Which when we have considered, we shall be ashamed that we do not with greater fervour say, with respect to this, in our daily prayers, Thy kingdom come; and be mightily excited to call upon our souls more frequently to meditate on that blessed hope, and to look, with much affection, for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Who will be so much honoured thereby himself, and then confer such upon us, as should make us long for the accomplishment of both.

СНАР. Х1.

Reasons for our love to this appearing, drawn from the respect we ought to have to our Lord himself.

As for the first of these, the affection that is due to our blessed Saviour, it ought to be strong, you will easily confess, that death itself should not be an equal match for it. That which conquers all things should itself be conquered by this; and the king of terrors should yield all his force, and yield himself a captive to the love of the King of love.

For since there is so great a power in hearty and unfeigned love, to beget love in those to whom it is expressed; and since the love whereby our Lord attracts our affection doth so vastly exceed all other; it is a prodigious obstinacy or negligence, that the dullest and heaviest souls are not drawn by so big a loadstone.

Do we not feel, as I have said elsewhere, some motions of kindness in our hearts for the most contemptible creatures; when they constantly fawn upon us, and follow us, and lie down by us, and will by no means leave us, but take our part if any body assault us? Are we not much pleased with this affection they have to us, and concerned for their safety, and ready to reward them with tokens of our love to them? We must be infidels then, or very inconsiderate and regardless of our blessed Saviour; or else find our hearts put into the greatest passion, when we read and seriously weigh the strange expressions which our Saviour hath made of the most endearing love to us.

When we remember how he neglected himself to serve us;

how he endured hunger and thirst that we might be satisfied; how he gave the people the very bread out of his mouth, and forgot to feed himself, that he might nourish them; when we see how he addresses himself unto us; how he woos and courts us (to speak in our own language) with the greatest kindness to come to him; how solicitous he is for our happiness; how he sighed for us; how he groaned in spirit to see men so obstinate; how he sweat; how he bled; how he gave his very life for us; and was content to be exposed to the greatest shame rather than we should perish; what heart can be so insensible as not to be mightily affected with it, and to think of returning back his love, and that in some proportion to the wonderful greatness of it?

But then, alas! it must be confessed that we find, when our passion is stirred up, and our hearts begin to burn within us, we have little or nothing there that is worthy of him. A present we would fain make to him, but have none fit to be offered to so great a Majesty. Nay, so void many times and empty are our hearts of all that is good, that we may well be ashamed to let him see them. Our thoughts are so dull, and the resentments we have of his kindness so feeble and weak, that we ourselves in whom they are can scarce feel them. And at the best our affections are so small and so short, that we cannot but blush to come furnished with no better oblation to him.

What shall we do in this case? How shall we behave ourselves with some due regard to his incomprehensible love? Love him we must; but love him as he is worthy, and as we would, we are not able. We cannot choose but bring him our hearts, and yet we are sensible they are not worth the bringing.

We shall find ourselves naturally inclined, in these circumstances, to do just as a grateful poor man doth; who, being unable himself to requite a friend's courtesies, rejoices to hear that so very great a person will take that care upon him. Or as the divine Psalmist doth, who, finding his own thoughts too short and low, calls upon the angels, who excel in strength, to set forth the praises of Him, whose name is highly exalted above all blessing and praise. That is, since we ourselves cannot requite the benefits our Lord hath done us, nor worthily magnify his goodness towards us; we ought in all reason to be

exceeding desirous that God the Father of glory (as St. Paul calls him) would be pleased to reward his love, and make his praise glorious. Since there is nothing here whereby we can considerably honour him, we must needs wish the day would come, when the blessed and only Potentate will show the respect he bears unto him.

As it is a joy to think that he is gone to the Father, and there is recompensed for his sufferings; so it is a matter of greater gladness, if we have any love for him, to remember that at his appearing (which he, who is able, will in due time show) he shall still be more magnified. This therefore all serious Chistians cannot but much desire to see. For this they cannot but long extremely, and call with earnest expectation for the coming of that joyful day: that, since they cannot laud and praise him enough now, the whole world may then be gathered together, in one general assembly, all angels, and all men, and with joint consent bow themselves before him, and humbly acknowledge him to be the Lord of all.

And here I shall take the liberty, for the clearer understanding of this, to give a distinct account, in a few considerations, of that which, we may justly conceive, will accrue to our blessed Saviour by his glorious appearing.

I.

And first of all, there is no doubt but, at his second appearing, our Lord will be publicly honoured, and thereby have an amends made him for the open shame and the public disgrace to which he was here exposed. No varlet was ever used so basely as the world treated him, when he first "came to visit us in much humility." No man was ever the subject of so much scorn, of so many sorrows, and of so great pains, as he endured. Would it not then be acceptable to you to see his honour every where vindicated, his credit, as I may say, repaired, and his glory made no less notorious than his reproaches were?

Who would not wish to see that sweet face (which by rude hands was so contemptuously blinded and buffeted) appear in an unveiled brightness, looking with the fairest, the most beautiful and gracious eyes upon us? How is it possible to refrain from desiring to see that countenance which was spit upon,

and all bespawled by the filthy mouths of wicked men, shining with rays brighter than the sun, and glistering in the glory and majesty of God the Father? Are you not impatient to behold that head which was environed with thorns show itself with a royal crown upon it? Would you not fain see him as much admired as he was despised, as highly praised and extolled as he was vilely mocked and flouted?

O that I might behold that time arrive! (is every devout lover of the Lord Jesus apt to say ;) O that I might be blessed with a sight of that glory and honour wherewith, we believe, thou art already crowned! Thou wast sorely wounded and grossly abused, O dear Saviour, by those whom thou camest to heal and to save. They barbarously smote and besmeared thy holy face; they nailed thee to a cross; they pierced thy hands and thy feet; they thrust a spear into thy side, and left thee all in gore; they condemned thee as the foulest malefactor, and crucified thy name and reputation as well as thyself. And, which is worse, how have thine own followers grieved thee, and pricked thy very heart, by their base ingratitude to thee, who wast pleased to be thus vilely used for their sake!

And what reparation are the best among us able to make thee? what does it amount unto that such poor wretches as we can do for thee? How mean and inconsiderable is all the honour and all the praise that we, little and worthless things, can pretend to give thee!

O thou God of love, thou Father of mercies, we must address our desires to thee, and beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased to do it for us. Thou, who art the blessed and only Potentate; who hast already appointed him to be heir of all things; who hast given him a more excellent inheritance than the angels, and when thou broughtest him into the world, didst command them all to worship him; finish, I beseech thee, according to the riches of thy glory, the recompenses thou hast begun to make him. Let me and all men else see how thou lovest him, and what honour thou hast conferred on him.

Behold how this soul sighs out its desires to thee, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to hasten his appearing, and to show him to the world in the glory which thou hast given him. Let us all behold him as highly exalted as he was lowly depressed and

abased. Let us see him as he is, the Prince of life, the King of glory. O perfect that which concerneth him. Let him come and receive our universal acknowledgments. Let all kings fall down before him, and all nations serve him. Let them all call him blessed, and heaven and earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amens.

II.

They may well pray after this manner, and speak of his perfecting that which is begun, because (secondly) till the day of his glorious appearing, it is most certain, his conquests will not be completed over all his enemies. The very greatest of them will remain unsubdued, till he come then to tread them under his feet. Which cannot but dispose us to love that time above all other, because it will make him perfectly victorious.

He is sat down, saith the apostle, at God's right hand, from thenceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstoolt. Though he be highly advanced, that is, above all creatures, yet all his enemies do not presently fall down before him; but he must stay some time before not only all the adverse empires on earth submit themselves to him, but the principalities also in the air, and death itself, which is the last enemy, saith St. Paul, which shall be destroyed, and put under his feet". He rules and reigns indeed; but still he hath many opposers of his kingdom. He waits likewise for their utter subversion, and looks for their total ruin; but still they spoil and commit many wastes within his territories. The devil tyrannises and rages in a number of places; and death (as I must show anon) devours all.

How can we choose then but wait for that of which he himself is in expectation? Where is our love to him, if we can cease to wish that all those foes who despise or refuse his government were perfectly brought in subjection to him? Is there any thing more desirable to those who pray seriously his kingdom may come, than to see those put under his feet who now proudly trample upon his sovereign authority? What more joyful sight can there be to them, than to behold the devil, who now insults so insolently in his dominions, despoiled of all his power, and thrust down into the eternal prisons and chains of