Patience

Therefore, to shut up all : let us now apply, and bend our selves to this one thing; to get into such a temper of soul, as that we may find, and feel we need patience to wait for the? blessedness of heaven* If we do not sensibly need patience 4 , we are dead, there is no life in us. If we live that life that tends towards God, and will end in eternal life, that life will have sense belonging to it, and that sense will make us feel our need of patience ; we shall wait, not like stupid stocks, but like obedient children, And when we see this to be the genuine temper of a Christian spirit, how uneasy should it be to us, not to be able to say, blessed be God, it is our temper ! Which, if we do find, our own sense not letting us doubt, that upon the mentioned account, we need patience ; our next care must be, that we have it; which will not exclude our feeling the need of it. For when we find, that through the mercy of God, in some competent measure, we have it, our sense of the need of it, will not cease, that is, we shall never account that we have it as an unnecessary, or needless thing. We shall, indeed, truly judge, with just gratitude, that we do not altogether want
it
; but shall apprehend we need it still, as that we cannot be without. Yea, and the more we have of it, and are under its dominion, and possessive power, the more we shall apprehend its value and excellency; and how needful it is to us. But that when we feel our need, we may not be destitute of it, ought to be our great, and very principal care.