Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	goodness_n	lord_n	psal_n	4,045	5	7.5057	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49252	The naturall mans case stated, or, An exact map of the little world man considered in both his capacities, either in the state of nature or grace / as is laid down in XVII sermons by that late truely orthodox divine, Mr. Christopher Love ... ; whereunto is annexed The saints triumph over death, being his funeral sermon, by that painful labourer in the Lords vineyard, Mr. Tho. Manton ...	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677. Saints triumph over death.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3169; ESTC R35003	150,068	340

whom beleevers do build all their hopes for heaven so likewise they build their hope on the mercies of God in Psal 147. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in those that fear him in those that hope in his mercy and again in Psal 33. 18. The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that trust in his mercy and so in Psal 52. 8. saies David there I trust in the mercies of God for ever and ever A godly man he is cast out of himself and out of an opinion of his own righteousnesse and his hopes are only built upon the mercy of God and on the merits of Christ But now the false and presumptuous hopes that wicked men have are not built so much upon Gods mercy as their own duties and not so much upon the merits of Christ what he hath done for them as upon their own duties what they have done for themselves 3. True hope doth comfort and bear up the heart under all the discomforts that it meets with in the world as David saies I had fainted under my afflictions but that thy word is my hope and hence it is that you have those two admirable expressions put together Rom. 5. 2 3. Rejoycing in hope and glorying in tribulation these are put together to shew that when a man can rejoyce in hope he can glory in all the tribulations he meets with in the world But now presumptuous hopes are like lead and ponderous weights that will make you sink under every affliction It is only a true and saving hope that will enable you to hold up your heads under all afflictions and troubles 4. True hope does as well act for heaven as hope for heaven but a presumptuous hope that hopes for heaven as its end but yet never acts holinesse as its way to heaven true hope as it hopes for heaven so it labours to work out its salvation with fear and trembling You have an admirable passage for this in Psal 119. 166. saies David there Lord I have trusted in thy salvation and I have done thy commandements here is both hoping and acting for heaven put both together wicked men they hope for heaven but they do not do Gods commands and so in Psal 37. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good saies the Psalmist here is trusting and doing put together true hope doth act for heaven as well as hope for heaven but false hope doth hope much and act little wicked men will hope for salvation but not work out their salvation hope for heaven but not labour for heaven this is the fourth difference 5. That man that hath true hope he makes conscience to keep his heart pure and free both from the love of sin and from the dominion of sin while he lives here in this world you have a plain text for this in 1 Joh. 3. 3. He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as God is pure he doth labour and endeavour to keep his heart upright and pure and free from sin But now a false hope will hope for heaven though they walk on after the imaginations of their own hearts as in Esai 51. 10. Thou hast walked in the greatnesse of thy wicked wayes yet saidst thou not there is no hope though they had great sins yet they had great hopes for heaven if thou art such a one as is mentioned in Deut. 59. 18. that saiest Thou shalt have peace though thou walkest after the imaginations of thy own heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst if thou art such a one thy hope is only a presumptuous hope 6. True hope flowes from a long and well grounded experience this is the reason of that expression in Rom. 5. 4. Patience worketh experience and experience hope True hope flowes from a long and well grounded experience in the waies of God and from an experience of the grace and bounty and love of God to his soul and from experiences of the goodnesse and mercy and promises of God and likewise from an experience of his own heart in withstanding temptations subduing corruption and performing holy duties Such experiences as these are inlets to a well grounded hope for heaven but now the hopes of wicked men are only the results of ignorance they that never had any experience of themselves nor of the waies of God they have most hopes but their hopes are only deluding and presumptuous hopes wicked men that do so quickly get into a state of hope without any former experiences of the wayes of God it is a sign that their hopes are only vain and empty hopes they are but pithy hopes just like your pithy trees as Elders and Withies and such like trees they shoot up fastest and grow up soonest whereas the more firm and stronger wood as Oaks and Elme and the like are a great while longer in growing before they come to maturity why so it is a great while before a Godly man can get a well grounded assurance of his hopes for heaven Use And thus I have done with the Doctrinall part of this fourth branch of mans misery without hope we come now to the application and the Use that I shall make of it shall be threefold 1. For consolation 2. For terror and 3. For instruction 1. For consolation to the people of God though the Scripture saies a wicked man hath no hope yet it sayes otherwise of you that are a people of God the Scripture tels you that your hope is laid up in heaven for you and the Lord is your hope though wicked men have no hopes for heaven yet you have grounded and assured and certain hopes for heaven your hope is laid up for you in another world the wicked have only their hopes in this life and when they die their hopes shall perish as in Prov. 11. 7. When a wicked man dyeth his expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth but it is not so with you for the godly hope in their death And this hope of a godly man is not as the Papists hold for though they grant a beleever hath hope yet they deny that any have assurance they say that all a beleevers evidence for heaven is only a hope a p●●l adventure a most uncomfortable tenent whereas the Scripture sayes there is as full an assurance of hope as of faith in Heb. 16. 11. saies the Apostle use all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and so in Rom. 15. 5. Your hope is such as will not make you ashamed your hopes are not like the hopes of men that hope for dead 〈◊〉 shoes as the proverb is for they may go on barefoot before they die but Christ who is our hope he hath dyed already and risen again he hath made his will and testament and hath left us legacies and be queathed riches to us our hopes are well grounded hopes not as other

and greater enormities as in 2 Cor. 6. 18. and in the first verse of the next chapter I will be your God and Father and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord God Almighty Having therefore these promises dearly beloved sayes the Apostle let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit and therefore if you have a care to abstain from all secret sins whereby the inward man is defiled it is a signe that you have a reall interest in God because God will be our God and will own and accept of us to be his people we must not onely wash our legs and our outward man but our inward parts too and if we do thus we may be confidently assured that we are a sacrifice well pleasing and acceptable unto God through Jesus Christ but now you that make conscience of your wayes so far only as that men may not say black to your eye if you doe not labour to keep your inward man from defilements as well as your outward man you have no interest in God at all 2. Another evidence of your interest in God is this if you have an earnest and unwearied labour and endeavour in your spirits to come to the nearest resemblance and conformity to Jesus Christ as possibly you can Doe you labour to be holy as hee was holy and humble and meeke and lowly as hee was in 2 Cor. 7. 1. sayes the Apostle there dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God Doe you labour still to resemble God in holinesse thy relation and interest in God will make thee labour to be like unto God and to be still perfecting holinesse though you cannot be perfect in holinesse If you have an interest in God you will labour more and more to be holy as he is holy and to come to the nearest resemblance to him that may be 3. Another discovery of your interest in God is this if God hath engraven upon thy soul those saving effects and blessings which he doth bestow upon all those that have an interest in him God hath promised that he will be their God and they shall be his people that he will give them a new heart taking away the heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh and that he will sanctifie and renew their natures and write his Law in their inward parts and work in their hearts a sutable disposition to his Law and put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him These are the blessings of the Covenant of Grace Now you that can give abundant and evident testimonies in your own souls that you have found God cleansing and purifying your hearts and sanctifying and renewing your natures and writing his Law in your inward parts and putting his fear into your hearts that you doe never depart from him if you finde these things in you they are undoubted evidences that you have an interest in God 2. As I would have you prove your interest in God so I would exhort you to improve your interest in God too Many of you do let God lye by you as I may so say and never make use of him for your spirituall comfort and support and never goe to him for help and succour and relief in times of danger you doe not improve your interest in God Object But here it may be you would ask mee how you should improve your interest in God Answ 1 I answer 1. Improve it thus in making your interest in God a great incentment and provocation to thee to obey God thus David did in Psal 143. 10. Teach me to doe thy will sayes he for thou art the Lord my God here David did well improve his interest in God so in Psal 119. 115. Depart from me ye evill doers sayes he for I will keep the commandements of my God We should make our interest in God an ingagement upon our souls to keep the commands of God 2. Then you doe rightly improve your interest in God when this doth stir you up to aggravate all the sins you have committed against God when your interest in God doth make you see how exceeding sinfull sin is and how greatly you have provoked the Lord your God by your sins as in Jer. 3. 25. We have sinned against the Lord our God we and our Fathers from our youth even to this day and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God here the children of Israel aggravate their sins against God as their God And so Daniel he makes his interest in God a motive to stir him up to aggravate sin against God in Dan. 9. 5. sayes he there We have sinned and have committed iniquity and done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements and then in vers 7. Oh Lord sayes he righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day so again in vers 8. Oh Lord to us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings and to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee but to the Lord our God belongeth mercy and forgivenesse though wee have rebelled against him and so hee goes on all along aggravating their sins against God no lesse then ten times he mentions their interest in God and ten times he aggravates their sinnes against God It is the consideration of our interest in God that does stir us up to aggravate our sins against God when we doe consider that we have sinned against our God against our gracious and mercifull Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace who is infinite in goodness and abundant in mercy and truth Such considerations as these will exceedingly provoke us to aggravate our sins against him 3. Improve your interest in God by making it a prop and pillar of marble to bear up and support your hearts under all the miseries and afflictions and troubles you meet withall here in the World thus David incouraged himself in the Lord his God in Psal 3. 7. I am thine sayes hee Lord save me then you make a right improvement of your interest in God when you go to him and trust and rely and depend upon him in all times of danger and distresse for you have an interest in that God that is both able and willing to relieve and succour you a God that hath helped you and doth help you and will never leave you nor forsake you and therefore be incouraged to cast your care upon him FINIS THE SAINTS TRIUMPH OVER DEATH OR A SERMON Preached at the Funerall OF Mr. CHRISTOPHER LOVE IN Lawrence-Church August 25. 1651. By THOMAS MANTON Minister of the Gospell at Stoak-Newington near London London Printed by E. Cotes for George Eversden at the Golden-ball in Aldersgate-street 1652. THE SAINTS TRIUMPH OVER DEATH OR A

among the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comelinesse that I had put upon thee saith the Lord God if we have not the comelinesse of Christ put upon us we are not comely you have a pretty passage in Luk. 2. 32. Christ is there called the glory of the children of Israel Christ is the glory of the children of Israel that doe beleive in him there is no glory but a body full of sores and botches in all those that are out of Christ And thus now Beloved I have done with the Doctrinall part of this point that every man during the state of his unregeneracy is without any actuall interest in Christ we come now to the application and here I might say to you as a learned Author was wont to say when he had been handling any terrible subject and treating upon Doctrines of terrour he would alwayes say in the close Oh godly man this belongs not to thee so may I say to you thou godly soul this appertains not to thee the misery and sad condition of a man out of Christ belongs not to thee thou doest not now hear the sentence which shall be passed upon thee but thou dost now hear the misery that thou art freed from and redeemed from Use The Use that I shall make of this shall be by way of consolation and the Lord uphold and comfort the hearts of all you that can lay a just claim to Jesus Christ 1. Happy Oh thrice happy are you that ever you were born that have an interest in Jesus Christ for though God be cloathed with majesty great and terrible in himself yet you can look upon him under apprehensions of love and mercy peace goodnesse tendernesse and kindnesse you are to look upon God not as an angry Judge to condemn you but as a Father of mercy to comfort you not as an adversary in battell array against you but as a friend reconciled to you not as a burdensome stone that may grind you to powder but as the rock of Ages in the clifts whereof you may finde safety you are to look upon God not as a consuming fire to burn you but as a refiners fire to purge away your drosse and sin and corruption it is Christs bloud only that quencheth the fire of Gods anger So that now you may look upon God under all these apprehensions of love and mercy peace pardon and reconciliation c. if you have an interest in Jesus Christ 2. Happy yea thrice happy are you in having an interest in Christ for though you have nothing here in the world yet you have all things you have all things in having an interest in Christ that hath all things you may say as Paul said of himself 2 Cor. 6. 10. As having nothing and yet possessing all things though thou wantest many things here below yet if thou hast an interest in Christ thou hast all things It may be thou mayest eat of the bread of affliction and drink of the water of adversity yet happy art thou if withall thou canst but drink draughts of Christs bloud if Christ bids thee eat of his body and drink of his bloud as in Cant. 5. 8. Eat oh friends drink yea drink abundantly oh my beloved Happy are you that are cloathed with the long white robes of Christs righteousnesse though you have nothing here below yet you have all things in having Christ that hath all things 1 Cor. 3. 22. All is yours and you are Christ Object Object But here some may object and say how can this be how can it be said that a beleever hath all things when many times he hath the least of the things of this world Answ Answ I answer a beleever may be said to have all things these four ways 1. He hath all things equivalently 2. All things conditionally 3. All things finally And 4. All things inheritively 1. A beleever hath all things equivalently that is in having Christ he hath as good as if he had all things he hath that which is of more worth then if hee had all the World that man is not accounted a rich man that hath much lumber and houshold-stuffe in his house but he that hath many Jewels in his cabinet why now Christ hee is the pearle of great price the jewel of all jewels in having Christ you have all things in regard you have that which is more worth then all things 2. A beleever hath all things conditionally if such a thing bee for thy good that thou desirest thou shalt have it bee it what it will be as in Psal 84. 11. The Lord will give grace and glory and no good thing will hee withhold from those that live uprightly hee hath all things conditionally 3. A beleever hath every thing finally that is the Lord intended that every creature that he made might be for his use the sun moon and stars and all the other creatures were made for them nay and all the Angels in heaven were made to be ministring spirits to the heirs of salvation 4. All things are a beleevers inheritively by way of right and inheritance though he may not have all things in possession yet he hath all things by way of reversion hee hath a right and claim to every thing Psal 37. 11. The meek shal inherit the earth But now it may be I speak to many a poore godly man or woman and tell them all is theirs when it may be they have not a penny to buy bread to put in their bellies why yet beloved let me tell you though you have nothing yet you have Christ that is worth all things though you want other things yet you doe not want Christ Beloved you may want outward blessings and yet not want Jesus Christ you may want food to put in your mouthes and yet not want the bread of life the Lord Jesus Christ to feed upon you may want clothes to cover your nakedness and yet not want the long robes of Christs righteousnesse to cover your sinfull nakednesse you may want friends to comfort help and relieve you and yet not want Christ to be your friend There is some thing yet behind by way of Consolation but I must defer that till another opportunity SERMON V. EPHES. 2. 12. That at that time yee were without Christ WE come now to lay down some other things by way of comfort to those that have an interest in Christ and oh that you that are Citizens of Heaven would read over your large Charter of Mercies that is sealed to you in the bloud of Christ read over those many benefits and comforts that you have by Christ that none in the world enjoy but you onely that have an interest in him I shall reduce all that I have to say concerning this particular under these 7 heads you that lay an undoubted claim to Christ you may lay claim to this sevenfold benefit by him 1. You that have an interest

will turn away his anger from thee and behold thee with a smiling countenance thou being in Christ and Christ in thee and God being well pleased with his Sonne must needs bee well pleased with thee too great is your benefit by having an interest in Christ I may say in this case what Elisha the Prophet said to King Jeroboam 2 King 3. 14. Verily sayes hee were it not that I regard the person of Jehosaphat King of Judah I would not looke toward thee nor see thee just so does God say to us were it not for my Sonne Jesus Christ you should never see my face nor have a good look from me 6. If thou hast a real interest in Christ then this is another part of thy comfort that God the Father doth as truly accept of thee in his Sonne as if thou hadst in thine own person done and suffered what Christ did this is a great benefit God accepts of what Christ hath done for us as if we had none it our selves as in Ephes 1. 6. Hee hath made us accepted in the beloved that is in Christ God lookes upon thee in Christ and accepts of all thy duties and performances as well as if thou hadst prayed as well as ever Christ prayed and done and suffered as much as ever Christ did 7. Art thou now in Christ well take this for thy comfort thou maist be confidently assured that thou shalt bee one day with Christ This is the last consolation and I shall give you a pregnant text to prove it though it be not so well understood in the common reading of it as it should bee Rom. 8. 10. sayes the Apostle if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse What is the meaning of this the body is dead because of sinne the meaning is not that the body does mortifie sin but the body is dead because of sin that is sin shall bring your bodies to the grave but your spirits shall live because of righteousnesse that is the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ through the righteousnesse of Christ your souls shall live for ever in glory with Christ though your bodies die and sin bring them to the grave yet the killing of your bodies shall but make way for the living of your spirits being in Christ here you shall for ever live with Christ in glory hereafter the death of your bodies shall but give you an entrance into Glory and therefore why should death be grievous to those that are in Christ Jesus for death is but as it were the marriage day wherein Christ and their soules shall bee united together if Christ bee in you your bodies shall die because of sin but your spirits shall live because of righteousnesse You have another pertinent place to prove this in Joh. 17. 23 24. sayes Christ there I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me and Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me Some conceive that this prayer of Christ was made onely for the Apostles that they might be where Christ was in heaven but if you marke the precedent words you shall find that it was for all Beleevers for saies Christ himself neither pray I for these alone but for all those that shall beleeve in my Name to the end of the world Great is your comfort in having an interest in Christ here you shall one day reign with him for ever in Glory Thus I have done with these seven consolations to those that have a real and well grounded interest in Christ I have onely now a word or two by way of Use to apply and set home what I have said concerning this particular Use Here you see what unspeakable comforts redound to you that have an interest in Christ you have all things though you have nothing Christ is yours and all that Christ hath is yours and all that you have is Christs Christ sweetens all afflictions and crosses to you and the having of Christ represents God the Father to you not with terrour and dread but with goodnesse and meeknesse and loving-kindnesse and mercy and long-suffering and through Christ God doth as freely accept of you and of what you doe as if it were done as well as ever Christ did it and being in Christ here you shall for ever live with Christ in glory hereafter Oh how should all these mercies and priviledges stir up all those that have yet no part in Christ never to give rest to their eyes nor slumber to their eye-lids till they have gotten an interest in him SERMON VI. EPHES. 2. 12. That at that time ye were without Christ LEst any of you that hear mee this day should lie under a spirit of delusion and think that all that I have said touching the happinesse of those that have an interest in Christ belongs to them when it doth not I shall therefore spend this houre in shewing you some characters whereby you may know whether you have a real interest in Christ or no this is the needfullest point that ever in my life I prest upon you and the Lord give you grace to lay these characters close to your own hearts and by them seriously to examine your own souls whether you have a reall interest in Christ or no but before I give you these characters give me leave by the way to premise these three or four Cautions or cautelary conclusions which will the better make way to the handling the point in hand Caution 1 1. Take this caution that men may be strongly conceited and opinionated that they have an interest in Christ when they have not I shall give you a plain text for this in 2 Cor. 10. 7. Doe you look on things after the outward appearance sayes the Apostle if any man trust to himself that hee is Christs let him of himself think this again that as he is Christs even so are we Christs This is a very notable place there were some among the Corinthians that were strongly conceited they did belong to Christ when they did not and had an ill opinion of the Apostles and thought they did not belong to Christ and to such as these the Apostle Paul here speaks men may be strongly conceited they have an interest in Christ when there is no such matter as it was with the Church of Laodioea in Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked 2. Another cautelary conclusion I would have you take notice of is this that in laying down the characters of a man that hath an interest in Christ I do not

by meaning and purposing to be rich but by labouring and endeavouring after it so no man ever went to heaven by good meanings without good actions accompanying them 2. But say they we do no body any harm but pay every man his own Ans 1. Though you pay every man his own yet do you give God his own or rather do you not wrong God and do him infinite indignities 2. Though you do not do man wrong yet doe you not your own souls wrong as we use to say of free-hearted men they are enemies to no man but themselves So now do not you doe your own souls wrong by harbouring of bosome lusts and corruptions in your souls What benefit will it be to thee that you do no body else wrong when you doe your own souls wrong you are no better then the Pharisees for they were very exact in giving every man his due the proud Pharisee could boast in Luk. 18. 11. I am no extortioner nor unjust man you may mean well and give every man his own and yet be a wicked man SERMON XIV EPHES. 2. 12. Having no hope WE come now to the last prop that wicked men doe build their hopes of heaven upon which is this if you beat them off from all the former props from their small sins from the mercies of God in generall from their good duties and good meanings c. then they run to this last plea say they Have not we reason to nourish hopes for heaven for we have been present with dying men that have been as bad as wee in their life time and yet they have had very strong hopes for heaven and strong hopes in God and you know dying men will speak the truth and therefore why may not we nourish hopes for heaven as well as they This is a very strong prop wicked men build their hopes upon but I shall shew you the rottennesse and insufficiency of it in these three or four particulars 1. You must know that it is one thing to die stupidly and another thing to die hopefully and peaceably indeed the worst men in the world may die stupidly their consciences may not doe its office when they die they may have their consciences feared as it were with a hot iron and think they are going to heaven and never think otherwise till they drop down into hell but now the godly they die full of peace and comfort as in Psal 37. 37. Mark the upright man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace but there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Esai 57. 41. There may be a fearednesse of conscience and stupidity of heart but they cannot die peaceably and in hope 2. You that make this a prop for your hope because you have seen wicked men die peaceably like Lambs let me tell you thus much that it is the greatest judgement in the world for a wicked man to die peaceably and quietly in delusions and conceits of going to heaven when they are tumbling down headlong to hell it were better for him that God did let the flashings of hell fire to flie in his face it were better for him that his conscience did tell him his danger and his doom then thus to die in a stupid manner In Job 21. 23. it is said that a wicked man dies in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet no sin troubles him nor no danger makes him afraid so in Psal 73. 4 5. they have no bands in their death but their strength is firm they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men they have no trouble in their life time and no bands in their death now this is rather to be looked upon as a judgement upon them and not as a mercy 3. If this peace and quietnesse in a wicked mans conscience did arise from any grounded assurance or hope of heaven then it might be lookt upon as a blessing but when it doth arise meerly from the delusions of his own heart then it is nothing but as it were a golden dore to let him into hell it shall be with him as in Esai 29. 8. An hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty so a wicked man dreams he is going to heaven when he is falling down into hell 4. There may be great hopes of heaven exprest in a dying mans words when there is not so much peace and quietnesse in his heart as in Prov. 14. 23. In the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull In the midst of a wicked mans boasting there is a fear of hel 5. Though you have seen some men that have dyed with stupidity of heart depart quietly yet there are other wicked men whose consciences are awakened that die full of horror and terror and amazement When their consciences tell them they have dyed swearers or lyers or drunkards or adulterers c. they are filled with horror and terror of conscience that though he thought all his life time he should goe to heaven yet he now fears he is going down into hell And thus I have done with the third Question in shewing you the reasons why seeing the Scripture saies that a wicked man hath no hope that of all the men in the world wicked men do nourish greatest hopes for heaven in their hearts there are only two queries more to handle and then come to the fifth branch of mans misery Quest 4 4. The fourth Query in order is this that seeing the Scripture sayes a wicked man hath no hope and esteems of their false and presumptuous hope to be as good as no hope then how shall we know the difference between those well grounded hopes a godly man hath and those presumptuous and deluding hopes wicked men have Answ Ans I shall here give you six apparent differences between them 1. The hopes of a godly and regenerate man for heaven it is gotten by and grounded upon the word of God and therefore it is called the hope of the Gospell because it is gotten by the Gospell as the means and grounded upon the Gospell as the end that we sayes the Apostle through the comfort of the Scriptures might have hope a godly man hath his comforts from the Scriptures Psal 119. 49. Good is the word of the Lord wherein thou hast caused thy servant to hope But now the hopes of wicked men as they are gotten they know not how so neither do they know upon what they are grounded and this is the reason why they are called presumptuous hopes for this is presumption when a man does beleeve a thing when he can have no visible nor likely means to ground or bottome his hopes upon 2. True and patient hope is bottomed upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ and hence it is that Christ is called our hope because he is the foundation on