Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

So that his treating this people, might well be called much long suffering, it being, above 1500 years, wherein he bore with them, or mildly punished them, far less than their deserts. Their coming out of Egypt being about the year of the World 2450, and their final destruction as a Common-wealth, not till about 40 years after the death of Christ; And all this while his Patience did sometimes wholly restrain his Justice, and sometimes let it fall upon them in some few drops, but made no total devastation of their Country, nor wrote his revenge in extraordinary bloody Characters, till the Roman conquest, wherein he put a period to them, both as a Church and State.

So that his treating this people, might well be call'd much long suffering, it being, above 1500 years, wherein he bore with them, or mildly punished them, far less than their deserts. Their coming out of Egypt being about the year of the World 2450, and their final destruction as a Common-wealth, not till about 40 years after the death of Christ; And all this while his Patience did sometimes wholly restrain his Justice, and sometimes let it fall upon them in some few drops, but made no total devastation of their Country, nor wrote his revenge in extraordinary bloody Characters, till the Roman conquest, wherein he put a period to them, both as a Church and State.

In particular this Patience is manifest.

1. In his giving warnings of Judgments, before he orders them to go forth. He doth not punish in a passion, and hastily; He speaks before he strikes, and speaks that he may not strike. Wrath is published, before it is executed, and that a long time; An 120 years Advertisement was given to a debauched World, before the Heavens were opened, to spout down a deluge upon them. He will not be accused of coming unawares upon a people; He inflicts nothing, but what he foretold either immediately to the people that provoke him, or anciently to them that have been their fore-runners in the same provocation.