Saints Compared to Pilgrims

“I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;” 1 Peter 2:11.

Note.  The Saints of God are in these Scriptures compared to strangers and Pilgrims.

Simile

Parallel

I.  A Pilgrim is one that travelleth from one place to another, and is far from home.

I.  The Saints of God are spiritual travelers, they are far from their Father’s house, heaven is their everlasting home, and thither they are going.  All the holy patriarchs and prophets confessed they were Pilgrims on the earth.  Jacob said, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

II.  A Pilgrim that sets out in a long journey, takes care to free himself of all manner of weights, and unnecessary burdens, and whatsoever else may tend to weary, or unfit him for his journey.

II.  So the spiritual Pilgrim, when he first sets out in the ways of God, lays aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset him, Hebrews 12:1.  It greatly behoves him so to do; for one sin carried in the bosom, or the inordinate love to any thing or person of this world, will prove of dreadful consequence to him.  The young man in the Gospel had gone a great way, seemed to be a very zealous Pilgrim; but he had such a cruel burden upon his shoulders, that he tired before he came to the end of his journey.  Covetousness, or an unsatisfied desire after the things of this world, is compared to a burden, or load of thick clay:  “Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:  Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!”  Habakkuk 2:5-6  Would not a man that hath a long journey to go, be laughed at, should he carry with him a heavy burden of dirt and rubbish?  Such fools are many professors.  See Runner.

III.  A Pilgrim in his travels goes up-hill and down-hill; sometimes he meets with good way, and sometimes he meets with bad way:  sometimes he passeth over stiles, and through dirty lanes; and then again through green fields and pleasant pastures, and delightful paths, till he come to his desired place.

III.  So the Pilgrims that would travel to the New Jerusalem meets with various ways and passages.  1.  He must go out of the horrible pit of profaneness; that is work enough for the first day’s journey.  2.  Through the brook of sincere repentance, or true contrition, for every one that leaves open profaneness, is not truly penitent.  3.  Down the valley of self-denial, a very difficult passage.  4.  Over the mountains of opposition; for the devil and all will straightway make head against him. 5.  Over the stile of carnal reason:  “Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”  6.  Into the pleasant ways of the New Covenant.  7.  So upon the top of the Rock of ages, and there he may take a prospect of his own country.

IV.  A Pilgrim, that hath a long and difficult way to travel, is very thoughtful how to find the right way, being a Stranger in that country through which he must pass.  And besides, being told there are many cross ways and turnings, and hard difficult passages to find, he takes care therefore to get a good skillful guide, lest he should lose his way. 

purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1John 3:3.  He lets sins go, nay, loathes that which is evil; he lives a mortified life unto the world, and yet trusteth not to any thing that he hath done, or can do, for eternal life, knowing there is no salvation but by Christ alone, Acts 4:12.  He is as godly as any Socinian in the world, and yet magnifies the riches of God’s grace, and Christ’s merits, so as not to expect justification any other way.

V.  A Pilgrim often meets with trouble, and great difficulties in his way, by winds, storms, and tempests, hard weather, cold, frost, and snow, deep and bad ways, and many dangers, which he narrowly escapes.

steps had well nigh slipped.” Psalm 73:2.  He is often beset with crosses and afflictions, that he is a man in the mire, and can hardly get out.

VI.  A Pilgrim is a stranger in the country through which he passeth; and being not known, he is much gazed on, and sometimes abused by the rude rabble; all which he takes with patience, and makes no resistance.

world hateth you.  But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. John 15:19,21. 

VII.  A Pilgrim is a man that stayeth not long in a place where he comes; he is but a sojourner for a night, and is gone; his heart is upon his journey.

one to come.”  Hebrews 13:14.  This is not their rest; their abode is here but as in a strange land, and therefore they go forth on their spiritual progress towards that city, that hath foundation.  “Hebrews 11:9-10 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: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”  Hebrews 11:9-10. 

VIII.  A Pilgrim is not always in the same good disposition of body and mind, fit and necessary for his journey, but sometimes may be distempered, or grow dull and heavy, and out of heart, upon the account of the great difficulties that attend him, which when he is delivered and eased of, it much rejoiceth his heart.

VIII.  So a Saint is often attended with spiritual distempers; his heart is out of frame, and in a very unfit disposition for any duty; the troubles and incumbrances of this life dull and deaden his fervent desired after God, and make him go on heavily, nay ready to tire him, and cause him to faint in his mind:  yet by the help of the Spirit, the serious meditations of the excellency of the country to which he is traveling, he is soon quickened again, and gets fresh strength and resolution.  He expostulateth the case with himself after this manner:  shall wicked men pursue after the vanities of this world with such pains and unweariedness!  And shall I be ready to faint, that have assurance of a crown of glory at the end of my journey?  O how disproportionable are their labours to their gains!  Blush, O my soul, at thy own neglects!  And be astonished, either at their diligence, or at thy own sloth!   Do they labour in the fire for very vanity?  And wilt thou show a sottish, dead, and unbelieving frame of heart, as not to pursue with more zeal and diligence after that glorious country, and endless felicity before thee?  Is not heaven worth striving for, and traveling to?

IX.  A Pilgrim is glad when he meets with good company in the way, especially other Pilgrims, such as are traveling to the same place to which he is going himself.  What is more desirable to a traveler, than a faithful friend and companion?  “This makes, saith one, evil things little, and good things great; by this sweet society our griefs are divided, and all our joys are doubled.  What calamity is not intolerable, without a friend, a companion?  And, what society is not ungrateful, if we have none to share with us in it?  We suffer not so much, when we have some to condole and suffer with us; and we rejoice the more, when our felicity gives a pleasure not only to ourselves, but to others also.  If solitude, and want of company, be so horrid, so dreadful a thing, it is not to be understood the want of men, but of the want of friends, (meet company) for it is a good solitude, not to dwell with those that do not love us; and a man would choose such a hermitage, where he might not be troubled with them who bear no benevolent affection to him.  But for my part, I cannot think that man to be happy, which hath no friend to participate in his pleasures.  A man may more easily bear the hardest calamity with his friend, than the greatest felicity alone.

IX.  So a Saint, or spiritual Pilgrim, is glad when he meets with good and gracious companions in his journey to the land of promise, “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word. Psalm 119:63, 74.  What sweet fellowship have God’s children one with another!  How much doth their heavenly converse and communion refresh and cheer each other’s hearts, under all their sufferings and hardships, which they meet with in their spiritual pilgrimage?  “We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Psalm 55:14.  If earthly society be so desirable, how pleasant is the society of Saints, or communion with those we shall dwell with for ever!  Christian pilgrims have great advantage in their journey, by traveling together.  If one be poor, and the other rich, the one relieves his fellow; or if the one be weak, and the other strong, the one can take the other by the hand, and afford some help to him, when they meet with bad way, or go up-hill.  “Two,” saith Solomon, “are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.  Most travelers have found by experience, how comfortable it is to have good company in a long journey.  They very much strengthen and encourage each other, and by this means the way seems not so long and tedious, as otherwise it would.  They will, if one be sad or cast down, enquire what the matter is, and often ask how each other do; and thus it is with believers.  Paul’s great care was, to know the state of the Saints to whom he wrote, and with whom he conversed.

X.  A Pilgrim sometimes meets with enemies, such as strive to persuade him to go back, telling him, the danger would be great, and the difficulty such, that the advantage he expects at the end of his journey to receive, would not make a recompence for his pains and labour.

X.  So a spiritual Pilgrim meets with divers enemies in his journey towards heaven, who strive to discourage him, and turn him back, like as the evil spies served the children of Israel, Numbers 13:32.  Time would fail me to tell you of all their names, nevertheless I shall discover some of these enemies to you, that so you are who are bound for the holy land, may avoid the pernicious counsel they frequently give, and be strengthened against the discouragements they lay in the way of true piety. 

XI.  A Pilgrim is glad when he comes at last to his desired place, and forgets all his former trouble and afflictions, which attended him in his way.

XI.  So a saint, when he comes to heaven, or hath obtained the end of his rope, the salvation of his soul, greatly rejoiceth, and forgets all the sorrow and trouble he met with in this world, 1 Peter 1:9.  “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

  Inference

II.                   Therefore it sharply reprehends those Christians that settle themselves as inhabitants and dwellers here below, like other people.  Alas!  Sirs, ye forget that ye are strangers and prilgrims, and but sojourners as it were for a night.  Why do ye seek great things for yourselves, and seem to be so much taken with the pleasure and profits of this life?  “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”  John 15:19.  Let such as regard no higher things, take their fill here, and delight themselves in their portion, for it is all the good they are ever likely to have; but let them remember those dismal sayings of our blessed Saviour: “But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” Luke 6:24-26