This Patience is seen in his providential works in the World; He suffered the Nations to walk in their own way, and the witness of his Providence to them was his giving them Rain, and fruitful seasons, filling their heart with food and gladness. Act. 16.17. The Heathens took notice of it, and signified it, by feigning their God Saturn, to be bound a whole year in a soft cord, a cord of wool, and ⟨p. 792⟩expressed it by this Proverb; The Mills of the Gods grind slowly; i. e. God doth not use men with that severity that they deserve: The Mills being usually ••nn'd by criminals, condemned to that work.* This in Scripture is frequently expressed by a slowness to anger, Psal. 103.8. sometimes by long suffering, which is a patience with duration; Psal. 145.8. and Joel 2.13. He is slow to anger, he takes not the first occasions of a provocation; He is long suffering, Rom. 9.22. and Psal. 86.15. he forbears punishment upon many occasions offered him. 'Tis long before he consents to give fire to his wrath, and shoot out his Thunderbolts; Sin hath a loud cry, but God seems to stop his ears, not to hear the clamour it raises, and the charge it presents. He keeps his Sword a long time in the sheath; One calls the Patience of God, the sheath of his sword, upon those words, Ezek. 21.3. I will draw forth my sword out of his sheath. *This is one remarkable letter in the name of God, he himself proclaims it; Exod. 34.6. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful, gracious and long suffering. And Moses pleads it in the behalf of the people, Numb. 14.18. where he placeth it in the first rank; The Lord is long suffering, and of great mercy: 'Tis the first spark of mercy, and ushers it to its exercises in the World. In the Lord's Proclamation, 'tis put in the middle link, Mercy and Truth together; Mercy could have no room to act, if Patience did not prepare the way; And his truth and goodness in his promise of the Redeemer would not have been manifest to the World, if he had shot his Arrows as soon as men committed their sins, and deserved his punishment. This perfection is expressed by other phrases, as keeping silence; Psal. 50.21. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence, [Greek or Hebrew] it signifies to behave ones self as a deaf or dumb man. I did not fly in thy face, as some do with great a noise, upon a light provocation, as if their Life, Honour, Estates were at the stake.
This Patience is seen in his providential works in the World; He suffered the Nations to walk in their own way, and the witness of his Providence to them was his giving them Rain, and fruitful seasons, filling their heart with food and gladness. Act. 16.17. The Heathens took notice of it, and signified it, by feigning their God Saturn, to be bound a whole year in a soft cord, a cord of wool, and ⟨p. 792⟩exprest it by this Proverb; The Mills of the Gods grind slowly; i. e. God doth not use men with that severity that they deserve: The Mills being usually ••nn'd by criminals, condemn'd to that work.* This in Scripture is frequently exprest by a slowness to anger, Psal. 103.8. sometimes by long suffering, which is a patience with duration; Psal. 145.8. and Joel 2.13. He is slow to anger, he takes not the first occasions of a provocation; He is long suffering, Rom. 9.22. and Psal. 86.15. he forbears punishment upon many occasions offer'd him. 'Tis long before he consents to give fire to his wrath, and shoot out his Thunderbolts; Sin hath a loud cry, but God seems to stop his eares, not to hear the clamor it raises, and the charge it presents. He keeps his Sword a long time in the sheath; One calls the Patience of God, the sheath of his sword, upon those words, Ezek. 21.3. I will draw forth my sword out of his sheath. *This is one remarkable letter in the name of God, he himself proclaims it; Exod. 34.6. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful, gracious and long suffering. And Moses pleads it in the behalf of the people, Numb. 14.18. where he placeth it in the first rank; The Lord is long suffering, and of great mercy: 'Tis the first spark of mercy, and ushers it to its exercises in the World. In the Lord's Proclamation, 'tis put in the middle link, Mercy and Truth together; Mercy could have no room to act, if Patience did not prepare the way; And his truth and goodness in his promise of the Redeemer would not have been manifest to the World, if he had shot his Arrows as soon as men committed their sins, and deserved his punishment. This perfection is exprest by other phrases, as keeping silence;
- *Rhodigi. l. 6. c. 14.
- *[Greek or Hebrew] Theodoret in loc.〈non-Latin alphabet〉 Theodoret in loc.
