"
I know there are extravagant opinions in the world about the kingdom
of Christ, as if it consisted in temporal glory in part; and as if
he would take it to him by carnal weapons, and so maintain it in its
greatness and grandeur. But I confess myself an alien to these
notions, and believe and profess quite the contrary, and look for
the coming of Christ to judgment personally; and betwixt this and
that, for his coming in Spirit and in the power of his word; to
destroy antichrist, to inform kings, and so to give quietness to his
church on earth: which shall assuredly be accomplished when the
reign of the beast, the false prophet, and the man of sin is out.
Let this teach men not to think that the church is cursed of God,
because she is put in a wilderness state. Alas, that is but to train
her up in a way of solitariness, to make her Canaan the more welcome
to her. Rest is sweet to a laboring man.
Yea, this condition is the first step to heaven; yea, it is a
preparation to that kingdom. God's ways are not as man's: "I have
chosen thee," saith he, "in the furnace of affliction." When Israel
came out of Egypt, they were led of God into the wilderness. But
why? That he might have them to a land that he had espied for them,
that he might bring them to a city of habitation.
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