if the soul be dead, the hope cannot be alive. And the soul may be dead, and yet put into a very handsome dress of external reformation and profession, as well as a dead body naay be clad with rich clothes. A beggar's son, wearing the clothes of a rich man's child, maj' as well hope to be heir to the rich man's land, as thou, by an external reformation and profession, to be God's heir in glory. The child's hopes are from his own father, not from a stranger : now while thou art in a natural state, old Adam is thy father ; and what canst thou hope from him who proved worse than nought, and left his poor posterity nothing, except a crazy, mortal body, a sinful nature, and a fearful expectation of death, temporal and eternal, from the wrathful hand of a pi'ovoked God? Oh, how can you give way, that sleep should fall upon your eyes, till you enjoj' this relation to God ! Hannah was a woman of a bitter spirit, till she got a child from God ; and hast not thou more reason to be so, till thou art a child of God? Better, a thousand times over that thou shouldst die childless, than fatherless ; my meaning is, that thou shouldst leave no child to inherit thy estate on earth, than to have no Father to give thee an inheritance in heaven.
CHAPTER IX.
TWO DUTIES PRESSED UPON THOSE, WHO, UPON TRIAL, FIND THIS GRACE OF
HOPE IN THEM.
For exhortation ; and this either respects believers, who are furnished with this helmet ; or unbelievers, who yet are without hope.
First, For you, believers, who, upon trial, are found to have this helmet of hope. Several duties are to be pressed vipon you as such.
Section I. — First, Be thankful for this unspeakable gift. I will not believe thou hast it, if thy heart be not abundantly let out in thankfulness for it. Blessed Peter cannot speak of this but in a doxology : ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, — who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, — to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,' 1 Pet. i. 3. The usual proem to Paul's epistles is of this strain. Col. i. 3; Eph. i. 3. Hast thou heaven in hope? It is more than if thou hadst the whole world in hand. The greatest monarch the earth hath will be glad, in a dying hour, to change his crown for thy helmet ; h'ls crown will not procure him this helmet, but thy helmet will bring thee to a crown ; a crown, not of gold, but of glory, which, once on, shall never be taken off, as his is sure to be. Oh remember, Christian, what but a short time since thou wert ; so far from having any hope of heaven, that thou wert under a fearful expectation of hell and damnation ; and are those chains of guilt, with which thy trembling conscience was weighed down unto despair, taken off, and thy head lifted up to look for such high preferment in the celestial court of that God, whose wrath thou hadst, by thy horrid treasons, most justly incensed against thee ? Certainly, of all the men in the world, thou art deepest in debt to the mercy of God. If he will be thanked for a crust, he looks, surely, thou shouldst give him more for a crown. If food and raiment, though coarse and mean, be gratefully to be acknowledged ; oh, with what ravishment of love and thankful- ness are you to think and speak of those rarities and robes with which you hope to be fed and clad in his lieavenly kingdom ! Especially if you cast your eye aside, and behold those that were once your fellow-prisoners, in what a sad and dismal condition they continue in, while all this happiness is befallen you ! It could not surely but affect his heart into admiration of his prince's mercy, and undeserved favour to him, who is saved from the gibbet only by his gracious pardon ; if, as he is riding in a coach toward his prince's court, he should meet some of his fellow-traitors on sledges, as they are dragging, full of shame and horror, to execution, for the same treason in which he had as deep a hand as any of them. And dost not thou see. Christian, many of thy poor neighbours, with whom thou hast had a partnership in sin, pinioned with impenitency and unbelief, driving swiftly to hell and destruction ; while thou, hy the free, distinguishing mercy of God, art on thy way for heaven and glory ? Oh, down on thy knees, and cry out. Lord, why wilt thou shew thyself to me, and not to these? How easy had it been, and righteous, for God to have directed the pardon to them, and the warrant for damnation unto thee!
540 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION.