Sermons preached

3. There is Waiting; and here it is expressed by its adjunct, patient waiting, for patient waiting is an act of Hope, as well as longing expectation. 1 Thess. 1. 3. Knowing, saith he, your work of Faith, and labour of Love, and patience of Hope. Faith, or a sound belief of things, will break out into practice; therefore the work of Faith, Love, will put us upon Labour, and Hope produces Patience. There is a threefold Patience spoken of in Scripture, all the branches are near a-kin, for they are all begotten by Hope.

3. There is Waiting; and here it is exprest by its adjunct, patient waiting, for patient waiting is an act of Hope, as well as longing expectation. 1 Thess. 1. 3. Knowing, saith he, your work of Faith, and labour of Love, and patience of Hope. Faith, or a sound belief of things, will break out into practice; therefore the work of Faith, Love, will put us upon Labour, and Hope produces Patience. There is a threefold Patience spoken of in Scripture, all the branches are near a-kin, for they are all begotten by Hope.

1. The bearing Patience; which is a constancy in Adversity, or a perseverance in our Duty notwithstanding the difficulties and trials that we meet with in our passage to Heaven. Heb. 6. 12. Be ye Believers of them, who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises. As we cannot inherit the Promises without Faith, so not without Patience: for our Obedience and Fidelity to Christ requires not only labour and great pains, but courage and constancy to suffer as well as to do. Heb. 10. 36. Ye have need of Patience, that after the have done the will of God, you might inherit the Promise. A Child of God cannot be without Patience, because he must reckon for troubles and molestations. We have indeed our calms as well as our storms; many intermissions, but at other times God will exercise us, and show us our Fidelity is not sufficiently tried in doing good; but before we go to Heaven, we must sometimes suffer evil. God hath something to do by us, and something to do with us: We must be prepared for both, to endure all things, and readily and willingly suffer