SERM." and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and CXLVII. all the curfes that are written in this book shall "lie upon him, and the LORD will blot out his 66 name from under heaven," Deut. xxix. 19, 20.

Though it be the nature of God to be merciful, yet the exercise of his mercy is regulated by his wifdom; he will not be merciful to those that defpife his mercy, to those that abuse it, to those that are refolved to go on in their fins to tempt his mercy, and make bold to fay, "Let us fin, that grace may “abound.” God defigns his mercy for those that are prepared to receive it; Ifa. lv. 7. "Let the wick"ed forfake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turn unto the LORD, and he will "have mercy, and to our God, for he will abun"dantly pardon." The mercy of God is an enemy to fin, as well as his justice; and it is no where offered to countenance fin, but to convert the finner; and is not intended to encourage our impenitency, but our repentance. God hath no where said that he will be merciful to those who, upon the score of his mercy, are bold with him, and prefume to offend him; but "the mercy of the LORD is upon them "that fear him, and keep his covenant, and re "member his commandments to do them. There "is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared;" but not that he may be defpifed and affronted. This is to contradict the very end of God's mercy, which is, to lead us to repentance, to engage us to leave our fins, not to encourage us to continue in them.

Take heed then of abufing the mercy of GoD: we cannot provoke the juftice of God more, than by presuming upon his mercy. This is the time of God's mercy; ufe this opportunity: if thou neglecteft it, a day of juftice and vengeance is coming;

Rom.

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Rom. ii. 4, 5. Defpifeft thou the riches of his SERM. "goodness, and forbearance, and long-fuffering, CXLVII. not knowing that the goodness of GOD leads to repentance? And treasureft up unto thy felf wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of "the righteous judgment of GOD?" Now is the manifeftation of God's mercy; but there is a time a coming, when the righteous judgment of GOD will be revealed against those who abuse his merey, "not knowing that the goodness of GOD leadeth to repentance." To think that the goodness of GOD was intended for any other end than to take us off from fin, is a gross and affected ignorance that will ruin us; and they who draw any conclufion from the mercy of GoD, which may harden them in their fins, they are fuch as the prophet speaks of, If. xxvii. 11. "A people of no understanding; therefore he that "made them will not have mercy on them; and he "that formed them will fhew them no favour." Mercy itself will rejoice in the ruin of those that abuse it, and it will aggravate their condemnation. There is no person towards whom God will be more feverely juft, than towards fuch. The justice of GOD, exasperated and set on by his injured and abused mercy, like a razor fet in oil, will have the keener edge, and be the sharper for it's fimoothness. Those that have made the mercy of God their enemy, must expect the worst his justice can do unto them.

The patience of God.

SERM.

CXLVIII.

2 PET. iii. 9.

The LORD is not flack concerning his promife, (as fome men count flackness) but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all fhould come to repentance.

I

N the beginning of this chapter the apostle puts the Chriftians, to whom he writes, in mind of the predictions of the ancient prophets, and of the apostles of our LORD and SAVIOUR, concerning the general judgment of the world, which by many (and, perhaps, by the apostles themselves) had been thought to be very near, and that it would prefently follow the deftruction of Jerufalem; but he tells them, that before that, there would arife a certain fect, or fort of men, that would deride the expectation of a future judgment, defigning, probably, the Carpocra tians (a branch of that large fect of the Gnofticks) of whom St. Austin exprefly fays, that they denied the refurrection, and confequently, a future judgment. Thefe St. Peter calls fcoffers, ver. 3. 4. "Knowing "this first, that there fhall come in the laft days

fcoffers, walking after their own lufts, and faying, "where is the promife of his coming?" The word siraylenia, which fignifies a declaration in general, whether it be by way of promife or threatening. What is become of that declaration of CHRIST fo frequently repeated in the gofpel, concerning his com

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ng to judgment? "For fince the fathers fell asleep,' SERM. or, "faving that the fathers are fallen afleep," except only that men die, and one generation fucceeds another, "all things continue as they were from the "creation of the world;" that is, the world con-. tinues ftill as it was from the beginning, and there is no fign of any fuch change and alteration as is foretold. To this he anfwers two things:

1. That thefe fcoffers, though they took themselves to be wits, did betray great ignorance, both of the condition of the world, and of the nature of God. They talked very ignorantly concerning the world, when they said, "All things continued as they were "from the creation of it," when fo remarkable a change had already happened, as the destruction of it by water; and therefore the prediction concerning the deftruction of it by fire, before the great and terrible day of judgment, was no ways incredible. And they fhewed themselves likewise very ignorant of the perfection of the divine nature; to which, being eternally the fame, a thousand years and one day are all one and if GOD make good his word fome thoufands of years hence, it will make no fenfible difference concerning his eternal duration; it being no matter when a duration begins, which is never to have an end; ver. 8. "Be not ignorant of "this one thing, that one day is with the LORD "as a thousand years, and a thoufand years as one

day." This, it feems, was a common faying among the Jews, to fignify, that to the eternity of GOD, no finite duration bears any proportion; and therefore, with regard to eternity, it is all one whether it be a thousand years, or one day. The Pfalmift hath an expreffion much to the fame purpose, Pfal. xc. 4. "For a thousand years in thy fight are

SERM." but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch CXLVIII« in the night." And the fon of Sirach likewise, Ecclus. xviii. 10.

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As a drop of water to the sea, "and as a grain of fand to the fea-fhore, fo are a "thousand years to the days of eternity." The like expreffion we meet with in heathen writers; " to the gods no time is long," faith Pythagoras: And Plutarch, "the whole space of a man's life, to the gods, is as nothing." And in his excellent discourse of the flowness of the divine vengeance, (the very argument St. Peter is here upon) he hath this paffage, "that a thousand, or ten thousand years, are but as "an indivifible point to an infinite duration." And therefore, when the judgment is to be eternal, the delay of it, though it were for a thousand years, is an objection of no force, against either the certainty, or the terror of it; for, to eternity, all time is equally fhort; and it matters not when the punishment of finners begins, if it fhall never have an end.

2. But because the diftance between the declaration of a future judgment, and the coming of it, though it be nothing to GoD, yet it feemed long to them: therefore he gives fuch an account of it, as doth not in the least impeach the truth and faithfulness of God, but is a clear argument and demonftration of his goodness. Admitting what they faid to be true, that GOD delays judgment for a great while, yet this gives no ground to conclude that judgment will never be; but it fhews the great goodness of GoD to finners, that he gives them fo long a space of repentance, that fo they may prevent the terror of that day, whenever it comes, and efcape that dreadful ruin, which will certainly overtake, fooner or later, all impenitent finners: "The LORD is not flack concerning his promife;" that is, as to the de

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