(b\) Sixthly, arid lastly, It is a soul-satisfying inheritance. He that hath it shall sit down and say, I have enough, I have all.1 As one master satisfies the servant, and as one father satisfies the child, and as one husband satisfies the wife, so one God, one Christ, one inheritance, satisfies the believing soul : Ps. xvi. 5, 6, ' The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup : thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place ; yea, I have a goodly heritage.' Will an inheritance of glory satisfy them ? Why ! this they shall have, 1 John iii. 3, Col. iii. 4. Will an inheritance of power and dominion satisfy them ? Why, this they shall have, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 'All things are yours,' &c. Mat. xix. 28, 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3, &c. Will Abraham's bosom satisfy you ? Why ! this you shall have, Luke xvi. 22. 2 The bosom is the place where love lodges all her children ; the bosom is the place of delight and satisfaction, and this you shall have ; nay, you shall have a better, a choicer, a sweeter bosom to solace your souls in than Abraham's, to wit, the bosom of Jesus Christ, which will be a paradise of pleasure and delight to you. Will Christ's best robe, will his own signet put upon you, satisfy you ? Why! this you shall have. Will it satisfy you to be where Christ is, and to fare as Christ fares, and wear as Christ wears, and enjoy as Christ enjoys ? Why ! this you shall have : John xii. 26, ' Where I am, there shall also my servant be ; if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.' If all these things will satisfy souls, then surely the inheritance reserved in heaven for them will satisfy them ; for that inheritance takes in these things, and many more. The good things that this inheritance is made up of are so many, that they exceed number; so great, that they exceed measure; so precious, that they are above all estimation ; and therefore it must
1 Habet omnia qui hahet halentem omnia. — Augustine. Gen. xxxiii. 11,1 have enough, saith Jacob, ^3 17, Li ckol, I have all.
* Si aliud propter Deum habeo, nee aliud plene possideo nee Deum. Deus qui non deficit, solus mihi sufficit. — Eusebius, Nuremb.
414 A STRING OF PEABLS. [1 PeTEB T. 4.
needs be a soul-satisfying inheritance.1 But now all other inheritances they cannot satisfy the heart of man :2 Eccles. v. 10, ' He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance, with increase : this is also vanity.' If you please, you may read the words nearer the original thus: 'He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver; and be that loveth it, in the multitude of it, shall not have fruit.' It is the love of silver that is the mischief of it ; it is the love of silver that makes men unsatisfied with silver. Such a man will still be adding house to house, land to land, bag to bag, and heap to heap, and yet after all be still unsatisfied. Bernard3 compareth such a man to one that, being very hungry, gapeth continually for wind, with which he may be puffed, but cannot be filled and satisfied ; and so the same author elsewhere saith well, Anima rationalis cceteris omnibus occupari potest, impleri non potest, the reasonable soul may be busied about other things, but it cannot be filled with them ; they can no more fill up the soul than a drop of water can fill up the huge ocean ; they can no more satisfy the desires of the soul than a few drops of water can the thirst of a man inflamed with a violent fever ; nay, as oil increases the flame of the fire, so the more a man hath of the world, the more his heart is inflamed after it.4 When Alexander had conquered the known part of the world, say some, he sat down and wished for another world to conquer. Charles the Fifth, emperor of Germany, whom of all men the world judged most happy, cried out with detesta- tion to all his honours, pleasures, trophies, riches, Abite hinc, cthite longe; get you hence, let me hear no more of you. They could not satisfy him, they could not quiet him. Such things that a fancy, a conceit, an ungrounded fear will rob a man of the comfort of, can never satisfy him ; but such are all worldly enjoyments, 2 Kings vii. 6, 7. One man will not live because his Delilah will not love ; another with Ahab will be sick, and die because he cannot get his neighbour's inheritance, 1 Kings xxi. ; another wishes himself dead because his commodities lie dead on his hands ; another with Haman can find no sweetness in all his enjoy- ments, because Mordecai sits at the king's gate, Esther v. 9-14 ; as those things which delude a man can never satisfy him. But the world de- ludes a man, and puts cheats upon him; it promises a man pleasure, and pays him with pain ; it promises profit — ' all this will I give thee ' — and pays him with loss ; loss of God, of Christ, of peace of conscience, of comfort, of heaven, of happiness, of all; it promises contentment, and fills him with torment ; — and therefore can never satisfy the soul of man, &c.
But the inheritance reserved in heaven, that will satisfy ; it will afford nothing that may offend the soul, it will yield everything that may delight the soul, that may quiet and satisfy the soul ; by all which it is most evident, that the best inheritance is reserved for the saints till they come to heaven. But,
II. Secondly, As the best inheritance, so the best is reserved for be- lievers till they come to heaven. This life is full of trials, full of troubles, and full of changes. Sin within, and Satan and the world without, will
1 August, de Triplici. hahitu. cap. iv.
2 This the great caliph of Babylon, Charles the Fifth, and others, found by ex- perience.
Bernard, Tract, de diligendo Devm, cap. iii. * Bernard, Horn. Mat. xix. 17.
1 Peter I. 4.] A string of pearls. 4 1 5