When you have tasted the goodness of God, you will esteem God above all earthly things, preferring celestial before sublunary sweetness.

All will be counted dirt and dung to Christ, or as some render it, dog’s meat to Christ (Phil 3:8), that is, coarse and contemptible food after such junkets. You will esteem Christ as the people did David, worth more than ten thousand, or as Naomi did Ruth, better than seven sons. ”None but Christ, none but Christ,” said Lambert, lifting up such hands as he had and his fingers’ ends flaming. A good heart prizes God in Christ above all the world. For as the shining of the sun drowns the stars, so the inconceivable sweetness of Christ turns other sweets (which you admired before) into bitterness.

And if you meet with any sweetness, any content in earthly things, it still admires God and cannot but infer, that if the creature be so sweet, how sweet the Creator must be? If the viaticum is so pleasant in my journey, how glorious will the feast be at home? Have you such thoughts of Christ? You indeed have tasted the goodness of God.

—Robert Dingley

Categories:

Comments are closed

Archives