CHAPTER VI.

Of Hope.

1. HOpe is a vertue, whereby we are inclined to expect those things which God hath promised us. Rom. 8. 25.

2. This Hope respecteth God. 1. As the object which it doth expect, for the principall object of Hope is God himselfe, and those acts whereby he is joyned to

us, 1 Peter 1. 13. Hope in the grace which is brought to you. Hence God himselfe is called the Hope of Israel. Ier. 1. 4. 8. And Rom. 15. 13. The God of Hope: not so much because he is the Author and Giver of hope, as because it is he, upon whom we hope. 2. It respects God as the Author and Giver of all the good it doth expect. Psal. 37. 5. 6. Roll thy way upon the Lord, and trust in him, for he shall bring it to passe: For as, it tends unto God to attaine good, so also it respects him as to be obtained by his owne Grace. Ieremiah 17. 7. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

3. But the proper reason why we may not trust upon the Creatures, in that manner as we trust in God, is because the formall object of Hope is not fo[gap]d in the Creatures. Psal. 146. 3. Trust not in Princes, nor in any sonne of man, in whom there is no salvation. For although some power of doing us good and helping us, is placed by God in the Creatures, yet the exercise of this vertue doth alwayes depend upon God. Psal. 107. Sending his word he healed them. And Psal. 137. 1. Unlesse the Lord build the house, in vaine they labour that build it, unlesse the Lord keep the City, the watchmen watcheth in vaine.

4. Therefore when one saith, I hope this or that of such a man, doth either signifie that he hopes for that from God by that Creature, or it sets forth a humane hope, not Divine, or finally it is not Christian.

5. But as Faith, so also Hope in God doth respect the grace of God, and Christ only as causes of good to be commun cared. 1 Pet. 1. 13. Col. 1. 27. Hope in the grace. Christ the hope of glory.

6. Yet Divine Hope doth not only respect God and eternall blessednesse, but in God, and from God it respects all those things which faith apprehends in the promises of God, although in their own nature they be

temporall things. Heb. 11. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 10. Although it doth ciefly respect eternall life: whence also it is, that Hope in Scripture is often by a metonymy of the adjunct, put for salvation it selfe or life eternall hoped for. Gal. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 24. Tit. 2. 13. And salvation also is sometime put for Hope of salvation, by a metonymy of the subject. Epb. 6. 17. Compared with 1. Thess. 5. 8. The helmet of Salvation, for the helmer of the Hope of salvation. Also usually this object is put as proper to Hope. 1 Thess. 5. 8. Tit. 3. 7. The hope of eternall life. Rom. 5. 2. The hope of glory.

7. Those conditions which are wont to be required to the object of Hope, as that it be good, to come, difficult, probable, [gap]re all sound in the promises of GOD, who promiseth alwayes the greatest good things which cannot bee had without his helpe, but by vertue of the promise will come to passe, not only probably, but certainly.

8. The act wherewith it is conversant about its object is called expectation, because it is not of uncertaine or probable conjecture only, as humane Hope, but of most certaine expectation. Rom. 3. 25. Phil. 1. 20. If we hope for what we see not, we doe with patience expect it. According to my earnest expectation and hope, and every where in the old Testament, where the word Mikueh which is wont to be turned, Hope, doth properly signifie expectation.

9. This certainty is derived to Hope from Faith: for Faith is the foundation of Hope; neither is any thing hoped for, which is not before believed by Faith. Galatians 5. 5. For, we through the spirit, wait for the Hope of righteousnesse by Faith.

10. For seeing Faith apprehends that which is promised, and Hope expects that which is promised; the whole difference between Faith and Hope, is the respect of that which is present, and that which is to come.

11. Therefore that distinction of the Papists is empty and vaine, who granting that the faithfull may be certaine of their salvation with certainty of hope, yet doe deny, that they can ever by ordinary meanes be made certaine of it with certainty of Faith, when there is one and the same certainty altogether of Faith and Hope: for which reason also it is, that Hope in Scripture, especially in the old Testament, is often put for Faith.

12. Therefore that expectation of good things to come which is in the Angells, and the spirits of just men in Heaven, doth not in that differ from our hope, because one is certaine, and the other incertaine: but in these. 1. That our hope is grounded upon Faith, which beholds God in the promises, as through a glasse, and darkly, 1 Cor. 13. 12. But their expectation is grounded upon open sight. 2. In that our hope is with labour and contention, but their expectation is without all difficulty. 3. In that our hope is an imperfect expectation, and their expectation is perfect.

13. Therefore although Hope together with Faith is wont to be said to be abolished in the life to come: yet this is not so to be understood, as if they ceased to be in respect of their essence, but only in respect of the measure and degree of imperfection. 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that the imperfection only is properly to be abolished: but Faith and hope it selfe are to be perfected in respect of their essence.

14. Hence Christian confidence as it respects good to come, is nothing else then Hope confirmed. For it must necessarily be referred to some one of those theologicall vertues which are reckoned up by the Apostle. 1 Cor. 13. 13. That is, either to Faith, or to Charity, or to Hope. But it can neither be referred to Faith, because Faith apprehends a thing as now present, which it maketh also to subsist. Heb. 11. 1. Nor to Charity,

because Charity doth not respect good that is ours. 1 Cor. 13. 5. Therefore to Hope.

15. Hence the naturall fruit of Hope is Ioy, and delight in God, Heb. 3. 6. The hope whereof we rejoyce. 1 Pet. 1. 3. 6. A lively hope, wherein yee rejoyce. Because it doth respect the greatest good things not only as possible and probable; but also as certainly to come, and so doth make the possession of them in a certaine manner to subsist, whilest it doth assure us of that which at length shall in very deed subsist. Ro. 8. 24. We are saveth by Hope.

16. The manner of this act depends upon that respect of the object, whereby it is said to be, to come, and promised. So that in its formall reason, it is not of those things which are seene. Romans 8. 24. Hope if it be seene, is not Hope; for why doth a man hope for that which hee seeth?

17. Hence the fruit and companion of Hope is patience towards God, whereby we doe constantly clave to him in seeking and expecting blessednesse, although we doe in this present life conflict with divers evills, even without that consolation we doe desire, Esay. 8. 17. Waiting upon the Lord who hath hid his Face and looking for him. Rom. 8. 25. But if we hope for that we doe not see, we doe with patience expect it. 2 Thess. 3. 5. That patient expectation.

18. A fruit of this patience is silence, whereby we rest in the will of God, and doe represse all those carnall things whereby we are stirred up to make hast, or to resist him. Psal. 37. 7. Be silent to Iehovah, and without ceasing waite on him.

19. Hope is strengthened and increased, by all those arguments, whereby we are assured that the good hoped for pertaines to us. Rom. 5. 4. Experience causeth Hope.

20. Among these arguments the inwatd signes of

Divine grace have the first place. 1 Iohn 3. 14. 19. We know that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren.

21. Therefore although it is most false which the Papists say, that our hope is grounded partly upon the grace of God, & partly our own merits, it may bemo[gap] truly affirmed, that hope is strengthened, increased and stirred up, by Faith, repentance, workes and a good conscience. So that true and lively hope doth exist by those as it were antecedent arguments. Heb. 10. 22. 23. 1 Pet. 3. 23.

22. The effect of hope is the confirmation of the soule as an anchor, safe, and firme. Heb. 6. 19. Whereby we possesse our very soules. Luc. 21. 19.

23. There followes alwayes from this confirmation of mind a study of holinesse. 1 Iohn. 3. 3. Whosoever hath this hope in him, keepeth himselfe pure, even as he is pure.

24. There is opposed to hope by way of defect. 1. A feare of the evill of punishment, Psal. 27. 3. For as Hope is the expectation of good, so this feare is an expectation of evill.

25. But this feare, if it be moderate and tempered by Faith, although it be alwayes materially opposed to Hope yet in man that is a sinner, it is not so formally opposed to Hope and vertue, that it is simply a vice, but rather puts on the consideration and nature of a vertue, 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst cast down thy selfe before the Face of God, when thou heardest his words against this place, &c. The reason is because the opposition is not, Secundum idem, & ad idem, according to the same, and unto the same; for hope respects the grace of God, and feare respects the deserts of our sins.

26. Also desperation is more directly opposed to hope, in the defect, which is a meere privation of hope

joyned with a sence of that privation, and apprebension of the thing hoped for, as of a thing impossible, or at least as to come, such as was in [gap]ne. Gen. 5. 13, 14. And in Iud[gap]. Mat. 27. 4. 5.

27. This desperation is alwayes a grievous sin: because it is not a privation of that hope which men are wont to have in themselves or other Creatures, which is wont to be a laudable introduction to Divine hope, but it is a privation of Divine hope, having its beginning alwayes from unbeliefe, as hope hath its beginning from Faith.

28. Yet desperation in the Devills and damned, hath not the consideration of a sin, but of a punishment. For desperation may either be taken privatively when one doth not hope that which he ought to hope, and when he ought, or negatively for a meere cessation of hope. In the former sence it is alwayes a fin because it is contrary to the Law, but in the latter sence not so.

29. The reason of despairing may be divers, either because the grace of God is not accounted sufficient to communicate that good to us, or because God will not communicate it. As desperation is grounded on the former reason, it is alwayes a sin, but in the latter sence it is not a sin, if so be any be certaine of that will of God.

30. But because it is seldome or never manifest to any one by ordinary meanes before the end of this life, that God will not make him partaker of grace and glory: Therefore there is no desperation of men in this life which is not a sinne.

31. By way of excesse presumption is opposed to hope, whereby wee doe expect some good rashly. Deut. 29. 19. Ier. 7. 4. 8, 9, 10. Let there not be any man, when he hath heard, &c.

32. This rash presumption doth in expectation of good sometime leane upon the Creatures. Ierem. 17. 5.

1: Tim. 6. 17. Sometime also it doth leane on God in some sort, but perversly without a promise, and Faith, as when any lookes for pardon and salvation, although he remaine impenitent, or retaine a purpose of living in his sins, or expect some other thing of God which doth noth agree to his nature or revealed will.

33. But one doth not therefore sin in this presumption, because he hopes too much upon God, namely with a true and religious hope, for this can in no wise be done but because he hopes too lightly and rashly without any ground, or hopes those things also which are not to be hoped.

34. Also shame of face, or confusion is opposed to hope, in respect of the event. Ps. 25. 2, 3.