Ye fight and loar, and. yet ye have not; that is, though their violence and carnal desires had broken out so far as public insurrec- tions and tumults, yet still they were at a loss.
Because ye ask not ; that is, you do not use the lawful means of prayer. But how can it be said, ' ye ask not,' since in the next verse he saith, ' Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss ' ? I answer — (1.) Possibly here he may task one abuse, there another ; here that they hoped to help themselves by their own endeavours without prayer, there that their prayers were conceived to a carnal purpose. (2.) Because prayers not conceived in a humble and holy manner are no prayers ; lust's prajers are no prayers, eructations of lusts, not spiritual supplications ; a howling, Hosea vii. 14. which God regardeth not.
Ohs. 1. Lustings are usually disappointed : * Ye lust, and have not.' God loveth to cross desires when they are inordinate ; his hand is straitened when our desires are enlarged. Sometimes out of mercy. It is a blessing to meet with disappointment in the ways of sin ; you cannot have a worse judgment then to have your carnal desires filled up. 0 unhappy men, whom God leaveth to themselves without restraint ! Prov. xiv. 14, ' The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.' The cursed apostate shall have enough of honours, and pleasures, and
^ * Novis semper cupiditatibus occupati, non quid habeamus, sed quid petamuts, iuspicimus ; non in id quod est, sed quod appetitur iatenti.' — Sewca, de Benif.,\xh. iii. ciip. 3.
334 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. IV. 2.
preferments. It was a mercy to the church to be disappointed : ' She shall I'ullow after her lovers, but shall not overtake them ; she shall seek them, but not find them ; ' then ' she shall think of her former husband,' &c. Hosea ii. 7. Prosperous and successful wickedness encourageth a man to go on in that way; some rubs are an advantage. What we desire with greediness we enjoy with surfeit. To disappoint and check our lust, God in mercy fenceth up our way with thorns. Sometimes in judgment, that he may torment men by their own lusts ; their desires prove their just torture. The blood heated by intemper- ance, and the heart enlarged by desire, are both of them sins tiiat bring with them their own punishment, especially when they meet with disappointment. Aninon and Ahab were both sick, the one with lust, the other with covetousness.
Use 1. Learn, then, that when the heart is too much set upon any- thing, it is the ready way to miss it. Rachel's desires of children made her the more barren. The fool talked of bigger barns, and that night his soul was taken away. When you foiget to subject your desires to God"s will, you shall understand the sovereignty of it. When the heart is strongly set upon a thing, there is no ref^ervation of God's good pleasure. We say, / ivill ; and God saith, I will not. We will have such a thing : ' I will go after my lovers,' as if we were petty gods. God will have his will against your wills : ' I will fence thy way with thorns:' there is an implicit and interpretative contest between us and God. Again, when desires mistake in their object, they miss of their end. God cannot endure that the same affection should be lavished on outward things which is only proper to himself and his grace : ' violence ' would become ' the kingdom,' Mat. xi. 12. When Amnon is as sick for Tamar as the spouse is for Christ, it begetteth a jealousy. Affections should rise according to the worth of the object : ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but the meat which endureth for ever,' John vi. Your industrious desires would become a better object; your strength should be laid out for ever- lasting bread ; that is a labour without sin, and without disappoint- ment.
Use 2. Be not always troubled when you cannot have your will ; you have cause to bless God. It is a mercy when carnal desires are disiippointed : say, as David, 1 Sam. xxv. 32, ' Bles.sed be the Lord God of Israel, that sent thee to meet me this day.' Your hearts have been set on great estates, and you thought, with the fool in the Gospel, of enlarging your barns and exalting your nest, and of a sudden God came in and blasted all these carnal projects. Bless God for such providences : how secure, or sensual, or carnal would your spirit have been else ! It was a mercy that ' the world was crucified ' to Paul, as well as Paul ' crucified to the world,' Gal. vi. 14. So when you have been crossed in the pursuit of some lust or uncleanness, you may afterward kneel down and adore the wisdom jind seasonablencss of such providences. Possidonius in the life of Austin hath a memorable history. He being to visit a place, with his guide mistook the way, fell into a bypath, and so escaped the hands of some bloody Donatists that lay in ambush to take away his life. God may lead you beside \our intentions to avoid some dansrerous sins that would else have