well as in the other; and cannot other- SER M. XV. wife be rightly understood. Again, When God had threatned by Jonah, that yet forty days and Nineveh fhall be destroyed; and after That, upon their Repentance, God alfo repented of the evil he had faid he would do unto them, and he did it not yet forty years after, when they relapsed again, Nineveh was destroyed : and the prophecy, which Jonah murmured to fee disappointed, as he thought; was in its time, according to the exactness of the Prophetick style, punctually accomplished as is obferved in the laft chapter of the book of Tobit, ver. 8 and 15. Lastly, Jerufalem itself, over which our Saviour had expreffed fuch tender and affectionate compaffion, yet had at length, for its impenitency, that final Sentence pronounced against it, Matt. xxiii. 38. Bebold, your House is left unto you defolate; and ch. xxiv. 2. There fhall not be left one fione upon another, that shall not be thrown down. The Application of thefe examples to every one of Us, is made by St Paul in that earnest Admonition, Rom. ii. 4. Defpifeft thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-fuffering, not knowing

that

XV.

SERM that the goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasureft up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God? The natural and proper effect of the divine forbearance, is to lead Sinners to Repentance: And if it has not that effect, but they on the contrary abufe his Patience, and defpife his admonitions, adding to their Sin perverfe ingratitude, and moft difingenuous Obftinacy to their Rebellion; the Scripture affures us that the Time will come, when they fhall cry, and Prov.i. 26. shall not be heard; but He also shall laugh at their calamity, and mock when their Fear cometh; when their Fear cometh as defolation, and their deftruction as a whirlwind. Upon which Account, excellent is the Advice of the Son of Sirach, Eccluf. v. 4. Say not, I have finned, and what harm has happened to me? for though the Lord is long-fuffering, he will in no wife let thee Say not, bis mercy is great, will be pacified for the multitude of my Sins; For mercy and Wrath come from him, and his indignation refieth upon Sinners.

go:

be

3dly, As it does not follow that God is SER M. lefs Angry with Sinners, because he defers XV. punishing them; fo neither can it be inferred, that the Punishment of Sin is at all the lefs Certain and Unavoidable, for not being inflicted immediately. Among Men, every delay is a poffibility of Escaping; because Time and Chance happeneth to them all: And whatever is at a distance, is for that very reafon proportionably uncertain whether it fhall ever come to pafs at all. But with God, Time makes no difference in the Certainty of Events; neither can any intervening Accidents ever difappoint His purpose. Though a Sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged; yet furely (fays the Wife-man) I know that it shall be well with them that fear God: But it shall not be well with the Wicked, Eccles. viii. 12. And St Peter elegantly confutes this foolish Hope of Sinners, 2 ep. iii. 4. There shall come Scoffers, walking after their own lufts, and faying, Where is the Promife of his Coming? for fince the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were, from the beginning of the Creation :-But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one

day

XV.

SERM. day is with the Lord as a thousand Years, and a thousand years as one day. ( (Not that the one is with God literally no longer a Duration than the other, as the Schoolmen have foolishly taught, who love to make abfurdities even out of the plaineft things; But the meaning is, that What is at a thoufand Years diftance, is with God as Certain, as if it was to be effected the very next moment.) The Lord is not flack concerning his Promife, as fome men count flackness; but is long-fuffering to us-ward, not willing that Any fhould perish, but that All fhould come to Repentance. But the day of the Lord will come, as a Thief in the Night.

4thly, As the Punishment of Sin, is not the lefs Certain for being delayed, so neither will it be the lefs Severe. Juftice (as all the other Attributes alfo are) is in the Divine Nature Neceffary. That is: Not that Supreme Power has not a natural Right to pardon freely whom he pleafes, (as fome have vainly imagined; ) but that, morally fpeaking, it is as Neceffary in the Government of the Universe, that infinite Wisdom fhould finally punish the incorrigible; as that infinite Patience

fhould

hould bear with fuch as are capable of SER M. Amendment, and infinite Mercy fhould XV. pardon fuch as do actually amend. The Punishment of the Fallen Angels, the bringing in of the general Flood, and the Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, are Examples of this kind, written on purpofe for our Admonition. Jude 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate, he has referved in chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. And the Application is exprefly made by St Peter, 2 ep. ii. 4,9. If God spared not the Angels that finned, but caft them down to -And Spared not the Old world, -but brought in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes; making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly: If God did these things of old; the Inference is, The Lord ftill knoweth how to referve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. And of all unjust persons, none more exemplarily; than those who therefore prefume to abuse the Patience of God, becaufe Sentence against an Evil work is not executed speedily. Deut. xxix.

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