Looking Unto Jesus, Book 3 · Chapter 2 · Section 4
SECT. IV. Of hoping in Jeſus in that Reſpect.
WE muſt hope in Jeſus carrying on the great work of our ſalvation in a way of Covenant; now what is hope but a good opinion of enjoying its object; indeed a good opinion is ſo neceſſary for hope, that it makes almoſt all its kinds and differences; as it is greater or leſſer, ſo it cauſeth the ſtrength or weakneſs, the exceſs or defect of this paſſion, hope: This good opinion is that which renders hope either doubtful, or certain; if certain, it produceth confidence or preſumption; preſumption is nothing but an immoderate hope without a ground: but confidence is that aſſurance of the thing hoped for in ſome meaſure, as if we had it already in hand. Hence it is that we uſually ſay we have great, and ſtrong, and good hopes, when we would ſpeak them aſſured; which hath occaſioned ſome to define it thus: Hope is a certain grounded confidence that the deſired good will come; not to inſiſt on this; all the queſtion is, Whether thoſe promiſes contained in the Covenant of grace belong unto me? and what are the grounds and foundations on which my hope is built? If the grounds be weak, then hope is doubtful, or preſumptuous; but if the grounds be right, then hope is right, and I may caſt Anchor, and build upon it.
In the diſquiſition of theſe grounds, we ſhall only ſearch into thoſe qualifications, which the Scripture tells us they are qualified with, with whom the Lord enters into a Covenant of grace; and theſe we ſhall reduce, 1. To the condition of the Covenant. 2. To the promiſe of the Covenant. As —
1. If thou art in Covenant with God, then hath God wrought in thee that condition of the Covenant,Acts 16.31. Rom. 10.9. a true, and lively, and ſoul-ſaving, and juſtifying faith. Believe on the Lord Jeſus, and thou ſhalt be ſaved. If thou believeſt, thou ſhalt be ſaved. The promiſe of life contained in the Covenant is made onelyonly to believers; This is ſo ſure a way of tryal,2 Cor. 13.5. that the Apoſtle himſelf directs us thereunto, Examine your ſelves whether ye be in the Faith; Ay, But how ſhall I examine, for there are many pretenders to faith in theſe dayes? Why thus, 1. True faith will carry thee out of thy ſelf into Chriſt,Gal. 2.20. I live, yet not I, but Chriſt liveth in me; a faithful man hath not his life in himſelf, but in Chriſt Jeſus: he hath his ſpiritual being in the Father, and in his Son Jeſus Chriſt; he is joyned to the Lord, and is one Spirit; he ſeeth the Father in the Son, and the Son within himſelf, and alſo the Father within himſelf through the Son;2 Cor. 13.5. John 14.20. Joh. 17.22, 23. Know ye not that Chriſt Jeſus is in you, except ye be reprobates? Ye ſhall know me (ſaith Chriſt) that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. By faith we enjoy the glory of union. The glory which thou haſt given me, I have given them that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me; though we have not the glory of equality, yet we have the glory of likeneſs; we are one with Chriſt, and one with the Father by faith in Chriſt.—2. True faith will carry thee beyond the world; a believer looks on Chriſt over-coming the world for him, and ſo by that faith he overcomes the world through him;1 John 5.4. Rev. 1.12. This is the Victory that overcometh the world, even your faith: Hence it is that the Saints are ſaid To be cloathed with the Sun, and to have the Moon under their feet; when through faith they are cloathed with The Son of Righteouſneſs, the Lord Jeſus; then they trample upon all ſublunary things, as nothing worth in compariſon of Chriſt. 3. True faith is ever accompanied with true love: if once by faith thou apprehendeſt Gods love, and Chriſts love to thee, thou canſt not but love that God, and love that Chriſt who loved thee, and gave himſelf for thee;1 John 4.19. We love him, becauſe he firſt loved us; he that loveth not God, hath not apprehended Gods love to him; if ever God in Chriſt be preſented to thee for thy juſtification,1 John 4.8. it is ſuch a lovely object, that thou canſt not but love him; He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. 4. True faith purifies the heart, and purgeth out ſin; When God diſcovers this, that he will heal back-ſliding, and love freely, and turn away his anger, then Ephraim ſhall ſay, What have I any more to do with Idols? Hoſ. 14.8.if ever Chriſt reveal himſelf as the object of our Juſtification, he will be ſure to preſent himſelf as the pattern of our Sanctification: the knowledge of Gods Goodneſs will make us in love with holineſs; they ſhall fear and tremble, for all the goodneſs, and for all the proſperity, Jer. 33.9.that I procure unto them, ſaith the Lord: The golden chain of Mercy let down from Heaven, doth bind us faſter to the ſervice of our God. 5. Above all, obſerve the riſe: true faith, if it be true, it is ever bottomed upon the ſenſe and pain of a loſt condition; ſpiritual poverty is the neareſt capacity of believing: this is faiths method, be condemned to be ſaved: be ſick and be healed. Faith is a flower of Chriſt's own planting, but it grows in no Soul but onelyonly on the margin and bank of the Lake of fire and brimſtone; in regard there's none ſo fit for Chriſt and Heaven, as thoſe who are ſelf-ſick, and ſelf-condemned to Hell. They that be whole, need not a Phyſician (ſaith Chriſt) but they that are ſick. Mat. 9.13.This is a Foundation of Chriſt, that becauſe the man is broken, and hath not bread, therefore he muſt be ſold, and Chriſt muſt buy him, and take him home to his fire-ſide, and cloath him, and feed him there. I know Satan argues thus, Thou art not worthy of Chriſt, and therefore what haſt thou to do with Chriſt? but Faith concludes otherwiſe, I am not worthy of Chriſt, I am out of meaſure ſinful, I tremble at it, and I am ſenſible of it, and therefore ought I, and therefore muſt I come to Chriſt; this arguing is Goſpel-logick, and the right method of a true and ſaving-faith: for what is faith, but the act of a ſinner humbled, weary, laden, poor, and ſelf-condemned? Oh take heed of their doctrine who make faith to act of ſome vile perſon never humbled, but applying with an immediate touch, his hot, boyling, and ſmoaking Luſts, to the bleeding bleſſed Wounds, and Death of Jeſus Chriſt.
2. If thou art in Covenant with God, then hath God fulfilled in ſome part the promiſes of this Covenant to thy Soul: As —
1. Then hath God put the Law into thy inward parts, and writ it in thy heart: look as Indenture anſwers to Indenture, or as a face in the glaſs anſwers to a face, ſo the conformity of thy heart, and inwards to the Law of God; thou obeyeſt God's Will, and delighteſt in that obedience; Thou ſayeſt with David, I delight to do thy Will O God; yea, pſal. 40.8.thy Law is within my Heart.
2. Thou haſt a covenant-relation to God, and a covenant-intereſt in God; and thou art by covenant as one of the people of God. Chriſt hath thy ſoul, thy body, thy affections, thy love to the very uttermoſt; God hath a propriety, and a peculiarity in thee; thou art Chriſts by Marriage; thou haſt paſt over thy ſelf unto him to be his Jewel, his Spouſe, his Diadem, his Crown, his Servant, his Child for ever.
3. Then art thou clearly taught to know the Lord; thou knoweſt him in another manner than thou didſt before; I will eſtabliſh my Covenant with thee, Ezek. 16.60, 61.and thou ſhalt know that I am the Lord. There is a double knowledge. 1. A ſpeculative knowledge, and thus men may know much, but they are not affected according to the things they know. 2. A practical knowledge; and thus if we know the Lord, we ſhall ſee in him that excellency and beauty, that our Hearts will be affectioned towards him, and we ſhall be able to ſay, that we love him with all our Heart, and with all our Soul, and with all our Strength.
4. Then hath God pardoned thy ſins, and He will remember thy ſins no more? But how ſhould I be aſſured of that? Why thus, — 1. If thou haſt ſincerely confeſſed, bewailed, and forſaken thy ſins; Waſh ye, make ye clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine Eyes, ceaſe to do evil: — And preſently it follows, come now, and let us reaſon together, ſaith the Lord; Iſa. 1.16, 18.though your ſins be as Scarlet, they ſhall be as white as Snow, though they be red like crimſon, they ſhall be as wooll. Iſa. 55.7.To the ſame purpoſe, Let the wicked forſake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have Mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly Pardon. 2. If thy heart, after many ſtorms and troubles be calmed, and quieted through ſaith in Chriſt; Being juſtified by faith, we have peace with God;Rom. 5.1. What? haſt thou peace with God? and hath God ſtill'd thy ſoul with peace? this is an argument of thy ſins pardon — 3. If thine Heart be ſingularly inflamed with the love of Chriſt; the Woman that Had many ſins forgiven her by Chriſt, Luke 7.47.ſhe loved him much. Upon that account ſhe wept, and waſhed his feet with her tears, and ſo wiped them with the hairs of her head; ſhe kiſſed his feet, and anointed them with Ointment, nothing was too good for Chriſt, who had forgiven her all her ſins.— 4. If thy heart, and ſoul, and all that is within be ſingularly enlarged to praiſe God for his pardons;Pſ. 103.1, 2, 3. Bleſs the Lord, O my ſoul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. If thine heart feel his pardons, thy mouth will ſing his praiſes; and hereby thou may'ſt be aſſured that God hath pardoned all thy ſins.
Come now; are theſe, O my ſoul, the grounds of thy hopes? a lively faith in Jeſus? an accompliſhment in ſome meaſure of the promiſes of the Covenant? why, theſe are the fewel of hope; if this be thy caſe, act thy hope ſtrongly on Chriſt, and on the covenant of grace; ſay not, hope is onelyonly of things future, and therefore if I be already in covenant, What need I hope? For whether thou art in covenant or no, it is the main queſtion here; nay, though it be granted that thou art in covenant, and that hope is ſwallowed up in the compleat preſence of its object; yet it is not at all diminiſhed, but rather encreaſed by a partial preſence. As in maſſie bodies, though violent motion be weakeſt in the end, yet natural motions are ever ſwifteſt towards the center: ſo in the hopes of men, though ſuch as are violent and groundleſs, prove weaker and weaker, yet thoſe that are ſtayed and natural (or rather gracious) are evermore ſtronger and ſtronger, till they procure the utmoſt preſence and union of their object. The nearer we come to a fruition of a good, the more impatient we are to want it. O then hope in Jeſus! draw on thy hope yet more and more in this Covenant of grace! be not content onelyonly with an hope of expectation, but bring it on to an hope of confidence, or aſſurance; thou canſt not fail if thou hangeſt thy hope on Jeſus: Chriſt is not faſtened as a looſe nail, or as a broken rotten hedge in the covenant of grace; he is there As a nail in a ſure place; Iſa. 22.23, 24.and they ſhall hang on him all the glory of his Fathers houſe; the off-ſpring and the iſſue; all veſſels of ſmall quantity, from the veſſels of cups, even to all the veſſels of flaggons. Come ſoul, thou art a veſſel of ſmall quantity, hang all thy weight on Chriſt, he is a nail that cannot break.