III. Prayer and patience are to be the companions

of hope in the people of God; to both which they have a powerful argument in his goodness. "The Lord is good to them that wait him; to the

"foul that seeketh him."

Under this I might shew,

1. The people of God are a generation that seek him.

They seek his face, and favour, as their life; his kingdom, as their home; his righteousness, as that by which they are to be intitled to it; his grace, as their meetness for it; his spirit, as their guide, by whose power they are to be kept thro' faith unto salvation: And thus they go praying, and seeking, upward, to the world of praise and rest.

2. Every one that seeks God aright, has his foul engaged in the work. Concerning this David appeals to himself, Pfalm xxvii. 8. When thou faidst, seek ye my face, my heart faid unto thee, thy face, Lord, will 1 feek.

3. They whose souls are ingaged in seeking God, will and ought to wait for him. To wait and look up; to wait and hold on; to wait, and refer themselves to God's choice, when the defires of their fouls shall be answered; to wait and put a good construction on God's seeming delays. In order to this, the command and promise are engraven within. Pfalm xxvii. 14. Wait on the Lord: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart.

4. The goodness of God is a powerful argument to engage his people to feek to him, and wait for him. So it is, as 'tis infinite; as through his son, 'tis open, and ready to be communicated to those who otherwise could have no hope; as it is what his people have experienced, and given their testimony to. The goodness of God, under such views, may well be his people's support, in seeking to him, waiting for him, as he never faid unto the feed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. There is yet a

IVth Observation. No fervant of God shall be a lofer by him, but every one of them be led to own at last, that it is good to hope, and quietly wait for bis falvation.

To evidence this, I need only confider,

1. What is included in the salvation waited

for ?

2. The engaging title given to it, The falva tion of the Lord.

3. What is implied in hoping?

4. In what respect it is good to hope, and quietly wait for this?

1. What is included in the salvation waited for? In general, it includes the whole of that blessedness that Christ hath purchased, and which God for his fake hath promised. 'Tis,

1. A falvation from every kind and degree of evil; fin, temptation, the troubles of this world, and future everlasting miseries, Rev. xxi. 3, 4. Now, how defireable must be a falvation that includes a freedom from all these.

2. 'Tis a being put into a possession of all good; for which 'tis called falvation with eternal glory (2 Tim. ii. 10.) An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referv ed, where eye hath not seen, nor ear beard, nor bath

f4

hath it entered into the heart to conceive what God bath prepared for them that love him.----Where every defire shall be filled up, every prayer answered, and all turned into the most raised everlasting thanksgiving and praise.

The salvation laid up for the people of God, is worth waiting for, confidering what is included in it.

2. Confider it under its engaging title, the falvation of the Lord.

This can denote no less than,

(1). 'Tis a falvation worthy of him, Heb, xi. 16. But now they defire a better country, that is an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.

(2.) 'Tis designed, prepared, and promised by him.

'Tis God that, resolved to bring many fons out of our world to such a salvation as this; con quered all difficulties in the way; appointed his Son the captain of it; promised it first to him, and for his fake, to all that come unto God by him.

(3.) 'Tis a falvation that will consist in the enjoyment of God; dwelling in his presence under the light of his countenance, the freest communications of his love and goodness, filling the foul with that fulness of joy, which nothing short of poffeffion can acquaint us with. Who can comprehend the blessedness carried in those

words, Heirs of God, and joint-beirs with Jefus Cbrift ?..

:

Well

Well may it be said, It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but what we are waiting for is the Salvation of God.

waiting for it?

3. What is implied in hoping, and patiently 1. Having the heart fixt by faith on the salvation of God as real, tho' out of fight.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not feen, Heb. xi. 1. By this the people of God wait for his salvation, not as a mere probability, but as the greatest certainty. Eternal life is what God, who cannot lie, has promised.

2. A firm perfuafion, that the salvation of God will come at last, tho' for a time deferred.

Tho' I am in one world, and the happiness I expect in another; hope enters into that within the veil, and so proves an anchor to the foul both sure and stedfaft, enabling the heirs of heaven to hold out till they reach the kingdom they are tending to. He that has wrought them for the self-fame thing, is God; and having made them meet for heaven, he will not always keep them at so mournful a distance. How great soever be the salvation I am waiting for; the price of it is paid; my Lord and head is in poffeffion; the royal word is past; and all the promises are yea and amen in Christ ; and thro' whatever difficulties the heirs of heaven are to pass, they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto falvation. Faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it.

3. Expecting God's salvation in his time; de

pending upon his wisdom to chuse the fittest sea

fon,

1

fon, and his faithfulness to remember us when that season comes.

Tho' the salvation be great, I am waiting for, and the evils many I am here liable to, I would not make a finful haste. The husbandman waiteth, and hath long patience for the early and latter rain to ripen the fruits of the earth; and why should not I wait for a much better harvest ?

4. Serious care to be found ready whenever called to enter upon the falvation of God we have been waiting for.

This is the temper here recommended. 5. In what respects may it be said to be good, thus to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God?

1. 'Tis good, as it redounds to God's glory; as 'tis a teftimony to his power and grace, as what bears us up during our stay in this world, and fully provides for our complete blessedness.

2. As it may encourage others to put in for a share in the salvation of God; by the hope of which we are born up amidst the difficulties of the present state, and enabled patiently to wait for the falvation of God in a better.

3. As it will be comfortable to ourselves, difpoling us to meet the will of God, in a becoming manner: When our heavenly father shall call, faying, "Come up hither," to be ready to step forth, and answer, " I have waited for thy fal"vation, O Lord. Blessed is that servant, who, "when his Lord cometh, shall be found so