loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity.'' All the world cannot fill the soul, nor all the creatures in the world cannot stock the soul with complete satisfaction. As nothing can be the perfection of the soul but he that made it, so nothing can be the satisfaction of the soul but he that made it. If a man be hungry, silver cannot feed him ; if naked, it cannot clothe him ; if cold, it cannot warm him ; if sick, it cannot recover him ; if wounded, it cannot heal him ; if weak, it cannot strengthen him ; if fallen, it cannot raise him ; if wandering, it cannot reduce him ; oh how much less able is it then to satisfy him ■ He that, out of love to silver, seeketh after silver, shall love still to seek it, but shall never be satisfied with it. A man shall as soon satisfy the grave, and satisfy hell, and satisfy the stomach with wind, as he shall be able to satisfy his soul with any earthly portion. All earthly portions are dissatisfying portions, they do but vex and fret, gall and grieve, tear and torment, the souls of men. The world is a circle, and the heart of man is a triangle, and no triangle can fill a circle.^ Some good or other will be always wanting to that man that hath only outward good to live upon. Absalom's beauty could not satisfy him, nor Haman's honour could not satisfy him, nor Ahab's kingdom could not satisfy him, nor Balaam's gold could not satisfy him, nor Ahithophel's policy could not satisfy him, nor the scribes and pharisees' learning could not satisfy them, nor Dives's riches could not satisfy him, nor Alexander's conquests could not satisfy him ; for when, as he thought, he had conquered one world, he sits down and wishes for another world to conquer ; and Cyrus the Persian king was wont to say, did men but know the cares which he sustained under his imperial crown, he thought no man would stoop to take it up.' Gilimex, king of the Vandals, when he was led in triumph by Belisarius, cried out, ' Vanity of vanity, all is vanity.' Charles the fifth, emperor of Germany, whom of all men the world judged most happy, cried out with detestation to all his honours, riches, pleasures, trophies, Ahite hinc, ahite longe, get you hence, let me hear no more of you. And it hath been long since said of our King Henry the second,
' He whom, alive, the world could scarce suffice, When dead, in eight-foot earth contented lies.'*
By all these instances, it is most evident that no earthly portions can satisfy the souls of men. Can a man fill up his chest with air ? or am he fill up the huge ocean with a drop of water ? or can a few drops of beer quench the thirst of a man in a burning fever ? or can the smell of meat, or the reeking fume of a ladle, or dreaming of a banquet, satisfy an hungry stomach ? No ! no more can any earthly portions fill or satisfy the heart of man. If emptiness can fill the soul, if vanity can satisfy the soul, or if vexation can give content to the soul, then may earthly portions satisfy the soul, but not till then. When a man can gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles, and turn day into night, and win- ter into summer, then shall he find satisfaction in the creatures ; but not before. All earthly portions are weighed in the balance of the
' Some read the words thus: He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, and he that loveth it in the multitude of it shall not have fruit.
* If the whole world were changed into a globe of gold, it could not fill one heart, it could not satisfy one immortal soul. ^ Ascribed to Xerxes; Plutarch. — G.
* Fuller's Chuicb History, book iii. cent. xii. sec. vii. from Matthew Paris, p. 151. — G.
Lam. III. 24] an ark for all god's noahs. 35
sanctuary, and they are found to be lighter than the dust of the balance; and this will rather inflame the thirst than quench it.
A man that hath only the world for his portion, is like to Noah's dove out of the ark, that was in continual motion, but could find no resting place ; but a man that hath God for his portion is like the dove, re- turning; and restincr in the ark, The soul can never be at rest, till it comes to rest and centre in God.^ God himself is the soul s only home, no good but the chiefest good can suflSce an immortal soul. Look, as God never rested till he had made man, so man can never rest till he comes to enjoy God ; the soul of man is of a very vast capacity, and no- thing can Hll it to ihe brim but he that is fulness itself. It is the breast, and not the baby^ nor the rattle, that will satisfy the hungry child ; and it is God, and not this or that creature, that can satisfy the soul of man. But,
(14J) Fourteenthly, As God is a soul-satisfying portion, so God is a permanent portion, an indefinite portion, a never failing portion, a lasting, yea, an everlxisting fortlon : Ps. Ixxiii. 26, ' My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the strength, or the rock, of my heart, and my portion forever.' God is a fountain which the hottest summer dries not, a bottomless treasure that can never be expended. God ever was, and ever will be. He cannot borrow his being from anything, who gives being and well-being to all things. ' God is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, he is yesterday and to-day, and the same for ever,' Rev. i. 8. God is the Almighty, which is, and which was, and which is to come. All the difierences of time are united by some to connote the eternity of God, in that Exod, iii. 14, 'And God said unto Moses, I AM that I AM : and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me untoyou.'^ Some translate this text, according to the full scope of the future amongst the Hebrews, ' I am that I am, that I was, and that I will be ;' for the future amongst the Hebrews points at all dif- ferences of time, past, present, and to come ; but others, obsei-ving the strict and proper signification of the future, translate it thus, ' I will be that I will be.' This name of God imports two of God's incommunicable attributes.
First, His eternity, when he saith, ' I will be.'
Secondly, His immutability, when he saith, ' That I will be.' The Rabbins, upon this text, express themselves after this manner : ' The blessed God said unto Moses, Say unto them, I that have been, and 1 the same now, and I the same for time to come,' &c.; but others, more agreeable to the Chaldee paraphrase, express themselves thus : ' I, he that is, and was, and hereafter wiU be, hath sent me unto you.'* But it is observable, that the angel of the waters unites all ditferences of time in that great and glorious acknowledgment. Rev. xvi. 5, ' Thou art righteous, 0 Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.' God is a God of that infinite excellency and glory, that
' A reminiscence of Augustine's memorable saying, ' Fecisti nos ad te, Domine, et in- quietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in te,' Conf. i. 1. — G. . * 'Doll.' — G.
3 Omnia tempora eonjuncta de Deo dicta eternitatem connotant.