ISRAEL'S HOPE ENCOURAGED; OR, WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH: WITH ENCOURAGEMENTS FOR A HOPING PEOPLE.
2. But as they are good, they are great: 'O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust,' that hope, 'in thee before the sons of men!' (Psa 31:19). (1.) Their greatness appears, in that they go beyond the Word; yea, beyond the word of the Holy Ghost; it doth not yet appear to us by the Word of God to the full, the greatness of what is prepared for God's people. 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be' (1 John 3:2). It doth not appear in the Word; there is a greatness in the things that we are to hope for that could never be expressed: they are beyond word, beyond thought, beyond conceiving of! Paul, when he came down again from out of paradise, into which he was caught up, could not speak a word about the words he heard and the things that he saw there. He saw and heard things and words, 'which it is not possible for a man to utter.' (2.) Their greatness is intimated by the word Eternal; he that knows the bottom of that word shall know what things they are. 'The things which are not seen are eternal' (2 Cor 4:18). They are 'incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,' reserved in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4). (3.) Their greatness is shown in that one proper thought of them will fill the heart so complete, that both it and the eyes will run over together; yea, so complete, that the creature shall not be able to stand up under the weight of glory that by it is laid upon the soul. Alas! All the things in this world will not fill one heart; yet one proper thought of the things that God has prepared and laid up in heaven for us will, yea, and overfill it too. (4.) The greatness of the things of the next world appears in that when one of the least of them is shown to us, we cannot abide the sight thereof without support from thence. I count that the angels are of those things that are least in that world; and yet the sight of one of them, when the sight of them was in use, what work would it make in the hearts and minds of mortal men, the scripture plainly enough declares (John 13:22). (5.) Their greatness is intimated, in that we must be as it were new made again, before we can be capable of enjoying them, as we must enjoy them with comfort (Luke 20:36). And herein will be a significant part of our happiness, that we shall not only see them but be made like unto them, like unto their King. For 'when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is' (1 John 3:2). We shall see him, and therefore must be like him, for else the sight of him would overcome us and destroy us; but because we are to see him with comfort and everlasting joy, therefore we must be like him in body and mind (Rev 1:17; Phil 3:20,21).
II. But to come to the second thing, namely, That those that have believed there are such things as these will meet with difficulties before they come at them. This is such a grand truth that nothing can be said against it. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and we must, through many tribulations, enter into the kingdom of heaven (Acts 14:22). The cause from whence these afflictions arise is known to be,
1. From ourselves; sin, having got such hold in our flesh, makes that opposition against our soul and welfare, continually putting us in trouble. Fleshly lusts work against the soul, and so do worldly lusts too (1 Peter 2:11); yea, they quench our graces, and make them that would live, 'ready to die' (Rev 3:2). Yea, because of these, such darkness, such guilt, such fear, such mistrust, ariseth in us, that it is common for us, if we live any while, to make a thousand conclusions, twice told, that we shall never arrive with comfort at the gates of the kingdom of heaven. The natural tendency of every struggle of the least lust against grace is, if we judge according to carnal reason, to make us question the truth of a work of grace in us and our right to the world to come. This made Paul cry, 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me!' (Rom 7:24). Only he had more wisdom than to follow the natural conclusions that carnal reason was apt to make thereupon, and so hoisted up his soul to hope.
2. Sin, by its working in us, doth not only bring darkness, guilt, fear, mistrust, and the like; it doth oft-times as it were hamstring us and disable us from going to God by faith and prayer for pardon. It makes the heart hard, senseless, careless, lifeless, spiritless as to feel, in all Christian duty, and this is a grievous thing to a gracious soul. The other things will create doubt and drive it up to the head into the soul, but these will go on the other side and clench it. Now, all these things make hoping difficult.
3. For by these things, the judgment is not only clouded. The understanding considerably darkened, but all the powers of the soul were made to fight against itself, conceiving, imagining, apprehending, and concluding things that have a direct tendency to extirpate and extinguish, if possible, the graces of God that are planted in the soul; yea, to the making of it cry out, 'I am cut off from before thine eyes!' (Psa 31:22).
