Observe, that the children of God there, where they have best right and most possessions, are but strangers and pilgrims. How settled soever their condition be, yet this is the temper of the saints upon earth, to count themselves but strangers. All men indeed are strangers and sojourners; but the saints do best discern it, and most freely acknowledge it. Wicked men have no firm dwelling upon earth, but that is against their intention ; their inward thoughts and desire is, that they may abide for ever ; they are strangers against their wills, their abode is uncertain in the world, and they cannot help it. And pray mark, there are two distinct words used in this case in Peter, ' as strangers and pilgrims ' — &>? irapoUovi koX irape'mh^iJiov'i ; and in the old testament ' strangers and sojourners.' A stranger is one that hath his abode in a foreign country ; that is not a native and denizen of the place, though he livetli there ; and in opposition to the natives he is called a stranger ; as if a Frenchman should live in England, he is a stranger. But a pilgrim and a sojourner is one that intendeth not to settle, but only passeth through a place, and is in motion travelling homeward. So the children of God, in relation to a country of their own in another place — namely, heaven, they are denizens there, but strangers in the world ; and they are sojourners and pilgrims in regard of their motion and journey towards their own country. Now, wicked men are only strangers in regard of their unsettled abode in the world but they are not pilgrims ; they have no inlieritance to expect in heaven ; here is the place where they would abide for ever. Let God keep heaven to himself, so they might have the world ; they are sure to go out of the world, but they are not sure to go to heaven ; and so they are strangers, but not pilgrims. But briefly I shall show you — (1.) How christians are strangers and pilgrims ; (2.) The inferences of duty from hence ; (3.) How we may get our hearts into such a frame ;
1. The resemblance between the temper of the saints and the con- dition of a stranger and pilgrim. The allusion may be taken from an ordinary strangership and pilgrimage, or from the pilgrimage of Israel through the desert into Canaan.
[1.] From an ordinary pilgrimage.
(1.) A stranger is one that is absent from his country, and from his father's house. So are we ; heaven is our country ; God is there, and Christ is there. The apostle saith, 2 Cor. v. 6, ' Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.' We are strangers there, where we are absent from God and Christ — Uhi jKiter, ibi i^atria ; our birth is from heaven, and thither we tend. Elvers run away from their springs, and never return more ; but it is not so with us ; our springs are in Christ, and our streams are to him ; the tendency is according to the principle. Our birth is from heaven^ and thither are
Vers. 9, 10.] sermons upon Hebrews xr. 255
tlie motions and tendencies of renewed souls ; thence tliey came, and thither they tend.
(2.) A stranger in a foreign country is not known, nor vahied accord- ing to his birth and breeding ; so the saints walk up and down in the world like princes in disguise — ' The king's daughter is all glorious within,' Ps. xlv. 13. The world knoweth not our birth, nor our breed- ing, nor our hopes, nor our expectations. — ' Our life is hid with Christ in God,' Col. iii, 3 ; and therefore we are often judged according to the flesh and outward appearance, but live unto God in the Spirit.
(3.) Strangers are liable to inconveniences ; so are godly men in the world — Religio scit se peregrinam esse in terris, saith TertuUian, it is like a strange plant brought from a foreign country, and doth not agree with the nature of the soil, it thriveth not in the world. Wicked men prosper here ; they are like thistles and nettles, that grow of their own accord ; the world is their native soil.
(4.) A stranger is patient, standeth not for ill-usage, and is con- tented with pilgrim's fare and lodging. We are now abroad, and must expect hardship — ' In the world you shall have tribulation,' John xvi. 33. God permitteth inconveniences to arise to wean us from the world, and make us long for home.
(5.) A stranger is wary that he may not give offence and incur the hatred and displeasure of the natives. We had need to ' walk wisely towards them that are without,' Col. iv 5 ; we are in the land of our observers.
(6.) A stranger is thankful for the least favour ; so must we be thankfully contented with the things God hath bestowed on us. Any- thing in a strange country is much : 1 Chron. xxix. 13-15, ' W^e thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For Ave are strangers before thee, and sojourners as were all our fathers.'