446 / 674
426
THE WRATH
OE
THE LAMB.
[DISC.
V.
eminently, and completed
in
this
dispensation
of
the
gospel.
God can
send no
greater
messenger
than
his
own
Son,
and he concludes
and
finishes
the
whole scene
and period
of
grace with the gospel
of
Christ. There
remains nothing but
wrath
to
the
uttermost
for
those
who have
abused
this
last
offer
of
mercy.
This
was
ex-
emplified
in the destruction
of Jerusalem
and the Jews,
a
little after
they had
put
Christ
to
death,
and
rejected
the salvation which he proposed
;
and this wrath
will be
more terribly
glorified
in
the
final
destruction of
every
sinner
that
wilfully
rejects the glad tidings
of
this
salva-
tion.
5.
It
is
such
wrath
as
arises from the
patience
of
a
God
tired and worn out
by
the boldest
iniquities
of
men,
and
by
a
final
perseverance in their rebellions.
It
is
the
character
and
glory
of God,
to be
"
long-
suffering,
and
slow
to anger." Exod.
xxxiv.
6.
"The
Lord
God, mer-
ciful and gracious, long
-
suffering,
and
abundant
in
good-
ness and
truth
;"
and Jesus,
his
Son,
is
the minister
of
this
his
patience,
and the intercessor
for this delay
of
judgment
and
vengeance.
He
is
represented
as
inter-
ceding
one
year after another
for
the reprieve of
obsti-
nate
sinners,
and,
at
his
intercession,
God
the
Father
waits
to be gracious
:
But God
will
not
wait,
and
delay,
and
keep silence for ever,
nor
will.
Jesus
for ever
plead,
Ps.
I.
22.
Consider
this,
ye
that
forget
God,
lest
he
tear
you
in
pieces,
and there
be
none to deliver.
God
will
say
then to
obstinate
sinners, as
he
did to the
Jews
of
old,
Jer.
xv. 6.
I
will
stretch
out
my
hand
against
thee,.
and
destroy
thee,
I
am
weary
of
repenting;
Arid
even the abused patience
of Jesus
the Saviour, shall
turn
into
fury,
when
"the
day
of
recompence
shall
come,
and the
day
of
vengeance
'which
is
in his
heart,"
Is.
lxiii.
4.
O
let each
of
us
consider,
"
How Iong have
I
made the
grace
of
God
wait on
me
?
How many
messages
of
peace
and pardon
have
I
neglected
?
How many years
have
I
delayed
to
accept of
this salvation,
and made
Jesus
wait
on
an impenitent
rebel, with the
commission
of
mercy
in
his
hand,
while
I
have refused to receive
it
?
Let
my
soul
be
this day awakened to
lay
hold
of
the covenant
of
grace, to
submit to the gospel
of
Christ,
lest
to- morrow
.the
days
of
his commission
of
mercy toward me expire,