ment it leaves us we are in danger of falling into the most comfortless Situation of all others, Despair.

Now seeing Hope is of fuch confiderable Ufe to us, in diverting the manifold Evils of this Life, and fupplying the Emptiness of its few Pleafures, by starting continually new Objects of Delight, and promising still better things, and all this, when it makes not good those Promises, when it leads on thro' a Train of Difappointments, when (as Plato terms it) 'tis only the Dream of a waking Man; how much greater muft its Efficacy be, how much more bleffed its Influence, could it be furnished with Objects whole Attainment was certain, and whofe Enjoyment compleat?

Now fuch is the Hope fet before us in the Gospel; fuch is the Hope we are here commanded to rejoice in. The Characters of it in the Scriptures are exceeding strong and fublime. We

are called, fays the Apostle, in one Hope, in oppofition to that confused Variety of Hopes which distract the Children of this World; this is a Hope which maketh not ashamed, whereas all other Hopes end in Disappointment and Confufion. This Hope is call'd an Anchor of the Soul, fure and ftedfaft: Every other Hope is doubtful and timorous; the best laid Scheme for the future Goods of this Life, may be defeated by many Accidents which we our felves can foresee, befides which, there are many others, that may break in upon us which we cannot fo much as guefs at; but this is a Hope attended with Confidence and Affurance, because we fee thro' the Means to the End of it; the whole Bufinefs of it lies betwixt God and our felves, God who cannot lye, and our felves, who may be true to our felves, if we will: This is a Hope full of Immortality, full of Glory, in Com

parison

parison of which, all other Hopes are narrow and short-fighted, mean and abject.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, as St. Paul fays, is our Hope; To have our Bodies fashioned like unto his glorious Body, to partake with him in the Inheritance of the Saints in Light, to live, to reign together with him to all Eternity, this is what the Gofpel recommends to Hope; This is exprefly declared to be one great Defign of Revelation; for, fays the Apoftle, whatfoever things were written afore-time, were written for our Learning, that we thro' Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope. And again, the Apostle to the Hebrews, comparing the Law and the Gospel together, fays, the Law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better Hope did. You fee here, that the better Hope brought in by the Gospel is the Thing which gives it its Preference to the Law, the

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Thing

Thing in which its greater Perfection confifts.

It remains now, that I exhort you to hold fast and cherish this Hope.

cannot,

Hope, as was before obferved, is the most refolute and indefatigable of all our Powers, it will be employed fome Way or other, and it follicits the Imagination fo forcibly, that we if we would, be ignorant of the Particulars it is exercis'd upon; we cannot but know, whether we have hitherto been engaged only by the fhort and broken Profpects of this Life, whether we have trod round and round this narrow Circle of Vanity and Disappointment; or whether we have extended our Views and enlarged our Profpect to that important Scene of things, which muft open to us in our next Stage of Existence, and as the Apostle expreffes it, laid hold on the Hope fet before us in the Gofpel. Thefe, I fay, are

1

things we cannot, if we would, be ig

norant of.

But further, as we are form'd for Immortality and Glory, and placed here in this World only to prepare our felves for a better, fo our own internal Nature and the Circumftances of all things without us, are continually suggesting to us that better State, and we cannot without fome very unnatural Industry fupprefs our Longing after Immortality. The things in which our Happiness is deeply concerned are not hard to be discovered; 'tis hard indeed not to discover them; tho' they are invisible they are clearly seen, tho' they are future, they will be present with us; and notwithstanding all our Care to exclude them, they will force their Entrance, and imprefs our Understandings; fo that we may not only readily answer our felves the first Question, viz. Whether we have admitted the Hope of the Gospel or

not,