3. It is yet a greater evidence of the patience of God in bearing with, and forbearing us under the guilt of that special sin, viz. The slighting and neglecting of Jesus Christ: here is a sin that goes to the very heart of Jesus Christ ; he can bear any other sin rather than that ; and yet this hath Christ borne from every soul of you. You are the men and women that have spurned at the yearn- ing bowels of his mercies, slighted his grace, trampled his precious blood under foot, and yet he hath forborne you unto this day ; read Matth. xxii. 5. and let thy conscience answer, whether thou art not equally deep in the guilt of making light of Christ with those wretches upon whom it is there charged. Christ hath suffered the wrath of God in thy room, brought home salvation in gospel-offers to thy door : and then to be shghted ! no patience but his own could bear it. Every sermon and prayer you have sat under with a dead heart ; every motion of his Spirit which you have quenched, wliat is this but the making light of Christ, and the great salvation ! here the deepest project of infinite wisdom, and the richest gift of free-grace, wherein God commends his love to men, are vilely un- dervalued as small things : and thus have you done days without number ; and yet his hand is not stretched out, to cut thee off in thy rebeUion : Who is a God like unto thee ! What patience like the patience of Christ I
4. The length of time the patience of Christ hath endured thee> fepeaks the perfection and riches of patience towards thee.
Consider sinner^ What age thou art ofj how many years thou canst number^ and that all this hath been a time of patience, for thou wast a transgressor from the womb, Isa. xlviii. 8, 9. yet for his nam^ sake hath he deferred his anger, and hath not cut thee off. How soon did the wrath of God break forth upon the angels when they sinned in heaven ! And haw long hath it borne with thee, whilst thou hast been provoking him on earth ? Was there ever patience like the patience of God ! Many thousands have been sent away td hell since thy day, but thou art yet spared : O that the long-suffering of God might be salvation to thee !
5. It is a great evidence of the power of divine patience that may be drawn from the grieVoilsness of our sins to God, during the whole time of his forbearance ; it is true, there is no proper passion in the Divine nature, no real perturbation, his anger is a mild and holy flame ; yet the contrariety of sin to the holiness of his nature is what makes his patience miraculous in the eyes of men. The scripture speaking in a condescending language to the understanding of the creature, represents God as woUnded to the heart by the sins of men ; so in E^ek. vi. 9. " I am broken mth their whotish heart, " which hath departed from me ;" and Amos ii- 13. " Behold I am ** pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves," when the axle-tree is ready to crack under the load ; and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16* it is said, " The wrath of the Lord arose agairist his *' people till there vvas no remedy ;"" his patience would bear no longer, and therefore when he executes his wrath upon provoking sinners^ that execution is represented in the nature of an ease or relief to his burdened patience and justice, Isa. i. 24. " Ah, saith he, " I will ease me of my enemies, and avenge me of my adversaries." Yet, observe, it comes in with an (ah) with a kind of regret and reluctancy ; so in Isa. x. 25. " Yet a very little while and the indig- ** nation shall cease, and my anger is in their destruction."" God could have given ease and rest this way to his anger long ago, but he chuses rather still to bear with thee, than on these terms to ease himself of thee.
Evidence 6. The vast expences of his riches and bounty upon us, during the whole time of his forbearance and patience towards us, speak him inconceivable and infinite in his long-suffering towards us, Rom. ii. 4, 5. " Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and " forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness " of God leadeth thee to repentance .?" q. d. Vile sinner, canst thou compute the treasures of bounty and goodness, thou hast bee» riotously spending and wasting all this while .^ Dost thou know what vast sums Christ hath spent upon thee to preserve thee sa
long out of hell ? There be two tre£(sures spending upon sinners all the time of God's forbearance of them ; there is the precious treasure of thy time wasted, and the invaluable streams of gospel- grace running all this while at the waste spout : thy time is precious; the whole of thy time, which is betwixt thee and eternity, is but little, and the most thereof hast been wasted in sin, and cast away upon vanity : but that is not all, the treasures of gospel-grace have been wasting all this while upon thee. In Zech. iv. 12. it is com- pared to golden oil, maintaining the lamps of ordinances ; so it is set forth to us in that stately emblem. Who would maintain a lamp with golden oil for wanton children to play by ? Yet this hath God done while thy soul hath dallied and trifled with him. The witnesses and ministers of Christ, in Rev. xi. 3, 4. are compared to tliose olive-trees that drop their precious oil, their gifts, graces,- yea, and their natural spirits with them, into this lamp, to keep it burning ; all this while the blood of Christ hath been running in vain, the ministers of Christ preaching and beseeching in vain, the Spirit of Christ striving with you in vain. You burn away golden oil, and yet your lamp is not gone out. O marvellous patience ! O the riches of God"'s forbearance !
7. Lastly, The riches of divine patience towards you, are greatly heightened and aggravated by the quick dispatch the Lord hath made of other sinners, whilst he hath spared and past over you. This comparative consideration calls upon you in the apostle's lan- guage, Rom. xi. 22. " Behold the goodness and severity of God ; *' on them which fell, severity ; but towards thee, goodness, if '' thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off."" Some sinners have been cut off in the beginning of their days, many in the very acts of sin, and those not greater than thy sins ; they are gone to their own place, and thou still left for a monument of the patience and forbearance of God. The sin of Achan was not a greater sin than thy covetousness, and the earthliness of thy heart is ; the sin of Nadab and Abihu, in offering up strange fire, than thy superstition, and offering up uncommanded services to God: yet the hand of God fell upon them, and smote them dead in the place; in the day and place wherein they sinned, they perished; they were taken away in their iniquities, but thou reserved. O that it might be for an instance and example of the riches of Divine patience, which may at last lead thee to repentance !