God makes a man righteous by possessing him with a principle of righteousness; which principle is not of nature, but of grace; not of man, but of God. Third. The man in the text is practically righteous, or one that declareth himself by works that are good; a virtuous, a righteous man, even as the tree declares by the apple or plum it beareth what manner of tree it is: Ye shall know them by their fruits.' Mat. vii. 16. Fruits show outwardly what the heart is principled with: show me then thy faith, which abideth in the heart, by thy works in a well spent life. Mark how the apostle words it, We being, saith he, made free from sin, and become servants to God, have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' Ro. vi. 23. change which the Holy Ghost works in our minds, | righteousness. This then is the second thing. the servants of God. Ro. v. 7-9. Hence it is said, • There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' Ro. viii. 1. For though, as the apostle also insinuates here, that being in Christ Jesus is antecedent to our walking after the Spirit; yet a man can make no demonstration of his being in Christ Jesus, but by his walking in the Spirit; because the Spirit is an inseparable companion of imputed righteousness, and immediately follows it, to dwell with whosoever it is bestowed upon. Now it dwelling in us, principles us in all the powers of our souls, with that which is righteousness in the habit and nature of it. Hence the fruits of the Spirit are called the fruits of goodness and righteousness,' as the fruits of a tree are called the fruit of that tree. Ep. v. 9. * to his 2 Ti. i. 9. lows? Mark his order: first we are made free from sin; now that is by being justified freely by the grace And again, He that doth righteousness is of God through the redemption which is in Jesus righteous,' not only in our first sense, but even in Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiathis also. For who can do righteousness without tion through faith in his blood. Now this is God's he be principled so to do? who can act reason that act, without any regard at all to any good that the hath not reason? So none can bring forth right-sinner has or can accomplish; not by works of eousness that hath not in him the root of righteous-righteousness which we have done, but according ness, which is the Spirit of God, which comes to mercy' thus he saveth us. Tit. iii. 5. Ro. iii. 24. us by virtue of our being made sons of God. 1 Jn. ii. Now, being made free from sin, what fol19; iii. 7. Ga. iv. 5—7. Hence the fruits of the Spirit We become the servants of God, that is, are called 'the fruits of righteousness, which are by that turn which the Holy Ghost makes upon by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.' our heart when it reconciles it to the Word of Phi. i. 11. This then is the thing we say, to wit, God's grace. For that, as was said afore, is the that he that is made righteous unto justifica- effect of the indwelling and operation of the Holy tion of life before God, is also habituated with a Ghost. Now having our hearts thus changed by principle of righteousness, as that which follows God and his Word, the fruits of righteousness put that righteousness by which he stood just before. forth themselves by us. For as when we were in I say, as that which follows it; for it comes by the flesh, the motions of sin, which is in our memJesus Christ, and by our being justified before bers, did bring forth fruit unto death, so now, if God, and made righteous through him. we are in the Spirit, and we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, by the motions and workings of that we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Ro. viii. 6, 9. But now by these fruits we are neither made righteous nor good; for the apple maketh not the tree good, it only declares it so to be. Here therefore all those are mistaken that think to be righteous by doing of righteous actions, or good by doing good. A man must first be righteous, or he cannot do righteousness; to wit, that which is evangelically such. Now if a man is, and must be right This second then also comes to us before we do any act spiritually good. For how can a man act righteousness but from a principle of righteousness? And seeing this principle is not of or by nature, but of and by grace, through Christ, it follows that as no man is just before God that is not covered with the righteousness of Christ, so no man can do righteousness but by the power of the Spirit of God which must dwell in him. Hence we are said through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, which works are preparatory to fruitful actions. The husbandman, says Paul, that laboureth, must first be partaker of the fruit; so he that worketheous, before he acts righteousness, then all his works righteousness, must first be blessed with a principle of righteousness. 2 Ti. ii. 1-6. Men must have eyes before they see, tongues before they speak, and legs before they go; even so must a man be made habitually good and righteous before he can work are born too late to make him just before God; for his works, if they be right, flow from the heart of a righteous man, of a man that had, before he had any good work, a twofold righteousness bestowed on him; one to make him righteous in the sight of God, the other to principle him to be righteous before the world. That he might be called a trec of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.' Is. lxiii. 3. The want of understanding of this, is that which keeps so many in a mist of darkness about the way of salvation. For they, poor hearts! when they hear of the need that they have of a righteousness to commend them to God, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, that is, of that which God imputeth to a man, and that by which he counteth him righteous, have it not in their thoughts to accept of that unto justification of life. But presently betake themselves to the law of works, and fall to work there for the performing of a righteousness, that they may be accepted of God for the same; and so submit not themselves to the righteousness of God, by which, and by which only, the soul stands just before God. Ro. x. 1-3. Wherefore, I say, it is necessary that this be distinctly laid down. That a man must be righteous first, even before he doth righteousness; the argument is plain from the order of nature: For a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit:' wherefore make the tree good, and so his fruit good; or the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. Lu. vi. 43. 6 was possessed with a righteous principle; and so being in this manner made righteous, righteous before God, and also principled to work, he comes and offereth his more acceptable sacrifice to God. For this, all will grant, namely, that the works of a righteous man are more excellent than are even the best works of the wicked. Hence Cain's works came behind; for God had not made him righteous, had no respect unto his person, had not given him the Spirit and faith, whereby alone men are made capable to offer acceptably: But unto Cain and to his offering, the Lord had not respect.' Ge. iv. 5. From all which it is manifest, that the person must be accepted before the duty performed can be pleasing unto God. And if the person must first be accepted, it is evident that the person must first be righteous; but if the person be righteous before he doth good, then it follows that he is made righteous by righteousness that is none of his own, that he hath no hand in, further than to receive it as the gracious gift of God. Deny this, and it follows that God accepteth men without respect to righteousness; and then what follows that, but that Christ is dead in vain ? We must not therefore be deceived, He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he,' the Lord, is righteous.' 1 Jn. iii. 7. He doth not say he that doth righteousness shall be righteous; as if his doing works would make him so before God; but he that doth righteousness is righteous, antecedent to his doing righteousness. And it must be thus understood, else that which follows signifies nothing; for he saith, He that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he,' the Lord his God, ‘is righteous.' But how is the Lord righteous? Even antecedent to his works. The Lord was righteous before he wrought righteousness in the world; and even so are we, to wit, every child of God. As he is, so are we, in this world!' 1 Jn. iv. 17. But we must in this admit of this difference; the Lord wa eternally and essentially righteous before he did any work, but we are imputatively righteous, and also made so by a second work of creation, before we do good works. It holds therefore only as to Reason also says the same, for how can Blacks beget white children, when both father and mother are black? How can a man without grace, and the spirit of grace, do good; nature is defiled even to the mind and conscience; how then can good fruit come from such a stock? Tit. i. 15. Besides, God accepteth not any work of a person which is not first accepted of him; The Lord hath respect unto Abel and to his offering.' Ge. iv. 4. To Abel first, that is, before that Abel offered. But how could God have respect to Abel, if Abel was not pleasing in his sight? and how could Abel be yet pleasing in his sight, for the sake of his own righteousness, when it is plain that Abel had not yet done good works? he was therefore first made acceptable in the sight of God, by and for the sake of that righteousness which God of his grace had put upon him to justification of life; through and by which also the Holy Ghost in the graces of it dwelt in Abel's soul. Now Abel being justified, and also possessed with this holy principle, he offers his sacrifice to God. Hence it is said, that he offered by faith,' by the faith which he had prece-order; God was righteous before he made the world, dent to his offering; for if through faith he offered, he had that faith before he offered; that is plain. Now his faith looked not for acceptance for the sake of what he offered, but for the sake of that righteousness which it did apprehend God had already put upon him, and by which he was made righteous; wherefore his offering was the offering of a righteous man, of a man made righteous first; and so the text saith, 'By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous;' He. xi. 4. that is antecedent to his offering; for he had faith in Christ to come, by which he was made righteous; he also had the spirit of faith, by which he and we are righteous before we do good works. Thus, therefore, we have described the righteous man. First. He is one whom God makes righteous, by reckoning or imputation. Second. He is one that God makes righteous by possessing of him with a principle of righteousness. Third. He is one that is practically righteous. Nor dare I give a narrower description of a righteous man than this; nor otherwise than thus. 1. I dare not give a narrower description of a righteous man than this, because whoever pretends to justification, if he be not sanctified, pretends to what he is not; and whoever pretends to sanctification, if he shows not the fruits thereof by a holy life, he deceiveth his own heart, and professeth but in vain.* Ja. i. 22-27. 2. Nor dare I give this description otherwise than thus, because there is a real distinction to be put between that righteousness by which we should be just before God, and that which is in us a principle of sanctification; the first being the obedience of the Son of God without us, the second being the work of the Spirit in our hearts. There is also a difference to be put betwixt the principle by which we work righteousness, and the works themselves; as a difference is to be put betwixt the cause and the effect, the tree and the apple. [WHAT ARE THE DESIRES OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN ?] SECOND. I come now to the second thing into which we are to inquire, and that is, WHAT ARE THE DESIRES OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN? My way of handling this question shall be, FIRST, To speak of the nature of desire in the general. SECOND, And then to show you, more particularly, what are the desires of the righteous. [Desires in general.] FIRST. For the first; desires in general may be thus described:-They are the workings of the heart or mind, after that of which the soul is persuaded that it is good to be enjoyed; this, I say, is so without respect to regulation; for we speak not now of good desires, but of desires themselves, even as they flow from the heart of a human creature; I say, desires are or may be called, the working of the heart after this or that; the strong motions of the mind unto it. Hence the love of women to their husbands is called 'their desires;' Ge. iii. 16, and the wife also is called the desire of thine' the husband's 'eyes.' Eze. xxiv. 16. Also love to woman, to make her one's wife, is called by the name of 'desire.' De. xxi. 10, 11. Now, how strong the motions or passions of love are, who is there that is an utter stranger thereto ? Ca. viii. 6, 7. Hunger is also a most vehement thing; and that which is called hunger' in one place, is called desire' in another; and he desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.' Lu. xvi. 21. Ps. cxlv. 16. Exceeding lustings are called 'desires,' to show the vehemency of desires. Ps. evi. 14; lxxviii. 27-30. Longings, pantings, thirstings, prayers, &c., if there be any life in them, are all fruits of a desirous soul. Desires therefore flow from the consideration of the goodness, or profit | ableness, or pleasurableness of a thing; yea, all desires flow from thence; for a man desires not that about which he has had no consideration, nor that neither on which he has thought, if he doth not judge it will yield him something worth desiring. When Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was a beautiful tree-though her sight deceived her— then she desired it, and took thereof herself, and gave to her husband, and he did eat; yea, saith the text, when she saw that it was a tree to be desired, to make one wise, she took.' Ge. iii. 6. Hence that which is called 'coveting' in one place, is called desiring' in another; for desires are craving; and by desires a man seeks to enjoy what is From all these things, not his. Ex. xx. 17. De. v. 21. First. One is—on a supposition that the soul is not satisfied with what it has to cause the soul to range and hunt through the world for something that may fill up that vacancy that yet the soul finds in itself, and would have supplied. Hence desires are said to be wandering, and the soul said to walk by them; Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire,' or than the walking of the soul. Ec. vi. 8, 9. Desires are hunting things, and how many things do some empty souls seek after, both as to the world, and also as to religion, who have desirous minds! Second. The second effect is, If desires be strong, they carry all away with them; they are all like Samson, they will pull down the gates of a city; but they will go out abroad; nothing can stop the current of desires, but the enjoyment of the thing desired, or a change of opinion as to the worth or want of worth of the thing that is desired. [What are the desires of the righteous.] SECOND. But we will now come to the thing more particularly intended, which is, To show what are the desires of the righteous; that is that which the text calls us to the consideration of, because it saith, The desire of the righteous shall be granted.' We have hitherto spoken of desires, as to the nature of them, without respect to them as good or bad; but now we shall speak to them as they are the effects of a sanctified mind, as they are the breathings, pantings, lustings, hungerings, and thirstings of a righteous man. The text says 'the *Where is the man, except he be a wilful perverter of desire of the righteous shall be granted;' what then Divine truth, who can charge the doctrines of grace with licentiousness? All hope of election or predestination arises are the desires of the righteous? Now I will, from conformity to the image of Christ. Vain is hope except First. Speak to their desires in the general, or with it is founded upon redemption from the curse, to walk in new-reference to them as to their bulk. Second. I will ness and holiness of life; equally vain is a hope founded on the wicked assumption of even the Pope of Rome to the speak to them more particularly as they work this power of forgiveness of sin.-ED. way and that. [The desires of the righteous in the general.] First. For their desires in the general: the same Solomon that saith, The desire of the righteous shall be granted,' saith also, The desire of the righteous is only good.' Pr. xi. 23. This text giveth us, in the general, a description of the desires of a righteous man; and a sharp and smart description it is for where, may some say, is then the righteous man, or the man that hath none but good desires? and if it be answered they are good in the main, or good in the general, yet that will seem to come short of an answer: for in that he saith 'the desires of the righteous are only good,' it is as much as to say, that a righteous man has none but good desires, or desireth nothing but things that are good. Wherefore, before we go any further, I must labour to reconcile the experience of good men with this text, which thus gives us a description of the desires of the righteous. He. ix. 23. and the like. By all which places, the sinful flesh, the old man, the law of sin, the outward man, all which are corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, are excluded, and so pared off from the man, as he is righteous; for his delight in the law of God' is' after the inward man.' And Paul himself was forced thus to distinguish of himself, before he could come to make a right judgment in this matter; saith he, That which I do, I allow not; what I would, do I not; but what I hate, that do I.' See you not here how he cleaves himself in twain, severing himself as he is spiritual, from himself as he is carnal; and ascribeth his motions to what is good to himself only as he is spiritual, or the new man: If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good.' Ro. vii. But I trow, Sir, your consenting to what is good is not by that part which doth do what you would not; no, no, saith he, that which doth do what I would not, I disown, and count it no part of sane A righteous man is to be considered more gene- tified Paul: Now then it is no more I that do it, rally, or more strictly. but sin that dwelleth in me; for in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not: for the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do: Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.' Ro, vii. Thus you see Paul is forced to make two men of himself, saying, I and I; I do; I do not; I do, I would not do; what I hate, that I do. Now it cannot be the same I unto whom these contraries are applied; but his sinful flesh is one I, and his godly mind the other: and indeed so he concludes it in this chapter, saying, 'So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.' 1. More generally, as he consisteth of the whole man, of flesh and spirit, of body and soul, of grace and nature; now consider him thus, and you can by no means reconcile the text with his experience, nor his experience with the text. For as he is body, flesh, and nature--for all these are with him, though he is a righteous man-so he has desires vastly different from those described by this text, vastly differing from what is good; yea, what is it not, that is naught, that the flesh and nature, even of a righteous man, will not desire? 'Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?' Ja. iv. 5. And again, In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.' Ro. vii. 18. And again, 'The flesh lusteth against the spirit.' Ga. v. 17. And again, The lusts thereof do war against the soul.' 1 Pe. ii. 11. From all these texts we find that a righteous man has other workings, lusts, and desires than such only that are good; here then, if we consider of a righteous man thus generally, is no place of agreement betwixt him and this text. We must consider of him, then, in the next place, more strictly, as he may and is to be distinguished from his flesh, his carnal lusts, and sinful nature. 2. More strictly. Then a righteous man is taken sometimes as to or for his best part, or as he is a SECOND CREATION; and so, or as so considered, his desires are only good. (1.) He is taken sometimes as to or for his best part, or as he is a second creation, as these scriptures declare: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, - all things are become new.' 2 Co. v. 17. 'Created in Christ Jesus.' Ep. ii, 10. Born of God.' Jn. iii. 1 Jn. ii. 9. Become heavenly things, renewed after the image of him that created them: Col. iii. 10. Thus therefore the Christian man must distinguish concerning himself; and doing so, he shall find, though he has flesh, and as he is such, he hath lusts contrary to God: yet as he is a new creature, he allows not, but hates the motions and desires of the flesh, and consents to, and wills and delights in the law of God. Ro. xv. 17-22. Yea, as a new creature, he can do nothing else: for the new man, inward man, or hidden man of the heart, being the immediate work of the Holy Ghost, and consisting only of that which is divine and heavenly, cannot breathe, or act, or desire to act, in ways and courses that are carnal. Wherefore, in this sense, or as the righteous man is thus considered, his desires are only good.' (2.) As the righteous man must here be taken for the best part, for the I that would do good, for the I that hates the evil; so again, we must consider of the desires of this righteous man, as they flow from that fountain of grace, which is the Holy Ghost within him; and as they are immediately mixed with those foul channels, in and through which they must pass, before they can be put forth into acts. For though the desire, as to its birth, | tinguish betwixt what is good and that which doth and first being, is only good; yet before it comes annoy it, as gold is to be distinguished from the into much motion, it gathers that from the defile- earth and dross that doth attend it. The man that ments of the passages through which it comes, as believed desired to believe better, and so cries out, makes it to bear a tang of flesh and weakness in Lord, help mine unbelief.' Mar. ix. 24. The man the skirts of it; and the evil that dwells in us is so that feared God desired to fear him better, saying, universal, and also always so ready, that as sure I desire to fear thy name.' Ne. i. 11. But these as there is any motion to what is good, so sure desires failed, as to the performance of what was evil is present with it; for when' or whenever I begun, so that they were forced to come off but would do good,' says Paul, 'evil is present with lamely, as to their faith and fear they had; yet me.' Ro. vii. 21. Hence it follows, that all our graces, the desires were true, good, and such as was acand so our desires, receive disadvantage by our cepted of God by Christ; not according to what flesh, that mixing itself with what is good, and so they had not, but as to those good motions which abates the excellency of the good. they had. Distinguish then the desires of the righteous in the nature of them, from that corruption and weakness of ours that cleaveth to them, and then again, they are only good.' There is a spring that yieldeth water good and clear, but the channels through which this water comes to us are muddy, foul, or dirty: now, of the channels the waters receive a disadvantage, and so come to us as savouring of what came not with them from the fountain, but from the channels. This is the cause of the coolness, and of the weakness, of the flatness, and of the many extravagancies that attend some of our desires. They come warm from the Spirit and grace of God in us; but as hot water running through cold pipes, or as clear water running through dirty conveyances, so our desires [cool and] gather soil. You read in Solomon's Ecclesiastes of a time when desires fail, for that man goeth to his long home.' Ec. xii. 5. And as to good desires, there is not one of them, when we are in our prime, but they fail also as to the perfecting of that which a man desires to do. To will is present with me,' says Paul, but how to perform that which is good I find not.' Ro. vii. 18. To will or to desire, that is present with me, but when I have willed or desired to do, to perform is what I cannot attain to. But why not attain to a performance? Why, says he, I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind;' and this law takes me prisoner, and brings me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.' Ro. vii. 23. Now, where things willed and desired meet with such obstructions, no marvel if our willing and desiring, though they set out lustily at the beginning, come yet lame home in conclusion. (3.) There is another thing to be considered, and that is, the different frames that our inward man is in while we live as pilgrims in the world. A man, as he is not always well without, so neither is he always well within. Our inward man is subject to transient, though not to utter decays. Is. i. 5. And as it is when the outward man is sick, strength and stomach, and lust, or desire fails, so it is when our inward man has caught a cold likewise. Eze. xxxiv. 4. The inward man I call the new creature, of which the Spirit of God is the support, as my soul supports my body. But, I say, this new man is not always well. He knows nothing that knows not this. Now being sick, things fail. As when a man is not in health of body, his pulse beats so as to declare that he is sick; so when a man is not well within, his inward pulse, which are his desires-for I count the desires for the pulse of the inward man-they also declare that the man is not well within. They beat too little after God, weak and faintly after grace; they also have their halts, they beat not evenly, as when the soul is well, but so as to manifest all is not well there. We read that the church of Sardis was under sore sickness, insomuch that some of her things were quite dead, and they that were not so were yet ready to die. Re. iii. 2. Yet life is life,' we say, and as long as there is a pulse, or breath, There is a man, when he first prostrates himself though breath scarce able to shake a feather, we before God, doth it with desires as warm as fire cast not away all hope of life. Desires, then, coals; but erewhile he finds, for all that, that the though they be weak, are, notwithstanding, true metal of those desires, were it not revived with desires, if they be the desires of the righteous thus fresh supplies, would be quickly spent and grow described, and therefore are truly good, according cold.* But yet the desire is good, and only good, to our text. David says he opened his mouth as it comes from the breathing of the Spirit of and panted,' for he longed for God's commandGod within us. We must therefore, as I said, dis-ments. Ps. cxix. 131. This was a sickness, but not * This is admirably illustrated by the Interpreter in the Pilgrim's Progress. He shows Christian a fire burning against the wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it to quench it, yet did the fire burn higher and hotter. Christian wonders until he is taken behind the wall, and sees VOL. I. Christ secretly pouring the oil of grace into the fire. Before Bunyan had been behind the wall, he was scared by the father of lies, who suggested to him-You are very hot for mercy, but I will cool you, though I be seven years in chilling your heart.' Grace Abounding, No. 118.--ED. 5 c |