2. There is a longing or a desirous expectation : 2 Peter iii. 12, ' Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.' It is good to observe how differently this coming of Christ is entertained in the world ; it is questioned by the atheist, it is dreaded by the wicked and impenitent, but it is longingly expected by the godly.
[1.] For the first sort: 2 Peter iii. 3, 4, ' There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying. Where is the promise of his coming?' They would eternally enjoy the plea- sures of the present world, and therefore labour to dash all thoughts of this great day out of their hearts, and take up all obvious preju- dices to smother the belief of it : they would be glad in their hearts to hear such news that Christ would never come. Now, their wishes do easily commence into opinion. Christ's coming is the burden and torment they would willingly get rid of; and men readily believe what they earnestly desire.
[2.] The second sort. It is dreaded by the wicked and impenitent. And therefore hated and abhorred by them. At the mention of it Felix trembled, Acts xxiv. 25. There is reason for it, for Christ comes to them as a terrible judge. In scripture his coming is set forth by light, and sometimes by fire. Light is comfortable, but fire dreadful : 2 Thes. i. 8, ' He shall come in flames of fire to render ven- geance to them that obey not the gospel.' But —
[3.] To the godly it is not matter of terror, but delight ; not like the handwriting on the wall to Belshazzar, but like comfortable tidings to one that expects news from far ; they long for it, and would hasten it if they might have their desire : Cant. viii. 14, ' Make haste, my beloved, and be like a young hart or roe upon the mountains of spices.' Christ is not slack, but the church's affections are strong, therefore she saith, Make haste. So Rev. xxii. 20, Christ saith, 'I come;' and the church, like a quick echo, takes the words out of his mouth, 'Even so, come. Lord Jesus, come quickly.' Christ's voice and the church's voice are unisons. You will say this is the desire of the church in general ; but doth every particular believer so desire it ?
248 THE SEVENTH SERMON. [2 ThES. III. 5.
I answer — Tlie part follows the reason of the whole, the same Spirit is in all the faitiilul ; the Spirit in the hriJe says come ; the Holy Ghost in necessary things works uniformly in all the saints, therefore he breeds tliis desire in them. The meanest, the weakest, even those that tremble at their own unpreparedness, have some inclination that way. There may be a drowsiness and indisposition, but no total ex- tinction of the desire of meeting with Christ.
3. There is waiting ; and here it is expressed by its adjunct, ' patient waiting ; ' for ])atient waiting is an act of hope, as well as longing ex- pectation : 1 Thes. i. 3, ' Knowing,' saith he, ' your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope.' Faith, or a sound belief of things, will break out into practice ; therefore the work of faith, love, will put us upon labour, and hope produces patience. There is a threefold patience spoken of in scripture ; all the branches are near kin, for they are all begotten by hope.
[1.] The hearing jxUience ; which is a constancy in adversity, or a perseverance in our duty notwithstanding the difficulties and trials that we meet with in our passage to heaven : Heb. vi. 12, ' Be ye followers of them who, through faith and patience, have inherited the promises.' As we cannot inherit the promises without faith, so not without patience ; for our obedience and fidelity to Christ requires not only labour and great pains, but courage and constancy to suffer as well as to do : Heb. x. 36, ' Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God you might inherit the promise.' A child of God cannot be without patience, because he must reckon for troubles and molestations. We have indeed our calms as well as our storms, many intermissions ; but at other times God will exercise us, and show us our fidelity is not sufficiently tried in doing good, but before we go to heaven we must sometimes suffer evil. God hath something to do by us, and something to do with us : we must be prepared for both, to endure all things, and readily and willingly suffer the greatest evil, rather than commit the least sin, that so at length we may be accepted in the judgment.
[2.] There is a xm'ding iMiiencc, to wait God's leisure. The evil is present, the good is absent ; now we long for the good as well as bear the evil: Rom. viii. 2.'3, ' But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' This is the work of patience, to wait ; to refer it to the good pleasure of God when our warfare shall be ac- complished and our troubles at an end, and our final deliverance come about. The time cannot be long, for what are a few years to eter- nity ? Tiiis waiting patience is delivered to us under the similitude of an husbandman, James v. 7, who ' waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, till he receive the early and the latter rain.' The husbandman, that hath laid out all his substance in seed-corn, cannot hope for a present harvest, or that he should re- ceive the crop as soon as the seed is cast into the ground. No ; it must . lie a while there, it nuist endure all weathers before it can spring up in the blade and ear, and ripen, and be fit to be reaped. So though we venture all upon our everlasting ho})es, yet we must expect our season, till we see the fruit and recompense of it. This is the waiting patience.