The Works of Jeremiah Burroughs 9-11, Treatise 2 · Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
Three Doctrins raised: And a Description of Hope.
FIrst, The Subject.
Secondly, An Act.
Thirdly, A Pattern.
The Subject: Every man that hath this Hope in him.
The Act, what he doth: He Purifies himself.
And the Pattern: As he is Pure.
The Doctrinal Points are,
First, That every man that is a Child of God, is a man of Hopes; every man that hath this Hope.
Secondly, That where this Hope is, it will purge the heart.
Thirdly, That this Hope causes such a purging as aims at the very purity of Jesus Christ: [He purifies himself even as Christ himself is Pure.]
The two latter are the chief I confess that the Apostle doth aim at here in speaking of this Hope; yet I shall treat of all three in order, beginning with the first Point, which is intended likewise fully in the words, Every man that hath this Hope: Every man that is a Child of God, is a man of Hopes, he is born to great Hopes, and he serves God for the present upon Hopes of what he shall have: God hath in his Service two sorts of Servants, as men have; Men have Servants, some that they hire by the day, and they have their daies wages after they have done their work, and there's all they can expect from their Masters, they are paid for their work: You have other Servants that do serve Great Men and Princes, that have nothing but meat and drink to serve them for a while, they are not hired Servants for so much a year, but they serve in expectation and hope when such places fall that they shal be preferred to them, they are content to go on, and serve many years, if they may but subsist in the hope of the favor of the Prince, or the Noble-man, to have such Places when they fall. Just thus hath God these two sorts of Servants; there are many people that serve God, that is, do many outward good things for the present, but all that they have is but as a mans daies labor, they have their wages, their penny, God gives them outward prosperity, and many comforts in this World, and they aim at no higher things from God, but that they may have their Estates, and live in some rank and fashion in the world, they look at such things: Many aim at Credit and Esteem; wherefore is it that they are forward in the Profession of Religion, but for Esteem and Credit, for by ends, and God lets them have it; this is their wages, and al that ever they are like to have from God: But there are others that serve God, and they are willing to spend their strength and all that they have, or are, or can do, for God, and leave it to God to do with them what he will do; others they indent with God that they must have such esteem and credit and estates: Nay, saith a gracious heart, Lord, as for these things, do with me what thou wilt, I'le serve thee as long as I have life and strength, thou shalt have the glory of all; I'le do it upon thy bare word, what thou hast promised for the life that is to come, meerly upon the hope of what glory thou hast revealed in thy Word for thy Saints, that shall be enough to me, though I never see good day in the world in respect of my outward comforts, though the men of the world should use me against common sence and reason, and never so vile here, it's no great matter, I do not serve thee for wages here, that which I serve thee for, is in hopes of what is a coming hereafter, and that wages is not a servile thing; you never find in Scripture an Hypocrite described, that he served God out of Hopes of Heaven; we have no such Character for an Hypocrite indeed, but he looks for his reward here, here's your reward, so an Hypocrite may be described; but that he hath an eye to the recompence of reward that shall be hereafter, it is Grace that doth enable the soul to do this. In the opening of this Point Two things are necessary.
First, It will be very useful to open somwhat to you what this Hope is, what is this Hope of the Saints?
Secondly, To give you Evidences, that indeed they are men of Hopes, and then briefly to apply it.
For the opening, as I did before of Faith, so now of Hope what it is: I may describe it thus:
A Description of the Grace of Hope.
It is a Grace wrought in the heart by the Power of the Holy Spirit, whereby the Soul doth quietly wait for, and expect the future good that God hath promised in the Covenant of Grace, though there be many difficulties in the way to hinder the accomplishment of it. That is the Nature of Hope.