At works of mercy he is very ready and forward. When Daniel prayed for the deliverance of the people of Ifrael out of captivity, the angel tells him, that, at the beginning of his fupplication, the commandment came forth, to bring him a promife of their deliverance. The mercy of God, many times, prevents our prayers, and out-runs our wishes and defires: but when he comes to affliction, he takes time to do it; he paffeth by many provocations, and waits long in expectation, that, by our repentance, he will prevent his judgments: He hearkened and heard, faith God, in the Prophet Jeremiah, but they pake not right; no man repented him of his wickedness, faying, what have I done? He is reprefented as waiting and liftening, to hear if any penitent word would drop from them; he gives the finner time to repent and reflect upon his actions, and to confider what he hath done, and space to reafon himself into repentance. For this reafon the judgments of God do often follow the fins of men at a great diftance; otherwife he could cafily make them mend their pace, and confume us in a moment.

3. When he goes about this work, he does it with much reluctance; Hofea xi. 8. How fhall 1 give thee up, Ephraim? how Jhall I deliver thee, Ifrael? Mine heart is turned within me, and my repentings are kindled together. He is reprefented as making many effays and offers before he came to it: Ffal. cvi. 26. Many a time lifted he up his hand in the wilderness to deftroy them. He made, as if he would do it, and let fall his hand again, as if he could not find in his heart to be fo fevere. God with-holds his judgments till he is weary of holding in, as the expreffion is, Jer. vi. 11. till he can forbear no longer; Jer. xliv. 22. So that the Lord could no longer bear, becaufe of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed.

4. God is eafily prevailed upon not to punish. When he feemed refolved upon it to deftroy the murmuring Ifraelites, yet how often, at the interceffion of Mofes, did he turn away his wrath? That he will accept of very low terms to fpare a very wicked people, appears by the inftance of Sodom, where, if there had been but ten righteous perfons, he would not have deftroyed them

for

for the ten's fake. Yea, when his truth feemed to have béen pawned, at least in the apprehenfion of his Prophet, yet even then repentance took him off, as in the cafe of Nineveh. Nay, how glad is he to be thus prevented! with what joy does he tell the Prophet the news of Ahab's humiliation! Seeft thou how Ahab humbleth himself? Because he humbleth himself, I will not bring the evil in his days.

5. When he punifheth, he does it very feldom rigoroully, and to extremity, not fo much as we deferve; Pfal. ciii. 10. He hath not dealt with us after our fins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, nor fo much as he can. He doth not let loose the fierceness of his anger, nor pour forth all his wrath. Pfal. Ixxviii. 38. Being full of compaffion, he forgave their iniquity, and deftroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not fir up all his wrath.

6. After he hath begun to punish, and is engaged the work, he is not hard to be taken off.

There is a famous inftance of this, 2 Sam. xxiv. when God had fent three days peftilence upon Ifrael, for David's fin in numbering the people, and, at the end of the third day, the angel of the Lord had itretched forth his hand over Jerufalem, to destroy it; upon the prayer of David, it is faid, that the Lord repented of the evil, and faid to the angel that deftroyed, it is enough; Nay now thine hand. Nay, fo ready is God to be taken off from this work, that he fets a high value upon those who ftand in the gap to turn away his wrath; Numb. XXV. 11. 12. 13. Phinehas the fan of Eleazar, the fon of Aaron the Priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Ifrael, (while he was zealous for my fake among them) that I confumed not the children of Ifrael in my jealoufy. Wherefore fay, behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace. And he fhall have it, and his feed af ter him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Ifrael. That which God values in this action of Phinehas, next to his zeal for him, is, that he turned away his wrath, and made an atonement for the children of Ifrael.

V. And

V. And lastly, The patience of God will yet appear with farther advantage, if we confider fome eminent and remarkable instances of it; which are so much the more confiderable, because they are inftances not only of God's patience extended to a long time, but to a great many perfons; The long-fuffering of God waited in the days of Noah upon the whole world, as is probably conjectured, for the fpace of an hundred and twenty years. God bore with the people of Ifrael in the wilderness, after they had tempted him ten times, for the space of forty years; Acts xiii. 18. And about the time of forty years Suffered be their manners in the wilderness. And this inftance of God's patience will be the more remarkable, if we compare it with the great impatience of that people; if they did but want flesh or water, they were out of patience with God: when Mofes was in the mount with God but forty days, they prefently fall to make new Gods; they had not the patience of forty days, and yet

od bore their manners forty years. God had fpared Nineveh for fome ages; and when his patience was even expired, and he seems to have past a final fentence upon it, yet he grants a reprieve for forty days, that they might fue out their pardon in that time: and they did fo; they turned from their evil ways, and God turned from the evil he faid he would do them, and he did it not.

But the most remarkable inftance of God's long-fuffering is to the Jews, if we confider it. with all the circumftances of it; after they had rejected the Son of God, notwithstanding the purity of his doctrine, and the power of his miracles; after they had unjustly condemned, and cruelly murdered the Lord of life, yet the patience of God refpited the ruin of that people forty

years.

Befides all thefe, there are many inftances of God's patience to particular perfons: but it were endless to enumerate these; every one of us may be an instance to ourfelves of God's long-fuffering.

I shall only add, as a farther advantage to fet off the patience of God to finners, that his forbearance is fo great, that he hath been complained of for it by his own fervants. Job, who was to patient a man himself thought much at it; Job xxi. 7. 8. Wherefore do the

wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their feed is eftablished in their fight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Jonah challengeth God for it, chap. iv. 2. Was not this my faying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I know that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, flow to anger, &c. Jonah had obferved God to be fo prone to this, that he was loth to be fent upon his message, left God fhould difcredit his Prophet, in not being fo good, fhall I fay, fo fevere as his word.

I have done with the first thing I proposed to speak to, viz. the great patience and long-fuffering of God to mankind.

SERMON

CXLIX.

The patience of God.

2 PET. iii. 9.

The Lord is not flack concerning his promife, (as fome men count flackness) but is long-fuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perifh, but that all fhould come to repentance.

I

The fecond fermon on this text.

Have made entrance into thefe words; in the handling of which, I propofed to do these three things:

First, To confider the patience and long-fuffering of God, as it is an attribute and perfection of the divine nature; God is long-fuffering to us-ward.

Secondly, To fhew, that the patience of God, and the delay of his judgment, is no juft ground why finners fhould hope for impunity; God is not flack concerning his promife, as fome men count fläckness.

Thirdly, To confider the true reafon of God's patience and long-fuffering towards mankind; He is long

Suffer

Suffering to us-ward, not willing that any fhould perish, but that all fhould come to repentance. I have already spoken to the

First of thefe, namely, The patience and long-fuffering of God, as it is an attribute and perfection of the divine nature. I proceed now to the

Second thing I propofed, namely, To fhew, that the patience of God, and the delay of judgment, is no juft. ground why finners fhould hope for impunity; God is not flack concerning his promife, as fome men count flacknefs: that is, as the fcoffers, here mentioned by the Apoftle, did ignorantly and maliciously reafon, that be-. caufe our Lord delayed his coming to judgment fo long, therefore he would never come.

There was, indeed, fome pretence for this objection, because the Chriftians did generally apprehend that the day of judgment was very near, and that it would immediately follow the deftruction of Jerufalem; and it feems, the difciples themselves, were of that perfuafion before our Saviour's death; when our Saviour, difcourfing to them of the destruction of the temple, they put thefe two queftions to him, Matth. xxiv. 3. And as he fat upon the mount of Olives, the difciples came unto him privately, faying, tell us, when fhall these things be? and what fhall be the fign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? When fhall these things be? that is, the things he had been fpeaking of immediately before, viz. the deftruction of Jerufalem, and the diffolution of the temple; that is plainly the meaning of the firft queftion; to which they fubjoined another, And what fhall be the fign of thy coming? that is, to judgment; and of the end of the world? which, in all probability, was added to the former, because they supposed that the one was prefently to follow the other; and therefore the fame anfwer would serve them both and it appears by our Saviour's an fwer, that he was not concerned to rectify them in this miftake, which might be of good ufe to them, both to make them more zealous to propagate the gospel, fince there was like to be fo little time for it, and likewife to wean their affections from this world, which they thought to be fo near an end.

One