and then, from the belief of what God has declared by his word, and attested by his oath, arises the hope, the "sure and steadfast" hope, that is "the anchor of the soul," and that "enters within the vail." Again:- Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." Here, in like manner, hope is inseparably associated with "faith in God," as "raising up Jesus from the dead." It is founded in it. It arises out of it. So it is in all the statements of Scripture. And how could it be otherwise? For so it is in the nature of things. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have had access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."+ The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." It should be recollected, that faith respects the promise as well as the testimony of God. We believe the former to be faithful, as well as the latter to be true. In this respect, faith and hope are almost identified; for the faith of the promise cannot in possibility be separated from the hope of its fulfilment. Hence what the apostle

says of faith in Heb. xi. 1, that it is "the confidence of things hoped for."

Secondly. If hope thus springs from the faith of the truth, or, more correctly, from the truth believed, it follows, that in proportion to the simplicity and firmness of our faith must be the strength and liveliness of our hope. This seems a natural and almost self-evident sequence. Yet it may be worth while to illustrate it by two or three examples. Of Abraham it is said, "Who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations) before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were; who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations: according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb : he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform."* Here the faith and the hope are proportionals; the assured confidence of expectation, such as bore down before it every obstacle that seemed to forbid its indulgence, arising from the strength of his faith in "Him whom he believed;" in his faithfulness to his promise, and in his ability and willingness to fulfil it. The same proportion appears between his faith and his hope, when it is said of him, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he

Rom. iv. 16-21.

went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."* His hope both of the earthly or typical, and of the heavenly or eternal inheritance, was so vigorous as to enable him to throw himself unreservedly upon God, in expectation of the fulfilment of his word, because his belief of that word was firm.-The same connexion, and necessary relative proportion, between faith and hope, appears in the character given of Moses: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer afflic tion with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." That "respect unto the recompense of the reward," by which he was animated to spurn away the temptations of honour, and pleasure, and wealth, the three principal objects between which the desires and pursuits of the world are divided, and to give the preference to affliction and reproach with God's people, arose from his faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and was proportioned, in the power of its self-denying influence, to the measure of that faith.-And, not to multiply exemplifications of what hardly required confirmation by examples at all-I add only the experience of Paul. How strikingly do the assurance of faith and the assurance of hope connect themselves,the one arising from the other, and both blending into one delightful sentiment of triumphant confi

Heb. xi. 8-10.

† Heb. xi. 24-26.

dence, when he thus pours forth the fulness of an humble, thankful, and rejoicing spirit: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter :) nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!"*

To my mind, indeed, it appears no better than a contradiction in terms, to speak of the assurance of faith without the assurance of hope. It is to make hope spring from something else than the truth believed; and to affirm that the truth may be believed, and yet hope not to be at all enjoyed. I say, not at all. For if the assurance of faith, that is, the fullest and firmest faith, may exist without the assurance, or the fulness and firmness, of hope; then is the principle of proportion between the one and the other done away; of which the unavoidable consequence is, that faith may exist without hope altogether: for, if there may be the highest degree of the one, without the highest degree of the other, then may there be every inferior degree of the one without the corresponding degree of the other; and

* Rom. viii, 33-39.

so we are led to the possibility of faith without hope at all. And this is a very hazardous assumption; inasmuch as it follows from it, that when the sinner, who believes the truth but does not enjoy hope, comes to obtain hope, it must, in his case, be derived from something distinct from, and additional to, the truth believed; that is, it must be founded in something else than the gospel.

Thirdly. Hope thus springing from faith, and being proportioned to it, the next step in our argument is equally simple; namely, that the effects of any principle must necessarily be proportioned in their measure to the degree of vigour in which the principle exists. This being undeniable, the fruits of faith must be according to the strength of faith. If a man professes lively faith, while the results in his life bear no correspondence with his profession, we may be assured he is deceiving himself. As it is true, that where there is no fruit at all, there is no faith at all; it is equally true, that the abundance of fruit will be proportioned to the abundance of the principle from which it grows; as surely as the richness of the crop will correspond to the fertility of the soil. That professor's faith, let him pretend what he may, is neither clear nor strong, if it be not practical and productive; and in proportion as it is practical and productive, does it evince itself clear and strong. The evidences of genuine faith, or of the sincere and steadfast "belief of the truth," are its practical effects, in "all holy conversation and godliness," in "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God." Now what, let me ask, are the evidences of personal interest in the blessings of salvation? Why, they are the very same. So that, as the reader must immediately perceive, the evidences of the genuineness of our faith identify with the evidences of the soundness of our hope. There is, as I have already mention