SERMON XII.

HUMAN LIFE a PILGRIMAGE.

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DEUT. viii. 2,

And thou shalt remember all the Way which the Lord thy GoD led thee thefe forty Years in the Wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine Heart, whether thou wouldeft keep his Commandments

or no.

T

HE most important part of the Hiftory of the Old Teftament is the Children of Ifrael's Deliverance out of Egypt, their wandering forty Years in the Wilderness, and their

SERM. their Settlement in the land of Canaan: A XII. lively Emblem of a Chriftian's deliverance

from the bondage of Sin, his paffage through this World of temptation and Trial to his Inheritance in Heaven, the ftate of everlafting Reft. We wander at present in a wild and barren Defert, tending to a better Land, the heavenly Canaan which therefore we should keep ever in our Eye (as the Ifraelites did their Earthly one) to animate and encourage us under all the Hardships and Troubles we may meet with by the Way.

The Ifraelites had already wandered forty Years in the Deferts of Arabia, called ver. 15. a great and terrible Wilderness. This Year was to terminate their Pilgrimage, and put them into Poffeffion of the promised and long-expected Land of Canaan. But this year they were to lose their faithful Leader and Lawgiver Mofes, who was not permitted to conduct them into the promised Land. This Chapter therefore, and indeed the greatest part of this Book, (which contains a Repetition of their Law, together with many urgent Motives to Obedience) may be confidered as Mofes's dying Speech, and the laft Advice he gave

them

them before his Death. One important SERM. Part of which we have in the Words of the XII. Text. Thou shalt remember all the Way which the Lord thy God led thee thefe forty Years in the Wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine Heart, whether thou wouldeft keep his Commandments

or no.

From which words I propose to handle these two Obfervations,

I. That the Ifraelites wandering through the Wilderness to Canaan, is a lively Image and Representation of a Chriftian's Paffage through this World to Heaven.

II. That whilft a Chriftian is in this ftate of Pilgrimage, it is his Duty often to remember, and confider the various Ways of GOD, and the Difpenfations of his Providence towards him, efpecially those which have been more extraordinary and remarkable; which is the Duty the text injoins.

I. The wandering of the Ifmaelites through the Wilderness to Canaan, is a lively Image

and

SERM. and Representation of a Chriftian's Paffage XII. through this World to Heaven.

The principal Points of Refemblance between them I am now to lay before you; and,

1. The Paffage of the Ifraelites through the Wilderness was a very unfettled State; fo is ours through this World. For forty Years they dwelt in Tents and Booths (of which their feaft of Tabernacles was inftituted as an annual Commemoration) wandering from one place to another but fixing no where. Their feveral Encampments and Decampments were directed by the Pillar of the Cloud. When that arofe from over the Tabernacle, and went before it, then all the Congregation decamped; that is, took up: their Tents and followed it. When it ftood ftill and refted over the Tabernacle, then and there the Congregation encamped, that is, pitched their Tents, and continued till the cloudy Pillar moved forward again. And thus were their several Stations determined by a conftant Miracle.

Thus moveable and unfixed is our Situation in this World. If we do not continually wander about from place to place, as

the

the Ifraelites did, yet we are far from hav- SERM. ing any fixed and conftant Abode. The XII. perpetual Alterations we fee about us, either in our Friends, our Neighbours, or ourselves, our Perfons, Tempers, Eftates, Families, or Circumstances; and in fhort, the vaft Change which the compass of a few Years makes in almost every thing around us, is fufficient to convince us that we are in no fixed or fettled Condition here. It is only in Heaven we are to dwell in Manfions, that is, in abiding and refting places. Here we dwell, (like the Ifraelites) in weak and moveable Tabernacles (a), that are foon taken down by Death, which determines our final and everlafting Settlement.

2. The Travel of the Ifraelites through the Wilderness was not only an unfettled but a troublesome and dangerous State. They endured many Hardships, Fatigues, and Inconveniences; made many a wearifome March through burning Sands, expofed to Heat and Thirft and Danger; not only from the wild Beafts which abounded there (hence called a bowling Wilderness (b),) but from those Nations through whofe Borders VOL. II. they

(a) 2 Pet. i. 13, 14.

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(b) Deut. xxxii. 10.