BOOK 2. FROM ETERNITY.
CHAPTER 2.
2.2.3. Of Desiring after Jesus in that Respect.
Of Desiring after Jesus in that respect.
We must desire after Jesus carrying on the great work of our salvation in that eternity. It is not enough to know and consider, but we must desire. Now "Desire is a passion looking after the attainments of some good which we enjoy not, and which we may imagine to be fitting for us." In this respect we cannot desire after Jesus, as now to carry on that work of our salvation before the world began, for that work is already perfectly done; but these things we may desire after. As, 1. After the manifestation of the work in us. 2. After God and Christ the complotters and actors of that great work for us. 3. After the full and utmost execution whereby God effectually works in time according to all his workings, or decrees before time.
1. We must desire after the manifestation of this work in us; we have heard of marvellous, excellent, glorious things done by Jesus Christ for his saints from all eternity, and oh! what desires now should be in us to know that we are of that number? When I hear and consider that there was such a project, and such counsels, and such love, and such a purpose, and such decrees, and such a covenant betwixt God and Christ for salvation of souls; and withal, that they are but few in comparison concerning whom God and Christ hath all this care, will not this whet on my desires? and make me cry, and cry again, "Oh that these loves were mine! how happy were I, if I had a share in these eternal thoughts of God! Methinks we should not hear of such transactions, but it should stir up our hearts in infinite desires; methinks we should pant after assurance, and still be wishing, "O what is truth! and what is Christ! and what did Christ for me before I was, or before the world was! I would I knew him, I would I could enjoy him, I would I were assured that he had one good thought of me in that eternity!" Christians! if you have any share in those transactions, sooner or later you will feel these desires: nay, if my sinful heart deceive me not, upon the very consideration of these things, I feel myself another creature in my desires than I was before. Tell me, that you have taken a full view of God and Christ, and of all these wonders of eternity, do you not sensibly differ from yourselves in your affections? Is not the world, worldly pleasures, worldly profits, and worldly honours, fallen too, yea, ten in an hundred with you? Have they not lost their price? Would you not be rather assured that "your names are written in the book of life," than to have all the world yours, yea, and all the devils in hell subject to your commands? Certainly, if these revelations work nothing in your hearts, if your affections be so strong and hearty to the world, and the vanities of it, if your desires be so impure, and strongly working downwards, that God's ancient loves and everlasting workings have no power on your hearts, it is a very sad condition. If David may have his wish, it runs thus, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us," Psal. iv. 6. He would have the manifestation of God's eternal love; one smile of his countenance (as an image of that countenance which God had towards him before the world began) was more gladness to his heart, than all that which the men of this world had, a in the time that their corn and their wine increased."
2. We may and must desire God and Christ, the complotters and actors of that great work for us, what hath the gospel revealed this truth, that before the creation God and Christ were busied about our good? Yea, and hath Christ especially, that came out of the bosom of his Father, and brought the treasures of his Father's counsel to the world, discovered such loves to men? How then should our desires be after God and Christ? "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee," Psalm lxxiii. 25. A right beholding of Christ in his eternal workings will cause a desire of Christ; above all desires; the heart now thirsts for nothing but him that Is all, all power, all love, all holiness, all happiness. Tell such a soul of the world, gold, and glory: Oh what are these? The soul will quickly tell you, the world is dung, and glory is dung, "all is but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," Phil. iii. 8. Give me God and Christ, saith the soul, or I die; oh my desires are to him who hath done all this for me. Is not this the period still of thy expression at the end of every discourse. Would Christ were mine? Thou hearest it may be some worldlings talk, such an one hath got so much in these times: he that was yesterday as poor as Lazarus, he is this day like the nameless rich man, "clothed in purple, and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day," Luke xvi. 19. Ay, but dost not thou reply either in word or heart, "Would Christ were mine, and then I had got more than he?" Poor soul, dost thou not gasp only after Christ, when thou fetchest (as I may say) the very deepest breath? Canst thou read over the generation of Jesus the Son of God, the time when he was begotten, the manner of his begetting, the mutual kindness and love of him that begets, and of him that is begotten; and dost thou not pant, and breathe, and gasp after Jesus at every period? Canst thou read over Jesus his acts and decree in reference to thyself, canst thou turn over those many leaves, in every one of which is discovered those everlasting loves of God in his projects, counsels, foreknowledge, purpose, decree, and covenant for thy soul's happiness, and art thou not ready at every discovery to sing David's Psalm, "As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Mv soul thirsteth for God, for the living; God, O when shall I come and appear before God?" Psalm xlii. 1, 2. O my soul, hadst thou but these pantings, burstings, breathings after God and Christ, thou mightest comfortably conclude, these are the fruits of God's Spirit, it is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus "which makes these sighs and groans in thee, which cannot be expressed," Rom. viii. 26. He and thee sigh together, one in another, and one after another, O therefore look, look unto Jesus, and sigh, and desire after him.
3. We may and must desire after the full and utmost execution whereby God effectually works in time according to all his workings or decrees before time. God that purposed and decreed from all eternity, he will not have done the full execution of that purpose or decree till that after-eternity, in that world without end. Indeed some part is a fulfilling now, but the main, the great part is yet to come: why then, as we see the plot, let us desire after the full accomplishment, let us desire after that glory without end, to which we were predestinated before the beginning. It was Paul's "desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ," Phil. i. 23. As men burdened, so shall we desire and groan after the enjoyment of God in the world to come. O my soul, that thou were but cast into the apostle's mould, that thy affections were but on the wing, that they might take the flight, and steer their course towards heaven, and thereupon that thou mightest say, Yonder is the glorious house, the goodly building, made without hands, which God from all eternity decreed to be my home, my rest, my dwelling place to all eternity; and in yonder stately fabric, is many an heavenly inhabitant before I come: there are angels, and there are the souls of saints that from Adam to this day have had their pass out of this sinful world: yea, there is Jesus the Son of God, and there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and if I am predestinated to this fellowship. Lord, when shall I have run through the means that I may come to this end? O my end! Where is my end? Where is my Lord, my God, my Comforter? Where is my rest? Where is my end? I cannot be at rest without my end, and therefore come. Lord Jesus, come quickly, "Be like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of spices," Cant. viii. 14. Christians, why are not your spirits always breathing thus after the glory, to which you are predestinated? Why do not you long after full enjoyment, the utmost execution of God's decree? Why are not your hearts, your souls, your spirits already in heaven? Surely there be your relations, your Father is there, your elder brother is there, and there are many, I dare say, most of your younger brethren: again, there is your interest, your estate is there, if you believe: and therefore where should your hearts be, but where your treasure is: Come then, come: set in tune those desires of your souls, "Set your affections on things above," especially on that one thing Jesus Christ: Looking unto Jesus.