378 FORGIVENESS OF SIN. when it is duly performed ; namely, patience and perse- verance. By the one, men are kept to the length of God's time; by the other, they are preserved to the ex- tent of their own duty. And this is what was laid down in the third proposi- tion drawn from the words; namely, That continuance in watching until God appears to the soul, is necessary, as that without which wecannot attain what we look af- ter ; and prevailing, as that wherein we shall never fail. God is not to be limited, nor his time prescribed to him. We know our way, and the end of our journey ; but our stations of especial rest we must wait for at his mouth, as the people did in the wilderness. When David comes to God in his great distress he says, "O Lord, thou art my God, my times are in thine hand." Psalm 31 : 14, 15. His times of trouble and of peace, of darkness and of light, he acknowledged to be in the hand and at the disposal of God; so that it was his duty to wait His time and season for his share and por- tion in them. During this state the soul meets with much opposi- tion and many difficulties and perplexities, especially if its darkness be of long continuance : as with some it abides manyyears, with some all the days of their lives. Their hope being hereby deferred, makes their hearts sick, and their spirits often faint ; and this fainting is a. defeat in waiting, for want of perseverance and conti- nuance frustrates the end. So David, " I had fainted un- less I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord." Psalm 27 : 13. Had I not received support by faith, I had fainted. What was this fainting ? It was a relin-. quishment of waiting on God, as he manifests by the
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