is not to be had here below we often see in Experience that those who seem to be in a Condition as happy as this World can put them into by the greatest Accommodations towards it are yet as far or farther from Happiness as those who are destitute of most of those things wherein the greatest Felicity of this World is thought to consist Many times it so happens that they who have all the Furniture and Requisites all the Materials and Ingredients of a Worldly Felicity at their Command and in their Power yet have not the Skill and Ability out of all these to frame a happy Condition of Life to themselves They have Health and Friends and Reputation and Estate in abundance and all outward Accommodations that Heart can wish and yet in the midst of all these Circumstances of outward Felicity they are uneasie in their Minds and as the Wise Man expresseth it In their sufficiency they are in streights and are as it were surfeited even of Happiness it self and do so fantastically and unaccountably nauseate the good Condition they are in that tho they want nothing to make them Happy yet they cannot think themselves so though they have nothing in the World to molest and disgust them yet they can make a shift to create as much trouble to themselves out of nothing as they who have the real and substantial Causes of Discontent Which plainly shews That we are not to look for Happiness here 't is not to be found in this Land of the Living and after our Enquiries after it we shall see sufficient Reason to take up Solomon's Conclusion That all is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit which is much the same with that Aphorism of David his Father which I mentioned before That Man in his best estate is altogether vanity But what Happiness soever our Condition in this World is capable of 't is most assuredly full of Uncertainty and Unsettlement we cannot enjoy it long and every moment we are in danger of being deprived of it Whatever degree of Earthly Felicity we are possess'd of we have no Security that it shall continue There is nothing in this World but when we are as sure of it as this World can make us may be taken away from us by a thousand Accidents But suppose it to abide and continue we our selves shall be taken away from it We must die and in that very Day all our Enjoyments and Hopes as to this World will perish with us for here is no Abiding Place we have no continuing City So that it is vain to design a Happiness to our selves in this World when we are not to stay in it but only travel and pass through it And this is the First Our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled 2. Our Condition in this World being a state of Pilgrimage doth imply a tendency to a future Settlement and the Hopes and Expectation of a happier Condition hereafter And so the Apostle reasons immediately after the Text they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country that is they who acknowledge themselves to be Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth and yet withal profess to be perswaded of the Goodness of God and the Fidelity of his Promise do plainly declare that they seek another Country This is spoken of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who acknowledged themselves to be Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth and thereby declared that they sought another Country Now says the Apostle this cannot be the Country from whence they first came Vr of the Chaldees v. 15. And truly if they had been mindful of that Country from whence they came out they might have had an oportunity of returning thither And therefore he concludes that the Country which they sought was a better Country than any in this World V. 16. But now they desire a better Country that is an Heavenly Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City This plainly refers to that famous Declaration or Promise of God to the Patriarchs of being their God I am the God of Abraham the God of 〈◊〉 the God of Jacob. Now certainly this Promise of God did signifie some very great Blessing and Advantage to those faithful Servants of God above others This was not made good to them in this World for they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth Where then is the Blessing spoken of and signified by the great Words of that Promise that God was their God They met with no such Condition in this World as was answerable to the greatness of that Promise From hence the Apostle argues that they had a firm Perswasion of a future Happiness For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a better Country that is an Heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God since he hath prepared for them a City And tho the Promise of God to Abraham did immediately design the Land of Canaan and the earthly Jerusalem yet the Apostle extends it to that which was typified by it viz. an Heavenly Country the Jerusalem which is above which at the 10th Verse of this Chapter is called a City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God And now seeing God had designed and prepared so great a Happiness for them in another World well might he be called their God notwithstanding that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth that is Tho the full Meaning and Importance of this Promise was not made good to them in this World yet it was accomplish'd to the full in the Happiness which was designed for them in another Life And God need not be ashamed to be called their God implying that if nothing had been meant by it beyond this World this Promise of God's being their God would have fallen shamefully short of what it seemed to import And this I conceive to be the true Reason why our Saviour lays so much Weight upon this Promise as to pitch upon it for the Proof of the Resurrection that is of a future state of Happiness in another World There are many Considerations apt to perswade Good Men of another Life after this As That Mankind is generally possess'd with this Hope and Perswasion and that the more wise and virtuous Men have been the more plainly have they apprehended the Hopes of Immortality and the better have they been contented to leave this World as if seeing farther than other Men they had a clearer Prospect of the Happiness they were entering upon But above all that God hath made our Condition in this World so troublesom and unsettled as if he had designed on purpose to make us seek for Happiness elsewhere and to elevate and raise our Minds to the Hopes and Expectation of a Condition better and more durable than any is to be met with
them by Faith for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen And he resumes the same Argument again at the beginning of this Chapter for we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens that is we are firmly perswaded that when we die we shall but exchange these Earthly and Perishing Bodies these Houses of Clay for a Heavenly Mansion which will never decay nor come to ruine from whence he concludes Verse 6. Therefore we are always confident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore what ever happens to us we are always of good courage and see no reason to be afraid of Death knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord that is since our continuance in the Body is to our disadvantage and while we live we are absent from our Happiness and when we die we shall then enter upon the Possession of it That which gives us this confidence and good courage is our Faith for tho' we be not actually possest of this Happiness which we speak of yet we have a firm perswasion of the reality of it which is enough to support our Spirits and keep up our Courage under all afflictions and adversities whatsoever Verse 7. for we walk by Faith not by Sight These words come in by way of Parenthesis in which the Apostle declares in general what is the swaying and governing Principle of a Christian life not only in case of persecution and affliction but under all events and in every condition of Humane life and that is Faith in opposition to Sight and present Enjoyment we walk by Faith and not by Sight We walk by Faith what ever Principle sways and governs a Mans life and actions he is said to walk and live by it And as here a Christian is said to walk by Faith so elsewhere the just is said to live by Faith Faith is the Principle which animates all his resolutions and actions And not by Sight The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the thing it self in present view and possession in opposition to a firm perswasion of things future and invisible Sight is the thing in Hand and Faith the thing only in Hope and Expectation Sight is a clear view and apprehension of things present and near to us Faith an obscure discovery and apprehension of things at a distance So the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 13. 12. Now we see through a Glass darkly this is Faith but then face to face this is present sight as one Man sees another face to face and thus likewise the same Apostle distinguisheth betwixt Hope and Sight Rom. 8. 24. 25. Hope that is seen is not Hope for what a Man sees why doth he yet Hope for it but if we Hope for that which we see not then do we with patience wait for it Sight is possession and enjoyment Faith is the firm perswasion and expectation of a thing and this the Apostle tells us was the governing principle of a Christian's life for we walk by Faith and not by Sight from which words I shall observe these Three things I. That Faith is the Governing Principle and that which bears the great sway in the Life and Actions of a Christian we walk by Faith that is we Order and Govern our Lives in the Power and Virtue of this Principle II. Faith is a degree of assent inferiour to that of Sense This is sufficient-intimated in the opposition betwixt Faith and Sight He had said before that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord and gives this as a Reason and Proof of our absence from the Lord for we walk by Faith and not by Sight that is whilst we are in the Body we do not see and enjoy but believe and expect if we were present with the Lord then Faith would cease and be turned into Sight but tho' we have not that assurance of another world which we shall have when we come to see and enjoy these things yet we are firmly perswaded of them III. Notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assurance yet 't is a Principle of sufficient power to govern our Lives we walk by Faith it is such an Assurance as hath an influence upon our Lives I. That Faith is the Governing Principle and that which bears the great sway in the Life and Actions of a Christian We walk by Faith that is we Order and Govern our Lives in the Power and Virtue of this Principle A Christian's Life consists in obedience to the will of God that is in a readiness to do what he commands and in a willingness to suffer what he calls us to and the great Arguments and Incouragements hereto are such things as are the Objects of Faith and not of Sense such things as are absent and future and not present and in possession for Instance the Belief of an invisible God of a secret Power and Providence that Orders and Governs all things that can bless or blast us and all our Designs and Undertakings according as we demean our selves towards him and endeavour to approve our selves to him the Perswasion of a secret aid and influence always ready at hand to keep us from Evil and to strengthen and assist us to that which is good more especially the firm Belief and expectation of the Happiness of Heaven and the glorious Rewards of another world which tho' they be now at a distance and invisible to us yet being grounded upon the Promise of God that cannot lie shall certainly be made good And this Faith this firm Perswasion of absent and invisible things the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us was the great Principle of the Piety and Virtue of good Men from the beginning of the World This he calls Ch. 11. verse 1. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the confident expectation of things hoped for and the proof or evidence of things not seen viz. a firm perswasion of the Being and Providence of God and of the Truth and Faithfulness of his Promises Such was the Faith of Abel he believed that there was a God and that he was a rewarder of those that faithfully serve him Such was the Faith of Noah who being warned of God of things at a great distance and not seen as yet notwithstanding believed the Divine Prediction concerning the Flood and prepared an Ark Such also was the Faith of Abraham concerning a numerous Posterity by Isaac and the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan and such likewise was the Faith of Moses he did as firmly believe the invisible God and the recompence of reward as if he had beheld them with his eyes And of this Recompence of Reward we Christians have
another World yet according to a right Estimate of things and to those who walk by Faith and not by Sight this which we call Self-denyal is in truth and reality but a more commendable sort of Self-love because we do herein most effectually consult and secure and advance our own Happiness 4. And Lastly Since God hath been pleased for so long a time to excuse us from this hardest part of Self-denyal let us not grudge to deny our selves in lesser Matters for the sake of his Truth and Religion to miss a good Place or to quit it upon that account much less let us think much to renounce our Vices and to thwart our evil Inclinations for his sake As Naaman's Servant said to him concerning the means prescribed by the Prophet for his Cure If he had bid thee do some Great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much more when he hath only said Wash and be clean So since God imposeth no harder Terms upon us than Repentance and Reformation of our Lives we should gladly and thankfully submit to them This I know is difficult to some to mortifie their earthly Members to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts of it 't is like cutting off a right Hand and plucking out a right Eye Some are so strongly addicted to their Lusts and Vices that they could with more ease despise Life in many cases than thus Deny themselves But in Truth there is no more of Self-denyal in it than a Man denies himself when he is mortally Sick and Wounded in being content to be Cured and willing to be Well This is not at all to our Temporal Prejudice and Inconvenience and it directly conduceth to our Eternal Happiness for there is no Man that lives a holy and virtuous Life and in Obedience to the Laws of God that can lightly receive any Prejudice by it in this World Since God doth not call us to Suffer we should Do so much the more for him Since he doth not put us to testifie our Love to him by laying down our Lives for him we should shew it by a greater Care to keep his Commandments God was pleased to exercise the first Christians with great Sufferings and to try their Love and Constancy to him and his Truth in a very Extraordinary manner by Severity and Contempt by the spoiling of their Goods and the loss of all things by bonds and imprisonments by cruel mockings and scourgings by the extremity of torments and by resisting even unto blood by being kill'd for his sake all the day long and appointed as Sheep for the slaughter God was pleased to make their way to Heaven very sharp and painful and to hedge it in as it were with thorns on every side so that they could not but through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Thus we ought all to be in a Readiness and Resolution to submit to this Duty if God should think fit at any time of our Lives to call us to it But if he be pleased to excuse us from it and to let this Cup pass from us which may lawfully be our earnest Prayer to God since we have so good a Pattern for it there will be another Duty incumbent upon us which will take up the whole Man and the whole time of our Life and that is to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives A SERMON PREACHED At Whitehall before the Family Nov. 1. 1686. HEB. XI 13. And confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth The whole Verse runs thus These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth THE Apostle having declared at the latter end of the foregoing Chapter that Faith is the great Principle whereby Good Men are acted and whereby they are supported under all the Evils and Sufferings of this Life Verse 38. Now the Just shall live by Faith In this Chapter he makes it his main business to set forth to us at large the Force and Power of Faith and to this Purpose he first tells us what kind of Faith he means viz. a firm Persuasion of things not Present and Visible to Sense but Invisible and Future Ver. 1. Now Faith saith he is the confident expectation of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Faith represents to us the Reality of things which are Invisible to Sense as the Existence of God and his Providence and of things which are at a great distance from us as the Future State of Rewards and Punishments in another World And then he proceeds to shew by particular and famous Instances that the firm Belief and Persuasion of these things was the great Principle of the Piety and Virtue of the Saints and and Good Men in all Ages of the World by this Abel and Enoch and Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob Joseph and Moses and all the Famous Heroes of the Old Testament obtained a good Report and pleased God and did all those eminent Acts of Obedience and Self-denyal which are recorded of them They believed the Being of God and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him They dreaded his Threatnings and relyed upon his Promises of Future and Invisible Good things They lived and died in a full Persuasion and Confidence of the Truth of them tho they did not live to see them actually fulfilled and accomplisht All these saith he speaking of those Eminent Saints which he had instanced in before All these died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them This is spoken with a more particular regard to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to whom the Promises of the Conquest and Possession of a Fruitful Land were made and of a Numerous Offspring among whom should be the Messias in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed These Promises they did not live to see accomplisht and made good in their Days but they heartily believed them and rejoiced in the Hope and Expectation of them as if they had embraced them in their Arms and been put into the actual Possession of them And they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth This Saying and Acknowledgment more particularly and immediately refers to those Sayings of the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob which we find recorded Gen. 23. 4. where Abraham says to the Sons of Heth I am a Stranger and a Sojourner with you And Gen. 47. 9. where Jacob says to Pharaoh The days of the years of my Pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years few and evil have the days of the years of my Life been These Good Men were Strangers and Sojourners in a Land which was promised to be theirs afterwards They dwelt in it themselves as Strangers but
were in expectation that it would one day become the Inheritance of their Posterity Now in this as by a Type and Shadow the Apostle represents to us the Condition of Good Men while they are passing through this World They are Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth they travel up and down the World for a time as the Patriarchs did in the Land of Canaan but are in expectation of a better and more settled Condition hereafter they desire a better Country that is an Heavenly says the Apostle at the 16 vers of this Chapter That which I design from these words is to represent to us our Present Condition in this World and to awaken us to a due Sense and serious Consideration of it It is the same Condition that all the Saints and Holy Men that are gone before us were in in this World and every one of us may say with David Psal. 39. 12. I am a Stranger with thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were It is a Condition very troublesome and very unsettled such as that of Pilgrims and Strangers useth to be This we must all acknowledge if we judge rightly of our present State and Condition They confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth but yet it was not without the Hope and Expectation of a better and happier Condition in Reversion So it follows just after They that say such things that is that confess themselves to be Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth declare plainly that they seek a Country This bore up the Patriarchs under all the Evils and Troubles of their Pilgrimage that they expected an Inheritance and a quiet and settled Possession of that Good Land which God had promised to them Answerably to which Good Men do expect after the few and evil days of their Pilgrimage in this World are over a Blessed Inheritance in a better Country that is an Heavenly and with blessed Abraham the Father of the Faithful They look for a City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God as it is said of that Good Patriarch at the tenth Verse of this Chapter It is very frequent not only in Scripture but in other Authors to represent our Condition in this World by that of Pilgrims and Sojourners in a foreign Country For the Mind which is the Man and our Immortal Souls which are by far the most Noble and Excellent part of our selves are the Natives of Heaven and but Pilgrims and Strangers here in the Earth and when the days of our Pilgrimage shall be over are designed to return to that Heavenly Country from which they came and to which they belong And therefore the Apostle tells us Phil. 3. 20. that Christians have relation to Heaven as their Native place and Country 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our conversation is in Heaven so we render the words but they properly signifie that Christians are Members of that City and Society which is above and tho they converse at present here below while they are passing through this World yet Heaven is the Country to which they do belong and whither they are continually tending Sedes ubi fata quietas ostendunt where a quiet Habitation and a perpetual Rest is designed and prepared for them This acknowledgment David makes concerning himself and all the People of God 1 Chron. 29. 15. For we are Strangers before thee and Sojourners as were all our Fathers Our Days on the Earth are as a Shadow and there is none abiding So likewise St. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 17. Pass the time of your Sojourning here in fear And Chap. 2. v. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts. And not only the inspired Writers of Holy Scripture but Heathen Authors do frequently make use of this Allusion Plato tells us it was a common saying and almost in every Man's Mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Life of Man is a kind of Pilgrimage And Tully in his Excellent Discourse de Senectute concerning Old Age brings in Cato describing our passage out of this World not as a departure from our Home but like a Man leaving his Inn in which he hath Lodged for a Night or two ex vitâ istâ discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo commorandi enim natura Diversorium nobis non habitandi dedit When I leave this World says he I look upon my self as departing out of an Inn and not as quitting mine own Home and Habitation Nature having assigned this World to us as a place to Sojourn but not to Dwell in Which is the same with what the Apostle says in the Text concerning the Patriarchs they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth and concerning all Christians Chap. 13. 14. Here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come But I do not intend to follow the Metaphor too close and to vex and torture it by pursuing all those little Parallels and Similitudes which a Lively Fancy might make or find betwixt the Condition of Strangers and Pilgrims and the Life of Man during his Abode and Passage through this World I will insist only upon Two things which seem plainly to be design'd and intended by this Metaphor and they are these 1. That our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled They confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth 2. It implies a tendency to a Future Settling and the Hopes and Expectation of a happier Condition into which we shall enter when we go out of this World For so it follows in the very next Words after the Text They confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country They that say such things that is they that acknowledge themselves to have lived in such a restless and uncertain Condition in this World travelling from one place to another as the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob did and yet pretend to be perswaded of the Goodness of God and the Faithfulness of his Promise in which he solemnly declared himself to be their God do hereby plainly shew that they expect some happier Condition hereafter wherein that great Promise of God will be made good to them to the full And these are two very weighty and useful Considerations That we should both understand our present Condition in this World and our future Hope and Expectation after our departure out of it that so we may demean our selves suitably to both these Conditions both as it is fit for those who look upon themselves as Pilgrims and Sojourners in this World and likewise as it becomes those who seek and expect a better Country and hope to be made Partakers of a blessed Immortality in another World I shall briefly speak to both these and then shew what Effect and Influence the serious Meditation of these Two Points ought to have upon every one of