Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Ver. 28. Come unto me] Why do ye go about, as Jeremiah Jer 31:22 hath it, and fetch a compass? "Why labour ye for that which satisfieth not?" Isaiah 4:2; "Can the son of Jesse give you vineyards and olive yards," &c.? as Saul said; so say I, Can the world or the devil do for you as I can? Why come ye not unto me, that ye may be saved? Can you mend yourselves anywhere? &c. But the poor soul is ready to hang her comforts on every hedge, shift and shark in every bycorner for comfort, and never come at Christ with the hemorrhoids, till all be spent, till she be forsaken of her hopes. Men will not desire Christ, till shaken, Haggai 2:7 .
All ye] All is a little word, but of large extent. The promises are indefinite, and exclude none. It is not for us to be interlining God's covenant, and excepting ourselves, however bad, if broken hearted.
That labour] Even to lassitude (κοπιωντας), but to no purpose, labour in the fire where you can make nothing of your labour.
And are heavy laden] Poised to an inch (πεφορτισμενοι), ready to be weighed down to hell with the turn of a scale, with the dust of a balance superadded. Others might have Christ if they would come to him; but till then none will come. Steep thy thoughts in this sweet sentence, thou burdened soul, and come away to the Master (as they said to blind Bartimeus), for, "behold, he calleth thee."
And I will give yon rest] No rest to the weary soul but in Christ (as the dove found no rest till she returned to the ark). It flies from this thing to that, as the bee doth from flower to flower to get honey, as Saul sought his asses from place to place. But as he found them at home after all, so must we find rest and refreshing in Christ, or not at all. Let him that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, "trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." As for those that will kindle a strange fire, and compass themselves about with the sparks of their own tinderboxes, let them walk while they will in the light of their fire, and in the sparks that they have kindled, but this shall they have of Christ's hand, they shall lie down in sorrow,Isaiah 50:10,11 .