Part 4
they readily get them off; but the traveller towards Zion says as Israel to the king of Edom, "We will go by the king's highway, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left;" Numb. 20:17.
3. He has a low estimate of the world's wisdom, and holds off from it as from a false light that would lead the traveller into a quagmire; 1 Cor. 3:18, 19. Carnal wisdom has often been the ruin of Christ's interests in the church, and in the private case of Christians; leading into a betraying of truth and purity; procuring outward peace, but wounding one's conscience, and dishonouring God. But they that are going up from the wilderness, will be no admirers of the world's judgment in the matter of truth and error, sin and duty; for the generality of men have ever been, and will be, in that case, blind men judging of colours. And it is a dangerous thing to be carried away with the stream; Eph. 2:2. A man that has no heart to keep off a way, because it is a way that is in vogue in the world, and will always row with the stream, is not going up from the wilderness. The fear of the world's putting the fool's cap on one's head, makes many a carcase fall in the wilderness.
4. He is keeping up a holy contempt of the world's good things; Heb. 11:24, 25. Its profits and pleasures are sinking in their value with him; he "counts them but loss and dung, that he may win Christ;" Phil. 3:8. To a gracious soul going up from the wilderness, the best things the world can afford, are so lightly esteemed, that he will not think them worth pains to go off the King's highway for them; Numb. 20:17, "We will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells;" while others allured with these baits, fall into one mire after another, and quit the travelling company, as Demas did Paul.
5. He is resolute to make his way through the world's ill things, to follow the way of God through good and bad report, Rev. 14:4. He is neither to be bribed nor boasted by the world out of the way of his duty; Cant. 8:7, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for
love, it would utterly be contemned." His feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and blow what weather it will, he must hold on till he be at his journey's end.
6. Lastly. His eyes are upon the other world; they are fixed on the prize, and running that they may obtain it, Heb. 11:26. Their conversation is in heaven; they are habitually minding heavenly things; their affections are set not on things on the earth, but on the things that are above. But I proceed to consider,
Fourthly, The hardships and inconveniencies of the wilderness-road, which the believer must lay his account with, while he goes up from the wilderness.
1. It is a weary land which the traveller has to go through, while he is going up from the wilderness, Isa. 32:2. David calls the whole of it, the house of his pilgrimage. However lightly the natives, the men of the earth, may live in it, there is never one born from above that is travelling through it, but it is a weary land to them. It was a weary time the Israelites had of it in the wilderness; their patience soon began to wear out. And there is never a child of God, but sometime or other he has his fill of it, and being wearied, longs to be at home. The Son of God himself, we find, wearied here, John 4:6.
2. It is a road that lies through a waste, affording no provision, Deut. 32:10. When sin entered into the world, a withering curse followed on the back of sin, and turned the pleasant land into a waste, barren place. There was a blessing in everything in it before, but now everything is embittered in it. There is enough to raise the appetite of lusts, there are husks enough for them to feed on; but there is nothing in it to fill the soul, that is the produce of the country; and therefore the natives, though they are always feeding, they are never full. The Israelites would have starved in the wilderness, if they had not been furnished from another quarter; for there was neither meat nor drink there for them.
3. It is an howling wilderness which they have to go through, Deut. 32:10, because of the wild beasts that haunt there, Cant. 4:8, devils, and wicked men influenced by the devil. Sometimes the traveller must hear them roaring, Psalm 74:4, threatening to devour and swallow them up, and to make the name of Israel no more to be remembered, as the Egyptian wild beast did, Exod. 15:9, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil: my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them." Sometimes he is entertained with their yellings, Jer. 2:15. Their blasphemies, reproaches against God and his cause, their contradicting of the truths of religion, what are they but yellings of the wilderness, as ungrateful to holy ears as the yellings of beasts in the night? Sometimes he must find them tearing him, his name, reputation, substance, yea and his flesh sometimes, Psalm 35:15, 16.
4. They must lay their account with scorching heats in it. Such was the wilderness to Israel, for which a cloud covered them by day. While they are upon the road through the wilderness, they are liable to fiery heats of desertion from heaven; to fiery heats of temptation from hell, Eph. 6:16, fiery trials of persecution from men, 1 Pet. 4:12, and fiery heats of contention and division, the fire coming from the altar, Rev. 8:5. All which make travelling Zionward to be very hard; and the more hard, the greater these heats are; which puts the spouse of Christ to that prayer, Cant. 1:7, "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon."
5. It is a sickly place through which their way lieth. Many a groan was in the wilderness while Israel was in it; sometimes there were fiery serpents biting them, and sometimes a plague consuming them, so as many carcases fell in the wilderness. No less sickly a place is this world to the spiritual travellers. It is a heavy disease that is on them there, even a whole body of death, Rom. 7:24. It affects and indisposes the whole man. They are liable to frequent relapses; and O the malignant influence it has on their journey, unfitting them for it, and at best causing them to go up but very slowly!
6. It is a difficult way through the wilderness. The road the travellers must go will try their patience, their strength, &c. They that must needs have an easy way through the wilderness, must take the way that leads down to the pit, not the way that leads up to Immanuel's land.
(1.) It is all upward, which scares most men at it, Psalm 24:3, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? The way to heaven is up the hill, the way to hell down the hill.
(2.) It is a narrow way, Matth. 7:14. Multitudes walk in the broad way, and there they get room enough, life-room, heart-room, conscience-room. But the King's highway has no such room in it, which obliges the travellers to take good heed to their feet, Eph. 5:15. And considering how rash we are naturally, how weak-headed, falsehearted, how narrow the road is, how loose the ground about it is, it is no great wonder that many of the travellers catch such falls, as make them go halting to the grave, Psalm 51:8.
(3.) It is a hard and rugged way; and therefore they must have leghardness, as soldiers had to preserve their feet from stones and roughness in the way of their march; Eph. 6:15. There are many difficulties to go through, which will need resolution and undaunted courage.
(4.) It is a way wherein many snares are laid for them. In every lot in the world, and in the most innocent things, there are snares wherewith we may be caught. And sometimes men are busy making snares for us in the way wherein we walk.
7. It is a very solitary road, there is not much company to be got in it; Matth. 7:14. Israel travelled alone through the wilderness, save that a mixed multitude joined with them, that they were much the worse of, and whose carcases fell in the wilderness. See how Miciah complains for want of company on the road, "Wo is me? for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the
vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripefruit;" Micah 7:1. In Elijah's days there were so very few upon the road, that he thought he had been alone upon it; he had so little help of the seven thousand, that he knew not of them; Rom. 11:3, 4. At this rate the spiritual traveller has few.
(1.) To take a lift of his burden; Gal. 6:2. Alas! we are in a strange world, where there are many to lay a load above the burden, but few to take a lift of it.
(2.) To consult with when he comes to a difficult step. There are many such steps that Christians will meet with in their way to Zion, especially when a mist rises in the wilderness. And it is no small mercy to have honest and tender men to advise with, and to have their sympathy and prayers. But of all these there is great scarcity in the wilderness.
8. Lastly, It is a road, wherein they must meet with armed enemies come forth to attack them, and ruin them. Pharaoh and his army pursued the Israelites in the wilderness; Exod. 14:3. Amalek fought them, chap. 17:8, both types of the devil and his agents. The Christian life is a fighting life; 2 Tim. 4:7. All is not done when they are converted, they must fight their way through the wilderness to Canaan, and so fight as to overcome; Rev. 3:21. The concluding of their peace with God in Christ, is proclaiming of war against the devil, the world, and the flesh; so they must put on their armour, if they would make their way through the wilderness.
Fifthly, I now come to show the advantages and conveniences of the wilderness-road. The people of God, while in the wilderness-world, have as much allowed them from heaven as may balance the hardships of the wilderness.
1. The pillar of cloud to go before them in the wilderness; of which we have an account; Exod. 13:20, 21, 22, "And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way: and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." It was a type of Christ. He leaves them not alone in the wilderness-world. Our Lord Christ is upon the head of the travelling company, Cant. 4:8; and will be so till he have them all home. And this is sufficient to compensate the solitariness of the way.
The pillar seems to bare been a fiery cloud, Exod. 14:20; the cloud representing Christ's human nature, the fire his divine nature; and to have been but one pillar; Numb. 9:15, 16; Christ one person in two distinct natures. A God vailed with flesh, is the believer's company in the wilderness at all times; and even the man Christ travelled the wilderness-road himself too.
It had a dark side to their enemies, but a light side to the Israelites, Exod 14:20. Believers see a glory in Christ which the blind world sees nothing of, and therefore will not go up with him from the wilderness. The carnal world wonders at the believer's waygoing from the wilderness; alas! they see not what he sees, the light side of the cloud goes before.
Now the cloudy pillar had a fourfold use to the Israelites in the wilderness, in a spiritual sense made good by Christ to his people in the wilderness-world.
(1.) They had the signal for marching or halting from it, Numb. 9:17, &c. Their motions were directed by its motions. Thus the travellers from the wilderness-world are directed by Jesus Christ their Lord and Head, on whom the trust of bringing them safe to glory is devolved; Isa. 55:4, "Behold, I have given him for—a leader and commander to the people." They must not stir till be give them the sign, though all the world, friends or foes, should cry, March; if they presume to do it, the cloud of glory will stay behind them, and they will find themselves entangled in the wilderness. They must not sit
still when he gives them the sign to march, though all the world, friends or enemies, should cry, Halt; if they do, they will find the glory of the Lord will leave them, and their rest be blasted. Here lies their safety in the wilderness, in observing the word from heaven.
(2.) It led them in the way, Exod. 13:21. They would soon have missed their way in the pathless wilderness. So our Lord Christ leads his people in their way through the wilderness-world, Isa. 55:4. In the wilderness there are many by-ways, many to lead the travellers off the way, besides a wandering disposition in their own nature. They will never get through safe, who take the guiding of themselves; but they who keep their eye on the cloud of glory before them, shall get through the most difficult steps of the wilderness-road, Prov. 3:5, 6.
He leads his people through the wilderness, (1.) By his word, which they must take good heed to, as that which determines the way, Isa. 30:21. By his word he chalks out the path through the wilderness, and whatever agrees not therewith is but a by-way, it is not the King's highway, Isa. 8:20, "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (2.) By his example, which is the marks of his own feet upon the way, 1 Pet. 2:21. These we should narrowly observe, that we may follow them; hence says our Lord himself; Matth. 11:29, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." We are apt to follow example; whose example should be so dear to us as his, who is our Father, Master, Husband? &c. That we might know how to walk through the wilderness, God himself came down from heaven, and in our nature walked through it. (3.) By his providence, which, duly compared with the word, contributes much to clear the way; Psalm 32:8, "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye." Ye are to be then careful observers of providences, which are really waymarks in the wilderness, Psalm 107 ult. (4.) By his Spirit, which renders all the rest effectual; John 16:13, "When he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." He illuminates and causes to shine, the word, Christ's example, and
providences. He illuminates the traveller too, as well as the way; disposes, moves, and efficaciously leads the traveller on his way.
(3.) It was a shelter to them from the heat of the sun by day; Psalm 105:39. And so Christ shelters his people from the scorching heats in the wilderness; Isa. 22:2, and 4:6. Let the heat of desertion, temptation, contention with men, and persecution, be never so great; Christ looked to by faith will be a sufficient sconce; Cant. 1:7. Many a time the gourds of created comforts are withered when the sun is hottest in the wilderness. Sons of men are found vanity and a lie. But Christ's shadow is ever broad and refreshing; Cant. 2:3, and the traveller can never come amiss to it.
(4.) It was a light to them by night, Exod. 13:21. There is many a dark night in the wilderness; and it is sometimes the lot of the people of God to travel in the night, as well as it was that of Israel, Numb. 9:21. But Christ is a light to them in the darkest hour of the night; hence David could say, Psalm 23:4, "yea, | though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Sometimes the sun shines fair, and then there is no debate about the way: at other times a mist and darkness sits down in the wilderness, and then many are put to a stand; then is a time of wandering, stumbling, falling over this and the other precipice in the wilderness. Many are lying fallen, and others come up and fall over them; and all because of the darkness. What way can one get through in such a time? Why, let them keep their eye on Christ the pillar of fire, and they shall have light in the midst of darkness, Job 29:3.
2. They have provision allowed them from heaven in the waste wilderness. And that must balance the scarcity and want there. The King's country affords them provision for their journey. Israel in the wilderness were provided both with meat and drink; and so are they that are going up from the wilderness of this world. In the wilderness there is,
(1.) Manna for them to eat, even Jesus Christ, to be fed on spiritually, John 6:48–51, the only bread that can satisfy a soul. When the Egyptian provision is spent, the soul can no longer feed on the husks of the world, then the manna falls, the soul tastes the sweetness of Christ, in his person, offices, and benefits. It falls down about their tent-doors in the word of the everlasting gospel, exhibiting Christ with all his benefits to the soul; and it is gathered and ate by the application of saving faith, believing Christ to be offered, and taking Christ to itself, believing that it shall have life and salvation by him. And the more close, confident, and assured this application is, and the less mixed with doubting, the more the soul is fed.
(2.) Water out of the rock for them to drink, Exod. 17:6. This Rock is Christ, 1 Cor. 10:4. The Israelites might have perished in the wilderness for want of water, had it not been brought out of the rock; so had sinners perished, but that the blood of Christ was shed for their life. Behold Christ smitten by the law, before he could be drink to our souls.—Costly provision for the travellers! this is their provision till they come to Canaan's land.
3. Sometimes they are allowed a song in the weary land, for their comfort and recreation by the way, Psalm 119:54, "Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." We find Israel in the wilderness often complaining, groaning, and mourning; that is the ordinary in the wilderness-world; but seldom singing, that is reserved for the exercise in the promised land. Yet I find Israel singing in the wilderness three times.
(1.) At their entry into the wilderness, just after they came out from the Red Sea, Exod. 15. So young converts frequently have a parcel of pleasant days at their first setting off in the wilderness-journey, Hos. 2:14. Religion is new to them; they are like men newly brought out of a dark dungeon, to whom the light has a double sweetness; and the Lord even so deals with them, as fathers with their children who are learning to go, holding out an apple to them, which they are not to
expect when they are more confirmed; and further, it is even to fit them for the hardships which they are afterwards to meet with.
(2.) When they were far on in the wilderness, and had been long in it, they sang upon the occasion of God's giving them a well without their complaining, or so much as asking for it, Numb. 21:17, "Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it."! Many a heavy day had gone over their head between that and the last song they had had, (I reckon not their song at the idolatry of the golden calf, Exod. 32:18, which ended in sorrow.) The fiery serpents had been among them a little before. Yet God made then sing again. Thus sometimes God surprises the travellers with mercy after many a heavy day, that they think they will never sing more, and their souls have forgotten joy; yet he causes them to take down their harps from the willows, and puts a new song in their mouth; while he causes the wells of salvation to spring up to them.
(3.) In their last station in the wilderness, when they were encamping by Jordan, before they passed it, Deut. 31:22, and chap. 32. It was forty years betwixt this and their first song. Thus they may have a weary time of it through the wilderness, who yet, when they come to the Jordan of death, shall be made to sing there the sweetest song that ever they sang, like the swan singing sweetest when a-dying. The nearer the rivers come to the sea, they are the sooner met by the tide. Motions in nature are so much the swifter as they come nearer the centre. And it may be a very cloudy day in which the sun shall shine brightest at its setting, Zech. 14:6, 7.
4. The Lord is their banner in the wilderness, and so they may be sure of victory, they shall be conquerors in the war, Exod. 17:15. Though they must fight, yet Christ the true Joshua is upon their head; he sits in heaven, who has the balance of victory in his hand; and he is their friend, and the cause is his own. Nay, they shall be more than conquerors. Israel was armed with the spoils of the Egyptian army, and Sihon and Og's lands they got possession of. Though the believer's battle with the world, the devil, and his own
corruptions be sore; yet the spoils thereby gained are sweet, Psalm 74:14. They produce sweet experience of the Lord's goodness, Rom. 5:3, 4. Jacob was a man whose life had more trials than any of the Patriarchs; but as true as it was, it had more signal experiences too.
5. There is healing in the wilderness for them, for the wounds got there. There are fiery flying serpents to bite the people there, and they cannot miss the bites of the old serpent now and then. But there is the brazen serpent to look to and be healed; the ordinance relative thereto, we have, Numb. 21:8, 9, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Motes made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." This wilderness-world is the haunt of the old serpent, his prevailing temptations are his bites, the guilt remaining stings and galls the conscience; but Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, and on the pole of the gospel, being looked to by faith, they are healed, Isa. 45:22. So Isa. 33 ult., "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." And how often soever they be bitten, still the look of faith will be a healing look.
6. Lastly. We must not forget the tabernacle in the wilderness, which was the comfort of the godly Israelites there. There they had their stated meetings, and when anything more than ordinary ailed them in the wilderness, they used to draw towards the tabernacle. The tabernacle of gospel-ordinances is the great comfort of the travellers towards Zion. I shall only observe, that,
(1.) It was the place of meeting, namely, with God. The cloud of glory rested on it, and thence God spake. Gospel-ordinances are the place of meeting betwixt the Lord and his people in this wilderness-world, Prov. 8:34, 35, and therefore they are even the pleasantest things in the wilderness.
(2.) It was coarse without, but rich and fine within. There was the golden candlestick, the shewbread table, incense-altar, ark, &c. All which believers have in Christ enjoyed in the ordinances.
(3.) Lastly. It was a moveable and slender thing. The tabernacle of gospel-ordinances is so. But wherever the Israelites went in the wilderness, they took the tabernacle with them. And the travellers to Zion, go where they will, dare not leave their religion, or their duties behind them. The tabernacle was often removed in the wilderness; but where it went, they went; none have a tack of the gospel; but wherever it goes, the travellers will go after it, cost what it will. Coarse fare and hard lodging with the gospel, will be by them preferred to the world's advantages without it. The tabernacle was suited to the wilderness, they had no temple there, that was reserved for the promised land of rest; but in heaven they shall have it, Rev. 3:12.
I proceed now to the practical improvement of this subject.
USE I. Of information. From what is said we may draw the following inferences.
1. The people of God need not be surprised, that they meet with many hardships and trials in the world, and that it is a strange world to them, John 16 ult. While they are in it, they are in a wilderness. How then can they expect other than a wilderness-life! That the desert is to be turned into a paradise, nobody expects; why then look we to see the world other than a wilderness, if we mind for heaven? These things are useful.
(1.) To keep believers from sitting down in it, as their dwelling-place, Cant. 4:8; or resting-place. A smiling world hugs many to death in its embraces; and the ease many find in it so charms the carnal heart, that the promised land is forgot, Matth. 17:4.
(2.) To quicken their pace out of it, and so work together for good to them, Rom. 8:28. As a boisterous wind blowing on the back of the
traveller, makes him sometimes run, while otherwise he would walk; so afflictions and trials put the believer to his duty, when he would not otherwise apply to it, and wean his heart more from the world; Micah 7:7, "Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."
(3.) To make heaven more desirable, 2 Cor. 5:4. The tossing they meet with on the sea of this world, makes them long for the shore, Job. 7:2. And as rest is not so sweet to any as to the weary, nor meat as to the hungry; so heaven must be the more sweet in the enjoyment, that the believer has a weary life here.
2. They have good reason to bear all the hardships of their wilderness-lot patiently, and with Christian fortitude and cheerfulness. And that (1.) Because they will not last, they will be over ere long; they are going up from the wilderness. What inconveniences are upon the road, the traveller matters not much, because he is not to stay with them. He may wonder indeed bow people can dwell in a place to him so unpleasant; but it is but a light thing to him, because he is only a passenger. Indeed it is no wonder that the world's hardships be intolerable to them, who have no other portion but the things of the world; but they cannot be intolerable to the believer, who has a better portion, even one in heaven. (2.) Because the heavenly Canaan which the wilderness-road leads to, will make amends for all; "God shall then wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away," Rev. 21:4. Though the way be a rugged one, it leads to a paradise. Christ's espoused bride will forget all the wildernesshardships, when she comes home to the marriage chamber in the Bridegroom's Father's house. (3.) Their lot is a wise mixture, take it at the worst. There are advantages allowed to balance the hardships, as ye have heard. There is no strait they can be in, in the wilderness, but there is help for it in the provision made for them there. If the wilderness be a weary land, there are statutes that may be songs to them there, &c.
3. They are not Israelites indeed, nor espoused to Christ, who are not going up from this world as a wilderness, in heart and affection, in life and conversation. And such may lay their account, that their carcases will fall in the wilderness, and they shall not see Canaan's land. And such are,
(1.) Those whose hearts were never yet loosed from this world, and married to Christ, Matth. 13:44, 45. When man fell off from God, he fell to the creature, and his heart was wedded to it as the spring of his content and satisfaction. All the crosses in the world will not loose this knot; only efficacious grace discovering Christ in his surpassing glory to the sinner will do it.
(2.) Those who are walking according to the course of this world, Eph. 2:2, framing their lives by worldly principles, being actuated by worldly motives, and acting for worldly ends as their chief design. Thus they are conformed to the world, which speaks them natives of the wilderness-world, not pilgrims in it. These, however their voice may be Jacob's, their hands are Esau's; though they pretend to be going heavenward, they are in the way to destruction.
The characters of them that walk are,
(1.) To do as the most do, not regarding how the best do; contrary to that plain injunction, Exod. 23:2, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." Thus the world is like a dunghill, where one part corrupts another, men fearlessly venturing on those courses and ways on which they see many before them. This is the downright reverse of going up from the wilderness, being a going along with the world, from which the apostle dehorts, Rom. 12:2, "Be not conformed to this world."
(2.) To make the world one's business, and religion the by-hand work at best; not remembering what our Lord says, Matth. 6:24, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon." This is the way of the world, who look on their carnal interests as their chief interests, which therefore get the flower and strength of their affections. Whereas gracious souls go quite the contrary way, counting all things but loss, yea but dung that they may win Christ, Phil. 3:8. And so our Lord directs us, Matth. 6:33, to "seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."
(3.) To step over conscience deliberately, to gratify lusts. Conscience among the men of the world is a very weak thing; and all its dictates, and the consideration of God's word as our rule, and God's honour as concerned in men's actions, go very short way with them. Let the unjust man see gain within his reach, and the sensual man what may please his sensual lust; though God's command, honour, and conscience be between him and them, he can step over these, tread on them all, and gratify his lust, Hos. 12:7, 8, and 13:6.
USE II. Of caution. While ye are in the wilderness, beware of wilderness sins and snares. And beware of,
1. Unbelief. That was a wilderness-sin of Israel's, Psalm. 78:22, "They believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation." Yea, it was the sin that kept the whole generation that came out of Egypt, out of Canaan, Heb. 3:18, 19. Many that seem to have been set fair on the way to the heavenly Canaan, come short of it this way. They believe not the record that God hath given concerning his Son, and so they never embrace Christ but perish. And the unbelief of saints while they are in the wilderness, does them much harm. It plucks away from their strength, and leaves them most unfit for their journey.
2. Murmuring, 1 Cor. 10:10. Many times God's anger was kindled against Israel for their murmurings in the wilderness. And it is incident to us in this wilderness-world, through the trials, crosses, and troubles that must be met with there. They had need of mortified affections that travel the wilderness-way, else they cannot is patience possess their souls. And when people have lost their patience, and
their spirits are on the fret, everything ruffles them, and the hard way becomes harder.
3. Lusting, 1 Cor. 10:6. Let not the loose be given to your hearts, to fix on any thing which providence sees meet to withhold from you, so that ye must have it, and cannot be satisfied without it. Thus the Israelites lusted for flesh, and they got it with a vengeance, Numb. 11, Psalm. 78:30, 31. And it is ordinary that what people pull off the tree of providence before it be ripe for them, sets their teeth on edge, and proves a snare to them. There is nothing better than a weaned heart to fit one for the wilderness-way.
4. Looking back to Egypt, Numb. 14:4. There is a root of apostacy in every one's heart, though broken in the sincere, yet reigning in others; hence it comes to pass, that many go far back, and lose what they have attained in religion, making themselves new work, with difficulty to recover what they threw away; and many fall away for good and all, and never recover. We had much need to take heed to the first rising of these evil motions in the heart; Psalm 45:10, "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house."
5. Fawning and flattering enemies, Numb. 25:17, 18. Pharaoh's pursuit with his chariots and horses, Amalek's sword and bow, did not the mischief to Israel in the wilderness, that the daughters of Moab did, Numb. 25. Balaam tried all his art to curse them, but could do them no harm by all his enchantments; but the Midianitish women ruined them with theirs, ver. 9. The church of God has often weathered out the storm of persecution, and came off victorious; while she has been ruined with the soft methods of the enemy. And many have stood out against the frowning world, that have been cast down with the smiling world. They have been drawn to destruction with silken cords of temptation, who could not be driven to it with iron rods.
6. Lastly. The mixed multitude, Exod. 12:38. They were a black sight to Israel in the wilderness, a sad snare to them, Numb. 11:4. They came in among them from a carnal principle of worldly interest, and were a snare to them, and their carcases fell in the wilderness. When God brings his church out of the house of bondage, and gives her peace, a company of carnal men driving their own worldly interest, join them like a swarm of insects in a summer-day, (Exod. 12:38, a great mixture, Heb.); and the more their number increases, the more mischief they do to her true interests, sacrificing them to their own. It is not a little owing to the influence of that mixed multitude both of ministers and professors, that religion and its interests are at so low an ebb this day; and therefore we have ground to expect a stroke, come from what quarter it will, that will make a dispersion among us, and lessen our numbers, Ezek. 20:37, 38. In the meantime beware of those who have a name to live, and are dead; formal professors often hurt a Christian more than the profane.
USE III. Of exhortation. And,
First, Ye who profess to be espoused to Christ, evidence the reality of it by your going up from the wilderness-world with him in heart and affection, in the progress of sanctification, and contempt of the world, holding off from the ways of it. To press this, I offer the following motives.
MOT. 1. Without this ye cannot evidence your sincerity, 1 John 2:15. If your treasure be in heaven, your heart will be there. If Christ be indeed your espoused Husband, ye will forsake your father's house for him, and follow him. But many give him the hand and not the heart; and therefore though called by his name, dwell at their father's house still.
2. Without this ye will bring a reproach on religion, which suffers extremely by those who profess Christ, and yet follow the way of the world, Rom. 2:24. Alas! for the wounds thus given to religion by the
worldly disposition of the professors of it, whose untender lives, and covetous practices, proclaim them sons of earth.
3. Lastly. Ye may be very useful for Christ in the world this way, by commending religion practically at this rate to the consciences of carnal men. "Who is this that goeth up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" say the daughters of Jerusalem. What can have more influence upon them, than to see men dead to the world, heavenly in their disposition, walking as pilgrims on the earth? It is a noble testimony for God.
(1.) To the vanity of the world, while men in their practice tread on that which carnal men set their hearts upon. What avails it for a man to talk of the world's vanity, while he is still griping it as his life, cannot part with it at God's call, for God's honour and service; but, on the contrary, is dishonouring God, and wounding his own soul, to gain it? That is building with the one hand, and destroying with the other.
(2.) To the reality and excellency of religion, and heavenly things, 1 Pet. 4:4; Cant. 3:6. It speaks a power in religion that can carry men above these perishing things, and that they must be fed from some other quarter, that so little value the streams of earthly things.
Secondly, Strangers to Christ, be espoused to him, that ye may go up with him from this wilderness-world, to his Father's house in the heavenly Canaan, believe that Christ is offered in an everlasting marriage-covenant to you. Embrace ye and accept, and so close with him as your head and husband, for time and eternity. I offer the following motives to enforce this exhortation.
MOTIVE I. Jesus Christ is really and truly in suit of your souls. This is the gospel-offer; Hos. 2:19, "I will betroth thee unto me for ever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies;" and nothing will hinder but the want of your consent; Matth. 22:4, "All things are ready; come
unto the marriage." He has with his precious blood bought a bride to himself, and he comes in the gospel to gain her heart to himself. And he is come to you this day; O then slight not the offer.
2. If ye accept of Christ, he will carry you up from this wildernessworld to his Father's house, where the marriage will be solemnised for ever. He will leave none of his behind him. There may be a time betwixt the espousals and marriage; but in that time he is carrying them to the marriage-chamber.
3. There is no loosing of the heart from the world without engaging it to Jesus Christ, Matth. 13:45, 46. It is the discovery of the one pearl that makes one give over seeking the many. The heart of man is like a child that will not let the knife go out of its hand, till something that pleases it better is put into it. Though the devil go out, if the house be empty, he will return again, Matth. 12:44, 45.
4. Lastly, If ye are not espoused to Christ, ye will fall in the wilderness, and never see the heavenly Canaan, Heb. 4:12. They will have no access to the marriage above, that are not espoused to Christ here below. Nor will they be transplanted into the paradise above, who are not first planted in the nursery of grace below.
Thirdly. I invite, and sound an alarm to you all, to go up from this wilderness world with Christ. Rise, ye that are espoused to him, and come away. Rise, ye dwellers in the wilderness. Take him as your head and husband, and go along with him towards the I heavenly Canaan, leaving this world in heart and affection.
QUEST. How shall I get up from the wilderness world, how will I get through it to the heavenly Canaan, while the journey is so hard and difficult for a poor weak creature? ANSW. I give you your directions and advice in a third doctrine from the text.
DOCTRINE. The way to get up from the wilderness-world to the heavenly Canaan, is to go all along leaning on Jesus Christ by faith.
The way to live well in this world, till we come to heaven, is to live by faith.
Here I shall briefly shew what it is to go leaning, or to live by faith; and that we are allowed to go thus.
I. I shall shew briefly what it is to go leaning, or to live by faith.
1. It supposes the soul's taking, receiving, and embracing Christ for its head and husband, John 1:12. In the gospel Jesus Christ is offered, presented, and exhibited to every one that hears it, as the Father's gift to them, Isa. 9:6; John 4:10. He says in effect, "Poor souls, ye can never of yourselves make your way up through the wilderness; but I freely give you a strong one to lean upon. Take him and welcome." Hereupon the soul takes its hold of Christ for that end, the soul believes the gospel offer or promise as made to itself, saying in effect, "Then he is mine by the free offer made to me;" which implies the heart's consent to take him, and so the espousals are made, 1 John 5:11. It bears a going,
2. Cleaving to him, Acts 11:23. Faith joins the soul to the Lord, so as to be one with him; and so holds the gripe, and will not quit it. The believer hangs by Christ, by the word of the gospel; and as the weak woman dares not lean to her own strength, but cleaves to her husband on the journey, so does the believer to Christ.
3. A going on under a sense of weakness, 2 Cor. 3:5. There are two causes of one's going leaning upon another. One is love, the other weakness; both concur here. The believer loves Christ as his Lord and Husband, and therefore will lean on him; he is sensible of utter weakness and inability to make the journey in his own strength, and therefore must lean on him. Faith is a self-emptying grace, and therefore is chosen to be the mean of communication on our part betwixt the Lord and us, Rom. 4:16.
4. A going on, laying our weight on the Lord Jesus for the whole of the journey, Psalm 55:22. When the believer sets out with Christ, he
says to him, "All thy wants be on me." "So be it," says the believing soul, and so rolls itself upon him for all. Hence faith is called a staying, Isa. 50:10, as an old man stays himself upon his staff; a believing on Christ, as a chief corner-stone, i. e. laying the weight on him, as the foundation, 1 Pet. 2:6.
5. Lastly. A going on, with a persuasion that we shall be borne up and borne through by him, 2 Tim. 1:12. This is the plain import of leaning on Christ; for none will ever lean on that for help, concerning which they have no manner of persuasion that they shall be helped by it. Thus faith is called trusting in God, relying on him, both which bear this persuasion. And they that would remove this from the nature of faith, would destroy it, and leave as a mere wavering opinion in its stead.
But as one may lean trembling, so faith may be accompanied with doubting. But as trembling belongs not to the nature of leaning, but is opposite to it; so doubting belongs not to the nature of faith, but is opposite to it. And the more trembling the less leaning, so the more doubting the less faith.
This going up from the wilderness, leaning, is walking in Christ Jesus as we have received him, Col. 2:6, which is the only true holiness competent to fallen man.
II. I shall shew, that we are allowed to go thus leaning. Consider, that,
1. The Father has appointed the Mediator for this very end, that so he may bring many sons to glory, Psalm 89:19, "I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people." The first man, with all his children in his loins, set off alone through the world, on his own stock; and fell, being unable to make the journey. Wherefore now the strength for all the heirs of glory is lodged in Christ, and they are allowed to live and lean on him; 1 Cor. 1:30, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctiftcation, and redemption." 2 Tim. 2:1, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."
2. We are called and commanded to lean on him; Psalm 55:22, "Cast thy harden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." Prov. 3:5, 6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not into thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Psalm 37:5, "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." Isa. 26:3, 4, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." It is the great duty called for in the Old and New Testament. We honour the Father and the Son, by doing this through the Spirit.
3. To pretend to go another way, is an abomination to the Lord, Prov. 3:9. We know no holiness of Adam's fallen children, but what is a walking in Jesus Christ. Men may call the obedience given to the law otherwise, holiness; but a holy God will never own it as such, when it savours not of union with his Son.
USE. Then if ye would go up from the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan, go leaning on Jesus Christ.
1. Go leaning on him for light to know your duty, Prov. 3:5. Ye are in the wilderness; let him be eyes to you there; look to him, as the Israelites did to the motions of the cloud, for your direction. He is the great Prophet and Teacher; close your own eyes that ye may be guided by his word and Spirit.
2. Go leaning on him for strength to perform your duty, Phil. 4:13. It will not be your weak hands that will work the work, nor your feeble knees that will perform the journey. The strength must come from him who is the Head. And ye must go on borrowed legs.
3. Lastly. Go leaning on him for acceptance, and the happy issue of your journey, Eph. 1:6. It is through him alone that any step in the Lord's way can be accepted, and by him alone we can be brought into the eternal rest.
In all this ye are to believe the word of promise, and on the credit of it to set about your duty, renouncing yourselves, and believing and applying the sufficiency treasured up in Christ.
Great is your need of leaning; ye have great work to do, a great journey to go, much weakness hangs about you, much opposition ye must encounter; yet forward ye must be out of the wilderness to the heavenly Canaan, else ye perish.
Enoch's Character and Translation
Explained,
with a Description of Walking with God, as that in which
the Life of Religion Lies
And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him. - GENESIS 5:24
IT is too evident, that the generation we live in is in a declining condition; that professors are few, but real Christians fewer by far. Religion with many is turned to be the object of their ridicule; and among those that own it, to merely dry and sapless notions, for the most part. Few now are added to the church, or brought over out of the devil's camp. True godliness languishes, and serious experimental religion wears out. Therefore I would press religion in
the life and power of it, on those that would save themselves from this untoward generation.
Here shines the brightest star in the patriarchal age, which having given light to the lower world for a time, was afterwards translated into a higher sphere, and passed out of the world in as un usual a manner as he lived in it. For as men live in the world, so ordinarily they go out of it.
There is a long account here, where nothing is marked but names and numbers, men's living and dying, till we come to Enoch, whose singular piety is recorded. OBSERVE. The life of man is for the most part a vain thing, of which, by the sleeping of some, and the slumbering of others, nothing remains remarkable, but that they I lived and died. But close walking with God serves another and better purpose, than to cause one just fill up room in the world for a while.
From the short history of these antediluvian patriarchs, we may learn one lesson, that will serve us all our days, viz. That we must die, how long soever we live. It is reported of one, that by hearing this chapter read in the church, he got such an impression of his own death, that he turned religious, that he might die well. Drexel. de œtern.
But from the history of Enoch we may learn two lessons. 1. How to live well in this world. 2. The happiness that abides those in another world, who so live here; even eternal happiness of soul and body with the Lord.
In the words there is remarked a real preaching that was given to the old world by Enoch; a life-preaching; for his conversation preached to them, what religion was, and what was their great duty, viz. walking with God; a removal-preaching, (we cannot say his death preached, for he did not die; but his passage out of this world preached), that there is another and a better life with God in another world, both for soul and body. And this is no doubt marked, to shew us the mercy bestowed on that generation, that the godly in it might
be encouraged, and the wicked left without excuse, while such a bright star shone so fair in that dark age. For it is observable, that his walking with God is twice told, once, ver. 22, and here again in the text, in conjunction with his happy removal, giving us a compendious body of divinity, written for the use of that age especially, (not excluding others), in this man's life and translation out of the world. So that God left not himself without a witness in that degenerate age. They not only heard, but saw in him, the power of godliness, and the reward of it too.
OBSERVE, Men will not only have the best instructions and warnings they get from the world, but those they get from the examples of holy men, to answer for in the day of accounts. There are silent preachers, who yet speak home, as Noah, who "being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world;" Heb. 11:7; and the men, of Nineveh, and the queen of the south, of whom our Lord says, Matth. 12:41, 42, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Examples of a holy life, if they do not lead spectators to heaven, will drive them more deeply into destruction.
Though it is charitably thought, that all the patriarchs were good men, yet surely the age wherein Enoch lived was a very degenerate and profane age, Methuselah his son died the same year the deluge came on. He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. Enoch walked with God three hundred years. So from his translation there were six hundred and sixty-nine to the deluge. Of that they got one hundred and twenty years' warning of the deluge; so that to that time there were but five hundred and forty-nine years. There were none of those here mentioned but they lived more than seven hundred years. And
God's Spirit had been long striving with the generation before the last hundred and twenty years. So that we may well reckon that many of those who lived in Enoch's days, were of those God's Spirit had so long striven with, and that were swept away by the deluge; and consequently that it was a very degenerate and profane age he lived in, wherein men had come the length to talk and act boldly against the God that made them, as appears from Jude 14, 15, "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
OBSERVE, Be the times never so bad, it is men's own fault they are bad too. Eminent holiness, and intimate communion with God, may be attained in the worst of limes. While that generation was running to ruin, Enoch walked with God.
The reasons are,
1. Because however men grow worse and worse, heaven in still as good and bountiful as ever; Isa. 59:1, 2, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." God's door still stands open, though the generation conspire to trouble it very little for supply. Our Lord will never shut his door upon his people, because they are few; but it shall stand open as long as there is one that hath business in his house; Micah 2:7, "O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?"
2. Because those that mind for heaven, must row against the stream always; and if they do not, they will be called down the stream in the
best of times; for, says our Lord, Matth. 11:12, "From the days of John the Baptist, until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." If people will ply the throne of grace, and resolutely set themselves against the epidemical disease of their day, they may keep lively in the midst of a dead crew, though with much difficulty, as our Lord observes; Rev. 3:4, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments."
3. The badness of the times affords matter to excite God's people the more to their duty, and close walking with God. The profaneness and formality of those they live among, and the dishonour done to God thereby, should be like oil to the flame of their holy love and zeal, as it was to David; Psalm 119:126, 127, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold." The prospect of what must needs be the issue of such apostasy of a generation may also quicken them; even as one is the more concerned to see to his own safety, that the rest of the family are pulling down the house about their own ears; as was the case with Noah, who, among a very wicked and abandoned people, had this character, "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God," Gen. 6:9.
4. Lastly. Because as the Lord shews himself most concerned for the welfare of those who are most concerned for his honour; so the worse the times are, they that cleave to him closely may expect to fare the better, as Noah also did, when the Lord said to him, "Come thou, and all thy house into the ark: for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation," Gen. 7:1. Moses never had a more glorious manifestation of God, than at the time when the Israelites had fallen into the idolatry of the golden calf, and God was about to destroy the whole nation; as you will find by comparing Exod. 32:10, and chap. 33 and 34.
USE 1. Learn that those who keep not up communion with God, in the life and power of religion, in evil times, are in God's account joined and embarked with the generation of his wrath; and be who they will, they will smart with the rest for it, though they pot not forth their hands to the notorious abominations of the times they live in. Hence is that threatening, Zeph. 1:12, "It shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees; that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil." It is a heavy word that sets formal hypocrites and profane wretches on one and the same bottom; Psalm 125 ult., "As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity."
2. Bad example with its influence will not excuse people before the Lord. While it is no comfort to go to hell with company, there can be no safety in following a multitude to do evil. What! will men think that because the conspiracy against God and holiness is strong, therefore they may join in it; that because serious godliness is going over the brae, therefore they may give it a push? But we will be to them that give an unhallowed touch to God's wain when it is at the halting.
3. To be complaining of the evil of the times, sighing and going backward in religion, is a fruitless unavailing complaint, neither pleasing to God, nor profitable to one's self. For at no time does religion consist in talking, but in walking with God. And that is but to condemn ourselves out of our own months.
4. Lastly. Let us be exhorted to study the power and reality of religion in these dregs of time. Let us draw the nearer to God, that we see so many going far from him. And as we would not bring the wrath of God on ourselves, let us neither join with a profane generation, nor continue on our lees with a formal dead-hearted generation, strangers to the power of godliness. Consider here,
1. Enoch's holy life in this world.
2. His happy removal into a better world.
FIRST, Let us consider Enoch's holy life in this world; "Enoch walked with God." The Spirit of God puts a special remark on this. It is Enoch's honour, that he did not walk as others did, after their lusts. Yea, he walked more holily and closely with God, than other good men of that age.
OBSERVE 1. God takes special notice of those who are best when others are worst, Gen. 6:9. We see this in the instance of Noah in the old world, and of Lot in Sodom; likewise of those mentioned Ezek. 9:4, concerning whom the Lord said, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof;" and those taken notice of Mal. 3:16, 17, "Then they that feared the Lord, spake often I one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
1. To be thus argues an ingenuous spirit, a love to the Lord for himself, and a love to his way for its likeness to himself; that the soul is carried thus to it against the stream of the corruption of the age.
2. It argues not only grace, but the strength of grace. It must be strong faith, love, &c. that so much bear out against the strong temptation to apostasy, arising from the combination of a generation against God and his way. To be holy when the helps to a holy life are least in the world, argues the vigour of grace in the heart.
USE. Labour ye then to be best while others are worst, to confront the impiety of the generation wherein ye live. Do they indulge themselves in licentiousness? be ye the more strict and holy in your walk. Do they take up with mere externals in religion? strive ye the
rather to get into the inner court, to taste and see, and here to have communion with God.
OBSERVE. 2. It is the honour of a professor of religion, to outgo others in the matter of close walking with God. God himself is glorious in holiness. The more holy one is, the more like is he to God. The liker he is to God, the more honourable is he.
USE 1. This lets us see what would be a blessed emulation among professors, viz. that we were striving who should be most tender, holy, and circumspect. O that that were brought in, in the room of all our strifes and contests about practices and opinions, which eat out the life of religion in our day! But alas! real holiness is little regarded, and therefore little striven for.
2. It must be a godless-like mark in any person, to have the serpentine grudge rise in their breasts against others, as they see them eminent for holy and tender walking. These are the persons most beloved and honoured of God; and it looks devilish-like to hate them, and have one's heart rise against them, for that very reason for which God loves them.
In the first part of the words we have,
1. The person characterized; and that is Enoch. There was another of this name descended from Cain, who had a city called after his name; Gen. 4:17. Immortality is desired of all; and because men cannot stave off death, they follow after a shadow of immortality, that at least their name may live when they are gone. Therefore that has been an ancient custom, for men to call their lands after their own names; Psalm 49:11. How much better was it with this Enoch, that took that course to get on him the name of the city of God, which Christ promises to write on all his people? Rev. 3:12. The city called by the name of the other Enoch was destroyed by the deluge, and is now unknown; but the city of God lasts still, and will last for ever.
OBSERVE. True piety is the best way to honour, even to true honour. For "the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance," when "the memory of the wicked shall rot."
Enoch signifies dedicated, initiated, instructed. His life answered his name, for he lived as one devoted to the Lord. OBSERVE. It is the duty of those devoted to God by their godly parents, to devote themselves to the Lord. And where grace comes in with good education, it ordinarily makes men famous in their generation, and signally serviceable to God.
He was the seventh from Adam, and a prophet, who foretold the last judgment, even in that early age of the church; Jude 14, above cited. He was like Noah, a preacher of righteousness in his day; and like John Baptist, a burning and shining light, burning in his conversation, shining in his doctrine.
OBSERVE. They that live near God, are most likely to be put upon his secrets, and to know most of his mind; Psalm 25:14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant."
2. His character; he "walked with God." He lived like a man of another world; a life of close communion with God. It imports, (1.) That he was really religious; not only religious before men, but before God. OBSERVE. Religion lies inwardly. We are that really which we are before the Lord; Rom. 2 ult., "He is a Jew which is one inwardly." (2.) He was eminently religious. OBSERVE. Men may attain to eminency in religion, in very bad times, by setting the Lord always before them. See here,
1st, What he was; a spiritual traveller through the world; he "walked." Whereas it is said of others, they "lived;" it is said of Enoch, "He walked with God." He looked on himself as a pilgrim and stranger in this present world; Heb. 11:13, compare ver. 5, and did not sit down in it to take up his abode on this side Jordan.
OBSERVE. They that would live a life of communion with God, must live as pilgrims in this world, as travellers through it to a better country.
1. Their hearts must be loosed from the world, bidding an eternal farewell to it as a portion; 1 John 2:15. The heart gone from God naturally sits down on the creature, to suck the sap of it, and to pursue it as its chief good. Now, the first step to the sours thriving, is to lift the heart from the creature, and once fairly to give up with the vain world.
2. They must be fixed on the better country; Heb. 11:14. They must look to the land that is afar off, resolutely aiming to be there, and therefore habitually keeping it in their eye, as the mark they desire to hit; Phil. 3:20. Thus we shall be heavenly in the frame and disposition of our spirits.
3. They must keep death much in their view, the passage out of this world into the other; Job 14:14, "If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come." See what a familiarity he had contracted with it; chap. 17:14, "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister." This is the way to wean our hearts from the world, and to stir us up to converse much with another world.
4. Lastly. They must beware of dipping deep in things of this life, but go through the world lightly, like travellers, who serve themselves with a passing view of those parts they go through; 1 Cor. 7:29–31, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away."
The reason is, because the world is one of the great make-bates betwixt God and a soul. And so far as it gets in betwixt God and us, it causes an eclipse of the light of the Lord's countenance.
USE. As ever ye would live a life of communion with God, live as pilgrims in this world. The manna never fell from heaven in the wilderness, till the provision brought from Egypt was spent and done. Deny yourselves to this world, if ye would have the taste of things of a better world. When the vessels of your hearts are emptied of the love of the world, the oil of grace will run.
2dly, The company he kept while he was in the way; "He walked with God." He did not walk with the generation he lived in; did not go on with the multitude, thinking it enough to do as they did; but he "walked with God," being a follower of the Lord, keeping his eye on him.
OBSERVE. True religion makes one give up with the way of the world, and set God before them for all. It is the way of strangers from God to follow the course of this world; Eph. 2:2. They that mind for heaven, must be nonconformists to the world; Rom. 12:2. They must be practical separatists from the world, in life and conversation; Psalm 12:7, as it was with Joshua, who said, chap. 24:15, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."