Ans. 1. There is a difference between velleity and a volition, serious desires and passionate expressions. In a pet or passion we wish for many things which really we desire not, and are loth God should take us at our words. Now the saints desire to be dissolved and to enjoy another state, is quite another thing.
Ans. 2. There is a difference in the grounds and reasons of both these desires. As, (1.) You ought not to wish for death in a passion and pet, and fit of discontent ; as Jonah iv. 3, ' Therefore now I beseech thee, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than live.' It is an impatient wish, since he could not get his will. Death is the ordinary refuge of embittered spirits, and the back door which we seek to get out at, through impatience, weariness of life, pride, and contest with providence; nothing will please then but death, to be rid of all these troubles in a passion and pet, when you have not some- thing which you would have. It is mere pride that swelleth the heart with discontent, wishing ourselves out of that condition God hath put us into. Now thus the saints do not desire death, because they cannot have their full of worldly enjoyments, or meet with many crosses and disappointments here. These are carnal grounds. (2.) Deep sorrow, or some sharp affliction or difficulty that we meet with in our callings ; as Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 4, ' requested for himself that he might die.' (3) From peevish, doting love ; as David, 2 Sam. xviii. 33, ' Absalom, my son, my son, would to God I had died for thee ! ' But affirmatively, what are the grounds of the. saints' regular groaning and desires ? (1.) A heart dead to the world, and ■weaned from the pleasures, honours, and profits thereof, and firmly fixed upon heavenly things. As in the text, this better house ; long- ing for the time when our souls shall be freed from sin and enlarged
458 SERMONS UPON - CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. IV.
for the perfect love of God, our bodies fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, Phil. iii. 20, 21. When we shall live with angels and glorified saints, when we jhall see Christ as he is, and be like him, and behold God face to face. These things draw forth their desires. (2.) Some competent assurance of the love of God in Christ. We that know we have a house eternal in the heavens, we groan. (3.) Love to Christ, Phil. i. 23. A panting after a nearer union and more intimate fellowship with him. Love cannot endure the absence of the beloved. They would be filled up with the feeling of his love, and abound with love to him again, and delight themselves in his imme- diate presence.
A71S. 3. There is a difference in the manner. It is with resignation, and submission to God's will : Phil. i. 24, ' Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you ; ' as long as God hath service for them to do. For we must not seek our own contentment in dying or living, but absolutely submit to the will of God. Well then, these desires and groans after happiness are quite different from the passionate wishes that drop from us sometimes. They that give way to them do not desire death as a release from sin, nor as a chariot to convey us to the place where we would be with God for ever, but out of some present imagined and real bitterness. They fly to heaven as their retreat or reserve for the present.
Use 1. Is information.
1. It shows us what an argument we have that there is a better estate provided for us hereafter. Because the people of God are groaning and earnestly desiring, as unsatisfied with their present condition. We are now lilce fish in a pail, or small vessel of water, which will only keep us alive, we would fain be in the ocean ; surely, then, there is a happiness provided for us in the other world. How doth this prove it ? (1.) The disposition and instinct of nature towards happiness in general, yea, eternal happiness, is an argument, much more the desires of the saints. All men would be happy; man"s soul is a cliaos of desires, like a sponge it is thirsty, and seeketh to fill itself: Ps. iv. 6, ' There be many that say, Who will show us any good ? ' yea an eternal happiness. They grope about after God, Acts xvii. 2G, as the blind Sodomites about Lot s door. The soul of man cannot be satisfied here, our sore still runneth upon us. This being the constant, universal disposition of nature, showeth there is such a thing as eternal good, for natural desires are not frustrate ; nature doth nothing in vain. (2.) Now as these are increased, and are more earnest, directed to a more certain scope in holy men, it doth more confirm it; for holiness was never designed for our torment. The more holy any are, the more they long. These desires are of God's own planting, raised up in them by his Spirit, and therefore will not be disappointed.