The Works of Jeremiah Burroughs 9-11, Treatise 2 · Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Of the Efficient of Hope, It is wrought by the Holy Spirit.
YE have in this; first the Efficient of this Grace (as others) It is a Grace wrought by the Power of the holy Spirit; and I name it the rather because the Hopes of the most people in the world are the slightest and vainest things that can be, and there is no need of any great power of the holy Spirit to raise such hopes as these are in their hearts; their Hopes are meerly slight kind of opinions that they have, that they know not to the contrary, but it may be God may be merciful to them; but mark what the Scripture speaks of the Hopes of the Saints in the Epistle to the Romans, the 15. chap. and 13. verse, Now the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace in beleeving, that you may abound in Hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
First, God is called the God of Hope; noting that it is an excellent Grace, that it gives God a Title, The God of Hope; surely God would not take this Title to him but that it hath a great deal of excellency in it; God accounts it his Glory that he doth work such an excellent Grace in the hearts of the Saints, in Rom. 5. 13. I appeal to your consciences, are your Hopes such hopes as hold forth a Glory of God in them? such Hopes that God himself may glory that ever he did raise such Hopes in your hearts: Certainly there's no piece of work that any of you do, that you would hold forth to the world to glory in it, but you would suppose there were some great excellency in that piece of work: If a man should do a piece of work, and hold this forth to all the world, let all …he world see what I am able to do, and you should have the Title of it; such a man that did such a work, that made such a Ship, as many Ship-wrights that make very useful gallant Vessels, they would be glad to have their names transferred on them, so that they may be known by such a Name; such a man was the Master-Builder of this Ship, that Frigot. So the Hopes in the hearts of the Saints hath such a great deal of excellency in them, that God wil have his name transferred upon them, and called The God of their Hope. The truth is, when you speak of Heaven, and Happiness, and Eternal Life, and ask you what you think shall become of you? what? you do hope it shall be well with you: Hope, if it be of the right stamp, the true Grace of Hope that is in the Saints; it is such a Grace that the Lord accounts it his glory that his infinite power was able to raise such a Grace in thy heart; as considering what a desperate condition sin hath brought the Creature into, the infinite distance that sin had made between God and the Creature, and the gulf that sin plunged the Creature into, I say, it is a great part of the Glory of God that he will glory in to all Eternity, that he could raise up true Hope in the heart of such a sinner to hope for such glorious things as indeed he hath propounded in his Word to the sinner: The God of Hope, and not only so, that God hath his Title from it, but it is here, through the Power of the blessed Spirit, that your Hope may abound through the power of the Holy Spirit; not only that you might have the Holy Spirit work Hope in your hearts, but that the Power of the Holy Spirit; there is a great Emphasis in that, as if so be that God had said that the Holy Spirit hath raised Hopes in your hearts, and it could be raised by no other means in the world; that's certain, if it be the Hope by which you shall be saved, that Hope that will not fail you but bring you to Heaven, it is such a Hope that all the Angels in Heaven, and Men in the world were not able to raise in your hearts, only the holy Spirit coming into your hearts raised this Hope: Many that have vain and slight spirits, that know little of God and the breach that is between God and them by sin, think it the least thing in the world to hope, what will you not hope in Gods mercies? but that soul that finds the burden of sin upon it, finds it the greatest thing in the world to Hope, and it finds that no creature is able to raise Hope in the soul, the Minister comes and speaks excellent things, but alas, he doth not raise Hope, but the holy Spirit must come and put forth his power to raise Hope in the heart of a sinner, that knows his sin, and is made sensible o… the weight and burden of it: Thus it's a Grace wrought by the Holy Spirit. There are these things that do describe it.
The Efficient of Hope.
The Objects of Hope.
The Acts of Hope. And
The Grounds of it. These are the Four main things.
The first I have opened, the other three follows.