ChristiansUnite Forums

“Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” —Mat_11:28.

The great and main object of gospel-preaching and gospel-practice, is a coming to Christ. It is the first article in Christianity, according to Joh_5:40, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” It is the connecting chain, 1Pe_2:4, “To whom coming as unto a living stone...ye also as lively stones are built up...“ And it is the last exercise of the Christian; for when finishing his warfare, the invitation is, Mat_25:34, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you...“ It is virtually the all which God requireth of us, Joh_6:29, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” The words of the text are a most solemn and ample invitation which Christ gives to sinners. In them I shall consider,

The connection. For which look to verses 25 and 26, compare Luk_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 were in his hand, yea, and whatsoever is the Father’s. He also shows 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, Joh_11:15; and once of his rejoicing, Luk_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 Mat_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,

2nd. 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,

3rd. 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, Exo_28:29.

2. The invitation was given at a time when there was a great breach made in the devil’s kingdom, compare Luk_10:17, Luk_10:18. Christ was now beginning to set up a new kingdom, and he sends out seventy disciples, which was the number of the Sanhedrin at first. He was to bring his 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, Psa_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,

2nd. 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 ye not 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, Lev_10:2; 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, Jos_24:2 (compare Isa_51:2). Then in the Christian church, Paul, the blasphemous persecutor, 1Ti_1:16. Infer,

3rd. 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, Joe_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 fullness, 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, etc., all is 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 fullness 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.


1. Because the Father hath given him for that end: Isaiah 55.4, “Behold, I have given him for a Witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to 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 fullness of sufficiency, but abundance of blessings, is laid up in him; for it hath pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell.—He is so,

2. Because he received a fullness of treasure for that very end. Joh_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. Phi_2:8, Phi_2:9, “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,” Joh_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,” Joh_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 fullness 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. Joh_1:16, “And of his fullness 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; he 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,” Joh_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!”

4. 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.


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 these 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, Ecc_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,” 1Jo_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, Mat_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 still 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?” Luk_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, 2Ti_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 these 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.

6. 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 fullness 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,” Act_5:31. He is to give, not to stand and wait, till “folly bring repentance with it.”*


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, Psa_4:6, Psa_4:7, “There be many that say, Who will show 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 in Ecc_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 had 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.

4. 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.


Here, it is impossible 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, etc.,—It is impossible to determine here,

2. In regard of men’s still altering their opinions about it, as they meet with new disappointments. Like a man in a mist, seeking a house in a wilderness, when every bush, tree, etc., 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, cries, and sucks everything 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 fullness 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 Psa_4:6, Psa_4:7, “There be many that say, Who will show 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.” 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, 1st, Corruption; 2nd, Conscience. Both crave of them, Rom_2:15, “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” Hence, because they do not mortify the lust, 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.

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

3rd. Adam left us with two yokes on our necks; 1st, Of lusts; 2nd, 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, Mat_11:30.

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. 1Jo_2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust 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. Pro_23:5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches make 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. 1Ti_6:9, 1Ti_6:10, “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 built, 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. Pro_9:17, Pro_9:18, “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. Psa_16:11, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence there is fullness 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,” 2Ti_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,” Psa_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.


(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 rock, to bring out water, instead of which they get fire flashing in their face, as in that case, Jdg_9:15, when “fire came out of the bramble to devour the cedars of Lebanon.”—There is,

(2) The breast of unlawful comforts, Pro_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 beasts of the creatures have many springs, divers lusts and pleasures, Tit_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. Ecc_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. Luk_12:19, The rich man said, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, 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 happiness consisted in the quiet enjoyment of themselves.—They labour for satisfaction,

2nd. 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 in confusion. And, 1st, 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. Ecc_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 is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Here is fulfilled, Ecc_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, Joh_17:3, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Col_2:3, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” There is labour, 2nd, 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? Ecclesiastes 5:11, “When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?” All they can think or say is, these are mine. What is honor, 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 often times in that. Ecc_6:9, “Better is the sight of the eyes, than the wandering of the desire; this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.” What satisfaction is sought in imagination sins, lust, revenge, and the like? what restlessness there. 2Pe_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, chapter 17:11, Hebrews 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, Mat_11:28 with ver. 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 tormentor 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 that he can get the notion of a God quite erased from his mind. Rom_2:14, Rom_2:15, “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, are taken captive, as hunters who take their prey alive, 2Ti_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, Luk_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 these out of the text, but only that it be not restrained to them. Act_2:37, “Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” These mend their hands at this hard labour, and oft-times 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 send 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, Mat_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 greater 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. 1Ti_6:3. No sooner was the gospel preached, than Cain sets up for works in opposition to faith. Gen_4:4, Gen_4:5, “And the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he had no 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 Exodus 20. Gal_3:19, “The law was added because of transgressions”; it prevailed 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, etc.,—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_11:9, “Their very table [that is, their altar, so called, 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.

5. Consider, though all would be saved, yet natural men are enemies to the gospel-way of salvation. 1Co_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, Psa_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 learning it all their days. If it is thus in the green tree, what shall it be in the dry?


First: We are 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 task-master, 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,

a. To the labour of a man going to a city, and not knowing the way. Ecc_10:15, “The labour of the foolish wearieth everyone 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,

b. 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 bellows are burned, 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. Pro_6:26, Pro_6:27, “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?” 2nd, 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 briars 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,

c. 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 Psa_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,

d. 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,

e. To the labour of the husbandman in ploughing, Hos_10:13, “Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity.” They devise wickedness, which the Hebrew calls ploughing it. “Devise not evil against thy neighbour,” Pro_3:29, “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is a burning fire,” Pro_16:27. It is compared,

f. Not to insist on more, to the labour of a woman in child birth. Psa_7:14, “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.” What pangs do raging lusts 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, 1st, that as the children of Israel went down to Egypt in the loins of their parents, so we in Adam. 2nd, As the deliverance was wrought by the angel of the covenant, by the hands of Moses the law giver, and Aaron the priest, so this by the law and the gospel. 3rd, 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,” Ezekiel 29:3, and was a type of that great red dragon, mentioned in Rev_12:3, etc. But for that which concerns this point, see Exodus 5. There you will find persons labouring, and heavy-laden, ver. 4,5. It is hard labour to satisfy lusts, the devil’s task-masters. Eph_2:2, Eph_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, Exo_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, ver. 12-14. 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 lusts cannot but make a tossed mind. Anxiety and cares of the world stretch the mind, as on tenter-hooks. A conceived slight, like that of Ahab, 1Ki_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, Est_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. 2nd, even the body is oft-times 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 lusts, one way or another, than ever fell by all the hardships either in or about religion.

2. It is base, mean, and abject labour. See Jer_2:21, compared with ver. 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, Luk_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 an 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 Psa_78:18, Psa_78:20, Psa_78:29, Psa_78:30, “And they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust. Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; they were not estranged from their lust.” 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. 2nd, 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. Mat_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.

5. 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: Mat_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,


1. It is most hard labour, for it requires the 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, but 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. Joh_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, Rom_9:32, “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.

3. 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_3:24. O Sirs! duties are a sandy foundation, and great will be the fall of legal professors.


1. Because 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 new 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 every thing 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.”