as your faith is, such your hope will be. Hope is never ill when faith
is well; nor strong if faith be weak. Wherefore Paul prays that the
Romans might be filled ‘with all joy and peace in believing,’ that they
might ‘abound in hope’ (Rom 15:13). When a man by faith believes to joy
and peace, then hope grows strong, and with an assurance looketh for a
share in the world to come. Wherefore look to your faith, and pray
heartily that the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in
believing. 2. Learn of Abraham not to faint, stumble, or doubt, at the
sight of your own weakness; for if you do, hope will stay below, and
creak in the wheels as it goes, because it will want the oil of faith.
But say to thy soul, when thou beginnest to faint and sink at the sight
of these, as David did to his, in the places made mention of before. 3.
Be much in calling to mind what God has done for thee in former times.
Keep thy experience as a choice thing (Rom 5:4). ‘Remember all the way
the Lord led thee these forty years in the wilderness’ (Deut 8:2). ‘O
my God,’ saith David, ‘my soul is cast down within me, therefore will I
remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites from the
hill Mizar’ (Psa 42:6). 4. Be much in looking at the end of things, or
rather to the end of this, and to the beginning of the next world. What
we enjoy of God in this world, may be an earnest of hope, or a token
that the thing hoped for is to be ours at last; but the object of hope
is in general the next world (Heb 11:1). We must therefore put a
difference betwixt the mother of hope, Faith; the means of hope, the
Word; the earnest of hope, Christ in us; and the proper object of hope,
to wit, the world to come, and the goodness thereof (Psa 119:49; Col
1:27).
If Christians have not much here, their hope, as I may so say, lies
idle, and as a grace out of its exercise. For as faith cannot feed upon
patience, but upon Christ, and as the grace of hungering and thirsting
cannot live upon self-fulness, but upon the riches of the promise; so
hope cannot make what is enjoyed its object: ‘for what a man seeth why
doth he yet hope for?’ (Rom 8:24). But the proper object of hope is,
that we see not. Let faith then be exercised upon Christ crucified for
my justification, and hope upon the next world for my glorification;
and let love show the truth of faith in Christ, by acts of kindness to
Christ and his people; and patience, the truth of hope, by a quiet
bearing and enduring that which may now be laid upon me for my sincere
profession’s sake, until the hope that is laid up for us in heaven
shall come to us, or we be gathered to that, and then hope is in some
measure in good order, and exercised well. But,
IV. We now come to the last thing propounded to be spoken to, which is,
they that have hope and exercise it well, shall assuredly at last enjoy
that hope that is laid up for them in heaven; that is, they that do
regularly exercise the grace of hope shall at last enjoy the object of
it, or the thing hoped for. This must of necessity be concluded, else
we overthrow the whole truth of God at once, and the expectation of the
best of men; yea, if this be not concluded, what follows, but that
Atheism, unbelief, and irreligion, are the most right, and profane and
debauched persons are in the rightest way?
1. But to proceed, this must be, as is evident; for that the things
hoped for are put under the very name of the grace that lives in the
expectation of them. They are called HOPE; ‘looking for that blessed
hope’; ‘for the hope that is laid up for them in heaven’ (Titus 2:13;
Col 1:5). God has set that character upon them, to signify that they
belong to hope, and shall be the reward of hope. God doth in this, as
your great traders do with the goods that their chapmen have either
bought or spoke for; to wit, he sets their name or mark upon them, and
then saith, This belongs to this grace, and this belongs to that; but
the kingdom of heaven belongs to HOPE, for his name is set upon it.
This therefore is one thing, to prove that the thing hoped for shall be
thine; God has marked it for thee: nor can it be given to those that do
not hope. That is, to the same purpose that you read of, ‘That ye may
be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer’ (2
Thess 1:5). Suffering flows from hope; he that hopes not for an house
in heaven, will not for it choose to suffer the loss of the pleasures
and friendships of this world. But they that suffer for it, and that
all do, one way or other, in whom is placed this grace of hope, they
God counteth worthy of it, and therefore, hath marked it with their
mark, HOPE; for that it belongs to hope, and shall be given to those
that hope. That is the first.
2. They that do, as afore is said, exercise this grace of hope, shall
assuredly enjoy the hope that is laid up for them in heaven, as is
evident also from this; because, as God has marked and set it apart for
them, so what he has done to and with our Lord and Head, since his
death, he hath done it to this very end; that is, to beget and maintain
our hope in him as touching this thing. He ‘hath begotten us again unto
a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ form the dead’ (1
Peter 1:3). The meaning is, Christ is our undertaker, and suffered
death for us, that we might enjoy happiness and glory: and God, to show
how wiling he was that we should have this glory, raised up Christ
again, and delivered him from their sorrows of death. Wherefore,
considering this, Paul said, ‘He rejoiced in hope of the glory of God’;
to wit, of that glory, that sin, had he not had Jesus for his
undertaker, would have caused that he should certainly have come short
of (Rom 3:23, 5:2). But, again, God ‘raised him up from the dead, and
gave him glory,’ too, and that to this very end, ‘that your faith and
hope might be in God’ (1 Peter 1:21). I say, he did it to this very
end, that he might beget in you this good opinion of him, as to hope in
him, that he would give you that good thing hoped for—to wit, eternal
life. He ‘gave him glory,’ and put it into his hand for you who is your
head and Saviour, that you might see how willing God is to give you the
hope you look for, ‘that your faith and hope might be in God.’
3. That we that have hope and rightly exercise it, might assuredly
enjoy that hope that is laid up for us in heaven: God has promised it,
and that to our Saviour for us. Had he promised it to us, we might yet
have feared, for that with our faults we give a cause of continual
provocation to him. But since he hath promised it to Christ, it must
assuredly come to us by him, because Christ, to whom it is promised,
never gave occasion of provocation to him to take it back. And that it
was promised to Christ, it is evident, because it was promised before
the world began: ‘In hope of eternal life,’ saith Paul, ‘which God,
that cannot lie, promised before the world began’ (Titus 1:2). And this
is, that we might hope. Men that use to hope to enjoy that money or
estate, that by those that are faithful is promised to them, and put
into the hands of trusty persons for them; why this is the case, God
that cannot lie, has promised it to the hopers, and has put it into the
hand of the trusty Jesus for us, therefore let us hope that in his
times we shall both see and enjoy the same we hope for.
4. Yea, that all ground of doubt and scruple as to this might be
removed out of the way, when Christ, who as to what was last said, is
our hope (1 Tim 1:1), shall come, he shall bring that grace and mercy
with him that shall even from before his judgment-seat remove all those
things that might have any tendency in them to deprive us of our hope,
or of the thing hoped for by us. Hence Peter bids us, ‘Be sober and
hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 1:13). Also as to this, Jude, the
servant of Jesus Christ, joins with him, saying, ‘Keep yourselves in
the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life’ (Jude 21). Here then you see that there is grace and
mercy still for us in reversion; grace and mercy to be brought unto us
at the revelation, or second coming of Jesus Christ. How then can we be
hindered of our hope? For transporting mercy will then be busy for them
that indeed have here the hope of eternal life. ‘And they shall be
mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels;
and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him’
(Mal 3:17). None knows the mystery of God’s will in all things revealed
in his Word. Therefore many texts are looked over, or laid by, as those
whose key doth go too hard; nor will I boast of any singular knowledge
in any particular thing.[11] Yet methinks since grace and mercy was not
only brought by Christ when he came into the world, but shall be
brought again with him when he comes in his Father’s glory, it
signifies, that as the first brought the beginning of eternal life to
us while we were enemies, this second will bring the full enjoyment of
it to us while we are saints, attended with many imperfections. And
that as by the first grace of all unworthiness was pardoned and passed
by; so by this second grace, the grace that is to be brought unto us at
the revelation of Jesus Christ, all shortness in duties, and failings
in performances, shall be spared also; and we made possessors by virtue
of this grace and mercy of the blessings hoped for, to wit, the
blessings of eternal life. But thus much for the duty contained in the
exhortation, to wit, of hoping.
[Second. A direction to the well managing of the duty of hope.]
I shall therefore come, in the next place, to treat of the well
managing of this duty with reference to this primary object, which is
the Lord himself. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord.’ There is a general
object of hope, and there is a particular object; there is a common
object, and there is a special one. Of the general and common object,
to wit, of heaven and happiness, I have said something already;
wherefore it remains that now we come and treat of this particular and
special object of our hope: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord.’ The Lord,
therefore, is to be the particular and special object of our hope: ‘Let
Israel hope in the Lord.’ Now in that there is not only a duty here
exhorted to, but a direction for the better management of that duty, to
the particular and special object upon which this duty should be
exercised, it suggesteth, how apt good men are, especially in times of
trouble, the case of Israel now, to fix their hopes in other things
than on the Lord. We have seen a great deal of this in our days; our
days indeed have been days of trouble, especially since the discovery
of the Popish plot, for then we began to fear cutting of throats, of
being burned in our beds, and of seeing our children dashed in pieces
before our faces. But looking about us, we found we had a gracious
king, brave parliaments, a stout city, good lord-mayors, honest
sheriffs, substantial laws against them, and these we made the object
of our hope, quite forgetting the direction in this exhortation, ‘Let
Israel hope in the Lord.’ For indeed the Lord ought to be our hope in
temporals, as well as in spirituals and eternals. Wherefore Israel of
old were checked, under a supposition of placing their hope for
temporals in men; ‘It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put
confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put
confidence in princes’ (Psa 118:8,9). And again, ‘Put not your trust in
princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help’ (Psa 146:3).
This implieth that there is in us an incidency to forget God our hope,
and to put confidence in something else. And to be sure we shall find
it the more difficult to make the Lord our hope only, when things that
are here, though deceitfully, proffer us their help.[12] But my design
is not to treat of the object of hope but with reference to the next
world. And as to that we must take heed that we set our hope in God, in
God in the first place, and in nothing below or besides himself. To
this end it is that he has given us his word, and appointed a law to
Israel.
I. Because of his own grace he is become the special object of hope,
designating himself in the most special sense to be the portion of his
people (Psa 78:5-7)—‘The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore
will I hope in him’ (Lam 2:24). Wherefore this we must look well to,
and take heed that we miss not of this object (Psa 146:5). This is the
special object, the ultimate object, the object that we cannot be
without; and that, short of which, we cannot be happy as, God willing,
shall be showed more anon (Jer 50:7). God is not only happiness in
himself, but the life of the soul, and he that puts goodness into every
thing in the next world, in which goodness shall be found (Jer 17:13).
And this our Lord Jesus Christ himself affirmeth, when he saith, ‘I am
the way,’ to wit, the way to life and happiness. And yet he saith, ‘I
am the way to the Father,’ for that it is HE that is the fountain and
ocean of happiness and bliss.
So then, that we might in the next world be heirs of the highest good,
God has made us heirs of his own good self; ‘Heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ’; heirs of God through Christ (Rom 18:17; Gal 4:7).
This God, this eternal God, therefore, is of necessity to be the object
of our hope, because he is, of grace, become our hope. The church in
heaven, called the body and temple of God, is to be an habitation for
himself, when it is finished, to dwell in for ever and ever. This then
we hope for, to wit, to be possessed at that day with eternal life;
eternal glory (1 Tim 6:12,19). Now this eternal life and eternal glory
is through God the hope of his people (1 Peter 5:10; 1 John 5:20). And
for this end, and to this bliss, are we called and regenerate in this
world, ‘That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs,
according to the hope of eternal life’ (Titus 3:7). Nor can it be, that
heaven and happiness should ever be the portion of them that make not
God their hope, any more than such a lady should hope to enjoy the
estate of such a lord, who first makes not the lord himself her
husband.[13] Heaven, heaven is the talk of the ignorant, while the God
of heaven they cannot abide. But shall such ever come to glory? But,
II. God must be the special object of our hope, and him in special that
must be enjoyed by us in the next world, or nothing can make us happy.
We will suppose now, for the illustrating of this matter, that which is
not to be supposed. As,
1. Suppose a man, when he dieth, should go to heaven, that golden
place, what good would this do him, if he was not possessed of the God
of it? It would be, as to sweetness, but a thing unsavoury; as to
durableness, but a thing uncertain; as to society, as a thing forlorn;
and as to life, but a place of death. All this is made to appear by the
angels that fell; for when fallen, what was heaven to them? Suppose
they staid but one quarter of an hour there after their fall, before
they were cast out, what sweetness found they there, but guilt? What
stay, but a continual fall of heart and mind? What society, but to be
abandoned of all? And what life, but death in its perfection? Yea, if
it be true that some think, that for the promoting of grace, they are
admitted yet to enter that place to accuse the saints on earth, yet
what do they find there but what is grievous to them? It is the
presence of God that makes heaven Heaven in all its beauteousness.
Hence David, when he speaks of heaven, says, ‘Whom have I in heaven but
thee?’ (Psa 73:25). As who should say, What would heaven yield to me
for delights, if I was there without my God? It is the presence of God
that will make heaven sweet to those who are his. And as it is that
that makes the place, so it is interest in him that makes the company,
and the deeds that are done there, pleasant to the soul. What solace
can he that is without God, though he were in heaven, have with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets and angels? How could he join
in their thanks, and praises, and blessings of him for ever and ever,
in whose favour, mercy, and grace, they are not concerned?
2. Suppose a man, when he dieth, should be made to live for ever, but
without the enjoyment of God, what good would his life do him? Why, it
would be filled full of horror, darkness, desolation, sorrow, and all
things that would tend to make it bitter to the soul. Witness they that
live in hell; if it be proper to say they live in hell? It is no more
possible for a man to live happily, were he possessed of all that
heaven and life could afford him, suppose him to be without interest in
God, than it is for a man that hath all the enjoyments of this world,
if the sun was taken from him out of the firmament. As all things,
whether it be heaven, angels, heavenly pleasures and delights, have had
their being of him, so their being is continued by him, and made sweet
of him.
Now, for the well managing of our hope, with reference to this special
object of it, there are these things to be considered. And now I speak
to all. We must know him right, we must come to him right. (1.) We must
know him right. It is essential to happiness, and so to the making of
the God of heaven our hope, to know him rightly (John 17:1-3). It is
not every fancy, or every imagination of God, that thou mayst have,
that will prove that therefore thou knowest God aright. In him there
‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’ (James 1:17). He only
is what he is, what imaginations soever we have of him. We may set up
idols and images of him, as much in our minds as some do in their
houses and in their temples, and be as great, though not so gross
idolaters as they.[14] Now if thou wouldst know him, thou must
diligently feel for him in his works, in his Word, and in his ways, if
perhaps thou mayst find the knowledge of him (Prov 2:1-5; Acts 17:27).
(2.) Beware, when thou hast found him, that thou go to him by his Son,
whom he has sanctified and sent into the world, to be the way for
sinners to go to God; and see that thou keepest in this path always,
for out of him he is found intolerable, and a consuming-fire. (3.) Busy
thyself with all thy might to make an interest in his Son, and he will
willingly be thy Saviour, for he must become thine before his Father
can be the object of thy hope (John 3:36). He that hath the Son, hath
the Father, but contrariwise, he that hath not him has neither (2 John
9). (4.) Stay not in some transient comforts, but abide restless till
thou seest an union betwixt thee and this Blessed One; to wit, that he
is a root, and thou a branch; that he is head, and thou a member. And
then shalt thou know that the case is so between thee and him, when
grace and his Spirit has made thee to lay the whole stress of thy
justification upon him and has subdued thy heart and mind to be ‘one
spirit’ with him (Rom 4:4,5; 1 Cor 6:17). (5.) This done, hope thou in
God, for he is become thy hope, that is, the object of it. And for thy
encouragement so to do, consider that he is able to bear up thy heart,
and has said he will do it, as to this very thing, to all those that
thus hope in him. ‘Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine
heart,’ all ye that hope in the Lord (Psa 31:24). It is manifest, as
was said before, that many difficulties lie in the way of hoping; but
God will make those difficulties easy, by strengthening the heart of
him that hopeth, to hope. He has a way to do that, which no creature
can hinder, by the blessed work of his Holy Spirit. He can show us he
loves us, that he may encourage our hope. And as he can work in us for
our encouragement, so he can and will, as was said before, himself, in
his time, answer our hope, by becoming our hope himself. ‘The Lord
shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of
Israel’ (Joel 3:16).
His faithfulness also is a great encouragement to his, to hope for the
accomplishment of all that he hath promised unto his people. ‘Hath he
said it, and shall he not make it good?’ When he promised to bring
Israel into the land of Canaan, he accomplished it to a tittle. ‘There
failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the
house of Israel; all came to pass’ (Josh 21:45, 23:14). Also what he
with his mouth had promised to David, with his hand he fulfilled to
Solomon in the view of all the thousands of Israel (1 Kings 8:22-24; 2
Chron 6:7-10).
[Third. The persons who are concerned in the management of this duty of
hope.]
I will omit making mention again of the encouragements spoken of
before, and shall now come to the third thing specified in this part of
the text, to wit, to show more distinctly, who, and what particular
persons they are, who are concerned in this exhortation to hope.
They are put, as you see, under this general term Israel; ‘Let Israel
hope in the Lord.’ And, ‘He shall save Israel from all his troubles.’
Israel is to be taken three ways, in the Scripture. 1. For such that
are Israel after the flesh. 2. For such as are such neither after the
flesh nor the Spirit; but in their own fancies and carnal imaginations
only. 3. For such as are Israel after God, or the Spirit.
1. Israel is to be taken for those that are such after the flesh; that
is, for those that sprang from the loins of Jacob, and are called,
‘Israel after the flesh, the children of the flesh.’ Now these, as
such, are not the persons interested in this exhortation, for by the
flesh comes no true spiritual and eternal grace (Rom 9:6-8; 2 Cor
1:10-18). Men are not within the bounds of the promise of eternal life,
as they are the children of the flesh, either in the more gross or more
refined sense (Phil 3:4-6). Jacob was as spiritual a father as any HE,
I suppose that now professeth the gospel; but his spiritualness could
not convey down to this children, that were such only after the flesh,
that spirit and grace that causeth sound conversion, and salvation by
Jesus Christ. Hence Paul counts it a carnal thing to glory in this; and
tells us plainly, If he had heretofore known Christ thus, that is, to
have been his brother or kinsman, according to the flesh, or after
that, he would henceforth know him, that is, so, ‘no more’ (2 Cor
5:16-18). For though the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
yet not that multitude, but the remnant that the Lord hath chosen and
shall call, shall be saved (Rom 9:27; Joel 2:32). This, therefore, is
as an arrow against the face of that false doctrine that the Jews
leaned upon, to wit, that they were in the state of grace, and
everlasting favour of God, because the children and offspring of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But,
2. Israel may be taken for such as are neither so after the flesh, nor
the Spirit, but in their own fancy and imagination only. And such I
take to be all those that you read of in Revelation 2:9 which said
‘they were Jews, and were not,’ ‘but did lie’ (3:9).