"Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are, While on his breast I lean my head, And breath my life out sweetly there."--Dr. Watts.
THE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS GRANTED;
OR,
A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN"S DESIRES.
ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT BY THE EDITOR
As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man"s heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of the new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after G.o.d and holiness are built--and the root by which they are nourished.
It is from this principle of Divine life which flows from Christ to his members, that these desires and struggles after holiness of thought and conduct arise, and are kept alive. They prove a fountain of consolation to the hara.s.sed and tried believer; for if we are in the sense of this scripture "righteous," we shall have those desires to enjoy the presence of G.o.d on earth, and with him felicity in heaven, which the voice of the Omnipotent declareth SHALL be granted. O! the blessedness of those in whose hearts are planted "the desires of the righteous."
This brings us to the most important of all the subjects of self-examination--am I one of the "righteous"? or, in other words, "am I born again?" Upon this solemn heart-trying inquiry hangs all our hopes of escape from misery and ascension to glory--a kingdom, a crown, a bright, a happy, an eternal inheritance, on the one hand, or the gloomy abodes of wretchedness on the other hand, are for ever to be decided. What are our desires? To guide our anxious inquiries into this all-important subject, our author unlocks the heavenly treasures, and in every point furnishes us with book, and chapter, and verse, that we may carefully and prayerfully weigh all that he displays in the unerring scales of the sanctuary. A desire after the presence of G.o.d--of conformity to his image and example--for a greater hatred of sin--yea, as Bunyan expresses it, a desire to desire more of those blessed fruits of the Spirit, inspires the inquirer with the cheering hope that he has pa.s.sed from death unto life--that he has been born again, and has been made righteous.
And if, as we progress in the Divine life, our experience of the delights of communion with G.o.d enables us to say with David, "My soul panteth," or crieth, or, as the margin of our Bibles have, brayeth, "yea, thirsteth after G.o.d," however we may be a.s.saulted by the enemies within and without, we may say with confidence, "Why art thou disquieted, O my soul? hope thou in G.o.d, for I SHALL yet praise him."
Deeply are the churches of Christ indebted to the Holy Spirit for having a.s.sisted his honoured servant to write this treatise; and we are under great obligation to his friend, Charles Doe, for having handed it down to us, as he found it prepared for the press, with other excellent treatises, among the author"s papers after his decease. It abounds with those striking ideas peculiar to the works of the author of the Pilgrim"s Progress; most faithful home thrusts at conscience, which those who really desire to know themselves will greatly prize. It has been very properly observed that the words used by the author, as descriptive of the text, may, with great propriety, be applied to this treatise--"It is a sharp and smart description" of the desires of a righteous man.
The desires of the righteous are very graphically impersonated and described. They reach beyond time and peep into eternity. "The righteous have desires that reach further than this world, desires that have so long a neck as to look into the world to come." "So forcible and mighty are they in operation"; "is there not life and mettle in them? They loose the bands of nature--harden the soul against sorrow--they are the fruits of an eagle-eyed confidence."
They enable the soul "to see through the jaws of death--to see Christ preparing mansion-houses for his poor ones that are now kicked to and fro, like footb.a.l.l.s in the world!" "A desire will take a man upon its back and carry him away to G.o.d, if ten thousand men oppose it." "It will carry him away after G.o.d to do his will, let the work be never so hard." The new man is subject to transient sickness, during which desire fails in its power when the inner man has caught a cold.
Bunyan"s views of church fellowship are always lovely; they are delightfully expressed. He also introduces us to the unsearchable riches of Christ. "The righteous desire a handful, G.o.d gives them a seaful; they desire a country, G.o.d prepares for them a city."
Wonders of grace to G.o.d belong.
Bunyan"s pictures of the natural man are equally faithful and striking--when guilt and conviction take hold on him--when pestilence threatens to break up his house-keeping--and death takes him by the throat and hauls him down stairs to the grave; then he, who never prayed, crieth, Pray for me, 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 she sees the hawk waiting to receive her. But I must not detain the reader longer from entering on this solemn and impressive treatise, but commend it to the Divine blessing.
GEO. OFFOR.
THE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS GRANTED.
"The desite of the righteous is only good."--Proverbs 11:23
"The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; but the desite of the righteous shall be granted."--Proverbs 10:24
This book of the Proverbs is so called because it is such as containeth hard, dark, and pithy sentences of wisdom, by which is taught unto young men knowledge and discretion (1-6). Wherefore this book is not such as discloseth truths by words antecedent or subsequent to the text, so as other scriptures generally do, but has its texts or sentences more independent; for usually each verse standeth upon its own bottom, and presenteth by itself some singular thing to the consideration of the reader; so that I shall not need to bid my reader go back to what went before, nor yet to that which follows, for the better opening of the text; and shall therefore come immediately to the words, and search into them for what hidden treasures are contained therein.
[First.] The words then, in the first place, present us with the general condition of the whole world; for all men are ranked under one of these conditions, the wicked or the righteous; for he that is not wicked is righteous, and he that is not righteous is wicked.
So again, "Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, spoil not his resting-place." I might give you out of this book many such instances, for it flows with such; but the truth hereof is plain enough.
The world is also divided by other general terms, as by these--believers, unbelievers; saints, sinners; good, bad; children of G.o.d, and children of the wicked one, &c. These, I say, are general terms, and comprehend not this or that sect, or order of each, but the whole. The believer, saint, good, and child of G.o.d, are one--to wit, the righteous; the unbeliever, the sinner, the bad, and the child of the devil, is one--to wit, the wicked; as also the text expresses it. So that I say, the text, or these two terms in it, comprehend all men; the one all that shall be saved, the other all that shall be d.a.m.ned for ever in h.e.l.l-fire (Psa 9:17, 11:6). The wicked; who is he but the man that loves not G.o.d, nor to do his will? The righteous; who is he but the man that loveth G.o.d, and his holy will, to do it?
Of the wicked there are several sorts, some more ignorant, some more knowing; the more ignorant of them are such as go to be executed, as the ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; that is, as creatures whose ignorance makes them as unconcerned, while they are going down the stairs to h.e.l.l. But, alas! their ignorance will be no plea for them before the bar of G.o.d; for it is written, "It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour" (Isa 27:11; Prov 7:22).
Though, I must confess, the more knowing the wicked is, or the more light and goodness such a one sins against, the greater will his judgment be; these shall have greater d.a.m.nation: it shall be more tolerable at the judgment for Sodom than for them (Luke 10:12, 20:47). There is a wicked man that goes blinded, and a wicked man that goes with his eyes open to h.e.l.l; there is a wicked man that cannot see, and a wicked man that will not see the danger he is in; but h.e.l.l-fire will open both their eyes (Luke 16:23). There are that are wicked, and cover all with a cloak of religion, and there are that proclaim their profaneness; but they will meet both in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; "The wicked shall be turned into h.e.l.l, and all the nations that forget G.o.d" (Psa 9:17).
There are also several sorts, if I may so express myself, of those that are truly righteous, as children, young men, fathers, or saints that fear G.o.d, both small and great (Rev 11:18; 1 John 2).
Some have more grace than some, and some do better improve the grace they have than others of their brethren do; some also are more valiant for the truth upon the earth than others of their brethren are; yea, some are so swallowed up with G.o.d, and love to his word and ways, that they are fit to be a pattern or example in holiness to all that are about them; and some again have their light shining so dim, that they render themselves suspicious to their brethren, whether they are of the number of those that have grace or no.[1]
But being gracious they shall not be lost, although such will at the day of reward suffer loss; for this is the will of the Father that sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, "That of all which he had given him he should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day" (John 6:37-39; 1 Cor 3:15).
[Second.] In the next place, we are here presented with some of the qualities of the wicked and the righteous; the wicked has his fears, the righteous has his desires. The wicked has his fears. "The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; but the desire of the righteous shall be granted." Indeed, it seems to the G.o.dly that the wicked feareth not, nor doth he after a G.o.dly sort; for he that feareth G.o.d aright must not be reputed a wicked man. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, declareth that he feareth not G.o.d aright, because he doth not graciously call upon him; but yet for all that, the wicked at times are haunted, sorely haunted, and that with the worst of fears. "Terrors," says Bildad, "shall make him afraid on every side." And again, "His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors" (Job 18:11-14).
A wicked man, though he may hector it at times with his proud heart, as though he feared neither G.o.d nor h.e.l.l, yet again, at times, his soul is even drowned with terrors. "The morning is to them even as the shadow of death; if one knew them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death" (Job 24:14-17). At times, I say, it is thus with them, especially when they are under warm convictions that the day of judgment is at hand, or when they feel in themselves as if death was coming as a tempest, to steal them away from their enjoyments, and l.u.s.ts, and delights; then the bed shakes on which they lie, then the proud tongue doth falter in their mouth, and their knees knock one against another; then their conscience stares, and roars, and tears, and arraigns them before G.o.d"s judgment-seat, or threatens to follow them down to h.e.l.l, and there to wreck its fury on them, for all the abuses and affronts this wicked wretch offered to it in the day in which it controlled his unlawful deeds. O! none can imagine what fearful plights a wicked man is in sometimes; though G.o.d in his just judgment towards them suffers them again and again to stifle and choke such awakenings, from a purpose to reserve them unto the day of judgment to be punished (2 Peter 2:7-9).
[Third.] In the third place, as the wicked has his fears, so the righteous has his desires. "The desire of the righteous shall be granted"; but this must not be taken exclusively, as if the wicked had nothing but fears, and the righteous nothing but desires. For, both by Scripture and experience also, we find that the wicked has his desires, and the righteous man his fears.
1. For the wicked, they are not without their desires. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his," was the desire of wicked Balaam (Num 23:10), and another place saith, "the wicked boasteth of his heart"s desire"; that he is for heaven as well as the best of you all, but yet, even then, "he blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth" (Psa 10:3). Wicked men have their desires and their hopes too, but the hope and desire of unjust men perisheth (Prov 11:7, 14:32). Yea, and though they look and long, too, all the day long, with desires of life and glory, yet their fears, and them only, shall come upon them; for they are the desires of the righteous that shall be granted (Psa 112:10).
The desires of the wicked want a good bottom; they flow not from a sanctified mind, nor of love to the G.o.d, or the heaven now desired; but only from such a sense as devils have of torments, and so, as they, they cry out, "I beseech thee torment me not" (Luke 8:28, 16:24). But their fears have a substantial foundation, for they are grounded upon the view of an ill-spent life, the due reward of which is h.e.l.l-fire; "the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of G.o.d," their place is without; "for without are dogs and sorcerers, and wh.o.r.emongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (1 Cor 6:9,10; Rev 22:15).
Their fears, therefore, have a strong foundation; they have also matter to work upon, which is guilt and justice, the which they shall never be able to escape, without a miracle of grace and mercy (Heb 2:3). Therefore it saith, and that with emphasis, "The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him"; wherefore his desires must die with him: for the promise of a grant of that which is desired is only entailed to righteousness. "The desire of the righteous shall be granted," but "grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked,"
saith David (Psa 140:8).
2. Nor are the righteous without their fears, and that even all their life long. Through fear of death, they, some of them, are all their life time subject to bondage (Heb 2:15). But as the desires of the wicked shall be frustrate, so shall also the fears of the G.o.dly; hence you have them admonished, yea commanded, not to be afraid neither of devils, death, nor h.e.l.l; for the fear of the righteous shall not come upon them to eternal d.a.m.nation (Isa 35:4, 41:10-14, 43:1, 44:28; Luke 8:50, 12:32; Rev 1:17).
"The desire of the righteous shall be granted." No, they are not to fear what sin can do unto them, nor what all their sins can do unto them; I do not say they should not be afraid of sinning, nor of those temporal judgments that sin shall bring upon them, for of such things they ought to be afraid, as saith the Psalmist, "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments"
(Psa 119:120). But of eternal ruin, of that, they ought not to be afraid of with slavish fear. "Wherefore should I fear," said the prophet, "in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compa.s.s me about?" (Psa 49:5). And again, "Ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord;--for the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name"s sake" (1 Sam 12:20-22).
The reason is, because the righteous are secured by their faith in Christ Jesus; also their fears stand upon a mistake of the nature of the covenant, in which they are wrapped up, which is ordered for them in all things, and sure (2 Sam 23:5; Isa 55:3). Besides, G.o.d has purposed to magnify the riches of his grace in their salvation; therefore goodness and mercy shall, to that end, follow them all the days of their life, that they may "dwell in the house of the Lord for ever" (Psa 23:6; Eph 1:3-7). They have also their intercessor and advocate ready with G.o.d, to take up matters for them in such a way as may maintain true peace betwixt their G.o.d and them; and as may encourage them to be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto them at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13; 1 John 2:1,2). Wherefore, though the G.o.dly have their fears, yea, sometimes dreadful fears, and that of perishing for ever and ever; yet the day is coming, when their fears and tears shall be done away, and when their desires only shall be granted. "The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon them; but the desire of the righteous shall be granted."
The words, then, are a prediction or prophecy, and that both concerning the wicked and the righteous, with reference to time and things to come, and shall certainly be fulfilled in their season.
Hence it is said concerning the wicked, that their triumphing is short, and that the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment (Job 20:5). O, their end will be bitter as wormwood, and will cut like a two-edged sword! Of this Solomon admonishes youth, when he saith.
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things G.o.d will bring thee into judgment" (Eccl 11:9).
This, therefore, showeth the desperate spirit that possesses the children of men, who, though they hear and read all this, yet cannot be reclaimed from courses that are wicked, and that lead to such a condition (Prov 5:7-14). I say they will not be reclaimed from such courses as lead to ways that go down to h.e.l.l, where their soul must mourn, even then when their flesh and their body are consumed.
O! how dear bought are their pleasures, and how will their laughter be turned into tears and anguish unutterable! and that presently, for it is coming! Their "judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their d.a.m.nation slumbereth not" (2 Peter 2:3). But what good will their covenant of death then do them? And will their agreement of h.e.l.l yield them comfort? Is not G.o.d as well mighty to punish as to save? (Isa 28:18). Or can these sinners believe G.o.d out of the world, or cause that he should not pay them home for their sins, and recompense them for all the evil they have loved, and continued in the commission of? (Job 21:29-31). "Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong in the days that G.o.d shall deal with thee?"
(Eze 22:14). Thou art bold now, I mean bold in a wicked way; thou sayest now thou wilt keep thy sweet morsels of sin under thy tongue, thou wilt keep them still within thy mouth. Poor wretch! Thy sins shall lie down in the dust with thee (Job 20:11). Thou hast sucked the poison of asps, and the viper"s tongue shall slay thee (Job 20:16). "Thou shalt not see the rivers, the streaming floods, the brooks of b.u.t.ter and honey" (Job 20:17). "All darkness shall be hid in thy secret places, a fire not blown shall consume thee." "This is the portion of a wicked man from G.o.d, and the heritage appointed to him by G.o.d" (Job 20:26-29).
And as they [the Scriptures] predict or prophesy what shall become of the wicked; so also they plentifully foretell what shall happen to the righteous, when he saith their desire shall be granted: of which more anon. Only here I will drop this short hint, That the righteous have great cause to rejoice; for what more pleasing, what more comfortable to a man, than to be a.s.sured, and that from the Spirit of truth, that what he desireth shall be granted? And this the righteous are a.s.sured of here; for he saith it in words at length, "The desire of the righteous shall be granted." This, then, should comfort them against their fears, and the sense of their unworthiness; it should also make them hold up their heads under all their temptations, and the affronts that is usual for them to meet with in the world. The righteous! Who so vilified as the righteous? He, by the wise men of the world, is counted a very Abraham,[2] a fool; like to him who is the father of us all. But as he left all for the desire that he had of a better country, and at last obtained his desire; for after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise; so those that walk in the steps of that faith which our father Abraham had, even those also in the end shall find place in Abraham"s bosom; wherefore it is meet that we should cheer up and be glad, because what we desire shall be granted unto us (Heb 6).
THE NATURE OF THE WORDS.
But I shall here leave off this short way of paraphrasing upon the text, and shall come more distinctly to inquire into the nature of the words; but my subject-matter shall be the last part of the verse, "The desire of the righteous shall be granted." From which words there are these things to be inquired into.
FIRST. What, or who is the righteous man? SECOND. What are the desires of a righteous man? THIRD. What is meant or to be understood by the granting of the desires of the righteous? "The desire of the righteous shall be granted."
[WHO IS THE RIGHTEOUS MAN?]
FIRST. For the first of these, namely, "WHAT OR WHO IS THE RIGHTEOUS MAN?
My way of prosecuting this head shall be to show you, first, that I intend a righteous man not in every sense, but in that which is the best; otherwise I shall miscarry as to the intendment of the Holy Ghost; for it may not be supposed that these words reach to them that are righteous in a general, but in a special sense; such, I mean, that are so in the judgment of G.o.d. For, as I hinted, there are several sorts of righteous men that yet have nothing to do with this blessed promise, or that shall never, as such, have their desires granted.
FIRST. There is one that is righteous in his own eyes, and is yet far enough off from the blessing of the text: "There is a generation that are pure" or righteous "in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness" (Prov 29:12). These are they that you also read of in the evangelist Luke, that are said to trust "in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others" (Luke 18:9). These are set so low, by this their foolish confidence, in the eyes of Jesus Christ, that he even preferred a praying publican before them (Luke 18:13,14). Wherefore these cannot be the men, I mean those righteous men, to whom this promise is made.
SECOND. There are those that by others are counted righteous; I mean they are so accounted by their neighbours. Thus Korah and his company are called the people of the Lord, and all the congregation by them also called holy, every one of them (Num 16:3,41). But as he who commends himself is not approved, so it is no great matter if all the world shall count us righteous, if G.o.d esteemeth us not for such: "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends" (2 Cor 10:18).
THIRD. There are those that indeed are righteous when compared with others: "I came not to call the righteous"; "for scarcely for a righteous man will one die," and the like, are texts thus to be understood. For such as these are, as to life moral, better than others. But these, if they are none otherwise righteous than by acts and works of righteousness of their own, are not the persons contained in the text that are to have their desires granted.