Chapter VII: The Use (6)

Yea, he seems in the next words to envy the very birds that could more commonly frequent the temple than he: ‘The sparrow,’ saith he, ‘hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God’ (Psa 84:3). And then blesseth all them that had the liberty of temple worship, saying, ‘Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee’ (Psa 84:4). Then he cries up the happiness of those that in Zion do appear before God (Psa 84:7). After this he cries out unto God, that he would grant him to be partaker of this high favour, saying, ‘O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer,’ &c. ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness’ (Psa 84:8-10).

But why is all this? what aileth the man thus to express himself? Why, as I said, the temple was the great ordinance of God; there was his true worship performed, there God appeared, and there his people were to find him. This was, I say, the reason why the Psalmist chose out, and desired this one thing, above all the things that were under heaven, even ‘to behold there the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.’ There were to be seen the shadows of things in the heavens; the candlestick, the table of shewbread, the holiest of all, where was the golden censer, the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, the golden pot that had manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the tables of the covenant, and the cherubims of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat, which were all of them then things by which God showed himself merciful to them (Heb 9:1-5 compared with 9:23 and 8:5).

Do you think that love-letters are not desired between lovers? Why these, God’s ordinances, they are his love-letters, and his love-tokens too. No marvel then if the righteous do so desire them: ‘More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb’ (Psa 19:10, 119:72-127). Yea, this judgment wisdom itself passes upon these things. ‘Receive,’ saith he, ‘my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies: and all the things that may be desired, are not to be compared to it’ (Prov 8:10,11). For this cause therefore are the ordinances of God so much desired by the righteous. In them they meet with God; and by them they are builded, and nourished up to eternal life. ‘As new born babes,’ says Peter, ‘desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby’ (1 Peter 2:2). As milk is nourishing to children, so is the word heard, read, and meditated on, to the righteous. Therefore it is their desire.

Christ made himself known to them in breaking of bread; who, who would not then, that loves to know him, be present at such an ordinance? (Luke 24:35). Ofttimes the Holy Ghost, in the comfortable influence of it, has accompanied the baptized in the very act of administering it.[10] Therefore, ‘in the way of thy judgments,’ or appointments, ‘O Lord, we thy people have waited for thee: the desire of their soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee’ (Isa 26:8). Church fellowship, or the communion of saints, is the place where the Son of God loveth to walk; his first walking was in Eden, there he converted our first parents: ‘And come, my beloved,’ says he, ‘let us get up to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth; there will I give thee my loves’ (Cant 7:12). Church fellowship, rightly managed, is the glory of all the world. No place, no community, no fellowship, is adorned and bespangled with those beauties as is a church rightly knit together to their head, and lovingly serving one another. ‘In his temple doth every one speak of his glory’ (Psa 29:9). Hence the church is called the place of God’s desire on earth. ‘This is my rest for ever, here I will dwell, for I have desired it’ (Psa 132:13-16). And again, thus the church confesseth when she saith, ‘I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me’ (Cant 7:10).[11]

No marvel then if this be the one thing that David desired, and that which he would seek after, namely, ‘to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.’ And this also shows you the reason why God’s people of old used to venture so hardly for ordinances, and to get to them with the peril of their lives, ‘because of the sword of the wilderness’ (Lam 5:9).[12]

They were their bread, they were their water, they were their milk, they were their honey. Hence the sanctuary was called ‘the desire of their eyes, and that which their soul pitieth, or the pity of their soul.’ They had rather have died than lost it, or than that it should have been burned down as it was (Eze 24:21,25).

When the children of Israel had lost the ark, they count that the glory was departed from Israel. But when they had lost all, what a complaint made they then! ‘He hath violently taken away his tabernacles, as if it were of a garden, he hath destroyed his places of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Sion, and hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest’ (Lam 2:6). Wherefore, upon this account, it was that the church in those days counted the punishment of her iniquity greater than the punishment of Sodom (Lam 4:6; 1 Sam 4:22).

By these few hints you may perceive what is the ‘desire of the righteous.’ But this is spoken of with reference to things present, to things that the righteous desire to enjoy while they are here; communion with God while here; and his ordinances in their purity while here. I come, therefore, in the second place, to show you that the righteous have desires that reach further, desires that have so long a neck as to look into the world to come.

[Desires that can only be accomplished or enjoyed in eternity.]

Second. Then the desires of the righteous are after that which yet they know cannot be enjoyed till after death. And those are comprehended under these two heads—1. They desire that presence of their Lord which is personal. 2. They desire to be in that country where their Lord personally is, that heavenly country.

1. [They desire that presence of their Lord which is personal.] For the first of these, says Paul, ‘I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.’ Thus you have it in Philippians 1:23, ‘I have a desire to be with Christ.’

In our first sort of desires, I told you that the righteous desired spiritual communion with God; and now I tell you they desire to be with Christ’s person—‘I have a desire to be with Christ’; that is, with his person, that I may enjoy his personal presence, such a presence of his as we are not capable to enjoy while here. Hence he says, ‘I have a desire to depart, that I might be with him; knowing,’ as he says in another place, ‘that whilst we are at home in the body, we are,’ and cannot but be, ‘absent from the Lord’ (2 Cor 5:6). Now this desire, as I said, is a desire that hath a long neck; for it can look over the brazen wall of this, quite into another world; and as it hath a long neck, so it is very forcible and mighty in its operation.

(1.) This desire breeds a divorce, a complete divorce, betwixt the soul and all inordinate love and affections to relations and worldly enjoyments. This desire makes a married man live as if he had no wife; a rich man lives as if he possessed not what he has, &c. (1 Cor 7:29,30). This is a soul-sequestering desire. This desire makes a man willing rather to be absent from all enjoyments, that he may be present with the Lord. This is a famous desire; none hath this desire but a righteous man. There are that profess much love to Christ, that yet never had such a desire in them all their life long. No, the relation that they stand in to the world, together with those many flesh-pleasing accommodations with which they are surrounded, would never yet suffer such a desire to enter into their hearts.

(2.) The strength of this desire is such, that it is ready, so far forth as it can, to dissolve that sweet knot of union that is betwixt body and soul, a knot more dear to a reasonable creature than that can be which is betwixt wife and husband, parent and child, or a man and his estate. For even ‘all that a man hath will he give for his life,’ and to keep body and soul firmly knit together. But now, when this desire comes, this ‘silver cord is loosed’; is loosed by consent. This desire grants to him that comes to dissolve this union leave to do it delightfully. ‘We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord’ (2 Cor 5:8). Yea, this desire makes this flesh, this mortal life, a burden. The man that has this desire exercises self-denial, while he waits till his desired change comes. For were it not that the will of God is that he should live, and did he not hope that his life might be serviceable to the truth and church of God, he would not have wherewith to cool the heart of this desire, but would rather, in a holy passion with holy Job, cry out, ‘I loathe,’ or I abhor it, ‘I would not live alway: let me alone,’ that I may die, ‘for my days are vanity’ (Job 7:15-17).

(3.) The strength of this desire shows itself in this also, namely, in that it is willing to grapple with the king of terrors, rather than to be detained from that sweet communion that the soul looks for when it comes into the place where its Lord is. Death is not to be desired for itself; the apostle chose rather to be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven, ‘that mortality might be swallowed up of life’ (2 Cor 5:1-4). But yet, rather than he would be absent from the Lord, he was willing to be absent from the body. Death, in the very thoughts of it, is grievous to flesh and blood; and nothing can so master it in our apprehensions as that by which we attain to these desires. These desires do deal with death, as Jacob’s love to Rachel did deal with the seven long years which he was to serve for her. It made them seem few, or but a little time; now so, I say, doth these desires deal with death itself. They make it seem little, nay, a servant, nay, a privilege; for that, by that a man may come to enjoy the presence of his beloved Lord. ‘I have a desire to depart,’ to go from the world and relations, to go from my body, that great piece of myself; I have a desire to venture the tugs and pains, and the harsh handling of the king of terrors, so I may be with Jesus Christ! These are desires of the righteous.

Are not these therefore strong desires? is there not life and mettle in them? have they not in them power to loose the bands of nature, and to harden the soul against sorrow? flow they not, think you, from faith of the finest sort, and are they not bred in the bosom of a truly mortified soul? are these the effects of a purblind spirit? are they not rather the fruits of an eagle-eyed confidence? O these desires! they are peculiar to the righteous; they are none others but the desires of the righteous.

Quest. But why do the righteous desire to be with Christ?

Answ. And I ask, Why doth the wife—that is, as the loving hind—love to be in the presence of her husband?

1. Christ in glory is worth the being with. If the man out of whom the Lord Jesus did cast a legion, prayed that he might be with him, notwithstanding all the trials that attended him in this life, how can it be but that a righteous man must desire to be with him now he is in glory? What we have heard concerning the excellency of his person, the unspeakableness of his love, the greatness of his sufferings, and the things that he still is doing for us, must needs command our souls into a desire to be with him. When we have heard of a man among us that has done for us some excellent thing, the next thing that our hearts doth pitch upon is, I would I could set mine eyes upon him. But was ever heard the like to what Jesus Christ has done for sinners? who then that hath the faith of him can do otherwise but desire to be with him? It was that which some time comforted John, that the time was coming that he should see him (1 John 3:2). But that consideration made him bray like a hart,[13] to hasten the time that he might set his eyes upon him quickly (Rev 22:20). To see Jesus Christ, then, to see him as he is, to see him as he is in glory, is a sight that is worth going from relations, and out of the body, and through the jaws of death to see; for this is to see him head over all, to see him possessed of heaven for his church, to see him preparing of mansion-houses for those his poor ones that are now by his enemies kicked to and fro, like footballs in the world; and is not this a blessed sight?

2. I have a desire to be with him, to see myself with him; this is more blessed still; for, for a man to see himself in glory, this is a sight worthy seeing. Sometimes I look upon myself, and say, Where am I now? and do quickly return answer to myself again, Why, I am in an evil world, a great way from heaven; in a sinful body, among devils and wicked men; sometimes benighted, sometimes beguiled, sometimes fearing, sometimes hoping, sometimes breathing, sometimes dying, and the like. But then I turn the tables, and say, But where shall I be shortly? where shall I see myself anon, after a few times more have passed over me? And when I can but answer this question thus—I shall see myself with Jesus Christ; this yields glory, even glory to one’s spirit now: no marvel, then, if the righteous desire to be with Christ.

3. I have a desire to be with Christ; there the spirits of the just are perfected; there the spirits of the righteous are as full as they can hold (Heb 12:23). A sight of Jesus in the Word, some know how it will change them from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18), but how then shall we be changed and filled, when we shall see him as he is? ‘When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2). Moses and Elias appeared to Peter, and James, and John, at the transfiguration of Christ, in glory. How so? Why, they had been in the heavens, and came thence with some of the glories of heaven upon them. Gild a bit of wood, yea, gild it seven times over, and it must not compare in difference to wood not gilt, to the soul that but a little while has been dipped in glory! Glory is a strange thing to men that are on this side of the heavens; it is that which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man to conceive of; only the Christian has a Word and Spirit that at times doth give a little of the glimmering thereof unto him. But O! when he is in the Spirit, and sees in the Spirit, do you think his tongue can tell? But, I say, if the sight of heaven, at so vast a distance, is so excellent a prospect, what will it look like when one is in it? No marvel, then, if the desires of the righteous are to be with Christ.

Object. But if this be the character of a righteous man, to desire to depart and to be with Christ, I am none of them, for I never had such a desire in my heart; no, my fears of perishing will not suffer me either to desire to die to be with Christ, nor that Christ should come to judge the world.

Answ. Though thine is a case that must be excepted, for that thy desires may not as yet be grown so high; yet if thou art a righteous man, thy heart has in it the very seeds thereof. There are therefore desires, and desires to desire; as one child can reach so high, and the other can but desire to do so. Thou, if thou art a righteous man, hast desires, these desires ready to put forth into act, when they are grown a little stronger, or when their impediment is removed. Many times it is with our desires as it is with saffron,[14] it will bloom and blossom, and be ripe, and all in a night. Tell me, dost thou not desire to desire? Yea, dost thou not vehemently desire to desire to depart and to be with Christ? I know, if thou art a righteous man, thou dost. There is a man sows his field with wheat, but as he sows, soon it is covered with great clods; now, that grows as well as the rest, though it runs not upright as yet; it grows, and yet is kept down, so do thy desires; and when one shall remove the clod, the blade will soon point upwards.

I know thy mind; that which keeps thee that thou canst not yet arrive to this—to desire to depart and to be with Christ, is because some strong doubt or clod of unbelief, as to thy eternal welfare, lies hard upon thy desiring spirit. Now let but Jesus Christ remove this clod, and thy desires will quickly start up to be gone. I say, let but Jesus Christ give thee one kiss, and with his lips, as he kisses thee, whisper to thee the forgiveness of thy sins, and thou wilt quickly break out, and say, Nay then, Lord, let me die in peace, since my soul is persuaded of thy salvation!

There is a man upon the bed of languishing; but O! he dares not die, for all is not as he would have it betwixt God and his poor soul; and many a night he lies thus in great horror of mind; but do you think that he doth not desire to depart? Yes, yes, he also waits and cries to God to set his desires at liberty. At last the visitor comes and sets his soul at ease, by persuading of him that he belongs to God: and what then? ‘O! now let me die, welcome death!’ Now he is like the man in Essex, who, when his neighbour at his bedside prayed for him that God would restore him to health, started up in his bed, and pulled him by the arm, and cried out, No, no, pray that God will take me away, for to me it is best to go to Christ.

The desires of some good Christians are pinioned, and cannot stir, especially these sort of desires; but Christ can and will cut the cord some time or other: and then thou that wouldst shalt be able to say, ‘I have a desire to depart, and to be with Jesus Christ.’ Meantime, be thou earnest to desire to know thy interest in the grace of God; for there is nothing short of the knowledge of that can make thee desire to depart, that thou mayest be with Christ. This is that that Paul laid as the ground of his desires to be gone: ‘We know,’ says he, ‘that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven’ (2 Cor 5:1,2). And know, that if thy desires be right they will grow as other graces do, from strength to strength; only in this they can grow no faster than faith grows as to justification, and then hope grows as to glory. But we will leave this and come to the second thing.

2. [They desire to be in that country where their Lord personally is.] As the righteous men desire to be present with Jesus Christ, so they desire to be with him in that country where he is: ‘But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city’ (Heb 11:14-16). ‘But now they desire a better country.’ Here is a comparison. There was another country, to wit, their native country, the country from whence they came out, that in which they left their friends and their pleasures for the sake of another world, which, indeed, is a better country, as is manifest from its character. ‘It is an heavenly.’ As high as heaven is above the earth, so much better is that country which is a heavenly, than is this in which now we are.

A heavenly country, where there is a heavenly Father (Matt 6:14-16, 15:13, 18:35), a heavenly host (Luke 2:13), heavenly things (John 3:12), heavenly visions (Acts 26:19), heavenly places (Eph 1:3,20), a heavenly kingdom (2 Tim 4:18), and the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22), for them that are partakers of the heavenly calling (Heb 3:1), and that are the heavenly things themselves (Heb 9:23). This is a country to be desired, and therefore no marvel if any, except those that have lost their wits and senses, refuse to choose themselves an habitation here. Here is the ‘Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and an innumerable company of angels: here is the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and God the Judge of all, and Jesus, and the spirits of just men made perfect’ (Heb 12:22-24). Who would not be here? This is the country that the righteous desire for a habitation: ‘but now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city’ (Heb 11:16).

Mark, they desire a country, and God prepareth for them a city; he goes beyond their desires, beyond their apprehensions, beyond what their hearts could conceive to ask for. There is none that are weary of this world from a gracious disposition that they have to an heavenly, but God will take notice of them, will own them, and not be ashamed to own them; yea, such shall not lose their longing. They desire a handful, God gives them a seaful; they desire a country, God prepares for them a city; a city that is an heavenly; a city that has foundation, a city whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:10; Rev 3:12). And all this is, that the promise to them might be fulfilled,, ‘The desire of the righteous shall be granted.’ And this is the last thing propounded to be spoken to from the text. Therefore,

[WHAT IS MEANT BY GRANTING THESE DESIRES.]

THIRD. We then, in conclusion, come to inquire into WHAT IS MEANT, or to be understood, BY THE GRANTING OF THE RIGHTEOUS THEIR DESIRES; ‘The desire of the righteous shall be granted.’

FIRST. To grant is to yield to what is desired, to consent that it shall be even so as is requested: ‘The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion, remember all thy—sacrifices: grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfil all thy counsel’ (Psa 20:1-4). SECOND. To grant is to accomplish what is promised; thus God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life, namely, for that he had promised it by the prophets from the days of old (Acts 11:18; Rom 15:9-12). THIRD. To grant, therefore, is an act of grace and condescending favour; for if God is said to humble himself when he beholds things in heaven, what condescension is it for him to hearken to a sinful wretch on earth, and to tell him, Have the thing which thou desireth. A wretch, I call him, if compared to him that hears him, though he is a righteous man, when considered as the new creation of God. FOURTH. To grant, then, is not to part with the thing desired, as if a desire merited, purchased, earned, or deserved it, but of bounty and goodwill, to bestow the thing desired upon the humble. Hence God’s grants are said to be gracious ones (Psa 119:29). FIFTH. I will add, that to grant is sometimes taken for giving one authority or power to do, or possess, or enjoy such and such privileges; and so it may be taken here: for the righteous has a right to a power, to enjoy the things bestowed on them by their God. So, then, to grant is to give, to accomplish, even of free grace, the desire of the righteous.

This is acknowledged by David, where he saith to God, ‘Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips’ (Psa 21:2). And this is promised unto all that delight themselves in God, ‘Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart’ (Psa 37:4). And again, ‘He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry, and will save them’ (Psa 145:19). By all these places it is plain, that the promise of granting desires is entailed to the righteous, and also that the grant to them is an act of grace and mercy. But it also follows, that though the desires of the righteous are not meritorious, yet they are pleasing in his sight; and this is manifest several ways, besides the promise of a grant of them.

First. In that the desires of God, and the desires of the righteous, jump or agree in one, they are of one mind in their desires: God’s desire is to the work of his hands, and the righteous are for surrendering that up to him. 1. In giving up the heart unto him; ‘My son,’ says God, ‘give me thy heart’ (Prov 23:26). ‘I lift my soul to thee,’ says the righteous man (Psa 25:1, 86:4; Lam 3:41). Here, therefore, there is an agreement between God and the righteous; it is, I say, agreed on both sides that God should have the heart: God desires it, the righteous man desires it, yea, he desires it with a groan, saying, ‘Incline my heart unto thy testimony’ (Psa 119:36). ‘Let my heart be sound in thy statutes’ (Psa 119:80). 2. They are also agreed about the disposing of the whole man: God is for body, and soul, and spirit; and the righteous desires that God should have it all. Hence they are said to give themselves to the Lord (2 Cor 8:5), and to addict themselves to his service (1 Cor 15:16). 3. God desireth truth in the inward parts, that is, that truth may be at the bottom of all (Psa 51:6,16), and this is the desire of the righteous man likewise: ‘Thy word have I hid in my heart,’ said David, ‘that I might not sin against thee’ (Psa 119:11). 4. They agree in the way of justification, in the way of sanctification, in the way of preservation, and in the way of glorification, to wit, which way to come at and enjoy all: wherefore, who should hinder the righteous man, or keep him back from enjoying the desire of his heart? 5. They also agree about the sanctifying of God’s name in the world, saying, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ There is a great agreement between God and the righteous; ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit’ (1 Cor 6:17). No marvel, then, if their desires in the general, so far as the righteous man doth know the mind of his God, are one, consequently their desires must be granted, or God must deny himself.

Second. The desires of the righteous are the life of all their prayers; and it is said, ‘The prayer of the upright is God’s delight.’

Jesus Christ put a difference betwixt the form and spirit that is in prayer, and intimates the soul of prayer is in the desires of a man; ‘Therefore,’ saith he, ‘I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them’ (Mark 11:24). If a man prays never so long, and has never so many brave expressions in prayer, yet God counts it prayer no further than there are warm and fervent desires in it, after those things the mouth maketh mention of. David saith, ‘Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee’ (Psa 38:9). Can you say you desire, when you pray? or that your prayers come from the braying, panting, and longing of your hearts? If not, they shall not be granted: for God looks, when men are at prayer, to see if their heart and spirit is in their prayers; for he counts all other but vain speaking. Ye shall seek me, and find me, says he, when you shall search for me with all your heart (Rom 8:26,27; Matt 6:7; Jer 29:12). The people that you read of in 2 Chronicles 15 are there said to do what they did ‘with all their heart, and with all their soul.’ ‘For they sought God with their whole desire’ (2 Chron 15:11-15). When a man’s desires put him upon prayer, run along with him in his prayer, break out of his heart and ascend up to heaven with his prayers, it is a good sign that he is a righteous man, and that his desire shall be granted.

Third. By desire a righteous man shows more of his mind for God, than he can by any manner of way besides; hence it is said, ‘The desire of man is his kindness, and a poor man,’ that is sincere in his desires, ‘is better than’ he that with his mouth shows much love, if he be ‘a liar’ (Prov 19:22).

Desires, desires, are copious things; you read that a man may ‘enlarge his desire as hell’ (Habb 2:5), that is, if they be wicked; yea, and a righteous man may enlarge his desires as heaven (Psa 73:25). No grace is so extensive as desires. Desires out-go all. Who believes as he desires to believe? and loves as he desires to love? and fears as he desires to fear God’s name? (Neh 1:11). Might it be as a righteous man doth sometimes desire it should be, both with God’s church, and also with his own soul, stranger things would be than there are; faith, and love, and holiness, would flourish more than it does! O! what does a righteous man desire? What do you think the prophet desired, when he said, ‘O that thou wouldest rend the heavens and—come down?’ (Isa 54:1). And Paul, when he said, he could wish that himself were accursed from Christ, for the vehement desire that he had that the Jews might be saved? (Rom 9:1-3, 10:1). Yea, what do you think John desired, when he cried out to Christ to come quickly?

Love to God, as I said, is more seen in desires than in any Christian act. Do you think that the woman with her two mites cast in all that she desired to cast into the treasury of God? Or do you think, when David said that he had prepared for the house of God with all his might, that his desires stinted when his ability was at its utmost? (1 Chron 29). No, no; desires go beyond all actions; therefore I said it is the desires of a man that are reckoned for his kindness. Kindness is that which God will not forget; I mean the kindness which his people show to him, especially in their desires to serve him in the world. When Israel was come out of Egypt, you know how many stumbles they had before they got to Canaan. But forasmuch as they were willing or desirous to follow God, he passes by all their failures, saying, ‘I remember thee,’ and that almost a thousand years after,[15] ‘the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown’ (Jer 2:2). Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase. There is nothing that God likes of ours better than he likes our true desires. For indeed true desires, they are the smoke of our incense, the flower of our graces, and the very vital part of our new man. They are our desires that ascend, and they that are the sweet of all the sacrifices that we offer to God. The man of desires is the man of kindness.

Fourth. Desires, true and right desires, they are they by which a man is taken up from the ground, and brought away to God, in spite of all opposers. A desire will take a man upon its back, and carry him away to God, if ten thousand men stand by and oppose it. Hence it is said, that ‘through desire a man having separated himself,’ to wit, from what is contrary to the mind of God, and so ‘seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom’ (Prov 18:1).

All convictions, conversions, illuminations, favours, tastes, revelations, knowledge, and mercies, will do nothing if the soul abides without desires. All, I say, is but like rain upon stones, or favours bestowed upon a dead dog. O! but a poor man with desires, a man that sees but little, that knows but little, that finds in himself but little, if he has but strong desires, they will supply all. His desires take him up from his sins, from his companions, from his pleasures, and carry him away to God. Suppose thou wast a minister, and wast sent from God with a whip, whose cords were made of the flames of hell, thou mightest lash long enough before thou couldest so much as drive one man that abides without desires to God, or to his kingdom, by that thy so sore a whip. Suppose again that thou wast a minister, and wast sent from God to sinners with a crown of glory in thy hand, to offer to him that first comes to thee for it; yet none can come without desires: but desire takes the man upon its back, and so brings him to thee.[16] What is the reason that men will with mouth commend God, and commend Christ, and commend and praise both heaven and glory, and yet all the while fly from him, and from his mercy, as from the worst of enemies? Why, they want good desires; their desires being mischievous, carry them another way. Thou entreatest thy wife, thy husband, and the son of thy womb, to fall in with thy Lord and thy Christ, but they will not. Ask them the reason why they will not, and they know none, only they have no desires. ‘When we shall see him, there is no beauty in him that we should desire him’ (Isa 53:1-3). And I am sure if they do not desire him, they can by no means be made to come to him.

But now, desires, desires that are right, will carry a man quite away to God, and to do his will, let the work be never so hard. Take an instance or two for this.

You may see it in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The text says plainly, they were not mindful of that country from whence they came out, through their desires of a better (Heb 11:8-16). God gave them intimation of a better country, and their minds did cleave to it with desires of it; and what then? Why, they went forth, and desired to go, though they did not know whither they went. Yea, they all sojourned in the land of promise, because it was but a shadow of what was designed for them by God, and looked to by their faith, as in a strange country; wherefore they also cast that behind their back, looking for that city that had foundations, of which mention was made before. Had not now these men desires that were mighty? They were their desires that thus separated them from their dearest and choice relations and enjoyments. Their desires were pitched upon the heavenly country, and so they broke through all difficulties for that.

You may see it in Moses, who had a kingdom at his foot, and was the alone visible heir thereof; but desire of a better inheritance made him refuse it, and choose rather to take part with the people of God in their afflicted condition, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You may say, the Scripture attributes this to his faith. I answer, so it attributes to Abraham’s faith his leaving of his country. But his faith begat in him these desires after the country that is above. So indeed Moses saw these things by faith; and therefore his faith begat in him these desires. For it was because of his desires that he did refuse, and did choose as you read. And here we may opportunely take an opportunity to touch upon the vanity of that faith that is not breeding, and that knows not how to bring forth strong desires of enjoying what is pretended to be believed; all such faith is false. Abraham’s, Isaac’s, Jacob’s, and Moses’ faith, bred in them desires, strong desires; yea, desires so strong as to take them up, and to carry them after what, by their faith, was made known unto them. Yea, their desires were so mightily set upon the things made known to them by their faith, that neither difficulties nor dangers, nor yet frowns nor flatteries, could stop them from the use of all lawful attempts of enjoying what they believed was to be had, and what they desired to be possessed of.

The women also that you read of, and others that would not, upon unworthy terms, accept of deliverance from torments and sundry trials, that they might,, or because they had a desire to, be made partakers of a better resurrection. ‘And others,’ saith he, ‘had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep skins, and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and caves of the earth’ (Heb 11:35-38).

But we will come to the Lord Jesus himself. Whither did his desires bring him? Whither did they carry him? and to what did they make him stoop? For they were his desires after us, and after our good, that made him humble himself to do as he did (Cant 7:10). What was it, think you, that made him cry out, ‘I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished’! (Luke 12:50). What was that baptism but his death? and why did he so long for it, but of desire to do us good? Yea, the passover being to be eaten on the even of his sufferings, with what desires did he desire to eat it with his disciples? (Luke 22:15). Yea, his desires to suffer for his people made him go with more strength to lay down his life for them than they, for want of them, had to go to see him suffer. And they were in their way going up to Jerusalem, he to suffer, and they to look on, ‘And Jesus went before them, and they were amazed, and as they followed, they were afraid’ (Mark 10:32; Matt 20:17).

I tell you, desires are strange things, if they be right; they jump with God’s mind; they are the life of prayer; they are a man’s kindness to God, and they which will take him up from the ground, and carry him away after God to do his will, let the work be never so hard. Is it any marvel, then, if the desires of the righteous are so pleasing to God as they are, and that God has so graciously promised that the desires of the righteous shall be granted? But we come now to

[THE USE AND APPLICATION.]

THE FIRST USE SHALL BE A USE OF INFORMATION. You have heard what hath been said of desires, and what pleasing things right desires are unto God. But you must know that they are the desires of his people, of the righteous, that are so. No wicked man’s desires are regarded (Psa 112:10). This men must be informed of, lest their desires become a snare to their souls. You read of a man whose ‘desire killeth him’ (Prov 21:25). And why? but because he rests in desiring, without considering what he is, whether such a one unto whom the promise of granting desires is made; he coveteth greedily all the day long, but to little purpose. The grant of desires, of the fulfilling of desires, is entailed to the righteous man. There are four sorts of people that desire, that desire the kingdom of heaven; consequently, desires have a fourfold root from whence they flow.

First. The natural man desires to be saved, and to go to heaven when he dies. Ask any natural man, and he will tell you so. Besides, we see it is so with them, especially at certain seasons. As when some guilt or conviction for sin takes hold upon them; or when some sudden fear terrifies them; when they are afraid that the plague or pestilence will come upon them, and break up house-keeping for them; or when death has taken them by the throat, and is hauling them down stairs to the grave. Then, O then, ‘Lord, save me, Lord, have mercy upon me; good people, pray for me! O! whither shall I go when I die, if sweet Christ has not pity for my soul?’ And now the bed shakes, and the poor soul is as loath to go out of the body, for fear the devil should catch it, as the poor bird is to go out of the bush, while it sees the hawk waits there to receive her. But the fears of the wicked, they must come upon the wicked; they are the desires of the righteous that must be granted. Pray, take good notice of this. And to back this with the authority of God, consider that scripture, ‘The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle’ (Job 15:20-24).[17]

Can it be imagined that when the wicked are in this distress, but that they will desire to be saved? Therefore he saith again, ‘Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind,’ that blasting wind, ‘carrieth him away, and he departeth, and as a storm hurleth him out of’ the world, ‘his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare’; in flying ‘he would fain fly out of his hand’ (Job 27:20-23). Their terrors and their fears must come upon them: their desires and wishes for salvation must not be granted (Isa 65:13, 66:4). ‘They shall call upon me,’ says God, ‘but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me’ (Prov 1:28).

Second. There is the hypocrite’s desire. Now his desire seems to have life and spirit in it. Also he desires, in his youth, his health, and the like; yet it comes to naught. You shall see him drawn to the life in Mark 10:17. He comes running and kneeling, and asking, and that, as I said, in youth and health; and that is more than men merely natural do. But all to no purpose; he went as he came, without the thing desired. The conditions propounded were too hard for this hypocrite to comply withal (Mark 10:21,22).[18] Some indeed make a great noise with their desires over some again do; but in conclusion all comes to one, they meet together there where they go, whose desires are not granted.

‘For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained’ to a higher strain of desires, ‘when God taketh away his soul?’ ‘Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?’ (Job 27:8,9). Did he not, even when he desired life, yet break with God in the day when conditions of life were propounded to him? Did he not, even when he asked what good things were to be done that he might have eternal life, refuse to hear or to comply with what was propounded to him? How then can his desires be granted, who himself refused to have them answered? No marvel then if he perishes like his own dung, if they that have seen him shall say they miss him among those that are to have their desires granted.

Third. There are the desires of the cold formal professor; the desires, I say, of him whose religion lies in a few of the shells of religion; even as the foolish virgins who were content with their lamps, but gave not heed to take oil in their vessels. These I take to be those whom the wise man calls the slothful: ‘The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat’ (Prov 13:4). The sluggard is one that comes to poverty through idleness—that contents himself with forms: ‘that will not plough’ in winter ‘by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest,’ or at the day of judgment, ‘and have nothing’ (Prov 20:4).

Thus you see that there are many that desire; the natural man, the hypocrite, the formalist, they all desire. For heaven is a brave place, and nobody would go to hell. ‘Lord, Lord, open to us,’ is the cry of many in this world, and will be the cry of more in the day of judgment. Of this therefore thou shouldst be informed; and that for these reasons:—

Because ignorance of this may keep thee asleep in security, and cause thee to fall under such disappointments as are the worst, and the worst to be borne. For, for a man to think to go to heaven because he desires it, and when all is done to fall into hell, is a frustration of the most dismal complexion. And yet thus it will be when desires shall fail, ‘when man goes to his long home, and when the mourners go about the streets’ (Eccl 12:5). Because, as was said before, else thy desires, and that which should be for thy good, will kill thee. They kill thee at death, when thou shalt find them every one empty. And at judgment, when thou shalt be convinced that thou oughtest to go without what thou desirest, because thou wast not the man to whose desires the promise was made, nor the man that didst desire aright. To be informed of this is the way to put thee upon such sense and sight of thy case as will make thee in earnest betake thyself in that way to him that is acceptable, who grants the desires of the righteous. And then shalt thou be happy when thou shunnest to desire as the natural man desireth, as the hypocrite desireth, or as the formalist desireth. When thou desirest as the righteous do, thy desire shall be granted.

THE SECOND USE IS OF EXAMINATION. If this be so, then what cause hast thou that art conscious to thyself that thou art a desiring man to examine thyself whether thou art one whose desires shall be granted? For to what purpose should a man desire, or what fruits will desire bring him whose desires shall not be granted? Such a man is but like to her that longs, but loses her longing; or like to him that looks for peace while evil overtakes him.

Thou hast heard it over and over that the grant of desires belong to the righteous: shouldst thou then not inquire into thy condition, and examine thyself whether thou art a righteous man or no? The apostle said to the Corinthians, ‘Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves; know you not—how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?’ (2 Cor 13:5). You may be reprobates and not be aware of it, if you do not examine and prove your own selves. It is therefore FOR THY LIFE, wherefore do not deceive thyself. I have given you before a description of a righteous man, namely, that he is one made so of God by imputation—by an inward principle, and one that brings forth fruit to God. Now, this last thou mayst think thou hast; for it is easy and common for men to think when they bring forth fruit to themselves, that they bring it forth to God. Wherefore examine thyself.

First. Art thou righteous? If thou sayest, Yea; I ask, How comest thou righteous? If thou thinkest that obedience to the law of righteousness has made thee so, thou art utterly deceived; for he that thus seeks righteousness, yet is not righteous, because he cannot, by so doing, attain that thing he seeketh for (Rom 9:31,32). Did not I tell thee before, that a man must be righteous before he doth one good work, or he can never be righteous? The tree must be good first, even before it brings forth one good apple.

Second. Art thou righteous? In whose judgment art thou righteous? Is it in the judgment of God, or of man? If not of God, it is no matter though all the men on earth should justify thee; thou for that art no whit the more righteous.

Third. Art thou righteous in the judgment of God? Who told thee so? or dost thou but dream thereof? Indeed, to be righteous in God’s sight is that, and only that, which can secure a man from wrath to come; for ‘if God justifies, who is he that condemns?’ (Rom 8:33,34). And this only is the man whose desires shall be granted.

Fourth. But still, I say, the question is, How comest thou to know that thou art righteous in the judgment of God? Dost thou know by what it is that God makes a man righteous? Dost thou know where that is by or with which God makes a man righteous? and also how God doth make a man righteous with it? These are questions, in the answer of which thou must have some heavenly skill, or else all that thou sayest about thy being righteous will seem without a bottom.

Fifth. Now, if thou answerest, That that which makes me righteous is the obedience of Christ to his Father’s will, that this righteousness is before the throne of God, and that it is made mine by an act of God’s free grace; I shall ask thee yet again,

Sixth. How camest thou to see thy need of this righteousness? And by what is this righteousness by thee applied to thyself? For this righteousness is bestowed upon those that see their need thereof. This righteousness is the refuge whereto the guilty fly for succour, that they may be sheltered from the wrath to come. Hast thou then fled, or dost thou indeed fly to it? (Heb 6:16-19).