Chapter 11. More Considerations on Hope.

WE may say the same of the virtue of hope : for if what we hope to receive in the life to come, were said to depend on the promises of man, justly should we be rejected as vain impostors, because men can both deceive, and are quite unable to give such great rewards. But we say, they are not to be hoped for from man, but from God, who can neither lie, since He is truth, nor deceive us, since He is goodness: nor is anything impossible with Him, since He is omnipotent. Wherefore, justly would that rustic think himself mocked at, were any one to promise him the wisdom of Solomon or the power of Augustus, because he that would promise such things would be a man, deceitful and weak. But ought not a Christian to hope, to whom God promises eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, and a paradise of every pleasure? Perhaps we want pledge-s of this bountiful inten tion of God. But, as a figure of present things, did not God lead His people through

a dry path across the Red Sea ? Did He not rain down upon them manna from hea ven ? Did He not conduct them by Josue into the promised land? ^ Should such a remarkable figure be considered vain and useless ? Moreover, if " (rod so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son/' hath He not " with Him given us all things?" That which we hope to receive from God, is it not excelled by the " gift" which He hath given to us, when we neither hoped nor asked for it ? If He hath given to sinners and to His enemies the death of His Son, will He not give to the justified and to His friends the life of the same divine Son? But, not content with this, the Holy Spirit is added as a pledge of our inheritance. IJe crieth in our heart, "Abba (Father) ; and giveth testimony to pur spirit, that we are the sons of God ; and if sons, heirs also — heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with Him." (chap. viii. Epistle to the Romans.)

Wherefore, if the magnitude of the things promised seems beyond our hopes, yet they cannot exceed the power of the Promisor ; and since this power is infinite, it can easily strengthen our hopes, that we shall without doubt receive the promises. And this promise God hath confirmed with an oath, as the apostle proves in his Epistle to the Hebrews : so that by two certain things, .by the promise of Him who cannot

lie, joined to an oath, we can rest our hope, as on a safe Anchor, of approaching even within the veil where Jesus hath entered for us, being a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.