people. If he hath so rich a patience to exercise towards his enemies,
he hath a greater treasure to bestow upon his friends. Patience is the
first attribute which steps in for our salvation, and therefore called
“salvation” (2 Pet. iii. 15). Something else is therefore built upon
it, and intended by it, to those that believe. Those two letters of
his name, “a God keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity,
transgressions and sin,” follow the other letter of his long‑suffering
in the proclamation (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7). He is “slow to anger,” that
he may be merciful, that men may seek, and receive their pardon. If
he be long‑suffering, in order to be a pardoning God, he will not be
wanting in pardoning those who answer the design of his forbearance
of them. You would not have had sparing mercy to improve, if God
would have denied you saving mercy upon the improvement of his sparing
goodness. If he hath so much respect to his enemies that provoke him,
as to endure them with much long‑suffering, he will surely be very
kind to those that obey him, and conform to his will. If he hath much
long‑suffering to those that are “fitted for destruction” (Rom. ix.
22), he will have a muchness of mercy for those that are prepared for
glory by faith and repentance. {b516} It is but a natural conclusion a
gracious soul may make,――If God had not a mind to be appeased towards
me, he would not have had a mind to forbear me; but since he hath
forborne me, and given me a heart to see, and answer the true end of
that forbearance, I need not question, but that sparing mercy will end
in saving, since it finds that repentance springing up in me, which
that patience conducted me to.
2. His patience is a ground to trust in his promise. If his slowness to
anger be so great when his precept is slighted, his readiness to give
what he hath promised will be as great when his promise is believed. If
the provocations of them meet with such an unwillingness to punish them,
faith in him will meet with the choicest embraces from him. He was more
ready to make the promise of redemption after man’s apostasy, than to
execute the threatening of the law. He doth still witness a greater
willingness to give forth the fruits of the promise, than to pour out
the vials of his curses. His slowness to anger is an evidence still,
that he hath the same disposition, which is no slight cordial to faith
in his word.
3. It is a comfort in infirmities. If he were not patient, he could not
bear with so many peevishnesses and weaknesses in the hearts of his own.
If he be patient to the grosser sins of his enemies, he will be no less
to the lighter infirmities of his people. When the soul is a bruised
reed, that can emit no sound at all, or one very harsh and ungrateful,
he doth not break it in pieces, and fling it away in disdain, but waits
to see whether it will fully answer his pains, and be brought to a
better frame and sweeter note. He brings them not to account for every
slip, but, “as a father, spares his son that serves him” (Mal. iii. 17).
It is a comfort to us in our distracted services; for were it not for
this slowness to anger, he would stifle us in the midst of our prayers,
wherein there are as many foolish thoughts to disgust him, as there are
petitions to implore him. The patientest angels would hardly be able to
bear with the follies of good men in acts of worship.
_Use 3._ For exhortation.
1. Meditate often on the patience of God. The devil labors for
nothing more than to deface in us the consideration and memory of this
perfection. He is an envious creature; and since it hath reached out
itself to us and not to him, he envies God the glory of it, and man the
advantage of it: but God loves to have the volumes of it studied, and
daily turned over by us. We cannot without an inexcusable wilfulness
miss the thoughts of it, since it is visible in every bit of bread, and
breath of air in ourselves, and all about us.
(1.) The frequent consideration of his patience would render God
highly amiable to us. It is a more endearing argument than his mere
goodness; his goodness to us as creatures, endowing us with such
excellent faculties, furnishing us with such a commodious world, and
bestowing upon us so many attendants for our pleasure and service,
and giving us a lordship over his other works, deserves our affection:
but his patience to us as sinners, after we have merited the greatest
wrath, shows him to be of a sweeter disposition than creating goodness
to unoffending creatures; and, consequently, speaks a greater {b517}
love in him, and bespeaks a greater affection from us. His creating
goodness discovered the majesty of his Being, and the greatness of
his mind, but this the sweetness and tenderness of his nature. In this
patience he exceeds the mildness of all creatures to us; and therefore
should be enthroned in our affections above all other creatures. The
consideration of this would make us affect him for his nature as well
as for his benefits.
(2.) The consideration of his patience would make us frequent and
serious in the exercise of repentance. In its nature it leads to it,
and the consideration of it would engage us to it, and melt us in the
exercise of it. Could we deeply think of it without being touched with
a sense of the kindness of our forbearing Creditor and Governor? Could
we gaze upon it, nay, could we glance upon it, without relenting at
our offending one of so mild a nature, without being sensibly affected,
that he hath preserved us so long from being loaded with those chains
of darkness, under which the devils groan? This forbearance hath
good reason to make sin and sinners ashamed. That you are in being,
is not for want of advantages enough in his hand against you; many a
forfeiture you have made, and many an engagement you have broke; he
hath scarce met with any other dealing from us, than what had treachery
in it. Whatsoever our sincerity is, we have no reason to boast of it,
when we consider what mixtures there are in it, and what swarms of base
motions taint it. Hath he not lain pressed and groaning under our sins,
as a “cart is pressed with sheaves” (Amos ii. 13), when one shake of
himself, as Sampson, might have rid him of the burden, and dismissed us
in his fury into hell? If we should often ask our consciences why have
we done thus and thus against so mild a God, would not the reflection
on it put us to the blush? If men would consider, that such a time they
provoked God to his face, and yet not have felt his sword; such a time
they blasphemed him, and made a reproach of his name, and his thunder
did not stop their motion; such a time they fell into an abominable
brutishness, yet he kept the punishment of devils, the unclean spirits,
from reaching them; such a time he bore an open affront from them, when
they scoffed at his word, and he did not send a destruction, and laugh
at it: would not such a meditation work some strange kind of relentings
in men? What if we should consider, that we cannot do a sinful act
without the support of his concurring Providence? We cannot see, hear,
move, without his concourse. All creatures we use for our necessity or
pleasure, are supported by him in the very act of assisting to pleasure
us; and when we abuse those creatures against him, which he supports
for our use, how great is his patience to bear with us, that he doth
not annihilate those creatures, or at least embitter their use! What
issue could reasonably be expected from this consideration, but, “O
wretched man that I am, to serve myself of God’s power to affront him,
and of his long‑suffering to abuse him?” O infinite patience to employ
that power to preserve me, that might have been used to punish me! He
is my Creator, I could not have a being without him, and yet I offend
him! He is my Preserver, I cannot maintain my being without him, and
yet I affront him! Is this a {b518} worthy requital of God (Deut.
xxxii. 6), “Do you thus requite the Lord?” would be the heart‑breaking
reflection. How would it give men a fuller prospect of the depravation
of their nature than anything else; that their corruption should be so
deep and strong, that so much patience could not overcome it! It would
certainly make a man ashamed of his nature as well as his actions.
(3.) The consideration of his patience would make us resent more the
injuries done by others to God. A patient sufferer, though a deserving
sufferer, attracts the pity of men, that have a value for any virtue,
though clouded with a heap of vice. How much more should we have a
concern of God, who suffers so many abuses from others! and be grieved,
that so admirable a patience should be slighted by men, who solely live
by and under the daily influence of it! The impression of this would
make us take God’s part, as it is usual with men to take the part of
good dispositions that lie under oppression.
(4.) It would make us patient under God’s hand. His slowness to anger
and his forbearance is visible, in the very strokes we feel in this
life. We have no reason to murmur against him, who gives us so little
cause, and in the greatest afflictions gives us more occasion of
thankfulness than of repining. Did not slowness to the extremest anger
moderate every affliction, it had been a scorpion instead of a rod. We
have reason to bless Him, who, from his long‑suffering, sends temporal
sufferings, where eternal are justly due. (Ezra ix. 13), “Thou hast
punished us less than our iniquities do deserve.” His indulgences
towards us have been more than our corrections, and the length of his
patience hath exceeded the sharpness of his rod. Upon the account of
his long‑suffering, our mutinies against God have as little to excuse
them, as our sins against him have to deserve his forbearance. The
consideration of this would show us more reason to repine at our own
repinings, than at any of his smarter dealings; and the consideration
of this would make us submissive under the judgments we expect. His
undeserved patience hath been more than our merited judgments can
possibly be thought to be. If we fear the removal of the gospel for a
season, as we have reason to do, we should rather bless him, that by
his waiting patience, he hath continued it so long, than murmur, that
he threatens to take it away so late. He hath borne with us many a year,
since the light of it was rekindled, when our ancestors had but six
years’ of patience between the rise of Edward the Sixth, and the ascent
of Queen Mary, to the crown.
2. Exhortation is to admire and stand astonished at his patience, “and
bless him for it.” If you should have defiled your neighbor’s bed, or
sullied his reputation, or rifled his goods, would he have withheld
his vengeance, unless he had been too weak to execute it? We have done
worse to God than we can do to man, and yet he draws not that sword of
wrath out of the scabbard of his patience, to sheath it in our hearts.
It is not so much a wonder that any judgments are sent, as that there
are no more, and sharper. That the world shall be fired at last, is
not a thing so strange, as that fire doth not come down every day upon
some part of it. Had the disciples, that saw such excellent patterns of
mildness from their {b519} Master, and were so often urged to learn of
him that was lowly and meek, the government of the world, it had been
long since turned into ashes, since they were too forward to desire
him to open his magazine of judgments, and kindle a fire to consume
a Samaritan village, for a slight affront in comparison of what he
received from others, and afterwards from themselves in their forsaking
of him (Luke ix. 52‒54). We should admire and praise that here which
shall be praised in heaven; though patience shall cease as to its
exercise after the consummation of the world, it shall not cease from
receiving the acknowledgments of what it did, when it traversed the
stage of this earth. If the name of God be glorified, and acknowledged
in heaven, no question but this will also; since long‑suffering is one
of his Divine titles, a letter in his name, as well as “merciful, and
gracious, abundant in goodness and truth.” And there is good reason to
think that the patience exercised towards some, before converting grace
was ordered to seize upon them, will bear a great part in the anthems
of heaven. The greater his long‑suffering hath been to men, that lay
covered with their own dung, a long time before they were freed by
grace from their filth; the more admiringly and loudly they will cry up
his mercy to them, after they have passed the gulf, and see a deserved
hell at a distance from them, and many in that place of torment who
never had the tastes of so much forbearance. If mercy will be praised
there, that which began the alphabet of it, cannot be forgot. If Paul
speak so highly of it in a damping world, and under the pull‑backs
of a “body of death,” as he doth 1 Tim. i. 16, 17: “For this cause I
obtained mercy; that Christ might show forth all long‑suffering. Now
unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be
honor, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” No doubt, but he will have
a higher note for it, when he is surrounded with a heavenly flame, and
freed from all remains of dulness. Shall it be praised above, and have
we no notes for it here below? Admire Christ, too, who sued out your
reprieve upon the account of his merit. As mercy acts not upon any
but in Christ, so neither had patience borne with any but in Christ.
The pronouncing the arrest of judgment (Gen. viii. 21) was when “God
smelled a sweet savor from Noah’s sacrifice,” not from the beasts
offered, but the anti‑typical sacrifice represented. That we may be
raised to bless God for it, let us consider,
(1.) The multitude of our provocations. Though some have blacker
guilt than others, and deeper stains, yet let none wipe his mouth,
but rather imagine himself to have but little reason to bless it. Are
not all our offences as many as there have been minutes in our lives?
All the moments of our continuance in the world have been moments of
his patience and our ingratitude. Adam was punished for one sin, Moses
excluded Canaan for a passionate unbelieving word. Ananias and Sapphira
lost their lives for one sin against the Holy Ghost. One sin sullied
the beauty of the world, defaced the works of God, and cracked heaven
and earth in pieces, had not infinite satisfaction been proposed to
the provoked Justice by the Redeemer; and not one sin committed, but
is of the same {b520} venomous nature. How many of those contradictions
against himself hath he borne with! Had we been only unprofitable to
him, his forbearance of us had been miraculous; but how much doth it
exceed a miracle, and lift itself above the meanness of a conjunction
with such an epithet, since we have been provoking! Had there been
no more than our impudent or careless rushings into his presence in
worship; had they been only sins of omission, and sins of ignorance,
it had been enough to have put a stand to any further operations of
this perfection towards us. But add to those, sins of commission,
sins against knowledge, sins against spiritual motions, sins against
repeated resolutions, and pressing admonitions, the neglects of all
the opportunities of repentance; put them all together, and we can
as little recount them, as the sands on the sea‑shore. But what, do
I only speak of particular men? View the whole world, and if our own
iniquities render it an amazing patience, what a mighty supply will be
made to it in all the numerous and weighty provocations, under which
he hath continued the world for so many revolutions of years and ages!
Have not all those pressed into his presence with a loud cry, and
demanded a sentence from justice? yet hath not the Judge been overcome
by the importunity of our sins? Were the devils punished for one sin,
a proud thought, and that not committed against the blood of Christ,
as we have done numberless times; yet hath not God made us partakers in
their punishment, though we have exceeded them in the quality of their
sin. O admirable patience! that would bear with me under so many, while
he would not bear with the sinning angels for one.[1042]
(2.) Consider how mean things we are, who have provoked him. What is
man but a vile thing, that a God, abounding with all riches, should
take care of so abject a thing, much more to bear so many affronts
from such a drop of matter, such a nothing creature! That he that hath
anger at his command, as well as pity, should endure such a detestable,
deformed creature by sin, to fly in his face! “What is man, that thou
art mindful of him?” (Ps. viii.) אנוש, miserable, incurable man, derived
from a word, that signifies to be incurably sick. Man is “Adam,” earth
from his earthly original, and “Enoch,” incurable from his corruption.
Is it not worthy to be admired, that a God of infinite glory should
wait on such Adams, worms of earth, and be, as it were, a servant, and
attendant to such Enochs, sickly and peevish creatures?
(3.) Consider who it is that is thus patient. He it is that, with
one breath, could turn heaven and earth, and all the inhabitants of
both, into nothing; that could, by one thunderbolt, have razed up the
foundations of a cursed world. He that wants not instruments without
to ruin us, that can arm our own consciences against us, and can drown
us in our own phlegm; and, by taking out one pin from our bodies,
cause the whole frame to fall asunder. Besides, it is a God that, while
he suffers the sinner, hates the sin more than all the holy men upon
earth, or angels in heaven, can do; so that his patience for a minute
transcends the patience of all creatures, from the creation to the
dissolution of the world: because it is the patience of a {b521} God,
infinitely more sensible to the cursed quality of sin, and infinitely
more detesting it.
(4.) Consider how long he hath forborne his anger. A reprieve for a
week or a month is accounted a great favor in civil states; the civil
law enacts, “That if the emperor commanded a man to be condemned, the
execution was to be deferred thirty days: because in that time the
prince’s anger might be appeased.”[1043] But how great a favor is it
to be reprieved thirty years for many offences, every one of which
deserves death more at the hands of God than any offence can at the
hands of man! Paul was, according to the common account, but about
thirty years old at his conversion; and how much doth he elevate
Divine long‑suffering! Certainly there are many who have more reason,
as having larger quantities of patience cut out to them, who have
lived to see their own gray hairs in a rebellious posture against God,
before grace brought them to a surrender. We were all condemned in
the womb; our lives were forfeited the first moment of our breath, but
patience hath stopped the arrest; the merciful Creditor deserves to
have acknowledgment from us, who hath laid by his bond so many years
without putting it in suit against us. Many of your companions in sin
have perhaps been surprised long ago, and haled to an eternal prison;
nothing is remaining of them but their dust, and the time is not yet
come for your funeral. Let it be considered, that that God that would
not wait upon the fallen angels one instant after their sin, nor give
them a moment’s space of repentance, hath prolonged the life of many a
sinner in the world to innumerable moments, to 420,000 minutes in the
space of a year, to 8,400,000 minutes in the space of twenty years. The
damned in hell would think it a great kindness to have but a year’s,
month’s, nay, day’s respite, as a space to repent in.
(5.) Consider also, how many have been taken away under shorter
measures of patience: some have been struck into a hell of misery,
while thou remainest upon an earth of forbearance. In a plague, the
destroying angel hath hewed down others, and passed by us; the arrows
have flew about our heads, passed over us, and stuck in the heart of
a neighbor. How many rich men, how many of our friends and familiars,
have been seized by death since the beginning of the year, when they
least thought of it, and imagined it far from them! Have you not known
some of your acquaintance snatched away in the height of a crime? Was
not the same wrath due to you as well as to them! And had it not been
as dreadful for you to be so surprised by Him as it was for them? Why
should he take a less sturdy sinner out of thy company, and let thee
remain still upon the earth? If God had dealt so with you, how had
you been cut off, not only from the enjoyment of this life, but the
hopes of a better! And if God had made such a providence beneficial for
reclaiming you, how much reason have you to acknowledge him! He that
hath had least patience, hath cause to admire; but those that have
more, ought to exceed others in blessing him for it. If God had put
an end to your natural life before you had made provision for eternal,
how deplorable would your condition have been! {b522} Consider also,
whoever have been sinners formerly of a deeper note; might not God
have struck a man in the embraces of his harlots, and choked him in the
moment of his excessive and intemperate healths, or on the sudden have
spurted fire and brimstone into a blasphemer’s mouth? What if God had
snatched you away, when you had been sleeping in some great iniquity,
or sent you while burning in lust to the fire it merited? Might he not
have cracked the string that linked your souls to your bodies, in the
last sickness you had? And what then had become of you? What could
have been expected to succeed your impenitent state in this world, but
howlings in another? but he reprieved you upon your petitions, or the
solicitations of your friends; and have you not broke your word with
him? Have your hearts been steadfast; hath he not yet waited, expecting
when you would put your vows and resolutions into execution? What need
had he to cry out to any so loud and so long, O you fools, “how long
will you love foolishness?” (Prov. i. 22), when he might have ceased
his crying to you, and have by your death prevented your many neglects
of him? Did he do all this that any of us might add new sins to our old;
or rather, that we should bless him for his forbearance, comply with
the end of it in reforming our lives, and having recourse to his mercy?