Chap. 2I. ,4n Expofitian upon the Book of J o a, Verf. 30. 8 t t and to referve the unjafi' to the day ofjudgment to be pani/l ed. The knowledgeof the Lord extends to bath, he knowcth wayes enow,hebath many wayes in ¡lore todeliver the God. ly; but (confidering the tenour of his revealed will) he knoweth noway to deliver the wicked, they having refuted all wayes ofhis appointment for their own deliverance.There- fore as to them he knoweth only ( and for that he knoweth many wayes) how to referve them to the dayofjudgment to be punifhed. Thirdly, By way of deducckion or corrolary from the whole verfe, take this obfervation ; Wicked men are net .Blaredin mercy, but in wrath. Their fparing is to fmiting, and the falvations which they have (if they may be called falvations) are to deftru&ion. When ever they are referved from Judgment, is onely that they may(in fittett feafon)be brought to a greater judgment ; there is no mercy in Inch fparing. The long- fuffering ofGod bath a tender ofand a tendency tomercy in it ; but wicked men who goe on in their fins get nothing but more blowes, while the patience of Goddoth (as it were) hold his hand from fmiting them. As the Apoftle is expreffe (Rom.,.4, 5.) But thou after thyhardnefs and impenitent heart,treaftorefi up to thyfell wrath againft the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgments of Çod,nct knowingthat thegoodnefs of god leadeth thee to repentance. A wicked man makes a very ill market of the longday of patience, The treafure thathegets is all black- money, his earnings are wrath, and that againft the dayof wratheand the revelationof the righteous judgmentof God.And fo, that patience,which, in it felfe,is ana&ofgrace, proves, in the event, anaggravationofhis fir. 'Tisbetter not to be (pared, then not to bebettered by it. The ftroake is the heavier andwounds the deeper when it comes, by how much it is the longer before it corneal. Which tome note from the Hebrew word here tranflated wrath,which in the Verb Ggni. fies both to be angry, and to deferre, protract or put off. From the Analogy ofwhich two fignifications, we may in ferre. That when God dothonly forbear to (hew his anger, he is indeed Moll angry,and that the flowneffe ofpunifhment L l l l l 2 (hall
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