Teaching Resources International

I shall say but little here of this subject, because I have already treated so largely of it, in my book of “Self-denial,” and in that of “Crucifying the World;” and here before in chap. 4 part. 6, against worldliness and flesh-pleasing, and here against sinful love, which is the cause.

How sinful desires may be known, you may gather from the discoveries of sinful love: as,

1. When you desire that which is forbidden you.
2. Or that which will do you no good, upon a misconceit that it is better or more needful than it is.
3. Or when you desire it too eagerly, and must needs have it, or else you will be impatient or discontented, and cannot quietly be ruled and disposed of by God, but are murmuring at his providence and your lot.
4. Or when you desire it too hastily, and cannot stay God’s time.
5. Or else too greedily as to the measure, being not content with God’s allowance, but must needs have more than he thinks fit for you.
6. Or especially when your desires are perverse, preferring lesser things before greater; desiring bodily and transitory things more than the mercies for your souls which will be everlasting.
7. When you desire any thing ultimately and merely for the flesh, without referring it to God, it is a sin. Even your daily bread, and all your comforts, must be desired but as provender for your horse, that he may the better go his journey, even as provision for your bodies, to fit them to the better and more cheerful service of your souls and God.
8. Much more when your desires are for wicked ends, (as to serve your lust, or pride, or covetousness, or revenge,) they are wicked desires.
9. And when they are injurious to others.

Direction I. Be well acquainted with your own condition, and consider what it is that you have most need of; and then you will find that you have so much grace and mercy to desire for your souls, and that you have a Christ to desire, and an endless life with God to desire, that it will quench all your thirst after the things below. This, if any thing, will make you wiser, when you see you have greater things to mind. A man that is in present danger of his life, will not be solicitous for pins or trinkets: and the hopes of a lordship or a kingdom will cure the desire of little things: a man that needeth a physician for the dropsy or consumption, will scarce long for children’s balls or tops. A man that is going to heaven or hell should have greater things than worldly things to long for.

Oh what a vain and doting thing is a carnal mind which has pardon, and grace, and Christ and heaven, and God, to think of, and that with speed before it be too late; and can forget them all, or not regard them, and eagerly long for some little inconsiderable trifle. [It is] as if they said, I must needs taste of such a dish before I die; I must needs have such a house, or a child, or friend, before I go to another world. Oh study what need your distressed soul has of Christ, and of peace with God, and preparation for eternity, and what need your darkened mind has of more knowledge, and your dead and carnal heart of more life, and tenderness, and love to God, and communion with him. Feel these as thou hast cause, and the eagerness of your carnal desires will be gone.

Direction II. Let every sinful desire humble you, for the worldliness and fleshliness which it discovereth to be yet unmortified in you; and turn your desires to the mortifying of that flesh and concupiscence which is the cause. If you did not yet love the world, and the things that are in the world, you would not be so eager for them. If you were not too carnal, and did not mind too much the things of the flesh, you would not be so earnest for them as you are. It should be a grievous thing to your hearts to consider what worldliness and fleshliness this shows to be yet there. That you should set so much by the creature, as to be unable to bear the want of it; is this renouncing the world and flesh? The thing you need is a better heart—to know the vanity of the creature, to be dead to the world, and to be able to bear the want or loss of any thing in it; and a fuller mortification of the flesh: mortifying and not satisfying it, is your work.

Direction III. Ask your hearts seriously whether God in Christ be enough for them, or not? If they say, no, then renounce him and all hope of heaven; for no man takes God for his God that takes him not for his portion, and as enough for him: if they say, yea, then you have enough to stop the mouth of your fleshly desires, while your hearts confess that they have enough in God. Should that soul that has a filial interest in God, and an inheritance in eternal life, be eager for any conveniences and contentments to the flesh? If God is not enough for you, you will never have enough. Turn to him more, and know him better, if you would have a satisfied mind.

Direction IV. Remember that every sinful desire is a rebelling of your will against the will of God; and that it is his will that must govern and dispose of all, and your wills must be conformed to his; yea, that you must take pleasure and rest in the will of God. Reason the case with your hearts, and say, Who is it that is the governor of the world? And who is to rule me and dispose of my affairs? Is it I or God? Whose will is it that must lead, and whose must follow? Whose will is better guided, God’s or mine? Either it is his will that I shall have what I desire, or not if it be, I need not be so eager, for I shall have it in his time and way; if it be not his will, is it fit for me to murmur and strive against him? Remember that your discontents and carnal desires are so many accusations brought in against God; as if you said, Thou hast not dealt well or wisely, or mercifully by me; I must have it better: I will not stand to your will and government; I must have it as I will, and have the disposal of myself.

Direction V. Observe how your eager desires are condemned by yourselves in your daily prayers. If you pray that the will of God may be done, why does your will rebel against it, and your desires contradict your prayers? And if you ask no more than your daily bread, why thirst you after more? But if you pray as you desire, Lord, let my will be done, and my selfish, carnal desire be fulfilled, for I must needs have this or that; then what an abominable prayer is this! Desire as you must pray.

Direction VI. Bethink you how unfit you are to be the choosers of your own condition. You foresee not what that person, or thing, or place will prove to you, which you so eagerly desire: for aught you know it may be your undoing, or the greatest misery that ever befell you. Many a one has cried with Rachel, “Give me children or else I die,” Gen. 30:1, that have died by the wickedness and unkindness of their children. Many a one has been violent in their desires of a husband or a wife, that afterwards have broken their hearts, or proved a greater affliction to them than any enemy they had in the world. Many a one has been eager for riches, and prosperity, and preferment, that has been ensnared by them, to the damnation of his soul. Many a one has been earnest for some office, dignity, or place of trust, which has made it a great increaser of his sin and misery. And it is flesh and self that is the eager desirer of things that are against the will of God, and nothing is so blind and partial as self and flesh.

You think not your child a competent judge of what is best for him, and make not his desires, but your own understanding, the guide and rule of your dealings with him. And are you fitter choosers for yourselves in comparison of God, than your child is in comparison of you? Either you take God for your Father, or you do not. If you do, is he not wise and good enough to dispose of you, and to determine what is best for you, and to choose for you?

Direction VII. Remember that it is one of the greatest plagues on this side hell, to be given up to our own desires, and that by your eagerness and discontents you provoke God thus to give you up. “So I gave them up to their own heart’s lust, and they walked in their own counsels: Oh that my people had hearkened to me!” &c. Psalm. 81:12. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts,” &c. Rom. 1:24, 26. “For this cause God gave them up to vile affections,” verse 28. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient,” 2 Thess. 2:10-l2. God may give you that which you so eagerly desire, as he gave “Israel a king, even in his anger,” Hosea. 13:10,11. Or as he gave the Israelites “their own desire, even flesh which he rained upon them as dust, and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea; they were not estranged from their lust but while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them,” Psalm. 78:27, 29-31. “They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert, and he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls,” Psalm. 106:14,15. God may say, Follow your own lust, and if you are so eager, take that which you desire; take that person, that thing, that dignity which you are so earnest for; but take my curse and vengeance with it: never let it do you good, but be a snare and torment to you.

Direction VIII. Take heed lest concupiscence and partiality entice you to justify your sinful desires and take them to be lawful. For if you do so, you will not repent of them, you will not confess them to God, nor beg pardon of them, nor beg help against them, nor use the means to extinguish them; but will cherish them, and be angry with all that are against them, and love those tempters best that encourage them: and how dangerous a case is this! And yet nothing is more ordinary among sinners, than to be blinded by their own affections, and think that they have sufficient reason to desire that which they do desire. And affection maketh them very witty and resolute to deceive themselves. It setteth them on studying all that can be said to defend their enemy, and put a deceitful gloss upon their cause. Try your desires well.

Question 1—Is the thing that you desire a thing that God has hid, or promised in his word to give you, (as grace, Christ, and heaven)? If it be so, then desire it, and spare not; but if not so,

Question 2—Why then are you so eager for it when you should at most have but a submissive, conditional desire after it?

Question 3—Nay, is it not something which you are forbidden to desire? If so, dare you excuse it?

Direction IX. Remember that concupiscence or sinful desire is the beginning of all sin of commission, and leadeth directly to the act. Theft, adultery, murder, fraud, contention, and all such mischiefs, begin in inordinate desires. For “every one is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed: then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death,” James 1:14, 15. By “lust” is meant, any fleshly desire or will; therefore when the apostle forbiddeth gluttony and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, strife and envying, he strikes at the root of all in this one word, “make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its lusts,” (or wills,) Rom. 13:13, 14.

Direction X. Promise not yourselves long life, but live as dying men, with your grave and winding-sheet always in your eye; and it will cure your thirst after the creature when you are sensible how short a time you must enjoy it, and especially how near you are unto eternity. This is the apostle’s method, 1 Cor. 7:29-31, “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use the world, as not abusing it (or as if they used it not): for the fashion of this world passeth away.” So you will desire as if you desired not, when you perceive well how quickly the thing desired will pass away.

Direction XI. In all your desires, remember the account as well as the thing desired. Think not only what it is now at hand, but what account you must make to God of it; “for to whom men give or commit much, of them they require the more,” Luke 12:48. Will you thirst after more power, more honour, more wealth, when you remember that you have the more to give account of? Matt. 25. Have you not enough to reckon for already, unless you had hearts to use it better?

Direction XII. When your desires are over eager, bethink you of the mercies which you have received already and do possess. Has God done so much for you, and are you still calling for more, even of that which is unnecessary, when you should he giving thanks for what you have? This unthankful greediness is an odious sin. Think what you have already for soul and body, estate and friends; and will not all this quiet you, unless you have [some] other lust or fancy satisfied?

Direction XIII. Understand how little it will satisfy you, if God should give you all that you earnestly desire. When you have it, it will not quiet you, nor answer your expectations. You think it will make you happy, and be exceeding sweet to you; but it deceiveth you, and you promise yourselves you know not what, and therefore desire you know not what. It would be to you but like a dreaming feast, which would leave you hungry in the morning, Isa. 29:8.

Direction XIV. Consider that your desires do but make those wants a burden and misery to you which otherwise would be none. Thirst makes the want of drink a torment, which to another is no pain or trouble at all. The lustful wanton is ready to die for love of the desired mate which nobody else cares for, nor is ever the worse for being without. A proud ambitious Haman thinks himself undone if he be not honoured, and is vexed if he be but cast down into the mean condition of a farmer; when many thousand honest, contented men live merrily and quietly in as low a condition. It is men’s own desires, and not their real wants, which do torment them.

Direction XV. Remember that when you have done all, if God loves you, he will be the chooser, and will not grant your sick desires, but will correct you for them till they are cured. If your child cry for a knife, or anything that would hurt him, you will quiet him with the rod if he give not over. And it is a sign some rod of God is near you, when you are sick for this, or that, or the other thing, and will not be quiet and content unless your fancy and concupiscence be humoured.

These “Directions” have been edited, and some have been omitted where the directions were redundant or very similar in the original.

The current formatting and editing is copyrighted by Jim Ehrhard, 1999. You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author; (2) any modifications are clearly marked; (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction; and (4) you do not make more than 100 copies without permission. If you would like to post this material to your web site or make any use other than as defined above, please contact Teaching Resources International