with God there is no scope for any such views or feelings. He is able to punish whensoever he will : nor is it possible for any to escape from his hands. He, however, is averse to proceed to extremities, till he has used every possible method to re- claim sinners, and to open a way for the exercise of his mercy towards them. " He is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness." He is kept back, not by any conscious weakness, or by indifference, or by fear, or by any other motive which may be supposed to influence us : he is restrained by long-suffering alone, and by a desire to spare those who have deserved punishment.]
He desires to save every child of man — [" He is not willing that any should perish :" no ; he would not that so much as one should ever become a monu- ment of his indignation. This he affirms in the strongest manner ; yea, and confirms his assertion with an oath : " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live a." It is surprising, that any, after such a declaration as this, should maintain the doctrine of absolute reprobation. Were that, or any other doctrine, clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures, I should feel it my duty to receive it with the sim- plicity of a little child : but to receive it merely as a deduction of human reason, an inference drawn by weak and fallible man from the doctrine of election, when the whole Scriptures uni- formly declare the very reverse, is, to say the least, very dan- gerous, and exceeding sinful. I know it is said of ungodly men, by St. Jude, that " they were of old ordained to this condemnation15." I know, also, that St. Peter says of many, that they " stumbled at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed0." But it is not of individuals that these Apostles speak, but of characters. God has ordained, that they who will not receive the truth with humility shall stumble at it; and that they who will resist the faith which he has delivered to his saints, shall be left to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and to deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a wise and righteous appoint- ment. But it is a far different thing from creating any with a fixed determination to consign them over to perdition, purely of his own arbitrary will, without any fault of theirs. Such an idea as this is directly contradicted by the assertion in my text : and by the oath which I have before mentioned ; and by num- berless other portions of Scripture, which can admit of no doubt. Our blessed Lord said to his hearers, " Ye will not come to me, that ye may have lifed :" and to the Jews, even
a Ezek. xxxiii. 11. b Jude, ver. 4.
c 1 Pet. ii. 8. & John v. 40.
2427.] god's forbearance. 847
after they were given up to the judgments they had merited, he said, " O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyese." And again: "How often would I have gathered you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would notf." The whole Scripture attests, that " God would rather that all should come to repentance and live." He " commands all men everywhere to repentg." He exhorts them to it also ; saying, " Tuni ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel11 ?" and he declares to all, without exception, " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out'." Now shall we, in deference to human systems, set aside all these passages of holy writ? God forbid: we dare no,t do so: and if we cannot mark out the precise boundaries where truths of an opposite aspect meet, we are contented to say, " What I know not now, I shall know hereafter." If we choose to speculate on divine truths, we may soon get out of our depth : but if we will practically apply them to our own souls, we shall find them as clear as we can wish. Where is the man who has not experienced more or less the strivings of God's Spirit in his soulk? Who amongst us has not a consciousness that he has resisted those strivings1 ; and that, if he had made a due improvement of them, " God would have given him more grace™ ?" The truth, then, is plain : if God forbear to execute upon the world the judgments we deserve, it is not because he is indifferent about our proceedings, but because he is long-suffering towards us, and desirous, if we would improve the opportunity, to save us all. This is the true reason why " he endures, with such astonishing forbearance, the vessels of wrath who are fitted for destruction"."]