[3.] We must get a sanctified use of the things of the world. Then we have such a sanctified use of them, when they make us love God more, and not less. That which comes from love causeth love ; when the blessings of this world are given us from God in love to us, they work up the heart to love God again, and then have we a sanctified use of them.
[4.] We must be willing to quit them upon God's call, or upon the just reasons of religion. This is to renounce the world as these patri- archs did. But when doth God call us ? Partly, when otherwise we cannot keep a good conscience ; when we cannot hold the world, and maintain the conscience of our duty to God ; as Joseph left his coat to keep a good conscience, Gen. xxxix. 15. Partly, when God offei-s
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ns occasions of charity : 1 Tim. vi. 17, 18, ' Cliaige them that are rich in this worki, . . . that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, wilHng to communicate,' that is, to those that are in need, when God offers us opportunity.
2. Do you look after better things ? But how sliall we discover that ? Observe here, by what words these patriarchs' respect to their heavenly country is described : they looked for a coiuitry, they desired a country, they sought a country, and they declared plainly that they sought a country. Now all these things do discover a heavenly mind and heart.
[1.] They look for a country ; so verse 10, it is said of Abraham, ' He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' It noteth an actual expectation of blessedness to come, such as stirreth up serious and frequent thoughts of it ; not a glance only, such as is forced upon us, or cometli into the mind by chance, but a constant serious expectation, an entertaining of the soul with the thoughts of a blessedness to come. If you look for a city as they did, you will be entertaining and solacing your souls with the hopes of it.
[2.] They desire a country; they are groaning and longing, Oh, when shall it once be that I shall come to my country ? here I am but a stranger, wandering up and down, when shall I come home to my father's house, to my elder brother, to the rest of the family, and to my heavenly inheritance ? When the children of Israel had tasted of the grapes of Canaan, how did they long for the soil where they grew ! a man cannot have the first-fruits of the Spirit, but he will be waiting and groaning for the adoption : Rom. viii. 23, ' We ourselves, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within our- selves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' A man that hath had a taste of heaven in the joys of the Spirit, his heart is always groaning, Oh, when shall I come to the full of my inheritance ? they are always waiting for the happy time when their inheritance shall fall into their hands.
[3] They seek a country : Heb. xiii. 14, ' We have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.' It implies that it must be our great aim, and that the business of our lives must be to get to heaven, to be at home at our Father's house, to be there where God and Christ are. It must be the great aim and scope of our lives, next to the glory of God, and. the great work and business of our lives. Provision and. supports for the present life are but our by-work ; but to be fittmg and preparing ourselves to get home, this is the great business and employ- ment of a christian in this life. More particularly, our great work is to be getting dispositions for heaven and evidences for heaven. To be getting dispositions for heaven, to be meet to live above: Col. i. 12, * Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' Before God calls us hence, and translates us to heaven, he first makes us meet for it. As Esther^ when she was chosen to be bride to Ahasuerus, she was to accom- plish the months of her purification, to purify herself with odours and sweet oils, Esther ii. 12. So the time of our lives is as the months of our purification, and our great business is to get a fit frame of heart, to live above among the glorified spirits. As Christ's business in
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heaven is to prepare heaven for us, so our business on earth is to pre- pare and fit ourselves for heaven, to be providing and trimming our lamps against the bridegroom comes. So, to get evidences for heaven as well as dispositions — to get it certified and ratified to our souls every- day more and more, this is a christian's employment — ' To be laying up a good foundation against the time to come, that we may lay hold of eternal life,' 1 Tim. vi. 18 ; to get his evidences more cleared up every day, that we may take hold of eternal life, that is, that we may seize upon it as a man doth upon his own right and portion.