But here is help provided exactly suitable to the cafe. Comply with this invitation, Come to bim, and he will furely give you reft. But what is it to come to Chrift? It is, to believe in him, to apply to him, to make his invitation and promise, our ground and warrant for putting our trust in him. On another occafion, he faid, He that cometh to me fball never hunger, and he that believeth in me Shell never thirst *. The expreffions are of the fame import. When he was upon earth, many who came to him, and even followed him for a season, received no faving benefit from him. Some came to him from motives of malice and ill will, to enfnare or infult him. Some followed him for loaves and fishes. And of others, who were frequently near him, he complained, Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life. But they who were diftreffed, and came to him for relief, were not disappointed. To come to him, therefore, implies a knowledge of his power, and an application for his help. To us he is not vifible, but he is always near us. And as he appointed his difciples to meet him in Galilee, previous to his ascension, so he * John vi. 35. ↑ John v. 40. Matt. xxviii. 16. has has promised to be found of those who seek him, and wait for him, in certain means of his own institution. He is feated upon a throne of grace; he is to be fought in his word, and where his people affemble in his name, for he has faid, There will I be in the midst of them. They, therefore, who read his word, frequent his ordinances, and pray unto him, with a defire that they may know him, and be remembered with the favour which be beareth to his own people, anfwer the defign of my text. They come to him, and he affures them, that whoever they are, he will in no wife caft them out. If they thus come to him, they will of course come out from the world and be separate ‡. If they apply to him for refuge, they will renounce all other refuge and dependance, and truft in him alone; according to the words of the prophet, Alber fhall not fave us, we will not ride upon borfes, neither will we fay any more unto the works of our bands, Ye are our gods, for in thee the fatherless (the helplefs and comfortless) findeth mercy §. * Matt. xviii. 20. † Pfal. cvi. 4. 2 Cor. vi. 17, § Hof. xiv. 3. II. II. The promife is, I will give you rest*. The word fignifies both reft and refreshment. He gives a relief and ceffation from former labour and bondage; and fuperadds a peace, a joy, a comfort, which revives the weary spirit, and proves itself to be that very fatisfaction, which the foul had been ignorantly, and in vain, feeking, amongst the creatures, and the objects of fenfe. This reft includes a freedom from the forebodings and diftreffing accufations of a guilty conscience; from the long and fruitless struggle between the will and the judgment; from the condemning power of the law; from the tyranny of irregular and inconfiftent appetites; and from the dominion of pride and felf, which make us unhappy in ourselves, and hated and despised by others. A freedom, likewise, from the cares and anxieties, which, in fuch an uncertain world as this, difquiet the minds of those who have no folid, scriptural dependance upon God; and efpecially a freedom from the dread of death, and of the things which are beyond it. In these and other refpects, the believer in Jefus enters into a prefent reft. He is under the guidance * Compare I Cor.xvi. 18. 2 Cor.vii. 13. Philemon 7, 20. of of infinite wisdom, and the protection of almighty power; he is permitted to caft all his cares upon the Lord *, and is affured that the Lord careth for him. So far as he poffeffes by faith the spirit and liberty of his high calling, he is in perfect peace. The prophet Jeremiah has given a beautiful description and illustration of this rest of a believer†; which is rendered more ftriking, by being contrafted with the miferable ftate of those who live without God in the world. Thus faith the Lord, Curfed is the man that trufleth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whofe heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the beath in the defert, and shall not fee when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness, in a falt land not inhabited. But, Bleed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whofe hope the Lord is. For he fhall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not fee when heat cometh, but her leaf fhall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall ceafe from yielding fruit. But befides rest, there is refreshment. There are pleasures and confolations, in that inter * 1 Pet. v. 7. + Jer. xvii. 5-8.. courfe courfe and communion with God, to which, we are invited by the gofpel; which, both in kind and degree, are unfpeakably fuperior to all that the world can beftow, and fuch as the world cannot deprive us of. For they have no neceffary dependance upon outward fituation or circumftances; they are compatible with poverty, sickness, and fufferings. They are often moft fenfibly sweet and lively, when the ftreams of creature comfort are at the lowest ebb. Many have been able to say with the apostle, As the fufferings of Chrift (those which we endure for his fake, or fubmit to from his hand) abound in us, fo our confolation in Christ also aboundeth*. The all fufficient God, can increase these communications of comfort from himself, to a degree beyond our ordinary conceptions; so as not only to fupport his people, under the most exquifite pains, but even to fufpend and overpower all fenfe of pain, when the torment would otherwise be extreme. And he has fometimes been pleased to honour the fidelity of his fervants, and to manifeft his own faithfulness to them, by fuch an interpofition. One well-attefted inftance our |
