The saints anchor-hold, in all storms and tempests preached in sundry sermons, and published…

1. By the ground of it. If it be rightly grounded, it is the right hope. The ground of this hope is faith, Heb. 11. 1. which hath a double object. 1. God in Christ. 2. The Word of God. That you may try and examine your hope, whether it be thus grounded or not; we shall insist some-what more largely in this, and be more brief in the two following Characters, which will be more easily apprehended, after this is cleared.

1. Hope is rightly grounded, when it is grounded or bottomed upon faith, receiving Christ, and applying to our selves, in him, God as our God, and portion, in the Covenant of Grace. ⟨p. 110⟩It is the office and work of faith, to appropriate God in Christ, to a mans self. The voice of Christ unto believers, is, My Father is your Father, and my God your God, Joh. 20. 17. And the voice of faith, in a believer, to Christ, is, My Lord and my God, ver. 28, 29. God absolutely considered, out of Christ, is an object of the greatest terror unto sinners, Isa. 33. 14. But God, relatively considered, in Christ, as our God and portion, is the chiefest object of our hope, and love. Faith cleaveth unto God, as our God and portion. And, when we know that God is our portion, and thereupon hope in him, then our hoping in God is right, because it is rightly grounded. Our having God for our portion, begins at our entering into Covenant with him. For then, and not before, we have a propriety in God, and he in us, Ezek. 16. 8. This propriety in God is given and manifested to us, by degrees. 1. The soul is convinced of the vanity and insufficiency of all other things to be our portion, and ⟨p. 111⟩so is made willing to forsake them all, that it may enjoy God, as his portion. Till this be done, men observe lying vanities, and forsake their own mercy,