2. Exhortation is, to admire and stand astonished at his patience, and bless him for it. If you should have defiled your Neighbours bed, or sullied his reputation, or rifled his Goods, would he have withheld his vengeance, unless he had been too weak to execute it? We have done worse to God, then we can do to man, and yet he draws not that Sword of Wrath out of the scabbard of his patience, to sheath it in our hearts. 'Tis not so much a wonder, that any Judgments are sent, as that there are no more and sharper. That the World shall be fired at last, is not a thing so strange, as that fire doth not come down every day upon some part of it. Had the disciples, that saw such excellent patterns of mildness from their Master, and were so often urged to learn of him, that was lowly, and meek, the Government of the World, it had been long since turned into ashes, since they were too forward to desire him, to open his magazine of judgments, and kindle a fire, to consume a Samaritan Village, for a slight affront in comparison of what he received from others, and afterwards from themselves in their forsaking of him. Luke 9.52, 53, 54. We should admire, and praise that here, which shall be praised in Heaven; though patience shall cease as to its exercise after the consummation of the World, it shall not cease from receiving the acknowledgements, of what it did, when it traversed the stage of this Earth. If the Name of God be glorified, and acknowledged in Heaven, no question but this will also; since long-suffering is one of his Divine Titles, a letter in his name, as well as Merciful, and Gracious, Abundant in Goodness and Truth. And there is good reason, to think that the patience exercised towards some, before converting grace was ordered to seize upon them, will bear a great part in the Anthems of Heaven. The greater his long-suffering hath been to men, that lay covered with their own dung, a long time before they were freed by grace from their filth; the more admiringly, and loudly they will cry up his Mercy to them, after they have past the gulf, and see a deserved Hell at a distance from them, and many in that place of torments, who never had the tastes of so much forbearance. If mercy will be praised there, that which began the Alphabet of it, cannot be forgot.
2. Exhortation is, to admire and stand astonisht at his patience, and bless him for it. If you should have defil'd your Neighbors bed, or sullyed his reputation, or rifled his Goods, would he have withheld his vengeance, unless he had been too weak to execute it? We have done worse to God, then we can do to man, and yet he draws not that Sword of Wrath out of the scabbard of his patience, to sheath it in our hearts. 'Tis not so much a wonder, that any Judgments are sent, as that there are no more and sharper. That the World shall be fired at last, is not a thing so strange, as that fire doth not come down every day upon some part of it. Had the disciples, that saw such excellent patterns of mildness from their Master, and were so often urg'd to learn of him, that was lowly, and meek, the Government of the World, it had been long since turn'd into ashes, since they were too forward to desire him, to open his magazine of judgments, and kindle a fire, to consume a Samaritan Village, for a slight affront in comparison of what he received from others, and afterwards from themselves in their forsaking of him. Luke 9.52, 53, 54. We should admire, and praise that here, which shall be prais'd in Heaven; though patience shall cease as to its exercise after the consummation of the World, it shall not cease from receiving the acknowledgments, of what it did, when it traversed the stage of this Earth. If the Name of God be glorified, and acknowledged in Heaven, no question but this will also; since long-suffering is one of his Divine Titles, a letter in his name, as well as Merciful, and Gracious, Abundant in Goodness and Truth. And there is good reason, to think that the patience exercised towards some, before converting grace was ordered to seize upon them, will bear a great part in the Anthems of Heaven. The greater his long-suffering hath been to men, that lay covered with their own dung, a long time before they were freed by grace from their filth; the more admiringly, and loudly they will cry up his Mercy to them, after they have past the gulf, and see a deserv'd Hell at a distance from them, and many in that place of torments, who never had the tasts of so much forbearance. If mercy will be prais'd there, that which began the Alphabet of it, cannot be forgot.
