184 Our .Native Countrey and Habitations denied. aftlietion and a great matter of it you may. A Merchant or Fa&or can live for his commodity,far from home,even among Turks and Infidels, and take it for no banifhment : Much more fhould youdo fo, for the fake of Chrift. Every place is our ownCountreywhere our Mailers work lieth. Weare but pilgrims ., as long as we are not out of our way,we need not compain much for being out of our Countrey. Indeed weare here butfin:angers , and this is not our Countrey , and therefore let us not overlove it upon a miftake. The Apoftles ofChrift did purpofely leave their Contreys,and tra- vail about the Countreys of the world , to bring them the dotirine offalvationby Chrift. And is it not better be walk- ing Lights to illuminate the world,thenCandles float up with- in the wals of our own habitation ? Heb. i i . 8 9, 10. By faith Abrahamwhen he was called to go into a place which he Amid after receivefor an inheritance, obeyed, andhe went out,not knowing whither he went. By faith he fejoursted in the Land of pronsife ac in afirange Conntrey, dwelling in Tabernacles --- for be looked for a City which had foundatirms,whofe builder and ;OAP i God. ver. 13, 14, 15, i 6. They confeffed that they were &angers and pilgrimson the earth ; For they that fayfuel, things, declare plainly that they leek a Countrey : And truly if they had been ?myself:ill ofthat Countrey from whence they came out, theymight have bad opportunity to have returned : But now they defire a better Countrey, that is, an heavenly :, wherefore god is not afhanted to be called their god; for he loath preparedfor them aCity] It was the foreft kind of banifhment that theSaints endured, thats mentioned, Ho. i i . 37, 38. and yet they patiently underwent it. [ They wandredabout in Iheepskins and goatskins, being deflitute, afflslled , tormented : Of whom the world was not 'worthy : they wandred in deferts and mountains, and in dens and caves of theearth] We judge our felves unwor- thy of Chrift and thenew yertifaleno and our Heavenly Coun- trey, if we cannot deny an earthly finfull Countrey for them. CHAP.
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