For I long to see you
Not the city of Rome, which was one of Austin's three wishes to
have seen in its glory; nor the emperor of it, nor the senate in
it, nor its populous inhabitants, fine buildings, riches and
grandeur; but the poor saints there, which were the excellent men
of the earth, of the whole Roman empire, and in whom was his
delight: his desire to see them was not to gratify his curiosity,
nor to spend his time in idle chat with them, nor with a view to
enrich himself by them; but, says he,
that I may impart some spiritual gift:
not any extraordinary gift of the Spirit; but spiritual light,
knowledge, peace, and comfort, through the exercise of his
ministerial gift: whence it may be observed, that that which
qualities men for the preaching of the word to the profit of
others, is a gift, a gift by grace; a spiritual one, which comes
from the Spirit of God, and may be, and is to be imparted to
others in the free use and exercise of it; and that,
to the end that saints may be established;
for such who are called by grace, need establishing. They are
indeed in a safe state and condition; they are encircled in the
arms of everlasting love, they are fixed in the hands of Christ,
secured in an everlasting covenant, established on the rock of
ages, and settled in a state from whence they can never fall:
yet, notwithstanding this, they are sometimes very unstable in
their hearts, in their frames, in the exercise of grace, and the
discharge of duty, and in professing and adhering to the
doctrines of the Gospel; wherefore they need establishing, as to
a more firm persuasion of interest in the love of God, and in the
covenant of grace, as to a more stable exercise of grace in
Christ, and as to a more constant discharge of duty, and steady
profession of adherence to the truths of the Gospel; to all which
the ministration of the word has a tendency, with a divine
blessing.