A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

the Hope of the Hypocrite is compared to a Spider's Web: O what a curious Web doth she spin out of her own Bowels! but as soon as the Besom comes, down goes the Spider and the Web too, both are swept away, and trodden under foot. So it is with Hypocrites, they spin a fine Web out of their own Bowels, conceive rash, but strong Hope, a Hope of their own forming and making; but when Death comes, the Man dies, and his Hopes die with him. So Prov. 11.7. When a wicked Man dies, his Expectation shall perish; and the Hope of the unjust Man perisheth. It is not meant only of his worldly Expectations; tho that is true, he that aspired to be great, and to feather his Nest, and excel in the World, when he dies, all his Plots and Projects die with him: but it is meant of his heavenly Hopes: when they come to enter upon their everlasting State, then they are sensible of their Mistake. We are more sensible of what is near at hand, than what is at a distance: Men grow wise when they come to die: Eternity is near at hand, and Men begin to awake as out of their Dream, and lose all their Confidence; and when they thought they were full, they find themselves hungry. Again, the Hope of the Hypocrite is compared to the giving up of the Ghost, Job 11.20. Their Hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost. When the Frame of Nature is dissolved, it is done with bitter Gripes and Pain; the Soul in a Moment takes an everlasting Farewell of the Body: so all the Hopes of the Wicked vanish, and are lost in an Instant, and they are full of Horror and sad Despair. It is the greatest Evil that can befall you, to lose all your Hopes in an Instant. Well then, this looking for the blessed Hope, is not a slender Imagination, an unadvised rash Confidence, such as is lost whenever we begin to be serious, either by the conviction of the Word, or the approaches of Death.

the Hope of the Hypocrite is compared to a Spider's Web: O what a curious Web doth she spin out of her own Bowels! but assoon as the Besom comes, down goes the Spider and the Web too, both are swept away, and trodden under foot. So it is with Hypocrites, they spin a fine Web out of their own Bowels, conceive rash, but strong Hope, a Hope of their own forming and making; but when Death comes, the Man dies, and his Hopes die with him. So Prov. 11.7