4. What is your solace in your affliction, and the inconveniences
180 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XX.
that you meet with in your pilgrimage ? Doth this comfort you — Home will pay for all ? Heh. x. 34, ' Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance.' Do you reckon upon a more enduring substance ? Though the world frown upon you as a step-mother, yet you remem- ber you have a better home. From whence do you fetch your supports in any cross ? Doth this comfort you in the midst of the molestations of the world ? — They do not know your birth, your breeding, your hopes, nor your expectations. Strangers may be abused in a foreign place ; when we come home, this will be forgotten. The saints walk up and down like a prince that travels abroad in disguise ; though he be slighted, abused, he doth not appear what he shall be. You have a glorious inheritance reserved for you ; this is your cOTdial and the reviving of your souls, and that which doth your heart good to think of ; and so you can be contented to suffer loss and inconveniences upon these hopes. The discourse between Modestus, a governor under Valens, and Basil, in Nazianzen his twentieth Oration, is very notable. I shall only transcribe what is exactly to the purpose in hand. When he threatened him with banishment, I know no banishment, saith he, who know no abiding-place here in the world. I do not count this place mine, nor can I say the other is not mine ; rather all is God's, whose stranger and pilgrim I am. This was that which supported him in the midst of those threatenings. Therefore from whence do you fetch your support. *
5. If religion be kept up in height and majesty, the world will count you strangers, they will stand wondering at your conversation, 1 Peter iv. 4. Men gaze upon those that come hither in a foreign habit, that do not conform to the fashions of the country ; and so a child of God is wondered at, that walks in a counter-motion to the studies and practices of other men, as one that is not conformed to the world, Eom. xii. 2. What do you discover of the spirit of your country, so as to convince others ?
This much by Avay of inquiry, namely, whether we are strangers, yea or nay ?
Use 2. Behave yourselves as strangers here upon earth.
1. Avoid ' fleshly lusts/ 1 Peter ii. 11 ; these cloud the eye, and besot the heart, and make us altogether for a present good ; they weaken our desires of heaven. It is the apostle's argument, ' As strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts.' The flesh-pots of Egypt made Israel to despise Canaan ; and so this is that which will take off our hearts from things to come, from the inheritance of the saints in light, and from that blessed estate God hath pro- mised.
2. Grasp not at too much of the world ; but what comes with a fair providence upon honest endeavours, accept with thanks : 1 Tim. vi. 9, ■ They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare,' &c. The devil hath you upon the hip, when you make that your business and scope ; not he that is, but ivill be rich, that fixes that as his scope. Then the heart is filled with sins, and the head with cares.
3. If an estate comes in slowly, remember, a little will serve our turns to heaven ; more would be but a burden and snare. Those that
VeR. 19.] SERMONS UPOX PSALM CXIX. 181
have their portion liere, most of worldly things, what do they get by it? A little belly-cheer, Ps. xvii. 14, ' and they leave the rest to their babes.' Dainty cheer is no great matter ; and to leave our posterity great is but to leave them in a snare. Children are under a providence and a covenant as well as we, and it is blasphemous to think we can provide for them better than God.
4. If God give abundance, rest not in it with a carnal complacency : Ps. Ixii. 10, ' If riches increase, set not your heart on them.' Suffer not thy heart to rejoice in them as your only portion, so as to grow proud of them, so as to count them your good things, Luke xvi. 25 ; you that are strangers have better things to mind.
5. Keep up a warm respect to your everlasting home. It is not enough to despise the world, but you must look after a better country. Many of a slight temper may despise worldly profits ; their corrup- tions do not run out that way : Heb. xiiL 14, ' We have here no abid- ing city, but we seek one to come.' Desires, thoughts, and groans, these are the harbingers of the soul that we send into the land of promise. By this means we tell God that we would be at home.
6. Enjoy as much of heaven as you can in your pilgrimage, in ordi- nances, in the first-fruits of the Spirit, in communion with saints, Grace is but young glory, and joy in the Holy Ghost is the suburbs of heaven ; and therefore you should get somewhat of your country before you come at it. As the winds do carry the odours and sweet smells of Arabia into the neighbouring provinces, so by the breathings of the Holy Ghost upon our hearts do we get a smell of the upper paradise ; it is in some measure begun in us before we can get thither ; and therefore enjoy as much of heaven as possibly you can in the time of your pilgrimage. We have our taste here ; it is begun in union with Christ, and in the work of grace upon the heart. And in ordinances. Prayer brings us to the throne of grace ; it gives ns an entrance into God's presence : Heb. x. 19, the apostle calls it, ' a bold- ness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.' A Christian enters heaven while he is here in the world. In the word preached heaven is brought down to us. The gospel is called the kingdom of heaven. And by reading we do as it were converse with the saints departed, tliat writ what we read. Meditation brings us into the com- pany of God ; it puts our heads above the clouds, in the midst of blessed spirits there. As if we saw Jesus Christ upon the throne, and his saints triumphing about him. Communion of saints is heaven begun ; therefore you that are strangers should much delight there . A man that is abroad would be glad to meet with his own country- men ; we should be glad of company to go with us to heaven ; these are to be our companions for evermore, therefore we should converse with them here.