To press you to this, consider how obedience and dependence do mutually befriend each other. It may be made good by these two considerations — (1.) None can hope for salvation but he that keeps God's way; (2.) None can keep God's way but he that hopes for salvation. They each depend upon one another.
1. None can hope for salvation but he that would keep God's way, because God hath by a wise ordination conjoined ends and means. He hath not simply promised blessedness, but requires a qualification and a performance of duty in the persons to whom the promise is made : Ps. i. 1 , 2, ' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful : but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.' And Ps. cxix. 1, 2, ' Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord : blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.' There is blessedness ; ay, but we must keep the way of the Lord, and that punctually, and be undefiled in that way. To look upon one side of the covenant, as upon the promises only, is a groundless presumption ; so that whosoever live in any sin against conscience, they may take notice how fearful their estate is
16 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. IjXIII.
for the present, how needful it is to begin a good course before they can have any good hope towards God.
Besides, there is no such course to damp our hope and weaken our confidence as sin. Surely we cannot trust him whom we offend freely and without restraint. Sin will breed shame and fear, as pain will follow upon the prick of a needle ; and where it is allowed, you will soon find the effects of it. On the contrary, faith and love go to- gether ; fiiith that hopes in his promises, and love that seeketh to please God. Sin, that now Aveakens the faith we have in the command- ment, will in time weaken the faith we have in the promises. It may be for the present our confidence in God's mercy and promises is not directly assaulted ; we bear on with a little slight hope till the hour of death, or the time of some extraordinary trial ; but when the evil day comes, the consciousness of any one sin which we have indulged, allowed, and lived in, will be of like force to withdraw our assent from God's mercies, as the delight and pleasure of sin is now to tempt us to transgress his commandments ; ' For the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,' 1 Cor. xv. 56. When we feel the stings of sin, then Ave shall doubt of the mercies of God. And that is the reason why dying persons, when they are serious, have so many troubled thoughts within them. And take the experience of the godly, they find this still ; Avhen they have been acquainted with a spiritual life, their hope increases by their diligence in a holy life. And the scripture tells us so : Heb. vi, 11, ' And we desire that every one of 3^ou do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.' The more diligent we are in a holy life, the more hope and the more con- fidence we shall have in God's mercy and in the merits of Christ ; for then our qualification is more clear. So far as a man neglects his duty and abates in his qualification, so far does his assurance abate; it nuist needs be so, Tlierefore, mark, none can hope for salvation but he that will keep God's way, and that is resolved to be at God's direction.
2. None can keep God's way but those that hope for his salvation ; for without this we can never have a heart or head to do anything for God. It is a notable passage of Bernard, Peccator nihil expectat, in- deque peccator est, quod honis prcesenlihus non solum detenius, sed etiam contentus — A sinner hopes for nothing, and therefore he is a sinner, because he is not only withheld by present things, but satisfied with them. They that look for no great matters from God in another world, no wonder they are so negligent and careless of their duty ; they can never be diligent in his service, or faithful and true to him. Besides, the difficulties and dangers which attend us, if we will be sincerely obedient, are so many and great, that if we begin with God, we shall not go on witli him unless we surely depend on the blessedness he offei-eth to us : Heb. x. 39, ' We are not of them that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul ; ' that is, who purchase the salvation of the soul with the loss of other things, as the word signifies. Well, then, let these always be coupled : if we would keep the commandments of God, we nmst hope for the salvation of God ; and if we would hope for the salvation of God, we must keep the commandments of God. This is most acceptable to God, most comfortable to you, and most honourable to religion. It is