The Soul's Happiness.
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O my soul, you are spiritual in your essence, immense in your desires, and immortal in your nature; so that there must beproportion and perfection in that which you enjoy, with a perpetuity of both—or you will have no real satisfaction.
Now, were the world turned into a pleasant Eden, and that Eden refreshed with the living springs of immortality, and you seated on a throne of its choicest excellencies, crowned with the diadem of its highest felicities, swaying the sceptre of your glory over all sublunary creatures—nay, could you give guidance to the sun, did your territories border upon the highest heavens, and the revenues of your crown flow in from the farthest parts of the earth; yet what proportion does a material world bear to animmortal soul?
Will a lion feed upon grass? Or can the soul be satisfied with dust? You may as soon feed your body with wood—as your soul with the world. If the world did bear proportion—yet it lacks perfection.
Could the devil turn chemist, and extract the very vital essence and quintessence of the purest and most desirable excellencies under heaven—yet they would be of such an imperfect nature, that there would be more lees than liquor, more thorns thanflowers, more smoke than fire, more poison than honey; so that a man will be filled with a whirlwind of vexation, who wished to be satisfied with an object of imperfection! For it is impossible that such a scanty excellency, should in any way fill such an enlarged capacity.
Yet again, were there perfection, there is not perpetuity in this poor world. It will fly away like a bird from the perch—or melt away like ice before the sun—and so leave the immortal soul to sink forever! So that the world will not only make you restless—but leave you miserable! I see then, that I shall never rest—until I rest in God! He who is the Almighty Father, the fountain of bliss, the ancient of days—is the only adequate object to suit my immortal soul. The rest of the creature is in its end; the end of the soul is its God. Therefore, Lord, seeing you have made me for Yourself—fill me fully with Yourself, or take me wholly to Yourself!