3. Observe, heaven is a city that hath foundations. Tents are moving and ambulatory dwellings, they had no fotmdations ; but this hath foundations, that is, it is a fixed and certain habitation, therefore called ' an abiding city,' Heb. xiii. 14. We cannot have an abiding city in a perishing world. Man must be suited to his happiness, and have a fit place wherein to enjoy it.
1. We are not suited and fitted to happiness while we are here ; old bottles will not hold the new wdne of glory. Here we are not ca2)able of the glorious presence of God ; a mortal creature cannot endure the splendour of it. We would have it here as Peter : Mat. xvii. 4, ' Lord, it is good for us to be here.'
2. The place wherein we live is not a fit place to enjoy it. The ■world is not a fit place, because it is full of changes, — night and day, calm and tempest, summer and winter. The earth is cursed for our sakes ; we cannot have our blessings here ; it is a fit place for our pun- ishment and exercise, to be as a stage on which we act a part, or a scafiuld on which we are executed, but it is not our city. There is no country of so gentle a temperature as to preserve the inhabitants from all misery, sin, grief, sickness, and death. Heaven then is the only place, it hath foundations, it is the fixed place of our rest and eternal abode. There is hope of quiet, it is a sure blessed place of rest. Here all things are fading — ' Time and chance happeneth to all,' Eccles. ix. 11 ; but the safe commodious dwelling-place is there where we shall
272 SERMONS UPOX HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XLIV.
be never molested more. The whole employment of our lives is to seek how to get thither ; get a right and interest, and you are sure to enter at death. Christ hath purchased it by his merit, and hath taken pos- session of it for us.
4. Observe, God is the builder and maker of heaven. It is put in opposition to cities built by men. God made the earth as well as heaven , but the making of heaven is peculiarly ascribed to him be- cause it is a rare piece of work. God hath spent most of his art on it ; there he hath fixed his throne : Ps. ciii. 19, ' The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens/ There is most of liis majesty seen, there he is fully enjoyed, and there is an everlasting manifestation of his glory. And he that is the maker of it is the disposer of it, please God, and he will give it thee.
5. Observe, that the fathers looked for an entry into this eternal rest after the ending of their pilgrimage. Here is a clear proof of it — 'He looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.'
SERMON XLIV.
ThrovghfaifTiaho Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and icas delivered of a child ivhen she was past age, because she judged him faithful who liad promised. — Heb. xi. 11.
The apostle had spoken of the faith of Abraham, and thereupon taketh occasion to mention Sarah's faith. Therefore he saith, koI avri] ^dppa, ' Through faith also Sara herself,' &c.
Observe, what a blessing it is when a husband and wife are both partners of faith, when both in the same yoke draw one wa}-. Abraham is the father of the faithful, and Sara is recommended among believers as having a fellowship in the same promises, and in the same troubles and trials. So it is said of Zachary and EHzabeth : Luke i. 4, ' And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the command- ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.' It is a mighty encourage- ment when the constant companion of our lives is also a fellow in the same faith. The hint dii-ecteth us in matter of choice, she cannot be a meet help that goeth a contrary way in religion ; when the sons of God went in to the daughters of men because they were fair, it brought a flood, Gen. vi. 2, 3. Such mixtures get a mongrel race. Religion decayeth in families by nothing so much as by want of care in matches.
But to come to the words, here is — (1.) The person believing ; (2.) The commendation of her faith ; (3.) The ground of it.
First, The person believing — Kal avri] Suppa. Yea also Sarah her- self, a woman, — and as to the point wherein her faith was exercised, a woman barren and stricken in age. — she through faith received strength to conceive seed.
Ohs. A woman weak in sex may be strong in faith. This is a praise
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPOX HEBREWS XI. 273
common both to men and women, they are heirs together of the same grace of life,' 1 Peter iii. 7 This should excite women to excel in grace and piety. Sarah hath her praise in the word as well as Abraham. The life of women is for the most part carried on in silence and privacy, yet there is an eminency proper to them. In public services men are most employed, yet women may glorify God in their hearts by faith ; there are duties and promises that belong to their private station. As men can speak of Abraham, so women of 8arah. There is a stain upon their sex, that by them sin came first into the world , but then there is this honour put upon them, that by one woman's child salvation was brought into the world. Therefore let women strive, not to continue the stain, but the glory of their sex ; not to be first in transgression, the most forward in a family to sin, but to get an interest in him who was made of a woman, and to approve themselves, not only to their husbands, but God ; not merely to strive to get a jointure upon earth, but to be heirs with men of the same grace of life, to have an inheritance in heaven, especially if they have religious husbands.