odious to God because wicked men do not presently feel the punisli- ment of it. There are many righteous ends why execution should be delayed, partly with respect to the Mediator, into whose hands the government of the world is put : Exod. xxxiii. 2, 3, ' I will send an angel before thee ; I will not go up with thee, lest I consume thee by the way/ compared with Exod. xxiii. 20-23, ' Behold I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared : beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not ; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if indeed thou obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and an adversary to thy adversaries ; for my angel shall go before thee ; ' that was Christ, whom they tempted in the wilderness: 1 Cor. x. 9, 'Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted him, and were destroyed of serpents.' Partly that the elect might not be cut off in their unre- generate condition, that the wheat may not be plucked up with the tares, which they might oe ; if sentence should be speedily executed against every evil-doer, there would be no room left for conversion. Therefore God is not slack, as men count slackness ; but only waits, that all those that belong to the purpose of his grace might come to repentance, 2 Peter iii. 9. He is long suffering to us-ward, to those that were such as the apostle was, that belonged to the purposes of God's grace. And it is delayed too, that his wrath may be glorified in the confusion of the reprobate : Kom. ix. 22, ' He endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ; ' that he may show the glory of his power against them, they are hardened and strengthened in their wickedness by their prosperity. When all the favours of God have been abused, and the riches of his goodness set at naught, they have nothing to say for themselves. And sentence is delayed, that the little good they do in the world may not be hin- dered. God knows how to use all his creatures ; even the wicked have a ministry and service under his providence. The Lord would not destroy their enemies all at once, lest the beasts of the field should increase upon them, Deut. vii. 22. They serve as a hedge of thorns to a garden of roses for his people. A dead rotten post may support a living tree. It may be God will bring some that belong to his grace out of their loins. Hierome saith. Many times an evil shrub may bear sweet fruit. And God hath righteous ends too, that his people may be humbled, and that their perverse humours may be broken ; for so saith the Lord : Isa. x. 12, ' When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria.' When he hath sufficiently humbled and purged his people, then he will do it. And whenever this temptation comes, when you see sentence dela3^ed, go to the sanc- tuary, as David did : Ps. Ixxiii. 17, ' Then you will understand their €nd.' There you will see sentence is not speedily executed, but it is surely executed. As a chimney long foul will be fired at length : Ps. Iv. 19, ' Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God,' when they are high and prosperous ; * but God will hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old;' he Avhose essence and providence hath been always the same, he will in due time execute his righteous
446 SERMONS UPON TSALJi cxix, [Ser. CLIIL
judgment ; and the longer he stays, the more heavy ; the longer he is about drawing of his bow, the deeper will his arrows pierce ; they are but ' treasuring up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. As in jehoiadah's chest, the longer it was ere it was opened, the more treasure there was in the chest ; so they are treasuring up ■wrath, &c. The fire that hath been long kindling burns the more grievous at last.
2. There are other punishments besides outward afflictions. In- visible judgments are most fearful, blindness of mind, hardness of heart, terrors of conscience. TertulUan ad Marg. — Cogitemus ipsum magis mundum carcerem esse, exisse eos de carcere, qicam in carcerem, mtroisse intelligemus. Majores tenehras Jiahet mundus, quce Jiominum corda cxccecant : graviores catenas induit mundus, quce animas Jiomi- num obstringunt, 2 Cor. iv, 4. Nihil infcllcius felicitate peccantium. No such misery as to be condemned to this kind of happiness, no blindness like a blind understanding, no chains like an obstinate will, no torments like terrors of conscience, under which a man lives for his further punishment, that he may be his own tormentor. Cain had rather die a thousand deaths than be let loose as a vagabond here upon earth, and be delivered over to the hell of his own conscience. Those that are under torments of conscience will call upon the moun- tains and rocks to cover them.