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{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation to Good Traders in Christianity
Advice: Lay Up for Glory
Lay Up Desires for Glory}
Lay up desires for glory—not only some desire for glory, but such desires that nothing else can satisfy except glory, that is, be content with nothing short of a whole God. Most souls in this life limit their desires and set their wishes too short of true blessedness. My soul thirsts for God (said God[’s Word]), but it was only for some sights of His power and glory, as he had seen Him in His Sanctuary (Psalm 63:1–3).1660 A few looks through the lattice (Song of Solomon 2:9)1661 and a few embraces of Christ in the arms of faith pleased the spouse and satisfies most souls here. Alas, how few are the gracious souls that only a little of God will not satisfy!1662 One desires grace, another peace. Some seek enlivening and comforts. Others seek enlightenment, for higher measures of knowledge, or for some sights of God through a dark glass. But how few longings are there to see [God] to the extent that He sees us, to know God to the extent that He knows us (1 Corinthians 13:12)?1663 And indeed, it is strange that Heaven-born souls who are heirs of glory and fellow citizens of Heaven should have no more longings for their own home, and not only for some firstfruits, but the full ripe fruit of their own country. David sometimes had acted according to such longings; he not only wanted God to come to him, but for himself to go to God. His heart takes a leap from the path of life into the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11 NASB). From beholding God’s face here, he longs for the satisfying visions of God in glory. “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15 NASB). Paul also, under the highest enjoyment of God here, had his unsatisfied longings to be with Him as the best thing of all (Philippians 1:23).1664 Paul counted his greatest intimacy with Christ in the body as a kind of absence. “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6 NASB). Do not limit your desires to anything that can satisfy you on this side of glory. Raise up desires in yourself that cannot be answered until you come to Heaven by means of such longings as these:1665
Oh, when will I come to that blessed state, to know [God] as I am known [by God], to have every corner of my heart directly filled with the radiant energy of His glorious fullness! Oh, when will that time, or rather, that eternity come, when I will be satisfied with looking on that blessed face that is the angel’s wonder and the saint’s joy every day. Here, alas! I lie among the pots, all sooty and defiled, while the vessels of my Father’s house and the bowls before the altar out of which my Lord always drinks are bright and glorious. Now I have my habitation where dragons lie, while a glorious pavilion stands empty for me. Here I feed on my own dung and often eat the excrement of demons, and all the while there is bread enough in my Father’s house and my brethren fare deliciously at the King’s table. Oh, when will my work be done that I may be gone! When will the things for cleansing be given me and the days of my purification be accomplished that my turn may come to go into the Lord my King! When will the nuptial garments, the bridal ornaments, the robe, the ring, the royal vestments bespangled with costly jewels be given me with the most welcome message, Arise my love, my dove, my fair one, and come away!
Lay up such kind of longings after the mountains of spices, the everlasting hills, the rivers of pleasures, the bride-chamber of glory, where you will be forever with the Lord. This will hasten your pace to Heaven and mount you on the wings of a dove. This will help you go past the world’s glory with a holy scorn and to bear its cruelty with incredible patience.
1660“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Psalm 63:1–3 ESV).
1661“My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he is standing behind our wall, He is looking through the windows, He is peering through the lattice” (Song of Solomon 2:9 NASB).
1662These last three sentences are awkward in Ashwood’s text and seem to contain errors. The editor has cleaned them up as well as he could.
1663“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV).
1664“For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:23 NKJV).
1665The block text is Ashwood’s example to the reader of the kind of thoughts one ought to have, not a quotation from another author.
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