gage us to leave our fins, not to encourage us to continue in them.

Take heed then of abufing the mercy of God: we cannot provoke the justice of God more, than by prefuming upon his mercy. This is the time of God's mercy; ufe this opportunity: if thou neglectest it, a day of justice and vengeance is coming; Rom. ii. 4. 5. Defpifeft thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-fuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance? And treafureft up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God? Now is the manifeftation of God's mercy; but there is a time a-coming, when the righteous judgment of God will be revealed against thofe who abufe his mercy, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. To think that the goodness of God was intended for any other end than to take us off from fin, is a grofs and affected ignorance that will ruin us; and they who draw any conclufion from the mercy of God, which may harden them in their fins, they are fuch as the prophet fpeaks of, Ifa. xxvii. 11. A people of no understanding; therefore he that made them, will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them, will fhew them no favour. Mercy itself will rejoice in the ruin of those that abuse it, and it will aggravate their condemnation. There is no perfon towards whom God will be more feverely juft, than towards fuch. The juftice of God, exafperated and fet on by his injured and abufed mercy, like a razor fet in oil, will have the keener edge, and be the fharper for its smoothnefs. Those that have made the mercy of God their enemy, must expect the worst his juftice can do unto them.

SER

SERM O N CXLVIII.

The patience of God.

2 PET. iii. 9.

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

I

The firft fermon on this text.

N the beginning of this chapter the Apofle puts the Christians, to whom he writes, in mind of the predictions of the antient Prophets, and of the Apoftles of our Lord and Saviour, concerning the general judgment of the world, which, by many, and, perhaps, by the Apostles themfelves, had been thought to be very near, and that it would prefently follow the deftruction of Jerufalem; but he tells them, that, before that, there would arife a certain fect, or fort of men, that would deride the expectation of a future judgment, defigning, probably, the Carpocratians (a branch of that large fect of the Gnofticks) of whom St. Auftin exprefly fays, "That they denied the refurrection, and, confequently, a future judgment." Thefe St. Peter calls fcoffers, ver. 3. 4. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the laft days fcoffers, walking after their own lufts, and faying, where is the promife of his coming? The word is Tay fexia, which fignifies a declaration in general, whether it be by way of promife or threatening. What is become of that declaration of Chrift, fo frequently repeated in the gofpel, concerning his coming to judgment? for, fince the fathers fell asleep, or, faving that the Fathers are fallen afleep, except only that men die, and one generation fucceeds another, all things continue as they were from the creation of the world; that

is, the world continues ftill as it was from the beginning, and there is no fign of any fuch change and alteration as is foretold. To this, he anfwers two things:

1. That these scoffers, though they took themselves to be wits, did betray great ignorance, both of the condition of the world, and of the nature of God: they talked very ignorantly concerning the world, when they faid, all things continued as they were from the creation of it, when fo remarkable a change had already happened, as the destruction of it by water; and therefore the prediction concerning the deftruction of it by fire, before the great and terrible day of judgment, was no ways incredible. And they fhewed themselves likewife very ignorant of the perfection of the divine nature; to which, being eternally the fame, a thousand years, and one day, are all one and if God make good his word fome thoufands of years hence, it will make no fenfible difference concerning his eternal duration; it being no matter when a duration begins, which is never to have an end: ver. 8. Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. This, it feems, was a common faying among the Jews, to fignify, that to the eternity of God, no finite duration bears any proportion; and therefore, with regard to eternity, it is all one whether it be a thousand years, or one day. The Pfalmift hath an expreffion much to the fame purpofe, Pfal. xc. 4. For a thousand years in thy fight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night. And the fon of Sirach likewise, Ecclus. xviii. 10. As a drop of water to the fea, and as a grain of fand to the fea-fhore, fo are a thousand years to the days of eternity.

The like expreffion we meet with in Heathen writers. To the Gods no time is long, faith Pythagoras: and Plutarch, the whole space of man's life, to the Gods, is as nothing. And, in his excellent difcourfe of the flownefs of the divine vengeance, (the very argument St. Peter is here upon) he hath this paffage, "That a thou"fand, or ten thousand years, are but as an individual "point to an infinite duration." And therefore, when the judgment is to be eternal, the delay of it, though it were for a thousand years, is an objection of no force, a

gainst

gainst either the certainty, or the terror of it; for, to eternity, all time is equally fhort; and it matters not when the punishment of finners begins, if it fhall never have an end.

2. But, because the distance between the declaration of a future judgment, and the coming of it, though it be nothing to God, yet it seemed long to them; therefore he gives fuch an account of it, as doth not in the leaft impeach the truth and faithfulness of God, but is a clear argument and demonftration of his goodness. Ad, mitting what they faid to be true, that God delays judgment for a great while, yet this gives no ground to conclude that judgment will never be; but it fhews the great goodness of God to finners, that he gives them fo long a pace of repentance, that fo they may prevent the terror of that day, whenever it comes, and efcape that dreadful ruin, which will certainly overtake, fooner or later, all impenitent finners: The Lord is not flack concerning his promife; that is, as to the declaration which he hath made of a future judgment, es fome men count flackness; that is, as if the delay of judgment were an argument it would never come. This is a falfe inference from the delay of punishment, and an ill interpretation of the goodness of God to finners, who bears long with them, and delays judgment, on purpose to give men time to repent, and, by repentance, to prevent their own eternal ruin: God is not flack concerning his promife, as fome men count flackness; but is long-fuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all Should come to repentance. In the handling of these words, I fhall do these three things:

First, I fhall 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, I fhall fhew, that the patience of God, and the delay of judgment, is no juft ground why finners fhould hope for impunity, as the fcoffers, here foretold by the Apostle, argued, that because our Lord delayeth his coming to judgment fo long, therefore he would never come; God is not flack concerning his promife, as fome men count flackness.

Thirdly,

Thirdly, I will confider the true reafon of God's patience and long-fuffering towards mankind, which the Apoftle here gives; He is long-fuffering to us-ward, not willing that any fhould perish, but that all should come to repentance.

First, I will confider the patience and long-fuffering of God towards mankind, as it is an attribute and perfection of the divine nature, God is long-fuffering to usward. In the handling of this, I fhall do thefe three things:

1. I fhall fhew what is meant by the patience and long-fuffering of God.

2. That this is a perfection of the divine nature. 3. I fhall give fome proof and demonstration of the great patience and long-fuffering of God to mankind. I. What is meant by the patience and long-suffering of God.

The Hebrew word fignifies one that keeps his anger long, or that is long before he is angry. In the New Tellament it is fometimes expreffed by the word υπομονή, which fignifies God's forbearance, and patient waiting for our repentance; fometimes by the word dvon, which fignifies God's holding in his wrath, and reftraining himfelf from punishing; and fometimes by expaluuia, which fignifies the extent of his patience, his long-fuffering, and forbearing for a long time the punishment due to finners.

So that the patience of God is his goodness to finners, in deferring or moderating the punishment due to them for their fins; the deferring of deserved punishment in whole, or in part, which, if it be extended to a long time, it is properly his long-fuffering; and the moderating, as well as the deferring of the punishment due to fin, is an inftance likewife of God's patience; and not only the deferring and moderating of temporal punishment, but the adjourning of the eternal mifery of finners, is a principal inftance of God's patience; fo that the patience of God takes in all that fpace of repentance which God affords to finners in this life; nay, all temporal judg ments and afflictions which befal finners in this life, and are short of cutting them off, and turning them into hell, are comprehended in the patience of God. Whenever

God