that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."

4thly, and lastly, Wait on him in the galleries of ordinances; hang about the posts of his door. And when you do not find him in public, seek him in private, and in the retired galleries of secret prayer, meditation, and conference: and go a little farther, like the spouse, above and beyond all duties and ordinances, to himself: "He is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.-They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." The spouse did so, and at length she found him whom her soul loved: Cant. iii. 4: "It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go." The Lord bless his word.

SERMON V.

THE GROANS OF BELIEVERS UNDER THEIR BURDENS.*

Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.PSAL. XXXVIII. 9.

The Spirit helpeth our infirmities; and maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.-ROM. VIII. 26.

We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.-2 COR. v. 4.

In the first verse of this chapter, the apostle gives a reason, why he, and others of the saints in his day, endured persecution for the cause of Christ, with such an unshaken constancy, and holy magnanimity: he tells us, that they had the prospect of better things, the solid and well-grounded hope of a happy immortality to follow upon the dissolution of this clay tabernacle of the body. Ye need not wonder, would he say, though we cheerfully and willingly undergo the sharpest trials for religion: "for we know, that if our earthly house

• Preached in the Tolbooth-church of Edinburgh, on a fast-day preceding the celebration of the Lord's supper, October, 27, 1720.

of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." When the poor believer can say with David, "I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever," he will be ready to join issue with the same holy man, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Yea, so far is the apostle from being damped or discouraged at the thoughts of death, that he rather invites it to do its office, by striking down this clay tabernacle, that his soul may be at liberty to ascend to these mansions of glory, that his blessed Friend and Elder Brother has prepared for him above: ver. 2: "In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." He knew very well, that when he should be stript of his mortal body, he should not be found naked, as it is ver. 3; but clothed with a robe of glory and immortality. And in the verse read, he gives a reason why he was so desirous to change his quarters; and it is drawn from the uneasiness and inconvenience of his present lodging, while cooped up in this clay tabernacle: We that are in this tabernacle, says he, do groan, being burdened.

In which words we may briefly notice, 1. The believer's present lodging or habitation; he is in a tabernacle. 2. His melancholy disposition; he is groaning. 3. The cause or reasons of his groans; being burdened.

1. I say, we have an account of the believer's present lodging or habitation; he is in this tabernacle. By the tabernacle, here, we are to understand the body; so called, because it is a weak, moveable sort of habitation; (as we may hear more fully afterwards.) The indweller of this lodging is the noble soul, which is said to be in this tabernacle, while it is in an imbodied state. So that the meaning is, We that are in this tabernacle; that is, we that are living in the body.

2. We have the melancholy disposition of the poor believer while in this lodging; he groans. The word in the original, sva, rendered, to groun, we find it taken in a threefold sense in scripture. 1st, It is an expression of grief: Heb. xiii. 17: "Obey them that have the rule over you, that they may give their account of you, not with grief;" or, as it may be rendered, Not with grouns. It is the same word that is here used. There is nothing more ordinary, when a person is weighed and pressed in spirit, than to give vent to the heart in sobs and groans: and thus stands the case with the Lord's people many times, while in the tabernacle of the body. 2dly, It is sometimes an expression of displeasure: James v. 9: "Grudge not one against another." It is the same word that is here rendered to groan. And so it imports, that the believer is dissatisfied with, or disaffected to, his pre

sent quarters; he does not like it, in comparison of the better habitation that he has in view. 3dly, It is sometimes taken as an expression of ardent, passionate, and earnest desire. Thus, the word is taken in the second verse of this chapter: "In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." I shall not exclude any of these senses from the apostle's scope in these

words.

3. In the words we have the cause or reason of the believer's groans; being burdened. Many a weary weight and heavy load has the believer hanging about him, while passing through this "valley of Baca," which make him to go many times with a bowed-down back. What these weights and burdens are, you may hear more fully afterwards.

The observation I offer from the words is this:

DOCT. "That believers are many times burdened, even to groaning, while in the clay tabernacle of the body." We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened."

The method I shall observe, in handling this doctrine, is, to give you some account,

I. Of the believer's present lodging; he is in a tabernacle. II. Of the believer's burdens in this tabernacle.

III. Of his groans under these burdens.

IV. Conclude with some improvement of the whole.

I. The first thing is, to give you some account of the believer's present lodging while in the body. And there are these two or three things that I remark about it, which I find in the text and context.

1. Then, I find it is called a house in the first verse of this chapter. And it is fitly so called, because of its rare and cu rious structure and workmanship; Psal. cxxxix. 14, 15: “I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret; and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." The body of man is a wonderful piece of architecture, and the skill and wisdom of the great Creator are wonderfully discovered in it: it is set up, as it were, by line and rule, in such exact order, that the most curious piles and edifices in the world are but a chaos or mass of confusion, when compared with it. Take a clod of dust, and compare it with the flesh of man, unless we were instructed of it beforehand, we would not imagine it to be one and the same matter, considering the beauty and excellency of the one above the other; which evidently proclaims the being, power,

and wisdom of the great Creator, who made us, and not we ourselves, and who can sublimate matter above its first original.

2. I remark concerning the believer's present lodging, that however curious its structure be, yet it is but a house of earth; therefore called in the first verse, an earthly house. And it is so, especially in a threefold respect.

1st, In respect of its original; it is made of earth. It is true, all the elements meet in the body of man, fire, earth, water, and air; but earth is the predominant. And therefore, from thence he is said to have his rise; Job iv. 19: "He dwells in houses of clay, and his foundation is in the dust." Whatever be the beauty, strength, structure, or high pedigree of men; yet as to their bodies, they claim no higher extract than the dust of the earth.

2dly, It is a house of clay, in respect of the means that support it; it stands upon pillars of dust; for the corn, wine, and oil, wherewith the body of man is maintained, all spring out of the earth. Hos. ii. 21, 22: God is said to hear the heavens, the heavens to hear the earth, the earth to hear the corn, wine, and oil, and these to hear Jezreel. And if these props be withdrawn, how soon will the clay tabernacle fall to the ground, and return to its original?

3dly, It is a house of earth in respect of its end; it returns thither at its dissolution. Accordingly, see what God said to Adam, Gen. iii. 19: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Perhaps there may be some allusion to these three in that passionate exclamation of the prophet Jeremiah to the rebellious Jews, Jer. xxii. 29: "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord." They were earth in their original, they were earth as to their support, and they would return to earth in the end.

3. I remark concerning the believer's present lodging, that it is at best but a tabernacle. So it is called, ver. 1: "If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved;" and again here, We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." Now, a tabernacle or a tent is a moveable or portable kind of habitation, and is peculiar especially to two sorts of men. 1. To travellers or wayfaring men. 2. To soldiers or warfaring men.

1st, I say, tabernacles or tents are peculiar to strangers or wayfaring men. Strangers, especially in the eastern countries, used to carry these portable houses about with them, because of the inconveniences to which they were exposed. Hence, (Heb. xi. 9,) it is said of Abraham, that "by faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with

him of the same promise." They dwelt in tabernacles, because they had no present inheritance; they were only strangers and passengers in the country. To this the apostle probably alludes here. And so this intimates to us, that the saints of God, while in the body, are pilgrims and strangers, not as yet arrived at their own country: "I am a stranger in the earth," says the psalmist, Psal. cxix. 19; and it is said of the scripture-worthies, (Heb. xi. 13,) that they "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly." O believer, thou art not a resident, but only a passenger through this valley of Baca; and therefore study a disposition of soul suitable to thy present condition.

2dly, Tabernacles were used by strangers and wayfaring men, so by soldiers and warfaring men, who are obliged frequently to convey their camps from one place to another. Believers, while they are in the tabernacle of the body, must act the part of soldiers, fight their way to the promised land, through the very armies of hell. "We wrestle not," says the apostle, "against flesh and blood; but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places," Eph. vi. 12. And therefore, as the apostle exhorts, it concerns us to "put on the whole armour of God, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the girdle of truth;" and to be frequently accustoming ourselves to a holy dexterity in wielding and managing "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," that so we may be able to make a courageous stand in the day of battle, and at last come off the field in a victorious manner, when Christ the Captain of our salvation shall sound the retreat at death. Thus, the believer's lodging in a tabernacle, shows him to be both a traveller and a soldier.

4. Another thing that I remark concerning the believer's lodging, is, that it is but a tottering and crazy house, that is shortly to be taken down; for, says the apostle, ver. 1: "The earthly house of this tabernacle is" to be "dissolved.-What man is he," says the psalmist," that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" Psal. lxxxix. 48. This king of terrors has erected his trophies of victory over all that ever sprung of Adam. The greatest Cæsars and Alexanders, who "made the world to tremble" with their swords, were all forced at last to yield themselves captives to this grim messenger of the Lord of hosts. "There is no discharge of this warfare;" the tabernacle of the body must dissolve. However, it may be ground of encouragement to the believer, that death is not a destruc