BOOK 3. THE PROMISE.
CHAPTER 2.
3.2.4. Of Hoping in Jesus in that Respect.
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, a true, and lively, and soul-saving, and justifying faith. "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved," Acts xvi. 31. "If thou believest, thou shalt be saved," Rom. x. 9. The promise of life contained in the covenant is made only to believers. This is so sure a way of trial, that the apostle himself directs us thereunto, "Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith," 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Ay, but how shall I examine, for there are many pretenders to faith in these days? Why, thus,
(a). True faith will carry thee out of thyself, into Christ, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," Gal. ii. 20. 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 joined 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; "know ye not that Christ Jesus is in you, except ye be reprobates?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5. "Ye shall know me (saith Christ) that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you," John xiv. 20. 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," John xvii. 22, 23. 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.
(b). True faith will carry thee beyond the world; a believer looks on Christ overcoming the world for him, and so by that faith he overcomes the world through him: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith," 1 John v. 4. Hence it is that the saints are said "to be clothed with the sun, to have the moon under their feet," Rev. xii. 1. When through faith they are clothed with "the Sun of righteousness," the Lord Jesus, when they trample upon all sublunary things as nothing worth in comparison of Christ.
(c). True faith is ever accompanied with true love; if once by faith thou apprehendest God's love and Christ's love to thee, thou canst not but love that God, and love that Christ who loved thee, and gave himself for thee; "We love him, because he first loved us," 1 John iv. 19. He that loveth not God, hath not apprehended God's love to him; if ever God in Christ be presented to thee for thy justification, it is such a lovely object, that thou canst not but love him: "he that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love," 1 John iv. 8.
(d). True faith purifies the heart, and purgeth out sin. When God discovers this, that "he will heal backsliding, and love freely, and turn away his anger:" Then Ephraim shall say, "What have I any more to do with idols?" Hos. xiv. 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 God's goodness will make us in love with holiness: "They shall fear and tremble, for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity, that I procure unto them, saith the Lord," Jer. xxxiii. 9. The golden chain of mercy let down from heaven, doth bind us faster to the service of our God.
(e). 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 faith's 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 only on the margin and bank of the lake of fire and brimstone, in regard there is 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," Matt. ix. 12. 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 own fire-side, and clothe 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 a gospel-logic, 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 the act of some vile person never humbled, but applying with an immediate touch, his hot, boiling and smoking lusts to the bleeding blessed wounds and death oi Jesus Christ.
2. If thou art in covenant with God, then hath God fulfilled in some part the promises of his covenant to thy soul: As --
(a). Then hath God put the law into thy inward parts, and writ it in thy heart: look, as indenture answers to indenture, or as 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, thy law is within my heart," Psalm xl 8.
(b). 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 Christ's by marriage: thou hast past over thyself unto him to be his jewel, his spouse, his diadem, his crown, his servant, his child forever.
(c). 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, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord," Ezek. xvi, 60, 62. There is a double knowledge.
(i). A speculative knowledge, and thus men may know much, but they are not effected according to the things they know.
(ii). 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, with all our soul, and with all our strength.
(d). Then hath God pardoned thy sins, and he will remember thy sins no more. But how should I be assured of that? Why, thus,
(i). 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, though your £ins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," Isa. i. 16, 18. 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," Isa. lv. 7.
(ii). If thy heart after many storms and troubles be calmed and quieted through faith in Christ, "Being justified by faith we have peace with God;" Rom. v. 1. What? hast thou peace with God? and hath God stilled thy soul with peace? This is an argument of thy sin's pardon.
(iii). If thine heart be singularly inflamed with the love of Christ? the woman that "had many sins forgiven her by Christ, she loved him much," Luke vii. 47. 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.
(iv). If thy heart and soul, and all that is within be singularly enlarged to praise God for his pardons; "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits? who forgiveth all thine iniquities," Psalm ciii. 1, 2, 3. If thine heart feel his pardons, thy mouth will sing his praises: and hereby thou mayest 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, and accomplishment in some measure of the promises of the covenant? Why, these are the fuel of hope; if this be thy case, act thy hope strongly on Christ and on the covenant of grace: say not, hope is only of things future; and therefore if I be already in the 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 complete presence of its object; yet it is not at all diminished, but rather increased by a partial presence. As in massy bodies, though violent motion be weakest in the end; yet natural motions are ever swiftest towards the centre: 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 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 on this covenant of grace: be not content only 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; and they shall hang on him all the glory of his Father's house; the offspring and the issue: all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons," Isa. xxii. 23, 24. Come, soul, thou art a vessel of small quantity, hang all thy weight on Christ, he is a nail that cannot break.