what use ought we in reafon to make of this patience of God towards us? We ought certainly to break off our fins by a speedy repentance, left iniquity be our ruin; immediately to fue out our pardon, and to make our peace with God, while we are yet in the way, and to refolve, never any more willingly to offend that God who is fo gracious and merciful, fo long-fuffering and full of compaffion. But what ufe do men commonly make of it? They take occafion to confirm and ftrengthen themselves in their wickedness, and to reafon them. felves into vain and groundlefs hopes of impunity. Now, what a folly is this, becaufe punishment doth not come, therefore to halten it, and to draw it down upon ourselves? Because it hath not yet overtaken us, therefore to go forth and meet it? Because there' is yet a poffibility of escaping it, therefore to take a certain courfe to make it unavoidable? Because there is yet hope concerning us, therefore to make our cafe defperate and past remedy? See how unreasonably men bring ruin upon themfelves; fo that well might the Pfalmift afk that question, Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?

But their folly and unreasonablenefs is not fo great, but their perverfenefs and difingenuity is greater. To fin, becaufe God is long-fuffering, is to be evil, becaufa he is good, and to provoke him, because he fpares us it is to ftrive with God, and to contend with his goodness, as if we were refolved to try the utmost length of his patience; and because God is loth to punish, there fore to urge and importune him to that which is fo contrary to his inclination.

II. This may ferve to convince men of the great evil and danger of thus abufing the long-fuffering of God. It is a provocation of the highest nature, because it is to trample upon his deareft attributes, thofe which he most delights and glories in, bis goodness and mercy; for the long-fuffering of God is his goodness to the guilty, and his mercy to thofe who deferve to be miferable.

Nothing makes our ruin more certain, more speedy, and more intolerable, than the abufe of God's goodness and patience. After God had borne long with that rebellious people, the children of Ifrael, and notwithstanding all

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their murmurings, all their infidelity and impenitency, had fpared them ten times, at laft he fets his feal to their ruin, Heb. iii. 8. 9. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers proved me, and faw my works forty years. This was a high provocation indeed, to harden their hearts under the patience and long-fuffering of God, after forty years trial and experience of it; verse 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and faid, they are a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways. And what was the iffue of all this? Upon this God takes up a fixed refolution to bear no longer with them, but to cut them off from the bleffings he had promised to bestow upon them; He fware in his wrath, that they should not enter into his reft. To whom fware he, that they fhould not enter into his reft, but to them that believed not? or, as the word may be rendered, to them that were disobedient? that is, to them who went on in their rebellion against him, after he had fuffered their manners forty years.

And as the abufe of God's patience renders our deftruction more certain, fo more speedy and more intolerable. We think that because God fuffers long, he will fuffer always; and becaufe punishment is delayed, therefore it will never come; but it will come the fooner for this: fo our Lord tells us, Luke xii. when the fervant faid, his Lord delayed his coming; the Lord of that fervant fhall come in a day that he looks not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and fhall cut him in funder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. None fo like to be furprized by the judgment of God,, as those who trefpafs fo boldly upon his patience.

III. To perfuade us to make a right ufe of the patience and long-fuffering of God, and to comply with the merciful end and design of God therein.

1. It is the defign of God's long-fuffering to give us a space of repentance. Were it not that God had this defign and reasonable expectation from us, he would not reprieve a finner for one moment, but would execute his judgments upon him, fo foon as ever he had offended. This our Saviour declares to us by the parable of the fig tree, Luke xiii. 6. Were it not that God ex

pects

125 pects from us the fruit of repentance, he would cut us down, and not fuffer us to cumber the ground after he had waited three years, feeking fruit, and finding none, he fpares it one year more, to fee if it would bear fruit.

2. The long-fuffering of God is a great encouragement to repentance. We fee by his patience that he is not ready to take advantage againft us; that he fpares us when we offend, is a very good fign that he will forgive us if we repent. Thus natural light would reafon; and fo the King of Nineveh, a Heathen, reasons, Who can tell if God will turn and repent? But we are fully affured of this by the gracious declarations of the gofpel, and the way of pardon and forgiveness, which is therein eftablished through faith in the blood of Jefus Christ, who was made a propitiation for the fins of the whole world.

Therefore the long-fuffering of God fhould be a powerful argument to us, to break off our fins by repentance: for this is the end of God's patience; He is long-fuffering to us-ward, not willing that any fhould perish, but that all bould come to repentance. He hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked fhould turn from his way and live. God every where expreffeth a vehement defire and earneft expectation of our repentance and converfion. Fer. iv. 14. O Jerufalem! wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayft be faved. And, Jer. xiii. 27. Wo unto thee, Jerufalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when fhall it once be? He who is fo patient as to the punishment of our fins, is almost impatient of our repentance for them; Wilt thou not be made clean? when fball it once be? And can we ftand out against his earneft defire of our happiness, whom we have so often and fo long provoked to make us miferable?

Let us then return into ourselves, and think seriously what our cafe and condition is; how we have lived, and how long the patience of God hath fuffered our manners, and waited for our repentance, and how inevitable and intolerable the mifery of thofe must be who live and die in the contempt and abuse of it; let us heartily repent of our wicked lives, and fay, What have we done? How carelefs have we been of our own happi

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happiness, and what pains have we taken to undo ourfelves!

Let us fpeedily fet about this work, because we do not know how long the patience of God may last, and the opportunities of our falvation be continued to us. This day of God's grace and patience will have an end; therefore, as the Prophet exhorts, Ifa. lv. 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Now, God graciously invites finners to come to him, and is ready to receive them; nay, if they do but move towards him, he is ready to go forth and meet them half way; but the time will come, when he will bid them depart from him; when they fhall cry, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and the door of mercy shall be shut against them.

All the while thou delayeft this neceffary work, thou ventureft thy immortal foul, and putteft thy eternal falvation upon a defperate hazard; and fhould God fnatch thee fuddenly away in an impenitent ftate, what would become of thee? Thou art yet in the way, and God is yet reconcileable, but death is not far off, and perhaps much nearer to thee than thou art aware; at the belt, thy life is uncertain, and death will infallibly put a period to this day of God's grace and patience.

Repentance is a work fo neceffary, that, methinks, no man should lose so much time as to deliberate, whether he fhould fet about it or not; De neceffariis nulla eft deliberatio; "No man deliberates about what he must do,

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or be undone if he do it not." It is a work of so great confequence and concernment, and the delay of it fo infinitely dangerous, that one would think no wife man could entertain a thought of deferring it. What greater folly and ftupidity can there be, than for men to venture their immortal fouls, and to run an apparent hazard in matters of everlasting confequence!

This day of God's patience is the great opportunity of our falvation; and if we let it flip, it is never to be recovered if we mif-improve this time of our life, we fhall not be permitted to live it over again to improve it better. Our ftate of trial ends with this life, after that God will prove us no more; then we shall wish, O that I had known, in that my day, the things which belonged to

my

my peace! but now they are hid from mine eyes: therefore, to-day, whilst it is called to-day, harden not your hearts, make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day to day; for fuddenly fhall the wrath of the Lord break forth, and in thy fecurity thou shalt be deftroyed. Exercife repentance in the time of health, and defer not till death to be juftified.

MON

SERMON

The power of God.

PSAL. lxii. 11.

CLII.

God bath Spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God.

N treating of the attributes of God, I have confidered those which relate to the divine understanding, to

alfo which relate to the divine will; viz. God's juftice, truth, holiness, and goodnefs: I come now to confider his power of acting, which is his omnipotency; this I fhall fpeak to from these words.

In the beginning of this Pfalm, David declares that God was the great object of his truft and confidence, and that all his hopes and expectation of fafety and deliverance were from him, ver 1. 2. And this makes him challenge his enemies for all their mischievous qualities and devices against him, as vain attempts, ver. 3. 4. Hereupon he chargeth himself to continue his trust and. confidence in God, from whom was all his expectation, and who was able to fave and deliver him, ver. 5. 6. 7. And from his example and experience, he encourageth and exhorts all others to truft in God, ver. 8. and that from two arguments.

1. Because all other objects of our truft and confidence are vain and infufficient, and will fail thofe that rely upon them. If we rely upon any thing in this world, it muft either be perfons or things; but we cannot, fafely repofe our truft in either of these. Not in per

fous: