[1.] Earnest. Hope is not built upon promises alone, but we have earnest also ; the promise is given us in the word, the earnest is given in our hearts, 2 Cor. i. 22. Though God be truth itself, and pro- miseth nothing but what he meaneth to perform, yet he will give us earnest of his promises. The outward pledges are the elements ; the inward pledge is the earnest of the Spirit ; his comfort and graces are a part of the promised felicity. He would not weary and burden us altogether with expectation, but giveth us somewhat in hand, light, life, grace, joy, peace ; one drachm of these is more precious than all the world, yet these are but an earnest. This is the confirmation that we have in the midst of our doubts and fears ; they expect the full sum.
[2.] First-fruits. We come to get a taste of these things to deaden our taste of other things, which would divert us from these hopes, which are vain delights of the flesh, 1 Peter i. 13. Bodily pleasures are put out of relish by these choice and chaste delights ; these are our songs in the house of our pilgrimage.
8. To bind ourselves to the more earnest pursuit of these hopes. Our journey is not ended, nor our warfare and conflicts; therefore here we bind ourselves to continue our race, and finish the good fight of faith ; as the Israelites in their first passover had their loins girt and their staves in their hands, as resolving on a journey to Canaan, the land of rest ; so we profess ourselves strangers and pilgrims ; let us therefore resolve on our journey towards heaven, and bind ourselves to the performance of it.
2] 6 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXXIII.
SERMON XXXIII.
But if ive hope for that ive see not, then do ive tuith patience wait for
it. — EoM. viii. 25.
In this verse the former doctrine is improved to the main end of this discourse, which is to persuade to a patient waiting for glory to come, in the midst of the sufferings and troubles of this life. The apostle goeth to work by way of supposition and inference.
First, The supposition, — ' If we hope for that we see not.'
Secondly, The inference thence deduced, — 'Then do we with patience wait for it,'
From the first, observe that liope is conversant about what we see not. Hope may be taken for a natural affection, or for a spiritual grace ; the one will help to explain the other.
1. The object of hope as it is a natural affection. It is a good, future, possible, and hard to be obtained. [1.] A good it must be, for hope is one of the affections of prosecution, not aversation ; man hath an irascible and concupiscible faculty, called by the apostle passions and lusts ; a desiring or eschewing faculty ; the one is con- versant about good, the other about evil ; for evil is not hoped for, but feared ; herein the affections and the grace agree ; they both aim at good, but the object of the christian hope is summum bomim, tlie best and chiefest good, which is the vision and fruition of God, in comparison of which all the good things of the earth are but trifles, and poor, inconsiderable vanities. [2.] A good future ; for when any- thing is possessed, it ceaseth to be hoped for ; when the thing desired is seen and enjoyed, hope hath no more to do ; herein also the two hopes agree; the object of christian hope is something future, not yet received or enjoyed. In this lower world our God is unseen, our blessedness is yet to come, and lieth in another world, which we cannot come at till we shoot the gulf of death ; therefore the christian hope needeth to be more strong and fixed. [3.] It is possible ; for the serious and regular desires of natui'e can never be carried to that which is impossible. A man may wish for mountains of gold, and please his fancy with chimeras of strange things ; but his reason and will is only affected with things feasible, and such as probably may be obtained, and lie within his grasp and reach ; the industrious hope is only of things possible. [4.] It is not only possible, but difficult, not to be procured without some industry and labour ; for things easy to be compassed are as if they were alread)' enjoyed. These two last qualifications of the object of hope show that it is a middle thing between despair and presumption ; despair only looketh at the difficulty, and leaveth out the possibility, and so taketli off all endeavours; as Paul's companions (Acts xxvii. 20, 'When all hope they should be saved was taken away") ceased striving, and let the ship go whither it would. Men will not labour for that which they despair to obtain ; it holdeth good in spirituals ; when men de- spair of mending their condition, they give over all care about it ; as those wretches, Jer. xviii. 12, 'And they said. There is no hope, but
VjBR. 25.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIIL 217
we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.' We have a saying, ' Past cure, past care.' On the other side, presumption never considereth the difficulty, but only pleaseth itself with a loose and slight reflection upon the possibility ; and therefore do unreasonably imagine to obtain their end without setting themselves to use the means, or bestowing that cost and pains by which all worldly good is obtained. Now presumption is most incident to young men, who are not acquainted with the world, and promise themselves great things without considering what may be said to the contrary, or what is needful to obtain them ; difficulty there is in every business ; if only considered, it breedeth despair ; if overlooked, it breedeth presumption ; but hope between both appre- hendeth such difficulty as calleth for diligence, and such possibility as every cross accident may not make us give over the attempt. It holdeth good in religion ; the difficulties must be sufficiently under- stood, for Christ will have us sit down and count the charges ; and yet not so regarded as to discourage us in our duty ; we must stand all hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ ; and press towards the mark of our high calling in Jesus Christ, whatever it costs us.