1. Hope is set on work by faith, and keeps the soul, as an anchor, sted- fast against all assaults.
2. Hope doth stir up patience ; for, saith the apostle, ' what we hope for, we wait patiently for it.' Thus patience is exercised in two ways. (1.) In suffering of grievances. (2.) In the expectation of time.* So faith doth thus put life in patience, reasoning; — Why ? What ! it will not be long; these afflictions will not endure ever ; I myself shall away ere long ; glory will come at last for ever and ever ; therefore I will bear all patiently.
3. Again, it sets courage and magnanimity a-work, as Heb. xi. What made all the patriarchs so stout to hold out and endure so many miseries, but that they had an eye to the glory to come ? What made Abraham forget his father's house, going he knew not whither, but that he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and there- fore he was a stranger at home ? The like we have of Moses, who forsook Pharaoh's court, because he saw him who is invisible. Yea, and of Christ himself it is said, that for the glory which was set before him, he despised the shame, endured the cross, being now set at the right hand of the Father in glory and majesty, Heb. xii, 2. So 2 Cor. iv. 16, saith Paul, ' For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day ;' and the reason is, ' For our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,' &c. He who thus hopes, does not want a comfortable life. And therefore upon this ground it is the apostle's concluding exhor- tation, 1 Cor. XV. 58, ' Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' This makes a man zealous and fruitful, so it makes a man sincere, as 2 Cor. v. 9, ' Wherefore we labour (saith he), that whether absent or present we may be accepted of him.' The ground whereof is, ' For we must all appear before the judg- ment-seat of Christ, that every man may receive the things done in his body.' In this case our comfort is in all things to be sincere in working.
Now there is an order of things. Whosoever lives the life of faith in these grand passages, that soul lives the life of faith also in all other pas-
* Qu, ' them.'— G.
871 TUE LIFE OF FAITH.
sages of our life ; and these grand passages will run in tlic lesser courses of our life. To touch one : when a man is in extremity of both outward and inward atlliction, then faith lays hold on this general, that God is won- derful in working, and that his ways and thoughts arc not like our thoughts and ways. In all several cases faith makes use of all things God hath done or promised ; as,
1. Of a man in the state of i/race, God in desertion appearimj his enemy. (1.) In this case faith at first conquered God, and obtained a blessing bij wi-estlin;/, as Jacob did. Faith therefore knows the same way again, to go to those precious promises God hath made, of returning again, not to forsake and be angry for ever, not to plough all the day to sow, as Isa. xxviii. 24, speaks. Faith knows that God works by contraries. It knows God takes away the sense of his love, not in anger, but to stir up the con- science and sense of sin, that we may lament and mourn for it the more, and so receive a surer report of the forgiveness of it. Faith does know that his name is wonderful. He raises things past hope. When a man is in despair touching himself, and all things in himself, and of all comforts, then he is nearest home, as Paul said excellently : ' But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead,' 2 Cor. i. 9. So faith looks at God working with Christ the Son of his love, how roughly he dealt, yet lovingly, with him ; for Christ is a pattern as w^ell as a cause of good unto us. Christ in the case of his forsaking went unto God, saying, * My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mark xv. 34. Faith sets God's promise against his present working ; as though it should say, ' Though thou killest me, yet will I trust in thee,' Job. xiii. 15 ; for all this thy love is the same ; thou art merciful and gracious, and wilt not be angry for ever. Faith, as I may say, pulls off God's mask, sees through the dark cloud, that God appears an enemy for a time, that he may return again with the more abundance of comfort afterwards. Faith knows, as Paul speaks, that it is God that comforts the abject, raises the dead, will be seen in the mount, making our extremity his opportunit3\