now and then in the prosecution of them; but. alas! the swords they draAv against them are soon in their sheaths again, and all the seeming fray comes to nothing in the end. They, like Esau, go out full and angry, but a present comes from their lusts which bribes them from hurting them ; yea, so reconciles them to them, that, as he did by his brother, they can fall upon the necks of those lusts, to kiss them, which awhile before they threatened to kill, and all for want of a true hope of heaven. He that hath a mind to provide himself with arguments against sin's motions, need not go far to seek them : but he that handles this one well, and drives it home to the head, will not need many more. What is the sin this would not prostrate ? Art thou tempted to any sensual lust ? Ask thy hope what thou expeetest to be in heaven. Canst thou yield to play the beast on earth, who hopest to be made like the pure and holy angels in heaven ? Is it a sin of profit which bewitcheth thee? Is not the hope of heaven a spell strong enough to charm this devil? Can gold bear any sway with thee, thou that hopest to be heir of that city where gold bears no price ? Wherefore is that blissful place said to be paved with gold, but to let us know, it shall be there trampled ujion as of no account? And wilt thou let it now lie in thy heart, that will ere long be laid under thy feet ? Is it a sin of revenge ? Dost thou not hope for a day when thy dear Saviour will plead thy cause? And what need hast thou then to take his work out of his hand ? Let him be his own judge, who hath no hope; the Judge, when he comes, will take thy part.
Section II. — This hope encourages and enables the Christian to condemn the present world, with all its pomp, treasvn-e, and pleasure, to which the rest of the sons of men are basely enslaved. When once faith makes discovery of the land which the Christian hath lying in heaven, and by hope he begins to calculate upon it, as that which he shall shortly take up at his removal from earth ; truly then the price of this world's felicity tails low in his account : he can sell all his hopes from it very cheap, yea, he can part with what he hath in hand of this world's growth, when God calls him to it, more freely than Alex- ander did the cities he took; because when all this is gone, he shall leave him- self a better hope than that great monarch had to live upon. The hope of heaven leaves a blot upon the woi-ld in the Christian's thoughts. It is no more now to him, than the asses were to anointed Saul, We are told of some Turks, who have, upon the sight of Mahomet's tomb, put out their eyes, that they might not defile them, forsooth, with any common object, after they had been blessed with seeing one so sacred. I am sure manj' a gracious soul there hath been, who, by a prospect of heaven's glory set before the eye of their faith, have been so ravished by the sight, that they have desired God even to seal lip their eyes by death, with Simeon, who would not by his good-will have lived a day after that blessed hour in which his eyes had beheld the salvation of God. Abraham was under the hope of this salvation, and .therefore, he 'sojourned in tJie land of promise, as in a strange country, — for he looked for a city, which hath foundations, Vshose builder and maker is God:" Heb. xi. 9, 10. Canaan woidd have satisfied him well enough if God had not told him of a heaven that he meant to give him, in comparison to which Canaan is now but 'Cabul,' a dirty land in his judgment. So Paul tells us not only the low thoughts he hath himself of the world, but as they agree with the common sense of all believers, whose hope is come to any settlement ; ' for our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Savioiu-,' Phil. iii. 20. Mark, he sets the saints with their back upon earth ; and draws his reason from their hope, — ' from whence we look,' &c. Indeed, he that looks on heaven, must needs look off earth. The soul's eye can as little as the body's be above and below at the same time. Every man converseth most where he hopes to receive his greatest advantage. The publican sits at the receipt of custom, there comes in his gains; the courtier stands at his prince's elbow; the mer- chant, you must look for in his warehouse, or at the exchange: but the Chris- tian's hope carries him by all these doors. Here is not my hope, saith the soul, and therefore not my haunt : my hope is in heaven, from whence I look for the Saviour, and my salvation to come with him ; there I live, walk, and wait. Nothing but a stedfast, well-grounded hope of salvation, can buy off the crea- ture's worldly hopes. The heart of man rannot be in this world without a
520 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION.