SERM. mit adultery with her into great TribulatiXV. cn, except they repent of their Deeds. This

Pet.iii. 4.

therefore is the Character of the Divine
Patience Generally fpeaking, Sentence a-
gainst an evil work is not executed speedily.
II. THE Text reprefents unto us, the
ill Use that wicked men are too apt to
make of this divine forbearance : there-
fore the Heart of the Sons of Men, is
fully fet in them to do evil. Therefore;
That is, not that there is any reason, not
that there is any juft ground, not that
any good Argument to encourage Men
in their Difobedience, can be drawn from
the Long-fuffering of God: But that in
Fact, and by fad Experience, it appears
too frequently True, that wicked men are
apt to deceive themselves, with fo abfurd,
fo groundless, fo unreasonable a Proceed-
ing. Because God punishes them not im-
mediately, but gives them fpace of repen-
tance; therefore they abfurdly prefume, or
carelessly go on as if they prefumed, that
he would not punish them at all. Where
is the Promife, (where is the Threatning,)
of his Coming? For fince the Fathers fell
afleep, all things continue as they were,
from the beginning of the Creation. Upon

This ground; Come ye fay they (as the SER M. prophet Isaiah elegantly represents them,) XV. I will fetch wine, and we will fill our felves If. lvi. 12. with ftrong drink; and to morrow shall be as This day, and much more abundant. And Wifd. ii. 6. Come on therefore, let us ( enjoy the good things that are prefent; and

let us fpeedily use the Creatures like as in youth. Thus wicked and debauched perfons, in the days of riot, are apt to flatter themselves: He hath faid in his Heart, tufh, I fall never be caft down, there fhall no harm happen unto me, Pf. x. 6. or, as it is in the new tranflation, 1 fhall never be in Adverfity. That Thus it was in antient days, the Prophet Ifaiah complains, ch. xxvi. 10. Let favour be showed to the Wicked, yet will be not learn righteousness, in the land of uprightness will be deal unjustly, and will not behold the Majefty of the Lord. And that Thus it will continue to be, among incorrigible Men, to the end of the World; our Saviour plainly declares, Matt. xxiv. 38. As in the days that were before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entred into the ark, And knew not untill the Flood

SER M. came, and took them all away; So fhall alXV. fo the Coming of the Son of Man be. This is the ill Ufe, that wicked men are too apt to make, of the divine forbearance. Inftead of being led thereby to repentance, (which is what God gives them fpace for; they on the contrary thence promife themselves final impunity, and their heart is more fully fet in them to do evil. How abfurd This their Conclufion is ; and how foolish their Practife, in thus abufing the Patience and Long-fuffering of God; is the

IIId HEAD I propofed to fpeak to: And it will abundantly appear, from the following Confiderations.

Ift, SIN is not therefore the lefs evil in itself, because not always punished immediately. All Wickedness, is an endeavouring to confound the natural order and reafon of Things: 'tis a difhonouring of curfelves, as we are created rational and intelligent Beings; 'tis injurious to other Men, as tending always to fubvert that Peace and Happiness of the World, which the Wisdom of Providence has appointed to confift, in the Practice of univerfal Righteoufnefs, of Juftice, Truth, and Charity

XV.

Charity among Men; "Tis, finally, offer- SER M. ing the highest Affront to God the Supreme Governour of All; who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; and whose princi=pal Concern it is, not to fuffer that Great Diftinction of Things, the Difference of Good and Evil, to be for ever neglected Flee therefore from Sin, and defpifed. fays the wife Author of the Book of Ecclefiafticus, ch. xxi. 2. Flee from Sin, as from the Face of a Serpent; The Teeth thereof, are as the Teeth of a Lyon, flaying the Souls of Men; All iniquity is as a two-edged Sword, the wounds whereof cannot be healed: Cannot; that is, cannot without much greater Difficulty be healed, than careless Sinners are willing to perfwade them felves.

t

2. As Sin is not in itself, the less evil, because not always punished immediately; so neither ought it to be imagined, that God is therefore the lefs provoked, because there appear not in Him, as in vain Mortals, any fudden Tranfports of hafty Paffion. God, is pure and unmixt Reason ; and, as all his other Actions are without any emotion in himself, fo he punishes alfo, not that he has any pleasure in fo doing, but that the thing is in itself right and ne

A a 4

ceffary

SERM. ceffary to be done. When therefore he XV. has born with Sinners, as long as Wisdom and Goodnefs thinks reasonable to bear with them; his Patience, after That, will have an End: Luk. xiii. 7. Then faid be to the dreffer of his Vineyard, behold, these three years I come feeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none; cut it down, why cumbreth it the ground? The Spirit of God will not always frive with man; neither will he fuffer himself to be mocked, and his Laws finally to be trampled upon. The Holy Spirit of Difcipline, will flee from Deceit, (Wifd. i. 5.) and will remove from Thonghts that are without underflanding, and will not abide when unrighteoufnefs cometh in. Long did the Patience of God bear with the Jews in the Wilderness, in the day of their provocation; but at length, he sware unto them in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest, Pf. xcv. II. In Pf. cvi. 26. 'tis thus expreffed; he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the Wildernefs: He lifted up his hand, that is, be fware unto them; fo That phrafe fignifies in the Hebrew; and fo it ought therefore to have been tranflated in one Pfalm, as

well