be satisfied without going on unto perfection. But let us wait with patience for the former and the latter rain. Let us expect a variety of seasons as well in the spiritual as the natural world : let us commit ourselves to God, that he may perfect us in his own way. Thus in due season shall we be fit for the granary of heaven x ; the sickle shall then separate us from all our earthly connexions; and we shall be carried in triumph to our appointed rest.]
x Job v. 26.
Mark iv. 30 — 32. And he said, Whereunto shall ive liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it ? it is like a, grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is soion in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches ; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
" VERY excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of God." There is nothing either in heaven or earth which may not well serve to shadow forth thine excellencies. Our Lord had already illustrated the nature of his kingdom by a great variety of most in- structive parables ; and now stretches, as it were, his invention, in order to find other similitudes whereby to make it more fully understood. But choosing, as he always did, to bring his illustrations from things most obvious and familiar, he compares his Church and kingdom to a grain of mustard-seed. We shall,
1. Illustrate this comparison —
" The kingdom of God" means, in this as in a multitude of other places, the visible kingdom of Christ established in the world, and his invisible kingdom erected in the hearts of men. We must illustrate the comparison therefore,
1. In reference to the Church of Christ in the
world —
[The mustard-seed is the smallest of all those seeds which grow to any considerable size : and such was the Church of