5. Again, as they spring from the love of God, so they tend to the honour of God ; for what comes from heaven, goes to heaven back again. As waters that come from a spring, they go as high as the place they come from ; so holy desires, being kindled from heaven fi-om a spirit of love, they go to heaven again. The love of God stirs them up, and he seeks God's glory, and honour, and inward communion with God in this. For a man out of a natural desire may desire holy things sometimes, to be free from such or such a sin, and to have such and such a grace, not out of a desire to honour God ; but if he had grace, he sees he might escape troubles, he might be free from temporal judgments, and he might ingratiate himself, and commend himself to this or that person, whom he desires to benefit by. Therefore, he desires as much grace as may help forward his inten- tions in the world. He joins the world and God together. Oh ! no, these are not the desires that distinguish a Christian from another man ; but those that spring from the love of God, that proceed inwardly from the truth of the heart, and that the things themselves please God, and that there is a loveliness in them, and that they tend to the honour of God especially, and our own good in a secondary place. This is a character of good desires. Thus we see, though I should go no further than the text, how we may distinguish holy and heavenly desu'es from other desires. ' One thing have I desired, and that will I seek,' &c.
Therefore, let us examine what our desnes are, what our bent is. Desires issue from the will and affections, and they shew the frame of the soul more than anything in the world. As the springs in low places are discovered by the steams and vapours that come out of the place, men gather that there is a spring below, because of the ascent of vapours ; so the vapouring out of these desires shew that there is a spring of grace in the heart ; they discover that there is a spring within.
And let those that mourn in Sion, that have some evidence (though they are not so good as they would be), let them look to their hearts. What is thy desire ? What is the bent of thy soul ? When a man is once converted and turned, wherein is his turning ? Especially, his mind and judgment and esteem of things are altered. There is a change of mind, and withal the desire and bent of the soul is altered ; that if a man ask
A BREATHING AFTER GOD. 221
him, and examine what the bent is of all the course of his life, oh ! that God might be glorified, that his church and cause might prosper, that others might be converted ; this is the bent of his soul ; not that he might be great in the world, and ruin those that stand in his way (this shews that a man is a rotten hypocrite). The bent and sway of the soul shews what a man is.
Because I would not have any deceived in the point, take one evidence and sign more with you, and that shall be instead of all, and it is out of the text too, ' One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after,' not by prayer only, but in the use of all means ; as, indeed, he was never quiet till he was settled again in Sion, nor then neither till he had gotten materials for the temple, and a place for God's honour ' to dwell in,' Deut. xii. 11. If desires be not the desires of the sluggard, there will be endeavour ; as we see in the desire of David here, ' One thing have I desii'ed, and that will I seek.' He used all means to enjoy communion with God sweetly.
The sluggard lusts and hath nothing. So there are many spiritual slug- gards that lust and have nothing, because they shew not their desire in their endeavours. There will be endeavour where the desire is true. For desire springs from the will, the will being the appetite of the whole man, Voluntas appetitus, &c. The understanding caxTies not, but the will. When the will will have a thing, it carries all the parts. Hereupon, when the desire is true, it stirs up all the powers and faculties to do their duty, to seek to attain the accomplishment and possession of that that is desired.
Those, therefore, that pretend they have good desires to God, and yet live scandalously and negligently, and will take no pains with their souls, alas ! it is the sluggard's desire, if they take not pains to remove all lets and hindrances. For a man may know the desire of a thing is good when he ' labours to set the hindi-ances out of the way, if he can. K the lets and hindrances be not impossible, he will remove it, if he can. Therefore, those that pretend this and that, ' There is a lion in the way,' Prov. xxvi. 13, when they might remove it, if they would, there is no true desire ; for desire is with the removing of all possible hindrances of the thing desired.