WAITING ON GOD. 367 or lament with me. Thus, I have waited, is as much as, '" I have diligently, with intenseness of soul, mind, will and affections, looked unto God, in earnest expectation of that from him which I stand in need of; and which must come forth from the forgiveness that is with him." I have, saith he, waited for, or expected Jehovah; ho uses the same name of God in his expectation, that he first fixes on in his application to him. It is not this or that means, nor this or that assistance, but it is Jehovah himself that he expects and waits for. It is Jehovah himself that must satisfy the soul : his favor and loving- kindness, and what flows from them. If he come not himself, if he give not himself, nothing else will relieve. " .My soul dole wail," or expect ; it is no outward du- ty I am engaged in, no lip-labor, no bodily work, no formal, cold, careless performance of a duty : no, " my soul doth wait;" it is soul-work, heart -work; I wait, I wait with my whole soul. "In his word do I hope," or wait. There is no diffi- culty in these words; the word used (in the Hebrew) signifies " to hope, expect, endure and sustain, with care, solicitousness and endeavors." Hence the Septu- agint have rendered the word, " I have sustained and waited with patience;" and this on the word: he sus- tained his soul with the word of promise, that it should not utterly faint. Seeing he had made a discovery of grace and forgiveness, though yet at a great distance; he had a sight of land, though he was yet in a storm at sea; and therefore so encourages himself, or his soul, that he does not despond. But yet all this reaches not the inten.seness of the
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