Value That Which Is Most Valuable (1)

If eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man to conceive those things that God has prepared for him, then let us make this the rule of our esteem of anything that is good, or anything that is ill; make it a rule of valuation. We grieve at the fever, and at the gallstone, and the gout; they are grievous things indeed. But what be these things that we feel and see, to those in another world, that we cannot apprehend! The torments of hell, we cannot conceive and understand them here; for it is indeed to be in hell itself to conceive what hell is. Also, it is the same with the greatest good. Christ could see through all the glory in the world that the devil showed him (Matt. 4:8). These are things that we can hear of. They are not the greatest good. There are more excellent things than the things of this world. There be things that the eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the soul conceived; and these be the joys of heaven. Is not this desperate folly, to venture the loss of the best things, of the most transcendent things, that are above the capacity of the greatest reaches of the world? Will I lose all for petty poor things that are within my own reach and compass?
How foolish are those that are given to pleasures! They feel the pleasure indeed, but the sting comes after. They delight in those ill things that they can see and hear, and never think of the excellent things that the eye has not seen nor ear heard. Let this make us to love divine truths in the Scripture, the gospel, that part of the Scripture that promises salvation by Christ, and all the graces and privileges of Christianity. These are above our reach. We study other things which we can reach. We can reach the mysteries of the law by long study, and the mysteries of physics, and the mysteries of trades by understanding. To be wise to salvation is the best wisdom.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
A Glance of Heaven, Works, vol. 4, pp. 162-63
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