Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Doct. Slowness to anger, or admirable Patience, is the property of the divine nature. As Patience signifies suffering, so it is not in God. The divine nature is impassible, uncapable of any impair, it cannot be touched by the violences of men, nor the essential Glory of it be diminished by the injuries of men; But as it signifies a willingness to defer, and an unwillingness to pour forth his wrath upon sinful creatures; He moderates his provoked justice, and forbears to revenge the injuries he daily meets with in the World. He suffers no grief by mens wronging him, but he restrains his arm from punishing them according to their merits; And thus there is Patience in every cross a man meets with in the World: because though it be a punishment, 'tis less than is merited by the unrighteous rebel, and less than may be inflicted by a righteous and powerful God.

Doct. Slowness to anger, or admirable Patience, is the property of the divine nature. As Patience signifies suffering, so it is not in God. The divine nature is impassible, uncapable of any impair, it cannot be touched by the violences of men, nor the essential Glory of it be diminisht by the injuries of men; But as it signifies a willingness to deferr, and an unwillingness to pour forth his wrath upon sinful creatures; He moderates his provoked justice, and forbears to revenge the injuries he daily meets with in the World. He suffers no grief by mens wronging him, but he restrains his arm from punishing them according to their merits; And thus there is Patience in every cross a man meets with in the World: because though it be a punishment, 'tis less than is merited by the unrighteous rebel, and less than may be inflicted by a righteous and powerful God.

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⟩