8 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V, [SeR. IX,
4. Patiently endure the inconveniences of your pilgrimage. Strangers will meet with bard usage. It is no news that all things do not succeed with the heirs of promise according to their heart's desire here in the world : ' The world will love its own, but they are chosen out of the world,' John xv. 19. Cbrist died not for this, that we should be dandled upon the world's knees. As long as the end shall be happy, let us bear the inconveniences of the way with the more patience. A christian, that is convinced of a life to come, should not be greatly dismayed at any temporal accident. The discourse between Modestus, a governor under Valence and Basil the Grreat, in Kazianzen's twentieth Oration, is very notable to this purpose. When he threatened him with banishment, ' I know no banishment that know no abiding-place here in the world. I cannot say that this place is mine, nor can I say the other is not mine, wherever God shall cast me ; rather all is the Lord's, whose stranger and pilgrim I am. Every place is alike near to heaven, and thither I am tending.' This is to carry ourselves as strangers and pilgrims. Indeed, to be more indifferent as to the good things of this life, and to take them as God sendeth them ; but heaven will make amends for all. Many times the world proveth a step-mother. The ground that bringeth forth thistles and nettles of its own accord will not bear choicer plants. But it is your comfort you shall be trans- planted, Heb. X. 34. From whence do you fetch your supports in any cross ? 1 John iii. 1. A prince that travelleth abroad in disguise, may be slighted and ill treated, but you have a glorious inheritance reserved for you; therefore this should be your comfort and sup- port,
5. Beg direction from God, that you may go the shortest way home : Ps. cxix. 19, ' I am a stranger upon earth, hide not thy commandments from me.' It concerneth a stranger to look after a better and a more durable estate ; there is no direction how to attain it but in the word uf God, and there is no saving understanding of it but in the light of his Spirit. This we must earnestly seek, that in everything we may understand our duty, that we be not found in a false way : ' Saved as by fire,' 1 Cor. iii. 13. ]\Iake a hard shift to scramble to heaven.
6. Get as much of home as you can in your pilgrimage, in the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit : Kom. viii. 23, ' And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit. the redemption of our bodies.' In ordinances ; Mat. xxvi. 29, ' But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.' Medi- tation, word, prayer and communion of saints.
Doct. 2. The main reason why a good christian counteth himself not at home, is, because he is absent from the Lord, while he is in the body.
I shall here inquire, —
1. How believers are absent from the Lord.
2. Why this maketh them look upon the world as a strange place, and heaven as their house.
1. How are believers absent from the Lord, when he dwelleth in them, as in his temple, and there is a near and close union between
VeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 9
him and them ? And he hath promised, that where two or three are gathered together in his name he is in the midst of them ?
I answer, Christ is with us indeed, but we are not with him. He dwelleth in us by his grace, and influenceth us with quickening and strength, but he is at a distance ; we can have no personal converse with him, though there be a spiritual commerce between us. But in heaven we shall be translated to Christ, and enjoy the fulness of his grace ; here ' we walk by faith, and not by sight,' as it is in the next verse. In short, our communion with Christ is — -(1.) not immediate; (2.) nor full ; (3.) often interrupted.
[1.] It is not immediate. We see him now as covered and veiled in ordinances and providences, but then we shall see him face to face. In providences we enjoy him only at the second or third hand : Hos. ii. 21, 22, ' I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn, and wine, and oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel.' The mercy and goodness of God passeth from creature to creature before it cometh to us. So in ordinances, all that we have from him is by the means of the word and sacraments ; there we shall enjoy him without means, and without these external helps, for there God will be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 28. We shall then ever be before him, in his eye and presence ; and ' iu his presence is fulness of joy,' Ps. xvi. 11. Our communion with him is not a fancy, but indeed: 1 John i. 3, ' Truly our communion is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' But this commerce is maintained at a distance ; he is in heaven, and we are upon earth ; it is maintained by faith, but then all is evident to sense.