[2.] By being unsatisfied with their present comforts. The children of God would not abide here for ever if God would give tliem leave. It is good to be here, sailh a worldling: here is not our rest, saith a
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 317
child of God : Micali ii. 10, ' Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest.' They cannot sit down contented ; if the Lord should give them "the world for ever without the enjoyment of himself, this cannot satisfy them; they are strangers in disposition and affection, they desire and i^roan to be elsewhere. It is a grief to a wicked man to think of a departure, and to be taken off from present things, from sucking the dugs of worldly consolation.
[3.] Because they have another inheritance to expect, they have a liome to go to. He that hath no home is nowhere a stranger, where- ever he is. "Wicked men are only strangers in regard of their unsettled iibode in this world ; they have a long home, but they have no inherit- ance to expect ; they are sure to go out of the world, but they are not sura to go to heaven, and so they are strangers, but not pilgrims. But the children of God have a home which they expect, something beyond the present life, therefore they are strangers and pilgrims ; they know -and are sensible that these things are but short in continuance, and they cannot satisfy ; that there are better things to be had, a better portion in another world, which will satisfy : Ps xvii. 15, ' I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.' They must live here a while, and then go down into the grave and sleep for a while ; but when they awake, then they shall have enough.
Three points I shall observe from the words.
Boct. 1. That true believers confess themselves to be strangers and ■pilgrims in the world.
They count heaven their home, and the world a strange country. Paith makes them to count themselves strangers and pilgrims in the j)resent world. I showed you in the other verse how christians are pilgrims in the world. Here I shall show two things — (1.) The reasons why believers account themselves so ; (2.) The influence that faith hath upon this work.
First, The reasons why believers account themselves so. Partly as they look upon heaven, and partly as they look upon the world.
1. In respect of heaven, they count that their home, and that for these reasons — (1.) Because thence they are born ; (2.) There lies their inheritance ; (3.) There are all their kindred ; (4.) There they abide longest.""
2. In respect of the world. As they consider what heaven is, so they .consider what the world is, and therefore they cannot count it their home. The world is Satan's walk, the devil's circuit, where their father's enemy reigns : Job ii. 2, ' And the Lord said unto Satan. From whence x;omest thou ? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.' It is a place that is defiled with sin : Isa. xxiv. 5, ' The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.' It is a hard thing to walk up and down and keep ourselves unspotted in such, a place as the world is. The earth is given to the children of men : Pp. cxv. 16, 'The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.' It is the slaughter-house and shambles of the saints : Rev. xviii. 24, ' In lier was found the blood of
^ See Sermons on Ps. cxis.
318 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XLVIII.
prophets and of saints, and of all that were .slain upon the earth.' It is a receptacle not only for God's enemies and reprobate men, but for the very beasts, a place that beareth the marks of man's sin, therefore surely they cannot count it their home. They find ill entertainment in the world ; Grod in his providence orders it so that the world should be the more unkind to the saints that they might look after a better place. If the world did not vex them as it doth, possibly it might ensnare them, so that the world's hostility becomes their security ; as Paul found the world crucified to him, and therefore he was crucified to the woi'ld : Gal. vi. 14, ' The world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.' The injuries they receive here turn to their gain and mortifi- cation. God's children usually have the worst of it here in the world, and therefore they account themselves but strangers and pilgrims in the world.
Secondly, The influence that faith Hath upon this work.
1. Faith shows the truth and worth of things to come. It presents another home, and a better home.
[1.] Faith presents another home : Heb. xi. 1, ' Faith is the evidence of things not seen,' We can see nothing but clouds, stars, and earth round about us ; faith looks into the invisible world where God is, and Christ at his right hand, and saints and angels round about him. Keason hatli but a dark guess at these things ; faith openeth a light into the unknown world, where is our father's house, where is our elder brother, and the best of our kindred : Eph. i. 18, ' The eyes of your understand- ings being opened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' Un- less our eyes are opened we cannot look into these things ; faith gives a knowledge of what is above the clouds, there it seeth him that is invisible.