ISRAEL'S HOPE ENCOURAGED; OR, WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH: WITH ENCOURAGEMENTS FOR A HOPING PEOPLE.
4. Add to these, the hidings of the face of God from the soul; a thing to it more bitter than death; yet nothing more common among them that hope in the Lord. He 'hideth his face from the house of Jacob!' (Isa 8:17). Nor is this done only in fatherly displeasure, but by this means some graces are kept alive; faith is kept alive by the word, patience by hope, and hope by faith; but oft-times a spirit of prayer, by the rod, chastisement, and the hiding of God's face (Hosea 5:14,15; Isa 26:16; Cant 5:6). But I say, this hiding of this sweet face is bitter to the soul, and oft-times puts both faith and hope to a sad and most fearful plunge. For at such a day, it is with the soul as with the ship at sea, that is benighted and without light; to wit, like a man bewildered upon the land; only the text saith, for the help and succour of such, 'Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God' (Isa 50:10). Yet as it is with children, so it is with saints; we are a great deal more subject to fears in the night than in the day. Therefore, that tends to the help of some graces; if not great care is taken, it will prove a hindrance to others.
5. Nor is the ruler of the darkness of this world wanting to apply himself and his engines so as, if possible, to use all these things to overthrow faith. For the removal of our hope from the Lord, as a tree is removed from rooting in the ground (Job 19:10). Behold! he can expound all things, so they shall fall directly in the way of our believing. As thus, we have sinned. Therefore, we have no grace; sin is a struggle in us. Consequently, we do not fear God; there is something on our side with sin. Consequently, we are wholly unregenerate; sin is in our best performances; therefore, wherefore should I hope? Thus, he can afflict us in our pilgrimage and make our hope difficult. Besides hiding God's face, he can make not only a cause of sorrow, for that indeed it should, but a ground of despair, and as desperately concluding he will never come again. How many good souls has he driven to these conclusions, who afterward have been made to unsay all again?
6. And though spiritual desertions, darkness of soul, and guilt of sin are the burdens most intolerable, they are not all; for there is to be added to all these, that common evil of persecution, another device invented to make void our hope. In this, I say, we are sure to be concerned; that is if we are godly. For though the apostle doth not say, 'All that will live in Christ,' that is, in the shared profession of him, shall suffer persecution; yet he saith, 'All that will live godly in him shall' (2 Tim 3:12). Now this in itself is a terror to flesh and blood and hath a direct tendency in it to make hope difficult (1 Peter 3:6,14). Hence, men of a persecuting spirit, because of their greatness and teeth (the laws), are said to be a terror and to carry amazement in their doings. God's people are apt to be afraid of them, though they should die, and to forget God their Maker, and this makes hoping hard work (Isa 51:12,13).
7. Besides that grimness that appears in the face of persecutors, Satan can tell how to lessen and make to dwindle in our apprehensions, those truths unto which our hearts have joined themselves afore, and to which Christ our Lord has commanded us to stand. So that they shall now appear but little, tiny, inconsiderable things; things not worth engaging for; things not worth running those hazards for, that in the hour of trial may lie staring us in the face. Moreover, we shall not want false friends in every hole, such as continually boring our ears with that saying, Master, do good to yourself. At such times also, 'stars' do use to 'fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken'; and so everything tends to weaken, or at least to lay stumbling blocks in their way, who are commanded to hope in the Lord (Matt 24).
8. Again, as Satan can make use of his subtilty, thus to afflict and weaken the hands and hearts of those that hope in God, so he can add to these the dismalness of a suffering state. He can make the loss of goods, in our imagination, ten times bigger than it is in itself; he can make an informer a frightful creature and a jail look like hell itself; he can make banishment and death utterly intolerable, and things that must be shunned with the hazard of our salvation. Thus, he can greaten and lessen, lessen and greaten, for the troubling of our hearts, for the hindering of our hope.
9. Add to all these that the things that we suffer for were never seen by us but are beyond our sight: things that are indeed said to be great and good, but we have only the word and the Bible for it. And be sure if he that laboureth night and day to devour us, can help it, our faith shall be molested and perplexed at such a time, that it may, if possible, be hard to do the commandment that here the text enjoins us to the practice of; that is, to hope in the Lord. And this brings me to the third particular.
III. That the grace of hope well exercised is the only way to overcome those difficulties.—Abraham had never laughed for joy, had he not hoped when the angel brought him tidings of a son; yea, had he not hoped against all things that could have been said to discourage (Gen 17:17). Hence it is said, that 'against hope' he 'believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be' (Rom 4:18). There is hope against hope; hope grounded on faith, against hope grounded on reason. Hope grounded on reason would have made Abraham expect that the promise should surely have been ineffectual because of the deadness of Abraham's body and the barrenness of Sarah's womb. But he hoped against the difficulty, by the hope that sprang from faith, which confided in the promise and power of God, and so overcame the difficulty and indeed obtained the promise. Hope, therefore, well exercised, is the only way to overcome. Hence, Peter bids those who are in a suffering condition, 'Be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:13). And therefore, it is, as you heard before, that we are said to be 'saved by hope' (Rom 8:24).
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