III. THE CHAPTER OF TABERNACLES.

ALL men are but passengers and pilgrims through this world! and it is a fatal mistake to think we are possessors of any thing, of houses or lands, when we are no more than tenants and occupiers in this transitory life. Some dwell in stately palaces; and many more in poor cottages; but all are born to the same mortality. If the poor man's hut drops into decay, he dies never the sooner; and if the house of the rich is founded upon a rock, he lives never the longer.

To prevent all mistakes from distinctions of this kind, the holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, inhabited no lofty cities, built no strong holds; but lived in tents or tabernacles, with which they removed from place to place, as God was pleased to order them. This was very remarkable in their case, because they did it in a land which God had promised to them for an inheritance: thereby signifying, that they did not accept of the earthly land, but looked for a better country, that is, an heavenly. When the children of Israel were journeying to Canaan (to give us a pattern of the state of man in this world) they lived by encampments in a wilderness, removing their tents from place to place for forty years, and ending their days in that unsettled way of life. Even when the people were fixed in Canaan, good men still devoted themselves to live as sojourners and pilgrims. We see this in the example of the Rechabites, who renounced the pleasures and possessions of the world, and dwelt in tents as their holy fathers had done before. Even God himself was pleased to partake of the condition of his people; making himself, even under the law, that stranger upon earth which he was to be afterwards under the Gospel. The place of his worship in the wilderness, and long afterwards, was not a house, but a tent and a tabernacle; and when the word was made flesh, He is said to have tabernacled amongst us;

living as one who renounced this world and all its possessions; more unprovided of house and land, than the foxes of the earth or the birds of the air. The passage from this world to the other is much more easy to those who live in this manner. The man of the world, who fixes his abode here, is violently torn away at his death, as a tree pulled up by the roots, and hath no prospect after it: but he who lives in a tent is easily removed. If we live in faith, we shall die in hope, knowing that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have another building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. When we leave this land, on which we never rested, we find a better country, in which we may fix with safety; when we leave the buildings of this world, which fall into decay, we find an eternal city, whose builder and maker is God.

No subject is perfectly understood, till it excites devotion in us; and we should endeavour to give that turn to it, in some such way as this:

Lord, make me ever mindful, that I am a pilgrim and stranger upon earth; a passenger and traveller through this transitory life, to the possession which thou didst promise to our forefather Abraham, and the heirs of his faith. As I have here no abiding place, let me be content to lead a changeable, unsettled life, if thou seest it good for me, as a tent is removed from one station to another; that, when all my journeyings and encampments through this wilderness shall be finished, I may see the felicity of thy chosen, and rejoice with thine inheritance: dwelling with thee for ever in that holy land, and that heavenly city, which thou hast prepared and builded for thy holy patriarchs, and with them, for all those who through faith and patience shall inherit the promises. Amen.

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. What is a tabernacle?

A. A tent stretched out with cords, and moveable from one place to another.

Q. Who dwelt in these habitations?

A. The holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Q. Why did they inhabit such dwellings as tabernacles?

A. To remind them daily that they were strangers upon earth.

Q. Had not God promised them the possession of the land in which they dwelt?

A. Yes; but he made them live in it as travellers or sojourners, to show them and us, that the hope of all his saints is in another life.

Q. Who else lived in tabernacles?

A. The children of Israel, in their journeyings through the wilderness.

Q. How long did they live in this way?

A. Forty years: so that the whole generation of them who were brought out of Egypt finished their course, short of the promised land, in their unsettled habitations.

Q. Did good people understand what God intended by their dwelling in tents?

A. Certainly; because some dedicated themselves freely to this way of life, after they were settled in towns and cities.

Q. Who were such?

A. The Rechabites; whose father gave them a charge to renounce the world, and live as the patriarchs had lived before.

Q. What was the house in which God dwelt at first with his people?

A. It was a tabernacle set up in the wilderness.
Q. Why did God dwell in such a place?

A. To show that he would be a stranger upon earth, as we are, and dwell in the tabernacle of a mortal body.

Q. What are we to learn from these things?

A. That all the servants of God are to renounce the world, and live like strangers upon earth.

Q. What do they hope for by so doing?

A. They prepare themselves for a better inheritance in heaven.

Q. Why does the apostle call our bodies tabernacles?

A. Because we lead a travelling life in them, and they are soon to be taken down as a tent is.

Q. How do the children of this world live?

A. They build houses and buy lands, as if they were to live for ever; when perhaps their tent may be taken down this night, and their soul required of them.

Q. What is the best improvement of this and other subjects of the Scripture?

A. To make a prayer to God upon them.

THE TEXTS.

Gen. xiii. 8. xxv. 17. Numb. x. 28. 2 Sam. vii. 6. Jer. xxxv. John i. 14. Acts vii. 1, &c. Heb. xi. 9. 2 Pet. i. 13, 14.

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IV. THE CHAPTER OF WAR.

WHAT a strange thing is war! yet we see it every where and we ourselves are engaged in it, whether we will or not. There is war in the natural creation : the hawk is always in arms for the seizing of his prey; the lion and the wolf are at war with cattle; birds and beasts are persecuting one another; and the innocent are destroyed by the cruel and rapacious. Even in seas and rivers there are greedy monsters which devour other kinds when they are within their reach

If we turn our eyes to mankind, we see nation rising in arms against nation, and kingdoms divided against themselves. And why is all this permitted?-For many wise reasons; but for this above all, that, from the enemies we see, we may consider the enemies we do not see. For the invisible world is also at war: there was war in heaven. God himself hath his enemies among angels that excel in strength; principalities and powers are confederate against all the great and merciful designs of heaven: and the war which they began there, is carried on upon earth against us men and our salvation. We are, therefore, born to a state of war, and are accordingly enlisted as soldiers at our baptism: and Jesus Christ is the captain of our salvation; under whose banner we are to fight against his and our enemies. Our Christian profession is called a fight of faith, because it is subject to all the dangers, losses, fears, and miscarriages of war: and the same rules are to be observed, the same measures followed, in the one case as in the other; with this difference, that ghostly dangers are a thousand times worse than bodily, and call for more valour and more vigilance. Being, therefore, soldiers, we are to do as soldiers do.

1. We are to put on the whole armour of God. There is the helmet to save the head in natural war; and there is the protection of God, the helmet of salvation, in spiritual war. There is the shield of faith, which we are to hold up against the fiery darts of the enemy. There is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword, which, when skilfully used, will give mortal wounds to the adversaries of our faith.

2. We must practise the prudence which is necessary in earthly war: considering that we are here in an enemy's country, in continual danger of being surprised by evil spirits, who are always upon the watch; and, therefore, we must be sober and vigilant. [271]

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