If Christians do not have much here, their hope, as I may so say, lies idle and as a grace out of its exercise. For as faith cannot feed upon patience, but upon Christ, and as the grace of hungering and thirsting cannot live upon helpfulness, but upon the riches of the promise; so hope cannot make what is enjoyed its object: 'for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for?' (Rom 8:24). But the proper object of hope is that we see not. Let faith then be exercised upon Christ crucified for my justification, and hope upon the next world for my glorification; and let love show the truth of faith in Christ, by acts of kindness to Christ and his people; and patience, the truth of hope, by a quiet bearing and enduring that which may now be laid upon me for my sincere profession's sake, until the hope that is laid up for us in heaven shall come to us, or we are gathered to that, and then hope is in some measure in good order, and exercised well. But,
IV. We now come to the last thing propounded to be spoken to, which is, they that have hope and exercise it well shall assuredly, at last, enjoy that hope that is laid up for them in heaven; that is, they that do regularly exercise the grace of hope shall at last enjoy the object of it, or the thing hoped for. This must of necessity be concluded, else we overthrow the whole truth of God at once, and the expectation of the best of men; yea, if this be not concluded, what follows, but that Atheism, unbelief, and irreligion, are the most right, and profane and debauched persons are in the rights way?
1. But to proceed, this must be, as is evident, for the things hoped for are put under the very name of the grace that lives in the expectation of them. They are called HOPE, 'looking for that blessed hope'; 'for the hope that is laid up for them in heaven' (Titus 2:13; Col 1:5). God has set that character upon them to signify that they belong to hope and shall be the reward of hope. God doth in this, as your great traders do with the goods that their chapmen have either bought or spoke for; to wit, he sets their name or mark upon them, and then saith, This belongs to this grace, and this belongs to that; but the kingdom of heaven belongs to HOPE, for his name is set upon it. This, therefore, is one thing, to prove that the thing hoped for shall be thine; God has marked it for thee: nor can it be given to those that do not hope. That is, to the same purpose that you read of, 'That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer' (2 Thess 1:5). Suffering flows from hope; he that hopes not for a house in heaven, will not for it choose to suffer the loss of the pleasures and friendships of this world. But they that suffer for it, and that all do, one way or other, in whom is placed this grace of hope, they God counted worthy of it, and therefore, hath marked it with their mark, HOPE; for that, it belongs to hope and shall be given to those that hope. That is the first.
2. They that do, as afore is said, exercise this grace of hope shall assuredly enjoy the hope that is laid up for them in heaven, as is evident also from this because, as God has marked and set it apart for them, so what he has done to and with our Lord and Head, since his death, he hath done it to this very end; that is, to beget and maintain our hope in him as touching this thing. He 'hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead' (1 Peter 1:3). The meaning is that Christ is our undertaker and suffered death for us that we might enjoy happiness and glory so God, to show how willing he was that we should have this glory, raised up Christ again, and delivered him from their sorrows of death. Wherefore, considering this, Paul said, 'He rejoiced in the hope of willing the glory of God'; to wit, of that glory, that sin, had he not had Jesus for his undertaker, would have caused that he should undoubtedly have come short of (Rom 3:23, 5:2). But, again, God 'raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory,' too, and that to this very end, 'that your faith and hope might be in God' (1 Peter 1:21). I say, he did it to this very end, that he might beget in you this good opinion of him, as to hope in him, that he would give you that good thing hoped for—to wit eternal life. He 'gave him glory,' and put it into his hand for you who is your head and Saviour, that you might see how willing God is to give you the hope you look for, 'that your faith and hope might be in God.'
3. We that have hope and rightly exercise it might assuredly enjoy that hope laid up for us in heaven: God has promised it, and that to our Saviour for us. Had he promised it to us, we might have feared, for with our faults, we give him a cause of continual provocation. But since he hath promised it to Christ, it must assuredly come to us by him, because Christ, to whom it is promised, never gave occasion of provocation to him to take it back. And that it was promised to Christ, it is evident, because it was promised before the world began: 'In the hope of eternal life,' saith Paul, 'which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began' (Titus 1:2). And this is, that we might hope. Men that use to hope to enjoy that money or estate that by those that are faithful is promised to them used and put into the hands of trusty persons for them; why this is the case, God that cannot lie, has promised it to the hopers, and has put it into the hand of the trusty Jesus for us, therefore let us hope that in his times we shall both see and enjoy the same we hope for.
