So that these two may well stand together, labour and gift. We are taught to pray, * Give us this day our daily bread.' God will give us our daily bread. We must not therefore stand still and do nothing ; but though God will give it, yet he will give it in the use of means, in the use of our lawful callings. So here, God will give us this spiritual food ; yet he will give it in labour. It is his ordinance ; and whatsoever he gives, he gives not in idleness, but in obedience to his ordinance. He will have us to labour in the use of the means, in reading, hearing, receiving the sacrament, praying, meditating, and the like, to have a part in Christ this blessed gift. Nay, because he will give Christ, therefore labour. The one cnforcetli the other. The like reason Moses giveth the Israelites: 'Fight,' saith he, ' for the Lord hath given them into your hand,' Joshua x. 19. They might say. If our enemies be given into our hand, why should we fight ? Yes ; tight the rather, be encouraged to fight, because you shall be sure to conquer. So here, ' Labour for the meat that endures to ever- lasting life, for the Son of man will give it.' Therefore labour, because he will give it. In labouring we shall be sure to have it ; do that which be- longs to thee, and thou shalt be sure to have that which belongs to God ; thou shalt find Christ, and heaven, and glory, and all in the use of the means. But he gives nothing without labour. There can be no good done in earthly things without labour ; and do yon think to have heaven without labour ? No. Spiritual things are against the stream. Heaven is up the hill. There must be labour, there must be striving against cor- ruptions within, and against temptations without ; and our labour it is a happy labour. It is not a barren labour ; ' Our labour is not in vain in the Lord,' as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xv. 58. We that labour for the food that endures to everlasting life, we labour for somewhat ; but worldlings that beat their brains, and tire their spirits, and rack their consciences, and wear out their bodies, it is all for nothing ; it is for that which is ' vanity and vexation of spirit,' Eccles. i. 14 ; for that which they must leave be- hind them. A true Christian, to encourage him to take all the pains that may be, he labours for something ; it is a hopeful and not a barren labour. And, beloved, blessed are we that we can have this food for our labour ; that since the fall we can recover by the ' second Adam ' a better estate than we had by the first.
And our blessed Saviour, to the end he might distinguish true Christians from hypocrites, enjoins this duty of labouring so much the more ; for we have many in the church that think to have Christ and his benefits without
FOR ETERNAX, FOOD. 381
labour, as if heaven would drop into their mouths. They can say that God is merciful, and Christ died for us ; but you shall in the mean time find them careless of reading, of hearing, of praying, of the communion of saints, &c., are idle in working out their salvation with fear and trembling, negligent in selling all that they have for the pearl, will part with nothing for Christ. I say, to distinguish these hypocrites from true Christians, therefore he saith, ' Labour,' to shew to us that only they that labour for Christ in the use of all good means ; that labour for the true knowledge of him, and for faith to receive him ; that sell all for him ; that take pains to grow in grace and in union with Christ ; that make him their best portion in the world, and delight in him : it is they only that have interest in Christ ; only the painful* Christian is the true Christian.
Therefore, I beseech you, as you would have it discerned that you are not hypocrites in the church, be stirred up to use all sanctified means to know Christ, to believe in him, to know that you are in communion with him, that you belong unto him. Be not discouraged. You shall have rest ere long. * There is a rest for the people of God,' as the apostle saith to the Hebrews, Heb. iv. 9. Indeed, so long as we are here below, there is labour joined with weariness ; for we have great conflicts with corrup- tions and temptations, with enemies within and enemies without ; but be of good comfort, we shall at last come to a rest, to a rest perpetual and everlasting. It is true, in heaven there shall be labour, for we shall be alway praising God ; but it shall be labour without weariness, labour with- out conflict. There shall be no corruption within, nor no devil without. Satan could enter into paradise below, but he shall never enter into that heavenly paradise. Therefore be encouraged to labour for a while. Though it be tedious, because of corruptions and temptations, ' yet there is a rest foi: the people of God, an eternal rest.