[3.] Meditate often on the promises, they are our cordials in our journey : Ps. cxix. 54, 'Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.' They are cordials to cheer us and strengthen us in our way ; and it is good to feed and strengthen the soul. And they are our antidotes against the infection of the world : 2 Peter i. 4, '■ Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine natiu-e, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.' The world is an infectious air, but the promises preserve us against the corrup- tions that are in the world through lust ; and they refresh the divine nature, and keep our hopes alive.
[4.] Enjoy as much of heaven as you can on the earth.
[5.] Go to God to circumcise the foreskin of your heart.
[6.] Get a clearer and more sensible interest in Christ.
[7.] Meditate on the happiness you shall have at home.
[8.] Prize the communion of saints.i
* They confessed.' Abraham told the people of the land of Canaan, Gen. x.\iii. 4, ' I am a stranger and a sojourner with you ; ' Jacob told Pharaoh : Gen. xlvii. 9, ' The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have the days of the years of
1 See these directions baixlled on Verse 9.
VeR, 13.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 325
my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.' It seems it was tiieir general and open profession wherever they came ; before idolaters they declared what they were and whither their hopes tended, though it laid them open to the scorn and hatred of those among whom they lived. So David : Ps. xxxix. 12, ' I am a stranger with thee, and a so- journer, as all my fathers were.' From hence we observe —
Doct. 2. That the making an open confession of the truth is a neces- sary duty : Eom. x. 9, 10, ' If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' It is not enough that our hearts be right with God, but there must be a confession with the mouth.
Quest. Bat are we bound always to make this confession ? Is it not said, Eom. xiv. 22, 'Hast thou faith ? have it to thvself before God.'
Ans. 1. Profession of the main things of godliness is always neces- sary in those that have given up their names to Christ : Mark xvi. 16. ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' Now baptism is to be attended with an open profession of our faith : so Pvom. x. 9, 'If thou sha'lt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the dead,' &c., which is the foun- dation of the christian faith, and the great article then in question. It is for the glory of God that his servants should own him, and for the profit of others.
2. When we are called thereunto, then we must witness a good con- fession. But when are we called thereunto ? I answer, We are called liy God and by men. (1.) By God: partly by his providence, and partly by a special impulse. Partly by his providence ; when a good cause is like to be deserted for want of followers, then God seems by the voice of his providence to say. Who is on my side ? Who ? When the non-profession of the truth is equivalent with the denial of it. This was Daniel's case: Dan. vi. 10, ' Now when Daniel knew that the •writing was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled w^on bis kuees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.' You will think he might have omitted the opening of his windows ; but to have shut his windows would have been implicitly to liave yielded to the unjust decree not to call on the God of Israel. Partly by the impulse of the spirit, for that doth determine the cir- cumstances of a known duty ; as Paul at Athens : Acts xvii. 16, ' His spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry;' and Acts xviii. 5, "' Paul Avas pressed in spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.' (2.) We are called thereunto by men, when they desire an account of our faith for their instruction : 1 Peter iii. 15, ' Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.'
3. In many cases we must have faith to ourselves, and we are not bound to make possession of it ; as for instance, when the cause we maintain may receive detriment by an unseasonable agitation, for every