Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

4. He doth exercise Patience for the continuance of the Church. If he be not patient toward sinners, what stock would there be for believers to spring up from? He bears with the provoking carriage of men, evil men; because out of their loins he intends to extract others, which he will form for the glory of his grace. He hath some unborn, that belong to the election of Grace, which are to be the seed of the worst of men; Jeroboam the chief incendiary of the Israelites to Idolatry, had an Abijah, in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel. 1 King. 14.13. Had Ahaz been snapped in the first act of his wickedness, the Israelites had wanted so good a Prince, and so good a man as Hezekiah, a branch of that wicked predecessor. What Gardiner cuts off the thorns from the Rose-bush, till he hath gathered the Roses? And men do not use to burn all the Crab-tree, but preserve a Stock, to engraft some sweet fruit upon. There could not have been a Saint in the Earth, nor consequently in Heaven, had it not been for this perfection. He did not destroy the Israelites in the Wilderness, that he might keep up a Church among them, and not extinguish the whole seed that were heirs of the promises and Covenant made with Abraham. Had God punished men for their sins as soon as they had been committed, none would have lived to have been better, none could have continued in the World, to honour him by their virtues? Manasseh had never been a convert, and many brutish men had never been changed from beasts to Angels, to praise, and acknowledge their Creator. Had Peter received his due recompense upon the denial of his Master, he had never been a Martyr for him; Nor had Paul been a Preacher of the Gospel, nor any else: and so the Gospel had not shined in any part of the world. No seed would have been brought into Christ, Christ is beholding immediately to this attribute, for all the seed he hath in the world; 'Tis for his Name sake that he doth defer his Anger, and for his praise, that he doth refrain from cutting us off. Isa. 48.9. And in the next chapter follows a Prophecy of Christ. To overthrow Mankind for sin, were to prevent the spreading a Church in the world. A woman that is guilty of a Capital Crime, and lies under a condemning sentence, is reprieved from Execution, for her being with child.

4. He doth exercise Patience for the continuance of the Church. If he be not patient toward sinners, what stock would there be for believers to spring up from? He bears with the provoking carriage of men, evil men; because out of their loynes he intends to extract others, which he will form for the glory of his grace. He hath some unborn, that belong to the election of Grace, which are to be the seed of the worst of men; Jeroboam the chief incendiary of the Israelites to Idolatry, had an Abijah, in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel.