Secondly, Thy hopes of Salvation hereafter are in vain: yea, worse than in vain, they are most injurious to God, most pernicious to thy self; there is death, desperation, blasphemy in the bowels of this hope. 1. There is death in it. Thy Confidence shall be rooted out of thy Tabernacles (God will up with it root and branch) it shall bring thee to the King of Terrors, Job 18. 14. tho thou mayest lean upon this house it will not stand. Job 8. 1•. but will prove like a ruinous building, which when a man trusts to; it falls down about his ears. 2. There is desperation in it. Where is the Hope of the Hypocrite, when God takes away his soul? Job 27. 8. Then there is an end for ever of his hope. Indeed, the hope of the righteous hath an end, but then 'tis not a destructive, but a perfective end; his hope ends in fruition, others in frustration, Prov. 10. 28. The godly must say at death, It is finished, but the wicked, It is perished; and in too sad earnest bemoan himself, (as Job in a mistake) Where now is my hope? He hath destroyed me, I am gone, and my hope is removed like a tree, Job 19. 10. The righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14. 32. When nature is dying, his hopes are living, when his body is languishing, his hopes are flourishing; his hope is a living hope, 1 Pet. 1. 3. [Greek or Hebrew] but others a dying, yea a damning, soul-undoing hope. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perisheth, Prov. 11. 7. It shall be cut off, and prove like the Spiders Web, Job 8. 14. which he spins out of his own bowels, but then comes death with the broom, and takes down all, and so there is an eternal end of his confidence, wherein he trusted. For the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and their hope shall ⟨p. 58⟩be as the giving up of the Ghost, Job 11. 20. Wicked men are settled in their carnal hope, and will not be beaten out of it. They hold it fast, they will not let it go. Yea but death will knock off their fingers. Though we cannot undeceive them, death and judgment will. When death strikes his dart through thy liver, it will let out thy soul and thy hopes together. The unsanctified have hope only in this life, 1 Cor. 15. 19. and therefore are of all men most miserable. When death comes, it lets them out into the amazing gulf of endless desperation. 3. There is blasphemy in it.
Secondly, Thy hopes of Salvation hereafter are in vain: yea, worse than in vain, they are most injurious to God, most pernicions to thy self; there is death, desperation, blasphemy in the bowels of this hope. 1. There is death in it. Thy Confidence shall be rooted out of thy Tabernacles (God will up with it root and branch) it shall bring thee to the King of Terrors, Iob 18. 14. tho thou maist lean upon this house it will not stand. Iob 8. 1•. but will prove like a ruinous building, which when a man trusts to; it falls down about his ears. 2. There is desperation in it. Where is the Hope of the Hypocrite, when God takes away his soul? Iob 27. 8. Then there is an end for ever of his hope. Indeed, the hope of the righteous hath an end, but then 'tis not a destructive, but a perfective end; his hope ends in fruition, others in frustration, Prov. 10. 28. The godly must say at death, It is finished, but the wicked, It is perished; and in too sad earnest bemoan himself, (as Iob in a mistake) Where now is my hope? He hath destroyed me, I am gone, and my hope is removed like a tree, Job 19. 10. The righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14. 32. When nature is dying, his hopes are living, when his body is languishing, his hopes are flourishing; his hope is a living hope, 1 Pet. 1. 3. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 but others a dying, yea a damning, soul-undoing hope. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perisheth, Prov. 11. 7. It shall be cut off, and prove like the Spiders Web, Job 8. 14. which he spins out of his own bowels, but then comes death with the broom, and takes down all, and so there is an eternal end of his confidence, wherein he trusted. For the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and their hope shall ⟨p. 58⟩be as the giving up of the Ghost,
