172 Of Patience. SERM. indifference and neglect, has made good ad-. VII. vances towards patience, and it will naturally '-'' be added to his temperance. Let me obferve this farther by way of in- troduction, that the virtue which is the fubjeft of my prefentdifcourfe, is very much celebrated by the facred writers of the New Teftament; fcarcely will we meet with any defcription of the effence of chriftianity, or the neceffary preparation for heaven, which doth not ex- prefsly take it in, as it is always underftood. * That ye be not slothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises ; where you fee it is joined with faith, as of equal neceffity, and declared to be the way by which the faints attain to the inheritance of the promifes ; f St. yohn de- fcribes himfelf as the brother of chriftians, to whom he writes, and their companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of 7efus Chr ; which thews that patience is a neceffary qualification of Chrift's faithful fubjeL`Is, and without it we cannot be in his kingdom. Efpecially the doctrine of St. James on this point is very clear, II But let patience have her perfed work, that ye may perfeEl and entire, wanting nothing. It Tíeb. vi, la. t Rev. i. 9. U jam, í. 4.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=