If thou wilt show thyself worthy to be the son of such a Father, do that in humble obedience to God, which thou art urged to do by the compulsion of men.

But why is this so grievous. Dost thou think to find God where thou goest? Dost thou make full account of his company both all along the way, and in the end of thy journey? Hath not He said, who cannot fail, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Certainly, he is not worthy to lay any claim to a God, who cannot find parents, kindreds, friends in him alone.

Besides, he that of very stones could raise up children unto Abraham, how easily can he of inhospitable men raise up friends to the sons of Abraham. Only labour thou to inherit that faith wherein he walked; that alone shall make thee a free citizen in the best of foreign states, and shall entertain thee in the wildest deserts.

SECTION 4.

The Advantage of Emigration.

THOU are cast upon a foreign nation :-Be of good cheer: we know that flowers removed often grow stronger; and some plants, which were but unthriving and unwholesome in their own soil, have grown both safe and flourishing in other climes. Would Joseph have been so great, if he had not been transplanted into Egypt. Had Daniel and his three companions of the captivity ever attained to such honour in their native land? How many have we known, who have found that health in a change of air, which they could not meet with at home, In Africa, the south wind clears up, and the north is rainy. Look thou up still to that hand which hath translated thee; await his good pleasure: be thou no stranger to thy God: it matters not who are strangers unto thee.

SECTION 5.

: The right we have in any country, and in God.

THOU art a banished man:-How canst thou be so, when thou treadest upon thy Father's ground. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. In his right, wherever thou art, thou mayest challenge a spiritual interest. All things, saith the apostle, are yours; and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 1 Cor. iii. 21—23. No man can treat thee as a stranger, that is not thy Father's child.

Thine exile separates thee from thy friends:-This were no small affliction, if it could not be abundantly remedied. That is a true saying, that where two faithful friends are met, God makes up a third.' But it is no less true, that where one faithful spirit is, there God makes up a second. One God can more than supply a thousand friends.

SECTION 6.

The Voluntary Departure.

THY banishment bereaves thee of the comfort of thy usual companions :-Would not a voluntary travel do as much? Dost thou not see thousands, who for many years freely change their country for foreign regions, tak ing long farewels of their dearest friends: some out of curiosity, some out of a thirst for knowledge, some out of a covetous desire of gain. What difference is there betwixt thee and them, but that their exile is voluntary, and thine constrained.

And who then are these, whom thou art so sorry to forego? Dost thou not remember what the philosopher said to a young man, that was beset with flattering friends. 'Young man,' said he, I pity thy solitude.' Perhaps thou mayest be more alone in such society than in the

wilderness; such conversation is better lost than continued. If thou canst but get to be well acquainted with thyself, thou shalt be sorry that thou wert no sooner solitary.

SECTION 7.

All are Pilgrims.

THOU art out of thy country:-Who is not so? We are all pilgrims together with thee. 1 Pet. ii. 11. Heb. xi. 13. While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Miserable are we, if our true home be not above. That is the better country which we seek, even a heavenly. Heb. xi. 16. Thither thou mayest equally direct thy course, in whatsover region. This centre of earth is equidistant from the glorious circumference of heaven if we may once meet there, what need we make such difference in the way.

CHAP. XI.

COMFORTS UNDER THE LOSS OF SIGHT AND HEARING.

SECTION 1.

The two inward lights, Reason and Faith.

THOU hast lost thine eyes: a loss which all the world is unable to repair. Thou art hereby condemned to perpetual darkness; for the light of the body is the eye; and if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Matt. vi. 22, 23. Couldst thou have foreseen this evil, thou hadst anticipated the loss, by weeping out those eyes for grief which thou must forego.

There are but two ways in which any outward comfort can have access to the soul, the eye and the ear, and one of them is now closed for ever. Yet know, my son, thou hast two other inward eyes, that can abundantly supply the want of these of thy body, the eye of reason and the eye of faith; the one as a man, the other as a christian.

Answerable to this, there is a double light apprehended by them, rational and divine. Solomon tells thee of the one; The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Prov. xx. 27. The beloved disciple tells thee of the other; God is light, and we walk in the light as he is in the light. 1 John i. 5, 7.

Now these two lights are no less above that outward and visible light whereof thou art bereaved, than that light is above darkness. If therefore by the eye of rea son thou shalt attain to the clear sight of intelligible things, and by the eye of faith to the sight of things supernatural and divine, the improvement of these better eyes shall make a large amends for the lack of thy bodily sight.

SECTION 2,

The supply of better eyes.

THY sight is lost :-Let me tell thee what Anthony the Hermit said to a blind and learned man of Alexandria. Let it not trouble thee, oh Didymus, that thou art bereft of carnal eyes, for thou lackest only those eyes which mice, and flies, and lizards have. But rejoice that thou hast those eyes which angels have, whereby they see God, and by which thou art enlightened with a great measure of knowledge. Make this good of thyself, and thou shalt not be too much discomforted with the absence of thy bodily eyes.

SECTION 3.

The better object of our inward sight.

THINE eyes are lost:-The chief comfort of thy life is gone with them. The light is sweet, saith Solomon; and a pleasant thing it is, for the eyes to behold the sun. Eccl. xi. 7. Hath not God done this on purpose that he might take thee off from all earthly objects, that thou mightest so much the more intently fix thyself upon him, and seek after those spiritual comforts which are to be found in a better light.

Behold, the sun is the most glorious object that the bodily eyes can possibly see; but thy spiritual eyes may see him that made that goodly and glorious creature, and who must needs be infinitely more glorious than what he made. And if thou canst now see him the more, thou art a gainer by thy loss.

SECTION 4.

The ill offices done by the eyes.

THOU art become blind:-Certainly, it is a sore affliction. The men of Jabesh Gilead offered to comply with the tyrant of the Ammonites, so far as to serve him ; but when he required the loss of their right eyes, as a condition of their peace, they would rather hazard their lives in an unequal war, as if servitude and death were a less evil than the loss of one eye. 1 Sam. xi. 1-3. How much more of both! though the evidence of one is as true as that of both, and in some cases more so; for when we would take a perfect aim we shut one eye, as rather a hindrance to an accurate information. Yet for ordinary use we so esteem each of these lights, that there is no wise man but would rather lose a limb than an eye.

I could tell indeed of a certain man, not less religious

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