No, not natural. For was God long-suffering without an effort? Could He be long-suffering without preparation? He could be long-suffering only as He had resolved to give up his well-beloved Son to the fiercest of agonies and the foulest of wrongs. He could be long-suffering, only as a covenant had been entered into, that, in the fulness of times, He who was from all eternity his equal would assume the rebellious nature of the fallen, and fight therein a battle in which victory must be death. He could be long-suffering, only if He would bow the Heavens, and surrender a Divine person to the scorn and the loathing of men. And He did this. He bade the sword awake against his fellow; and, rendering it possible, through the sacrifice of his Son, that sin might be forgiven, He rendered it also possible that Himself could be long-suffering. And when I think on the difference between God's creating a world, and God's pardoning a sin-the one done without effort, the other demanding an instrumentality terribly sublime; the one effected by a word, the other wrought out in agony and blood, on a quaking earth and beneath a darkened heaven-oh, the world created is as nothing by the side of the sin blotted out: that God can pardon is at the very summit of what is wonderful; and therefore then, O Lord, do I most know Thee as the Omnipotent, when I behold in Thee the long-suffering.

We have shown you that, if God be long-suffering, He can punish every sin, and He can pardon every sin; and arguing supremacy in power, both from the punishment and the pardon, we bring home to you the conclusion, that the supremacy is shown by the long-suffering. And thus, to recur once more to the statement of our text, let the

scorner come forward and object, that the threatenings of God must hitherto have failed of fulfilment, because the power of God is not adequate to their execution, then I shall not point him to the marvels of creation, to the stars, and the forests, and the mountains, in order to display to him that power which he questions or denies: I shall say to him, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness ;" and I shall think it enough to rebuke all suspicion as to the slackness resulting from weakness, to add, "He is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to

repentance."

Now, we trust you will all carry with you the idea which we have been most anxious to exhibit, that it is chiefly in showing Himself long-suffering that God shows Himself powerful. Take any other instance of power, and you can, perhaps, imagine a greater. Point out to me the sun, and I may suppose a yet mightier luminary, rejoicing as a giant to run a race. Point out to me the stars, and I may suppose a yet more brilliant troop walking the magnificent canopy. But tell me of forbearance, of long-suffering, of patience, and you tell me of a power (if it be not paradoxical thus to speak) which is greater than infinite. God delaying to take vengeance is God showing his power over Himself, power, that is, over the Omnipotent. So that we can well understand how the patience may be connected with the power of God, as though the one attribute were the great cause or evidence of the other. That the Divine Being can be insulted and not avenge Himself; that He can be defied, blasphemed, and not at once strike down the daring offenders; that, day after day, year after year,

He can suffer the wicked to go on in their wickedness, their every action showing scorn of Him, their every word hatred; and yet, that, all the while, He has engines at his disposal through which He might turn them into terrible monuments of his righteous indignation-oh, there is far greater demonstration of might in this, than in any of those exhibitions, to which men ordinarily refer, when they would declare the supremacy of God: every one of us, a living thing, and yet a sinful, outdoes the earth with all its wonders, and the firmament with all its hosts, in proving the Creator surpassing in his strength.

We must make a close and practical application of so surprising a fact, even though we should but repeat our foregoing statements. Children though ye be of weakness, and heirs of corruption, we may address you in terms loftier than we could dare apply to the sun when marching in his brightness, or to the gorgeous retinue of the deep rich midnight. Monuments the most illustrious of the might of the Almighty, I speak to you as to beings upon whom are gathered the regards of the Angel and the Archangel. That you are still amongst the living; that it has been possible for you to be rebellious, days and weeks and months and years; that you have been spared to insult God, to receive his favours with coldness, to break his commandments, to make light of his threatenings, to put contempt on his promises-where is the prodigy which can half as much amaze the holy creatures who have held fast their allegiance? Each amongst us is a witness that God is long-suffering, and therefore that God is Omnip

otent.

But what use have we made of the Divine long-suffer

ing? to what purpose have we turned it? Have we reason to account with the Apostle that the "long-suffering of God is salvation?" has it led us to repentance? Would that it might be so. God bears with us in love, not in wrath; bears with us, because it is yet possible that we may escape from death, and enter into life. In God's long-suffering I read this fact, salvation is within reach of all whom I address. He does not spare you to increase your condemnation: perish the thought: He spares you only because yet there is hope, yet there is grace, yet there is room; and all-which of you can be willing to be left out?-all may be sheltered, when the storm of wrath is in the Heavens, and the sheet of fire round the earth. Let us take heed, therefore, in the words of St. Paul, that we "despise not the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance." Long-suffering, as we have shown you, proves power in two ways-as presupposing that God can punish sin, and also that God can pardon sin. There is, therefore, encouragement in long-suffering; but, at the same time, there is warning. It forbids any to despair it allows none to presume. Since God spares me, I know that He can punish; and, therefore, I might be startled at my very preservation. But I know also, on the same account, that God can pardon; and, therefore, let me flee to Him through Christ, whilst He may still be addressed in the already quoted words of our Collect," O God, who declarest thy Almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity."

LECTURE XVI.

Sowing the Seed.

MARK iv. 26-29.

"And He said, So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come."

You are all, no doubt, aware that the phrase "the Kingdom of God," or "the Kingdom of Heaven," with which so many of our Lord's parables are introduced, denotes ordinarily the Gospel dispensation, or the Divine method of dealing under the covenant of grace. In general, these parables have a twofold signification: they delineate the Gospel, either as making way in the world, or as acting on an individual. The remarkable parable, which we have just read to you, would most probably admit this double interpretation: it may be, that is, that the history of the Church as a body, and the history of every believer in particular, illustrates, or is illustrated by, the figurative sketch here given of the sowing of the seed, and of the springing of the blade. We shall not, however, attempt so lengthened an inquiry. We will confine

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