SIX DIRECTIONS how we may strengthen our hope 3/7

2. End.  Having found what is the condition of the covenant, rest not satisfied till thou findest this condition to be wrought in thy own soul, and art able to say thou art this repenting and believing sinner.  A strong hope results from the clear evidence it hath for both these.  We read in Scripture of a threefold assurance.  (1.) An assurance of understanding, Col. 2:2.  (2.) An assurance of faith, Heb. 10:22.  (3.) An assurance of hope, Heb. 6:11.  And it is a good note which an acute doctor of our own hath upon them, ‘That these three make up one practical syllogism; wherein knowledge forms the proposition, faith makes the assumption, and hope draws the conclu­sion’ (D. A. Tac. Sa. p. 126).  ‘I do,’ saith the Christian, ‘assuredly know from the word, that the repenting believing sinner shall be saved; my conscience also tells me that I do unfeignedly repent and believe; therefore I do hope firmly that I shall, however un­worthy otherwise, be saved.’  Now we know there can be no more in the conclusion than is in the premises; so that, as the force is, which the Christian puts forth in his assent to the truth of the promise, and the evi­dence which he hath, that the condition of the prom­ise—viz. faith and repentance—is wrought in his soul, so will his hope be, weak or strong.  Indeed it can be no otherwise.  If his assent to the truth of the promise be weak, or his evidence for the truth of his faith and repentance be dark and uncertain, his hope that is born—as I may so say—of these, must needs partake of its parent’s infirmities, and be itself weak and wavering, as they are from that which it results.

           Second Direction.  Wouldst thou have thy hope strong? then, keep thy conscience pure.  Thou canst not defile this, but thou wilt weaken that, ‘Living godly in this present world,’ and ‘looking for that blessed hope’ laid up for us in the other, are both conjoined, Titus 2:12, 13.  A soul wholly void of godli­ness needs be as destitute of all true hope, and the godly person that is loose and careless in his holy walking, will soon find his hope languishing.  All sin is aguish meat; it disposeth the soul that tampers with it to trembling fears and shakings of heart.  But such sins as are deliberately committed and plotted, they are to the Christian's hope as poison to the spirits of his body, which presently drinks them up.  They, in a manner, exanimate the Christian.  They make the thoughts of God terrible to the soul; which, when he is in a holy frame, are his greatest joy and solace.  ‘I remembered God, and was troubled,’ Ps. 77:3.  They make him afraid to look on God in a duty, much more to look for God in the day of judgment.  Can the servant be willing his master should come home when he is in his riot and excess?  Mr. Calvin, when some wished him to forbear some of his labours, es­pecially his night studies, asked those his friends, ‘whether they would have his Lord find him idle when He came?’  O, God forbid!  Christian, that death should find thee wanton and negligent in thy walking; that he should surprise thee lying in the puddle of some sin unrepented of!  This would be a sad meet­ing!  O how loath wouldst thou then be to die, and go to the great audit where thou must give up thy ac­counts for eternity!  Will thy hope then be in case to carry thee up with joy to that solemn work? Can a bird fly when one of her wings is broke?  Faith and a good conscience are hope's two wings.  If, therefore, thou hast wounded thy conscience by any sin, renew thy repentance, that so thou mayest act faith for the pardon of it, and, acting faith, mayest redeem thy hope, when the mortgage that is now upon it shall be taken off.  If a Jew had pawned his bed‑clothes, God provided mercifully, it should be restored before night: ‘For,’ saith he, ‘that is his covering, wherein shall he sleep?’ Ex. 22:27.  Truly, hope is the saint’s covering, wherein he wraps himself when he lays his body down to sleep in the grave.   ‘My flesh,’ saith David, ‘shall rest in hope,’ Ps. 16:9.  O Christian! bestir thyself to redeem thy hope before this sun of thy temporal life go down upon thee, or else thou art sure to lie down in sorrow.  A sad going to the bed of the grave he hath, that hath no hope of a resurrection to life.