SERMON LXVIII. Preach'd at WHITEHALL before the family, Good men strangers and fojourners 1049 HE B. XI. 13. And confeffed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The whole verfe runs thus; These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having feen them afar off, and were perfuaded of them, and embraced them, and confeffed that they were ftrangers and pilgrims on the earth. TH this text. HE apostle having declared at the latter end SER M. of the foregoing chapter, that faith is the LXVIII. great principle whereby good men are acted, and The first whereby they are fupported under all the evils and fermon on fufferings of this life, verfe 38. " Now the juft fhall' "live by faith;" in this chapter he makes it his main business, to set forth to us at large the force and power of faith; and to this purpose, he firft tells us what kind of faith he means; viz. a firm perfuafion of things not present and visible to sense, but invisible and future; ver. 1. "Now faith (faith he) is the LXVIII. SERM. "confident expectation of things hoped for, and the "evidence of things not feen." Faith represents to us the reality of things which are invisible to sense, as the existence of God and his providence; and of things which are at a great diftance from us, as the future ftate of rewards and punishments in another world. And then he proceeds to fhew, by particular and famous inftances, that the firm belief and perfuafion of these things, was the great principle of the piety and virtue of the faints and of good men in all ages .of the world; by this Abel and Enoch and Noah; Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob; Joseph and Moses, and all the famous heroes of the old teftament" ob"tained a good report," and "pleased GOD," and did all thofe eminent acts of obedience and felf-denial which are recorded of them. They "believed "the being of GoD, and that he is a rewarder of "them that diligently feek him." They dreaded his threatnings, and relied upon his promises of future and invifible good things. They lived and died in a full perfuafion and confidence of the truth of them; though they did not live to fee them actually fulfilled and accomplished. "All thefe" (faith he, fpeaking of thofe eminent faints which he had inftanced in before)" died in faith, not having re"ceived the promises, but having feen them afar "off, and were perfuaded of them, and embraced "them. This is fpoken with a more particular regard to Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, to whom the promifes of the conqueft and poffeffion of a fruitful land were made, and of a numerous offspring, among whom fhould be the Meffias, in whom all the nations of the earth fhould be bleffed. Thefe LXVIII. These promises they did not live to fee accom- SERM. plish'd and made good in their days; but they heartily believed them, and rejoiced in the hope and expectation of them, as if they had embraced them in their arms, and been put into the actual poffeffion of them" and they confeffed, that they were pilgrims "and ftrangers on the earth." This faying and acknowledgment more particularly and immediately refers to thofe fayings of the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, which we find recorded, Gen. xxiii. 4. where Abraham fays to the fons of Heth, "I am a stranger and a fojourner with you;" and Gen. xlvii. 9. where Jacob fays to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil "have the days of the years of my life been." These good men were " ftrangers and fojourners" in a land, which was promised to be theirs afterwards. They dwelt in it themselves as ftrangers, but were in expectation that it would one day become the inheritance of their pofterity. Now in this, as by a type and fhadow, the apoftle reprefents to us the condition of good men, while they are paffing through this world. They are "pilgrims and ftrangers on the earth;" they travel up That which I defign from thefe words is to reprefent to us our prefent condition in this world, and to awaken us to a due fenfe and ferious confideration of it. It is the fame condition, that all the faints and holy men that are gone before us were in, in this world, L 4 SER M- world, and every one of us may fay with David, LXVIII. Pfal. xxxix. 12. "I am a ftranger with thee, and a fojourner, as all my fathers were." It is a condition very troublesom and very unfettled, such as that of" pilgrims and ftrangers" ufeth to be. This we must all acknowledge, if we judge rightly of our prefent ftate and condition. "They confeffed, that "they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth:" but yet it was not without the hope and expectation of a better and happier condition in reverfion. So it follows juft after; "they that say fuch things,” (that is," that confefs themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth) declare plainly, that they feek a country." This bore up the patriarchs under all the evils and troubles of their pilgrimage, that they expected an inheritance, and a quiet and fettled poffeffion of that good land which God had promised to them. Answerably to which, good men do expect, after "the few and evil days of their pilgri"mage" in this world are over, a bleffed inheritance in "a better country," that is, "an heavenly;" and with bleffed Abraham, the father of the faithful, they look for a city which hath foundations, whofe "builder and maker is GoD," as it is faid of that good patriarch at the tenth verfe of this chapter. 66 It is very frequent, not only in fcripture, but in other authors, to reprefent our condition in this world, by that of pilgrims and fojourners in a foreign country: : for the mind which is the man, and our immortal fouls, which are by far the most noble and excellent part of ourselves, are the natives of heaven, and but "pilgrims and ftrangers" here on the earth; and when the days of our pilgrimage fhall be over, are defigned to return to that heavenly country from which they came, and to which they belong. And there LXVIII. therefore the apostle tells us, Phil. iii. 20. that Chrif-SER M. tians have relation to heaven as their native place and country, ἡμῶν γὰρ τὸ πολίτευμα ἐν ἐρανοῖς ὑπάρχει, "our converfation is in heaven," fo we render the words; but they properly fignify, that Christians are members of that city and fociety which is above; and though they converse at prefent here below, while they are paffing through this world, yet heaven is the country to which they do belong, and whither they are continually tending, fedes ubi fata quietas oftendunt, where a quiet habitation, and a perpetual reft is defigned and prepared for them. This acknowledgment David makes concerning himself, and all the people of GoD, 1 Chron. xxix. 15. "For we are strangers before thee, and fojourners, "as were all our fathers. Our days on the earth are as a fhadow, and there is none abiding." So likewise St. Peter, 1 Pet. i. 17. "Pass the time of your fojourning here in fear;" and chap. ii. ver. II. I "Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as ftrangers "and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lufts." And not only the infpired writers of holy scripture, but heathen authors, do frequently make use of this allufion. Plato tells us, it was a common faying, and almost in every man's mouth, Taperinuía TIS isiv Bios, the life of man is a kind of pilgrimage. And Tully, in his excellent difcourse de fenectute, (concerning old age) brings in Cato defcribing our paffage out of this world, not as a departure from our home, but like a man leaving his inn, in which he hath lodged for a night or two, ex vita ifta difcedo, tanquam ex hofpitio, non tanquam ex domo; commorandi enim natura diverforium nobis, non habitandi dedit: "When I leave this world (fays he) I look upon my "felf as departing out of an inn, and not as quitting |