God punisheth, it is of his great mercy and patience that we are not confumed, and because his compaffions fail not. I proceed to the

II. Thing I propofed, which was to fhew, that patience is a perfection of the divine nature.

It is not neceffarily due to us, but is due to the perfection of the divine nature, and effentially belongs to it it is a principal branch of God's goodnefs, which is the highest and most glorious perfection of all other: and therefore we always find it in fcripture, in the company of God's milder and fweeter attributes. When God would give the most perfect defcription of himself, and, as he fays to Mofes, make all his glory to pass before us, he ufually does it by thofe attributes which declare his goodness; and patience is always one of them. Exod. xxxiv. 6. The Lord paffed by before Mofes, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-fuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Pfal. lxxxvi. 15. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compaffion, and gracious, long-fuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Pfal. ciii. 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, flow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. And the fame you find, Pfal. cxlv. 8. Jonah iv. 2. Joel iii. 13.

Sometimes, indeed, you find a feverer attribute added to thefe, as that he will by no means clear the guilty, Exod. xxxiv. 7. But it is always put in the laft place; to declare to us, that God's goodnefs, and mercy, and patience are his firft and primary perfections: and it is only when thefe fail, and have no effect upon us, but are abused by us, to the encouragement of ourselves in an impenitent courfe, that his juftice takes place.

Nay, even among men, it is esteemed a perfection, to be able to forbear and to restrain our anger; paffion is impotency and folly, but patience is power and wifdom. Prov. xiv. 29. He that is flow to wrath, is of great understanding; but he that is hafty of fpirit, exalteth folly. Prov. xvi. 32. He that is flow to anger, is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his fpirit, than he that taketh a city. Rom. xii. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. To be impatient, is to be overcome; but, to forbear anger and revenge, is vi&tory. Patience is an argument of great power and com

VOL. VII.

G

mand

Ser. 148. mand of ourselves; and therefore God himself, who is the most powerful being, is flow to anger, and of infinite patience; and nothing doth more declare the power of God than his patience; that when he is provoked by fuch vile and defpicable creatures as we are, he can with-hold his hand from destroying us.

This is the argument which Mofes ufeth, Numb. xiv. 17. 18. that the power of God doth fo eminently appear in his patience; And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou haft spoken, faying, the Lord is gracious, and long-fuffering. And yet, power, where it is not reftrained by wisdom and goodness, is a great temptation to anger; because, where there is power, there is fomething to back it, and make it good: and therefore the Pfalmift doth recommend and fet off the patience of God, from the confideration of his power; Pfal. vii. 11. God is strong, and patient; God is provoked every day: God is strong, and therefore patient; or, he is infinitely patient, notwithstanding his almighty power to revenge the daily provocations of his crea

tures.

Among men, anger and weakness commonly go together; but they are ill matched, as is excellently obferved by the fon of Sirach, Ecclus. x. 18. Pride was not made for man, nor furious anger for him that is born of a woman. So that anger and impatience is every where unreasonable: where there is power, impatience is below it, and a thing too mean for omnipotency; and where there wants power, anger is above it: it is too much for a weak and impotent creature to be angry. Where there is power, anger is needlefs, and · of no ufe; and where there is no power, it is vain, and to no purpose. So that patience is every where sa perfection, both in God and man. I proceed to the

III. Thing I propofed, which was, to give fome proof and demonftration of the great patience and long-fuffering of God to mankind. And this will evidently appear, if we confider thefe two things:

1. How men deal with God.

2. How, notwithstanding this, God deals with them. ift, How men deal with God. Every day we highly offend and provoke him, we grieve and weary him with

Our

our iniquities, as the expreffion is in the Prophet, Ifa. xliii. 24. Thou haft made me to serve with thy fins; thou haft wearied me with thine iniquities. Every fin that we commit, is an affront to the divine Majesty, and a contempt of his authority: by denying fubmiffion to his laws, we queftion his omniprefence, and fay, Doth God. fee? and is there knowledge in the Moft High? Or, if we acknowledge his omniprefence, and that he regards. what we do, the provocation is ftill the greater; because then we affront him to his face; we dare his justice, and: challenge his omnipotency, and provoke the Lord to jea loufy, as if we were stronger than he.

Is not God patient, when the whole world lies in wickedness, and the earth is overspread with violence, and is full of the habitations of cruelty? when he, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and is fo highly offended at the fins of men, hath yet the patience to look upon them that deal treacherously, and to hold his peace? when the wicked perfecutes and devours the man that is mare righteous than he? when even that part of the world which profeffeth the name of God and Christ, do, by their vile and abominable lives, blafpheme that holy and glorious name whereby they are called?

Every moment God hath greater injuries done to him, and more affronts put upon him, than were ever offered to all the fons of men: and, furely, provocations are, trials of patience, efpecially when they are fo numerous, and fo heinous; for, if offences rife according to the dignity of the perfon injured, and the meannefs of him that doth the injury; then no offences are fo great as those that are committed by men against God, no affronts like to those which are offered to the divine Majefty by the continual provocations of his creatures. And is not this an argument of God's patience, that the glorious Majefty of heaven fhould bear fuch multiplied indignities from fuch vile worms? that he, who is the former of all things, fhould endure his own creatures to rebel against him, and the work of his hands to ftrike at him? that he who is our great benefactor, fhould put up fuch affronts from thofe who depend upon his bounty, and are maintained at his charge? that he, in whofe hands our breath is, fhould fuffer men to breathe

out oaths, and curfes, and blafphemies against him? Surely these prove the patience of God to purpose, and are equally trials and arguments of it.

2dly, The patience of God will farther appear, if we confider how, notwithstanding all this, God deals with us. He is patient to the whole world, in that he doth not turn us out of being, and turn the wicked together into hell, with all the nations that forget God. He is patient to the greatest part of mankind, in that he makes but a few terrible examples of his juftice, that others may hear and fear, and take warning by them. He is patient to particular perfons, in that, notwithstanding our daily provocations, he prevents us daily with the bleffing of his goodnefs, prolonging our lives, and vouchfafing fo many favours to us, that, by this great goodnefs, we may be led to repentance.

But the patience of God will more illuftriously appear, if we confider thefe following particulars, which are fo many evidences and inftances of it.

I. That God is not obliged to fpare and forbear us at all. It is patience, that he doth not furprize us in the very act of fin, and let fly at us with a thunder-bolt fo foon as ever we have offended; that the wrath of God doth not fall upon the intemperate person, as it did upon the Ifraelites, while the meat and drink is yet in their mouths; that a man is not ftruck dead or mad whilst he is telling a lie; that the foul of the prophane and falfe fwearer does not expire with his oaths and perjuries.

II. That God fpares us, when it is in his power fo eafily to ruin us; when he can with one word command us out of being, and, by cutting afunder one little thread, let us drop into hell. If God were difpofed to severity, he could deal with us after another manner, and, as the expreffion is in the Prophet, eafe himfelf of his adverfaries, and be avenged of his enemies.

III. That God exercifeth this patience to finners, flagrante bello, while they are up in arms against him, and committing hoftilities upon him; he bears with us even when we are challenging his juftice to punish us, and provoking his power to deftroy us.

IV. That

IV. That he is so very flow and unwilling to punish, and to inflict his judgment upon us. As for eternal punishments, God defers them a long while, and by all proper ways and means endeavours to prevent them, and to bring us to repentance. And as for those temporal judgments which God inflicts upon finners, he carries himself fo, that we may plainly fee all the figns of unwillingness that can be; he tries to prevent them; he is loth to fet about this work; and when he does, it is with much reluctance; and then he is easily perfuaded and prevailed withal not to do it; and when he does. he does it not rigorously, and to extremity; and he is foon taken off, after he is engaged in it: all which are great inftances and evidences of his wonderful patience to finners.

1. God's unwillingness to punish, appears, in that he labours to prevent punishment; and that he may effectually do this, he endeavours to prevent fin, the meritorious caufe of God's judgments: to this end, he hath threatened it with fevere punishments, that the dread of them may make us afraid to offend; and if this will not do, he does not yet give us over, but gives us a space of repentance, and invites us earneftly to turn to him, and thereby to prevent his judgments; he expoftulates with finners, and reasons the cafe with them, as if he were more concerned not to punish, than they are not to be punished and thus, by his earneft defire of our repentance, he fhews how little he defires our ruin.

2. He is long before he goes about this work. Judgment is, in fcripture, called his ftrange work; as if he were not acquainted with it, and hardly knew how to go about it on the fudden. He is reprefented as not prepared for fuch a work; Deut. xxxii. 41. If I whet my glittering fword; as if the inftruments of punishment were not ready for us. Nay, by a strange kind of condefcenfion to our capacities, and to fet forth to us the patience of God, and his flownefs to wrath, after the manner of men, he is reprefented as keeping out of the way, that he may not be tempted to deftroy us; Exod xxxiii. 2. 3. where he tells Mofes; that he would fend an angel before them; for I will not go up in the midft of thee, left I confume thee in the way,