promise to heaven's door, where they deliver up his soul into the hands of love and joy, which stand ready to conduct him into the blissful presence of God. But that I may speak more particularly of hope's serviceableness to the Chris- tian, and the several offices it performeth for him, I shall reduce all to four heads. First, Hope of salvation puts the Christian upon high and noble exploits. It is a grace born for great actions. Faith and hope are the two poles on which all the Christian's noble enterprises turn. As carnal hope excites carnal men to their achievements, which gain them renown in the world, so is this heavenly hope influential unto the saint's undertakings. What makes the merchant sell house and land, and ship his whole estate away to the other end of the v.orld, and this amidst a thousand hazards from pirates, waves, and winds, but the hope of getting a greater by this bold adventure ? What makes the daring sol- dier rush into the furious battle, into the very mouth of death itself, but the hope of snatching honour and spoil out of its jaws ? — hope in his helmet, shield, and all, which makes him laugh in the face of all danger. In a word, what makes the scholar beat his brains so hard, sometimes with the hazard of breaking them, by over-straining his part with too eager and hot a pursuit of learning, but the hope of commencing some degrees higher in the knowledge of those secrets in natiu-e which are locked up from vulgar understanding? — who, when he hath attained his desire, is paid but little better for all his pains and study, which have worn nature in him to the stumps, than he is that tears the flesh off" his hands and knees with creeping up some craggy mountain, which proves but a barren, bleak place, to stand in, and wraps himself up in the clouds from the sight of others, leaving him little more to please himself with but this,that he can look over other men's heads, and see a little farther than they. Now if these hopes can prevail with men, so as to have such fixed resolutions for the obtaining of these poor, sorry things, which borrow part of their goodness fi-om men's fancy and imaginations, how much more effectual must the Christian's hope of eternal life be, to provoke him to the achievement of more noble exploits! Let a few instances suffice.
Section I. — This hope raiseth in the Christian an heroic resolution against those lusts that held him before in bondage. The Israelites, who sufl'ered so tamely vmder their Egyptian burdens, without any attempt made by them to shake off" the oppressor's yoke, when Moses came from God to give them hope of an approaching salvation, and his report had gained some credit by them, what a mighty change the impression of their newly-conceived hope made upon them ! On a sudden their courage returns, and their blood, which anguish and despair had so long chilled, grows warm again. They who before hardly durst let their groans be heard, (so broken were their spirits with hard labour,) now, fortified with hope, burst open their prison-doors, and march out of Egypt toward the place of rest promised, in defiance of all the power and wrath of enraged Pharaoh, who pursued them. Truly, thus it is with a soul in regard of sin's bondage. O how impotent and poor-spirited is a soul void of this hea- venly hope ! What a tame slave hath Satan of him ! He is the footstool for every base lust to trample upon. He suffers the devil to ride him whither he pleaseth, without wincing. No puddle so filthy, but Satan may draw him through with a thread : the poor wretch is well enough contented with his ignoble servitude, because he knows no better master than him he serves, nor better wages than the swill of his sensual pleasures which his lusts allow him ; but let the news of salvation come to the ear of this sin-deluded soul, and a spiritual eye be given him to see the transcendant glory thereof, with a crevice of hope set open to him, that he is the person that shall inherit it, if willing to make an exchange of Satan for Christ, and of the slavery of his lusts for the liberty of his Redeemer's service ; O, what havoc then doth the soul begin to make among his lusts ! He presently vows the death of them all, and sets his head at work how he may soonest and most eff'ectually rid his hands of them. 'Every man that hath this hope, purifieth himself, even as he is pure ;' 1 John iii. 3. He now looks upon his lusts with no better eye than a captive prince would do on his cruel keepers, out of whose hands could he make his escape, he should presently enjoy his crown and kingdom; and therefore meditates his utmost revenge iipon them. There may be some hasty purposes taken up by carnal men against their lusts, upon some accidental discontent they meet with
AND TAKE THE ilKLMET 01' SALVATIOX. 519