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more excellent, and more difficult to obey in suffering, than to obey in doing.

Secondly, You cannot have a sure possession of your soul without patience; in your patience possess ye your souls, saith our Saviour, Luke xxi. 19. A man without patience, is not his own man: he has not power to rule over his own spirit, Prov. xxv. 28, nor yet of his own body. The tongue, hands, and feet of an impatient man will not be held in by reason. But he that is patient, enjoys himself, and has rule over his spirit, Prov. xvi. 32; no affliction can put him out of possession of himself.

Thirdly, There are many oppositions and hinderances in your Christian race and warfare, that without patience to suffer, and to wait, Rom. viii. 25, you cannot possibly bring forth good fruit to God, nor hold out your profession of Christianity to the end; but will decline, and give over before you have enjoyed the promise, Heb. x. 36. Therefore you are bid to run with patience the race that is set before you, Heb. xii. 1. And the good ground is said to bring forth fruit with patience, Luke viii. 15; and the faithful are said through faith and patience to inherit the promises, Heb. vi. 12.

Fourthly, Patience works experience, Rom. v. 5, without which no man can be an established Christian; this experience being of the highest use to confirm the soul of a Christian in the greatest difficulties. This must be said of the necessity, together with the benefit of patience, that you may love it, and may desire to have and show it.

(5.) Means to gain Christian patience under afflictions.

By what means you may attain it, follows:

First, Spend those passions on your lusts, which war in your members, which are exercised on other objects; fall out with them, and mortify them, Col. iii. 5; for nothing makes a man impatient, so much as his lusts do, both because they will never be satisfied, and it is death to a man to be crossed in them; and because the fulness of lusts causes a guilty conscience,