344 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. II.
able God ; and I linvo waited for tlie accomplishment of the will of an able God ; and Jude, ver. 24, ' To him that is able to keep you.' Faith stands upon these two supports, God's truth and power; his mercy is engaged by his truth, and dispensed by his power; therefore take this truth and power of God, and cast it into the lap of the soul by faith ; and then you may be as certain of the event as if it were already exhibited.
2. You must relieve faith by experiences : by considering what is past we may more easily believe that Avhich is to come.
[1.] Cast in experiences of what is past. The patriarchs believed Christ's coming in the flesh, as we believe and own: John viii. 56, ' Your father Abraham saw my day ; ' and one miracle doth facilitate and prepare belief for another. The belief of our future greatness is facilitated by the example of his own abasement. When Christ was apparelled with flesh, we may easily believe we shall be clothed with glory. Our misery cannot hinder us fi'om being glorified with God, since Christ's glory did not hinder him from being abased with men. If Christ could die, then a sinner might live. If he can suffer upon a cross, then we may reign in glory. If the greatness of promises raise any doubt, let us look to Christ ; for, lest high promises should find no credit with our understanding, God clears up faith by this wonderful instance.
[2.] God hath taken 3"ou into an estate of grace and marvellous light; it is a wonderful thing that God should call poor sinners. God hath given us not only promises, but assurances ; an earnest as well as his word. All that is past is but a foundation ; he that spared you will much more save you; glory and pardon issue out of the womb of the same grace. Nay, glory is a lesser thing than reconcila- tion, or the first act of pardon. The apostle puts a much more upon it: Rom. v. 10, 'For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.' When a sinner comes to he accepted into grace, there is the greatest conflict, for there is a great conflict between justice and mercy : therefore it is harder to get the guilty sinner to be absolved, than a pardoned sinner to be blessed. If he has called me, will he not glorify me ? As among men it is easier to keep a pardoned man from execution, than to get a guilty man to be pardoned ; so the apostle makes it an easier thing to give glory, than it is to give grace and pardon.
[B.] Compare your hopes with carnal hopes. When you look upon your own hopes, you may say with David, Ps. xxxi. 19, ' Oh, how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee !' We may say we have a great deal laid up, and a great deal laid out ; somewhat in hand, and more in hope. In spiritual matters our expec- tation comes far short of enjoyment, but in carnal matters the hope is far above the comfort ; therefore they are called vanity and vexation of spirit ; we expect more, and therefore are vexed with disappoint- ment. Carnal hopes are but like dreams of waking men, that make way for fear and for sorrow. If you live in the hope of much from the world you will be but like dreamers, that have an imaginary content in their sleep, but they meet with real disappointment when
VeR. 1.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 345
they awake ; so when we expect much from the creature, we meet with nothing but burden, vanity, and vexation,
[4.] Make it the work of your lives to get your own title confirmed, and assured to the conscience. Christians are to blame for continuing so long in uncertainties, because they do not get their own title con- firmed : 1 Tim. vi. 20, ' Laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that you may lay hold of eternal life.' If you would make eternal life present to the soul, then lay up solid evidences. And mark, he speaks ' laying up ' to note this work is always a doing ; always we must be laying this foundation.
SERMON III.
A)id tlie evidence of things not seen. — Heb. xi. 1.
I come now to the second part of the description — ' And the evidence of things not seen.' In which you have —
1. The act — it is the evidence.
2. The object — of things not seen.
[1.] The act, which belongs chiefly to the understanding, as the other doth to the will. By the first act, faith is the hand of the soul to lay hold of eternal life ; by this act, faith is the eye of the soul to look towards it, and represent it to us.
[2.] The object — 'Things not seen:' it is of a larger extent than the former. All matters of faith are not future, and the objects of hope, ' things not seen,' is a term more capacious and comprehensive than ' things hoped for.' We believe past and present things as well as future, but we cannot be said to hope for them ; as the creation of the world, the deluge, the deliverance of the church out of Egypt and Babylon ; Christ's incarnation and piassion, his glorious ascension, the eft'usion of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles ; all these things are past, and cannot be called things hoped for ; but are here in a more comjn-ehensive expression said to' be ' things not seen.' Many present things we believe, as God's providence, the intercession of Christ, the influences of his grace upon the hearts of believers, pardoning mercy ; these, because they could not be comprehended in tlie former ' things hoped for,' are delivered to us in this latter expression, ' things not seen.'