2. There are others that wean their hearts from this world, and make it their care that they may carry themselves becoming their celestial extraction. As their souls were from above by creation, so all their hopes, and desires, and endeavours are to attain to that region of spirits ; much more as being renewed by grace do they aim at the perfection and accomplishment of that life which is begun in them ; and so being ' made partakers of the divine nature, do they escape the corruption that is in the world through lust,' 2 Peter i. 4,
VeR. 54.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. G9
they are convinced of a better estate than the world yieldeth, and be- lieve it, and look for it, and long for it, and labour for it. Now of which number are you ? or, if you cannot decide that — because more goeth to the assuring of our interest than the world usually taketh to be necessary for that end and purpose — of which number do you mean to be ? Will you be at home in the Avorld, or seek the happiness of the world to come ? that is, in other terms, do you mean to be pagans mider a Christian name, or Christians indeed ? You have but the name if you be not strangers and pilgrims here upon earth. All Christ's disciples indeed are called to sit loose from the world, and to have a high and deep sense of the world to come. As to the other world, they are ' no mere strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,' Eph. ii. 19. They are of a famih', part of which is in heaven and part on earth : Eph. iii. 15, ' Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.' Some of their brethren have got the start of them, and are with God before them, but the rest are hastening after as fast as they can. They are suffi- ciently convinced that the earth is no place for them ; they are strangers there, and the contentments thereof uncertain and perishing ; but they are no strangers to heaven and the blessed society of the saints, whose privileges they have a full right to now, and hope one day to have as full a possession, and an intimate communion with their Father and all their brethren.
Now, that you may resolve upon this, and carry yourselves suitably, I shall—
1. Give you some motives.
2. A direction or two. 1. Motives.
[1.] He that taketh up his rest in this world, or any earthly thing, is but a higher kind of beast, and unworthy of an immortal soul. The beasts have an instinct that guideth them to seek things convenient for that life which they have, and therefore a man doth not follow the light of reason that seeketh to quiet his mind with what things the world afFordeth, and only relisheth the contentments of the carnal and bodily life, that is satisfied with his portion here, Ps. xvii. 14. All tlieir business and bustle is to have their wills and pleasure for a little while, as if they had neither hopes nor fears of any greater things hereafter : Ps. xlix. 20, ' Man, that is in honour, and void of under- standing, is as the beast that perisheth,' because he merely inclineth to present satisfactions ; for reason is as a middle thing between the life of faith and the life of sense. It were no great matter whether you were men or dogs or swine, if reason be only given you for the present world and present satisfactions ; all your sense of the world to come and conscience is as good as nothing.
[2.] None are of so noble and divine a spirit as those that seek the heavenly kingdom. Amongst men, the ambitious who aspire to crowns and kingdoms, that aim at perpetual fame by their virtues and rare exploits, are judged persons of greater gallantry than covetous muck-worms and brutish epicures; yet their highest thoughts and designs are very base in comparison of Christians, ' who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for life, glory, and immortality,' Rom.
70 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LX.
ii. 7, and whom nothing less "will content than the enjoyment of God himself. Their desires are after him : Ps. Ixxiii. 25, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and who is there on earth I desire besides thee ? ' So that as man, being immortal, should provide for some place of perpetual abode, so herein the Christian excelleth other men, that nothing less will satisfy him than what God hath promised his people hereafter. The threshold will not content him — nothing but the throne.
[3.] What a sorry immortality, mock eternity, do they choose, instead of the true one, when they neglect the pursuit of this heavenly country ! If they look no higher than this world, all that they can rationally imagine is perpetuating themselves, and their names, and posterity, by successive generations : Ps. xlix. 11, ' Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations ; they call their lands by their own names.' This is styled nodosa efernilas, when they live in their children after death. But alas ! to how, few men's share can this fall ! and those who may in likelihood expect it, who are lords of fair rents, fair lands, houses and heritages, how often are they disappointed ! But if their hopes should succeed, and they should make themselves this way eternal, yet when the pageantry of this world is over, the great ungodly men of the world, who have names, lands, families in the general resurrec- tion shall be poor, base, contemptible ; whereas he that made it his business to look after the world to come shall be glorious for ever,