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What is the connection between godliness and patience? In this excerpt from , the Puritan minister Thomas Watson (1620–1686) examines what it means to be a patient and godly man: “Ye have heard of the patience of Job” (Jas. 5:11).Patience is a star which shines in a dark night. There is a twofold patience: I. Patience in waiting If a godly man does not obtain his desire immediately, he will wait till the mercy is ripe: ‘My soul waiteth for the Lord’ (Psa. 130:6). There is good reason why God should have the timing of our mercies: ‘I the Lord will hasten it in his time’ (Isa. 60:22). Deliverance may delay beyond our time, but it will not delay beyond God’s time. Why should we not wait patiently for God? We are servants; it becomes servants to be in a waiting posture. We wait for everything else; we wait for the fire till it burns; we wait for the seed till it grows (Jas. 5:7). Why cannot we wait for God? God has waited for us (Isa. 30:18). Did he not wait for our repentance? How often did he come year after year before he found fruit? Did God wait for us, and cannot we wait for him? A godly man is content to await God’s leisure; though the vision is delayed, he will wait for it (Hab. 2:3). 2. Patience in bearing trials This patience is twofold: (a) Either in regard to man, when we bear injuries without revenging, or (b) in regard to God, when we bear his hand without repining. A good man will not only do God’s will, but bear his will: ‘I will bear the indignation of the Lord’ (Mic. 7:9). This patient bearing of God’s will is not: (i) A stoical apathy; patience is not insensitivity under God’s hand; we ought to be sensitive. (ii) Enforced patience, to bear a thing because we cannot help it, which (as Erasmus said) is rather necessity than patience. But patience is a cheerful submission of our will to God: ‘The will of the Lord be done’ (Acts 21:14). A godly man acquiesces in what God does, as being not only good but best for himself. The great quarrel between God and us is, Whose will shall stand? Now the regenerate will falls in with the will of God. There are four things opposite to this patient frame of soul: (a) Disqu

The Word is a spiritual mirror through which we may see our own hearts.“O how love I your law.” (Psa. 119:97) Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden set with ornaments and flowers. A godly man delights to walk in this garden and sweetly solace himself. He loves every branch and part of the Word: 1. He loves the counselling part of the Word, as it is a directory and rule of life. The Word is the direction sign which points us to our duty. It contains in it things to be believed and practiced. A godly man loves the directions of the Word. 2. He loves the threatening part of the Word. The Scripture is like the Garden of Eden: as it has a tree of life in it, so it has a flaming sword at its gates. This is the threatening of the Word. It flashes fire in the face of every person who goes on obstinately in wickedness. “God will wound the head of His enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.” (Psa. 68:21). The Word gives no indulgence to evil. It will not let a man halt half-way between God and sin. The true mother would not let the child be divided (I Kings 3:26), and God will not have the heart divided. The Word thunders out threats against the very appearance of evil. It is like that flying scroll full of curses (Zech. 5:1). A godly man loves the menaces of the Word. He knows there is love in every threat. God would not have us perish; he therefore mercifully threatens us, so that he may scare us from sin. God’s threats are like the buoy, which shows the rocks in the sea and threatens death to such as come near. The threat is a curbing bit to check us, so that we may not run in full career to hell. There is mercy in every threat. 3. He loves the consolatory part of the Word - the promises. He goes feeding on these as Samson went on his way eating the honeycomb (Judges 14:8,9). The promises are all marrow and sweetness. They are reviving to us when we are fainting; they are the conduits of the water of life. “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” (Psa. 94:19). The promises were David’s harp to drive away sad thoughts; they were the breast which gave him the milk of divine consolation. A godly man shows his love to the Word written: (a) By diligently reading it. The noble Bereans “searched the Scriptures daily” (Acts 17:11). Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures (Acts 18:12). The Word is

‘Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’ Exod 20:12. The commandments may be likened to Jacob’s ladder: the first table respects God, and is the top of the ladder that reaches to heaven; the second respects superiors and inferiors, and is the foot of the ladder that rests on the earth. By the first table, we walk religiously towards God; by the second, we walk religiously towards man. He cannot be good in the first table that is bad in the second. ‘Honour thy father and thy mother.’ In this we have a command, ‘honour thy father and thy mother;’ and, second, a reason for it, ‘That thy days may be long in the land.’ The command will chiefly be considered here, ‘Honour thy father.’ I. Father is of different kinds; as the political, the ancient, the spiritual, the domestic, and the natural. [1] The political father, the magistrate. He is the father of his country; he is to be an encourager of virtue, a punisher of vice, and a father to the widow and orphan. Such a father was Job. ‘I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not, I searched out.’ Job 29: 16. As magistrates are fathers, so especially the king, who is the head of magistrates, is a political father; he is placed as the sun among the lesser stars. The Scripture calls kings, ‘fathers.’ ‘Kings shall be thy nursing fathers.’ Isa 49: 23. They are to train up their subjects in piety, by good edicts and examples; and nurse them up in peace and plenty. Such nursing fathers were David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Constantine, and Theodosius. It is well for a people to have such nursing fathers, whose breasts milk comfort to their children. These fathers are to be honoured, for - (1) Their place deserves honour. God has set these political fathers to preserve order and harmony in a nation, and to prevent those state convulsions which otherwise might ensue. When ‘there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes.’ Judges 17: 6. It is a wonder that locusts have no king, yet they go forth by bands. (2) God has promoted kings, that they may promote justice. As they have a sword in their hand, to signify their power; so they have a sceptre, an emblem of justice. It is said of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, that he allotted one hour of the day to hear the complaints of those who were oppressed. Kings place judges as cherub