“It is the pleasant face of God in Christ that puts gladness into the believer’s heart” by Edward Fisher

EVANGELISTA, a Minister of the Gospel.
NOMISTA, a Legalist.

“NOMISTA: ‘Then, sir, it seems to me, that God in Christ, apprehended by faith, is the only true rest for man’s soul.’

“EVANGELISTA: ‘There is the true rest indeed; there is the rest which David invites his soul unto, when he says, ‘Return unto thy rest, O my soul! For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee,’ (Psalm 116:7), ‘For we which have believed,’ says the author to the Hebrews, ‘have entered into his rest,‘ (Heb. 4:3).

And ‘Come unto me,’ says Christ, ‘all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ (Matt. 11:28).

And truly, my neighbours and friends, believe it, we shall never find a heart’s happiness, and true soul’s rest, until we find it here.

For howsoever a man may think, if he had this man’s wit and that man’s wealth, this man’s honour and that man’s pleasure, this wife, or that husband, such children, and such servants, his heart would be satisfied, and his soul would be contented; yet which of us hath not, by our own experience, found the contrary?

For, not long after that we have obtained the thing we did so much desire, and wherein we promised ourselves so much happiness, rest, and content, we have found nothing but vanity and emptiness in it.

Let a man but deal plainly with his own heart, and he shall find, that, notwithstanding he hath many things, yet there is ever one thing wanting: for indeed man’s soul cannot be satisfied with any creature, no, not with a world of creatures.

And the reason is, because the desires of man’s soul are infinite, according to that infinite goodness which it once lost in losing God.

Yea, and man’s soul is a spirit; and therefore cannot communicate with any corporal thing; so that all creatures, not being that infinite and spiritual fulness which our hearts have lost, and towards which they do still re-aspire; they cannot give it full contentment.

Nay, let me say more; howsoever a man may, in the midst of his sensual fulness, be convinced in his conscience that he is at enmity with God, and therefore in danger of his wrath and eternal damnation; and be thereupon moved to reform his life and amend his ways, and endeavour to seek peace and rest to his soul.

Yet this being in the way of works, it is impossible that he should find it; for his conscience will ever be accusing him, that this good duty he ought to have done, and has not done it; and this evil he ought to have forborne, and yet he has done it; and in the performance of this duty he was remiss, and in that duty very defective; and many such ways will his soul be disquieted.

But when a man once comes to believe, that all his sins, both past, present, and to come, are freely and fully pardoned, and God in Christ graciously reconciled unto him, the Lord doth thereupon so reveal his fatherly face unto him in Christ, and so make known that incredible union betwixt him and the believing soul, that his heart becomes quietly contented in God.

For hereupon there comes into the soul such peace, flowing from the God of peace, that it fills the emptiness of the soul with true fulness, in the fullness of God, so that now the heart ceases to harass the understanding and reason and is satisfied and truly quieted.

For when a man’s heart is at peace in God, and is become truly full in that peace and joy passing understanding, then the devil hath not that hope to prevail against his soul, as he had before.

He knows right well that it is in vain to bait his hook with profits, pleasures, honour, or any other such like seeming good, to catch such a soul that is thus at quiet in God; for he hath all fullness in God, and what can be added to fulness but it runneth over?

‘Whom have I in heaven but thee?‘ says David, ‘and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee,’ (Psalm 73:25).

It is the pleasant face of God in Christ that puts gladness into the believer’s heart (Psalm 4:7).”

–Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Fearn, Scotland, UK: Christian Heritage, 1645/2009), 261-262.