[4.] The weighty causes upon which we may remove are want of health, if the places we live in prove hard and barren, and we know not how to subsist, or want of ordinances, or a lawful calling from state and church, whereof we are members, as to be ambassadors, or messengers of the churches, or such like cases determinable by christian prudence. And so in conjugal relations : Ps. xlv. 10, ' Forsake thine own people, and thy father's house.' Only, where the remove is of greater hazard, the call must be more urgent : Mat. xiv, 22, ' And straightway Jesus ' — rjvdyKacrev — ' constrained his disciples to get into a ship.'
[5.] Upon what cause soever we remove, we must consult with God for his leave : James iv. 1, 5, ' If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that ; ' for his blessing : Gen. xxiv. 12, ' 0 Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee send me good speed this day," still consult with the oracle. It was the theology of the gentiles, Dii magna cur- ant, parva negligunt — The gods regard great things, but neglect small things. This thought is in the heart of many christians, as if God did only care for the greater matters. The blind world sets up an idol called chance or fortune, and lives at peradventure : Prov. iii. 6, ' In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths,' The children of God dare not resolve upon any course till they have asked counsel of God ; they run to the oracle or ephod. Jacob in his journey would not go to Laban, nor come from him without a warrant.
244 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [tSER. XLI.
Jeboshaphat doth not send for the captains of the army, but the pro- phets of the Lord : 1 Kings xxii. 7, ' Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of him ? ' This is a great argument of the fear of God. The heathens had their sybils, and oracles of Delphi and Jupiter Ammon.
[6.] God's answer after prayer must be observed, otherwise we do but mock God, and use it as a ceremony. Many ask God with an idol in their hearts : Ezek. xiv. 3, ' Every man of the house of Israel that set- teth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet ; I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols.' Men are resolved, and then pretend to consult God, as Jeremiah said to Johanan and his company, Jer. xlii. 20, ' Ye dissembled in your hearts when you sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God, and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.' Observe then God's answer, your comfort and hap]-)iness dependeth on it ; as when God in the course of his providence openeth a way, or by inward instinct directeth us to such a course, or by powerful and persuading reasons poiseth the judgment, usually by counsel in the heart: Ps. xvi. 7, 'My reins in- struct me in the night season ; ' or such a fit accommodation of the cir- cumstances and passages of providence, God inviteth and calleth forth his peo})le to follow him.
[7.] In doubtful cases we must not be swayed with interest but conscience. All scruples must be determined by principles and reasons of religion. It is carnal to measure all things by ease, peace, and temporal welfare ; we must consider where we can have the greatest capacity of glorfying God ; that is the general rule, even in civil affairs: 1 Cor. X. 31, ' Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' This is the great end of our lives. A christian doth not altogether look how he may more gratify his own concernments, but how he maybe more useful, and serve the great end for which he was sent into the world ; as a traveller, when he cometh to two ways, and knoweth not which to take, he doth not look which is fairest or foulest, most smooth or plain, but which is must likely to suit with the purpose of his journey. The plains of pleasure and profit may be more grateful to the flesh, but they lie out of our road to heaven. Means must be chosen with respect to the end ; in all deliberate counsels reasons of religion must bear sway. Usually we consult with flesh ■and blooil, and then the conflicts of lusts and knowledge breed scruples and irresolutions ; conscience saith one thing, and lust and interests another, and so men are uncertain.
[8.] Whatever we do, we must go there where we have the ordinances, and enjoy the communion of saints, otherwuse we turn our backs upon God, and that will not be our comfort : 1 Peter ii. 2, ' As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.' True saints cannot be without ordinances. It Avas Lot's sin to choose Sodom for the pleasantness of the situation : Ps. Ixxxiv. 10, ' For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand ; I had rather be a door- keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.' It i^ observed of Cain, Gen. iv. 16, ' And Cain went out from the pre-