III. Conclude with exhorting you to accept of the invitation
which the LORD JESUS CHRIST gives unto you to come unto him,
with the assurance of finding rest.
_First_, I am to shew you, who are the weary and heavy-laden.
And here it will be necessary to consider who are not; and then, to
consider who they are that are really so.
1. Those who think themselves good enough, and are pleased that they
are not so bad as others, these are not weary or heavy laden.
No, these Pharisees are not thus troubled; they laugh and jest at those
who talk of feeling their sins, and think there is no occasion to make
so much ado about religion: it is to be righteous over-much, and the
means to destroy yourselves. They think if they do but mean well, and
say their prayers, as they call them, it is sufficient: though they
may say a prayer, yea, thousands of prayers, and all the while be only
offering up the sacrifice of fools. They may call GOD, Father, every
day, when it is only mocking of GOD, and offering up false fire unto
him; and it would be just for him to serve them, as he did _Nahab_ and
_Abihu_, destroy them, cut them off from the face of the earth: but he
is waiting to be gracious, and willing to try a little longer, whether
you will bring forth any thing more than the leaves of an outward
profession, which is not all that the LORD requires: no, he wants the
heart; and unless you honour him with that, he does not regard your
mouths, when the other is far from him. You may say over your prayers
all your lives, and yet you may never pray over one: therefore, while
you flatter yourselves you are good enough, and that you are in a state
of salvation, you are only deceiving your own souls, and hastening on
your own destruction. Come unto him, not as being good enough, but as
vile sinners, as poor, and blind, and naked, and miserable, and then
JESUS will have compassion.
O ye Pharisees, what fruits do ye bring forth? Why, you are moral,
polite creatures; you do your endeavours, you do what you can, and so
JESUS is to make up the rest. You esteem yourselves fine, rational,
and polite beings, and think it is too unfashionable to pray; it is
not polite enough: perhaps you have read some prayers, but knew not
how to pray from your hearts; no, by no means: that was being righteous
over-much indeed.
But when once you are sensible of your being lost, damned creatures,
and see hell gaping ready to receive you; if GOD was but to cut the
thread of life, O then, then you would cry earnestly unto the LORD to
receive you, to open the door of mercy unto you; your tones would then
be changed, you would no more flatter yourselves with your abilities
and good wishes: no, you would see how unable you were, how incapable
to save yourselves; that there is no fitness, no free will in you:
no fitness, but for eternal damnation, no free will but that of doing
evil; and that when you would do good, evil is present with you, and
the thing that ye would not, that do ye. He knows the secret intent of
every heart; and this is a pleasure to you, my dear brethren, who come
on purpose to meet with him, though it be in a field. And, however some
may esteem me a mountebank, and an enthusiast, one that is only going
to make you methodically mad; they may breathe out their invectives
against me, yet CHRIST knows all; he takes notice of it, and I shall
leave it to him to plead my cause, for he is a gracious Master: I have
already found him so, and am sure he will continue so. Vengeance is his,
and he will repay it. Let them revile me; let them cast me out of their
synagogues, and have my name in reproach, I shall not answer them by
reviling again, or in speaking evil against them: no, that is not the
Spirit of CHRIST, but meekness, patience, long-suffering, kindness, &c.
Ye pharisees, who are going about to establish your own righteousness;
you, who are too polite to follow the LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity
and truth; you, who are all for a little shew, a little outside work;
who lead moral, civil, decent lives, CHRIST will not know you at the
great day, but will say unto you, O ye Pharisees, was there any place
for me in your love? Alas! you are full of anger and malice, and
self-will; yet you pretended to love and serve me, and to be my people:
but, however, I despise you; I, who am GOD, and knoweth the secret of
all hearts; I, who am truth itself, the faithful and true witness, say
unto you, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, into that place of
torment, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Good GOD! and must
these discreet polite creatures, who never did any one harm, but led
such civil, decent lives, must they suffer the vengeance of eternal
fire? Cannot their righteous souls be saved? Where then must the sinner
and the ungodly appear? Where wilt thou, O sabbath-breaker, appear,
thou, who canst take thy pleasure, thy recreation, on the LORD’s-day,
who refusest to hear the word of GOD, who wilt not come to church to
be instructed in the ways of the LORD? Where will you, O ye adulterers,
fornicators, and such-like of this generation appear? Whoremongers and
adulterers GOD will judge, and them he will condemn. Then you will not
call these tricks of youth: no, but you will call on the rocks and the
mountains to fall on you, to hide you from the fury and anger of the
LORD. Where wilt thou, O man, appear, that takes pleasure in making a
mock of sin, who despisest all reproof, who throws about thy jests as
a madman does fire, and asks whether thou art not in sport? Where wilt
thou, O man, appear, that makes it thy business to preach against the
children of the Most High; thou, who art inventing methods in order to
stop the progress of the gospel, and using thy utmost power to quash
the preaching thereof; who art raising of evil reports against the
disciples of CHRIST, and esteemest them madmen, fools, schismatics,
and a parcel of rabble? Thou, O man, with all thy letter-learning, wilt
surely see the judgment-seat of CHRIST, though, perhaps, sorely against
your will; to be cast by him into eternal fire, a place prepared for
the devil and his angels. There is a burning tophet kindled by the
fury of an avenging GOD, which will never, never be quenched. The devil
longs to embrace you in his hellish arms, whenever the sentence is
past, where you must for ever bear the weight of your sin: there is no
redemption then; the day of grace is past; the door of hope is shut;
mercy will be no more offered, but you must be shut out from GOD for
ever. O who can dwell with everlasting burnings!
However you may think of hell, indeed it is not a painted fire; it
is not an imagination to keep people in awe: then, then you will feel
the power of the almighty arm. If you will not lay hold on his golden
sceptre, he will break you with his iron rod. O ye Pharisees, who
are now so good, so much better than others, how will ye stand before
CHRIST, when drest in his glory as judge? You Arians, may now despise
his divinity; then you shall have a proof of it; he will shew, that
he has all power, and that he was no subordinate GOD; he will shew you
that he has all power in heaven and earth that he was King of kings,
and Lord of lords; that he was the mighty GOD, the everlasting Father;
and this power that he has, he will exercise in preserving you to no
other end, but to punish you for ever. Thus you, who please yourselves
with being good enough now, who are not weary and heavy laden with a
sense of your sins here, will be weary and heavy laden with a sense of
your punishment hereafter.
2. Those, my brethren, are not weary and heavy laden with a sense of
their sins, who can delight themselves in the polite entertainments of
the age, and follow the sinful diversions of life.
Now they can go to balls and assemblies, play-houses and horse-racing;
they have no thought of their sins; they know not what it is to weep
for sin, or humble themselves under the mighty hand of GOD; they can
laugh away their sorrows, and sing away their cares, and drive away
these melancholy thoughts; they are too polite to entertain any sad
thoughts; the talk of death and judgment is irksome to them, because
it damps their mirth; they could not endure to think of their sin and
danger; they could not go to a play, and think of hell; they could not
go quietly to a masquerade, and think of their danger; they could not
go to a ball or an assembly in peace, if they thought of their sins.
And so it is proved, even to a demonstration, that these are not weary
and heavy laden: for if they are not thoughtful about their sins, they
will never be weary and heavy laden of them. But at the day of judgment
all will be over: they shall lose all their carnal mirth, all their
pleasure, all their delight will be gone for ever.
They will say then of their laughter, it is mad; and of mirth, What
dost thou? Their merry conceits, and witty jests against the poor
despised people of GOD, are then over. Their mirth was but as the
crackling of thorns under a pot; it made a great blaze and unseemly
noise for a while, but it was presently gone, and will return no more.
They think now, that if they were to fast or to pray, and meditate
and mourn, they should be righteous over-much, and destroy themselves;
their lives would be a continual trouble, and it would make them run
mad. Alas, my brethren, what misery must that life be, where there
is no more pleasant days, no more balls or plays, no cards or dice,
those wasters of precious time, no horse-racing and cock-fighting, from
whence no good ever came, unless abusing GOD Almighty’s creatures, and
putting them to that use which he never designed them, can be called
so. How miserable will your life be, when all your joys are over,
when your pleasures are all past, and no more mirth or pastime? Do you
think there is one merry heart in hell? one pleasing countenance? or
jesting, scoffing, swearing tongue? A sermon now is irksome: the offer
of salvation, by the blood of JESUS CHRIST, is now termed enthusiasm;
but then you would give thousands of worlds, if in your power, for one
tender of mercy, for one offer of grace, which now you so much despise.
Now, you are not weary of your diversions, nor are you heavy laden with
the sins, with which they are accompanied; but then you will be weary
of your punishment, and the aggravation which attends it. Your cards
and dice, your hawks and hounds, and bowls, and your pleasant sports,
will then be over. What mirth will you have in remembering your sports
and diversions? I would not have you mistake me, and say, I am only
preaching death and damnation to you; I am only shewing you what will
be the consequence of continuing in these sinful pleasures; and if
the devil does not hurry you away with half a sermon, I shall shew
you how to avoid these dangers, which I now preach up as the effect
of sin unrepented of. I mention this, lest you should be hurried away
by the devil: but be not offended, if I point out unto you more of the
terrors which will attend your following these polite and fashionable
entertainments of the present age, and of not being weary and heavy
laden with a sense of your sins.
They who delight in drinking wine to excess, and who are drunkards,
what bitter draughts will they have instead of wine and ale? The heat
of lust will be then also abated; they will no more sing the song of
the drunkard; no more spend their time in courting their mistresses,
in lascivious discourse, in amorous songs, in wanton dalliances, in
brutish defilements: no, these are all over; and it will but prick
each other to the heart to look one another in the face. Then they will
wish, that instead of sinning together, they had prayed together; had
frequented religious societies; had stirred up each other to love and
holiness, and endeavoured to convince each other of the evil of sin,
and how obnoxious they are to the wrath of GOD; and the necessity of
being weary and heavy laden with a sense thereof; that they might have
escaped the punishment which they suffer, by their following the sinful
and polite diversions of the age they fell into. But as it was against
GOD himself they had sinned, so no less than GOD will punish them
for their offences: he hath prepared these torments for his enemies;
his continual anger will still be devouring of them; his breath of
indignation will kindle the flame; his wrath will be a continual
burden to their souls. Woe be to him who falls under the stroke of the
Almighty!
Thus they are not weary and heavy laden with their sins, who can follow
the polite and fashionable entertainments of the age. But,
_Secondly_, I am to shew you what it is to be weary and heavy laden
with sins. And
1. You may be said, my brethren, to be weary and heavy laden, when your
sins are grievous unto you, and it is with grief and trouble you commit
them.
You, who are awakened unto a sense of your sins, who see how hateful
they are to GOD, and how they lay you open to his wrath and indignation,
and would willingly avoid them; who hate yourselves for committing them;
when you are thus convinced of sin, when you see the terrors of the
law, and are afraid of his judgments; then you may be said to be weary
of your sins. And O how terrible do they appear when you are first
awakened to a sense of them; when you see nothing but the wrath of
GOD ready to fall upon you, and you are afraid of his judgments! O how
heavy is your sin to you then! Then you feel the weight thereof, and
that it is grievous to be borne.
2. When you are obliged to cry out under the burden of your sins, and
know not what to do for relief; when this is your case, you are weary
of your sins. It does not consist in a weariness all of a sudden: no,
it is the continual burden of your soul, it is your grief and concern
that you cannot live without offending GOD, and sinning against him;
and these sins are so many and so great, that you fear they will not be
forgiven.