A sermon on the Divine forbearance.
I. THE DESERT OF SIN.
1. The nature of it. The punishment of death—temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
2. The severity of it. Were this penalty exacted from each transgressor to the full, it would mean the extinction of every spark of terrestrial happiness, the withdrawal from the sinful soul of every gracious influence, the absolute cessation of hope of eternal felicity beyond the grave, with all the misery which such a melancholy state of being would entail.
3. The certainty of it. That is, unless the execution of this awful penalty can be delayed. That it can, constitutes the glad tidings of the gospel. But where the gospel of the grace of God is not permitted to interpose for the sinner's rescue, the infliction of this appalling retribution is inevitable.
4. The justness of it. To some minds it seems scarcely consistent with absolute equity to inflict so tremendous a chastisement upon feeble men for the trifling defalcations of a short lifetime. But this objection springs from imperfect notions of the heinousness of sin as committed against an infinite God and a holy Law. Besides, the penalty is that of the Divine Law, and we know that the Law is holy (Romans 7:12).
II. THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD.
1. The proof of it.
2. The reason of it.
III. THE INSTRUCTION OF MAN. "Know thou;" meaning that precious lessons should be derived from the study of so grand a truth.
1. Submission. It should silence all murmurings against afflictive dispensations.
2. Repentance. It ought to fill the human spirit with devout contrition.
3. Hope. It should teach man to "account the long-suffering of our God salvation."