The Works of Jeremiah Burroughs 9-11, Treatise 2 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
Of the use we are to make of the Saints being men of Hopes.
Ʋse. FIrst, To bless God for those Hopes that he gives you in this world, the Lord might have intended glorious things hereafter, and never revealed them to you here; but blessed be God that he tenders our weakness so that he gives us this Cork to keep us from sinking, as he gave the Sun to rule the Day, so the Moon to rule the Night. I remember a learned man doth allegorize thus upon it, God gives us the Moon of Hope to guide us in the night of affliction: We know Moon-light is never uncomfortable; the Sun of Righteousness is to arise ere long in the morning of our Resurrection, but in this life we have our Hope to guide us in our night of affliction; Oh blessed be God for revealing this unto us, and for giving us such good ground and bottom of our Hope that we may hope for such great things without fear of presumption. And let all the Saints of God be look'd upon as happy Creatures, thou seest them mean in the world, and poor; I but know, they are men of Hopes: you look upon Princes that are great Heirs with honorable respect; look so upon every child of God as one that hath a precious soul, that hath great Hopes to come hereafter; you hope in men, but they fail, and you hope in the Creatures, and they fail; yet h…re's the hope of the Saints, they have an Anchor that shall never fail, thou art afraid perhaps of stronger temptations that you have heard others have suffered Shipwrack upon; how shal I (saith a poor sinner) do when temptations & persecutions comes, & il times should come, & al the props of the Creature should be taken away? The reason why so many split upon the rocks this way & that way, was either because they had no Anchor, or else it was of brittle mettal; but if thou hast this Hope never fear, for it will hold thy soul from suffering Shipwrack in the greatest storms and tempests. I remember I have read of Alexander, he would give away all that he had for the present, and some asked him what he would keep for himself, I have Hope for my self, saith he; and so indeed it should cause the people of God to rejoyce in their Hope, and be content with any thing that they have, for thou hast enough to make thee rich, and manifest it by living above the world in thy conversation, by being not much troubled for the loss of the Creature, or any thing else, Oh manifest hereby that thou art a man or woman that art born to great Hopes, as it is said of the Christians that they do evidently declare that they have a City, that is, another City besides this that here they have: In the Epistle to the Hebrews, for they that say such things declare pla…nly that they seek a Country, and truly if they had been mindful of the Country that they came out of, they might have had opportunity to have returned, but they plainly declare in living so above the world as Pilgrims and Strangers here, that they seek another Country: and so my Brethren, Christians should do, and as plainly too, declare to all the world, that they seek another Country, that their Hopes are not here: And do you live so? I appeal to your consciences, Are your lives such as do plainly declare before all the world that there's another Country that you seek? We see the most Christians they do so cark and care for the World, and so pine at the loss of any Creature comfort, as if they had no other hopes in this Life: but now it beseems Christians to use the World as if they used it not, with indifferency of spirit, because of the great Hopes that they have, and they account their riches to be in another Country; wo to a soul if a man hath no other Hopes than he hath in this World; you know men that have their Ships at Sea, and great Hopes they have accordingly, and so should we never be troubled, if God takes away this and the other comfort, but yet as God requ…res us to spend freely of what we have, because we have hopes of Resurrection, and the truth is, this is one special Reason why God doth not so much care for to have his people prosper in the World; saith God, I have laid up that for them that will pay for all at last: As now, with the wicked, God doth not care though they have their hearts desire, saith God, I have an eternity hereafter to torment them, let them prosper here for a while if they will. And so on the other side, what if the Saints do suffer? saith God, I have an eternity of happiness for them hereafter, and I know when they come to possess all their Hopes, they will never think that I was a hard Master, I have enough to pay for all their sorrows and troubles that they meet withal in my waies.