the duty performed can be pleasing unto God. And if the person must
first be accepted, it is evident that the person must first be
righteous; but if the person be righteous before he doth good, then it
follows that he is made righteous by righteousness that is none of his
own, that he hath no hand in, further than to receive it as the
gracious gift of God. Deny this, and it follows that God accepteth men
without respect to righteousness; and then what follows that, but that
Christ is dead in vain?
We must not therefore be deceived, ‘He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he,’ the Lord, ‘is righteous’ (1 John 3:7). He doth
not say he that doth righteousness shall be righteous; as if his doing
works would make him so before God; but he that doth righteousness IS
righteous, antecedent to his doing righteousness. And it must be thus
understood, else that which follows signifies nothing; for he saith,
‘He that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he,’ the Lord his
God, ‘is righteous.’ But how is the Lord righteous? Even antecedent to
his works. The Lord was righteous before he wrought righteousness in
the world; and even so are we, to wit, every child of God. ‘As he is,
so are we, in this world’! (1 John 4:17). But we must in this admit of
this difference; the Lord was eternally and essentially righteous
before he did any work, but we are imputatively righteous, and also
made so by a second work of creation, before we do good works. It holds
therefore only as to order; God was righteous before he made the world,
and we are righteous before we do good works. Thus, therefore, we have
described the righteous man. First. He is one whom God makes righteous,
by reckoning or imputation. Second. He is one that God makes righteous
by possessing of him with a principle of righteousness. Third. He is
one that is practically righteous. Nor dare I give a narrower
description of a righteous man than this; nor otherwise than thus.
1. I dare not give a narrower description of a righteous man than this,
because whoever pretends to justification, if he be not sanctified,
pretends to what he is not; and whoever pretends to sanctification, if
he shows not the fruits thereof by a holy life, he deceiveth his own
heart, and professeth but in vain (James 1:22-27).[5]
2. Nor dare I give this description otherwise than thus, because there
is a real distinction to be put between that righteousness by which we
should be just before God, and that which is in us a principle of
sanctification; the first being the obedience of the Son of God without
us, the second being the work of the Spirit in our hearts. There is
also a difference to be put betwixt the principle by which we work
righteousness, and the works themselves; as a difference is to be put
betwixt the cause and the effect, the tree and the apple.
[WHAT ARE THE DESIRES OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN?]
SECOND. I come now to the second thing into which we are to inquire,
and that is,
WHAT ARE THE DESIRES OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN?
My way of handling this question shall be, FIRST, To speak of the
nature of desire in the general. SECOND, And then to show you, more
particularly, what are the desires of the righteous.
[Desires in general.]
FIRST. For the first; desires in general may be thus described:—They
are the workings of the heart or mind, after that of which the soul is
persuaded that it is good to be enjoyed; this, I say, is so without
respect to regulation; for we speak not now of good desires, but of
desires themselves, even as they flow from the heart of a human
creature; I say, desires are or may be called, the working of the heart
after this or that; the strong motions of the mind unto it. Hence the
love of women to their husbands is called ‘their desires’ (Gen 3:16);
and the wife also is called ‘the desire of thine’ the husband’s ‘eyes’
(Eze 24:16). Also love to woman, to make her one’s wife, is called by
the name of ‘desire’ (Deut 21:10,11). Now, how strong the motions or
passions of love are, who is there that is an utter stranger thereto?
(Cant 8:6,7).
Hunger is also a most vehement thing; and that which is called ‘hunger’
in one place, is called ‘desire’ in another; and he desired ‘to be fed
with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table’ (Luke 16:21; Psa
145:16). Exceeding lustings are called ‘desires,’ to show the vehemency
of desires (Psa 106:14, 78:27-30). Longings, pantings, thirstings,
prayers, &c., if there be any life in them, are all fruits of a
desirous soul. Desires therefore flow from the consideration of the
goodness, or profitableness, or pleasurableness of a thing; yea, all
desires flow from thence; for a man desires not that about which he has
had no consideration, nor that neither on which he has thought, if he
doth not judge it will yield him something worth desiring.
When Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was a beautiful tree—though her
sight deceived her—then she desired it, and took thereof herself, and
gave to her husband, and he did eat; yea, saith the text, ‘when she saw
that it was a tree to be desired, to make one wise, she took’ (Gen
3:6). Hence that which is called ‘coveting’ in one place, is called
‘desiring’ in another; for desires are craving; and by desires a man
seeks to enjoy what is not his (Exo 20:17; Deut 5:21). From all these
things, therefore, we see what desire is. It is the working of the
heart, after that which the soul is persuaded that it is good to be
enjoyed; and of them there are these two effects.
First. One is—on a supposition that the soul is not satisfied with what
it has—to cause the soul to range and hunt through the world for
something that may fill up that vacancy that yet the soul finds in
itself, and would have supplied. Hence desires are said to be
wandering, and the soul said to walk by them; ‘Better is the sight of
the eyes than the wandering of the desire,’ or than the walking of the
soul (Eccl 6:8,9). Desires are hunting things, and how many things do
some empty souls seek after, both as to the world, and also as to
religion, who have desirous minds!
Second. The second effect is, If desires be strong, they carry all away
with them; they are all like Samson, they will pull down the gates of a
city; but they will go out abroad; nothing can stop the current of
desires, but the enjoyment of the thing desired, or a change of opinion
as to the worth or want of worth of the thing that is desired.
[What are the desires of the righteous.]
SECOND. But we will now come to the thing more particularly intended,
which is, To show what are the desires of the righteous; that is that
which the text calls us to the consideration of, because it saith, ‘The
desire of the righteous shall be granted.’
We have hitherto spoken of desires, as to the nature of them, without
respect to them as good or bad; but now we shall speak to them as they
are the effects of a sanctified mind, as they are the breathings,
pantings, lustings, hungerings, and thirstings of a righteous man. The
text says ‘the desire of the righteous shall be granted’; what then are
the desires of the righteous? Now I will, First. Speak to their desires
in the general, or with reference to them as to their bulk. Second. I
will speak to them more particularly as they work this way and that.
[The desires of the righteous in the general.]
First. For their desires in the general: the same Solomon that saith,
‘The desire of the righteous shall be granted,’ saith also, ‘The desire
of the righteous is only good’ (Prov 11:23). This text giveth us, in
the general, a description of the desires of a righteous man; and a
sharp and smart description it is: for where, may some say, is then the
righteous man, or the man that hath none but good desires? and if it be
answered they are good in the main, or good in the general, yet that
will seem to come short of an answer: for in that he saith ‘the desires
of the righteous are only good,’ it is as much as to say, that a
righteous man has none but good desires, or desireth nothing but things
that are good. Wherefore, before we go any further, I must labour to
reconcile the experience of good men with this text, which thus gives
us a description of the desires of the righteous.
A righteous man is to be considered more generally, or more strictly.
1. More generally, as he consisteth of the whole man, of flesh and
spirit, of body and soul, of grace and nature; now consider him thus,
and you can by no means reconcile the text with his experience, nor his
experience with the text. For as he is body, flesh, and nature—for all
these are with him, though he is a righteous man—so he has desires
vastly different from those described by this text, vastly differing
from what is good; yea, what is it not, that is naught, that the flesh
and nature, even of a righteous man, will not desire? ‘Do ye think that
the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to
envy?’ (James 4:5). And again, ‘In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing’ (Rom 7:18). And again, ‘The flesh lusteth against the
spirit’ (Gal 5:17). And again, The lusts thereof do ‘war against the
soul’ (1 Peter 2:11).
From all these texts we find that a righteous man has other workings,
lusts, and desires than such only that are good; here then, if we
consider of a righteous man thus generally, is no place of agreement
betwixt him and this text. We must consider of him, then, in the next
place, more strictly, as he may and is to be distinguished from his
flesh, his carnal lusts, and sinful nature.
2. More strictly. Then a righteous man is taken sometimes as to or for
his best part, or as he is A SECOND CREATION; and so, or as so
considered, his desires are only good.
(1.) He is taken sometimes as to or for his best part, or as he is a
second creation, as these scriptures declare: ‘If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature,—all things are become new’ (2 Cor 5:17). ‘Created
in Christ Jesus’ (Eph 2:10). ‘Born of God’ (John 3; 1 John 3:9). Become
heavenly things, renewed after the image of him that created them:
Colossians 3:10; Hebrews 9:23 and the like. By all which places, the
sinful flesh, the old man, the law of sin, the outward man, all which
are corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, are excluded, and so
pared off from the man, as he is righteous; for his ‘delight in the law
of God’ is ‘after the inward man.’ And Paul himself was forced thus to
distinguish of himself, before he could come to make a right judgment
in this matter; saith he, ‘That which I do, I allow not; what I would,
do I not; but what I hate, that do I.’ See you not here how he cleaves
himself in twain, severing himself as he is spiritual, from himself as
he is carnal; and ascribeth his motions to what is good to himself only
as he is spiritual, or the new man: ‘If then I do that which I would
not, I consent to the law that it is good’ (Rom 7).
But I trow, Sir, your consenting to what is good is not by that part
which doth do what you would not; no, no, saith he, that which doth do
what I would not, I disown, and count it no part of sanctified Paul:
‘Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me;
for—in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not: for
the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I
do: Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwells in me’ (Rom 7). Thus you see Paul is forced to make two men
of himself, saying, I and I; I do; I do not; I do, I would not do; what
I hate, that I do. Now it cannot be the same I unto whom these
contraries are applied; but his sinful flesh is one I, and his godly
mind the other: and indeed so he concludes it in this chapter, saying,
‘So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin.’
Thus therefore the Christian man must distinguish concerning himself;
and doing so, he shall find, though he has flesh, and as he is such, he
hath lusts contrary to God: yet as he is a new creature, he allows not,
but hates the motions and desires of the flesh, and consents to, and
wills and delights in the law of God (Rom 15:17-22). Yea, as a new
creature, he can do nothing else: for the new man, inward man, or
hidden man of the heart, being the immediate work of the Holy Ghost,
and consisting only of that which is divine and heavenly, cannot
breathe, or act, or desire to act, in ways and courses that are carnal.
Wherefore, in this sense, or as the righteous man is thus considered,
‘his desires are only good.’
(2.) As the righteous man must here be taken for the best part, for the
I that would do good, for the I that hates the evil; so again, we must
consider of the desires of this righteous man, as they flow from that
fountain of grace, which is the Holy Ghost within him; and as they are
immediately mixed with those foul channels, in and through which they
must pass, before they can be put forth into acts. For though the
desire, as to its birth, and first being, is only good; yet before it
comes into much motion, it gathers that from the defilements of the
passages through which it comes, as makes it to bear a tang of flesh
and weakness in the skirts of it; and the evil that dwells in us is so
universal, and also always so ready, that as sure as there is any
motion to what is good, so sure evil is present with it; ‘for when’ or
whenever ‘I would do good,’ says Paul, ‘evil is present with me’ (Rom
7:21). Hence it follows, that all our graces, and so our desires,
receive disadvantage by our flesh, that mixing itself with what is
good, and so abates the excellency of the good.
There is a spring that yieldeth water good and clear, but the channels
through which this water comes to us are muddy, foul, or dirty: now, of
the channels the waters receive a disadvantage, and so come to us as
savouring of what came not with them from the fountain, but from the
channels. This is the cause of the coolness, and of the weakness, of
the flatness, and of the many extravagancies that attend some of our
desires. They come warm from the Spirit and grace of God in us; but as
hot water running through cold pipes, or as clear water running through
dirty conveyances, so our desires [cool and] gather soil.
You read in Solomon’s Ecclesiastes of a time when desires fail, for
that ‘man goeth to his long home’ (Eccl 12:5). And as to good desires,
there is not one of them, when we are in our prime, but they fail also
as to the perfecting of that which a man desires to do. ‘To will is
present with me,’ says Paul, ‘but how to perform that which is good I
find not’ (Rom 7:18). To will or to desire, that is present with me,
but when I have willed or desired to do, to perform is what I cannot
attain to. But why not attain to a performance? Why, says he, I find a
law ‘in my members warring against the law of my mind’; and this law
takes me prisoner, and brings ‘me into captivity to the law of sin,
which is in my members’ (Rom 7:23). Now, where things willed and
desired meet with such obstructions, no marvel if our willing and
desiring, though they set out lustily at the beginning, come yet lame
home in conclusion.
There is a man, when he first prostrates himself before God, doth it
with desires as warm as fire coals; but erewhile he finds, for all
that, that the metal of those desires, were it not revived with fresh
supplies, would be quickly spent and grow cold.[6] But yet the desire
is good, and only good, as it comes from the breathing of the Spirit of
God within us. We must therefore, as I said, distinguish betwixt what
is good and that which doth annoy it, as gold is to be distinguished
from the earth and dross that doth attend it. The man that believed
desired to believe better, and so cries out, ‘Lord, help mine unbelief’
(Mark 9:24). The man that feared God desired to fear him better,
saying, ‘I desire to fear thy name’ (Neh 1:11). But these desires
failed, as to the performance of what was begun, so that they were
forced to come off but lamely, as to their faith and fear they had; yet
the desires were true, good, and such as was accepted of God by Christ;
not according to what they had not, but as to those good motions which
they had. Distinguish then the desires of the righteous in the nature
of them, from that corruption and weakness of ours that cleaveth to
them, and then again, ‘they are only good.’
(3.) There is another thing to be considered, and that is, the
different frames that our inward man is in while we live as pilgrims in
the world. A man, as he is not always well without, so neither is he
always well within. Our inward man is subject to transient, though not
to utter decays (Isa 1:5). And as it is when the outward man is sick,
strength and stomach, and lust, or desire fails, so it is when our
inward man has caught a cold likewise (Eze 34:4).
The inward man I call the new creature, of which the Spirit of God is
the support, as my soul supports my body. But, I say, this new man is
not always well. He knows nothing that knows not this. Now being sick,
things fail. As when a man is not in health of body, his pulse beats so
as to declare that he is sick; so when a man is not well within, his
inward pulse, which are his desires—for I count the desires for the
pulse of the inward man—they also declare that the man is not well
within. They beat too little after God, weak and faintly after grace;
they also have their halts, they beat not evenly, as when the soul is
well, but so as to manifest all is not well there.
We read that the church of Sardis was under sore sickness, insomuch
that some of her things were quite dead, and they that were not so were
yet ready to die (Rev 3:2). Yet ‘life is life,’ we say, and as long as
there is a pulse, or breath, though breath scarce able to shake a
feather, we cast not away all hope of life. Desires, then, though they
be weak, are, notwithstanding, true desires, if they be the desires of
the righteous thus described, and therefore are truly good, according
to our text. David says he ‘opened his mouth and panted,’ for he longed
for God’s commandments (Psa 119:131). This was a sickness, but not such
a one as we have been speaking of. The spouse also cried out that she
was ‘sick of love.’ Such sickness would do us good, for in it the pulse
beats strongly well (Cant 5:8).
[Some objections answered.]
Object. But it may be objected, I am yet in doubt of the goodness of my
desires, both because my desires run both ways, and because those that
run towards sin and the world seem more and stronger than those that
run after God, and Christ, and grace.
Answ. There is not a Christian under heaven but has desires that run
both ways, as is manifest from what hath been said already. Flesh will
be flesh; grace shall not make it otherwise. By flesh I mean that body
of sin and death that dwelleth in the godly (Rom 6:6). As grace will
act according to its nature, so sin will act according to the nature of
sin (Eph 2:3). Now, the flesh has desires, and the desires of the flesh
and of the mind are both one in the ungodly; thank God it is not so in
thee! (Rom 7:24). The flesh, I say, hath its desires in the godly;
hence it is said to lust enviously; it lusts against the Spirit; ‘The
flesh lusteth against the Spirit’ (Gal 5:17). And if it be so audacious
as to fly in the face of the Holy Ghost, wonder that thou art not
wholly carried away with it! (Rom 7:25).
Object. But those desires that run to the world and sin seem most and
strongest in me.
Answ. The works of the flesh are manifest; that is, more plainly
discovered even in the godly than are the works of the Holy Ghost (Gal
5:19). And this their manifestation ariseth from these following
particulars:
1. We know the least appearance of a sin better by its native hue than
we know a grace of the Spirit. 2. Sin is sooner felt in its bitterness
to and upon a sanctified soul than is the grace of God. A little aloes
will be sooner tasted than will much sweet, though mixed therewith. 3.
Sin is dreadful and murderous in the sight of a sanctified soul:
wherefore the apprehending of that makes us often forget, and often
question whether we have any grace or no. 4. Grace lies deep in the
hidden part, but sin lies high, and floats above in the flesh;
wherefore it is easier, oftener seen than is the grace of God (Psa
51:6). The little fishes swim on the top of the water, but the biggest
and best keep down below, and so are seldomer seen. 5. Grace, as to
quantity, seems less than sin. What is leaven, or a grain of mustard
seed, to the bulky lump of a body of death (Matt 13:31-33). 6. Sin is
seen by its own darkness, and also in the light of the Spirit; but the
Spirit itself neither discovers itself, nor yet its graces, by every
glance of its own light. 7. A man may have the Spirit busily at work in
him, he may also have many of his graces in their vigorous acts, and
yet may be greatly ignorant of either; wherefore we are not competent
judges in this case. There may a thousand acts of grace pass through
thy soul, and thou be sensible of few, if any, of them.[7] 8. Do you
think that he that repents, believes, loves, fears, or humbles himself
before God, and acts in other graces too, doth always know what he
doth? No, no; grace many times, even in a man, is acted by him,
unawares unto him. Did Gideon, think you, believe that he was so strong
in grace as he was? Nay, was he not ready to give the lie to the angel,
when he told him God was with him? (Judg 6:12,13). Or what do you think
of David, when he said he was cast off from God’s eyes? (Psa 31:22). Or
of Heman, when he said he was free among them whom God remembered no
more? (Psa 88). Did these, then, see their graces so clear, as they saw
themselves by their sins to be unworthy ones? I tell you it is a rare
thing for some Christians to see their graces, but a thing very common
for such to see their sins; yea, and to feel them too, in their lusts
and desires, to the shaking of their souls.
Quest. But since I have lusts and desires both ways, how shall I know
to which my soul adheres?
Answ. This may be known thus: 1. Which wouldest thou have prevail? the
desires of the flesh, or the lusts of the spirit, whose side art thou
of? Doth not thy soul now inwardly say, and that with a strong
indignation, O let God, let grace, let my desires that are good,
prevail against my flesh, for Jesus Christ his sake? 2. What kind of
secret wishes hast thou in thy soul when thou feelest the lusts of thy
flesh to rage? Dost thou not inwardly, and with indignation against
sin, say, O that I might never, never feel one such motion more? O that
my soul were so full of grace, that there might be longer no room for
ever for the least lust to come into my thoughts! 3. What kind of
thoughts hast thou of thyself, now thou seest these desires of thine
that are good so briskly opposed by those that are bad? Dost thou not
say, O! I am the basest of creatures, I could even spew at myself?
There is no man in all the world in my eyes so loathsome as myself is.
I abhor myself; a toad is not so vile as I am.[8] O Lord, let me be
anything but a sinner, anything, so thou subduest mine iniquities for
me! 4. How dost thou like the discovery of that which thou thinkest is
grace in other men? Dost thou not cry out, O, I bless them in my heart!
O, methinks grace is the greatest beauty in the world! Yea, I could be
content to live and die with those people that have the grace of God in
their souls. A hundred times, and a hundred, when I have been upon my
knees before God, I have desired, were it the will of God, that I might
be in their condition. 5. How art thou when thou thinkest that thou
thyself hast grace? O then, says the soul, I am as if I could leap out
of myself; joy, joy, joy then is with my heart. It is, methinks, the
greatest mercy under heaven to be made a gracious man.
And is it thus with thy soul indeed? Happy man! It is grace that has
thy soul, though sin at present works in thy flesh. Yea, all these
breathings are the very actings of grace, even of the grace of desire,
of love, of humility, and of the fear of God within thee. Be of good
courage, thou art on the right side. Thy desires are only good; for
that thou hast desired against thy sin, thy sinful self; which indeed
is not thyself, but sin that dwells in thee.[9]
[The distinct or particular desires of the righteous.]
Second. I come next to speak of desires more distinctly, or
particularly, as they work this way and that. First, then, the desires
of the righteous are either such as they would have accomplished here;
or else, Second, such as they know they cannot come at the enjoyment of
till after death.
[Desires that may be accomplished or enjoyed in this life.]