Now, on the other side, an impure man that walks on in iniquity, what sustains his hope ? Faith in God's promises ? No ; see God's book if there be any promise made to such a one : ' The ""mercies of God are from everlasting to everlasting towards them that fear him,' Ps. ciii. 17. And in the second commandment, * The Lord will shew mercy to thousands of ihem that love him,' Exod. xxxiv. 7. There be promises that way, but where is the least promise, the least syllable in all God's book, that if thou continuest not in his fear he will shew thee mercy ? Nay, if a man say, I shall be delivered, notwithstanding I do thus and thus, the Lord will not shew mercy to that man. Deut. xxix. 29, he says, ' Thou that thinkest thou bast a promise of God's mercy, and hast no word to put thee in hope, but to put thee out of hope, know the godly's hope is a work of God's Spirit in their heart, it is sustained by a promise ;' faith in the promise makes it God's word, and cannot fail ; but the hope of a wicked man is not upheld by faith in the promises, but by a foolish, a presumptuous conceit that he fancies in his own brain.
Indeed, beloved, it is a mad conceit that he hath, that he may do thus and thus ; a strong presumption clean contrary to all that God hath set down in his word. It is as impossible as that God should be forsworn, as in the song of Zacharias : Luke i. 70, et seq., ' The oath that he swore unto our fathers, that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our hfe.'
It is an old oath, God sware that if thou be delivered out of the hands of thine enemies, if thou be freed and rescued from everlasting damnation, God hath taken an oath that thou shalt serve him. Now for a man that will not serve him in holiness and righteousness, and yet persuade himselt that he shall be delivered from his enemy, what hope is this ?
But you will say, ' If hope be so certain, what difterence is there between faith and hope, if one be as sure as the other.' Many will grant, we may hope for salvation, but doubt whether they may believe it, they think there be many things come between this and that. But I say, it^ is a foolish distinction in respect of the point of certainty, for the certainty must of force be the same, for nothing is hoped for but it is first believed.
'Faith is the substance of things hoped for,' giving the strength and sustentation to it. Therefore, Heb. vi. 19, it is called ' the hope which we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that which is within the veil,' that for certainty and infalli- bility giveth as great firmness as the anchor doth to a ship, that keeps it from wavering ; and the reason is, hope is not like the anchor cast down- ward, but upwards, entering into that within the veil, is pitched on Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation. Therefore, if we go by sea while we are
508 THE PATTERN OF PURITY.
in the sea of tbis world, this is it that hears us up against all surges and hillows.
But to the point propounded, that I may not forget to shew what is the diflerence between faith and hope, if one be as sure as the other. I answer. The diflerence it is not in certainty, but in another respect, that is thus: faith is a thin// that hath neither time nor j^lace, but makes anything present. It puts a man as it were in real possession of eternal life ; when he believes he hath it, he is in heaven already, but now hope carries us in expectation of it. There is a diflerence between them, we must stay in the mean time ; for now ' it doth not appear what we shall be.' Now are we the sons of God, and faith apprehends that certainly, being an heir, I shall have a kingdom in heaven, faith puts me in real and actual posses- sion of that great inheritance. But stay a while, you are not there yet, ' it doth not appear what we shall be ; ' then comes hope and qualifies that. Oh that I should be here born to so great estate, and yet be scorned and despised in the world, and kept so long from it ; here comes hope and quiets it. It is a patient expectation of that which is firmly believed by faith, that is the diflerence between hope and faith. Bead Bom. viii. 24 ; there the apostle points to that diflerence, ' Hope that is seen is not hope : for what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for it ? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' As faith, so hope is of things unseen, hope is certain it shall enjoy the thing unseen. Where is the diflerence then ? Faith puts me as it were in real possession of it, the other makes me patiently to expect the full performance of it. If we hope, we do certainly expect. This distinguisheth these two virtues so near. And then this patience is a thing described by hope : 1 Thes. i. 3, ' Bemembering without reasoning-'.- your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.' So that this patience, this expectation, this waiting, as it were, of God's leisure, is the thing that stays the stomach in the mean time, and that that doth distinguish this divine hope from faith. It is not the certainty, for they are equally certain, but the one brings always with it a settlement of the heart, with a patient expectation of the full fruition of the thing hoped for.