Owen - BS1450 130st 093 1669

16o PatienceofGod towards the World, Pfal.t 3.0. '.t >!i to fuppofe, and would refe6t unipeakabledi(honour upon the Holy God. Let a Man but deal thus, and it is a token of as evil an habit of mind, and perverfe, as any canbefall him.. Let him bear with there that are m his power in theirfaults, for no other end, or with no Other dc(gn, but that he may take advan tage to bring a greater puni(hment and revenge upon them, and what more vile affeE7ion , what more wretched corruption of heart and mind , can he tnand:eft ? and ¡hall we think that th;s is the whole dfbn of the Patience of God ? God forbid. It may be objectied that this Argument is not cogent, becaufe ofthe inftance that lyes againfi it in Gods dealing with the An- gels, that tinned. It is evident that they fell tw.o-their trank grcfon and Apoltacy, before mankind did fo . For they lead and feduced our fir ti Parents into fin. . Andyet God bears with them and exercifeth patience towards them to this very day, and will do fo un :o the confismmation ofall things,when they (hall be cart into the fire preparedfor the Devil and his Angels. And yet it is granted, that there is no forgiveneß in God for them; fo that it loth not neceffarily follow, that there is fo for man, becaufe of his patience towards them. I anfwer, That this muti be more fully ffrohen unto when we come to remove that great Obidlion again{ this whole Truth whichwas mentioned before,taken fromGods dealing with the finningAngels, whom he fpared not; at prefent two or three Observations will remove it out of our way. For, i[. That the cafe it n)t the fame with the finning Ang;+ls, and the race ofmankind in all Generations. There are no other Angels in this condition, but only thofe individu.zlr who firli tinned in their own perlons. They are not in the Providence and Patience ofGod, multiyyd and encreafed in enfuing times and feafor.s; but they continue the fame individual perfons who firfi tinned and no more. So that immediate executionof the whole purii(hment due unto their fin, would not have pre- vented any encreale of them. But now withman it is other- wife. For God continues his patience towards them to the pro- duElion ofmillions of other perlons who were not actually in the fir(1 fin. Had not Gíd fo continued his forbearance, their Being

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