CHRIST the only Rest for the Weary and Heavy-Laden.
MATTHEW xi. 28.
_Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest._
NOTHING is more generally known than the duties which belong to christianity; and yet, how amazing is it, nothing is less practised? There is much of it in name and shew, but little of it in the heart and conversation; indeed, if going to church, and to the sacrament, or, if our being called after the name of CHRIST, and being baptized into that name; if that will make us christians, I believe all of us would have a claim thereto: but if it consists in the heart, that there must be an inward principle wrought in us by faith; that there must be a change of the whole nature, a putting off the old man with his deeds, a turning from sin unto GOD, a cleaving only unto the Son of Righteousness; and that there must be a new birth, and we experience the pangs thereof; and that you must feel yourselves weary and heavy laden with your sins, before you will seek for deliverance from them; if this is to be the case, if there is so much in being children of GOD, alas! how many who please themselves with an outside shew, a name to live whilst they are dead; and how few that have any share in this spiritual state, in this true and living name? How few are they who are weary and heavy laden with their sins, and seek to CHRIST for rest? They say, in a formal customary manner, we are sinners, and there is no health in us; but how few feel themselves sinners, and are so opprest in their own spirits, that they have no quiet nor rest in them, because of the burden of their sins, and the weight that is fallen and lays on their minds?
Under these burdens, these heavy burdens, they are at a loss what to do whereby they may obtain rest; they fly to their works, they go to a minister, and he tells them to read, to pray, and meditate, and take the sacrament: thus they go away, and read, and pray, and meditate almost without ceasing, and never neglect the sacrament whenever there is an opportunity for the taking of it. Well, when the poor soul has done all this, it still finds no ease, there is yet no relief: Well, what must you do then? To lie still under the burden they cannot, and to get rid of it they cannot: O what must the burdened soul do! Why, goes to the clergyman again, and tells him the case, and what it has done, and that it is no better. Well, he asks, have you given alms to the poor? Why no. Then go and do that, and you will find rest. Thus the poor sinner is hurried from duty to duty, and still finds no rest: all things are uneasy and disquiet within, and there remains no rest in the soul. And if it was to go through all the duties of religion, and read over a thousand manuals of prayers, none would ever give the soul any rest; nothing will, until it goes to the LORD JESUS CHRIST, for there is the only true rest; that is the rest which abideth, and will continue for ever. It is not in your own works, nor in your endeavours: no; when CHRIST comes into your souls, he pardons you, without any respect to your works, either past, present, or to come.
From the words, my brethren, I have now read, I shall
I. Shew you who are the weary and heavy laden.
II. Inquire what is meant by coming to CHRIST. And,
III. Conclude with exhorting you to accept of the invitation which the LORD JESUS CHRIST gives unto you to come unto him, with the assurance of finding rest.
_First_, I am to shew you, who are the weary and heavy-laden.
And here it will be necessary to consider who are not; and then, to consider who they are that are really so.
1. Those who think themselves good enough, and are pleased that they are not so bad as others, these are not weary or heavy laden.