Christ Inviting Sinners to Come to Him for Rest

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28).

I have opened to you that great doctrine of reconciliation with God in Christ (as you may see in my treatise on 2 Cor 5:19-20), and of the willingness of God and Christ to be reconciled to sinners, sending his messengers to invite, entreat, and plead in his name. There was something else that followed in that chapter which I could willingly have handled. Yet because I want to press on with what has been delivered about our reconciliation with God in Christ, and to urge it further with a suitable argument, I have pitched on this text. In it we have set forth the willingness of Christ to be reconciled to sinners, and a most gracious invitation from Jesus Christ to poor sinners to come in to him, that they might have rest for their souls.

It is a text that breathes out nothing but mercy and goodness to sinners, a heart-melting invitation. In Jeremiah 31:12 we have a prophecy that sinners shall come and “flow together to the goodness” (or, as some of your Bibles have it, “to the bountifulness”) “of the Lord.” Surely, if there is any scripture that holds forth the goodness and bountifulness of the Lord to sinners so as to melt their hearts, that they may flow to it, it is this text.

This invitation of Christ, “Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” has been the comfort of many a wounded conscience and of many a troubled sinner. Having fastened on it, their souls have been steadied, and by it they have been kept from sinking into the bottomless gulf of despair. It is a text that has been of as great use to afflicted consciences as any in the whole book of God. If ever there was a scripture to break the heart, surely here it is: “Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden…”

If we take verse 28 and no more, it is a complete sentence in itself. It is full of abundant sweetness, filled up to the brim with the grace and goodness of the Lord. But now, if you observe how these words depend on the words that go before, you will see that there is indeed a soul-satisfying fullness of mercy and goodness in the Lord held forth in this text. Many of you, I do not doubt, have often heard this text quoted: “Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Yet perhaps few of you have observed how these words come in, and how sweetly they depend on what goes before.

If you compare these words with those that go before, you will see that they are expressions able to break the heart. What did Christ say in the verse just before? (I will go back no further.) “All things,” he says, “are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matt 11:27). And then follows: “Come to me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The text seems so full of sweetness on its own that it is seldom observed how it comes in after that verse. But we should look at the words in this way, and consider that they are the words of Christ, who, after he had said, “All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father…,” immediately says, oh, “Come to me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

We may observe these two things in the way these words depend on the former.

1. Christ says that all things are delivered to him by the Father, and therefore, come to me. This depends on the beginning of verse 27: “All things are delivered to me of my Father.” It is as if Christ should say, “Let it be known to you, poor, troubled, afflicted sinners, who mourn under the weight and burden of your sins: I have all things delivered to me by the Father. That is, all the mercy, all the riches of grace, all the treasures, all the goodness and grace that is in the Father, is given to me to dispense to you; and all power is given to me by the Father to do good to poor troubled sinners. And therefore come to me. Oh, come to me, you poor troubled and afflicted sinners!”

2. “No man knows the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” That is the second thing to observe in the way these words depend on the former. Christ says, “There is a most infinite communion between me and my Father. I know fully whatever is in the mind of God the Father, and what his heart is toward sinners. I know what his thoughts have been from all eternity about doing good to poor sinners. There is a most close union between me and my Father, and I alone can reveal the Father to poor sinners who are in darkness. They can have God the Father made known to them by no means but by me. There is no way for them to know what is in the heart of God the Father toward them but by me. And therefore, oh, sinners, come to me!” This is how the words depend on the former.

Likewise, consider what follows. Suppose poor sinners should say, “O blessed Savior, we are vile, unworthy creatures. We lie under the weight and burden of the guilt of our sins. Shall such as we come to you?” “Yes,” says Christ, “notwithstanding that, still come to me.” The word in the Greek here has an emphasis beyond what you have in your Bibles. It is not the word that is usually translated “come”; it is a word of exhortation. It is not merely a word of command, but a word of exhortation, as one friend calls to another in a familiar, sweet way and says, “Come here.”

“I, come to you, O blessed Savior?” says the poor sinner. “You are the Holy One of the Father; you are God blessed forever. How should I be able to come to you?” Now Christ says, “I am meek, and I am lowly. Come to me, and I will lay no further burden on you, no other yoke on you. I am meek and lowly, and I will show myself to be meek and gentle and loving to you. I will not reproach you. If you come, I will not say to you what Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: You hated me and cast me out, so why have you come to me in your distress? No, if you come to me, you shall find rest for your souls. And be sure that whatever yoke shall be laid on you, it shall be but an easy yoke, and whatever burden shall be laid on you, it shall be but a light burden.” And so you have the dependence of the words, and their scope.

Now further, for the meaning of the words: “Come to me, ye that labor.” The word translated here “labor” is, I think, “weary” in some of your Bibles: “all ye that are weary.” It signifies a cutting labor; it comes from a word that signifies to cut. It means any kind of trouble or vexation on one’s spirit that is cutting, a cutting trouble. Sometimes it is used for any kind of trouble in the world, as in Revelation 14:13: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors,” that is, from all their trouble and affliction.

“All you that labor and are heavy laden.” The word for “heavy laden” comes from a word that signifies the lading of a ship, such a load as would load a ship. This, then, is the meaning of the words. You who are under such afflictions of spirit that you are even cut by them; you who labor under the trouble, anguish, and sorrow of your hearts; and then you who are under such a burden as would even load a ship, a burden ready to sink your souls down to the bottom of despair: you who are in such a condition, come to me. You who can find no rest anywhere else, come to me, and I will give you rest. So here in verse 28 you have these three things for its division.

1. The description of those whom Christ would invite to himself: what kind of people they are, or the condition of those who are invited and required to come to Christ. This is the subject: “such as labor, and are heavy laden.”

2. The sweet and gracious invitation of Christ to such: “Come to me.” Come to me, you who thus labor and are thus heavy laden. And,

3. A gracious promise to those who come to Christ, that Christ will give rest to their souls.

These are the three things in verse 28.

I shall speak only of the first of these at this time, though the other two are the chief things I intend. I speak of the first only as making way for the other two that follow. For the reason I chose this scripture was to draw the soul to Christ, and to open the riches of this promise of rest: to show what rest the soul that comes to Christ shall have in him.

You that labor and are heavy laden (Matt 11:28).

So then, this is the point:

Doctrine. Those who labor and are heavy laden are called to Christ. The ones Christ calls are those who labor and are heavy laden.

1. Those who labor and are heavy laden under the burden of the righteousness of the law. That is how Chrysostom takes the text. These are people who have sought righteousness by the law up to now and find it very burdensome. They are toiling and laboring to get peace and rest for their souls by the works of the law, but they find themselves worn out. They find that peace and rest do not come that way. They are wearied with toil and tired out, and they are, as it were, stuck in the mire, and still they find no peace or rest that way. Now Christ says to them, “Come unto me,” as if he were saying, “This is not the right way to get true peace and rest for your souls, to think you can bring it about by the works of the law. You may toil and labor and perform duties, and not dare to do anything against your consciences. You may be very strict in your lives and keep striving to do more and more. And yet this will not bring true rest and peace to your souls. You will never have peace and rest through the righteousness of the law; you must have it by me.”

There are many whose consciences God has begun to enlighten, so that they see there is evil in sin, that sin will bring death, and that it puts their souls in danger of eternal damnation. They are convinced of this, and what their souls greatly desire is to have peace with God. Oh, that they might have the pardon of sin and peace with God! Oh, that they might have their consciences quieted! God awakens the consciences of many men and women who still have no saving grace, and they spend a great deal of time laboring and taking great pains to get their consciences quiet. There are many who have been laboring and taking pains for several years to get their consciences quiet, and they cannot do it. Their consciences keep flying in their faces again and again and troubling them.

And yet they are people who dare not commit any known sin and dare not neglect any known duty. They are constant in secret prayer and faithful in hearing the word. Whenever they hear of a duty they should perform, they labor to set about it with all their might. But alas, they feel little sweetness and comfort in their duty. Only conscience drags them to it and tells them they must do it. And if they neglect it, conscience flies in their faces and tells them they must perish eternally. Therefore they seek to pacify their consciences only by performing duties and by their obedience to the law, and so they seek peace by the righteousness of the law. That is the only way they take to pacify their consciences and get rest and peace for their souls. Alas, all this while they are laboring and toiling, but they cannot do it. For while people seek righteousness by the law, it must be a toiling labor that will not give rest.

(1) The first burden of the law is this: the law gives no strength at all to enable me to perform duties. Therefore its children must be under bondage. It is like Pharaoh’s taskmasters, who commanded so much brick to be made but would give the people no straw, no means of doing it. In this way some describe the bondage and servitude of the law: it commands things that it gives no strength at all to perform.

Question. But you will say, “Is this the law of God? Is God so hard on his creature as to command what he gives no ability to perform?”

Answer. We must know that God did once give strength to perform duties. But certainly now the law of God commands duties but gives no strength to perform them. There is no strength enabling us to perform duties until the Spirit of Jesus Christ comes into the soul. We may perform the outward part of them, but we cannot perform duties in such a spiritual manner that they suit our hearts and so bring ease and quiet to our souls. And though the soul seeks to get rest and ease for itself, it will not come that way.

(2) The second burden is this: the law requires perfect obedience in everything, and pronounces a curse against anyone who does not continue in everything that is written in the law to do it (Gal 3:10). Now when men and women seek to get rest for their souls by the works of the law, they cannot perform duties as they ought. Therefore they have no rest; they see the law condemning them because they do not perform duties perfectly. Still they think they must go on and do as well as they can. Yes, but conscience still has something to accuse them of: “You have not done enough. You still come short. And though you do some duties, you neglect others.” So conscience has the advantage over them every day. They are continually under the bondage of an accusing and condemning conscience, so that they can have no rest for their souls.

They perform duties, but they question within themselves, “How can I know that the infinite, holy God will accept what I do?” And although they may get quiet for a little while, conscience comes on them again, disquiets them, and casts fears and doubts into their souls. So much so that many poor creatures have gone seven years, or perhaps twice seven years, under trouble of conscience and never had any rest or peace. And still they have gone on being conscientious about their ways, yet all the while full of fears and doubts that all might not be well with them at the last.

(3) Besides this, there is a third burden. While the soul goes on seeking quiet and rest by the works of the law, the duties that are performed are unsuited to the heart of such a man or woman. So the very works they do and the duties they perform are grievous and tedious to them.

Yes, but now Christ says, “Oh, come to me,” to such as these. Are there any of you whose consciences have been troubled, who have longed, “Oh, that there might be peace between God and my soul, that I might have assurance of God’s love”? What course have you taken to get it? Have you not sought to bring it about by the works of the law, and thought to get rest and peace for your souls that way? Indeed, it is better to go on in that way than in the ways of sin. But to think to have rest and peace that way has a great deal more evil in it than you are aware of. If people think to quiet themselves that way, and so set aside the righteousness that comes by faith, they may become hardened before they are aware of it.

But are there any of you seeking rest and peace for your souls in such a way, by the righteousness of the law? Christ says, “Know that this is not the way for you to have rest for your souls. It is true, you must abstain from sin and perform duties. Oh, but if you want rest for your souls, you must come to me. It is only the soul’s rolling itself upon the perfect righteousness that is in Jesus Christ that can bring true rest to the soul.”

Many a poor sinner who has been seeking rest for many years has not found it. But when the Lord has been pleased to come in with one promise of the gospel, setting it home upon their souls, they have gotten more rest and quiet for their souls in one day, yes, in one hour, than they had before in many years. There is a great deal of art and skill in getting rest and quiet for a troubled soul. The gospel is a mystery in this matter, and when God acquaints the soul with the mystery of the gospel in this, then rest comes in a sweet and gracious manner. It is true, it is the hardest thing in the world to take hold of Christ and get true ease and rest for the soul. It is hard in itself until God makes known the mystery of faith to the soul. But when that is done, the soul finds abundant ease and rest, and that in a little while.

It is like a man who thinks to do by main strength some work that can really be done only by skill and art. He may toil and labor and tire himself out, and still not do it. But another man who understands the mystery of it comes in, and in a little time, by his skill and art, does with ease what the first man was toiling and laboring over for a long while and still could not do. You know this is so in all trades that have a mystery, a secret skill, in them. You who are navigators understand the mystery of that art. If an unskilled man came and thought to do some of your work by main strength, he might labor and toil his very heart out and still not do the work that you can do easily in a little time.

So many poor souls are laboring and toiling just so that these troubled souls of theirs might be quiet. They labor, and they will perform duties, and fast, and pray so many times a day, and so go on in a tiresome way. But after the soul comes to be acquainted with the mystery of the gospel, it hears, as it were, a voice behind it saying, “Come to me.” And being enabled to answer the call and come to Christ, the soul now performs duties as much as it did before and makes conscience of them as much as it did before. But now such people come to do them in another manner than they did before. Their duties become easier to them than they were before, and they come to have rest for their souls notwithstanding their imperfections in duties.

When you went to prayer, sometimes, indeed, when your hearts were much enlarged in prayer and your thoughts were wholly taken up with the duty you were performing, then you thought you had some comfort. But when you had any wandering thoughts and distractions in prayer, you rose up with a mightily troubled spirit and could have no rest all day long. Now when you come to be acquainted with the mystery of God in Christ, then, though there are many imperfections in your duties, you will find rest for your souls notwithstanding all your imperfections. But that will be opened more clearly when we come to the words “and I will give you rest.” As for those who have labored under the righteousness of the law and find it toilsome and exceedingly burdensome, Christ calls them to come to him so that they may have rest.

2. Those who labor and are heavy laden under the weight and burden of their sins, that is, under the trouble of conscience that is upon them for their sins. This is another thing, besides the righteousness of the law. The other labor came from under duties, but this labor comes from the sense of the weight and burden of sin. And we must know that this is a great labor and burden. Oh, when the soul comes under the burden of sin, it works in earnest; then it labors indeed. Its thoughts gather together, and conscience, being awakened, makes a great disturbance and causes fears and tremblings in the soul. The heart of a man or woman that before was sluggish, dull, heavy and dead, when God makes it feel the evil of sin, is then quickened, enlivened and working. You who labor and are heavy laden, you who feel the weight of sin upon your souls and do not know what in the world to do, “Come you to me,” says Christ, “and I will give you rest.”

3. You who labor under the power of any corruption: not only under the guilt of your sins, but under the power of corruption; you who feel your sins strong in you and long to get the mastery of them. You who carry about with you such a weight that it makes you cry out with Paul, “O wretched man, or woman, that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). You who long to overcome those strong corruptions that are in you, for whom it is the great burden of your souls that you cannot overcome them: “Come to me,” says Christ, “and I will give you rest” from them also.

First, you who labor under the burden of duties and find them toilsome. Second, you who labor under the guilt of sin and find your souls perplexed by it. Third, you who labor under the power of any corruption and cannot overcome it. “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” And then:

4. You who labor under any outward trouble or affliction in this world. All of you who are in any sad condition, who have any outward burdens upon you: if you come to Christ, he will ease you of them. Perhaps he will not take them from you, and you may be under the affliction as before; yet you will have rest and ease in them. Do you have any burden of poverty? Do you have any burden in your children? Do you have any burden in your husband or wife? Or a burden because of weakness of body? If you want rest, you must go to Christ for it.

Many, when they are under any outward affliction, go no further than the creature for rest: “Oh, if I only had good friends, I would be happy,” or, “If I only had an estate, I would be well.” But if your poverty worked on your heart as it should, it would drive you to Christ and make you say, “True, I am poor in this world, but there is enough in Christ to make me rich. There is mercy enough in Christ to make my life comfortable, to make me, who am for the present in a miserable condition, happy forever.” Those who are poor outwardly should go to Christ. If their poverty drove them to Christ, it would be a good sign that the Lord was sanctifying their poverty to them.

Now, to handle all these burdens distinctly (the burden of the righteousness of the law, the burden of the sense of the guilt of sin, the burden of the power of sin, and the burden of outward afflictions in this world), to open them fully, and to show how Christ calls those who are under them to himself, would take up much time. Therefore I will settle on the second for the present and handle it more thoroughly: that is, laboring under the burden of the guilt of sin.

You who labor under the burden of the guilt of sin, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” I will not stand here to open to you what the burden of the guilt of sin is. If I did, I would soon slip into a subject that I opened to you at large some time ago when I handled the evil of sin, as you may see in my treatise on the evil of sin. Only let us know this much: of all burdens in the world, the burden of sin is the greatest. It is a burden to the very Spirit of God. God complains that he is pressed under it as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves (Amos 2:13). It was sin that pressed the angels down to hell, to be reserved in chains of darkness (2 Pet 2:4). It was sin that pressed Christ down and made him sweat drops of blood (Luke 22:44). It has been a great weight and burden upon many thousands of God’s saints. It is what the damned in hell lie under now, and must lie under eternally, cursing and blaspheming God. It is what makes the whole creation groan and travail in pain (Rom 8:22). However lightly and meanly many people think of it, when the Lord lays it upon any soul, that soul finds it a burden indeed.

Now you who are burdened with sin and labor under it: you are the ones Christ calls to himself, to come to him so that you may have rest for your souls.

To open this, I will show you the following.

First, how the soul is burdened with sin in a right way, in the way Jesus Christ looks upon it and invites it to come to him. That is, how the soul is wrought upon, and what it feels in the burden of sin spoken of here, the burden of those whom Christ calls to himself to receive rest.

Second, why it is that the Lord will have the soul burdened for sin.

Third, on what ground Jesus Christ has such a desire to have the soul come in to him, and why he invites it. And so I will apply it.

For the first, “You that are weary and heavy laden.” Christ invites the heavy laden. Heavy laden: what does that mean?

1. There are notions or truths that before lay floating, as it were, in the understanding: truths of God and apprehensions of the evil of sin that before lay aloft, so to speak, in a person’s understanding. Now the Lord causes them to sink down into the heart. He presses the evil of sin upon the soul, making the soul now not only apprehend sin but be sensible of it, of its evil, in its reality. The soul feels, I say, that those truths which were only hovering in the understanding before now settle upon the heart and press it with a real apprehension of sin. “I heard talk of it before,” says the soul, “and I could speak of it before, but now I feel it. Those things that were mere notions before,” says the soul, “are now the greatest realities in the world.” The Lord presses them down upon the heart so that they lie heavy on the soul, so heavy that it is crushed, as it were, under them. Now all those vain reasonings, all those vain hopes, all those shifts the soul used before to quiet itself, are quite crushed under the real apprehension of sin.

If a millstone lay on the ground with a few light things on top of it, and another millstone were let fall on them, it would grind them to powder. So before, there were vain hopes and vain reasonings in the heart. But when God makes those truths, and the reality of them, press upon the heart, it crushes all those vain hopes and vain reasonings to nothing.

2. The soul finds all the comforts that attended sin before vanish and come to nothing. There is scarcely any man or woman in the world, or very few, so vile as to delight in sin merely because it is sin, without any other consideration. But sin, as it has some comforts attending it, is pleasing to people’s hearts. For example, perhaps some gain or pleasure comes in to them, and that gives them contentment. But when the heart is burdened with sin, the soul feels sin to be so weighty that it is sensible of it as a dreadful evil, notwithstanding all the comforts that attend it. All the comforts that attend sin vanish and come to nothing. Now the soul can take no further contentment in anything that comes in by sin. And that is the second thing: it is so burdened with sin that it can take no contentment in anything that comes in by sin. Whatever gain comes in that way, it casts off; whatever pleasure or other seeming advantage sin brings with it, the soul looks upon them all with disdain.

3. The soul that is burdened with sin feels its weight so much that its back is bowed down and tired. At the least, the weight makes it look upon itself as a vile and loathsome creature, fit to be dealt with as a vile and loathsome creature. It is so burdened that the heart is in some measure tired with it.

4. Yes, the soul is so burdened with sin that it now trembles at the least thought of sin, or temptation to sin. It fears that if it should willingly commit any further known sin, this would so add to the burden as to press the soul down into eternal misery. It is so burdened that it dares not add one sin more, at least as far as it is able; it is afraid of adding any more sins, lest one more should sink it to hell.

5. The soul feels sin heaviest where it really is heaviest. When it is rightly burdened, it feels sin heavy because of the wrath of God that is due to it. But sin is heaviest because it is against the infinite, holy God and the rule of righteousness. There lies the weight of all: that by it I have struck at the infinite, holy God and have been an enemy to him, as has been opened to you at large in the treatise on the evil of sin. Now when the heart is truly burdened with sin, it feels sin heaviest there, as it is against such an infinite, blessed, holy God, who is so infinitely worthy of all honor from me.

6. When the heart is truly burdened with sin, it is so burdened, and feels such a weight, that it clearly apprehends that no creature in heaven or earth is able to remove it and take it away. It is made so sensible of the weight of sin that it feels and apprehends itself to lie under a weight that no creature in heaven or earth can take away. “If some power beyond the power of any creature does not come,” it says, “here I must lie down and be pressed eternally under this weight.” Suppose a poor man were lying under a grievous burden in some ditch or the like, and perhaps a child came to him, or a bird flew over him, or a dog ran by him. “Alas,” he thinks to himself, “I may lie here long enough for all these. Some other strength must come to help me, or else I will surely perish.”

So the soul lies under the burden of sin and thinks, “Lord, what a burden I have brought myself under! It is so great that if all the men in the world, or all the angels in heaven, came to me, they could not help me. They may speak good words to me, but they cannot help me. It is only the almighty power of God that is able to help me.” Now the soul feels sin to some purpose, once it feels that no created power, no finite power, but only the infinite power of the great God can help it and give it ease.

7. And then, in the next place, the soul that is truly burdened with sin would ten thousand times rather have any burden upon it than the burden of sin. “There was a time when sin was delightful to me, but now I would rather have any burden upon me than this. Before, I thought that those who lacked creature comforts, and were outwardly poor and lowly, were miserable. But now, if I had all the outward miseries in the world on my back, I would rather bear them all than this burden. I have felt much affliction in my days, but this burden, this weight, is the most grievous and heaviest of all. Oh, if the Lord would only take this weight and this burden off me, let him lay whatever weight and burden on me he will!” This is how the soul that is rightly burdened with sin is affected.

8. Again, though the soul feels much weight of sin upon it, yet in all this it justifies God. It does not think hard thoughts of God, even though the heavy hand of God is upon it. “It is true, I feel God’s heavy hand upon me, and it presses me hard. But God’s hand is just; he is righteous in all this. Let him have glory, whatever becomes of me. For the truth is, I have brought this burden upon myself. There was a time when I heaped up one sin after another, as if I could never have weight enough upon me; but now I find it heavy. Oh, the sins of my youth lie heavy upon my soul now: my lying and swearing, and the loss of my time, and my Sabbath-breaking! Oh, the Lord is righteous in all his ways.” This is how the heart works that is burdened in the way by which the Lord intends it good.

9. And lastly, though the soul is under a burden that is almost intolerable, yet it does not sink down in despair under its burden, as a beast does. While a beast is under a burden, it will struggle and strive under it for a little while, but afterward it will lie down sullen and die under it. But those who are burdened with sin in the manner by which the Lord usually prepares the heart for his Son feel its weight indeed, yet they feel the weight in such a way that they labor. That is, their hearts are still active, stirring and working, continually waiting for any directions God has to give them out of his word. Their hearts keep active, crying to God and waiting to know what God’s mind is toward them, and they are willing to do anything God requires of them. They do not lie sullen and, as it were, dead under the burden of their sins.

Now if there is any soul in the condition described in these nine particulars, if there are any such as these, know that these are the ones Christ in a more special manner calls to, saying, “Come to me ye that are thus weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Now I must lay down two cautions before I come to give the reasons of the point.

Objection. You will say, “Why do you speak of these burdens, of the necessity of the soul’s being burdened with the weight of sin so that it may come to Christ for ease and rest? Surely no such thing is required.”

Answer. To that I answer, first, that all this burden of the soul for sin is not any condition of the covenant of grace. That must be granted. There is no other condition but believing in Christ; this burden is not looked upon as a condition.

In the second place, you must know that all this burden of the soul for sin does not give the soul a share in Christ, nor does it give it rest in Christ. I may be burdened for sin in this way, and yet unless I truly believe, unless there is an act of faith beyond this, I will not obtain rest. So then, we must not ground our faith upon being burdened for sin, thinking that because we are burdened, therefore we will be pardoned and saved. We must not lay the stress and weight of our faith upon feeling the weight of our sin. What we must fix our faith upon is not our trouble, the trouble of our souls for our sins, but the troubles that the soul of Jesus Christ suffered for sin.

This is a note of great use, and I beg you to observe it. You must know this: when your hearts are troubled for sin, you must not think that this is the condition of the covenant of grace. Nor must you make this the object of your faith, so as to think, “Because I am troubled like this, therefore I may believe that my sin is pardoned.” No, I must not fix my faith upon my own trouble, but upon the trouble of Jesus Christ, those troubles that the soul of Jesus Christ endured by way of satisfaction.

1. From this it follows that it is not any degree of trouble for sin that gives a person a share in Christ or leaves them without one, however much or however little they have been troubled for sin. I say, it is not the measure of it. For certainly, if we could come to Christ without any burden or sense of our sin, if it were possible (I say) for us to come to Christ without being burdened for sin in this way, we might. But Jesus Christ works upon the heart in a rational way, as upon a rational creature. Although he works above reason, and conveys supernatural grace that is beyond reason, still he works upon the heart as a rational creature. Therefore the work of reason must be made to serve the work of God’s grace. Usually, when the Lord works upon a soul, he makes use of the work of reason and makes it serve the work of his grace. Now, because no one can come to a Savior unless he knows what need he has of a Savior, if I come to Christ as a Savior to save my soul from sin, I must understand what sin is, so that I may feel it.

2. If God works upon the soul as a rational creature, then he makes use of this burden as a means to stop the soul in its course of sin. For before the sinner is made to feel the evil of his sin, he rushes on at full gallop, as it were, and nothing will stop him in his course. But now, when the soul comes to be burdened like this, the soul is stopped, and it does not run in that full stream of wickedness as it did before. And that is one good means to help the soul toward Christ: the very stopping of it in its course of sin.

3. This is the means, in a rational way, to make the soul listen to any call of Christ. For before, Christ may call to sinners out of his word, “Come to me, and believe in me,” but they do not feel the burden of their sin, and therefore they do not come. If a man is under a heavy burden on a dark night and hears the least sound of anyone’s feet, he cries out for help. So the soul under the heavy burden of sin rejoices to hear of any direction out of the word to come to Christ.

4. The soul comes to prize mercy, and mercy will make a deep impression upon the heart that is burdened. When the heart is burdened with sin, oh, how dear and sweet and precious mercies are then!

5. Further, when the soul is burdened with sin, it is prepared in a rational way to take the yoke of Christ. Before, it cast that yoke off. But now, feeling sin to be a heavier burden than any other whatsoever, it is more prepared to take upon itself the yoke of Jesus Christ. And now, when the soul is under this burden, Christ calls in love to ease and give rest to those souls that are under such a burden.

The third thing is to give the reasons why Jesus Christ desires and invites souls to come to him.

Reason 1. Because everything is given to Christ. Christ has all the mercy of the Father in him, for the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him, and therefore he cannot help but pity such a soul. There is a law in Deuteronomy that if a beast is under a burden and ready to perish, God requires that you not withdraw yourself from the beast, even if it is your enemy’s beast, but help it. Now if God would have us be so merciful when we see a beast under a burden, and that our enemy’s beast, we who have only drops of mercy in us, then surely the Lord Christ, who has the fullness of the mercy of the infinite God in him, will do the same. When he sees an immortal soul under such a burden and ready to perish, and it cries to him for help, certainly Christ will ease and help that soul.

Reason 2. We know that Christ came into the world on purpose for this. Christ was anointed and sent for this end: to bind up the brokenhearted and give them ease. Christ is designated by God the Father for this very work, and therefore he will do it. He is appointed by God the Father to ease burdened souls; it is his work. Therefore when Christ sees any poor soul burdened under sin, Christ says, “Here is work for me.” He came “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). And Christ says, “Here is what I came from heaven for. It is the very business my Father sent me to do; it is the work my Father sent me into the world for.”

Reason 3. Christ himself once felt a burden of this kind, and he knows what it is to be burdened with sin. “He was made sin for us,” as the Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:21. He was made sin. Christ had the weight of all the sins of the elect upon him, and he felt what the weight of sin was. Christ knows by experience what it is to be burdened with sin, and with the wrath of God the Father for sin. Certainly when Christ lay groveling with his face on the ground and sweated drops of blood, he was under a great burden then. Christ had the great burden of man’s sin upon him, and of the wrath of God that was due to man’s sin, and he had it upon him until he sweated under it. Now since Christ himself has been under it, certainly he cannot help but pity poor burdened sinners.

Reason 4. It is Christ who is to have the glory of the easing of sin. Those souls that are burdened for sin, if ever they have ease, will give the Lord Jesus all the glory. Now consider these together. First, Christ has all the mercy of God the Father. He was sent into the world to bind up all broken hearts. He has experience of the burden of sin. And fourth, he knows that he will have all the glory in delivering and easing souls. Certainly, then, Christ counts it worth all his sufferings that he might have the glory of easing troubled souls, just as many surgeons count it their glory to have the honor of curing desperate cases. The Lord Jesus will glory in this to all eternity, when all the poor burdened souls that he ever eased are brought before him and acknowledged before God and his angels. “Oh!” he will say, “here are those many thousands of souls that were under their burdens and ready to perish, and I have eased them, and here they will rest from all their labors forever.” Christ calls sinners on these grounds.

Now for a word of application. Does Christ call burdened souls to come to him so that they may have rest? Then those who are burdened should listen to what Christ says in this congregation this morning. Is there any poor soul here who is ready to perish under the weight of sin, who goes about under its load? Christ calls that soul to come to him. It would be a grievous thing for Christ to come and call in such a congregation as this and find none there. No, I cannot help thinking that there may be many in this congregation who will hear the call of Christ.

Christ often calls where there are none to answer. We may say in this case what our Savior Christ said in another: the harvest is great, but the laborers are but few (Luke 10:2). So we may say that the harvest of sin is great, but the laborers under the burden of sin are very few. There are many who would cast the burden of sin upon Christ, but they do as the Pharisees did, who laid heavy burdens on others but would not touch them themselves with one of their fingers. So many would cast the burden of sin upon Christ, but they will not feel it themselves.

Oh, let me speak to you! What chamber or closet can bear witness that you have been sending up strong cries to God as one under that grievous burden? If a beast lies under a burden, it will roar and cry out for help. So, certainly, if your souls were pressed with the burden of sin, there would be mighty cries to God to ease you of that burden. But to most people in the world sin is very light. Well, know this: as Christ himself felt sin to be a heavy burden, so one way or another they must feel it, either here or hereafter. But blessed is the man or woman who feels the weight of sin while there is still time to be delivered from it, so as not to be pressed under its weight hereafter.

We read of Pharaoh that when the people of Israel came to him for relief, he told them to go to their burdens (Exod 5:4). What he did unjustly, Christ may do righteously to many hereafter. When you cry for mercy on your sickbeds or deathbeds hereafter, Christ may say to you, “Go to your burdens. Whenever anything in the word came to press sin upon your souls, you cast it off.” Oh, it is a dangerous condition when men and women not only sin enough, but, when any truth of God should lay sin upon their hearts, cast it out! They think hard thoughts of those truths of God that would come and bind their sins to their consciences and so burden them with their sins.

But it should be otherwise with us. If those who are laden with their sins in this way are the ones Christ calls to himself, we should not think so hard of those truths of God that reveal the evil of sin to us. Rather, let us join with those truths of God and labor to burden our own hearts. For you see that Christ calls those who are burdened to come to him so that they may have rest.

There are no other burdens that we are to bring upon ourselves; we should rather seek to avoid them. But as for the burden of sin, we are to burden our hearts with that. We are to labor to lay our sins to our hearts, to press them there, and to charge them upon our own spirits with all the aggravations we can. And we are to join with the work of God’s Spirit. When the Spirit of God comes to lay sin upon the soul, we are to join with it and say, “Lord, I begin to feel my sins more than I did before. Lord, humble me by it. Let me be under your hand as long as you please; only work your good work upon me.”

Objection. But you will say, “We may sink under the burden of sin.”

Answer. Oh, no. Those who cast off the burden of sin are the ones most likely to sink under it. Can you think that the Lord will allow a soul to sink under the burden when it burdens itself so that God may have glory? But those who are unwilling, and are burdened by force, never feel the burden of sin until all the props and comforts of the creature are taken away. On their sickbeds and deathbeds men are burdened with sin. And why? Because the props are taken away. Before, they had comforts and estates and such things, which are like so many props. But now God comes and takes away the props, and down our sins fall upon us. That is why many lie on their deathbeds roaring and crying out so bitterly for their sins. And why? Because the Lord has cut through the props, and now sin lies heavy upon their hearts.

Now Christ calls, “Come to me, you that are weary and heavy laden.” “Come to me,” says Christ. Know that you are in a far better condition than you were when you went on with delight in sin. You are now in the way by which God usually brings in those he intends to do good to.

I remember the poor blind man in the Gospel, who cried to Christ, “O Son of David, have mercy upon me,” and kept on crying. At length Christ heard the blind man’s cry and asked what it was. Then those who stood by went to the poor blind man and said to him, “Be of good comfort; he calls” (Mark 10:49). He might have said, “Yes, but my eyes are not opened.” “Yes, but be of good comfort; he calls.” So I say to all burdened sinners: be of good comfort, troubled soul; Christ calls you. He says, “Come to me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.” He does not say, “You that are laden this much.” Christ calls you to himself.

Objection. “Yes, but,” you will say, “I have no ease. If I were sure that my sins were pardoned and that I would be saved, then I would have ease and comfort.”

Answer. Yes, but, poor soul, be of good comfort: you are called. He does not say, “You are a wretched, wicked creature,” and “Depart from me, thou cursed,” as he will say to sinners hereafter (Matt 25:41). That might have been your condition. But you did not hear this voice from Christ today, “Depart from me.” Rather, you hear this voice from Christ today: “Come to me all you that are weary and heavy laden.” Christ is near to you. The Lord is near to the broken heart; he is near to the contrite spirit (Ps 34:18).

And know this: the longer you are under the burden of your sin, the more comfort will come hereafter. Now there is a burden of sin upon you, and there will be a weight of glory hereafter. So the Scripture speaks of a weight of glory (2 Cor 4:17) as well as of a weight of sin. Be willing to bear the weight of sin quietly. Say with the prophet, “I will be willing to bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him” (Mic 7:9). So you should say, “It is fitting that my soul should bear a burden.” Be content to wait now.

Do the same thing that Christ did when he was under his burden. Notice what he did in Hebrews 5:7. See how the heart of Christ was affected when he felt the weight of our sins upon him: “In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers, and supplications with strong cries and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” Go your way, O soul, and get into the presence of God. Tell God of the burdens you feel, lay your groaning before him, and let it be with prayers and supplications and strong cries. Tell him, “Lord, I fear lest my soul should be pressed down to eternal death under this burden.” Tell him of your fears in this way, and it is very probable that your soul will be heard.

And according to this invitation here, surely there is rest for you as well as for anyone. While you are crying out under your burden, the pardon of your sins may, for all you know or any angel in heaven knows, be in the very act of being sealed in heaven. Therefore do not draw any desperate conclusion against your own soul, for your pardon may be being sealed even now, and then the Lord will send a messenger to tell you of it. Indeed, do I tell you that a messenger will come? Look here in this text: the Lord Jesus Christ comes. The Angel of the Covenant cries to you, “Come, O come, come freely! Though you have no good at all in you, there is enough in me to give rest to the soul that labors most under the greatest burden of sin that ever was.”

I will now conclude with what I began with at the first. Oh, remember again the connection of these words with the words before them. He who calls you to come to him for rest is the one who has received all things from the Father. And what has he received them from the Father for, but for such poor souls as these?

Having finished with the burden of the guilt of sin, the next is the burden of the law.

“Come to me,” says Christ, “you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28); that is, you who labor under the burden of the Law and of legal performances. I will put those two together, because they necessarily depend on each other, though I intend to handle them separately.

First, to you who have come to see the great bondage you are in under the Law, and who feel the great burden that lies on you in seeking justification by the Law, and have done so for a long time, Christ says: “Know that you have been deceived in looking for your justification that way. You have labored and toiled in vain, for it will never be gotten that way. Come to me, and you will have such rest for your souls as you have never yet felt, and never will feel by that way.” I take this to be fully Christ’s scope in these words, as much as the other burden is.

Now for the burden of the Law. That the Law is compared to a burden will appear from the expression you have in Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Paul is speaking to those who had been delivered, and he says that they were not now under the Law. There was a time, indeed, when they were under the Law, and the Law lay upon them as a heavy burden. But afterward they came under grace, and there they had a yoke too (even grace itself brings some kind of yoke), but not such a yoke as the Law lays on. Christ himself says in the words that follow, “Take my yoke” (Matt 11:29); but that yoke is very easy compared with the yoke of the Law.

Now I want to open what the burden under the Law is. If a sinner comes to understand it, if any soul once comes to understand it, it is impossible for that soul not to be laden and burdened. It will be a load upon them, a heavy load to those who understand it: the burden of the Law. I look upon understanding it as exceedingly necessary, for otherwise you cannot understand Christ rightly. It is not enough for us barely to understand Christ; we must understand Christ as the great Savior who delivers us from the Law, the one who comes to give us rest and ease from the Law. And unless we understand the yoke and burden of the Law, we cannot understand the worth of Christ in coming to give us ease and rest from it.

So I shall try to show, first, what the yoke and burden of the Law is, and then what the burdensome condition is of the soul that seeks righteousness by legal performances.

1. The Law requires of us things that we cannot possibly perform. It requires of us things that we cannot do. You will say that is a grievous burden indeed, to be set to do what we cannot do. But so that you may not think it hard, understand that the Law requires this only as it did at the first. It does not set you to do anything that God never enabled you to do. That, you would say, would be hard, and how could God justly do it? But it sets you to do what you now cannot do, and you have brought this cannot upon yourselves.

It would not have been any burden to Adam. As God first made man in innocence, the Law could have been no burden there. But now that we are fallen, consider what our condition is: it is a grievous burden, for it sets us to do what we cannot do. If all the strength we have were put forth to perform the Law, we still could not do it. Yet we must not think that because we have lost our power, God’s Law should stop. The Law takes its course whether we have power or no power, because God gave us the power and we have lost it. This I take to be the meaning of Acts 15:10: “Now therefore why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers, nor we were able to bear?” The Law is such a yoke, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.

Objection. But it may be said that this is meant of the ceremonial law.

Answer. To that I answer: certainly, if the ceremonial law was a yoke, then take it all together, ceremonial and moral, and it was a greater one. Take merely the performing of outward ceremonies, and it was not such an intolerable yoke. But we must take the whole Law in its full extent, and that will appear to be the meaning. For the question here was not only about the ceremonial law, but about the law of Moses in general, and about justification by it. This was the question that the church of Antioch sent to the church at Jerusalem to be informed about, for that was the whole business of the synod here in Acts 15.

Certain men came from Jerusalem to the city of Antioch and taught there that they must still of necessity keep the law of Moses for justification. The church of Antioch, troubled that some should come from Jerusalem and teach this doctrine among them, sent certain brothers to the church at Jerusalem to be informed further about this question. And you may see in Acts 15:5: “There arose certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses,” that is, as to the matter of justification.

Now in the assembly at Jerusalem, Peter rises up and tells the rest to take heed what they are doing, and not to put such a yoke on the disciples, especially the yoke of the Law, which (as he says) neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. And that this means not only the ceremonial law but the moral law appears in Acts 15:11: “We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they.” Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is opposed not only to the ceremonial law but also to the moral law, when that law is taught as the way of justification to life.

So the law that is such a yoke is the law that stands opposed to the grace of Christ that brings salvation. It is the law that reveals sin; it is the law that is the minister of death, by which the mouths of all are stopped. So it is a heavy yoke to those who are under this Law, that is, those under the first covenant, the covenant of works, who seek justification by it. They are under a grievous burden; they are the children of the bondwoman; for the Law requires of them what is impossible for them to do.

Now when a soul comes to see and understand that it is under the Law, and under such a Law as requires things impossible to be done, this burdens the soul. By this means it comes to see the need it has of Christ, and Christ calls such souls to come to him. It is as if he were saying, “As long as you continue as unbelievers in your natural condition, you are under a covenant for life that requires of you what you cannot possibly do, and therefore there is no resting in that condition. Come to me, then; take my yoke, my easy yoke. The other is a heavy yoke, but I will show you a way to ease and rest for your souls.” That is the first.

But though the Law may require hard things, even impossible things, yet it might relax its demands in some other things. Therefore:

2. This is the yoke and bondage of the Law: in everything it commands, it requires absolute perfection. It accepts nothing but absolute perfection in everything it commands. It does not only command hard things; whatever the Law requires, it requires absolute perfection in it, or else it condemns the soul. If there is a failing in any particular, in any degree of what the Law requires, the Law condemns the soul for it. It requires not only that the thing be done, but that it be done in the right manner, that it be done from a right principle, and that it be done in perfection of degree, to the uttermost that is required. It requires not only that our lives be directed according to the rule, but that we come fully up to the rule. This is what the Law requires.

Now what a miserable yoke and burden this is, for a poor soul to look upon the Law as requiring, first, things that I cannot do, and second, absolute perfection, admitting no imperfection at all! This is a heavy yoke; this neither we nor our fathers could bear. Those who come to be sensible of this must be under a grievous burden, and so see a need of Jesus Christ; and Christ calls those who understand this. It is true that if it were thus, and people were left without any help or remedy, it would be a sad condition. And truly, if Christ had not come into the world to put himself under the Law, we would have been left so. And all those who do not understand the gospel, who have not had Christ preached to them, are all like this; they are all in this condition. They are under a law that they cannot perform, a law that requires absolute and perfect obedience in everything or else condemns them.

3. The burden of the Law is this. You may say, “Though it requires perfect obedience, will it accept no endeavors at all? Suppose we endeavor to obey to the uttermost of our ability? Many people will require things that are hard and beyond our strength, yes, but when someone endeavors to do what is required, that will be accepted.” So we must know this: the Law accepts no endeavors. Though a man or woman should strive their heart out to obey, to reach the height of the perfection of the Law, the Law does not accept those endeavors. It is true that when the soul comes to Christ in the gospel, when the soul comes under the covenant of grace, endeavors are accepted. So do not say, “God will not accept our endeavors, so why should we endeavor?” Yes, if you come to Christ, your endeavors will be accepted, as we shall show you when we come to speak of the rest that the soul has in Christ.

But here is an argument to drive poor souls to Christ: consider that while you are out of Christ, your endeavors are not accepted. You are not in a way of life, for life and salvation are not to be had in the condition you are now in. The Law requires obedience; it must have the work done. You can only be under either the covenant of works or the covenant of grace. As long as you are under the covenant of works, the work is called for there, and not merely endeavors; those will not do. That is why the apostle says in Romans 10:5, “For Moses describeth the righteousness of the law; that he which doth those things shall live by them.”

You must be righteous either by the righteousness of the Law or by the righteousness of Christ. Now if you want to be righteous by the righteousness of the Law, hear what it is: “he that doth these things shall live by them,” if you do them. Moses does not say, “the one who endeavors to do these things,” or “the one who strives to do these things.” No, Moses says, “he that doth them”: “he that doth these things shall live by them.” It must be doing, and not endeavoring, that the Law accepts. And that is the third thing in which the bondage of the Law consists.

Christ says, “Come to me, and you will have rest.” It is by believing in Christ that you must have rest. If the soul understands these things, there can be no rest for it, but only a grievous burden, until it comes to Christ. And if it does not understand them, it is in so much the worse condition, though perhaps through ignorance it does not feel such a burden, just as most people wear away all their days and through ignorance never come to feel it. But when the soul comes to understand what terms there are between God and itself, and how it must stand before God (that it must stand either by virtue of a covenant of works or a covenant of grace, and that all are by nature under a covenant of works), and that as long as I am in my natural condition I am under a law that accepts no endeavors, this must be a great burden to the soul and make it see an absolute necessity of going to Christ for ease and rest.

4. The burden of the Law is exceedingly great in this respect: upon any one breach of the Law, the soul comes to be so broken that it loses the ability to keep any part of the Law forever. I said that there is this in the Law that is not in the gospel: upon any one breach of the Law in the covenant of works, the soul comes to be so broken that it loses all ability ever to keep any part of the Law again. For example, as I showed you in Adam: Adam was the head of the first covenant, the covenant of works, of the Law. Now Adam broke it in one particular; he failed in one particular of what God required of him. And by breaking it in that one thing, he and all his posterity were so broken that they lost all their ability to keep the Law forever, unless God comes and creates some ability; they have lost the ability that was given at first in their creation. So this is a very great mystery, that by doing a thing that is evil one should weaken the contrary habit, that by doing a thing that is evil we should lose the habit altogether; that is, lose the habit altogether by one act. And not only lose the habit that is contrary to the particular evil we do, but lose all habits of all good whatsoever, and that by one act. Now this is a thing above nature; it comes only by virtue of the covenant of works. God makes such a covenant, and it runs on these terms: if Adam sinned in only one thing, he must die. That is, his soul must die a spiritual death as well as his body, and so lose all habits of all grace. And this is the reason why we are by nature dead in sin.

Further, such is the condition of the law that, suppose God should restore us all to be as perfect as Adam ever was in the state of innocence, free of all sin and having the image of God perfect, and then God should come and put us on the covenant of works again: I say, if we then failed in only one thing, it would break us so that we would lose all our abilities to perform any duty ever after. This is the condition of the law. But it is not so with the gospel. Though we sin against the gospel, we do not immediately lose all our habits of grace. As for the reason for the difference, why Adam, when he sinned against the law, lost all his habits of doing any good afterward, while we, though we sin against the gospel, do not lose those habits, I will show that later, when I come to show that the yoke of the gospel is easier than that of the law. And that is the fourth thing in the burden of the law.

5. The fifth thing is this: upon every breach the law takes advantage against the soul at once. I say, it takes advantage against the soul at once and binds it over to death, to eternal death; it binds it over immediately. Yes, and it actually puts the soul under a curse upon every breach; it does it instantly. It is true that perhaps the law is not executed as soon as a sinner has broken it. But this is certain: though God does not come upon you as soon as you have broken the law, yet know that these three things come upon everyone who is out of Christ as soon as any one sin is committed. These three things come upon him immediately.

(1) He is bound over by God’s justice, by such a bond as has more strength in it than all the power of heaven and earth is able to break. It is as with a man who has done something evil: perhaps the law does not carry out its sentence on him at once, yes, but he is bound over immediately.

(2) And not only that, but in the second place, the law passes sentence. The binding over is the guilt; but beyond that, the law passes sentence upon the sinner and condemns him. The soul is immediately under the sentence of condemnation.

(3) The law puts the sinner under a curse. For so it is at the end of Deuteronomy 27: “Cursed is every one that abides not in every thing that is written in the book of the law to do it” (Deut 27:26). Notice: “every one” that abides not “in every thing” is pronounced accursed. And that is a fifth particular.

6. This law also requires constant obedience. And such is its rigor that if you obeyed it ever so much for a great part of your lives, if you imagined you could obey it perfectly for a long while, yet if at last you offended in any one particular, you would be condemned for all, and all that you had done before would be utterly rejected. It will take advantage against you for any one particular. If it were possible for you to keep it all your lifetime and then break it in any one particular at the last hour of your life, you would certainly be condemned by it. This is the condition of the law. For so it is in the words I quoted: though you do it, if you do not abide in doing “every thing,” if there is only one thing by which it can take advantage, it will certainly condemn you for it. This is the condition of all who are under the covenant of works. And is this not a load? Would this not burden the soul, if the soul comes to understand it? And whether it understands it or not, it is certainly the truth of God.

7. The seventh burden of the law is this: once the sinner has broken it, the law cannot be satisfied with any obedience that might make amends afterward, by anything the sinner can do. Suppose a man is ever so angry and offended; the one who has offended him may make amends. Again, a servant thinks, “Though I have offended my master and committed so many faults, yet I will make amends for all.” So many people think, “Though we have broken the law of God, and lived a long while in sin, and done what is evil, yet we will make amends again: we will give alms, and come to church, and the like.” These are the reasonings of many poor ignorant hearts that do not understand on what terms they stand with God.

All the children of men stand before God either under a covenant of works or under the covenant of grace, one of the two. Now men who reason this way are surely not acquainted with the covenant of grace; they are under the covenant of works. And let them know that the covenant of works admits no such amends as they speak of. Once you have broken the law, all you can ever do, even if you could live a thousand years ever so strictly, or be willing to suffer ever so much for God, will still not satisfy for what is past. Many, when they have sinned and their consciences are a little awakened over it, think they will live better and do otherwise afterward, as if they could make amends for what was done before. But you must know that this is a mere deceit and will not satisfy. “You must come to me,” says Christ. You must come to Christ and believe in him, or else all that you can do will never make amends.

You will say, “If we cannot make amends, what will become of us?” It is true: if there were not a Savior, a Christ, our condition would be sad. Amends must certainly be made, but it is impossible that you can ever make amends. And you must think about this. You must think not only of what you are bound to do for the time to come, but of how the breach of the law will be made up for what is past. And when the sinner comes to think of these two together (“I have sinned like this; Lord, what am I to do for the time to come? Yes, and what am I to do to make up the breach of the law for what is past?”), this will burden the soul. Upon this the soul will feel such a burden that nothing in the world can give it rest until it comes to Christ. If we grasped this, we would see that our condition out of Christ is a restless condition, and this invitation of Christ would be very welcome.

Now, I was unwilling to tell you of rest before I had opened this burden a little. Otherwise you might have said what those Jews said to Christ in another case. When Christ told them that if the Son made them free, they would be free indeed, they answered: Why, are we bound to any man? Why do you talk of freedom to us? (John 8:33). In the same way, if I had gone straight on with the invitation, “Come to me and I will give you rest,” come to Christ, you might have said, “Why, what restless condition are we in?” But now that you see your restless condition, I suppose you will be willing to listen to the invitation, “Come to me and I will give you rest.” These things will make you know what it is to believe and to come to Christ, when you come to understand what you are while you are out of Christ.

8. The eighth particular is this: the law accepts no repentance. Just as it will not take amends, so it will not accept repentance. Let the sinner be ever so sorrowful for what he has done, and lament his sin ever so much; if he could bewail his sin with tears of blood, the law would not accept it. You will say, “This is a strange doctrine, that our repentance should not be accepted.” I do not say absolutely that God will accept no repentance; but I say that the law will accept no repentance. Repentance is the doctrine of the gospel. The law preaches no such doctrine as the doctrine of repentance; it is an evangelical doctrine. But now, repentance that is merely trouble of conscience, because I see myself in such danger from the law, may be a natural repentance and not an evangelical one. That is, I see that I have undone myself by my sin, and now I am troubled, and I go no further. I say this is a natural repentance, and not evangelical.

When you think of repenting of your sins, this is a saving meditation for you, to think of your repentance this way: “I am now sorry, and I repent, and I am humbled for my sin. Yes, but it is through a second covenant, through a covenant of grace, that this can be accepted.” It is infinite mercy in God, and that in Christ, purchased by the blood of Christ, that any sorrow for any sin will ever be accepted by God. You must thank Christ for that. And therefore when you come to the work of mourning for sin, you should come to it as a work of the gospel, as an evangelical work, and so come to it freely. For what is a work of the gospel is a fruit of the blood of Christ. And it is a great mercy of God to you that you may be admitted to come before him to sorrow for your sins in such a way that you may be saved.

All your tears and trouble for sin, unless they come through the grace of the gospel, are not accepted. And yet how many thousands of poor souls never think of this in the work of their repentance! Perhaps when they lie on their sickbeds or deathbeds, their consciences tell them that there is a hell and misery for sinners, and there they lie roaring and crying out. But the truth is, they never understand the way of God in the covenant of grace: how the Lord has looked upon the children of men under the covenant of works, and has now entered into a second covenant through his Son, and has there provided a way for their salvation that could not be had in the other covenant. We are to know that the law accepts no repentance. Now, oh, what bondage this is! When I am sorrowful for my sins and think that God will pardon me, then I am cursed by such a law, a law that will accept no repentance. But when we come to Christ, godly sorrow is accepted there, and it is said to be sorrow unto life. But that is the privilege of those who are under the covenant of grace in Christ.

Therefore consider this point seriously, so that you may make a difference between a covenant of works and a covenant of grace. I know nothing in all divinity that is greater for you to understand than these two things. Those people who are not acquainted with these two covenants understand but little of those mysteries of religion that may bring salvation. I say, people who do not understand the difference between the first and the second covenant, between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, understand little or nothing of true divinity. And a right understanding of the difference between these two would let in an abundance of knowledge. I dare undertake that after people come to understand these two and to know the difference between them, within a quarter of a year they will have more knowledge of the main principles of religion let into their hearts than they had in many years before. And for want of knowing this one thing, people make gross mistakes in an abundance of points of religion, and never come to understand and to know Christ at all in the way that is set forth in the gospel. And that is the eighth thing.

9. The burden of the law appears in this: it only opens to man his misery and leaves him there, as if a surgeon should open a wound and leave it there, as it were, in the open air. The law tells man of no way of redemption, no way of deliverance, but merely shows us our misery and so leaves us. I do not mean the law that is in the book of the Old Testament, for the gospel is mingled with it there. I do not say that Moses tells us of no way of redemption. But I mean the law of the covenant of works, so far as it is revealed in Moses, and as a great part of it is revealed in the New Testament. That law only shows us our misery and leaves us there; but grace, and truth, and mercy come in by Jesus Christ.

10. The tenth particular in which the grievous bondage under the law appears is this: it is such a law that there can be no appeal from it, no, nor any repealing of it. Though it is this strict and this severe, yet I say there is no appeal from it and no repealing of it. There are many laws from which we may appeal from one authority to another, or, if a law is hard, it may be called in again. But we cannot appeal from the authority of this law, nor can it be repealed.

You will say, “This shuts us out from all help. Though men make many hard laws, and as long as they stand in force people are in a very sad condition, yet there may be means to repeal them. But as for this law, it seems there can be no appeal from it and no repealing of it. May we not appeal from God’s justice to God’s mercy seat?” I have indeed used such an expression, but that expression must be understood carefully. For the truth is, there is no proper appealing from the justice of God to his mercy. When the sinner comes to Christ, he has his pardon sealed in the court of justice as well as in the court of mercy. No soul is saved without God’s justice being as well satisfied as his mercy is glorified. Nor is there any repeal of this law.

“What,” you will say, “must the law stand in force, then?” Yes, the law will stand in force, and yet thousands of souls will be saved. “How is that?” you will say. This is the mystery of the gospel: the law will stand in force, and yet men will be saved; there will be a way to save men in spite of all this. Certainly, if the law went on in its course, one would think it would carry all mankind on to eternal destruction. Yes, and so it would have done, were it not for this great Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who calls sinners to himself so that they may have rest. He comes and puts himself under the law, and what the law requires he does, and he suffers. So here is all the alteration: the law goes on and has its course, only whereas it might have required to have its course upon ourselves in person, now God is content that it should have its course upon our surety.

When a man owes a debt, the law requires payment. It is one thing to have the law repealed, and another to have the debtor delivered. If a surety will come and undertake the debt, the debtor is delivered though he has not paid it, and yet the law has its course, for the surety discharges what the debtor should have done. So the way of salvation for any soul is not by appealing from the law, nor by repealing the law. Rather, we must see the law as having its course, only having its course upon Christ our surety, who has fully satisfied the law. And Christ seen this way is the true object of our faith. Unless we grasp Christ this way, as one “made under the law,” as the Scripture says (Gal 4:4), and as one who endured the law having its course upon him, and so satisfied the law, unless we look upon Christ this way, we do not look upon him as the right object of our faith.

And Christ calls on you who are weary and heavy laden to come to him in this way, as if he were saying: “Poor sinners, you who are under such a covenant as this, you know that although it is not repealed, I have come and put myself under this law, and it has had its course upon me. Come to me, and the law will be satisfied. It will have nothing to say against you, but you will have full rest in me. Come to me, therefore.”

11. The eleventh thing in the law is this: it is so far from enabling us to perform the obedience it requires that, because of the wretched condition we are now in, the more it is revealed, the more our corruptions are stirred up. Through our fault, and not from any fault in the law, it stirs up our corruptions all the more. Luther compares it to water thrown on lime. When the law comes into the heart while the heart is still in its natural condition, until God overcomes it by the grace of the gospel, the heart is stirred up all the more. You have a notable expression of this in the example of Paul, who felt it this way in himself: “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death” (Rom 7:5). And again: “For sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence” (Rom 7:8). It took occasion by the commandment. There are many people who are the worse for hearing the law revealed to them, until God is pleased to overcome their hearts by the grace of the gospel.

Now put all these together. The soul that comes to be enlightened to understand these things: do you not think that such a soul will be burdened? Is it not a burden to be in this condition? Is it possible for the soul to have any rest in this condition? You will say, “These things are hard in themselves.” But first, suppose you understood the infinite holiness there is in God and the infinite justice of the God with whom you have to deal, and suppose you understood the perfect condition in which God made man at the first. Set before your souls the infinite holiness and justice of the great God with whom you have to do; then set before your souls that perfect state of innocence in which God made man; and then these things will be clear to you. And if these things alone were preached to you, and nothing else, they would seem hard; but it all leads to this invitation of Christ.

Now, having heard these things, we may truly draw conclusions such as these.

First, man is certainly in a bad case by nature. It is observed of the people of Israel that when Pharaoh increased their bondage, the people saw that they were in a bad case, as the Scripture tells us (Exod 5:19). So when we understand what condition we are in under this bondage, we may conclude that man is truly in a bad case by nature.

Second, another conclusion may be drawn from this: it is a mighty work to save a soul. It is no slight thing for a soul to come to be saved; God must do great things to save a soul. Many people confess that it is true they are sinners, but they cry to God to have mercy on them, and so they think it is done at once. But if you considered the condition you are in by nature, and the righteousness of God, you would conclude that it is a mighty work of God to save any soul, and that you need to set about seeking your salvation early.

Third, this conclusion will also follow: the vain thoughts men have used to pacify their consciences and quiet their hearts will do them no good. For example, many reason like this: “I am not so bad as others.” What if you are not? If you are under the Law, you are condemned a thousand thousand times over. You will say that you do some good things, and sometimes come to church, and pray to God. But what is that to keeping the Law? If you are in your natural state, reasoning in this way shows that you are looking for salvation by what you have done. And when people say, “I do what I can, and I am sorry with all my heart that I can do no better,” these are not reasonings that will enable you to stand with comfort before the infinitely righteous God. You must know what state you are in under the Law, and how the Law has condemned you. These are not arguments that can bring rest to your soul. If they could, Christ would never have called in this manner.

But you must know that your condition is such that all the angels in heaven and all the men in the world cannot give rest to your souls. If you understood this, you would go away convinced of this truth: “Well, I see that there is a burden on me, though I have not felt it. It is a burden that will press me down to eternal misery, and I see now by this that I need a Christ.” Certainly, if congregations felt this burden of the Law, oh, how their souls would rejoice in this, and praise the Lord that their ears are blessed to hear such a sound of the gospel as this: “Come to me and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

I appeal to you: is not the opening of the Law useful for making you come to Christ? There are a great many frivolous spirits who call those ministers of God who seek out of conscience to do good to souls, and to draw them out of their natural state, “legal men,” “legal preachers,” and the like. I appeal to your consciences: now that you know these things, will you not come to know the way of coming to Christ better than you did before? If I had named the name of Christ five hundred times, over and over again, would you have come to understand the mystery of God in Christ as much as by hearing what the difference is between the first covenant of works and being under the Law, and by being told that Christ came into the world to deliver us from this first covenant? He comes and takes our nature on himself, and puts himself under the Law, so that he might free us from such a heavy yoke and bondage. And in this blessed Scripture he calls all souls who feel this yoke and burden to come to him, so that they might have rest.

And this is enough for this first particular, what the bondage is that the soul is under when it is under the Law. Do you feel this? Christ calls you. Perhaps some of you may say, “We have not felt this.” Are you beginning to understand it? Is God beginning to let some light in to you? Are you beginning to feel it as something weighty on your hearts? Blessed be God for it; you are so much the fitter to hear of the covenant of grace.

Now when you come home, let the husband say to the wife, “We hear of two covenants, as you have it in Galatians 4:24. Here are two covenants, and these two are set out in this allegory of the bondwoman and the freewoman. Until we come to understand what the other covenant is, we are under the former covenant, the covenant of works.” This is what you should labor to understand: the husband and wife should ask one another about the difference between the two covenants. Ask only what the covenant of works is, and on what terms it runs, and what the covenant of grace is, and on what terms it runs. And so you will come to understand especially what follows in this text, with more profit and advantage to your souls.

Now there is one thing more, which is a kind of appendix to the burden of the law. It flows indeed from the burden of the law and is tied to it, and that is the burden of legal performances. I do not mean only the burden of the law in regard of what the law requires, the perfect obedience that the law requires; that burden comes from the law itself. But there is a burden that many are under, a very heavy and grievous burden, and that is the burden of legal performances. This is to be the subject of this chapter. I intend to go no further than to speak of that burden and to open it a little to you. And this, as I told you when I first opened the text, is Chrysostom’s interpretation of this text: “You that are weary and heavy laden,” that is, you who are laden with the burden of seeking righteousness under the law, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

First, I will show you what I mean by the burden of legal performances.

Second, I will show what a great burden this is and how much evil there is in it, and so apply myself to those who are under this burden, to show them how Christ calls them here in this text to come to him, that they might have rest.

First, what I mean by the burden of legal performances is this: performing the duties that the law requires merely out of conscience, because conscience sets men and women to those duties; doing them in the strength they have of their own; and looking on what they do as the righteousness they must offer up to God, righteousness for life. Now this is a legal performance. To perform duties in a legal way is this: to do what the law requires merely out of conscience, because conscience tells me I must do it; to work in my own strength, which, though it is strength that God gives, is still only natural strength; and to count this as my righteousness and offer it up to God as righteousness to life. Here is a legal performance; this is to perform duties in a merely legal way. Those who do this will find it a very great burden to their spirits. It is a burden to the spirits of those who do this, that is, to the spirits of such as are conscientious indeed.

For we are not now looking at men and women who perform duties out of hypocrisy, to be seen by men, to make a show of what they do not have in their hearts. We are not speaking of such. We are speaking of those who have gone up into a higher class than such hypocrites: those who perform duties out of conscience, and yet rise no higher than looking at the law that binds them to those duties. And so they offer them up to God as their righteousness and do them for life, counting this the thing that must bring them to life. Those who do this, and are not acquainted any further with the mystery of the gospel, go under a most grievous burden all the days of their lives.

I do not say that it is a burden to perform the duties conscience requires when we do them to the honor of God, in the strength of Christ, as a work of the sanctification of his Spirit, and as a fruit of our thankfulness for the grace and mercy of God in Christ to us. That is not a burden; that is no burden at all. But to do them merely because conscience forces us to, and as our righteousness for life: this is the burden. And though men and women have no other principle than this, yet they may be very conscientious, so that they dare not commit any known sin in secret. They may make conscience of secret duties; yes, they may be abundant in duties, that is, perform many duties.

In Micah 6:7 they ask what they shall do: Shall we give rivers of oil and thousands of rams, and the fruit of our bodies for the sin of our souls? There you have the expressions of those who are legal. They want to know what they should do, professing that they would be willing to do anything to save their souls, to offer thousands of rams and rivers of oil as a sacrifice. So one who is merely legal may perform many duties. Yes, he may be conscientious about every duty he knows. There may be a kind of universal obedience in him, to obey in all things as far as he knows, as to the outward action. He may make conscience of everything he knows to be the mind of God, and yet do all this in a legal way. And his performance may prove a burden rather than something that will do him good in the end and bring him to life. Unless he comes to know further than he yet does, to know the evangelical performance of duties, he cannot have true rest in his soul.

Now this, like the other, is a point of great consequence to many. It may be that many who read this book do not so clearly understand what this is; they may not feel any such thing in their own experience. But I suppose I will speak to some even to their hearts, and open their conditions to them, so that they will say they have not taken a right course to procure rest for their souls. And I speak to this end: that they may listen to the blessed invitation of the gospel to come to Christ, that they might have rest. So you see a little what I mean by legal performances. Now then, we come to show the burden of legal performances: that they are very burdensome to those who are acquainted with nothing but performing duties merely from the law.

The First Burden

Legal performances are burdensome because those who are legal are put on duties that they have no principle to do. To be put on a work where there is no inward principle to do the work must needs be burdensome. Conscience puts me on the duty, and that is right; but I have no principle to do it. Yet I must do it; conscience says so, whether I have a principle or not. And though it is true that I have no principle to do it as the law requires, yet I may do some outward performances. Now for me to go about such a work, to endeavor and strive to do all the work the law requires, not only the outward part but the whole work, and to be put to struggle and strive to do what I have no inward principle to do, must needs be burdensome.

All motions in nature that come from an external principle are violent, and so tedious, heavy and troublesome. So it is with this motion to duty that does not come from an inward principle of the heart but is merely legal. Conscience stands there to put the soul on duty, but it does not put any principle into the soul to do it. This is a violent motion, and those who have experience of it find it tedious, heavy and troublesome.

Now here lies the burden. It is not, as men vainly imagine, that the duty ought not to be done because they have no inward principle to do it. No, here is the burden: conscience binds you to do it. You must do it, though you have no principle in you to do it.

The Second Burden

Legal performances have a great burden in them because in all men who are only under the law, before they come to be true believers sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, there is a contrary principle, a principle quite against those duties and opposed to them. There is a contrary stream in them; they go against wind and tide. You know what a burdensome thing it is for the boatman to go against wind and tide; he must put out a great deal of strength. So it is here, until the soul comes to believe in Christ and to have the Spirit of Christ. While it has only conviction of conscience and is put on duties, there are such corruptions in the heart, and such evil principles in all men by nature, that they are like wind and tide against those duties. And yet conscience says, “You must do them.” Though you find your inclinations ever so strong another way, conscience still tells you that you must do them. And when God is pleased to put strength into conscience, it will make a man or a woman go on in duty, though it is ever so contrary to their own nature.

You will say, “If it is contrary to their own natures, why do they not leave it off?” No, they dare not, notwithstanding. It is true, as we will show you afterward, that even godly men and believers are burdened with corruptions; they too have principles contrary to the duty. Yes, but these are not so prevailing in them as in unbelievers who are only legal.

You know it is a tedious thing to throw a stone upward. To make a stone move any way at all is some trouble, because you keep it from its center. But to put it into a motion quite contrary to its principle is burdensome, because all heavy things have principles in them that work downward. Therefore to put them into motions quite contrary to their natural principles will cause a burden, because you keep them from their own center. So conscience may keep a man and woman from their own center, from those wicked courses their natures are inclined to. And all the while they are kept from the course their natures so strongly incline them to, it must needs be burdensome to them, until God comes and sanctifies their hearts. They may be a great while without any sanctification; many whose consciences are convinced may go on in duties without any sanctification in them.

The Third Burden

One who goes on performing duties in a merely legal way is weary and tired with what he does, and yet can find no strength coming in to him, no more ability to perform what conscience puts him on than he had at first; no, rather less ability. Now this must needs be burdensome. Suppose a man is put to a work. If he has no mind to it, that is tedious; but if it goes against the grain, quite opposite to his disposition, that is more tedious. Yet he must go on, and he toils and wearies himself, and the more he works the more grievous it is to him. For he finds no strength coming, but rather strength wearing out. His strength wears away, and no strength comes in to help him, and yet his work is as heavy as it was. That work must needs be burdensome. So those who are merely legal still go on in duty, and the work is still as heavy, but they are weaker.

Many a man, when he first sets about a work, is cold and numb; but when he continues in the work he gets warm, and then it is not so burdensome to him. But if he continues in the work and grows colder and colder, this is very tedious. So it is with those who perform duties in a merely legal way. Conscience puts them on it at first, and they go to duty with some vigor; but the truth is, they grow more weary and the work grows more tedious, and yet conscience puts as much work on them as at first. When a man has been at work and grows weary and wants ease, and a cruel taskmaster comes and tells him, “There must be no decrease of your work, nor any increase of your strength,” this must needs be tedious. So it is with those who perform duties in a legal way: conscience puts as much work on them when they are weary and tired as at first.

Here is the difference between the works of sanctification and legal performances. Though the works of sanctification seem hard at first, yet while the soul sets about them, strength comes in; and the more work, the more strength. Those who do them do not spend their strength and throw it away, and grow wearier afterward than at first. Rather, the more experience they have of these ways, the more strength they have. They grow warm at their work, and being warm they get more and more strength, and it grows easy to them. But it is not so with one who performs duties in a merely legal way. Some have been seven years in a profession of religion and have made conscience of their duties, yet after seven years spent, their hearts are no more mortified than at first, and they have gained no more strength than at first. Their lusts are less mortified, and their strength is less than at first, and therefore their work must needs be grievous to them.

The Fourth Burden

Those who perform duties in a merely legal way are, even while they strive to do their duty, still contracting further guilt on their souls. They strive to do what the law requires, and in their very striving they are breaking the law. You will say, “So godly men also sin while they are striving to do their duty; there is imperfection in the best.” Yes, but their sin is done away in Christ; their sin is not laid to their charge. But those who are merely legal sin while they are striving, and contract guilt on their spirits, and it lies on them, and they stand charged with it.

Then it may be said, “It would be better if they did not strive at all.” No, not so either. Conscience must have them strive; it would be a greater guilt if they did not strive, even though when they strive they stand charged with further evil than before. Now this is a grievous burden. If a man were rolling a stone up a hill, and as soon as he had rolled it up, the stone came down on him again, it would be mightily tiresome work. It is so with those who are merely legal. While they are in duty, at work, corruption still brings them down again, and they continually contract guilt on their souls.

The Fifth Burden

Those who perform duties in a merely legal way do what they do merely out of fear. They are put to it in a forcible and rigorous way; they are put to all their duties rigorously, merely by force and constraint. If you make a man do a thing merely by force, it is very tedious to him, especially when your forcing is done with rigor. So it is with slaves: they are not only exhorted to do their duty, but are set to it with blows and lashes. Now this is very burdensome. If indeed they might be put to it with love and with gentle, fair treatment, they would do as much as they do with a great deal more ease. But when all the means used are rigorous and forcible, this makes their lives burdensome to them.

So it is here. Those who are legal perform duties, but how? The terror of the law, the flashes of hellfire in their conscience, and the fear of the judgments of God come on them: “Unless you do this, you may fear that the judgments of God will pursue and follow you.” In the night, when they are in the dark, they are filled with terror; and when this terror comes on them, then they must go to prayer, though they have no mind to go to prayer, or else their conscience will fly in their faces in the daytime. These are just like the children of Israel in Egypt; the taskmasters put them to their work with rigor, so that their very lives were tedious to them. But those who are sanctified go to perform duties out of love, and so their duties are sweet and delightful to them.

The Sixth Burden

From this it follows that those who are merely legal in their performances do their duty with a very straitened spirit. They usually have no enlargement of heart, or very rarely, in anything they do. They do it (if they do it at all) in a dull manner and a dead way, merely the work done and no more. Their spirits are exceedingly straitened. Pray they must, and so much time they spend in prayer; but when they rise from prayer they find their hearts as straitened as ever. I do not say that a godly man or woman may not be so at times; but when duties are performed in a legal way, it is constantly so. And oh, what a burden this is to a soul, to think: “I can never go into the presence of God but I still have a dead, straitened heart. Others have enlarged hearts, but I do the duty and nothing comes of it. I feel my heart altogether straitened in the duty, and so I go on round and round, but am still straitened, dead and dull in performing the duty.”

The Seventh Burden

Those who perform duties in a merely legal way find nothing coming of their duties. They are merely like a horse in the mill, going round and round. Or it is as if a man had to split or cleave a knotty piece of wood: he strikes, but the knottiness of the wood makes the axe and wedges rebound, and he can make no mark on it. Though a man strives and works hard, yet if he finds his work goes forward, here is some comfort. But when he works and works and it stays just as it was, this is burdensome. Suppose a man were set to pull a log out of a ditch and ordered to work from morning to night, and he pulls and pulls all day and it does not stir, and he is no further on in his work at night than he was in the morning, and he must go to it the next day, and nothing comes of his work: this is very tedious. So it is with those who are merely legal in their performances. They find little or nothing comes of all their performances, and this must needs be very burdensome.

You who have been burdened like this, know that this very text concerns you. Christ has you in his thoughts and calls you to himself, and says, “Come to me.” It is as if Christ said, “Certainly there is another way for you to have ease and rest for your souls. It is true you must go on and do your duty, but you must come to know me in the gospel before you can have ease and rest for your souls.”

The Eighth Burden

The truth is that those who perform duties in a merely legal way, however much they labor in that way, can never attain their end. However much they toil, however many duties they perform, though they multiply their duties a thousandfold, they can never attain their end. “Their end,” you will say, “what is that?” Their end is that they might have peace with God, and live, and have eternal life. It is true, base hypocrites look at profit. Many will make a show of religion, get into houses and talk of good things so that they may get good fare, food and drink, and a little gain, being of a poor and unworthy spirit. But I am speaking of those who have grown higher than this: those who perform duties out of conscience, and yet never attain their end, and never will attain their end in this way, until they come to know more of Christ. I am speaking of such as desire rest for their souls, yet in this way of legal performances never gain this rest for their souls; and therefore it must needs be burdensome to them.

The Ninth Burden

Those who perform duties in a merely legal way go on performing duties, but whether God accepts them or not, they cannot tell. Do them they must, but whether God is their enemy or their friend they cannot tell. They offer up duties to God every day, but whether they offer them to an enemy or to a friend they do not know. Sometimes perhaps they have some good hopes that God accepts them, but they never come to any knowledge of God’s acceptance. They go up and down continually with suspicious thoughts of God, fearing lest God will take advantage of them at the last. This must be burdensome. Many poor souls have gone on in this condition seven years after seven years, and all for want of coming to Jesus Christ for rest for their souls. Rest comes to the heart of a sinner when it knows and can say on good ground, “Though my heart has much corruption, though my duty has much imperfection, yet through a covenant of grace the Lord accepts me in what I do.” But the others never come to know that God accepts them, however well they perform their duties.

The Tenth Burden

Those who perform duties in a merely legal way have their spirits hurried on to do the work, to do the thing conscience requires, even though, because of their weakness, doing that thing at that time will hinder them from doing other duties God requires of them. Yet do it they must. I do not say that duties are not to be done at such a time. But whatever conscience tells them is good, they are hurried on to do immediately, though because of their weakness doing it now hinders them from doing other things of more consequence. We find by experience that many who are weak, yet under the command of conscience and in a legal way, suddenly have such a thing come into their minds: “I must spend so much time in prayer.” Conscience says, “You cannot do too much for God; why should you not spend so much time for God?” By this means they are hurried on to do the duty, though by doing it at that time they will hinder themselves in performing many other duties afterward. I have known by experience many who have been grievously burdened in this way. Whatever they presently judge to have any good in it, they think they must do, although by that they are hindered in performing many other duties afterward.

But if we were acquainted with the liberty we have in Christ, we would be able to satisfy ourselves in this way: “Though I am weak now, yet I can appeal to God that my heart is upright. Though I forbear doing such a thing, which is good in its own nature, yet my conscience tells me it is not through willful neglect of what may glorify God, nor because I would neglect any duty God would have me do. It is because I know that, through my weakness, doing this at this time will hinder me in the service of God in other ways. Therefore I believe that God will accept me in Christ and pardon my infirmities.” This the soul that is in Christ can do.

But as for those who are legal, conscience puts them on duties without regard to their strength, and so puts them on the strongest duties when they are in the weakest capacity. When they are weakest, conscience will put them on the strongest duty. Now this is for want of knowing their liberty in Jesus Christ. For they have this liberty in Christ: Christ accepts them according to what they are able to do. The gospel holds out this acceptance: let them go on in uprightness to do what they are commanded, and though they cannot do such duties because they are weak, yet God accepts them for Christ’s sake. This the one who is legal cannot do; instead conscience hurries him on to do the duty when he is weakest, and so he does less for God than he otherwise would or should do.

The Eleventh Burden

Those who perform duties in a merely legal way go on toiling, but still they do not know whether they will hold out or not. “I go on and do my duty, but what will become of me God knows. I do not know whether I will hold out or not. I am afraid that when I have done all, labored and toiled all I can, I will prove an apostate, a backslider at last.” So they have many such suspicions of themselves. As they are full of suspicions of God, so they are of themselves; they are afraid of themselves: “Well, if troubles and afflictions come, I will fall away and turn, and show that I was only a hypocrite and always unsound.” Now these very thoughts make their lives and duties burdensome to them.

But one who has the benefit of the freedom of the gospel, one who is in Christ, can go on: “Well, though I am weak, yet I have an everlasting principle that will hold, for I do it by the strength that is everlasting. Though I am weak, yet I am fastened to what is everlasting. I am carried on by such a principle as will hold on to everlasting life.” And oh, what a rest this is! Here is rest indeed, for the soul to know: though I am weak, yet I will hold on to everlasting life. But one who is legal is ever suspicious, and he thinks, “Why do I do this? I will fall away at last.” And so he goes on heavily and is troubled in his thoughts, and this makes both his duties and his life burdensome.

Still, I say, Christ calls all these to come to him; still there is a rest in Jesus Christ. It is impossible for us to speak of all these things at once. But now I would only find out those whom Christ calls: you who find it so, who are ready to say, “Just as it is said in the word, so I find it in my heart.” I speak to you only to raise up your hearts to attend to what is to be said further afterward. Only remember the poor blind man: when Christ called him, they comforted him with this, “Be of good comfort, he called thee” (Mark 10:49). So I say to you who labor under this burden and long to know the true liberty of spirit that the saints have in Christ: Christ calls to you and says, “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

The Twelfth Burden

Those who are legal in this way have consciences that put them on performing duties, but their humiliation and trouble for not doing what they ought to do hinders them from doing what God requires. This is a sad condition: when I have not done my duty and am troubled for not doing my duty, that hinders me from doing my duty. Those who have evangelical humiliation are made more fit to do duty by it; the others are made more unfit by theirs. Their hearts become more sullen, fretful, and unruly. And this is a sad condition, that they not only fail in other duties, but when they are troubled for this, they fail more.

First they fail in their duties, and their hearts are hardened a great while. Then they complain that their hearts are hardened and that they cannot be humbled for their sin. After this complaint they begin to be troubled for their sin. And then, on the other side, when they are troubled, it is in such a way that they grow sullen and discontented, vexing and fretting themselves; and by this they come to be hindered in performing their duty as much as they were by the hardness of their hearts before. Some are hindered from performing duty by their hardness of heart, and others by their humiliation. Now this is a very great burden.

Some of you may find in your own experience that the trouble of your heart has hindered you rather than furthered you in duty. As in Exodus, when Moses came to the children of Israel, the text says they did not hearken to him because of the anguish of their hearts (Exod 6:9). So there are many people who have such legal trouble in their hearts, and that for their sins, that it hinders them from hearkening to the blessed sound of the gospel. It makes them more unfit to hearken to the invitation of Christ to come to him. Yes, they have such trouble for their sin that it makes them, as it were, reason away from their souls the blessed comfort that is in the gospel.

Now what remains is to show you the sad condition of men and women who are under this burden of legal performance, who are in this condition. We will find that the condition is very sad, and to many unbearable. And this text will appear to be a text of wonderful mercy if we set out before you the sadness and grievousness of those who are under this burden.

The First Misery

Is it not a sad thing that the very thing which should be the chief joy of our hearts in this world, which we should count our privilege, our happiness and the beginning of eternal life, should be counted a misery to us? I mean this: the performance of duty, doing what God calls for, we should count our privilege, our happiness and the beginning of eternal life. And indeed it is so, if we do it in the way God requires. But one who is under this burden does these things in the mere outward act. He does them as necessary evils and counts them evil things; it is only that he cannot avoid them. That man’s or woman’s condition is very sad, when what others count their happiness, life and glory, he counts his misery.

The Second Misery

There is this evil also in the burden of legal performances: it is a means to cause hard thoughts of God. If God goes no further with them than this, that they perform duties in a legal way, it will occasion many hard thoughts of God and of his ways. And they may find that they have such thoughts. Many times, when their hearts are pinched with this burden, they have many hard thoughts of God, hard thoughts of his law, and hard thoughts of his ways. This is very grievous, when the soul comes to find the commandments of God grievous, and so murmurs and grumbles against God, as many do who are in trouble of conscience. They go on in duties, but because they get no peace, no comfort and no mastery over their corruptions, they begin to grumble and murmur against God. “I have done this and that,” they say. “I have performed duties, and nothing comes of them.” And thereupon they begin to leave their duties and hate them.

The Third Misery

There is this evil also in the burden of legal performances: it causes a sinking discouragement. Their hearts sink in exceeding discouragement. After a while of going on in the performance of duties, they find that nothing comes of it, and they sink under it in discouragement. They think it is in vain to go any further. They want to cast it off wholly, and think that is the only way to their ease and rest. From this it follows that a way is opened for the devil to come and tempt them either to looseness or to despair. Many times this is the end of such poor creatures, unless God is pleased to come in and reveal Christ to them. One of these two is the conclusion. Either they cast off the duties they formerly made conscience of, and so grow loose and profane; or else, if conscience pursues them more and more, they grow to despair, and sometimes on their sickbed and deathbed fall into a raving and raging distemper.

For we find by experience that many, after they have been a long time under a troubled conscience and have gone on in a legal way, have grown very profane. There was a time when they dared not neglect duty in their family and in their private prayer. But afterward they come to think that this was only legal, and now they cast those duties off and give themselves to looseness. Then they have nothing to plead for themselves but this: that they were under legal performances, and so they leave them off. This is the way they go to find rest. But oh, how woeful it is to go to the devil for rest! If you had come to Christ, you might have had rest. But these give up their souls to the devil’s rest, grow loose, and are notoriously scandalous in their lives. I suppose that if you observe it, you need not go far to find examples of this kind. Others, who cannot get the mastery of their consciences, grow to despair. When they come to their sickbeds their hearts are overwhelmed with despair, and so they die.

Now oh, what a pity it is to lose such souls as have gone this far in the way of religion! For consider: first, they do the same things God’s people do as to the outward act; they do the same things the saints do. Second, they are very conscientious in what they do; they make conscience of their very thoughts and of their secret ways. Indeed, third, they know they have to do with God in everything; their hearts are so wrought upon that they set themselves always in the presence of God. Indeed, fourth, they have the fear of God, the fear of eternity, upon their hearts continually. And yet they perish at last, and all for want of the knowledge of the gospel.

It is true that these men are right in this: if there were any who put them upon duties and did not open to them the rest that is in the gospel and in Christ, those who did so are rightly blamed for putting men upon duties. God forbid that anyone who takes it upon himself to preach the mind of God to people should stop here, merely putting men upon the performance of duties. For we know that to be under the law, and to do duties in a merely legal way, is a most fearful burden. But this is our work: to invite you to come to Jesus Christ, so that you might have rest. If there are any who know what it is to be burdened with legal performances, the main thing I will do is invite them to come to Jesus Christ, and I hope we will bring them to their rest, seeing Christ so graciously invites them to come to him for their rest.

The Fourth Misery

There is this evil in the burden of legal performances: those who perform duties in a legal way bring an evil report upon the ways of God. For they always go on heavily and dully in God’s ways, and so they bring a bad report upon the ways of God. When the heart is sanctified and carried on by a divine principle, such a person makes the ways of God beautiful and lovely to those they live among. But those who perform duties merely in a legal way go on so pensively, sadly and dully that there is no beauty at all in their conduct, and they make others afraid of those ways that are so tedious and irksome to them.

The Fifth Misery

There is this evil in the burden of legal performances: those who perform duties merely in a legal manner keep no proportion in the ways of God and in their duties, but go merely according to the stirring of conscience. If conscience is awakened and stirred, then they are careful to perform duties; but if conscience does not stir them, they are careless again. Therefore you will not see an evenness in the ways of those who perform duties in this manner. Sometimes they are very strict and dare not for their lives omit any duty, but at other times they are loose again, for it all goes according to the beating of their consciences. They do not work according to the new nature. For what works according to a new nature works in an even way, in which there is a proportion between one duty and another.

And this may serve as a test of whether what you do comes from the change of your nature or from other principles. If there is a proportion between one duty and another, so that you are not very forward in one thing and backward in another, that is a sign it is done from a new nature. But if you make conscience of some things, and at other times take more liberty in other things, this is a sign that what you do is only legally done. And this must needs be burdensome. As it is a burden to a man to walk on uneven ground, one leg up and the other down, so for a man to perform duties up and down, forward and backward, there is a great deal of burden in that way. But those who come to perform duties by the Spirit of God have their way made even for them. Not that God’s people are never better at some times than at others; yet there is generally an evenness and proportion between their actions.

The Sixth Misery

There is this evil in the burden of legal performances: if by these duties their consciences come to be quieted, then they are kept off from Jesus Christ. No people are more kept off from Jesus Christ than those who perform duties in a legal manner and have quiet of conscience that way. Indeed, they are not only kept from Christ; further, they set up their duties in the place of Christ and make them their very justification. What is it that many people would present before the Lord as their righteousness and hope of heaven, but the performance of such and such duties that the law requires? Now here is a mighty mistake. Though we are bound to obey God’s law, yet for us to come and make this our righteousness before God, and set it up before the Lord as our claim to eternal life, is to put Jesus Christ out of his office and make our own duties our saviors. This is exceedingly dangerous, and yet how many people there are who do it!

And therefore I have been willing to speak at greater length on this point, because it is not a subject we meet with every day; and also because I would have many whose consciences begin to be enlightened, and who are much troubled, know where they are, what the ground of their trouble is, and where the bottom of their trouble lies. There are many people who are so far to be loved: they are very conscientious about duty, abstain from the sins that others live in, and perform duties that others neglect. But they go on very heavily and sadly for many years together, and the truth is, they do not know the ground of their trouble, where their trouble comes from. Now by what I have opened to you on this point, you may come to know where all your trouble comes from, and how it has come about that you have gone on in such sadness and heaviness as you have. You have done your duties in a legal way; you have not been acquainted with the way of the gospel.

You will say, “What is that way? How shall we be eased of this burden?” When I come to that, I will show there, in some measure, the rest that we have in Christ from all those burdens I have opened. Christ will not have us omit duties one whit the more; but in Christ we will see how they are performed with a great deal more ease than before, not easier to the flesh, but in the spirit.

And whoever you are who are under this burden of legal performances, if your heart tells you, “This is my condition, the Lord knows it is my condition; I have indeed made conscience of my ways a long while, but I have gone on in just this legal way that has been shown in this point,” if this is your condition, let this much be a comfort to you: know that Jesus Christ calls you. It is true, your condition is sad for the present; yet there is help, hope and remedy in Christ. Come to him, and he has promised to give you rest and to teach you to honor God, which will be more comfort to your souls than this way you are in. The way of the gospel is a safe way, and a speedy way to comfort, and it is as holy a way too. Therefore the way of the gospel does not call you to make less conscience of your duties than you did. No, it is just as holy a way, and a safer and speedier way than the one you are in now. Christ calls you.

Question. But you will say, “Does Christ call these to come to him for rest as if he approved of their condition, as if it were a thing that ought to be, that people ought to be burdened by these legal performances?”

Answer. Some of the burdens here, it is true, ought to be, and Christ approves of them: that is, to be sensible of the guilt of our sins and of the remaining corruption, and so on. Christ calls these as approving of them so far as they are good, though they are not truly good. But there are other burdens upon sinners that Christ calls them to come to him to be eased of, not as burdens Christ approves of, but because Christ pities them and has compassion on those who are under those burdens, as being under a great misery.

For example, when a man makes conscience of his ways, when Christ sees a poor soul making conscience of his ways, having the fear of God and of his eternal state upon him, laboring and doing what he can, and all this while not in the right way, but thinking by this to make up his righteousness with God and gain eternal life, Christ sees that all his labor will come to nothing. If he goes on in this way he will lose all his duties, and for all the conscience he makes of holy duties he will perish at last, unless he comes to understand the way of the gospel, the way sinners are justified before the judgment seat. For all the duties he performs, unless he comes to understand this, he will perish. Now in pity and tender compassion to such a soul, that has done so much and gone so far, the Lord Christ calls such a soul to come to him, so that it may have rest and peace; so that indeed it may have that righteousness which can make it stand with comfort before the great God, and may come to have eternal life at last. But as for our coming to Christ and our rest in him, that belongs to the other point. So much for opening the burden of legal performances.

The next burden is the burden of the corruption that remains in the saints: those who are godly, who have their part in Christ, and who have come to Christ already. Yet they must come again and again. That is, though they are believers and have exercised faith to unite them to Christ, they still have much corruption, much sin, remaining in them. They must come to Christ again to be eased of their corruption, and all the days of their lives they must still be exercising faith in Christ to be eased of the burden of the corruption that remains in them.

That the corruption that still remains in the hearts of the saints is a burden, I suppose every one of you who is godly can witness. There is no godly man or woman in the world who does not know what this point means. Perhaps the other point, of legal performances, was such that many of you scarcely understood what it was. But because I knew it was of exceedingly great use to others, they must not lose their portion, even though many might not understand it. But there is no one who has any spark of godliness who does not and will not understand what I mean, and what I shall say on this point of the burden of corruption that still remains in the godly, even in the best who live on the earth. Everyone acknowledges it; it is in almost everyone’s mouth: “We are all sinners.”

But here is the difference between the wicked and the godly. The wicked have sin enough in them, but it is no burden to them; the godly find their sins to be their burden. The remainder of sin, however little it may be, is a most grievous burden to them. It is to these that I am to speak from this text. Indeed, Christ himself speaks to them: Come to me, you who are laden with the burden of corruption, the burden of the sin that still remains in you; come to me, and I will give you rest in regard to that burden.

Now to prove that there is a remainder of corruption in the godly that is a burden to them, I will give you only one scripture, which will serve in place of all the rest. It is in Romans 7:24-25: “O wretched man that I am,” says Paul, “who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here we indeed have a commentary on this text. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” says Paul. There is the first part, the burden of corruption. And then he runs to Christ: “I thank God through Jesus Christ.” “So then I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.” In other words: I have found ease and rest through Christ by running to him.

But mark the scripture: “O wretched man that I am.” Paul, though a godly man and one eminent in grace, still had a body of death remaining in him. He calls the sin that was in him a body of death. It was like a deadly thing to his heart. And it was like a body because it was made up of many members, as a body is: there were many sins remaining in him, and all the faculties of his soul and the members of his body were defiled with sin. That is why he calls it a body of death.

Now the apostle feels this so keenly that he gives, as it were, a grievous shriek: “O wretched man that I am.” He counts it his misery, so that it plainly appears to be a burden, and then he shrieks out under his burden, “O wretched man that I am.” As a man or woman who has a burden laid on their shoulders, and is not able to bear it, gives a grievous shriek as the burden falls on them, so does the apostle here.

Observe further that the apostle Paul had as much of the burden of affliction on him as anyone ever had. No one had more of the burden of affliction than he had, as you may read in 1 Corinthians 4 and 2 Corinthians 4. Paul’s afflictions were exceedingly grievous; no one was ever more abused than he was. He tells you of being stoned, of suffering shipwreck, and of being abused by his own countrymen; that he suffered nakedness and hunger, and was whipped as if he had been the most notorious rogue in all the country. He had the burden of disgrace on him, being counted the offscouring of the world. He had the burden of poverty: he lacked clothes and bread, and was forced to go up and down from place to place.

Yet notwithstanding these burdens on him, you never read that Paul counted himself a wretched man because of them. You never read that Paul cried out, “O wretched man that I am, that I lack bread, that I lack clothes! O wretched man that I am, that I am whipped and abused!” He does not cry out, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from affliction? Who shall deliver me from persecution?” No. We find in Scripture that he rejoiced in affliction. When he was cast into dungeons he could sing psalms, and when he was under the whip he could sing psalms and rejoice. But when he comes to his sin, then he falls under that burden: who shall deliver me from that? It is as if he said, “O Lord, let me be ever so much afflicted here in this world; yet if I could have my soul delivered from this burden of my sin, I would count myself a happy man.” And yet he was delivered from the guilt of sin, for he knew he would never go to hell for his sin; and he was delivered from the dominion of his sin too. And still he cries out under this burden of his sin, “Who shall deliver me?”

I appeal to many of you: what closet or secret chamber of yours can ever witness that you cried out like this because of your sin, “O wretched man (or woman) that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin, from this wretched heart that I have?” We hear many of you cry out about poverty, disgrace, trouble in your families, and the like. But which of you cries out, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death, from this sin of my nature?” Perhaps many of you do not know whether you are delivered from the guilt of your sin. You do not know whether any of your sins are pardoned. You are not delivered at all, and yet you do not cry out. But Paul was delivered from the guilt of his sin, and yet the mere remainder of sin in his heart was a burden to him. There is much sin in many of your hearts, and you do not cry out about it. Paul was delivered, and yet he cried out about it: “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?”

But now, to open this, I shall show, first, in how many ways the remaining corruption is a burden to the saints; second, what kind of burden it is; third, the particulars, showing that a sinful nature is a burden, the stirring of corruption a burden, and the prevailing of corruption a burden; and fourth, why God so orders things in his providence that his own saints shall be under the burden of corruption. And so I will make some application of it.

First, then: in what respects the remaining sin and corruption in the hearts of the saints is a burden.

The First Burden: Grief

First, it is a burden of grief to them. You know that grief causes heaviness and sadness. Now the remaining corruption they find in themselves is like lead; it lies heavy on their spirits with grief. It is the cause of their grief and trouble. Some will perhaps say to others now and then, “Such and such people who profess religion go about very sadly and heavily. Once you become so strict in your way, you will lose all your comfort, for such and such are always sad and pensive.” But do you know the reason for their sadness? You have as much cause to be sad as they do. Their burden is not that they are religious, but that they are no more religious; not that they now do more duties than they did before, but that they cannot find their hearts come up to their duties as they would like. Do not attribute their grief to their godliness. Rather, say to yourself, “If those who do so much for God are still so troubled and grieved because they do no more for God, how much cause for trouble and grief do I have, who do nothing at all for God?”

The Second Burden: Shame

Second, the remaining corruption in the hearts of the saints is a burden of shame. Grief is a burden, and shame is a burden. Many who can bear great burdens, who can bear the burden of poverty, are still not able to bear the burden of disgrace. Especially to those who are most noble-minded, it is one of the greatest burdens in the world.

Now the saints are ashamed of the corruption that remains in them. They count it a shame before the Lord and before his blessed angels, and in regard to themselves, because of what they know of themselves that the world does not know. They look on it as such a shame that they even loathe and abhor themselves, as the Scripture speaks. It may be that their lives are such that others honor them and think highly of them. But being acquainted with their own hearts, and looking into the secret workings of their own spirits, they see so much evil there that they find great cause to abhor and loathe themselves, and to lie down in their shame before the Lord, who they know sees into their hearts a great deal more than they can see themselves.

I will appeal to anyone who knows his own heart. Suppose God were to open your heart and make known to your friends and acquaintances as much evil as is in your heart in performing one duty. If everyone knew as much evil as is in your heart at one time, in prayer or in hearing a sermon, would you not be ashamed? Now God knows and sees all the baseness and vileness of your spirit. And the godly, knowing this, cannot help being ashamed and going under this burden of shame with heavy hearts.

The Third Burden: Fear

Third, the remaining corruption in the hearts of the godly carries with it a burden of fear. Fear, you know, is a great burden, as well as grief and shame. Though the evil itself is not so great upon them, yet if they apprehend an evil coming upon them, it is a great burden to them. Take those who dare not go out of doors at night, or dare not be in the dark, because of fear: when they are delivered from their fears, do they not count it to have been a great burden?

Now the godly have a great deal of fear on their hearts. And the truth is, those who are godly fear what their own evil hearts may bring upon them more than what all the devils in hell and all the creatures in the world can bring upon them. That is a good fear, yet it makes them walk heavily. Others fear too: sometimes they fear people, those who will come and take away their estates and ruin them; they fear their enemies, or they fear the devil. But one who is godly fears his own heart, and the evil that may come to his soul through it, more than all the hurt that all the devils in hell can do to him. For they cannot afflict more than the body. Ah, but this brings evil on the soul; it breaks the communion between them and God.

Therefore they are afraid of sin before it comes. They know by experience what evil their hearts have done them, and so they are afraid of miscarrying, and afraid of the evil consequences of their sin. They do not know what mischief their sin might possibly bring upon them. And so they go under this burden of fear for a long time together, even those who are truly godly.

The Fourth Burden: Care

Fourth, the remaining corruption in the hearts of the saints is a burden of care. For men and women to be always full of care is, you know, a great burden, as many of you know well. When you have a great deal of business on you and much lies on you, when your thoughts are full of care, is it not a great burden to you? Many who have been full of business, and afterward have got through it, count it a great freedom.

The saints have a burden of care on them because they find they have so much to do with their own hearts that they need to watch over them night and day. They have learned by experience what their hearts have done when no strict watch was kept over them. Therefore there is no child of God, if he is in a right frame, who is not a man full of care. As long as we live in this flesh our condition is full of fears, and so we must be full of care in this world.

Yet there is a great deal of difference between the distracting care that wicked men have about their outward estate and the care of the godly about keeping their peace with God, making up their peace with God, avoiding the occasions of and temptations to sin, and recovering themselves when they have been overcome by sin. This, I say, must make them full of care. When a man has great business on him, he is full of care. And no people in the world have so much business on them as a godly man or woman. They know that the business lying on them is greater than all the world besides; the care of the whole world lies on them.

Indeed, they have on them not only business of great consequence, but a multitude of business. The life of a Christian is a busy life, a life of a great deal of business. A Christian woman has abundance of business to do, and therefore it is a most vile thing for one who professes herself a Christian to be idle and to spend her time vainly. Have you nothing to do? You talk of passing the time! A godly man or woman has enough to do: they have to provide for eternity and to make their peace with God.

Besides this, there is a multitude of business on them, and they have multitudes of hindrances too. If you have great business, a multitude of business, and multitudes of hindrances, and especially if you are ruined should you miscarry, this will make you very full of care. For a man to miscarry in the world is not so great an evil as for a Christian to miscarry in any one duty he performs. When a Christian goes to perform a duty, he thinks like this: “I must now set all the faculties of my soul working in every duty that God calls for. And if I miscarry in the duty, I look on it as a greater evil than if I were ruined in my estate or my body. And I find abundance of hindrances that put me in danger of miscarrying; therefore I must take great care.”

Now in Christ there is a great deal of ease in this respect. Those who are acquainted with the way of Christ are mightily eased of the burden of care. But as for those who perform duties and do not come to Christ, the more they are kept from Christ, the heavier the burden of care will be. Yet it is not only those who perform duties in a legal way who have the burden of care on them, but the godly also.

The Fifth Burden: Labor and Toil

Fifth, the corruption that remains in us brings a burden of labor and toil. For there is no labor in the world so intense as the labor a Christian has against his corruptions. He does not merely say, as many slight and vain-spirited men and women do, “Lord, have mercy on me; we are all sinners; I would like to do otherwise; I have good desires.” No, a Christian knows that he must draw out all the faculties of his soul and bend them against his corruption. If ever he toils, labors, and spends his strength, it must be in this way, against his corruption.

Now there is ease in Christ for this burden too. Why? Because Christ gives power against corruption. The way to rest in him is by coming to him, so that we will not need to toil and labor under our corruptions as before. Now if grief is a burden, shame a burden, fear a burden, care a burden, and if laboring and toiling are a burden, then those who are godly are under a great burden because of their corruption: this fivefold burden.

Further, as for the properties of this burden: what kind of burden is it that the people of God feel under their corruptions?

1. It is a soul burden. Other burdens are bodily, rather. It is easier for a man to bear a burden on his shoulders than to bear a burden on his conscience; there it lies with torment. And the burden of corruption is a burden on our very consciences.

Many in times past have said that people must be content to bear things, even when things were required of them that ought not to be. If they went under them as a burden, they thought they were well enough. Of many things in the worship of God, false worship, they would say that for their part they would be glad if things were otherwise, and they went under them as a burden, and they thought that was enough. It is true, if it were only a burden on our estates, only in outward things, there would be something in that. But when it comes to a burden on our consciences, we must learn to distinguish between the burden on our shoulders and the burden on our consciences. And so many Christians could bear burdens on their shoulders as well as anyone, but they could not bear any burdens on their consciences.

2. It contains in itself almost all other burdens. For example: Is poverty a burden? Sin makes us poor. Is dishonor a burden? Sin brings dishonor. Is debt, for a man to be in debt, a burden? Sin brings that too. “Forgive us our debts,” says Christ (Matt 6:12); he teaches us to pray so. Sin therefore has all other burdens in it, and therefore it is a great burden.

3. Sin is a burden that is constant. Night and day, continually, it is a burden on the soul of the godly. If men have other burdens on them, sometimes they have ease. Porters who carry burdens all day still have their dinner times, and at night they go to bed and rest themselves; so they have ease that way. But sin is always a burden on the godly, night and day; they cannot get this burden off. To lay a burden down for a quarter of an hour would be some ease, but sin is so great a burden that it is continually on the saints.

4. It is such a burden as makes all other burdens burdens. As it contains in itself all other burdens, so sin is what makes all other things burdensome that are burdensome. For example, to a man or woman who is poor, poverty is a great burden; yes, but if there is sin with the poverty, that makes it a burden indeed. Sickness is a burden; yes, but so far as sin is mixed with it, so far it is a greater burden. And so with loss of estate and the like.

I would compare all other burdens to this: to water in a tankard. When the water carriers carry water in their tankards, it is a burden to them, but they have ways to make their tankards as light as can be. Now if they carried their water in tankards of lead, though the water were no heavier, this would still make it more burdensome. So sickness, poverty and loss of estate are burdensome to all who bear them. But when the heart is corrupted with sin, that corruption is like the lead that makes it the greater burden. And therefore sin in the heart is something that makes all other things burdensome that are burdensome. If a man should lose his whole estate in one night, this might be some burden; but in him who has sin upon him, it is the sin that makes all other burdens burdensome.

5. Sin is a burden to God himself, and much more to the saints. God cries out that he is pressed under sin as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves (Amos 2:13). It is a burden to the Spirit of God, and therefore it is said that the Spirit of God is grieved (Eph 4:30). And it must surely be a great burden to your soul when you see and know that it is a burden to your Father, a burden to the Spirit of God by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption.

Is it not a burden to the heart of anyone with a noble spirit when he considers, “What I have done is a burden to my Father, to the Spirit of grace”? For any child with a noble heart, it will be a burden to him that he has done anything against his father. Now so long as you have any sin in you, you are a burden to God and to the Spirit of God.

6. As it is a burden to God, so it is what makes us burdensome to everyone we have dealings with. And the more corruption remains in our hearts, the more burdensome we are to everyone we have dealings with. There are some who, though truly godly, still have so much corruption in them that they are burdensome to all they have dealings with. In a family, for example, take those who are quick-tempered: though godliness lies at the bottom, yet how burdensome they are to those who live with them! Others have extremely stout and stubborn spirits. Others have sullen hearts, extremely sullen spirits. Others have frivolous and vain spirits, others proud and envious spirits, and others are covetous.

Now there is good reason they should feel the burden themselves, for others feel the burden when it breaks out from them, and this makes their own burden much heavier. Those who are truly godly and are overcome by their temper think like this: “Oh, what a wretched heart I have, that I should break out in temper in such and such company! Oh, what a wretch I am, that I should be burdensome not only to myself but to those I live among!” I have no doubt that I am speaking to many who have lamented their condition in this one respect alone, that they have been so burdensome to others: “It is true, I have been a burden to such and such, but the Lord knows it is much more a burden to my own heart and to myself.”

Therefore the remaining part of corruption is such a burden to the godly because it is a burden to others, whereas all the people of God should be useful in the places where they live. They should live so that all who live near them and with them should bless God for them. This they should endeavor to do: to live in such a way that all who come near them should bless God that they ever came near them or had dealings with them.

7. This burden is such that it makes the godly burdensome to themselves, yes, even weary of their lives many times. Why? Because the corruption in them is far more grievous to them than death would be. We commonly express something that is very grievous to us by saying, “It is death to me.” The godly can say so of their sin. And that is one reason why Paul gave his sin that name, a body of death: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). Why? Because the remaining corruption that was then in his heart was like death to him.

So it is with the saints: the corruption that remains in their hearts is death to them. And they can appeal to God and speak like this in his presence: “The bitterness of death would not be a thousandth part as much to me as this corruption that is in my heart. Oh, this corruption in my heart, which overcomes me after so many resolutions, so many prayers, so many sacraments, so many engagements! It is what makes me weary of my life.” As Rebekah said that if Jacob should marry a wife of the daughters of Heth, it would make her weary of her life (Gen 27:46), so the godly person says, “This remaining corruption in my heart makes me weary of my life. What shall I do, carrying such a body of death about with me as I do?”

There are many men and women who say in a discontented mood that they are weary of their lives; but this is in a discontented mood. But when could you say so with respect to your heart? When did you say, “I looked into my heart, and I saw a great deal of sin, corruption, worldliness, pride, temper and the like, and this is what makes me weary of my life”?

The truth is, the great thing that makes the people of God willing to die is this: they know that when they die they shall be delivered from this burden. And therefore when death comes they welcome it willingly, because they know they shall sin against God no more. Many of you, when you have lived a long time in sickness and poverty and are in great straits in many ways, think, “If death should come to me, I could be willing to die, because then I would suffer no such things as I do now.” Yes, but that is no evidence of grace. But this is evidence of grace: that because of the great burden of corruption that you carry about in your soul, you would be willing to die.

8. Sin is a grievous burden while we have it, and it makes us weary of our lives. And yet it is a burden we must certainly carry about with us, a body we know we shall never be wholly freed from while we live in this world. It is true, we may be freed from it in great measure. Christ says that if we come to him we shall have rest; that is, some rest for the present, and complete rest in the life to come. But we cannot be wholly freed from this burden while we are in this world.

And this is enough for the properties of this burden: what kind of burden the people of God feel under their corruptions.

The third thing is to show that corruption is a burden to them.

1. As for the corrupt nature that is in them, apart from the act of sin, this must be a burden to the godly: to think, “I have a nature contrary to God.” To think that now and then they sin against God, this is not the burden. But here is the burden: “O wretched man, wretched woman that I am (Rom 7:24)! I have a nature in me that is opposite to the very nature of God, to the infinite holiness of God himself. Though God has made me a partaker of the divine nature, yet I still continue to be opposite to the very nature of God himself.”

2. This corrupt nature is like a heavy weight that presses them down in every holy duty. So we read in Hebrews 12:1: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

He speaks here of original sin, the sin of our nature especially. It is a weight that lies upon our hearts in the performance of holy duties, when we are striving to get our hearts up to God. This corruption of nature keeps them down. I remember the story of a good man who, going out, saw a bird fluttering up. When it had got up, it fell down again; then it would flutter up, and then come down again. Looking at it intently, he saw a stone tied to the bird’s leg. At that the good man began to weep. “Just so,” he said, “it is with me. I long to get up to God; I long to have communion with God; and sometimes I am getting up to God, but immediately there is a weight that pulls me down.”

Do you not find it so? You who keep company with God, you who sometimes get alone with God in duty and long to have your hearts raised to him: how your hearts are brought down again! And not only in these private duties, but after public duties too. Sometimes, after a day of fasting and humiliation, oh, at night your hearts are up! Now you resolve that you will live above the world and above all these things here below, and that you will live more to God’s glory. But how your hearts are brought down again by this corrupt nature that is in you!

3. Corrupt nature is a burden because it affords matter for any temptation in the world. There is no temptation to any kind of sin for which our nature does not afford matter; it affords matter for every kind of temptation. What a burden this is! Suppose a ship is on fire in the midst of other ships, and we know that there is a great deal of gunpowder in the ship that is on fire in the midst of the rest. Would not the man who owns the ship be afraid? And will he not toil and use every means he can so that the fire may not take hold of the gunpowder?

I compare all the temptations to sin around us to the fire. Now we are surrounded by the fire, and what are our hearts in the midst of it? There is matter in them for the temptation to catch on. As the gunpowder is matter for the fire to take hold of, so our sinful hearts are as ready to catch at every temptation as the gunpowder is. Now is this not a great burden, that I should carry about with me in my heart matter enough to entertain all sin, any sin in the world, yes, even the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, if I did not have the mighty power of God to restrain me? This is how it is with the sinful nature of man.

4. The sinfulness of our nature is a burden in this respect: it does not only have matter to entertain temptation, but it has in it a root from which every kind of sin may spring up (if God does not come in with his grace), even though there were no temptation of any kind. Many of us cry out against the devil and temptation when we are overcome by sin. But consider what I say. There is not only that evil in your hearts which makes you ready to entertain all temptations; there is also that evil in your hearts which would breed every kind of evil whatsoever, though there were no temptation, though there were no devil in hell.

Take it this way. You know there are seeds of weeds in the ground. It is true, they do not come up and flourish until the rain and the sun draw them out. Yet the seeds of those weeds are still there, so that they would come up in time, though not so soon; unless they are rooted out, they will come up in time. So it is here. It is not only that the devil casts things into us; our corrupt heart rises up to meet them.

It is one thing to have some filthy thing thrown on us, and another thing to have the body so rotten that a stinking vapor comes from the body itself. A person may have some unsavory thing thrown on him and so be unsavory; but when the body is rotten and that is thrown on him as well, he is far more unsavory. So it is here. It may be that the devil brings some temptation upon us and causes some disturbance in our heart. Yes, but there is that in our hearts which will cause as great a disturbance in our souls as the devil can.

5. Lastly, the sinfulness of our nature is a burden in this respect: it will damp all the activity of our graces, all their liveliness. The saints of God make it the joy of their souls to be active and stirring for God, but this corruption that we carry about with us damps everything. Think of a candle in a coal pit, a mine: a damp, the foul air of the pit, would come and make the candle burn dim. So the graces of God’s Spirit, even in the best of us all, are like a candle in a coal pit. Your heart is like a coal pit, and God has set up a candle there, some grace in your heart that shines there.

Now, though Christ takes care that all the damps of your corruption shall not put out your candle, yet God sometimes dims this candle so that at times it does not shine. He takes away the beauty, liveliness and activity of your graces, so that though you have some life and burning, you burn only dimly before others with whom you converse.

I am not now speaking of the stirring of sin, the working of sin; that is the next thing I shall open, how that is a burden to the hearts of the saints. For instance, you know that the Scripture tells us that the flesh fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit fights against the flesh (Gal 5:17). There is a continual fighting by this corruption against all that is good. Now, that there should be corruption in the heart that continually fights against God is a more fearful thing, and so it is in your heart.

To be always in a fight or a combat is a fearful thing. We count it a great burden that there should be wars and rumors of wars within our gates. Yes, but there is a greater war in your heart. It was never thought possible that there should be found in England such a generation as would endanger their lives to make themselves and their posterity slaves; and yet this is what they fight for. Who does not see that, in the end, this is what their victory would come to?

But I will show you a worse thing than this in every one of your hearts. There are such corruptions in your hearts as set your souls fighting to do yourselves harm, to bring yourselves to be slaves to the devil. This is in your hearts, though indeed some are not aware of it.

And what is the reason that, if corruption is a burden, some people do not feel it? One reason is this: they are dead in sins. If this whole building should fall upon a dead man, he would not feel it. Take this as an infallible proof that you are dead in sins and trespasses, if you do not feel the burden of your corruption. That man or woman who is not aware of the sin that is in their soul, I dare in the name of God pronounce that man or woman dead.

As it is in nature: though we may lose the sense of sight, or of smell, or of hearing, yet we may live. But the sense of feeling, or touch, cannot be lost while we are living. If we lose the sense of feeling, certainly that man or woman is dead. Though there may be no other sense, inward or outward, there is some sense of feeling as long as there is life. So it is here. Though there may be many weaknesses in men and women, yet when they do not feel the burden of their corruptions at all, certainly they are dead men and women.

Now, you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me, says Christ, “and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). Know that Christ speaks to you not only out of pity, as to those who labor under the burden of legal performances, but out of love. And know that by this you come to be fitted for Christ. It is as delightful to the heart of Christ to give ease and rest to his poor servants who labor under the burden of corruption as to do anything in the world.

It was a special purpose for which Christ came into the world, to dissolve the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Our corruptions are from the devil; they are tied close to us, and they easily beset us, as the expression is. Now, I say, it was the purpose for which Jesus Christ came into the world, to dissolve the works of the devil. That is, when he sees his poor servants under this burden, crying out under it as Paul did, “Who shall deliver me?” (Rom 7:24), then Christ comes to cut this bond, and so to dissolve the works of the devil and give ease and rest to their spirits.

You do well when you struggle and strive against your corruptions with all the strength you have. But the great work you have to do, if you are to be delivered from your corruptions, is to renew your act of faith in Christ: to make use of those passages of Scripture in which Christ is said to be our sanctification as well as our redemption, and to exercise our faith upon those scriptures. That is the way to ease our souls of these burdens.

Now besides the corruption of our nature, the stirring of corruption is very burdensome to the soul. I suppose that if a man or woman knew what corrupt nature is in them, it would be very burdensome to them even if this corrupt nature did not stir. But we must understand that this corrupt nature does not lie still. It is always working, stirring, acting and putting itself forth toward what is evil. Now the motions of sin are burdensome.

1. They are continually fighting against the Spirit of God and the spirit of grace in the heart: “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit” (Gal 5:17). Now to have continual fighting and combat in the soul, is that not very burdensome? Think of a family where there is continual falling out. There are some families you never come to on any day without finding falling out and fighting. Is it not burdensome to live in such a family? Now in the hearts of men and women there is continual fighting. If someone lived in a family where the husband and wife were continually fighting with one another, and the children and servants flying in each other’s faces, that would be burdensome.

Now in the heart of man the flesh and the spirit are continually fighting against one another. Is not war in a kingdom a burden? And especially when men fight to make themselves slaves! As I said before, would anyone ever have thought it possible that there should be such folly in the hearts of any in England, that they would fight to make themselves and their posterity slaves, so that the very victory they won would only bring them into slavery? Now the fight with corruption is for this very end.

2. Then again, the stirring of corruption is sudden. Many times a gracious and godly man or woman finds their heart in a good temper and working for God, and suddenly, unexpectedly, their corruptions will be stirring in them. This is an extreme grief and damp to their spirits. It often suddenly causes them exceedingly great trouble, so that nobody can understand the cause of it but themselves.

3. Then again, the stirring of corruption is violent. The stirrings of corruption in the hearts of the saints are many times extremely violent and outrageous. The devil stirs up their corruption, and indeed the corruptions themselves are, as it were, devils in them. They do as the devil did that was about to be cast out of the man who was possessed: he made him foam at the mouth. So there is extreme violence of corruption in the hearts of the saints. It was a lamentable condition that the poor child in the Gospel was in, the one who was possessed, when his father came to Christ for help; for when the evil spirit came, it cast him into the fire and into the water.

So corruption is so violent in the hearts of the godly that it is ready to cast them into the fire and into the water. It drives them to do things that are against their own inclination, against their prayers, against their resolutions, against their vows and against their covenants. They see such a thing to be evil and are convinced of it. They find a strong inclination against the evil. They have been at prayer to God to help them against it. They resolve against it with the strongest resolutions. Yes, they vow and covenant; yes, they come to the sacrament and set their seal to it. And still their corruption is so violent that it carries and hurries them on in ways of evil notwithstanding.

4. Again, the motions and stirrings of corruption are very burdensome to the saints because of the confused disorder there is in the motions of their corruptions. There is much disorder and confusion in the heart when corruption stirs, and this causes much disturbance. What causes more disturbance in a state, in a family or in a town than confusion and disorder? Nothing is more disorderly and confused than the corruption in our hearts, and therefore it is burdensome. It causes much perplexity in the hearts of the saints, because they find their corruptions working and stirring in such a confused way. Sometimes when they are at a duty they find such strange, confused workings of their hearts that it is an extreme burden to them.

5. Further, the corruption of the heart works very maliciously, and therefore it is all the more burdensome. That is, it especially watches for those times when it may do us the most mischief, and then it will be most stirring. A malicious enemy will not only be troublesome now and then to someone he is an enemy to; he also watches for any time when he may do him more mischief than at another. “I will take that time,” says an enemy. So it is with the corruptions of men’s hearts: they watch for when they may do the soul the greatest mischief.

Now many a Christian may think, “Though I find much corruption stirring many times, if only I could be free of it when I get alone to have communion with God! Oh, that it would let me alone at that time!” Or, “Though I find it stirring at other times, if only it would let me alone at the hearing of the word!” But it comes especially at that time. You will have more evil thoughts at prayer than you ever had, and more light, frivolous workings of spirit at the hearing of the word than at other times. And not only at the word: if there is one truth that concerns the good of your souls more nearly than another, you will find your corruptions hinder you then more than at another time. So also at the sacrament and at fasting, it will be working more there than at another time.

6. Yes, and further, if there is any time when, through God’s mercy in a day of prayer and fasting and the like, you can get your hearts into some comfortable frame, into brokenness of heart, into renewed resolutions to walk in the ways of God more strictly than before (as is often the case on days of fasting and prayer), then above all times your corruptions will be stirring after that, more than at any time. Thus it works maliciously: when it may do you the greatest mischief, then it will be most at work. Now what a burden this is to the soul!

It was so with Christ, as we read in Matthew. At the end of the third chapter you have the story of Christ’s baptism. When he was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon him in the likeness of a dove, and there was this manifestation of God from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:16-17). Well, immediately, says the text, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1). God was in the work, but the devil was malicious against him immediately after a glorious manifestation of God the Father to him. As it was with Christ your Savior, so you must expect it will be with you. When Christ had such a glorious manifestation of God the Father from heaven to him, then he was led aside, and then the devil immediately came upon him.

So it will often be with you. When at any time you have got your hearts up to God in a day of fasting and prayer or the like, and have gained some sense of God’s love, beware of growing complacent and careless at that time more than at all other times. This is the reason you will find, if you observe it, that very often after a day of fasting, after a day in which you have gained the most, you will find strong workings of the corruptions of your hearts to bring them down again immediately after that time; if not the very same night, then the next day. For the stirrings of corruption are very malicious, and they watch for the time when they may do us the greatest mischief of all.

7. Further, the stirrings of the corruptions that remain in us are very burdensome because of their unseasonableness. By that I mean this (to speak plainly to your hearts): suppose we gratify the stirrings of our corruptions many times and yield to them, as it were, for peace’s sake. Sometimes the heart of a man or woman is so troubled with the workings of corruption that they think they must yield so that they may be quiet. Well, if you yield to them to quiet them, they will come upon you more and more, and with greater strength than before.

It is as when someone is troublesome to us, seeking to get this or that thing from us, and at length, because of the trouble they give us, we yield to them. Afterward they grow more and more upon us. They encroach on us more and more and are very troublesome and burdensome to us. So it is in the stirring of corruption. If you yield to your corruption in one thing, it comes upon you more and more, so that the only quiet you can have is by being in open defiance of them. Now this is another thing that makes the corruptions of the hearts of God’s people very burdensome to them.

8. Lastly, the corruptions in the hearts of God’s people are very burdensome because they are very prevailing. This is a higher degree. They are burdensome in the root; they are more burdensome in their working; but in their prevailing they are more burdensome still. A child of God looks into his heart and finds what a root of bitterness is there, and that makes him go heavily all his days. But now when he finds such working and stirring of corruption, this troubles him more. He thinks, “Though I have such a cursed nature, though I cannot keep down the motions and stirrings of my corruption, if only I could keep them from working! Yes, though I cannot keep them from working, if only I could keep them from prevailing! But alas, they overcome me many times.” And this is the greatest burden of all, that they prevail in our hearts as much as they do.

It is troublesome to fight with an enemy, but it is a great deal more troublesome to have an enemy prevail and win the day. It is true that corruption will not win the day fully. That is, it may prevail for a while in some skirmishes; it may win the engagement, but not the war. An enemy may have the better of it in some skirmishes, and yet the other side may conquer at last and win the day. By “the day” I mean when it comes to a pitched, set battle; that is the war, and there the other side prevails. If I can only prevail and win the day then, the rest is not so much. It is true that the saints of God will win the day at last; but here, as long as they live, their corruptions often prevail and foil them, which is very grievous and burdensome to them.

Now, to open this a little in its particulars and show how burdensome it is to the hearts of the saints when their corruptions prevail in any measure: they do not shrug it off as carnal people do, saying, “We are all sinners, and it is God’s grace that must keep us,” and “Lord, have mercy on us,” and the like. No, they count the prevailing of corruption the greatest burden they can go under in the world, and that in these respects.

1. Whenever corruption prevails, in whatever degree, it weakens the heart; it weakens the soul. Corruption may stir in the heart, and if the heart drives it back and gains strength against it, the heart is not as weak as it was before. But if it prevails in any degree, it weakens the heart. Now we know that whatever is weak quickly feels a burden. A sick man is a burden to himself, and everything is a burden to him. So when any corruption prevails, it makes the soul sick, and everything is a burden to it. And I beg you, consider this: here is a reason why you are so weak and able to bear no other burdens. If anyone crosses you, if your wife, children, or servants cross you when you come home, you cannot bear it. If neighbors cross you, you can bear nothing. There is a reason for this that you do not think of. You have weakened your hearts by some sin or other, and perhaps broken your peace with God, and now your hearts have grown weak. You are like a sick man who cries out at anything. One who is sick cries out at everything, whereas if he were strong and healthy he could bear a hundred times more. So you have brought a sickness on your souls. There is some sin that has prevailed with you, prevailed over you, and by that it has weakened your heart and your spirit. Now, being weak, you can bear nothing, and everything is a grievous burden to you. So the prevailing of corruption comes to be burdensome in this respect: it weakens the heart and makes everything burdensome to them.

2. The saints and people of God count the prevailing of corruption the greatest burden in this respect, because they know that now they dishonor God. This is especially so if it prevails so far as to break out outwardly, so that it comes to an outward, actual sin. Then it must be burdensome to one who is gracious, for such a one thinks: “The name of the blessed God suffers by this sin of mine that has prevailed. All the while sin was only stirring in my heart and did not prevail, the name of God did not have the dishonor it has now.” Now that sin has prevailed, it dishonors God, and therefore it is a burden to the saints.

3. It is a burden because perhaps my holy profession is scandalized by it, and is that not a burden? Many wretched men and women will say they do not care; let others say and think what they like of them. But when godly men and women think of this, they cry out, “Oh, what will the wicked say about this! How they will blaspheme the name of God and dishonor the name of God!” And this will be a burden to them, because by it their holy profession is scandalized.

4. It is a burden because by this they come to be made useless in the places where they live. Many, though they may have some soundness of grace in them and may go to heaven at last, yet because their corruption prevails over them, they become very useless in the places where they live. They may live, but they themselves will be burdens on the earth, for they are never likely to be used to do any great service for God in the world; they have so scandalized their profession by the prevailing of corruption.

5. When corruption prevails over the saints, as it makes them unprofitable, so it makes the means of grace exceedingly unprofitable too. It hardens their hearts, and they come to prayer, to hearing the word, and to the sacraments, and find little good. Many of you complain that you find no profit in prayer, in hearing the word, and in the sacrament. What is the reason? Such and such corruptions have prevailed over you. Perhaps there are some sins you live in that have prevailed over you, and therefore it is no wonder you do not profit as you desire.

6. The prevailing of corruption is a grievous burden in this regard: it is what extremely disturbs the peace between God and our soul. Though there may be many temptations, yet if the heart can conquer them, it has more peace by that means. The soul never has so much peace as when there have been strong temptations to sin and a conquering of those temptations. But if temptation conquers, then our peace will be disturbed, and that is burdensome to those who know what peace with God means.

7. The prevailing of corruption is a grievous burden because it is often what shakes the assurance of those who are godly. Some men think that whatever sin they fall into, they can still keep up their assurance as much as before. If so, I do not know what they would make of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4). What, I say, would they make of that petition, “Lord, forgive us our sins”? At the least it means praying this way: “Lord, clear up the evidence of the forgiveness of our sins.” Then it must follow that falling into any sin, and the prevailing of any corruption, must shake our assurance while we live here in this world. Now is it not a burden to any man or woman who once had assurance of God’s love, and was able to look on God’s face with joy, to have this assurance shaken? Yes, many times it makes God withdraw his countenance, which made David cry out, “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation” (Ps 51:12). It is as if he were saying, “Lord, I used to have joy in your company, in communion with you, but you have estranged yourself from my soul. O Lord, ‘restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.’” Now is it not a burden for you to lose the sweetness your soul had in communion with God? Though perhaps it comes through your weakness, or whatever it may be, you now cannot look on God with the comfort you would like; instead the thought of God becomes a terror to your spirit. Is this not a burden?

Now then, is there any poor soul who understands what these things mean: what a burden the remaining corruption of the heart is, whether in regard of the sinfulness of nature, or the stirring of corruption, or the prevailing of corruption? Are there any who now have no rest in their souls, but are laden with such a burden and cry out with the apostle, “Oh! wretched man and woman that I am, who shall deliver me?” (Rom 7:24). Let such a soul know that this text belongs to them. “Come unto me,” says Christ, “and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28), rest from this burden as well as from the other burdens. Our rest from this is only in Christ, just as our rest from the burden of the guilt of sin, the burden of the law, and the other burdens we have spoken of is only in him.

Now a gracious heart cannot help feeling these things to be very burdensome.

First, because the life of grace, wherever it is, is a very tender and delicate thing. Nothing is as delicate and tender as the life of grace, and therefore it must be sensitive to this burden of corruption, according to the degree in which corruption remains in the soul. Think of it this way. You know how it is with a man or woman who is delicate and tender in the flesh, perhaps from having had a very refined upbringing, or perhaps because their natural spirits are more delicate than other people’s. Some men’s natural spirits are coarser, and they can bear burdens with less feeling. But those who are finer and more delicate: if you lay a burden on them, oh, how burdensome it is to them! Now grace makes the constitution delicate, fine and pure. It puts the heart into a most pure constitution, and therefore it must be sensitive to the evil of sin according to what remains of it.

Second, where grace is, corruption must be very burdensome in this respect also: because grace keeps the soul in continual action and stirring. Think of a man who has a broken leg. If he could lie still and never stir, it would not be so grievous and burdensome to him; the pain and breaking of his leg would not be so burdensome if he could lie still. But if this man whose leg is broken must be stirring, walking and going up and down, oh, how burdensome it is that his leg is broken! So it is with the soul. It is true that if the soul might stay asleep and do nothing, then, though there is corruption in it, it would not be so grievous. Ah, but grace, wherever it is, puts the soul into action. That is why it is called “the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4): because it is active. It sets the soul acting for God and in the ways of life. Now since grace sets the soul acting, and corruption is like the breaking of the bones, corruption must be very burdensome. Whatever most hinders the activity of grace must be very burdensome.

You need, therefore, to take heed what you do when temptation to sin comes. Take heed that you do not break your bones and your legs. Why? Because when you have broken them, you must still be stirring and acting for God. It is a great deal worse for a poor man to break his leg than for a rich man. A rich man may sit by the fire, or lie in his bed a month at a time; but if a poor man breaks his leg, he does not know what to do. He must go to work, and perhaps he cannot have the shelter that a rich man may have. So, I say, for those who are of sluggish spirits, though corruption prevails, it is not so grievous to them. But for those who are of active spirits and have grace, it is otherwise: the more grace any man or woman has, the more burdensome their corruptions are, because the more grace there is in the soul, the more active it will be for God.

Question. But you will say, “Seeing that the corruption remaining in the hearts of the saints is so burdensome, why does God so order things in his providence that his own dear saints should be so troubled with their corruptions while they live in this world? God could deliver them from their corruptions. Why will God make them cry out, ‘O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?’ (Rom 7:24). God could perfect our sanctification as well as our justification. Why does God order things in his providence this way, that his own dear saints should groan under such a burden of corruption all their days?”

Answer. Briefly, then: it is true that God could take away all our corruptions at once. As soon as ever we come to Jesus Christ, God could deliver us from our corruptions; but the Lord will not. He has many holy ends for allowing his own people to be under this burden while they live here in the flesh, such as these.

1. That by this he may show forth his own power. The power of Jesus Christ is exceedingly magnified in this: that it can uphold little sparks of grace in the midst of an ocean of corruption, that it can uphold poor weak creatures under such burdens, carry them on in spite of them, and bring them to eternal life. The power and grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of God, are as much displayed in this as in keeping heaven and earth in their frame, or keeping them in being. The Lord does not appear more to be an almighty God in keeping heaven and earth in being than he appears to be an almighty God in keeping grace alive in the heart in spite of all the corruption that remains.

So in this God has glory in a different way from the glory he has from the angels in heaven. The power of God appears in upholding the angels, for if he did not uphold them, they would fall into evil, as Adam did, and as those other angels did who fell. God’s glorious power does appear in upholding the angels. But the glorious power in upholding the angels does not appear as much as the glorious power of God in upholding the hearts of the saints in the midst of their corruptions.

This will be a special reason for which the saints will praise God to all eternity. They will look back and see what condition they were in before their conversion, yes, and in their conversion: that though God granted them some grace, yet what an abundance of corruption was in their hearts all that time, and what a great deal of trouble they had to maintain that little grace. They will stand and marvel to consider that it should be kept alive in the midst of sin, that a little spark should be kept alive in the midst of the sea. And not only in the midst of the sea, but when the sea is stormy. You will say it is no great wonder that the fire is kept burning when the sea is calm. But when all is in a storm, and yet a spark of fire is kept alive in the midst of all the tossing of the waves, you will grant that here is a mighty power. Now the keeping alive of grace in your heart in the midst of so much corruption shows as mighty a power in God.

2. The Lord orders it so that his own people are still under the burden of much corruption for this reason too: because by this the Lord draws out the exercise of faith in his Son, in which his soul takes infinite delight. The soul of God takes infinite delight in beholding the working of the glorious grace of faith in Jesus Christ.

But you will ask, how does faith appear so glorious with respect to our corruption? In this way. For the angels in heaven to believe in God, that he will be eternally good to them, is not so great a thing as for a poor soul, in the midst of all his corruptions, still to be able to triumph in the free grace of God in Jesus Christ: “Although I am so vile, filthy, loathsome and abominable to myself, and God and his saints might justly count me a burden to them and cast me off forever, yet for all this my soul will cling to him. I will cast myself upon him, and look upon him as a gracious Father, a merciful God, a God who loves me, a God who rejoices in doing me good.” For the soul to exercise faith in the grace of God in Christ in this way is a glorious thing. Only take heed that you do not confuse it with presumption.

Objection. You will say, “For men to believe in God’s mercy in spite of all their sin is presumption rather than faith.”

Answer. True, in many it is presumption; they deceive themselves. But in others it is true faith, and God delights in it. You may know it by this: it draws the heart to God, and the soul never finds so effective a way to overcome the corruptions that are in it as to exercise faith in the grace of God in Christ.

I beg you, mark the difference between presumption and faith in Christ. Presumption will trust in God’s mercy in spite of sin, but in fact it feeds sin and makes people complacent in their sin, makes them all the more complacent in it. But when the soul, by the true and genuine act of faith, rests in the free grace of God in spite of corruption, then, if it is right, such a soul finds no means in the world more powerful to cure and prevail against corruption than this: to trust in the free grace of God in spite of corruption. And if you find it so, you have no cause to fear. Trust in God’s grace with confidence, for it is well-pleasing to God. It is what the Lord delights in, and it gives as much contentment to God’s heart as the exercise of any grace whatever. And for this reason, because the saints will never exercise such an act of faith as this in heaven, God will have it in this world.

3. God sees that this is what drives his own people to him in prayer. Nothing drives the saints to God with more earnestness in prayer than feeling the weight of corruption upon them; then, above all, they go to God. God never hears such strong cries come up to heaven on account of any affliction as on account of this. And by the way, you may discover by this how your hearts stand. When the hand of God is upon you in afflictions, then you will cry to God. But I put this to you: have there not gone up to heaven as strong cries from the sense of your corruptions as from the sense of any affliction whatever?

4. The Lord has glory in this, in the exercise of the work of repentance and humility. Keeping the souls of his people in humility, and their spirits in contrition, is exceedingly pleasing to God. The Lord is near to a broken, contrite heart, a melting, mourning spirit. The Lord delights in the gospel workings of repentance; this pleases the Lord. The work of humiliation, mourning and sorrow for sin in a gospel way is a grace acceptable to God. God will have none of that in heaven, and therefore he has it here.

5. By this God greatly exercises his wisdom in bringing light out of darkness. God not only often turns the afflictions of his people to their good, but often works good even out of sin. Not that we should be bold and presumptuous in our sins because of this; we must take heed of tempting God. Yet know this: God often works exceedingly much good for the saints even out of their sins, on the occasion of sin. Their sin has no power to do this, but God takes occasion from it, in other ways of his providence and the workings of his grace, to work good for them.

6. There is God’s justice in it also, to lay a stumbling block before wicked and ungodly men. For when they see that the godly who have the most grace still have much corruption in them, perhaps they rejoice in it, and little think that God aims at the execution of his just judgment upon them, that it should harden their hearts. Many wicked men think their condition very good because they see so much corruption in the hearts of the godly, and they are hardened by it. But they little think that God aims at the execution of his just judgment upon them by it.

7. God does it for this reason: that the saints may long more for heaven. That is why the Lord, in ordering his providence, works things so that they are kept under the burden of corruption in this world: that they might long to be in heaven with their Father, and that when they come to heaven they might know the difference between heaven and earth, between their state there in heaven and their state here on earth.

So though corruption may be a great burden to us while we live here in this world, yet the Lord has many great ends and purposes in allowing you, a poor creature, to be under remaining corruption. Therefore you cannot draw any such argument as this: “God does not love me, for if he loved me he would deliver me from this corruption. I have been praying a long time to be delivered, and yet I am not delivered.” Do not gather any such argument from it. You know Paul prayed once and again, and all the answer he had was, “My grace shall be sufficient for thee” (2 Cor 12:9). So though you pray under the burden of corruption again and again, yet if God once says this to your soul, “My grace shall be sufficient for you; your corruption will not crush you and undo you, but I will strengthen you,” this will be sufficient.

Now from all that has been said, you may see by way of consequence:

First, a great difference between the sins of the godly and the sins of the wicked. The wicked sin, and the godly sin too; we commonly say we are all sinners. But to the godly it is a burden, to the wicked a delight.

Second, you may also see from this one reason why the saints of God sometimes go on so sadly in their ways: you do not know what burdens they are under.

But you will say, “Then we are better off; we do not feel it.” No. They do not have as much sin as you have. They have gotten some grace; you have none. They have in some degree mortified their sins; you have not. Yes, they have their sins pardoned; you have not. And yet, though they have some assurance that the guilt of their sin is removed, the very remaining of the corruptions of their hearts is their burden.

Objection. You will say, “Why should it be so burdensome if they know the guilt of their sin is forgiven?”

Answer. I beg you, observe this: there is a great difference between a carnal heart and a godly heart. Someone who has a carnal heart, if he can be eased of the burden of conscience, is troubled no more. But with a gracious heart it is different. Though he is first burdened with the apprehension of the guilt of sin, and that burden is removed, yet because a body of death still remains, there is another burden still upon him. So the very remaining of some corruption is a greater burden to him than all your corruption in its full strength, together with all the guilt that is upon you along with your corruption. It is only that you are dead in sin and do not feel it.

If a whole building fell down, those who are buried in the grave would not feel it; but all of you who are alive would feel it if it fell. So the wicked have the burden of their corruption in its full strength, with its guilt upon them, and they do not feel it, for they are dead. But as for the godly, though the guilt of sin is removed from them, the very least sin remaining in them is a burden. Though they have mortified their sin, and do so every day, yet the remaining of sin is a great burden to them.

And from this you may see the reason for the watchfulness of the saints over their spirits, why they spend so much time and rise so early to hear the word. What is the reason, you will ask? They know that if they do not labor under the burden of their corruptions to avoid sin, it will be a greater burden to labor under the burden of sin afterward. Now you do not watch over sin, because you do not know what a grievous burden sin is to those who labor under it. But one who feels the burden of sin says, “The Lord be merciful to me! I thought my back would have broken under the burden of sin.” And therefore David prays for the healing of the bones that were broken. That is the reason for the watchfulness and carefulness of the saints under this burden.

Now the main thing I have intended in all that I have said about this burden is this: to point out those whom Christ calls to himself, so that you might be prepared to listen to Christ’s invitation to come to him for rest. Though we have not yet come to that, take notice that there is rest in Christ for all these, from under all these burdens. And so much for the burden of the corruption that remains in the hearts of the saints.

The next burden is the burden of affliction, the burden of outward afflictions: poverty, disgrace, sickness, or any kind of trouble in this world. You will find these things very burdensome to you. Now Christ calls those who labor under this burden to come to him, and he promises to give them rest. Christ has a tender affection toward poor creatures under outward burdens, toward all those the Father has given to him, especially when they are burdened with outward affliction. And the gospel has in it an abundance of refreshments to help and ease sinners who feel the burden of afflictions in this world. There is no way of ease and rest for them like the grace of God in Christ, as we will open more fully when we come to the promise.

Now the burden of affliction is very grievous to many: the burden of poverty, disgrace, sickness or the like. Those whom God lets prosper in their ways little think what burdens are upon their brothers and sisters. How many of our brothers and sisters in these days groan under these burdens, though we do not feel them! We do not know how soon we may be brought under them, and therefore it will be very timely to show the rest that we have in Christ even from under these burdens. I have spent some time in opening the grievousness of other burdens. But men are so sensible of this burden of outward afflictions that there is no need to say much to open it. I need only tell all who feel these burdens that they may come to this promise. Yes, and they are under this invitation: Christ invites them to come to him for rest from these burdens.

First, outward afflictions are burdens because in themselves they are part of the curse of the law. If they are sanctified to anyone, it is by virtue of this promise in the text; if any affliction upon you is sanctified, it comes from there. Before you come to Christ, all outward afflictions (poverty, sickness, or any disturbance you have in your estate) are in themselves the fruit of the curse, and they remain so to you until you come to Christ. Now to bear what is in itself a fruit of the curse cannot help but be a burden, because it is so contrary to nature, most afflictive to nature, and therefore burdensome.

Second, outward afflictions are burdensome because they greatly hinder us in doing service, the service we were born for, the service we were born to do in this world. Outward afflictions hinder us from many opportunities of doing service for God. Take sickness of body, for example: what a burden it is! It hinders those who are continually sickly from doing the service God requires of them. And indeed that is what makes it most burdensome to someone who is gracious. A person with a sickly body does not find it such a burden because of the pain he feels, but because, as he says, “By this means my soul is hindered in those activities I would be glad to be exercised in for God, and in doing good in the place where I am set.”

So also poverty is a burden, not because I cannot live as finely as others do and have houses, clothes and food as fine as others have. No, but because I must spend all my time merely getting provision for my family, so that I have little time for God’s service. Others can spend time in God’s service, hearing, praying and meditating, but the chief time I have is spent getting bread. Now this is a burden. And besides, because of poverty I have little opportunity to do service for God. Those who have large estates have opportunity to do God service; they are called out to public service, but I am not, as others are. Now this is a great burden to anyone who has any beginnings of grace in his heart.

And by the way, it would be a good evidence of true grace if you who are under the burden of affliction felt the burden where it really lies. I appeal to you who complain of the burden of affliction, poverty and the like that you feel. I put this question to you in the name of God: What is it that makes your affliction most burdensome? It is true, it is painful to nature. But can you say, “Oh, the Lord knows, this is what makes it grievous and burdensome to me: that by means of this affliction I am forced to spend so much time on lowly work that I have little time to do good in my generation. I count others who have greater estates happier in this, that the Lord has given them larger opportunities to do him service than I have. I do not count them happy because of their wealth, but because they have larger opportunities to do God service. But it is God who orders things this way, and I must be content to bear this burden”? I say, if you have a heart that complains of its burden in this way, it is a good sign. And know that in Christ there is abundant grace to sanctify these burdens to you. Many other things might be said about the burden of affliction; I will add only one more.

Third, outward affliction is a great burden in this respect: it many times occasions and helps forward many strong temptations. Outward afflictions strengthen and occasion strong temptations, which are very grievous to the soul. For example, when someone is under affliction more than others, then comes this temptation: “Surely God does not love me, because of this affliction.” Then comes the temptation to envy others, because I am afflicted more than others. Then comes the temptation of distrust: “I will perish one day or another.” Then comes the temptation to murmur under the hand of God, and the temptation to take crooked courses, to shift for oneself by unlawful means. Oh, what temptations many have who are under heavy afflictions of poverty, imprisonment, disgrace and dishonor in the world! What strong temptations they have to stretch their consciences! And this makes outward afflictions a grievous burden, because they occasion great temptations to poor souls to stretch out their hands to folly, many times to unlawful courses, to help themselves. Yes, many times the very dread of these burdens before they come is so grievous that it occasions temptation to much evil in order to prevent them. And yet for all that, the Lord is pleased so to order and dispose things in this world that even those to whom he intends everlasting good in Christ go under burdens such as these for most of their lives. They go under the burdens of poverty, sickness and outward troubles here in this world.

Many reasons might be given why the Lord so orders things in this world that his dear servants, for whom Christ has shed his precious blood, will go under these burdens, though others who are wicked and ungodly will scarcely know what they are.

1. By this the Lord shows that he will have his servants serve and honor him merely out of love, and not in a mercenary way to get outward things in this world. He will have us serve him out of love and out of faith. If we always prospered in outward things, our service would be more carnal. But now, though his servants meet with ever so great afflictions in this world, yet they love the Lord, and love his ways, and love his service, and go on in faithful obedience to him. This shows the excellence of grace more than if they prospered in this world.

2. And the Lord sees this as the best means to mortify our corruptions. Many times you complain of your afflictions, but who knows what sins you would have if you did not have such afflictions?

3. And God does this to be a stumbling block to the wicked, so that they stumble at the afflictions of the saints and so perish that way. Many other reasons might be given, but all of this is to make way for what is to come after: that the Lord calls all these to come to him for ease and rest. He calls not only those who labor under the burden of sin, under the burden of the law and the rest, but also poor creatures who labor under the burden of affliction, poverty and the like.

Now, then, we come to the invitation itself: Come to me, says Christ, Come to me; that is, believe in me. For among the many other ways of expressing believing in Christ, or accepting the condition of the covenant of grace, the Holy Spirit expresses this believing and this acceptance of the covenant of grace as coming to Christ. Believing in Christ is very often expressed as coming to Christ. In John 5:40: “You will not come to me that ye might have life.” They did come to Christ in his outward presence; Christ talked with them, and they with him. And yet, says Christ, “ye will not come to me that ye might have life.”

So also in John 6:37: “Those that the Father hath given to me, come to me, and I will in no wise cast them out.” All whom the Father has given me from eternity to redeem come to me; that is, they believe in me. And in John 6:44: “None can come to me except God the Father draw him”; that is, no one believes in me unless my Father draws them. And so: “He that hath heard and learned of the Father comes to me” (John 6:45); that is, believes in me. And that is the meaning of the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come to the waters, buy wine and milk without money, and without price” (Isa 55:1). That is, believe in me; that is the meaning.

All you who labor under all these various burdens, come to me, believe in me, and I will give you rest.

But this must be opened more fully. In this invitation there are five things that I desire to open to you, and to press home upon you.

1. What Christ would have us do, more particularly, when he bids us come to him.

2. What kind of invitation Christ makes to those whom the Father gives to him, who will indeed come to be saved by him: what kind of invitation they have from Christ, and how Christ calls them to him. For this is a calling and an inviting.

3. That all Christ requires as the condition of the covenant of grace, for rest to our souls, is to come to him. Nothing else is the condition of the gospel by which we come to have Christ as ours but this: to come to him. Come to me, says Christ. That is the great condition of the gospel: only to come to Christ.

4. Some rules to be set forth and observed for our coming to Christ.

5. Laboring to draw your souls to Christ.

For the first, Come to me: what is that? What would Christ have you do?

To open that in particular, it is this. When Christ calls you to come to him, you are to understand that this signifies a motion from Christ to come to him.

(1) It implies beholding, looking to Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Savior, to save our souls from all the evils that are upon us and to supply us with all the good we need. It is as if Christ, when he says Come to me, should say: “O poor, troubled sinners who are under these burdens, do you see me as the great Mediator who has come into the world to stand between all my Father’s wrath and your souls, and to bring life and salvation to you?” That is implied. When I would go somewhere, I must know where I am to go and to whom I am to go. So Christ says, “I am the great Redeemer, sent into the world by my Father for that very end, that I may ease poor souls of their burdens, and such souls as you are.”

Look to Christ, therefore, as the great reconciler of God and man, the great Mediator between God and man, who has the fullness of all mercy and goodness in him, the great means of conveying all the grace and riches of God the Father to sinful souls. That is the first work of believing in Christ: to look to him as being such a one as God the Father has offered to us. That is implied; and yet with this the soul has not yet come.

(2) But then the second is this, and it goes further. To come to Christ implies an unsettledness. When we come to a thing, there is a place we move from and a place we move to: we come from something. So Christ says, “You have settled your hearts on creature comforts, and in the past you have looked on them as the things in which your good and happiness consist. But now your hearts must be taken off from them. You must come to me.” That is, there must be a removing from the station you were in, from the kind of settlement you were in before. I cannot go to another place and stay in the place where I was as well; and so the heart cannot come to Christ and stay in the state it was in before.

Therefore this implies that, whereas you poor creatures have settled your hearts on creature comforts, and settled your hearts on sinful things in the past, oh, now let your hearts be taken off from all those things! Know that your good, your happiness, your peace is not here. If you stay here and settle here, you are lost and undone creatures forever. Do not let it grieve your souls to part with the comforts that are found here below in the creatures, for certainly you are mistaken: your good and happiness do not lie here. So when the soul begins to stir after Christ, it is taken off from the creature, taken off from all creature comforts, and looks on everything as vanity. “Oh,” says the soul, “I am clearly convinced that my happiness lies higher than the things here below.” These are the reasonings of the heart that is moving toward Christ.

And the soul is not only to be unsettled from the creature. It reasons: “I must be taken off from myself too, from all my righteousness and duties. I must not think to satisfy God by anything I can do. No, I must be convinced that something greater is required to make up my satisfaction with God than anything I can do; and therefore my heart must be taken off from these things. In the past I rested in duties, and in the fact that I was not as bad as others. But now I see there is another kind of righteousness that I must have, in a Mediator. These things, though they are good in themselves, are not the things that can ever save my soul. If I ever have peace with God and stand before him at the great day, it must be by other means than any I have yet had. If I had gone on and thought to make up my satisfaction with God by what I have done, I would have been an undone creature. Yes, my heart must be taken off from its own foundation, not resting in anything that is in myself. I must go out of myself and deny myself, and so look for the principle of life outside myself.”

This is the second thing noted here. Come to me: that is, first, behold me; see and believe that I am the great Mediator who has come into the world to save your souls. And then, second, let there be an unsettling of your hearts, a taking of your hearts off from whatever they were settled on before, so that you may be removed from there and may take another course for your life in Christ and your happiness in him.

(3) Come unto me: that is, let there be a working and a stirring of your hearts after me. Christ calls for the hearts of sinners. After he comes to be revealed to them, they should be in a working, stirring disposition, making after the Lord Jesus Christ for union with him, to the utmost that they possibly can. The thoughts should be working, and the conscience working, and the will opening itself to receive the grace of God, and the affections stirring, and the whole soul should be in a working disposition after him. “Incline your ear and come” (Isa 55:3). It is as if Christ should say, “Though you are under great burdens, do not sink under them in a discouraged way and lie down in a dull and heavy way. No, let your hearts be stirring, working and acting after me continually.”

Take care of this: keep your hearts in a stirring and working way after Christ and the grace that is offered to you in Christ. This is what young beginners should observe in a special way. If God is beginning to work on your hearts, you should take great care to keep your hearts in a stirring, working, acting frame and disposition after Christ. And above all things in the world, beware of a dull, heavy, dead spirit at this time, when God calls you to come to Christ.

As the apostle says of himself in Philippians 3:14, “I press hard after the mark,” so it should be with every poor soul whom God is drawing after Christ. It should always be in a coming disposition, and such souls should press hard toward the mark of the high prize of the calling that is set before them. Christ is set before you; God sets his Son before you with the treasure of grace, and you should press on and follow hard after God, as David expresses it in one of the Psalms (Ps 63:8): a hard following, stirring and working of the soul after the Lord. As David said to his son Solomon in 1 Chronicles 22:16, “Up and be doing, and the Lord will be with thee,” so I say to all to whom the grace of God is offered: they must not be dull and sullen, but up and be doing.

The apostle speaks in Philippians 1:20 in these words: “According to the earnest expectation.” The word translated earnest expectation in the original signifies to stretch out the neck, to look out for some good that I would gladly see come; that is the proper sense of the word in the original text. So this should be our coming to Christ: when Christ is set forth in the gospel, there should be a stretching out of the soul in looking after the Lord Jesus, and a working of the soul after Jesus Christ, keeping the soul working and stirring after Christ.

Many poor souls whom God is beginning to work his grace upon lose a great deal of time and comfort for want of this, for want of keeping their hearts in a working and stirring frame after Christ. They spend their time in afflicting their souls, but they do not keep their hearts working toward Jesus Christ. When Jacob’s sons lacked bread in Canaan, Jacob said to them, “We have heard that there is corn in Egypt, and why do we stand looking one upon another?” (Gen 42:1-2). “Had you gone,” he says, “you might have come back again and brought us bread by this time.”

So I say to many burdened souls: Have you not heard that there is grace and mercy in Jesus Christ? Had your soul been working, stirring, and kept in an acting frame after Jesus Christ, you might have been returning by this time, and have gotten rest for your soul. You stand looking at this thing and that thing, and poring over your corruptions. Had you kept your heart continually stirring in a working frame after Christ, the work might have been done by this time.

(4) Come to me: that is, says Christ, come and lay all your burdens on me. Come and roll your hearts on me, whatever the burden is, whether of your souls or outward afflictions. Whatever your fears and troubles are, still come, and cast all your burdens on me; I am content to bear them all. That is a special work of faith: for the soul to roll itself on Jesus Christ, to cast itself with all its burdens on the infinitely rich, free grace of God in Jesus Christ.

It is as if Christ should say: “Is it the burden of sin? I have already borne the burden of sin. Is it the wrath of God that is a burden to you? Come and cast this burden on me; I have borne the wrath of God. Or is it the burden of the law? I have borne that burden for you. I was made an offering for you; I was made under the law, to deliver you from under the law. Is it the burden of any affliction? That was upon me.” It is true, the burden of corruption was not upon him; but Christ will deliver us from that too. “Come to me, and whatever burden is upon your souls, cast it on me. Roll your souls and all your burdens on me,” says Christ, “and I will give you rest.”

(5) Lastly, Come to me: that is, come and leave your souls with me, and commit them to me for life, for salvation, for peace, for whatever good you would have. Be willing to entrust me with your souls; be willing to entrust me with all your comforts; be willing to entrust me with both your present and your eternal estate. In all your transactions and dealings with God, trust me with them. That is coming to Christ.

When Christ bids us come to him, it is as much as if he should say: “Come to me, and leave your souls, leave all your care, and commit to me all that you have. And whatever you are, commit yourselves wholly to me, to be disposed of by me for all good whatsoever. I will take charge of you. I will engage myself and all my faithfulness to take care of you, to supply you in all your wants, to strengthen you under all your burdens, to carry you through all difficulties, and to bring you at length to life and salvation and perfect rest together with my Father and myself.” That is Christ’s meaning when he says, Come to me.

So the apostle says in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.” That which I have committed to him: what is that? It is his very soul, his life, his peace, his comfort, all his happiness. He had committed it to him, and so left all with him.

Now, then, take all these together. When Christ calls the sinner to come to him, it is this: “O sinner, first believe this: that I am the great Redeemer who has come into the world to stand between God’s wrath and your souls, and to make peace between God and you. And let there be an unsettling of your hearts from whatever your souls rested in before, whether creature comforts, your own righteousness, duties, self-regard and selfish ends, whatever they are. Let your hearts be taken off from them all. Let your hearts now be in a stirring, working disposition toward me; let your whole souls be stretching out to me. Come and cast all your burdens on me, and leave your souls with me, and I will take care of them. Come to me in this way.”

Now, then, when any soul that is laden in this way answers this call of Christ and says, “Lord, I come,” here is the very voice and answer of faith. When the soul can say, “O Lord, I come. I see you to be the blessed Mediator between God and my soul. And whatever my heart has settled in before, O Lord, that shall be no more. My heart begins to stir after you, and I stretch out my soul to you, O blessed Redeemer. Here I cast my burdens on you; no one can ease me but you yourself. I leave myself with you, I commit all to you, and I entrust to you all that I have or can do, and my eternal estate. Lord, I come”: here is the soul that comes to Christ. The soul may be said to come to Christ when there is an answer in these five particulars.

All this is contained in this word Come, though you cannot grasp it until it is unfolded. It is like a piece of needlework: when it is folded up, all the work is indeed inside, but we cannot see it until it is laid open and spread before us; then we can see all that is in it. So, though there are many expressions in Scripture that we do not understand, yet there they are. But this is the work of the ministry: to spread them out, to lay them before you and lay them open to you, so that you may see the grace of God in another way when they are unfolded. Now in this way Christ calls those who are laden to come to him.

You will say, “How, and in what manner, does Christ call me? Christ is in heaven; I cannot hear Christ call me.”

First, as for the call of Christ, there is a general call in the word. There Christ calls people, under the sound of the gospel, to come to him. But this call is rather a command of Christ than an invitation. It shows all people what their duty is, rather than inviting them. But there is a more special call to those whom the Father has given to Christ. Though they make use of the general call in the word, yet there is a special call to them. That is, Christ by his Spirit opens the riches of the gospel of the grace that is in him to their souls inwardly; he shows those riches to their souls. Others come and hear the outward call. That is, a minister of God comes and opens the gospel. He shows there how God has given his Son to us, how he has taken our nature upon him and died for sin, and he tells them that God here in the gospel requires all to believe in his Son. They hear his outward call. Ah, but those whom the Father gives to Christ have the Spirit of God sent together with the word to open the riches of Christ. So though they have heard it a hundred times before, yet when the Spirit comes, there is a showing of the beauty and riches of the gospel more than ever, and that allures their souls to come to Christ.

Second, not only this, but when the Lord calls those who shall indeed have mercy by Christ, and whose invitation is to be effectual, he gives a particular call to that soul besides the general call. God does not only call sinners in the word, saying that Christ came to save sinners and those who were lost. Christ comes in particular to such and such souls and calls them in a particular, special manner. For the ministers of God are bound, in preaching the gospel, to give a general invitation to come to him. But besides the general call God has a particular call. There is a voice of God in particular to the soul that he intends to bring to his Son. Such a one hears a voice behind him, as the Scripture speaks, “saying this is the way” (Isa 30:21) to salvation: “The way you have gone all this while is not the way to life. You will perish in that way. Christ is the right way.”

Let me open the general and the particular call by this similitude. A prince has had many of his subjects turn traitor, yet he is pleased to send out a general proclamation. He makes a proclamation to those subjects in general terms: “Though you have been traitorous against me in this way and that, yet I am content that everyone who will come to such a place on such a day and submit himself shall have a pardon.” Here is the general proclamation, and this is encouragement to come. But now suppose some poor traitor becomes sensible of his wickedness and of how unreasonably he has dealt with his prince. Perhaps he sits alone bemoaning his condition, troubled in his spirit, and thinks to himself, “How shall I be able to see the face of my prince? Oh, woe is me for the wickedness of my ways!” Suppose the prince should come by and see such a one. Suppose he should take notice of him where he has gotten into some corner or other, and is there beating his breast and lamenting that he should have provoked his prince as he has done. And suppose the prince should call this poor creature and say to him, “Oh, you poor creature there in that place, come to me.”

For this is how the work of faith goes. God comes to the soul in particular. He does not only come in general, but after his general call, when he sees the soul troubled, the Lord gives a particular call to it and says, “O you poor creature, you are under this burden and feel it this keenly. You lament that you have lived in such and such a way, and made such a breach between me and your soul. Come to me.” And the truth is, until God speaks to the soul in particular, the proclamation of God in general will not bring sinners in. So Christ does not only say in general, “Come to me,” but calls them in particular.

Third, you will say, “How shall we know that it is the voice of Christ?” That is the third particular. Christ by the Spirit secretly persuades the soul that it is his voice and not the voice of delusion, according to the words “The voice of my beloved” (Song 2:8). So it is when the soul has departed from God and comes to him again: the Lord Christ makes the soul know his voice. So when he was in this world after his resurrection, he talked with Mary a while, and she thought he was the gardener. Christ speaks only a word: he says to her, “Mary.” At once she says, “Rabboni,” Master (John 20:16). Christ did not tell her that he was the Christ, but he said, “Mary,” and at once Mary knew it was the voice of Christ. And so when the Spirit of Christ speaks to the soul, there is such a secret instinct, such a persuasion and manifestation of God to it, that it knows indeed that it is the voice of God. The soul says, “I have often been at a sermon and heard many good men preach Christ, but I hear the voice of Christ in my soul this day, and I know it is the voice of Christ.” This is how it is with the soul that comes to Christ effectually.

Fourth, and further, when the invitation of Christ is indeed effectual, then just as I know it is Christ’s voice, so Christ comes and knocks at the door, and the soul knows who it is. (This is to be applied to his particular call.) As Christ says, “I stand at the door and knock” (this is to be referred to the second particular): “I stand and knock at the door, and if any man will open to me, I will come in to him, and sup with him” (Rev 3:20). God does not only proclaim pardon, but comes to the door of the soul and stands at your door in particular. You cannot help but find this by experience, you who have the work of grace upon you. You have lived under the means of grace a long time, but God comes and knocks at your doors as well. This is a mighty condescension in a prince, that he does not only send out a proclamation but knocks at the poor traitor’s door; and so does Christ.

And when that is done, before the soul indeed comes and casts itself upon Christ and commits itself to Christ, there are some secret hints and intimations that God intends love to it in particular, that he has thoughts of love and mercy toward the soul. The soul can say, “Though I have been very vile and very wretched, yet I partly gather from God’s way toward me that there are thoughts of mercy toward me.”

Question. You will say, “How does it appear that there is any such intimation of God’s goodness to a soul in particular when it is called to come to Christ?”

Answer. I will give you this ground. When the soul comes to Christ and casts itself upon Christ, it does not do it at a mere venture, not knowing whether it shall have mercy or not. To say, “It is true, I come to Christ, and there is no other help, but I do not know whether I shall have mercy or not, or whether there is any mercy at all for me”: this is not the work of faith. This way is indeed near to faith, when the soul can say, “It is true, in the way I have been going there is no mercy for me, and I do not know whether there is mercy for me, but I will try it.” Such a soul does not have the reflex act of faith, but it has some secret persuasion by which it casts itself upon God. Though it is not by a reflex act that it can certainly say, “God intends mercy for me,” yet, very weak though it may be, the soul has some intimation that there is mercy from God toward it. For faith is not a bare venture; faith has some kind of certainty, though very weak. To say, “I will cast my soul upon God, but I may perish; I have no ground to think why God should save me”: this is unbelief. The work of faith, according to its degree, has some kind of certainty in it, though the soul may not be able to discern it for the present.

Fifth, when the invitation of Christ comes to be effectual, it has, together with the voice of Christ, an inward, effectual power that goes along with it, a prevailing power to draw the heart to him. Christ does not only speak to the heart and say to it, “Come,” but with the voice he lets out a power upon the heart to come to him. I express it this way. When Christ was in the flesh, he went and called disciples to him. He came to Matthew, who sat at the receipt of custom, and said, “Come and follow me.” At once Matthew left his seat at the customhouse, left all his friends, left all he had, and came to him immediately. And so when Christ came to Peter and Andrew his brother, who were fishing, and said to them, “Come to me,” they left their old father, left their nets, left their ship, left everything, and followed Christ. Certainly we cannot help but perceive that a secret power went out from Christ with this word of his, which prevailed upon their hearts in this way. The poor woman in the Gospel who had the issue of blood only touched the hem of Christ’s garment, and she found a secret power that cured her. So wherever Christ’s invitation comes to be effectual, it comes with a mighty power, a secret virtue that goes together with his word to the soul to prevail upon it.

“Come to me?” many say. “Why does Christ call me? Am I able to come to him?” Christ says “Come” to them as he did to Matthew, Peter and others. Christ did not only call them and say, “Come”; he put power into his word. And whatever power there was then, the same is in the ministry of the word now. When he speaks and says, “Come to Christ,” together with this word there goes a secret power to prevail upon the soul, so that they must come. Now it may be that the father or mother or friend of some poor young man persuades him not to come, but he must come to Christ for all that. The truth is, it is as strong a work of God for someone to come to Christ now as it was then to call Matthew and Peter to come to Christ.

Lastly, he not only calls them, but reaches out his hand before the soul comes to be joined with Christ and to have union with him. When Christ sees the soul making after him, he reaches out his hand to draw the heart. You will say, “What does it mean for Christ to reach out his hand and invite in that way?” By that I mean those gracious encouragements that Christ gives to all the first workings of the soul after him. The Lord Christ not only invites such souls, but gives them his hand to reach out strength to them. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Thus you see what the second thing is: Christ invites in another manner.

The third thing is that nothing else is required. Christ says, “Come to me and I will give you rest.” Blessed Christ! Is this all that you require? Yes: come to me, and you shall have rest. You often find it expressed in Scripture this way: “Come, and buy wine and milk and honey without price” (Isa 55:1). It is only coming; and indeed the very coming is the buying. So too in Revelation 22:17: “And the Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him that heareth, say come, and he that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.” Here is nothing but “come,” three times “come.” Nothing else is required, nothing that you should bring with you, but only come. Only remember in this how I opened what it is to come; and then nothing else is required but only to come. This, then, gives light on many things.

1. No unworthiness in any sinner, whatever he may be, is enough to hinder him in the face of this invitation. Why? Because Christ does not say, “You who have been so vile and wretched, you shall first do this and that, and then come to me.” No; whatever you have been, the first thing Christ requires for ease, rest and peace is to come to him.

It is true that some things are required in the nature of coming that must of necessity be done before the complete act of coming. For example, I must know what Christ is, and know myself, and so on. These things are required of necessity, not because they are any condition of the gospel, but because the coming cannot be done without them.

To open it, let me follow the former metaphor. Suppose the king should tell a traitor, “On condition that you come to such a place at such a time, you shall have your pardon.” Well, all that is required for his pardon is simply coming to that place. But what if this man is a great distance from that place, with many difficulties to hinder him: storms, tempestuous weather, and many friends to hold him back? Then this much is implied: he must have so deep a sense of the worth of his pardon, and of his miserable condition if he is not pardoned, that there is a strong resolution in him to go through all difficulties whatever.

But notice: this resolution of his, and the difficulties he meets with on the way, are no part of the condition of the pardon. The whole condition of the pardon is only to be at such a place at such a time. Yet the other things follow of themselves. If he does come, and there are such difficulties in the way, then he must have such a sense and apprehension of the good of his pardon as may stir up in him the resolution to pass through all difficulties. But the first thing that brings him his pardon is his being there.

So it is here with the soul. It is true that what brings my soul and yours to pardon, rest and peace with God is our coming to Christ. But there is a great distance between Christ and us, with many difficulties in the way and many things that would keep us from Christ: the wickedness of our hearts, this temptation and that lust. So it cannot possibly be that we come to Christ unless we know and become aware of the worth of the pardon, so that it may raise up in our hearts a strong resolution to pass through all difficulties whatever. And there is no reason why God troubles any man for sin but only this: that he might have such a sense of the good of the pardon of his sin as may stir up in him a strong resolution to get to Christ. But this resolution is not the condition of the covenant. The condition is only to come. The condition is not that we are afflicted, or that we see our sins, but that we come to Christ.

2. It likewise follows from this that no man or woman whom God is working on to bring to Christ needs to trouble themselves about the degree of humiliation, or the length of time of humiliation. There are a great many who are ready to take advantage and cry out against men as preaching legally when they say that people must be humbled, and the like. I know of no man living who ever preached that people must first be under the law, and under the law for so long, before they come to Christ. But if you want to know what degree of humiliation is sufficient, it is only so much as can bring you to Christ; that is, so much as can stir up your hearts to resolve to pass through all difficulties to come to Christ. Then you have a sufficient measure and time of humiliation, and you need not trouble yourselves any further about this, saying, “I have not been humbled as long as another man, or for such a time.” It is enough if you come to Christ.

For if I come to Christ, I must know what I come for: for a pardon. A pardon of what? Of my sin, the sin I am condemned for. There must be a sense of this. And if you have come this far, you need not be distressed about any degree or time of humiliation or the like, for you have what is sufficient, and God will accept your coming. Once you have come to him, God will not say, “Oh, but friend, how were you humbled in your coming?” God knows you have passed through many difficulties. God knows you would never have prized Christ unless you had known the worth of Christ by knowing what a miserable creature you are without him. God will not do this; he will welcome you when you come. Let the sinner be what he will, Christ will own him.

3. This helps us with the matter of our interest in coming to Christ. You will say, “Come to Christ? But how shall I know that I have any right to come to Christ?” This very point answers it: nothing is required but coming. What has given any soul, from the beginning of the world, any interest to come to Christ is only coming to Christ. Your coming to Christ gives you a right to Jesus Christ. If grace, the grace of God, makes you come, that very act of yours in coming gives you interest and right in him, though you had none before. No other right or claim to Christ is needed but God’s offering of Christ to you in the gospel, and your coming to him.

But now (for it is a pity to let this pass), perhaps some may think, “Will this not tend to looseness, to say that it is nothing else but to come to Christ?” I know it is extremely abused in many ways. Many will abuse it like this: when we are preaching the gospel, if at any time we preach the miserable condition of men in order to humble them, they will say it is a contradiction. But I beg you, beware of these vain-spirited men who do not seek Jesus Christ in the way of the gospel. Perhaps through their weakness or the disorder of their hearts they will not, or do not, see the way of the gospel; yet they will come to young people and weak Christians and say, “There is a contradiction in this. For if this is true, how can the other be true?” But these things that seem contradictory agree very well with one another. If we were to pass judgment merely on what we ourselves apprehend, we would make the Scripture contradict itself.

But those who are well versed in Scripture, and understand the mind of God in it, know how to join these things together, though others think they contradict one another. Take what Paul says to the Romans, that we are justified by faith without the works of the law (Rom 3:28), and what James says, we are justified by works (Jas 2:24). A stranger would think these contradict one another, but those who are acquainted with the way of the Scripture understand what this means. So these men who would find contradiction in the preaching of God’s ministers in the gospel are strangers to the way of God in the gospel. If they understood the way of God in the gospel clearly, they would know how to make a sweet agreement of the very things they would have poor young ones and weak believers believe to be contradictory.

And therefore I would hold this, and hope we shall forever hold it as a firm principle: the condition of the gospel is only coming. What the weight of our souls and eternal estates rests on is not our humbling but our coming to Jesus Christ. Do not say that this tends to looseness. For when a soul sees Christ as the glorious Mediator who comes to save him, this sight of Christ has a great deal of power to sanctify the heart. When I see this, I see, first, that I have to do with God, and that there must be a mediator between God and me, because my sins have made such a breach between God and my soul. This does not tend to looseness.

Then, as you were taught before, coming signifies a removing from one condition to another. So it signifies, secondly, that my heart is taken off from the world, from my lusts, from my corruptions; my coming implies this. And thirdly, consider the end of my coming, what the soul aims at when it comes in this way. I come to Christ to save me from the power of my sins as well as the guilt of my sins. I come to Christ as the fountain of all my happiness; I come to him for life and grace and all good. I come to him that I may live in him, and that I may live to God by him.

Certainly, to say that Christ requires only that we come to him does not tend to looseness. I come to Christ that I may commit my whole soul to him; is that not a sanctifying grace? Indeed, to preach that you may come to Christ and no more pleases libertines. But when we consider the way of the gospel, I must first know what it is to come. Then I must know that coming means leaving something behind, and know why I come: that I may have all my happiness in him. I come to him for life, for salvation, for union with God the Father, that I may enjoy communion with him everlastingly. Here is no liberty for looseness in coming, but a blessed upholding of the condition of the gospel in the way of the soul’s coming to Christ.

4. It follows from this that the weakest and least degree of faith there is will give us interest in Christ, because nothing but coming to him is required. It is not “Run to me,” or “Come strongly to me.” If I can only get to him, though it is crawling, however poorly, however weakly, that does it, by coming and closing with Christ. If the condition is to come to such a place for a pardon, then though men come creeping on their hands and feet through weakness, yet if they are only there, they shall have what was promised. So I say: though the soul in coming to Christ creeps, as it were, on hands and feet, and comes with much weakness, it is that which gives interest in Christ, not such and such degrees of faith and confidence as some have.

Perhaps some poor, weak Christians are troubled that they do not have such confidence and assurance as others have; they are full of doubts and fears. We must know that what is required in coming is not the degree and strength of faith, but coming to Christ. Come to me, though it is with shaking, with trembling, though with a mixture of much fear: yet come to me, and you shall have rest.

5. It follows from this that the work of faith, which brings true rest to the soul, is a supernatural work. It is coming to him; that is, it is looking forward to a righteousness that is beyond our own. It is leaving our own righteousness, not resting on that, and not trusting in what we have, or are, or can be enabled to do by the power of God.

I say that the way the soul gets rest in Christ by faith is supernatural, for it is a way in which the soul comes to deny itself in whatever it has, whatever it does, and whatever it can be enabled to do by the power of God. It does not rest on anything that is in it or done by it; no, nor on anything that God himself, by his grace and infinite power, can do in it. I do not say do for it, for that is in Christ, but do in it, beyond what is in itself, or what God’s infinite power is able to enable it to do. It is coming to Christ, and therefore going out of ourselves; and this is supernatural.

For nothing is more natural to man than this: to rest on his own foundation, to want the staff in his own hand, to lean on some worthiness and some good in himself. Even though he will acknowledge that it is through grace, and that what he has is only something God works through him, still this is the most natural thing to a rational creature: to rest on something he does to make up his peace with God and to be his righteousness before God. And it is a mighty work of God to beat the heart off from this especially. The heart comes this far, to say, “It is true, I can do nothing of myself; it is by the grace of God that I do everything.” Now for the heart not to rest on this as its own righteousness is the hardest thing in the world.

Although men may be convinced in their judgments that they should not rest in any such thing, but should go out of themselves to another principle, yet it is the hardest thing in the world to come off from it. That is what makes the work of faith the most difficult thing in the world: it carries the soul out of itself, off its own foundation, away from its own principles. And the mistake about this is what undoes thousands of those who live under the sound of the gospel. When they have reformed their lives somewhat, and think they are able to do this and that, they rest there. They do not go out of themselves to look for rest outside themselves, and they do not come to Christ.

Question. You will say, “What? Are we not to rest on what we do, and what we are enabled to do by God’s grace? Faith itself is a resting on Christ.”

Answer. No; but you must observe this in your coming: you must not rest on your coming, but on Christ to whom you come, for there may be a deceit in that too. Some rest on works of humiliation, mourning for sin, and reforming their lives, and they think that is their rest and peace. Others go further and think they must believe in Christ, but they will rest on their believing. So they rest on their coming, and not on the object they come to. But we must be taken off from resting on our coming, on our very believing, and Christ must be all in all, if we are to have true rest in him. Therefore faith is a supernatural grace, because by it we are taken off from what we are in ourselves and carried on to something else.

6. Upon this it likewise follows that faith is a humbling grace; it must necessarily humble the soul where it is. For indeed it is the greatest self-denial in the world for a creature to become willing to rely on free grace: for the soul to be so emptied of itself as to acknowledge that there is no worthiness and no good at all in itself, and yet to be content to live eternally on mere alms, and to give God the glory of everything. Is there anything harder for any of you than to be beggars all your days, to be beholden to others, so as to live on mere alms and nothing else all the days of your lives? Now for the creature to be so emptied of itself as to live on mere alms to all eternity, on nothing but mere free grace, and on a principle of life outside ourselves, this is a mighty work of emptying ourselves and of self-denial.

And therefore in Romans 10:3 it is spoken of the Jews: “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.” This plainly shows that bringing the heart to rest on the righteousness that is of God by faith (for that is what is meant here) requires a submission of the heart, a laying down of the heart, and a humbling of the heart. And indeed this is the very reason why the Lord so humbles the spirits of men and women when he brings them to Christ. The Lord knows that the very act of coming to Christ is an act of the greatest self-denial in the world, because in it the heart must be emptied of itself in something so much against the pride of man’s heart: to live eternally on mere free grace and nothing else. For there is nothing man desires more than to have something, some stock of his own to live on.

And indeed in this man comes to be more humble than Adam in innocence could be. Adam had a stock to live on in his own hand, to live on in himself. Not that God was not the source of it; but God gave it to him to live on, and he had the stock of grace in his own hand. But now in the second Adam, God’s way with us is different. The second Adam keeps in his own hand the stock of life and grace on which our souls must live eternally. I say, it is in Christ’s hand, not in ourselves. Therefore our life is a better and safer life than that was, and by this we cannot fall from God, because we live by the principle of life that is in him. It is a great mystery, almost impossible to unfold; we have only some glimmering in the word that this is so.

7. If nothing is required but to come, then another consequence follows. Believers who come to Christ may learn this lesson: to be willing to do and to suffer very much for Christ after they come, because nothing was required of them for the pardon of their sins but only to come. I strengthen the inference this way. Suppose God had said, “I have indeed sent a mediator to pacify my wrath and to pardon your sins; but before you come to rest, I require that you suffer so many hundreds of years of torment in fire, and that shall be a preparation for coming; and then, after you have suffered so much, you shall come and have rest.” Suppose this had been the condition of the covenant. Had it been so, we would all have had cause to fall on our faces and bless his great name that we could have peace on any terms. We would have been not only willing to accept these terms, but would have magnified God’s grace that we could be saved in this way at last.

But the Lord has not required that we should first suffer such and such hard things and then come to Christ. He calls on us to come first, and requires nothing beforehand. And therefore, before we are able to do the Lord any service, the Lord will first accept us, and pardon us, and heal us, and give us an interest in himself, and be our God, and take us to be his children, and make us heirs of heaven and eternal life; and all this at the very first, before we shall ever be able to do him any service. What an infinite grace of God this is! How he takes the first step toward us! For he calls to the greatest sinner who knows what his sin is and is laden: “I require nothing before receiving you to mercy,” says God, “but merely that you come and cast your souls on me.”

You may say, “Lord! We have been guilty of so many sins for so many years; might it not be just for God to require it, and say, ‘Yes, but you shall live so many years to my honor, live so many years in my service, and then I will pardon and accept you’?” No, God says, “I will receive you and accept you on your coming, before you are ever able to do me any kind of service.” No, God says, “Come to me, and you shall first have my favor; you shall first be accepted and first pardoned. And then indeed I expect service from you. Then I expect you to live as the redeemed ones of the Lord, and all that you do afterward shall be only by way of thankfulness to me for my grace.”

And indeed this is how believers live in the world. Though they regard what they do as a matter of duty, they do it by way of thankfulness. That is the chief thing that carries them on: the grace of God in his Son. And that is a stronger argument for every kind of duty God now requires of them than anything they had before. God does not call on you to suffer first, and then pardon your sin. No, God says, “I will bestow my favor on you first, and then see whether you will suffer afterward.” God will not do as men do, who test people to see whether they will suffer and deserve their favors before they bestow them. Rather God says, “I will first bestow my favors on you, and then I will test whether you will suffer for me and do me service.” And therefore, the less God requires as a condition before we come to Christ, the more willing we should be to do for God after we have come to Christ.

It is like a man who takes a poor child into his family and makes him his heir: the less that was done to win the man’s favor, the more the child, if he has an honest and generous nature, will do for him by way of thankfulness. Indeed, if the child’s friends come and make a contract with the man, and promise him a hundred pounds, the child thinks he is not so much beholden to his master, for money was given with him. But now, if you were lying at the door with no friend to look after you and not a rag on you, and he then takes you in, teaches you his trade, and makes you the heir of all he has, oh, how infinitely bound you are to him! “How my master does all this for me, when nothing was done beforehand to win his love!” In just this way Jesus Christ takes the first step toward us: “Come to me, only come to me, that you may have rest.”

8. From this follows another note of very good use. Seeing that nothing is required first but only coming to Christ, here is a strong ground of assurance that those who are once in Christ shall not be cast away, but shall have eternal life. For there is not so great a distance between eternal life and the members of Christ as there is between one who is in his natural state and a member of Christ. God has done more for you in bringing you to Christ than he shall do for you when he brings you to heaven. For there is a greater distance between you and Christ than there is between you as a member of Christ and a glorified saint in heaven.

If God brings you over this great distance merely out of free grace, with nothing required but coming, so that now you are a member of Christ and therefore have a right to heaven, and can claim heaven through the righteousness of Jesus Christ; if God has put a principle of life into you to live to Jesus Christ, a principle of everlasting life, when there was no principle at all; if God brings you to Jesus Christ merely out of free grace; then, since you come to him so freely, surely you shall not be shut out of heaven. So this may be a mighty encouragement. What! If when we were enemies we were reconciled to Christ, much more now shall we be saved by his life (Rom 5:10). If when I was “in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23), God gave me mercy upon my coming to his Son, surely he will not cast me out of heaven.

9. Another note we may learn from this is that believers who at any time, through their negligence, sluggishness or falls, lose the assurance of God’s love in Christ and lose their rest in Christ, here have direction for what to do. Look at how you did it at first, when you first attained rest in Christ. It was not by any righteousness of your own, nor by your humiliation, though that might make some way toward it. So now, when you are a believer and have lost the assurance of Christ’s love and the comfort of rest in Christ, you must go and take the same way again. Christ calls believers to come to him, those who have lost the assurance of faith. That is the way to rest: to renew the act of your coming to Christ, just as you did before. Though God humbled you, yet what brought you rest was coming to Jesus Christ; so much the more should you do this now that you are a believer.

When you do not have the rest in Christ you desire, your way is to renew your act of coming, of going to Christ. So you may come to rest sooner that way than by thinking like this: “I do not know whether my evidences are right or not, and I need to look to them; so I need to look whether my humiliation is right, and whether my sanctification is right or not.” I say, renewing the act of your faith in coming to Christ will bring rest sooner, and safer rest. And so you will come to see your sanctification better too by renewing the act of your faith in coming to Christ, and you will have your rest sooner that way. This follows from the point, because at first conversion there is coming.

So much for the consequences that follow from the point that Christ requires only that we come.

Now there remain only two things: some rules to be laid down about our coming to Christ, and then some means to draw the hearts of sinners to come to Christ.

First, for the rules, so that we may observe them rightly in coming to Christ and may come to Christ in a right way. I am speaking to those whose hearts are about to come to Jesus Christ, whose hearts are stirring after Christ, and who are setting about all the means of coming to him.

Rule 1: Do Not Rest in the Means Short of Christ

Though God requires that you seek Christ in all his ordinances, in the performance of all duties, yet it must be your great care not to rest in the means that lead to Christ before you come to enjoy Christ himself. This is the great mistake in the world: people rest in the things that are the means to lead to Christ, though in fact they do not have Christ.

Take hearing the word, for instance. Suppose I ask you why you come. You will say you come so that you might find Christ there. Yet how many people rest merely in this, that they hear the word! They hear sermons, and they scarcely ever call this into question: “Have I met with Jesus Christ in the word today? Have I found Jesus Christ there?” Their hearts are not much troubled about this. They come merely to hear the word, and that is a good thing. But they rest in the means that lead to Christ before they have gotten to him. It is as if a man were going on a journey to some place on some business, and he satisfies himself with this: “I am going on my way.” But has he gotten the thing he is going for?

We must understand that prayer, the word, and the sacraments are all only means to bring us to Christ. Now what a foolish thing it is to satisfy ourselves that we are on the way, going toward the thing! Do we have the thing we are journeying for? Jesus Christ is the thing we seek. Do we have him?

The wise merchant had the field, yes, but he saw that there was a pearl in the field, and then he went and sold all that he might have the pearl. The field is the preaching of the word and the other ordinances. In these ordinances is the pearl. Now what we should look for in the ordinances is the pearl, and so we should use the field only for the pearl’s sake.

So this is the way we should take to come to Christ: in the use of all duties and all ordinances, to look to Christ, whom we would have by them, and to be sure to pass through the ordinances until we get hold of him whom our soul loves. Most people in the world stick in the ordinances themselves and have gotten no hold on Christ. They merely spend everything in duties and ordinances; those they will do. God requires them to pray, and they will pray. God requires them to hear the word, and they will hear the word. Yes, but they do not consider that there is something beyond prayer and beyond the word: “Have I gotten to Jesus Christ in prayer? Have I gotten to Jesus Christ in the word?”

And it is a good sign when the hearts of sinners are satisfied with nothing, with no ordinances, unless they find Jesus Christ in those ordinances. Be sure to go through the ordinances to Christ.

Rule 2: Fix on Christ Himself More Than His Gifts

In your seeking after Christ, be sure to fix your eye and your heart on the person of Christ himself rather than on the good things that come from Christ. That is the way: fix your eye and your heart on Christ himself rather than on the good things that come from Christ. For coming to Christ and being in him is just like being married to him. Now the one who marries looks more at the person than at the dowry; he looks at the excellence of the person. So the soul in coming to Christ should look upon him as the only great Mediator of the covenant, as the only reconciler of God and man, as the only person in whom all our good, happiness and glory lie.

Labor to see an excellence in Christ himself, as well as to come to Christ. There are many souls who would come to Christ. Why? Because they think there is no mercy except in Christ, and they would be loath to go to hell, and therefore they cry to God for mercy in Christ. Yes, but they do not see any excellence in Christ. But you must look upon the excellencies of Christ, and look through the ordinances to union with Christ. Look after union with the person of Christ himself, and see an excellence and beauty in the very person of Jesus Christ, so that you are able to say, “I see the glory of the Father in him, and my soul presses after him to have union with him.”

Rule 3: Come with the Whole Soul

In your coming, be sure of this: come with your whole soul. That is, do not come to Christ as only one means of help among others, thinking, “It is good to make use of all the means we can, and Christ, I see, is as likely a means as any other.” No, come to Christ as the only means, so as to cast your whole soul upon him. Do not hang on anything else, stretching out an arm to him, as it were, and yet keeping something else to rest on if that fails.

Sometimes we come to a friend and ask something of him, but how? In such a way that we would make a friend elsewhere too, so that if that one fails, we may have two strings to our bow. But we must come to Christ and lay the full weight on him alone, the full soul on him.

We must not come to Christ as we would if we hung over some deep pit. Here is one thing to rest on that is strong enough, so that if we would lay our weight on that alone, we would be safe. Well, but there is another thing there, and it is rotten. Now we are loath to venture all on the strong, the sound one, not knowing it to be so, and so we lay part of our weight on the rotten and part on the sound. By this we may perhaps come to fall and perish, because the full weight was not laid on what was sound.

So it is here. The Lord sets forth his Son as an all-sufficient Redeemer for us, in whom there is righteousness and salvation. And he requires those who come to his Son to come with their whole souls, and to lay the whole weight of their souls on him for life and salvation and all their good and happiness. Now if they think to have two strings to their bow, if they would have Christ but would have the world too, and their own ways too, then it is a thousand to one that they miscarry.

It was an excellent speech of Joseph’s when he sent for his father Jacob in Genesis 45:20. Joseph sent to have his father Jacob brought to him. Now there were many things that Jacob had regard for before, but now, he says, “regard not the stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.” So when the Lord calls any poor sinner to come to him, the Lord says to that sinner, “Do not regard the stuff. Let your heart be wholly taken off all creature comforts, even those that are dearest to you. It is all only stuff. Here is heaven; here are the riches of heaven; the riches of Christ are yours.” And the soul comes to Christ indeed when it lays everything on Christ and is satisfied with him alone.

Rule 4: Keep Christ Continually in View

When your soul is making toward Christ, labor to keep him continually in your eye. Look upon him in his excellence, glory and beauty, and keep the object before you all the while you are coming toward him. It is like any journey. If I am going to a place and I can see the journey’s end, it is in my eye; I can see before me the steeple of the place I am going to. When the sailor can see the harbor he is going to, this is comforting. So the soul that comes to Christ must resolve and say, “I must keep him in my eye, in his luster, beauty and glory, so that I may see a greater good in Jesus Christ than in all things else, and see that the goodness that is in him outbids all good whatever.”

Now this is a great help in coming to Christ. For one of the greatest hindrances of the soul in coming to Christ is this: it loses sight of Christ as it comes. The devil sets other spectacles before its eyes as it comes, and so it looks into the deep pit of its own heart and sees nothing there but discouragement. Instead, it should keep its eyes lifted up to Christ, the Son of God, who is opening his arms, ready to embrace it.

And there is a secret power and influence that comes from Christ to the soul to draw the soul to him, so long as the soul keeps Christ in its eye. The poor woman said, “If I can but touch the hem of his garment.” Indeed, you may go further than that and have a degree of faith that says, “If I may have but a sight of Christ.” I say, there is something in the sight of Christ that will draw the heart to Jesus Christ. The naturalists say of some kinds of creatures that the very sight of them will kill a man: if they only see you, or you see them, poison will come from them that will kill you. But I am sure this is true of Christ: if you can keep Christ in your eye, the very sight of the excellence of Christ will have excellent power to draw the soul to Christ.

And therefore you who are coming to Christ, observe this. With some who are coming to Christ it goes as it did with the children of Israel when they were going to Canaan. They had gone a good way and made some progress, but then they fell into discontent when they met a little discouragement. Upon that they were brought back again, and they wandered up and down in the wilderness forty years, and this was the punishment of their murmuring and discontent. So it is with many who are going out of their natural state to Jesus Christ. Many times they have come very near to him, and then they fall into fits of discontent, pining, fretting and discouragement, and so are brought back again and made to wander in the wilderness of discouragement for many years together.

Rule 5: What Keeps You from Christ Is Not from God

Labor thoroughly to convince your soul of this: whatever sorrow for sin, whatever humiliation, whatever trouble of spirit keeps your heart from Jesus Christ, it is not from God but rather from your own corruption. It is not God’s work in you, unless you mean that it is from God as an affliction; and then it is not from God except as he permits the devil to try you. But whatever sorrow it is, for your own wretchedness or unworthiness, if this keeps you from Christ and discourages you from coming to Christ, convince your soul of this: it is not the gracious work of God in you but the troubling of the devil in you.

The truth is, many poor sinners, once they are troubled for their sins, take a kind of satisfaction in it. They think it is a good thing, and they are glad of it. I grant you, trouble for sin is a good thing, and you are to be glad of it. But if your trouble for sin hinders you from coming to Christ, and makes you think that because you are so unworthy you may not come to him, this trouble is not mixed with godly sorrow. Be convinced of this.

Rule 6: Beware of Discouragements and Hindrances

Take heed of all kinds of discouragements and hindrances in your coming to Christ, but take heed especially of all settled conclusions. Take heed of ensnaring your souls by concluding against yourselves, saying, “Surely the Lord will never show mercy to me. The time is past. The Lord has forsaken me. I have used so many means for so long, and God has not yet come to me. No, the Lord never intends good to me.” Oh, take heed of these conclusions, for they are sinful wherever they are. There can be no just cause in your heart for such conclusions as these, let your heart be as vile as it will.

And know this: when you give way to such conclusions as these, you only ensnare and fetter your own legs by them, and then you say you cannot come to Christ. Christ calls to you, and you are fettered by your own thoughts. For in this way a person may lay fetters on his own legs by his own thoughts, to hinder this spiritual coming to Christ. It is as if a man should tie fetters around his legs and then say, when he is called to come to some place, “I cannot come.” Do not sit down and say, “I shall never have mercy; I am one who does not belong to the election of grace; I shall never come to Christ.” Throw off such thoughts when you are about to come to Jesus Christ.

Rule 7: Keep the Heart Still Tending to Christ

At those times when you cannot feel your heart as active as you desire in going after Christ, still keep your heart toward Christ; keep it tending that way. Say, “Why can I not go to Christ? Christ calls me to go to him. Oh, I have a dead heart, a heavy, dull heart. Yet I know I am nearer to Christ here than if I neglected his ordinances. I will present my soul where Jesus Christ is, and perhaps he may cast some power into my heart to make it stir more after him. But however it goes, I am resolved on this: I will not turn away from Christ. I will keep my heart where I am, whatever happens. If I can go no further, here I will stand, here I will look, and I will cry to him, and cry to God as the church does, ‘Draw me and I will run after thee’ (Song 1:4). And though I cannot believe, yet here I will stand and sigh and cry and call. And if I perish, I will perish crying to God that he would draw my heart. Oh, draw, draw our hearts, and we will run after you! Blessed Redeemer, do you call us? Send forth something of your Spirit that may draw our hearts, and then we will run after you.”

Keep your heart in such a frame. For this is a great discouragement about coming to Christ in the hearts of many. They say, “Christ calls, and we have many sweet encouragements in the word to come. Yes, but they are for those whose hearts are stirring and working toward Christ, to go to him. But I have a dead and dull heart, and cannot work toward him.” Yes, but if you cannot stir and work after him, still set your soul in sight of Christ, look toward him, and wait until God’s time comes, when he will let some influence into your heart. This will be a mighty help in this matter.

And take heed of listening to any temptation that may draw your heart away from coming to Christ. It is a notable scripture that you have in 1 Samuel 12:20. It is Samuel speaking to the people of Israel, who had sinned against the Lord and were troubled for their sin. And Samuel said to the people, “Fear not, you have done this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but fear the Lord with all your hearts and turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.” They had sinned against the Lord and were troubled, and they asked what they should do. Samuel says that though they have sinned in this way, yet they must not turn aside to vanity. So I say to you: you have sinned against the Lord, and Christ calls you to come to him, and you complain that you have a dead and dull heart. Yes, but then do not turn from Christ to vanity. Still set yourselves in the sight of God, and wait on him in those ordinances in which he is accustomed to present himself.

Rule 8: Give Yourself Up to God’s Spirit

When your heart begins to come to Christ, give yourself up to the stream of God’s Spirit. For the Spirit of God will be stirring every now and then, though not at all times alike. You are waiting on the ordinances and waiting for the time when the Spirit of God will come to draw your heart to Christ. Wait for this stirring. And if you feel the Spirit beginning to draw your heart to Christ in any measure, oh, then join with the work of the Spirit of God and give up your soul to the stream of God’s Spirit. Do not draw back. It may be that God’s Spirit is drawing your heart to Christ, and you immediately draw back with discouraging thoughts, considering your vileness and that you are not humbled. Now when you feel God’s Spirit stirring in you, give up your soul to the strength of God’s Spirit.

When a man goes to learn to swim, he is not to lie down and keep paddling with his hands and feet; there must be a giving up of himself to the water. Sometimes a man makes ten times more stir to keep himself from drowning than another who can swim. Yet while the first sinks to the bottom, the one who has gotten the art of swimming is helped by the water and keeps himself above water.

That is exactly the difference between some who are troubled in their consciences for their sins and others, between some who are coming to Christ and others. Some who are coming to Christ, and have not the right art of giving themselves up to Christ, are sinking. They are in mighty confusion of spirit; they make such a commotion within their own hearts; they have strange, confused thoughts and horror of spirit; and all because they fear they will sink to the bottom of destruction. Now there are others who are as afraid of sinking and drowning as they are. But coming to understand what the way of Christ is, and what it is to come to Christ, they learn, though they have nothing in themselves to keep them from sinking, how to give up their souls to the stream of God’s Spirit, which carries them on to Jesus Christ in a more solid way. With a great deal less trouble they come to Jesus Christ, and there they get into the ark and so are safe forever. Others, meanwhile, scramble on the outside of the ark. It is as if a poor man were scrambling on the side of a ship: nobody looks after him, he falls down, and he is drowned at last. So those who scramble and do not give themselves up to the ark fall down again and perish at last.

You have a scripture for this in 1 Kings 20:33. The servants of Ben-hadad diligently observed whether anything would come from the king of Israel, and they say, “thy brother Benhadad.” This is the point: they go about petitioning the king of Israel for his brother Ben-hadad, and this is their way. They watch for any word that might pass from the king of Israel by which they might have any hope, and at last he said, “my brother Benhadad,” and they take hold of this at once.

So it should be with a sinner who is seeking after Christ. He should diligently watch for whatever may come from the Spirit of Christ that may give any encouragement. Does the Spirit move in you and begin to work in you to draw you to Jesus Christ? Oh, you might have gotten a great way there by now! Perhaps you might have been in his bosom and in his arms by this time, if you had taken this course.

Rule 9: Often Renew the Act of Coming

The soul that is about to come to Christ, and does not yet know whether it has truly gotten to Christ, should often renew the act of coming. For certainly there are many who are at Christ but do not know it. Perhaps some soul may say, “I thought I had gotten to Christ before, but I see my corruptions prevail, and I am afraid I have not come to Christ.” Will not such souls think that they must not come to Christ until they have overcome their corruptions? But the best way to overcome your corruption is to come to Christ, to renew the act of your coming to Christ. And the longer you delay renewing this act of coming to Christ, the stronger your corruptions grow in you.

Certainly, lie down as long as you will in any sullen mood and say, “My corruption is like this and like this, and I am afraid I never went to Christ,” and your corruptions will only grow stronger in you. You must not wait until your corruptions are subdued before you go to Christ. Renew the act of coming to Christ again. Say, “I will try it again. Perhaps I did not do it rightly at first. And if I miss it the second time, I will try it again and again, even the hundredth time.” Do not say, “If I had overcome sin in this way and that, I would come to Christ.” That is as much as to say, “If I were first sanctified by Christ, then I would come to Christ for justification.” And is this the right order? No, you must come to Christ first, so that you may have your corruptions subdued.

It would seem a strange thing if a king should come to a woman and tell her he would marry her, and she should say, “No; if I were a queen, I would take him.” No, she must first be married to him, and that is what makes her a queen. So here, the soul must not say, “If I were first sanctified and had overcome such and such corruptions, I would come to Christ.” No, it is by coming to Christ and renewing your act of coming to Christ that you are sanctified.

That is a rule I would leave with all young beginners: spend more time and more strength in renewing the very act of believing, of rolling your soul upon the grace of God in Christ and casting your burden on him, than in any other work whatever. There is nothing else on which you can spend your time and your strength more profitably than renewing the act of coming to Christ. “Come,” says Christ. The soul says, “I thought I had come, but I was deceived.” Christ says, “Yet come again, and come again and again.” This is the only way to overcome any corruption in your heart.

So when Christ calls you to come, remember these rules. Oh, that you would lay them up, to make use of them at all times! When you hear such things out of God’s word, remember what has been said on this text: what is implied in the coming, and in what way you should come. And oh, that the Lord would help poor souls to come to him in this way!

And know, for your encouragement, that if God gives you a heart to answer his call, to come to his Son, this is an evident sign of your predestination, for whom he calls he has elected. Indeed, just think this way with yourselves: “What an infinite mercy it is to me that I am in such a condition that God calls me to come! I might have had my ears filled with this: ‘Depart from me, ye cursed’ (Matt 25:41).” Thus many are cast off from God, and God bids them, “Depart from me, ye cursed.” You may be as great a sinner as they are. Now whereas God might have said, “Depart from me, you vile soul, you passionate soul, you filthy, unclean soul,” I say, whereas this sound might have been in your ears, instead of that sound there is the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the ministry of this word calling to you, “Come to me.” Indeed, he does not only call you; he has also given you many rules for how you should come to him.

If a prince should first make a proclamation for a rebel to come to him for pardon, and should send to him and set out many rules for how he should come, and direct him to such and such a place, what a mighty encouragement this would be to such a one to come in! Now this is what the Lord Christ has done for you. He has not only proclaimed that he is Mediator between God and you, but he has sent his Spirit to call you, and he has sent his messenger to give you rules for how to order yourself, so that you take heed of such a byway and such a turning, and observe these and these things for your help. This is what Christ has done for you.

If the Lord gives you a heart to answer Christ’s call, know that this calling to you by Christ in his word will be nothing other than a forerunner of the call that Christ will make to you another day. Here is one call: “Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). And there is the other: “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you” (Matt 25:34). This is worth ten thousand worlds. And when the soul answers his call, such a soul may go away comforted that Christ will call it in another manner. He calls you, poor laden soul, now to give you rest, but he will call you afterward before men and angels to receive the inheritance: “Come, not to rest only, but come to an inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world.”

Now what follows to be spoken to in this second part of the text, the invitation itself, is the drawing of the hearts of sinners to come to Christ. The work we have to do is the one set before us in Luke: “He sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready” (Luke 14:17). There the gospel is set out to us by a rich man making a great wedding supper. When he had prepared all his delicacies, he sent his servants to invite the guests, telling them that all things were ready. This wedding is nothing else but the excellent things in the gospel, the excellent things that are in Christ; and the servants are the ministers of the gospel. They are sent out to call sinners, to call the guests to come, for all things are ready. So then, in the name of Christ, I call to all laden sinners to come to Christ. And to draw the souls of those who are laden in this way, these several things are to be set before you.

Argument 1: Who It Is That Calls

First, consider who Christ is that calls, and what he is. “Come to me,” says Christ. What is this Jesus Christ who calls you to come to him? The very knowledge of him, of what he is, would be a mighty argument to prevail with the heart to come to him. He who calls you to come to him is the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, the brightness of the glory of God, the very stamp and image of his person, as he is said to be in Hebrews 1:3. He is equal with the Father. He has the glory of the Father in him. He is the glory of heaven and earth, the adoration of angels, and he has all fullness of all good in him. If a great prince called to you as you went along the street and said, “Come to me,” would you not immediately set yourself to make toward him and go to him? Know this: when Christ calls you to come to him, it is more than if all the angels in heaven stood together to call you to come to him. Once the soul comes to know who it is that calls, to know the voice of Christ and what he is, it is a mighty argument to work the soul toward Christ.

But you will say, “Alas, Christ is so glorious, how shall we come to him? His glory is enough to overwhelm us. When the angels only appeared in some glorious manner, even some of the prophets and holy men were not able to stand before them. We cannot come to Christ because of his glory.”

Know, therefore, in the second place, that as he is so glorious in himself, the luster of heaven, so he has taken our nature upon himself. He has clothed himself with our nature, and he is united with us in a hypostatic union, so as to be made the same person. Yes, he is so made the same person that the Son of Man is the very person that the second person in the Trinity is; the Son of Man is the same person that the Son of God is. This is the greatest mystery in the world, and it is the greatest work God ever did, far greater than making heaven and earth: for God to unite our nature so near to his Son. This God has done. So the Christ who calls you to come to him is not only God blessed forever, equal with the Father and full of glory, but he is your kinsman, your near kinsman, who has taken your flesh upon him. Now if you had a close relative who had been raised to be emperor of all the world, and he called to you and said, “Come to me,” would you not make toward him? Jesus Christ has your nature in heaven with him, united in a hypostatic union to the divine nature, and the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him (Col 2:9). Now it is he who calls you to come to him. Certainly there are great things in him, and great things to be had by him, as you shall see more fully shortly.

Now consider this one particular, namely, who Christ is that calls you to come to him. In considering this there are two or three mighty, strong arguments to prevail with the soul to come to Christ.

1. Because Christ is the Son of God and yet man, God and man so united, the terror of the glory of God is taken away, so that poor wretched flesh may now be able to converse with God, God being veiled with our own nature, veiled with flesh. It is true that if God in his own glory, as he is in himself in the highest heavens, called us to come to him, we might be afraid of being overwhelmed with his glory. We cannot stand before him. We cannot so much as look upon the glory of the sun; how shall we be able to go to the very body of the glory of God? Are we able to go to the body of the sun? No, it would burn us up. How then can we go to the glory of God? Now because the Lord knows that his glory is so great, he has been pleased to provide a way to take off the terror of his greatness. Though we are frail flesh, the Lord has done what may encourage us to come to him, for he has veiled his glory with human nature. Therefore through Christ we may now be able to stand before the infinitely glorious God and converse with him. This is a great mystery, the greatest: that God has taken our flesh upon him and veiled his glory with our flesh, so that his terror might be taken from us and we might be able to come to him. This was one special end for which Christ was made man, that the Lord might deal with us in a more familiar way than he otherwise could.

2. Because Christ, who is God and man in one person, calls us to come to him, we have this meditation: certainly the Lord is infinitely inclined to do good to the children of men. This is a mighty encouragement for all poor souls to come to Christ. When you hear that Christ the Son of God is made man in one person, you may gather this for your encouragement: certainly God is infinitely inclined to do good to the children of men. God would never have done so strange a work as to unite our nature into one person with his Son if he had not meant to do some infinite good to mankind. The Lord has given a most evident demonstration of it in uniting man’s nature to his own Son. Suppose the king were pleased to marry his son to your nearest kinswoman. You would gather an argument from it, and all your friends would conclude, “Surely the king intends much good to this family; he is strongly inclined to advance this family.” So when God is pleased to marry his Son to our flesh, yes, to take our nature into a nearer union with him than the wife is taken into with her husband, we may gather this argument and conclude, “Surely God intends much good to the children of men.” And therefore come.

3. From this consideration of who Christ is, God manifested in the flesh, we may gather this encouragement to come to him: in uniting the divine nature with the human in Christ, the Lord has already done a greater work for the children of men than the saving of their souls amounts to. The saving of your soul is a difficult work. You think, “Alas, for me to come and think to be saved by Christ, this is too great a thing, too good to be true. It is not possible that such a poor sinner as I am should ever be raised to the glory I hear of in the word, the glory God will raise his saints to.” You think the salvation of your soul is so great and mighty a thing, and perhaps that somewhat discourages you from coming. But when you hear what Christ is, and how God has united the divine and human natures together in one person, you may gather this encouragement from it: God has done a greater work than to save your soul. For so it is. It is a greater work for God to unite the divine and human natures together in one person than to save all the souls in the world. It is as if Christ said, “Oh, come to me! Know what I am. I am the Son of the Father, of the same nature and being, and I am likewise made man. God the Father has united my divine nature to your flesh, and in this he has done a greater work than the saving of your souls. In this he has shown what intentions he has for the good of mankind, and in this the terror of the Almighty is taken away. Therefore come to me.” That is the first argument: come to Christ.

Argument 2: Christ Has Come to You

Come to Christ. Why? Because Christ has come to you. Come to him, for he has come to you. So that he might come to you, Christ came, as it were, from the bosom of the Father. For a time he was willing to have his glory eclipsed, to come into this world, to be in the form of a servant, to be in a lowly condition here in this world. Christ has suffered more in coming to you than you can possibly suffer in going to him. Christ was content to come from the Father to you; what is it that you can leave to come to him? He is said in the Song of Songs to come leaping over the mountains (Song 2:8); he comes leaping over all difficulties to you. If you think there are some difficulties in your going to Christ, know that far greater difficulties lay in the way of his coming to you. But whatever lay in the way, he was resolved to go through it all. And he did come, and was here in the world in the flesh, so that he might save you. And he who has come to you in this way calls you to come to him.

Argument 3: Christ the Mediator

You must know that Christ is the great Mediator set between God and the children of men. It is he who has undertaken the great work, the greatest work that ever was in the world: to mediate between the infinitely offended God and your sinful, wretched souls. For through your sins such an infinite distance was made between God and you that it was impossible for you ever to have come to him without this Mediator. It is an argument of mighty use, if rightly understood and thoroughly considered: the vast distance that sin has made between God and sinful creatures, so that they can never come to God except through the glorious Mediator who has come into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man. God the Father made him the Head of the second covenant, and he has undertaken to make up all the wrongs that our sins have done to God, to pacify the wrath of God and to satisfy the justice of God. It is he who has undertaken to make peace between the Father and you, and it is he who calls to you to come to him.

Suppose a company of prisoners were in danger of death, and someone came to the prince to mediate for them, to make peace between the prince and them. Suppose the prisoners knew him to be the prince’s only son, the delight of his soul, and knew that he was sent by the prince himself to come and make peace and undertake for them. He comes to the prison doors and calls to the prisoners lying in their dungeon, saying, “Arise and come to me. Listen to what I shall bring you. Follow my direction, and peace shall be made between the prince and you. You shall have pardon; you shall have your lives.” Would this not stir them up to listen to him and eagerly come to the grate? Christ has come for this very end. This was the work God the Father sent him into the world to do: to be a Mediator between himself and poor, wretched, sinful creatures. And now he comes to them, calls to them, and says, “Come to me.” If you only knew what Christ was, and what his work was in coming into the world, it could not but mightily draw your hearts to come to him when he calls.

Argument 4: Christ Deserves Our Coming

“Come to me,” says Christ, “for if ever anyone deserved to be listened to, and to be come to when he calls, I certainly deserve it. For I have not only come to be a Mediator; the truth is, it has cost me my blood. I have shown such love to you that I have laid down my life for you. I have shed my most precious blood. I have been willing to be made a curse, and all for the saving of your souls. My love for you has been more than for my own life, for that was laid down for you. I have undertaken, indeed, to mediate between my Father and you, but it has cost me much; yet in love to you I have done it. All my blood is shed, the work is done, the price is paid. Come to me, that you may have life.”

And this is the meaning of the place mentioned before: the servant is bidden to go and invite the guests, for all is ready. So here the work is done; Christ has done the work. This argument could not be used with our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They could not have such an argument to draw them. Christ could not say to them, “Come to me, for I have not only undertaken to mediate between the Father and your souls, but I have laid down my life for you and shed my blood for you. I have already paid the price for you, I have purchased your souls, I have done the whole work; it is finished.” But now there is this argument to draw your hearts to Christ: the work is finished, the greatest work that ever was or shall be undertaken in the world. The greatest work of all is finished, and upon the finishing of this work Christ calls you to himself and says, “Come to me.”

Argument 5: The Infinite Good of Coming

Consider the infinite good your souls shall have by Christ in coming to him. This draws the heart indeed. It is not only a matter of seeing who it is that calls you (for commonly when we hear someone call, we ask who is calling, and if it is someone we expect good from, we come to him; this we have shown already). This argument is from the infinite good your souls shall have when you come to him. The very first moment you come to him, you will be blessed creatures; there will be an infinite change in your condition. For consider:

1. If there is any good to be had in all the mercy there is in God himself, if there is any good to be had in God the Father, in the divine essence, in the infinite, eternal first being of all things, it is to be had by coming to Christ. For Christ says, “No man comes unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). You cannot come to God except by Christ. As was suggested before, because of the distance sin has made between God and us, you cannot come to God until you understand Christ to be the great means of conveying all good from God to his creature. Christ is the great means of conveying all good to the creature. “All are yours, you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s,” says the apostle in the last verse of the chapter (1 Cor 3:23). All things are God’s; that you will acknowledge. But how do they come to be ours? All things are yours: that is the happiness of those who have come to Christ. He does not say, “All things are God’s, and you are God’s.” No, but “All things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

Other people, in seeking mercy from God, go about it this way: they go directly to God, and think that if they ever receive any mercy or good, it must come from God; they must have it from God. But there is something that comes between God and you: all things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. So God himself is the infinite fountain of all good. Christ is, as it were, the cistern into which all the mercy and goodness of God is to be conveyed. And believers by faith each have a pipe, as it were, put into this cistern, and so they come to have all good conveyed to them, the fullness of the divine nature. They are united to Christ, and so have all mercy conveyed from God to them. Here is a strong argument to draw the heart to come to Christ: Christ is the great conveyance of all good from the Father to the soul. Is not the mercy of God sweet to a soul laden with the burden of sin? “This mercy you must have in me,” says Christ, “or else you shall never have a drop of it.”

We must know, therefore, that by our sins the conduit pipe of all the mercy in God is stopped, so that not one drop of saving mercy for eternity can be let into the soul. Though we should cry for mercy ever so much, and shriek out, yet we must know that the pipe is stopped by sin, and there is no other way to open this pipe but only by Jesus Christ. He is the opener of the pipe of God’s infinite grace, let out to the children of men. Now if we look at the grace of God, we are first to consider that by our sins we have stopped the current of all the grace of God, and it is only Christ who lets this current out. And now Christ says, “Come to me, all you who would have mercy.” Would you have mercy? “Oh yes,” you say, “it is true, we would have mercy, but we find this mercy of God is stopped by our sins.” Now Christ says, “Come to me, and by me all the sluices of the grace and mercy of God are opened to poor souls.” We know God is a God of mercy, the God of all consolation, in himself the Father of mercies. He is infinitely merciful. So when we come to God, we come to the God of mercy, the God of all consolation; we come to the Father of mercies; we come to him who is infinite in mercy, whose nature is mercy, who is infinitely above all creatures in mercy. All the merciful creatures in heaven and earth are nothing in comparison with him.

Yes, take all the merciful saints in the world, the most merciful dispositions that were in all the creatures in the world, and put them into one man; you would say, “This is a merciful man.” If all the mercies in the hearts of all the saints who ever lived from the beginning of the world were put into one man, would you not think him a merciful man? If he called you to come to him for mercy, would you not come? Yet such a man, with all the mercies of all the saints who ever were in the world put into him, would be a most cruel man in comparison with the infinite mercy that is in God. Suppose we were in cruel straits and had to deal with such a man, one who had the tender compassion of all the men in the world. Those who are in misery go to their friends and say, “Oh, it is well that I fell into the hands of such a merciful man!” But now you who are a poor troubled sinner, if you come to Christ, you come into the arms, into the very heart, of the infinite God, who is infinitely above all the tender mercies there are in heaven or earth. And therefore come to him.

2. Further, you not only come to the very heart of mercy; by coming to Christ you come to God as a Father. “Come to me,” says Christ. “You shall not only come to the Father, but the first moment you come to me, I shall present you to God as a child, and God to you as a Father.” The infinite God is a deadly enemy to all who are out of Christ, but by coming to Christ there is peace with him. You come to have union with him; you come to be made one with God, in the nearest union with God next to the hypostatic union. There are various kinds of union with God. There is the hypostatic union, but next to that is a mystical union, and the saints have such a union. The soul that was before an enemy to God and cast out from him, the first moment it comes to Christ, has such a union with God as is the nearest union any creature can have, next to the human nature of Jesus Christ.

3. Yes, you shall not only be united to him; you shall at once have his image stamped upon you and his Spirit put into you, to live the life of God and to have communion with him here; and you shall be saved. The very moment you come to him, you shall have righteousness to stand in the presence of the infinitely holy God.

But you will say, “If we come to God, we come by Christ. But God is a holy and righteous God. How shall we be able to stand before him, when he is a righteous God and we are such sinners?” This is answered thus: the first moment you come to Christ, he will put the holy robes of his righteousness upon you, which shall make you able to stand before the infinite God. So whatever you are in yourself, it is impossible that God should not be well pleased with you and take delight in you as his own. You may walk up and down in the presence of God, and all because he sees you in the robes of Christ’s righteousness.

4. Further, the first moment you come to Christ you shall be safe for eternity. All the hazard of miscarrying for eternity is over the first moment you come to Christ. This you shall have in the first moment of your coming to Jesus Christ; this is for the comfort of those who come to Christ. More of these particulars we will have when we come to the promise that is made here in the text, And you shall have rest.

Argument 6: Your Wretched Condition in Yourself

Sixth, as a further argument to draw the heart to Jesus Christ when he calls you to come to him, consider what a poor wretch you are in yourself: a vile, base, forlorn, deformed, miserable creature, without succor, helpless, shiftless, a beggar. If a prince going along the street saw a poor beggar lying on the ground in the dirt, and was pleased to call to such a creature and say to him, “Come to me,” would it not revive his spirit? If someone told him, “The king, the prince, is calling you,” how he would stir himself!

Now you are the poorest creature in the world. No poor creature that ever lay groveling in the dirt, full of sores and wounds, was in a worse condition than you are. When you see such a one, think that your condition is far worse than his. If the king were going along the streets in his robes to Parliament, and saw such a poor creature lying by the walls, and took special notice of him, and called him over, and said, “Let that poor creature come to me,” it would encourage him exceedingly.

This invitation from Christ is just the very same. For the Lord Jesus Christ sees you lying in your gore, as it is described in Ezekiel 16, where the miserable condition of those who are in their natural state is most elegantly set down. They lay in their blood, and no eye pitied them; then I came, says God, and said to you, “Live”; and that time was the time of love. So when you lie in your poor, wretched, miserable condition, in your filth, in your baseness, in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity, this blessed Redeemer, this great Prince of all the world, calls to you and says, “Oh, you poor creature, come to me!”

“Ah,” you will say, “this is the greatest discouragement of all. I would be glad to go to Christ; the Lord knows this is what my soul pants after, that I might go to Christ. But I am such a poor, vile creature, so wretched, so miserable, that it is impossible for me to be accepted. You give me that as an argument, but it is the greatest discouragement of my heart. Because I am so vile and so wretched, this is the very thing that discourages me from coming to Christ.”

Argument 7: Christ Will Certainly Receive You

In the seventh place, I answer that Christ says, “Come to me, and I will certainly receive you, whatever you are.” Christ will certainly receive all who come to him, whatever they are. To make this plain, consider these three things.

(1) The solemn expression Christ uses for this purpose, which you have in John 6:37: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” He does not say, “he who has been such a great sinner, such a vile, wretched sinner,” but he speaks without any limit: “he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” Now what is translated in your Bibles “in no wise cast out” has a greater force in the Greek. There are two negatives. For though in English we say that two negatives make an affirmative, it is not so in Greek; there they serve for a stronger confirmation of a thing. So it may be read, “He that cometh to me, I will not not cast out,” as if Christ should say, “He who comes to me I will not, I will not cast out.” As we double our speech when we would express the fervency of our spirits, so does Christ. He would express the fervency of his spirit, and therefore he says, “He who comes to me, I will not, I will not cast out.”

(2) Whoever you are, upon your coming to him he will not cast you off. For this was the great errand Christ came into the world for: to receive poor troubled souls and to ease poor laden sinners. It was the very business Christ came into the world about. It is the work God the Father sent his Son into the world to do, that he might receive such poor, wretched, sinful creatures as you are. If he were not to receive those who come to him, he would lose the end he came into the world for. And therefore he will receive you when you come. For Christ says, “Otherwise I would lose the end of the greatest work that ever was done since the world began, or ever will be done to all eternity, that is, my undertaking to mediate between God and you. If I did not receive poor souls who come to me, that great work would be lost, the work in which my Father and I are so much glorified.”

For this is the glory of Christ, to do so. Christ saw there was so much glory to be had this way that it moved him to come into the world and take such a course as this to save souls. Christ knows that to all eternity he will be magnified by angels for saving such souls as you are. Yes, Christ knows that the Father will love him the more, for he says, “The Father loves me, because I laid down my life for the sheep” (John 10:17). It is this that will delight God the Father; it is this that will make God the Father delight in the Son; it is by this that Jesus Christ gains the very end of his death. Until he had laid down his life, until he had made his soul an offering for sin, he was not satisfied. This is what satisfied him: that he should see his seed. And among the rest, you are one. You who come to Christ are of the seed with which Jesus Christ is so satisfied that he gains the very end of laying down his life for you. Certainly, then, Christ will not cast you off but will receive you; and therefore come to him.

(3) He will receive you, for he has in the past received wretches as vile as you are.

You will say, “There was never anyone as vile as we are.”

It is true, we may and ought to judge ourselves as vile as the worst. Though we have not committed such vile sins outwardly as others have, yet because we do not know the hearts of other men, nor what means others have had, we are to judge ourselves as vile as any. But know that Christ has received people as bad as you are. Those who pierced Christ, who shed his blood: Christ received three thousand of them in one day. He received three thousand in one day of those who had stained their hands with his blood, and the story stands in the Scripture as an everlasting monument to encourage poor sinners to come to Christ.

And besides, though you are a vile sinner and a wretched creature, know this: the greater you have been in your sin, the more the grace of God in Christ will be magnified. Certainly there is in Christ such grace as is able to swallow up great sins as well as little ones, just as the infinite ocean is able to swallow up great vessels as well as small. Would it not be a silly thing, when we were about to cast a vessel into the sea, to say, “It is too great a vessel”? God is willing to have his grace magnified toward you, though it be to the hardening of many thousands. If there is an infinite ocean in God to swallow up great sins as well as small, then as long as this keeps you from coming to Christ, so long you dishonor this infinite grace of God in Christ. If God’s mercy were only like his common bounty to the rest of his creatures, this might keep you off. But since it is the infinite ocean of mercy in his Son, and purchased by Christ, it is an infinite dishonor to the grace of God in Christ to stand on terms and not come to Christ.

What do you think that mercy is worth which cost the blood of Christ? You think you are a great sinner, and that it must be wonderful mercy that saves your soul. It is true, and it is well that you think so. But consider further, sinner: what do you think of the mercy that will be worth as much as the blood of the Son of God? For him to be made a curse for sinners, will that do it? If that will do it, you may come to him. How much do you think the mercy of Christ’s coming to take man’s nature upon him is worth, to take our sinful nature upon him? If he will do it, you may come to Christ.

Yes, further, know that the Lord Jesus Christ never receives any who come to him but beggars: none but beggars, none but miserable creatures, none but those who are wretched and vile. From the beginning of the world Christ has never yet received any man on these terms, because he was not as vile as another man, as if he said, “Here is one who is this vile, and here is another who is not altogether so vile; I will receive him on this ground, because he is not so vile.” This was never the ground. When he receives them, he receives them on the ground of free grace.

Therefore it does not matter how vile you are, for that is the glory of Christ, to save vile creatures. And he saves none but those who come as beggars, those who come and see themselves as vile, wretched, worthless, unworthy, miserable, damned dust and ashes in themselves. Only such are objects for the heart of Christ to be set on. Rather, make your vileness an argument to drive you to him all the more, as David did in Psalm 25: O Lord, have mercy upon me, pardon my sin, for it is great. So say, “Lord, I am vile, I am wretched, I am unworthy, and therefore, Lord, receive me; Lord, therefore I come to you.” Do not say as Peter once did, “Master, depart from me, I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). No; the truth is, he should rather have said, “Master, come to me,” or, “Master, I come to you, because I am a sinful man.” So you should not say, “O Lord, depart from me, because I am a sinful creature,” but, “Lord, come to me, because I am a sinful wretch.”

And know that when you come to him, you will have a wonderful welcome, a wonderfully great reception, above all that your heart can think of. Oh, the great embracing that Jesus Christ gives to the souls who come to him! This is the very reason why poor sinners at their first conversion have their hearts so filled with joy: because at their first coming to Christ, Christ gives them such wonderful embraces, until they come to be more strengthened, and then perhaps Christ will have them live rather by faith than by sense.

It is in the new birth as in natural birth. Children shoot up mightily when they are first born. Take a child that has only just come out of the womb, and come back to it a quarter of a year later: the child has shot up a great deal. You may see it a great deal taller and bigger, every limb increased. But take it at ten years old, and it does not grow as much then as at the first. The reason is that, having just come out of the womb, it could not survive if nature did not hasten to strengthen itself at first.

So it is with men when they first come to Christ. They shoot up and grow to such enlargement of spirit, and they so sensibly perceive (yes, and others so sensibly perceive) a greater growth at their first coming than afterward, because when they first come, Christ will strengthen them against all discouragements. Christ will use you tenderly. Christ will not upbraid you for your former sins and say, “What! You who have lived a profane life, a profaner of my ordinances, a scorner of my ways and of my people?” Christ will not upbraid the soul, but he will be tender toward you. He will pass by your sins and heal your weakness. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax.

Argument 8: Your Infinite Need of Christ

Eighth, consider further the infinite need your soul has of Jesus Christ, and let that drive you to him. If the other arguments do not draw you, oh, let this drive you to Jesus Christ! You are an undone creature forever without Jesus Christ. All the mercy in heaven can do you no good without Christ; all the ordinances can do you no good without Christ; all the duties you perform can do you no good without Christ. For before you come to Jesus Christ, no prayer, no duty that you ever offer up to God can be accepted. And this is a sad condition, that all my duties, my prayers, my services, are all cast away until I come to Jesus Christ.

Certainly it is so. For you must know that Jesus Christ is not only the great conveyer of all good from God to us, but also that everything that comes to us from God must go through him. Therefore there is good cause for you to hasten to Christ, and never to be at peace all your life until you have some comforting evidence that your heart has closed with Jesus Christ. There is an infinite necessity, because all ordinances, duties, services, whatever you do, do you no good until you come to Christ.

Argument 9: All Will One Day See Their Need of Christ

Ninth, further still, Christ is such a one that all creatures will one day see their need of him. Yes, all who live under the sound of the gospel will see their need of him. And they will curse themselves that when they lived under the sound of the gospel, and were called to come to Jesus Christ, they nevertheless chose to satisfy themselves in the lusts of their spirits. Christ came from heaven to us once, in the days of his flesh, but know that Jesus Christ will come again in his glory, with all his angels and all his saints about him. And then how happy will those appear who, in their lifetime, when they were called by the ministry of the gospel, did come to Jesus Christ! When Christ comes in his glory like this, perhaps then you would all go to Jesus Christ. No, friend; if you wait until then, you will hear another voice from Christ. He will not come then to call sinners to come to him, but to bid them depart from him. For all whom the Father gives him come to him before then.

Argument 10: Rejecting the Invitation Is the Greatest Sin

Tenth, yes, and further still, let me tell you this. You have now heard the word of God from a poor minister, in the name of Christ, calling you to him and drawing you to come to him. If you reject this invitation, and the other invitations you have had from the ministers of the gospel, know that of all the sins you ever committed in all your lives, this will prove to be the greatest: that you have stood out against this invitation. It is this that will aggravate all your sins.

Perhaps some of you may think, “Well, this is an encouragement to sinners. We are called to Christ, and we are told that the vilest may come to him and Christ will receive them.” This is well. But if you reject this invitation, and still let out your heart to other vanities and to the satisfying of your sinful lusts, then this invitation of Jesus Christ, I say, will be the greatest aggravation of all the sins you ever committed in all your life. Your whoredom, your drunkenness, your swearing, all your Sabbath-breaking, will not lie so heavy on you, will not stand so deep in the reckoning against you, as one rejection of Jesus Christ calling you to come to him. And therefore take heed of abusing the grace of Christ in calling you to come to him.

For know this: if there could be any sign given to know who are reprobates and who are not, I would rather fix on this sign: one who goes away, after the grace of God has been opened to him and he has been invited to come to Christ, still hardened in sin. I say, I would rather fix on this than on any other sign. There is no sin that hardens the heart of God more than this. I will give you one Scripture for this. In Luke 14:16-17, God, as the master of the great feast, sends his servants and invites men to come to the wedding. That is, in truth, to do what I have been doing all this while, inviting poor sinners to come to Christ. Now various ones make excuses: some had bought oxen, others had bought farms, and others had married wives. Well, mark the doom of those who did not come in upon their invitation: “Verily,” says God, “those men that were bidden shall never taste of my supper” (Luke 14:24).

“What!” says God to his servants, “have you invited them to come in, and will they not? No, they have other things in their heads: their farms, their yoke of oxen, their profits and pleasures. Will they reject such grace and favor when I invite them to come to the marriage of my Son? Verily,” says God, “they shall never have any good by Jesus Christ.” Oh, it would be a dreadful doom to be passed on any soul! God forbid it should be passed on any soul. And yet when we come to open the grace of God in Jesus Christ in the ministry of the word, we cannot speak of it without trembling hearts, without fear lest some should be hardened, and so God be provoked by their resisting this grace of his: “This man and this woman who sits on such a stool, and is not taken with this grace of God offered in Jesus Christ, shall never taste of my supper.”

Beloved, sermons of mercy work more quickly than any other sermons whatsoever. Men and women may sit under a minister of the word who preaches many wholesome points of divinity and many moral truths, against drunkenness, swearing, profaning the Sabbath, deceit, swindling and cheating. They may sit a long time under such a minister, and God may be patient with them, though they do not obey the voice of the minister. But when the Lord comes to invite men and women to come to his Son, let them look to it then. God expects that they should fall down before that infinite grace of his and admire it, that their hearts should be taken with it, and that they should join with him and say, “O Lord, we come, and our hearts close with this bountifulness of yours in your Son.” And our neglect to profit by such sermons, casting out what we hear and letting it pass from us, most quickly seals up men’s hearts to condemnation: “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40). Therefore take in what has been spoken to you, and labor to work it on your hearts.

Question. You will say, “Many things have been spoken here to poor sinners to come to Christ. If these things are so, what is the reason that no more come to Christ? How does it come about that the hearts of men and women can stand out against such offers as these?”

Answer. Would you know the reason? Christ himself gives it to you in John 6:43, after he had been inviting some to come to him and had told them that he was the bread of life: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.” There were some who murmured against Christ, and Christ’s words did not prevail with them. No marvel, then, that the ministers of Christ do not always prevail, when Christ’s words, Christ’s own preaching, did not prevail with many; they murmured at him, and went away from his sermons, and rejected them. And Christ says, “There can no man come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44).

Question. You will say, then, “Why do you spend all this while exhorting people to come to him? We are dead, and you might as well speak to dead men.”

Answer. To that the answer is this: God the Father commonly draws the souls that belong to his eternal election by the ministry of the word, by such exhortations as these. God the Father makes use of the ministry of man to set before poor, miserable souls the excellence of Jesus Christ, and so to draw their souls to him. And therefore, if you belong to God’s election, God will make use of his ministry to draw your hearts to come to Christ. Does God begin to draw you by the ministry of his word? Have you found God beginning, by the ministry of his word, to draw your souls? Oh, do not draw back again, loath to leave your sins, to leave such a sweet pleasure, such a profitable lust. If God has taken hold of your hearts to draw you to him, oh, do not draw back again!

Indeed the Scripture says, “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14): few do come to Christ. But you are all called to come to Christ. Oh, do not let that Scripture be made true, that many are called but few chosen! If you find God drawing your heart, and your heart ready to answer the Lord, that is an argument that you are not only called but one of the chosen ones of the Lord.

There are three ways by which God the Father draws to his Son those whom he intends to be saved forever by him. First, he draws them by the cord (if I may so speak) of illumination, by enlightening their minds, by showing them what his Son is. Second, he draws them by the cords of mercy. Third, he draws them by setting conscience on them to push them forward. When the Lord is drawing the soul to Christ, he makes use of the consciences of men and women to urge them on to come to Christ.

O wretched soul, is not what you hear in the word the truth of God? Is it not the word of the Lord? Do you not now have a gracious offer? Is it not a mercy that you are out of hell this day? And is it not a mercy that you were not drowned in the sea, that you have been brought to land to hear one more offer to come to Christ? Will you still go on in your sins? Will you still prize your lusts above all that infinite good that is in Jesus Christ? Do you think this will be peace in the end? How will you be able to look God in the face another day? It is mercy you need, and mercy you must have, or else you are miserable forever; and will you reject this mercy? Oh, that the Lord would call in your consciences to help on this work!

There has been, I hope, by all that has been said, some illumination about Christ; yes, and some cords of mercy have been fastened on your hearts. Now if God would only stir up conscience, give a command to conscience and say, “Never let this man or this woman be at rest until they come to my Son, until their hearts are taken off from all things that hinder them from coming to my Son; let them never be at rest until then,” it would be a happy thing. If God would give this command to conscience, many might answer this invitation of Christ, so that when Christ says, “Come to me, ye that are laden,” the soul answers, “Lord, I come.”

Question. But you will say, “Suppose God has been calling me, and I have rejected him. I have been somewhat forward to come to Christ, and my lusts have drawn my heart back again. For you tell us that the Lord is accustomed to be quick with sinners when they have rejected his grace. Now, have you any word of comfort for such? If those who have abused God’s grace and mercy and turned back on him should come, have you any comfort for them?”

Answer. I will give you only one Scripture for them, and that is Jeremiah 3:22; and oh, that the Lord would fasten this Scripture on your hearts! “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Mark, here is the answer: “Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God.”

In the name of God I present this Scripture to you who have drawn back from the grace of God, who were once in a good frame and are now backsliders. Once more, in the name of God, I call to you: Oh, return, you backslider! The Lord Jesus Christ is ready now to heal your backslidings. Now, then, say secretly, “Lord, I come.” And when you go into your closet and are all alone, in a more solemn manner resign your soul to Jesus Christ and say, “Lord, you have invited me this day to come to Christ. Now, Lord, I give up myself and all that I have and am to you, my estate, my body, my honor, and all that I have, to come to you.”

And then not only will those good things be made good to you, but the promise also: then Christ will give you rest. These times are times of distress, and therefore it is seasonable to hear of rest. Whatever troubles fall out, if you come to Christ, you yourself will be safe. Christ engages himself to give rest to your soul.

And so much for the invitation itself.

Now the next thing that follows is the promise that Christ makes to poor laden sinners who do come to him: he will give them rest. “And I will give you rest.”

It is too much for any creature to speak like this. Indeed, it would be too much boldness and presumption for all the angels in heaven to make these words their own, for them all to say, “Come unto us, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and we will give you rest.” Yet here in this text there is not only one who is greater than Solomon, but one who is greater than all the angels in heaven and all the men who ever lived on the earth, who says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). They are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, who is equal with the Father, God blessed forever. He says, “Come unto me, ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This is what we have now come to: the gracious promise that Christ makes to draw souls to himself, that he will give them rest. “And I will give you rest.”

And what subject could be more fitting and seasonable at this time? We know this is a time of trouble, a time of disturbance; there is much perplexity and distress in our nation. And what will be more welcome to us than this, to hear of rest? This is what Christ promises to all who come to him, who believe in him: he says he will give them rest.

Before I come to open this gracious promise, which is exceedingly full of marrow and fatness, as we will find when we come to open it, I will first give you one observation, briefly, from the connection of these words with the words before: “Come to me, ye that labor, and I will give you rest.” You see that Christ, so that he might draw sinners to himself, makes a gracious promise of something he knows will do sinners good at the heart: he will give them rest. From this, the observation in general is this:

That God would have us, even when we are coming to Christ, have some regard to ourselves; and Christ encourages us, in coming to him, even to have some aim at our own good.

That is clearly the observation from the connection of the words.

Before we open the promise (“I will give you rest,” he says, if you come to me), consider that Christ sets before sinners something he knows will take their hearts, as a great good to them, to draw them to himself. From this, I say, the observation is clear: in our coming to Jesus Christ it is lawful for us to have some aim at our own good. Indeed, it is not only lawful for us, but we ought to do so, for we are to look upon Christ as Christ presents himself to us. I say it is not only lawful to look upon Christ as he presents himself to us, but it is our duty to look upon him so. Now when Christ presents himself to us as an object to draw our hearts to him, he presents himself as one in whom our souls will gain abundance of good, one by whom we will get much. Now it is true that we should labor to be above ourselves as much as we can, and we should labor to deny ourselves in some sense; yet not in such a way that we are not to look at our own good, even in our coming to Jesus Christ. We are to look at it.

I might show you this in abundance of Scriptures. In the very first commission that Jesus Christ gave to his apostles after his resurrection, to go and preach throughout the world, he says to them in Mark 16:15-16, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” This makes it clear that Christ would have us, in our first believing, have an aim at our own good. And so we find a promise of the same kind as this one in the text in Jeremiah 6:16: “Thus (saith the Lord) stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Inquire after the good ways, and you will find rest for your souls.

So you see that God sets out duties together with promises. The Lord knows what is best for us and what will work most upon us. Therefore, for us to think that we must have no aim at all at any good to ourselves in coming to Christ, and that coming to Christ for our own good is not grace but self-love, this is a temptation.

I speak to this point the more because I know how useful it is to many poor souls whom the Lord is drawing to Jesus Christ. The Lord has taken their hearts off sinful self; they would not indulge themselves in the lusts of the flesh as they once did. The Lord has made them willing to deny their own opinions, their own wills, their own affections and their former ways, and to deny themselves in the comforts of the things of this world, so as to prize him, and Christ, and his ways (the way of Christ) more than they prize their very lives here in this world. And yet for all this a temptation comes upon them: “Yes, but you seek Christ only to free you from hell and to save you. Therefore it is only self-love; it is not true grace, because you aim at yourself rather than at Christ.”

The devil cannot prevail with a heart that is drawing to Christ by telling it, “Oh, but you prize your lusts more than Christ,” or “You prize your ease more than Christ,” or “You prize your estate and your liberty more than Christ,” or “your life more than Christ.” If the devil should come and tempt like this, such a soul would in some measure be able to answer and to appeal to God, and say: “Lord, you who know all things know that it is otherwise. However much my heart once went after my lusts, after the world, after my ease and liberty, and I followed the common course of the world and made those things my greatest good and comfort, yet, Lord, you know it is otherwise with me now. My heart is set for Christ, and I can say from the bottom of my soul, with that blessed martyr Lambert, ‘None but Christ, none but Christ.’”

Now when the heart has come this far, one would think you might be above the devil and come to assurance. “Yes,” says the devil, “though you have been taken off this far, so that you dare not commit any known sin, and you seek after Christ more than your estate and your liberty, yet there is one thing more that your heart has not been taken off from. You do not prize Christ most of all. You seek Christ to save you from hell and bring you to heaven; that is what you seek Christ for. And therefore I know your heart has not been right all this while.” This is a temptation that seizes upon many people.

Now I confess it is a temptation beyond many people. They do not know what this temptation is, the thought that “I prize Christ only to deliver me from hell and bring me to heaven.” This temptation lies above the highest class that the common course of the world ever reaches, above ordinary professing Christians.

Now the Spirit in the text answers this temptation, and the soul answers it in this way: “It is true, I do seek Christ to save me from hell and bring me to heaven. The fear of the wrath of the great God, under which I saw myself to be, and the displeasure of God, lay mightily upon my spirit. The Lord has made my soul sensible of the dreadful breach that sin has made between him and my soul, and the Lord has caused the fear of eternity to fall upon my soul. And I have come to be convinced that the breach between God and my soul is such that there is none but Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the second covenant, who is able to make up the breach. My soul goes after him as the Mediator. As he is set forth in the word, in the gospel, to be a Mediator between God and mankind, so my soul goes after him and takes hold of him. And what can the devil say to this? For my heart takes hold of Christ in the way that Christ is offered to me in the gospel.”

And so he is offered. God himself says this: “God so loved the world that he sent forth his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This is how God sets forth his Son, as if God should say: “Let it be known to you, poor, wretched, sinful creatures who are in danger of perishing eternally, that I have sent my only begotten Son into the world, and I offer him to your souls, to the end that your souls may not perish but have everlasting life.” This is how God offers his Son.

Now then, suppose a soul is made sensible of the danger of perishing eternally, and the Lord makes it appear to the soul what the excellence and the glory of eternal life is. Suppose the soul comes to see that being delivered from perishing and obtaining eternal life are to be had only in Christ, and upon this it takes hold of Jesus Christ, casts itself upon him, and ventures to lay the weight of its eternal estate upon Christ. The soul that receives Christ in this way receives him as he is offered in the word. Whatever objection may be raised to the contrary, this is to receive Christ as he is offered in the word.

Further, this text speaks directly to helping against this temptation: “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” Now many poor souls do come to Christ so that they might have rest, but then the devil puts this in: “Oh, but you come to Christ for your own good.”

Now for help against this temptation, know these things:

1. At the first conversion the Lord ordinarily makes use of the creature’s self-love; but it is self-love for eternity, and that is a higher degree of self-love than most people in the world attain to. Some people in the world love themselves only for this present life. But when God makes a man or woman love themselves for eternity, it is a good sign that the hand of God is upon the heart, and that the Lord intends good to that soul. When the Lord begins to make you love yourself truly for eternity, to love what is true and of eternal good, it is a good sign that the Lord intends good to your soul.

2. The Lord may go further. He may not only make you begin to love yourself for eternity, that is, to love the immortal soul the Lord has put into you, but come to show you where your true good for eternity lies: that it lies in this, that you will be delivered from the wrath of God and will not be cast out of his presence, but will come to have union with God and live in his presence to the praise of his grace to all eternity. This is your good. You count this your happiness: that you may be delivered from being cast out of God’s presence, and that the Lord would bring you to himself to live with him, and to join with the angels and saints in the praise of his infinite grace in Christ eternally. You count this the good you would have in your salvation. When that is so, I say, the revealing of this to you, and the carrying of your heart to Christ on this ground, is faith; it is true grace. For here God has so twisted together (if I may put it this way) the glory of his own name and the good of his creature that both are joined in one, and so the heart may be carried to both of them at one time, joining them in one.

3. Further still, let me tell you this. Suppose your heart looks at this as your own good, and this is the rest you want: “I see that by my sins I am cut off from God, and so I can have no peace or rest. And I see that my happiness and the rest of my soul is to have union with that God whom my sins have cut me off from, and to live forever to the praise of the infinite and glorious first being of all things.” I say that in this, it is true, you aim at your own good before you are aware of it, and perhaps you reason explicitly with your own heart, “But do I regard God above any good in myself?” Yet because your heart is set on this end, that you may have union with the Father and live eternally with him to the praise of his grace in his Son, I say that in this act, though you are not able to conceive explicitly how you look at God above yourself, God sees it. There is that work of God in your heart which raises God there above yourself.

And therefore let those poor sinners who are much afflicted under the burden of their sins only labor to eye God in this way: to look at Christ as a Mediator between God and them, to bring God and their souls together. Let them aim at this, and they need not trouble themselves any further with answering that temptation, “Oh, I come to Christ, but it is only so that I might be saved.”

I do not know that in all the book of God (to give you this one remark about it, and then we will pass from this point) we find it set down as a mark of a hypocrite that he loves his own salvation too much. We never find it as a mark of a hypocrite that he comes to Christ so that he might be saved. And seeing the word of God does not set this out as the mark of a hypocrite, let us not nourish this temptation in our own hearts so as to hinder us from coming to Christ. Your heart would have rest in coming to Christ; therefore come to him, so that you may have rest. And this is enough on this observation from the connection of the promise: come to Christ for rest.

But now for the promise itself. We read in the first verse of the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah that Christ says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn …” (Isa 61:1-2). Here we have a prophecy of Christ, and in this text of mine that prophecy of Christ is fulfilled. Christ has come here in the text to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. All this is contained in this promise, “I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

Rest is what all creatures in the world desire. The end of all motion is rest; so the philosophers say. The end of motion is quietness; it is the end of every motion whatsoever. If a creature were where it would be, and had what it would have, then it would have rest. But now, as for motion: what is the reason the fire ascends upward, but that the proper place of fire is above? And why do the earth and all heavy things fall downward, but because their proper place is below? Let them be where they would be, and have what they would have, and then they are at rest.

So it is with the rational creature. When the rational creature is in its proper place, the place that is proper for an immortal soul, and when an immortal soul comes to have its capacity filled, when it comes to have all that an immortal soul is capable of, then it comes to have rest. And this is a rest that Christ promises here in the text, “and I will give you rest.” That is: If you come to me, first, you will be delivered from all your burdens, from all misery whatsoever. And second, you will be where you would be, and enjoy what you would have. So this promise indeed contains freedom from all evil and the enjoyment of all good. There cannot be rest until there is a freedom from evil and an enjoyment of all good. That is the general sense here in this promise, “I will give you rest.”

There is a great deal of difference between the rest that Christ here promises to give and the rest that people seek after in the world. We read of the rich glutton who says, “Soul, take thine ease” (Luke 12:19); that is, soul, be at rest. For the word there in the original is the same as the word for rest here in my text: “Soul, take thine ease,” or, soul, be at rest. Why? “For thou hast goods laid up for many years.” Now mark the difference between the rest of a worldling’s soul and the rest of a Christian’s soul. A worldling says, “Soul, take your rest, for you have food and drink, and you have goods laid up for many years.” A Christian’s rest is this: “Come to me,” says Christ, “and I will give you rest.”

The rest of a Christian is in the Son of God. It is in the Mediator of the second covenant, in him who brings the soul to the Father and brings all the treasure and riches of the Father’s grace to the soul. It is in him that a Christian finds rest, and a worldling only in food and drink and other things, as we will see more fully afterward. This, in general, is the meaning.

Now in this promise of Christ there are two things to be handled: the first implied, the second expressed.

What is implied is this: there is no rest in the souls of the children of men outside Jesus Christ. That is plainly implied in “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” So here it is plainly implied that there is no rest for an immortal soul outside Jesus Christ; it can have no rest outside Christ. And what is expressed is this: in Jesus Christ, as soon as the soul comes to have union with Jesus Christ, it will have true rest indeed. There is full rest to be had in Christ.

For the first: outside Jesus Christ there can be no rest for the soul. It is as we read of the dove that Noah sent forth. When his ark was floating up and down on the water, he sent forth a dove, and you find in the story of Noah there (Gen 8:8-9) that when the dove was sent forth, she flew up and down but had nothing on which to rest the sole of her foot, and therefore she came flying back to the ark. So it is with a soul that is not in Christ (for the ark was a type of Christ). It may float up and down here in the world, but certainly there is nothing for the soul to rest itself upon outside Christ.

Indeed, we read that when Noah sent a raven out of the ark, the raven came back no more, but the dove came again. The difference between the dove and the raven elegantly expresses the difference between those souls God intends to do good to in Christ and those who are left by God and have no other portion appointed for them than the things of this world. The people of this world, for whom the Lord intends no higher good than the things of this world, are like the raven: they flutter up and down in the world but never come to the ark, never come to Christ. As for the others, those the Lord intends to do good to, though they may for a while be floating up and down here in this world, yet God will so order things that their souls will never have any rest and quiet until they come to Jesus Christ. Nothing in this world will satisfy them. The Lord will make them seek, and make them sensible of an emptiness: they do not have the good their souls were made for. There is no rest to be had outside Christ.

There are one or two Scriptures that are well worth observing. I might name multitudes, but I will content myself with one or two. That place in Isaiah will be sufficient if I name no more. It is in the fifty-seventh chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, in the last two verses. There you will see all who are outside Christ described by this, that they have no rest: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace (saith my God) to the wicked” (Isa 57:20-21); or, there is no rest, says my God, to the wicked. You who are sailors know what a troubled sea means. A sea that is troubled casts up mire and dirt, and just so is a wicked man’s heart: it is like the troubled sea, it casts up mire and dirt.

And as the sea casts up the most dirt when it is most troubled, so it is with wicked men: when wicked men are most troubled, then they cast up the most wickedness.

So sometimes, it may be, you find it when you are in a storm at sea. Some kinds of men, instead of seeking God and praying to God, fall to cursing and swearing and railing. And so their hearts are more troubled than the troubled sea, and by this they cast more filth and dirt out of their hearts than the troubled sea casts out. Or if not at sea, then when they are here on land: as people who have no rest and peace with God, everything troubles them. Having no rest in Christ, they are troubled in their families and with their neighbors, and they cast up nothing but mire and dirt, oaths, swearing and blaspheming. Oh, how these come out of wicked men whenever they are crossed!

Whenever you see the husband or the wife crossed and troubled, when you see them out of temper and hear them swearing, cursing, railing, blaspheming, and speaking wicked words in their passion, remember this text, Isaiah 57:20: a wicked man is like the troubled sea that casts up mire and dirt. Oh, that you would remember it and apply it to your own hearts: “Is it so with my heart?” I fear there are many whose consciences tell them that this text vividly sets forth their hearts. Their consciences tell them that when they are troubled they cast up mire and dirt. Oh, what mire and dirt has been cast up by many when they have been in trouble! Now may the Lord settle this text upon your hearts, for the Lord says it is the wicked man and woman who cast up this mire and dirt when they are troubled.

But the special thing I aim at is in the next verse: “There is no peace (saith my God) to the wicked.” No peace, no rest: this is a truth that belongs to all men and women who are outside Jesus Christ. There is no peace, no rest for their souls. And as he denies every kind of rest such a person can have, so you may observe what a confirmation there is: “saith my God.” It is God who says it.

It is as if the prophet should say, “I am now preaching to you about the restless condition you are in while you remain in your natural state, unconverted to God. While I am preaching this, it will be a sad thing to you. ‘It is a sad subject,’ you will say.” The prophet tells us there is no rest, no peace; but it is as if the prophet should say, “It is not I who say it; it is my God who says it.” God pronounces this upon every ungodly man and woman: there is no peace, no rest for such. Let the world have ever so much rest and peace, though there should be no war abroad in the world, yet there is no peace for wicked men, no rest for their souls. I will demonstrate this more clearly afterward, that there is no rest or peace for any wicked people in the world, though to others they seem to live in ever so much ease, rest and peace.

Further: “There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.” It is not I, says the prophet, but God who says it. By this he would teach us this lesson: when any minister of God preaches what is hard for us, we should consider that it is not their word but God’s. It is God who speaks by them, the God who will make all of it good, when what they say is according to his word, according to what he says in his word: “There is no peace, saith my God.”

Further: “There is no peace, saith my God.” It may be that many would flatter you and say there is peace: “These ministers only trouble people and trouble consciences. What need is there for so much stir? What need for so much ado?” No doubt the prophet aimed at these false prophets, many of whom we read of in Isaiah and Jeremiah, who cried “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace. There were many false prophets living in those times who said, “The prophet Isaiah preaches things to you that are too hard. God is merciful, and do we not all have infirmities? So it is only a matter of trusting in God’s mercy. And do we not do as others do? We hope it will be with us as with others at the last, and it is only a matter of repenting at the last.” Now, in opposition to all these, the prophet Isaiah says, “There is no peace, saith my God.” Let all the false prophets plead what they will, let them say what they please, yet my God says to every wicked and ungodly man and woman that there is no peace for their souls.

Further, it may be there are some whose own hearts would say, “Peace, peace.” There are many men and women who, when they hear out of the word things that are very dreadful and come very near to their consciences, and their consciences tell them this word of God closely concerns them, will yet be ready to bless themselves in their own thoughts and say that, notwithstanding, it will be peace for them. It is just as we read in Deuteronomy 29:19-20, where the Lord says, “It shall come to pass that if any man when he hears the words of this curse, shall bless himself in his heart and say, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine own heart; the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.”

How dreadfully God speaks! And to whom? To the soul who hears out of God’s word that there is no peace, no rest for it in that condition, in the way it is now in. Yet it may be, says the Lord, that when you hear this pronounced against them today in my word, you will have many in your congregation who will say, “I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my own heart.” Now we do not find so dreadful an expression in the whole book of God against anyone as we do against those who say they will have peace though they walk in the imagination of their own heart.

Now here, says the prophet, perhaps some of you will say in your own hearts, “I shall have rest, I shall have peace.” But, says the prophet, “There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.” Though your own hearts say you shall have peace, and “What need do we have to trouble ourselves with the minister’s words?”, yet my God says there is no peace to the wicked.

It seems to me that here we have a place that speaks of wicked men in direct opposition to what the church speaks of herself in Lamentations 3:24: “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him.” Now let us observe that at the time the church speaks this and says the Lord is her portion, she was in a very afflicted state and condition. It may be her enemies would say that the Lord had forsaken her and neglected her. But against all the enemies in the world her faith prevails and says, “Let all the devils in hell say what they will, let all the world say what they will, yet my soul will say, The Lord is my portion.” That is, the faith that God’s Spirit has worked in my soul will enable me to say that the Lord is my portion. So, on the contrary, when wicked men are in prosperity and do not feel the hand of God upon them, perhaps friends may flatter them, false prophets will flatter them, and it may be their own hearts will flatter them. But now, to answer all, says the prophet, “There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God”: my God says it.

Further: “There is no peace, saith my God”; there is no rest for any outside Christ. This is to note where it comes from that wicked men can have no peace, and why they can have no rest. It is from God. It is God who will not give it; God is against them. There are many wicked men and women whose consciences have begun to be enlightened, and they often have trouble of spirit. When they wake in the night, they are troubled; when they go about their business in the day, they are troubled; when they come home, they are troubled. And they are so troubled that they scarcely know what it is that troubles them.

Now perhaps you have not known what it is that troubles you, but this text (Isa 57:21) tells you what it is. It is the Lord who is at odds with you. It is the anger, the displeasure of the Almighty that is upon you in the ways you have walked in. And this is why the prophet brings in the name of God: to show where it comes from that wicked men can have no peace.

Further, it is worth observing that he adds that it is my God. He does not say, “There is no peace, God says,” though that would have been enough, but “my God.” That is, it is as if the prophet should say, “Through the mercy of God, the Lord has revealed this mercy to me, and my soul has some interest in this God. Since I came to know God in Jesus Christ, my soul has found peace and rest in him. He is my God, and he has revealed himself to me. He whose mind my soul is in some measure acquainted with, my God, says there is no peace to the wicked.”

However others may think it a strange thing, when they hear the dreadful wrath of God against all ungodliness revealed out of the word, to tell ungodly men that they are in a condition in which they can have no peace, yet those who are acquainted with the ways of God know better. Those who know the holiness and justice of God, those who understand the mind of God, those who are acquainted with the secrets of the mind of God, know that there is a reality in what is declared against such and such wicked men. They can say that for such there is no peace. They can wonder how it is possible that such people can go on quietly in their way. They wonder how they can eat their food in quiet; they wonder how they can sleep in quiet. Those who know what a breach sin has made between God and the soul, and know what a wonderful work it is to make up the breach that sin has made between God and the soul, can understand this, and so they wonder at the others’ complacency.

That is the meaning of the prophet’s words in Isaiah, “There is no peace to the wicked (saith my God).” He puts it in terms of the relation he has to God, “saith my God,” because he knew the way of God; he knew a wicked man could have no peace. Others who do not know the way of God think wicked men may have peace.

For example, go to some people and speak of the natural man’s state, how we are all children of wrath and of sin, and speak of the severity of God’s justice and holiness. Now a carnal heart that does not know God thinks this strange, and thinks people are troubled more than they need to be. But go to another who understands what the way of God is, and knows God’s way of making peace between God and them, go to one to whom God has made himself known in Christ, and such a one will readily subscribe to all that is revealed of the wrath of God, of the holiness of God, and of the righteous judgment of God. This is what the prophet does: “My God,” that God who has revealed himself to me, says there is no peace to the wicked.

Further, there is yet another note: “There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.” There is this lesson from it: it is a sad thing when those who are wise, godly and gracious, who are acquainted with the ways of God, think another person’s condition is a bad one. It is sad when such people are merely suspicious of it; much more would it be if they were able to say for certain what that person’s state is. But when those who are wise and holy and walk close with God say to you, “There is no peace,” you need to look to it.

Is there any godly friend of yours whom in your conscience you believe to be truly godly, who walks close with God and faithfully with him and enjoys communion with him? If such a friend only thinks your condition is a bad one, it is a sad thing. So it is when the prophet says there is no peace for such and such wicked men, “saith my God.” That is: “Through God’s mercy I have an interest in him, and in his name I pronounce this, that there is no peace for such and such wicked men.”

Well, because this text (Isa 57:21) has taken up some time in opening it, and has much in it, I will name no other but this one; for this indeed is enough to prove that all who are outside Christ can have no peace or rest for their souls. Would you know why and how it comes about that no one who is out of Christ can have rest for their souls? I will not spend much time opening what I have to say. But the things to be delivered in opening this point are exceedingly dreadful; they speak dreadfully to those who are out of Christ. Yet because you have already heard so much of the willingness of Jesus Christ to be reconciled to you, and of his invitation to you to come to him, and because I have so much to deliver to you afterward about the true rest that a believing soul has in Jesus Christ, I may take the more liberty to show you the restless condition of every soul that is out of Jesus Christ. I will do it very briefly, in these particulars.

First, a soul out of Christ certainly can have no rest, because it has departed from God. Know this, and oh, that the Lord would make you know it: every man and woman by nature has departed from God, has gone away from God. From the womb we have departed from him, and by nature there is a great distance between God and every one of our souls. All the union we come to have with God is in his Son; it is in Christ. Therefore, until we come to be in Christ, there is a great chasm, a gulf, a depth, a vast distance between God and all our souls. And this is one of the first things the Lord is pleased to show a soul he is about to save, and to convince it of: the great distance there is by nature between God and the soul.

Now it is impossible for a soul that has departed from God to have rest, for God is the proper center of an immortal soul. As Moses says, “Thou art our habitation” (Ps 90:1). The soul can have no rest but in God, for God is the proper place of an immortal soul. The true good of an immortal soul is the enjoyment of an infinite good. Now if the soul is separated from what is its true good and proper place, it is impossible for it to have any rest.

At the end of the twelfth psalm it is said of the wicked, “The wicked walk round about” (Ps 12:8). The old Latin renders the words “in a circuit,” up and down. But a godly man walks in a straight line: he goes to the center, in a straight line to God as his center, and there his soul finds rest. But in its natural condition the soul walks in a circle, up and down, seeking rest and finding none, as it is said of the unclean spirit in the Gospel, which walks up and down seeking rest but finds none. So it is with men in the world. They would gladly have rest, and they seek something that is good, but they find none, for they have departed from God, who is the only rest of an immortal soul.

Second, not only that, but every man by nature is an enemy to God, and therefore he cannot look upon God, the infinite, eternal, first being of all things, without terror, if he knows him. No man or woman in their natural state who knows what God is can look upon him without terror. Therefore it is not possible for them to have any rest as long as they continue enemies to God. And that, certainly, is the state of man by nature. Scripture is as clear on this as on any point of divinity: we are all by nature enemies to God. And can you be at peace when you are an enemy to God? Think it over. It may be that you have slept quietly, lived merrily, and eaten and drunk with a great deal of peace, as you think. But this is your condition: by nature you are an enemy to the infinite, eternal first being of all things.

Objection. You will say, “If we do not know it, we may have rest.”

Answer. Just such a rest as a man has who is asleep on the top of a mast. True, he does not know his danger while he is asleep; but will you say that the man has true rest while he is there? So it is with men. Though they do not know what their natural condition is, and though in their complacency they have a kind of false rest, will you call that rest? Will you say that a man who has gone to sleep on the top of a mast has gone to his rest? Such a rest you have had all the days of your life before conversion.

Third, every man by nature is guilty. He is bound over to the infinite justice of God, to answer for all that the Lord has to charge him with, to answer for it before the Lord, and to satisfy the strict law of God’s divine justice for all that the Lord has to charge him with. And is this man in a condition to rest? Can this man have rest, if he only understands this? If a man is found guilty and bound over for trial at the Sessions or the Assizes, truly that man will have little rest until he has gotten himself free. A soul bound over by the infinite, eternal God, bound over to eternal justice for whatever the Lord has to charge him with: is this a condition to rest in? This is the condition of all who are out of Christ, of a soul before it comes to Christ.

Fourth, not only is a man guilty before the Lord, but whatever there is in the world to disquiet a person is the condition of one who is out of Christ. What will disquiet someone? To be in debt: will that not disquiet him? To be in danger for debt, to be arrested as soon as he steps out of his door: can such a man sleep quietly, or eat his food quietly, and drink quietly? Let me tell you that all the while you are out of Christ, you are in debt to the infinite and eternal God, and bound to give satisfaction for what the Lord has to charge you with. Yes, and for all you know, the next creature you have to deal with may be like an arresting officer sent from the eternal God to lay hold of you, to arrest you, and to cast you into prison until you have paid the uttermost farthing.

I remember I have read of Augustus Caesar (Plutarch reports it of him) that, knowing of a chief man in Rome who was deeply in debt, he sent to buy the pillow that man slept on. “Surely there must be a great deal in that pillow,” he thought, “if a man so deep in debt could rest on it.” I mention it only to note this much: one who is in debt is in a mighty trouble and a restless condition.

If that is so, then certainly every man and woman out of Christ is in a restless condition. For they owe God the debt of punishment, because they have not paid God the debt of obedience. And God must have his debt paid, either by them or by their surety; and your surety is found only in Christ. Christ undertakes to pay only for those who come to him, those whom he has invited to come to him. If Christ does not undertake to pay the debt for you, you must pay it yourselves or be cast into prison. And that is the reason the damned lie in hell forever: they lie there to pay the debt of obedience that they owe to God. And therefore Scripture calls our sins our debts.

If you examine the different expressions of the Evangelists, one says “trespasses,” the other “debts.” By this it is plain that Christ never intended to bind his people to use those very words, but only to give a platform and pattern of prayer, so that we are to pray to that effect. This is an argument no one can possibly answer. One Evangelist has the Lord’s Prayer in one set of words, and the other Evangelist has the Lord’s Prayer in other words: one says, “Forgive us our trespasses,” and the other says, “Forgive us our debts.” Now it is true that they come to the same thing in effect. Yes, but from this I say that it is not Christ’s intention to tie us exactly to the words he spoke, but to make his prayer a pattern of prayer for us. So much for that point.

Fifth, as to the restless condition that all men are in who are out of Christ, it is this: they are not only debtors and guilty, but everyone out of Christ is condemned. He is not only bound over. A prisoner may be bound over, yes, but he may hope to escape when he comes to trial. But this is certain: every man and woman out of Christ is a condemned creature; the sentence has already been passed on them. I will give you a clear scripture for it: “He that believeth not in Christ is condemned already” (John 3:18). He shall not only be condemned at the great day of judgment, but he is condemned now; he is condemned already.

I might give you various other scriptures, such as Romans 8:1: “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” This plainly implies that there is condemnation, then, for those who are not in Christ, who do not walk after the Spirit but after the flesh. Now can any man be at peace when he is a condemned creature? Suppose a man were condemned at your Assizes, the judge having passed the sentence of death on him. If you came to such a man and found him asleep, would you not say, “Alas! Can you rest now?” Do you think the night before a condemned man’s execution is a night of rest?

Now let me say to you that those who have come to Christ know that their condition was just this before they came to him. This is a certain truth: until you come in to Jesus Christ and are a believer in him, you are under the sentence of condemnation. He who does not believe is condemned; you who walk after the flesh are under condemnation.

You will say, “God forbid! We hope we are not condemned.” Now Romans 8:1 will show you to your faces what condition you are in: “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.” Who are those who are in Christ and delivered from condemnation? They are those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Shall the matter be decided on this, then? I challenge every soul to put it to the trial, and see whether they dare venture their souls and their eternal state on this scripture. Look to it. It is the word of God, that word of God which must stand forever when you and I have fallen: “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”

Then your eternal state lies on this; your soul lies on it. Are you a man or woman who walks after the flesh? That is, whatever pleasure the flesh desires, whatever lusts of the flesh delight you, does your heart walk after them, and do you live accordingly? Is it your great care, the care of your life, to make provision for the flesh? And when you have made provision for the flesh, do you give your spirit liberty to satisfy itself in the lusts of the flesh? Then you are the man or woman who is not yet in Jesus Christ, and therefore you are certainly under condemnation. And is this a time to rest? Is there rest for a soul in this condition?

All of you, then, whose consciences tell you that up to now you have walked after the flesh and not after the Spirit, not after the truths you find in the word: perhaps you can go to the word and say, “What the minister says is true, if we could do what he says,” and meanwhile you cast off the thoughts of those truths that agree with the word, and cast off what God speaks in his word. Yet what he speaks in his word should be as real to you as if he spoke it from heaven. Therefore you are out of Christ. And I speak all these things in the name of God, so that I might the more effectively draw men’s hearts to come to Christ for rest.

For I do not mean to leave you like this, telling you that you have no rest out of Christ; I intend to tell you how you may have rest in Christ. Only first I would convince you that out of Christ there is no rest for the soul. And if you have had rest all this while out of Christ, it has been a cursed, a vile, a wretched rest. It has been no other than the rest of a man who is condemned to die. No, let me tell you, all who are out of Christ are condemned to die not a temporal death but an eternal one.

But you will say, “They have rest enough; it does not trouble them.” I answer: what rest? It is just as if a condemned man goes to bed, falls asleep, and dreams that he is at home in his house with his wife and children around him, at home with his friends, at his work, at his meals. And oh, poor man, how he rejoices that he is at home and has his wife and children, and that all is safe and well! This man pleases himself in his dream all this while, and at length, poor man, he wakes, and he sees that he is in the prison. He sees the shackles about his heels and the guard at the door, and for all he knows, he may die the next day.

Certainly this sets out the condition of natural men in the world as vividly as anything can. They are all condemned, but they are in a dream, and they think they are out of all danger, that all will be safe, that no misery shall befall them. Oh, but when the Lord comes to wake them out of this dream, they will see themselves in prison, under the sentence of condemnation, and then they will wonder that they have been so quiet all this while.

Sixth, yes, let me say further: if you are out of Christ, you are not only under the sentence of condemnation, but for all you know, at any moment you may be plunged into the gulf of the wrath of the infinite God. It is true, God has spared you a long time. God has continued your life in his patience, perhaps twenty, forty, fifty years. Well, but how do you know that what never happened in all your life may not happen in one night, or day, or moment? Though you have been spared a long time, you do not know but that before morning you may be among the damned in hell. And is this a condition to rest in?

Think of a man or woman in such a condition that, when he comes to examine himself, he must ask: “How do things stand between God and my soul? How do I stand with God? What relation do I have to God? Or what relation does God have to me? How do I know that I may not be swallowed up in the gulf of the eternal wrath of the infinite God, and lie under it forever? What do I know to the contrary? And if this proves to be my portion, it would have been ten thousand times better if I had never been born.” And is this a condition to rest in? Certainly, if God has revealed any truth in his word, these are the truths of God.

The condition of one out of Christ is like that of a man who has suffered shipwreck. Perhaps he gets hold of one of the boards broken off from the ship and is floating up and down the sea on it, and yet he is in such danger that with every wave that comes he is in danger of drowning. Do you think it is possible for anyone to sleep there? It is true, you are not drowned yet, but you see yourselves in danger of being swallowed up by every wave that comes, and sunk to the bottom. It may be that this has been the case with some of you, that you have suffered shipwreck and have been rescued in a boat. I believe that when you were there you could hardly sleep quietly. If you had nestled down in your boat and said, “Well, here I will take my rest,” would not everyone have thought you a madman?

It is just like this, for all the world, with men in their natural state. They take up their rest, while they do not know but that some dreadful wave of the wrath of God will come at any moment and swallow them up, and so they are undone forever. Certainly, if this is so, “there is no peace to the wicked, saith my God” (Isa 57:21).

Many other particulars might be set forth to open the condition of all who are out of Jesus Christ, to show that no rest can come to them, and all to make Jesus Christ precious to you, so that you might seek the happy condition that is to be had in Christ. Oh, that something that has been spoken might be settled on your hearts, so that you might go with that poor wretched sinner you read of in the Acts of the Apostles and say, “Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), and might say also, “The Lord has shown me my restless condition. I see that the rest I have had has been a restless condition.”

And oh, that it might make you just inquire after Christ, just put your souls into an inquiring condition after Jesus Christ, so that you may listen to what will be delivered to you about the blessed rest that Christ promises here in this invitation, when he says, “Come unto me, you that are laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). Do not be afraid to apply to yourselves the things that have been delivered, since they are spoken from such a text as sufficiently holds out to you the true rest that is in Christ; for this promise of rest is made to those who labor and are heavy laden.

Now if these truths of God that have been delivered to you lie like a load on your spirits, if you go away with your hearts burdened by them, do not be discouraged. You who are burdened with such truths as these, come to Christ, and he will deliver you from this burden, and in this you shall have a quiet that will remain everlastingly. All the quiet you can have by putting off these truths that have been delivered cannot last long. There is a storm coming that will test every man’s and woman’s quiet, of what kind it is: whether true quiet or false, whether true rest or false. Therefore do not cast off what has been delivered, but apply it to your souls, so that you may be the better prepared to hear more of the blessed rest that Christ here promises you.

But I shall now go a little further in this comparison I have been speaking of. The Holy Spirit has another one like it in Proverbs 23:34. There he compares wicked men who are complacent to a man who sleeps on the top of a mast. He is speaking there of drunkards and of the man who goes after harlots, but it is true also of all unconverted people, though the Holy Spirit gives only those two as examples. The words are these: “Yea, thou shalt be as he that lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.” So here you have both comparisons. You have the first one I spoke of, as if a man had nothing but a plank in the middle of the sea, and he lies down and looks for rest there; or the other, a man on the top of a mast, who lies down and sleeps there. This is the restless condition of ungodly men. I will briefly name a few reasons and then go on. Certainly there is no rest for those who are outside Christ.

1. For such a person is under the curse. He is under the curse of the law, and the curse of God, under the curse of the law of God. Whatever befalls him in this world, whatever affliction, is a part of the curse; and for all he knows, every sorrow is only the beginning of eternal sorrow to him. There is the venom of the wrath of God in every affliction that comes to every unconverted man. He is in danger of having all temporal curses carried out upon him, and there is nothing but the patience of God to keep him from all this. What rest, then, can he have? The saints of God have God’s covenant and God’s promise; other people have nothing but God’s patience to keep them. Many times a criminal in prison is not executed. Why? Because the judge may, out of favor, reprieve him for a while. Yes, but is this a condition to rest in? A wise man is never at rest with a reprieve; he will have his pardon before he can rest. No one in their natural state has any ground for their rest and quiet except a mere reprieve. But the saints see what a sad thing this is, and therefore nothing will give them rest until they have their pardon.

2. There is no rest outside Christ, because all creatures are their enemies. You sleep in the middle of an army of enemies. To sleep in the middle of an army of enemies would be a strange thing; yet all ungodly men have no other rest than this, a rest in the midst of the armies of their enemies. For all the armies in the world, and all the creatures in the world, are their deadly enemies.

3. Yes, all the ways of God’s providence are against you. Your prosperity works toward your misery, toward your ruin (Prov 1:32). And so whatever turn of providence comes, though you may rejoice greatly in it, it still works toward your ruin.

4. Nothing you can do can be accepted. All your services, all your performances outside Christ are cast off. All your prayers until you come to Christ, until God reveals the mysteries of the gospel to you, all your duties, prayers, and exercises of religion, are rejected. And yet you must perform them on pain of damnation, and still they are not accepted. What a restless condition this is! Think of being in such a condition: “I am bound to pray, to hear the word, and to perform duties on pain of damnation, and yet all my prayers and duties are thrown back in my face like dung.” This is the condition of all those who are in their natural state. I say this so that you may all see what infinite need you have of Christ. Much might be said of the sinful condition of all who are outside Christ. For we must understand that in sin there is a jarring against God, against the infinite, glorious God. There is nothing but confusion, nothing but disorder in sin, and therefore a sinful condition can be no condition to rest in.

5. In whatever affliction anyone outside Christ may be, he has nowhere to go for comfort, for there can be no support or comfort for a soul outside Christ. He is like a man in the middle of a wilderness who has nothing to shelter him, no hedge, no bush; however dreadfully the storm comes, he has nowhere to go for protection. He is like a sailor at sea who has lost his anchor: when a storm comes he is driven toward the shore, and he has no anchor to hold him fast. This, and much more, might be said to show the restless condition of all people outside Christ.

Oh, then, what blindness, what complacency, what hardness of heart there is in almost all the world, if this is the truth of God! And indeed this is the condition of all who are outside Christ. We may conclude from this that most people in the world live, and die, and perish in blindness and in woeful, desperate hardness of heart. For where, almost, is the man or woman who is convinced of this restless condition, convinced that they ever were in this restless condition? This much I dare affirm concerning every one of you: you were once in such a condition as I have now described. How you have gotten out of it, you must look to; and what evidence you have on which you can rest your souls for your deliverance out of this condition, you must examine. But every one is in this condition by nature. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were in this condition once. Therefore every one must look to it now, while this rest is being opened to you.

And here, indeed, is the reason for the turmoil of spirit that is in most people. What is the reason people hurry up and down seeking after the things of this world? Why are they in such a restless condition? Their souls have no union with God in Jesus Christ, and therefore they are hurried up and down in this world to seek comfort this way and that way. But the truth is, as with the unclean spirit in the Gospel, they seek rest but find none. As I told you before, the dove sought up and down for rest, but she found none until she came to the ark. And so the reason for the disturbance in the spirits of men and women is this: they are not acquainted with the true rest that there is in Christ. But let this pass.

Only one thing more on this point before we come to the next, and that is to show the insufficiency of all things in the world to give rest to the soul until we come to Christ. All people outside Christ are in a restless condition: there is an insufficiency in all things in the world to give rest until we come to Christ.

And for this I shall give two or three reasons.

1. The rest of an immortal soul must necessarily lie in its relation to God. Now all the dealings between God and us are in the hand of Christ alone. No creature is entrusted with transacting anything between God and us for any good except through Christ. If, then, all our rest must lie in our relation to God, and all the dealings between God and us must be in the hand of Christ the Mediator, then certainly there is an insufficiency in all things in the world to give rest to our souls.

2. There is an insufficiency in all things in the world to give rest to the soul because the misery we are in is so deep, and the happiness our souls are capable of is so high, that it is impossible for any creature to reach the one or the other, either to deliver us from the one or to raise us up to the other. Only Jesus Christ, in whom we have rest, can do it. For there never was anything that came to such a depth of humiliation and also has such a height of glory (put both together). Christ has subjected himself to the lowest degree of humiliation that any creature could ever subject itself to, and Christ is in the highest degree of glory that it is possible for any creature to be in, above all creatures. His subjection to sorrow and trouble was such as no creature can submit to, and his glory is higher than any creature is capable of. Therefore he, and only he, is able to deliver from the depth of misery in which the children of men lie, and to raise them to the true happiness and glory that their natures are capable of.

3. There is an insufficiency in all creatures to give rest to the soul because all the creatures here in this world that we have to do with, except the angels in heaven, are under the curse. And the angels are only ministering spirits to attend on Christ and to be sent on Christ’s errands; they do nothing except in relation to Christ. Now all other creatures are under the curse, and since they are under the curse through man’s sin, it is impossible that creatures under the curse should give rest to our souls. I do not know any argument in the world of greater strength to draw people’s hearts away from resting in creature comforts than this: to understand clearly that all creatures here in this world are under the curse through our sins. The whole world, which is under the curse because of our sins, cannot make us happy; and therefore there is an insufficiency in all things in the world to give rest to our souls. Only consider, then, what things in particular most people rest in, and we shall see the vanity of people in seeking rest outside Christ.

First, there are some so vile that the chief rest and comfort of their souls lies in the pleasure of sin, in the delight they take in satisfying their sinful lusts. That is the comfort and rest of their souls. If they are troubled at home, if their wife, children, or servants so much as trouble them, what do they do to ease themselves? They go out among company, and there they drink, and gamble, and swear, and perhaps are unclean. And others, when they are crossed, how do they ease themselves? By venting their passion. And the truth is, it is a most holy truth that I am speaking of. Oh, that it should ever enter into the heart of a creature to make it the greatest quiet, ease, and rest of his soul to satisfy himself in sinning against the blessed God! And yet I appeal to you: do not your consciences tell some of you that this is your condition? And do you not know men whose greatest comfort, ease, quiet, and rest of heart in this world lies in satisfying their sinful lusts? How far this is from seeking rest in Christ, in the Son of God, in the great Mediator of the covenant! Yet this is the condition of most people. Take away the satisfaction their souls find in their sinful lusts, and they have nothing to quiet their hearts with; but when they are there, now they are safe, now they are quiet.

Only consider this one thing that I am now speaking of: to have rest and quiet in any way of sin is no different from a man with a burning fever who calls for a pot of water, gets it to his mouth, and drinks it up to the last drop. Now, in the very time he is pouring it down his throat, he has some rest, some ease; he finds some relief from the fit of the fever while he is drinking down the pot of water. But do you think this will be rest to him? Only wait a quarter of an hour, or perhaps an hour or two, and then you will find him in his scalding, burning fit. Then he burns ten times more than he did before, and it is likely to cost him his life. But he feels trouble and disquiet, and the water gives him ease, and so he drinks it down, and this endangers his life afterward.

So it is with men who seek ease and rest for their souls in any way of sin. As for your pleasure in your sinful ways: take all the pleasure of your life from your youth to the day of your death and put it all together, and yet, compared with eternity, it is just like the ease a poor man in a fever has while the water is going down his throat. All your pleasure is no more than that, and you are likely to be scalding and burning in God’s wrath to all eternity for that one draught of yours, for the ease and rest you had in the way of sin. I am sure that when Christ had the burden of our sins upon him, he found it no rest, and therefore it cannot be ease to your spirit.

Second, there are others who are not so vile; they rest not in the act of sin but in the creature. If they can have good trade and quick voyages, and have what their neighbors have, then they are ready to say, like the rich man in the Gospel, “Soul, take thine ease, eat and drink, for thou hast goods laid up for many years” (Luke 12:19). And this is the rest most people in the world seek after. They think that if they could have what such-and-such people have, then they would have rest enough. But know this: it is a sign that you do not understand or savor the things of God if you think that all the creatures in the world would give you rest. Yes, if God should give you possession of all the creatures in heaven and earth, and you should think they would give you rest, I say you do not savor the things of God at all. But as for those who understand what God is, yes, those who have but one spark of true saving grace, that spark of grace so enlarges the soul that all the creatures in heaven and earth cannot give it rest, cannot give it quiet; it still has a higher good to seek after than all the creatures in all the world.

There is a notable text of Scripture in the book of Job: “He stretcheth forth the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). Will you seek your rest in that which hangs on nothing? The whole earth has nothing to rest on, and therefore nothing in the earth can be rest to your soul. As it is said in Micah 2:10, so I may say of creatures: “Arise ye and depart, for here is not your rest.” The whole world is like a wheel in continual motion. And so James 3:6 speaks of the course of nature, or the wheel of nature: the whole world is like a wheel running up and down, and therefore there can be no rest in enjoying the creature.

Well, but there are some who would still gladly have rest there. Some of you have gotten good estates; you have had good voyages, and God has prospered you in your younger days. Having gotten great estates, now you want rest. That is, you want to live idly and uselessly, to stay at home and let everything go whichever way it will. You think it is good to be quiet in your old age. Now that God has delivered you from many dangers at sea, you think the only way is to live quietly at home and meddle with nothing, and this is the rest of your souls. This is the rest many men have after their younger days are past: then to live and do nothing. This is their rest now. Oh, that God would only speak to the hearts of these men!

1. Only consider this: by living so idly and unprofitably you come to have all your abilities and your spirits corrupt. Just as standing water, like the water in a pond, corrupts and putrefies by standing, so men who live uselessly and are not active for God and for the public good, according to the opportunities God puts into their hands, find that their hearts putrefy and grow corrupt. A corruption comes upon all their abilities: the beauty, the excellence, the quickness, the liveliness of their abilities is taken away, and they begin to putrefy more and more, because they are not employed for God. Whatever we have that we do not employ for God, and are not active with for God, putrefies. And however much many men think it a great happiness that they have estates and may live and do nothing, there is no greater misery to a gracious heart than to be useless for God, and to have God lay them aside as useless and not use them in his service. It is the greatest affliction in the world to a godly heart. If God took away their estates, it would not be so great an affliction as to be laid aside and do nothing for God.

Therefore let no man think that because he has gotten a great estate he may lie still and do nothing. Oh, what will this man do when he is called to account for all his time, for all his opportunity, for all his estate? Certainly it will not be enough that he can say he did no harm. No, you should have been active for God. God is active for you in saving your soul. All the attributes of God are working for you, and all the workings of his providence are working for you, if you are saved. Therefore it is a wretched condition for men to think of no higher rest than mere freedom from outward trouble. And if there is anyone whose conscience tells them, “This is the truth; this is my condition; God speaks to my heart this day; this is the rest I have sought after,” know that you are not acquainted with the ways of God. For certainly the rest of an immortal soul is a high thing. Jesus Christ came into the world from the bosom of his Father and laid down his life to purchase rest for the soul. And do you think Christ did this only to purchase this much: that you might be freed from some outward trouble in this world, and that we might sit in the chimney corner and do nothing? Oh, there is another rest for the children of God than this!

Objection. But some go further. Some will say, “We trust in the mercy of God for rest for our souls.”

Answer. Now as for that, though this is better than all the others, yet a man or woman may be mistaken in it. You trust in God’s mercy for rest for your soul; but what has God revealed to your soul concerning the Mediator of the covenant? This may seem difficult to some, and it is this: all the mercy of God in heaven cannot suffice for the rest of any soul except through a Mediator, in Christ. The soul must be brought to this mercy by the hand of Christ the Mediator. You must first come to Christ the Mediator before you can have any rest, even in the mercy of God itself. You must know, and if you know anything of the mystery of the gospel you must know this, that though God is an infinite current of mercy, yet all the current of God’s mercy is stopped by man’s sin, so that it can be opened only by the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore you must know God in Christ, and you must know how you come to God in and through Christ, before you can rest on the mercy of God. This is what undoes many souls. Those of the better sort think to rely on God’s mercy and to rest in that, and they think it is a sure rest for their souls. But they little understand how all the current of God’s mercy is stopped, and that there is no coming to it except by the hand of a Mediator between God and man.

Others will say they do many good things. They do many good actions, they serve God, and they rest in this. They do not commit the gross sins of the world, and they perform duties: they pray in their families and in their closets, and this is what they rest in. But the rest of an immortal soul must have a better foundation than this, better than all their duties, than all their sorrows for their sins, than all that God himself works in them. It must be something outside them that is rest to their souls. Nothing wrought in us, no, not the grace of God in us, can be rest to our souls. It must be the perfect righteousness of a Mediator that can be rest to our souls; though it is ours by faith wrought in us, yet nothing in us can be that rest. So you may be mistaken, and perform duties in a formal manner. But suppose you performed them in a gracious manner; still you must not rest in them. You must go higher than all the best duties you ever performed. Woe to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob if they had no other rest than what their duties brought them! You must look higher for your rest than whatever you are, or can be enabled to do.

You will say, “What can be higher than what we are enabled by God to do?” There is a righteousness in Jesus Christ by which you must come. There is an insufficiency in all the creatures in the world to give rest, and yet the truth is, the greater part of the world makes all its rest in these things. Much might be said about the danger of this, and much about the signs of when our souls have true rest in Christ. But we will meet with that in the other point, when we handle the rest we have in Christ. I will therefore pass over this matter of the insufficiency of rest in all other things, with only this one thing more.

Know this: the heart that is touched with Jesus Christ, as iron is with the lodestone, can never be quiet, whether in creature comforts, or in the hope of mercy, or in any duty or performance. It can never be quiet until it gets union with Jesus Christ. It is just as with a needle touched with a lodestone: shake it whichever way you will, it will never be at rest until it comes to the north, and when it gets to the north, there it stands. So it is with a heart touched with Jesus Christ. There is the touch of the Spirit of Jesus Christ upon the heart of a believer, and when the heart is but touched with Jesus Christ, it shakes, it is full of fears and doubts. Offer it this creature comfort and that creature comfort, and it will not do; the heart is not at rest. But now, when Christ is manifested to the soul, let such people come to a sermon where some blessed promise of the gospel is opened to them and Jesus Christ is presented to them, and they find this to be the rest of their souls. Their hearts immediately come and close with this, and they are able to lay the weight of their eternity on the promise of the gospel, on the free grace of God in Christ. They are able to lay the weight of their eternal estate here. However much others think the promise of the gospel is only a notion, yet here they are able to lay the weight of their eternal estate, and they can say with Simeon, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2:29-30). “Here I see rest for my soul,” they say. “My heart was full of terrors, fears, and doubts, and I sought rest and ease in this and that creature comfort, and could not find it. But now Christ is made known to me, and here is the rest of my soul.”

It is true, godly people may be troubled for a while, but it is like the trouble of the shaking of a needle in the compass. Other men are troubled too. There are some people troubled in conscience for their sins: they come to a sermon and hear the evil of sin opened, and God meets with their particular sin, some secret sin they live in. They are troubled, and they shake too. Yes, but they are like a false needle, not rightly touched, that shakes as the other does but will stand at any point. Just put it this way or that way, and it will stand here or there. Would sailors give anything for such a needle, one that would stand at this point and at that point? So it is with wicked men when they are troubled: the devil, the world, and their corruptions come and quiet their consciences outside of Christ. And so, indeed, this hinders them from coming to Jesus Christ, because they find quiet somewhere else.

The saints are troubled, but their trouble and shaking in the world is like the trouble of a ship lying at anchor in the haven near the shore. Though the waves toss a ship at anchor up and down, yet it is tossed up and down at anchor. So here, exactly, is the difference between all the troubles of the saints and the trouble of ungodly men. Now when you have a ship at sea with no anchor, and the storm drives it any way, when a mighty tempest comes and hurries it up and down, and you do not know but that you may strike a rock and be split, you are troubled. But the saints are at anchor; and you count yourselves at rest, though you are tossed by the waves, when you are at anchor.

Now we are only beginning the great point of all: what the rest of the soul in Christ is. In this I shall take the method I followed in opening the burdens of sinners who were heavy laden. I spoke of five loads that were upon the sinners whom Christ calls to him, that they might come to him for rest. Now, answering to those five, we shall speak of the rest that is to be had in Christ.

The first load was the sense of the guilt of sin. That was the first load upon the sinners whom Christ calls to come to him so that they might have rest.

Now, concerning the rest the soul has by Christ in being delivered from the woeful trouble of conscience over the guilt of sin, I shall not show here what those troubles are, for that was done in the former point, about those who were weary and heavy laden. But perhaps there are some who find their souls laden under the burden of the guilt of their sins, and who see nothing but the wrath of God following and pursuing them. If you were to speak to them and say, “Christian, what do you see?” they would answer, “Oh, I see an angry God above, and I see a guilty conscience within me. All around me I see nothing but the wrath of God ready to seize upon me, and underneath me I see nothing but the bottomless gulf ready to receive me.” Now to such as these Christ says, “Come to me, and I will give you ease and rest from all these fears, from all these troubles. I will give you ease from all those throes of your conscience, from all those grievous achings of your soul.” Come to me.

Now, what ease is there for a believer, to be freed from the throbbing of conscience and the trouble of heart that arises from the guilt of sin? This will be the first thing; this will be ease to every believer who comes to Christ, if he considers it.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ takes all the sins of those who come to him, and is willing to stand charged with them before the Lord. He is willing to have them all set down on his account and laid to his charge. And therefore the Scripture tells us that Christ was made sin: “He hath made him to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21). On this ground Luther makes bold to say that Christ was the greatest sinner in the world. He does not mean that Christ had any sin that he committed himself, but that he had all the sins of all believers upon him. There is a transfer of all the sins of those who come to Christ onto Jesus Christ, and this happens immediately upon your coming to Christ. I say, at the first instant of your coming to Christ, all your sins are transferred to Christ, and he stands charged with them before God.

It is as with a poor woman who is deep in debt and afraid of the officers waiting to arrest her. She is a widow, and she marries a rich man. Oh, what ease she has! Why? Because now all her debt is charged upon her husband. Yet this might cause trouble too, if he did not know about it beforehand. But suppose she tells him beforehand, and he says, “Well, this shall not hinder the match. I am content to pay it all.” Even so, there is trouble still until the wedding day. But when that day comes, oh, what ease this is to her! Now all the debt is charged upon her husband, and she knows her husband is able to pay and discharge it all. So Christ says, “I know all your fears and sorrows and all your guilt, and whatever my Father has to charge upon you. I know it all, and that is not what keeps me from being willing to be matched with you. No, the truth is, that is what makes me willing, and that is what makes me call you: Come to me, come to me. And the first moment you come to me, there shall be a discharge of everything. You shall not stand charged; I will stand charged with it all.” Here now is ease and rest. Here is a far different kind of ease and rest than eating and drinking and enjoying the pleasures and contentment this world affords.

2. More than that, Christ is rest from the guilt of sin by actual satisfaction. The Lord Christ satisfies the justice of his Father, and this is applied to every believer at the first moment he comes to Christ. A full satisfaction is made, so that a believer has now made satisfaction. When we come to Christ, our sins are not pardoned as if God had received no satisfaction. Though the Lord pardons us, and it is free grace to us, yet nonetheless our surety gives satisfaction. The Lord Christ offers up his blood and merit to his Father as a full satisfaction for all our debts, for all our sins. The truth is, he has paid it already, and upon your coming to him it is counted as yours. For Jesus Christ has satisfied the justice of God the Father, which your soul so greatly fears. What do you fear on account of your sins? “Oh, my sins make me liable to the justice of God.” Christ says, “I have given satisfaction to the justice of my Father to the very full, and it was for your sins in particular.” Oh, the rest and ease that come to the soul from this, when the soul can see that all its sins are done away! If we only had strong faith upon our first coming to Jesus Christ, we might actually see all our sins charged upon Jesus Christ.

3. Upon this, the wrath of God has now been appeased and satisfied. Before, the Lord looked upon you with an angry face. But now, upon your coming to Jesus Christ, the Lord embraces your soul, welcomes you, and looks upon you as a friend, as a child. And this eases the soul of the trouble it has from the guilt of sin.

4. Besides all this (Christ taking our sins upon himself, and satisfying divine justice and divine wrath), Jesus Christ is continually at the right hand of the Father to be your advocate. If the devil or anyone else accuses you of anything you have done in the past, or even if you fear that some of your sins might rise up in the presence of God to accuse you, Jesus Christ stands at the right hand of his Father to be your advocate. What is the office of an advocate but this: if any accusation is brought against a man, the advocate stands up to answer the accusation? Jesus Christ stands at the right hand of his Father to do just this. “My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). It is a comfort to have one standing at the right hand of the Father to plead for you, to be your advocate. Christ is as real an advocate at the right hand of God for all believers as anyone ever had an advocate in this world.

I often find this in Scripture. If you read the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, you will find that the Holy Spirit speaks there of a rest of God, the rest of the saints of God, God’s people. And mark what the first encouragement is that he gives, and what ground he lays for the rest they have. In two or three places he speaks of the rest of God’s people, and now the foundation of it is this: “For we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all things tempted like as we are, yet without sin, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:15-16). We have a high priest; that is the ground of the rest of the saints of God.

5. “Come to me,” says Christ, “and I will give you rest from all the trouble you have from the guilt of sin, in this way: I will sprinkle your consciences with my blood, so that you will be able to give an answer to every temptation that can come to you. Not only will I stand before my Father, but you shall have your consciences sprinkled with my blood, so that you will be able to give an answer to whatever accusation Satan makes to disturb your rest and disquiet your souls.”

“Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22). “Having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience”: “Before you came to me, you had an evil conscience that was ready to fly in your face, and that frightened you, vexed you, and troubled you.” I appeal to you who understand what God is, and what it is for the creature to have to do with God: has not your conscience kept you from sleeping at night? An evil conscience has lain grating within you. You have lain on your bed and could not sleep while your wife was asleep beside you. Now to such as these this is said: “Let us draw near.” Upon this ground (here is the ground), “Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” That is, the blood of Christ now comes to be sprinkled upon our souls and consciences, and that is what takes away the worm of our conscience. Perhaps other things may trouble conscience for a while, but now the blood of Christ can wash you from that. Now, when you come to Christ, the conscience comes to be able to answer whatever is laid to its charge.

Perhaps, with those who are believers and have come to Christ, the devil will be ready to object and labor to disturb them. Usually, after they first come to Christ, there is as great a disturbance in the heart of a sinner as there was before. But mark the text you have in 1 Peter 3:21: “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Through Christ’s resurrection a believer comes to have a good conscience, having been sprinkled by his blood before. And through this resurrection he is able to answer the conscience; that is, whatever accusation the devil lays against the soul, the soul that is sprinkled with the blood of Christ is able to answer it. And this is the comfort such people have: we find our conscience satisfied in the blood of Jesus Christ. Perhaps at your first coming you do not feel it, but at your first coming you begin to be able to do it.

6. The rest that is to be had against the trouble of the guilt of sin is this: upon the soul’s first coming to Christ, it is made as perfectly just before God as ever Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, as all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs were. You come off as clear from the guilt of your sin as ever Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did. It is true that at your first coming to Christ you do not have your sanctification made perfect. But this I dare affirm: at your first coming to Jesus Christ you have your justification made as perfect as ever the justification of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was. And what a mighty ease and rest this is! “What! I, a vile creature, so defiled, I who have had such dread upon my spirit, now to be able to see myself stand as clear before the throne of God as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did, and as the apostles and prophets did! Oh, this is a comfort!” We ought to labor to become equal with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in sanctification, as we are equal with them in justification. This is the ease that the soul finds that comes to Christ.

7. The rest that is to be had in Christ in the matter of justification, in freedom from the trouble that arises from the guilt of sin, is this: Christ undertakes not only for what you have done, but for whatever you will commit all your life. Oh, I wish none but believers could hear me say so! But this is a certain truth.

You will say, “Though by coming to him I might stand justified before my Father, yet I am a poor creature. I shall sin again and again, and bring guilt upon my conscience.”

Yet come to Christ. Here is free grace in Christ. And know that Christ lays up pardon for you against whatever guilt you may again bring upon your soul. “There is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared, with thee there is forgiveness” (Ps 130:4). Christ makes provision for the guilt of sin that you will afterward bring upon your soul, so that you shall never be condemned. Perhaps you will deserve condemnation a hundred times, over and over again, but Christ will take care that you shall never enter into condemnation. You shall never be in the state of condemnation. Oh, the rest there is here!

8. When the soul comes to Christ, there is no return of any guilt. Christ undertakes for those who come to him, and he undertakes for what is past and for what is to come. Yet it may be with you as it is with a malefactor: though perhaps he has his pardon and is received into favor, he may still think there could be some change again. But now the guilt that was upon you shall never return upon you again. Though a man has a pardon, if he does not conduct himself well, his former guilt returns again. But when once the soul is pardoned, the former guilt never returns again. The Lord will blot out all their sins and remember them no more. When you cast something out of your ship into the bottom of the sea, you never look for it again. So it is with God: all your sins shall be cast into the bottom of the sea, and shall be so far from you that the guilt of them shall never come to you again, once you have come to Christ.

9. There is not only deliverance from guilt. Our justification is not only a taking away; it is a clothing of the soul with the righteousness of Christ. We have a perfect righteousness, the righteousness of the great Mediator of the new covenant. Here is a righteousness by which I am not only pardoned; I have a perfect righteousness to stand before the great God with.

10. Last of all, the rest we have in Christ is this: upon our coming to him, we are sure that the great work of the day of judgment shall be the solemn celebration of our absolution, the solemn proclamation of your pardon. One of the great works God intends to do at the great day of judgment is certainly this: to have your pardon solemnized before men and angels. You have your pardon now, but the great work of God on that day shall be the solemn declaration of the absolution and pardon of the saints. Then their sins shall be put away anew, as the Scripture speaks; in the time of refreshing, then your sins shall be done away. They are done away before, but then they shall be done away before men and angels. You shall not fear that at the day of judgment God will come and reproach you with your sins.

All the while you went about under the guilt of sin, what was more terrible to your soul than the thought of the day of judgment? “Oh, how can I stand before the holy God at the great day and have all these sins charged upon me?” No, “Come to me,” says Christ, “and you shall never need to fear that great day of judgment any more. For the great work of that day shall be to have your pardon solemnized.” So you need not fear the day of judgment any longer, but may long for that day. And if the great day of judgment is not terrible, yet the particular day of judgment may be terrible. The Lord has a particular day of judgment for every soul, in which God disposes of every man one way or the other; but then there shall be a great day of judgment in which all the world shall be solemnly judged.

Now then, lay all these together. Christ undertakes; Christ satisfies the justice of his Father; Christ satisfies the wrath of his Father; Christ is an advocate at the right hand of his Father; Christ sprinkles your conscience with his own blood. You stand as perfect in the matter of justification as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the guilt of your sins shall never return again. And Christ undertakes for you that you shall not come into condemnation. And you have a perfect righteousness: besides your freedom from death, Christ clothes you with his righteousness, and so God the Father looks upon you. And Christ assures you that the great work of the day of judgment shall be to solemnize your pardon.

Thus Christ says, “Come to me, all you who lie under the sense of the guilt of your sins. Come to me, and you shall have rest. Here I make all this good to you.” And all this rest is found in your coming to Jesus Christ. All the rest in the world is worth nothing compared with this. Oh, therefore let us be willing to endure any trouble. It is no great matter what trouble we endure in this world, so long as we may come to Christ. And this is only one branch; this is only the easing of the soul from the first burden. And yet God will make even this good to the soul of a believer. If God gives you a heart to make all these things real to your soul, you may depart in peace and go away and bless God, and even say with the psalmist in Psalm 116:7, “And now my soul return unto thy rest.” In the original the word is “rests”: “and now my soul return unto thy rests.” Oh, here are rests, ten distinct rests for a laden soul that is under the guilt of sin!

Do not take it hard that we who are ministers of the gospel speak to you about the restless condition you are in because of sin. Be willing for us to trouble you in your sinful way, since we have so much rest to bring you to. Do not think the minister troubles you; do not complain of the word that troubles men’s consciences. I appeal to you: if there is anything in God’s word to trouble men’s souls, is there not as much again in God’s word to ease men’s souls and give rest to them? Now this is God’s rest, which is purchased by the blood of Christ. Our desire is that you might not cry “Peace, peace” to your souls when there is no peace. And now that you hear only the beginning of the excellency there is for the soul in Christ, you should even upon this cry to God, “Lord, oh that I might share in this rest!” and still desire to hear more and more of this blessed rest that is to be had in Jesus Christ. And this is enough concerning the rest that is to be had in Jesus Christ from the burden of the guilt of sin.

The next burden that lay on the laden sinners whom Christ calls to himself was the burden of the law. To you who are under the burden of the law, Christ says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” When I opened the former point, the load of sinners, I showed in many particulars what the burden of the law consisted in. But now I come to show how Christ delivers sinners from the burden of the law, for he certainly does: we are redeemed from the law by Christ. This is a great point, and a right understanding of it will help us exceedingly in understanding many truths of religion. Therefore, first, I will show you how far Christ has not delivered us from the law, that is, where it is burdensome and where it is not. Where it is not burdensome, Christ has not delivered us from it, but only from the law so far as it is a burden.

Now you will say, “In what respect may the law be said to be a burden?” Certainly, in those respects in which the law is good and not burdensome to the saints, Christ cannot be said to give us rest from it. The law certainly is good, as the apostle says in Romans 7. Even at the time when his soul was mightily troubled with his corruption, so that he cried out, “Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin?” as we read near the end of the chapter (Rom 7:24), yet in the same chapter he professes that “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom 7:12). Now then, what is holy, just, and good, Christ certainly never came to deliver us from or to redeem us from. It can never be said to be a burden to those who are holy. What is holy, just, and good cannot be a burden to those who are holy, so far as it is holy, just, and good.

First, then, we are to know that the law (I am speaking of the moral law now, not the ceremonial law, but the moral law, for the apostle spoke of that here in this place) is indeed the very mirror of God’s holiness. I say, it is a mirror of the holiness of God. In the moral law we may see the luster and the glory of the holiness of God himself. Therefore we are not to be delivered from it as it is the mirror of God’s holiness, in which we may see the purity of God’s nature. The law of God shows God to be a holy God, different from all the heathen, who do not have a holy and righteous law such as our God has.

Second, the law is an extract of the very image in which God made man at the first: an extract of God’s image, a copy, as it were, of the image of God. What was the image in which God made man at the first but the impression of his law on their hearts, the very writing of the law of God in their hearts? That is what we call the moral law. In that consisted the very image of God in man’s soul at his first creation, when he was in his innocence. Therefore we cannot be said to be delivered from the law as it is a copy and extract of God’s image in the heart of man. It is renewed by Christ rather than abolished by Christ.

Third, the law is a mirror in which we are to see our own faces, in which we are to see how far we have declined from the image in which we were first made. So far Christ has not delivered us from it either, for he would have us still look into the law as into a mirror, to see how far we have come short of what God required of us, and of what God enabled us to do. That is a third consideration of the law.

Fourth, the law is a revelation of the will of God. It reveals the holy and righteous will of God toward his creature, and in that consideration we are not delivered from it either. We are to look into it to see what the will of God is concerning us.

Lastly, and this follows from the former, the law is still an authoritative rule for our conduct, to order our conduct. The Scripture is as clear on this as on any one truth in the book of God. Indeed, it is a point that, were it not for a strange kind of wantonness that has possessed the spirits of some, it would never be needful to spend a quarter of an hour, or even a minute, on. Consider that place in James 2, from verse 8 on: “If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well” (Jas 2:8). You do well in that. Now that commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, is the sum of the second table of the Ten Commandments, and it is called the royal law, the law of the great King. “But if you have respect to persons you commit sin”; that is, you offend against this law, and “are convinced of the law as transgressors” (Jas 2:9). The law convicts you as transgressors. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point is guilty of all. For he that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not kill” (Jas 2:10-11). Now where are these commandments but in the Ten Commandments? Do not commit adultery; do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are a transgressor of the law, of those Ten Commandments.

It is true, as we shall hear afterward, that they come to us in another way than they formerly came to the Jews. But still it is apparent, notwithstanding anything revealed in the gospel, that this abides as an everlasting rule. There may be a great deal of grace now mixed with every commandment that comes to us, and so the manner of bringing it to us may be a great deal sweeter and more comforting than it formerly was. Yet those who do not submit to its rules in their conduct are transgressors of the law, and are to be convicted of sin even by the law. And indeed, what is John’s very definition of sin but this: sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4)?

So then, in these five respects (as the law is the mirror of God’s holiness, as it is the very copy and extract of the image of God in which God made man at the first, as it is the mirror into which we are to look to see our deformity, as it is the revelation of the will of God, and as it is the authoritative rule for our conduct), Christ does not deliver us from it. It stands in force in all these five respects. And there are no believers, no gracious, godly souls, who account the law a burden in these respects. Rather, they bless God for the law, and they account it their inheritance and the joy of their souls. They bless God that they ever knew it; their hearts lie under its power, and they are willing to order their lives by it.

Question. But then what are we delivered from in the law by Christ?

First, from its rigor. Christ delivers us from the load of its rigor, from this rigor: that it requires perfect obedience. So far we are delivered from the rigor of the law. And yet this may be said to be rigorous in regard of our weakness, for we once had power; but now the Lord takes off the rigor in regard of our weakness. The law is also rigorous in regard of the violent and rigorous way it takes to force men on to obedience, and we shall hear how we are delivered from that.

Second, believers are delivered from the bondage of the law.

Question. You will say, “How is the law a bondage to those who are godly, since it is the law of God?”

Answer. It is a bondage, not in itself, but in regard of our inability. For, considering the estate we are now in, it requires of us such things as we cannot do, and that is a bondage: to have more laid on us than we are able to do, as the Israelites had by their taskmasters. Yet God is still righteous in this, because it is no more than God at first enabled us to do in our first creation. But in regard of the estate we are now in, it is a bondage, in that it lays on us what we cannot do, and that on pain of eternal death too.

Third, we are delivered from the binding-over power of the law (if I may put it so), the power of binding the soul over to the justice of God upon every breach of the law. Believers are delivered in Christ from this binding-over power, the power of binding them over to answer to God’s justice for the breach of the law. A man who is bound over to the assizes and sessions to answer thinks himself much at ease and at quiet afterward, when he comes to get his bond discharged, when the bond by which he was bound to answer is discharged. So Christ comes and discharges the bond by which believers were bound to answer to God’s justice for all their sins.

Fourth, they are delivered from the condemning power of the law, so that the law now has no power to bring a believer who sins through frailty to condemnation. This is clear from Scripture, as I might show from several texts as we go along. “You are not under the law” (Rom 6:14), says the apostle, and “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ” (Rom 8:1).

Lastly, we are delivered from the law as the covenant for life. At first the law was given as the covenant that God made with mankind for life. For God deals with the rational creature according to its nature, and because it is capable of a covenant with God, God deals with it by way of a covenant. As soon as man was made, the Lord entered into a covenant with mankind, and that covenant was nothing other than the law: Do and live. That was the covenant God entered into with mankind, and he made our first parent, Adam, the head of that covenant. Do and live: upon your doing, says God, your life shall depend, your present life and your eternal life. Now we are delivered from the law by Christ in this sense: once believers are in Christ, it no longer remains to them as the covenant of life, but they are brought under another covenant, a better covenant.

So in these five respects we may be said to be delivered from the law by Christ: from its rigor, from its bondage, from the binding-over power that is in it, from its condemning power, and from it as the covenant of life. Now here is enough, one would think, to quiet the soul in its deliverance from the law, if only the spirits of men were not so very wild and wanton.

Now then, from all these things we will lay down several propositions, in which you may see what ease and rest believers have in Christ by being delivered from the law in this way. O believer, you who are under the load of the law and have come to Christ, take the ease that comes by Christ from this, in these several particulars.

First, know that you do not stand or fall for your eternal estate by the law. That is the first ease and rest. The law may indeed threaten you, and dreadful things may be revealed against you by it, but be of good comfort in this: your eternal estate will not be decided by it. The law is full of severity, but you are free from it to this extent: whereas before you depended and relied on it for your eternal condition, now you are out of its power, out of its reach, so far that it has nothing to do with you to decide the case of your soul for your eternal estate.

We would not want to be at the disposal of any man we regard as full of severity and rigor in matters of great consequence. In such cases we would rather be at the disposal of men who are full of pity and compassion. Know, O believer, you who are in Christ, that you are not at the disposal of the law, which is full of severity, for your everlasting condition. You are at the disposal of the gospel, of the covenant of grace, which is filled as full of mercy and compassion as an infinite wisdom could devise. It has such a fullness of compassion as all the wisdom of the angels in heaven and of men on earth could never possibly have devised or thought of; it is beyond their imagination.

Now suppose you were at the disposal of a man in matters of the greatest concern, a man who had as much mercy in him as any man ever had in this world; yes, as much mercy as there is in all the men in the world. If all the mercy in all the men in the world were put into one, into the heart of one man, and you were to be at his disposal in a matter of the greatest concern, you would think yourselves well off. Before, you lay at the mercy of a man who was very rigorous and full of severity; now you come to lie at the mercy of a man who has all the tender mercies and compassions of all the men in the world. Would you not think this a good change? This is the change, and the rest, that you have when you come to Christ. Your soul, your eternal estate, lay at the disposal of the law, which is full of rigor and severity; now your eternal estate depends on a covenant that is as full of grace and mercy as your soul could desire. Your soul cannot desire a covenant fuller of grace and mercy than the covenant your everlasting estate depends on and must be decided by. And is this not rest for a believer, if he understands it rightly? That is the first thing in which the rest a believer has by Christ consists, as he is freed from the law.

Second, now the one who is the Lawgiver is your Redeemer. You now come to receive the law from the hand of a Mediator. Here indeed is the principal ease and rest of a gracious heart, to the mind of a saint, a believer: that now he comes to receive the law from the hand of a Mediator. Many speak of deliverance from the law as it came by Moses. But if we understand things rightly, we have no such reason to think it necessary to be delivered from the law as it came by Moses in one sense, namely this: Moses was a type of Christ as Mediator. For so he is called a mediator in Galatians 3:19: “It was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” God made use of the ministry of the angels in delivering the law, and he gave it in the hand of a mediator. He did not give it to the people directly, for they were not able to bear it, but in the hand of Moses, because Moses was to bring the law from God to them. It was not given to them directly, but in his hand, as in the hand of a mediator.

Now Moses is called a mediator here as a type of Christ. As he was a type of Christ in various respects, so he was in this one. He typified Christ in this particular: that the law comes to believers not merely from God as a righteous and just God, as their Judge, but in the hand of Christ as their Mediator. And there is a great deal of comfort in receiving the law this way, from the hand of Christ, who is their Mediator and (as I showed before) their advocate, for so he is called in Scripture. They now receive the law by the hand of the one who is at the right hand of the Father to be their advocate, to plead for them when through infirmity they break the law. This is a mighty rest to the soul. Therefore believers are to look on the law as coming from God, but coming from God in the hand of a Mediator. They are to look on their Mediator as indeed their Lawgiver: not only handing the law to them as Moses did, but, in truth, the Lawgiver himself. Christ the Mediator hands the law to them; yes, he is their Lawgiver, and he receives the law for them. Now this must be a great ease, a great rest to the soul, if it understands this rightly.

Third, in Christ your condition now is such that though there are ever so many imperfections, ever so many weaknesses, yes, strong corruptions, yet if there is but the least spiritual good, the least work of God’s grace in you, the Lord has a special eye to that little good in you. All your corruptions, all your imperfections, will not hinder the acceptance of the little spark of good in your soul. This is our freedom by Christ. For in opening the law I showed that whatever good a man does while he is under the law, let it be what it will, unless it is perfect, it is all rejected. All who are in their natural condition and under the first covenant, whatever they do, if any imperfection is mingled with it, it is not accepted at all. But here is the rest that believers have: the case is altered with them. Now, though much corruption remains in them, if the Lord sees but one spark of grace, however weak, though it is only like the smoking flax or the bruised reed, they are accepted by God, having only the least spark of any good at all in them.

This is a mighty ease to the souls of those who labor under the bondage of the law. Before, seeing so much corruption in their hearts, they had little hope that anything in them would be accepted. Now the Lord has regard for anything that is good, however small. Yes, and he will find it out too. Perhaps your grace is so small that it is buried in the heap of corruption, so that you are not able to find it. The condition of some Christians is like that of a maid who goes to the hearth in the morning and rakes up and down in the ashes to see if she can find some spark of fire. She finds none and is ready to think there is none there; yet perhaps some spark lies in a corner, though she does not find it.

So it is here. Corruption in the heart is like the ashes, and grace is like a spark lying in a corner. When poor souls go to examine their hearts, they see a great deal of ashes, a great deal of corruption, and are ready to conclude, “The fire is out; there is no spark here.” Yes, but though you cannot find a spark there, yet being in Christ, God will find it when you cannot find it yourself, if there is any lying in any corner. And we hope there are some sparks in many, though there is so much corruption in the hearts of many godly people that we wonder where their grace lies: so much passion, peevishness, and the like. Well, if these people were indeed under the covenant of works, under the law, the corruption that appears in them would cause everything to be cast off. Whatever might lie secretly in their hearts, God would cast it off. But now, if they are under the covenant of grace and the Lord has brought them to Christ, this is the rest and ease for their souls: all the corruption in them will not hinder the acceptance of the least spark of the grace of God that the Lord has worked in them.

Fourth, as the Lord will find out every spark of good in them, so even their desires and endeavors after the will of God will be accepted as the deed, though they are not able to attain what they would. The previous point was this: suppose you do not do the will of God; yet if there is any habit, any disposition, any principle of grace, though nothing is done, though they cannot perceive any beginning of it, yet that will be accepted. But this goes further. Let them only strive to do God’s will, let them labor after perfection, and the Lord accepts the will for the deed. Hence in Scripture those who are godly are called perfect: “As many as are perfect” (Phil 3:15), and, “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48).

Question. You will say, “Can we be perfect in this world?”

Answer. No. But this is the grace of God in the gospel: for those who come to Christ, the Lord accepts the will for the deed. Here is blessed ease and rest for the soul in Christ. If you were under the law, this could not be. Men say they do desire and endeavor, and that they hope God will accept their desires and endeavors. It is true: if you have come to Christ, Christ will accept you. But know this: it is the privilege of a believer; it is not the privilege of everyone. There is a generation of men who are under the law whose desires will not be accepted, as I showed in opening the burden of the law. “But the man that doth these things shall live by them” (Rom 10:5): so runs the tenor of the law. But here is ease for your soul. If you understand how the law runs, your heart cannot help sinking within you. But this is what gives ease to the soul: “I have now come under another condition, being in Christ.” Christ gives rest and ease to the souls of those who come to him, so that their desires and endeavors will be accepted by God as performances. Now this is a blessed estate.

Fifth, the rest of the soul in Christ, as it relates to deliverance from the burden of the law, consists in this: all the duties God now requires at your hand are required in a sweet and gentle way. The services God requires of you are required in a gentle and loving way. God indeed comes and requires the same things the law requires of you. Yes, but he comes to draw your soul with the cords of love. “We beseech you,” says the apostle, “by the mercies of God, that you give up yourselves a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1). “We beseech you by the mercies of God.”

Now the bondslaves who are under the law do not have duties required of them by such cords and bonds of love. With them it is this: if you do these things you shall live; if not, you shall die. Do and live; sin and die. This is how the law requires duties at the hands of you who are under its bondage. But now the duties of believers in Christ are required by the mercies of God. “We as ambassadors beseech,” says the apostle (2 Cor 5:20), and, “If there be any love, any consolation” (Phil 2:1). Such arguments as these are used with them. If we preached only to believers, these kinds of arguments alone would be necessary. And it becomes those who are drawn by the gospel to be drawn by such arguments.

It is also a good sign that your souls are drawn by the power of the gospel and have come to Christ if you find the Lord drawing your hearts that way. Formerly you were put to duties of obedience in a rigorous way, merely by the terror of your consciences, your consciences flashing hellfire in your faces if you did not perform them. It is a good sign if now, in those same duties, you find the grace of God in the gospel drawing your hearts more powerfully. It is true that you should give God obedience every way, on any terms. But now, when you find that God draws your souls this way, it is a sign that you have come to have rest in Christ.

We read in the history of the ceremonial law of a type of the things I am now speaking of: the book of the law was laid under the mercy seat. You will find in the story that the book of the law was laid under the mercy seat, between the cherubim; under the mercy seat the book of the law was laid. That was the place God appointed for it, to show that this is just how the law of God now comes upon the hearts of believers: it comes upon them, as it were, under the mercy seat. In the mercy seat believers look on the book of the law lying at the mercy seat. That is, every commandment comes to them in a gracious, alluring way, together with abundance of mercy, to draw their hearts to obey it.

Sixth, coming to Christ, you have rest from the law in this: the grace of God in Christ greatly melts the heart, and when it has melted the heart so as to milk out its flagons, then this melting of heart is exceedingly accepted by God and is very precious in his eyes. Now this comes from the grace of God that we have in Christ, and it is a mighty rest of soul to know it. As I told you before, it is not enough for any of you to say, “It is true, we are all sinners, but God knows I mourn for my sins; I am troubled for my sins.” That is not enough for you, friend. But are you one who is delivered from your natural condition, from being under the covenant of works? Are you one who has come to Christ and been brought to Christ? Are you in the state of believers, being a member of Christ? Then your repentance and mourning are accepted.

It is as in many cases between one man and another. Some men stand in such a capacity that if they do a certain thing, it is accepted; but if another man who is not in the same capacity does the same thing, he will not be accepted. So it is here with those who are in this capacity in Christ, and who have the sorrows of Christ presented to the Father together with their sorrows for their sins. When you are sorrowing for your sins, can you by faith present the sorrows of Jesus Christ to the Father? Then you are accepted. But know this: no sorrow for sin is accepted except what is joined with the presenting of Christ’s sorrows to the Father. Now what an ease this is to the soul! The heart now has a means to melt it. For before, the heart was hardened, and its sorrow for sin was such that the heart remained hard. Such sorrow is no better than this. It is as with marble stones: marble is hard, yet in wet weather it will sweat and be very moist, but it is still as hard as it was; it is a stone still. So it is with many who are troubled for their sins, when it is only the trouble that comes from the law. They are troubled, yet much hardness remains in their hearts, much peevishness and perversity against God and against men.

You will find in many people who have trouble of conscience that there is still much peevishness and perversity in them, against God and against man. Now when you see this in people’s hearts, showing itself in their words, ways, and conduct, remember the stones you see on the pavement in wet weather. They sweat, and perhaps water trickles down them, and yet they remain hard still.

But when the gospel comes, it does not only cause some sorrow; the heart melts, and this is accepted as very precious before God. That is the reason we have so many expressions in Scripture of God’s high esteem of broken hearts and contrite spirits, and of how God looks at them. He who dwells on high still looks to him who is of a humble and contrite spirit and who trembles at his word (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:2). And let me speak this one word for the ease of those who are troubled and have come to Christ. The tears that come from your melted heart, through the grace of the gospel, are of all things the most precious in the eyes of God, next to the blood of Christ. Next to the drops of Christ’s blood, your mourning, lamenting spirit is one of the most precious things in God’s eyes. God treasures up every one of those tears. And this is the rest of the soul: the soul may therefore have abundant rest in Christ when you come to know that your mourning for your offenses is accepted by God.

Seventh, the ease the soul has from the burden of the law is this. Before, through the severity of the law, sin made your soul an object of God’s wrath. Take sin as it was in itself and as it came from you, with God having no regard to you in Christ, and sin made your soul an object of God’s wrath, yes, and of his hatred too. For so the Scripture tells us plainly, that the Lord hates the workers of iniquity (Ps 5:5). But now that you have come to Christ according to this invitation, “Come to me ye that are laden,” your sins, being looked upon in Christ, rather make you an object of God’s pity and compassion. This is not from any virtue in them, nor from anything in their own nature, but in regard of your condition.

Think of it this way. Let a tender mother look upon her child who is sick or wounded. It is true, the mother cannot love the disease or love the wound; she would not have the sickness or the wound upon the child. But does not the sickness or wound upon the child make the child an object of pity and compassion? Does it not make the heart of a tender father and mother yearn all the more toward the child? So here: the Lord now looks upon your sin, since you are in Christ, as your sickness and your wound, and therefore he pities you as one under your affliction rather than under your sin.

For the truth is, all who are the saints of God and have come to Christ look upon their own sins as their affliction, the greatest affliction they have in the world, as I showed when I spoke of the load and burden of corruption that remains in their hearts. God therefore looks upon your sin as your affliction. As for anything else in it besides its being your affliction, such as its being a breach of the law and the like, Christ undertakes for that. So you are delivered from the wrath it deserves, and from the evil effects that should come of it through the avenging justice of God; Christ has undertaken it. Yet it remains your affliction. Though you are delivered from guilt and condemnation, one who has a gracious heart reasons this way: “Though I am delivered from my sin, from its guilt, and from the condemning power the law has through my sin, yet it is my affliction and my trouble, and so I look upon it.” Now peace and rest be to that soul from whatever the law can require.

So as we go along, we may see not only the benefit we have by Christ, but also who those are who are thus delivered. They are those who, though they know they are delivered from the burden of sin, still account their sins the afflictions of their souls. Others, who are merely legal, see their souls as guilty and under condemnation; if they were delivered from that, they would look upon their sins as their wounds and afflictions.

The saints see that they are now made the objects of God’s pity and compassion. And this is why Christ is willing, if possible, to find many excuses that may be made for his poor servants. You will not need to find any excuse yourself: if there is anything that may lighten and lessen your sin, Christ will find it out and lessen it for you. You know what Christ said to his disciples when they were sleeping and could not watch one hour. Though he rebuked them, yet he said that though the flesh is weak, the spirit is willing (Matt 26:40-41). Notice how Christ excuses them. When Christ comes and says, “Cannot you watch with me one hour?” they do not say, “Alas, it is true, Master; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” They do not say this; Christ says it to them. And the truth is, this is the way: to leave their excuse to Christ. Their way is to magnify their sins as much as they can. This is the temper of those who have come to Christ: their care is not to lessen their sins, but to do what they can to magnify them and lay them upon their hearts for the humbling of their souls; and Christ undertakes to excuse them.

And therefore you who have so many excuses for your sin, just as your grandfather Adam had (he put it off onto the woman, and the woman onto the serpent, one onto another), so you say, “It is true, my nature is passionate; I am peevish by nature,” and a hundred such excuses men have. All your care should be to humble your soul for your sins; and if there is anything to lighten your sin and lessen it, Christ will do that. The more you excuse yourself, the greater your sin will be, and it is better for you that another should excuse it than you yourself. When a child or a servant offends, and a close friend or neighbor comes and excuses them, this is a great deal better than if they did it themselves. Now those who are under the law have no one to make excuses for them, but those who have come to Christ have Christ to make all the excuses for them.

Oh, take heed of abusing the rich grace of God in Christ! This I know: it is so pure a thing that it has no such malignant quality in it as to be abused. Where you see any such quality, know that those people do not have it aright; they have something else instead of the real thing. Sometimes you will see two things as like each other as can be. Suppose two drinks made with some kind of mixture. They look just like one another, but one has venom in it, enough to kill a person, and the other is wholesome and able to restore a person; yet both have the same color and the same taste. So it is with the free grace of God in Christ. You may have the same word spoken, and the same thing expressed, to one and to another. The very same thing may be preached as to its outside, as to the words and expression in a sermon, the same doctrine drawn out in the same expression; and yet they may be so carried that one has a malignancy in it and the other a sovereign, healing power. Now when the soul has the true rest in Christ, that rest has no such malignant power as to make the heart worse by it. But of that I shall speak more afterward.

Eighth, when you have come to Christ, your soul may have rest in him, for in Christ there is an undertaking by a surety. Through the grace of the gospel in him it is revealed to you that there is an undertaking by a surety, and this is a deliverance from the law. The law requires perfect obedience at our hands in our own persons; the law requires the soul to pay the debt in its own person: the soul that sins shall die (Ezek 18:4). Now the grace of the gospel comes and tells you of a surety, and such a surety as God himself professes he is well pleased to accept. He is as contented with him as he would be to have the debt paid by the creature, by the debtor himself. And this is a great ease.

Would it not be a great ease to any of you? Suppose a creditor comes upon you for a debt, lays hold on you or puts you in prison, and afterward the debt is paid by another and laid upon him, and the creditor accepts him. The creditor says, “Well, will this man be your surety and pay the debt? If so, then I am satisfied; I am contented.” What ease this is to the debtor! So it is with the soul that comes to Christ. It has been laden under the law, and the law comes to the soul for payment of the debt. Now, upon its coming to Christ, God the Father immediately receives Christ as the surety, and so the debt is transferred to him. This is the ease from the law in this respect.

Ninth, besides all this, there is this ease from the law: the sinner in Christ is delivered from all this rigor, bondage, and the other things I spoke of in the law, and yet is delivered from the law by satisfaction to the law. This is further ease to the soul. I am delivered from the law. But how? By satisfaction to the law. There is satisfaction to the law, such satisfaction as the Lawgiver himself accepts, and it is found only in Christ. Not all that I can do could possibly do it. Even if I could imagine that God were so merciful as to accept anything I can do, yet it could not be satisfaction to the law. But now our deliverance from the law comes in a way that is satisfaction to the law; and here is ease, that the soul is freed in such a way that the law is satisfied too.

Tenth, the law required constant obedience. Even if there were obedience to the end, up to the last act, and the last act were sin, all the rest would be forgotten, so that the soul would still perish notwithstanding. And the law could not assure anyone of continuing to the end. The law could never do it; it could not assure any so long as they were under its power. Though they had ability to obey, and went on according to their ability for several years, yet they could never have assurance that they might not fall at last and so perish. Well, but now, coming to Christ, there is not only satisfaction for what is past, but an assurance of holding out to the end: an assurance that this covenant you have now come under in Christ shall never be forfeited. And that is a mighty ease and rest.

The ground and foundation of several of these things was opened before, when I showed how in Christ we are freed from the guilt of our sins. But these are things that flow from it, and presenting them further, showing the consequences of what was said then, may be further rest to the soul. For though I laid down the principle of all these other things then, yet not every poor soul is able to draw out each of these particulars. This is the help of those who are weak: to see the several steps of God’s grace in Christ, not only to see it in the lump but to see how it streams out in its particulars. To have these set before their souls is a mighty help to their faith and comfort.

And this last that I have spoken of is not less than the rest; indeed it is the completing of all the former. The soul that comes to Christ has this rest in Christ: it is brought into a covenant, with assurance that the covenant shall never be forfeited. For it is part of the covenant that God should give grace to the soul, so that it shall never come to forfeit or lose the blessing of the covenant. Believers may for the present lose some of the comfort of the covenant, but to be put from the blessing of the covenant shall never be. It is part of the purchase of Christ’s blood that all who come to him shall never be cast off from him again; it cost the blood of Christ.

And this is a privilege that believers have and that Adam never had. Adam was under a covenant of works, and he was able to keep the covenant. Yes, but Adam never had this promise from God, that he should never forfeit it, that he should never so break the covenant as to be undone. Adam never had that promise. But now all believers who have come to Christ have this engagement upon a sure ground, for it rests upon a dear purchase. Christ has laid down his blood for you, for this thing as well as for anything else, that your soul may come into an everlasting covenant never to be forfeited.

And now, if all these particulars are put together and made clear to the soul by the eye of faith, if there is an eye of faith to behold the reality of all these things I have presented to you, I appeal to you: is there not rest for those who come to Christ? Is it not worth a great deal of pains to come to Christ? Is there not that which will recompense all at last? Whatever trouble there is at first, in the work of humiliation and the like, yet when you come to Christ there is that which will recompense all your former trouble. As I said before in concluding the other particular, so I may say of this, as it is in Psalm 116: “And now my soul return unto thy rest.” So may all believers say upon good ground, if these things we have now heard are true: “Then my soul return unto thy rest, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee indeed.”

Oh, therefore, be in love with the gospel. Study it much, look into the depth of it, and prize Jesus Christ, who has purchased such a rest for your soul. And you who are about to come to Christ, be restless in your spirits till you come to have this rest. It would be a lamentable thing if anything in the world should meet you on the way and quiet your hearts, if anything but Christ should quiet your souls. And you who are believers, make good use of this now. It is a special thing to be spoken of in this point: how believers should make use of this, what they should learn by it, and how helpful it will be to them; and also something for the satisfaction of those who fear they are not believers. But we cannot do everything at once. This shall suffice for the present: the mere presenting to your souls of what rest there is in Christ from the load of the burden of the law, from the load that many feel upon their souls through the burden of the law.

To proceed now: there are various things that follow from this, from the rest that we have in Christ from the burden and load of the law. I will speak very briefly of them, and so pass on to what remains, the next burden and the rest from it.

From this follows exceeding help for believers against various temptations that greatly trouble the peace and rest of their souls, if they are delivered from the law in those several respects that have been opened to you at large.

1. First, then, by meditating on this deliverance of theirs, they may have rest and ease from this temptation: that because of some imperfections, weaknesses, and distempers of heart, and sins they are guilty of, they have no interest at all in Christ, no right to believe in Christ because of that. The strength of this temptation cannot stand with a right knowledge of Christ as the one who delivers from the law. If Christ delivers from the law, then an interest in Christ may stand even though we are not able to keep the law. Yes, and further, we know this: it is usual for believers, when they break the law in anything, to call their estates into question, to call everything into question. Certainly, if we knew that we are to deal with God not by the covenant of works, not to be condemned by the law, we would never be so ready to call everything into question upon any breach of the law that our conscience tells us we have been guilty of.

2. Further, this would marvelously help against this temptation as well: that God does not accept what we do, because it is not perfect, because it is not complete. When believers look at the duties they perform and see so many imperfections in them, they dare not offer them up to God. God is an infinite, holy, just God, and they are ashamed of what they have done, so that they dare not offer it up to him. Now a right knowledge of our deliverance from the law would help us against this temptation too. Remember, O believer, that you have to deal with God in a covenant of grace. You have to deal with him in Christ, through a better covenant than the covenant of the law.

3. Further, this would also help against this temptation, which is often in the hearts of the saints. They hear of various people who seemed to have more than they have, who had more ability than they have had, and who were able to do more for God than they have done, and yet for all this have fallen away, and so, it may be, have perished forever. “Now,” says many a poor Christian, “if such eminent men, of such excellent abilities, who were able to do such great things, if they who go this far fall away, what will become of such a poor creature as I am?”

Now by understanding the deliverance we have from the law by Christ, we come to have help against this temptation. For let a man have ever such abilities, and be able to do ever so much work, yet this man may fall away; while one who is a thousand times weaker in abilities, but who has the least dram of true faith, which brings him into the covenant of grace, will stand. Such a one will stand when the other falls. If indeed your standing depended on what strength you have in yourself, then you would have cause to fear: seeing that such as did stand fell away, what will become of you? But we must know that we are to deal with God in the way of the covenant of grace. Our standing or falling does not depend on anything in ourselves, but on Christ, who has undertaken for all those who are his members.

You have to deal with God in the covenant of grace, and once you are brought into the covenant, it will uphold you though you are weak. Meanwhile thousands of others, who have a great deal of natural ability and the common gifts of God’s Spirit, may vanish, because they are not brought under this covenant. Yes, if they had the strength of an angel, yet if they were not brought under this covenant of grace made with believers in Christ, they would fall and come to nothing. But the weakest believer, who deals with God through Christ and not through the law, will stand and not fall. Now being delivered from the law in Christ will mightily help believers against these temptations and various others. I know nothing that helps believers more than this, their being delivered from the law, in the sense that has been shown before.

Likewise there are a great many lessons to be learned from this, as follows.

Lesson 1: How to Hear the Law’s Threats

From this deliverance we are taught how to receive the threats of the law when we hear them. I speak to believers. Though others may make an ill use of hearing about deliverance from the law, yet believers must not miss their portion. I say, believers are taught by this how to receive the threats of the law. You hear dreadful threats of the law against sin out of God’s word. Now how should you receive these threats? The way is this. When you hear such threats, know that by them God would have you consider what his mercy is in delivering you from what you have deserved. God would have you consider what the evil of sin is in itself, and consider what Christ has done. God would have you driven to Christ by this means, to see your need of Christ, to bless his name for Christ, and to prize Christ, who has delivered you from these threatenings.

When a believer hears the threats of the law, he is like a man who stands on the shore in a grievous tempest and storm. He sees the waves rise high, he hears the winds blow and the waves roar, but he stands safe in the haven. Indeed, he was in the storm and tempest, but God has brought him to the haven, and there he stands and blesses God. It may be he sees other ships a great way off, ready to be split on the rocks or swallowed up, but he is safe on the shore. So it should be with all believers. When they hear the threatenings of the law, they should receive them by blessing the name of God: “There was a time when my soul was under these as much as anyone’s, but now the Lord has delivered me and brought me under another covenant. He has brought me to his Son, to Christ, and Christ has undertaken to satisfy the law for my soul.”

And so the believer stands on the shore and praises God. This makes him love Christ all the more, prize Christ all the more, and bless the name of God that he ever heard the voice of the gospel sounding in his ears. And therefore it is not tedious and grievous to him to hear the dreadful threatenings of the law. He knows how to make a holy use of them; his heart is drawn nearer to God by them as well as by the promises of the gospel.

It is a bad sign when men and women cannot endure to hear the threatenings of the law, a dangerous sign that they are under those threatenings. If they were not under them, it would not trouble them to hear them; but those who are delivered from them know how to make use of them. Many men and women, when they hear of the terrors of the law, will say, “What does this do but harden us? Hearing the terrors of the law only hardens us the more.” But if you were acquainted with the gospel, you would be softened by hearing the terrors of the law, because you would prize Christ more. And therefore believers must not look on them as things that in no way concern them. Though believers are not under them, to be condemned by them, yet these things concern them closely. And therefore God would have these things revealed even to believers, because of the many gracious uses believers are to make of them.

Lesson 2: Humility Mixed with Confidence

From what has been delivered, both about the burden of the law and about the rest in being delivered from it, this lesson may be learned. Here we may see how believers, in the course of their lives, are to mix humility with confidence. They may learn how to be humble and yet confident, how to rejoice and yet tremble. There is no way to learn the mixture of humility with faith and confidence, and the mixture of joy and trembling, like this one: know the law and the bondage under it, and then the rest that is to be had in Christ. This will teach you to be sensible of your own wretchedness, and of what a condition you are in by nature, and yet how to be confident in the grace of God in Christ. This will teach you how to fear in regard of what you are in yourself, and yet to rejoice in regard of what you are in Jesus Christ, in the rest your soul has gotten in Jesus Christ.

Many people do not know how to mingle these two together. If they are humbled for their sins, then they are dejected in their spirits. They cannot tell how to exercise humiliation for their sins and faith and confidence in God’s grace together. They think humiliation for sin will hinder God’s grace, and therefore they cannot endure to hear of things that tend to beat them down and humble them for their sins. Instead they say they must believe altogether in God’s grace, and that the other will bring them to despair. Certainly, you are not acquainted with the mystery of godliness if you do not understand how these two may stand together: to be deeply humbled for your sins, and yet at the very same instant to have your soul raised up by the mercy of God in Christ, both together.

It is true that vices are opposite to one another, but graces are never opposite to one another. Those who understand the mystery of godliness know how to mingle these two together at one and the same time. You know that Scripture says godliness is a mystery: “Great is the mystery of godliness” (1 Tim 3:16). And indeed godliness consists in the skill a Christian comes to have, to know at the same time how to be humbled and yet to be confident, yet to be believing; and on the other side, how to rejoice and yet to fear. Many cannot rejoice without growing loose and wanton in their joy; and others cannot fear without their hearts growing heavy and dead. But the heart that understands what it is to be under the law by nature, and what rest Christ has brought us in delivering us from the law, can tell how to rejoice in trembling and to believe in humiliation. There is no way to make such a mixture of both like understanding what it is to be under the law by nature, and what the rest is that we have in Christ.

I confess these things will perhaps not come so fully upon the hearts of those who do not in some measure remember what we have said before, both about the burden of the law and about the rest we have in Christ. They will not be able to make so much use of what I am now speaking of. I could wish these things had all come together, but we cannot do everything at once.

Lesson 3: The Way of Salvation Is Above Nature

A further thing to be learned from the deliverance we have in Christ from the law is this: here it plainly appears that the way of life and salvation is above nature; it is supernatural. For what I have opened about the rest we have in Christ from the law teaches you that believers are not to stand or fall for their eternal estates by any work of the law. If they perform any work of the law, this does not bring them to eternal life; if they break the law, this does not cast them down to death. Therefore the way of life and salvation is supernatural.

For nature can teach a man no further than this: that he must serve God, and if he does so, God will bless him and love him; and if he sins against God, God will afflict him and chastise him. Nature can tell of no way for a man to be saved except by serving God and by doing the works of the law. Nature teaches a man nothing else but this, together with the other: that if he does what God forbids, he must expect the wrath of God and to lie under God’s wrath. Beyond this nature cannot go. Now then, to hear of such a thing as this, that my soul will not depend on what I neglect, nor my eternal life depend on what I do, is a high mystery, infinitely above nature.

I do not speak here of what the neglect of God’s will deserves in the way of eternal perishing, yes, even in believers. But now they are under the covenant in Christ; they have rest in Christ, so that their souls will not be condemned one way or the other by what they do or what they leave undone. Even so, if they neglect his will, the Lord may make them know it here while they live in this world.

And if anyone should say upon this, “Then what need do we have to regard what we do?”, if anyone says so, we need go no further with this man than to say to him, “Thou hast no part nor portion in this thing.” You have no part in the deliverance from the law by Christ. Shall we sin because grace abounds? God forbid (Rom 6:1-2)! The Lord forbid that any such thought should enter any of our hearts. Those who are godly have the Spirit of God in them and will not reason in such a way. However, this is certain: in Christ we do not depend for life and death on the works of the law. And therefore the way of the gospel is a high way, a supernatural way, a way beyond what most people imagine. Most people on earth look no higher for a way of salvation than merely the works of the law, and by what you have heard, they will certainly miscarry. You see that the way of salvation is a higher thing than nature.

Lesson 4: More Faithful Under Grace

We may learn from this that if Christ has given rest to believers by delivering them from the rigor and severity of the law, so that now they are not to be condemned by it for their everlasting estates, then they need to be all the more faithful with God, doing all they possibly can to serve the Lord in an evangelical way. You were in such a condition, under such a law, that if you failed in any one point you were condemned forever. But now you are under such a law that God accepts you in Christ. Do you not need to be more faithful and diligent in your endeavors, since you have received so much mercy as to be under such a covenant? The truth is, the other might discourage you, to think, “Let me do what I can, my soul is condemned for my everlasting estate.” But now, if you are brought under the covenant of the gospel, and the Lord Christ has made you know that your rest is in him, how careful you should be to walk with him in all well-pleasing, and to give up the strength of your soul to walk in his ways!

I will appeal to you. Suppose you were in that condition again, where the Lord looked on you with a strict eye and required such absolute obedience that if you failed in anything, nothing you had ever done before would be accepted. Poor soul, if the Lord should say to you, “What if you were delivered from this law and brought under the law of Christ? First, you will not depend for your everlasting estate on the law. And second, whatever you do will be accepted, though with much imperfection,” how you would prize this! You would even covenant with God and say, “O Lord, bring my soul under this covenant, and I hope I will forever endeavor to walk in all well-pleasing before you. This will by no means in the world quench my endeavors and make me more sluggish; it will strengthen my heart all the more.”

Suppose now that someone were in such slavery under the Turks that, let him do what he could, he would be beaten. And a prince comes and ransoms him, and takes him into his own house, and expects no more obedience from him than the obedience of a child. He adopts him as his child; all the obedience he will expect will be a childlike obedience, and he will be his father. Now would it not be a vile and unnatural thing for such a one to be careless about pleasing this prince, who will accept him as a child, when he has delivered him from such slavery and bondage as he was under before? So it was with believers. You were under a dreadful bondage under the law, and you are brought to Christ. He makes you a child of God, and he procures that your obedience, which is filial and childlike, will be accepted. Will you be more negligent now than before? Now you serve God on better terms than ever before, and will you be more sluggish?

Lesson 5: Do Not Judge Your Faith by the Law

From our being delivered from the law we are to learn this: we are not to judge our coming to Christ, nor to judge our faith, by the law. By our coming to Christ we are delivered from the law; therefore, I say, we are not to form any judgment of our coming to Christ, nor to judge our faith, by the rules of the law. Though stating this may perhaps seem a little obscure at first, yet you will find it of marvelous use to help believers on their way. Some believers, very commonly, especially weak ones, judge their coming to Christ, or their faith, by the law. They make the law a rule of their faith, which certainly should not be. For if by faith we are delivered from the law, then it must necessarily follow that the law cannot be a rule of our faith.

You will say, “What is that, to make the law a rule of our faith?”

It is this. Believers think that because their faith is weak and full of doubts, full of imperfections and doubtings, therefore they have none at all. Now what is this but to make faith itself a legal thing? For indeed, if faith were legal, then it could not be accepted where there was any mixture of imperfection. A legal faith could never be accepted with any mixture of doubting or with any imperfection, but an evangelical faith can be accepted. I may perhaps meet with this later on, but for the present it follows more fully and immediately from what has been delivered about our rest from the law. And I want to suggest it now to believers as a marvelous help to them, that they not make their faith legal.

It goes like this. Go to many believers who are full of doubts and fears, and ask why they do not believe. “It is true,” they say, “there is rest to be had in Christ, and much to be had in this. Yes, but this is for believers, and I am afraid I am not a believer.” And why are you afraid you are not a believer? “Because of such and such sins, and because I cannot do as I would.” Now what is this but to make faith legal? Now faith, which delivers us from the law, must of all graces be evangelical. Our mourning for sin is to be looked on as evangelical, and yet some believers look on their mourning for sin as legal. They think God will not accept their mourning. Why? Because they cannot mourn as much as they would.

That is true if you were under the law: then no mourning at all would be accepted, as under the law. But now you must look on it as evangelical, and your obedience as evangelical. It is a bad thing for believers to look on their mourning for sin, and their obedience, and the like, as under the law and not as evangelical. This is a great hindrance to them. But it is a much greater hindrance to look on their faith as legal, in this way: because their faith does not come up as fully as they desire to perfection, yes, to that perfection which the law requires in anything that we offer up to God. For though the law does not mention anything about our believing in Christ, yet this much the law requires: that what we do should be offered up to God, and that what we offer up to God should be offered with perfection. Now believers, looking on what they offer up to God as imperfect, are led by this to make their faith legal.

Lesson 6: Freedom from the Terror of Men

Another lesson that believers are to learn from the rest they have in Christ from the burden of the law is this: if they find any way or means to be delivered from the terrors that come by the law, then certainly they need not be troubled by all the terror that can possibly come from any creature, from any men. If your faith can deliver you from the terror of the law and give rest to your soul, notwithstanding all the terrible things threatened in the law against your sin, then your faith may much more deliver you from the terror of men. For take all the rage and power of all the men in the world and devils in hell; they are not so terrible as the threats of the law. Now if God has put such a grace into your heart that by it you come to know a way to be delivered from the terror of the threatening of the law, and to have rest for your soul from that, then you need not be afraid of all the terrors of wicked men. Only set that grace of yours to work. Exercise it on the same promises that have given you rest from the law, and this will free you from the terrors of wicked men in the world.

Truly, if believers understood the reality of this point, nothing in the world could be terrible to them; they would have rest in their souls in the midst of all the terrors in the world. For they might reason like this: “Through the grace of faith that God has given me, my soul has rest. When I hear the terrors of the law sounding dreadfully in my ears, yet I have that within me which gives me rest from them. And I am sure that all the terrors of all the men in the world and devils in hell cannot be more terrible than the threats of the law.” Therefore, as you have made use of your faith to believe in Christ and get rest from those terrors, in the same way put forth your faith when you hear the terrors of wicked men, to deliver your soul from them. Let there be ever so many rumors in the world, yet you may say, “My soul, return unto thy rest” (Ps 116:7).

Lesson 7: No Rigor Toward Others

Another lesson that believers are to learn from their deliverance from the law, one of marvelous use to them in their life and conduct, is this: certainly it is the most unbecoming thing in the world to see a believer be rigorous toward his brothers and sisters. Christ has delivered you from rigor; will you then be rigorous? Christ has given you rest; will you not do what you can to give your brother rest too? If Christ has delivered you from the great troubles, burdens, and bondage you were under, why should you not endeavor with all your might to deliver your brother from burdens, troubles, and anything that might grieve him? Oh, what an unworthy thing it is that a Christian who has received so much rest from Christ should yet be a troublesome man or woman to his brother or sister!

Christ gives you rest for this very reason, that you may be of a quiet disposition toward others, that you may be compassionate toward others. To see someone who professes to have deliverance from the law and to have rest in Christ being rigorous to those under him, rigorous to his servants, rigorous to his children, is miserable. Remember what rigor Christ has delivered you from, and remember to be quiet-spirited toward your brother.

Hence it follows in the next words after my text: “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt 11:29). In other words, Christ will give rest to your souls so that you may be of a meek and quiet disposition toward your brothers and sisters. But more of that when we come to those words that follow; we will then speak of the meekness and quietness of spirit that should be in Christians.

Now these things are the necessary consequences that follow from the rest we have in Christ from the law. Many other things might be raised, but because they are only consequences of what has been delivered, I resolved not to enlarge on them.

Now to make some entrance into the next thing, which is closely related to the last: the rest that is in Christ from the trouble of spirit that many have in regard of legal performances. You know I opened at large the great burden that lies on the spirits of many people who have convinced consciences. Their consciences pull and drag them to duty, and they dare not but perform it; yet when they do their duty, their very duties are a burden to them, for they do them in a legal way.

I know there are many who are acquainted with this. It is impossible to speak on such a subject without there being various people who know what I mean, though others do not: to be under so much power of conscience that they dare not omit a duty, even though the duty is burdensome to them. There are many who are not under so much command of conscience. Though conscience requires them to do such a duty, they dare to omit it, and they are not troubled about it. But there are others who have not felt the grace of the gospel to set their souls at liberty. They are under so much command of conscience that they dare not but do what conscience requires; and yet the Lord knows, the duties they have performed have been grievous burdens to them. They have gone under the command of their consciences as under a grievous burden.

Now to these Christ speaks: “Come to me, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). In believing in Christ, in the exercise of faith in Christ, there is deliverance from this burden. Many poor souls have gone on under this burden for many years; but when the Lord opened the grace of Christ to them, their hearts were set at liberty. They have been as conscientious in performing duty as before, but now their duty has become the joy and delight of their souls. They have gone to their duties with rejoicing, and made the commandments of God their inheritance and the joy of their hearts, and their duties are as sweet to them as the honey and the honeycomb.

Now this is the argument we are on: that in Christ there is rest from this burden. Christ gives believers, those who are his members, ability to perform duties with freedom of spirit. And indeed evangelical duties are duties performed with freedom. That is the difference between legal performances and evangelical ones: the one is done as a burden, and the other is done with freedom of spirit. Now I will show you how Christ gives this freedom. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor 3:17); you know the scripture, I suppose. Now this freedom of spirit in the performance of duty comes by Christ in these ways.

First, when the soul has come to Christ, it has rest because Christ presents God to the soul in a gracious way. Christ takes off from the heart the terror of God that was on it before. The reason duties are performed as a burden by those who are legal is this: they offer them up to God, but they look on God as a terrible judge. They must do what God requires, yes; but when they come into his presence, they come into the presence of a judge, and a very terrible one.

Now when the soul comes to Christ, Christ makes God very amiable and lovely to the soul of a Christian. He presents God the Father as his Father, or her Father. For so Christ says, “I go to my Father and your Father” (John 20:17). This is to look on God not only as a Father, but as our Father, being the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So believers, in the performance of duties, look on God as a Father in a double relation. He is my Father: he has begotten me anew to himself, and so he is my Father. He is my Father: he has adopted me to be his child. But he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ too, and Christ is mine too, so that I have an interest in his fatherhood, if I may speak so, as the Father of Christ: “I go to my Father and your Father.”

So when believers come to offer up any service to God as a duty, they come to God as their Father, and as the Father of their Redeemer too. Now this brings a great deal of ease to the heart of a believer in the performance of duty. There is a great difference between a father calling his child to him and a rigid, severe master or judge calling someone to him. When the child hears that his father is calling him, he runs, and loves to be in his father’s presence. But when someone says to a servant, “Your master is calling you,” he does not know whether he is being called to be beaten with stripes or not.

This is the difference between legal performances and evangelical ones. For those who are in Christ, when Christ calls them to duty, it is this: “You must go into the presence of your Father, and of the Father of your blessed Redeemer; you must go to duty in him.” “Come, go to prayer,” says conscience to one person. Such people cannot help but go, indeed; but when they go to prayer, their heart is struck with fear, terror, and discouragement in prayer. But conscience says to one who is a believer, “Come, you must go to prayer.” And what is that, but “Come, you must go before your Father and enjoy communion with your Father; the Father of your Redeemer is calling you to have communion with him”? And how your heart springs to come into the presence of such a Father! So Christ makes them lovely to his Father, and so delivers them from the burden they are under in legal performances.

Second, in Christ, when believers perform duties, they do not offer them up to God as satisfaction for anything past, but merely as testimonies of their love and thankfulness for what they have received. Now duties are done a great deal more easily this way than the other. It is true, they will gather arguments from their former neglect to stir themselves up to do the more. Yes, but now they are not called to their duties to make God amends and to satisfy for what is past, for that would be a burden.

Those who perform duties in a legal way and are not acquainted with the doctrine of the gospel know no way to satisfy God except by doing so much the more, by how much the more they have neglected him before. “I have neglected God all the time of my youth,” one says, “and now conscience begins to be awakened and tells me I must serve God and perform duties. I had need be more diligent now, so that I may make up and satisfy for what I have neglected before.” Now when we perform duties in this way, they are very burdensome.

Suppose a man has run into debt, and he is set up in a trade. Yes, but whatever he earns must go to pay the debts he has run up before. This must make him go on in great heaviness; he thinks that whatever he gets must go to satisfy what he has run into before. But now take another man who has fallen into arrears, and he has a friend, a kinsman, who comes and pays down all the debts he owed, and gives him a stock to trade with, and says, “Now you are a free man once again. Go on, and whatever you get shall be for yourself.” This man goes on a great deal more lively than the other.

Just so it is between the consciences of those who perform duties in a legal way and the consciences of those who perform duties in an evangelical way. As for one who is legal, conscience tells him of the arrears he has run into with God, and that whatever he can do for time to come is too little to satisfy for what he has neglected before. Now conscience puts him to it: do he must, serve he must, obey he must. Yes, but he does it with no heart at all. “I work, and I obey, and I do,” he says, “but whether this will make up the arrears for what is past, I do not know.”

Now a believer performs obedience, but on other terms. Christ comes and pays down a price, and discharges him of all former arrears, and puts a stock of grace into his heart, and says to him, “Now live, and employ this stock of yours in the service of God. Trade with it; get more comfort and more grace with it; and you shall have the benefit and the good of every holy duty you perform. The good and benefit shall come to your souls.” Now such a soul goes to duties cheerfully, and they are no burden to it at all, because he does not perform them to satisfy any arrears behind. Now he trades for himself, and every day he gets, and gets, and gets for himself. That is another way in which Christ gives rest to the soul in regard of the performance of duties, so that they are not burdensome to the soul as they have been before.

Third, another way of delivering believers from the performance of duties as a burden is this: in the duty such a one performs, Christ goes along with them to the Father, and he himself offers their duties up to God the Father; and so duties come to be easy to the hearts of believers. Those who perform duties in a legal way, by contrast, go alone into God’s presence, without anyone to go with them. And again, when they are there, they must offer up everything they do to God themselves. And the truth is, they can have little heart for this, knowing what God is and how they have offended God and provoked him.

Suppose, for example, a criminal who has wronged the king. He must go into the king’s presence and petition, but he has nobody to go with him and nobody to join with him in presenting his petition; he must go himself. Now he goes with no heart in the world, with no encouragement. Indeed, he must go; there is no other way to save his life; otherwise he must die. But going alone like this, with no one to help him, he goes very heavily. But now suppose another who is to go into the presence of a king, and the king’s dear and only Son takes him by the hand and says, “Come, I will go with you. And what do you have here? A petition? Come, give it to me, and I will present it to my Father, and I will get it granted.” Oh, how merrily and cheerfully he goes into the presence of the king!

Just so it is between a legal performer of duties and an evangelical performer of duties. Those who perform duties in a legal way, and go into the presence of God in a legal way, go alone. They have nobody to go with them to help them, and this must necessarily make them go very heavily. But a believer never needs to go into God’s presence alone. It may be you are at prayer alone in your closets, but you are not in God’s presence alone. Christ takes you by the hand and brings you into the presence of your Father; and those poor petitions and broken prayers you present, Christ takes in his hand and presents to the Father. This the soul may see by faith. And oh, how comfortable this is, when duties are performed in such a manner as this! “I go to a duty, but Christ stands by me; he takes all I have to offer up to the Father, and he offers it up for me.”

Fourth, another way is this: all duties performed by a believer are now performed from the law that is written in his heart. He is made a law to himself. The Spirit of Christ is put into him, so that now he does not perform duty because he must do it, but because it suits the divine nature that is put into him. For so the Scripture says, “We are partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). The very Spirit of Christ is put into a believer, and the law of Christ is written in his heart, so that there is no duty God requires of him but the law of that duty is written in his heart, to do it.

According to his measure, he can say as Christ did, “It is written in my heart to do thy will, O Lord” (Ps 40:8). “Does the Lord require such and such duties to be performed? And does my conscience tell me in the name of God that such duties are to be done? Lord, this is written in my very heart, and therefore, Lord, I come. The Lord would have me do this, and it is nothing other than what is written in my heart to do. Conscience tells me I must do it, and no sooner has my conscience told me than my heart tells me I am ready to do it.”

Now what a rest this is in performing duty, when there is a disposition in the heart of a man or woman to do the duty God requires of them! They are a law to themselves. There is no duty God requires of them but, if there were neither heaven nor hell, they would still do it naturally. It is as natural to them to do the will of God as for a fish to drink in water. It is said of wicked people that they drink in iniquity as the fish does water (Job 15:16). Sin is natural to the wicked, and grace is natural likewise, though not altogether so natural; for in the wicked there is nothing in the heart but what makes sin natural. It is true that when one is a believer, there is something in the heart opposed to good. Yes, but there is a principle in the heart that makes it natural for the soul to drink in the commandments of God, as a fish drinks in water.

And therefore, as soon as believers have any touch of Christ, how readily their hearts come forward to duty! Take Zacchaeus, for instance. You know how Christ came and looked on him; there was a touch of Christ on his heart, and immediately he comes forward. Though before he was a covetous man, and there was covetousness in his heart, and he had gotten much by fraud and trickery, yet at once he says, “Behold the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19:8).

Now what duty is harder than restitution, when a man has gotten much by wrong, to restore it again? As you have often heard, you can have no comfort, and all your sorrows will do no good, until you have made restitution. The ground of it is plain: until you make restitution, you continue in the wrong. You did such a man wrong in his estate at such a time; well, you do him wrong today, and tomorrow, and the next day, until you restore it. I say you continue in your sin until you restore, if you are able to restore. Now you cannot say a man repents of his sin if he continues in his sin, and you continue in your sin. Though God does not require you to go and make yourself known to those you wronged, yet even if your persons are not known to them, the wrong must be made known to them.

Such is the difference between one who is only under the terror of the law and one who has gotten rest in Christ. The difference is like that of a ship. Picture a ship with one part of it stuck in the mud and sands, and the water beating it up and down, ready to burst it in pieces. But now if the tide comes and fetches it off, and it gets into the stream, then you may push it this way and that way with ease by the touch of a little finger, once it is on the water.

So it is with a heart before it comes to Christ, when it has only conviction of conscience. Though it has some illumination, that is like the water that beats the heart up and down, so that it cannot be at quiet but is ready to be burst in pieces. Yes, but it still sticks in the mud, and therefore duties are very hard, and conscience only tires the heart, and beats it, and troubles it. But now when it has come to Christ, it is like the ship afloat on the water. Now at any touch of Christ it is ready to be set to this duty and that duty, and the motion of the soul is now without any danger or trouble; it moves up and down with ease. When the heart has gotten off from itself, and the world, and the creature, it moves in the ways of God with abundant ease.

Set such a one to the hardest duties you will, and he goes on with a great deal of ease, and quiet and rest of spirit. He does not think the commandments of God hard; he does not now look on the commandments of God as hard commandments. One who is legal in performing duty, on the other hand, though he does the duty, looks on the command of God as a hard commandment. You have an excellent scripture for that in 1 John 5:3, speaking of believers: that once they come to Christ, the commandments of God are not grievous to them. “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

But for one who is in Christ, a believer, take any commandment, however grievous and hard to flesh and blood it was before they came to Christ: the commandment of restitution, for example (I will mention that one, though I might mention others, such as to pray in your families, to be constant in prayer morning and evening, and to keep your heart constant in prayer to God): it is perhaps grievous to those who perform duties in a legal way, but once the heart comes to God, the commandment of God is not grievous. I do not say that corruption may not now and then prevail, and then they are burdensome. But when the heart has gotten grace, the commandments of God are not burdensome at all; they are easy to the soul. For so Christ says a few words after my text, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30).

Many people complain of the way of God: “Oh, the way of God is so hard, and duty so strict! To live so exactly, who is able to do this?” I confess that in the way you are in, it is tedious and hard. But if you had the Spirit of Christ and had come to Christ, those duties you now count hard would be easy. You would never have more comfort, more ease and quiet, than when you are performing duty. You will think this a riddle: that the soul should never have more ease, rest, quiet, and comfort than when a man walks more strictly and exactly and keeps to the rule.

Now a carnal heart says, “This is miserable bondage, that ministers call for strictness! What bondage and weariness this is!” as those in Malachi say (Mal 1:13). Now you think this, and why? Because you are only legal all this while. And if you still performed duties in that way, they would be a burden to you. But you are mistaken in this: you think there is no way to keep God’s commandments but in a legal way. Yes, but know this: there is an evangelical way to keep God’s commandments, God’s law, and that makes every duty easy and light to the soul.

You think there is no quiet and contentment of heart like being at liberty, satisfying the flesh, and having your minds fully pleased. But if you were acquainted with the mystery of godliness, you would find that those things that are now so easy, and give you so much quiet and comfort, would be the most troublesome things in the world; and the strictness of God’s ways, which you think so burdensome, you would find to be the most easy and comfortable things in the world. And therefore do not let the devil steal you away from the strictness of God’s ways by this delusion. Certainly he only deludes you. Oh, that you had the Spirit of the Lord Jesus in you, and that you had come to Christ! Then you would find ease in the most strict and difficult duties in the world; you would find your souls at ease in performing them.

Fifth, duties are not burdensome to those who have come to Christ, because in Christ all duties have the promises joined together with them. When duties are performed in an evangelical way, when the soul has come to Christ, it looks on every duty God requires as having some promise annexed to it, to enable the soul to do what God would have it do; and by this it now has rest in performing it. Does God require such and such things of me? Then the soul does not only look on the commandment, but on how a promise goes along with the commandment. How so? I might give instances from various scriptures of how promises go along with the commandments. For now I will give you only one comparison of scriptures. Compare the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy with the thirtieth. In the tenth you will find it like this: “And now O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good” (Deut 10:12-13). Then at verse 16: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut 10:16). Here you see what God requires. They are great things that God requires: that we should fear the Lord, walk in his ways, love him, serve him with all our heart, keep his commandments and statutes, circumcise our hearts, and the like. These are hard duties when they are performed in a legal way.

But now, when the soul is in Christ, see what a promise it finds together with these commandments, in the thirtieth chapter: “The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul that thou mayest live” (Deut 30:6). Here God requires them to circumcise their hearts, so that they might love him and fear him and keep his commandments. But that is the law. If there were no more, it would be a very heavy burden for a poor soul to have this lying upon it: “I must love the Lord with all my heart and with all my might. The Lord knows what distractions I have in my soul and in my heart. God requires me to circumcise my heart, and I am not able to do it.” But now mark how the gospel runs: “And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live” (Deut 30:6). The Lord will do it. The Lord commands me to do it, and yet at the same time the Lord says that he will do it.

I might give instances in a great many other particulars where the Lord first requires what we should do. If we are left there, it is hard indeed. But if we can then find a promise in which God promises that he will do it for us, this will make it easier for us. And indeed this is the difference between the law and the gospel: the law commands us what to do and gives no strength, but the gospel never commands us to do any duty without a promise that engages the Lord to help the soul in performing that duty.

And now, is there not rest for the soul here? The soul looks upon the large extent of the duty that the law of God requires of it: “The law requires me to love the Lord with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my might, and to keep his commandments and statutes, and to circumcise my heart. Lord! What shall I do in this?” But then the soul can look upon Christ and the covenant of grace, and consider that the covenant runs like this: the Lord will circumcise my heart, so that I may love the Lord with all my heart and with all my soul, and so that I may keep his commandments and his statutes. God engages himself to enable me to do the duty just as truly as he requires me to do it. Now here is rest for the soul.

I will conclude this particular with one similitude. It is with this as it is with the body. Physicians observe that alongside every vein where the blood runs, there also runs an artery. Now the artery is the carrier of the spirits in a man’s body, which put liveliness and quickness into the body. Just so, for all the world, it is with the commandments of the law and the promises of the gospel. I compare the commandments of the law to the veins: they are the duties required of you in the whole course of your life. But if you have veins of blood and no arteries, no spirit, you will be dull; though the veins are full of blood, there will be little strength. But now there is the spirit that goes along in the arteries and gives life to the veins. So those who are under the law know many duties that they ought to do, yes, but unless they have the promises of the gospel to go along with them, they have little life, little activity to do the duty.

Therefore, Christians, when you hear of any duty out of God’s word that you ought to perform, consider: “Here is the duty; here is the vein. Yes, but where is the artery? There is a promise in the word that goes along with the duty to enable me to perform it. Now if I take both together, I may go on in the way of godliness with a great deal of ease and quiet, and no duty needs to be troublesome to me.” The lack of knowing this one thing makes the lives of many people very disconsolate, and makes them go on in a dead and dull way in the performance of duty. Instead, they should make use of this one thing. When they are put upon any duty, let them search out in the word the promise by which God enables us to do it, and plead the promise, and say, “Lord, you require the performance of this duty, but you have promised to enable me to do it.” I say, if you would do this, you would find that your duties would not be burdensome to you. Rather, you would say, “Well, I see my soul has rest in Christ in the performance of all those services that before were very grievous and burdensome to me.”

Objection. But you will say, “We have many promises in the gospel to enable us, but the promises are conditional, and I may forfeit the promise by not performing the condition.”

Answer. To that I answer: in the gospel we have absolute promises as well as conditional promises. There are some promises that depend on no condition at all except believing, such as the promise where the Lord says, “I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26). What condition is there? Does God say, “If you first repent and perform such and such duties that I require of you, then I will take away your heart of stone”? No, that is an absolute promise. So likewise is the promise “I will put my fear into your heart, that you shall not depart from me” (Jer 32:40). God does not make this promise with a condition.

You will say, “Why then have not all of them had their stony hearts taken from them, since the promise is absolute?” I answer: it is absolute with respect to any condition going before it. Yet God would have us come to the promise, close with it, and cast our souls upon it. He does not promise to do such and such things on condition, as if he said, “If you will do such and such things first, then I will do this and that for you.” No, he asks only this: cast your soul upon the promise and depend upon it.

And when your soul is at a loss with regard to conditional promises, when your heart misgives you and tells you that you have not performed the condition of such and such promises, and that therefore they do not belong to you, and you cannot for the present have comfort in the conditional promises, then make use of absolute promises. Cast your soul upon them, and they will bring in the conditional promises. And know this: all conditional promises in the gospel depend upon absolute promises. As you may go to absolute promises when you cannot make use of conditional ones, so when you make use of absolute promises, you will be enabled to do what is required of you in conditional promises. And here is the difference between the law and the gospel: the law requires, and does not give strength to enable us to do what it requires; but the gospel requires, and gives strength to perform what it requires.

Sixth, there is rest for those who come to Christ in this: when they perform duties in Christ, they do not perform them so that they might have life or pardon, that is, to get life by them or to obtain pardon by their duties. Rather, they now perform them as the fruit of their life and as a fruit of their pardon, and this gives a great deal of rest and ease to the heart in the performance of duties. There are many poor troubled souls whose consciences pull them on to duty. But why do they perform it? Because conscience accuses them for their sins, and they know how much they need God’s mercy. They stand guilty before God, and therefore they perform duties so that they might get a pardon. They know they were made for eternity, and therefore they make conscience of duties so that they might get eternal life by them, as I showed when I opened the burden that there was in legal performances.

But now when the soul comes to Christ, it has rest in this. For the very first thing done in Christ is that all your sins are discharged, the pardon is granted, and you are put into a state that is safe for your eternal life; all the hazard of eternal life is now over. So then, what is required of you is only the fruit of the pardon of your sin, and a fruit of the safe condition you are put into for your eternal life. And there is a great deal of difference between performing duties so that I might have pardon and get eternal life by them, and performing duties as a fruit of my pardon and as a fruit of the assurance of my well-being for all eternity.

For instance, take a man who is in danger of his life and stands before the judge. There is no way of pardon for him except that he has his book given to him; as you know, that is the way to have the benefit of clergy, as we call it. Now he knows that if he reads, he will have his life. But his life hangs upon it. The judge is strict and sets someone beside him so that the court’s clergyman will not prompt him, and he will have him read it out himself. His life hangs upon it. I suppose you have heard of some who were able scholars, well able to read at other times, who yet at such a time could not read one word for all the world. But suppose this man now has his pardon, and then you set him to read. Now he can read with delight; he has freedom enough to read, and his eyes, which were bound before, are loosed. Suppose he had to read a psalm of mercy before he had his pardon, and when he had his pardon he was given a psalm of thankfulness for his life to read. He could read that with delight.

Just so it is with those who perform duties in a legal way. They stand before God as their judge and look upon what they perform as the thing their souls depend upon: “If I do not do such and such things that are commanded me, my soul hangs upon it.” Alas, this cramps the heart and puts it into a condition of fear. But when the soul has come to Christ, and the Lord has granted it pardon and quieted it by the blood of his Son, now God says, “Read. Perform duties, and let all the duties you perform be by way of blessing my name and praising me for giving you your lives.” And indeed, this is the principal ground of all that God requires of those who have come to Christ: merely that you should go out before the Lord by way of thankfulness for pardoning your sins and accepting you in his Son.

So likewise, suppose a man were among his enemies and were set to do some work or business, and set to it in such a way that if he does not do it, he is a dead man; they will have his life if he does not do it. Alas, he goes about it with a great deal of dread and fear. But now suppose this man should come home to his father’s house, and his father sets him to a work, but in such a way that even if he did not do the work, he would not lose his life. He would go about it with a great deal more freedom of spirit. Thus it is with believers when they come to Christ. They come to their Father’s house, and their Father sets them to works, but in such a way that he will not lay their lives upon it. Their souls do not hang upon their duties; your eternal estate does not hang upon duties. As you have heard before concerning being freed from the law, so now make use of it with regard to deliverance from legal performances: though the Lord will be strict to mark what is done in every duty, he will not be strict to take advantage of you.

It is true, it is said that the Lord did not spare his own Son, but he will spare you. In Malachi: “The Lord will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Mal 3:17). And so in Romans it is said that God did not spare his own Son (Rom 8:32), and yet in Malachi that he will spare you as a man spares his only son who serves him. What can be the meaning of this? That God would not spare his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but would spare you? This is the reason: he did not spare him so that he might spare you. Here is the reason why God will spare you so in the performance of your duties: because he would not spare his Son. He was so exact with him so that he might not be so exact with you.

Indeed, when Christ came to perform duties, the life of all the world lay upon it; if Christ had failed in one thing, the life of all the world lay upon it. Yet they lay upon him in such a way that they were not grievous to him, because he was most able to perform it. But you must make use of Christ’s performances by way of obedience so that they give you rest and ease in the performance of your duties. Think like this: “I come now to perform duties, and thanks be to God, my life, my eternal estate, does not hang upon them. But as for what Christ performed, my soul and all the world lay upon what he did. And the weight that Christ was willing to take upon himself in his obedience is what makes any obedience of mine so easy and comfortable to me.”

I remember we read in the law that in peace offerings a female was accepted. In other cases God ordinarily required the male, but in peace offerings the female. Now peace offerings were for thanksgiving, and indeed the whole life of a Christian is nothing else but a peace offering. His whole conduct, all the duties that God requires of any Christian, is nothing else but a peace offering, an offering of thanksgiving for the mercy he has received from Christ. And in this peace offering the Lord accepts a female, though it is but weak. And this is the sixth thing in which the rest of the soul in the performance of holy duties consists, once it has come to Christ.

Seventh, as the soul does not perform duties in order to get life by them (it is not in that way now), so the performance of duties, when the soul has come to Christ, is a part of eternal life itself, and therefore there is rest in it. The soul is so far from getting eternal life by it that it is rather eternal life itself than in any way merely a way to eternal life. For this much may be said: though I perform duty (and it is true God has taught me this much, that now under the gospel we must not think to get eternal life by our duty, by our works, for that is popery), yet it is the way to eternal life, the way that tends toward it. It is the way to the kingdom, though not the cause of reigning. But I will show you something further than that: the ways of obedience and holiness in a Christian’s course are rather eternal life itself than the way to it. They have more excellence in them than merely being the way to life.

It is true, it would be a great deal of ease and rest to a person’s spirit to consider holy duties only as the way to heaven. Suppose a man were going on a journey and knew that the end of his journey would be very glorious to him, that he was going to receive a crown, a kingdom. Even though it were a blustery day and stormy weather, and the road were very foul, he would not be troubled by it. He would count it very comforting to know that he is on the right road, for he thinks, “This will lead me to my journey’s end, and when I come there, that will make amends for everything.” And the truth is, there would be ease and rest enough in the ways of God if God revealed no more to a soul than this: “These are the ways that lead you to life and salvation, that lead you to a kingdom, to glory.” This is especially so considering that before, we were out of the way, wandering in the ways of death and destruction, and God by his almighty hand has brought us into the right way.

When a man is going on a journey of great consequence and has gone out of the way, and God by his providence has brought him back onto the right road, oh, what ease there is in his spirit! Before, when he was out of the way, what distraction and disquiet of heart he had! But now, when he comes into the way, oh, what ease and quiet is in his spirit! So, I say, it would be ease and rest enough for the spirit to know that whereas before the soul was wandering in the path of death, now it is in the path of life.

But I tell you something further than that. When you are performing holy duties and exercising the grace of God, in the performance of those duties you are not only in the way to eternal life; you are in eternal life itself. You are not only in the way to the kingdom, but in the kingdom; not only on the way to heaven, but in heaven. It is eternal life: “This is eternal life to know thee the true God, and thy son whom thou hast sent into the world” (John 17:3). And consider that place in John’s epistle where he speaks of a murderer, one who hated his brother: “Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). Then it appears that one who loves his brother, and is godly and gracious, has eternal life abiding in him. That must follow. If this is the evil condition of a wicked man who hates his brother, that he does not have eternal life abiding in him, then by the rule of contraries it must be true that he who has holiness and loves his brother has eternal life abiding in him. Therefore such a one has eternal life already come down to him, and he is in heaven already.

So Scripture makes grace nothing but the beginning of glory; it is nothing other than the very beginning of heaven in the soul. And therefore in that golden chain in Romans 8: “Whom God hath predestinated them he also hath called, and whom he hath called them he hath justified, and whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified” (Rom 8:30). Mark where the link of sanctification is. It does not say, “Whom he has predestinated he has called, and whom he has called he has sanctified, and whom he has sanctified he has glorified.” One would have thought the chain should have run on through that link, but there is no mention of sanctification. Why? Because sanctification is nothing else but glorification begun, and glorification is nothing else but the perfecting of sanctification.

Now I beg you, observe this as a most special thing that belongs to a Christian: the best duties that we perform are nothing else but the life of heaven to us. Yes, the truth is, it is the life of God. And therefore it is said of ungodly men, before they come to Christ, that they are strangers to the life of God (Eph 4:18). Therefore when you have come to Christ, you have the life of God in you, and the life of heaven in you, and the beginning of glory. You live glory and eternal life while you are performing holy duties. What is the happiness of heaven but for the saints and angels to be exercised in magnifying the riches of God and of Christ? Now you begin it here. And therefore, if you know what this is, you are not, I say, to look upon any duty that you perform merely as a duty, but as a privilege, yes, as part of your wages.

It is a certain truth that God’s work is itself wages, and making good use of that principle would help us very much in our Christian course. If you lived this way and counted every duty you perform to God to be wages, oh, with what sweetness you would go on in the performance of the duties that God requires of you! You are receiving your wages when you are performing duties. In the last verse of Romans 6 we read, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (Rom 6:23). At verse 22 it runs like this: “But now being freed from sin and become servants unto God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:22-23). “You have your fruit unto holiness”: it is the fruit unto holiness which is the gift of God. Holiness is nothing else but the gift of God and the beginning of eternal life. The fullness of eternal life is indeed the end of it, but the fruit that you have for the present is holiness, and that holiness, which is the gift of God, is the beginning of eternal life here in this world.

A Christian has indeed made good progress in evangelical obedience when he counts duties to be mercies, and when mercies are turned into duties. When we turn God’s mercies into duties, that is evidence that we receive God’s mercies from a covenant of grace, and God’s mercies toward us will be linked one to another. So when we count our duties to be mercies, that is evidence that there is evangelical obedience in the heart, and there will be constancy in the heart in performing them. Those who perform duties in an evangelical way look upon them as a golden chain about their necks for ornament, and not as a chain about their necks like bonds and fetters to tie them down.

Here is the difference between one who performs duties in a legal way and one who performs them in an evangelical way. The one who performs duties in a legal way looks upon them as bonds about his neck; he is bound to them as with a chain. But for the other, who performs duties in an evangelical way, his duties are ornaments, like chains of gold about his neck. And I have the ground of this similitude in Proverbs 3: “My son keep sound wisdom and discretion, so shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace unto thy neck” (Prov 3:21-22). The ways of wisdom, that is, the ways of godliness, are life to the godly, and they are a grace to the neck. That is, the godly carry God’s commandments about with them, not as a prisoner carries his chains, but as one who wears a chain about his neck and glories in it.

That place in Deuteronomy 33 is also very noteworthy for this, if you compare verse 2 with the words that follow. In verse 2 the law of God is called a fiery law: “From his right hand went a fiery law for them” (Deut 33:2). But mark verse 4: “Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deut 33:4). From this, this lesson plainly results: however much seeming severity there is in any law of God, in any commandment that requires duty, yet even this commandment of God is counted an inheritance by the souls of God’s saints, as the joy of their hearts. They count their riches to be in God’s commandments. They count their riches to be not only in heaven; they count the very commandment their riches and their happiness.

Many men and women take upon themselves the commandments of God and the duties of obedience as necessary burdens: they must do them. Yes, but the saints, those who come to Christ, take the commandment of God upon themselves as that in which their riches, their glory, and the joy of their hearts consist. And therefore how often you hear David saying that the commandments of God were sweeter to him than honey and the honeycomb, and that they were more delightful to him than gold and riches! And so in Proverbs, they are better than rubies and precious stones. He does not say that the glory of heaven is better than all these, but that the way of wisdom and the commandments of God are better than all these. So here is the life of a Christian: he performs duties not only as a way to heaven, but as an enjoying of heaven while he is serving God. And this is the seventh particular in which the rest of the soul in Christ appears in the performance of holy duties.

Eighth, when a Christian is brought to Christ, Christ gives him rest in the performance of holy duties because Christ elevates and raises his spirit to be in some way proportionate to whatever God requires of him. There is an elevation of spirit, a strengthening of the spirit in Christ, to come to some kind of proportion to what the law of God requires of them. It is true, set a poor weak man, a sick man, to any hard work, and oh, how tedious it is to him! For a sick man to go and carry such a burden, or to do such hard work, is very irksome to him. But now when this man comes to be healthy and strong, to have his veins full of blood and his arteries full of spirits, he goes along in his work and counts it no burden at all, because he has gotten strength in him. So the commandments of God are hard to those who perform them in a natural way, from a natural conscience. Notwithstanding all the strength that can come in from a natural conscience, the commandments of God are very hard to them. But once the Spirit of Christ comes, there is strength.

As it is said, “where the spirit of Christ is there is liberty” (2 Cor 3:17), so where the Spirit of Christ is, there is strength. As the Holy Spirit speaks in Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (Isa 11:2). The spirit of counsel and might shall rest upon Christ, and so, in its measure, the Spirit rests upon every member of Christ: the Spirit of life, of might, and of counsel. And therefore the apostle Paul says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7). This spirit of power is in those who have come to Christ; there is a power of godliness in them. They are said “to be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power” (Col 1:11).

The apostle at least prays for that, to show us by it that such a thing is to be had in Christ. There is a strengthening “with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience, and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:11-12). Though they are weak, yet they have union with One who is strong, in whom they may come to be strengthened with all might, not only according to God’s power but according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. The duties of patience and long-suffering are as hard as any duties, but in Christ the glorious power of Christ is let out to strengthen them to the duties of patience and all long-suffering with joyfulness.

Ninth, the rest that the soul has in Christ, so that it goes on in duties with freedom of spirit and without making them burdensome to itself, is this. When the soul comes to Christ, it not only has strength to do the duty, but while it is performing the duty it has this strength renewed. It receives sweetness and good and strength from Christ while it is in action, while it is in the performance of duty, and so his duty is very easy, sweet, and comfortable to him.

Take it like this. Suppose a man is doing a hard piece of work. He is laying into a knotty piece of timber, and nothing comes of his work. It does not move forward under his hands; he spends his strength and gets nothing for the present by his work. He quickly grows weary. But suppose a man is doing a work in which the more strength he spends, the more he gets. The more he spends, the more his strength is enlarged and renewed, so that he never gets more strength than when he is spending it, and while he is at work he receives sweetness by it. Surely this man will go on in his work. He may work singing, since all the while he is working he does not spend as much strength as he gets. He does not work only to receive wages afterward; there are incomings, sweetness coming in at the very time of his work. This man works with a great deal of ease.

Thus it is in evangelical obedience. When a soul comes to perform duties in this way, his strength is renewed day by day; the more service you do for Christ, the more strength comes in. Think of a man who is numb with cold. Perhaps some of you are mariners. When you come to handle your cables, or anything in the ship, you can scarcely feel any strength because of the cold; but when you are at work and begin to be warm, your strength comes in. So it is with a Christian. When he begins to perform duties, it may be that he is dull and dead and the like, but let him go on in the duties, and then strength will come in.

I appeal to many of you who have performed duties. You have gone to do a duty, and you have been dull and unfit for it, and you have been ready to let it alone for that reason. Well, but conscience pressed you to it, and you had to do it. Now when you were in the duty, did not Christ come in? Did not the strength of Christ come in to enable you to do the duty in a way you could never have imagined? That might forever be an encouragement to you to go on in duty, and to resist the temptation ever to neglect a duty because you feel unfit for it. For when you are at the duty, then strength comes in from Christ to perform it. You cannot expect strength to come in before you come to the duty; but up and be doing, and then strength will come in. Yes, and the more duty you do, the more strength will come in.

And this is why a godly man, though he may be weary in duty, can never be weary of doing duty. Here he may see a difference between himself and carnal men. Take a godly man: though he may be weary in duty, yet he can never be weary of duty. It is otherwise with those who perform duties in the strength of a natural conscience. Those who perform duties in the strength of a natural conscience grow weary with working. Some tools, you know, wear out with using, but others grow brighter and better the more you use them. So it is with those who perform duties in the strength of a natural conscience: they wear away, and that is the reason they leave their duties off. But one who performs duties in an evangelical way, the more he does, the more he will be able to do. And therefore, Christians, let that be an encouragement to you: the more you do, the more you will be enabled to do. He that had five talents and used those five talents had more talents given him; and he that had but one, and sat down sullen and did not use it, had it taken from him.

And as strength comes in, so you will suck a great deal of sweetness into your heart. “In the keeping of thy commandments,” says David, “there is great reward” (Ps 19:11): not only for the keeping of them, but in the keeping of them. Now when a man is working, if he had his wages coming in every hour while he was at work, it would encourage him; but if he thinks he must wait for his wages, that is more grievous. The work that is done with present sweetness coming in is an easy work.

And that is the reason for that expression in Hosea 10:11: “Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn, but I passed upon her fair neck, I will make Ephraim to ride, Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.” The text seems hard at the first reading, but there is much in it suited to what I am speaking of. Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught and loves to tread out the corn; but, says God, “I will make Ephraim to ride, Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.” I will make Ephraim not only tread out the corn, but plow.

The meaning was this. You know that the law was, “you must not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn” (Deut 25:4). Whereas we thresh our corn, they had their oxen tread it out. And the law was that all the while the ox was treading out the corn its mouth must not be muzzled; it might feed all the while it was treading out the corn. Now this was easier than when the beast was sent to plow and had no corn to eat in the meantime. Now, says God, Ephraim loves only easy work. If he may have the work that is sweet for the present, Ephraim is content with that work; but Ephraim does not love the work that is difficult at first and sweet afterward. So this shows that one who is of a lazy disposition loves the work that has sweetness in the present.

Now truly, this is the only kind of work the gospel requires of us. The gospel does not require so much plowing as the work of treading out the corn. All the work the gospel requires of believers is such as the heifer had while it was treading out the corn. That is, all the while you are working you may be eating; you may have the blessed sheaves of the gospel to feed on. For a constant sweetness does come into the hearts of the faithful in doing the work of the Lord. Go on in doing the work of the Lord, and you will find rest and sweetness in your soul, coming in upon you.

And that is the reason scholars can study so hard, many hours together, which would be tedious to others. I put it to you who are employed in other things and think a scholar’s work such an easy work: get up in the morning, shut yourselves in your private room, and read, meditate, and write for two or three hours together. Then come out and go at it again, and spend half a day or a whole day together studying, meditating, and writing, and see if you do not find it more tedious and tiresome to the flesh than any other work. But scholars, though it is tiresome to the flesh, can go on and make it easy to themselves. Why? Because they find sweetness in their work. It is not with them as with other men. Other men work so that they may have wages afterward; but all the while scholars are about their work, truths come in and heavenly notions come in to them while they are at it, and so the work is made easy to them. This is the happiness of a Christian: all the while he is at his work, the sun of righteousness shines upon him and sweetness is coming in to him. And herein is rest and ease in the performance of duty.

Tenth and last, when the soul comes to Christ, it finds abundant rest in holy duties, because now it has the love of God shed abroad in its heart, and that makes everything delightful to it. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart. You know that Jacob, because he loved Rachel, counted it nothing though he was out in frosty nights, because he loved Rachel. Oh, when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart of a Christian, there is nothing he does that is not delightful to him; it makes everything easy. For this is a certain rule: love is ashamed to mention any difficulty. You never hear love complain that anything is hard; and those who complain that holy duties are hard certainly lack the love of God.

Now you have heard in these ten particulars wherein the ease and rest of spirit in the performance of holy duties appears. There is much more to be said at the latter end of the chapter, where it is said that Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden light (Matt 11:30), which we will come to if God gives opportunity.

Application 1. Now from all this, here you may see the happiness of a Christian. You do not think that a Christian is happy here. But he will not only have heaven hereafter; his very way to happiness is heaven here. Oh, how good is the way of the gospel, which gives us rest on our way to heaven, such rest that all the malice in the world cannot disturb the peace and rest of a Christian!

Application 2. Hence we see the reason why true believers persevere. You often hear the doctrine of perseverance spoken of, and you are ready to think, “Yes, but is it certain that the soul that once comes to have true grace will certainly persevere?” Yes, certainly. One who has once come to Christ will not go away from him again. Why? Because there is so much rest in holy duties. It is true that those who are dragged to holy duties will not stay, as it is said, “The son abides in the house but a servant abides not always in the house” (John 8:35). So those who perform duties in a legal way will be gone; they will not abide. But one who has come into Christ and has the disposition of a son continues. As we say in philosophy, no violent thing or forced motion is perpetual. And indeed, it is a hundred to one that those who perform duties in a legal way will prove apostates at last; but one who performs duties in an evangelical way will continue and hold out to the end.

Application 3. The main use of all this is to stir up the hearts of those who are godly to know what the gospel means, and to exercise much faith in Christ, so that they may have much comfort in the performance of duties. Do not content yourself that you do your duty, but think to yourself, “Oh, I have heard of such a way, that Christians find a great deal of rest and ease in the performance of duty. Why should I not get into that way?” You hear of it. Oh, that your soul might be unquiet until you come to understand the way! Then your duties would be more sound, more spiritual, more supernatural, and more acceptable than they are.

The Lord loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7), and so he loves a cheerful server. You love to hear your servants sing at their work. But if you set your child or servant about a work, and he goes about it heavily and dully, grumbling and pining, and thinks you a hard master, then he does only a little work. So those who perform duties in a legal way, the truth is, perform little duty, and what they do is not acceptable. But when a soul comes to find rest in duty, that makes its duty more spiritual, more plentiful, and more acceptable, and those duties are very pleasing to the Lord.

You may remember that when we handled the point of the load that lay on sinners, we showed that the remainder of corruption was a great burden. It was so great a load that it made the apostle cry out, “Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death” (Rom 7:24). How that was a load has already been opened.

What we now have to do is to show what rest is to be had in Christ against this fourth burden. Come to me, says Christ, all you who are sensible of the corruption of your heart and find the remainder of sin in your heart to be a burden; come to me, and I will give you rest against that. We are not now to speak of the rest that lies in deliverance from the trouble of soul that comes from the sense of the guilt of sin; that was spoken of before. Now we are to speak of the rest that lies in giving power against the remainder of corruption in the heart. This rest is the rest of sanctification, and this is what we are to speak of here: “I will give you rest.” There are a great many useful and sweet things in this point that might require very large handling, but I will try as much as I can to contract everything about this rest of sanctification into a few things.

There are five things in it to be followed. I set them down so that you may see clearly the method I will proceed in, and so go along with me.

First, I will show you that sanctification, or deliverance from corruption, is a great rest to the soul, a great rest to the heart of a believer. There is much rest in sanctification.

Second, that this rest is in Christ. All our sanctification, and all our help against corruption, is in Christ.

Third, how Christ comes to be this rest to the soul.

Fourth, some consequences that will follow from this consideration of Christ’s being the rest of sanctification to the heart.

Fifth, I will conclude with an exhortation to come to Christ for this rest.

First, sanctification is a great rest to the soul of a believer. The truth is, nothing troubles the heart of a strong believer but only the lack of his sanctification. Nothing in the world, I say, troubles the heart of a strong believer but that. It is true that a weak believer is troubled for lack of the apprehension of the pardon of his sin; a weak believer still has trouble of spirit from the sense of the guilt of sin. But a strong believer gets over that. A weak believer still has trouble from the law, because through the weakness of his faith he is not able to make use of the covenant of grace that God has brought him into, so as to deliver himself from trouble that way. A strong believer gets over that. A weak believer performs duties, but there is a great deal of legality in his performance of them, so that many times they are troublesome to him. But a strong believer gets over that burden.

But as for the remaining corruption in the heart, no one in this world gets over this. Indeed, the strong believer has in great part gotten power there also, a great deal more than the weak one has. Yet the chief burden that lies on a strong believer in this world is the remainder of corruption that is still in him. And so with the next burden, that of affliction: the strong believer gets well over that too. But this is one chief burden of the strongest believers the world has, that there is still much remaining corruption in them. So it was with Paul. Though he was a strong believer, he says, “Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death” (Rom 7:24), as you heard it opened to you before. So sanctification is a special rest that believers have; it is a rest.

1. It is a rest in this respect, because it is the right temper of the heart. As corruption was a burden because it was the distemper of the heart, just as sickness is a burden, so sanctification is the right frame and temper of the soul, and so it brings ease and rest to the soul. If your bodies are distempered with sickness, you are a burden to yourselves by it; you do not know what to do. A sick man first lies down in one place and then in another; he will change rooms, change beds, and change postures, because he is a burden to himself. Let the distemper be gone, let the body be put into a right temper, and now he has rest. Now he can sleep quietly, now he has ease in his body, his pain is over. Now sanctification is the health of the soul: the soul comes to be healthy when it comes to be holy. Holiness is the proper temper of the heart, and therefore it is rest.

2. Sanctification is the rest of the heart because in it the soul in great part attains its end. And what does the soul rest in so much as in its end? Everything rests when it comes to its end; the end is like the proper place in which every creature rests. Now by sanctification the soul in great part attains its end, as follows.

(1) It attains the end that God intended in making it a man or a woman. In it they attain in great part the end for which they were born. You were born for this end, that you might be holy, that you might live here in this world to God; and by sanctification you do this. That is the end God aimed at, the end for which you were born, the reason you came into the world.

(2) It is the end of all God’s ways toward you, a special end of all the passages of God’s providence to you, of all the workings of God toward you in this world, of all the ways of his providence to you: that you might be godly, that you might live to him, to his praise.

(3) It is the great end of Christ’s coming into the world. Christ came into the world that he might purchase “a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14), and that he might sanctify them to himself.

(4) It is the end of all God’s ordinances toward you. Why do you enjoy any ordinance, but that it might sanctify your heart?

(5) If you are one who is already God’s in any measure, it is the end of your desires. What are the desires of a gracious heart, but that he might be holy to God and be freed from the body of death?

(6) It is the end of your labor. What do you strive after? What do you labor after, if you are godly, but that you may be more godly, that you may be more sanctified? Surely that which is the end of our coming into the world, which is the end of all God’s ways toward you, which is the end of all God’s ordinances, which is the end of your desires and the end of your labor, cannot but be rest. In attaining that, you cannot but attain rest.

3. Sanctification is rest to the soul in that the soul lives the very life of God. The soul does not only live to God but lives in God, and therefore it cannot but live in rest. You have a notable expression for that in 1 John 2:24: “Let that therefore abide in you, which we heard from the beginning, if that which ye heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” “You shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” When the truths of the gospel, working on the heart to holiness, abide in the heart, such a soul abides in the Son and in the Father. It lives in God, and therefore it cannot but have rest; it must have rest where it lives in God. It is true, the saints live in the world; but as they live in the world, so they live in God, even in God here.

4. Sanctification must be rest to the heart because it is a principle that raises the soul above the region of every kind of trouble and disturbance. The philosophers tell us that here in the lower region there are storms, tempests, changes, and alterations, but that in the region on high, the third region, which is above storms, tempests, winds, and blusterings, there is nothing but quiet, nothing but peace. It is true that while the heart of a man or woman is groveling here below in the world, as all are until God raises them by grace, their spirits are full of trouble, vexation, and disturbance. “There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God, but he is like the troubled sea which casts forth mire and dirt” (Isa 57:20-21), as you heard in the opening of that scripture. But now when God gives grace and sanctifies the heart, the Lord raises the heart above these regions of trouble. He raises it on high and gets it up into the highest region, where there is nothing but quiet, calm peace, ease, and rest to the soul.

5. Sanctification is rest to the soul because it is a principle that turns everything to good, and that cannot but bring rest. When God sanctifies the heart and works grace in the soul, that grace is of such excellence that it has a virtue and power in it to turn everything to good. Now that would indeed be a precious stone that could turn everything it touches into gold. There is a great deal of labor spent about the philosopher’s stone, which they say turns other metals into gold. Now grace in the heart turns everything into gold, as it were, everything into good. It has this excellence in it, that whatever befalls such a man or woman, grace can turn it to their good. Take all the works of God’s providence, all things that seem to go ever so contrary to the good of a man or woman who has grace: if such a one will only exercise his grace, or her grace, this will turn the things that seem most contrary to their good; it will turn them to good. Those things that others are vexed at and fret at and think themselves undone by, a gracious heart, one who has grace, can turn to advantage and get good by. Such persons have gotten such a virtue from God, God has given them such a principle within, that whatever befalls them, they can turn it to good by the exercise of that principle.

What reason, then, does such a man or woman have to be troubled at all in this world? “No trouble?” you will say. “Do not such and such things go against them? Do not such and such afflictions cross people like these as much as any others?” That is true; things may cross them as much as anyone. Yes, but they have a principle within them that turns all those crosses and afflictions to good. We shall speak more to that in answering the fifth burden, that of outward afflictions. I only show it now as part of the rest the soul has in sanctification, because it turns all things to good.

6. Lastly, sanctification is a rest to the soul because it is indeed the beginning of glory. It is the beginning of heaven, and in heaven there is nothing but rest; there is peace and rest in heaven. Sanctification is glorification begun, and therefore it is rest to the soul. This, now, is the first particular. “I will give you rest”: that is, come to me, and you shall have power over your corruptions; you shall have grace and holiness, and that shall be rest to your souls.

Second, this sanctification is in Christ. All the sanctification of a Christian is in Christ. There are some common gifts that God gives to other men. There are gifts of nature, and there are gifts of common grace: gifts of the Spirit of God that go beyond the gifts of nature, and yet are given in a common way to those who are strangers to Christ. The heathen had many common gifts, and so others now may have many common gifts. But sanctification is the proper gift of Christ; it is to be had only in Christ. All the strength of nature, natural abilities, education, morality and natural talents can never raise the heart to the least degree of sanctification. I mean the sanctification that is saving. In a broad sense something else may be called a sanctification, as Scripture sometimes does: a setting of certain kinds of men apart for certain ends. But sanctification that is true holiness, that is the image of God and the beginning of glory, is only in Christ, and all the strength of nature and natural talents can never raise the soul to the least degree of it.

I will give you some scriptures to show that it is only in Christ, and it will appear further when we come to the third thing, showing you how it comes from Christ, which is the principal thing. That text in 1 Corinthians 1:30 is very full for it, if there were no other: “But of him are ye in Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” Christ is made unto us of God wisdom, to enlighten our blindness; and righteousness, for our justification; and sanctification, that is, to deliver us from the power of sin and to renew the image of God in us; and redemption, that is, to deliver us from every kind of evil and to bring us to the redemption of the sons of God, to the perfect liberty that is appointed for sons.

Christ is made to us sanctification. That does not mean only that Christ has merited our sanctification. It goes further: he is the one who actually brings it about, so that our sanctification comes from him. It is he who works it in us and upholds it in us. The beginning and the progress of our sanctification come from him, as well as being merited by him. For we must understand that Christ laid down his life to merit from God the Father sanctification as well as justification or glorification. Christ did not lay down his life only to merit the pardon of our sins, to purchase that from God, and to save us from hell. It was a special end of his laying down his life to merit our being set at liberty from the bondage of our sins, our deliverance from corruption, and the renewing of the image of God in our souls for the present.

Indeed, this may cause us to prize holiness somewhat more than we have done. We must not look upon holiness merely as a duty, that we must be holy, and as a necessary means to heaven. We must look at holiness as the purchase of the blood of Christ. He has purchased holiness for all those for whom he laid down his life. And therefore (as we shall see afterward) it is impossible for anyone to be holy except those who have a part in Christ. So Christ is made sanctification both by his merit and by the working power that is in him; it is he likewise who works it in our hearts. We do not have it immediately from God the Father, but from God the Father through Christ. Through his Son we come to have sanctification. And therefore we shall see afterward how different our sanctification is from the image of God that was in Adam at first, the holiness that was in Adam. Adam had his holiness immediately from God as Creator. But those who are now made holy and sanctified do not have their holiness and sanctification immediately, or as from God their Creator; they have it from Christ. Christ, that is, the second person of the Trinity, is the one who is made to us sanctification.

And then, that it is in Christ appears further from that notable place in Romans 7, which I quoted under the former point about the load of corruption. There Paul cries out, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death” (Rom 7:24), that is, from the remaining corruption that was in his heart. Mark the very next words that follow: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:25). It is as if he said, “The deliverance I must have from this body of death is from God. But how? Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The apostle does not only thank God for it and say that all grace must come from God; he thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is how we must understand the way grace comes to us. God is indeed the fountain of all, but it must come from God through Jesus Christ our Lord, as all the mercies we have for the pardon of our sins do. Now it is not from God immediately, as the first person, or as Creator of heaven and earth, but from God through Jesus Christ. So all the holiness we have now is from God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And then take one scripture more, and then we shall come to the third particular, which is the chief thing we aimed at. It is in Acts 26, the latter part of verse 18: “That they may receive remission of sins, and inheritance amongst them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ” (Acts 26:18). It is a speech of Christ to Paul when he sent him to preach, telling him to what end his preaching should be: “To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ.” There are multitudes of scriptures to this purpose.

Third, and especially, we are to inquire how Christ is the rest of sanctification. “Come to me, and I will give you rest”: I will give you power against your corruptions, and you shall have sanctification in me and by me. As to that:

1. We are to know that a special end for which Jesus Christ came into the world was to dissolve the works of the devil. That was a special end of Christ’s coming into the world: “He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin…” (1 John 3:8-9). It is a startling scripture, that whoever commits sin is of the devil. You say you defy the devil, but the Holy Spirit says this of you if you commit sin, that is, if you walk in any way of sin. For you will say, “Who is there that does not commit sin?” Well, but the words are these: “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” Therefore it is evident that there is a kind of committing of sin that is an argument that people are of the devil, for these are the words of the Holy Spirit. “And for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

It was the end for which he came into the world. Yes, it is a special thing that God the Father anointed Christ for: to deliver souls from the bondage of their corruption and to work holiness in them. You have that at the beginning of that notable prophecy concerning Christ: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (that is, upon Christ, for it is a prophecy of him) “because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives” (Isa 61:1), that is, to spiritual captives who are under spiritual bondage. And then: “That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord” (Isa 61:3). So that is the first consideration of Christ’s giving the rest of sanctification: it is the end for which Christ was born, and it is the end for which he was anointed by God the Father, to sanctify the hearts of those whom he shall redeem. So Christ is our sanctification by attaining the end of his own coming into the world, by fulfilling what God the Father anointed him for.

2. Christ is our sanctification as the great ordinance that God has set up for sanctifying the hearts of his people. I say, Christ is set up as the great ordinance appointed by God for this end. The Lord has set him up and filled him full of holiness, so that holiness might be conveyed through him to the souls that belong to him. And therefore it is said in that well-known place, “Of his fullness we receive grace for grace” (John 1:16). Of his fullness: Jesus Christ is filled full of holiness, like a cistern filled full of precious liquid, and grace must come through him to the souls of all those who are godly, who are believers. Faith draws grace from him, grace for grace, that is, grace answerable to grace, as impression for impression with a seal. There is impression for impression in the wax: whatever impression there is in the seal, the same impression is in the wax. So whatever grace is in Christ, there is answerably, in some measure, the same grace in the saints.

Of his fullness we receive. All the believers that ever were in the world have received all the grace they ever had from him, out of his fullness, and from him as the great ordinance that God has set up for dispensing the graces of his Spirit, for working sanctification in all those who shall be saved. Yes, Christ is such an ordinance, appointed by God the Father for holiness and sanctification, that there is indeed so much power in him that the very looking upon Christ has power to sanctify the heart, the very looking upon him. The bronze serpent in the wilderness, you know, was the great ordinance of God appointed for the healing of those who were bitten by serpents. And because it was the ordinance appointed for their healing, those who only looked up to the bronze serpent received power immediately and were healed of their sting, of the deadly disease that was upon them through the serpents’ bites. Now this was by virtue of that ordinance.

Now then, I reason this way. If, when God makes only a piece of bronze an ordinance, there shall be such power in it that the very looking upon it shall have power to heal the body, then if God makes his own Son Jesus Christ, God blessed forever, God and man, to be an ordinance to heal the souls of his people, surely those who look up to him with the eye of faith will receive healing for their souls, as they received healing by looking upon the bronze serpent. The very beholding of Christ has power to sanctify the heart.

And therefore, if you want holiness, you must often look upon Christ. Set Christ before your eye. Do not be always poring over your corruptions and looking downward into the blackness that is in your spirits. Many Christians labor under the burden of their corruptions for a long time. Why? Because they spend their time and strength merely in poring over their corruptions and looking down at them. But, O Christian, you must look up. Set your eye upon Christ, the great ordinance, and behold him as the great ordinance set up by God the Father for conveying grace to the souls of believers and for healing all their souls and wounds, and then healing power will come from him.

We read of the poor woman who had the issue of blood, who had spent all she had on physicians. She only came to Christ and touched the hem of his garment, and then she was healed. Surely Christ has a great deal of power in him, when the very touch healed her. And therefore he says, “Who hath touched me?” Power went out from him at the very touch of the hem of his garment. Christ is the great ordinance, and he is full of power and excellence; looking upon him and touching him brings power to the soul, to heal the soul of its corruption.

3. More particularly, Christ brings sanctification to the heart because the death of Christ is appointed by God to have an efficacy to mortify sin and corruption. Mortification comes from the application of the death of Christ, which is filled with power and appointed by God for this very end: that it should have efficacy upon the heart to mortify the corruption in the heart. A man may resolve against his corruption. He may vow and covenant against a sin; he may strive and struggle against a sin; he may pray against a sin; he may fast to overcome his sin; he may use all the means he thinks he can possibly use to overcome his sin; and yet his sin is still not dead in him. Perhaps the means he uses to restrain sin may keep his sin down, but they will never mortify it. The application of the death of Christ: that is what God has appointed. For Christ himself is appointed as the great ordinance.

But now, more particularly, I say that the way God has appointed for mortifying corruption is the application of the death of Christ to the soul: the power that comes from Christ as a dying Christ, from Christ as a crucified Christ, from Christ as a dead Christ, to mortify corruption in the heart. That is clear from the beginning of Romans 6: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:1-2). (Dead: that is a part of what his coming was for.) “Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried into baptism by his death” (Rom 6:3-4). And then: “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death” (Rom 6:5). And again: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom 6:6).

The old man is crucified with him: in his being crucified there is power in Christ’s death for the crucifying of corruption, “that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” He does not say that we might have some power against sin, or that sin might be restrained, or that some particular sin might be kept down, but “that the body of sin might be destroyed.” So in the application of the death of Christ there is not only the overcoming of this or that particular sin; the body of sin comes to be destroyed. All those principles of sin in the soul, with their connection and joining to one another, as the members are joined in the body, come to be destroyed. That is, though they are not wholly cast out and rooted up, yet their ruling power is taken away. As soon as ever the soul has come to Christ, the body of sin has a deadly stroke given to it.

There are many of you striving against this or that particular corruption, sometimes one and sometimes another. For those who are God’s children have hearts more inclined to some sins than to others, and at some times to one particular sin more than another. It may be that one labors under the burden of a hot temper, another of unbelief, another of pride, another of lust; they are laboring under various particular corruptions. It may be that at some times you find one corruption stirring, and you strive against that; and at another time another corruption stirs, and you spend your strength against that. But now here is the way to strike at the whole body of corruption at once.

If someone goes to cut down a tree and stands chopping at one twig, and one branch, and then another branch, the tree may stand long enough for all that. But if he wants to get the tree down, he goes to the root, and a few blows bring it all down. So this is the wisdom of a Christian: when he comes to labor against any corruption, he does not spend his time so much against this or that particular corruption, but strikes at the body of corruption. And how does he get strength against that? By applying the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, against it by faith; and by this means the body of death comes to be destroyed.

And here is the reason why some Christians grow so much in a little time and get so much power against their corruptions, whereas others, those who are not acquainted with the way of Christ, are a long time before they get any power at all. You will see a man who has been a notorious wretch, a wicked person, a swearer, a Sabbath-breaker; if it pleases God to bring him to the word and reveal Christ to his soul, you will see a mighty change in this man within a week, a great change. He does not only leave off drunkenness now, and then lying, and then swearing, and then Sabbath-breaking, but all goes down together. Why? Because at one application of the death of Christ the whole body of sin comes to be destroyed, though not quite dead and withered. A tree may be dead, and yet its leaves may still be green. So, though at first there is not the withering of these sins, yet the deadly stroke is given, and therefore the way to kill them is to renew the application of the death of Christ.

And indeed this should be the care of a Christian: not so much to keep from the acting of sin as to find that the death of Christ is applied to him. And this is why you never read of any such thing as mortification in any heathen author in the world. The mortification of corruption is a riddle to all the heathen writers in the world. The mortifying of corruption, and the mortifying of their own hearts: this is an expression peculiar to the gospel, and indeed it is peculiar to believers. Many men are so restrained through a good upbringing that they are very fair in their course. In others, as they come to more understanding and the vanity of their youth is overcome, there is not the profaneness committed by them that there was before. Yes, but what is this to the mortification of the body of death that is in their hearts? That belongs to a Christian alone, and it comes from the application of the death of Christ, the application of a Christ dying, of a Christ crucified, of a Christ shedding his blood for sin. This has power to mortify sin.

There is a great deal of difference between a mortified lust and a restrained lust, between a mortified sin and a restrained sin. The difference lies in this one thing (for I must not go off to handle the point at large, but take only this one thing by the way): when a lust is mortified, there is not only a ceasing from the act of it, but there is now an unsuitableness between the heart and the sin. There may be much restraint of sin, and yet there may still remain a suitableness between the disposition of the heart and the sin; only they dare not commit it. But when sin is mortified, the heart is so changed that an unsuitableness is now wrought between the heart and corruption. And this mortification of the body of sin is by the death of Christ.

4. Christ is our sanctification, and he alone, because it is by him that the spiritual curse that lies naturally upon every man’s heart is taken away. It is Christ alone who delivers the soul from the spiritual curse that lies naturally upon every man’s heart. You know this is the condition of man by nature: he is under the curse of the law. “Cursed is the man that abideth not in all things that is written in the law to do it” (Gal 3:10). Now we ordinarily take this curse to be either outward misery or else hell fire, being cursed eternally. But we are to know that one branch of this curse is the curse that lies upon the souls of men here. There is a spiritual curse upon the souls of men by the fall of Adam, and that is God’s giving them up to themselves, to the lusts of their own hearts, to their own counsels and ways.

Now I confess that it is with this as it is with the curse of outward afflictions in this world. That curse lies in some degree upon some and in a further degree upon others, yet all are naturally under it. So this spiritual death is executed in some degree upon some and in greater degrees upon others; but every soul, in some measure, in some degree or other, is given up to the lust of its own heart. Sometimes there is a final degree of giving the soul up to the lusts of its own heart, but in everyone there is a measure, a degree, of this. And the reason why the corruption of men’s hearts prevails may appear in some measure from this.

It is strange to see that people go on still, notwithstanding all the convictions of conscience, and all the telling them of the danger of their ways, that it will never be peace in the end, that they will rue it at the last, and though their consciences give them many a secret pinch. They go on notwithstanding the terror of the law, many times. Indeed, they go on notwithstanding that the hand of God has been strong upon them, and they have cried out against their sins and made promises against them. They go on notwithstanding that they find their sins destroy the very health of their bodies, waste their estates, take away their good names, and so cost them all their friends; and yet they are not able to overcome them. As the Scripture speaks of some who have “eyes full of adultery, they cannot cease to sin” (2 Pet 2:14).

Now sometimes they plead this as an excuse for their sin. They say they would gladly leave it, but they cannot, and they think this is a sufficient excuse for their sin. An excuse? No. This “cannot” of theirs may come from the spiritual curse that is upon their souls, because the curse of God lies in a high degree upon their hearts, giving them up in just judgment to the lusts of their own hearts.

And this I take to be in some part the meaning of that place in 1 Corinthians 15:56: “The strength of sin is the law.” Now spiritually the meaning of it is this: all the strength that sin has to condemn a person, to kill a person, to bring death, is by the law. That I take to be the special scope of those words. But there is likewise this much included in that expression: that the law of God gives strength to sin. How, you will say, does the law of God give strength to sin? Thus: there is the justice of God in his law. By virtue of the law of God, and the justice of God in it, man is given up to his sin, and so his sin comes to have power and strength over him. “The strength of sin is the law.” The law requires this; the justice of God in the law requires this: that those who forsake God should be forsaken by him, and that those who give their hearts up to satisfy themselves in any way of sin should be given up to that sin. So “the strength of sin is the law”; the law makes sin so much the stronger in that way.

Now therefore, how should the soul come to be delivered from the strength of sin? The law must be satisfied, the law must be taken off, the strength of the law must be taken away, and none can take that away but Christ. Christ takes away the strength of the law. Not that the law was executed upon Christ in such a way that he was to be given up to sin. But the text says he was made sin; he came to take our sin upon him. It came as near to that as might be, though he was not capable of having the law executed upon him in that way. But the Scripture says he was made sin for us (2 Cor 5:21). That indeed is a very great part of the meaning of this place. Though the acknowledging of sin and the suffering for sin are the chief meaning of the place, yet it has very much of this in it besides.

5. Christ is our sanctification by being the head of the second covenant. And so, through our mystical union with him, a power of holiness is conveyed from him: he being the head of the second covenant, and we being members of him as our head, we come to draw the power of holiness from him. It is as it was with Adam. How do we come to have so much sin conveyed to us by Adam through propagation, but this way? As we read, “By one man sin came into the world” (Rom 5:12). Now Adam was the head of the first covenant, and because he was the head of that, all mankind are looked upon as members of the first Adam, he being the head in that respect, in the covenant, in that consideration. Adam was not looked upon only as a parent, as the first father, but as the head; and we are not looked upon only as the children of Adam, but as members.

So all men were looked upon as one in Adam, and therefore the Scripture speaks of only two men, the first Adam and the second Adam. Just as sin is conveyed to us by our being members of the first Adam, he being the head of the first covenant, so grace comes to be conveyed to the soul by our being members of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, he being the head of the second covenant. Here is the way holiness is conveyed: our union with Christ. So now the holiness that is in Christ comes to us by virtue of the mystical union. As animal spirits come to the members of the body by virtue of the natural union of the members with the head, so by virtue of our mystical union with Christ our head, holiness and grace are conveyed to us to strengthen us against our corruptions. As the ointment ran down from Aaron’s head to the rest of his members, so it is with Christ, who is anointed, who has the oil not only of gladness but of holiness too: it flows down to all his members by virtue of the union they have with him.

And for that purpose you have a most famous scripture: “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). It is a scripture that has very much in it. What does he mean by “the law of sin and death”? The law: that is, the mighty power that there is in sin, and so in the death that comes by sin, in the hearts of unbelievers. There is a law of sin; it is the strength of sin I spoke of. Sin has strength going along with it, has power with it. So there is a law of sin in the hearts of men. They are compelled to sin, if I may so speak, as a man is compelled to do a thing by a law, a law of sin, though this is no excuse for them. And let them know that so far as they are compelled to sin, they are compelled to death too.

But how shall this law of sin and death be overcome? Mark the words: “The law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” The law of the spirit of life: here are two gradations. That is, the holiness that is in Christ is a law too, just as the corruption in the heart is. The corruption in the heart has strength in it, and the holiness of Christ has strength in it too. So when grace comes into the heart, the heart goes on in a way of holiness by a holy kind of necessity. “We can do nothing against the truth,” says the apostle (2 Cor 13:8). Yet there is a necessity of willingness that goes along with it too; there is a law of love and kindness. But by this word “law” is meant a strong impetuousness, a mighty power that carries the soul on to holiness.

Again, second, it is the law of the spirit, and of the spirit of life. The holiness of Christ is a holiness full of life. First, it is life; and second, it is the spirit of life. Now the spirit of life is a higher degree than life, as the spirit of a thing has the quickening power of the thing in it beyond the whole bulk of the thing. When the spirit of herbs or of any such thing is extracted, you know those spirits have much more quickening power in them than the things themselves. So “the spirit” expresses the mighty activity in the holiness that comes from Christ: it is life, it is the spirit of life, and then it is the law of the spirit of life. Oh, my brothers and sisters, you see here, then, that godliness is no dull thing, no heavy thing, no poor, weak, contemptible thing. It is life, and it is the life of Christ, and it is the spirit of life, and it is the law of the spirit of life. He speaks of grace, when it comes to that, as the law of the spirit of life.

There are but two things in sin, the law of sin and death; but in grace there is life, and the spirit of life, and the law of the spirit of life, and all this in Jesus Christ. It is not in our own resolutions, purposes and endeavors, but in our union with Jesus Christ; and this is what brings grace into the heart. Though there was much corruption before, yet the soul, being thus one with Christ and looking upon Christ as the head of the second covenant, draws power from Jesus Christ, a mighty strong power, to help the soul against corruption and to quicken it in the ways of God. And so rest comes to the soul by Christ in sanctification.

Carnal hearts know no way in the world to get grace. They hear talk of grace and of leaving sin, but they do not know how to get it. They will go and pray, read, hear sermons and the like. Yes, but you must know that grace lies in another way than you think of. You think it must come from God. Yes, but it must come from God in a mystical way through Christ. Perhaps some of you, hearing the mysteries of the gospel, understand this much: that as God is the fountain of all grace, so it must be conveyed by Christ as through the cistern. Yes, but you must also understand that you must have it from God through Christ as he is a head to you and you are the members, through a mystical union that your souls must have with Christ, so that you are made one with Christ. You must be made one with Christ.

A member can never receive any spirit from the head unless it is united to the body; it does not happen by its being tied to the body. If you take an arm of flesh and tie it to a man’s shoulder, it will never receive life that way; it must have a natural union. Just so, your ordinary professing Christians, who merely have the name of Christians and are not spiritually united to Christ, are like arms tied on to the shoulder, or like wooden legs fastened to the thighs of men who have no legs. Such men have some use of those legs to help them walk a little, yes, but those legs do not have power and life conveyed to them from the head. So your ordinary Christians have some knowledge of Christ. They are only fastened to Christ, as a wooden leg is fastened to a man’s body. They make some use of Christ, some profession of Christ, and they can speak of Christ, and what they hear spoken of Christ is somewhat serviceable and useful to them. Yes, but they do not have life from Christ, and hence they do not have holiness from Christ. They do not have the true holiness that comes from the law of the spirit of life that is in Christ.

6. Another thing to be considered in Christ, as to how the rest of sanctification comes to the soul through him, is this: in Christ there are the greatest arguments for holiness that can possibly be imagined, and Christ comes to be a rest of sanctification in that way. When the soul comes to Christ and knows Christ in the right way, the soul sees in Christ enough against sin and for holiness. If it never saw anything else, there is enough in Christ to help against sin and to further holiness. What is discovered in Christ has a mighty power to help the soul against sin and to further it in the way of holiness. To give instances now of the mighty arguments there are in Christ against sin and for holiness.

First, in Christ the soul sees the greatest breach that could ever be imagined, the breach that sin made between God and the creature. It is true that when we preach the law to you, and tell you of the curse of the law that is due to sin, this acquaints you with something of the breach that sin made between God and you, and this may terrify you. But the truth is, the breach that sin makes between God and a soul is never thoroughly seen until you come to Christ. The soul never thoroughly sees sin until then. When it comes to Christ and sees Christ indeed, sees him as one who has union with him, then it understands the evil of sin in a different way than it ever did before.

And that is the reason faith purges the heart from sin more than all the terrors of the law possibly can. Yes, if God were to open a crack into hell and let you see into all the torment that is there, all those torments could not reveal the evil of sin to you as much as a real sight of Jesus Christ does when you come to it: you see how sin made such a breach between God and us that it could be made up no other way, but the Son of God must come and take man’s sin upon himself. This is the greatest discovery of the evil of sin that possibly can be.

Objection. You will say, “Others know this as well as believers.”

It is true, they know it after a fashion. But none can know this thoroughly except those who through faith have the real sight of Christ, and so have the real sight of the evil of sin in Christ.

Second, another strong argument in Christ that shows the evil of sin is this: the infinite hatred of sin in God. That God should hate sin so infinitely that he would not spare his own Son shows the evil of sin. We hear much of hell and of the terror of the law. But when I come to consider the fruit of God’s hatred of sin in his Son, this shows me the evil of sin a great deal more. And therefore, though the terror of the law may restrain men from sin, yet when the soul comes to know the infinite wrath of God against sin, that he would give his Son to satisfy for sin, this shows the evil of sin. And this shows the infinite holiness of God, that he would send his only Son to purchase holiness.

And in this we see the infinite love of Christ in dying for sin, the infinite price it cost to purchase the soul, and the infinite difficulty of deliverance from sin. Nothing can prevail upon the heart more than viewing Christ. There are so many things that make the soul hate sin and fall in love with holiness when it comes to Christ that I cannot speak of them all. Knowing Christ in any common way has as much power to restrain sin as anything does; but knowing Christ in a spiritual way, in a saving way, has an infinite power in it.

And the truth is, the special way for a soul to help itself against its own corruptions is to dive deeply into the knowledge of the gospel. Look into the gospel, pry into the mystery of the gospel, be much at home in the mystery of the gospel, and there consider what arguments you can draw against your sins. They are poor, low arguments that common people draw against their sins. They have a temptation to sin, and they think, “Oh, let me take care not to do it, for my master and mistress will find out,” or “So-and-so will find out,” or “If I do it, I will be brought to punishment.” These are poor, low arguments.

But a believer says, “Oh, let me not commit sin.” Why? “It is sin that brought the Son of God down from heaven to be made a curse for man. It is sin that made the greatest stir in the world that ever was. It is sin that God’s soul infinitely hates, and it is sin that made such a breach between the soul and God as can be made up only by the Son of God.” These are the arguments a believer has against sin. And as a believer is conversant in these arguments and often exercises faith in Christ, they are made real to the soul, and then they cannot help but have a mighty power to overcome any corruption whatsoever.

As we read in the Gospel, when the owner who let out the vineyard sent for fruit, the tenants took his servant and beat him, and killed another; at length he said he would send his son, for surely they would reverence him. So I may say: there are such and such arguments against your sin, to overcome your corruption and to set you on the way of holiness, and perhaps your corruptions break those arguments. They are only like Samson’s cords; your corruption snaps them apart like flax. “But,” says God, “I will send my Son, and reveal the glorious mysteries of the gospel in my Son. I will show their souls what my Son has done, and what the deep counsels for the salvation of their souls in my Son are, and these shall prevail upon you.”

And here is the reason for all their fearfulness of sin and their strictness in walking with God, once the gospel has convinced them. You wonder why they will be so strict and so afraid to offend. Do you wonder at it? Oh, brothers and sisters, they have arguments, perhaps, that you know nothing of. God has revealed much of his Son to them, the wonderful mysteries of godliness revealed in his Son, and these are the arguments they go upon. They do not go upon such poor and low arguments as you do. Poor and low arguments may keep men in an orderly course, so that they live quietly with their neighbors, and may keep them from thievery, drunkenness, swearing and the like; arguments that the heathen understood well enough may keep them from those things. But the saints, believers who are acquainted with the ways of Christ, have higher arguments. They behold him with the eye of faith, and so they come to have power against their sin and to have ease in their souls.

Thus Christ says, “Come to me. You have corruptions prevailing over you, and perhaps you strive against them with such and such arguments. But come to me, and I will give you such things: you will see so much against sin and so much for holiness that what I reveal to you will help you against your corruptions and further you in the way of holiness, and so you will have rest for your souls.”

7. Christ comes to be our sanctification (we have the rest of sanctification in Christ) in this way: it is Christ who makes the Father known to the soul. “No man knows the Father” (says Christ) “but the Son, and him to whom the Son reveals him” (Matt 11:27). I suppose you know the scripture: “And if you have seen me” (says Christ) “you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). It is Christ who makes God known to the soul, and there is a mighty power in the knowledge of God to work holiness in the heart. The apostle John says in 1 John 2:4, “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar.” The knowledge of God cannot stand with the neglect of God’s commandments. There is a mighty power in the knowledge of God for sanctifying the heart; the very looking upon God’s holiness has a great deal of power to sanctify the heart. And the reason for all the wickedness and profaneness in the world is that people do not know the Lord. They do not know what an infinite, blessed, glorious God they have to deal with. “They that know thy name will trust in thee,” says the psalmist (Ps 9:10). So we may say: Those who know your name, O Lord, will fear you; they will serve you; they will walk before you in obedience and holiness.

Now the knowledge of God is in Christ. There may be some kind of natural knowledge of God outside Christ: in beholding the works of God we may know something of him. But as the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 1:21, “After that in the wisdom of God” (that is, in created things, in the glory of God that shines in created things) “the world by wisdom knew not God.” The world by wisdom: that is, the world by all its natural understanding, by all the learning the philosophers had, who saw much of the glory of God shining in created things. Yet, says the text, by all their wisdom they did not know God. But “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” And what preaching was this? “We preach Christ crucified…” (1 Cor 1:23). So there is no saving knowledge except in Christ. When the soul comes to Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals the Father to it, reveals the counsels of God to the soul, reveals the very heart of God to the soul.

Hence it is that many poor people who were very ignorant before they came to know Christ, who knew little or nothing of God at all and had strange thoughts of God, yet as soon as ever the things of the gospel come to be revealed to them, begin to have high thoughts of God, high and honorable thoughts of God. And those high and honorable thoughts of God mightily prevail upon their hearts to purge out sin and to sanctify their hearts exceedingly. Only consider those places where there has been very little preaching of the gospel: what poor thoughts they have of God! They do not know God, and therefore they live in all manner of ungodliness. But when the preaching of the gospel comes to any place, and God comes to be known, there the devil is cast out, and the hearts of the people, being filled with the knowledge of God, come to be sanctified to the service of God. That is another way: it is Christ who reveals the Father to the soul, and so he comes to sanctify the heart.

8. It is through Christ that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart of a believer, and that has a mighty power to sanctify the heart. This shedding abroad of the love of God in the heart can be only in Christ. Even outside Christ there may be common fruits of God’s bounty, general patience, goodness and the like. But the special love of God, which has a sanctifying power going along with it, is found only in Christ. When the soul once comes to have union with Christ, the sweet sense of the love of God flows into the heart; it is “shed abroad,” to use the Scripture’s phrase (Rom 5:5). The heart, being filled with the sweetness of God’s love, comes to be sanctified by it. Then all base love of created things, and the love of sin, come to be eaten out, and the heart comes to be carried after the Lord in a blessed, sweet and gracious manner. All the terror of the law cannot sanctify as the shedding abroad of the love of Christ in the heart can. Indeed, sin may be restrained by the terror of the law, but by the terror of the law the heart can never be sanctified. This is a certain truth: the terror of the law may restrain from sin, but it can never sanctify the heart. The terrors of the law are useful to be preached in that way, to restrain sin; but when we preach them, we do not think that we can possibly sanctify the heart by them. Corruption may be restrained for a while, but what must sanctify the heart must be the love of God in Jesus Christ.

As I remember, Fulgentius compares the love of God in Christ in the heart of a believer to the fire that is within the furnace, and the love of God in his common bounty to a few sparks that fly out at a distance from the mouth of the furnace. Take all the love of God that is shown in created things: suppose the Lord should give you possession of the whole world, and should make a thousand worlds and give you possession of them all; this would be but a spark from the furnace. But the love of God in Christ is like the heat of the furnace. And as the heat, you know, consumes stubble and any combustible matter put into it, so there is such heat in the love of God shed abroad in the heart by Christ that it consumes the lusts of the heart, and the soul grows up into holiness by it.

It is with the heart of a believer as it is with the fruits of the earth. You know that the frost may keep down some weeds, but it is the sunshine, the beams of the sun, the warm beams, that make the fruit ripen and grow. The fruit that grows in the sun is soonest ripe. Your grass that grows in the orchard is sour, and the beasts will not eat it; and other herbs that grow in the shade come to no maturity, and are not as good as those that grow in the sun. Fruit that grows on the wall, how quickly it ripens, while the other that grows in the shade withers! So there are some who live altogether under legal fears and trouble of conscience. Perhaps they sometimes have fruit, but it is sour fruit; it is not such sweet fruit as comes from those who are under the sunshine of the gospel, who have the shining of the love of God upon their hearts. Their fruit is sweet; they thrive better, look more lovely, and live a more amiable and lovely life than others do. And this is another way that Christ comes to be our sanctification: by shedding abroad the love of God in the heart. The Scripture is full of this, how the love of God is shed abroad in Jesus Christ.

9. Christ is our sanctification in this respect: all the promises of the gospel are made to us in him. He is the foundation of all the promises in the gospel; they are all made good in him; and they have abundance of sanctifying power in them. Christ is our sanctification, I say, because it is through him that the promises are made, and they have a mighty sanctifying power. As for the first part, see 2 Corinthians 1:20: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us.” All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen. All gospel promises are made to us by Christ. That is a very useful and notable meditation: to consider, of all the promises, that they come to us from Christ. It is an excellent meditation to set out the excellency of Jesus Christ, that in him are all the promises.

They are yea in him. What is the meaning of that? That is, they are confirmed to us in Christ; in him they are made certain to us; they are made good in him. Or, as some of your Bibles read it, “For all the promises of God in him are yea.” And I find (I do not know whether it is in your Bibles) that Calvin, Beza and other interpreters say it is read in some copies this way: “Therefore in him let them be yea and Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” All the promises of God in him are yea; that is, they are made certain things in Christ as their foundation. Therefore (so Beza says it is read), let them be Amen in him unto the praise of God. That is, as God has made all the promises certain in him, so let us look upon Christ, see the promises of God in him, and believe in them, and so by our faith say Amen to the promises that are made in him, unto the glory of God. So we shall glorify God, when we look upon the promises by our faith and say Amen to them in our souls.

Now the word Amen signifies firm and sure; that is the meaning of the word Amen. Sometimes, at the end of our prayer, it signifies “so be it.” It is a Hebrew word that signifies “So be it; let it be, O Lord, as we have prayed, and according to your promise.” That is the meaning of the word Amen when you conclude your prayer with it. It is a word that is used for faith; it is the expression of faith after we have made our prayer. And that is the meaning here: all the promises in him are yea, they are made in Christ and affirmed in Christ as certain; therefore in him let them be Amen to the soul, let them be firm and certain things to us, for us to rest upon, unto the glory of God by us. And by this we shall glorify God. You have so many precious promises in Christ, but now they are unto the glory of God by us when we by faith say Amen to them, and make them firm and sure to our souls by the exercise of our faith upon them. So you may understand in some measure this scripture, which has exceedingly much in it. Thus you see that by Christ the promises are made to us.

Question. Yes, but you will say, “How does this help our sanctification?”

Answer. I answer, exceedingly much. There is nothing that helps the sanctification of a believer’s soul more than the promises of the gospel. Those who are exercised in the promises of the gospel grow more abundantly in sanctification than others. The promises of the gospel are channels, not only of mercy for our salvation, but of holiness for our sanctification. For that you have a most excellent scripture, 2 Corinthians 7:1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” It is as full a scripture as any I know. Here you may see what use the Holy Spirit would have you make of the promises of the gospel and of mercy. It may be you think that, seeing there are such promises of mercy, you may take more liberty to the flesh. But that is not the reasoning of the Spirit. He would not take more liberty by them; but seeing we have such promises, he says, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness. Filthiness cannot stand with believing the promises.

And mark, he says, “from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit.” So it is not enough for you to say, “I have as good a heart toward God as anyone; I thank God my heart is right, my spirit is right.” Yes, but you must cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh as well as of the spirit; and these promises, if you make the right use of them, will be mightily cleansing. And mark, “from all filthiness.” It is not enough to be cleansed from some gross filthiness, that is, that you do not live in the gross sins that others in the world live in, and that your neighbors live in; that you are not fornicators, drunkards, cheats, profaners of the Sabbath and the like. These promises will cleanse from “all filthiness”: that is, there shall be no filthiness that sticks to you as it does to the wicked and ungodly, but they will cleanse you gradually, by degrees, from all filthiness of the flesh.

“And spirit,” or of the spirit: not only to make you conscientious about wicked actions, but to cleanse you from your very thoughts. These promises will cleanse from the filthiness of the flesh; yes, perhaps they may serve the purpose a little there. But they also cleanse from the filthiness of the spirit: the filthiness of the thoughts, the filthiness of the affections, those inward spiritual wickednesses of pride, malice and the like. It may be you would count it a vile thing to be accused of fornication, the filthiness of the flesh. Yes, but what do you say to the filthiness of the spirit: pride, malice, distrust, earthly-mindedness and such like? These promises are to cleanse from the filthiness of the spirit as well as of the flesh. And then, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God”: the promises make them fear God more, and then they perfect holiness. Such a one as is acquainted with the promises of the gospel is content with no measure of holiness, but grows higher and higher till he comes to perfection. Here you see the use of the promises, what a cleansing nature the promises have. Oh, brothers and sisters, be much exercised in the promises; lay up promises, if you would get power over your corruptions.

And one scripture more for this is 2 Peter 1:4: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” The promises of the gospel are precious, worth more than a world. A believer who knows the preciousness of the promises values them more than his estate. What do you count precious? To have your ships come home laden with precious things? Yes, but to have your hearts filled with precious promises is far better than these. But wherein do these promises appear to be so precious? It appears by this: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature.” That is, by these great and precious promises you might be partakers of the divine nature, which is holiness, sanctification; that is what is called the divine nature. “Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”: by these the soul escapes the corruption that is in the world through lust. And it does not only escape the corruption of the world (that is, it does not live as wickedly as others do), but it comes to be made partaker of the divine nature through these promises. So Christ is the rest of sanctification because in him all the promises are made, and they have a mighty cleansing virtue to sanctify the heart. You would willingly have a share in the promises, and have the mercy that the promise holds forth. Now, as you would have a share in the promises, and have the mercy that the promises hold forth, so you must labor to feel the efficacy of the promises to cleanse your hearts and make you partakers of the divine nature.

10. Christ is our sanctification because in him all the ordinances are effectual. The ordinances are effectual only in Christ. Christ gave his ordinances to his church at the first, and they come to be effectual through him. It is not what you come to hear in the word, but how much of Christ you have in the word. You come to the sacrament: it is not what you partake of there, but what of Christ you get there. It is Christ in the word, the sacrament and prayer that is the efficacy of all the ordinances. The ordinances are all but the vehicle of Christ, the conveyance of Christ to the soul. And therefore, when we come to any ordinance, we should think to ourselves: What have we of Christ? What have we of Christ here? Have we met with anything of Christ here? In the word, prayer and sacraments, has my heart been drawn nearer to Christ in them? For it is certain that Christ is the virtue and kernel of all the ordinances. Hence it is that those who are acquainted with Christ, and have been brought to him, come to profit more by the ordinances in one month now than they did in all their lives. Before, the ordinances were empty and lifeless things to you, but in Christ they now come to be made effectual.

11. Christ is our sanctification by sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts. For the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son, and we can never expect the saving work of the Holy Spirit, or the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, except through Christ. So Christ says in that place in John 16:14 concerning the Spirit. He says he will send his Spirit: “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine.” The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, receives of Christ when he comes into the heart. Therefore, if there is any sanctification by the Holy Spirit, it must be through Christ; he must receive of Christ; he works from the Father and from the Son. And therefore the Scripture has that phrase, “We are baptized into one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13); that is, by being baptized into Christ, having the inward work of baptism, we are now made partakers of that one Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Now such is the excellency of sanctification that it cannot be wrought by any natural means; it must have the Holy Spirit sent into the heart. And therefore the saints are said to be “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor 6:19). Now whatever work of the Holy Spirit is required for sanctification must be in and through Christ, and from Christ. The Holy Spirit never comes to sanctify any but the members of Jesus Christ. For he is the Spirit of Christ as well as of the Father, and he never comes to any but the members of Christ in this work of sanctification.

There are some common gifts of God’s Spirit that the heathen have, but this gift of true holiness is only in the members of Christ, into whom the Holy Spirit comes.

12. Lastly, Christ is our sanctification by his kingly power: swaying his scepter in our hearts and ruling there, subduing our lusts as a king subdues rebels, and walking in and governing the hearts of his people. Christ exercises a kingly power when any soul believes. When Christ comes into any heart, he comes into the heart to exercise a kingly power there, to set up his throne in a kingly manner; and by this he comes to sanctify the heart and give rest. As in a kingdom there are mutinies, seditions and the like, so in the hearts of sinners there are mutinies and seditions, even against God himself. But when the king sends forth his power, that very power prevails against all things; and if it prevails in a way of justice, all things are brought back into right and due order. So here: when Christ comes into the heart as King of righteousness, and then as King of peace, he thereby comes to bring rest and quiet to the heart by his kingly power. Carnal hearts think that the kingly power of Christ would be a disturbance to Christians; but certainly the government of Christ in the heart brings the only rest and quiet to the soul. Now these and several other particulars might be named; but joining these with the others that went before, you may see how Christ is rest to the soul in sanctification. And thus we have done with that particular.

Now there are various consequences that flow from this, such as these.

1. From this we may see the difference between the condition of believers now and the condition of Adam, and we may see that believers are in a better condition than Adam was. Why? Because the image of God in which Adam was made may be called natural. That is, it came only from God as Creator, from his making Adam a creature and giving him the perfection that was suited to the nature of a rational creature. That was all the holiness Adam had. All the holiness and righteousness that was in Adam was only what was suitable to a rational creature in such a condition. And when he had it, he was to trade, as it were, with that stock himself, and to live by the stock God gave him at first. There was only a general concurrence of God’s providence: as long as Adam continued to obey God, God’s providence would go along with him and uphold him in his estate. And this was the estate of Adam.

But now the holiness and righteousness that the saints have comes from another principle. It does not come from God merely as Creator, but from God through a Mediator, from God through his Son. It comes through Christ, and it is a partaking of the Spirit of Christ and of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit in Christ. We do not read of any such kind of work in Adam. The text says only that the Lord made him according to his own image (Gen 1:27). But we do not read that he was to have his holiness through union with the second person of the Trinity, and through the Spirit sent into him by the Father and the Son, or that he was to be made a temple of the Holy Spirit. He had the principle of holiness in himself, but we have our principle of holiness still in Christ. We are not trusted with our holiness. Though holiness is conveyed to believers, yet they are not trusted with the principle of their holiness; it is still in Christ. But Adam was not so. As long as Adam stood, God would go on with the concurrence of his providence with him. But God never made such a covenant with Adam, that he should have a principle of holiness laid up in his Son, and that by faith he should draw out this principle of holiness.

I will show you the difference between the state of Adam and that of a believer by this similitude. A father puts a stock into his son’s hand, but in such a way that he tells him, “Here is your portion. I will give you your portion; go and trade with it as well as you can. But you are never likely to have anything more from me, except what you gain by this stock.” This was the state of Adam. God gave Adam a stock of holiness, a stock of righteousness, at first, and told Adam to trade with it, and what he had to live on was to be what he gained by that stock, and that was all.

But now, it is true, we have all lost that stock and gone bankrupt. Now God is pleased to set up some of mankind again. There are others who must perish eternally, and be cast into prison, and rot there in prison eternally. But to some God is pleased to give another stock, yet in such a way that he will not trust them with it wholly. Rather, he gives them grace and tells them to go and trade with it, but he gives it to them little by little and reserves the main stock in his Son’s hand. He says, “Go and trade with this, and as you are in need, come to Christ. If you have any losses in your trade, come to my Son, and you shall have it made up again. You must give account to my Son every day.”

Now consider one who is set up with a little stock, but on the condition that he must give account to his father every day. Being faithful, even though he has losses, he will make up his loss, and such a course is taken that he shall never go bankrupt again, for he shall have a continual supply in his father’s hands, or his uncle’s hands, or a friend’s hand. And this is the case of believers. It is true that they are not made as perfectly holy as Adam was; we do not have so great a stock as Adam had. But our stock is better, for together with our stock of holiness we have a supply from Jesus Christ. What we have shall be taken care of by him, so that we shall not lose what we have; and if there is the least impairing of what we have, he will make it up again. So our holiness now comes from another stock and is upheld by another principle than Adam’s ever was. And this is the reason why the saints never fall as Adam did: the holiness they have can never decay. They can never go bankrupt as Adam did, but they have the principle from Christ, the water of life that shall flow into their hearts from Christ eternally.

2. Another consequence that follows from our rest in our sanctification in Christ is this: from this we see the difference between civility, or morality, and true holiness, true sanctification. I suppose you have heard ministers speak of civil men, men who have mere morality and live civilly, and I do not doubt that you have wondered what they meant. What is this morality? We hear ministers speak of moral men: “Such a one is a good moral man,” or, “Such a one is a civil man.” What more would they have? Would they not have men be civil? Do these men not live inoffensively? They pay everyone their due; they do no wrong; they come to church and serve God. What more would they have? And yet we hear ministers say, “This is not enough, to be civil and not to live in scandalous sins as others do. This is not enough.”

Now it is true, this is not enough. By what you have heard from this point you may discern that it is not enough, and that more is required than that. And by this you may know the difference between your civil and moral man and those who have true holiness and sanctification. Your civil man and moral man has restraining grace, which keeps his corruption in, and what he does, he does through the strength of reason. He sees by reason that to live in such a wicked course as others do (to lie, swear, get drunk, be unclean, cheat and swindle) is sin; the light of nature teaches him this. So it was with the heathen, the moral philosophers: that is, those who by the light of nature saw the evil of such notorious vices, and saw what the rules of nature were for the guiding of their conduct. So, I say, your civil men have made some use of the light of nature. They see by the light of nature that they must not live in such and such sins as others do, and that it is better to live justly, yes, and to be generous to the poor; many reach that far. Yes, but all this goes no further than the common light of nature, no further than the prudence and reason of a man as a rational creature may carry him.

Question. You will say, “What more is there?”

Answer. This is more: there must be sanctification of the heart through the mediation of Jesus Christ. A principle of grace must come into the heart as a fruit of the second covenant that God has made with sinners in Jesus Christ, through the mystical union the soul has with Jesus Christ. This is higher. Now when a soul comes beyond civility, God works on it in this manner: “I come now to see the breach there is between God and my soul. I see what my state is by nature: that I am a child of wrath, that I am dead in sins and trespasses. Though I have not lived as wickedly as such and such have done, yet I see myself a child of wrath, and an heir of hell and death, notwithstanding all that I have done. And I see that only through the blessed mediation of Jesus Christ is this breach made up, and that I can have union with God only through him. His Spirit of sanctification must come to my soul through the covenant of the gospel. I must have my heart raised up to God in another manner, not only to live civilly but to live holily: to have the image of God renewed in me through the Spirit of Christ, and so to live the life of Christ; to feel a continual supply coming to my heart through Christ; to feed on the promises through the covenant of grace, and so to have my heart quickened more and more; and to perfect my holiness in the fear of God through the promises of the gospel.” This is more than the civil and merely moral man can come to.

Your civil man is known in these ways.

(1) By this: what he does is merely according to common prudence and the light of nature.

(2) The chief part of his religion lies in negatives: he is not as bad as other men.

(3) If he has anything positive, it is only in outward actions, in serving God. But as for being acquainted with the mystery of godliness and the power of holiness, with the necessity of a Mediator, with the need of a continual supply of grace from Jesus Christ, this he does not see.

Further, this civil man is not burdened with corruption, with the remainder of corruption, but thinks himself in a very good condition. Indeed, he says he must be saved by Jesus Christ. But I put this to any civil man in the world: What need do you find of Jesus Christ for your sanctification? Are you so burdened with those inward corruptions in your spirit that the world can take no notice of? Do you go groaning under your corruption, so as to see the need of the mediation of Jesus Christ, and of a supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to help you against your corruption and sanctify your heart? You are not acquainted with this; this is a point above you. And therefore in this point we come to see the difference between civility and true holiness.

We come to see by this that godliness and holiness is a mystery. The Scripture speaks of a mystery of godliness and of the power of godliness, and godliness is powerful precisely because it is a mystery. If we must have our holiness from Christ as Mediator, so that Christ is first filled with holiness and our souls must draw our holiness from him by faith, then certainly godliness is a mystery. The godliness that must save souls is a mystery, beyond what ordinary men of the world understand. Few understand what God’s way is in conveying grace to the souls of those he intends eternal life for.

God’s way of conveying grace to the soul is not this: to give you reason to understand that such and such things are wicked, and that therefore, for your own ease and quiet in the world, you must live civilly. No, God’s way is to reveal his Son to you, and to reveal the necessity of union with Christ: to be made a member of him, to draw power from him as from a head, and to see a fountain of life from him continually flowing into your heart, so as to resort to Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, made man for your soul. I say, to resort to him as the fountain of all grace, to be conveyed from him to the soul: here is the mystery of holiness that is beyond all the civility and morality in the world.

Oh, that by this point you would understand something of the mystery of godliness! And oh, that it might stir up at least some suspicious thoughts in the hearts of those who have lived only civilly and morally. Perhaps for many years together they have been good neighbors; they pay everyone their due, and nobody can accuse them of wrong. But oh, that they would consider with themselves: “Well, I have lived like this for so long, but has my soul been acquainted with the mystery of the gospel, to draw power from Christ as a Mediator? Do I have a stock of grace from him to trade with, so that what I trade with I have from him? Have I found the burden of my inward corruption? And have I gotten ease and rest by virtue of the promises of the gospel? And have I searched into the covenant of grace and found promises there to convey comfort to my soul? Has my heart been exercised in this way?” Certainly, if yours has not, you do not know what the way of the gospel is, what an evangelical life is, what a true evangelical life is. When the soul is enabled to live on Christ, so that you feel your heart living on Christ, sucking and drawing power from Christ to mortify your corruptions and quicken your heart in the way of holiness, this is a true evangelical life. And that is another consequence drawn from this: that godliness is a mystery, beyond civility and morality.

3. Another consequence that may be drawn is this: from this we may see the reason why the vows and covenants of many people to live better than they have done so often come to nothing. Our sanctification is in Christ; our overcoming of corruption is by virtue of Christ. From this, then, I say, we plainly see the reason for what becomes of the vows and covenants of so many people who promise to live better in the time of their sickness, or when they are in some danger at sea. “Oh,” they say, “if ever God restores us, we will never live as we have done; we will live better than we have done before.” And they do not speak like this at the time to deceive people; they say what they really intend, and their hearts are fully resolved to leave their sins and live better. Yet when they are restored, they live as before. When they come to land, whatever promise they made at sea, they live as before.

What is the reason for this? It is because they are not acquainted with the mystery of godliness. They do not know how to draw strength from Christ to enable them to keep their resolutions; they do not know where the stock of grace lies. They depend on their own resolutions and promises; they do not see the strength that should come from Christ. And this is why all their vows and covenants come to nothing. We read of Samson that after his strength was gone from him, he said he would go out as before, but the Lord had departed from him (Judg 16:20). So you think that if God restores you, you will live better and overcome your corruptions, and will not live as before. Yes, but the strength of Christ is not with you. You do not know that the strength of Christ has departed from you.

Adam had grace from God as Creator. It is not for us to pray to God for grace as the Creator of all things; rather, we must seek God in Christ, and see how all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him (Col 2:9). And so we come to have strength against our corruptions.

I remember a German minister who, writing to his friend, declared that before he understood the way of the gospel, he had vowed and covenanted a thousand times against some sins and could never overcome them. But after the Lord revealed to him the way of the gospel (that all strength comes in by exercising faith in Christ, by seeing the Father giving his Son to supply all grace, and by exercising faith in the covenant of grace), he found strength against his corruptions, so that he was able to walk with God very comfortably in the ways of holiness.

So Christians who understand the way of the gospel will find abundant power against their corruptions, more than they found with all their striving and painstaking before. Though we should strive and take all the pains we can, yet we must know that this will not do it without the exercise of faith in Christ to help us against our corruptions.

4. From this it also follows that it is impossible for anyone to be a member of Christ and not be holy. For Christ is our sanctification; Christ is filled full of holiness so that holiness might be conveyed to his members. Therefore, as for those whose lusts are still in their strength, who do not have the rest of sanctification in some measure, surely the Spirit of Christ is not in them. These cannot stand together: to be a member of Christ and yet to walk in filthiness. These cannot stand together. For Christ is the great Prophet who teaches and the great King of his church who governs, and certainly whoever is brought to him must be taught by him and governed by him. It is impossible to have communion with the fountain of all holiness and yet, for all that, to live under the power of sin. This cannot be.

5. From this it likewise follows that for anyone to be hindered in coming to Christ because they do not have the measure of holiness they desire is a great temptation. For any soul that sees its lack of grace, its lack of sanctification, and labors under the burden of corruption, to be hindered in coming to Christ because it does not have the grace it desires is a very strong and dangerous temptation of the devil, which we must beware of. It is a most irrational temptation, and yet this is what many poor souls are troubled with. When we exhort them to come to Christ, they think like this: “Alas, what should I do, poor creature? I am so vile; I have such a wicked and sinful heart. How should I come to him? If I were like this or that, if I had power over my corruptions as others have, then I could be bold to come to Christ.”

Now what a temptation this is! Christ says, “Come, and I will give you rest,” and you say, “If I had rest, I would come.” Christ is the fountain of all holiness, so to be kept away from Christ because I lack holiness is a very great temptation; it is the work of the devil. Should I be kept away from Christ for lack of holiness, when Christ is appointed by God the Father to convey holiness to the heart, to renew the image of God in me, and to draw it more beautifully than it ever was before?

Remember the point you have heard, that Christ is our sanctification and all holiness comes from him. Therefore, surely my lack of holiness shall not drive him from me, but draw me to him. Let me not say, as Peter did, “Master, depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). The truth is, he should rather have said, “Master, come to me, for I am a sinful man.” So many poor souls will say, “Lord, I cannot come to Christ, because I am so sinful.” You should come to him all the more because you are so sinful.

6. From this we learn how to understand Christ rightly and how to believe in Christ rightly. Some people understand Christ only as a Savior: that they must be pardoned by Christ, saved by him, and delivered from hell by him. But you must understand him to be sanctification to you as well. You must trust in Christ to sanctify you as well as to save you. If you understand Christ rightly, you must understand him to be a Sanctifier as well as a Savior; and if you believe in Christ rightly, you believe in Christ as a Sanctifier as well as a Savior. And so much for the consequences that follow from the rest of sanctification in Christ.

Now for the last thing I proposed: to exhort and draw believers to come to Christ. In this I will try to take away the many hindrances the soul meets in coming to Christ for sanctification, and also to give the heart some encouragements to come to Christ for sanctification.

You see, here is the way to get power over corruption and to get grace, namely, to come to Christ. “Yes,” you say, “if I knew I were a member of Christ and had a share in Christ, then I could come to Christ for power over my corruption and for grace. But I am afraid I have no share in him.”

1. In answer to that, which is the main stop and hindrance of faith, know this: if you have but a heart to come to him for grace, that is as good a sign of your share in Christ as any sign you have. It is as good an evidence of a share in him as any you can expect.

2. You must come to him for grace. And if you had no share in him before, yet your very coming to him now for grace to help you against corruption, that very act of yours, may give you a share in Christ. What is it that unites you to Christ? What is it that makes someone a member of Christ? What is it that gives a share in Christ? It is only coming to him, as you heard before when we handled that point.

Question. But you will say, “If only I had a right to him!”

Answer. If you come to Christ now to get power over your corruption and to get grace, I say that even though you had no share in him before, this very act may give you a share in Christ. Therefore do not be discouraged, but come to Christ.

3. Will you wait until you find power against your corruption before you will come to him? Then you will never have power against your corruption. For you have heard that it is Christ who is the foundation of your sanctification.

And then for encouragements: there are a great many excellent encouragements for poor sinners to come to Christ.

First, consider the near union there is between Christ and us, by reason of his very human nature. That place in Hebrews 2:11 is a very notable scripture for our encouragement: “For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” “He that sanctifieth, and those that are sanctified are all one”: what does that mean? It means that Christ is of the same nature as you are. Christ has taken our nature on himself, and the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him, so that you may go to him with all the more boldness. He who is your brother is not ashamed to be called your brother. Therefore do not look on him as your judge, at such an infinite distance, but look on him as your brother, as one with him. “He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified are all one”: you and Christ together are one body. Now what an encouragement this is to expect sanctification from Christ to overcome corruption, since Christ and you are made one body, of the same nature, and so nearly united and made one!

Second, consider that if Christ loved you so dearly as to lay down his life for you, surely he will never let you perish in your corruptions. Shall Christ come down from heaven and lay down his life for poor souls, and then let them die under their corruptions? Now if a man were willing to lay down his life for a child, and then came and saw the child lying in the dirt, ready to be smothered in the dirt, could he go by and not regard the child? This is our case. Christ has come and laid down his life for poor sinners, and yet they see themselves ready to be smothered by their corruptions, and they cry to him for help. Surely Christ will not pass by and let you lie in your filthiness, to be smothered in your corruption, when you were so dear to him that he laid down his life for you.

Third, another encouragement is this: know that your corruptions are Christ’s burdens as well as your burdens. They are burdens to your soul and burdens to Jesus Christ, and therefore he certainly pities you under them and will help you.

Fourth, if Christ had so much pity as to heal the bodies of poor creatures here in this world, so that no diseased body ever came to him but he healed it, then surely Christ will heal souls. Christ has more regard for immortal souls than for bodies.

Fifth, Christ knows what it is to be tempted. Though Christ had no corruption in him, yet Christ knows what it is to be tempted. Christ knows by his own experience what a burden it is to be tempted to sin, and surely Christ cannot but know what a burden it is to be overcome by sin. Now Christ himself had the burden of being tempted to sin, and Christ knows that your burden is greater than his burden was, and that it is more to be overcome than to be tempted to sin. Therefore he knows how to pity you.

Sixth, know that it is to the honor of the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and the life of Christ to help you against your corruptions and to quicken you in grace. Christ counts his resurrection and life honored when he sees their virtue and power at work in the hearts of believers. Since, then, it is to the honor of the death, resurrection and life of Christ, this may encourage you to go to him for help against your corruptions.

And remember this when you are at your duties, begging for help against your corruptions; carry this rule with you: “I come to pray against my sins, but together with my prayer, let me exercise my faith. I come to hear the word, yes, but together with my hearing, let me exercise my faith on Christ as Mediator to help me against my corruptions. I come to the sacrament, but I come to have communion with Christ, to help me against my corruptions.” Oh, exercise your faith in the promises of the gospel, through the blessed covenant, and you will find abundant strength against your corruption, and rest for your soul.

I shall now add only a word or two to conclude this, and so go on to the next rest that is promised here.

Come to Christ for the rest of sanctification, for holiness. For the truth is, there is no true holiness except what we have by coming to Christ. Scripture speaks of true holiness. There may be abstaining from many sins and performing of many duties, but there is no saving holiness except what is had from God through Christ as Mediator. There is no true holiness until the soul comes to be acquainted with Christ and has it that way. The holiness that we have by exercising faith on Christ as the head of the covenant is indeed the mystery of godliness. That is the true godliness; that is godliness in a mystery, which the world is not acquainted with; that is the power of godliness, the powerful holiness that comes by Christ.

And indeed this is the reason why there is so much strength of grace in the hearts of the saints: because they have it from Christ. It comes from the Spirit of Jesus Christ that is in him, and Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; his Spirit is a spirit of might. Common gifts do not have the strength that this holiness that comes from Christ has. The holiness that is from Christ is the only supernatural holiness; it is the divine nature. By contrast, the kind of abstaining from sin and performing of duties that outwardly moral people have, which comes in by common gifts, is not the divine nature. They have it only in a natural way; what they have comes by the strength of reason and argument. But what comes in by the exercise of faith in Christ is supernatural; it is of a divine nature. And it is abundant. Abundant is the holiness that the soul comes to have in exercising faith in Christ.

In drawing grace from Christ, the heart grows more in the way of holiness. It exercises much more faith in Christ in a little time than it did in a long time before. Perhaps such people were truly godly before, and members of Christ; yet for lack of a right understanding of how all grace comes from God through Christ, and so of drawing it that way, they did not thrive in the ways of godliness.

That text in Ephesians 3:17 is most admirable for this. The apostle prays, “That Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love.” There is the strength of grace, when Christ dwells in our heart. “That you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18-19). Here is the fruit of it: that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. A strange speech! Had it not been in Scripture, who would have dared to express himself this way, that by coming to know God in Christ you may come to be filled with all the fullness of God in Christ? It would be a great deal to say this much: by knowing God in Christ you may come to have God. That is something. But, second, that you may come to be filled with God: that is more. But, third, that you may come to be filled with the fullness of God: that is more still. Yes, fourth, that you may come to be filled with all the fullness of God. What a gradation is here! It shows the admirable use of knowing God in Christ.

By contrast, other men and women, who were only taught in their childhood to serve God, are told they must serve God. They are restrained from many sins, and they perform duties: they will pray, and come to hear. But not being acquainted with the mystery of the gospel, and with drawing holiness from God through Christ, how far they are from having this text made good in their hearts, that is, from being filled with all the fullness of God! But afterward, when they come to have a clearer understanding of the mystery of godliness from Christ, then they come to enjoy communion with God more than they ever did. Before, they were strangers to God; now they have communion with him. Yes, now they feel God’s fullness come more fully into their hearts than before. Now they feel a fullness from God, and so they come by degrees to be what is said in this text: filled with all the fullness of God.

The reason for all the emptiness, scantiness and barrenness in your heart is lack of understanding how God has filled Christ with all fullness, from whom we are to receive grace for grace. By drawing grace from Christ we come to have permanent holiness, lasting holiness. And this indeed is the reason, as you have heard before, why the grace of the saints endures forever and they can never fail, whereas the grace of Adam did fail: because the one comes from God through Christ, and the other did not. Adam’s grace did not come from God through a Mediator as this does, and therefore this is permanent and the other is not. But I spoke of that before. We bring it in now only as a further motive to make us seek holiness in Jesus Christ, this rest of sanctification.

I will briefly propose some rules by way of direction, as helps in seeking grace and sanctification in Christ.

First, labor to get a sense of your lack of holiness and of your need of Christ for it.

Second, in exercising yourselves in the ordinances, do not be satisfied with the ordinances any further than you meet with Christ in them. Do not be satisfied with a prayer, or with hearing, but think to yourselves, “What have I of Christ here?” I told you this in opening the point, when I showed how Christ is the sanctification of the heart: the blessing of all the ordinances comes by having Christ there.

There are two or three more things that I would commend to you.

First, in seeking Christ, do not come so much for enlargement of heart, for comfort, for peace, as for sanctification. Seek your peace for the sake of holiness, rather than seek holiness for the sake of peace. This is a special rule of direction for thriving in seeking sanctification by Christ. Many Christians seek to have Christ, but why? That they might have peace, that they might have comfort; and they make their holiness only subservient to their peace and comfort. They think, “Unless I am holy, I cannot have peace; therefore I will labor for holiness so that I may have peace.” But a truly gracious heart will rather say, “The more holiness I have, the more peace I have; and therefore I will labor for peace so that I may have holiness.” The one labors for holiness so that he may have peace, and the other labors for peace so that he may have holiness. Now those Christians who labor rather for peace so that they may have holiness will thrive more than those who labor for holiness so that they may have peace. It is true, indeed, that it is one good motive to labor for holiness because it will bring peace. Yes, but it is a stronger motive to labor for peace so that we may have holiness. Therefore when we seek Christ, we should seek holiness and sanctification from Christ rather than seek that we might have peace.

You say, “You tell us that Christ is our sanctification, but we have not found such sanctification from Christ as to increase our holiness.” Would you know the reason? You have exercised your faith on Christ mainly so that you might have peace, so that you might have enlargement and comfort as others have; and that is the reason your holiness is scant. If you had exercised your faith in Christ so that you might have holiness, then you might have had more peace. Christ says, “Be it unto thee according to thy faith” (Matthew 9:29). So in this case Christ says to every believer: let it be to you according to your faith; according to what you exercise your faith for, so let it be to you. Do you exercise your faith for peace and comfort, and mainly for that? You will have some peace and comfort, but you will not have as much holiness. But do you exercise your faith most for holiness? Then you will have most holiness. Now certainly a true Christian prizes holiness above peace. And I know no surer argument for the truth of grace, and for the difference between a hypocrite and one who has true grace, than this: the hypocrite would have holiness so that he may have peace, but the true believer would have peace so that his peace may increase his holiness.

Second, another rule is this. Though Christ does give grace, an increase of sanctification and holiness, do not depend on what Christ gives for the present, but still keep your heart aware of your need of new supplies. There are many Christians who, when they have been at a duty and have exercised faith on Christ for this rest of sanctification, and have gotten something (some enlargement, some quickening of spirit, some resolution in the way of God), rest there. Now they think they are well; they think they will live on this stock a great while. But we are to pray for our daily bread, and to depend on Christ for new supplies of grace and holiness every day, every moment, according to every work we are set about: to go to Christ for new supplies as if we had nothing at all given us before. And Christ will be well pleased with this: that though we have ever so much grace, we still go to him to renew our faith as if we had none at all, that is, as strongly. I do not mean that we should think we have none at all, but that we should exercise faith on Christ for a new supply of holiness as strongly and eagerly as if we had none at all. And indeed, those who seem to have none exercise faith in Christ most.

Third, to conclude everything, take this as a rule: those Christians who keep company most with Jesus Christ in the blessed way of the gospel will increase most in grace, and they have this by way of sanctification. I will give you only that one scripture, by way of allusion, to apply to this, in Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.” Peter and John had much boldness. They had strength of grace; they had much boldness despite all their opposition. But how did they come by it? They were unlearned men, ignorant men, poor weak men as to their natural abilities; and yet they had gotten an abundance of grace, so as to profess Christ with boldness despite all the rage of their powerful adversaries. And the people wondered how they could get such strength as they had. But, says the text, “they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” It was that which so raised their spirits. It was that which quickened them and enlarged their hearts so much with grace: that they had been with Jesus, that they had bodily kept company with Christ. Now I would apply this in a spiritual sense. If Peter and John grew to such height and strength of grace by keeping company with Christ bodily, much more may Christians grow to a height, strength and fullness of grace by keeping much company with Jesus Christ. Keep company with Christ in a way of faith, and that will mightily enlarge your heart in grace.

And the truth is, when you see a Christian whose natural abilities are perhaps only weak, and yet you see him grow mightily in grace, so that he has a mightily large heart for God, and much spirit in prayer, and his life is very holy and convincing, you may conclude that this man or this woman has been with Jesus Christ, that is, has kept much company with Jesus Christ. Would you know how it is that you see many poor Christians who in a short time have grown so in holiness, so that you think they have gotten a great deal more than you have? They can depend on God more, and can rejoice in tribulation more; they have more spirituality and more savor in their way of life, and they find a great deal more sweetness in the ways of God than you do. Where does it come from? Their means perhaps are no greater, their outward means; their natural abilities are no greater. Where does it come from, then? Would you know where? They have been with Jesus; they keep much company with Christ. And you may have it too.

Perhaps you have been a professing Christian for twenty or thirty years, and now you grow old, and yet perhaps you are still weak. It is as much as can be said of you that there is some hope there is some good in you; but as for the seeds and sparks of the divine nature that are in others’ spirits, there is no such thing in you at all. What is the reason? Because such people are not acquainted with this drawing of sanctification from Christ by the exercise of faith. Well, this much shall suffice for this rest, the rest of sanctification, the rest of holiness, which brings abundance of rest to the heart; as that increases, so does holiness increase.

Now we come to the fifth burden. You may remember that the fifth burden was the burden of outward affliction. Come to me, says Christ, you who are burdened with the guilt of your sins, you who are burdened with legal performances, you who are burdened with the remaining corruption that is in you; come to me, and I will give you rest. What rest there is from all those burdens you have now heard. Now, lastly: come to me, you who are under the burden of afflictions (for that is a yoke, as we explained when we dealt with the point of being laden), the burden of affliction, whether bodily afflictions or spiritual afflictions; come to me, and you will have rest.

Now, spiritual afflictions have been spoken of a great deal in handling the former burden, and there may be something more about them later, when I come to speak about spiritual desertions. Those kinds of afflictions are often upon Christians, and there is rest for their souls with regard to them. But for the present, all I will say now concerns outward afflictions: come to me, and you will have rest. I mean the afflictions of sickness and poverty, of persecution and dishonor, and of trouble here in this world. For we must know that there is rest in Christ even with regard to these, and abundance of rest. Those who are acquainted with the mystery of godliness and the way of God’s grace in Christ may meet with much trouble in this world, yet they find abundant rest of spirit in Christ with regard to those troubles.

Indeed, Christ did not say, “Come to me, and I will immediately free you from all trouble.” That you cannot expect. What he says is this: Come to me, and this I promise you, that you will have rest in your spirits. Your condition may be as troublesome as anyone’s with regard to outward things here in this world, but this I will promise, this I will pledge myself for: you will have rest for your souls in every condition whatsoever that you are put into. And is not this a blessed rest? Especially in times like these, so full of upheaval, when men are stripped of their goods and persecuted, and we are still afraid every day that all these outward comforts may be wrenched from us.

This point may perhaps be more timely for some than for others. Tell some people about the burden of the law: that is a spiritual thing, and they have no skill in it. Tell them of rest from the trouble of the guilt of sin: that is spiritual, and they have little skill in that. Tell them of rest from the remaining corruption in their hearts: that is still spiritual, and they have no skill in that either. Ah, but now I come to speak of something all of you will feel, outward afflictions. Yes, that is something! The hearts of all people will say that it would be a good thing to be in Christ, to have rest with regard to outward afflictions.

Now it is God’s way to draw people to his Son in their own way, to show the good that is in his Son in a way they themselves can feel. Even those who are strangers to Christ may feel this, so far as to think that if what is promised here is made good, then it is indeed a blessed thing to be in Christ. That is what I will now open to you. Only I will give you one more scripture for it first, and then proceed to open it. It is in John 16:33: “These things have I spoken to you, that in me ye might have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

This is a full text. Christ foresaw that his disciples would have a great deal of affliction in this world. This was spoken to them only a little before Christ’s death, a little before Christ was to die and go from them, and he tells them of a great deal of affliction they would have in the world. But, says Christ, I have spoken these things so that in me you will have peace, though you have trouble in the world. I will not free you from trouble, but I will give your souls peace in those troubles. In me you will have peace, though in the world you have trouble. And be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Though you will have troubles in the world, yet I will give you rest, for I have overcome the world. Therefore be of good cheer, for all the troubles you meet with will not take away the peace of your spirits, the rest of your souls.

So then, the point we are now to enter upon is this: that in Christ there is rest in the midst of all afflictions, of all the troubles we can meet with in this world. And this is so for the following reasons.

First, a believer who comes to Christ must have rest whatever afflictions he meets with. For when he has come to Christ, he may come to know in him that no affliction either does or can befall him except what is at the disposal of the One who is his Father, and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And is not this a great deal of rest? To know that whatever comes to me, though there are such and such instruments, evil instruments, to bring trouble upon my estate or my name or in some other way, yet all this is by the wise ordering and disposing of that God who is the Father of Jesus Christ, and who in him is now my Father!

Suppose you could all be assured now that from now on you would never have any loss in your estate, any sickness in your body, any trouble in your family in any way, or any affliction befall you, except what was at the disposal of your own father: that he would dispose of it, and that your father was a wise and loving father. Or take the dearest friend that ever was in the world. If, I say, you were made sure of this from heaven, that you would never have any affliction in this world except by his disposal, would this not bring rest into your hearts, though you had a disquieted heart before? Would there not be a great deal of calm, quiet and rest upon your spirits? I have no doubt of it. If such a voice came from heaven, and you knew it was a voice from heaven and not a delusion, saying, “Be of good comfort, you who are so troubled for fear of loss and outward afflictions; be of good comfort, you will never have one minute of an hour of trouble and affliction more than your tender father or mother would be willing to allow,” would this not give rest and quiet to your spirit? Certainly, if you had faith to know that all comes from your Father in Christ, you could not help but have rest and peace. For when we have come to him, he is our Father in Christ, and all that comes to us is from him through Christ.

Second, by coming to Christ there is rest from outward afflictions, because in him the curse is taken away. It is Christ who has taken away the curse of all afflictions, and therefore there must be rest for the soul through Christ. Faith in Christ teaches believers to worm their afflictions, if I may put it that way: to worm them, that is, to get out the worm that is in them. The trouble that eats at the heart in affliction is the worm of the curse. For all afflictions in themselves, in their own nature, as they come to us if we are outside Christ, are, I say, part of the curse. Now the main trouble and burden of an affliction is the curse, the secret curse that is in it. But when you have come to Christ, though the outward bulk of the affliction may be as big as it was before, yet the curse will be taken away. The worm, the trouble that ate at your heart, will be taken away, and therefore there must be rest in that way.

Suppose a snake wound itself around your arm; that would frighten you. But if you came to know for certain that its sting had been taken out, you would be quiet, if you were a wise man. Perhaps a child or a weak woman might be frightened, but a wise man who understands what he is doing would not be afraid if he knew the sting was out. Now know, O believer, that upon your coming to Christ the sting of all affliction is taken out; there is nothing of the sting left in it. Affliction may make a noise, as a bee does when its sting is out. Though there were ever so many bees about your ears, if you knew the stings were out, you could be quiet.

The core of affliction is taken out as soon as you have come to Christ. Some sores put the body to a great deal of pain: there is some core in a wound, some malignant matter running in it, that puts a man or woman to a great deal of pain. But if the surgeon takes out this core, this malignant matter, there will be ease and rest. So, I say, by your coming to Christ, the core, the malignant matter of affliction, is taken out; the sting, the curse, is taken away. And you must exercise faith for its taking away. The way to exercise faith so as to take away the sting and core of every affliction is this: look upon Christ under all his afflictions as being made a curse for you. For that is what may indeed trouble us. The pains that were upon Christ in his body, the poverty he endured and the dishonor he suffered: there was a curse in them, and Christ takes away the curse by bearing the curse. As you know, when a bee stings, it often leaves its sting behind; so it is with the curses of the law. The law came to sting Christ, as it were, and left the curse behind it upon him, so that now the curse is removed from believers.

Someone has made a good observation about the burnt offering in the law. We read of the burnt offering that it was to keep burning all night. So now believers, in the night of their affliction, should exercise their faith on Christ as their burnt offering. Oh, consider! Though you have sad nights, sad and very grievous nights, and you lie tossing and turning, cannot sleep, and are in pain and trouble, what will give you rest? Now if you could only exercise faith in Christ, who was typified by the burnt offering that was to burn all night—this, I say, was typified: that Christ is to be looked upon as burning under the wrath of God all the night of your affliction, to take away God’s wrath in your afflictions—there is no rest like this.

Perhaps in a time of affliction, sickness, loss of estate and plundering of goods, one friend comes and then another, and says, “You must be content; it is the hand of God; others are afflicted as well as you; it is the portion of God’s children.” These are some things to quiet the heart. Yes, but these are only poor, cold comforts, to tell people that they must be content, that it must be so and they must endure it. These can never give rest to the soul unless you can set your friend to exercising faith in Jesus Christ. Here is the way to comfort your friends when you go to visit them in sickness, loss of estate or plundering of goods: set them to exercising faith on Christ, who has borne affliction and by his death has taken away the curse of all afflictions. It is true, there is a night of affliction upon you now. Yes, but there is Christ, the burnt offering that burns all night to take away the wrath of God in your afflictions. There is no way to worm your affliction, to take away the sting of affliction, like exercising faith on Christ, in whom the curse of affliction is taken away. And when that is gone, there is rest for the soul.

A sick man lies tossing and turning and cannot rest; he is so disordered in his flesh and has such malignant matter in his body. When the surgeon comes and applies some salve to take away that malignant matter, he says, when the surgeon comes again, “Oh, sir, now I can rest!” And so says a Christian when he has been vexed with such and such afflictions and has gone and exercised faith in Jesus Christ. For he sees that he was under the curse of the law, and that Christ has taken away the curse of all afflictions. When he has acted faith on Christ in this way, now he can be at rest, and he can say, “Now I see the sting taken away.”

As I said when speaking of the rest of sanctification, Christ was appointed as the bronze serpent was: the great ordinance of God for healing those who were stung by the fiery serpents. If they only looked at it, they were healed. Those who were stung by the fiery serpents were healed by the very looking at the bronze serpent, since it was the ordinance God appointed for that end. So I may apply it here. For those who are stung with affliction, Christ is set up as the ordinance, as the bronze serpent, to take away the venom of the sting of your affliction. No doubt those who were stung by the fiery serpents felt intolerable pain, and when they looked at the bronze serpent they had rest and could say, “Now I have ease, now I have rest.” So the curse of God in affliction is the venom. And as for those who are ready to rave, who are almost mad in affliction and so extremely discontented, it is to be suspected that the curse of God is upon them.

But now another, who is under as great an affliction as you are, can lie sweetly and contentedly, blessing God under any affliction, and you wonder that he can lie so joyfully, blessing God under so much affliction. The Lord has taught him a way to worm his affliction. The Lord has taught him a way to deliver his soul from the curse of the affliction. The curse is gone, and by exercising faith on Christ he has comfort in the removal of the curse, and this gives him rest in a time of affliction.

Third, come to Christ and you will have rest in your affliction, because then not only will the curse be removed, but there will be this blessing upon it: no affliction will befall you except such as may stand with God’s love, yes, such as will come out of God’s love and from God’s love. Love will be the great principle, not only of your affliction, but of what comes from your affliction. It is rest to know this: “Though these and these afflictions are upon me, yet I thank God there is no lack of God’s love upon me. If some spiritual judgment were upon me, then I could know nothing of God’s love; but these are no other than what may stand with the love of God.”

Yes, but that is not so much, that they may possibly stand with the love of God. It is this: that they come out of God’s love and from God’s love. They come as truly from the love of God as anything you enjoy in this world. You think that if you have a prosperous voyage, God loves you, and that if you are recovered out of an affliction, God loves you. But I say that the Lord’s bringing you into affliction may stand with greater love to you than deliverance out of affliction to another. The afflictions that are upon the saints now do not come out of revenge, as they do upon the wicked. The same affliction that comes from the principle of love to you may come from the principle of hatred to another. And therefore, although in outward view they are the same, yet they are infinitely different in their principle. It is not so much what we see or what we feel, but where what we see or feel comes from.

And indeed, a gracious heart is always anxious about the principles of the things that befall it. If it is an outward mercy, it asks, “Yes, but what is the root of it? Is its root the love of Christ to my soul?” If there is an affliction upon it: “There is an affliction upon me, but what is its root? Is its root God’s displeasure, God’s wrath, God’s hatred? Oh, that would be dreadful!” Though the affliction were vast, though there were a hundred temptations, if its root were God’s displeasure, oh, that would be terrible. Yes, but then, when such a heart comes to know that its root is not God’s wrath but his love, that is joyful.

You will say, “Does not God sometimes chastise his people for their sins? What if the affliction comes to me for my sin; can I have rest then? It is true, if the affliction comes to me for my trial, then its root may be his love. But I have sinned against God. I have abused my estate. My conscience tells me I have not honored God with my estate, and therefore the Lord has taken it from me and stripped me of everything. Can I look upon this as having its root in God’s love?”

To that I answer: this is a certain thing, and it will and must hold, notwithstanding all the recent wanton notions of men and all the vanity of their thoughts, which will come to nothing. This will hold: that God does chastise his people for sins and offenses. That is not a subject for me to enter upon now. Yet it still holds forth this: that at the very time when God chastises for sin, at that time their afflictions come out of love, from a principle of love, even when God chastises them for their sins.

But you will say, “Has not Christ suffered? This takes away from the sufferings of Christ, since he has already suffered.”

To this I answer: it is true, Christ has suffered, and so has swallowed up all God’s revenging wrath, and the curse. Yes, but does God’s wrath hinder me from having the fruit of God’s love? You will say, “It comes from love; therefore God does not chastise for sin.” Does he not? Why, all God’s revenging wrath may be gone, and yet God may chastise for sin, and chastise out of love too, at the same instant. You know what the Scripture says in Luke of Zechariah, because he did not believe: “For this cause thou shalt be dumb” (Luke 1:20). For this cause: because you did not believe. And so, because of their sin, they may be chastised. Cannot a father chastise his child and yet do it out of love? It may not only stand with his love; it may be because of love. He would not bother with the child at all but would let him go, if he did not love him. Certainly affliction may come out of love, though it is for sin. But for God not to chastise them at all would be an argument of hatred; therefore for him to chastise is an argument of love rather than hatred.

“If ye are not chastised, you are bastards and not sons” (Heb 12:8). So you are to look upon him this way: though God is displeased, still it is out of love. These two may stand together. He may be displeased with your sin and with you, and yet he may love you in the very act in which he shows his displeasure against your sin. And he may show his displeasure against you and against your sin out of love to you. And therefore the people of God may have rest in all their afflictions, because it is out of love. Here is an affliction, but where does it come from? It comes from love; now I am at rest.

If you can exercise faith in Christ in your affliction, so that you can say, “I know that through Christ God loves me,” and this is the efficacy of the merit of Christ, that in all your afflictions you should enjoy the love of God, this will give rest to your soul. And until this happens, all the arguments in the world will never do it. Go to those who are afflicted and try to pacify and quiet them with any argument in the world; it will not do it until they exercise faith on Christ. That makes them know, “Here is the love of God to my soul in this affliction, and then it does not matter whether I am in prosperity or adversity. If God gives me an estate, there is love in that; if he takes it away, there is love in that; if he gives me health, there is love in that; if he casts me into sickness, there is love in that.” And this indeed is the great mystery of godliness, a mystery of godliness the heathen were not acquainted with.

Fourth, we have rest in all afflictions through Christ, because it is through his merit that all afflictions are proportioned, both for the time of their coming and the time of their continuing, and in their measure and their manner. They are proportioned by the infinite wisdom of God for the good of a believer; God proportions everything so that it will suit the condition you are in. A wise physician knows the full condition of you, his patient, at all times. Therefore he weighs every dram and takes care that not one drop more is put into the cup he gives you to drink than will suit your condition for your good. He takes care that it is given at a fitting time, and that it does not remain one moment longer than it takes to work out the corruption, work out the evil and bring good to you. Now this is a mighty rest to your spirit.

Suppose a patient has to deal with a physician who is learned, wise and experienced. “I know he understands the state of my body fully, to a hair in everything. I know that he is very careful about what he gives, and what he gives he prepares himself. He does not trust the apothecary but goes himself and sees how many drams are put into it, and has it weighed before his face. He trusts no one else but weighs it himself, and so observes every circumstance suited to his patient.” Now would this not be quietness to you? Perhaps the potion may be bitter, but if you know that it comes from the hand of such a physician, so careful, so skillful and so experienced, this brings rest and quietness to your spirit.

So truly, by the eye of faith you may behold God. Though God uses creatures as instruments, yet the Lord will not trust them, but stands by and looks at every dram that is put into the cup. If a man were giving something poisonous, or rat poison, to a dog, he would not care how he gave it. But if any venomous thing is to be put into medicine, then the physician needs to watch every dram, so that it is in proportion to the state of the body. So, I say, when God distributes his afflictions to the wicked, he does not care about any proportion; he does not care about doing them good by it. But when he comes to believers in Christ, God is careful to proportion every dram for its time, so that it comes just when God would have it and continues not one moment longer than God would have it.

That scripture is enough to quiet the soul with regard to any affliction, which you have in 1 Peter 1:6: “Wherein ye rejoice, though now for a season, if need require, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” “Though now for a season”: for a little time now, so the words run. Though for a little time now: it is only now, and it is only a little time. And then too, “if need be.” Mark what a blessed parenthesis this is! It is worth gold, this very parenthesis. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season you are in heaviness”: it will not be much; it will be only for a little time, and that only if need be. It is as if God said, “If there were no need, you would not be in heaviness for one instant of time.” This is what you must learn from this scripture.

Would it not be rest to your soul if you could hear God out of his word this day speak to every one of you and say, “Had I not seen there was need, you would never have had one minute of sickness in all your life”? This would be enough to give rest to the soul. And though there is need, it is only for now, for a little time. I do not find in the original that the word signifies “season,” but “a little now,” and “if need be.” So you will not be in heaviness, no, not for a little now, unless there is need. This is a great deal of rest.

Fifth, “Come to me,” says Christ, and you will have rest in your affliction, for your afflictions will have very good ends. God will never bring affliction on you without gracious ends that he aims at in your affliction. God has something in his eye that he is aiming at, more than you imagine, and the thought of this may bring a great deal of rest to the soul. We cannot always understand what particular ends God has in the trial of his people, but we must satisfy our spirits with this: certainly God has very gracious ends. What a great deal of trouble there is now in the nation! How many godly people are robbed of their goods, and wounded, and made havoc of! We think it is nothing but the rage of wicked men. Certainly God has gracious ends in it, and God is about to bring to pass some glorious thing, though we cannot understand it now.

Only one who is acquainted with the mind of Christ can be satisfied with this, that when God brings trials he has glorious ends to bring about. And why should I not be willing to be serviceable to God’s ends, to those great ends that God has to bring about? Why was I made and brought into the world, except that God might make use of me for himself? And therefore, if God has need of my affliction (if I may speak so), why may I not be quiet in my affliction, since my affliction may be serviceable to God? Now this is what I profess, that I may be serviceable to God and his ends. Now if your heart is right in this, that you would be serviceable to God and his ends, then you must not choose the way by which God will bring about his ways and ends in you.

Sometimes God may serve his own ends in your prosperity, but at other times he will serve himself in your affliction. Now if your heart is gracious indeed, you will be as willing for God to bring about his praise in your affliction as in your prosperity; in this a gracious heart rejoices. Now if your heart is right in this, then if God takes away your estate and brings you into affliction, you may be quiet in this: “God will be served by my being in want, and will bring about his ends that way.” You may think that God could be better served by your prosperity than by your affliction. Yes, but know this: God has glorious ends to bring about, and he must have his people suffer to bring about those ends. And therefore this may cause rest and quietness of spirit.

Sixth, “Come to me,” says Christ, and you will have rest in trouble and affliction, for not only will you be serviceable to God for his ends, but all your afflictions will be sanctified to you for your own good. God intends it, and you will have a sanctified use of them. And this is more than removing the curse. The sanctified use signifies a mighty working of God in the affliction to draw out good for your soul.

Now it would be a large subject to show what the sanctified use of affliction is: the purging out of corruption, the quickening of grace. Yes, if it were only the trial of grace, that would be enough to bring quiet to the soul, for the Scripture says that the trial of faith is more precious than gold (1 Pet 1:7). The trial of grace, the exercise of grace: if it were only the exercise of the grace of faith that you are put to in your affliction, there may be more good for you in that than you can imagine. There is more excellence in the exercise of any one grace, but especially in the exercise of faith, than in all the prosperity in the world, even if God should give you a kingdom. It may be you have lost your land, your house and your goods. Yes, but God has put you to the exercise of faith now more than ever. Now know that the exercise of one grace is more than a kingdom to you, better than all the prosperity in the world.

Your friends may come and tell you this and that. Yes, but do you feel your affliction sanctified to your soul? Do you feel your heart drawn nearer to God? Do you find your heart laid open to you more, and your corruption purged out more, and your heart quickened in the ways of God more? This will bring rest to your soul. For you have heard that sanctification is rest to the soul; therefore the sanctification of afflictions to the soul must necessarily bring rest to it.

Seventh, God is with his people in the time of affliction through Christ. You have, I say, the presence of God in your affliction. God’s gracious presence is only in his Son. No one comes to the Father except by the Son (John 14:6), and it is true both ways: as no one comes to the Father except by Christ, so the Father comes to no one in a gracious way except by Christ. Now God’s gracious presence will be with his people in his Son. He will be with you in the fire and in the water. That is enough for the soul to rest on, that God will be with them in the fire and in the water, as in Isaiah 43:2-3: “When thou passest through the water I will be with thee, and through the floods they shall not overflow thee, when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God the Holy One of Israel thy Savior.” “I will be with thee,” says God, so that there is God’s presence to support them. Now, as you have heard, all the promises are yea and Amen in Christ (2 Cor 1:20); in Christ they are all made good. So rest in affliction comes by Christ.

Take sickness, for example. Are you sick? See what rest there is in Christ in a time of sickness: “The Lord will strengthen him upon his bed of sorrow, thou hast made all his bed in his sickness” (Ps 41:3). Surely then you will lie soft; you will have rest there. Many poor sick people complain that they cannot rest. They cannot lie soft; their bed is not made well, it is not made comfortable, but is high in one place and low in another. Now here is a promise that God will make the bed of his people in the day of their sickness, in the day of their trouble. What an expression of God’s love this is, that we may know how tenderly God cares for his people! And though it is only a hard bed, a coarse flock mattress, a bed of straw, you may lie easy if God makes it. And here you see in this psalm that God promises to make the bed of his people. Now if you do not have rest, it is because you have not been acquainted with the promises and have not exercised faith on the promises. Such a promise will bring rest to the soul when you cannot rest otherwise.

And so I might give you scriptures for poverty as well: the many sweet expressions we have in Scripture for quieting the heart in poverty, and the special regard God has for poor people, especially those who are godly and in poverty. I might name an abundance of scriptures, such as that one: “The Lord hath chosen the poor to be rich in faith” (Jas 2:5). And the gospel is preached to the poor. And not many mighty and noble (1 Cor 1:26), but the poor receive the gospel. And in Zephaniah 3:12: “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.” The Lord has respect for them. And if you are godly and poor, you may search into Scripture and find an abundance of expressions to give you rest.

Christ was made poor that he might make us rich (2 Cor 8:9). Does poverty trouble you, then? Consider that Christ was poor, and the poverty of Christ was to make me rich, and all the evil of my poverty is taken away by Jesus Christ. If only poor people would exercise their faith on the poverty of Christ, that he was made poor! For so he says: though he was the Lord of all, yet the foxes had holes and the birds had nests, but he had nowhere to lay his head. Christ did not have as good a house as any of you. Christ did not have a cottage to live in, but went about from one place to another. Therefore only exercise your faith on the poverty of Christ, and that will help you in your poverty.

And so for dishonor: the Scripture is very full on that as well. In Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are ye when men shall speak all manner of evil against you for my name’s sake.” And that in Peter: “Blessed are ye when ye suffer reproach, for the Spirit of glory shall rest upon you” (1 Pet 4:14). Now all these promises for the time of affliction are made to us in Christ. And therefore, “Come to me,” says Christ, and you will have the power and efficacy of all these promises.

Carnal hearts, indeed, do not think the promises of the gospel are worth anything, and they think that if they can have no more comfort than that, it is poor comfort. But those who are godly know that there is an abundance of comfort and sweetness to be had in the promises of the gospel.

Eighth, there is the abundance of present good that Christ will bring into the hearts of the saints, which will swallow up all the trouble of affliction. The abundance of present good will swallow up all the bitterness of affliction. For example, suppose you have a little vinegar, one drop of vinegar. If a pint or a quart of the sweetest liquid in the world were poured into it, could you taste the vinegar? The taste would be taken away. So now, to the soul that comes to Christ and exercises faith on him, Christ brings in present good, besides what it will have hereafter: present good that is enough to sweeten all things and to satisfy the soul. Christ sets up such a light in the heart that such a person has light in the midst of darkness. Though there is darkness all around, yet there are such satisfying contentments in Christ as are enough to overcome all the bitterness in the world. Such a person, however afflicted, is still able to say with David, as before, “My soul, return unto thy rest” (Ps 116:7).

And indeed, as for all afflictions to those who are believers and have the exercise of faith: I do not speak of all believers; one may be a believer and yet not have rest in affliction. But if he is a believer and has the exercise of faith, then all afflictions will be no more to him than this. Suppose a poor woman were married to a great prince, with all the nobles around him and every kind of delicacy on his table, and she heard the rain rattling on the roof tiles in the windy weather outside. What would that do to hinder the rest of her spirit? The truth is, if only we had the exercise of faith, all the outward troubles in the world would be no more to us, no more trouble than this. If you had come to Christ and were married to him, and had come to sup with him, there would be such satisfaction to your soul in Christ that all outward troubles would be no more at all than the rattling of the rain on the tiles to one who has all contentment indoors.

You who are troubled at anything in the world are not yet acquainted with the blessed things that are in Christ. Certainly the soul that is acquainted with them will say that it has enough: “Let what will become of my estate, of my body, of my house, of my lands, yet I have enough in Christ.” How the blessed martyrs have cried out of the fullness of rest in Christ! I remember one German martyr who suffered much from his enemies. He said, “I verily believe that there is not a merrier heart in this world than myself.”

As Jacob had more blessed visions when he lay out in the open at night and laid his head on the stone (Gen 28:11-12), so the children of God often have more visions of God in the times of their affliction. Their veins are filled with blood and their bones with marrow; all the capacities of their soul are filled with spiritual joy, and that keeps out affliction. If a man has filled his belly with good food, and especially if his veins are full of blood and his bones full of marrow, he can bear hardship the better. So when the soul comes to Christ, he fills the veins full of blood and the bones full of marrow. I mean this: he fills all the capacities of the soul with heavenly consolations, and that carries it through any trouble or affliction whatever. And so there is peace and rest for the soul.

Many other things might be named. For example, by coming to Christ we receive the spirit of prayer, and so the soul has rest when it can go and pour itself out to God in prayer. But to conclude this point:

You see by all this how infinitely unfitting it is for a believer, one who professes to have come to Christ, to be troubled in affliction. Christ makes this promise: if anyone comes to him, he shall have rest. Surely, then, either you have not come to Christ, or you have not exercised faith in Christ. Either you charge yourself in this way, as one who has not come to Christ or who has not exercised faith upon Christ, or else you charge Christ with unfaithfulness by your discontent. For Christ here declares to the world that all who come to him shall have rest. Since you do not have rest, but a little trouble disquiets you, either you have not come to Christ, or you do not exercise faith, or else you charge Christ with unfaithfulness.

Now if you do not have rest, which way will you have the blame fall? Oh, let it fall upon your unbelieving heart! Let it fall upon this: that you do not renew your act of coming to Christ. For this is not meant of coming to Christ for the first time, but of renewing the act of coming to Christ. This exhortation belongs to godly men and women who have already come to Christ by faith. I say, it belongs to them to come to Christ: come to Christ again and again. Now your disquiet and trouble in time of affliction shows that you are either no believer at all or have not renewed the act of faith.

My brothers and sisters, the ways of many who we hope are believers are such as if they had no use for faith at all in time of affliction. Or they live as if faith were only of use to save their souls, and not to give rest to the soul here in this world. Or they live as if it were of no more use than a sundial in a garden, which shows the time of day when the sun shines, but in stormy, cloudy weather is of no use at all. And do you make no more use of your faith than of the sundial in your garden, to show you how things are with you in the day of prosperity? But the truth of your faith should be a dial that lets you know how things stand between God and your soul on a cloudy day.

And therefore, now that you have heard where rest lies in regard to outward affliction, oh, come here for rest! You vex and fret and trouble yourselves. Why? Because you do not have what others have. Others can have rich tables, fine houses and comforts, and everything for their contentment in this world. But know that the Lord has now set before you a way to have rest for your souls in time of poverty: labor to know Jesus Christ, who was made poor for you. There is as plain a way for you to come to Christ as for the richest in the world, and Christ will be as ready to welcome you as the richest. It may be that all your efforts will help you forward so far as to make you rich in this world. Yes, but as for giving rest in this world, nothing can do it but your coming to Christ. And above all, this may serve to help us lay up a store against the time of trouble, so that however things go in this world, you may still have rest for your souls in Christ.

I shall now speak of the rest that Christ gives to the soul with regard to inward afflictions. These inward afflictions are spiritual desertions. That is, the Lord is pleased to absent himself from the souls of his people and to leave them in such darkness of spirit that, though they are believers and have a share in Christ, they may yet be left by God for a time, so that their spirits are extremely afflicted with sorrow and fear and trouble because of God’s absence from them. And indeed, there is no affliction like this affliction; there is no condition so restless as this condition.

Now this is something that not everyone is acquainted with. Carnal people think that these afflictions are only fancies, imaginations and melancholy. But the saints know what these afflictions are. They know that they are the most real afflictions in the world, these spiritual desertions, when God withdraws himself from his people.

We read of such an affliction that a godly man was much exercised with, and that was Heman, who wrote Psalm 88. You read it in the title: “A song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.” So it is a psalm of Heman. Now this Heman was one of the men most exercised with desertions on the face of the earth. If you read this psalm at your leisure, you will find that, though he was a very godly man, he was yet exceedingly exercised with spiritual desertions and afflictions. The Lord withdrew the comforts of his spirit.

You can see it from the very first verse. He says, “O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee” (Ps 88:1). Again, “My soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave” (Ps 88:3). And, “I am counted with them that go down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead…” (Ps 88:4-5). And, “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves” (Ps 88:7). What a strange expression this is from a godly man!

And then there are outward afflictions mingled with his spiritual afflictions: “Thou hast put my acquaintance far from me, thou hast made me an abomination unto them, I am shut up and I cannot come forth” (Ps 88:8). “My eye mourneth by reason of affliction” (Ps 88:9). “But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. Lord, why castest thou off my soul, why hidest thou thy face from me?” (Ps 88:13-14). God had hidden his face from him. “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up, while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted” (Ps 88:15). He was acquainted with these spiritual afflictions from his youth up. “Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off” (Ps 88:16). What expressions these are from a godly man!

And when we read this psalm, and know that it is the psalm of a godly man telling how greatly he was afflicted, we may be put in mind of that scripture: “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Pet 4:18). Where shall the sinner appear, if such a man as this was afflicted? He was so wise that the Spirit of God says of him that he was one of the wisest men who ever lived on the face of the earth. And yet he was afflicted, exercised with inward afflictions, the Lord hiding his face from him.

In 1 Kings 4:31 the Holy Spirit speaks of this Heman who was so afflicted. Speaking of the wisdom of Solomon, it says, “He was wiser than all men, than Ethan and Heman…” So it appears from this that Heman was one of the wisest of men. Otherwise it could be no argument of Solomon’s wisdom that he was wiser than all men, and that he excelled in wisdom above anyone else. And yet this man had the terrors of God upon his spirit.

Therefore, when God seems to withdraw himself and afflict you, let none of you say that your condition is worse than anyone’s ever was. When any of you have such thoughts as these, remember Psalm 88. When you think of the great grief, sorrow and trouble that is upon you, and are ready to think that it is greater than anyone else’s, then go and read Psalm 88. Luther used to say, when people were in any trouble, that they should go and sing Psalm 46. So when you are in trouble and sorrow and grief, say, “Come, let us go and read Psalm 88.” And remember who wrote that psalm: Heman, a godly man. Remember what his condition was, and then you will see that your condition is not as sad as his was.

Well, but now, though your condition may be as bad as his, yet there is rest in Christ to be had for you, and Christ calls you to come to him so that he may give you rest. I will not need to spend time opening what this rest in Christ is in this particular case, because it is contained in what was said before: in deliverance from the guilt of sin, from the burden of the law, from the remainder of corruption, and the like. If those things were made good to the soul, they might give it rest. But now all that I intend to show is what course the laden sinner must take in this case to have rest in Christ. For such a soul is already delivered from the guilt of sin and from the wrath of God. Though it cannot perceive the love of God and the pardon of the guilt of sin, yet it has them already. But now, to help such a deserted soul in this case, so that it may begin to have the use of the good that is to be had in Christ, I will give some directions for gaining ease in that grievous condition.

First, labor to exercise your faith upon Christ as one who was once in the same condition you are in yourself, in some degree and in some measure. That is a good way for one who suffers spiritual desertions: I say, to look upon Christ as one who, for that time, was in this very affliction, for Christ was deserted. This breeds a great deal of rest to the soul in outward afflictions. Someone in poverty may exercise faith upon Christ, who was poor, as I told you before: “The foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matt 8:20). Does not exercising faith upon Christ as poor help to give ease and rest to the soul under the burden of the affliction of poverty? So when a soul feels the burden and trouble of spiritual desertions, it should look up to Christ as one who was under such desertion. Look at him in the garden, when he declared that his soul was heavy even to death, and when he began to be amazed with the apprehension of the wrath of God.

Now when you are in a combat and struggle in your spirit with temptation, know that Christ was in such a combat and struggle: he sweated drops of blood. It may be that your soul is in combat and in trouble, and you go to prayer, and your soul is in a sweat. Remember what a sweat Christ was in when God withdrew himself from him. And especially remember him when he was upon the cross. There he tells you plainly that he was forsaken: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). You think that God has withdrawn himself from you. No, in one respect he will not withdraw himself from you as much as he did from his Son: you do not have such a dreadful apprehension of God’s withdrawing from you as Christ had, for otherwise Christ would never have cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This was a real thing. Christ did not speak of something uncertain. He did feel a withdrawing of the influence, sweetness and comfort of the Lord. He still had union with him by nature, and God was his Father as before; but his human nature did not feel the influence of the grace and sweetness and the shining of the favor of God as at other times, and therefore he cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Exercise your faith upon Christ as one who was in spiritual desertions. It is true that perhaps Christ did not go so far as to conclude that he was utterly forsaken, as you do; but Christ did apprehend God’s withdrawing himself. Therefore this may bring ease and rest to your soul, and all the more because his being forsaken in this way was to sanctify your being forsaken. It was to take away the curse of the desertions you have in yourself. Such desertions as come in any afflictions are, materially considered, a curse; they are things that in their own nature are a curse. But Christ, by being forsaken in this way by the Father, takes away the curse that is in spiritual desertions. There is no course like this for the soul that is in spiritual desertions: to look up to Christ and to consider, “Christ was forsaken for my sake. Christ was forsaken for me, so that I might not be eternally forsaken.”

So there are these three things in looking up to Christ as forsaken. First, you see that the Lord, the beloved Son of God, was forsaken, forsaken by God. Second, here you may see the merit of this: it was to sanctify your forsaking, so that your forsaking might not be a curse to you. Third, it was so that you might not be eternally forsaken by God. So by exercising your faith upon him in this way, you may gain a great deal of rest and ease for your soul. A carnal heart, when it finds this terror of spirit, runs to its company, its music, its good cheer and the business of the world. But a gracious heart runs to Christ, and goes to him who was forsaken in this way by the Lord for its sake.

Second, if you are under the burden of spiritual desertions, then look up to Christ as a Mediator who is full of grace and goodness. There is such a fullness of the grace of God in him as makes him a sufficient object for the faith of adherence, when he cannot be to me an object of the faith of evidence. I say, we are to exercise faith upon Christ in this way when we are under this burden of spiritual desertions: we are to look upon Christ as the fullness of the Godhead, of all the treasure of grace and goodness, having so much of the grace and mercy of God in him as will make him a fit object of the faith of adherence, though he is not now to me an object of the faith of evidence.

Question. You will say, “What is the meaning of that?”

By the faith of evidence I mean this: I am able to say that Christ is mine, and I have an argument to persuade my conscience that he is mine. That is the faith of evidence. But even so, there is enough in Christ to draw the soul out to rest upon him by the faith of adherence, which works like this: “Though I cannot draw arguments to rely upon Christ as mine, yet I will cleave to him and adhere to him. I know there is no help but here, and therefore here I will cleave and cling.” Here now is the faith of adherence. Now, because there is so much grace in him, Christ may be a great object of your faith of adherence when you cannot see him to be an object of the faith of evidence; and that is a way to help the soul in a time of spiritual desertion.

When many poor souls are under spiritual afflictions and desertions, they think of no other faith by which to rest upon Christ but merely the faith of evidence. When they have evidence to their souls that Christ is theirs, and that from some fruits of grace in them, then they rely upon him. But now learn that there is such a faith as the faith of adherence, and that Christ may appear to a soul as a fit object for the faith of adherence when he cannot be to it an object of the faith of evidence.

Third, another help to the soul that is under spiritual desertions is this: the soul in this case is to exercise faith upon Christ as an advocate who is at the right hand of the Father to plead the cause of his people. You have often had that scripture named to you: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). Christ is at the right hand of the Father as an advocate for you, as we showed when we spoke of the rest of the soul from the guilt of sin. So now, when you do not have the sense of the love of God toward you, exercise your faith upon Christ as the one who is at the right hand of the Father to plead for poor sinners. In Jeremiah 50:34 the text says, “Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name, he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land.”

It is true that this is meant literally of an outward rest for the people of God, delivering them from the captivity of Babylon. Here is a promise that the Redeemer is strong, and is the Lord of hosts, and that he shall thoroughly plead their cause. They had been carried into Babylon, and they were scorned and despised and treated with contempt, and their enemies said, “Where is their Lord of hosts?” Now here is a promise that their Redeemer will come, that he shall thoroughly plead their cause, give them rest in their land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

We are to make use of this promise with regard to our outward troubles at this day, with regard to our adversaries. Though the Lord lets them prevail sometimes, yet the Lord has shown himself to be at hand to plead his cause. No question, he has thoroughly pleaded the cause of his people when the adversaries began to lift up their hands against them. When they triumphed over us because of the late blow that God gave us, the Lord already began to give them a blow, and I hope we shall hear more of it. But now, what is true here literally is true spiritually. The Lord will redeem his people from spiritual captivity, and this Redeemer is the Lord of hosts. He will give them rest. He is at the right hand of the Father to plead thoroughly the cause of his poor servants. When an accusation comes up to the Father against the soul, then the Lord Christ stands at the right hand of the Father and thoroughly pleads their cause.

Fourth, in your spiritual desertion you must look up to Christ to seek the fulfilling of the promise he made to his disciples, to send them the Comforter. When Christ was about to leave his disciples, he told them to be of good cheer: he would send the Comforter to them, and therefore they should be of good cheer. Christ comforts his disciples against his absence. He was to go from them and leave them with regard to his bodily presence. Now Christ was so careful of his poor servants that, when he was to leave them with regard to his bodily presence, he tells them he will send the Comforter to them: the Holy Spirit would come all the more fully, and would manifest Christ to them.

Now plead this promise of the Lord Christ in times of spiritual desertion, and say: “O blessed Redeemer, were you so careful of your disciples that, when you were to leave them with regard to your bodily presence, you would send the Holy Spirit to testify of you, to reveal you to them, and to bring things to their remembrance? Oh, how much more will you have compassion on a poor soul from whom you are absent in a spiritual way! It is a greater affliction to lack you, O blessed Redeemer, in a spiritual way than to lack your bodily presence. And therefore there is a great deal more need for the Comforter to come in now, to supply the lack of your spiritual presence, than there was to supply the lack of your bodily presence.”

Fifth, in the time of spiritual desertion, if you can find no evidence at all, nothing at all to satisfy your soul, then go to Christ in the very same way that you went to him at first. Better to do that than to lie groveling and sinking under your burden. If you think that you have nothing yet, that all is nothing, that all is lost, and the like, go again in the same way that you went to Christ at first. You are not in a worse condition now than you were then, when you were an enemy; and you found ease and rest in him at first. Now renew the work that there was in your soul at the very first.

There are many people who, in the time of spiritual afflictions and desertions, spend so much time looking for old evidences, whereas the truth is they might get new ones sooner than find the old ones. Sometimes a man may spend a great deal more time looking for the old key of a box than it would take to make a new one. He might make a new key with a great deal less trouble, and it would not be so much to his loss to have a new key made as to search for the old one. He may look up and down and spend a great deal of time, which may be worth more than the making of a new one. So it is with the soul in a time of trouble and under spiritual desertion. It is looking about for its old evidence, for such and such works of grace, and cannot find them. It keeps poring, and cannot be quiet until it can find those former signs and marks it had before. I say, such people may sooner get new ones than find the old ones. If a man has legal documents and perhaps cannot find one of them, it may cost him less to have new ones written out again than to search for the old ones. So it is with you: you lack the evidences of your grace and cannot find them. I say, renew your grace upon Christ again, and you may get your evidence written out anew, and have it at less cost than searching after the old ones.

Sixth, in the time of your desertion, be sure to keep good thoughts of God. Though you have no comfort in them for the present, yet believe that there is comfort in Christ. Whatever becomes of you, acknowledge Christ to be faithful. Christ is to be your Lord and your King; let your heart love him, and at least strive to do so. It is true that the sense of his love will kindle love in return; yet at a time when you cannot have the sense of his love, resolve to love him nevertheless, and to love his ways. You know that Christ did this when God seemed to forsake him. At that time, when he was upon the cross, when his human nature could not but see that he needed God’s presence, even then he cried out, “My God, my God.”

And so we have the example of Heman in Psalm 88:1: “O God of my salvation.” He still speaks well of God, and calls God the God of his salvation. “O God of my salvation”: he still keeps good thoughts of God. And so the church in the Song of Songs, when Christ had withdrawn himself from her, still called him her beloved, and went up and down asking for her beloved and where her beloved was. So let the soul do in the time of desertion: keep good thoughts of God.

Seventh and last, if you cannot have rest in Christ, resolve that you will never find rest in anything else, and that your heart shall be restless until you have rest in Christ. Perhaps in the time of desertion someone comes to you and says, “Christ has forsaken you. Go and get comfort elsewhere; look for it somewhere else.” Or it may be that the tempter will come to a poor deserted soul as he did to Christ in Matthew 4. When Christ was hungry, the tempter came to him and said, “Command that these stones be made bread.” It was as if the tempter said, “Do you not see how your Father has forsaken you, that he will not give you bread? Take matters into your own hands.”

Just so it is, for all the world, with a troubled soul. The soul is troubled, the Lord has withdrawn from the soul, and now the tempter comes and says, “You see you cannot have comfort. You have prayed all this while, and you cannot get comfort, peace and rest. Now, therefore, seek rest elsewhere.” Oh, take heed of this! A deserted soul should cast off such temptations, and resolve that it will be content to be in a restless condition to all eternity if it cannot have rest here in Christ.

It is as with those who make mischief between people. If there is any breach between father and child, or between one friend and another, they take advantage of it and say, “Do you not see that your father does not regard you? Though you are in such need, he will not regard you or help you. Come, therefore, and take my counsel; I will show you how you may live a better life.” So when they want to draw one friend away from another, the mischief-makers go and take advantage of the breach. So does the devil. When the Lord has withdrawn from the soul and the soul is in a deserted condition, then the devil comes to draw the soul into unlawful ways. He will be sure to take the advantage to do all the mischief he can between God and the soul. Therefore let those who are in such a condition take heed of such temptations.

And these now are the helps for those who are under the burden of spiritual desertions. There is enough in Christ to help them, and if these directions are observed, they may come to have rest in Jesus Christ.

But now further, besides all this rest you have heard of, there is a time when the Lord will not only give the soul rest in affliction but will give the soul rest from affliction; yes, perhaps even in this world. The Lord speaks as if there were a rest for the people of God, a deliverance from affliction: not only rest in affliction, but deliverance from affliction. We have that place in Isaiah: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones” (Isa 54:11-12). You are now afflicted, tossed, tempted, and not comforted, but it will be otherwise with you.

It is true indeed that the church, ever since the beginning of the world, has been in an afflicted condition, tossed with tempest and not comforted, not comforted in the way expressed here. But here is a promise of a glorious time, when a sure foundation will be laid, and that a foundation of precious stones, and there will be rest.

And if you compare this scripture with Revelation 21, you will see that it aims at a glorious time when Christ will give rest to the soul: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away” (Rev 21:4). And if you read further, you will find that he seems to allude to this place in Isaiah 54. There he tells what those precious stones will be that are to be the foundation of the happy estate of God’s saints, and he shows that this is not to be in heaven but here, before the great and general day of judgment.

This appears plainly from what the text says, that the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor to it: “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor unto it” (Rev 21:24). It is such a time of the church that the kings of the earth will bring their glory and their honor to it. Now after the day of judgment, in heaven, the kings of the earth do not bring their glory and their honor to the saints in heaven; but they will bring their glory and their honor to the saints here. It is a prophecy of so happy a condition for the saints that the kings of the earth will bring their glory and their honor to them. And therefore this promise of a glorious time for the saints is made here, upon this earth: all tears will be wiped away from their eyes here in this world.

And it seems to be spoken of the same time that was spoken of in the chapter before, Revelation 20, the time of the first resurrection. Now it appears that after that time the devil will be let loose, and Gog and Magog will gather themselves together against God’s people. But there is such a world here for the people of God, a rest from all affliction to be hoped for even here upon the earth, when the saints of God will be honored before all the world, and all wicked and ungodly men will be subdued before them.

But further, there is certainly a rest of glory in the world to come, and that is to be added to all the rest. Then the saints will keep an eternal Sabbath before the Lord and will always be occupied there in praising, magnifying, and blessing the great God.

Question. You will say, “Will that be such a rest, to be performing holy duties?”

Answer. Yes, that will be a rest indeed. For there will be no weariness of the flesh. The soul will be in a spiritual condition, and the flesh will serve the soul, so that there will be no wearisomeness to the flesh. The soul will enjoy communion with God, and be in blessed visions with God, and be in his Father’s house, above all enemies, above sin. They will neither sin any more, nor sorrow any more, nor fear any more, nor doubt any more, nor be troubled any more. This is the rest that the soul will have in Christ. And I make no question but that Christ means this among the rest when he says, “Come to me.” But to speak of this glorious rest is a large point, and elsewhere I have opened at large what the glory of the saints will be in heaven; therefore I will say no more about it here.

Now then, put together all that I have said concerning the rest I have spoken of. May we not conclude that this rest may well bear the title given in Isaiah: “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious” (Isa 11:10)? Here it is spoken of the rest of Christ: his rest shall be glorious. We may well apply it to the rest of the saints: the saints will have a glorious rest. And this has been shown to you in many particulars, in which I have opened this rest to you, so that you may see it is a glorious rest.

You will say, “Oh, if only we knew that this was our rest! If only we knew that we were not presuming, but could be sure that the rest we have in Christ is a true rest.” Now I told you before that there is a faith of adherence that may bring rest, even though there is not a faith of evidence. But now, you will say, if we might have both, a faith of evidence as well as a faith of adherence, it would add much to our rest.

Now I will help you to some marks by which you may examine whether the rest you have is the glorious rest spoken of here. And because, notwithstanding all this glorious rest, many of God’s servants here in this world are under much trouble of spirit, I shall do two things further: I shall give rules for how to make use of the rest that is to be had in Christ, and likewise some rules for how to keep that rest when the Lord Christ gives you rest.

First, for the evidences by which you may know whether your rest is indeed the right rest that is in Christ.

1. This rest in Christ can never come except upon a great discovery of glorious things that the soul was not acquainted with before. Many men go on and are quiet in their way, and think that their rest is Christ’s rest. But how will it appear that it is Christ’s rest? It will appear instead that they have had only poor, weak grounds to stand on, nothing but what they have in a natural way. They live quietly among men, and the creatures do not trouble them; and in a prudential way they are loath to trouble themselves in their own thoughts. But now I appeal to your soul: what discoveries have you had of the glorious things of the covenant of grace and the covenant of life, of those ways God has had in his eternal counsels to reconcile God and your soul? What discoveries of God’s ways have you had to draw your heart to Christ? Your rest must come from these; these must be the means to bring your soul to rest. If your rest comes from blindness, ignorance and deadness of spirit, it is far from the true rest in Christ.

2. The rest that the soul has in Christ is the rest the apostle speaks of in Hebrews 4:10. It comes upon the soul’s ceasing from its own work, as God ceased from his: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” As God rested on the seventh day from all his works, so the apostle gives that as the mark of the rest in Christ: “There remains therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God ceased from his” (Heb 4:9-10). He compares the rest that the soul has in Christ to God’s rest on the seventh day. Now, he says, just as God ceased from the work he did on the sixth day, and on the seventh day rested, so whoever enters upon this rest must cease from his own works.

What is that? It is the work that a man works for himself, as in his natural state. Every man in his natural state does not do God’s work at all, but works his own work. Now, he says, just as God ceases from his own work and then rests, those who enter into this rest must cease from their own works: those works of sin that they lived in and did for themselves, for their own ends, while they were in their natural state. So then, examine this. Have you ceased from your own works? Do you not work for yourself in all your ways? Are you taken off from yourself and from all the creatures? It may be you do some work, but in substance it is nothing of God’s. You pray and make a profession of religion; yes, but it is still your own work.

But if you have entered into this rest, you must cease from your own works. You must cease not only from those works that are sinful in themselves; you must not work for yourself even in the best things. You must be taken off from yourself in the best things. You must work the works of God and be emptied of yourself, and then your soul shall have rest. That is both an evidence that your rest is true and a means to bring rest to your soul.

Take heed that your work is not your own work. When you do any work, ask yourself, “I am about such and such a work; yes, but is it my own work or God’s work?” The believer can say, “It is true, there was a time when all the work I did was for myself. Then, if there was any argument by which I could see that it was for myself, I could work. If it was for self-ends, if I had self to be promoted, I could work.” This is the way of men in themselves. But now, when the soul has entered into the rest of Christ, it has ceased from its own works, and it can say, “Therefore now, though there are no strong arguments and ends to persuade me to do a work, yet it is enough that it is the work of God, and that God shall have praise in it; and I can work as earnestly and as strongly in that work as ever I did in any work for myself.”

3. Another mark of the true rest of the soul in Christ is this: the more rest you have in Christ, the more active you are for God. The false rest that the soul has makes it dull, complacent, sluggish and negligent. But the true rest that is in Christ makes the soul mightily active and stirring; it makes it do great things for God. The soul never had such ability to do for God as it has now, when it has had rest from Christ. We know that many people are very active and stirring when their conscience is stirred. Then they will rise early in the morning, and hear, and read, and pray, and stir mightily, when their conscience is stirred. But if they have got any quiet and rest for their spirits, they grow lazy, dull and complacent, and are less active in the places God has set them in than they were before. But the soul that has true rest from Christ is more active and lively in the work of God than before.

As Archimedes said, “Give me a place where I could rest myself,” and then, he thought, he could move the earth. So let the soul once get its foot set firmly on Christ, so that it can have rest in Christ, and it can do more for God than ever it could before. And therefore I remember this (and afterward you may find this observation to be true by comparing the passages): God commanded Moses, while they were going up and down in the wilderness and had no rest, to make an altar for sacrifice of such a size, so many feet. But in the story you shall find that when Solomon came to make an altar to God, he made it twice as big as Moses did in the time of their being in the wilderness. I cannot stop to look up the two places, but you shall find this observation to be true: the altar of Solomon was twice as big as the altar of Moses. Why? Because they were then in a restless condition; they went up and down and were not at rest. But when they came to the land of Canaan, there they had rest, and there the altar is twice as big, signifying that they should offer twice as much sacrifice as they did before, in the time when they were in the wilderness in their restless condition. So your soul was once in the wilderness, hurried up and down, and then the altar for your sacrifice was but little. But once God brings rest to your soul in Christ, your altar shall be twice as big, and you shall do twice as much for God as you did before.

4. Another mark of the true rest in Christ is this: if you have this rest, then what is Christ’s rest is yours. That is, if you have rest in Christ, then look at what Christ has rest in; that is your rest too. Now, what is the rest of Christ? Christ has rest especially in three things; there are three things that are the rest of Christ: God’s rest in his saints, his rest in his ordinances, and his rest in his Sabbaths. Now for those who partake of true rest for their souls in Christ, whatever God’s rest is, that is their rest.

As for the saints, the soul has rest in them; that is, your soul has contentment and rest in them, in their company. Mark what is said of them in Zephaniah 3:17, where the Holy Spirit says, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” Is the society and company of the saints a rest to you, or rather a trouble to you? Oh, to many the company of the saints is a trouble; but when they get into their own company, among their own companions, then they have some rest.

And then for the ordinances: for these you have a text in the psalm that speaks of Zion: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation, this is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it” (Ps 132:13-14). So the soul that has this rest says, “Oh, in Zion, in ordinances, in duties, in the worship that is offered up to you, here is my rest forever, and here is my delight. Lord, let me have rest this way. My spirit is never so much at rest as when I am in the duties of God’s worship. When I am exercised in God’s ordinances, here my soul is at rest. Whatever else I have, even if I should have peace again and enjoy my estate quietly, yet unless I have God’s ordinances I cannot have rest.” Now, does your soul enjoy more rest in the ordinances than in any other way? Then your rest is Christ’s rest.

And then for the Sabbath: you know what the Scripture says a Sabbath is; it is nothing but rest. And is the Sabbath a day of rest to your soul? Do not many people think the Sabbath day the most troublesome day to them, especially if they are kept to holy duties, such as prayer, hearing the word and the like? Suppose you were put to pray in your closet, and then to pray in your family and to ask your servants and children some questions, and then to come to the public assembly and there sanctify the name of God; and then, when you come home again, to examine your family on what they have learned, and so to prepare yourselves again for the ordinance, and so to spend yourself in prayer and hearing and exercises all the day. Would not this be a weariness to many of you? And would not many of you say, as those in Amos did, “When will the Sabbath be over?” Men indeed count the Sabbath a rest. Why? Because they cease from working, and they put on fine clothes, and go out, and walk in the fields; and on this account they count the Sabbath a rest. Surely such people are not acquainted with the rest that is in Christ. But if your soul is acquainted with this rest, then the Sabbath is but a type of that rest which you shall keep in the highest heavens. It is but a type to you, and a forerunner of that glorious rest which you shall enjoy hereafter.

5. If your soul has true rest, it is such a rest as will bear the examination of the word of God, though the word touches to the quick. And the more the word touches to the quick, the more it comes home to your soul, the more rest your soul has. In Hebrews, after the Holy Spirit has spoken of the rest that belongs to the people of God, he goes on to say, “The word is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). It is as if he should say: if you enter into the rest of God’s people, you shall have such a rest as will bear the narrowest and most quickening searchings of the word of God. The word of God will search you through and through, and your rest shall be such a rest as will bear the search. It is a rest that comes by the word. The more the word searches, the more it quickens. It searches between the marrow and the bones, and the more it does so, the more rest a truly gracious heart finds.

Objection. But you will say, “Notwithstanding all you have said, many of the saints of God, though they have been careful to do what you have said, still do not find this rest in Christ that you speak of.”

Answer. It is true; it is not enough for you to be a believer. For one may be a believer and yet not have the evidence of the graces in Christ, so as to have rest in his soul. You will say, “What should we do, then?”

First, take heed that no secret sin abides in your spirit. You need to examine yourselves and look to that, for it will be a thorn in the flesh that will trouble you. If there is any secret sin you live in, it will be like a thorn in the flesh, so that you cannot be quiet.

Second, another thing that hinders the rest of believers is this: because they do not have as much as they desire, they will not take notice of the good God has granted them. Because they do not have all they would like, they think they have nothing at all. Now take heed of that. Though you do not have everything, still take notice of what God has done for you, and be thankful for that. We read of the women in the Gospel who went to seek Christ. They found the angels and heard news of him, though they did not find him at first. So, though your soul does not find Christ for the present, nor the rest you desire, yet if you have any news of him, any beginning of God’s work in your soul, take notice of that. Should the women have said, “What is it to us that we find the angels and hear news of him? It is Christ we seek”? No, they did not say so. And therefore, I say, bless God for whatever you have. It is more than others have. Bless God for it, and that is the way to have more.

Third, never judge yourself by how you feel in a time of temptation. It may be that you are under a temptation, or under spiritual desertion; now, do not judge yourself by what you find in yourself at that time. Suppose a man has been sick a long time with a quartan fever, or has lain a long time with the pox. If at last he looks at his face and judges the constitution of his body by his appearance, this would discourage him. He must judge his constitution at a time when the illness is not on him. So it is with many poor Christians: they judge their condition at the very time they are under the greatest temptation. No, you should rather judge your state by how you are when you are most yourselves, when God and your souls are together, and you are most free from temptation. Suppose a man wants to weigh gold. Perhaps the gold is a grain over full weight. Yet if you come to weigh it and hold it in the wind, the wind may toss up the scale and make the gold seem too light. Then you will say the gold is underweight. Why? Because the wind tosses the scale up the other way. But if you want to see whether the gold is really full weight, hold it steady where the wind does not come. So if you want to weigh your condition rightly, do it at a time when your spirit is most settled and steady, and do not do it when temptation is tossing you up and down.

Fourth, here is another help for believers, to prevent another hindrance to their rest. Because they do not have as much rest as they would like, their spirits often grow impatient, and they trouble themselves more than God would have them. Now this is a rule: labor to quiet your hearts by waiting on God while you lack comfort, and labor, in the use of whatever means God gives you, for a waiting frame of spirit. That text in Isaiah 30:7 is very notable for this purpose: “For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose, therefore have I cried concerning this; their strength is to sit still.” And then at Isaiah 30:15: “Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength, but ye would not.” And so in Isaiah 52:12: “For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rereward.” There shall be no tumultuous, hurrying, hasty spirit. You will say, “Can a man make too much haste to get assurance of God’s love in Christ?” The truth is, you make the best speed when you can wait on God in the quiet and calm of your spirits until he is pleased to speak to your souls, when you can go on in the use of means until God seals assurance to your souls by his Spirit. Many reasons might be given to urge the soul to wait on God, but I pass on.

Fifth, another rule is this: be much in meditation on the promises. Swallow the promises down; do not just let them roll around on your tongues. Wicked men roll the promises on their tongues, but they do not take them down. Now when we take bitter pills, the way is to swallow them whole; when we take sweet things, the way is to chew them. If a man should chew his pills, he would quickly spit them out of his mouth. So a godly man should not chew the pills, that is, by meditating on the threatenings of the law. This is not the way. Rather swallow the pills down, by meditating on the gospel and the covenant of grace, and so your soul may come to find rest in Christ this way. And when you have done all you can, still the only way is for you to depend on God in his ordinances and to pray for the Spirit. No evidence that can be given can quiet the heart until that comes to pass.

But now, if the soul has gained this rest, what a thing it is for the soul to lose it again! In Isaiah 26:20: “Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut the doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” What is it to come and enter into our chamber? It is to get into Christ, our hiding place. And then shut the doors; that is, beware of parleying with temptation. For example, when the Lord has given you rest, and your rest comes in by the word, by applying the word to your soul, then shut the door against temptation. Some fears and suspicions will arise at that time. Now therefore, shut the door against all surmises, fears and suspicions, and call for the word. Let the word be the rule for your fear as well as for your comfort, and depend on one scripture for your comfort rather than on a thousand suspicions for your fear. And this is what it means to shut the door against temptation. Resolve: “Here I will venture. Here is the word of God, which is sure and certain. As for temptation, the devil will trouble me with rapping and knocking at the door, but let him knock as long as he will. I have got a promise here, and I will venture my soul on this promise.” For want of this, though you have gotten the promise, you open the door at every temptation. You know that in a time of danger, when someone comes and raps at the door, you will not open the door immediately, will you? No, you tell your servant to ask who it is, and they must give a good account of what they want and where they come from before you will open the door. So when any temptation raps at your soul, inquire what it wants and where it comes from. Does it come from God or not? Or does it come from the devil? Many people think the word is a rule for their faith, but they do not think the word is a rule for their fear. You must have as good a warrant for refusing any comfort that is offered to you as for taking any comfort. If only you would observe that rule, never to refuse comfort unless you have a word to warrant you! Suppose the Lord comes to you and says, “Why did you refuse such comforts?” and you say, “I was full of fears and suspicions.” Yes, but if God should say, “What word do you have for it?” what would you be able to answer? Oh, this is what God will require of you. For it is a dishonor to the truth of God when there is a word to ground your faith on, and nothing but suspicions to ground your fears on, and yet you make your suspicions and your fears outweigh the word.

Sixth, again, let your humiliation answer to the degree of your enlargement. As you find your heart enlarged with joy, at the same time let your grace work downward by way of humiliation. Observe a proportion between your joy and your humiliation. Many people are enlarged with the joy they have in Christ, but they are not humbled, and therefore they vanish.

Seventh, again, do not be satisfied merely that you are in Christ and a believer, but labor to be thoroughly grounded that you are in Christ. For who knows what troubles and desertions you may meet with? Labor to root your soul; be established in Christ, grounded in Christ, a grounded Christian, and therefore not living on feeling, but living by faith even when you have feeling.

Eighth, and lastly, put your rest to use for God. Be sure to do much work when the Lord gives you rest. As we commonly say of outward peace that it brings plenty, so the truth is that the peace God gives in our consciences, and the rest we have in Christ, should make us plentiful in all good works. And so by these rules: if you keep the door shut against temptation; if your humiliation answers to the degree of your enlargement; if you are not satisfied merely that you are in Christ and a believer, but labor to be thoroughly grounded that you are in Christ; if you root your soul in Christ; and if you put your rest to use for God, to do much work for God when he gives you rest, then, doing this, you will have rest, an abiding rest for your soul. In this way you will be in your chamber of rest with the door shut until the indignation is overpast. In this way you will have rest in the time of evil, and all the troubles in the world will be no more than the rattling of the rain on the tiles while you are in the house. Yes, and the rest you have in Christ is only the forerunner of the glory you will have with Christ, which you ought to long for. When you have fears and troubles, you ought to pray, “O Lord Jesus Christ, fulfill the things you have promised to your servants, and give rest and peace to my soul.”