Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. Consider who it is, that is thus patient. He it is that with one breath, could turn Heaven and Earth, and all the inhabitants of both into nothing; That could by one Thunderbolt have razed up the Foundations of a cursed World. He that wants not instruments without to ruin us, that can arm our own Consciences against us, and can drown us in our own Phlegm. And by taking out one pin from our bodies, cause the whole frame to fall asunder. Besides, 'tis a God, that while he suffers the sinner, hates the sin, more than all the Holy men upon Earth, or Angels in Heaven can do; So that his patience for a minute transcends the patience of all creatures from the Creation to the Dissolution of the World: because it is the patience of a God, infinitely more sensible of the cursed quality of sin, and infinitely more detesting it.

3. Consider who it is, that is thus patient. He it is that with one breath, could turn Heaven and Earth, and all the inhabitants of both into nothing; That could by one Thunderbolt have razed up the Foundations of a cursed World. He that wants not instruments without to ruine us, that can arm our own Consciences against us, and can drown us in our own Phlegm. And by taking out one pin from our bodies, cause the whole frame to fall asunder. Besides, 'tis a God, that while he suffers the sinner, hates the sin, more than all the Holy men upon Earth, or Angels in Heaven can do; So that his patience for a minute transcends the patience of all creatures from the Creation to the Dissolution of the World: because it is the patience of a God, infinitely more sensible of the cursed quality of sin, and infinitely more detesting it.

4. Consider how long he hath forborne his anger. A reprieve for a Week or a Month is accounted a great favour in Civil States; The Civil Law enacts,^* that if the Emperor commanded a man to be condemned, the Execution was to be deferred 30 days: because in that time the Princes anger might be appeased. But how great a favour is it to be reprieved 30 years for many offences, every one of which deserves death more at the hands of God, than any offence can at the hands of man? Paul was according to the common account but about 30 years Old at his Conversion, and how much doth he elevate Divine long suffering? Certainly there are many, who have more reason, as having larger quantities of patience cut out to them, who have lived to see their own grey hairs in a rebellious posture against God, before Grace brought them to a surrender. We were