"idhj. In the nature of it. What is there in that forbearance which out of Christ is revealed? Merely a not immediate punishing upon the*^ offence, and, withal, giving and continuing temporal mercies; such things as men are prone to abuse, and may perish with their bosoms full of them to eternity. That which lies hid in Christ, and is revealed from him, is full of love, sweetness, tenderness, kindness, grace. It is the Lord's waiting to be gi'acious to sinners ; waiting for an advantage to show love and kindness, for the most eminent en- dearing of a soul unto himself, Isa. xxx. 18, " Therefore Mill the
' " Animula vagiila, blandula,
Hospcs comesque corporis,
Qua3 nunc abibis in loca
Pallida, rigida, nudula ?
Nee ut soles dabisjocos." — Had. Imp. ' Rom. ii. 4, 5, ix. 22.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 87
Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you ; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you." Neither is there any revelation of God that the soul finds more sweetness in than this. When it [one's soul] is experimentally convinced that God from time to time hath passed by many, innumerable iniquities, he is astonished to think that God should do so ; and admires that he did not take the advantage of his provocations to cast him out of his presence. He finds that, with infinite wisdom, in all long-suffering, he hath managed all his dispensations towards him to recover him from the power of the devil, to rebuke and chasten his spirit for sin, to endear him unto himself; — there is, I say, nothing of greater sweetness to the soul than this: and therefore the apostle says, Rom. iii. 25, that all is " through the forbearance of God." God makes way for complete forgiveness of sms through this his forbearance ; which the other doth not.
Sdl]/. They differ in their ends and aims. What is the aim and design of God in the dispensation of that forbearance which is mani- fested and may be discovered out of Christ? The apostle tells us, Rom. ix. 22, " What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction?" It was but to leave them inexcusable, that his power and wi'ath against sin might be manifested in their destruction. And therefore he calls it " a suffering of them to walk in their own ways," Acts xiv. 16 ; which elsewhere he holds out as a most dreadful judgment, — to wit, in respect of that issue whereto it v/ill cer- tainly come ; as Ps. Ixxxi. 12, "I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels : " which is as dreadful a^ condition as a creature is capable of falling into in this world. And Acts xvii. 30, he calls it a " winking at the sins of their ignorance;" as it were taking no care nor thought of them in their dark condition, as it appears by the antithesis, " But now he commandeth all men every- where to repent." He did not take so much notice of them then as to command them to repent, by any clear revelation of his mind and will. And therefore the exhortation of the apostle, Rom. ii. 4, " Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long- suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to re- pentance?" is spoken to the Jews, who had advantages to learn the natural tendency of that goodness and forbearance which God exer- cises in Christ ; which, indeed, leads to repentance : or else he doth in general intimate that, in very reason, men ought to make another use of those things than usually they do, and which he charge th them
1 " Eos, qiiibus indulgere videtur, quibus parcere, molles Venturis malis (Deus) format." — Seneca, " De Provideutia," cap. iv. — " Pro dii immortales! cur interdinn in hominum sceleribus maximis, aut connivetis, aut prsesentis fraudis poenas in diem reservatis ?" — Cic. pro Gael. 24.
88 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
withal, verse 5, " But after thy hardness and impenitent heart," etc. At^ best, then, the patience of God unto men out of Christ, by rea- son of tlieir own incorrigible stubbornness, proves but like the waters of the river Pha.sis, that are sweet at the top and bitter in the bot- tom ; they swim for a while in the sweet and good things of this life, Luke xvi. 25 ; wherewith being filled, they sink to the depth of all bitterness.
But now, evidently and directly, the end of that patience and for- bearance of God which is exercised in Christ, and discovered in him to us, is the saving and bringing unto God those towards whom he is pleased to exercise them. And therefore Peter tells you, 2 Pet. iii. 9, that he is " long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" — that is, all us towards whom he exercises forbearance ; for that is the end of it, that his will concerning our repentance and salvation may be accom- plished. And the nature of it, with its end, is well expressed, Isa. liv. 9, " This is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth," etc. It is God's taking a course, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, that we shall not be destroyed not- withstanding our sins; and therefore, Rom. xv. 5, these two things are laid together in God, as coming together from him, " The God of patience and consolation : " his patience is a matter of the greatest consolation. And this is another property of God, which, though it may break forth in some rays, to some ends and purposes, in other things, yet the treasures of it are hid in Christ ; and none is acquainted with it, unto any spiritual advantage, that learns it not in him.