The souls vocation or effectual calling to Christ. By T.HThe soules vocation or effectual calling to Christ. By T.H

Ans. You may know it by these four particulars.

Ans. You may know it by these foure particulars.

The first is this, a grounded hope, it hath a peculiar certainty in it, it doth bring home unto the soul in special manner the goodness of God, and the riches of his love in Jesus Christ: this same grounded hope doth not stand upon Ifs and Ands, but it saith, it must be undoubtedly, it must certainly be mine: and this you must know, it is the nature of hope, to make a thing to be certain. Hope maketh things infallible and undoubted, and withal there is a kind of speciality, a bringing home of Gods goodness unto the soul, in a peculiar manner: hope always if sound, it hath something to say for it self always, ⟨p. 136⟩it hath a ward to hang and hold upon: Psal. 130.5. I wait upon the Lord, and I hope in his Word: and so Rom. 15.4. All things are written for our instruction, that through the comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope: here is hope, not through your conceits, imaginations and dreams, but through the Scripture: we might have hope, a grounded hope is a Scripture hope, it is a word hope; and therefore those that cannot bring a word, and give a reason for their hope, I would not give a rush, nor a farthing token for a hundred cart load of such hopes: No, it is Law hope, it is Gospel hope, Scripture hope, Word hope; so that the soul can say, the Word saith, the Lord came to save those that are lost, why I find my self to be lost, and therefore I hope the Lord will seek me, though I cannot seek him; I hope the Lord will find me, though I cannot find my self; I hope the Lord will save me, though I cannot save my self. But the hopes of the wicked hang like a cloud, they are not grounded upon the evidence of the Scripture, they crowd all in the general; I hope to fare as well as others, and other had mercy, and why not I? And hence the hopes of the wicked are unsteadfast and wavering: but a man might here demand, are not the hopes of the Saints so too? Do they not waver and stagger many a time? Answer, It is true, but with this difference; the hopes of Gods servants are like an anchor, which though sometimes it is shaken, yet it holdeth the faster: but the hopes of the hypocrites are like the waves of the seas, and they