[10.] True grace will enable a soul to sit down satisfied and con- tented with the naked enjoyments of Christ. The enjoyment of Christ without honour will satisfy the soul ; the enjoyment of Christ without riches, the enjoyment of Christ without pleasures, and without the smiles of creatures, will content and satisfy the soul. ' It is enough ; Joseph is alive,' Gen. xlv. 28. So saith a gracious soul, though honour is not, and riches are not, and health is not, and friends are not, &c, it is enough that Christ is, that he reigns, conquers, and triumphs. Christ is the pot of manna, the cruse of oil, a bottomless ocean of all comfort, content, and satisfaction. He that hath him wants nothing ; he that wants him enjoys nothing.2 ' Having nothing,' saith Paul, ' and yet possessing all things,' 2 Cor. vi. 10. Oh ! but a man that hath but temporary grace, that hath but restraining grace, cannot sit down satisfied and contented, under the want of outward comforts.3 Christ is good with honours, saith such a soul ; and Christ is good with riches, and Christ is good with pleasures, and he is good with such and such outward contents. I must have Christ and the world, or else with the young man in the Gospel, in spite of my soul, I shall forsake Christ to follow the world. Ah ! how many shining professors be there in the world, that cannot sit down satisfied and contented, under the want of this or that outward comfort and content, but are like bedlams, fretting
1 Grace is that star that leads to Christ; it is that cloud and pillar of fire that leads the soul to the heavenly Canaan, where Christ sits chief.
2 Cut cum paupertate bene convenit, pauper non est, saith Seneca, a contented man cannot be a poor man. [Epistle i. and De Constantia Sapientis, vi. — G]. , ,
8 Charles the Great his motto was, Christus regnat, vincit, triumphat. And so it is the saints.' St Austin upon Ps. xii. brings in God rebuking a discontented Christian thiis : What is thy faith ? have I promised thee these things ? What ! wert thou made a Christian that thou shouldst flourish here in this world ?
104 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
and vexing, raging and madding,1 as if there were no God, no heaven, no hell, nor no Christ to make up all such outward wants to souls. That a soul truly gracious can say, in having nothing I have all things, because ] have Christ; having therefore all things in him, I seek no Other reward, for he is the universal reward. Such a soul can say, Nothing is sweet to me without the enjoyment of Christ in it ; honours, nor riches, nor the smiles of creatures, are not sweet to me no farther than I see Christ, and taste Christ in them.2 The confluence of all out- ward good cannot make a heaven of glory in my soul, if Christ, who is the top («!' my glory, be absent ; as Absalom said, ' What is all this to me so long as J cannot see the king's face T 2 Sam. xiv. 32. So saith the soul, why do you tell me of this and that outward comfort, when I cannot see his face whom my soul loves ? Why, my honour is not my Christ, nor riches is not Christ, nor the favour of the creature is not Christ ; let me have him, and let the men of this world take the world, and divide it amongst themselves ; I prize my Christ above all, I would enjoy my Christ above all other things in the world ; his presence will make up the absence of all other comforts, and his absence will darken and embitter all my comforts ; so that my comforts will neither taste like comforts, nor look like comforts, nor warm like comforts, when he that should comfort my soul stands afar off, &c, Lam. i. 16. Christ is all and in all to souls truly gracious, Col. iii. 11. We have all things in Christ, and Christ is all things to a Christian. If we be sick, he is a physician ; if we thirst, he is a fountain ; if our sins trouble us, he is righteousness ; if we stand in need of help, he is mighty to save ; if we fear death, he is life ; if we be in darkness, he is light ; if we be weak, he is strength ; if we be in poverty, he is plenty ; if we desire heaven, he is the way. The soul cannot say, this I would have, and that I would have ; but saith Christ, it is in me, it is in me eminently, per- fectly, eternally.3
The fifth device that Satan hath to keep souls in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition is,
Device (5). By suggesting to them, TJait that conflict that is in th&m>\ is not a conflict that is only in saints, but such a conflict that is to be fun iid in hypocrites and profane souls; when the truth is, there is as much difference betwixt the conflict that is in them, and that which is in wicked men, as there is betwixt light and darkness, betwixt heaven and hell.'4 And the truth of this I shall evidence to you in the follow- ing particulars :
[1.] The whole frame of a believer's soul is aga/mst si/n,. Understand- ing, will, and affection, all the powers and faculties of the soul are m
1 Goin<2; about as ' mad.' — G.
8 Content is the deputy of outward felicity, and supplies the place whore it is absent. As the .lews throw the book of Esther to the ground before they read it, because the name of God is nut in it, us the Rabbins have observed; so do saints in Bome smse those mercies wherein they do nut read Christ's name, and see Christ's heart. [With reference to the throwing down of the book of Esther, sit Trapp's quaint remarks on it, under Esther i. 1. — < 1 1.
3 Luther said, he had rather bo in lull with Christ, than in heaven without him. None hut Christ, none hut Christ, said Lambert, lifting up his hands and his fingers' end flaming. [Clarke's ' Martyrologie,' as before, sub nomine. — G].
« John viii. 44, the devil is a liar, and the father of it. The devil's breasts (saith Luther) are very fruitful with lies.
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 105
arms against sin. A covetous man may condemn covetousness, and yet the frame and bent of his heart may be to it ; a proud person may condemn pride, and yet the frame of his spirit may be to it ; and the drunkard may condemn drunkenness, and yet the frame of his spirit may be to it ; a man may condemn stealing and lying, and yet the frame of his heart may be to it.1 ' Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal ? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dis- honourest thou God V Rom. ii. 21-23. But a saint's will is against it. ' The evil that I would not do, that I do ;' and his affections are against it, ' What I hate, I do/ Rom. vii. 19, 20.