716 The Patience of God. Vol. I, woulddo it, and let fall his hand again, as if he could not find in his heart to be fo feuere. God withholds his Judgments rill he is weary of holding in, as the ex- preffion is, Ter. 6. a a. till he can forbear no longer. 5er. 44. az. So that the Lord couldno longer bear, becaufe ofthe evil ofyour doings, andbecaufe of the abomi- nations which ye havecommitted. (4.) God is eafily prevailed upon not to punifh. When he feemed refolved upon it, to deftroy the murmuring Ifraelites, yet how often, at the interceffion of Mofes, did he turn away his -wrath ? That he will accept of very low terms to fpare a very wicked People, appears by the inflance of Sodom, where if there had been but ten righteous perfons, he would not have deftroyed them for the ten's fake. Yea, when his truth feemed to have been pawn'd, (at leaf( in the appre- henfionof his Prophet) yet even then repentance took him off, as in the cafe of Nineveh. Nay, how glad is he to be thus prevented ! with what joy does he tell the Prophet the news of Ahab's humiliation ! Seell thou howAhab humbleth him- felf ? Becaufe he humbleth himfelf, I will not bring the evil in his days. (S) When he punilheth, he does it very feldom rigoroufly, and to extremity; not fo much as we deferve ; Pfal. 503. to. Hehath not dealt with us after our Sins, nor rewardedús according to our iniquities ; nor fo much as he can. He doth not let loofè the fiercenefs of his anger, nor pour forth all his wrath ; Pfal. 78. 38, Being full of compaiion, he forgave their iniquity, and deftroyed them not ; yea many a time turned he his anger away, anddidnot ftir up all his wrath. (6.) After he bath begun to punilh,-and is engaged in the work, he is not hard to be taken off: There is a famous inflance of this, z Sam. 2.4. when God had fent three days Peftilence upon head for David's fin in numbring the People, and at the end of the third day, the Angel of the Lord had firetched forth his hand over lerufalem to deftroy it, . upon the Prayer of David, it is faid, that the Lord repentedof the evil, andfail to the Angelthat deftroyed, It is enough, flay now thine hand. Nay, fo ready is God to be taken offfrom this work, that he Pets a high value upon thole whoEland in the gap to turn away hiswrath ; Numb. ,.. a a, r z, r;. Phinehas, thefon ofEleazar, bath turned my wrath away from the children of If- rael, that I confumed them not in my jealourie ; wherefore behold Igive unto him my covenant ofpeace, and to hisfeedafter him, becaufe he was jealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Ifrael. That which God values in this aal- on of Phinehas, next to his zeal for him, is that he turned away his wrath, and made an atonement for the ChildrenofIfrael. S. And la/tly, The Patience of God will yet appear with fartheradvantage, if we confider Tome eminent and remarkable Inflances of it ; which are fo much the more confiderable, becaufe they are Inflances, not only of God's patience extended to a long time, but to a great many Perfons. The longfufferingof God waitedin the days of Noah upon the whole World, as is probably conjectured, for the fpace of an hundred and twenty years. God bore with the People of Ifrael in theWildernefs, after they had tempted him ten times, for the fpace ofFortyYears; Ails 13.18. And about the fpace of forty years fufferedhe their manners in the wil- dernefs. And this Inflance of God's Patience will be the more remarkable, if we compare it with the great impatience of that People ; if they did but want Flefh or Water, they were out of patience with God ; when Mofes was in the Mount with God but Forty Days, they prefently fall to make new gods; they had not the patience of forty days, and yet God bore their manners forty years. God had (pared Niniveh for Tome Ages, and when his Patience was even expired, and he Teems to have paft a final Sentence upon it, yet he grants a Reprieve for forty days, that they might fue out their Pardon in that time, and they did fo ; they turned from their evil ways, and God turned from the evil he Paidhe woulddo to them, andhe didit not. But the molt remarkable inftance of God's long fuffering is to theYews, if we confider it with all the circumflances of it; after they had rejeaed the Son of Cod ; notwithflanding the purity of his Doctrine, and the power of his Miracles; after they had unjuftly condemned, and cruelly 'murdered the Lord of life, yet the Patience of God refpited the ruin of that People Forty Years. Betides
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=