Chapter 200

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.