Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

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. Hos. 7.12. I will chastise them, as their Congregation hath heard. Many of the leaves of the Old Testament are full of those Presages and Warnings of approaching judgment. These make up a great part of the Volume of it in various Editions, according to the State of the several provoking times. Warnings are given to those people that are most abominable in his sight; Zeph. 2.1, 2. Gather your selves together, yea gather together Oh Nation, not desired; 'tis a Meiosis, Oh Nation abhorred, before the decree bring forth. He sends his Heralds, before he sends his Armies; He summons them by the voice of his Prophets, before he confounds them by the voice of his Thunders. When a parley is beaten, a white flag of Peace is hung out, before a black flag of fury is set up. He seldom cuts down men by his Judgments, before he hath hewed them by his Prophets; Hos. 6.5. Not a remarkable judgment, but was foretold: the Flood to the Old World by Noah: The Famine to Egypt by Joseph; The Earthquake by Amos. Amos 1.1. The storm from Chaldea by Jeremiah; The Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Hosea; The total destruction of Jerusalem, and the Temple by Christ himself; He hath chosen the best persons in the World to give those intimations; Noah, the most Righteous person on the earth for the Old World; And his Son the most beloved person in Heaven for the Jews in the later time. And in other parts of the World, and in the later times, where he hath not warned by Prophets, he hath supplied it by Prodigies in the Air and Earth; Histories are full of such Items from Heaven. Lesser judgments are fore-warners of greater, as Lightnings before Thunder, are Messengers to tell us of a succeeding clap.