Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

if thou shouldst send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people, they would be a lost people; A period will quickly be set to their lives, no Created strength can restrain its power from crushing such a stiff-necked people; Flesh and Blood cannot bear them, nor any Created Spirit of a greater might.

if thou should'st send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people, they would be a lost people; A period will quickly be set to their lives, no Created strength can restrain its power from crushing such a stiff-neck'd people; Flesh and Blood cannot bear them, nor any Created Spirit of a greater might.

1. Consider the greatness of the provocations. No light matter, but actions of a great defiance: What is the practical Language of most in the World, but that of Pharaoh? Who is the Lord, that I should obey him? How many question his being, and more, his Authority? What blasphemies of him, what reproaches of his Majesty? Men drinking up iniquity like water and with a hast and ardency rushing into sin, as the horse into the battle. What is there in the reasonable creature, that hath the quickest capacity, and the deepest obligation to serve him, but opposition and enmity, a slight of him in every thing, yea the services most seriously performed, unsuited to the royalty and purity of so great a Being? Such provocations as dare him to his face, that are a burden to so righteous a Judge, and so great a lover of the Authority and Majesty of his Laws; That were there but a spark of anger in him, 'tis a wonder it doth not show it self; When he is invaded in all his attributes, 'tis astonishing that this single one of Patience and Meekness, should with-stand the assault of all the rest of his perfections; His being which is attacked by sin, speaks for vengeance, his Justice cannot be imagined to stand silent, without charging the sinner. His Holiness cannot but encourage his Justice to urge its pleas, and be an Advocate for it. His Omniscience proves the truth of all the charge; and his abused mercy hath little encouragement, to make opposition to the Indictment; Nothing but Patience stands in the gap to keep off the arrest of judgment from the sinner.