But are Christians always in this state of soul that they can say, ' Come ' ?
Ans. I answer, they are alway in some degree fitting themselves for Christ ; but, notwithstanding, they are not alway so exact and watcliful, that they could wish that he should come at this time. Take the comparison from a wife, a spouse : she heartily desires the coming home of her hus- band ; yet perhaps sometimes things may not be in so good order as to wish that he were here now ; nay, I have not yet prepared,- This is the state of careless Christians, that have soundness of gi-ace, and yet are care- less. They desire the coming of Christ, and they love the gloiy of the life to come, and endeavour weakly for it ; yet they are so careless ; some cor- ruption hangs on them, that they have not so mortified and subdued as they should do ; they are not yet so fitted as they should be. Therefore God often rouseth such by afliictions and other courses in this world, to wean them more fi'om the love of the world, and to prepare us, because we are slothful and careless to prepare ourselves. So I say that sometimes the best Christians may be more indisposed than at others, by reason of security growing on our souls, so weak are we and beset with temptations. There- fore let none be over much discouraged with that, but let us strive as the church here, to be in such an estate as we may alway say, ' Come.'
Well, upon trial, if we find ourselves not so disposed as we should, how shall we carry ourselves that we may say, ' Come ' ?
Use 1, Let us labour to purge ourselves by mortification more and more. ' He that hath this hope purgeth himself,' 1 John iii. 3. And let us endure God's purging of us, and justify God's purging of us by afilictions, and think that God hath this aim. Certainly this is to make me more heavenly- minded, to raise my affections up. I will therefore bear the anger of God ; I have deserved it, and he hath holy ends in it to make me partaker of his righteousness. Let us purge ourselves by gi-ace, and endure the course that God takes to purge us by daily crosses, for God aims by it to wean us more and more from the world.
Use 2. And let us labour daily more and more to tinloose our hearts from the thinys below. Those that would remove a tree, they loosen it from the root of it ; so our affections are rooted to earthly things, therefore we should
544 THE church's echo.
labour to loose them daily more and more, by the consideration of the uncertainty and vanity of all tbin<^s. They are not that that will stick to us and give us content, when we shall stand in most need of them. Here we must leave the things of the world, as we find them here, we must part with them. Therefore we should laboui- to unloose our hearts, and to plant, and set, and pitch them where they may be safe, and swallowed up in better things.
Use 3. And to this end often meditate of the excellency that shall be in the second coming of Christ. Oh the glorious time then ! See the means how the church comes to be stirred up here to say, ' Come.' Christ saith before, that he was ' the root of David,' the ' bright morning star.' He sets out himself gloriously, and the gloriousness of that time. Then the church, hearing what the excellency of that state will be then, and the excellency of Christ, the Church hath desires suitable to those manifesta- tions. Therefore let us meditate of the state of the church what it will be, and of the excellency and glory of Christ when he shall come to be glorious in his saints, what a happy condition it will be ! And to feed our medita- tions, let us be oft in hearing and reading of these things. If we hope for anything to come in this world, as if a young heir that shall have great possessions, the more he grows towards years, the more he thinks, I shall have this manor and that, he thinks of the possessions he hath; so a Chris- tian, the nearer he grows to heaven, the more he thinks upon and talks and is willing to hear of that condition that he shall have. The more we are in meditation, and, to help meditation, the more we are in thinking, and speaking, and conferring of these things, what will befall us ere long, if we be Grod's, the more our affections will be raised up, as we see in the spouse here ; upon the manifestation of the excellency of Christ comes this desire after the coming of Christ. This is one reason of the deadness of our hearts. We do not awaken them with such holy thoughts as we should, and we are not under those means as we might ofttimes. There cannot be anything more sweet and powerful to draw up our souls than meditation in this kind.
Use. 4. Again, that we may be able to say ' Come,' let us labour to he more and more spiritual, that the Holy Spirit may rule our spirits ; and then the Spirit is always for ' Come.' Nature saith not Come, because it is above nature ; I mean nature not corrupt saith not ' Come.' It is a hidden secret to nature. Nature saith, Stay still. It hath no desire to it. The flesh is contrary altogether. But the Spirit in the spouse saith, ' Come.' The Spirit doth all. As the soul doth all in the body, — it acts it, and leads it, and comforts it, and gives beauty to it, — so the Spirit first knits Christ and us together. There is the same Spirit in Christ the head and in the church, there is one common Spirit in head and members. And when it hath done so, it acts, and leads, and sanctifies, and purifies the church. It acquaints the church with the good things that God hath given her, ac- quaints her with the deep meaning of God, the love of God in Christ. It acquaints God with our desires. He knows our meaning in our prayers, and we know his meaning. It acquaints us with the state we shall have after, and assures us of it. It is the * earnest ' of the inheritance. The Spirit and the graces of it are not only the earnest but a part of that in- heritance, a part of heaven where our bodies shall be spiritual ; not that they shall turn to be spirits, but they shall be ruled wholly by the Spirit, as the soul rules the body. -