Let lis ascertain whether we have this hehiiet of hope on our lieacis or not, — tliis liehiiet recommended to lis in the text. As for such paltry ware as most are contented with, it deserves not the name of true hope, no more tlian a paper cap doth of a hehiiet. Oh ! look to the metal and temper of your helmet in^n especial manner ; for at this most blows are made. He-that seeks chiefly to defend his own head (the serpent, I mean,) will aim most to wound yours. None hut fools and children are so credulous as to be blown up with great hopes upon slight ground. They who are wise, will be as wary how they place their hopes, especially for salvation, as a prudent pilot, that hath a rich lading, would be where he moors his ship, and casts his anchor. There is reason for our utmost care herein, because nothing exposeth men to more shame, than to meet with disappointment in their hopes, Jobvi. 20 : 'They were confounded, because they had hoped ; they came thither, and were ashamed ;' that is, to miss of what they hoped to have found in those l)r()oks. But there is no shame like that which a false hope for eternal salvation will put sinners to at last : some shall rise to shame everlasting, Dan. xii. 2. They shall awake out of their graves, and out of that fool's paradise also, wherein their vain hopes had entertained them all their lives ; and see, instead of a heaven which they expected, hell to be in expectation of them, and gaping with full mouth for them. If the servants of Eglon were so ashamed after their waiting awhile at their prince's door, to find him and their hopes dead on the floor, Judges iii. 25, Oh ! who can conceive what a mixture of shame and horror shall meet in their hearts at the great day, who shall see all their hopes for heaven fled, and leave them in the hands of tormenting devils to all eternity ! Hannibal's soldiers did not so confidently divide the goldsmiths' shops in Rome among themselves, (which they never took,) as many presump- tuous sinners promise themselves heaven's bliss and happiness, who must, instead thereof, sit down with shame in hell, except they can, before they die, shew better ground for their hope, than now they are able to do. Oh, what will these fond dreamers do in the day of the Lord's anger, when they shall see the whole world in a light flame around them, and hear God (whose piercing eyes will look them through and through) calling them forth before men and angels to the scrutiny ! Will they then stand to their hope, and vouch it to the faith of Christ, which now they bless themselves so in ? Surely their hearts will fail them for such an enterprise. None then will speak so ill of them as their own consciences. God will in that day use their own tongues to accuse them, and set forth the folly of their ridiculous hope to the confusion of their faces before all the world. The prophet foretells a time, when the false pro])hets ' shall be ashamed every one of his vision, — neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive ; but he shall say, I am no prophet, I am a husbandman,' &c., Zech. xiii. 4, 5. Truly, the most notorious false prophet that the world hath, and deceives most, is this vain hope, which men take up for their salvation. He pro])hecies of peace, pardon, and heaven, to be the portion of such as never once entered into God's heart to make heirs thereof. But the day is coming, and it hastens, wherein this false prophet shall be confounded ; when the hypocrite shall confess that he never had any hope for salvation, but the idol of his own fancy ; and the for- malist shall throw off" the garment of his ])rofession, by which he deceived himself and others, and appear to himself and all the world in his naked colours. It behoves, therefore, every one to be strict in the search of his own heart, to find what his hope is built upon. Now hope of the right make is a rational, well-grounded hope ; ' Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you,' 1 Peter iii. 1.5. Alas ! how can they give an answer to others, that have not any to give to their own consciences? Why dost thou hope to be saved, O my soul ? There is no Christian, be he never so weak in grace, but hath some reason founded on the Scriptures for the hope he professeth. Can you be so absurd as to think your own bold presumption, without any word of promise to build upon, can entitle your souls to the inhe- ritance in God's kingdom? Should one come and say that your hoiuse and land were his, and shew no writing under your hand by which you did ever grant him
538 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION.