is no exception made of sins, or persons, or times. At what time soever a sinner repent,' 1 Kings viii. 30, seq., whatsoever sinner, whatsoever time, or whatsoever the sins be, if he repents, Christ is ready to receive him.

If you pretend your unworthiness and want of excellencies, he takes away that objection. Come unto me, all that are weary and heavy laden,' Mat. xi. 28; Come, buy without money,' Isa. lv. 1; and here in the text, The Son of man shall give ;' and what so free as gift?

If you pretend you have sinned since your calling, and that you have sinned against conscience and knowledge, and therefore now you have no further hope of Christ, remember that Paul, 2 Cor. v. 20, speaks to the Corinthians that were in the state of grace, I beseech you to be reconciled to God;' and in Jer. iii. 6, seq., Return again, you backsliding Israel, and I will heal your backsliding;' and again, Will a man receive a wife that hath played the harlot, and broken the band of marriage? Yet return, O house of Israel, and I will receive you.' Therefore run not away from God. Though thou hast sinned after thou art in the state of grace, come again, I beseech you. Still Christ is to be received; the door of grace is always held open, and the golden sceptre continually held out as long as we live in this world.

But yet it is not good to neglect the time of grace. Receive Christ presently; defer not to come under his government; and receive him wholly, or else there is no receiving of him at all.

And to press this a little further; I beseech you, consider that if you leave not your sinful courses, and come under the blessed government of Christ, if you receive not this sealed' king, this sealed' priest and prophet, this 'sealed' mediator, whom God hath sealed' and sent unto you for salvation, there is not anything in the world that will one day more torment you than your refusal of him. Oh that we should ever live to hear of salvation so freely offered, and of a Saviour so authorised, yet notwithstanding that we should respect our sins more than our souls! and because we could not have him to be our Saviour except we came under his government and be ruled by him as a king, we refused him wholly altogether. Indeed, if we might have had salvation by him and the forgiveness of sins, and withal have remained under the rule and sway of our own lusts, and been led by them, we would have been contented to have had him ; but rather than we would leave our blasphemous, our unclean, injurious, and covetous courses of life, we were content to let Christ go if he would. Oh that we should reject this sealed' Saviour! Oh that we should refuse salvation offered on such loving terms, when God was so loving as to seal and authorise his Son; when the Son was so loving as to give himself when he was 'sealed ;' to refuse this and that for such base respects, will certainly one day, when the conscience is wakened, prove the greatest torment that can be!

.

See how the apostle notably enforceth this in the second of the Hebrews, ver. 3: If so be they did not escape that despised Moses' law, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' He doth not say, How shall we escape if we oppose Christ, if we rail on him, if we despise his image in his children, as many cursed wretches do? but, How shall we escape if we do but neglect so great salvation,' so witnessed and authorised with all the signs, so offered and tendered with all the terms of love that may be ?

And therefore, if there be any here that have lived in sinful courses, and have a purpose to break them off, that are weary of the government of their lusts, and of Satan that rules them by their lusts,-for all are under one government or other, either under the sealed' government of Christ, or

under the base government of Satan that tends to damnation,-Oh leave it, and come under this governor' sealed' by God the Father, authorised from heaven by the blessed Trinity, by miracles, and by all the arguments that can be; come under his blessed government and you shall do well. God the Father, the party offended with your sins, he hath sealed' him; and he cannot refuse a mediator of his own sealing.

And do not say your sins have been thus and thus; for consider what were these parties that he offers himself to here, that he saith to, Labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life.' Were they not cursed hypocrites, that followed him for the loaves, and yet he saith to them, Labour for the meat that endures,' &c. I am sealed' even for your salvation, if you will come out of your hypocrisy and be ruled by me. Therefore let none stand out from coming under the government of Christ, for he offers mercy, you see here, to the worst of men, even to cursed hypocrites.

And, to conclude with a word of comfort, if there be any poor. distressed soul frighted in conscience with the sight of his sins and Satan's temptations, Oh let such consider the love of God in Christ. Satan pictures out God as a terrible judge; and so he is indeed to men that go on in their sins, a consuming fire.' But art thou weary of thy courses? art thou willing to come under a better covenant? Let not Satan abuse thee by setting God before thee as a terrible judge, and Christ as one that would not save thee. No. Come in, kiss the Son, for him hath the Father sealed,'' sealed' for thee if thou be weary of thy sins. Enforce not upon thy soul any unwillingness to be in God. Wherefore doth God stoop so low, and labour by all these arguments here, as that Christ is the Son of man, and that he shall give it you, and that the Father hath sealed him for that end; wherefore is all this, but to shew his willingness to receive thee? Wherefore hath the Father' sealed' Christ but in love to thee? Come in, therefore, and then, if you will seal to his truth, if you will believe and cast yourselves on God's gracious promise, even against doubting and distrust, you shall find God sealing you by his Spirit; you shall find his Spirit witnessing to your spirits that you are the sons of God.'

Here then you see is sure footing for poor doubting souls to fasten upon. God the Father, the party offended, hath sealed' his Son; hath authorised him to save thee, if thou repent and come in. What are all thy sins and unworthiness to Christ, God-man, 'sealed' and authorised by the Father, who is the party offended? If thou art willing to come in, bring all thy sins and oppose them to Christ, God-man, sealed' by the Father, and they will vanish as a cloud. But, as I said before, if thou wilt not come in and accept of this Saviour, if thou wilt not submit thyself to his government, thou sealest thy damnation.

Thus you see I have unfolded this blessed portion of Scripture. Christ Jesus, and all the prerogatives and benefits that come by him, is the food that endureth to everlasting life. You see the arguments our blessed Saviour useth to enforce us to labour after this food. It is food.' It is food that'endures,' and it is food that endures to everlasting life;' and he will give it,' for him the Father hath sealed' and authorised so to do. He is both the gift and the giver; both the food and the inviter to the food; both the priest and the sacrifice. Labour therefore after this food. There is an objection which I will briefly answer, and so end. Labour after it. Why? Christ will give it; if he will give it, why must we labour after it? And if we must labour for it, how doth he give it? How can these two, gift and labour, stand together?

I answer, Very well; Christ will give himself, and forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting, and yet we must labour too. But we must know for what we must labour. We must not labour for any merit to the title unto heaven and happiness. Christ indeed gives that. But labour in the use of all good means to get knowledge and faith to receive this gift, to get the knowledge of Christ, what he is in his natures and offices, what he hath promised, what he hath done and what he hath suffered, what the intent of the gospel is; what the giver is; and what the authority is, that his Father hath given him. This requires labour. It is a labour to crack the shell, to understand the letter of the Scripture; to know what the gift and what the giver is. And it is likewise a labour to get faith to receive this gift; to get the soul emptied of all self-confidence; of all worth in itself and in the creature; for Christ must be received with a beggar's hand; and it will ask much labour to deny a man's self; for. proud flesh will always have somewhat to trust to either in itself or in the creature.

So that these two may well stand together, labour and gift. We are taught to pray,' Give us this day our daily bread.' God will give us our daily bread. We must not therefore stand still and do nothing; but though God will give it, yet he will give it in the use of means, in the use of our lawful callings. So here, God will give us this spiritual food; yet he will give it in labour. It is his ordinance; and whatsoever he gives, he gives not in idleness, but in obedience to his ordinance. He will have us to labour in the use of the means, in reading, hearing, receiving the sacrament, praying, meditating, and the like, to have a part in Christ this blessed gift. Nay, because he will give Christ, therefore labour. The one enforceth the other. The like reason Moses giveth the Israelites: Fight,' saith he, for the Lord hath given them into your hand,' Joshua x. 19. They might say, If our enemies be given into our hand, why should we fight? Yes; fight the rather, be encouraged to fight, because you shall be sure to conquer. So here, 'Labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life, for the Son of man will give it.' Therefore labour, because he will give it. In labouring we shall be sure to have it; do that which belongs to thee, and thou shalt be sure to have that which belongs to God; thou shalt find Christ, and heaven, and glory, and all in the use of the means. But he gives nothing without labour. There can be no good done in earthly things without labour; and do yon think to have heaven without labour? No. Spiritual things are against the stream. Heaven is up the hill. There must be labour, there must be striving against corruptions within, and against temptations without; and our labour it is a happy labour. It is not a barren labour; 'Our labour is not in vain in the Lord,' as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xv. 58. We that labour for the food that endures to everlasting life, we labour for somewhat; but worldlings that beat their brains, and tire their spirits, and rack their consciences, and wear out their bodies, it is all for nothing; it is for that which is vanity and vexation of spirit,' Eccles. i. 14; for that which they must leave behind them. A true Christian, to encourage him to take all the pains that may be, he labours for something; it is a hopeful and not a barren labour. And, beloved, blessed are we that we can have this food for our labour; that since the fall we can recover by the second Adam' a better estate than we had by the first.

And our blessed Saviour, to the end he might distinguish true Christians from hypocrites, enjoins this duty of labouring so much the more; for we have many in the church that think to have Christ and his benefits without

labour, as if heaven would drop into their mouths. They can say that God is merciful, and Christ died for us; but you shall in the mean time find them careless of reading, of hearing, of praying, of the communion of saints, &c., are idle in working out their salvation with fear and trembling, negligent in selling all that they have for the pearl, will part with nothing for Christ. I say, to distinguish these hypocrites from true Christians, therefore he saith, Labour,' to shew to us that only they that labour for Christ in the use of all good means; that labour for the true knowledge of him, and for faith to receive him; that sell all for him; that take pains to grow in grace and in union with Christ; that make him their best portion in the world, and delight in him: it is they only that have interest in Christ; only the painful* Christian is the true Christian.

Therefore, I beseech you, as you would have it discerned that you are not hypocrites in the church, be stirred up to use all sanctified means to know Christ, to believe in him, to know that you are in communion with him, that you belong unto him. Be not discouraged. You shall have rest ere long. There is a rest for the people of God,' as the apostle saith to the Hebrews, Heb. iv. 9. Indeed, so long as we are here below, there is labour joined with weariness; for we have great conflicts with corruptions and temptations, with enemies within and enemies without; but be of good comfort, we shall at last come to a rest, to a rest perpetual and everlasting. It is true, in heaven there shall be labour, for we shall be alway praising God; but it shall be labour without weariness, labour without conflict. There shall be no corruption within, nor no devil without. Satan could enter into paradise below, but he shall never enter into that heavenly paradise. Therefore be encouraged to labour for a while. Though it be tedious, because of corruptions and temptations, yet there is a rest for the people of God, an eternal rest.

* That is, 'painstaking.'-G.

(a) P. 866.- Especially are we to make daily use of the death of Christ; for howsoever the death of Christ be transient in respect of the act of it, as one of the ancients suith; yet . . . .' The thought is common to Bernard and Augustine.

(b) P. 370.-Taste is the most necessary sense of all, saith a wise searcher of the mysteries of nature; our life is maintained by taste.' Query, Bacon?

...

(c) P. 373.- All . . . depends . . . as Saint Austin saith, for now... This great fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, is constantly dwelt upon throughout the works of Augustine.

G.