of better things to come. He can say measure intrusted us with his glory, and upon the receipt of every mercy,-This called the world to take notice of us, as is mine, and heaven also my God hath the persons by whom he expects to be sent me this token of his love, to support honored. O how should this fire us with and encourage me in my journey home- a generous ambition to excel in holiness, ward; I shall soon be beyond the need that we may exhibit a just representation of such inferior blessings, and possess the of the Master we serve, and show that he living fountain from whence those refresh is in truth what the Scriptures report him ing streams do flow. On the other hand, to be, "altogether lovely," and is "fairer if his present allowance be scanty, he can than the children of men!" Is it not, say,-My Father knoweth what is good my brethren, matter of grief to you, that for me better than I do; blessed be his so many are to be found who "despise name, who in kindness withholds from me and reject the Saviour of mankind ?” what his wisdom foresees would prove a Would you not wish that all the world snare to my soul. He seeks my whole should know his excellence, that they heart, and he is worthy to possess it: it is might admire, and love, and choose him my business to follow him; and the less for their Master ?-If you do, for the I am encumbered, the faster I shall run. Lord's sake, for your own sake, and for When I get home, I shall be comforted the sake of the many thousands to whom and satisfied to the full; famine may he still appears "without form and comelidwell in this wilderness, but is altogetherness," do not withhold the aid you can unknown in that good land to which I am give. Him they cannot see, but you are travelling: "In my Father's house there always in their eye: permit them to beis bread enough, and to spare." To a hold his image in you. Would you not person of this temper nothing can come reckon it a high crime to blaspheme him amiss: he knows that his lot is ordered with your mouths? I know you would: by that God "who is wise in heart, and O then do not blaspheme and reproach mighty in strength ; " and who hath ex- him by your actions! Allow me to ask pressly promised, that "all things shall you, When you go with the multitude, and work together for good to them that love live as careless sinners do, trifling away him, to them who are the called according your precious time in the giddy round of to his purpose." Distress falls with a fashionable amusements; how would you crushing and deadly weight upon the man have the world to judge? Would you who steps aside from the road of duty; have them to believe, that such behavior but he who keeps the straight and onward is agreeable to the laws of your Master ? path, can take adversity by the cold hand, that he approves of, or even that he is but and welcome it as a friend, whose sober slightly displeased with it? What would advice will guide him in his pilgrimage you think of a minister who should preach far better than the flattering lips of pros- in that manner, and labor to persuade his perity. He can say with the prophet hearers that a careless, trifling, dissipated Habakkuk, when every earthly comfort life, is perfectly consistent with true takes wing, and flieth away, "Although piety, and that any thing beyond it is unthe fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall necessary preciseness, and being "rightfruit be in the vines, the labor of the eous overmuch?” Sure I am you would olives shall fail, and the fields shall yield look upon such a minister with contempt, no meat, the flock shall be cut off from nay, with horror: and dare you practise the fold, and there shall be no herd in the what we dare not preach? We may, we stalls; yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I ought to say every thing that is true. will joy in the God of my salvation." We dare not preach an uncommanded But there are other motives besides these strictness; there is a curse denounced which ought to have weight, and which against those who "add unto the words will have weight with every ingenuous of this book," as well as against those heart. Let me therefore remind you, in who "take from them." And if your the behavior differ widely from what we are bound to recommend, I again ask the 3d place, That our Lord hath in some "shall of blood-guiltiness? No, my brethren. question, What judgment would you have the world to form?-They must necessarily condemn either us or you; us for requiring too much, or you for perform ing too little: they must either conclude that we misrepresent the religion of Jesus, or that you are not the disciples of Jesus. Will any of you be so candid as to take our part against yourselves, and honestly confess that you are wholly to blame ?— will you go to your carnal neighbors, and tell them that what you do is utterly in consistent with your holy profession; that the Lord, whose name you bear, acted in a different manner himself, and gave you laws of a quite different nature and tendency? I suspect you will hardly consent to this proposal; and yet justice de-cerity? O teach him by your example to mands it; nay, unless you either do something of this kind, or alter your course of life, and follow the Lord fully, you are criminal in the highest degree; you slander your Master, you bear false witness against him, and are chargeable with dishonesty, with perjury, nay, with blasphemy itself. And this suggests follow the Lord fully. Remember "that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul fron death, and shall hide a multitude of sins;" and may hope to be crowned with distinguished honors in that day, "when they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. The 5th and last motive with which I shall press this important duty, is the reward that awaits those who follow the Lord fully. They shall possess that good land of promise, whereof the earthly Canaan was only an emblem or type. them who by patient continuance in welldoing seek for glory, honor, and immortality, Christ shall render eternal life." "To A 4th motive, which I beg you may attend to. I am now going to plead with you from love to your neighbors. This is a principle you profess to honor; nay, if I mistake not, the desire of obliging others, and of rendering yourselves agreeable to them, is your common apology for conforming to their manners, and avoiding the offensive singularity of following the Lord fully. This, my brethren, is a false expression of love; nevertheless, it discovers such a regard to others, as fur-" Blessed are they that do his commandnishes me with a handle to take hold of ments, that they may have right to the tree the true principle, and to plead it in sup- of life, and may enter in through the gates port of the duty I am recommending. into the city." There shall they see AbraSurely it is no office of love to deceive ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who shine with another to his hurt, or to suffer him to such lustre in the sacred records: there continue in a pleasing mistake, which un- shall they see Moses, and Aaron, and avoidably must, and which may very Caleb, and Joshua, with all the holy prospeedily end in his ruin; such tender phets and apostles of our Lord. Nay, in mercies" would indeed be "cruelty." In heaven they shall behold, and delightfully the common affairs of life this maxim is converse with, "Jesus the Mediator of universally acknowledged and is it less the new covenant," who, with the price of cruel to deceive your neighbors in mat- his own blood, obtained for them a right ters of infinitely higher importance? If, to that undefiled inheritance, and sent by the freedom you take, others are emboldened to sin against God, will the pretence of good-nature or courtesy be sustained as a defence against the charge forth his Spirit to prepare them for the enjoyment of it. And shall not the prospect of such exalted felicity animate us in our Christian course, and powerfully in some to think, that what he saith in my cite us to "be the followers of them who | David wrote this Psalm under the heavy through faith and patience inherit the pressure of affliction; which may induce promises?" Can we suppose that any of the saints who surround the throne of God, do now repent of their self-denial and mortification, or repine because they were despised and persecuted while on earth? No, my friends; they would not part with the feeblest ray of their present glory, for the everlasting possession of all the honors and pleasures that this earth can afford. What shall I say more? I have urged the most weighty motives that occurred to me; and could I think of any thing still more persuasive, I should add it with pleasure. But without the divine blessing, no arguments will prevail. All therefore that remains is, to turn my pleadings with you into prayers to God, that he may bestow upon you another spirit, and enable you by his grace so to follow him while here, that hereafter, in the heavenly world, you may fully enjoy him, through all the growing ages of a happy eternity. Amen. SERMON XVII. STRANGER AND SOJOURNER WITH GOD. PSALM XXXIX. 12.—“For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." HAD these words been spoken by one of the Rechabites, who were commanded by their father Jonadab, "That they should drink no wine, neither build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, nor have any, but that they should dwell in tents all their days," we might perhaps have considered them as pointing merely at the peculiarities of that sequestered tribe, by which they were distinguished from the rest of mankind; but as they are the words of David, who himself was a king, one of the lords of this earth, who had every inducement to magnify his office, and to make his importance appear in its utmost extent, they can lie under no suspicion of partiality; and therefore challenge the greatest regard. It must indeed be acknowledged, that In We must therefore consider the words of my text, as expressing the fixed and habitual sentiments of David's heart. his most prosperous condition, he did not look upon this earth as his home; but extended his views to the heavenly world, that glorious and permanent inheritance of the saints, which is "incorruptible and undefiled, and which fadeth not away." Among the various subjects of inquiry that might readily occur to us upon reading this passage, the two following appear to me the most interesting and profitable.. First. Whence is it that holy men consider themselves as strangers and sojourners upon earth? And, Secondly. What manner of life is most expressive of this character, and best suited to the condition of strangers and sojourners? To these, therefore, I shall confine myself in the following discourse. I BEGIN with inquiring, Whence it is that holy men, while they live upon earth, consider themselves as strangers and sojourners with God? And to account for this, one might declaim at great length upon the unsatisfying nature, and precarious duration, of every thing below the sun. I might remind you, that as we came but lately into this world, so we must shortly go out of it, and leave all our possessions to be enjoyed by others; gels, and the spirits of just men made perfect." And there also he is to make his everlasting abode. Here he sojourns for a while, till he is rendered meet for entering into "the purchased possession; " and when the appointed season comes, he gladly removes to his father's house, to dwell with his God for ever and ever. who, in their turn, likewise shall die, and | distance from their native country. Every part with them. I might descend to the thing tends naturally to the place of its various calamities that embitter human original; and grace, which came down life, from which none of mankind are alto- from heaven, leads the soul upward to gether exempted; and to these I might heaven from whence it came. "Whatsoadd the peculiar sufferings of the right-ever is born of God," saith the apostle eous, those sharp and painful trials to John, "overcometh the world." The dry which the best of men are most frequently and empty husks of earthly enjoyments exposed in this state of discipline: But cannot satisfy the desires of a heaven-born I am unwilling to enlarge upon topics of spirit: upon these the renewed man looks this nature; because I would not have it down with a holy disdain, and then lifts thought, that the godly consider them- his longing eyes to that celestial country, selves as strangers and sojourners, solely, where "is fulness of joy, and pleasures or even principally, for such reasons as for evermore." There he knows his inthese. They renounce the world, not be- heritance lies; there dwells his kindred, cause it is unfriendly to them, but be- to whom he stands in the dearest and cause it is unsuitable: they would despise most intimate relation; "God the Judge its smiles no less than its frowns; they of all, Jesus the Mediator of the new are not violently thrust out of it, but covenant, an innumerable company of anvoluntarily resign it, and leave it to those who have nothing else for their portion. Accordingly you may observe that David styles himself not only a stranger but a sojourner. Every man is a stranger, who is not a native of the place where he resides: but a sojourner is one who maketh only a passing visit to a place, with a resolution to leave it again, and to proceed on his journey. Now, this last is the distinguishing character of the saints. Wicked men must leave this earth, they know they must, and wish it were otherwise with all their heart; and as they have no prospect of going to a better world, they do all they can to banish the thoughts of their removal from this, that they may relish their present enjoyments with as little alloy as possible. Whereas the godly, who are made citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, can look forward without dismay to the time of their departure from this " strange land, knowing, that when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, they have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." They would not choose to live here always: they are strangers in affection, as well as in condition; their hearts are elsewhere; they desire, they even long, to be at home with God. The saints justly account themselves strangers upon earth, because they are regenerated by the Spirit of God; they are born from above," and therefore can find no place of rest while they live at a Upon these accounts, my brethren, the children of God, while they live upon earth, consider themselves as sojourners in a strange land. Their sentiments in this matter are not the effects of disappointment and vexation, but the conclusions of an enlightened and renewed mind: they are willing to leave this world, because they have a home to go to, where their natures shall be perfected, and all their desires satisfied to the full.-Let us now inquire, in the Second place, What manner of behavior is most expressive of this temper, and best suited to the condition of strangers and sojourners ?-This branch of the subject opens a wide field of practical instruction, and will lead me to recommend to you some of the most important and difficult duties of the Christian life. 1st. If we look upon this earth as a strange country, through which we are only passing to our native home, it ought certainly to be our care, that we receive as little hurt in our passage as possible. This is a maxim of common prudence that nobody will dispute. Now the greatest hurt the world can do us, is to make us to say, Do we forget the place of our destination, or things." I need not inform you which of loiter too much by the way: and therefore these two are the strangers and sojournits smiles are more to be dreaded than its ers. Let it be our care, my brethren, frowns. "The prosperity of fools," saith Solomon, "destroyeth them." It is difficult to possess much, and not to overlove it: Hence that caution of the Psalmist, "If riches increase, set not your heart upon them." When our situation is so agreeable, that we find ourselves disposed Soul, take thine ease; "then indeed it is high time to look warily around us; the hook is not so curiously baited for no end. I do not mean to disparage the bounty of Providence; if it hath pleased God to distinguish any of you by riches or honors; or to crown your honest industry with uncommon affluence; it is certainly your duty to be thankful to that kind Benefactor, who "hath covered your table, and made your cup to run over." I only mean to execute that order which was given to Timothy, " Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." I would only exhort you as Paul did the Corinthians, "To rejoice as though you rejoiced not; to buy as though you possessed not; and to use this world so as not to abuse it; because the time is short, and the fashion of this world passeth away." My sole aim is to remind you, that the more you have, the greater need there will be to keep a strict and jealous guard upon your hearts, lest they be debauched by those pleasing enjoy ments, and alienated from God, who alone hath a right to them. But it is not enough that we receive no hurt in our journey through this strange land; it ought likewise to be our care, in the who claim this character, "to grow in 2d place, To make all the provision we can for that better country to which we are travelling. The Holy Scriptures 3dly. It becomes strangers and sojourspeak of "a meetness for the inheritance ners to endure with patience and fortitude of the saints in light; "—of "making to our- any hardships they may meet with on selves friends of the mammon of unright- their journey homeward. We ought, ineousness; "-of "providing bags which deed, my brethren, to lay our account with wax not old, a treasure in the heavens inconveniences by the way: our Master, that faileth not.” In opposition to all this, who "was a man of sorrows," hath told we read of some, "who make provision us expressly, that "in the world we shall for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof; "have tribulation.” "Ye know," said he, "whose God is their belly, and whose" that the world hated me, before it hated glory is in their shame, who mind earthly you. If ye were of the world, the world |