58 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [YeR. 2.
derision. When vre have done our errand, free grace will make us all liars. To this effect did he expostulate with God. God might easily destroy sinners with much honour to himself ; but he is long-suffering, even then when his patience for a while seemeth to impair the revenues of heaven. The world suspects his being, the saints quarrel his justice and question his love, and all because the wicked are prosperous, and God keepeth silence. The great stumbling-block at which most have dashed the foot of their faith, is the suspension of due judgments. What was the effects of his patience to them of Assyria and Babylon ? The Lord himself telleth you, Isa. lii. 5, ' My name every day is blasphemed.' That was all he got by it : his people suffered in person, and God himself in his reputation ; all that he got was blasphemies, and reproaches, and injuries : so Ps. 1. 21, 'I kept silence, and thou thoughtest that I was every way like thyself ;' that was the effect — gross conceits of his glory and essence. When judgments are quick and speedy, the world is under greater awe, the confidence of the saints is strengthened and supported, and God's honour is more clear and un- stained ; }'et, with all these disadvantages to his glory, if we may speak so, God forbeareth. Certainly his heart is much set upon the honour of his mercy, that God will glorify it though other attributes seem to suffer loss.
4. The scriptures speak much of his readiness to receive returning sinners. Though they have done infinite wrong to his holiness, yet upon repentance, and as soon as they begin to submit, mercy em- braceth and huggeth them, as if there had been no breach : Luke xv. 20, ' I will go to my father,' and ' the father ran to meet him.' So Isa. Ixv. 24, ' Before they call,' &c. So Ps. xxxii. 5, ' I said, and thou for- gavest,' &c. So Jer. xxxi. 18, with 20, ' I have heard Ephraim be- moaning himself,' &c. ; and presently, ' 0 my dear and pleasant child ! ' The first relentings of the creature work upon the bowels of mercy. Love's pace is very swift, it runneth to meet a returning sinner. Christ cometh ' skipping over the mountains,' Cant. ii. 8. He thinketh that he can never be soon enough with us. He would fain have the company of sinners, and therefore meeteth them more than half-way. When we but conceive a purpose, we presently receive the fruit of his early mercies.
5. God doth not only admit them to come, but of his own accord inviteth them that are slack and backward. The scriptures do every- where record the intreaties of God : he draweth us with cords of love ; cords that are woven and spun out of Christ's heart and bowels. In one place thus. Cant. iv. 8, ' Come away from Lebanon, my sister, my spouse, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of leopards.' Christ's love is hot and burning, he thinketh we tarry too long from his em- braces. So Cant. V. 2, ' Open to me, my sister, my spouse,' &c. Christ stands begging for entrance. Lost man! do but suffer me to save thee ; poor sinner ! suffer me to love thee. These are the charms of gospel rhetoric. So Isa. xlix., ' Hearken to me, and attend to the words of my mouth,' &c. 0 sinners ! you will not hearken to me for the good of your souls ! You see none singeth so sweetly as the bird of paradise, the turtle that chirpeth upon the church's hedges, that he may cluck sinners to himself. The scripture is full of such a holy witchcraft, such passionate charms, to entice souls to their happiness.
VeR. 2.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 69
6. They that constantly refuse the offers of his grace are borne with for a long time : Eom. ix. 22, ttoWt] /xaKpo6u/xia, ' He endured with much long-sulfering,' &c. All may bless God for patience ; they owe a heavy debt to divine justice, yet it is a long time ere Grod putteth the bond in suit ; though they dare him to his face, yet they walk up and down without the arrest of vengeance. He beareth with them years and years, after a thousand and a thousand affronts, from their cradles to their graves. When they were green wood, they were fuel fit enough for divine wrath. Oh ! consider, there can be no cause of this but his mercy to his worst creatures. It is not out of any delight in sin, for he is holy, and cannot endure to look upon it : Hab. i. 13, ' Of purer eyes,' &c. It is not out of any stupid neglect ; he is just, and ' will not clear the guilty,' Exod. xxxiv. 7. It is not out of any ignorance ; 'he telleth man his thoughts ;' nor for want of power; so men forbear. The sons of Zeruiah may be too hard for them ; but, 1 Sam. xxiv. 19, ' If a man findeth his enemy, will he let him go well away ? ' When they are in our power, we satisfy our wrath and revenge to the full. But now God ' upholdeth all things by the word of his power ; ' he can in a minute speak us into nothing. As the im- pression of a seal upon the water dependeth upon the seal, if the seal be taken away the impression vanisheth ; so do our beings depend upon providential influence and supportation. If God should withdraw the word of his power, we should soon vanish and disappear ; therefore it is not for want of power, but merely out of mercy that we are forborne. How may we wonder at this ! We are of eager and tart spirits, sharp- set upon revenge. Could we have put up so many refusals of love, such despites done to mercy, such wrongs, such grievings of spirit, and yet have contained ? The disciples themselves, though holy men, when they were sensible of being slighted m the village of Samaria, . called for ' fire from heaven,' Luke ix. 54. Certainly we could not endure such a contradiction of sinners. If thunderbolts were in our power we should soon kindle a burning, and turn the world into smoke and desolation.