Sidenote: 2 Cor. xi. 29. 12. Now the Apostles are our first-fruits, chosen from all the first-fruits of that time; to them it is said, _And greater things than these shall ye do_, for the Grace of God hath poured itself into them. These, I say, groaned, waiting for the redemption of the whole body, and they still groan, because many are still toiling, who are yet tossing on the sea. Just as, if a man is reaching the higher shore, but the waves still dash up to his middle, he groans and is in travail until he be wholly out of danger. Verily he groans, who still says to us, _Who is weak, and I am not weak?_ Sidenote: Rom. viii. 23. Sidenote: Gal. iv. 6. Sidenote: Rom. viii. 24. Sidenote: S. Luke xviii. 42. 13. We need not then to be perplexed by the words, _We, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body_, for the sense is plain, forasmuch as they, having the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan, waiting for the adoption of sons. This adoption of sons is the redemption of the whole body, when he who is to be the son of God by adoption shall see face to face that Divine and Eternal Good; for there is the adoption of sons in the Church of God, when the Spirit cries, _Abba, Father_, as it is written to the Galatians. But this will be perfected when all shall rise again in incorruption power and glory who are counted worthy to see the Face of God, for then the human race will judge itself to be truly redeemed. And so the Apostle boasts, saying, _For we are saved by hope_. For hope saves, as also faith, whereof it is said, _Thy faith hath saved thee_. Sidenote: Phil. i. 24. Sidenote: Rom. viii. 24. Sidenote: 1 Cor. ii. 9. 14. Therefore the creature which _is made subject to vanity not willingly but in hope_, is saved by hope; just as Paul too, knowing that _to die was gain_ to him, that he might be freed from the body and be with Christ, remained in the flesh for their sakes whom he wished to win to Christ. Now what is hope but the expectation of things future? Wherefore he says, _But the hope that is seen is not hope_. For it is not what is seen but what is unseen that is eternal, _for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?_ The things that we see we seem to possess, how then can we hope for that which we already possess? Thus none of those things which we hope for can we see; _eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him_. Sidenote: Ps. xl. 1. Sidenote: Lament. iii. 25.