* Patience is nothing else but hope spun out. If you would lengthen patience, be sure to strengthen hope.
3 Hope's motto is, Quod defertur non avfertur, forbearance is no acquittance. '
* Pittacus, one of the seven sages, used to say, A wise man must recover that by patience which force cannot command. [Diogenes Laert. i. 77, 78. — G.] The Lord shews mucli mercy in timing our mercies for us. Spes e$t meliorum. — Drusius.
* In quality, though not in equality, as is not a note of parility or equality, but of re-
510 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
hope runs out into holiness. He that hath the purest and strongest hopes of being saved, is most studious and laborious to be sanctified. The Greek word ayw'^s/, that is rendered 'purifieih, is a metaphor taken either from the ceremonial purifications in time of the Law, or else from goldsmiths purifying metals from their dross ; and it notes thus much to us, that those that have hopes to reign with Christ in glory, that have set their hearts upon that pure and blissful state, that paradise, that holy and spiritual state of bliss that is made up of singleness and purity, they will purify both their insides and outsides, both body and soul, that they may answer to that excellent copy that Christ hath set before them, knowing that none shall enjoy everlasting glory but those that labour after perfect purity.
Now hope purifies the heart and life thus, by keeping the purest objects, as God, Christ, the word, and the soul together, and by making the soul serious and conscientious in the use of all soul-purifying ordi- nances, and by being a fire in the soul to burn up all those corruptions and principles of darkness that are contrary to that purity and glory that hope hath in her eye ; and by working the soul to lean upon Christ, to live in Christ, and to draw purifying virtue from Christ, who is the spring and fountain of all purity and sanctity. And thus hope purifies those that expect to be like Christ in glory.^
[7.] The seventh 'property of that hope that accompanies salvation, that comprehends salvation, is this : it is permanent and lasting ; it will never leave the soul till it hath lodged it in the bosom of ChHst. Prov. xiv. 32, ' The righteous hath hope in his death.' The righteous man's hope will bed and board with him ; it will lie down with him, and rise up with him ; it will to the gi-ave, to heaven with him : his motto is. Cum expire spero, my hope lasts beyond life.*
The Jews' ahcient custom was, by the way as they went with their corpse, to pluck up every one the grass, as who should say, they were not sorry as men without hope, for their brother was but so cropped off, and should spring up again in the morning of the resurrection. And the Jews to this very day stick not to call their Golgothas (batte chiim) the houses or places of the living. ^
That hope that accompanies salvation is a long-lived hope ; it is a living hope. 1 Peter i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope,' or a living hope :* a hope that will not die, a hope that will not leave a man in life nor death. Ps. Ixxi. 14, ' But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.' No
semblance and similitude : as there is a similitude betwixt the face itself and the image of the face in the glass, but no equality.
^ How lively hope makes the soul in religious services, I have shewed in the third property.
2 Prov. X. 28. Austin's hope made him long to die, that he might see that head that was once crowned with thorns.
3 Hope made the ancients to call the days of their de&thnatalta, not dying but birth- days, Heb. iii. 6, and vi. 11 ; 1 Peter i. 13 ; Ps. cxxxi. 3.
* luirai, living ; PIT'S T*Dn. In prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, in life and death, I will hope. It is neither the smiles nor the frowns of the world that sliall bury a Christian's hope. A Christian's hope will live in all weathers, and it will make a Christian bear up bravely in all storms and under all changes.
EOM. VIII. 82-34<.] HEAVEN ON EARTH. 511
trials, no troubles, no afflictions, no oppositions, shall keep down my hope, says David. I am peremptorily resolved, in the face of all dangers, difficulties, and deaths, to keep up my hopes ; come what will come on it, I will rather let my life go than my hope go : I will hope continually. A hopeless condition is a very sad condition ; it is the worst condition in the world ; it makes a man's life a very hell. If ' hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' as the wise man speaks, Prov. xiii. 12, then the loss of hope will make the soul languish, it will make it choose strangling rather than life ; it will make a man's life a con- tinual death. A soul without hope is like a ship without anchors. Lord, where will a soul stay that stays not upon thee by hope ? A man were better part with anything than his hope.
When Alexander went upon a hopeful expedition, he gave away his gold ; and when he was asked what he kept for himself, he answered, Spem majorutn et meliorum, the hope of greater and better things. A believer's hope is not like that of Pandora, which may fly out of the box, and bid the soul an everlasting farewell.^ No ; it is like the morning light ; the least beam of it shall commence into a complete sunshine. It is aurora gaudii, and it shall shine forth brighter and brighter till it hath fully possessed the believer of his Christ and crown. This will be the hypocrite's hell and horror when he comes to die, that his hope will be like the morning dew, like the spider's web, like the crackling of thorns under a pot, and like the giving up of the ghost, Job viii. 13, 14, and xi. 20, and xxvii. 8 ; Prov. xiv. 32, and xi. 7. And this is now the upright man's joy, that whoever leaves him, yet his hope will not leave him, till he hath put on his crown and is set down in paradise.^ And thus you see what hope that is that doth accompany salvation. Before I close up this chapter, take these two cautions with you ; they make for your comfort and settlement.
[1.] The first caution is this: tJiat all saints have not these things that accompany salvation in the same degree. If thou hast but the least measure or degree of that knowledge that accompanies salvation, or of that faith that accompanies salvation, or of that repentance, or of that obedience, or of that love, &c., that accompanies salvation, thou mayest be as assuredly confident of thy salvation, as if thou wast al- ready in heaven. The least degree, O Christian, of those things that accompany salvation, will certainly yield thee a heaven hereafter, and why then should it not yield thee a heaven here ? It will imdoubtedly yield thee a crown at last; and why should it not yield thee comfort and assurance now 1 I judge it may, if thou art not an enemy to thine own soul, and to thy own peace and comfort.'