word with joy and endure for a while but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they are offended not that they did not believe the Word but their Faith had taken no deep root and therefore it withered The weakness and wavering of Mens Faith makes them unstable and inconstant in their course because they are not of one mind but divided betwixt two interests that of this world and the other and the double minded man as St. James tells us is unstable in all his ways It is generally a true rule so much wavering as we see in the actions and lives of Men so much weakness there is in their Faith and therefore he that would know what any Man firmly believes let him attend to his actions more than to his professions If any Man live so as no Man that heartily believes the Christian Religion can live it is not credible that such a Man doth firmly believe the Christian Religion He says he does but there is a greater evidence in the case than words there is Testimonium rei the Man's actions are to the contrary and they do best declare the inward sense of the Man Did Men firmly believe that there is a God that governs the world and that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge it in righteousnes and that all mankind shall shortly appear before him and give an account of themselves and all their actions to him and that those who have kept the Faith and a good Conscience and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world shall be unspeakably and eternally happy but the fearful and unbelieving those who out of fear or interest have deserted the Faith or lived wicked lives shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone I say were Men firmly persuaded of these things it is hardly credible that any Man should make a wrong choice and forsake the ways of Truth and Righteousness upon any temptation whatsoever Faith even in temporal matters is a mighty principle of action and will make Men to attempt and undergo strange and difficult things The Faith of the Gospel ought to be much more operative and powerful because the Objects of Hope and Fear which it presents to us are far greater and more considerable than any thing that this world can tempt or terrifie us withall Would we but by Faith make present to our minds the invisible things of another world the happiness of Heaven and the terrors of Hell and were we as verily persuaded of them as if they were in our view how should we despise all the pleasures and terrors of this world And with what ease should we resist and repel all those temptations which would seduce us from our duty or draw us into sin A firm and unshaken belief of these things would effectually remove all those mountains of difficulty and discouragement which Men fancy to themselves in the ways of Religion To him that believeth all things are possible and most things would be easie 2. Another reason of this wrong choice is want of consideration for this would strengthen our Faith and make it more vigorous and powerful And indeed a Faith which is well rooted and establishould doth suppose a wise and deep consideration of things and the want of this is a great cause of the fatal miscarriage of Men that they do not sit down and consider with themselves seriously how much Religion is their interest and how much it will cost them to be true to it and to persevere in it to the end We suffer our selves to be governed by sense and to be transported with present things but do not consider our future and lasting interest and the whole duration of an immortal Soul And this is the reason why so many men are hurried away by the present and sensible delights of this world because they will not take time to think of what will be hereafter For it is not to be imagined but that the Man who hath seriously considered what sin is the shortness of its pleasure and the eternity of its punishment should resolve to forsake sin and to live a holy and virtuous life To conclude this whole Discourse If Men did but seriously believe the great principles of Religion the Being and the Providence of God the immortality of their Souls the glorious rewards and the dreadful punishments of another world they could not possibly make so imprudent a choice as we see a great part of mankind to do they could not be induced to forsake God and Religion for any temporal interest and advantage to renounce the favour of Heaven and all their hopes of happiness in another world for any thing that this world can afford nay not for the whole world if it were offered to them For as our Saviour reasons in this very case of forsaking our Religion for any temporal interest or consideration what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul When ever any of us are tempted in this kind let that solemn declaration of our Saviour and our Judge be continually in our minds he that confesseth me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven but whosever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels And we have great cause to thank God to see so many in this day of tryal and hour of temptation to adhere with so much resolution and constancy to their Holy Religion and to prefer the keeping of Faith and a good Conscience to all earthly considerations and advantages And this very thing that so many hold their Religion so fast and are so loth to part with it gives great hopes that they intend to make good use of it and to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it which alone can give us peace whilst we live and comfort when we come to die and after death secure to us the possession of a happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls To which God of his Infinite Goodness bring us all for his mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THE main Scope and design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to persuade the Jews who were newly converted to Christianity to continue stedfast in the profession of that Holy and Excellent Religion which they had embraced and not to be removed from it either by the subtile insinuations of their Brethren the Jews who pretended that they were in possession
names sake by all which it appears that this Self-denyal which our Saviour here requires of his Disciples is to be extended no farther than to a readiness and willingness when ever God shall call us to it to quit all our Temporal Interests and Enjoyments and even Life it self the dearest of all other and to submit to any Temporal inconvenience and suffering for his sake And thus much for the Explication of the Precept here in the Text. I proceed in the Third Place to consider the strict and indispensible Obligation of this Precept of Self-denyal and suffering for Christ and his Truth rather than to forsake and renounce them If any man will come after me or be my Disciple let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me that is upon these Terms he must be my Disciple in this manner he must follow me and in the Text I mention'd before he declares again that he that is not ready to quit all his Relations and even Life it self for his sake is not worthy of him and cannot be his Disciple and whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple so that we cannot be the Disciples of Christ nor be worthy to be called by his Name if we be not ready thus to deny our selves for his sake And not only so but if for fear of the Cross or of any temporal sufferings we should renounce and deny him he threatens to deny us before his Father which is in Heaven i. e. to deprive us of Eternal Life and to Sentence us to Everlasting Misery Matth. 10. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess before my father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my father which is in Heaven And Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels that is when he cometh to Judge the World they shall not be able to stand in that Judgment for that by his being ashamed of them is meant that they shall be condemned by him is plain from what goes before V. 26 27. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul and then it follows Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words But because some have had the Confidence to tell the World that our Saviour doth not require thus much of Christians but all that he obligeth us to is to believe in him in our Hearts but not to make any outward Profession of his Religion when the Magistrate forbids it and we are in danger of suffering for it I shall therefore briefly examine what is pretended for so strange an Assertion and so directly contrary to the whole Tenor of the Gospel and to the express Words of our Saviour The Author of the Book called the Leviathan tells us That we are not only not bound to confess Christ but we are obliged to deny him in case the Magistrate require us so to do His Words are these What if the Soveraign forbid us to believe in Christ He answers Such forbidding is of no effect because Belief and Vnbelief never follows Mens Commands But what says he if we be commanded by our lawful Prince to say with our Tongues we believe not must we obey such Commands To this he answers That Profession with the Tongue is but an External thing and no more than any other Gesture whereby we signifie our Obedience and wherein a Christian holding firmly in his Heart the Faith of Christ hath the same Liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman But what then says he shall I answer to our Saviour saying Whosoever denieth me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven His Answer is This we may say that whatsoever a Subject is compell'd to in obedience to his Soveraign and does it not in order to his own Mind but the Law of his Country the Action is not his but his Soveraign's nor is it he that in this Case denies Christ before Men but his Governour and the Laws of his Country But can any Man that in good earnest pays any degree of Reverence to our Blessed Saviour and his Religion think to baffle such plain Words by so frivolous an Answer There is no Man doubts but if the Magistrate should command Men to deny Christ he would be guilty of a great Sin in so doing but if we must obey God rather than Men and every Man must give an account of himself to God how will this excuse him that denies Christ or breaks any other Commandment of God upon the Command of the Magistrate And to put the matter out of all doubt that our Saviour forbids all that will be his Disciples upon pain of Damnation to deny him tho the Magistrate should command them to do so it is very observable that in that very place where he speaks of confessing or denying him before Men he puts this very Case of their being brought before Kings and Governours for confessing him Matth. 10. 17. Beware says he of Men for they will deliver you up to the Council and they will scourge you in their Synagogues and ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles But what Testimony would this be against them if Christians were bound to deny Christ at their Command But our Saviour goes on and tells them how they ought to demean themselves when they were brought before Kings and Governours v. 19. But when they shall deliver you up take ye no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that very hour what ye shall speak But what need of any such extraordinary Assistance in the case if they had nothing to do but to deny him when they were required by the Magistrate to do it And then proceeding in the same Discourse he bids them v. 28. Not to fear them that can kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do that is not to deny him for fear of any Temporal Punishment or Suffering the Magistrate could inflict upon them but to fear and obey him who can destroy Body and Soul in Hell And upon this Discourse our Saviour concludes v. 32 33. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And now can any thing be plainer than that our Saviour requires his Disciples to make Confession of him before Kings and Governours and not to deny him for fear of any thing which they can do
Obedience and Self-denyal He begins with the Patriarchs before the Flood but insists chiefly upon the examples of two eminent Persons of their own Nation as nearest to them and most likely to prevail upon them the Examples of Abraham and Moses the one the Father of their Nation the other their great Lawgiver and both of them the greatest Patterns of Faith and Obedience and Self-denyal that the History of all former Ages from the beginning of the World had afforded I shall at this time by God's assistance treat of the first of these the Example of Abraham the Constancy of whose Faith and the cheerfulness of whose Obedience even in the difficultest Cases is so remarkable above all the other Examples mentioned in this Chapter For at the Command of God he left his Kindred and his Country not knowing whither he should go By which eminent Act of Obedience he declared himself to be wholly at God's Disposal and ready to follow him But this was no tryal in comparison of that here in my Text when God commanded him to offer up his only Son But such was the immutable stedfastness of his Faith and the perfect submission of his Obedience that it does not appear that he made the least check at it but out of perfect Reverence and Obedience to the Authority of the divine Command he went about it as readily and cheerfully as if God had bid him do some small thing By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac For the explication of which Words it will be requisite to consider two things First The Tryal or Temptation in general Secondly The Excellency of Abraham's Faith and Obedience upon this Tryal First The Tryal or Temptation in general It is said that Abraham when he was tryed the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being Tempted That is God intending to make Tryal of his Faith and Obedience and so it is exprest Gen. 22. 1. Where it is said that God did Tempt Abraham and said unto him take now thy Son thine only Son Now there are two difficulties concerning this matter It seems contrary to Scripture that God should Tempt any Man and contrary to Reason because God who knows what every Man will do needed not to make tryal of any Man's Faith or Obedience First It seems contrary to Scripture which say's God Tempts no Man and 't is most true that God Tempts no Man with a design to draw him into Sin but this doth not hinder but he may try their Faith and Obedience with great difficulties to make them the more illustrious Thus God Tempted Abraham and he permitted Job and even our Blessed Saviour himself to be thus Tempted Secondly It seems contrary to Reason that God who knows what any Man will do in any Circumstances should go to make Tryal of it But God does not try Men for his own information but to give an illustrious Proof and Example to others of Faith and Obedience And tho after this Tryal of Abraham God says to him now I know that thou lovest me because thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me Yet we are to understand this as spoken after the manner of Men As God elsewhere speaks to Abraham concerning Sodom I will go down now to see whether they have done altogether aecording to the cry which is come up unto me and if not I will know I proceed to the Second thing I proposed The Excellency of Abraham's Faith and Obedience upon this Tryal By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac God accepts of it as if he had done it because he had done it in part and was ready to have performed the rest if God had not countermanded him And this act of Faith and Obedience in Abraham will appear the more illustrious if we consider these three things First The firmness and stedfastness of his Faith notwithstanding the objections against it Secondly The constancy of his resolution notwithstanding the difficulty of the thing Thirdly The reasonableness of his Faith in that he gave satisfaction to himself in so hard and perplext a Case First The firmness and stedfastness of his Faith will appear if we consider what objections there were in the case enough to shake a very strong Faith There were three great objections against this Command and such as might in reason make a wise and good Man doubtful whether this Command were from God The horrid nature of the thing commanded The grievous scandal that might seem almost unavoidably to follow upon it And the horrible consequence of it which seemed to make the former promise of God to Abraham void First the horrid nature of the thing commanded which was for a Father to kill his own Child this must needs appear very barbarous and unnatural and look liker a Sacrifice to an Idol than to the true God It seemed to be against the Law of Nature and directly contrary to that kindness and affection which God himself had planted in the hearts of Parents towards their Children And there is no affection more natutural and strong than this for there are many persons that would redeem the Lives of their Children with the hazard of their own Now that God hath planted such an affection in Nature is an argument that it is good and therefore it could not but seem strange that he should command any thing contrary to it And in this case there were two circumstances that increased the horrour of the fact That his Son was innocent and that he was to Slay him with his own hands First That his Son was Innocent It would grieve the heart of any Father to give up his Son to Death tho he were never so undutiful and disobedient So passionately was David affected with the death of his Son Absolom as to wish he had dyed for him tho he dyed in the very act of Rebellion and tho the saving of his Life had been inconsistent with the Peace of his Government How deep then must it sink into the heart of a Father to give up his innocent Son to death And such a Son was Isaac for any thing appeared to the contrary God himself gave him this testimony that he was the Son whom his Father loved and there is no intimation of any thing to the contrary Now this could not but appear strange to a good Man that God should command an innocent person to be put to death But Secondly That a Father should be commanded not only to give up his Son to death but to slay him with his own Hands not only to be a Spectator but to be the Actor in this Tragedy What Father would not shrink and start back at such a Command What good Man especially in such a case and where Nature was so hard prest would not have been apt to have looked upon such a Revelation as this rather as the suggestion and illusion of an evil Spirit than a Command of God And yet Abraham's Faith was
the Ethiopians had invaded Egypt and almost over-run it that Pharaoh was directed by the Oracle at Memphis to make Moses his General who by his extraordinary Conduct and Courage overthrew the Ethiopians and drave them out of Egypt This Moses did not think fit to relate of himself but St. Stephen seems to allude to it when he says that he was mighty in word and deed And then it follows and when he was full forty years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel that is when he was at full maturity of judgment and in the hight of his Prosperity and Reputation he quitted the Court of Egypt and went to visit his afflicted Brethren and chose rather to take part with them in their sufferings than to accept those great offers that were made to him There is likewise another passage in Josephus concerning Moses which seems to be a forerunner of the contempt which he shewed afterward of the Crown of Egypt That when Moses was about three years old Thermuthis the Daughter of Pharaoh brought the Child to him who took him in his arms and put his Diadem upon his Head But Moses took it off and cast it to the ground and trampled it under his feet This was but a childish act and they who saw it would easily believe that for all his childish contempt of it then it it were put upon his Head in good earnest when he came to be a Man he would hold it on faster and use it with more respect And it is not improbable but that the Apostle might have some regard to this when he says that Moses when he came to Years intimating that he did not only trample upon the Diadem of Pharaoh when he was a Child but when he was come to years and was capable of judging better of those things he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter But before I proceed any farther I cannot but take notice of an objection which may seem to reflect greatly upon the integrity of Moses Can we think him so very conscientious a Man who persuaded the people of Israel and pretended God's direction in the case to cheat the Egyptians of their Jewels under a fraudulent pretence of borrowing them There is some difficulty in the thing as at first sight it appears And yet I doubt not with your favourable attention and free from prejudice to vindicate Moses clearly in this matter And I shall not insist upon that which is commonly and truly said in this case That God who is the supream Lord of all things may transfer the Rights of Men from one to another because the objection doth not lye against God's Right to take away from any Man what he hath given him but against the fraudulent manner of doing it which seems unworthy of God to command or encourage Now this matter I think is capable of another and much clearer answer which in short is this and grounded upon the History as we find it related Ex. 12. The Providence of God did it seems design by this way to make some reparation to the Israelites for the tyrannical usage which they had received from the Egyptians And that first as the Text expresly tells us in giving them favour with the Egyptians who in truth for their own ends and to get rid of such troublesome Guests were disposed to lend them any thing they had Thus far all is right Here is nothing but fair borrowing and lending And if the Israelites acquired a right to those things afterwards there was then no obligation to restitution Let us see then how the Providence of God brought this about Namely by permitting the Egyptians afterwards without cause and after leave given them to depart to persue them with a design to have destroyed them by which Hostility and Perfidiousness they plainly forfeited their Right to what they had only lent before For this hostile attempt which would have warranted the Israelites to have spoiled them of their Jewels if they had been in the possession of the Egyptians did certainly warrant them to keep them when they had them and by this means they became rightful possessors of what they had only by Loan before and could not have detained without fraud and injustice if this hostility of the Egyptians had not given them a new title and clear right to them But I proceed to the third thing I proposed which was to vindicate the prudence and reasonableness of this choice And in speaking to this I shall abstract from the particular case of Moses and shew in general That it is a prudent and reasonable thing to prefer even an afflicted state of Piety and Virtue before the greatest pleasures and prosperity of a sinful course And this will appear if we consider these two things 1. The sufferings of good Men upon account of Religion together with the the reward of them 2. The temporary enjoyment of sin with the mischiefs and inconveniencies consequent upon them 1. The sufferings of good Men upon the account of Religion together with the reward of them This Moses had in his eye when he made this choice for therefore he chose to suffer Affliction with the People of God rather than to enjoy the Pleasures of sin which are but for a Season because he had respect to the recompence of reward And tho he had but a very imperfect discovery in comparison of the future state yet it seems he had so much assurance of the goodness of God as firmly to believe that he should be no loser at the last by any thing that he suffered for God and Religion Indeed if there were no life after this and we had no expectation beyond this world the wisest thing we could do would be to enjoy as much of the present contentment of this world as we could make our selves Masters of But if we be designed for immortality and shall be unspeakably happy or intorably miserable in another world according as we have demeaned our selves in this life then certainly it is reasonable that we should take the greatest care of the longest duration and be content to dispense with some present inconveniences for an eternal felicity and be willing to labour and take pains for a little while that we may be happy forever And this is accounted prudence in the account of the wisest Men to part with a little in present for a far greater future advantage But the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is so vast that did we but firmly believe that we shall live for ever nothing in this world could reasonably be thought too good to part withall or too grievous to suffer for the obtaining of a blessed Immortality And upon this belief and persuasion of a mighty reward beyond all their present sufferings and that they should be infinite gainers at the last the Primitive Christians were kept from sinking under their present sufferings and fortified against all that the
present in hopes to have more trouble afterwards than the pleasure comes to But especially no Man would be guilty of an act of injustice and oppression in hopes to repent of it afterwards because there can be no repentance for such sins without restitution and 't is perfect madness for a Man to run the hazard of his Soul to get an Estate in hopes of restoring it again for so he must do that truly repents of such a sin But 2. In the other world the final issue and consequence of all the pleasures of sin unrepented of will certainly be misery and sorrow How quietly soever a sinner may pass through this world or out of it misery will certainly overtake him in the next unspeakable and eternal misery arising from an apprehension of the greatest loss and a sense of the sharpest pain and those sadly aggravated by the remembrance of past pleasure and the despair of future ease From a sad apprehension and melancholy reflection upon his inestimable loss In the other world the sinner shall be eternally separated from God who is the fountain of happiness This is the first part of that miserable sentence which shall be past upon the wicked depart from me Sinners are not now sensible of the joyes of Heaven and the happiness of that state and therefore are not capable of estimating the greatness of such a loss But this stupidity and insensibleness of sinners continues only during this present state which affords Men variety of objects and pleasures to divert and entertain them But when they are once enter'd upon the other world they will then have nothing else to take up their thoughts but the sad condition into which by their own wilful negligence and folly they have plunged themselves They shall then lift up their eyes and with the rich Man in the parable at once see the happiness of others and feel their own misery and torment But this is not all Besides the apprehension of so great a loss they shall be sensible of the sorest and sharpest pains and how grievous those shall be we may conjecture by what the Scripture says of them in general That they are the effects of a mighty displeasure of Anger and Omnipotence met together far greater than can be described by any pains and sufferings which we are acquainted withall in this world For who knows the power of Gods anger and the utmost of what Omnipotent Justice can do to sinners It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were misery enough and needed no frather aggravation but yet it hath two terrible ones from the remembrance of past pleasures and the despair of any future ease and remedy The remembrance of past pleasure makes present sufferings more sharp and sensible For as nothing commends pleasure more and gives a quicker relish to happiness than precedent pain and suffering for perhaps there is not a greater pleasure in the world than in the suddain ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone so nothing enrageth affliction more and sets a keener edg upon misery than to pass into great pain immediately out of a state of ease and pleasure This was the stinging aggravation of the rich Man's torment That in his life time he had received his good things and had faired so deliciously every day But the greatest aggravation of all is the despair of any future ease and remedy The duration of this misery is set forth to us in Scripture by such expressions as do signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matth. 25. and Mark 9. 43. Where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched And in the Revel it is said that the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever without intermission and without end And this surely is the perfection of misery for a Man to lye under the greatest torments and to be in despair of ever finding the least ease Let us now compare things together on the one hand the sufferings of good Men for a good Conscience and the reward that follows them and on the other hand the enjoyments of sin with the mischief and misery that attends them and will certainly overtake them in this world or the next and then we shall easily discern which of these is to be preferred in a wise Man's choice And indeed the choice is so very plain that a Man must be strangely forsaken of his reason and blinded by sense who does not prefer that course of life which will probably make him happier in this world but most certainly in the next There remains now only the Fourth and last particular to be spoken to viz. Supposing this choice to be reasonable to enquire whence it comes to pass that so many make a quite contrary choice How is it that the greatest part of mankind are so widely mistaken as to prefer the temporary enjoyments of sin before Conscience and Religion especially if it be attended with great afflictions and sufferings And of this I shall give you as brief an account as I can and so conclude this Discourse This wrong choice generally proceeds from one or both of these two causes from want of Faith or from want of consideration or of both 1. One great reason why Men make so imprudent a choice is unbelief either the want of Faith or the weakness of it Either Men do not believe the recompences of another life or they are not so firmly persuaded of the reality of them If Men do not at all believe these things there is no foundation for Religion for he that cometh unto God that is he that thinks of being religious must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as the Apostle reasons in the beginning of this Chapter But I hope there are but few that are or can be Infidels as to these great and fundamental principles of Religion But it is to be feared that the Faith of a great many is but weak and wavering their Faith is rather negative they do not disbelieve these things but they are not firmly persuaded of them their Faith is rather an opinion than a rooted and well grounded persuasion and therefore no wonder if it be not so strong and vigorous a principle of action and like the Faith of Abraham and Moses and other worthies mentioned in this Chapter For where Faith is in its full strength and vigour it will have proportionable effects upon the resolutions and wills of Men But where it is but weak it is of little or no efficacy And this is the true reason why so many forsake Religion and cleave to this present world and when it comes to the push choose rather to sin than to suffer and will rather quit the truth than endure persecution for it These are they whom our Saviour describes who receive receive the
a much clearer revelation and much greater assurance than former Ages and Generations had and the firm belief and perswasion of this is the great Motive and Argument to a Holy life The hope which is set before us of obtaining the Happiness and the fear of incurring the Misery of another world This made the Primitive Christians with so much patience to bear the Sufferings and Persecutions with so much constancy to venture upon the dangers and inconveniencies which the love of God and Religion exposed them to Under the former Dispensation of the Law tho good Men received good hopes of the Rewards of another life yet these things were but obscurely revealed to them and the great inducements of Obedience were Temporal Rewards and Punishments the promises of long life and peace and plenty and prosperity in that good Land which God had given them and the threatnings of War and Famine and Pestilence and being delivered into Captivity But now under the Gospel Life and Immortality are brought to light and the great Arguments that bear sway with Christians are the Promises of Everlasting Life and the Threatnings of Eternal Misery and the firm Belief and Persuasion of these is now the great Principle that governs the Lives and Actions of good Men for what will not Men do that are really persuaded that as they do demean themselves in this World it will fare with them in the other That the Wicked shall go into everlasting Punishment and the Righteous into Life Eternal I proceed to the II. Observation namely That Faith is a Degree of Assent inferiour to that of Sense This is intimated in the Opposition betwixt Faith and Sight We walk by Faith and not by Sight that is we believe these things and are confidently persuaded of the truth of them tho we never saw them and consequently cannot possibly have that Degree of Assurance concerning the Joys of Heaven and the Torments of Hell which those have who enjoy the One and endure the Other There are different Degrees of Assurance concerning things arising from the different Degrees of Evidence we have for them The highest Degree of Evidence we have for any thing is our own Sense and Experience and this is so firm and strong that it is not to be shaken by the utmost Pretence of a Rational Demonstration Men will trust their own Senses and Experience against any subtilty of Reason whatsoever But there are inferiour degrees of Assurance concerning things as the Testimony and Authority of Persons every way credible and this Assurance we have in this state concerning the things of another World we believe with great Reason that we have the Testimony of God concerning them which is the highest kind of Evidence in it self and we have all the reasonable assurance we can desire that God hath testified these things and this is the utmost assurance which things future and at a distance are capable of But yet it is an unreasonable obstinacy to deny that this falls very much short of that degree of assurance which those Persons have concerning these things who are now in the other World and have the Sense and Experience of these things and this is not only intimated here in the Text in the Opposition of Faith and Sight but is plainly exprest in other Texts of Scripture 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. We know now but in part but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away That degree of knowledge and assurance which we have in this Life is very imperfect in comparison to what we shall have hereafter and Verse 12. We now see as through a Glass darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a Riddle in which there is always a great deal of Obscurity all which Expressions are certainly intended by way of abatement and diminution to the certainty of Faith because it is plain that by that which is in part or imperfect the Apostle means Faith and Hope which he tells us shall cease when that which is perfect meaning Vision and Sight is come We see likewise in Experience that the Faith and Hope of the best Christians in this Life is accompanied with doubting concerning these things and all doubting is a degree of uncertainty but those blessed Souls who are entred upon the Possession of Glory and Happiness and those miserable Wretches who lye groaning under the Wrath of God and the Severity of his Justice cannot possibly if they would have any doubt concerning the Truth and Reality of these things But however contentious Men may dispute against common Sense this is so plain a Truth that I will not labour in the farther Proof of it nor indeed is it reasonable while we are in this state to expect that degree of assurance concerning the Rewards and Punishments of another Life which the sight and sensible experience of them would give us and that upon these Two Accounts 1. Because our present state will not admit it and 2. If it would it is not reasonable we should have it 1. Our present state will not admit it for while we are in this World it is not possible we should have that sensible Experiment and Tryal how things are in the other The things of the other World are remote from us and far out of our Sight and we cannot have any experimental knowledge of them till we our selves enter into that state Those who are already past into it know how things are those happy Souls who live in the reviving presence of God and are possest of those joys which we cannot now conceive understand these things in another manner and have a more perfect assurance concerning them than it is possible for any Man to have in this World and those wretched and miserable Spirits who feel the vengeance of God and are plunged into the Horrors of Eternal Darkness do believe upon irresistable evidence and have other kind of Convictions of the Reality of that state and the insupportable Misery of it than any Man is capable of in this World 2. If our present state would admit of this high degree of assurance it is not fit and reasonable that we should have it such an over-powering evidence would quite take away the virtue of Faith and much lessen that of Obedience Put the case that every Man some considerable time before his departure out of this Life were permitted to visit the other World to assure him how things are there to view the Mansions of the Blessed and to survey the dark and loathsome Prisons of the Damned to hear the lamentable outcrys of Miserable and Despairing Souls and to see the inconceivable Anguish and Torments they are in after this what virtue would it be in any Man to believe these things He that had been there and seen them could not dis-believe them if he would Faith in this case would not be virtue but necessity and therefore it is observable that our Saviour doth not Pronounce
them Blessed who believed his Resurrection upon the forcible evidence of their own Senses but Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed They might be Happy in the Effects of that Faith but there is not praise no reward belongs to that Faith which is wrought in Man by so violent and irresistable an evidence It was the great commendation of Abraham's Faith that against hope he believed in hope he believed the promise of God concerning a thing in it self very improbable but it is no commendation at all to believe the things which we have seen because they admit of no manner of dispute no Objection can be offered to shake our assent unless we will run to the extremity of Scepticism for if we will believe any thing at all we must yield to the Evidence of Sense This does so violently enforce our assent that there can be no Virtue in such a Faith And as this would take away the Virtue of Faith so it would very much lessen that of our Obedience It is hardly to be imagined that any Man who had seen the Blessed condition of good Men in another World and been an Eye-witness of the intolerable Torments of Sinners should ever after be tempted knowingly to do any thing that would deprive him of that Happiness or bring him into that place of Torment Such a sight could not chuse but affect a Man as long as he lived and leave such impressions upon his mind of the indispensable necessity of a Holy life and of the infinite danger of a wicked course that we might sooner believe that all the Men in the World should conspire to kill one another than that such a Man by consenting to any deliberate Act of Sin should wilfully throw himself into those flames No his Mind would be continually haunted with those Furies he had seen Tormenting Sinners in another World and the fearful Shrieks and Outcries of Miserable Souls would be perpetually ringing in his Ears and the Man would have so lively and terrible an imagination of the danger he was running himself upon that no Temptation would be strong enough to conquer his fears and to make him careless of his life and actions after he had once seen how fearful a thing it was to fall into the hands of the living God So that in this case the Reason of Mens obedience would be so violent that the virtue of it must be very little for what praise is due to any Man not to do those things which none but a perfect mad Man would do For certainly that Man must be besides himself that could by any Temptation be seduced to live a wicked life after he had seen the state of good and bad Men in the other World the glorious Rewards of Holiness and Virtue and the dismal event of a vitious and sinful course God hath designed this Life for the Trial of our Virtue and the exercise of our obedience but there would hardly be any place for this if there were a free and easie passage for us into the other World to see the true state of things there What argument would it be of any Mans virtue to forbear sinning after he had been in Hell and seen the miserable end of Sinners But I proceed to the III. And Last Observation namely That notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assent yet it is a Principle of sufficient force and power to Govern our lives we walk by Faith Now that the belief of any thing may have its Effect upon us it is requisite that we be satisfied of these Two things 1. Of the Certainty and of the great Concernment of the thing for if the thing be altogether uncertain it will not move us at all we shall do nothing towards the obtaining of it if it be good nor for the avoiding and preventing of it if it be evil and if we are certain of the thing yet if we apprehend it to be of no great Moment and Concernment we shall be apt to slight it as not worth our regard but the Rewards and Punishments of another world which the Gospel propounds to our Faith are fitted to work upon our Minds both upon account of the Certainty and Concernment of them For 1. We have sufficient Assurance of the Truth of these things as much as we are well capable of in this state Concerning things future and at a distance we have the dictates of our Reason arguing us into this Perswasion from the consideration of the Justice of the Divine Providence and from the promiscuous and unequal Administration of things in this world from whence wise men in all ages have been apt to conclude that there will be another state of things after this life wherein rewards and punishments shall be equally distributed We have the general consent of Mankind in this matter and to assure us that these Reasonings are true we have a most credible Revelation of these things God having sent his Son from Heaven to declare it to us and given us a sensible demonstration of the thing in his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Aseension into Heaven so that there is no kind of evidence wanting that the thing is capable of but only our own sense and experience of these things of which we are not capable in this present state And there is no Objection against all this but what will bring all things into uncertainty which do not come under our Senses and which we our selves have not seen Nor is there any considerable Interest to hinder Men from the Belief of these things or to make them hesitate about them for as for the other World if at last there should prove to be no such thing our Condition after Death will be the same with the Condition of those who disbelieve these things because all will be extinguish'd by Death but if things fall out otherwise as most undoubtedly they will and our Souls after this Life do pass into a State of Everlasting Happiness or Misery then our great Interest plainly lies in preparing our selves for this State and there is no other way to secure the great Concernments of another World but by believing those things to be true and governing all the Actions of our Lives by this Belief For as for the Interests of this Life they are but short and transitory and consequently of no Consideration in comparison of the things which are Eternal and yet as I have often told you setting aside the case of Persecution for Religion there is no real Interest of this World but it may be as well promoted and pursued to as great Advantage nay usually to a far greater by him that believes these things and lives accordingly than by any other Person For the Belief of the Rewards and Punishments of another World is the greatest Motive and Encouragement to Virtue and as all Vice is naturally attended with some temporal Inconvenience so the Practice of all Christian
this Blessed State of Good Men in another World so hath he likewise assur'd us that greater Degrees of this Happiness shall be the Portion of Those who suffer for Him and his Truth Mat. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven And nothing surely can be more Reasonable than to part with things of Small Value for things infinitely Greater and more Considerable to forego the Transient Pleasures and Enjoyments and the Imperfect Felicities of this World for the Solid and Perfect and Perpetual Happiness of a Better Life and to exchange a Short and Miserable Life for Eternal Life and Blessedness in a word to be content to be driven Home to be banisht out of this World into our own Native Country and to be violently thrust out of this Vale of Tears into those Regions of Bliss where are Joys unspeakable and full of Glory This Consideration St. Paul tells us supported the Primitive Christians under their sharpest and heaviest Sufferings 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause says he we faint not because 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 the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal So that our Sufferings bear no more Proportion to the Reward of them than Finite does to Infinite than Temporal to Eternal between which there is no Proportion All that now remains is to draw some useful Inferences from what hath been Discoursed concerning this great and difficult Duty of Self-denial for the sake of Christ and his Religion and they shall be these following 1. To acknowledg the great Goodness of God to us that all these Laws and Commands even the Hardest and Severest of them are so reasonable God as he is our Maker and gave us our Beings hath an Entire and Soveraign Right over us and by virtue of that Right might have imposed very Hard things upon us and this without the giving Account to us of any of his matters and without propounding any Reward to us so vastly disproportionable to our Obedience to him But in giving Laws to us he hath not made use of this Right The most Severe and Rigorous Commands of the Gospel are such that we shall be infinitely Gainers by our Obedience to them If we deny our selves any thing in this World for Christ and his Religion we shall in the next be considered for it to the Utmost not only far beyond what it can Deserve but beyond what we can Conceive or Imagine For this perishing Life and the transitory Trifles and Enjoyments of it we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken an uncorruptible Crown which fadeth not away Eternal in the Heavens For these are Faithful Sayings and we shall Infallibly find them true That if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him if we be persecuted for righteousness sake great shall be our reward in Heaven if we part with our Temporal Life we shall be made Partakers of Eternal Life He that is firmly persuaded of the Happiness of the next World and believes the Glory which shall then be revealed hath no Reason to be so much offended at the Sufferings of this Present time so long as he knows and believes that these Light afflictions which are but for a Moment will work for him a for more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Seeing this is required of every Christian to be always in a Preparation and Disposition of Mind to deny our selves and to take up our Cross if we do in good earnest resolve to be Christians we ought to fit down and consider well with our selves what our Religion will cost us and whether we be content to come up to the Price of it If we value any thing in this World above Christ and his Truth we are not worthy of him If it come to this that we must either renounce Him and his Religion or quit our temporal Interests if we be not ready to forego these nay and to part even with Life it self rather than to forsake Him and his Truth we are not worthy of him These are the Terms of our Christianity and therefore we are required in Baptism solemnly to renounce the World And our Saviour from this very Consideration infers That all who take upon them the Profession of his Religion should consider seriously beforehand and count the cost of it Luke 14. 28. Which of you says he intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Or what King going to war with another King doth not sit down and consult whether with 10000 he be able to meet him that cometh against him with 20000. So likewise whosoever he be that forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my Disciple You see the Terms upon which we are Christians we must always be prepared in the Resolution of our Minds to deny our selves and take up our Cross tho we are not Actually put upon this Tryal 3. What hath been said is matter of great Comfort and Encouragement to all those who deny themselves and suffer upon so good an Account of whom God knows there are too great a Number at this Day in several parts of the World Some under actual Sufferings such as cannot but move Compassion and Horror in all that hear of them Others who are fled hither and into other Countries for Refuge and Shelter from one of the sharpest Persecutions that perhaps ever was if all the Circumstances of it be duly considered But not to enlarge upon so unpleasant a Theam they who suffer for the Truth and Righteousness sake have all the Comfort and Encouragement that the best Example and the greatest and most glorious Promises of God can give They have the best Example in their view Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith who endured the Cross and despised the Shame So that how great and terrible soever their Sufferings be they do but tread in the Steps of the Son of God and of the best and holiest Man that ever was and He who is their great Example in Suffering will likewise be their Support and their exceeding great Reward So that tho Suffering for Christ be accounted great Self-denyal and he is graciously pleased so to accept it because in denying things Present and Sensible for things Future and Invisible we do not only declare our Affection to him but our great Faith and Confidence in him by shewing that we rely upon his Word and venture all upon the Security which he offers us in
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
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
in this World which considering the Goodness of God and his gracious Providence and Care of Good Men is a thing of it self extremely credible Having thus as briefly as I could dispatched the Two Particulars which I propounded to speak to for the Explication of the Text I should now shew what Influence these Considerations ought to have upon our Lives and Practice And if this be our Condition in this World and these our Hopes and Expectations as to another Life if we be Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth and look for a better Country that is an Heavenly this ought to have a great Influence upon us in these following respects which I shall at present but very briefly mention 1. Let us intangle and incumber our selves as little as we can in this our Pilgrimage let us not ingage our Affections too far in the Pleasures and Advantages of this World for we are not to continue and settle in it but to pass through it A little will serve for our Passage and Accommodation in this Journey and beyond that why should we so earnestly covet and seek more 2. If we be Pilgrims and Strangers then it concerns us to behave our selves blamelesly and inoffensively remembering that the Eyes of People are upon us and that those among whom we live will be very curious and observant of our Manners and Carriage 3. Let us be chearful and patient under the Troubles and Afflictions of this present Life They who are in a strange Country must expect to encounter many Injuries and Affronts and to be put to great Difficulties and Hazards which we should endeavour to bear with that Chearfulness as Men that are upon a Journey use to bear foul Ways and bad Weather and inconvenient Lodging and Accomodations 4. The Consideration of our present Condition and future Hopes should set us above the Fondness of Life and the slavish Fear of Death For our Minds will never be raised to their true Pitch and Hight till we have in some good measure conquered these two Passions and made them subject to our Reason As for this present Life and the Enjoyments of it What do we see in them that should make us so strangely to dote upon them Quae Miseri lucis tam dira cupido This World at the best is but a very indifferent Place and he is the wisest Man that bears himself towards it with the most indifferent Affection that is always willing to leave it and yet patient to stay in it as long as God pleases 5. We should always prefer our Duty and a good Conscience before all the World because it is in truth more valuable if our Souls be Immortal and do survive in another World For as our Saviour argues What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul And thus St. Paul reasoned with himself from the Belief of a Resurrection of the Just and Unjust For this cause saith he I exercise my self alway to have a Conscience void of offence both toward God and toward Man Lastly If we be Sojourners and Travellers we should often think of our End and carefully mind the Way to it Our End is Everlasting Happiness and the Way to it is a constant and sincere and universal Obedience to the Commandments of God When the Young Man in the Gospel enquired of our Saviour the way to Eternal Happiness saying Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life His Answer to him was If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments We may easily mistake our way For strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leads to Life and few there be that find it Therefore we should often pray to God as David does Psalm 119. 19. I am a Stranger in the Earth hide not thy Commandments from me And Psalm 139. 23 24. Search me O God and know my Heart try me and know my Thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the Way Everlasting A SERMON On HEB. XI 13. And confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims in 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 c. I Have lately in this Place upon a particular Day and Occasion begun to handle these Words I shall briefly give you the Heads of what hath been already delivered and proceed to what remains And that which I designed from this Text was To represent to us our present Condition in this World and to awaken us to a due Sense and Consideration of it It is the same Condition that all the Saints and Holy Men that have gone before us were in in this World and we may all of us say with David Psal. 39. 12. I am a Stranger with Thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were 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 far 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 on the Earth and when the Days of our Pilgrimage shall be accomplished are designed to return to that Heavenly Country from which they came and to which they belong And for the Explication of this Metaphor I insisted only upon Two Things which seem plainly to be designed and intended by it 1. That our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled They confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth II. It implies a tendency to a future Settlement and the Hopes and Expectation of a happier Condition into which we shall enter when we go out of this World And these I told you are Two very Weighty and Useful Considerations That we should both understand our present Condition in this World and our future Hopes and Expectation after our Departure out of it that so we may demean our selves suitably to both these Conditions both as is fit for those who look on 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 Partakers of a Blessed Immortality in another World I. That our Condition in this World is very Troublesom and Unsettled and this is principally intended by the Metaphor of Pilgrims and Strangers Such was the Life of the Patriarchs here spoken of in the Text they had no constant Abode and fixt Habitation but were continually wandering from one Kingdom and Country to another in which Travels they were exposed to a great many Dangers and Sufferings Affronts and Injuries as we read at large in the History of their Travels