> Ps. Ixiii. 1-4, xxvii. 4 ; Philip, iii. 7-10.
* "linK'S from IPIK', which signifies 1o seek in the morning, when it is but dim and dusky, scarce twilight; for of darkness it hath its name, and it notes both an earnest aud an early seeking. * Seo Glossary, tub voce. — G.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. '421
sufficeth us.* All things in the world cannot suffice us, but a sight of the Father, that will satisfy us : Ps. Ixiii. 5, 6, ' My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness ; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips ; when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches.' Ps. Ixv, 4, ' We shall be satisfied with the good- ness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.' It is only God, and the precious things of his house, that can satisfy a thirsty soul.*
It was a sweet saying of one, ' As what I have, if offered to thee, pleaseth thee not, O Lord, without myself; so the good things we have from thee, though they may refresh us, yet they cannot satisfy us, without thyself.' The rattle without the breast will not satisfy the child, the house without the husband will not satisfy the wife, the cabinet without the jewel will not satisfy the virgin, nor the world without Christ will not satisfy the soiil.
Luther, in a time of wants, receiving unexpectedly a good sum of money from the elector of Germany, at which being somewhat amazed, he turned himself to God and protested, that God should not put him off with such poor low things.^ The hungry soul will not be put off with any bread but with the bread of life ; the thirsty soul will not be put off with any water but with the well-springs of life. As the king of Sodom said once, ' Take you the goods, give me the persons,' Gen. xiv. 21 ; so says the hungry soul. Take you the goods, take your honours, and riches, and the favour of creatures, take you the corn, the oil, and the wine ; give me Christ, give me the light of his countenance, give me the joy of his Spirit, &c. Oh the answering of spiritual breathings is very sweet to the soul : Prov. xiiL 19, ' The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.' Returns from heaven make a paradise in the soul.
I have read of Darius, that when he fled from his enemy, and being in great thirst, he met with a dirty puddle of water, with carrion lying in it, and he sucked in and drank very heartily of it, and pro- fessed, ' That it was the sweetest draught that ever he drunk in his life.'' Ah, how sweet then are those waters of life that be at God's right hand ! How sweet are the droppings of God's honeycomb upon the hungry soul ! Water out of the rock, and manna in the wilderness, was not so sweet to the hungry, thirsty Israelites, as spiritual answers and spiritual returns are to those that hunger and thirst after spiritual things.
(6.) TJie sixth means to obtain a well-grounded assurance of your everlasting happiness is, to be much, yea, to excel in those choice par- ticular things that mxiy clearly and fully difference and distinguish you, not only from the profane, hut also from the highest and most glistering hypocrites in all the world* It is nothing to be much in those duties and performances wherein the worst of sinners may equalize, yea, go beyond the best of saints. Oh ! but to excel in those things that the most refined hypocrites cannot reach to, this cannot but much help
' Christus estmihipro omnibus, saith one,
' Valde protestatus sum, me nolle sic satiari ab eo. — Luther.
* Quintus Curtius? — Gr,
f Many may be much in and for church ordinances, whose hearts are very carnal, and whose lives aro very vain, Ezek, xxiv. 21, 32. You have seven expressions of carnal hearts prizing church privileges: so Jer. iv. 3 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 30-33 ; laa. i. 11-14; Zech. vii. 4-7 ; Isa. Iviii. 1-3, &c
422 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 82-34.
you on to assurance. He that hath those jewels in his bosom that God gives only to his choicest favourites, needs not question whether he be a favourite, &c. If he doth it, it is his sin, and will hereafter be his shame.
But you may say to me, What are those choice particular things that may difference and distinguish Christ's true Nathanaels from all other persons in the world ?
Now, to this question I shall give these following answers :
[1.] The first distinction. A true Nathanael, in his constant course, labours in all duties and sei^vices to he apjyroved and accepted of God. He is most studious and industrious to approve his heart to God in all that he puts his hand to. So David, ' Search me, 0 God, and know my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,' Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24.^ So Peter approves his heart to Christ three several times to- gether : * Lord, thou knowest that I love thee ; Lord, thou knowest that I love thee ; Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee,' John xxi. 15-17. Thou knowest the sincerity and reality of my love, and therefore to thee I do appeal. To the same purpose the apostle speaks : 2 Cor. v. 9, ' Wherefore we labour, that, whether pre- sent or absent, we may be accepted of him.' The Greek word [p/Xor;/Aou- fji'iSa] that is here rendered labour, is a very emphatical word ; it signifies to labour and endeavour with all earnestness and might, to endeavour with a high and holy ambition to be accepted of God, judging it the greatest honour in the world to be owned and accepted of the Lord. Ambitious men are not more dUigent, earnest, studious, and laborious to get honour among men, than we are, saith the apostle, to get accept- ance with God. Ah ! but your most refined hypocrites labour only to approve themselves to men in their praying, fasting, talking, hearing, giving, &c.^ Let them have but man's eye to see them, and man's ear to hear them, and man's tongue to commend them, and man's hand to reward them, and they will sit down and bless themselves, saying it is enough ; aha ! so would we have it.
They say of the nightingale, that when she is solitary in the woods, she is careless of her note ; but when she conceives that she hath any auditors, or is near houses, then she composes herself more quaintly and elegantly. Verily, this is the frame and temper of the best of hypocrites. Oh ! but a sincere Nathanael labours in all places, and in all cases and services, to approve himself to God ; he labours as much to approve himself to God in a wood, where no eye sees him, as he doth when the eyes of thousands are fixed upon him.^ The sun would shine bright though all men were asleep at high noon, and no eyes open to see the glory of his beams : so a sincere heart will shine, he will labour to do good ; though all the world should shut their eyes, yet he will eye his work, and eye his God. He knows that God is totus oculus, all eye, and therefore he cares not though others have never an eye to observe
> *31pn, to make a strict search and inquisition.