proclaims unto us so great, so excellent things as a kingdom, the
kingdom of God, an everlasting kingdom like God, a kingdom glorious as he
is, a kingdom suitable to his royal Majesty, and the magnificence of his
palace above. Are we called into this by the gospel, and would ye know
what is the sum thereof? It is this. Ho! every one that will have great
things, ho! every one that will be a king to God, and to bear rule over
kings in the great day, come, here it is, overcome yourselves here in the
Lamb that hath overcome, follow Jesus the captain of your salvation, who
for the joy and glory which was set before him, despised all the glory of
this world, and the pains and shame of the cross, Heb. xii. 1, 2. "Why do
ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that
which satisfieth not?" Isa. lv. 1, 2, 3. All ye toil about, what is it?
Children's fancies. Such houses and kingdoms as they build in the sand.
Why spend ye your time and labour upon earthly things that are at an end?
Here is a kingdom worthy of all men's thoughts, and affections, and time.
The diligent shall have it. Gird up the loins of your mind, and seek it as
the one thing needful. Many of you desire this kingdom, but alas! these
are sluggard's wishes, ye have fainting desires after it. Your desires
consume and waste you. But ye put not forth your hand, and so ye have
nothing. "The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul
of the diligent shall be made fat," Prov. xiii. 4. Do ye see any growing
Christian, but he that is much in the exercise of godliness, and very
honest in it? See ye any fat souls, but diligent souls? Our barrenness and
leanness hath negligence written upon it. Do ye not wonder that we are not
fat and flourishing, as palms and cedars in the courts of our God?
Certainly it is no wonder. Is it not a wonder that our sleeping away
secure, keeps so much as the leaves of a profession upon us? Therefore
Christians, let this be your name, Seekers, but seekers of what? Not of
any new religion, but of the good old kingdom of God, proponed to us in
the gospel. And remember that the seeker must seek diligently, if he think
that which he seeks worthy of finding. "He that comes to God must believe
that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him,"
Heb. xi. 6. Your seeking will proclaim your estimation of what ye seek. It
will be written on it, what your desires are. Many men's unfrequent and