in their first comforts been ready to say, "I shall never be moved, (Psalm xxx. 6,) thou, Lord, of thy goodness hast made my mountain so strong," have found themselves afterwards at their wits end, when the enemy has been permitted to come in upon them like a flood, Isa. lix. 19. One black cloud of temptation has blotted out all their comfortable evidences; and they have been left to question, not only the justness of their own hopes, but even the first and most important principles on which their hopes were built. 2. Those who are seeking salvation by the 3dly, When the hidden corruptions and works of the law are labouring and heavy la- abominations of the heart are stirred up. And den, engaged in what is beyond their strength, perhaps there is no other way but this of and baffles all their endeavours. This may coming to the knowledge of what our deappear from what has been already said. It praved natures are capable. Such things a is a hard task to keep the whole law; and season of temptation has discovered to some, nothing else will either please God, if made which I believe no rack nor tortures could conthe ground of justification, or satisfy the con- strain them to disclose, though but to their science that has any true light. Those de- dearest friend. This subject, therefore, will clarations of the word, that "cursed is the not bear a particular illustration. The Lord's man who continueth not in all things written people are not all acquainted with these depths in the book of the law to do them," (Gal. iii. of Satan. As people who live on shore have 10,) and "whoso keepeth the whole law, and a variety of trials, dangers, and deliverances, yet offendeth in one point, he is guilty of all," yet know but little of the peculiar exercises (James ii. 10,) keep them in continual anxie- of those who go down to the sea in ships; so, ty and servitude. The wickedness of their in the present case there are great waters, flesh makes it impossible for the law to give (Psalm cvii. 24,) depths of temptation, known a ground of hope; yet they cannot lay down comparatively to few. Those who are brought their burden, but are compelled to renew the through them, have more to say of the wonfruitless task. I speak not of mere formal-ders of God in the great deep than others; ists, who go through a round of external services without meaning or design; but all who are in a measure sincere, find themselves still followed with a restless inquiry, "What lack I yet?" Matt. xix. 20. Endless are the shifts and contrivances they are put to, but all in vain; for, what makes it worse, they always add to this burden many inventions of their own, as though the demands of the law were too few. 3. Those who are under temptation. It is a hard and wearisome service to be in close conflict with the powers of darkness. The leading branches of this exercise are, and this is his design in permitting it, that they may know more of him and more of themselves. But while they are under these trials, they are weary and heavy laden; and this burden they must bear till the Lord removes it. The help of men, books, and ordinances, is sought and tendered in vain, till his appointed hour of deliverance draws near. These, therefore, convinced, striving, and tempted souls, are the persons to whom Jesus says, "Come to me, and I will give you rest." The purport of this gracious invitation we are to consider hereafter. In the mean time rejoice in this, Jesus has foreseen your cases, Ist, When the soul is assaulted, and, as it and provided accordingly. He says, Come; were, filled with insufferable blasphemies. that is, believe, as he himself expounds it: When Satan is permitted to shoot these fiery" He that cometh unto me, shall never b darts, none can express (not even those who ger; and he that believeth on me shall n 1. Are you heavy laden with guilt? The gospel-message is, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7. thirst," John vi. 35. See how his promises | suing them like the avenger of blood of old suit the state you are in. This is the only consideration that keeps them from despair, that God has provided a remedy by the gospel; and Jesus has said, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." If they could receive the full comfort of these words. and heartily obey the call, their complaints would be at an end; but remaining ignorance, unbelief, and Satan, combine in various ways to keep them back. Some will say, "O that I could come! but, alas! I cannot." Others, "I fear I do not come aright." 2. Are you groaning under the power of indwelling sin? Hear his gracious words: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," John xi. 25. And to the same purpose his prophet: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increases strength," Is. xl. 29. 3. Are you striving in the fire to keep the law? "Wherefore will you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" Forego the vain attempt. Is it not written, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth?" Rom. x. 4. 4. Are you in temptation? He that says, "Come unto me," has been tempted himself, (Heb. ii. 18,) and knows how to pity you. He has power over your enemy, and can deliver you with a word, Mark i. 27. Did he not thus dispossess Satan in the days of his humiliation? And if then, surely he is no less able now; for since that time he has gloriously triumphed over the powers of darkness, Col. ii. 15. And as his arm is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy; he has said, without exception, "Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise cast him out;" (John vi. 37;) and thousands who have been in your distress, have successively found that promise fulfilled: 66 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly," Rom. xvi. 20; Zech. iii. 2. -Having, therefore, endeavoured to show you the persons chiefly intended here under the character of those who labour and are heavy laden, I proceed to consider, II. What it is to come to Christ. I have observed in general, that it appears to have the same signification with believing in him. But that we may understand it the more clearly, let us inquire, 1. How those to whom he personally spoke these words, in all probability, understood them? 2. How far their apprehensions of them are applicable and suitable to our circumstances? 3. Whether, as we have the same necessity, we have not likewise equal encouragement to come to him with those who were conversant with him upon earth? 1. It does not appear, that those to whom our Lord spoke in person, were so much perplexed as many are now, to know what coming or believing should mean; he seems to have been understood, (John vi. 30, and xix. 36,) both by friends and enemies. Many questioned his authority and right to exact a dependence on himself: but they seemed to be at no difficulty about his meaning. It certainly implied more than a mere bodily coming into his presence. He was surrounded, and even followed, by multitudes, who never came to him in the sense of his invitation. To such, while standing about him, he com plained, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life," John v. 40. Therefore, if we consult what is written of those who came to Jesus for relief, and obtained it, we may conclude, that coming to him implies, THE dispensation of the gospel may be com- 1st, A persuasion of his power, and of pared to the cities of refuge in Israel. It was their own need of his help. They knew that a privilege, an honour to the nation in gene- they wanted relief, and conceived of him as an ral, that they had such sanctuaries of divine extraordinary person, empowered and able to appointment; but the real value of them was succour them. This persuasion of Christ's known to few. Those only who found them-sufficiency and willingness was then, as it is selves in that case for which they were pro- now, afforded in different degrees. The cenvided could rightly prize them. In like man- turion spoke with full assurance. “Speak ner, the gospel of Christ is the highest privi- the word only, and my servant shall be heallege and honour of which a professing nation ed," Matt. viii. 8. The leper more dubiouscan boast; but it can be truly esteemed and ly: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me understood by none but weary and heavy- clean," Matt. viii. 2. Another, in still fainter laden souls, who have felt their misery by na- language: "If thou canst do any thing, have ture, are tired of the drudgery of sin, and compassion, and help us," Mark ix. 22. The have seen the curse of the broken law pur-faith of this last was, as the man himself ac knowledged, mixed with much unbelief and fear; yet Jesus did not despise the day of small things; he pardoned his suspicions, confirmed his fluctuating mind, granted him his request; and his case is recorded as an instance how graciously he accepts and cherishes the feebleşt effects of true faith: "He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." in a spiritual manner, where his gospel is preached. Poor and inconsiderable as we are in the judgment of the world, I trust we have a right to claim his promise, (Matt. xviii. 20,) and to believe that he is even now in the midst of us. Therefore come unto him; that is, 1st, Raise your hearts and breathe forth your complaints to him. Do you see your need of him? Be persuaded, and pray to him to assure you more strongly of his power and goodness. He is just such a Saviour as your circumstances require, as you yourself could wish for; and he is able to convince you in a moment that he is so. If he is pleased to cause a ray of his glory to break in upon your mind, your fears and doubts, and griefs, would instantly give place. 2dly, Persevere in this application to him. Set a high value upon these his public ordinances, and be constant in attending them. His eye is fixed upon us; his arm is revealed amongst us. I trust it is a time of his grace, and that every day we meet he does something for one or another in the assembly. He has a fixed time for every one whom he relieves. He knew how long the poor man had waited at the pool-side; (John v. 6;) and when his hour came, he spake and relieved him. So do you endeavour to be found in his way; and not here only, but in whatever he has made your duty. Read his word; be frequent in secret prayer. You will find many things arising from within and without to discourage and weary you in this course; but persist in it, and in good time you shall find rest for your souls. These are the means which the Lord has appointed you. Converse likewise at proper opportunities with his people; perhaps he may unexpectedly join you, as he did the two disciples when walking to Emmaus, (Luke xxiv. 32,) and cause your hearts to burn within you. Further, 2dly, An actual application. This evidenced their faith to be right. They did not sit content with having heard of him, but improved it: they went to him, told him their cases, and implored his compassion. Their faith prevailed against all discouragements. In vain the multitude charged them to hold their peace; (Mark x. 48;) knowing that he only was able to relieve them, they cried so much the more a great deal. Even when he seemed to discover a great reserve, (Matt. xv. 27,) they still waited, and knew not how to depart without an answer. Nor could a sense of unworthiness, fear, or shame, keep them back, (Mark v. 27,) when once they had a strong persuasion of his power to save. 3dly, When he was sought to as a soulphysician, as was the case with many whose bodily diseases he healed, and with others who were not sick, those who came to him, continued with him, and became his followers. They depended on him for salvation, received him as their Lord and Master, professed an obedience to his precepts, accepted a share in his reproach, and renounced every thing that was inconsistent with his will, Luke ix. 23, 60. Some had a more express and open call to this, as Matthew, who was sitting at the receipt of custom, regardless of Jesus, till he passed by him, and said, "Follow me," Matt. ix. 9. That word, accompanied with the power of his love, won his heart, and diverted him from worldly pursuits in an instant. Others were more secretly drawn by his Spirit and providence, as Nathaniel, and the weeping penitent, (John 3dly, You are to follow him, to take up i. 46; Luke vii. 38,) who silently washed his his cross, to make a profession of his name feet with her tears: and this was the design and gospel, to bear contentedly a share in the and effect of many of their bodily and family reproach and scorn which is the usual lot of afflictions. The man who was brought to be those who will live godly in Christ Jesus, in healed of the palsy, (Mark ii. 5,) received the the midst of an unbelieving and perverse geforgiveness of his sins; and the ruler, who neration. You are not only to trust in him first came to Jesus with no other view than as a priest to atone for your sins, but to reto obtain the life of his son, (John iv. 53,) ob-ceive and obey him as your teacher and your tained much more than he asked or expected. The Lord afforded such an affecting sense of his power and goodness upon that occasion, that he from henceforth believed, with all his house. 2. These things are applicable to us. Jesus is no longer visible upon earth; but he has promised his spiritual presence to abide with his word, ordinances, and people, to the end of time. Weary and heavy-laden souls have now no need to take a long journey to seek him; for he is always near them, and Lord. If you are truly weary and heavy laden, you will be glad to do this, and are crying to him to enable you and you are likewise willing to forsake every thing that is inconsistent with his will and service. If you are desirous to come to Christ, it is not grievous to you to think of parting with your sinful pleasures and vain companions. Rather these are a part of the burden from which you long to be freed. Come in this way, and you shall find rest for your souls. Are any of you thinking, |