person knew his own place ! If the sea kept its own place, we should have no inundations ; if men had theirs, we should neither have seen such floods of sin, nor miseries, as this unhappj' age has heen almost drowned with. But it must be a strong bank indeed, that can contain our fluid spirits within our own terms. Peter himself was sharply chid, for prying out of curiosity into that which concerned him not. * What is that to thee?' John xxi. 22 ; as if Christ had said, Peter, meddle with thy own matters, this concerns not thee ; which sharp rebuke, saith one, might possibly make Peter afterwards give so strict a charge against, and set so black a brand upon this very sin, as you may find, 1 Pet. iv. 15, where he ranks the busybody among miu'derers and thieves.
Now to fix every one in his place, and persuade all to stand orderly there without breaking their rank, these five considerations, methinks, may carry some weight, among those especially with whom the word of God in the Scrip- ture yet keeps its authority to conclude and determine their thoughts.
1. Consider, What thou doest out of thy place is not acceptable to God, because thou canst not do it in faith, ' without which it is impossible to please God ;' and it cannot be in faith, because thou hast no call. God will not thank thee for doing that v/hich he did not set thee about ; possibly thou hast good intentions ; so had Uzzah in staying the ark, yet how well God liked his zeal, see 2 Sam. vi. 7. Saul himself could make a fair story of his sacrificing, but that served not his turn. It concerns us, not only to ask ourselves, what the thing is we do? but also, who requireth this at our hands? To be sure, God will at last put us upon that question, and it will go ill with us if we cannot shew our commission. So long we must needs neglect what is our duty, as we are busy about that which is not. The spouse confesseth this, Cant. i. 6 : ' They made me-the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept ;' she could not mind theirs and her own too ; our own iron will cool while we are heating another's. And this must needs be displeasing to God, to leave the work God sets us about, to do that he never conmianded. When a master calls a truant scholar to account, that he hath been missing some days from school, would this be a good plea for him to tell his master, that he was all the while in such a man's shop at work with his tools? No sure, his business lay at school, not in that shop.
2. By going out of our proper place and calling, we pvit oiu'selves from under God's protection: the promise is, he will keep us in 'all our ways,' Psa. xci. 11. When we go out of our way, we go from under his wing. We have an excellent place for this, 1 Cor. vii. 24 : ' Let every one wherein he is called, therein abide with God.' Mark that phrase, ' abide with God.' As we love to walk in God's company, we must abide in our place and calling; every step from that is a departure from God ; and better to stay at home in a mean place, and low calling, wherein we may enjoy God's sweet presence, than go to court, and there live without him. It is likely you have heard of that holy bishop, that in a jovuney came to an inn; and by some discourse with the host, finding him to be an atheist, or very atheistical, presently calls for his servant to bring him his hoise, saying he would not lodge there, for God was not in that place. Truly when thou art in any place, or about any work to which thou art not called, we may safely say, God is not in that place or enterprise ; and what a bold adventure is it to stay there, where you cannot expect his presence to assist, or protect! ' As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his jilace,' Prov. xxvii. 8. God took special care, that the ' bird sitting over her eggs in her nest' should not be hurt, Deut. xxii. 6 ; but we find nothing to secure her if found abroad. In doing the duty of our place, we have heaven's word for our security ; but upon our own peril be it if we wander ; then we are like Shimei out of his precints, and lay ourselves open to some judgment or other : it is alike dangerous to do what we are not called to, and to neglect or leave undone the duty of our place. As the earth could not bear Korah's usurpation of what belonged not to them, but swallowed them up ; so the sea could not but bear witness against Jonah the runaway prophet, disdaining to waft him that fled from his place and work that God called him to. Naj^, heaven itself would not harboiu- the angels, when once they left their own place and office that their Maker had appointed ; so those words, Jude 6, I find most probably interpreted. The ruin of
STAND THEREFORE. OQ[