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).
Seventh. None flies to this righteousness for life, but those who feel
the sentence of condemnation by God’s law upon their conscience; and
that in that extremity have sought for righteousness first elsewhere,
but cannot find it in all the world.
Eighth. For man, when he findeth himself at first a sinner, doth not
straightway betake himself for righteousness to God by Christ; but, in
the first place, seeks it in the law on earth, by labouring to yield
obedience thereto, to the end he may, when he stands before God at
death and judgment, have something to commend him to him, and for the
sake of which he may at least help forward his acceptance with him.
Ninth. But being wearied out of this, and if God loves him he will
weary him out of it, then he looks unto heaven and cries to God for
righteousness; the which God shows him in his own good time he hath
reckoned to him, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Tenth. Now by this very discovery the heart is also principled with the
spirit of the gospel; for the Spirit comes with the gospel down from
heaven to such an one, and fills his soul with good; by which he is
capacitated to bring forth fruit, true fruit, which are the fruits of
righteousness imputed, and of righteousness infused, to the glory and
praise of God.
Eleventh. Nor can anything but faith make a man see himself thus made
righteous; for this righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, from
the object of faith to the grace of faith, by the Spirit of faith. A
faithless man, then, can see this no more than a blind man can see
colours; nor relish this, no more than a dead man tasteth victuals. As,
therefore, blind men talk of colours, and as dead men relish food, so
do carnal men talk of Jesus Christ; to wit, without sense or savour;
without sense of the want, or savour of the worth and goodness of him
to the soul.
Twelfth. Wherefore, I say, it is of absolute necessity that with thy
heart thou deal in this point, and beware of self-deceiving; for if
thou fail here, thy desires will fail thee for ever: ‘for the desire of
the righteous,’ and that only, ‘must be granted.’
THE THIRD USE IS CAUTIONARY. Let me here, therefore, caution thee to
beware of some things, by which else, perhaps, thou mayest deceive
thyself.
First. Take heed of taking such things for grants of desires, that
accidentally fall out; accidentally, I mean, as to thy desires; for it
is possible that that very thing that thou desirest may come to pass in
the current of providence, not as an answer of thy desires. Now, if
thou takest such things for a grant of thy desires, and consequently
concludest thyself a righteous man, how mayest thou be deceived? The
ark of God was delivered into the hand of the Philistines, which they
desired; but not for the sake of their desires, but for the sins of the
children of Israel. The land of Canaan was given unto Israel, not for
the sake of their desires, but for the sins of those whom God cast out
before them; and to fulfil the promise that God, before they were born,
had made unto their fathers (Deut 9:5,6). Israel was carried away
captive out of their own land, not to fulfil the desires of their
enemies, but to punish them for their transgressions. These, with many
of smaller importance, and more personal, might be mentioned, to show
that many things happen to us, some to our pleasing, and some to the
pleasing of our enemies; which, if either we or they should count the
returns of our prayer, or the fruits of our desires, and so draw
conclusions of our estate to be for the future happy, because in such
things we seemed to be answered of God, we might greatly swerve in our
judgments, and become the greatest at self-deceiving.
Second. Or shouldest thou take it for granted that what thou enjoyest
thou hast it as the fruit of thy desires; yet if the things thou boast
of are things pertaining to this life, such may be granted thee as thou
art considered of God as his creature, though thyself art far enough
off from being a righteous man. ‘Thou openest thy hand,’ says the
Psalmist, ‘and satisfiest the desire of every living thing’ (Psa
145:16). Again, ‘He feeds the young ravens that cry to him; and the
young lions seek their meat from God’ (Psa 147:9, 104:21). Cain,
Ishmael, Ahab too, had in some things their desires granted them of God
(Gen 4:14,15, 21:17,18; 1 Kings 21:29). For if God will hear the desire
of the beast of the field, the fishes of the sea, and of the fowls of
heaven; no marvel if the wicked also may boast him of his heart’s
desire (Psa 10:3). Into whose hand, as he saith in another place, ‘God
bringeth abundantly.’ Take heed, therefore, neither these things, nor
the grant of them, are any signs that thou art a righteous man, or that
the promise made to the righteous in granting their desires are
accomplished upon thee. I think a man may say, that the men that know
not God have a fuller grant, I mean generally, of their desires of
temporal things, than has the child of God himself; for his portion
lying in better things, his desires are answered another way.
Third. Take heed, God grants to some men their desires in anger, and to
their destruction. He gave to some ‘their own desire,’ ‘but sent
leanness into their soul’ (Psa 78:29, 106:15; Jer 42:22). All that God
gives to the sons of men, he gives not in mercy; he gives to some an
inferior, and to some a superior portion; and yet so also he answereth
them in the joy of their heart. Some men’s hearts are narrow upwards,
and wide downwards; narrow as to God, but wide for the world; they gape
for the one, but shut themselves up against the other; so as they
desire they have of what they desire; ‘whose belly thou fillest with
thy hid treasure,’ for that they do desire; but ‘as for me,’ said
David, these things will not satisfy, ‘I shall be satisfied when I
awake, with thy likeness’ (Psa 17:14,15).
I told you before, that the heart of a wicked man was widest downward,
but it is not so with the righteous: therefore the portion of Jacob is
not like them; God has given to him himself. The temple that Ezekiel
saw in the vision was still widest upward; it spread itself toward
heaven (Eze 41:7). So is the church, and so is the righteous, and so
are his desires. Thy great concern, therefore, is to consider, since
thou art confident that God also heareth thy desires; I say, to
consider, whether he answereth thee in his anger; for if he doth so,
thy desires come with a woe; therefore, I say, look to thyself. A full
purse and a lean soul, is a sign of a great curse. ‘He gave them their
desire, but he sent leanness into their soul.’ Take heed of that; many
men crave by their desires, as the dropsical man craves drink; his
drinking makes his belly swell big, but consumes other parts of his
body. O! it is a sad grant, when the desire is granted, only to make
the belly big, the estate big, the name big; when even by this bigness
the soul pines, is made to dwindle, to grow lean, and to look like an
anatomy.
I am persuaded that it is thus with many, who, while they were lean in
estates, had fat souls; but the fattening of their estates has made
their souls as to good, as lean as a rake. They cannot now breathe
after God; they cannot now look to their hearts; they cannot now set
watch and ward over their ways; they cannot now spare time to examine
who goes out, or who comes in. They have so much their desires in
things below, that they have no leisure to concern themselves with, or
to look after things above; their hearts are now as fat as grease;
their eyes do now too much start out, to be turned and made to look
inward (Psa 119:70, 83:7). They are now become, as to their best part,
like the garden of the slothful, all grown over with nettles and
briars, that cover the face thereof; or, like Saul, removed from a
little estate, and low condition, to much, even worse and worse. Men do
not know what they do in desiring things of this life, things over and
above what are necessary; they desire them, and they have them with a
woe. ‘Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly,’ his belly is
taken for his conscience (Prov 20:27). ‘He shall not save of that which
he desired,’ to help him in an evil day (Job 20:20, 1 Tim 6:17-19).
I shall not here give my caution to the righteous, but shall reserve
that for the next use. But, O! that men were as wise in judging of the
answering of the desires, as they are in judging of the extravagancies
of their appetites. You shall have a man even from experience reclaim
himself from such an excess of eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping,
talking, or pleasurable actions, as by his experience he finds is
hurtful to him, and yet all this may but hurt the body, at least the
body directly; but how blind, how unskilled are they in the evils that
attend desires! For, like the man in the dropsy, made mention of
before, they desire this world, as he doth drink, till they desire
themselves quite down to hell. Look to it, therefore, and take heed;
God’s granting the things pertaining to this life unto thee, doth
neither prove that thou art righteous, nor that he acts in mercy
towards thee, by giving of thee thy desires.
THE FOURTH USE IS FOR ENCOURAGEMENT. Is it so? shall the desire of the
righteous be granted? Then this should encourage them that in the first
place have sought the kingdom of God and his Son’s righteousness, to go
on in their desires. God has given thee his Son’s righteousness to
justify thee; he has also, because thou art a son, sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into thy heart to sanctify thee, and to help thee to
cry unto him, Father, Father. Wilt thou not cry? wilt thou not desire?
thy God has bidden thee ‘open thy mouth wide’; he has bid thee open it
wide, and promised, saying, ‘And I will fill it’; and wilt thou not
desire? (Psa 81:10). O! thou hast a licence, a leave, a grant to
desire; wherefore be not afraid to desire great mercies of the God of
heaven; this was Daniel’s way, and he set others to do it too (Dan
2:18).
Object. But I am an unworthy creature.
Answ. That is true; but God gives to no man for his worthiness, nor
rejects any for their sinfulness, that come to him sensible of the want
and worth of mercy for them. Besides, I told thee before, that the
desires of a righteous man, and the desires of his God, do jump or
agree. God has a desire to thee; thou hast a desire to him (Job 14:15).
God desires truth in the inward parts, and so dost thou with all thy
heart (Psa 5:1-6; Hosea 6:5). God desires mercy, and to show it to the
needy; that is it thou also wantest, and that which thy soul craves at
his hand. Seek, man, ask, knock, and do not be discouraged; the Lord
grant all thy desires. Thou sayest thou art unworthy to ask the biggest
things, things spiritual and heavenly; well, will carnal things serve
thee, and answer the desires of thy heart? Canst thou be content to be
put off with a belly well filled, and a back well clothed? O! better I
never had been born!
See, thou wilt not ask the best, and yet canst not make shift without
them. Shift, no, no shift without them; I am undone without them,
undone for ever and ever, sayest thou; well then desire; so I do,
sayest thou. Ah! but desire with more strong desires, desire with more
large desires, desire spiritual gifts, covet them earnestly, thou hast
a licence too to do so (1 Cor 14:1). God bids thee do so; and I, says
the apostle, ‘desire that ye faint not’ (Eph 3:13), that is, in the
prosecution of your desires, what discouragements soever you may meet
with in the way; for he hath said, ‘The desire of the righteous shall
be granted.’
Object. But I find it not so, says one: for though I have desired and
desired, a thousand times upon my knees, for something that I want, yet
I have not my desire; and indeed the consideration of this hath made me
question whether I am one of those to whom the promise of granting
desires is made.
Answ. To this objection many things must be replied. First. By way of
question. Second. Then by way of answer.
First. By way of question; what are the things thou desirest, are they
lawful or unlawful? for a Christian may desire unlawful things; as the
mother of Zebedee’s children did when she came to Christ, nay, her sons
themselves had their hearts therein, saying, ‘Master, we would that
thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire’ (Mark 10:35; Matt
20:20). They came with a wide mouth, but their desire was unlawful, as
is evident, for that Christ would not grant it. James also himself
caught those unto whom he wrote, in such a fault as this, where he
says, ‘Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain’ (James 4:2).
There are four things that are unlawful to be desired. To desire the
life of thine enemy is unlawful (1 Kings 3:11; Deut 5:21). To desire
anything that is thy neighbour’s is unlawful. To desire to share in the
prosperity of the wicked is unlawful (Psa 73:3). To desire spiritual
things for evil ends is unlawful (Prov 24:1,19; James 4:2-4).
Are they lawful things which thou desirest? Yet the question is, Are
they absolutely or conditionally promised? If absolutely promised, hold
on in desiring; if conditionally promised, then thou must consider
whether they are such as are essential to the well-being of thy soul in
thy Christian course in this life. Or whether they are things that are
of a more inferior sort.
If they are such as are essential to the well-being of thy soul in thy
Christian course in this world, then hold on in thy desires; and look
also for the conditions that that word calls for, that proffereth them
to thee; and if it be not possible to find them in thyself, look for
them in Christ, and cry to God for them, for the Lord’s sake. But if
they be of an inferior sort, and thou canst be a good Christian without
them, desire them, and yet be content to go without them; for who knows
but it may be better that thou shouldest be denied, than that thou
shouldest have now a grant of some things thou desirest? and herein
thou hast thy Lord for thy pattern; who, though he desired that his
life might be prolonged, yet wound up that prayer with a ‘nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done’ (Matt 26:39-42; Mark 14:36).
Second. By way of answer; but we will suppose that the thing thou
desirest is good; and that thy heart may be right in asking; as suppose
thou desirest more grace; or as David has it, more ‘truth in the inward
and hidden part’ (Psa 51:6). Yet there are several things for thy
instruction, may be replied to thy objection, as,
1. Thou, though thou desirest more of this, mayest not yet be sensible
of the worth of what thou askest, as perhaps God will have thee be,
before he granteth thy desire; sometimes Christians ask for good things
without having in themselves an estimate proportionable to the worth of
what they desire; and God may hold it therefore back, to learn them to
know better the worth and greatness of that thing they ask for. The
good disciples asked they knew not what (Mark 10:38). I know they asked
what was unlawful, but they were ignorant of the value of that thing;
and the same may be thy fault when thou askest for things most lawful
and necessary.
2. Hast thou well improved what thou hast received already? Fathers
will hold back more money, when the sons have spent that profusely
which they had received before. ‘He that is faithful in that which is
least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is
unjust also in much.’ ‘And if ye have not been faithful in that which
is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?’ (Luke
16:10,12). See here an objection made against a further supply, or
rather against such a supply as some would have, because they have
misspent, or been unfaithful in what they have already had. If thou,
therefore, hast been faulty here, go, humble thyself to thy friend, and
beg pardon for thy faults that are past, when thou art desiring of him
more grace.