5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations. He is so slow to anger, that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel, instead of punishment. ⟨p. 806⟩There is a prosperous wickedness, wherein the provokers strength continues firm; The troubles, which like Clouds drop upon others, are blown away from them, and they are not plagued like other men, that have a more worthy demeanour towards God. Psal. 73.3, 4, 5. He doth not only continue their lives, but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them, and calls them by his Blessings, that they may acknowledge their own fault, and his bounty, which he is not obliged to by any gratitude, he meets with from them, but by the richness of his own patient nature: for he finds the unthank fullness of men, as great as his benefits to them. He doth not only continue his outward mercies, while we continue our sins, but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations: that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men. When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God, by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance, and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors, Exod. 14.11, 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them, take your own course; yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge, but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea, that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages; and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness, he did not only not revenge himself upon them, or cast off the conduct of them, but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering, and supplied them with miraculous provision, Manna from Heaven, and Water from a Rock. Food is given to support us, and Clothes to cover us, and Divine Patience makes the creatures, which we turn to another use, than what they were at first intended for, serve us contrary to their own Genius: For had they reason, no question but they would complain, to be subjected to the service of man, who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator, and groan at the abuse of God's Patience, in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man.
5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations. He is so slow to anger, that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel, instead of punishment. ⟨p. 806⟩There is a prosperous wickedness, wherein the provokers strength continues firm; The troubles, which like Clouds drop upon others, are blown away from them, and they are not plagued like other men, that have a more worthy demeanour towards God. Psal. 73.3, 4, 5. He doth not only continue their lives, but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them, and calls them by his Blessings, that they may acknowledge their own fault, and his bounty, which he is not obliged to by any gratitude, he meets with from them, but by the richness of his own patient nature: for he finds the unthank fulness of men, as great as his benefits to them. He doth not only continue his outward mercies, while we continue our sins, but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations: that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men. When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God, by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance, and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors, Exod. 14.11, 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them, take your own course; yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge, but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea, that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages; and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness, he did not only not revenge himself upon them, or cast off the conduct of them, but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering, and supplyed them with miraculous provision, Manna from Heaven, and Water from a Rock. Food is given to support us, and Cloaths to cover us, and Divine Patience makes the creatures, which we turn to another use, than what they were at first intended for, serve us contrary to their own Genius: For had they reason, no question but they would complain, to be subjected to the service of man, who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator, and groan at the abuse of God's Patience, in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man.
