The Whole of Man’s Happiness
Isaac Ambrose (1604—1664) was a Puritan pastor, author, and theologian. He obtained the curacy of St Edmund’s Church, Castleton, Derbyshire, in 1627 and was one of king's four preachers in Lancashire in 1631. He worked for establishment of Presbyterianism, but was ejected for nonconformity in 1662. His works include Looking Unto Jesus, The Christian Warrior, The First, Middle, and Last Things, and many others.
In Looking Unto Jesus, Ambrose writes,
The most excellent subject to discourse or write of is Jesus Christ.
The most excellent subject to discourse or write of is Jesus Christ. Augustine, having read Cicero's works, commended them for their eloquence but he passed this sentence upon them, “They are not sweet because the name of Jesus is not in them." Indeed all we say is but unsavoury, if it be not seasoned with this salt. I determined not to know anything among you, saith Paul, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. He resolved with himself, before he preached among the Corinthians, that this should be the only point of knowledge that he would profess himself to have skill in, and that in the course of his ministry he would labour to bring them to. This he made the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of his knowledge. Yea, doubtless, saith he, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world.
Christ is the whole of man's happiness.
There is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening. Christ is the sun and center of all divine and revealed truths: we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, which doth not some way or other either meet in Christ or refer to Christ. Only Christ is the whole of man's happiness; the sun to enlighten him, the physician to heal him, the wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures; as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator betwixt God and man; a mystery which the angels of heaven desire to pry into. Here is a blessed subject indeed: who would not be glad to be acquainted with it?
Looking unto Jesus is the epitome of a Christian's happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties.
This is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Come then! Let us look on this Son of righteousness; we cannot, looking unto Jesus, receive harm, but good, by such a look. Indeed, by looking long on the natural sun we may have our eyes dazzled, and our faces blackened; but by looking unto Jesus, we shall have our eyes clearer, and our faces fairer. If the light of the eye rejoice the heart, how much more when we have such a blessed object to look upon! As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights. Looking unto Jesus is the epitome of a Christian's happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties.