ore us in the scriptures,
so that you may read and understand your fortune,--your everlasting estate
in it. He hath shut up temporal things and sealed them, and wills us to
live implicitly, and give him the trust of them without anxious foresight,
but eternity he hath unveiled and opened unto us. Certain it is, that no
man, till he be fully possessed of God, who is an all sufficient good
(Psal. iv.) can find any satisfaction in any present enjoyment, without
the addition of some hope for the future. Great things without it will not
content. For what is it all to a man if he have no assurance for the time
to come? And mean things with it will content. Great things with little
hope and expectation, fill with more vexation instead of joy, and the
greater they be, this is the more increased. Again, mean and low things,
with great hopes and large expectations, will give more satisfaction,
therefore, all mankind have a look towards the morrow, and labour to
supply their present defects and wants, with hope or confidence of that. I
would exhort you who would indeed have solid matter of gloriation, and
would not be befooled into a golden dream of vain expectations of vain
things, that ye would labour to fill up the vacuities of present things
with that great hope, the hope of salvation, which will be as an helmet to
keep your head safe in all difficulties, 1 Pet. i. 3, Heb. vi. 18, 19,
Rom. v. 5. It is true, other men's expectations of gain and credit, and
such things, do in some measure abate the torment and pain of present
wants and indigencies, but certain it is, that such hope is not so
sovereign a cordial to the heart, as to expel all grief, but leaves much
vexation within. But then also, the frequent disappointment of such
projects and designs of gain, honour, and pleasure, and the extreme
unanswerableness of these to the desires and hopes of the soul, even when
attained, must needs breed infinitely more anxiety and vexation in the
spirit, than the hope of them could give of satisfaction, yea the more the
expectation was, it cannot choose but the greater shame and confusion must
be. Therefore, if you would have your souls truly established, and not
hanging upon the morrow uncertainly, as the most part of men are get a
look beyond the morrow, unto that everlasting day of eternity, that hath
no morrow(281) after it, and see what foundation you can lay up for that
time to come, as Paul bids Timothy counsel the rich men in the w