SECT. II.

Of the Hope of a Christian.

FAITH differs from Hope in the extension of its object, and in the intention of degree. St. Austin * thus accounts their difference. Faith is of all things revealed, good and bad, rewards and punishments of things past, present, and to come; of things that concern us, and of things that concern us not; but Hope hath for its object things only that are good and fit to be hoped for, future, and concerning ourselves: and because these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may so fail as we may change our will, therefore our certainty is less than the adherences of faith; which (because faith relies only upon one proposition, that is, the truth of the word of God) cannot be made uncertain in themselves, though the object of our hope may become uncertain to us, and to our possession. For it is infallibly certain, that there is heaven for all the godly, and for me amongst them all, if I do my duty. But that I shall enter into heaven, is the object of my hope, not of my faith, and is so sure as it is certain I shall persevere in the ways of God.

The Acts of Hope are,

.1. To rely upon God with a confident expectation of his promises; ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all that grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made. Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence.

Enchirid. c. 8.

2. To esteem all the danger of an action and the possibilities of miscarriage, and every cross accident that can intervene, to be no defect on God's part, but either a mercy on his part, or a fault on ours: for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence, and ourselves the cause of all mischances. The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious.

3. To rejoice in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadness, knowing that this may work for good, and will, if we be not wanting to our souls. This is a direct act of hope, to look through the cloud, and look for a beam of the light from God: and this is called in scripture, Rejoicing in tribulation, when the God of hope fills us with all joy in believing. Every degree of hope brings a degree of joy.

4. To desire, to pray, and to long for the great object of our hope, the mighty price of our highcalling; and to desire the other things of this life as they are promised, that is, so far as they are made necessary and useful to us in order to God's glory and the great ends of souls. Hope and fasting are said to Fasting is but as the

be the two wings of prayer. wing of a bird; but hope is like the wing of an angel soaring up to heaven, and bears our prayers to the throne of grace. Without hope it is impossible to pray; but hope makes our prayers reasonable, passionate, and religious; for it relies upon God's promise, or experience, or providence, and story. Prayer is always in proportion to our hope, zealous and affectionate.

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5. Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of hope, and its last act; and so long as our hope continues, so long we go on in duty and diligence; but he that is to raise a castle in an hour, sits down and does nothing towards it: and Herod, the sophister, left off to teach his son, when he saw that twenty-four pages appointed to wait on him, and called by the several letters of the alphabet, could never make him to understand his letters perfectly.

Rules to govern our Hope.

1. Let your hope be moderate, proportioned to your state, person, and condition, whether it be for gifts or graces, or temporal favours. It is an ambitious hope for persons whose diligence is like them that are least in the kingdom of heaven, to believe themselves endeared to God as the greatest saints, or that they shall have a throne equal to St. Paul, or the blessed Virgin Mary. A stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gift of tongues, or a peasant to become learned as Origen: or if a beggar desires or hopes to become a king, or asks for a thousand pound a year, we call him impudent, not passionate, much less reasonable. Hope that God will crown your endeavour with equal measures of that reward which he indeed freely gives, but yet gives according to our proportions. Hope for good success according to, or not much beyond, the efficacy of the causes and the instrument: and let the husbandman hope for a good harvest, not for a rich kingdom, or a victorious army.

2. Let your hope be well founded, relying upon No. 11.

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just confidences, that is, upon God according to his revelations and promises. For it is possible for a man to have a vain hope upon God: and in matters of religion, it is presumption to hope that God's mercies will be poured forth upon lazy persons that do nothing towards holy and strict walking, nothing (I say) but trust and long for an event besides and against all disposition of the means. Every false principle in religion is a reed of Egypt, false and dangerous. Rely not in temporal things upon uncertain prophecies and astrology, not upon our own wit or industry, not upon gold or friends, not upon armies and princes; expect not health from physicians that cannot cure their own breath, much less their mortality: use all lawful instruments, but expect nothing from them above their natural or ordinary efficacy, and in the use of them from God expect a blessing. A hope that and credulous is an arm of flesh, (Jer. xvii. 5.) an ill supporter without a bone.

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3. Let your hope be without vanity or garishness of spirit, but sober, grave, and silent, fixed in the heart, not born upon the lip, apt to support our spirits within, but not to provoke envy abroad.

4. Let your hope be of things possible, safe, and useful. He that hopes for an opportunity of acting his revenge, or lust, or rapine, watches to do himself a mischief. All evils of ourselves or brethren are objects of our fear, not hope: and when it is truly understood, things useless and unsafe can no more be wished for, than things impossible can be obtained.

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*Di cosi fuori di credenza non vuoler far speranza.

5. Let your hope be patient, without tediousness of spirit, or hastiness of prefixing time. Make no limits or prescriptions to God, but let your prayers and endeavours go on still with a constant attendance on the periods of God's providence. The men of Bethulia resolved to wait upon God but five days longer but deliverance staid seven days, and yet came at last. And take not every accident for an argument of despair: but go on still in hoping, and begin again to work if any ill-accident have interrupted you.

Means of Hope, and Remedies against Despair. The means to cure despair, and to continue or increase hope, are partly by consideration, partly by

exercise.

1. Apply your mind to the cure of all the proper causes of despair: and they are weakness of spirit, or violence of passion. He that greedily covets is impatient of delay, and desperate in contrary accidents; and he that is little of heart, is also little of hope, and apt to sorrow and suspicion.

2. Despise the things of the world, and be indif ferent to all changes and events of providence; and for the things of God the promises are certain to be performed, in kind; and where there is less variety of chance, there is less possibility of being mocked: but he that creates to himself thousands of little hopes, uncertain in the promise, fallible in the event, and depending upon ten thousand circumstances (as are all the things of this world) shall often fail in his expectations, and be used to arguments of distrust in such hopes.