and improves it into a holy confidence, unless hindered by some disease, or the ill constitution of their body, which sometimes have a strange influence upon the mind, and give an uncontrollable damp to the comforts of even a well-grounded hope. But this must be looked upon as the unhappy consequence of bodily distemper, which will by no means prejudice the future happiness of the soul, though it be full of discomfort at present, and prevents the natural workings of a religious hope; which are as useful to others, as they are cheering to one's self. But bad men that are wholly unacquainted with the pleasures of virtue and religion, as they have no notion, or a very confused one at best, of future spiritual joys, and the longer they live in this estrangement from God have still less and less apprehension of the happiness that shall hereafter crown the righteous; so their hopes of things of that nature are weak and lifeless, confused and general; and when they draw near to that state where all is spiritual, and no more of the world and its enjoyments, then, instead of hope in their death, which Solomon tells us the righteous havem, their souls are full of nothing but fear and anxiety, dread and horror, or, which is as bad in the end, a numbed stupidity, or a groundless presumption.

And upon the same account of the distance and invisibility of the spiritual objects of our hope, and our unacquaintedness with them, and the nearness of those here below to us, which are within our view and reach, and which every man has already in some measure had a taste of; upon this same acm Prov. xiv. 32.

count it is that our hopes are so forward and vigorous for the goods of the present world and of sense, and so cool and indifferent to things that are so infinitely better. We greedily catch at that which lies nearest to us, and which we have most knowledge of and relish for, and neglect what is beyond comparison more valuable, because, as we imagine, it lies at a vast distance off, and we have but little notion and no experience of it, and therefore as little appetite to it; forgetting that the time will come, and it may be very quickly, when it will be so near us, and we shall be so infinitely desirous of enjoying it, that the loss of it will be to our inexpressible and never-ceasing misery and torment.

Thirdly, as the object of hope is distant good, so it is such a distant good as is by some means or other attainable, or at least that we think to be so; for, be our want and desire of a distant good ever so great, yet if we conceive it impossible to be compassed, that thought cannot cause hope, but despair. And as our hoping for good without us demonstrates our indigence and want, who cannot be happy upon our own stock and fund, but must look out for some additions to it; so the attainableness of that good, depending, as it generally does, upon foreign aid, shews our weakness and want of power. And that want and weakness are the chief impulsive causes of hope is plain, because, as there is no need to hope for what we already have, so neither for that which we can help ourselves to when we please. And though the experience of our own ability to compass such and such a good, or that of others which does not exceed our own, may put us upon the like endeavours in expectation of the like suc

cess; yet this has more of the nature of belief and persuasion than of hope: and though it is possible that a man may be mistaken in this case, and upon trial fail of doing what he has done before, yet he has too little reason to question it, to need any great degrees of hope to encourage him to attempt it.

Indigence then and impotence, or a sense of our wants, and our inability of helping ourselves, putting us upon hoping for what we want, when we see a probability of attaining it, though we see too it must be by the means of some foreign aid and assistance which we likewise hope to obtain; it is evident how precarious most of our hopes are, depending upon great uncertainties, and the concurrence of divers things and favourable circumstances, the want of any of which may make all our imaginary prospects, how pleasing soever to our fancies, vanish into disappointment.

Suppose we have, as we think, good friends to assist us in such and such an undertaking, or, which in some cases may be better, a good purse; and moreover a good share of wit and policy and cunning, with such an addition of power too, as may altogether give us a very hopeful view: yet all these are means so liable to miscarriage, that a probability is the most that our expectation built upon them can amount to, and a failure in one little circumstance not seldom spoils many a well laid design.

Sometimes the mistiming or misplacing an action or a word; the failing in a compliment or a ceremony; the being too free and liberal, or too close and stingy; too credulous, or too wary and diffident; too easy and open, or too stiff and reserved; too

peremptory and hasty, or too slow and deliberate; too facetious, or too morose; too light and airy, or too serious and grave: any of these little things, with innumerable more, every one of which it is almost impossible for the most circumspect man to avoid, may and do often dash a very promising undertaking into pieces, and in an instant undo the contrivance of many a thoughtful, and make the labour of many a busy day in vain.

So that the best grounded worldly hopes, being in great measure built upon things without us, and upon such aid as is very likely to fail us, that is, upon other men's humours, and the unaccountable turns and changes of people's thoughts, apprehensions, and interests, may well be compared to that staff of reed mentioned by Ezekiel, which when taken hold of, did break and pierce the hand and rend the shoulder: and when leaned upon, did snap asunder, and made the loins at a stand", of those that thought to be supported by it. And therefore there is but too much reason to add this one particular more to the description of the object of hope, viz.

Fourthly, that though it must be supposed to be attainable, yet not without some difficulty. And as this distinguishes the patient expectance of hope from the sudden forwardness of a wish, so it is a check upon that sanguine temper which makes every thing that we have a great fancy for seem easy to be attained. But a little knowledge of the world will soon convince us to the contrary; and therefore it is that our hopes are so often vain, and attended with disappointment and vexation, because they are a Ezekiel xxix. 7.

fixed at random, and guided more by imagination than by reason, by a fond credulity than a wary precaution, and with more haste than judgment.

And that is one reason why our hopes are so unsteady, and flitting from one thing to another, and consequently so often come to nothing. For we fly at every thing that looks inviting, pursue it eagerly, and promise ourselves success, without considering either the true nature of the object, or the means whereby it may be attained; till at last, tired with the fruitless chase, we sit down and suffer the bitter reflections of our own deluded minds.

But now a rational hope, being sensible of the uncertainty and difficulty of attaining what it hopes for, tempers the earnestness of her expectation with prudence, and diverts the eagerness of the passion by a cautious, circumspect, forethought, concerning the best way to compass what it so much desires; and that renders it even and steady, and in conclusion as successful, as the state of this world will allow.

For, after all, such is the uncertainty, upon one account or other, of every thing here below, that there is no depending upon the attainment of any of the objects of our worldly hope, nor upon the long enjoyment of them when attained, nor upon having our expectation answered, even in the very enjoyment itself. We are either disappointed in the pursuit, or balked in the fruition, or grieved with the too hasty loss of what we have so earnestly hoped for, and taken so much pains to come by. So that nothing is more true than that of the Psalmist, Surely every man walketh in a vain • Sperantibus meliora qua assecutis. Sen.