Some of these cups are filled until they run over; as David said his did, when the valley of the shadow of death was before him:  “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

This is that which the apostle calls “exceeding”—­that which is beyond measure.  “I am,” says he, “filled with comfort; I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.”

Now he has one answering the other:  “Thou hast made summer and winter; thou hast made the warm beams of thy sun answerable to the cold of the dark night.”  This may yet be signified by the building of this house, this type of the church in the wilderness, in so pleasant a place as the forest of Lebanon was.  Lebanon!  Lebanon was one of the sweetest places in all the land of Canaan.  Therefore we read of the fruit of Lebanon, of the streams from Lebanon; the scent, the smell, the glory of Lebanon; and also of the wine and flowers of Lebanon.

Lebanon!  That was one thing that wrought with Moses to desire that he might go over Jordan, that he might see that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.  The glory and excellent beauty of the church Christ also setteth forth by comparing her to Lebanon:  “Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as a honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”

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.

The world know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of our God.  Do you think that saints that dwell in the world, and that have more of the mind of God than the world, could so rejoice in God, in the cross, in tribulations and distresses, were they not assured that through many tribulations is the very road to heaven?