21. The efficacy of this living Word was also tasted by the royal prophet, through the Holy Ghost, when he burst forth into these words: “In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Ps. 16:11. From this lively sense, he also invited others to an enjoyment of the same sweetness, saying, “O taste and see that the Lord is good. There is no want to them that fear him.” Ps. 34:8, 9. Of the plenty and dignity of this heavenly banquet, he hath thus expressed himself: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my [pg 121] cup runneth over.” Ps. 23:5. “Thy loving kindness is better than life.” Ps. 63:3. “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.” Ps. 36:8. And lastly, “Let all those that seek thee, rejoice and be glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation, say continually, Let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.” Ps. 70:4, 5.
22. From all these, and many other places besides, it may abundantly be known who those are that are inwardly fed with the good Word of God, and with the hidden manna of the world to come; even those that are poor in spirit, who entirely rely on divine comfort. These only are worthy to taste of this heavenly manna, and of the divine gift, of which David speaks at large: “How amiable,” says he, “are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” Ps. 84:1, 2. By this Scripture we may understand, that the least pleasure of the world to come, infinitely exceeds all the joys of this world; and that one day passed there, is far more excellent than a thousand years here. Whoever has tasted these exquisite pleasures, will discard the things of this life, as empty and insipid. The whole world becomes a burden, a trouble and vexation of spirit, to such a person. He is like one that is accustomed to delicious fare, and consequently cannot partake of what is coarse.
23. This is so sacred a hunger and thirst, that none but God alone can satisfy it, and he only, by his love. This is that spiritual fulness with which the saints are satiated, according to the words: “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” Song of Sol. 5:1. These spiritual enjoyments the Lord bestows on his friends, in order to unite them the more closely to himself, and to make them the sooner forget the perishing things of this world. A few crumbs of this bread, a few drops pressed from this heavenly vine, ought to excite our desires after that plentiful and abounding fountain, which shall flow for us hereafter.
24. In order that the Lord might excite in us so sacred a thirst, and that he might make us long the more earnestly after such heavenly objects as these, it was expedient that he should first himself thirst upon the cross for our sakes. John 19:28. As he himself satisfies and quenches our hunger and thirst, so ought we again to satiate his thirst and ardent desire of loving. He more fervently thirsts after us, than we do after him; according to that which he hath himself declared: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34): and the will of God was, to save men from everlasting destruction. If we but thirsted after him as he thirsts after us, we should then drink so plentifully of his Spirit, that even “rivers of living water would flow from our bodies” (John 7:38): that is, nothing should be seen in us, but what is spiritual, lovely, and consolatory. Nay, he would make us overflow, as it were, with a torrent of divine goodness and consolation, so that soul and body, and all that is within us, should triumphantly rejoice in the living God. For nothing is of so great and so divine an amplitude as a man's soul, after it has gained true [pg 122] freedom and liberty. Such a soul comprehends God, heaven, and earth. And again, nothing is less than a man's soul in its nothingness and humiliation, when it humbles itself under God and all his creatures.
Chapter XXXVII.
He Who Does Not Follow Christ In Faith, Holiness, And Continued Repentance, Cannot Be Delivered From The Blindness Of His Heart, But Must Abide In Eternal Darkness; And He Cannot Have A True Knowledge Of Christ, Or Fellowship With Him.
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: if we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.—1 John 1:5-7.
That we may the better understand the nature of light and darkness, it is necessary first to give heed to the description of the light, as it is originally.
2. “God is light,” saith St. John. But what is God? God is a spiritual, eternal, and infinite Being; God is almighty, merciful, gracious, righteous, holy, true, and the only wise God. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is unspeakable love and faithfulness; He is one in three Persons; He is the Sovereign Good, and good essentially. And this is the true and everlasting light. Whence every one that departs from God, from his love, his mercy, his righteousness, and his truth, departs also from light itself, and must consequently fall into darkness; for without God there is nothing but everlasting darkness. O how dark, therefore, is that soul in which God doth not dwell! Now if God be light, then the devil must certainly be darkness; and if God be love, then the devil must be nothing but hatred and wrath, enmity and envy, malice and uncharitableness, sin and wickedness. Whoever, therefore, turns himself to sin, turns himself to darkness and to the devil. Neither can he be delivered, till he turn back again, from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from vice to virtue, from the devil to God. Acts 26:18. And this is the work of a true and living faith which purifies the heart. Acts 15:9. For he who believes in Christ, daily repents and turns from sin and the devil to Christ Jesus. For even as Adam by sin turned himself from God to the devil, so we ought to withdraw again, by true repentance and faith, from the devil to God.