Sermon Xxiv: The Evil And Danger Of Halting Between Two Opinions - 1 Kings 16:21

Sermon Xxiv: The Evil And Danger Of Halting Between Two Opinions - 1 Kings 16:21

THE INTERESTING INQUIRY.*

Why stand ye here all the day idle? - MATT. 20:6

IN the beginning of this chapter, Christ spake a parable concerning the kingdom of heaven, the scope of which is to shew, that those who, by conceit of themselves and their actings for God, do place themselves among the first and chief favourites of heaven, shall be rejected of God, and treated as the last; they shall receive the last of Heaven's favours; while they who, through a feeling sense of unworthiness, dare not make such advances, shall be brought forward from among the last, where they placed themselves, and advanced to the first rank, where they shall be placed of God, who gives heaven as a gift to them that do not plead for it as a debt. This is plain from the occasion and conclusion of this parable: the vineyard is the church; the householder is Christ, whose vineyard it is; his going out at several hours is the call of the gospel at several times, coming to some sooner, to others later; the market-place is wherever the gospel comes. Our text is a pithy expostulation with those that are standing there idle, even at the eleventh hour, within an hour of sun-set; according to that, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" They are idle, in so far as they are not taken up about their work for eternity. Our text, you see, is a close application; the nature of this day's work requires it; and I hope you will not think we misapply it, if we apply it to you. Every word in it has its particular weight.—The following inquiries are suggested from it.

I. Why are ye "idle?" What reason can ye give for your being idle?

II. Why are "ye" idle, more than some others?

III. Why "stand" ye idle?

IV. Why "here" idle?

V. Why idle in the "day?"

VI. Why idle "all the day?"

We shall attend to these inquiries in their order.

I. Why are ye "idle?" If ye deny the charge, there are two things at least, which must be yielded to by most, if not all of us.

1. Ye have been very busy doing nothing; but it is better, they say, to be idle than doing nothing. What is it that most of us are busy about, but nothing? Prov. 23:5, "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not, for riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven;" that which is nothing for our souls, nothing for a blessed eternity. Indeed man is a laborious creature; the life of the greatest sluggard is a continued succession of actions; the soul of man is like a watch that goes as fast when it goes wrong, as when it goes right. But, alas! laborious idleness and solemn trifling in the vanities of this world, is but a pitiful way of spending a man's life, which is but a short time of trial, in order to an unalterable state.

2. Ye have been very busy doing worse than nothing; like these, 2 Thess. 3:11, "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies." Alas! most of our lives are ill parted betwixt two; one is spent in weaving the spider's web, the other in hatching the cockatrice eggs, Isa. 59:5; either spent in nothing, or worse than nothing; either sitting still or making more progress hell-ward: either letting the separation wall stand as before, or building it higher and stronger. But there is one thing that cannot be yielded, at least to the most part of this generation; that is, that they are busy in their great work. No, no; idleness in this respect is the epidemical disease of the day, under which both professors and profane are pining away. For your conviction in this, consider,

1. What else means the lean souls among us? Solomon tells us, Prov. 19:15, "An idle soul shall suffer hunger," and Prov. 13:4, "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall he made fat." We may take up that lamentation, Isa. 24:16, "But I said My leanness, my leanness." Alas! for the many rickety children of the church this day, with their big heads, and lean slender bodies, who are puffed up with their knowledge, but are yet to learn the elements of practical godliness and experimental religion.—Consider,

2. The little desire there is among us after the heavenly rest: Job tells us, chap. 7:2, "A servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and an hireling looketh for the reward of his work;" so if we were not idle, we would be more desirous of that rest that remains for the people of God. But I fear, if I would speak agreeable to their consciences, they would say, that the Turks' paradise would fit their desires better than the heavenly rest. It was the language of a profane. Cardinal, I would quit my part of paradise for present enjoyment; so no doubt many would quit their part of heaven on lower terms, for they only desire heaven, because they love not to go to hell. They care not for the heavenly rest, because they trouble not themselves with the work meet for heaven.—Consider,

3. The little appetite after our spiritual food. The labouring man's work makes him find his stomach, and the Christian labour would make men prize the table covered to them in ordinances. The ordinances are greatly slighted this day, it is lamentable to think how little they are regarded. It is only in the Lord's hand to cure it, by filling folk's hands with heart-work about their soul's case. It is this that would readily make them eager of help.

Lastly, What else means the rank poverty, and rotten rags, which is all the portion of many souls? Rev. 3:17, "And knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." How many are there, who are the genuine offspring of the serpent! on their belly do they go, and dust is their meat; they feed on nothing but the husks of created comforts, wherewith the devil feeds his herds; as for communion with God, and sense of his love, they know no more of them than if they had immortal souls for no other end than to keep their bodies from rotting. They go up and down in the rage of their profanity, and lusts, like so many ghosts in their grave-clothes, busy in nothing but dead works.

I inquire, then, why are ye idle?

1. Is it because ye have nothing to do? Truly, ye have very much.

(1.) Ye have your salvation-work upon your hand: Phil. 2:12, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Many have never begun that work yet; many that have seemed to have began, are at a stand with it now. Ye were born children of wrath, under the curse of the first covenant; what are ye doing to get free from the wrath to come? There is a harden of guilt lying on you, what are ye doing to get it off? Divers living lasts hanging about you, what are you doing to mortify them? Is there any time to be idle, while that work is not wrought out? Salvation-work is weighty work, for damnation-work is very terrible; ye have that to undo that ye have been doing. Thou hast been weaving thy life into one web of sin, and ye have it to open out again into self-examination, repentance, and bitter mourning.

(2.) Ye have your generation-work to attend upon: Acts 13:36, "For David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God fell asleep." God made thee, and sustains thee: some of you in higher, others in lower stations; what have ye done for God, what service to your generation? The sun, moon, and stars are useful in their several places; plants, yea, and beasts, are all useful. For what use art thou in the world? for Him who set thee there, and to those he has set thee among? Assure thyself, God will call thee to answer that question. I fear most of us have that work to begin yet.

2. Do ye think ye will get sleeping to heaven, and that your short-winded wishes for mercy will secure you from the wrath of God? Prov. 13:4, "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and has nothing." No; ye most "so run that ye may obtain." Take the kingdom by force; strive, wrestle, else ye are ruined; deceive not yourselves, as if ye would just make a slip of it, out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom. Thou wilt find it a leap out of that bed of sloth into a bed of fire and brimstone, where ye will lie down in eternal sorrow, if you do not seasonably bound to your feet, and put hand to your great work.

3. Do you think the devil is as idle about your souls as you are? No; though ye cannot creep out of your bed of sloth, the devil is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; though ye will be at no tolerable pains to secure your salvation, he will spare no pains to secure your damnation. Sleep ye, or wake ye, Satan is at your right hand; and if ye be not rowing against the stream, he will carry you down the stream, till he have you in the ocean of God's wrath, where you will never see the shore.—The second inquiry is,

II. Why are "ye" idle, while others are gone to work in the Lord's vineyard? Why do ye sit still, while others are fleeing from the wrath to come? Why are ye sleeping, while others are wrestling with God as for their bare life? Why are ye dressing, eating, and drinking, while others, moved with fear, are preparing an ark against the day of wrath in these lands, and in the world.

1. Is it because the work in the vineyard is too coarse for your fine fingers? John 7:48," Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him? but this people that knoweth not the law is accursed." It is lamentable to think how religion is almost grown out of fashion among the fashionable people of this degenerate age; and shocking to see with what contempt some look on seriousness about soul matters, resolving that these silly people as they call them, shall for them enjoy their folly alone. Certainly these men would never have taken their name from one crucified between two thieves, if it had not been the religion of their country. But these that are wise in heart think differently, and glory in the cross of Christ.

2. Is it because you have another thing to do? Many in our day are of Pharaoh's opinion indeed, that religion is only for them that have no other thing ado. Ye are idle; but for them they have their families and farms, &c., to look after. But, man, hast thou not an immortal soul to look after, as well as others? They said of Herod, It is better to be his swine than his son. I am sure, many a man's soul may say to him, Well is your beasts, in comparison of me; for one thought that is spent on my case, there is ten on theirs.

3. Are not ye by nature under the wrath and curse of God, as well as others? Yes; Eph. 2:3, "And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others:" and therefore let me say to you as the penitent thief to his fellow, Luke 23:40, "Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" Better go to heaven with a few, through all the labours of the Christian life, than to slide away to hell, at your own ease, with the multitude; better weep now, than weep eternally, for it will be no comfort to go to hell with company.

4. Will ye be content to see the labourers set with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and yourselves, with the fellow-loiterers, shut out? you must either set to their work now, or you will see your doom at length, digest it as you will.—I now inquire,

III. Why stand ye "idle?" Have you put on a whore's forehead, and refuse to be ashamed? It would set you better to hide your head, as ashamed in that ye take up room in the world to no good purpose, living in a shameful neglect of your own souls, and the great end of your creation, which was not to sleep away a lifetime on the earth, nor to stand like a barren tree in God's vineyard, drawing away the sap from others, but to glorify God by acting to and for him.

1. Why then stand ye idle in the sight of men? Have ye a mind to tell the world, that go to God's vineyard who will, ye have no mind to stir? embrace God and his service who will, ye will have nothing to do with him, nor it neither? Are you afraid you want witnesses to stand against you before the tribunal of God, to testify how little you valued the working the works of God? The groans of those that warned you to your work, that were grieved at your licentious lives, will witness against you; nay, the stones and timber will cry out of the walls within which you live against you, and witness how little God was in all your thoughts, how little ye ever wrestled with God about your soul's case, and how the prayer, when ye made it, has died in your mouths.

2. Why stand ye idle in the sight of the all-seeing God, who set you down in this world to work your great work? There are many that seem to be diligent workers, but God knows them to be mere idlers; what they work is before men, but their vineyard in the inclosure of their breasts is all overgrown with weeds, and they are at no pains to pluck them up. Have ye bid a defiance to the great Master, whose eyes are upon you in secret, as well as in public, that sees your heart, as well as your outward conversation? Be sure, he will call you to account.—The inquiry, next, is,

IV. Why stand ye "here" idle, even in the market-place, where the great Master has been often calling whom he found here, and you among others, to go and work in his vineyard? and you had not been standing here idle, if you had been willing to work.

1. Why stand ye here idle, in a land of gospel light? Isa. 26:10, "In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord?" If you will serve the devil and your lusts, why do ye not go to the dark places of the earth, and work your works of darkness there? but why must they be brought forth in the face of the sun? why here, in this covenanted land, a land under the sacred bond of solemn covenant to the work of holiness, and the means of holiness; a bond which neither the breaking nor burning of them could loose; and they had never met with that treatment, had not men been as great enemies to piety as to Presbytery. But I dare say, there is no land where men must buy their ease at so dear a rate as in Scotland.

2. Why here, where the Lord is in a special manner calling you to work, setting up his standard, and is about to cover a table for his labourers? will you be idle spectators, while Christ is to be sacramentally crucified before your eyes? will you be idle here, where the Lord is in a special manner calling you to search and try yourselves? If you will stand here idle, it will be a new item, in great letters, in the accounts of the despisers of Christ, and slighters of the power of godliness in Yarrow*.—I may once more inquire,

V. Why stand ye idle in the "day?" The day brings with it a call to work, though indeed it is the time when the wild beasts enter into their dens, and lie at their ease, Psalm 102:22, 23. But better to be a beast, than to be like a beast; they that sleep, sleep in the night; but what shall we say of them that cannot be got awakened, even in the day?

1. Then why are ye idle, when ye have a day to work in? No wonder our forefathers were idle, when they were wrapt up in the midnight darkness of Paganism and Popery; but though it was night with them, it is day with us; the sun of the gospel is arisen above our horizon, it has been long up, and will ye be idle in the day? God has not only set up the candle of conscience within you, but has made the sun of the gospel to arise and shine without you, to call you to work, and to let you see to work: Tit. 2:11, 12, "For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Such a day idled away will make a dreadful night!

2. Why are you idle, when you have but a day to work in? John 9:4, "The night cometh when no man can work." It is to-day, if ye will hear his voice. The time of your life, and the season of grace, is but a day, and that day will soon be over; there is no working in the grave, Eccl. 9:10. The candle burnt to snuff cannot be lighted again, and time once gone can never be recalled; God will not turn night to day, to let the sluggard see to work, who turned his day to night. Now, when you have but a day, will you idle it away? Ye will, it may be, count it rather by years yet to come; but sure I am, the Spirit of God never learned you that way of counting: James 4:14, "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow; for what is your life? it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Psalm 39:5, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee."—I shall only inquire,

VI. Why are ye idle "all the day?" Will no less than all the day serve? May not the time past suffice? Is it not high time now at length to awake? Is it not the eleventh hour with many of you? and the youngest here knows not but they may be in the last hour of their day. And are ye not afraid your glass run out ere your work be done? Sure it looks very like the very last hour of this church and nation's day: we have had a long day, but now we may say, Jer. 6:4, "Woe unto us, for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." We are threatened with a dreadful eclipse of gospel-light, and a dark night, and we may well conclude as to many of us, that our eyes will never see the breaking of the day again.

As the practical improvement of this subject, I Shall only call on you to ponder seriously in your mind, the important inquiries addressed to you;—to pose your consciences closely with them as in the sight of God,—to profit by the instructive lessons afforded from them;—and, in short, that you study a being diligent in business, fervent in spirit, always serving the Lord.

SERMON XVII

CHRIST'S PRESENCE WITH GOSPEL MINISTERS.*

And lo, I am with you alway. - MATTH. 28:20

OUR Lord Jesus Christ having, before his death, as a prophet, revealed his Father's mind, and taught the doctrine of salvation, confirmed the same by many miracles; and having in his death, as a priest, offered up himself a sacrifice to atone for the sins of his people, and so brought in an everlasting righteousness; appears here after his resurrection, as a King, ordering the affairs of his own kingdom, which is his church. And, 1st, He asserts his power, his supremacy, and headship, ver. 18, given unto him as Mediator. 2dly, He gives a commission to his apostles, and in them to their successors in the work of the ministry, to raise up unto him a kingdom out of the kingdoms of the earth, to proclaim his laws among them, and to enjoin obedience to these laws in his name, and to take men solemnly engaged thereto, vers. 19 and 20. Then, in the words of the text, by promise, he secures their encouragement, for the due discharge of their duty, in the words under consideration: "And lo, I am with you alway."—In these words consider,

1. The parties to whom this encouragement does belong: You, that is, (1.) The apostles, to whom these words were immediately directed: (2.) Ordinary ministers, succeeding to them in the ordinary work of the ministry, teaching and baptising, as is clear from the words, in which Christ promiseth to be with them to the end of the world; whereas the formal office of the apostleship was extraordinary, and soon expired. Their mission was immediate; their inspection universal and unconfined; they had an infallible directive power; John 16:13, "When he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." They had the gift of miracles and tongues, and were eye-witnesses of Christ: 1 Cor. 9:1, "Am I not an apostle? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" So that to allow any to be their successsors in the formal office of the apostleship, as some Prelatists would have the bishops, is to contradict the plain testimony of the scriptures, and of our senses: but the authoritative dispensation of the word, and administration of the sacraments, with the appendant power of discipline and government, which were the substance of the apostolic office, are continued, and will be in the pastoral office to the end of the world; and to these is Christ's presence promised, not excluding such as receive and embrace Christ's word preached by them.—Consider,

2. How, and in what case, they may lay claim to this promised presence; that is in the faithful adherence to, and discharge of their work, put by their Master into their hands. This is the import of the particle, and which knits the work and the encouragement together, ver. 19, "Go ye," &c. If they shall quit their Master's work, they forfeit his promised presence. If they turn servants of men, they must look to them, and not to Christ, for their protection and assistance. If they receive their instructions from any other than our royal Master, they must bid farewell to their part in the lot of his servants. Men that take upon them to teach what Christ never commanded, bringing in error in doctrine, superstition, and the inventions of men in the worship of God, such have need of temporal power and force with them, seeing they have no ground from the word to expect Christ will be with them.—Consider,

3. The encouragement promised: "I am with you," &c. It is Christ's presence that is with them in their work, and who would refuse to go a journey where Christ himself will be companion in travel? if the work be hard his presence is sweet. Christ lays in here a sufficiency for the support of his servants against all the discouragements they may meet with in his work. And there are four things to be noticed in this.

(1.) There is but one encouragement proposed, their difficulties were many. If they looked to their work, it was very hard; they were sent out to grapple with the powers of darkness, to overturn the devil's kingdom, to reform the world sunk in idolatry and monstrous profanity, and to rescue the prey out of the mouth of the roaring lion. If they looked within themselves, they might see a mass of emptiness, weakness, wants, nothingness, unable of themselves to resist the least temptation. If they looked abroad into the world, they might see that the venturing out into it, on such a design, was a running themselves into a manifest hazard; the wits of the world would treat them as a company of fools, the powers of the world as a company of seditious and pestilent fellows; the multitude of the world would cry, "Away with them, it is not meet that they should live on the earth." But go they must; and here is one answer to all their objections, "I am with you;" that is sufficient, be against you who will, "I am with you," to assist, protect, and bear you through in the work, and to make the word in your mouths do execution; I design to raise up, by your means, a kingdom to myself, maugre all the opposition of men and devils. He does not promise to send armies with them, but to go with them himself—His presence,

(2.) Is proposed as a present thing, an encouragement in hand: "I am with you—to the end;" not I "will be." The expression is emphatical.

[1.] According to the prophetic style, it denotes the utmost certainty his servants shall have his presence in his work to the end of the world, as surely as if it were already done.

[2.] It denotes Christ's presence with his apostles, to be, by his own allowance and appointment, a pledge of his presence with these that, being called, follow out the work that they began in their day: "I am with you;" and let these that follow take it as a certain pledge, "I will be with them too." Let the church be ever so low, there was never any glorious appearance Christ made for her, but she may call it Joseph, for the Lord shall add another.

[3.] It denotes, that Christ's servants, though they should be full of eyes behind and before, yet their eyes are often dim, that they even miss Christ when he is really with them, and so are dejected, because they see not their own mercy: "I am with you," &c.—His presence,

(3.) Is promised to be with them without interruption,—"always," all days, every day; it is an Old Testament phrase, denoting the continuance of a thing without interruption; as Gen. 6:5, "And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." He will not leave his servants at his work at any time; they may sometimes want the sense of his presence, but he is with them always, every day, in lightsome days, also in dark and gloomy days, whatever be their case, however hard their lot may be, their peace may be interrupted, but not their Master's presence with them. While they keep at his work, he will be upon their head.—His presence,

(4.) Is promised to be with them without end, till the end of the world; not that he will forsake them then; no, he will then give his faithful servants a place in the upper house, among them that are pillars in the temple of their God: they will enter into the joy of their Lord. But the work of their ministry, as it will continue to the world's end, so then it will be honourably laid by, and Christ will deliver up the kingdom to the Father; so that as long as the work lasts, the encouragement will go along with it.

4. There is in the words the note of attention prefixed, "Lo!" Hereby Christ stirs up and directs his servants to eye his promised presence as their encouragement: Say not ye are left alone; see, I am with you; look not to earth, or to an arm of flesh, for your support, but look upwards to heaven; let not unbelief shut your eyes, but while you have one eye on your work, fix another on your Master, and then you will go on cheerfully. Now, you see that Jesus Christ, the alone King and head of his church, as he has appointed a ministry in his church, and carved out their work for them, and peremptorily appointed them to set about it, so that he has promised them his presence always to the end of the world, in the faithful discharge of the work he has put into their hands; and whatever be the opposition and discouragement they may meet with in it, he wills them to eye his promised presence as sufficient to bear them through in the work, against all discouragements whatsoever. This is the purport of the words of the text, which being thus explained, I shall now apply it.

I. Has Jesus Christ promised his presence to his servants in their work? Let us, then, my fathers and brethren, cleave to our great work, to which we are called of the Lord. Let us steadfastly pursue the ends of our ministry, the advancing of the kingdom of Christ, and the pulling down the kingdom of Satan, according to the commission we have from our Lord and Master. Let us follow our work faithfully, over the belly of all discouragement and opposition which we may meet with in it. Our day is a dark day, and like to be darker; the Lord is angry with the generation, the plague is begun, and it is to be feared there will be a miserable face on the church and land ere it end. A door, we see, is opened, whereby errors in doctrine may crowd in, and set up their heads without control, and superstitious worship and ceremonies, mere inventions of men's own hearts, may be, and are introduced, to mar the beauty of this church in the simplicity of gospel worship, to the dishonour of God, to whom alone it belongs to appoint what way he will be worshipped: and the discipline and government of his house are left to be trampled under foot of profane men, for any assistance we can expect now, but from Him whose institutions they are; which surely calls us to lift up our eyes unto the heavens, from whence our help is promised. Our times are like to be ensnaring and very trying times to all sorts. The Lord's hand is very heavy by a great sickness and mortality; but the face of the generation looks as if the time were coming, when men shall think those happy who get to their grave in peace. If it should be so, we need not wonder at it.—Allow me to say in favour of the holy providence of God,

1. Providence (if it be so) has not stolen a march upon us; we have had fair warning, both from the word, and particular dispensations, whereby we have been brought, as it were, to the brow of the hill, and the Lord has brought us back, as with that, Hos. 11:8, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel?" Yet have we not returned to the Lord; we have had the Lord's talents among our hands in peace now these two and twenty years; can it be but God will put both ministers and people to the trial, what they have made of the many preachings, communions, and other means of grace they have enjoyed. I think the light has shone very bright in our day; I dare not say our sacred heat has been proportionable; but ordinarily the saddest strokes follow hard at the heels of the clearest dispensations.

2. Many there are, who have the root of the matter in them, who need to have it awakened with a storm; many sleeping Jonahs in our ship, that are yet signing and going backward, much filthiness and blood gathered on the daughters of Zion, to be purged with the spirit of judgment and burning.

3. There are many who have taken up the name, but have nothing of the reality of religion, having gathered like simmer's vermin in the time of the church's peace; it is but reasonable to expect a storm for the discovery of such, by the loss of whom the church may turn to less bulk, but not be less worth.

4. The case of the generation cries for a stroke, in regard of the horrid contempt of Christ and his gospel at this day. The preaching of the gospel has for several years been a weary work, and very fruitless; and the truth is, we have, as it were, been weary of God. Atheism and horrid profanity abound, and are on the growing hand; these cry for vengeance; enemies have a cup to fill up, they have filled it well formerly, it is like, they have more to do to prepare them for an overthrow. So we have reason to lay our accounts with hardships in our work, and that we may have the walls to build in troublous times; and readily judgment begins at the house of God, end where it will. But let us faithfully follow our Master's interests, and work, and not faint.

And that we may be stirred up hereunto, let us consider,

1. Our Lord Christ will be with us in the faithful discharge of his work, Go ye, "and lo, I am with you." A believing sight of this would steel your foreheads in the Lord's work, with courage and holy resolution, Ezek. 3:9, "As an adamant harder than flint, have I made thy forehead." Will Christ be with us in the discharge of his work? Then,

(1.) We shall have furniture for our work: Isa. 41:10, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." 2 Cor. 3:5, 6, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament." No man goeth a warfare on his own charges, neither shall our Lord send his soldiers to fight his battles without furniture, more especially when he is upon their head himself; and if our work be more than ordinary, he will make the furniture proportionable: Acts 4:13, "Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." May be, we have much ado to get a sermon, when we have all time for study and meditation; what shall come of us then, if we be hurried? Truly, if we have the call, we may look for it being given us in that hour: Matth. 10:19, "For it shall be given you in that same hour, what ye shall speak," with more heavenly oratory in it than at other times. Be it doing-work or suffering-work, he allows furniture, Phil. 1:29, "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." Isa. 40:30, 31, "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that hath no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not faint."

(2.) We shall have success in our work, that is, the word in our mouth shall accomplish that which Christ pleaseth, Isa. 55:2, "So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." As to the elect of God, "As many as are ordained to eternal life, believe, however the stream of a graceless generation may go." As to believers, they shall be edified and bettered by it, Mic. 2:7, "Do not thy words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" and very ordinarily the gospel is like a fire, that spreads most in a windy day. Nay, the Lord being with us, it will not be absolutely without effect on those that are not one whit bettered by it. It will be at least for a testimony to be produced against them, for our Lord, at the last day. If ye go where they are, the dust of your feet shall witness against them. Salvation was in their offer; it will manifest their unsoundness. The gospel will hang the sign of folly at every wicked man's door, let them entertain it as they will: Mal. 3:2, "But who will abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap." It will torment them that dwell on the earth. Christ's sword is two-edged, if it do not execution on men's lusts, it will do execution on their souls: Hos. 6:5, "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth." The word will never leave them as it finds them, but will either make them better or worse.

(3.) We shall have protection in our work: Rev. 2:1, "Saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." If earth and hell should conspire against us, as long as our Lord has any service for us in the world, we shall be protected. Every one has their day of working, let them trust the Lord as long as that lasts, let them go on in their work, they shall be protected. But when the night comes, appointed by the Lord, wherein he has no more service for us, then, and not till then, shall we be called off; and that night will carry us off whether we be idle or at work.

(4.) We shall have provision: Heb. 13:5, 6, "Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Let us be at our work, and God will see to our provision: Psalm 37:3, "Trust in the Lord, and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Bread has been an old temptation to ministers: Amos 7:12, 13, "Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread. But prophecy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." But such as were faithful to the Lord have always hazarded the bread, rather than a good conscience: consult ver. 14, to the end of the chapter. Nature is content with little, grace with less; if we cannot trust Christ for our bread, I think we will scarcely be able to trust him with our souls. Miserable is that bread which cannot be got down without straining our conscience; but little bread will go far with a good conscience and God's blessing: let as mind that, Dan. 1:15, "And their countenance did appear fairer and fairer in flesh, than the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat."

(5.) Then, as Elisha said to his servant, 2 Kings 2:16, "Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be with them." Psalm 93:3, 4, "The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, as the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." The faith of the Lord's presence in our work would make all opposition of our enemies very contemptible; seeing he is with us that hath the devil in chains, and who sets restraining bounds to the sea, and to the wrath of man, and can in a moment overthrow all the enemies of his work.

(6.) Then he will be against them that are against us in our work. "I am with you." If the world will make themselves parties against you in your work, then, "Lo, I am with you," on your side against them. A faithful ministry has always been the great eyesore of the world; and none can at any time engage in that work, but must lay his account with opposition. But sooner or later it returns on the heads of their enemies, according to that prophetic prayer, which is an awful hedge about Christ's ministers: Deut. 33:11, "Smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again."

2. Further to engage us to cleave to the Lord's work, let us consider, God will be with his ministers and his church always, even to the end of the world.—Then,

(1.) Lose what we will in the faithful discharge of our work, we will never lose our God: "Lo I am with you always." There is nothing we have in the world, but enemies may get their hands upon; but there is one thing which they cannot reach, which is better than all goods, liberty, life; that is, they cannot separate us from the love of our Lord Jesus: Rom. 8:38, 39, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There can be no lot so hard, but Christ's presence can sweeten, and make it desirable.

(2.) The world will have an end, and all its smiles and frowns also will be at length laid by for ever. Why then should its smiles flatter, or its frowns fright us from our Lord's work and interest? A little time will carry off both the slothful and faithful servant. But happy that servant, whom, when his Lord and Master cometh, shall find so doing. The solid faith of that life and immortality brought to light by the gospel, which we preach, would, I believe, make us very peremptory in our resolutions of diligence and faithfulness in our work, over the belly of all opposition in the world.

(3.) Our Lord's work will never lie for want of hands; he will have a church and a ministry to the end of the world. If we lay it by, others will take it up, and write death on our faces, by yoking us to it even in the heat of the day.

(4.) Our Lord and his people shall stand the last upon the earth, his enemies will drop off after one another, he will outlive them all, and stand a conqueror, when they are all routed, and made to quit the field, "Lo, I am with you to the end." His cause will always be victorious at length, and bear down all before it. Who knows but the wheels of providence may be in motion towards the total overthrow of Prelacy, and ceremonies in Britain and Ireland? Providence has often gone to work in as unlikely a way.

III. Has Christ promised to be with us in his own work? O! then, let us not divide among ourselves, let us endeavour unity in the Lord with all our might, and cleave to the work of God in this land, as one man, against Popery, Prelacy, superstition, error, and profanity, and whatsoever is contrary to sound godliness, seeing it is the work laid on us by our Lord in his sacred word, the book of our instructions, and seeing the land has been engaged thereto by solemn covenants with God. If anything ruin this work of the Lord amongst us, it will be our divisions. No doubt there will be means used by our enemies to divide us, knowing well, that if we once break, we are in danger of being broken more and more. Therefore let us pray and act for unity in the Lord; though, like the builders of the wall of Jerusalem, we be separated upon the wall, yet being upon the wall, all at our work, the work will go on. But that which will be our ruin, will be one party throwing down what the other builds up; which will be the case, if in the anger of the Lord we be divided. If the mountain of the ministry fall a burning with the fire of division, all will quickly fall into the sea; but our unity will be our strength: and yet as contemptible as the ministry of this church is at this day in the eyes of many, their unity will make them beautiful as Tizrah, and terrible as an army with banners; yea, even in our evil time, would afford us a glimmering prospect that the Lord would yet fill his house with his glory, Isa. 52:8, "Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion;" Matth. 18:19, "Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree upon earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." "Agree," or, or as the word is, sympathize, sound together. I take both these to be an allusion to that sweet passage, 2 Chron. 5:13, "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." If, then, we have any love to the Lord, to his interests, to his people, to our own souls, let us be one in the Lord's work. Cursed will that carnal interest be, that shall loose a pin in the tabernacle of Zion.

III. Has Christ promised to be with us in his work? Then let us not forget him who is with us, let us love Christ, let us preach Christ; this is our great work at all times, Eph. 3:8, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Let us beware of legal preaching; let that be the scope of our preaching, which is the great design of the gospel, to discover the corruption of men's nature, and to exalt the riches, power and freedom of grace in Christ Jesus. We have the more need to take heed to this, because the corrupting of the doctrine of the gospel is like to be the temptation of our day.

To conclude: As to you, the people, whether ye be in the Lord's interests or not, ye have heard what ye may apply to yourselves. I think, upon the whole, if ye be wise, ye will say with these, Zech. 8. "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." The profane world will be ready to laugh at this, but both ministers and people must lay their account to be fools in the world's eyes, if they will be wise in the sight of God.

Let none think from what I have said, that I have proposed myself as an example, or that I have forgot myself in this matter. God knows, I look on myself as the weakest and most unfit, for a time of trial, of all the servants of my Lord. But let truth stand and take place, come of the speaker what will. I desire, with you, to fix mine eyes on the promise of His presence, who hath said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

SERMON XVIII

CHRIST'S INVITATION TO THE LABOURING AND HEAVY LADEN.*

Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. - MATTH. 11:28

THE great and main object of the gospel preaching and gospel practice, is a coming to Christ. It is the first article in Christianity, according to John 5:40, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." It is the connecting chain, 1 Pet. 2:4, "To whom coming as unto a living stone, ye also as lively stones are built up," &c. And it is the last exercise of the Christian; for when finishing his warfare, the invitation is, Matth. 25:34, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." It is virtually the all which God requireth of us: John 6:29, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." The words of the text are a moat solemn and ample invitation which Christ gives to sinners. In them I shall consider,

I. The connection. For which look to verses 25 and 26, compare Luke 10:21, "Jesus rejoiced in spirit." It was a joyful time to him when he made this invitation. He rejoiced in the account of the good news, the success with which the message of the disciples was attended; and in the wise and sovereign dispensation of grace by the Father, which he here celebrates, as also upon the view of his own power; where he shows that all power was lodged in him. The keys of the Father's treasures of grace are in his hand, yea, and whatsoever is the Father's. He also shews, that none could know the Father, but by him, for that is given to him only. He, as it were, opens the treasure door to sinners in the text.—From the connection of this verse, as just now stated, I would observe, that the solemnity of this invitation is most observable. There seems something to be about it more than ordinary. As,

1. It was given in the day of Christ's gladness. He was a man of sorrows, all made up of sorrows. Sorrow, sighing, weeping, groaning, were his ordinary fare. Once indeed we read of his being glad, John 11:15; and once of his rejoicing, Luke 10:21. And, again, on this occasion, here that thread of sorrow was interrupted, the sun of joy broke out for a little from under the cloud. His heart was touched, and, as it were, leaped for joy, as the word signifies; compare Matth 5:12, with Luke 6:23. In the Greek, "he was exceeding joyful." At this extraordinary time and frame, he gives the invitation in the text. Hence infer,

1st, That Christ invites sinners with an enlarged heart. Joy enlarges it. His heart is open to you, his arms are stretched wide. You often see him with sorrow and anger in his face, and this works with you that you will not come. Behold him smiling and inviting you now to himself, sending love-looks to lost sinners, from a joyful heart within! Infer,

2dly, May I say, the Mediator's joy is not complete, till you come and take a share? The scriptures will warrant the expression, Isa. 53:11, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." He rejoiceth, but resteth not; but invites sinners to a share, as if all could not satisfy while he goes childless, as to some he has yet an eye upon. Infer,

3dly, That nothing can make Christ forget poor sinners, or be unconcerned for them. Sorrow could not do it, joy could not do it; either of these will drive a narrow-spirited man so into himself, as to forget all others. But never was his heart so filled either with sorrow or joy, but there was always room for poor sinners there. When he was entering the ocean of wrath, he remembered them, John 17; and as our forerunner, he went into the ocean of joy, Heb. 6:20. Like Aaron, he carried our names on his heart, when he went in to appear before the Lord in heaven, Exod. 28:29.

2. The invitation was given at a time when there was a great breach made in the devil's kingdom, compare Luke 10:17, 18. Christ was now beginning to set up a new kingdom, and he sends out seventy disciples, which was the number of the Sanhedrim at first. He was to bring the people out of the spiritual Egypt, compare Gen. 46:27. The success of the disciples was a fair pledge of the devil's kingdom coming down, and the delivery of sinners. And when the news of it comes, his heart rejoices, and his tongue breaks out in this invitation to the devil's captives, to come away upon this glorious signal. As he had begun to perform this part of the covenant, the Father had begun to perform his, which made his heart leap for joy, and sets him on to cry, that they would all come away, as disciples, vigorously to pursue the advantage which was got, Psalm 110:7, "He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. Hence infer,

1st, That Christ's heart is set upon the work of sinners' salvation. Ye see no undue haste, but he would have no delays. He holds hands to the work, calling, "Come unto me." He preferred it to the eating of his bread; and what else is the meaning of all the ordinances and providences ye meet with? Infer,

2dly, That Christ would have you to come, taking encouragement from the example of others that have come before you. There is a gap made in the devil's prison; some have made their escape by it already, O! will not ye follow? The Lord has set examples for us, both of judgment and of mercy. In the beginnings of the Jewish church, there was an example of God's sovereignty, in the destruction of Nadab and Abihu, Lev. 10:1, 2; and of the Christian church, in the death of Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5; of mercy, in the Jewish church, Rahab the harlot, besides Abraham the father of them all, an idolater, Josh. 24:15, compare Isa. 51:2. Then in the Christian church, Paul the blasphemous persecutor, 1 Tim. 1:16. Infer,

3dly, That however full Christ's house be, there is always room for more; he wearies not of welcoming sinners; the more that come the better. Christ's harvest is not all cut down at once, nor his house built in a day; if the last stone were laid in the building, the scaffolding of ordinances would be taken down, and the world be at an end. But none of these has hitherto taken place; therefore yet there is room: Joel 3:21, "For I will cleanse their blood that I have not yet cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."

3. This invitation is given on a solemn review of that fulness, of that all which the Father hath lodged in the hand of the Mediator, and that solely. The Father, as it were, no sooner leads him into these treasures, but he says, 'This and this is for you, sinners; here is a treasure of mercies and blessings for you; pardon, life, peace, &c. is all for you. Come, therefore, unto me, the Father has delivered them into my hand, I long to deliver them over to you. Come, therefore, to me, and hence I shall draw my fulness out to you.' Christ had got a kingdom from the Father; it was as yet thinly peopled, and so he calls you to come to him, that ye may be happy in him. He has no will to enjoy these things alone, but because he has them, he would have you to take a share.—I would draw this

DOCT. That as the fulness lodged in the Mediator hath a free vent in his heart, so it seeks to diffuse itself into the souls of needy sinners.

Jesus Christ longs to make sinners the better of that all-fulness that is lodged in him by the Father. Christ speaks here to us as the true Joseph, Gen. 45:9–11. As Joseph invited his brethren to come and dwell with him, so Jesus cordially invites us, and promises us a share of the fulness which he himself possesses.—In illustrating the above proposition, I shall only,

I. Assign some reasons.

II. Make some practical improvement.

I. I am to give some reasons of this doctrine, or shew, why Christ is so kind and liberal to sinners.—He is so,

1. Because the Father hath given him for that end: Isa. 55:4, "Behold, I have given him for a Witness unto the people, a Leader and Commander unto the people. The Father had thoughts of love to man; his love designed to distribute a treasure of mercy, pardon, and grace, to lost sinners; but justice would not allow his giving them immediately out of his own hand; therefore he gives them to the Mediator to distribute. An absolute God being a consuming fire, guilty creatures, as stubble, could not endure his heat, but they would have been burnt up by it; therefore he sets his own Son, in man's nature, as a crystal-wall betwixt him and them; he gives him the Spirit without measure, not only a fulness of sufficiency, but abundance of blessings, is laid up in him; for it hath pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell.—He is so,

2. Because he received a fulness of treasure for that very end: John 17:19, "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." The first Adam got mankind's stock; he soon lost all. Christ takes the elect's stock in his hand for their security, and so he is given for a covenant of the people; he takes the burden upon him for them, and takes the administration of the second covenant, that it might, with them, be a better covenant than the first.—He is so,

3. Because he bought these treasures at the price of his blood for their behoof: Phil. 2:8, 9, "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name." The Son of God, who is Lord of all, needed no exaltation in the court of heaven, being equal with his Father; but his design was, to exalt man's nature, to make these that were the children of the devil—friends to heaven, and prepare for them room there: "I go (said he) to prepare a place for you," John 14:2. No wonder, then, that he should long to see the purchase of his blood, the fruit of the travail of his soul, come to him.—He is kind and liberal,

4. Because of his love to them. Where true love is, there is an aptness to communicate; the lover cannot see the beloved want what he has. God's love is giving love: "He so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," John 3:16. Christ's love is also such; he loves indeed: "He loved us, and gave himself for us," Gal. 2:20.—For the improvement of this doctrine, I only add an use of exhortation.

Come to Christ, then, O sinners, upon this his invitation, and sit not his blessed call.—To enforce this, I urge these motives:—

1. There is a fulness in him, all power is given him; want what you will, he has a power to give it to you; the Son of man had power, even on earth, to forgive sins. Grace without you, or grace within you, he is the dispenser of all: John 1:16, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." He is the great Secretary of heaven, the keys hang at his girdle; he shuts, and none can open; be opens, and none can shut.—Consider,

2. You are welcome to it. He has it not to keep up, but to give out, and to whom but to needy sinners? Even the worst of you are welcome, if you will take it out of his own hand: "If any man thirst, (says he), let him come to me, and drink," John 7:37.

3. Would you do Christ a pleasure? then come to him, Isa. 53:11, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Would you content and ease his heart? then come. It is a great ease to full breasts to be sucked. The breasts of his consolations are full, hear how pressingly he calls you to suck! "Eat, O friends! drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!"

Lastly, Would you fall in with the designs of the Father's and the Son's love, in the mystery of salvation? then come to him. Why is a fountain opened, but that ye may run to it, and wash? Seal not, shut not that to yourselves, which God and Christ have opened.

II. The second thing to be considered in the words is, the persons invited. These are they that labour, and are heavy-laden. The word labour signifies not every labouring, but a labouring to weariness, and so some read it weary. Heavy laden are they that have a heavy burden on their back, which they are not able to bear.

Who are meant by these? I cannot agree with those that restrain these expressions to those that are sensible of their sins and misery, without Christ, and are longing to be rid of the same; but I think it includes all that are out of Christ, sensible or insensible; that is, these that have not had, and those that have had, a law-work upon their consciences. And to fix this interpretation, consider,

1. The words agree to all that are out of Christ, and none have any right to restrain them. None more properly labour, in the sense of the text, than those that are out of Christ, seeking their satisfaction in the creatures: Eccl. 1:8, "All things are full of labour, man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." And who have such a burden of sin, and wrath upon their back as they have? The word properly signifies a ship's lading, which, though insensible of it, may yet sink under the weight.—Consider,

2. "The whole world lieth in wickedness," 1 John 5:19, as men in a deep mire, still sinking. Christ came to deliver men out of that case; having taken upon him our nature, Heb. 2:16, he caught hold (Greek) as one doth of a drowning man, even as he did of Peter when sinking, Matth. 14:31. And what are the invitations of the gospel, but Christ putting out his hands to sinking souls, sinking with their own weight. Consider,

3. That the words, in other scriptures, are without controversy applied to the most insensible sinners. See what labour and weariness! Hab. 2:13, "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts, that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?" In the most solemn invitation to Christ in all the Old Testament, the word "labouring" is so used: Isa. 55:2, "Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" Luke 11:46, "Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne." "Lade" is the same Greek word used in the text. Isa. 1:4, "Ah! sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity." Were they sensible? far from it; for ver. 3, "Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." And, 2 Tim. 3:6, it is said, "Silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts."

4. Consider the parallel text: Isa. 55:1, "Ho, every one that thirsteth;" where by the thirsty is not so much understood those that are thirsting after Christ, as those that are thirsting after happiness and satisfaction, seeking to squeeze it out of the creature; for the thirsty invited are the same that are spending their labour for that which satisfieth not. But those that are thirsting after Christ are not such.

5. If the words be a restriction of the call to sensible sinners, then the most part of sinners are excluded. If they are not included, sure they are excluded; and if the words are restrictive, sure they are not included; and then, so far from being the truth of the text, that it is no gospel-truth at all; for all, without exception, that hear the gospel, are called to come to Christ; Rev. 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." And if any "one" be not called, they have no warrant to come; and if so, unbelief is not their sin, as in the case of the Pagans, which is absurd.

Lastly, This is a most solemn invitation to come to Christ; and if I say the most solemn, there is some ground for it by what is said before. And shall that be judged restrained, that so expressly and solemnly comes from that fulness of power lodged in Christ, more than that just quoted? Rev. 3:20, where there is no shadow of restriction. Besides, this restriction may well be a snare to an exercised soul, which ordinarily, by a legal disposition in all, will not allow that they may come to Christ, because sin is not heavy enough to them. But although sinners will never come to Christ till they see their need of him, yet this I will ever preach, that all, under pain of damnation, are obliged to come to him, and that they shall be welcome on their coming, be their case what it will; that such as are willing to come ought not to stop on a defect of their sensibleness, but come to him, that they may get a true sense of sin unto repentance; for he is "exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins," Acts 5:31, He is to give, not to stand and wait, till "folly bring repentance with it."

III. Consider in the words, to what the labouring and heavy-laden are invited. They are invited to come to Jesus; that is, to believe on him, to take him as he offers himself in the gospel.

IV. Observe the encouragement afforded to influence a compliance with this invitation. Rest is promised to them here and hereafter: "I will give you rest."—We may afterwards open up these things more largely, in handling the following doctrinal propositions, which we draw from the words thus explained, viz.

DOCT. I. That sinners, while out of Christ, are engaged in a wearisome labour.

DOCT. II. That all who are out of Christ are under a heavy load or burden, which by all their labours they cannot shake off.

DOCT. III. Whatever sinful and vain labours sinners are engaged in, whatever be the loads which are lying on them, they are welcome to Christ; nay, he calls, invites, and commands them to come unto him.

I shall consider these in order.—I begin with DOCT. I. That sinners, while out of Christ, are engaged in a wearisome labour. Were you condemned, till you forsook your lusts, to row in the galleys, chained to the oars, to dig in mines, never to see the light of the sun, it were not to be compared to this wearisome labour, while out of Christ. If sinners feel it not, it is because they are not at all themselves. It is a truth, though a sad one, Isa. 55:2, that they "labour for that which satisfieth not;" (in the Hebrew,) they "labour to weariness." Eccl. 10:15, "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them; because he knoweth not how to go to the city."

In discoursing this point, we may inquire,

I. What it is that sinners out of Christ are labouring for.

II. How it is, that men out of Christ labour for happiness and satisfaction.

III. What sort of labour it is that they have in these things.

IV. Why sinners labour in these things for satisfaction, and do not come to Christ.

V. Make some practical improvement.

Let us inquire,

I. What it is that sinners out of Christ are labouring for. No man engageth in a labour, but for some end he proposeth to himself. Though the devil is oversman of these labourers, yet he does not make them go like clocks, without a design. Every one that labours proposes some profit to himself by his work, and so do these; there is always something, either really or seemingly good, that men seek in all their labours. So, in a word, it is happiness and satisfaction that they are labouring for, as well as the godly. For, consider,

1. The desire of happiness and satisfaction is natural to man; all men wish to see good. It is not the desire of good that may satisfy, that makes the difference between the godly and the wicked, but the different ways they take: Psalm 4:6, 7, "There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." In whatever case a man is on earth, in heaven or hell this is still his desire; and he must cease to be a man, ere he can cease to desire to be a happy man. When that desire, mentioned Eccl. 12:5, shall fail, this desire is still fresh and green; and it is good in itself. Our Lord supposeth this in the text, and therefore he promises to them what they are seeking, rest, if they will come to him.

2. This desire is the chief of all: all other things are desired for it. All men's desires, however different, meet here, as all the rivers meet in the sea, though their courses may be quite contrary. Therefore this is what they labour for. The devil has some labourers at his coarse work, others at the more fine, but they all meet in their end.

3. Defects and wants are interwoven with the very nature of the creature; and the rational creature finds that it cannot be, nor is self-sufficient. Hence it seeks its happiness without itself, and must do it, to satisfy these natural desires.

Lastly, Seeing, then, man's happiness is without himself, it must be brought in, which cannot be done without labour. It is proper to God to be happy in himself; but every creature must needs go out of itself to find its happiness; so that action is the true way to it, that is, rest cannot be found but in the way of action and labour, and because they are not in the right way, it is wearisome labour.

Let us inquire,

II. How it is that men out of Christ labour for happiness and satisfaction. Here it is impossible for us to reckon up particulars, and that in regard,

1. Of the different dispositions of men, and the various, as well as contrary opinions, concerning what may make a man happy. Varro says, there were two hundred and eighty opinions touching the chief good in his time. It is true, Christianity, in the profession of it, hath fixed this point in principle; but nothing less than overcoming grace can fix it in point of practice. The whole body of Christless sinners are like the Sodomites at Lot's door; all were for the door, but one grasps one part of the wall for it, another another part, not one of them found it. The world is, as the air in a summer-day, full of insects; and natural men, like a company of children, one running to catch one, another, another, while none of them is worth the pains. One runs to the bowels of the earth, another to the ale-house, &c.—It is impossible to determine here,

2. In regard of men's still altering their opinions about it, as they meet with new diappointments. Like a man in a mist, seeking a house in a wilderness, when every bush, tree, &c. deceives, till, by coming near, he is undeceived. "O (thinks the man), if I had such a thing, I would be well." Then he falls to labour for it; may be he never gets it, but he ever pursues it. If he gets it, he finds it will not do, for as big as it was afar off, yet it will not fill his hand when he grips it; but it must be filled, or no rest, hence new labour to bring forth just a new disappointment: Isa. 26:18, "We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind."—It is difficult also,

3. Because they cannot tell themselves what they would be at. Their starving souls are like the hungry infant, that gapes, weeps, crys, and sucks every thing that comes near its mouth, but cannot tell what it would have, but is still restless till the mother set it to the breast. It is regenerating grace that does that to the soul. The Hebrew word for believing, comes from a root that signifies to nurse, as if faith were nothing but a laying of the soul on the breasts of Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. The scripture holds him out as the mother that bare them; hence his people are called, Isa. 53:11, "The fruit of the travail of his soul." He also is their nourisher: hence he says, Isa. 1:2, "I have nourished and brought up children." The breasts of the church, Isa. 66:11, at which they are to suck and be satisfied, are no other than Christ. But, in the general, to see from whence it is that men out of Christ go about to squeeze out their happiness, see Psalm 4:6, 7, quoted above. From which observe two things.

(1.) That it is not God, for these two are set in opposition; go to as many doors as they will, they never go to the right door; hence it follows, that it is the creatures out of which they labour to draw their satisfaction: "Having forsaken the fountain of living waters, they hew out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."

(2.) That it is good they are seeking out of them; and indeed men can seek nothing but under that notion, though for the most part they call evil good, and good evil. All good is either profitable, pleasurable, or honest; these, then, are all that they are seeking, not from God, but from themselves, or other creatures. The two former have respect to the cravings of men's desires, the latter to the cravings of the law. And seeing it is not in God that they seek their happiness and satisfaction, I infer hence, that all out of Christ are labouring for their happiness and satisfaction in one or both of these ways, either from their lusts, or from the law; and this I take to be the very labour intended in the text. For which consider these three things:—

1st, That all natural men have two principles in them, (1.) Corruption; (2.) Conscience. Both crave of them: Rom. 2:15, "Which shew the work of the law, written in their heart, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing one another." Hence, because they do not mortify the lusts, they must be fed or no rest; and therefore they labour for their lusts to satisfy them. Then, because they fly not to Christ for the satisfaction of their conscience, they go to the law.

2dly. The bulk of natural men in the world have still been of two sorts: (1.) The profane party; (2.) The formal party. These have still been among Jews, Pagans, and Christians; the former labouring most in lusts, the latter in the law.

3dly, Adam left us with two yokes on our necks, (1.) Of lusts; (2.) Of the law. The last was of God's putting, but he gave strength with it to bear it; Adam took away the strength, but left the yoke, and put on a yoke of lusts beside; and in opposition to both these, Christ bids us come and take on his yoke, which is easy, and his burden, which is light," Matth. 11:29.

As to the labour they have in their lusts, they call them, and they run after them. These infernal devils in the heart drive the swine of this world into the sea of perdition; nay, turn the soul itself into a very sea, that cannot rest: Isa. 57:20, "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." They labour like madmen for satisfaction to them, and no calm, no rest, till the soul come to Christ.

1. They labour hard in the lusts of profit: 1 John 2:16, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the Inst of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." The profits of the world are the cisterns they squeeze for satisfaction; they bewitch the hearts of them that have them, and of them that want them; they fly after them with that pains and labour the ravenous bird doth after its prey: Prov. 23:5, "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches take to themselves wings, they fly away, as an eagle towards heaven." The strength of men's desires, and the cream of their affections, are spent on them; their happiness depends upon its smiles, their misery upon its frowns; if gone, their god is gone. Hence is that verified, Hab. 2:13, "They labour in the very fire, and weary themselves for very vanity," like a poor fool running to catch a shadow. They have hard labour in lawful profits, how to get them, and how to keep them, but hardest of all, how to squeeze satisfaction out of them; there they labour in the very fire; they labour also in unlawful profits. The soul is an empty thing; lusts are ill to guide; conscience must make a stretch now and then, for the satisfaction of lusts; and the man will leap over the hedge, though the serpent will bite him: 1 Tim. 6:9, 10, "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil." Hence the carnal man, I may say, never gets up his back, but on his belly doth he go, and labours, as if he were a slave condemned to the mines, to dig in the bowels of the earth; like the blind moles, his constant labour is in the earth, and he never opens his eyes till he is dying. He has his lade of thick clay upon his back, Hab. 2:6, as the fruit of his labouring in the fire. There is thus a labouring and heavy-laden party. Others take the world in their hand as a staff, nay, tread on it as the dirt, and they get it as a burden on their back; while guilt, many times contracted in the getting of it, whether by oppression, cheatery, or neglecting of the soul for it, is like a sore back under the load, that makes them ready in despair to throw it away, but they know not how to subsist without it.

2. They labour in lusts of pleasure; they go about as the bee, extracting the sweet out of the creatures for their own satisfaction; this and the former usually go together. Profits and pleasures are the world's two great baits, at which all natural men are constantly leaping, till they are caught by the hook, and flung out into the fire of wrath: Prov. 9:17, 18, "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." Pleasure is a necessary ingredient in happiness, and man cannot but seek it; hence God proposeth it to men in himself, who is the fountain of all sweetness: Psalm 16:11, "Thou wilt shew me the path of life, in thy presence there is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." But blind man makes the creature-sweetness his idol, and puts it in the room of God; for "they are lovers of pleasures, (in this sense), more than lovers of God," 2 Tim. 3:4. It is no fault to seek our profit; for, Heb. 11:26, "We are to have respect unto the recompense of the reward." Nor to seek what may be sweet to the soul; for we may wish our souls to be "satisfied with marrow and fatness," Psalm 63:5. But the natural man's misery and sin both is, he forsakes God, and fastens on the breasts of the creatures for these things.

Now, there are two breasts of the creatures at which men may be sucking.

(1.) The breast of lawful comforts. Natural men fall on these, instead of the breasts of God's consolations, and labour, though in vain, to squeeze happiness and satisfaction out of them, and that with the greatest eagerness. They are lawful in themselves, but they often press so hard, that they draw out blood instead of milk from them; and are like men working at a flinty rook, to bring out water, instead of which they get fire flashing in their face, as in that case, Judges 9:15, when "fire came out of the bramble to devour the cedars of Lebanon."—There is,

(2.) The breast of unlawful comforts, Prov. 9:17, "Stolen waters are sweet." Many seek their satisfaction in those things which they ought not so much as to desire, and fill themselves with what God forbids them so much as to taste. O! the misery of Christless sinners, to whom both lawful and unlawful comforts are effectual snares for ruin. Like mad beasts, if they abide within the hedge, they tear up all to the red earth, which doth not yet satisfy, But they most usually break over all hedges; and they do so, because the creature can never fully answer the craving desires and hungry appetite, and yet, after all, they will not come to Christ, that they may have rest.

These breasts of the creatures have many springs, divers lusts and pleasures, Titus 3:3, and these are served; men must labour in them as a servant at his master's work. I shall reduce them to these two heads, mentioned, Eph. 2:3, the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

1st, They labour for satisfaction and happiness in the pleasures of the flesh. And,—1. In sensuality. This was the door man first went to, after he had left God. And since the world was turned upside down by that means, the soul has lain downmost, and the flesh uppermost, so that they are all sensual, as Jude says, ver. 19, that have not the Spirit; and the soul is made drudge of the body. The belly is a god, and the pleasures of the flesh are squeezed for satisfaction; all the senses are set a-working for it, and yet can never do enough: Eccl. 6:7, "All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled." Many arts and trades are found out to bring this to perfection, though all in vain; and there is no end of these things, which are of no use but to please the flesh, which, like the grave, never says it has enough.—2. Ease, sloth, and quiet, which is a negative kind of sensuality: Luke 12:19, "The rich man said, Thou has goods laid up for many years, soul, take thine ease." All to please the flesh. This costs hard labour many times to the soul, many a throw conscience gets for the sake of this idol, what by neglect of duties, what by going over the belly of light to shun what is grieving to the flesh, as if men's hapness consisted in the quiet enjoyment of themselves.—They labour for satisfaction,

2dly, In the desires of the mind, and pleasures thereof. These, if they terminated on right objects, and were sought in a right manner, it would be well, for our true happiness consists in the soul's enjoyment of God; but in the natural man all is confusion. And,—1. There is much labour in seeking happiness in the pleasures of the judgment. This is the snare of thinking graceless men; this was among the first doors men went to when they turned from God: Gen. 3:5, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And there is hard labour without a figure, for the punishment of that: Eccl. 1:13, "And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven; this sore travail God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith." And what comes it to at length? to no rest; for, ver. 18, "In much wisdom there is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." Here is fulfilled, Eccl. 10:15, "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city." Whereas, would they go to Christ, they would be in a fair way to get what they are seeking; for, John 17:3, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." "In whom are hid, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Col. 2:3. There is labour,—2. In pleasures of the fancy. What else are all the lusts of the eye? all the abundance of the riches for which men labour so much? Eccl. 5:11, "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owner thereof, saying the beholding of them with his eyes? all they can think or say is, These are mine." What is honour, credit, and the like, but a tickling of our fancy, with the fancies of others about us, adding nothing to real worth? And how busy is the soul oftentimes in that, Eccl. 6:9, "Better is the sight or the eyes, than the wandering of the desire, (Heb.) "walking of the soul." This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. What satisfaction is sought in imagination, sins, lust, revenge, and the like? what restlessness there, 2 Pet. 2:14, "Having eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease from sin." How busy is the soul oftentimes in imagination, of wealth, and the like, as if, when it had tried all other means in vain, it would try, while awake, to dream itself happy! "The thoughts of my heart," says Job, chap. 17:11, (Heb.) "the passions of my heart," "are broken off."

3. The other thing in which natural men labour for rest, is the "law:" compare the text, Matth. 11:28, with vers. 29 and 30. Emphatically is that labour described, Rom. 10:3, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness." "Go about;" the word signifies, a seeking, like a disputer in the schools, or a tormenter of one upon the rack; to establish, to make it stand itself alone. They seek to make it stand, as men that will have a stone to stand on end, which at the same time is ever coming down on them again. Why all this? because it is their own: "Have not submitted." Christ offers a righteousness; but to take it, is to them a point of submission, against which they labour, as the untoward bullock against the yoke. They will never let it on till God break the iron sinew of the neck, Isa. 48:4.

To confirm this, consider,

1. All men desire to be happy, and no man can get his conscience quite silenced, more than he can get the notion of a God quite erased from his mind: Rom. 2:14, 15, "They are a law unto themselves, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another." Peace of mind is a natural desire, which none can divest himself of. Hence it follows, men cannot but seek inward peace; and though they may set themselves to murder conscience for that end, yet seeing it will not do for them totally, they do of necessity take some other way. There never was but two ways, either Christ or the law. The former they reject, therefore it follows, they follow the latter. Let us view this in three sorts of natural men.

(1.) In the profane person, who has not so much as a form of godliness; it is hardest to be found in them. But none so profane, but it will readily be found they have some one good thing or another about them, and sometimes they will compliment their consciences with a denial of satisfaction to their lusts, which is a labour so much the harder to them, as they are under the greater power of lusts. This sure they do not with an eye to make themselves miserable, but happy that their consciences may excuse them, Rom. 2:15. Excusing, even those that are most at the devil's will, and taken captive, as hunters who take their prey alive, 2 Tim. 2:26. Importing still a conscience labouring in the law, though lusts, as being stronger, do for the most part prevail.—Let us view this,

(2.) In the formal natural man: some of whom labour in the duties of morality; others in those of religion: who are at no small travail in the law, if we consider it all for nought. Like the Pharisee, Luke 18:11, they take not the gospel-way, yet they labour in the law. Sure lusts remain in them in their life and vigour. It surely costs labour so far to restrain them.—Let us view this,

(3.) In the awakened sinner. I am not for excluding those out of the text, but only that it be not restrained to them: Acts 2:37, "Now, when they heard this, they were pricked to the heart, and said unto Peter, and the rest of the apostles, what shall we do?" These mend their hands at this hard labour, and ofttimes labour so to keep the law, that they are both by themselves, and others taken for saints of the first magnitude, and yet it is but still in the law, till converting grace come, and sued them off the old root.

2. It is natural for men to labour in the law for happiness, and therefore, till nature be overcome by grace, men will not be put off it. The law was Adam's covenant, who, with his children, were to work and win heaven by their works; though they have lost their father's strength, yet they will keep their father's trade; though their stock be small, yet they will keep the merchandising for heaven, and give God good works for good wages. See nature speaking out of him, Matth. 19:16, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" And it often happens, that they who have fewest of good works lay the greatest stress upon them.

3. Consider how this practice has been formed into principles, in the face of the sun of the gospel. Never was an error yet vented in principle, but in compliance with some corruption of the heart; therefore is that made the characteristic of true doctrine, that it is according to godliness, 1 Tim. 6:3. No sooner was the gospel preached, than Cain sets up for works in opposition to faith: Gen. 4:4, 5, "And the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect." Paul gives the reason: Heb. 11:4, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." In Abraham's family, to whom the promise of righteousness was more clearly made, Hagar bears her son; compare Gal. 4:24. When the people were in Egypt, the generality of them knew nothing else. They had curtailed the law so very short, as all that labour in it do, that they thought they kept all very well: Rom. 5:13, "For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed, when there is no law." For that cause God gave them the law, as in Exod. 20. Gal. 3:29, "The law was added because of transgressions;" it pravailed in the days of the prophets, in Christ's days, and from the beginning of the Christian church to this day;—hence our swarms of Papists, &c.—Consider,

4. They turn the very gospel into law, as unclean vessels sour the sweetest liquor that is put in them. What a real gospel was the ceremonial law to the Jews, holding up blood, death, and translation of guilt, from them to the substitute, every day before their eyes in their sacrifices; But, Rom. 9:11, "Their very table (that is, their altar, so call, Mal. 1:12,) became a snare;" and they went about these things, as if by them they would have made up what was wanting in their observation of the moral law. Just so was it turned in Popery; yea, and alas! among Protestants it is found thus soured, to whom the gospel is the law and faith, repentance, and new obedience, the fulfilling of the law. But would to God it stood in principles only; but as sure as every unrenewed man is out of Christ, as sure even these natural men, whose heads are set right in this point, in their hearts and practice the very gospel is turned into law, and their obedience, their very faith and repentance, such as it is, is put in the room of Christ. For practice, when fairly traced, will show the principles from which it proceeds.

Lastly, Consider, though all would be saved, yet natural men are enemies to the gospel-way of salvation: 1 Cor. 1:23, "It is to the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." They must then be in love with the law, for there is no mids; yea, so cleave they to it, that nothing but death can part Adam's sons and it, and this even a violent death in a day of God's power: Psalm 110:3; Rom. 7:4, "Ye also are become dead to the law;" (Greek,) "deadened, killed, or put to death." As long as a soul sees how to shift without Christ, it will never come to him; add to this, that the godly find the remains of this principle in them to struggle against. Self-denial is the first lesson Christ gives, but they are a-learning it all their days. If it is thus in the green tree, what shall it be in the dry?

SERMON XIX

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. - MATTH. 11:28

WE are now,

III. To inquire, What sort of a labour sinners have in these things? For the sake of plainness, it will be necessary to consider this labour, 1st, As it respects their lusts; 2dly, As it respects the law.—We are,

1st, To consider this labour of sinners, as it respects their lusts, their going up and down among the creatures, extracting from them a comfort and pleasures, which they take for happiness.—I shall here show the properties of this labour, and thus confirm the point, that they are engaged in a wearisome labour.

1. It is hard labour, and sore toil: Jer. 9:5, "They weary themselves to commit iniquity." None win the devil's wages for nought, they eat no idle bread where he is taskmaster, and they must needs run, whom he drives. The devil's yoke is of all yokes the heaviest.—To clear this point, consider,

(1.) What the Scriptures compare this labour in lusts unto; whereby it will appear hard labour.—It compares it,

[1.] To the labour of a man going to a city and not knowing the way: Eccl. 10:15, "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city." That is hard labour, as many know by experience. Many a weary foot such must go, many a hardship they must endure, and so must these in pursuit of happiness.—It compares it,

[2.] To a labouring in the fire: Hab. 2:13, "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts, that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?" How hard is their labour that lieth about a fire! what sweat! what toil! Jer. 6:29, "The billows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away." But how much more hard in the fire! As when a house is on fire, and men in it, labouring to preserve that which the fire consumes, even among their hands. These labour, 1st, In the fire of lusts, that inflames the heart, and scorches the very soul, Prov. 6:27, 28, "For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?" 2dly In the fire of divine wrath that is kindled by the former: Isa. 9:18, "For wickedness burneth as the fire, it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke." This consumeth what they are working for in the other; so that when, like the spider, they have spun out their own bowels for a covering, yet it is by far too narrow, and they have but wearied themselves for very vanity.—It is compared,

[3.] To labouring under a burden, as in the text itself, which will not let the man get up his back. They are the devil's drudges, labouring under that load that will crush them at last, if they do not, as in Psalm 55:22, cast their burden on the Lord, that he may sustain them. They are laden with divers lusts, which lie on them as a burden on the weary beast, which weary them indeed, but they are bound on as with bands of iron and brass.—It is compared,

[4.] To the labour of a soldier in war; they watch for iniquity as a sentry at his post: Isa. 29:20. The natural man himself is the very field of battle: Jam. 4:1, "From whence come wars and fightings among you, come they not hence, even of your lusts which war in your members?" The war itself you may see described in the three following verses. Who cannot but be well laboured with the feet of men and horse in that confusion? Though there be not grace and corruption to war in them, there are lusts, and lusts opposed to one another, lusts and light also.—It is compared,

[5.] To the labour of the husbandman in plowing: Hos. 10:13, "Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity." They devise wickedness, which the Hebrew calls plowing it: "Devise not evil against thy neighbour," Prov. 3:29. "An ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire," Prov. 16:27.

It is compared,

[6.] Not to insist on more, to the labour of a woman in child-birth: Psalm 7:4, "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood." What pangs do raging lasts create to the soul? What cords of death does it straiten with? No small toil at conceiving of sin, and bearing it in the heart, and bringing it forth; but nothing in the abominable brat to satisfy the soul after all.

(2.) It is hard labour, if you consider that eminent emblem of our natural state, the Egyptian bondage. Their deliverance out of Egypt, was typical of their spiritual deliverance by Christ, and so that must needs signify man's natural state; concerning which it may be remarked, (1.) That as the children of Israel went down to Egypt in the loins of their parents, so we in Adam.—(2.) As the deliverance was wrought by the angel of the covenant, by the hands of Moses the lawgiver, and Aaron the priest, so this by the law and the gospel.—(3.) As Pharaoh opposed the children of Israel to the utmost, so the devil opposeth here. Pharaoh was "the great dragon which lieth in the midst of his rivers, which said, my river is mine own, and I have made it for myself," Ezek. 29:3; and was a type of that great red dragon, mentioned Rev. 12:3, &c. But for that which concerns this point, see Exod. 5. There you will find persons labouring, and heavy laden, vers. 4, 5. It is hard labour to satisfy lusts, the devil's taskmasters: Eph. 2:2, 3, "He worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind." The Israelites had their tasks doubled, to put religion out of their heads and hearts, Exod. 5:10. Lusts also must be satisfied, but wherewith to do it is withheld, as straw was from the Israelites, ver. 11. They are scattered up and down among the creatures for it, but can never squeeze out a sufficiency for them, even as the Israelites could not find stubble enough to prepare their bricks, vers. 12, 13, 14. If any appearance of deliverance, the labour is made the harder. Says Paul, Rom. 7:9, "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."—It is hard labour,

(3.) If ye consider the effects this labour hath, 1st, On the souls of men. The minds of men have a toilsome task, where sin is on the throne: Isa. 5:20, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." That soul must needs be in a continual fever, while inordinate affections are in their strength, as in all out of Christ. A fermentation of lasts cannot but make a tossed mind. Anxiety and cares of the world stretch the mind, as on tenter hooks. A conceived flight, like that of Ahab, 1 Kings 21:4, sets the proud man's heart in a fire of wrath and revenge, and squeezes the sap out of all their enjoyments, as in the instance of Haman, Esth. 5:9, 13. Envy slays the silly one, lust strikes as a dart through the liver; anger, malice, discontent, and the like, make a man his own executioner; they are tossed between hopes, fears, and vanity, tumbled hither and thither with every wind of temptation, as a ship without either pilot or ballast. 2dly, Even the body is ofttimes hard put to it in this labour. The covetous rises early, eats the bread of sorrow for what is not; the drunkard uses his body worse than his beast. More bodies have fallen sacrifices to lust, one way or another, than ever fell by the hardships either in or about religion.

2. It is base, mean, and abject labour: See Jer. 2:21, compared with vers. 23, and 24. Were we to die like beasts, we might live like beasts, with our souls grovelling still downward on the earth. If the soul had been so narrow, as to be satisfied with less than an infinite good, he had not spoke like a fool, who said to his soul, Luke 12:19, "Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," when his barns were full; in that case, the swine and his soul might have fed together. But we have immortal souls, capable of enjoying an infinite good, and such working in the earth must needs be a base labour for a heaven-born soul, which God breathed into the formed dust, but gave not to be drowned in a mass of flesh and blood, nor to be only as salt, to keep the body a while from rotting.

3. It is a constant labour. The sea rests sometimes, the carnal heart never: Isa. 57:20, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Lusts are ever craving, never say they have enough; they are rolling the stone to the top of the hill, which still comes down on them again and again, and creates new labour; see Psalm 78:18–20, 29, 30. Two things make it a continual labour. 1st, Continual disappointments. These they cannot miss, seeing there is no satisfaction to be had in the creatures; yet their soul still craves, hence no rest, but are urged on to work again: Isa. 57:10, "Thou art weary in the greatness of thy way, yet saidst thou not, There is no hope." Men are like the silly doves without heart, who still go to the same nest where they have been herried never so often before, and will even beg there, where they have got a thousand nay-says. 2dly, What is got in them enlarges the desire, instead of satisfying it; the more that lusts are fed, the more they require to maintain them. Sin is an insatiable tyrant; to labour in its service, is but to cast oil into the flame. The dropsy-thirst can never be quenched.

4. It is vain labour, they can never reach the end of it: Isa. 55:2, "Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" They shall as soon fill a triangle with a circle, as the heart with such things; the grave shall sooner give back its dead, than the lusts of the heart say, It is enough. It is impossible to find satisfaction in these things, for they are not suitable to the soul, more than stones for the nourishment of the body. The body gets its nourishment from the earth, because it is of the earth; the soul is from heaven, and so its satisfaction must come from thence. The things of the world cannot satisfy the soul, because they have no word of divine appointment, to be the staff of that bread which nourishes it; without this, grass could no more satisfy the beasts, nor bread the hunger of man, than sand: Matth. 4:4, "Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." God has kept this as his own prerogative, to satisfy the soul, incommunicable to the creatures conjunctly or separately.

Lastly, It is notwithstanding costly labour; for time that is precious is spent on it, which men should husband well, Eph. 5:16, "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." By time well improved, we might attain true happiness; time once gone can never be recalled. But, ah! what precious hours are cast away on these things, which might be improved in trading for heaven.—It is costly, because the gifts of the mind are thrown away on it. Reason makes us differ from the beasts, but by the abuse of it men make themselves worse than the beasts: Jer. 8:7, "Yea, the stork in the heaven, knoweth her appointed times: and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." Men's minds are employed not to know God, but other things; their choice also is not fixed upon him, their affections are bestowed on other things.—Finally, it is costly, because the outward good things of the body, and estate in the world, are bestowed upon it. Health and strength go in the pursuit of vanity, and in the service of their lusts, yea, are sacrificed many times on the altar of intemperance and sensuality. Riches, power, honours, as the feeding of the horse does, make people kick against him who lays these things to their hands. Yea, to crown all, the soul itself is thrown away upon it: Matth. 16:26, "For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Men seeking vanity, lose what is most excellent; and it is dear bought that is purchased at that rate.—I shall now consider what is meant by,

II. A labouring in the law. And to this most of what has been said may be applied; and besides it may occur afterwards. I shall only say these two things anent it at present.

1. It is most hard labour, for it requires most exact obedience, under pain of the curse: Gal. 3:10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them." Nothing but perfect obedience is accepted, according to the law; and for the least failure, it dooms the sinner to death. Now, no man can perform this, and yet so foolish are men, that they think to please God with their works. Again,—it is hard, because the law neither promiseth nor giveth strength. God gave Adam strength to perform, he lost it, the law does not restore it; so that in this case they must make the brick, and no straw is laid to their hands. This makes hard work, and so, by the Spirit, it at length breaks the heart of the elect, and makes them die to the law, as a wife to a rigorous husband, Gal. 2:19.

2. It is a vain and useless labour. There are much pains, and yet no gain, in this labour. It is vain, in respect of the soul thriving; they that labour in the law do but sow their seed in the sand; all they reap is wind, which may puff them up, but cannot nourish. Why so many barren dry professors? but because they are not trading with Christ, but with the law. Men go to duties, and rest in them; the pipe is laid short of the fountain.—It is vain, in respect of acceptance with God. It is thankless work, for it supersedes the commandment to believe: John 6:29, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." It is a sad word, Rom. 9:31, 32, "Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." Turtles were accepted on the altar at Jerusalem, when bullocks were rejected on those at Dan and Bethel.—Farther, it is vain, in respect of answering the demands of the law, Gal. 3:10. Our curtailed obedience will not answer the measuring reed of the law; it demands satisfaction for what is past, and perfect obedience for what is to come.—Finally, it is vain, in respect of salvation. The way to heaven by the first covenant is blocked up; the angel with the flaming sword guards it, Gal. 3:10. O sirs! duties are a sandy foundation, and great will be the fall of legal professors.—Let us inquire,

IV. Why sinners labour in these things for satisfaction, and do not come to Christ?—They do so because,

1. They have lost God, the fountain of happiness, and therefore they seek to squeeze it out of the creatures: Eph. 2:12, "Having no hope, and without God in the world." For, says God, Jer. 2:13, "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters." The sun is gone down upon them, and therefore they light their candles, and compass themselves with their own sparks; for the empty soul must have something to feed on. The prodigal wanted bread, and therefore fed on husks. Doves' dung is precious, when there is no bread in Samaria.—Sinners labour in these things,

2. Because, by the power of a strong delusion, they still expect satisfaction from them; they are represented in a magnifying glass, as the forbidden fruit was to our first parents, Gen. 3:5, 6. That delusion took with them, is conveyed to their posterity, and will never be cured till grace do it. Hence men, though they meet with a thousand disappointments in these things, yet still from now hopes they renew the attempt.—Sinners labour thus,

3. Because these things are most suitable to the corrupt nature: Rom. 8:5, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." Fishes swim in the river, and care not for the most pleasant meadow; swine prefer the dunghill to a palace; because everything seeks its like. Lusts must be nourished with these; even the way of the law, though just and good in itself, is the way that agrees best with self: Rom. 3:27, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith? Sinners are engaged in this labour,

4. Because they know no better. Christ is a hidden Christ to men in their natural estate; they see not his glory, fulness, and excellency; they say, as in Song 5:9, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved?" The fowl scrapes by the jewels, and takes up a corn beside them, because it knows not their worth: 1 Pet. 2:7, Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them that stumble at the word, being disobedient."—Sinners continue this labour,

Lastly, Because men naturally are enemies to the way of salvation by Jesus Christ.—I now come,

V. To make some practical improvement of the whole.

Allow me, then, to expostulate with you in the most earnest manner upon this subject. Why spend you your labour for that which satisfieth not? Isa. 55:2. Seeing you would labour, will you not change your work, and labour in God's way, that ye may enter into his rest? It is a wearisome labour that all out of Christ are engaged in. I would have you, then, to give it over, and engage in the service of Christ. I come in his name, to bid you, to beseech you, to cease from this labour. I have these things to say, in regard to it.

1. It is a labour God never put in your hands, but it proceeds from the devil, and a corrupt heart, who yoked you to that work of seeking your happiness in the creatures; in lusts, or in the law, and not in God. To this some may plead, Not guilty! "We know (say such) the world is but a vain thing, and we place our chief happiness in God. God forbid we should be labouring in any such way!" For your conviction, however, I must speak a few things. You may be deceived; many are as busy as their hands can be at that work, and yet say that they are not: Prov. 30, "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness."—I would inquire at you,

(1.) Who loosed you from this labour? Were you never at it? If you think so, you miserably deceive yourselves, Eph. 2:3, already quoted. Since Adam went from God, to pluck his happiness off the forbidden tree, all mankind have followed his steps, and abide at the work, till converting grace loose them. What is conversion, but a turning to God, from whom we are naturally turned away? Alas! there are few converts!—I inquire,

(2.) Was you ever heartily wearied of this labour, seeing your folly in abiding so long with it? Was it ever a heavy task, that you was made to groan out under? All are welcome to Christ that will come, but none will ever give over their labour till they be brought to this. God must bring the soul to a holy despair in this way, ere it be given over, Hos. 2:6, 7. And then the soul, having run itself out of breath, can neither get satisfaction in the creatures, nor go to God; thus it leaves the pursuit, and sits down with that, Jer. 31:18, "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God.". John 6:44, "No man can come unto me, except the Father who sent me draw him."—I inquire,

(3.) How are you kept from returning to this labour? If you have left it, it will not be without a struggle. There is a natural bias in the hearts of all men this way. Alas! the strong man keeps the house with the greater part; they have no struggle with the world, neither how to get it, nor how to keep it out of the heart.—I inquire,

(4.) Whence is it your greatest dissatisfaction proceeds, from the world's misgiving with you, or God's hiding his face from you? from your disappointments in the world, or at the throne of grace? Where the disappointment goes deepest, the expectations have been greatest: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick;" an infallible evidence that most men are at this work. Men will not be dissatisfied for missing a thing, where they were not to find it.—I inquire,

(5.) Where do you find your greatest satisfaction and pleasure, if we may call it so? In the enjoyment of God, or of the world, or in getting the cravings of your lusts answered? Ah! there are not a few, from whom, if the world's joy was turned away, that would not have a blythe hour. They never found as much sweetness in the benefits of the covenant, as in those of the world.

(6.) If you be not labouring thus, what are you doing then? There is not, and there cannot be, an idle soul among us. If the devil has us not, God has us at work; one of the two must. These things must bring convictions to our breasts.

Allow me still farther to expostulate with you. Why spend you your labour for that which satisfieth not? The labour you are engaged in is a thankless labour; God will not thank you for it; he says, "Who hath required this at your hands?" the devil pays you the wages which are due to it, which are death, Rom. 6:23. He hath no better to give. Besides this, the labour in which you are engaged, is a labouring against God: Jer. 2:13, "Having forsaken the fountain of living waters, ye have hewed out for yourselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Ye are thus setting the creature in the room of God, and accordingly God is against you in this labour, so that you can never get what you are seeking from it. Oh! then be exhorted to cease from, to give up with this labour. To prevail with you in doing this, I would lay before you the following motives.

1. Why will ye toil so to bring out of the creatures what is not in them? Nothing but God himself is commensurable to the desires of the soul; no man ever saw or will see an end of his desires, till they are swallowed up in God himself. When the creatures were at their best, there was the forbidden tree in paradise to teach man his happiness was not in them. How much more now, when they are so much worse! Isa. 28:20, "For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it."

2. How can ye think to find rest in that which is restless in itself? are not all things here unstable as water, and so cannot excel? Unchangeableness is a necessary property of that which makes truly happy, for otherwise the very fear of losing it mars the conceived happiness. Will we seek our rest in vanity, fill our hands with the wind, sit easy on the rolling waves, or on the top of a wheel that is in continual motion?

3. Did you ever meet with that among creature enjoyments, that was every way as ye would have had it? Dissatisfaction will proceed from any defect, however small, as it was with Haman, Esth. 5:13; but satisfaction requires an universal concurrence of all desirables in the thing that must satisfy; So it is, Song 5:16, "He is altogether lovely." Let a man turn over the whole creation for satisfaction, let all be cast into his lap, yet he will find, as in Job 20:22, "In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits." Who ever got the rose that wanted the prickles? the sweetness in any of them, that wanted a mixture of bitterness?

4. Do not the disappointment of hopes necessarily cleave to them all? They promise more when afar off, than they afford when they are come near. Mountains afar off become mole-hills when near; like a ball of snow, the more closely it is held, it will grow the less.

5. Has not the sap been squeezed out of enjoyments to thee between the hand and the mouth? Hos. 9:2, "The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her." Have you not had fair prospects that have been blasted in a moment, ere you ever tasted of them? As if they had appeared for no other end, but to raise the appetite that was not to be laid with them.

6. Has not the loss of them often brought greater sorrow than ever the having of them gave joy: while God has taken away the desire of thine eyes, thy choice comforts. Wert thou not more grieved then, than thou wert happy before?

7. Has not that wherein thou hast expected the greatest comfort turned out to be the greatest cross? This was the case with Rachel, who said to Jacob, "Give me children, else I die," Gen. 31 compare Gen. 35:16–20. She got children, and death instantly followed.

8. Have not signal mercies, as well as judgments, brought a sting along with them, while conscience has been whispering unto thee, that God was thine enemy.

9. Was ever thy heart truly at rest in these things, so that thou couldst say thou desirest no more? Nay, but the more of these, the more are they desired.

10. There is another way to come at your purpose. Come to Christ, and he will give you rest. This is a short way, for all is in him; whatever perfections are scattered up and down amongst the creatures, all is in him, and infinitely more. It is a sure way, for you will not miss happiness if you come to him.

I would once more expostulate with you. Why do you spend your labour for that which satisfieth not? I would beseech you, in the most earnest manner, not only to cease from, to give up with, your present unpleasant and unprofitable labour, but also to change your labour; I would have you, not only to depart from evil, but even to do good; I would call upon you to engage in the service of a new master, and run in the way of his commandments. You are labouring, you must be labouring, one way or other; will you not then engage in the labour of true religion, real godliness? If we must serve, surely it is better to serve Christ than the devil. The labour that there is in religion affrights the world at it; but why should it, seeing their labour is so great while out of Christ? Consider,

1. We are not calling you from idleness to working, but from labour to labour. And even if we were still to be slaves, better be so to God than to the devil. What will men say to Christ at the last day, who will be at pains in their lusts, but at none in holiness, that will bear a yoke, but not Christ's yoke?

2. We call you, not from one base labour to another, but from a base to an honourable work. Should one be called from the stone-barrow to be a king's cup-bearer, it were not comparable to what is proposed.—1. They will have a more honourable master.—2. More honourable fellow-labourers, for the angels serve him.—3. More honourable work, God himself is glorious in holiness.—4. A more honourable office; from being slaves to the devil, they are made kings and priests unto God.

3. We call upon you from vain labour, to that which shall be prosperous and successful; you are labouring for happiness there, where you will never get it, but here are full breasts; you are in vain striking at the flinty rock for water, here is an open fountain, where none ever went away disappointed.

4. We call you from a barren labour, where you will get nothing but sorrow to take away with you, to a labour which, when you have finished your works, will follow you, Rev. 14:13. Ah! miserable is your present labour, Isa. 59:5, 6. The spider wastes its bowels to spin its web, and when all is done, one stroke of the besom sweeps all away; it is either killed in its web, or drawn by it as a rope unto death; so that it doth but spin its winding-sheet, or plait the rope for itself. Consider,

5. That the worst which can be made of it is, that religion is hard labour. But this should be no prejudice against it with you, seeing, as has been said, the labour out of Christ is also hard labour. But to cast the balance, observe,

(1.) If it is hard labour, it is worth the pains, the other is not so, for, Prov. 2:4, 5, "If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." There is hard labour in digging stones, as well as in digging for gold; nay, it is hard labour digging disappointments, that which is not; whereas the gain of the other is precious and certain.—1. The promise, Prov. 8:21, "That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures."—2. The experience of all the labourers confirms the certainty of it: "I (God) said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain."

(2.) If it is hard labour, it is short; if the work be sore, yet it is not longsome. You shall soon rest from your labours: Rev. 14:13. He that is tired with his journey, his spirits will revive when near the end. The shadow of the evening makes the labourer work heartily, for loosing-time is at hand. The trials, afflictions, weeping, &c. of the saints, endure but for a moment. On the other hand, the labour of other persons knows no end; no rest abides them, but an everlasting toil under wrath that never ends.

6. We call you from a hard to an easy labour: "My yoke is easy;" Christ has said it, we must believe it. But to clear it, consider for this time, only these two things.

(1.) All the difficulties in religion arise from that active corruption which is in men, putting them to labour in their lusts and in the law: Matth. 11:12, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Violence and force, not with God, he opposeth us not, but with our own corruptions. And in this sense only the scripture holds out the labour of religion to be hard. But men do not state the matter fairly. Lay a ton-weight upon a rolling stone, certainly it is harder to roll both together than the stone alone; but is the stone therefore lighter than the ton-weight? Take them separately, and absolutely, the labour in religion is easy, the other hard. Men cannot bear Christ's burden. Why? because they still keep on the devil's burden, and they cannot bear the one above the other; that is not fair. Lay off the one, take up the other; see which is lightest. A meek and a passionate man, which of them has the hardest task in bearing an affront? the sober man, or the drunkard? the worldly man, or he that lives above the world? The more power grace has, the more easy; the more power lusts have, the more hard is the labour.

(2.) There is true help in the one, not in the other.—The labour in religion has outward helps; the labourers are not helpless, they have a cloud of witnesses gone before them, whom they may see with their crowns upon their heads, Heb. 12:1. Ye are not the forlorn in hope. Armies of saints bare stormed heaven before you and have left it behind them that the work is possible and the reward certain. The other have not this; if they get satisfaction in their lusts, they are the first. They see thousands before them, who have laboured as hard as they, disappointed, and are lain down in sorrow.—This labour has inward helps. Christ bears the heaviest part of his own yoke; he gives strength, he works the will for the work; and the work for us, when we have the will: Phil. 2:13, "For it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Isa. 26:12, "Thou also hast wrought all our works in us." The others have not. True, they have that within them which puts them on to this labour, but the more of the one, the harder is the other, as the wearied beast is goaded by the spur, and worn out by their being beaten when no straw is allowed them. But where is the help to work satisfaction and happiness out of the creatures, or from the law?

7. We call you from a wearisome to a lightsome pleasant labour. I have proved the first; for the last, see Prov. 3:17, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." But let us hear what can be said for both.

(1.) Is there much pleasure in sin? Ans. In some there is none. What pleasure has the passionate man, that kindles a fire in his own bosom? What pleasure has the envious, that gnaws himself like a serpent for the good that others enjoy? What pleasure has the discontented, that is his own executioner. Consider the calm of spirit that the contrary graces bring, and judge who has the better part.—As for those sins in which pleasure is found,

[1.] It is common to them with these creatures with whom they will not desire to be ranked. For these things that gratify men's sensual appetite are common to them with beasts, as gluttony, drunkenness, filthiness, &c. A sow can drink, and be as drunk as the greatest drunkard, and so on. And they have the better of them, as being under no law, and therefore they can go the full length of their appetite.—2. They do it without remorse.—3. They find satisfaction in these things, seeing they are not capable of desiring greater things. Now, put these together, where is the pleasure? Is it not surpassed by the pain? As to the desires of the mind, these are common to them with devils. The greatest swearer, liar, and proud opposer of religion, have the trade but from the second hand. The devil can satisfy his curiosity better than the most curious, reason more closely against religion than any atheist. Only obstinate despisers of reproof and mockers surpass the devil, for the devils believe and tremble: whereas for a time they do not.

(2.) The pleasure is but momentary, the pain follows hard at the heels, and is eternal. What pleasure can be devised, for which a man would hold his finger over a burning candle for a quarter of an hour? how much more dreadful to endure eternal burnings!

(3.) The struggle that conscience makes against corruption, brings more torment than that which corruption makes against grace. Conscience is more dreadfully armed than corruption; there is here as much difference as there is betwixt the hand of God and the hand of the devil. See now what becomes of the pleasure!

(2.) The labour in religion is truly pleasant. It is truly holy labour; for of that we speak, and scripture-testimony proves its pleasantness; see Prov. 3:17, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Ask David, and he will tell you, in Psalm 84; Paul, in 2 Cor. 12:10.

(1.) It is a labour suited to the nature of the soul, the better part, their divine supernatural nature, 2 Pet. 1:4. Believers are partakers of a divine nature. This must needs create ease and delight; the stream easily flows from the fountain; birds with pleasure fly in the air. The reason of the difficulty in religion to many is, they are out of their element when engaged in it.

(2.) Therein the soul carries on a trade with heaven; entertains communion with God, through the Spirit of Christ, by a mutual intercourse of grace and duty, the soul receiving influences, and returning them again in duties: as the rain falls on the earth freely, so the waters run freely toward the sea again.

(3.) Great peace of conscience usually attends this; and the more labour, the more peace: Psal. 119:165, "Great peace have they who love thy law." Here is a feast which nothing but sin mars: 2 Cor. 1:12, "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." Men cannot take it from us, John 14:27.

(4.) Sometimes they have great manifestations of Christ, evidences of the Lord's love raising a high spring-tide of joy in their souls, greater than that which the whole congregation of the world enjoys, Psalm 4:6, 7. It is joy unspeakable, and full of glory, 1 Pet. 1:8.

(5.) It is a lightsome way they walk in, whereas the other is darksome; the light of the Lord's word shines in it. The Mahom-medans have a tradition, that Moses' law and Christ's gospel were written first with ink made of pure light. Sure the scripture points out duty, as if it were written with a sunbeam.

8. We call you from a labour against yourselves, to a labour for your advantage. We must either do the work of God or the devil. Every sin is a new impediment in your way to heaven, a new stone laid on the wall of separation. What a mad thing is it to be working out our damnation, instead of our own salvation!

9. We call you not to more, but to other labour. We are all laborious creatures; the greatest idler is in some sort busy. Paul calls even them that work not at all, busy bodies, 2 Thes. 3:11. Our life is nothing but a continual succession of actions, even as the fire is ever burning, and the rivers running. It is in some respect impossible to do more than we do; the watch runs as fast when wrong as when right. Why may we not then keep the highway while we are travelling.—Consider,

10. That the same pains that men are at to ruin themselves, might possibly serve to save them. There are difficulties in the way of sin as well as of religion. Does not sin oftentimes bereave men of their night's rest? Are they more disturbed when communing with their own souls, and with God? Do not men draw sin as with cart-ropes? Isa. 5:18. Why might not labour be employed in drawing the heart to God? If men would but change, and suck as greedily and incessantly at the breasts of God's consolations, as they do of the creatures, how happy would they be!

Lastly, Consider that the labour in religion is not greater, nay, it is less than in sin, for religion contracts our work to one thing: Luke 10:41, 42, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful." Sinners have many lusts to please, the saints have but one God to please; the work of religion is all of a piece, sin not so. There is a sweet harmony betwixt all the graces and all the duties of religion. But lusts are quite contrary, and as they war against grace, so against one another, James 4:1, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not from hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" So that the sinner is dragged by one lust one way, by another, another. And how hard is it to serve contrary masters!

SERMON XX

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.- MATTH. 11:28

I now proceed to the consideration of

Doctrine II. That all who are out of Christ, are under an heavy burden, which, by all their labour, they cannot shake off.

In illustrating of which, I shall only,

I. Offer a few observations.

II. Make some practical improvement.

I. I am to offer a few observations; such as,

1. That Satan has a load on all out of Christ; it is a load of sin; Isa. 1:4, "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity." This load is twofold:

1st, A load of guilt, Gen. 4:13, "And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear," (Heb. "sin.") Guilt is the heaviest load ever was on the shoulders of men or angels. The scriptures hold it forth,

(1.) As debt. He that is in debt is under a burden. It is the worst of debts, we cannot pay it, nor escape the hands of our creditor; yea, we deny the debt, care not for count and reckoning, we wave our creditor as much as we can; so it stands uncancelled. But it is a debt that must be paid: 2 Thess. 1:9, "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." They shall pay what justice demands.—It is represented,

(2.) As a yoke tied fast on the sinner's neck; hence pardon is called a loosing of it, guilt being, as it were, cords of wrath, whereby the sinner is bound over to God's wrath. Pardon is also called remission or relaxation: Rom. 3:25, "To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."—It is pointed out,

(3.) As a burden: Hos. 14:2, "Take away all iniquity." Take away, namely, as a burden off a man's back. Hence Christ is said to have borne our sins, the burden of the elect's guilt being laid on his back. What a heavy load is it! (1.) It makes the whole creation groan, Rom. 8:22. It caused them take their pains five thousand years since, and they are not yet delivered of their burden. All the groans that ever men gave on earth and in hell were under this burden; it sunk the whole world into ruin: "Christ took our nature," to prevent us going down to the pit, Heb. 2:16; (Greek, "caught hold"), as of a drowning man, not of the whole seed of Adam, for great part of it fell to the ground, but of the seed of Abraham, the elect. (2.) This load sunk the fallen angels, made them fall as stars from heaven to the bottomless pit. And what a load was it to Christ, that made him sweat as it were great drops of blood, that made him groan and die!—It is,

2dly, A load of servitude to lusts, which of themselves are heavy burdens; the very remainder of which made the apostle groan: Rom. 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" What greater burden can be, than for a man to have a swarm of unmortified corruptions hanging about him, whose cravings he is still obliged to answer. This is that which creates that weary labour, of which we have already spoken; better a man were burdened with serpents sticking in his flesh, than with these.—I observe,

2. The law has a load on the Christless sinner; and that,

(1.) A load of duties, as great and numerous as the commandment, which is exceeding broad, can lay on. Though they perform them not, yet they are bound upon them by the commandment: and they shall sooner dissolve the whole fabric of the world, than make void this commandment. This is a heavy load. True, they that are in Christ have a yoke of duties laid on them, but not by the law, but by Christ. The difference is great; the law exacts perfect obedience, but gives no strength; Christ, when claiming obedience to his law, gives strength for the performance, which makes it an easy obedience.—There is,

(2.) A load of curses: Gal. 3:10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them." Every commandment of the law is fenced with a curse, denounced against the breakers of it. How great must be the load, then, where every action is a sin, and every sin brings a curse! This is a heavy load, that makes the earth reel to and fro, like a drunkard, under the weight of it.—I observe,

3. That God has a load on the Christless sinner, that is, of wrath: Eph. 2:3, "And were by nature children of wrath." This is an abiding load: John 3:36, "He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." This load is far heavier than mountains of brass; it is weightier than can be expressed.

II. I am now to make some practical improvement. From what has been said, I infer,

I. That every one must bear his own harden. There is no getting through the world with an even-up back. If people will not take up Christ's burden, they will bear a heavier one; if they will not be Christ's servants, they must be slaves to their lusts; if they will not take on the yoke of holiness, they shall bear a load of wrath; if people will still slip the yoke of Christ, God will wreathe the yoke of their transgressions about their neck, that they shall not get shaken off. We have given sorry entertainment to Christ's burden: it is too likely we may come to get one of another sort. The entertainment we have given to Christ's burden is like to wreathe a threefold yoke about our necks. For,

(1.) We have had little taste for the preaching of Christ, the great mysteries of the gospel. The preaching of sin and duty, as they call it, has been more desired than the preaching of the vitals of religion. I fear it be the plague of the generation, to get such preaching of sin and duty, as that the doctrine of Christ and free grace fall through between the two, and the gospel be turned into a system of morality with us.

(2.) We have little valued pure worship, it has been a burden to us, and we have ground to fear a burden of another sort, the trash of men's inventions in God's worship. There is an attempt already made to set up Dagon by the ark of God; and God knows where it may stop. If the ceremonies appointed by God himself were such, Acts 15:10, "as neither our fathers nor we were able to bear, what must they be that are laid on by men?

(3.) God took the yoke of the enemy's oppression off our necks, for which we have been very unthankful. It is very like that God intends to lay it on again, that we may know the worth of our despised mercy: Hos. 11:4, 5, "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love, and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return."—We may hence lament,

2. The case of the generation living without Christ, heavy laden, but not sensible of their burden, Isa. 1:4; compare ver. 3, both already quoted. Sin sits light upon people, they reign as kings without Christ; the law's authority does not draw them away to Christ; and though wrath lies heavy, they feel it not. Oh! what is the matter? They never feel the weight of it, nor once seriously put the question to themselves, What shall we do to be saved? They are taken up with so many things, that their soul's case cannot come into their minds. Again, they have a dead soul, and a stupid conscience, they complain not. Men's spiritual senses are bound up, and a seared conscience, got by sinning over the belly of daily warnings, is the plague of the generation. Well, but when conscience is awakened, people will find their sores; when drops of wrath fall on the conscience, it will make a fearful hissing: Isa. 33:14, "The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites; who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"—I only exhort you,

3. To labour to be sensible of your burden, and to be concerned to get rid of it. Is there not a burden of sin upon your backs? mind that you have to do with it.—Consider, That heaven's gate is strait, and will not let in a man with a burden of unpardoned, unmortified sin on his back. The wide gate is that which only will afford room for such. Off it must be, or they will never see heaven.—Consider again, all that they can do will not shake it off, the bonds of iniquity are stronger than to be broken with their weak arms; all the moisture of their bodies, dissolved into tears, will not wash it off.—Consider, finally, it will never fall off of its own accord. Age coming on may wear off the violence of some lusts, but the guilt remains, and the root of sin. Death itself will not put it off, for it will lie down, and also rise with you, and cleave to you through eternity.

What shall we do then? What more proper than come to Christ? He, and he only, can ease you of your burden. This brings us forward to the invitation itself: "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden;" which we have expressed in

DOCT. III. That whatever sinful and vain labours sinners are engaged in, whatever be the loads which are lying on them, they are welcome to Christ; he calls them to come to him, and in coming they shall obtain rest.—Or more shortly thus:—

The devil's drudges and burden-bearers, even the worst of them, are welcome to come to Christ, and shall find rest in him.—In opening which, I shall in general shew,

I. What is meant by coming to Christ.

II. I shall more particularly attempt to unfold the import of the invitation, in the several points deducible from the text.

III. I shall consider what is the rest which Christ promises, and will give to such as come to him.

IV. I shall make some practical improvement.

I. I shall show what in general is meant by coming to Christ. To come to Christ is to believe on him: John 6:35, "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Unbelief is the soul's departing, not from a living law, but from the living God, Heb. 3:12. Christ is the Lord, God is in him, he calls sinners to come to him; faith answers the call, and so brings back the soul to God in Christ. Now, the scripture holds forth Christ many ways answering to this notion of coming to him by faith. And that you may see your privilege and call, I shall hold forth some of these to you.

1. The devil's drudges and burden-bearers are welcome to Christ, as the great gift of the Father to sinners, to come and take it: John 3:16, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." The world was broken by Adam; God sends Christ as an up-making gift, and the worst of you are welcome to him, yea, he bodes (urges) himself upon you. Come to him, then, ye broken impoverished souls, that have nothing left you but poverty, wants, and debt.—Such are to come to him,

2. As the great Physician of souls: Matth. 9:12, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Christ in the gospel comes into the world as to an hospital of sin-sick souls, ready to administer a cure to those that will come to him for it. Our diseases are many, all of them deadly, but he is willing and able to cure them all. He is lifted up on the pole of the gospel, and says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else," Isa. 45:22.—Such should come to him,

3. As the satisfying food of the soul: Isa. 55:1–3, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." The soul is an empty thing, and has hungry and thirsty desires to be satisfied; the creatures cannot satisfy, Christ can: John 6:35, "My flesh, (says he,) is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." God has made a feast of fat things in Christ, in him all the cravings of the soul may be satisfied; there are no angels to guard the tree of life; no seal on this fountain: Zech. 13:1, "In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." There is no inclosure about this flower of glory, Cant. 2:1. Here is the carcase,—where are the eagles that should gather together?—Such come to Christ,

4. As one on whom they may rest: Song 8:5, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?" We are not able to do our own torn, but on him we should rely; 2 Chron. 16:8. "Because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered thine enemies into thine hand." Guilt mates the mind in a fluctating condition. By coming to Jesus we are stayed, as is a ship at anchor. In, or from ourselves, we have nothing for justification and sanctification. God has laid help upon one that is mighty; the weary soul is welcome to rest in him.—Such come to him,

5. As one on whom they may cast their burdens: Psalm 55:22, "Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." The soul is heavy laden, while out of Christ: Jesus holds out the everlasting arms, Deut, 33:27, faith settles down on them, casting the soul's burden upon them; "Come (says he) with all your misery, debts, beggary, and wants, I have shoulders to bear them all; I will take on the burden, ye shall get rest." He is content to marry the poor widow.—Such come to him,

6. As one in whom they may find refuge: Heb. 6:18, "Who have fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before us." The law, as the avenger of blood, pursues the soul. Christ is that city of refuge, where none can have power against them. The gates are never shut; here is a refuge from the law, from justice, and from the revenging wrath of God. Here is shelter under the wings of Christ: how, willing is he to gather his people, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings!—Such come to him,

7. As one in whom the soul may at length find rest: Psalm 37:7, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." The soul out of Christ is in a restless state, still shifting from one creature to another, not finding content in any. But by coming to Christ, the soul takes up its eternal rest in him, and he becomes a covering of the eyes to it. We are like men in a fever, still changing beds; like the dove out of the ark, we have no rest, till we come to Christ. Such come to Christ,

8. As a husband: Matth. 22:4, "All things are ready, come unto the marriage. Your Maker is content to be your husband, Psalm 45:10. Ministers are sent, as Abraham's servant, to seek a spouse for Christ. He is willing to match with the worst, the meanest of you; he seeks no dowry; he is the richest, the most honourable, the most tender and loving husband.—Such come to Christ.

Lastly, As a powerful deliverer. Christ stands at our prison doors, as in Isa. 61:1, "proclaiming liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." All who come to him, as in 2 Cor. 8:5, first give their ownselves unto the Lord. Whosoever will come to Jesus, must give up themselves to him. It is the work of faith, to give up the soul to Christ, that he may save it, that he may open the prison doors, take the prey from the mighty, and deliver the lawful captive.

SERMON XXI

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. -MATTH. 11:28

HAVING very briefly considered what it is to come to Christ, by pointing out under what characters we are to come to him, and the consequent improvement which this coming denotes, in order to explain the invitation here given more particularly, I go on, as was proposed,

II. To unfold its import, viewed in the several parts of which the text consists.

You will accordingly observe, that there is in the text, the characters invited,—the "labouring and heavy laden;" there is the invitation itself, "Come unto me;" by whom the invitation is given, by Christ; and the encouragement proposed to their complying with it, "I will give you rest."—All these considered complexly, in our view, import the following things.

1. That all men naturally are at a distance from God; if it were not so, they needed not be bid come. This is not a distance of place, but a relative distance, a distance of opposition, which lies in these three things.,

(1.) The original union between God and man is blown up; they were united in a covenant of works, whereby they had common friends and enemies. This was the first marriage-covenant, but Adam broke it, and so broke off from God. Hence God drove him out of paradise, as a divorced woman out of the house of her husband, spoiled of all her ornaments.

(2.) The hearts of men are naturally turned from God, and are a mass of enmity against him: Rom. 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." There is a perfect contrariety betwixt the nature of God and ours. That first sin of Adam has been a little leaven, that hath quite soured the whole lump of mankind: so that we are not only away, but far off from the Lord: Eph. 2:13, "Without God in the world."

(3.) The soul is still going farther and farther from God in the whole of our life, while in that state: Heb. 3:12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Every sin is a step farther from God; therefore the gospel-call is after them that are running away, that they may return to the Lord. We are on the road leading to destruction, and moving very swiftly, as the water, the more it runs, the farther it is removed from the fountain-head whence it came.

From what has been now observed, we may learn the sinfulness and misery of our natural state. It is our duty and privilege to be near God; to be far from him must then be our sin and misery. No wonder, then, we be dead, that we can do no good while in this state of separation from God. God also is departed from us, Jer. 6:7. Will not this end in eternal separation, if we return not?—The invitation imports,

2. That if you have a mind to meet and unite with God again, you must meet with him in Christ, and unite with God in him. "All things (says Jesus) are delivered unto me of my Father. Come therefore unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Would you have peace, pardon, and every blessing? you must come to him for it. God has condescended so far to forward the meeting, that he has come down, and dwelt in the flesh of Christ, there to wait sinners, to promote their meeting with him: 2 Cor. 5:19, "God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." He needed not to have come so far, but of his own free grace he has done it; but be will never come farther. There, then, and only there, sinners may meet him; God is in him, and is there to make up the peace through him; and if you will not come to him, and meet God there, you shall never see his face in peace.—Here it may be proper to shew, that this is God's contrivance for re-uniting with sinners that are by sin far from him; and that there is no other way. This appears,

(1.) From plain scripture-testimony: John 14:6, "I (said Jesus) am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by me." He is the great Secretary of heaven, by whom alone you can be brought into the King's presence: Eph. 2:18, "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." The keys of the house of David hang at his girdle.

(2.) If there were any other way of coming to God again, it behoved to be one of these two: either, 1st, By satisfying the law according to the first covenant; but that is impossible for us, seeing we cannot give perfect obedience, nor satisfy justice for the sins we are guilty of, Gal. 3:10, often quoted: Or, 2dly, in a way of mere mercy, for mercy's sake. But this cannot be: for,—The justice of God necessarily requires satisfaction, and God will not dispense his mercy in prejudice of his justice: Psalm 5:5, "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight, and thou hatest all the workers of iniquity." One part of the character of God is, that "he will by no means clear the guilty," namely, without satisfaction. The law is already made, fenced with threatenings of eternal wrath, and it is broken; God's justice and truth are both, in consequence, engaged to see the threatening accomplished.—Again, God's last will and testament is already made, and sealed by the death of his Son, but there is no such way proposed in it; no mercy but in Christ; yea, God has declared they shall have no mercy that come not to Christ: Matth. 16:16, "He that believeth, and is baptised, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."—Moreover, the very providing of this way makes it evident that there is no other. Were there another way of bringing sinners to God, would not an infinitely wise God, and a loving Father, have fetched a compass, and dispensed with the blood of his own Son? If any could have been spared, it might have been expected that He would; but, Rom. 8:32, "God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to the death for us all."—Finally, ever since Adam was driven out of paradise, this has been held forth as the only way, as in the first promise. Abel's acceptance was by it, Heb. 11:4. Jesus is the only propitiatory, where God speaks in mercy to sinners.

Here I might also shew, what a suitable contrivance this is, for the purpose of uniting God and sinners.—It is most suitable: For,

1. It is suited to God's honour, the glory of his divine perfections: Heb. 2:10, "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many souls unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." God, with the safety of his honour, may be reconciled to the worst of sinners in Christ; yea, the glory of all his perfections shines forth most illustriously in the mystery of Christ; there would be no safety in this plan, if it were not so.

2. It is suited to the comfort of the sinner, the contrivance being such, that it answers all the necessities of the sinner: Rev. 3:18, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, thou then mayest see." So that the soul may confidently come to God by Christ, who can do such things for it.

Let us more particularly consider this contrivance of the sinner's coming to, and uniting with God, by coming to Christ.—With this view, we observe,

1. That Christ is a substantial Mediator, partaking of both natures. He is the Father's fellow, yet bone of our bone. The worst of men are sibber* to heaven than the fallen angels; for "Jesus took not upon him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham." Here is the true ladder, the foot of which, his humanity, is set on earth, the top of which, his divinity, reaching to heaven, Gen. 28 above which the Lord stands making the covenant. If it consisted with the honour of God, for the divine nature to take into personal union with itself the human nature, it is equally consistent to take men into mystical union with the divine person of our Immanuel, upon this foundation. And when sinners see the first, they are encouraged to look for the second in Christ.

1. In Christ justice is satisfied: He said, "It is finished." In him God has presented to him a sacrifice to offended justice, a satisfaction to his law. God exacted, and he answered, till the utmost farthing was paid: Gal. 3:13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us;" and he got up the discharge. The sinner has in him a defence against justice, an everlasting righteousness, in which God may behold the sinner, and be well pleased with him, and the sinner may see God, and yet live. Mercy has a free vent in him, and pardons run freely through his blood. "We observe,

3. That the covenant is made with him in his blood; and all the promises of the covenant, all the benefits of it, sinners have at the second hand, Gal. 3:16. God has laid up all in him: 2 Cor. 1:20, "For all the promises of God in him, are yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God by us." Sinners are to come to him for saving blessings, and to take them from him as the purchase of his blood: John 5:22. Our righteousness, pardon, peace, are all in him, "who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. 1:30. Grace is in him, "for of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace," John 1:16. Glory is from him: "The Lord will give grace and glory."

4. By this means, the grace of God is exalted. It is to the praise of the glory of his grace. This is necessary for the glory of God in the second covenant, and for the sinner's comfort, which could not be promoted nor secured except in this way.

5. Here the matter is made sure; God is sure of the sinner, and the sinner sure of his union with God: such as are built upon this foundation, made members of him, Jesus will lose none of them. From what has been stated, I would infer,

(1.) That all who come to Christ shall come back to the state of union and communion with God, through him who knits heaven and earth, rent asunder by Adam's sin. Let your sins be never so great, these shall not stop it, for the cry of his blood is louder in God's ears, than that of our sins.—Infer,

(2.) That they that never come to Christ, shall never see God in mercy. Meet they may, but it will be a sad meeting, a meeting as of a malefactor with an inexorable judge, dry stubble with consuming fire, where our leaf will be as rottenness, and the blossoms of Christless duties go up as dust.

Thus you see there is but one door to God; but what if it be shut? No; it is open. For the invitation imports,

3. That sinners are welcome to come to Christ, that they may unite with God by him; Christ is ready to receive you on your coming.—As to this, consider,

(1.) Christ has made a long journey to meet with sinners. What brought him out of the Father's bosom into the world, but to bring sinners to himself, and so back to God again? What was the errand of the great Shepherd, but to seek them, even them that were straying on the mountains of vanity? Luke 19, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."—Consider,

(2.) How dear it cost him to purchase your union with God by him, 2 Cor. 5:21, "For he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Though ye should little value his blood, he will not undervalue it himself; for sinners it was shed, and will he not welcome the reward of it, the fruit of the travail of his soul? Why were his arms stretched on a cross, and his side pierced through, but that he might open up our way to God?—Consider,

(3.) How near lost sinners lay to Christ's heart, that he would refuse no hardship, in order that he might see the travail of his soul. His love was ancient love; from eternity, "his delights were with the sons of men," Prov. 8:31; see his choice, Heb. 12:2; and therefore, when he was to suffer, his heart was upon the work: Luke 12:50, "I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?" Jacob's love to Rachel shewed itself by his long service for her, which seemed to him but a few days.—Consider,

(4.) Why has he set up a ministry in the world, but to bring sinners to himself? Matth. 22:3, "And he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding." He would not have left ambassadors to treat with sinners in his name, if he were not willing to receive them, nay, were he not anxious that they should come to him.—Consider,

(5.) He heartily invites you to come to him; as in the text; in Isa. 55:1, "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price;" and in Rev. 3:2, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." These invitations look not like one who cares not whether sinners come or not, far less like one who is not willing to receive them. Consider,

(6.) The earnestness of the invitations; he deals with sinners as one that will not take a nay-say: Luke 14:23, "Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." He not only knocks, but stands and knocks: strives with sinners by his word, his providences, and the motions of his Spirit; answers their objections, Isa. 55:1, and downwards; while none can refuse, but those that rush wilfully on in their ruin; as in Ezek. 33:11, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, from your wicked ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Consider,

(7.) How he complains of these that will not come: John 5:40, "And ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." "He speaks as one that has been working in vain: Isa. 49:4, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain." He complains of Jerusalem, Matth. 23:37; yea, he weeps over obstinate incorrigible sinners; Luke 19:41, 42, "And when he came near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes." Sure he has lost no bowels of compassion by going to heaven; they flow out as freely and tenderly as ever.—Consider,

(8.) He commands sinners to come to him. The invitations are all commands; they are most peremptory: 1 John 3:23, "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ." If you do it not, you can do nothing that will please him: John 6:29, "Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." And he leaves it on us with the most dreadful certification: Mark 16:16, "He that believeth not shall be damned." And hence it follows, that the hearers of the gospel who perish, are inexcusable; the door was open, but they would not enter in.—The invitation imports,

4. That the worst of sinners are welcome to Christ: however great their burden of sin and misery be, it is no hinderance in their way to come to Christ. Where all are invited, none are excluded. But upon this I do not enlarge here, having insisted upon it at some length, when discoursing upon Joel 3:10. All that I shall just now observe is, that this consideration shall shame you out of your slighting of Christ, and strike at the root of that bitter despair which lodges in the breasts of many, who are yet far enough from absolute despair of their case.—The invitation imports,

5. That Christ allows sinners to come to him, rather on account of the desperateness of their case, than otherwise: "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden." As if he had said, "Ye have been labouring, and yet can get no rest; let that engage you to come to me. Sit down and consider your case, if nothing else will prevail with you, let the desperateness of your disease bring you to the great Physician." You are cordially welcome to do so. For, consider,

(1.) That it is for this very end God discovers the worst of a man's case to himself, drives them to their wit's end, in order that he may begin to be wise: Hos. 2:6, "Therefore, behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths." Ver. 7, "Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now."—Consider,

(2.) That Christ has made offers of himself to those in the worst of cases: Isa. 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." And he holds out himself as a Saviour in particular for these, Rev. 3:17, 18; Isa. 55:7.—Consider,

(3.) Such have been made welcome, who have employed such arguments with him: Psalm 25:11, "For thy name's sake, pardon mine iniquity, for it is very great;" and so also in the case of the Canaanitish woman with Jesus, Matth. 15:26–28. Consider,

(4.) He has the more glory, the more desperate that the case is, none see the stars so well as from the bottom of a deep pit. His power is the greater to pardon, his grace to overcome, when there is most occasion for these being displayed; it is the worst of diseases, that do best proclaim the Physician's skill, when a cure is effected.

From what has been just now observed, we may see and admire the divine condescension, that Christ is so willing to take the sinner in, when he sees himself cast out at all doors, can get rest nowhere else; that he will give him rest, and embrace the sinner, when he sees he can do no better, when he can make no other shift.—Hence also learn, how to make an excellent use of the badness of your case, even to take op these stumbling-blocks, and break up heaven's door with them; to make a virtue of necessity, and the more that the burden presseth, the more readily to go to Christ with it. True, it is never right coming to Christ, which sense of misery alone produceth; but love may thus crown a work which terror begins, and which when from the Holy Spirit it leads to. In a word, you are absolutely inexcusable, that come not to Christ, be your case what it will.

I now go on to what was proposed,

IV. Which was, to explain the nature of that rest which Christ graciously promises, and which he actually gives to such labouring and heavy-laden sinners, as truly come to him. And here it must be observed, that there is a rest which they may have in Christ; a rest here, and a rest hereafter. In this life there is a fourfold rest to be had in Christ.—A rest,

1. In respect of sin. The rest Christ gives from sin is twofold.

(1.) A rest from the guilt of sin. Guilt is a poison, infecting the conscience, which makes it so to smart that it can get no rest, as in the case of Cain and Judas, and also with those, Acts 2:37, "They were pricked in their hearts." This, when it festers and becomes immoveable, is the gnawing worm in hell. Christ gives rest from it, Heb. 9:4; his blood purges the conscience from dead works. The conscience, when like the raging sea, is stilled by him: Isa. 57:18, 19, "I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him." The soul finds this rest in the wounds of Christ, for, "by his stripes we are healed," Isa. 53:5. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son, cleanses from all sin. The soul diped in this fountain is washed from this poison, and is delivered from this sting of guilt.—There is rest,

(2.) From the reigning power of sin: Rom. 6:14, "For sin shall not have dominion over you." Sin on the throne makes a confused restless soul, like the raging sea, continually casting out mire and dirt. Christ, by his Spirit's efficacy, turns sin off the throne, and restores rest to the soul. He casts down these Egyptian taskmasters, and thus the soul enters into his rest: Heb. 4:10, "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." In the day of the soul's coming to Christ, he acts like a King, setting all in order in the kingdom, that was a mere heap of confusion before his accession to the throne.—There is in Christ,

2. Rest from the law; not that he makes them lawless, but that he takes off them the insupportable yoke of the law, and gives them ease.—He does so,

(1.) From the burden of law-duties, which are exacted in all perfection, under the pain of the curse, while no strength is furnished wherewith to fulfil them: Rom 7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ." This is the yoke on all men's necks naturally; Christ put his neck in this yoke, and bare it, satisfying the law's demands completely, and so frees all that come to him from this service. Christ carries his people without the dominions of the law.—He does so,

(2.) From the curse of the law: Gal. 3:13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us." Rom. 8:1. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." These that are come to him, he takes from off them that curse which they are under, and gives them his blessing, which he hath merited; carries them from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion, where they hear the blood of Jesus speaking peace, silencing the demand of vengeance, and affording a refuge for the oppressed.—There is in Christ,

3. Rest from that weary labour in which persons are engaged when in quest of happiness, leading the souls to the enjoyment of God: Psalm 116:7, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul! for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." The soul, restless in seeking happiness among the creatures, he leads to God, the fountain of all perfection, opening their eyes, as he did Hagar's, to see the well, and bringing them into the enjoyment of all good in him, uniting the soul with himself; where,

(1.) The soul finds a rest of satisfaction from Christ, which it can find in no other quarter whatever, for the soul finds a rest of satisfaction from him, when by faith it is set on the breasts of his consolations. In these there is an object adequate to all the desires of the soul answering all its needs; thus, Prov. 14:14, "A good man shall be satisfied from himself." There is the triumph of faith in the enjoyment of God: Phil. 4:18. "But I have all and abound."—The soul finds,

(2.) A rest in him of settled abode, insomuch, that the soul goes not abroad as it was wont, among the creatures for satisfaction; John 4:14, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life." Christ becomes precious to the soul. Like the released lady, that did not so much as look on or take notice of Cyrus, notwithstanding of the noble part he acted, but on him (her husband) who said, he would redeem her with his own life. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."—There is in Christ,

4. Rest in respect of troubles. Christ gives rest,

(1.) From troubles in the world, now and then, when he sees meet: Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all." Zion's God reigneth, be on the throne who will; and when he speaks peace, neither devils nor men can create his people trouble; for, Lam. 3:37, "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? There is no such security from trouble as the godly have, but that is from heaven, and not from earth. Therefore,

(2.) Christ gives rest in trouble: John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." You may, nay, you shall, meet with troubles, but he can make you get sweet rest in your souls; even when you are on a bed of thorns as to the outward man, he can give his people a sweet rest even in troubles. How can these things be? may some say.—In answer,

[1.] Christ gives his people in trouble an inward rest, that is an inward tranquillity of mind in midst of trouble: Psalm 3:1–5, "Lord! how are they increased that trouble me? many are they that rise against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me." Christ can make the believer as a vessel of water tossed here and there, yet not jumbled. There was a greater calm with the three children in the furnace, than with the king in the palace, Dan. 3:24. Fear may be on every side when there is none in the centre, because Christ makes a blessed calm in their hearts.—Christ gives in trouble,

[2.] A rest of contentment: "I have learned, (says Paul, Phil. 4:11,) in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." This is not only the duty, but the privilege of believers. If the lot of the godly be not brought up to their spirit, Christ will bring their spirit down to their lot; and there must needs be rest there, where the spirit of the man and his lot meet in one: Psalm 37:19, "They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied."—Then follows,

[3.] A rest of satisfaction in the enjoyment of better things. What though the world hath a bitter taste in their mouths? Christ can hold a cop of consolation to them in that very instant, the sweetness of which will master the bitterness of the other: "Your sorrow (says he, John 16:20,) shall be turned into joy." "Our rejoicing (says Paul, 2 Cor. 1:12,) is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." They are not indeed stocks, to be unmoved with troubles, but their sorrow is so drowned in spiritual joy, that it is "but as sorrow," 2 Cor. 6:10, "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing;" even as the joy of the wicked is "but as joy." Troubles may raise a mutiny of lusts within, but the peace of God quells them: "It keeps their hearts and minds through Jesus Christ,"—Christ gives,

(4.) A rest in confidence of a blessed issue: 2 Tim. 1:12, "For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded, that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." The soul in Christ has the promise to rest on; and however dark a side the cloud may have, faith will see through it; though they may sink deep, they will never drown, who have a promise to bear them up.—Thus, you see, they rest in Christ in trouble; and this rest is a most secure rest, where people may rest confidently: Isa. 26:3, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." The wicked may have rest, but not with God's good will; therefore the more rest, the more dangerous is their case: 1 Thess. 5:3, "For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as a woman in travail, and they shall not escape." But there is perfect security in Christ, and that in the worst of times, Song 3:7, 8. Again, it is a rest that is so rooted, that the soul can never be deprived of it: Isa. 32:17, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever." How soon is the rest of the wicked broken, their candle put out! But this, although it may meet with some disturbance by temptations, as the clouds may go over the sun, yet it shall be as sure as the sun fixed in the firmament; it will be proof against the disturbances of the world, against the temptations and accusations of the devil; yea, against the demands of justice, and the threatenings of the law. Then in the life to come, he will give them all complete rest who come to him: Heb. 4:9, "There remaineth, therefore, a rest for the people of God." He will give their bodies rest in the grave, Isa. 57:2, and both soul and body rest in heaven hereafter; and that is a rest beyond expression.

If it should be inquired, Who is it that gives this rest? this is answered in our text; Christ says to such labouring and heavy-laden sinners, and he is able to make good his word, "I will give you rest." The gift of this rest is his prerogative; they that obtain it must get it out of his hands.—For illustrating and confirming this, consider,

1. That all creatures cannot give rest to a restless soul. Not any thing in them, or the whole of what can be afforded from them, can give it: Eccl. 1:2, "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Men, the best of men, cannot do it. Ministers may be directed to speak a word in season, but the Lord himself can only make that word effectual, 2 Sam. 12:13, compared with Psalm 51. Nay, angels cannot do it, Exod. 33:2, compare ver. 15. It requires a creating power: Isa. 57:18, "I have seen his ways, and I will heal him."—Consider,

2. There can be no rest to the soul without returning to a reconciled God, for it is impossible the soul can find true rest elsewhere; and there is no returning to God but by Christ: John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He is the only ladder by which the soul can ascend to heaven.

3. Christ is the great Lord Treasurer of heaven. The fulness of power is lodged in him: Matth. 28:18, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." There is nothing that any can get from heaven in the way of spiritual favour, but what comes through his hands: John 5:22, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." Jesus also hath the keys of hell and death, Rev. 1:18.

4. He is the store-house, where the treasure is laid up, and out of which all needful supplies come: John 1:16, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."—Consider,

5. The glorious types illustrating this: Joseph, Gen. 41:40–44; Joshua, that brought the people to the rest in Canaan.—Consider,

6. That high character which be sustains: Heb. 12:2. He is the "author and finisher of our faith."—Consider,

Lastly, It is reasonable it should be so, he hath purchased this rest with his blood: and therefore there is an high propriety that he should be the giver, the dispenser of this glorious blessing.—In the

IV. And last place, it was proposed to make some practical improvement of the whole. To enlarge here, however, would be improper, as a practical improvement has been made of the several parts of the subject all along, as they have been considered. At the same time, your attention may be called to the following brief hints. From what has been observed, you have had set before you,

1. A melancholy picture of the miserable state of all mankind by nature;—they are "labouring and heavy laden," they have various burdens lying on them, the burden of sin, the burden of the law, a burden often of fears, of terrors, arising from the former; and while thus heavy laden, they are labouring, striving to ease themselves of their burdens, struggling hard to get rid of them, while after all they are only labouring in vain in the fire, wearying themselves in the greatness of their way; are spending their "money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not," instead of obtaining the least ease or quiet. Their situation is in this way rendered more and more grievous and distressing, their burdens become heavier than they can bear, and their labour is rendered quite intolerable.

2. We may learn a special ingredient in the misery of those that thus labour, and are heavy laden. They are under the law as a covenant of works, which requires the full tale of brick, without affording the least straw with which to make them. They are under most grievous taskmasters, who are constantly saying, Give, give, while they are unable to work; and, what is still worse, they are without Christ, without God, and so without hope in the world. It is Jesus only that can help them; while afar from him, and enemies to him, they have no other prospect than that of perishing eternally.—But,

3. There is hence opened up a door of hope, even for such as are labouring and heavy laden, whatever their characters or conditions have been, or at present may be, though they may have long laboured in vain, and spent their strength for nought. However heavy, numerous, and continued these burdens may be, though in their view their condition may not only be distressing and deplorable, but even almost desperate, there is here a door of hope opened up to such. On Jesus is their help laid; in and from him it is to be found. He is saying, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and besides me there is no Saviour." "Hearken ye stout-hearted, and ye that are far from righteousness." Nay, he speaks to such expressly by name; without excluding a single individual, whatever his present character or condition be, his gracious words are, "Come unto me, all ye" the whole of you, and each of you "that labour, and are heavy laden, and," in coming to me without peradventure, "you shall have rest."

In the last place, there is pointed out to us what is the indispensable duty of all the hearers of the gospel. It is to come to Jesus; to comply with the gracious call and invitation here given. It is true, this in the text is addressed only to the labouring and heavy laden; but is not this a character common to all the hearers of the gospel? Are not all more or less in this situation? A situation so far from being desirable, that it is exceedingly uncomfortable. If such, then, would consult their present or eternal welfare; if they would hearken to the gracious call, the kind invitation which Christ gives them; if they would obey heaven's great command, it must be admitted, that it is their bounden duty to come to Jesus, that is, to believe on him; for it is only in the exercise of faith as coming to him, and according as faith is in exercise, that any can be freed from their heavy burdens, or be released from that vain and irksome labour in which they are engaged.

Let all such, then, be exhorted to cease from the labour which satisfieth not; from these fruitless attempts which they are engaged in to rid themselves from these heavy burdens that they are weighed down under. Be exhorted to come to Jesus, cast all your burdens and your cares over upon him. He is able and willing to sustain both you and your burdens, whatever they are. Come to him, then, as you are, as labouring and heavy laden. There is the most cordial welcome afforded to all such; the greater your burdens, and the more pressing your necessities are, in the way of putting your case unreservedly in his hand, and under his management, you may in due time assuredly expect a comfortable issue. He hates putting away. Whosoever will may come, and him that cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out. "Come unto me" says he, "all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

SERMON XXII

CHRIST, A REFRESHFUL SHADOW IN A WEARY LAND.*

And a man shall be—as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. - ISA. 32:2

THIS prophecy relates to Hezekiah, to his happy and pious government; but doubtless a greater than Hezekiah is here, and that is Jesus Christ, the king of saints. This world, before sin entered into it, had always a clear sky; there was not an air of pestilential wind to blow upon them that were travelling through it to Immanuel's land. But since sin entered, the case is quite altered; strong winds of trouble blow, tempests of heavy rain fall; there are inundations in the world, as the word is; it is a dry place; in respect of comfort, it is a weary land; but though a weary land, it is not altogether without some comforting prospect. A shadow and shelter is prepared for the weary traveller; for it is promised in the text, "And a man shall be—as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." In which words, there is observable,

1. What the world is spiritually to Christ's subjects, the people of God, a "weary land;" that is, a thirsty land, a scorching country, a stormy place, with many inconveniences, which make travellers weary and faint. It is a wilderness, wherein there is no water, but a vehement heat, which makes people weary, and long for shelter and refreshment.—Observe,

2. What Christ is to them there, "as the shadow of a great rock." How pleasant is a shelter in such a place to the weary traveller! Such is Christ to his people in the world. There are many shelters, there is even the shadow of created comforts; but, alas! they are unsubstantial shades; they are as the shade of a tree, through which the sun, wind, or rain beats. But Christ is as the shadow of a rock, which none of these can pierce; and as a great rock, which gives a large shelter; so that there they have a perfect repose, blow what weather will.—The text affords us this

DOCTRINE, That Christ is a suitable shade, and a refreshing shelter, for those to whom the world is a weary land.

For illustrating this doctrine, it is proposed,

I. To show what is implied in the text.

II. To inquire in what respects the world is a weary land to the saints.

III. To point out in what respects Jesus Christ is a suitable and refreshful shade and shelter to them in a weary land.

IV. Conclude with a practical improvement.

We are, then,

I. To shew what is implied in the text,—It imports,

1. That the world is not our dwelling-place, but the place through which we are travelling. This world is but a thoroughfare to another, where we come in at our birth, walk through in our life, and go out again at death. Many imagine but two fixed points in the universe, the higher and the lower, and that bodies are revolving in continual motion towards one or other of these, heaven and hell. The godly are going out of the world in affection, Song 4:8; the wicked, in action, though not in affection; none are abiding.—It imports,

2. That there is no correcting of the ill air of the world; a shade and shelter may be had in it, but to reduce it to its first temperature, that it may indeed be a pleasant land, is not promised, and therefore cannot be expected. The winds of trouble must blow in it while there are such treasures of sin in it to bring them forth. While our provocations against heaven gather into clouds, there will be tempestuous rains of calamities in it. The godly may lay their account with this: John 16:33, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." And the carnal world need not lay their account by it: Job. 5:7, "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upwards."—It imports,

3. That, foul or fair weather, we must set out our heads, and through the weary land we must go; there is no other way but to take our share of what may be going on in it. He that would stop till the sky clear, may with as good reason sit down and wait till the water run out, that he may get through the river dry shod; the last may be sooner expected than the first.—It imports,

4. That the travelling through it will try our strength; take what way we will, we cannot miss sometimes to be entangled in the wilderness, and to be wearied in it, though the heart were so glued to it, as never to be wearied of it. The winds, the rains, and the storms, that blow there, will bear heavy on us, so as that we will need a resting, a refreshing place.—It imports,

5. That nothing less than the great rock will be a sufficient shelter in this weary land; no solid peace or repose out of Christ, more than there was out of the ark when the deluge came on. The winds and storms will blow down, or blow through, all other shades which men make to themselves in the weary land: Isa. 28:17, "And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place." Flying from one mischief, while they flee not to the great rock, they shall fall into another: Amos 5:19, "As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him."—It imports,

6. That Christ is a sufficient shelter, however weary a land the world he: John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Be the storms or heats as great as they will, he is as a great rock; and from him, though the troubles may be great, yet they may expect a great salvation. They will always be safe who are under the shade of the great rock, through which neither heats nor storms can pierce: Psalm 93:4, "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters; yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." It is impossible they can be greater than they have been; nay, they can never be so great as once they were, when from heaven, earth, and hell, at once they blew upon Christ. Yet he bore them, bore up under them, bore them off his people; even as the heats and rains fall on the rock, while those under its shade are kept safe.—It imports,

Lastly, That the weary world makes Christ more precious to sinners than otherwise he would be. If the traveller were not scorched with heat, or tossed with tempests, he would never look near the rock. Ease in the world, is the neck-break of many. But it is well for the church and people of God, that the world is a step-dame to them; were they better entertained in the world's house, they would more seldom knock at God's door.—We now proceed,

II. To shew in what respects the world to the people of God is a weary land.—It is so, because,

1. The wind blowing in the traveller's face makes any land a weary land to him; and in this world, there is a wind of ordinary trouble, that is seldom if ever down, but blowing especially in the face of the travellers to Zion; Matth. 6:34, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Sometimes it blows away the man's ease, blasts his reputation, blows away his worldly goods, his health, his relations, &c. It blows so that he is sure of nothing he has, unless it be Christ in him, the hope of glory. And the travellers must lay their account with this. This cannot fail but make the world a weary land. But the soul may find a calm under Christ's shadow, as Hannah did, when she poured out her soul before the Lord, 1 Sam. 1:16. Praying in faith is a great ease to a heart uneasy under trouble: Matth. 7:7, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall And; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Christ is an anchor that can keep the soul sure and steadfast amidst all the tempests of a weary world. He has an open ear to their just complaints, and a soft hand, under which the uneasy heart and head may repose themselves.—It is a weary land,

2. Because sometimes there are terrible tempests of common calamity, threatening to sweep all away before them, blowing in this world, which makes it a weary land. There are no tempests in the upper region, but in the lower region, where we are, they are very frequent, whereby nations, churches, and families, are thrown into the utmost confusion. David speaks of such, Psalm 55:8, "I would," says he, "hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest." These often make a most miserable face on the places where they blow, and make the land a weary land indeed. But even in this case, there is found peace under Christ's shadow: John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that ye might have peace; in the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." In him believers have a peace the world cannot rob them of. He has hiding-places for his people, where he will hide them, if not from trouble, yet from the evil, the sting, and hurt of it: 1 Pet. 3:13, "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" He will hide them, if not under heaven, yet in heaven; and they have no reason to complain who get there, though in a fiery chariot. Our Lord holds the winds in his hand, and they can blow no more terribly than he permits them; so that in the worst of times it is good news; Isa. 52:7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" And these that make Christ their friend, may bid defiance to all their enemies.—The world is a weary land,

3. Because the wild beasts in it make it a weary land. The scripture calls wicked men so, especially in their opposition to, and treatment of the people of God, and the world is the place of their abode: Song 4:8, "Come with me, my spouse, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards." And therefore, while they are travelling through the wilderness, they are often put to that prayer, Psalm 74:19, 20, "O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked, forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever, have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." No wonder the world be a weary land to the people of God; for the wild beasts are often heard roaring there; Psalm 74:4, "Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregation, they set up their ensigns for signs;" threatening to devour, and to swallow up, and to make the name of Israel no more to be remembered; as the Egyptian beast did, Exod. 15:9. But while these roarings make the hearts of God's people to tremble, the voice of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, terrible to his enemies, is comfortable to his friends: Psalm 93:4, "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." This moderated the roarings of the Assyrian in Hezekiah's days, Isa. 37:22. These beasts are often heard yelling in the world: Jer. 2:15, "The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste." Dreadful is that yelling they make when they are got together, uttering their blasphemies, curses, and reproaches, against God, his people, and his cause in the world, as if hell was opened, which is the den of the great lion. This makes the world a weary land, and it is most heavy and distressing to the people of God: Psalm 74:10, "O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?" But there is refreshment and shelter under Christ's shadow in this case, while the soul sees that he will close up at length the blasphemous mouths, and bring them to the city above, where they shall hear no more of any such thing. But again, these beasts are often seen tearing and devouring in the world the men that are more righteous than they: Hab. 1:13, "Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" God has his times wherein he lets them loose, to make havoc of the church, and shed the blood of his saints. But under Christ's shadow there is refreshing in this case. He can break out the teeth of the great lions with a touch; and while they are at the worst, he says to his people, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul," Matth. 10:28. It was the way they treated Christ himself when in the world, but he rose upon them to their confusion; and so shall the church in like manner, and according to their measure, Psalm 22:12, 13.

4. Darkness causeth weariness, and a dark land will always be a weary land to the children of light. The world at best is but a dark land, in comparison with heaven: 1 Cor. 13:12, "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face." But sometimes the darkness increaseth mightily. We have had a long sunshine of gospel-light, but men have loved darkness rather than light. And now God is rising up to plead with the generation; and we may say, with Jeremiah, "Woe unto us, for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." Do ye not see the darkness come, and coming on the land more and more? There is a dark cloud already cast over the ministers and professors of Scotland; so that they have now been like a company of travellers in a mist; some crying this, and others that is the way; while many are at a stand, not knowing what hand to turn to. Hence there are an alienation of affection, divisions, and separations, amongst those who all profess that they are travelling to the same place, but cannot agree about the way. Terrible this at all times, but now especially, when the common enemy is at our gates, which should make us cease from these fends, as it is said the beasts did, hare, dog, sheep, cat and rat, in the inundation of the Severn. Some pride themselves in these, but they will make the world a weary land to those that are led by the Spirit of truth and peace: Judges 5:16, "Why abidest thou among the sheep-folds, to hear the bleating of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart."

What shall we do in such a case? Get in under Christ's shadow, by faith, renouncing our own understanding, passions, and prejudices, and giving up ourselves singly to his guiding, and his shadow will be as the shadow on the dial, pointing to the hour of the day: Psalm 25:9, "The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way." In the greatest darkness of the world, there is a light, even "a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts," 2 Pet. 1:19. This oracle of heaven is never struck dumb; but at any time men's corruptions may make them both blind and deaf to its warnings. But again, the bushel is preparing to put the candle under, which God has lighted to give light to his church, if mercy prevent it not; and then people that have made themselves so many silent Sabbaths, will get them made to their hands; and they that have been wearying for the day, may come to get a weary fill of it. Preachers driven into corners, closed kirk-doors, and the songs of the temple turned into howlings, will make a dark day. And now, if God do not mercifully interpose, we cannot miss it. But Christ's shadow will be refreshing in this case to those that get under it. Though the enemy should get leave to tread down the outer court, and these that worship in it, they that are farther in shall be well seen to: Rev. 11:1, 2. Though they should burn up all the synagogues of God within the land, yet there is a little sanctuary they cannot hinder you to carry about with you: Ezek. 11:16, "Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God, Although I have cast them afar off among the Heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come." And though the stars should be stamped down to the earth, and no star-light shine in the church, ye shall not want light while the Sun of righteousness continues to shine.

Finally, The bottomless pit is already opened, the smoke is arising in our land, and the locusts are coming out of the smoke upon it: Rev. 9:1–3. The Popish party are now begun to make head, with their brethren the malignants who carry on the war with Antichrist, and to set a limb of Antichrist upon the throne: and if they succeed, what can be expected, but that the smoke of Antichristian errors, superstition, and idolatry, will overspread these nations again? So that we must resolve either to take on the Beast's mark or Christ's fire-mark, either burn or turn. It will be weary work to get through the smoke, which it is to be feared will stifle most of us, and blacken many. But get under Christ's shadow now; seek now to believe, and feel the power of truth. An empty profession will not do here; lamps without oil will go out in the smoke. But be it ever so gross, it will hurt none but the profane and hypocritical professor: Rev. 9:4, "And it was commanded them, that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." They that have Christ's mark of true piety, shall be kept from receiving the mark of the beast. Under Christ's shadow they will be as the Israelites in Goshen; when darkness is over all the land, they shall have light in their dwellings.—The world is a weary land,

5. For blood and death going through it, make it a weary land. In heaven there are none of these things, it is the pleasant land, Rev. 21:4. But in the world they are very frequent; which often makes the weary sons of Zion to cry, "Woe is me now, for my soul is wearied because of murderers," Jer. 4:31. The people that delight in war is a black character in the scriptures, Psalm 68:30. The confused noise of the warriors is no pleasant sound, nor are garments rolled in blood a pleasant sight. The constant disquiet and terror that attends the sword's raging in a land, is a wearisome case, as it is described, Deut. 28:67, "In the morning thou shalt say, Would to God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning; for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."

The white horse of the gospel has for many years made a pleasant parade through the land. But alas! neither it, nor the crowned head, the Son of God, that sits upon it, has been much regarded; nay; both he, and his bow, which is the word, have been despised; few, very few, have given him a crown, Song 3:11, by closing with him in the gospel-offers. And now the red, black, and pale horses, mentioned Rev. 6:4, 5, 8, seem to be ready to begin their march, to avenge the affronts offered to the white horse; though the Popish and malignant riders mean not so, but to banish the white horse out of the land. What shall we do in this case? get in under Christ's shadow, that is the only safe retreat in such a case: Mic. 5:5," And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land." This should be our work this day; we should sit down under his shadow, believing in him, and depending upon him, Cant. 2:3. When public calamity comes upon a land, every person will run to that place where they expect the greatest safety; but run where they will for shelter, if they run not to Christ, their shelters will fall down about their ears at length: Isa. 28:17, "And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the hiding-place." But the way of safety is to run to Jesus Christ: Prov. 18:10, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." You must sit down under his shadow, by closing with him in the offers of the gospel, taking him for all, and instead of all, for time and eternity: giving yourselves away to him, renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, embarking in his interests and cause at this day, whoever be against it. This is a loud knock Christ is giving to gospel-despisers to open to him, after the slighting of many a still small voice, whereby he lets thorn know, that if they will not open to him as a Lord and Saviour, he will arise on them as a Judge with a vengeance, whether they will or not. Come, then, ye despisers of Christ, and sit down under his shadow, before the scorching heat of the weary land burn you up.

We must sit still under his shadow, by cleaving to him, and depending upon him: Isa. 30:7, "For the Egyptian shall help in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still." Though the scourge reach all, the greatest safety will be there. Cleave to him and his cause, come what will come; for if you go off his way to seek safety, you cast yourselves out of his promised protection. Piety will be the best policy in the wont of times: Prov. 10:9, "He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely; but he that perverteth his way, shall be known." And depend on him by believing his promises, both for your personal case, and the church's case; for whoever be in the field, victory is in his hand alone, and he gives it to whom he will; he does what he will in the armies of heaven and earth; whom he will he strengthens, whom he will he weakens, for he is the Lord of hosts; and he hath engaged that at length it shall be ill with his enemies, and well with his friends: Isa. 54:17, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn; this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."—But again,

We must lie down under his shadow, in holy resignation, to Buffer whatsoever he may call us to, Isa. 51:23. The dispensations of the day call aloud to us to prepare for suffering; if the malignant party prevail, doubt not but their little finger will be heavier than their father's loins. Our Lord has given many love-tokens to the generation, which have been lightly esteemed; howbeit, there are many that profess love to him and his truths; and it would seem, he will try what tokens we have to bestow on him and his cause. It is likely he will have a portion of some one's goods, relations, liberty, yea, and of their blood too, ere all be done; and it is to be feared, the tokens of his displeasure draw so deep, that many will give up with him on this account. But if you be wise, lie down under his shadow; for a thorny bed under Christ's shadow will at the last prove more easy than the beds of ivory on which his enemies may stretch themselves for a little; Job 20:5, "The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment." The hour and power of darkness will not last; and though God should suffer that party to carry all before them a while, there is no ground to doubt but God will be even with them, for all their enmity, and opposition to his work; yes, and render home their father's opposition to it into their bosom, and give them blood to drink, for the blood their fathers shed in fields, and on scaffolds, when they have filled up the measure of their iniquity by what they may now do: Rev. 16:5, 6, "And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy."

But we must also stand up under Christ's shadow, and act for him. Certainly, as the quarrel is now stated betwixt Christ and his enemies in Britain and Ireland, he calls his people now to act for him and his cause. If they have a standard to be displayed for Popery and slavery, God has given us a standard to be displayed for religion and liberty: Psalm 60:4, "Thou has given a banner to them that feared thee, that it might be displayed because of the truth." And people are called, by this dispensation, to put themselves in a posture to defend their religion and liberties, their Protestant King, country and families, and not to leave themselves a naked prey for murderers. And in such a time, people consulting their own ease, more than the honour of God, the welfare of his cause, and their neighbour's safety, may easily slip themselves in under Meroz's curse, which, when incurred, will not be got so easily off persons: Judges 5:23, "Curse ye Meroz, (said the angel of the Lord), curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

Never was the cause more clear in Britain. The word, to spirit the soldiery under the enemies' standard, should be, The great red dragon, Rev. 12:3, and the motto corresponding with this, as in Psalm 2:3, "Let us break their bands, and cast their cords from us." This is the design of the attempt, and, I am persuaded, is looked upon so by Him that sitteth in the heavens. What else is the design of the Papists and malignants this day? Our holy religion must go, and idolatry and superstition come in its room; we and our families must be murdered, or renounce our religion, though denying of Christ will never altogether please them, for they will especially never trust Scotch Presbyterians, so that that would be the way to die a double death. Our Protestant King must go, and a Papist ascend the throne, and the covenanted work of Reformation be rooted out, unless that people act for their defence against the Antichristian party. I know no mids this day, but that every one must be on Christ's side, or on Antichrist's. This cause will bear no neutrality: Matth. 12:30, "He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad."

Never was the cause more favourable; for while our intruders and enemies cannot appear in the field but as rebels and traitors, laying themselves open to all the pains of treason and rebellion, we have, by the mercy of God, the law on our side. No doubt, masses will be said at Rome for them, and in other parts of the Pope's territory; but the prayers of all the Protestant churches abroad will be for us and our righteous cause; and the prayers of all the godly in the land will also be in our favour. It is true, indeed, our God is angry with us; but sure I am, he is not well-pleased with them, he never was nor will be pleased with the cause they have in hand; and therefore, seeing the cause is the Lord's, we may be sure that "though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion;" and when he has done his work with his furnace on Mount Zion, he will bring off his cause and people victorious at length, Isa. 54:17. And we have ground to hope, that if the noise of enemies go on, it will raise up at length a ghost upon the Popish and malignant interest in these nations, that shall affright them, and rain it more than ever; I mean, the ghost of the buried covenants.*

SERMON XXIII

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

And a man shall be—as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. - ISA. 32:2

HAVING, in the preceding discourse, offered several reasons why this world is to the saints a weary land, I go on now farther to observe, that the world is to them a weary land: For,

6. An ill way makes a weary land to travellers. There is much ill way in the world, that wearies sore them that are travelling Zion-ward. It is true, the way of holiness is a good way, in so far as it leads to the heavenly Jerusalem; and though it be strewed with thorns and briars, it is better to walk in it, than in the way to destruction strewed with roses. But an uneasy way we call an ill way; and such is the way through the weary land of the world. It is all up-hill, which scars the most part of the world. The way to hell is down the hill, but the way to heaven is up the hill: Psalm 24:3, "Who shall ascend into the hill of God?" They that would sit at ease, and sleep through the world, are not meet for heaven; the way will try people's strength, and an easy way to heaven no man shall find. There are strong lusts, and temptations, and troubles, which people have to climb over. But under Christ's shadow, the traveller will recover his breath again, and be invigorated for new difficulties, till he come to the top of the hill: Isa. 40:29, "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength." Ver. 31, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

It is a narrow way: "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life," Matth. 7:14. Multitudes walk in the broad way, and there they get room enough; but in the narrow way there are few travellers, and they that are on it must take good heed to their feet, or they are apt to catch a fall. And considering how rash we naturally are, and how weak-headed and false-hearted we are, and how narrow the road is, and how loose the ground about it is, it is no wonder, that with the Psalmist we complain of broken bones, Psalm 51:8. These make a weary way. But under Christ's shadow there is light for the blind, strength for them that go even on, and medicine to cure them that are bruised by their falls, if they intend not to lie still, but to get up and walk on.

It is a hard and rugged way, and therefore they must have leg-harness, as soldiers have, to preserve their feet from stones and roughness in the way of their march: Eph. 6:15, "And their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." There are many difficulties to go through that will need resolution and undaunted courage. The spies saw such difficulties in the way to Canaan, that they brought up an ill report of the land. But Caleb and Joshua had another spirit, that fitted them to face all these difficulties, Numb. 14:24. The fearful are not for heaven, Rev. 21:8. But under Christ's shadow there is sweet refreshment in the hardest piece of the way, and nothing is too hard for them whom he bears up: Phil. 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me."

It is a way wherein many snares are laid. The snares of the world make it a weary land. The way is beset with thorns, and lies through thickets, where on every side there is something to catch a man. There are snares in every lot, in every condition, in the most innocent things in the world; and there is need of great caution to get through them. How often are men in the snare ere ever they are aware! Like the poor bird they find the snare laid where they were not looking for it. But under Christ's shadow, there is a shelter where they may be safe. It is he that leads them through the wilderness to that place where they will be in no more hazard. Yea, casting themselves by faith on him, they are in no danger from any quarter whatever.—It may be further observed,

7. That the country-disease often makes it a weary land; and that, in the world, is sin. No sooner do any set their foot in that land, than are they infected with it: Psalm 51:5, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Though the power of this disease be broken in the saints at their conversion, yet it hangs about them as long as they are in the land. What wonder, then, that it be to them a weary land?—And there are five things that make it so.

(I.) The heaviness of the disease. It is called a body of death, Rom. 7:24, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Death is heavy in any part of it, how much more burdensome must a body of it be? It bears down the man continually; it is a burden to the back, that makes him stoop, and so makes a weary land.

(2.) The universality of the disease. It affects and indisposes the whole man, so that we may say, Isa. 1:5, 6, that "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." It spreads itself like a leprosy, through all the faculties of the soul, and leaves no part of the man unaffected. It has smitten the understanding with blindness, and the heart with hardness, and filled the mind with enmity against God. Job's life was a heavy life when he was full of boils all over; and so is the life of those who are universally affected with the disease of sin.—There is,

(3.) The frequent relapses that take place in this disease. How often do they fall back again when they seem to be in a fair way of recovery! This makes a weary world to a heaven-born soul, that would fain be like God in holiness; ever wrestling, and ever falling into the mire again, makes weary work. This makes that longing to be away for which the saint is distinguished.—There is,

(4.) The malignant influence these things have on the saints' journey through the weary land. By these means they are very much unfitted for it, they walk very slowly. It is a weary journey to them; and oftentimes they are so laid by, that they are not able to move forward at all, and they are driven back, instead of going forward.

(5.) It is not their case alone, but of all that are there, the being affected by this disease. The world is an hospital of souls sick with sin. Some of them are sensible of their disease, others are not. The godly have not only their own plague-sores running on, but they also see those of others running on: and that makes a weary land: Jer. 9:2, "O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of a wayfaring man, that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men." But under Christ's shadow, there is medicine for the sore. There is balm in Gilead, and a physician there. His blood takes away the guilt, his Spirit takes away the power of sin; and in his holy promises they see their freedom and complete cure.—I observe,

8. That the scorching heats in the world make it a weary land. And there are these four kinds of scorching heat.

(1.) There is the flery heat of desertion, from heaven. This the captain of our salvation met with in the weary land, Psalm 22:1–14; and this has often been the lot of the people of God in the weary land; they have lost sight of their guide, and have been left in darkness, and gone mourning many days, without the sun, with many a weary groan, Psalm 6:6. Nay, there have been many positive outgoings of wrath against their souls, sparks of hell flying in on heaven-born souls, while they have been pressed under a sense of the Lord's anger, living, as it were, in the smoke of a furnace: Psalm 102:3, "For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth."—There is,

(2.) The fiery heat of temptation from hell: Eph. 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in high places." When the Israelites were in the wilderness they met with flery serpents that bit them, Num. 21:6; and while we are in the wilderness of this world, we cannot miss the inflaming bites of the old serpent the devil. Satan is within bow-shot of us while here; and the tosses of temptation from him make it a weary land. Ordinary temptations are never wanting, but are coming through the weary land like midges in a hot summer-day. Sometimes there are extraordinary temptations, fiery darts, where the poor soul will be as much put to it, to defend itself, as one to defend a thatch-house against one casting fire-balls, as it were, without intermission.—There is,

(3.) The fiery trial from the men of the world, persecution. This is such an ordinary inheritance of the people of God in the weary land, that an apostle says, 1 Pet. 4:12, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." There is much dross, together with the good metal, which gathers together in Zion, and therefore God will have a furnace there, and the wicked of the world to set it on, and blow it up, and professors must be cast into it to try them, some to be consumed, some to be refined in it: Zech. 13:9, "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God."—There is,

(4.) The fiery heat of contention and division from the altar, mentioned Rev. 8:5. These have a sort of malignant influence on the church; they scorch and blacken her exceedingly: Song 1:6, "Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me." Hence you may see the dreadful mischief which it does, Rev. 8:7, 8, "There followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." Though the way be long and sore, the travellers may be hearty, and they may go pleasantly on, while they are comfortable to one another; but when they grow a burden to one another, when their unity and love among themselves are gone, that makes a weary way to travellers. But never was the shadow of a great rock more suitable to the scorched traveller, than Christ is to his people in all these cases.—For,

(1.) He is their great plight-anchor in desertion, their hope, and the support of their souls. His blood is the great fence, under which they shelter themselves from the fire of the law, and brings them into hope, when they are next door to desponding. An absolute God is a terrible, but God in Christ is a refreshing, sight.

(2.) He is their protector in temptation. Faith in Christ is a shield which quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked, Eph. 6:16. He is stronger than the strong man, and a present help in time of temptation, either to repel the tempter, or else to bear up the tempted. He says to them," My grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is made perfect in your weakness," 2 Cor. 12:9.

(3.) He is their strong tower in persecution, where they abide, and stand out against all the storms of an enraged world. He gives them peace, when their enemies are carrying on the war. "Peace" says he, "I leave with you; my peace I give unto you." He makes their bow to abide in its strength when the archers shoot at them, Gen. 49:24; and makes them more than conquerors, Rom. 8:37; and so lines the thorny crown with his love, that it sits very soft on their heads.

(4.) He is their peace in time of contention and division. With whomsoever they have war and strife, through him they have peace, peace with God, peace with conscience, and a hopeful prospect of getting thither,—where light shall be perfect, and where therefore there can be no difference of judgment;—where love is perfect, and therefore no alienation of affections among the inhabitants shall prevail.

9. Scarcity of provisions makes this world a weary land. What else can be expected in the waste howling wilderness of this world, where, though there is enough to raise the appetite of lusts, and a sufficiency of husks for swine to feed on; yet provision suitable for the soul is very scarce; and this is what makes the world to the saints a weary land. For oftentimes their table is overturned; the table of public ordinances is removed, which brings a famine of the word by which their souls should live, Amos 8:11, 12. Then they may be sent to seek bread for their souls with the peril of their lives; and this makes a weary land to these that know the spiritual sweetness of gospel ordinances.—Again, many times when they come to the table of ordinances, they get nothing at all, not a mess from the King's hand, less or more. How often are prayers, sermons, communions, like the empty chair of state, the king not filling it; like the empty grave, where the grave clothes lie, but the Lord himself is gone; so that there is nothing substantial with which to satisfy the hungry soul.—Finally, at their best entertainment in the weary land, they ordinarily rise hungry, and with an appetite. They are held short by the head, and it is but drops and sips that are got in this world; the full feast, where they shall hunger no more, is reserved to the pleasant land, where there is fulness of joy, and pleasures evermore. But in this respect Christ is a suitable shadow, he keeps the soul from fainting; rather than they should want, bread shall be sent from heaven, and water shall flow out of the flinty rock: "Open thy mouth wide," says he, "and I will fill it," Psalm 81:10. He has the keys of heaven, and is the great steward of the Father's treasures, who, in the greatest scarcity, has enough amply to furnish those who by faith come to him.

10. Little company in the road to Zion makes it a weary land to the traveller thitherward. The multitude go all the other way; few take the narrow road. Christ's flock is but a little flock; in Elijah's days there were so very few upon the road, that he thought he had been all alone; he had so little help of the seven thousand, that he knew not of them. See how Micah longed for company on the road, but they were hid out of his view, Micah 7:1, and downwards. Now, this circumstance makes it a weary land; for at this rate the traveller has few to take a lift of his burden, and bear it with him. The apostle says, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." But alas! we are in a strange land, and there are many to lay a load above a burden, but few to take a lift of it. But people must even creep under their own burdens as they can, and keep to it themselves. This is what makes a weary world. But they are not to be moaned in this case, who get in under Christ's shadow; he can bear them, and their burden also. The Lord even reduces his people to this case, that they may depend the more upon himself. When we have created props standing about us, we are ready to lay over much weight on them, and therefore the Lord suffers people to find their own weight, that they may be constrained to employ himself, to put the work in his own hand.—Again, the traveller has few to consult with, when he comes to a difficult and dark step. There are such steps which Christians meet with in their way to Zion, and it is no small mercy to have those who will help by their sympathy, advice, and prayers. But, alas! the unfeeling world affords few such; and this is what makes it a weary land. But Christ lives, and he lives to be a counsellor, an interpreter, one among a thousand. Therefore, let us not complain in this case: Mic. 4:9, "Now, why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished?" They are well-guided whom Jesus guides; and if he do not guide us, we may blame ourselves," for, "the meek he will guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way," Psalm 25:9. Let us go to the oracle, and improve his prophetical office.—Finally, they have few to keep them out of languor by the way. It would be a great comfort to the weary traveller, to have the benefit of conference about the holy city, the New Jerusalem, to which the travellers are going, and of the glory, ease, and rest, that are to be enjoyed there; it would tend to comfort and stir them up to vigorous walking. But they are not alone, who have Christ with them; he can bear the soul company by his word and Spirit, he can keep them from languishing in the weary land.—We now proceed,

III. To shew in what respects Christ is a suitable and refreshful shade or shelter. The truth is, there is nothing in Christ but what affords a refreshful shade to the believer in the weary land: Song 5:16, "Yea, he is altogether lovely." But the breaking of the spices will make them the more fragrant to those that have their senses spiritually exercised. Therefore observe,

1. That his very name affords a broad shade for the refreshment of the traveller in the weary land, sufficient to recover the soul that is swooning away: Song 1:3, "Because of the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." When Moses would see the glory of God, the Lord proclaimed his name before him: Exod. 34:6, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." His name is more glorious than if it were written in letters of gold; it is written to us in letters of his precious blood. The truth is, all things in the world are rather names than things, the most desirable things in it are the name of nothing: Prov. 23:5, "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." The terrible things of it are but frightful names, 2 Cor. 6:9, 10; but here is a name "that is above every name," Phil. 2:9. I shall mention only three instances.—His name is,

(1.) Jesus, a Saviour: Matth. 1:21, "His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." How sweet must this name be to a sensible lost sinner! in the world we hear of Adam the destroyer, who mined himself and all his posterity; of sinners, his children, self-destroyers, Hos. 13:9; of Abaddon, the great destroyer, who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But to all these we may comfortably oppose Jesus the Saviour; stronger than Adam, saving those that he destroyed; stronger than sinners, helping those that have destroyed themselves; stronger than Satan, whom he spoils of his prey: Isa. 49:25, "Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children."—His name is,

(2.) Messiah, or Christ, the anointed of the Father, pointing at his three offices. For under the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed; it signified their call to the office: so that in this name we see him in all his offices, called to the Mediatory office by the Father, and fully furnished for it; and so there is enough in him for all our needs, to be drawn forth by faith in his name. And we have it in Greek, as well as in Hebrew, shewing that the Gentiles, as well as the Jews have access to him: John 1:41, "We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ."—His name is,

(3.) Immanuel, God with us, Matth. 1:23. If we press this name by faith, the sap of it will come forth to the believer in three things.—There is,

1st, God in our nature: John 1:14, "And the word was made flesh." God made man; Satan having withdrawn man from his allegiance, the whole human nature was corrupted, and set at enmity with God. But, behold in Christ the divine and human natures united, heaven and earth joined together in him, under the shade of which sinners may, with comfort and confidence, approach to God.—There is,

2dly, God reconciled to us in Christ: John 1:14, "And dwelt among us;" (Gr. tabernacled.) Christ is the tabernacle of meeting, wherein God and sinners meet in peace: Rev. 21:3, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." There the weapons fall out of the hand of justice, and there the arms of mercy embrace the sinner. When the sinner comes there, he is out of the dark and black region, where death, wrath, and the curse reign; he comes into a place of light, the light of the Lord's countenance, that shines on sinners in the face of Jesus, our Immanuel. O what a blessed shade is here!—There is,

3dly, God on our side: Psalm 46:7, "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." Under this shade, believers may bid defiance to all their enemies, the united powers of earth and hell: Rom. 8:31, "If God be for us, who can be against us." This is the best shade the Lord's people can betake themselves to in a time of confusion and danger. Before the wars of Canaan began, the Lord brought Joshua under it, Josh. 5:13, 14. And if people could be got awakened out of their sleep upon these pillows which their enemies have laid under their heads, the directing them to this shadow by the word would be both reckoned sweet and seasonable, as Exod. 9:20. This was the shadow Isaiah directed the people to, when the news came that the malignant Ephraimites, and the idolatrous Syrians, were confederated to war against Judah, and to set up a king of their own stamp over Judah: Isa. 7:2–6, "And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim; and his heart was moved, and the hearts of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field, and say unto him, take heed, and be quiet, fear not, neither be faint-hearted, for the two. tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the Son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the Son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal." The prophet labours to draw them to this shadow, as a complete defence against the scorching heat of these two smoking firebrands; for he says, Isa. 8:10, "Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought, speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us," (Heb. Immanuel is with us.)

2. His natures afford a broad shade to the traveller in the weary land; he is both God and man. Jesus, he is man, and as such he has a sympathy, as one that has had experience of the troubles his people meet with in the weary land: Heb. 4:15, "For we have not an high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." As he is God, he is able to give them all protection in all cases and all conditions. However low they be, his power, being infinite, is able to raise them up. So that, however unequally they be matched with devils and men, they may say, as 2 Kings 6:16, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." When Christ sent out his apostles into the world, and knew that they would be opposed by the authority of the great ones, by the power, the learning, the prejudice, and superstitions of the world, over against all these he sets these emphatic words, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," Matth. 28:20.

3. His offices are a shade to the traveller in a weary land. These are suited to all the cases his people can possibly be in, in the weary land.

He is a Prophet, to teach them, to lead and guide them: Isa. 55:4, "Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people." If darkness arise, he is light to them that sit in darkness. There is no case so perplexed, but he can resolve it; and faith can begin where sight ends; and his direction will ever be ready to his own in the time of need: "It shall be given them in that hour, what they shall speak," Matth. 10:19.

He is a Priest to purge away sin, and manage his people's cause in the court of heaven. If guilt sting the conscience, and make a sick soul, his blood removes the sting: it purges the conscience from dead works, Heb. 9:14: it heals all their wounds: Isa. 33:24, "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." If they have a petition to present before the Lord, while Jesus lives, they know of a proper hand in the court of heaven, into which they can put it. For he makes intercession for us; he is our Advocate with the Father. This is no small comfort in the weary land.

He is a King, to protect and defend them, to conquer and restrain all his and their enemies. If Satan be too strong and subtle for them, yet Jesus is stronger than he, and can outwit him, and even outshoot him in his own bow. His grace is sufficient against the greatest temptations. If the world, the men or things of the world, be too hard for them, Jesus has overcome both. And though they may be ready to cry out for fear of these, that one day they will perish by their hands, yet their great Captain being on their head they shall surely come off victorious at last, saying, "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

4. His purchase affords shelter in the weary land. The price he paid was his own precious blood; the purchase then must needs be great, seeing the price was of infinite value. He has purchased for his people all that is necessary to make them happy. What Adam lost, Christ has purchased again, and that with advantage; so that all their losses are made up in him. Would you have the inventory of Christ's purchase? you have it, 1 Cor. 3:22, "Whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours." The best things for their enjoyment in time or through eternity. The worst things, through him, work for your good. What a refreshing shade, then, is this in the worst of times!

5. His relations afford shelter in a weary land. He stands in many near relations to his people: he is the foundation on which they are built, and therefore, as the house built on the rock stands unshaken, so he will support them under all pressures. He is their Father, and will allow them their provision, he will afford them protection, an inheritance, and every thing that children may expect from a father. He is their Husband, and therefore will be their defence: yea, their Head, and therefore he will guide them, and every way tenderly care for them, as the head does for the several members of the body.

6. His covenant and promises afford shelter in a weary land. The covenant is offensive and defensive, therefore the believer has common friends and enemies with the Lord himself: Zech. 2:8. He that toucheth his people toucheth the apple of his eye. Hence, said Jesus, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Who would not venture to sea in that ship in which Christ himself, his interest, and his glory, are embarked; for though the ship in that case be beset with waves, it will not sink. Cæsar, when embarking on board a ship to pursue his enemy, to encourage the pilot, who was afraid of the storm, cried out, You have Cæsar and his fortune embarked with you. How much more may the Christian not be afraid in the greatest storm, when Christ, his interest, and his honour, are with him. There are promises in the covenant suited to every case. The Lord has secured to his people protection and provision in the worst of times: "He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks; bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure."

He has secured them against apostacy: John 10:29, "No man (says he) shall pluck them out of my Father's hand." He has promised strength to the weak and fearful, Isa. 40:29–31; he hath promised his presence to be with them for ever, Heb. 13:5; Isa. 43:2, he hath promised that all things shall work together for their good, Rom. 8:28; and finally, there is nothing whatever which can befall them in the weary land, bat there is something in the covenant and the promise suited to it, peculiarly calculated to comfort and support them under every pressure.

It remains that, as was proposed,

IV. I make some practical improvement, which I shall do,

1st, In an use of information, and,

2dly, In an use of exhortation.

For an use of information we may see,

1. That it is a black mark of a soul, that has no more to look for as a portion but the world; when they take so well with the world's entertainment, that they never seek after Christ. The world is not the weary land to them, and so they care not for Christ Are there not many who would desire no better portion than the world, if they could get it kept? They could well renounce their pretensions to Canaan, if they could get their tents to stand always on this side Jordan: they would never desire a better heaven than their lordships, their farms, or what else they can work for with their own hands. While these things prosper with them, they have nothing to make the world a weary land to them; the country's disease never wearies them; and if they be crossed in one worldly thing, they do not go to Christ to get comfort under it, but to some other worldly thing. This speaks, that they are at home in the world, and are not travelling towards Zion. Others may be pilgrims in it, but they are not; they are just where they would be, and have no other choice, Psalm 4:6. It shews also that they would never look near Christ, if death did not make sure of their being turned out of the earth. They have no love to Christ for himself, they could fend well enough without him, if he would but let them alone in the world.

2. See here the mystery of the Christian life. Why do true Christians so condemn the world? It is a weary land to all such. What keeps them all under the tribulation of the world, while others faint, so that they have had a joy in tribulation, took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, yea, and even death itself? Why, under the shadow of the great Rock, they got meat to eat the world knew not of.

3. See the transcendent excellence of Christ. What a precious one must he be in whom there is enough to balance all the miseries of the weary land! There are some of these that nothing under the sun can balance; what avails all the riches and honours under the sun, to a person under extreme bodily distress, or exposed to the arrest of death. But in the most wearisome step of the weary land, Christ is a refreshing shade.

4. This lets as see, where there is a shelter to be found in the worst of times, against the stormy tempest of public or private calamity: John 16:33, "These things (says Jesus) I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace; in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." In Jesus Christ our safety lies, and without him there is no safety. Here is the rock that is higher than we, and higher too than the highest of our enemies, whether devils or men.

I have only now to add an use of exhortation. I would exhort you to come to Christ, and put yourselves under his shadow this day. And that you may understand what you are called to, take it in the following advices.

1. Lay aside your security, and see that you stand in need of a shade for refreshment and for protection in the weary land. However lightly people look on the confusions of our day, I think we have no reason to be secure; security is dangerous, seeing the sins of the generation are crying sins, crying for a stroke. Whatever has brought a stroke on a church or people, that is not wanting in Scotland this day. Did universal corruption amongst all ranks bring the deluge on the old world? that is visibly the plague of this generation. Did the despising of the gospel bring the Roman armies on the Jews? Matth. 22:7, the monstrous profanity amongst some, and loathsome formality among others, says we cannot escape, though God bear long with us.—The many deliverances we have met with when at the brink of ruin, and yet the generation not bettered by them, says that the axe, which has been lying so long at the root of the tree, will be wielded against us at the last: Amos 4:11, 12, "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore thus will I do unto you, O Israel! and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!" We are manifestly pining away under spiritual plagues at this day, many given up to vile affections, the generation generally plagued with hardness of heart and deadness, men are turned hateful, and left to hate one another, biting and devouring one another, all which is an evidence, that there is an evil spirit amongst us.—Finally, our security in the face of alarming dispensations, is a terrible token, according to that in 1 Thess. 5:3, "For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape."—I would exhort you,

2. To embrace Jesus Christ, and lay hold on the everlasting covenant. Ye that are strangers to Christ, come in at length. Let the state of your perishing souls come into your minds in earnest, and lay a sure foundation for eternity. Ye who have already come, come nearer and nearer, renew your acceptance of Christ, and stir up the grace of faith, that for the present is lying in such a weak state.

3. Repent of your sins, and turn from them. Amend your ways and your doings, and let not iniquity be your eternal ruin. Answer the call of God at length, that there may be no standing controversy betwixt God and you. Many delays have been in this matter, bring it now to a point, and halt no more betwixt two opinions, whether to be for God or for your lusts.—In a word, I exhort you,

4. To lay the weight of your through-bearing through the weary land over on Jesus Christ.—Look before you to the difficult steps that may be yet betwixt you and the grave, and solemnly take him for all you need or may need. Be concerned to depend upon him, and to trust in him, that he will not cease caring for you, and working in you, till he completely accomplish all that good word upon which he has caused you to hope.—To prompt you to this good work, I would propose the following motives:—

1. This is the shade God the Father has provided for you. "I have (says he) laid help upon one that is mighty," Psalm 89:19; and you hear what he says to you in the text. Therefore, honour the Father by coming to his Son, and putting yourselves under his shadow. He knew sinners would need a shelter in the weary land. O neglect not the offered salvation!—Consider,

2. That all other shadows are and will be but vain and vanishing ones; they will not be able to defend you from the ills to which you are exposed in the weary land; they will be like a hut built within the sea-mark, which will be carried away, together with the inhabitant, when the waters begin to flow: Isa. 28:17, "The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place." Then your own wisdom will be but folly, your strength weakness, your carnal schemes shall not profit you.—Consider,

3. That the wrath of God will pursue all who are not under this shadow. O Christless sinners! what will you do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what will you answer him? He is a consuming fire, all else you can put betwixt him and you will be but as stubble, or at best but a partition-wall of dry boards, that will quickly be consumed in that devouring fire.—Consider,

4. That whatever weary steps ye meet with in the weary land, these will be doubly heavy by your not coming in under Christ's shadow; for the curse will be in them; and though they were very light in themselves, that will make them heavy. You will get all your burden to bear alone, as Saul did. And, O what a sad case it is to have heaven and earth dark both at once! Isa. 8:21, 22.—Consider,

5. That all the travellers to Zion have made this shade their shelter. It is a tried shade in all ages of the church, Psalm 90:1; whoever pursues them, this is the refuge of all the people of God in all times: Prov. 18:10, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." The spouse of Christ looks for this shade, Song 1:7, 8, and 2:3: and many a good word they have spoken of it to recommend it to others.—Consider,

Lastly, That under Christ's shadow there will be safety in the most wearisome parts of the weary land. He is the Saviour, and there is none besides him. Under his shadow there is safety from troubles, when they are flying very thick in the weary land. He can hide his people in the hollow of his hand in the midst of danger, Psalm 91:7. For he has all things at his command; men and devils are under the check of his providence. There is oftentimes a moderation of troubles.—Under this shadow people find, that though they be not quite freed from them, yet they are made very moderate to them: Jer. 15:11, "The Lord said, Verily, it shall be well with thy remnant, verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil, and in the time of affliction." And sometimes it is much better for his people to meet with this moderation, Jer. 45:5. The life for a prey is no small mercy. While his people rest under this shadow, there is always a spiritual salvation from the sting of evil; thus the nature of afflictions is altered, and the sharpest and heaviest stones thrown at them become precious stones, which do them no hurt, but rather good; for "who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" 1 Pet. 3:13.—To sum up all in a word,

There is never missed here an eternal salvation. However they be treated in the weary land, none go to hell from under Christ's shadow; but though they should go through fire and water, they will land at last in Abraham's bosom, and be brought unto the wealthy place. Amen.

SERMON XXIV

THE EVIL AND DANGER OF HALTING BETWIXT TWO OPINIONS*

And Elijah said, How long halt ye betwixt two opinions? - 1 KINGS 16:21

AMONG the crowds of irreligious men in the visible church, there are few, if any, so positively determined against God and religion, as never to have a thought of repentance and reformation. Reason and interest appear so much on the side of religion, that where conscience possesses any power at all, one can hardly fail in having sometimes favourable thoughts on that side. But indecision and unsettledness in that weighty matter ruins men. It is so long ere they come to a point, that death often overtakes them before they have got the matter fixed; and they are set beyond the possibility of doing any thing for their souls, before ever they have resolved firmly what to do for them. The text is Elijah's expostulation with a great assembly in that dangerous case. The worship of Baal was set up, and authorised in Israel by Ahab, and patronised by his courtiers. Thence the body of the people, though they did not utterly renounce the worship of Jehovah, yet they were greatly corrupted with that idolatry. God had on this account sent a famine on them, and, though it had continued three years and a half, it had not reformed them. But Ahab lays the blame of this calamity on Elijah; Elijah retorts it boldly on him. They agree that all Israel be gathered with Baal's priests, who were dispersed over all the country, and the priests of the groves, who were Jezebel's chaplains, that the whole matter betwixt God and Baal, Elijah and Ahab, might be decided. The assembly being convened, Elijah comes to them, and, without observing any ceremony, or beginning to intercede with God for rain to them, he falls a-pleading God's cause with them, expostulating with them on God's behalf, as in the text: "How long (said he) halt ye betwixt two opinions?"

In which expostulation, we have,

I. The matter of it; their halting betwixt two opinions. Here he attacks them on two points, and charges them with a grievous fault, an unaccountable weakness in the most weighty concerns of their souls.—He charges them,

(1.) With weak and wavering heads. They had two opinions; by the one they had a value for Baal, by the other for Jehovah. Not only did some of that people in their judgment declare for Baal, others for Jehovah, but the same persons at one time thought it best to follow Baal, at another time Jehovah; they were undetermined in this matter of the greatest importance. Their thoughts in this case were wavering, going hither and thither, like top-branches of trees going with the wind, which is the Holy Ghost's own metaphor in the original word of the text.—They were chargeable,

(2.) With unsteady feet. They halted betwixt these two, and they went from Baal to the Lord, and from the Lord to Baal again. Thus, passing from side to side, they were poor lame souls, (this is the Holy Ghost's own metaphor), they did not only limp, like men lame of one leg, (the best Christians carry such a halt with them, till they come to the grave), but they were like men lame of both legs, for this is the import of the original word, 2 Sam. 4:4. They crooked to both sides, they went wavering from side to side, never straight, one time they were for Baal, another time for Jehovah, they were never steadily fixed.—In the expostulation, there is,

2. The manner of it: "How long will ye halt?" &c. They had been several years in that case, and yet were not come to a point. One might think the case was not so very difficult, whether Jehovah or Baal should be their choice; but wonder not at it, for the case is even as plain betwixt the Lord and your lusts and idols, yet year after year you cannot come to a point. The phrase is urgent; it imports,—the shamefulness, the baseness of their conduct, that they should be so long in deciding in a matter so very clear, stumbling at that rate in broad day-light;—its grievousness to the Spirit of God; he was so weary with bearing with them, that he would fain have them come to a point, and therefore rouses them up to it.

From the expostulation thus explained, I would observe the following doctrines, viz.

DOCT. I. That to be still wavering and undecided in the absolute and final choice betwixt the Lord and idols, is most abominable.

DOCT. II. That an unequal and unsteady walk, here-away, there-away, betwixt the Lord and idols, is an unaccountable and abominable way of walking through the world.—These I shall shortly consider in their order.

DOCT. I. That to be still wavering and undecided in the absolute and final choice betwixt the Lord and idols, is most abominable.—In speaking to this I shall only drop a few things,

I. For explication of the point.

II. For confirmation of it. And then,

III. Make some application.—I am,

I. To explain the point.—In order to this, consider,

1. That the Lord and idols are suitors for the heart of every man and woman that hears the gospel; and because that idols have the first love, they strive to retain it, and the Lord comes to recover it. Lusts court it, and therefore the gospel teaches to deny them, Tit. 2:12, "denying ungodliness and worldly lasts, and while it thus teaches, it brings a better offer. The devil, the world, and the corrupt nature, are proxies to agent for our lusts: the Lord's Spirit, his ministers, and conscience, act for the Lord.—Consider,

2. That the sinner's heart is urged with offers and arguments on both hands. God makes his offers, and urges them with the strongest arguments, taken from the certainty of eternal happiness, or misery, of enjoying his unspeakable love, or incurring his dread displeasure: Isa. 55:2, "Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your souls delight themselves in fatness." Satan is not behind hand in pains to urge his offers, he plies them with allurements of present profit and pleasure, most suited to the corrupt heart, which naturally gapes for them.—Consider,

3. That there can be no enjoying of both together: Matth. 6:24, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The Lord will not deal shares with lusts and idols, the offer is peremptory on other terms, "If ye take me, let these go." If the matter could be agreed betwixt the Lord and his rival idols, the wavering soul would soon be at a point, and would embrace both. But that cannot be: if the Lord be received, he must have the crown, and the most beloved lusts must be nailed to the cross: Gal. 5:24, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts."—Consider,

4. That the matter must be determined by the sinner's free choice: Josh. 24:15, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." The Lord will not take possession without the sinner's consent, for it is the heart he seeks, and if that be wanting, there is no bargain. And the choice must be an absolute and a final one; there must be a final deciding of this cause, so that thereafter the soul may cleave to the one, with full purpose of heart, and altogether abandon the other.—Consider,

Lastly, That the Lord requireth the sinner's decided answer. But here the sinner wavereth; he is neither determined to give up altogether with the Lord, nor to give up wholly with his lusts; sometimes he is almost persuaded, but never altogether. So there comes still one off-put on the back of another; and when the sinner has been at the advising and deciding this business days and years, he is as far from a point the last day as the first.—I am now to propose some considerations,

II. For confirmation of this point.—Consider,

1. That there is no competition here in point of real value. What is the dead idol Baal, in comparison with Jehovah, the living God? What are our filthy lusts, in comparison with Christ? Jer. 23:28, "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully: what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." It is a disgrace on our reason, to put them in the balance together, and argues a fearful blindness with which mankind are seized, once to entertain a doubt which to choose.—Consider,

2. That it is ingratitude of the deepest dye, not readily to fall in with the offer. When the potter is making suit to his own clay, the mighty God to his own creature worm man, to put off his offer, because of the craving of the heart after filthy lusts, these brats of hell, and spawn of the old serpent, is certainly ungrateful. The Lord might have left us with them, to have made the best of them we could, which would have been no better than death; for what else could have resulted from our drinking that cup of poison? But now, when he comes to offer us life, how horrible is it to be wavering and undetermined, whether we will accept of the Lord and life, or not!—Consider,

Lastly, That this warning is on a matter of the utmost weight, and what we have not one to-morrow allowed us to advise upon. Our souls lie at stake, eternal salvation or damnation depend on our choice; if we make the Lord our choice, we are happy for ever; if ye do not, we are ruined for ever; it is, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice," Psalm 95:7; so that, if death carry you off undetermined, your eternal destruction is unalterably fixed; and what an abominable thing is it, then, to be still wavering?—I now proceed,

III. To make some application of the subject. And with this design, I would expostulate with you halters and undetermined sinners, who are not yet come to a point in the matter of your choice betwixt Christ and your lusts, in the words of the text, "How long halt ye betwixt two opinions?" How long will it be ere you come to a point how to dispose of that heart of yours? You have had many rich gospel-calls from the Lord, and many communion-calls, and yet you have not freely abandoned your idols, and made choice of the Lord, to this day. Still you are halting, undetermined, and wavering. How long shall it be thus?—In managing this expostulation, I would ask,

I. Who are the wavering, undetermined halters betwixt the Lord and their lasts?—I answer,

(1.) Ye who to this day never found the time to break your covenant with your lusts, and to enter into covenant with God, either in pretence or reality. Are there not some here, who never gave their personal consent to the baptismal covenant, who are utter strangers to personal covenanting with God in Christ? they have not even expressly in words renewed the covenant made for them in baptism, much less have they ratified it with their own solemn consent before the Lord: they are woeful halters, but without making this choice they can never see heaven: Eph. 2:12, "Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."—Ye are the wavering,

(2.) Who time after time slight the sacrament of the Lord's supper, not preparing yourselves to partake of it. What makes you always and constantly mere spectators and onlookers of the seal of the covenant, and that solemn engagement to be the Lord's, but that you are halters betwixt the Lord and your lusts? Were there a bargain in your offer, of which all the partners were obliged to strike hands with the party that makes it with them, and you stood by, and would not give your hand; would not that prove you not to be determined as yet for the bargain? You would be glad to have the bargain ratified betwixt God and you, if you were really for it; Psalm 68:31, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God."—To this some may object,

We would fain take the sacrament, but they will not give us tokens of admission.—To this I answer,

What hinders your receiving them, but your gross ignorance, or your ungodly and scandalous life, which certainly ought to do it: Matth. 7:6, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs." But why do not ye get the knowledge of God and religion, and reform your lives, that ye may sit down at the Lord's table? And here lies the matter, you are not so far determined yet as to quit your lusts, for all the communion with God that is to be had in the sacrament.—Such of you are halting,

(3.) Who have had your convictions of sin, and are in so far satisfied, that you should have given up with it, but your hearts were never brought to part with it to this day. Are there not many who are standing undetermined this day on the carcases of their murdered convictions? Acts 24:25, "Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee." They have been lashed by their consciences, to drive them to the Lord from their lusts; nay, they had much ado to resist these lashings; but, after all, these impressions are worn off, and they are not yet determined.—Such are wavering,

(4.) Who have (often perhaps) been aiming at the covenant, but always stuck at one thing. you have been brought to a point in many things, but one thing you could never yet get over. O miserable halter betwixt God and the idol of jealousy! shall that one thing mar the winning of thy soul? If you be not content with all the articles of the covenant, without exception, you have your choice to make, yet you are not determined; Mark 10:21, "Jesus said unto him, One thing thou lackest," &c.—Such are halting,

(5.) Who are still at fast-and-loose with God, and whom nothing can bind, who do with their vows, as the dog with his collar, that slips it off and on as he pleases: Psalm 78:36, 37, "Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their month, and they lied onto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant." There are many of our communicants of this sort, who come under the vows of God very lightly, and as lightly soon after slip out from under the tie; the truth is, they never consider the matter with due seriousness. They make choice of the Lord, but, in very deed, their hearts were never in earnest determined.—Such of you are wavering,

Lastly, And in a word, who have not expressly embraced God and Christ, but cleave to your lusts. Our Lord has often come to you in the gospel, requiring your last answer, but you have neither yet given it, nor will you either plainly say ye will betake yourselves to your lusts and idols for altogether, nor are you come the length of an honest resolve to give over with them for altogether. Ye are undoubtedly woful undetermined halters.

2. I must ask at you, How long will ye halt, and be undetermined?

(1.) Have ye not halted long enough already betwixt God and your lusts? 1 Pet. 4:3, "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles." Have ye not often enough sent away the Lord in his messengers groaning from you, because ye could not be won yet? (1.) Young halters, may not ye, after ten, fifteen, and twenty years, or more, be at a point whether ye will be the Lord's or not? I assure you, God has been at a point with many one in that time, who never got your length, but their states are determined in another world already, without possibility of alteration. Every seven years ye have been in the world, ye have had an year of Sabbaths, in these Sabbaths many, many a call. And will ye yet be undetermined? (2.) Old halters, may not ye be at a point, after thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty years ye have taken to advise in? will ye halt on, till ye slip into a grave, into hell, undetermined. All the sermons ye have heard, the communions ye have waited on, even all the rods and the mercies ye have met with, have left you where they found you, as undetermined as ever, and will ye still go away this day as undetermined as ye came?

2dly, How can you be at ease as long as such a weighty matter is undetermined? Poor soul! while thou art halting, thou art standing on the brink of the pit, and whether death or life shall be thy lot, whether heaven or hell, is still as to thee undetermined. Till thou determine the point to be the Lord's, and to renounce all thy idols, Satan has the hold of thee, and there is nothing between death and thee but one step, thou hangest over the pit by the long-worn thread of divine patience; and whenever that gives way, thou art lost for ever: John 3:36, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

(3.) Do you not wonder, that God has waited so long upon you, that he has not taken your slights and scorns for your final answer? Is it not surprising, that he has not recalled his ambassadors, and denounced war against you, to be carried on for ever? Ye must needs wonder that it is not so, when ye consider the infinite greatness of him who makes suit to you, the meanness and vileness of those whom he courts, and the abominable competitors which ye prefer to him.

(4.) Are ye not afraid lest the Lord halt, and proceed no farther in seeking after you? that this may be the last call that ever you may get? Luke 14:24, "For I say unto you, that none of these men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper." Sit this call, and who knows but the Lord may from this time leave you to your lusts? Psalm 81:11, 12, "But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts and they walked in their own counsels." Hos. 4:17, "Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone." Saying, Cease my Spirit, cease conscience, ministers, ordinances, judgments, mercies; give that man no more disturbance in the embraces of his lusts, let them hang by him, and he by them, till they sink him into hell, and lie there as a mountain of lead on him for ever.

(5.) Do you not know, the longer you halt, it will be the harder to come to a point for God? the longer ye hold off from the Lord, you will be the more loth to come away; Prov. 6:10, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep." He that is not fit this day, will be unfitter to-morrow; for lusts, through continuance, grow more and more strong, and the devil, that comes at first alone, afterwards his name is Legion, for they are many. I aver, that it had been telling many of us, that they had struck the iron many years ago, when it was hotter than it is now.

Lastly, Halt as long as you will, you must not only be determined for the Lord, and against all your lusts, but also you must be joined to the Lord, and separated from them actually, else you are ruined for ever. The case is plain, Mark 16:16, "He that believeth not shall be damned."—Ezek. 18:30, "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin."—Matth. 18:3, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." So, if you have any mind to be free from the wrath to come, unless you have a mind to take your hazard with your lusts through all eternity, while God is God, to pursue the quarrel for the slight ye put on him, you must come to a point, and be determined for God, and give up with all your lusts.

Now, Sirs, there are two things lying before you this day, of one of which you are to take your choice.

1. You must either give up with God, Christ, heaven, and glory, quit all your part in the covenant of grace, the purchase of Christ, and his death, freely, and betake yourselves to your lusts, idols, and sinful courses, and make the best of them you can to live and die with them. Satan is fond of your making this choice. Or,

2. You must give up with your lusts, idols, and sinful courses, freely quit your part in them, not excepting your darling lust, and betake yourselves to the Lord in his covenant, taking this day God the Father for your Father, God the Son for your Saviour, God the Holy Ghost for your Sanctifier, Christ for your Prophet, to be led by his word and Spirit; Christ for your Priest, to be saved by his obedience and death only; Christ for your King, to be ruled and governed by him according to his will absolutely. The Lord is willing that you make this your choice, and kindly invites the worst of you to it; Rev. 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with me." And ch. 22:17, "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come: and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Nay, he commands you to make this choice: 1 John 3:23, "And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ." And so earnest is he in this invitation, that he will pass all your former slights, if you will but now fall in with this offer: Ezek. 18:22, "All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live." Now, there is the choice in both parts, what say ye to it? Josh. 24:15, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve."—I demand your answer. What answer shall I return?—your final answer, for I cannot say that ever our Master will send me again to you on this errand.—Are there any here,

(1.) Who will give that answer, Jer. 2:25, "There is no hope; no; for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go." O Sirs! take your word again, we are loth to carry back that word; why will you die? why will you destroy yourselves? If we saw a cup of poison in your hand, which you would not part with, but would drink, we would flee to you, mix our blood with yours, before you should get it drunk; but what can we do in this case, but cry, O do yourselves no harm! and protest before God, angels, men, and your own selves, that your blood is on your own head.—Are there any here,

(2.) Who will give that answer, Jer. 3:22, "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God."—Job 34:32, "If I have done iniquity, I will do so no more." Then, I call heaven and earth to record, you are at a point for our Lord never to go back; that it is an everlasting bargain between God in Christ and you; that he is yours, and you are his; that although this bargain betwixt our Lord and you has been many times back and fore, it is now fully and finally concluded, you are married now, and there is no room for any other suitors. O come, then, to your Lord's table with a holy boldness, and get the covenant sealed!

Lastly, Is that your answer, Acts 24:25, "Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee?" You say you will advise upon it. I declare we cannot take that answer: our commission does not bear us to indulge you even till to-morrow, in advising upon a matter of such importance: Heb. 4:7, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Nay, we cannot allow you even another hour or half-hour in hesitation: 2 Cor. 6:2, "Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Give your answer, therefore, instantly, I peremptorily claim it; if you delay longer, you may be in hell ere to-morrow, nay, next hour, it may be, next moment. What do you hesitate upon?—whether you will obey God or the devil?—whether you will cast the kindled coals of hell out of your bosom, or not?—whether you will travel in that narrow road which leads to life, or in that broad road which will land you in destruction?—in short, whether you will live for ever, or perish eternally? Oh! Sirs, be wise before it be too late, halt no longer, I beseech you, betwixt these two opinions: "To-day if ye will hear his voice; harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, the day of tentation in the wilderness." When a gracious God is now calling you, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die, O house of Israel?" let the echo of your souls, and the answer of your tongues be, "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God."

↑ Back to top