happy, much less so can he be under any other circumstances. Persons who are not in a state of spiritual rest cannot be happy under any circumstances. If the commercialist aspire after a fortune to retire from his duties; if he be in a happy state of mind, he will be happy while obtaining his fortune, and also in the enjoyment of it; but if not, he will be unhappy in both cases. The labour of accumulating riches will be a miserable burthen to him, and when this burthen is shifted, another will instantly supply its place; his very life will be burthensome. Happiness consists in nothing external to us, but in the adaptation of our minds to every thing connected with us; the truly happy man is one who delights in the uses of life; he who does not fly them but seeks them; if he depend on his exertions for a daily livelihood, he is happy because he is useful, and none the less so because necessarily useful, for the necessity of the case is conformable to his desires. If placed above the necessity of exertion for the maintenance of himself and family, he does not suffer the worst of all miseries—an inactive life, vapid and useless, for he looks out for pleasurable employments of which the world presents an endless supply. The necessary duties of life are not burthensome; they are decreed by our heavenly Father; they are necessary for our existence and for our happiness; and to rightly constituted minds they are in themselves a source of happiness. These are not the labour with which we are heavily laden: it is not from these the Lord promises relief. In vain will the unhappy merchant or tradesman pray to be relieved from these. What, shall we have the energies of the world to stand still, the whole land become a desert waste? Let no man who quarrels with his condition because of its duties, appeal to the Lord for a release; we must recommend him, for this purpose, to bow at mammon's shrine, to hypocritically subserve his selfishness by pandering to a deceived and deceiving world: he shall then have his reward, he shall get gold and worship it; his god will give him glittering baubles, but no happiness; he shall have fine houses, and splendid equipages, but no happiness, no rest; he shall have downy beds and luxurious couches, but no rest; there shall not be a desire the world can offer him, but he shall have; the devil will shew him all the world, all these will he give him and the glory of them, but no rest. There will still remain an aching void, a want of something which the world cannot purchase. No, my brethren, the burthen we want to be relieved from consists not of the duties of life; the labour with which we are heavy laden is a mind not at ease with the world, a mind not satisfied with the ordinances of God. It is an evil that we want to be released from; while we

possess it we are at rest no where, our duties are miserable to us and our pleasures too; we dislike our house, we dislike every thing in it, we hate our neighbour, our country, we get tired of society and tired of being alone, we seek luxury after luxury, and pleasure after pleasure, and find each to bring satiety, and every new allurement fascinates but to deceive. We have no happiness, no rest; our lives are full of labour and sorrow; we are indeed heavily laden, we are heavily laden with burdens we cannot bear, because we are not spiritually conformable to the will of God and his merciful dispensations. This nonconformity is sin, and, therefore, sin is the burthen from which we should desire to be released; the enemies to our happiness are of our own household; they are within us, they are our own corruptions; and when we can so far overcome our vanity and pride as to be enabled to see this to be the case, then shall we be enabled so far to understand what it is we must be released from in order to obtain rest.

But how can we be released? This, fourthly, our Lord teaches; "Come unto me," saith our Lord with paternal solicitude, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

A fifth point of doctrine is involved in the words "Come unto me." Literally understood, the words "come" and "go" imply locomotion, a moving from place to place of the material body: but it is, at first sight, I trust, evident that we cannot so approach the Lord; there is no one place nearer to him than another, he is every where; "If," says the psalmist, "I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there: if I take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand uphold me." We cannot approach the Lord by the letter; the letter kills, the spirit it is that maketh alive. Those who come to church as a place with their material bodies, literally obey the Word; but if their hearts come not with them, they are spiritually afar off, and dead in their trespasses and sins. The spiritual doctrine involved in the words is, that, in order to be released from our burthens, we must approach the Lord in spirit and in truth, with devoted minds; with the eye of the understanding open to see him, and the heart warmed with holy love; for who is the Lord? and what is the Lord? The Lord is our Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour; the Lord of all worlds; the ruler of the heavens; the munificent giver of all good; he who was personified on earth in the humanity to release man from the bondage of satan, to raise him to the light of truth, and to shew him a perfect example of righteousness by fulfilling the

law and the prophets;-the Lord Jesus Christ, the one only God of heaven and earth-the manifested Jehovah. This is the Lord; we all believe it, but how do we believe it? as do the devils? for they also believe and tremble; they believe in, but they do not love, the Lord. Such a faith as this is not the true faith, it is a spurious faith, that is to say, it is no faith at all. We cannot approach the Lord without knowing him, for we cannot go to, or away from, any thing we know nothing about; but since nearness to, or distance from, the Lord are only typical expressions to signify the state of the heart's affections, and to spiritually approach him is to love him, therefore we cannot approach any nearer to him in consequence of what we believe, but by loving him also. And how can we love the Lord? and how can we manifest that love in our worship? Can we love him as a person? Can we love our neighbour as a person? no! Many would so fallaciously persuade themselves, but they are sure to find out their error, and too often too late. Many go into company, and fix their affections on this one and that one, because their persons are agreeable, or their manners and conversation: but surely this is the result of very superficial observation. Such persons are neither steady friends themselves, nor do they often find friends in others. If they have mammon wherewith to feed a flattering crew, they receive from them in return empty compliments and empty flattery; but no solid friendship. Some even enter the bonds of matrimony on this superficial authority of external fascination, and find too late that they have blasphemed the altar of God with perjury, and have lived in adulterous connection cemented by no bond of affection whatever; the youthful bloom, the playful dimples quickly vanish, the elasticity of youth gives way, and when the solace of a congenial mind is sought, the delusion is discovered on both sides, and fatal misery is the result of such external delusions. We cannot love any one as a person, much less can we love God as a person. Our love must be fixed on goodness and truth for these we must love God; and then we shall also love all our fellow-creatures by whom they are manifested, and pity those who live in opposition thereto. We may as well worship the sun, as do the heathen, or Juggernaut, as a god of whose holy attributes we are ignorant. The Jews, even, who crucified our Lord, were able to worship the person of a god, had that god been suitable to their predilections. Had the Lord come into the world with the panoply of human vanity; had he summoned his armies together, and subdued the whole world under the bondage of Jewish arrogance and power, they would have exalted him in

their esteem as a person; they would have bowed down to him, and they would have loved him as a person; which would be only a love of themselves: for all who love God as a person, or love any fellow-creature as a person, love only themselves. So it was with the Jews; they could thus have loved, but they did not thus hate. They did not hate our Lord as a person; there was nothing hateful in the person of our Lord; the only thing hateful was his divine attributes-the showing forth of his divine mind; all he said and all he did was contrary to their predilections, and hence it was they hated him. They wanted empire, political power, worldly riches and worldly honours; and these our Lord did not give them. As for humility, meekness, love, and mercy, for these things they had no esteem-they worshiped an unknown god; the Word which proclaimed the true God was rendered of none effect by their traditions. They could talk of holy Abraham, and of the God of Israel who favoured them as a people: but there happens to be no such God, and therefore they worshiped no god at all. When the true God came to make no exceptions but to save all, preaching the gospel to the poor of all nations, kindreds, and tongues, they recognised neither his wisdom nor his authority,-they crucified the Lord of life. Thus were the dire wickedness of the world, and the Lord's omnipotent mercy, manifested, and the true kingdom of heaven's authority established on the earth, which, from a grain of mustardseed, will grow until its branches spread to the healing of the nations. We cannot come to the Lord by knowing him, but by loving him; for what is the Lord, love itself and wisdom itself? The first desire of the mind towards regeneration is to know the Lord. We can seek that knowledge only in his revealed Word, there we find that he is a Divine Man-that the Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ, besides whom there is no God. But the revealed Word of truth is a transcript of himself, by which we know his glorious attributes, and in proportion as we know these and love them, that is, love God, not because he created us, not because he has redeemed us, but because he has created us to enjoy finitely those attributes which he possesses infinitely, because every good and truth is from him; in proportion as we love him, because of this, we approach him-we act conformably to his divine command, Come unto me. "Come unto me," then, implies not to go here or there, but to look to the word of life for doctrine, and to overcome every depraved affection which is contrary thereto, to love the Lord's precepts, and apply them to the life.

The manner in which these doctrines are taught, which we have, secondly, to consider, establishes, sixthly, another truth, namely, the

perfect freedom of the human will. There is nothing in it of a dictatorial character, there is nothing of anger, no compulsory provision annexed. It cannot be read in the dictatorial style of an arrogant tyrant of which this world presents so many examples; it is a mild, a kind, a paternal invitation,-Come unto me. This invitation cannot be given to those who must obey it, or to those who cannot obey it, but to perfectly free agents, who ought to obey it, but who are perfectly free to obey or not to obey;-and we, therefore, learn, seventhly, that of our own choice we shall be happy or miserable. Certainly the rest promised implies happiness, for no one who is unhappy can be at rest, as we have seen; perfect rest then depends on our choosing the Lord, the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness: if we do this in spirit and in truth we shall then be at rest. To all free agents, that is to all mankind, our Lord extends his gracious invitation-"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Having then pointed out seven important doctrines discoverable, first, in the subject matter of our text, and secondly, in the manner of it, we have now, in conclusion, thirdly, to show the blessed effects of their exemplification in the life. He who knows the Lord to be no tyrant, no hard task-master, will love the Lord, and will cheerfully accept his invitation; choosing that which is good and true, every duty of life will be no longer a burthen to him, but a delightful office freely chosen and faithfully performed. He will see, as do the wicked, that it is of no use to oppose Divine Providence by any complainings that this is not right, nor that; but, unlike the wicked, he will have no complaints to make, because he will know and feel that every thing is right, and exactly that which he should wish it to be. He will be looking forward, for this is the nature of the human mind; but not anxiously or doubtingly, but for those things which will assuredly come to pass. He will see that happiness is not to be attained by having every thing conformable to his desires, but by rendering his desires conformable to every thing. In every thing with which he stands connected he will see the wisdom and mercy of God, and his life will be one continued progress in the attainment of wisdom, full of active duties; these duties promotive of his own happiness and the good of all mankind. His whole life, his affections and thoughts devoted to the Lord,-his every action will be useful, his mind will be enlightened, his heart peaceful, his hopes fixed beyond the grave, with a stability of faith nothing can shake. Amen.