such good things as they could have accomplished here; that is, in this
world, while they are on this side glory. And they, in general, are
comprised under these two general heads:—1. Communion with their God in
spirit, or spiritual communion with him; 2. The liberty of the
enjoyment of his holy ordinances. And, indeed, this second is, that
they may both attain to, and have the first maintained with them. But
for the first:
1. They desire now communion with God. ‘With my soul,’ said she, ‘have
I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek
thee early’ (Isa 26:9). The reason of this she renders in the verse
foregoing, saying, ‘The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the
remembrance of thee.’
Now, thus to desire, declares one already made righteous. For herein
there appears a mind reconciled to God. Wherefore the wicked are set on
the other side, even in that opposition to these; ‘they say unto God,
Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways’ (Job
21:14). They neither love his presence, nor to be frequenters of his
ordinances. ‘What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what
profit should we have if we pray unto him?’ (Job 21:15). So, again,
speaking of the wicked, he saith, ‘Ye have said it is vain to serve
God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance?’ (Mal
3:14). This, then, to desire truly to have communion with God, is the
property of a righteous man, of a righteous man only; for this desire
arises from a suitableness which is in the righteous unto God; ‘Whom,’
said the Prophet, ‘have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon
earth that I desire beside thee’ (Psa 73:25). This could never be the
desire of a man, were he not a righteous man, a man with a truly
sanctified mind. ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be’ (Rom 8:7).
When Moses, the man of God, was with the children of Israel in the
wilderness, he prays that God would give them his presence unto Canaan,
or else to let them die in that place. It was death to him to think of
being in the wilderness without God! And he said unto God, ‘If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence’ (Exo 33:14,15). Here,
then, are the desires of a righteous man—namely, after communion with
God. He chooses rather to be a stranger with God in the world, than to
be a citizen of the world and a stranger to God. ‘For I am,’ said
David, ‘a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were’
(Psa 39:12). Indeed, he that walketh with God is but a stranger to this
world. And the righteous man’s desires are to, for, and after communion
with God, though he be so.
The reasons of these desires are many. In communion with God is life
and favour; yea, the very presence of God with a man is a token of it
(Psa 30:3-5). For by his presence he helps, succours, relieves, and
supports the hearts of his people, and therefore is communion with him
desired. ‘I will,’ said David, ‘behave myself wisely in a perfect way;
O when wilt thou come unto me?’ (Psa 101:2). The pleasures that such a
soul finds in God that has communion with him are surpassing all
pleasures and delights, yea, infinitely surpassing them. ‘In thy
presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore’ (Psa 16:11). Upon this account he is called the desire of all
nations—of all in all nations that know him. Job desired God’s
presence, that he might reason with God. ‘Surely,’ said he, ‘I would
speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God’ (Job 13:3). And
again, ‘O that one would hear me! Behold my desire is that the Almighty
would answer me’ (Job 31:35). But why doth Job thus desire to be in the
presence of God! O! he knew that God was good, and that he would speak
to him that which would do him good. ‘Will he plead against me with his
great power? No: but he would put strength into me. There the righteous
might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my
judge’ (Job 23:6,7).
God’s presence is the safety of a man. If God be with one, who can hurt
one? As HE said, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Now, if so
much safety flows from God’s being for one, how safe are we when God is
with us? ‘The beloved of the Lord,’ said Moses, ‘shall dwell in safety
by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall
dwell between his shoulders’ (Deut 33:12). God’s presence keeps the
heart awake to joy, and will make a man sing in the night (Job 35:10).
‘Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom
is with them?’ (Matt 9:15). God’s presence is feasting, and feasting is
made for mirth (Rev 3:20; Eccl 10:19). God’s presence keeps the heart
tender, and makes it ready to fall in with what is made known as duty
or privilege (Isa 64:1). ‘I will run the ways of thy commandments,’
said the Psalmist, ‘when thou shalt enlarge my heart’ (Psa 119:32). The
presence of God makes a man affectionately and sincerely good; yea,
makes him willing to be searched and stripped from all the remains of
iniquity (Psa 26:1-3).
What, what shall I say? God’s presence is renewing, transforming,
seasoning, sanctifying, commanding, sweetening, and enlightening to the
soul! Nothing like it in all the world; his presence supplies all
wants, heals all maladies, saves from all dangers; is life in death,
heaven in hell; all in all. No marvel, then, if the presence of, and
communion with, God, is become the desire of a righteous man (Psa
26:9). To conclude this, by the presence of God being with us, it is
known to ourselves, and to others, what we are. ‘If thy presence,’ said
Moses, ‘go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be
known here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight, is it
not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy
people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth’ (Exo
33:15,16).
They are then best known to themselves. They know they are his people,
because God’s presence is with them. Therefore he saith, ‘My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest’ (Exo 33:14). That is,
let thee know that thou hast found grace in my sight, and art accepted
of me. For if God withdraws himself, or hides his presence from his
people, it is hard for them to bear up in the steadfast belief that
they belong to him. ‘Be not silent to me,’ O Lord, said David, ‘lest I
become like them that go down into the pit’ (Psa 28:1). ‘Be not silent
unto me,’ that is, as he has it in another place, ‘Hide not thy face
from me. Hear me speedily, O Lord,’ saith he, ‘my spirit faileth; hide
not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the
pit’ (Psa 143:7). So that God’s presence is the desire of the righteous
for this cause also, even for that by it they gather that God
delighteth in them. ‘By this I know that thou favourest me, because
mine enemies doth not triumph over me’ (Psa 41:11). And is this all?
No. ‘And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me
before thy face for ever’ (Psa 41:12).
As by the presence of God being with us we know ourselves to be the
people of God: so by this presence of God the world themselves are
sometimes convinced who we are also.
Thus Abimelech saw that God was with Abraham (Gen 21:22). Thus
Abimelech saw that God was with Isaac (Gen 26:20,29). Pharaoh knew that
God was with Joseph (Gen 41:38). Saul ‘saw and knew that the Lord was
with David’ (1 Sam 18:28). Saul’s servant knew that the Lord was with
Samuel (1 Sam 9:6). Belshazzar’s queen knew, also, that God was with
Daniel. Darius knew, also, that God was with Daniel. And when the enemy
saw the boldness of Peter and John, ‘they took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus’ (Acts 4:13). The girl that was a witch, knew
that Paul was a servant of the most high God (Acts 16:17). There is a
glory upon them that have God with them, a glory that sometimes glances
and flashes out into the faces of those that behold the people of God;
‘And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly upon him, saw
Stephen’s face, as it had been the face of an angel’; such rays of
Divine majesty did show themselves therein (Acts 6:15).
The reason is, for that, (1.) such have with them the wisdom of God (2
Sam 14:17-20). (2.) Such, also, have special bowels and compassions of
God for others. (3.) Such have more of his majesty upon them than
others (1 Sam 16:4). (4.) Such, their words and ways, their carriages
and doings, are attended with that of God that others are destitute of
(1 Sam 3:19,20). (5.) Such are holier, and of more convincing lives in
general, than other people are (2 Kings 4:9). Now there is both comfort
and honour in this; for what comfort like that of being a holy man of
God? And what honour like that of being a holy man of God? This,
therefore, is the desire of the righteous, to wit, to have communion
with God. Indeed none like God, and to be desired as he, in the
thoughts of a righteous man.
2. And this leads me to the second thing, namely, The liberty of the
enjoyment of his holy ordinances; for, next to God himself, nothing is
so dear to a righteous man as the enjoyment of his holy ordinances.
‘One thing,’ said David, ‘have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek
after,’ namely, ‘that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his
temple’ (Psa 27:4). The temple of the Lord was the dwelling-house of
God, there he recorded his name, and there he made known himself unto
his people (Psa 11:4; Habb 2:20). Wherefore this was the cause why
David so earnestly desired to dwell there too, ‘To behold,’ saith he,
‘the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.’ There he had
promised his presence to his people, yea, and to bring thither a
blessing for them; ‘In all places where I record my name, I will come
unto thee, and I will bless thee’ (Exo 20:24). For this cause,
therefore, as I said, it is why the righteous do so desire that they
may enjoy the liberty of the ordinances and appointments of their God;
to wit, that they may attain to, and have communion maintained with
him. Alas! the righteous are as it were undone, if God’s ordinances be
taken from them: ‘How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My
soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart
and my flesh crieth out for the living God’ (Psa 84:1,2). Behold what a
taking the good man was in, because at this time he could not attain to
so frequent a being in the temple of God as his soul desired. It even
longed and fainted, yea, and his heart and his flesh cried out for the
God that dwelt in the temple at Jerusalem.
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.