SERMON V.

On the RELIEF which the GOSPEL affords to the DISTRESSED.

[Preached at the Celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.]

MATTH. xi. 28.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft.

THE life of man on earth is doomed SERM.

to be clouded with various evils. Throughout all ranks the afflicted form a confiderable proportion of the human race; and even they who have a title to be called profperous, are always, in fome periods of their life, obliged to drink from the cup of bitterness. The Chrif tian religion is particularly entitled to our regard, by accommodating itself with VOL. IV.

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great

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SERM. great tenderness to this diftreffed condi

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tion of mankind. It is not to be confidered as merely an authoritative system of precepts. Important precepts it indeed delivers for the wife and proper regulation of life. But the fame voice which enjoins our duty; utters the words of confolation. The gofpel deferves to be held a difpenfation of relief to mankind under both the temporal and spiritual diftreffes of their state.

This amiable and compaffionate fpirit of our religion confpicuously appears in the character of its great Author. It fhone in all his actions while he lived on earth. It breathed in all his difcourfes; and, in the words of the text, is expreffed with much energy. In the preceding verfe, he had given a high account of his own person and dignity. All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, fave the Son, and he to whomfoever the Son will reveal him. But left any of his hearers fhould be difcouraged by, this myfterious representation of his greatnefs, he inftant

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ly tempers it with the moft gracious be- SER M. nignity; declaring, in the text, the merciful intention of his miffion to the world, Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft.

THE first thing which claims our attention in these words is, what we are to understand by coming unto Chrift. This is a phrafe which has often given occafion to controverfy. By theological writers it has been involved in much needless mystery, while the meaning is in itfelf plain and easy. The very methaphor that is here used ferves to explain it. In the ancient world, difciples flocked round their different teachers, and attended them wherever they went; in order both to testify their attachment, and to imbibe more fully the doctrine of their masters. Coming unto Chrift, therefore, is the fame with reforting to him as our declared Mafter; acknowledging ourselves his difciples, believers in his doctrine, and followers of his precepts. As Christ is made known to us under the character both of a Teacher

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SERM. a Teacher and a Saviour, our coming to

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bim imports not only fubmiffion to his inftructions, but confidence alfo in his power to fave. It imports that, forfaking the corruptions of fin and the world, we follow that courfe of virtue and obedience which he points out to us; relying on his mediation of pardon of our offences, and acceptance with heaven. This is what is implied in the fcripture term Faith; which includes both the affent of the understanding to the truth of the Christian religion, and the concurrence of the will in receiving it.

WHAT next occurs in the text to attract our notice is, the defcription of those to whom the invitation is addreffed. All those who labour and are heavy laden, that is, who, in one way or other, feet themselves grieved and diftreffed, are here invited to come to Chrift.-Now, from two fources chiefly our diftreffes arife, from moral or from natural causes.

First, THEY may arife from inward moral caufes; from certain feelings and reflections

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reflections of the mind, which occafion SER M. uneasiness and pain. A courfe of fin and vice always proves ruinous and destructive in the iffue. But its tendency to ruin is often not perceived, while that tendency is advancing. For as fin is the reign of paffion and pleafure, it forms men to a thoughtless inconfiderate ftate. Circumftances, however, may occur, and frequently, in the courfe of life, do occur, which difclose to a vicious man the ruin which he is bringing on himself, as an offender against the God who made him. When fome occafional confinement to folitude, or fome turn of adverse fortune, directs his attention immediately upon his own character; or when, drawing towards the close of life, his paffions fubfide, his pleasures withdraw, and a future ftate comes forward to his view; in fuch fituations it often happens, that the past follies and crimes of fuch a man appear to him in a light moft odious and fhocking; and not odious only, but terrifying to his heart. He confiders that he is undoubtedly placed under the government of a juft God, who did not fend him into this world