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

3. What is implied in hoping, and patiently waiting for it?

1. Having the heart fixt by faith on the falvation of God as real, tho' out of fight.

Faith is the fubftance 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 promifed.

2. A firm perfuafion, that the falvation of God will come at laft, 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 fo proves an anchor to the foul both fure and ftedfaft, enabling the heirs of heaven to hold out till they reach the kingdom they are tending to. He that has wrought them for the felf-fame thing, is God; and having made them meet for heaven, he will not always keep them at fo mournful a distance. How great foever be the falvation I am waiting for; the price of it is paid; my Lord and head is in poffeffion; the royal word is paft; and all the promifes are yea and amen in Chrift; 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 promifed, who also will do it.

3. Expecting God's falvation in his time; depending upon his wisdom to chufe the fitteft fea

fon,

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

Tho' the falvation be great, I am waiting for, and the evils many I am here liable to, I would not make a finful hafte. The husbandman waiteth, and hath long patience for the early and latter rain to ripen the fruits of the earth; and why fhould 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 refpects may it be faid to be good, thus to hope and quietly wait for the falvation of God?

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

2. As it may encourage others to put in for a fhare in the falvation of God; by the hope of which we are born up amidst the difficulties of the present ftate, 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 fhall call, faying, "Come up hither," to be ready to step forth, and answer, "I have waited for thy falvation, O Lord. Bleffed is that servant, who, "when his Lord cometh, fhall be found fo

I.

APPLICATION.

1. Does every one of God's people fay from his foul, the Lord is my portion, hence learn that real religion is an inward thing; and the power of it lies in what paffes between heaven and the heart, in transactions that only God and the foul can be witnesses to.

2. Does every one that comes into the number of the people of God fay from his foul, The Lord is my Portion, Of what importance is it to enquire what is the language, the fenfe, of my foul? Do I join with the multitude in saying, who will fhew us any good? or renouncing all this world, look to God as infinitely better, faying, This is my reft for ever, by this will I abide, for I have chofen it.

3. How great and amiable is the change that grace hath made on every faint, in leading him to take up the language of the text as his own, The Lord is my portion; and thereupon to hope, and quietly wait, for his falvation.

you

4. If have chofen God for your portion, living and dying, hope in him as fuch. Be ye followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promifes: And may their God be yours, and fo your guide to the death, and then receive you to glory, in which you may dwell with him, and one another for ever.

The Lord is my portion, therefore would I hope in him, and go to him as fuch, taking my eternal farewell of this world, as one that is removing from a foreign country, and going home

to

to God, to see the salvation I have been waiting

for.

'Tis indeed a great trial to have foul and body parted, the body to be lodged in the grave, and the foul to remove to a world that I never faw. But as God is my portion, I truft and rely upon him to receive my departing fpirit, and watch over my fleeping duft, and at laft raise it again in a far better state, that it may be fit for the perfected foul to inhabit in that world where the compleat happiness of his people is reserved. The Lord is my portion, faith my foul, therefore will I hope in him. But how may it be known when this is faid in truth?

(1.) Where any fay in truth, The Lord is my portion, they have been fo far fenfible of his worth, and their own need of him, as to be incapable of being fatisfied without him, or taking up with any thing else?

(2.) The foul that has faid, The Lord is his portion, has entered into covenant with him.

Indeed this is the faying by which he becomes the portion of any By our accepting him as offered, and yielding to his demand, and this in a manner fuitable to the folemn tranfaction. Ezek. xvi. 8. I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becameft mine. And at the fame time, by his free donation, he becomes the portion of his people, allowing their claim to him as theirs.

The foul that has feen the vanity of the world, and the happiness offered him in God, is thereupon led to fay, O Lord, as drawn by thy grace, defires work towards thee, my heart I place upon thee, I believe, I feel that thou only canft

my

be my portion and reft; and as in thy fon thou offereft to be so, with adoring thankfulness I close with that offer, chufe thee to be mine, and yield myself to thee as thine, with a refolution never to change, never go back.

3. Where the foul fays, The Lord is my portion, it loves him, above all, or with a fuperlative affection.

Tho' alas (cries fuch a one) I love thee not as I would, yet looking upon thee as my portion, I defire to love thee: I love to love thee: And feek no greater happiness than perfect endless mutual love. I hate myself for loving thee no more, accounting no want, deformity, fhame, or pain, fo great or grievous a calamity as want of love to God, that I fee fo much reafon for, and have so many motives and obligations to.

4. The foul that faith, The Lord is my portion, values communion with him more than any fenfible enjoyment, and restlessly labours after it, where it is wont to be vouchfafed: Thinks with pleasure of the place and feasons where any thing of this was experienced, and cannot but be concerned, when deprived of fuch advantages, and long to be restored.

5. The foul that faith, The Lord is my portion, can't but delight and rejoice, fo far as apprehended to be fo, and is greatly thankful for the direction and grace that inclined and enabled him to make the happy choice which he would not now exchange for all the world, faying, the lines are pleasantly fallen to me, yea I have a goodly heritage.

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