“Come unto me, ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
This is one of the most solemn gospel-offers in the whole New Testament. The words labouring and heavy laden do not restrict the offer and invitation to such as are sensible of their sins and longing to be rid of them, though indeed none but such will really accept of them; but they denote the restlessness of the sinful souls of men, whether they have or have not any notable law-work on their consciences. I say notable, to distinguish it from that which is common to all men, even to heathens, Rom. 2:15. Our father Adam, by his first sin, led his whole family away our of their rest in God, and so left them with a conscience full of guilt, and a heart full of unsatisfied desires. Hence his children soon find themselves like the horse leech's daughter, crying, Give, give, viz., a restless conscience and a restless heart; and to each of these the poor soul must say, as Naomi to Ruth, 'My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee?' so the blinded soul falls a-labouring for rest to them, and it labours in the barren region of the fiery law for a rest to the conscience, and in the barren creation for a rest to the heart. But after all, the conscience is still laden with guilt, whether it has any lively feeling of it or not, and the heart is still under a load of unsatisfied desires, so neither the one nor the other can find rest indeed. This is the natural case of all men, and to souls thus labouring and laden, Jesus Christ calls here that they may come to him, and he will give them rest; viz., a rest for their consciences under the covert of his blood, and a rest for their heart in the enjoyment of God through him.”
-Ralph Erskine |
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