[4.] Do not confoj-m yourselves according to the fashions of the
Vers. 9, 10. j sermons upon Hebrews xi. 259
world : Eom. xii. 2, ' And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.' You are strangers here ; live not according to the customs and fashions of the world. If an Englishman were in America, where he saw none but rude savages that had not shame enough to cover their nakedness, would he conform himself to their fashions and guises ? "We are in danger to miscarry by example, as well as by lust. It is the fashion of the world to be profane and unmortified, to be careless of God and heavenly things, to break the sabbath, to neglect private duties, and the exercise of religion in their families, to spend their whole time in eating and drinking, buying, selling, trading. You are of another country, Jerusalem that is above is the mother of us all ; therefore you are to live by other laws, and in another fashion. Besides, in every age there is some wicked custom afoot, which, by being common, becomes less odious, and your course must be contrary to it. Dead fishes swim with the stream, and wicked men walk Kar alcova, ' according to the course of this world,' Eph. ii. 2. Sin, when common, is less odious. But a stranger should by his habit and appearance declare his country, and that he is not ashamed to own it ; so do you declare that you are acted by higher principles and more glorious hopes than the men of the world are acted by. God hath chosen us out of the world, and we should dis- cover the excellency of our principles and hopes by not conforming ourselves to the present world.
[5.] It teacheth us patience, to endure the inconveniences of this life without murmuring. Many that travel abroad are ill entreated, not respected according to their birth. But consider, we have but a httle while to stay, and in the midst of all troubles remember home : Ps. xxvii. 13, 'I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.' Heaven is the true land of the living. There are commotions in the world, but heaven is a quiet place. If we are assaulted with troubles, it is to make us long for home, to better our hearts or hasten our glory. If the world did not vex the godly, it might possibly ensnare them, and entice their affec- tions to love it and desire to abide in it. The world's hostility is the security of the saints : Gal. vi. 14, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' The world never cared much for me, nor I much for the world. Their injuries turn to our gain, and mortification to make us look homeward.
[6.] It teacheth us submission to the liand of God for our godly departed friends. Let us not grieve for the departed in the Lord, they are but gone home. The apostle speaketh of some ' that were in Christ before him,' Eom. xvi. 7. They are in heaven before us, and we must wait our time ; after a wearisome journey they rest from their labours, and solace themselves in the bosom of Jesus Christ.
2G0 SERMOMS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. XLill.
SEEMON XLIII.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, divelling in tabernacles ivith Isaac and. Jacob, the heirs icith him of the same promise ; for he looked for a city ichich hath founda- tions, ivhose builder and maker is God. — Heb. xi. 9, 10.
?). I isrow come to the means how to get our hearts into such a frame as I have before discoursed on.
[1.] Let us enjoy as much of heaven as we can in our pilgrimage, in the beginnings of grace, the first-fruits of the Spiiit, and in the ordinances.
(1.) In the first-fruits of the Spirit: grace is young glory, and joy in the Holy Ghost is the suburbs of heaven. You enter upon your country and inheritance by degrees ; fulness of joy is for the life to come, and joy in the Holy Ghost is the beginning of it. As the winds carry the odours and sweet smells of Arabia into the neighbouring provinces ; so the joys of heaven, those sweet smells and odours of the upper paradise, are by the breathings and gales of the Spirit conveyed into the hearts of believers. This is our advance-money, our taste in the wilderness, our morning-glances of the daylight of glorj-. Union with Christ is the beginning of heaven, it is heaven in the moulding and framing.
(2.) In the ordinances. The time of our pilgrimage is a sad time. How should we solace ourselves? Ps. cxix. 54, 'Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage,^ our cordials to cheer and strengthen us. The ordinances are types of heaven. Prayer bringeth us to the throne of grace, and giveth us an entrance into God's presence. In the word ' preached ' is the presence of the blessed Trinity, bringing down heaven itself to us, and the angels are attending on our congregations: 1 Cor. xi. 10, ' For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, because of the angels.' The Lord's supper is a pledge of that new wine we shall drink in our Patlier's kingdom. By reading we talk with the saints departed, propliets and apostles, that wrote what we read. Meditation bringeth us into the company of God, and where we walk God walketh with us, and at home or abroad we are still with God. The sabbath is a type of heaven: Heb. iv. 9, ' There remaineth therefore a rest for the- people of God.' Here is a ceasing from work, and there is a ceasing from sin and misery, and an eternal rest and repose in the bosom of Christ. Psalms do fitly re- semble hallelujahs, the word lectures of praise that shall be read over the free grace of God and redemption by Christ to all eternity. The congregation signifies the general assembly and congregation of saints and angels above, Heb. xii. 23. So that a christian is even seated in heaven when in and about the ordinances.