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THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

SERMON XIX.

MATTH. xi. 28. Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will give you reft.

E are now,

WE III. To inquire, What fort of a labour

finners have in these things? For the fake of plainnefs, it will be neceffary to confider this labour, 1ft, As it refpects their lufts; 2dly, As it refpects We are,

the law.

Ift, To confider this labour of finners, as it refpects their lufts, their going up and down among the creatures, extracting from them a comfort and pleasures, which they take for happiness.—I shall here fhow the properties of this labour, and thus confirm the point, that they are engaged in a wearifome labour.

1. It is hard labour, and fore toil: Jer. ix. 5. "They weary themselves to commit iniquity." None win the devil's wages for nought, they eat no idle bread where he is task-mafter, and they muft needs run, whom he drives. The devil's

yoke

yoke is of all yokes the heavieft.-To clear this point, confider,

(1.) What the fcriptures compare this labour in lufts unto; whereby it will appear hard labour.It compares it,

[1.] To the labour of a man going to a city, and not knowing the way: Ecclef. x. 15. "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city." That is hard labour, as many know by experience. Many a weary foot fuch must go, many a hardfhip they must endure, and fo must these in purfuit of happiness.-It compares it,

[2.] To a labouring in the fire: Hab. ii. 13. "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hofts, that the people fhall labour in the very fire, and the people fhall weary themselves for very vanity?" How hard is their labour that lieth about a fire! what sweat! what toil! Jer. vi. 29. "The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away." But how much more hard in the fire! As when a houfe is on fire, and men in it, labouring to preferve that which the fire confumes even among their hands. These labour; 1ft, In the fire of lufts, that inflames the heart, and fcorches the very foul, Prov. vi. 27. 28. "For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bofom, and his cloaths not be burned?" 2dly, In the fire of divine wrath that is kindled by the former: Ifa. ix 18. "For wickedness burneth as the fire, it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the foreft, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of fmoke." This confumeth what they are working for in the other; so that when, like the spider, they

have fpun out their own bowels for a covering,. yet it is by far too narrow, and they have but wearied themfelves for very vanity. It is compared,

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[3.] To labouring under a burden, as in the text itself, which will not let the man get up his back. They are the devil's drudges, labouring under that load that will crufh them at laft, if they do not, as in Pfal. lv. 22. caft their burden on the Lord, that he may fuftain them. They are laden with divers lufts, which lie on them as a burden on the weary beaft, which weary them indeed, but they are bound on as with bands of iron and brafs. It is compared,

[4.] To the labour of a foldier in war; they watch for iniquity as a centry at his poft: Ifa. xxix. 20. The natural man himfelf is the very field of battle: Jam. iv. 1. " From whence come wars and fightings among you ? come they not hence, even of your lufts which war in your members?" The war itself you may fee described in the three following verfes. Who cannot but be well laboured with the feet of men and horse in that confufion? Though there be not grace and corruption to war in them, there are lufts, and lufts opposed to one another, lufts and light also. -It is compared,

[5.] To the labour of the husbandman in plowing: Hof. x. 13. "Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity." They devife wickedness, which the Hebrew calls plowing it: "Devise not evil against thy neighbour," Prov. iii. 29. ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire," Prov. xvi. 27.--It is compared,

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[6.] Not to infift on more, to the labour of a woman in child-birth: Pfal. vii. 4. "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mif

chief, and brought forth falfehood." What pangs do raging lufts create to the foul? What cords of death does it ftraiten with? No small toil at conceiving of fin, and bearing it in the heart, and bringing it forth; but nothing in the abominable brat to fatisfy the foul after all.

(2.) It is hard labour, if you confider that eminent emblem of our natural state, the Egyptian bondage. Their deliverance out of Egypt was typical of their fpiritual deliverance by Chrift, and fo that muft needs fignify man's natural state; concerning which it may be remarked, (1.) That as the children of Ifrael went down to Egypt in the loins of their parents, fo we in Adam.-(2.) As the deliverance was wrought by the angel of the covenant, by the hands of Mofes the Lawgiver, and Aaron the Prieft, fo this by the law and the gofpel.-(3.) As Pharaoh opposed the children of Ifrael to the utmoft, fo the devil oppofeth here. Pharaoh was "the great dragon which lieth in the midst of his rivers, which faid, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself,” Ezek. xxix. 3. and was a type of that great red dragon, mentioned Rev. xii. 3. &c. But for that which concerns this point, fee Exod. v. There you will find perfons labouring, and heavy-laden, ver. 4. 5. It is hard labour to fatisfy lufts, the devil's tafk-mafters: Ephef. ii. 2. 3. "He worketh in the children of difobedience: : Among whom alfo we had our converfation in times paft, in the lufts of our flesh, fulfilling the defires of the flesh, and of the mind." The Ifraelites had their tasks doubled, to put religion out of their heads and hearts, Exod. v. 10. Lufts alfo muft be fatisfied, but wherewith to do it is with-held, as ftraw was from the Ifraelites, ver. 11. They are scattered up and down among the creatures for it, but can never squeeze out a

fufliciency

fufficiency for them, even as the Ifraelites could not find ftubble enough to prepare their bricks, ver. 12. 13. 14. If any appearance of deliverance, the labour is made the harder. Says Paul, Rom. vii. 9. "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, fin revived, and I died."It is hard labour,

(3.) If ye confider the effects this labour hath, ft, On the fouls of men. The minds of men have a toilfome talk, where fin is on the throne: Ifa. v. 20. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." That foul muft needs be in a continual fever, while inordinate affections are in their ftrength, as in all out of Chrift. A fermentation of lufts cannot but make a toffed mind. Anxiety and cares of the world ftretch the mind, as on tenter-hooks. A conceived flight, like that of Ahab, 1 Kings, xxi. 4. fets the proud man's heart in a fire of wrath and revenge, and fqueezes the fap out of all their enjoyments, as in the inftance of Haman, Efther, v. 9. 13. Envy flays the filly one, luft ftrikes as a dart through the liver; anger, malice, difcontent, and the like, make a man his own executioner; they are toffed between hopes, fears, and vanity, tumbled hither and thither with every wind of temptation, as a ship without either pilot or ballaft. 2dly, Even the body is oftimes hard put to it in this labour. The covetous rifes early, eats the bread of forrow for what is not; the drunkard ufes his body worse than his beaft. More bodies have fallen facrifices to lufts, one way or another, than ever fell by all the hardfhips either in or about religion.

2. It is base, mean, and abject labour: See Jer. ii. 21. compared with ver. 23. and 24. Were wę

to

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