SAFETY, FULLNESS, AND
SWEET REFRESHMENT,
TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST
by Jonathan Edwards
(1752), minimally edited from Works, 2.929–36
Part 2 of 3
“And a man shall be as an hiding place
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest;
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.”
(Isaiah 32:2)
II. There is provision in Christ for the satisfaction and full contentment
of the needy and thirsty soul
This is the sense of those words in the text, “as rivers of water in a dry
place,” in a dry and parched wilderness, where there is a great want of water,
and where travellers are ready to be destroyed with thirst, such as was that
wilderness in which the children of Israel wandered. This comparison is used
elsewhere in the Scriptures, Psalm 63:1, “O God, thou art my God; early will I
seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land, where no water is.” Psalm 143:6, “I stretch forth my hands unto
thee; my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.” Those who travel in
such a land, who wander in such a wilderness, are in extreme need of water.
They are ready to perish for the want of it, and thus they have a great thirst
and longing for it.
It is said that Christ is a river of water, because there is such a fullness in
Him, so plentiful a provision for the satisfaction of the needy and longing
soul. When one is extremely thirsty, though it is not a small draught of water
will satisfy him, yet when he comes to a river, he finds a fullness, there he
may drink full draughts. Christ is like a river, in that He has a sufficiency
not only for one thirsty soul, but by supplying him the fountain is not
lessened. There is not the less afforded to those who come afterwards. A
thirsty man does not sensibly lessen a river by quenching his thirst.
Christ is like a river in another respect. A river is continually flowing,
there are fresh supplies of water coming from the fountain head continually, so
that a man may live by it, and be supplied with water all his life. So Christ
is an ever-flowing fountain. He is continually supplying His people, and the
fountain is not spent. They who live upon Christ, may have fresh supplies from
Him to all eternity. They may have an increase of blessedness that is new, and new
still, and which never will come to an end.
In enlarging this second proposition, let us consider:
Man’s Natural Craving for Happiness
First, what is it that the soul of every man naturally and
necessarily craves?
(1) The soul of every man necessarily craves happiness. This is a universal
appetite of human nature that is alike in the good and the bad. It is as
universal as the very essence of the soul, because it necessarily and
immediately flows from that essence. It is not only natural to all mankind, but
to the angels. It is universal among all reasonable, intelligent beings, in
heaven, earth, or hell, because it flows necessarily from an intelligent
nature. There is no rational being, nor can there be any, without a love and
desire of happiness. It is impossible that there should be any creature made
that should love misery, or not love happiness, since it implies a manifest
contradiction. For the very notion of misery is to be in a state that nature
abhors, and the notion of happiness is to be in such a state as is most
agreeable to nature.
Therefore, this craving of happiness must be insuperable, and what never can be
changed. It never can be overcome, or in any way abated. Young and old love
happiness alike, and good and bad, wise and unwise, though there is a great
variety as to men’s ideas of happiness. Some think it is to be found in one
thing, and some in another, yet as to the desire of happiness in general, there
is no variety. There are particular appetites that may be restrained, and kept under,
and conquered, but this general appetite for happiness never can be.
(2) The soul of every man craves a happiness that is equal to the capacity of
his nature. The soul of man is like a vessel: the capacity of the soul is as
the largeness or contents of the vessel. And therefore, if man has much
pleasure and happiness, yet if the vessel is not full, the craving will not
cease. Every creature is restless till it enjoys what is equal to the capacity
of its nature. Thus we may observe in the brutes: when they have that which is
suitable to their nature, and proportional to their capacity, they are
contented. Man is of such a nature that he is capable of an exceedingly great
degree of happiness. He is made of a vastly higher nature than the brutes, and therefore
he must have vastly higher happiness to satisfy. The pleasures of the outward
senses, which content the beasts, will not content man. He has other faculties
of a higher nature that stand in need of something to fill them. If the sense
be satiated, yet if the faculties of the soul are not filled, man will be in a
craving restless state.
It is more especially by reason of the faculty of understanding that the soul
is capable of so great a happiness, and desires so much. The understanding is
an exceedingly extensive faculty. It extends itself beyond the limits of earth,
beyond the limits of the creation. As we are capable of understanding immensely
more than we do understand, who can tell how far the understanding of men is
capable of stretching itself? And as the understanding enlarges, the desire
will enlarge with it. It must therefore be an incomprehensible object that must
satisfy the soul. It will never be contented with that, and that only, to which
it can see an end. It will never be satisfied with that happiness to which it
can find a bottom.
A man may seem to take contentment for a little while in a finite object, but
after he has had a little experience, he finds that he wants something besides.
This is very apparent from the experience of this restless craving world.
Everyone is inquiring, “Who will shew us any good?” (Ps 4:6).
Man’s Want of Happiness
Second, men in their fallen state are in very great want of this
happiness. They were once in the enjoyment of it, but mankind are sunk to a very
low estate. We are naturally poor, destitute creatures. We came naked into the
world, and our souls as well as our bodies are in a wretched, miserable
condition. We are so far from having food to eat suitable to our nature, that
we are greedy after the husks which the swine do eat.
The poverty of man in a natural condition, appears in his discontented, craving
spirit. It shows that the soul is very empty, when like the horse-leech, it
cries, “Give, give, and saith not, It is enough.” We are naturally like the
prodigal, for we once were rich, but we departed from our father’s house, and
have squandered away our wealth, and are become poor, hungry, famishing
wretches (Lk 15:11ff.).
Men in a natural condition may find something to gratify their senses, but
there is nothing to feed the soul. That more noble and more essential part
perishes for lack of food. They may fare sumptuously every day, and they may
pamper their bodies, but the soul cannot be fed from a sumptuous table. They
may drink wine in bowls, yet the spiritual part is not refreshed. The superior
faculties want to be supplied as well as the inferior. True poverty and true
misery consist in the want of those things of which our spiritual part stands
in need.
Man’s Natural Blindness to his Real Needs
Third, those sinners who are thoroughly awakened, are sensible of
their great want. Multitudes of men are not sensible of their miserable, needy
condition. There are many who are thus poor, and think themselves rich, and
increased in goods. Indeed there are no natural men that have true contentment.
They are all restless, and crying, “Who will shew us any good?” (Ps 4:6). But
multitudes are not sensible how exceedingly necessitous is their condition. But
the thoroughly awakened soul sees that he is very far from true happiness, that
those things which he possesses will never make him happy, and that for all his
outward possessions he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked. He becomes sensible of the short continuance and uncertainty of those
things, and their insufficiency to satisfy a troubled conscience. He wants
something else to give him peace and ease. If you would tell him that he might
have a kingdom, it would not quiet him. He desires to have his sins pardoned,
and to be at peace with his Judge. He is poor, and he becomes a beggar. He
comes and cries for help. He does not thirst because he as yet sees where true
happiness is to be found, but because he sees that he has it not, and cannot
find it. He is without comfort, and does not know where to find it, but he
longs for it. O, what would he not give, if he could find some satisfying peace
and comfort!
Such are those hungry, thirsty souls that Christ so often invites to come to
Him, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no
money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and
your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat
ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isa
55:1–2). “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink…. And [he] that is
athirst… let him [come and] take [of] the water of life freely” (Jn 7:37; Rev
22:17).
Contentment may be found in Christ alone
Fourth, there is in Christ Jesus provision for the full
satisfaction and contentment of such as these.
(1) The excellency of Christ is such, that the discovery of it is exceedingly
contenting and satisfying to the soul. The inquiry of the soul is after that
which is most excellent. The carnal soul imagines that earthly things are
excellent. One thinks riches most excellent, another has the highest esteem of
honour, and to another carnal pleasure appears the most excellent; but the soul
cannot find contentment in any of these things, because it soon finds an end to
their excellency.
Worldly men imagine that there is true excellency and true happiness in those
things which they are pursuing. They think that if they could but obtain them,
they should be happy. When they obtain them and cannot find happiness, they
look for happiness in something else, and are still upon the pursuit.
But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they
come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a
transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Him. It sees that till now it
has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance. [It sees]
that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has
found the ocean. The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural
cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity. It is an infinite
excellency, such an one as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds.
The more the mind is used to it, the more excellent it appears. Every new
discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind sees no end.
Here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the
bottom. The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on this beauty,
and it is never weary of it. The mind never has any satiety, but Christ’s
excellency is always fresh and new, and tends as much to delight, after it has
seen a thousand or ten thousand years, as when it was seen the first moment.
The excellency of Christ is an object suited to the superior faculties of man.
It is suited to entertain the faculty of reason and understanding, and there is
nothing so worthy about which the understanding can be employed as this
excellency. No other object is so great, noble, and exalted.
This excellency of Jesus Christ is the suitable food of the rational soul. The
soul that comes to Christ, feeds upon this, and lives upon it. It is that bread
which came down from heaven, of which he that eats shall not die. It is angels’
food (Ps 78:25), and it is that wine and milk that is given without money, and
without price. This is that fatness in which the believing soul delights
itself. Here the longing soul may be satisfied, and the hungry soul may be
filled with goodness. The delight and contentment that is to be found here,
passeth understanding, and is unspeakable and full of glory. It is impossible
for those who have tasted of this fountain, and know the sweetness of it, ever
to forsake it. The soul has found the river of water of life, and it desires no
other drink. It has found the tree of life, and it desires no other fruit.
(2) The manifestation of the love of Christ gives the soul abundant
contentment. This love of Christ is exceeding sweet and satisfying. It is
better than life, because it is the love of a person of such dignity and
excellency. The sweetness of His love depends very much upon the greatness of
His excellency: so much the more lovely the person, so much the more desirable
is His love. How sweet must the love of that person be, who is the eternal Son
of God, who is of equal dignity with the Father! How great a happiness must it
be to be the object of the love of Him who is the Creator of the world, and by
whom all things consist, and who is exalted at God’s right hand, and made head
over principalities and powers in heavenly places, who has all things put under
His feet, and is King of kings and Lord of lords, and is the brightness of the
Father’s glory! Surely to be beloved by Him is enough to satisfy the soul of a
worm of the dust.
This love of Christ is also exceedingly sweet and satisfying from the greatness
of it. It is a dying love, such love as never was before seen, and such as no
other can parallel. There have been instances of very great love between one
earthly friend and another: there was a surpassing love between David and
Jonathan. But there never was any such love as Christ has towards believers.
The satisfying nature of this love arises also from the sweet fruits of it.
Those precious benefits that Christ bestows upon His people, and those precious
promises which He has given them are the fruit of this love. Joy and hope are
the constant streams that flow from this fountain, from the love of Christ.
(3) There is provision for the satisfaction and contentment of the thirsty
longing soul in Christ, as He is the way to the Father, not only from the
fullness of excellency and grace which He has in His own person, but as by Him
we may come to God, may be reconciled to Him, and may be made happy in His
favour and love.
The poverty and want of the soul in its natural state consist in its being
separated from God, for God is the riches and the happiness of the creature.
But we naturally are alienated from God, and God is alienated from us: our
Maker is not at peace with us. But in Christ there is a way for a free
communication between God and us, for us to come to God, and for God to
communicate Himself to us by His Spirit. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6).
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph 2:13,
18–19).
Christ, by being thus the way to the Father, is the way to true happiness and
contentment. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and
shall go in and out, and find pasture” (Jn 10:9).
Conclusion
Hence I would take occasion to invite needy, thirsty souls to come to Jesus.
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (Jn 7:37). You that have
not yet come to Christ, are in a poor, necessitous condition; you are in a
parched wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. And if you are thoroughly
awakened, you are sensible that you are in distress and ready to faint for want
of something to satisfy your souls. Come to Him who is “as rivers of water in a
dry place.” There are plenty and fullness in Him. He is like a river that is
always flowing, you may live by it forever, and never be in want. Come to Him
who has such excellency as is sufficient to give full contentment to your soul,
who is a person of transcendent glory, and ineffable beauty, where you may
entertain the view of your soul forever without weariness, and without being
cloyed. Accept of the offered love of Him who is the only begotten Son of God,
and His elect, in whom His soul delights (cf. Isa 55:2). Through Christ, come
to God the Father, from whom you have departed by sin. He is the way, the
truth, and the life. He is the door, by which if any man enters he shall be
saved.
— 23 June 2002
Part 3 of 3 | Part 1 of 3
