wrath and yet he bore long with them, even to the end, till they were brought to repentance, and made, through his grace, vessels of mercy and glory. And this mercy he showed to them even while they were enemies and rebels, as the apostle tells us was the case with himself. "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." 1 Timothy i. 12-16. Now it is the nature of love, at least in reference to a superior, that it always inclines and disposes to imitation of him. A child's love to his father disposes him to imitate his father, and especially does the love of God's children dis.

pose them to imitate their heavenly Father, And as he is long-suffering, so they should be. And,

Secondly, Love to God will dispose us thus to express our gratitude for his long-suffering, exercised toward us. Love not only disposes to imitate, but it works by gratitude. And they that love God, will be thankful to him for the abundant long-suffering that he has exercised toward them in particular. They that love God as they ought, will have such a sense of his wonderful long-suffering toward them under the many injuries they have offered to him, that it will seem to them but a small thing to bear with the injuries that have been offered to them by their fellow-men. All the injuries they have ever received from others, in comparison with those they have offered to God, will appear less than a few pence in comparison with ten thousand talents. And as they thankfully accept of and admire God's long-suffering toward themselves, so they cannot but testify their approbation of it, and their gratitude for it, by manifesting, so far as they are able, the same long-suffering to others. For if they should refuse to exercise long-suffering toward those that have

injured them, they would practically disapprove of God's long-suffering toward themselves; for what we truly approve of and delight in, we shall not practically reject. And then gratitude for God's long-suffering, will also dispose us to obedience to God in this particular, when he commands us to be longsuffering toward others. And so, again,

Thirdly, Love to God tends to humility, which is one main root of a meek and longsuffering spirit. Love to God, as it exalts him, tends to low thoughts and estimates of ourselves, and leads to a deep sense of our unworthiness and our desert of ill; because he that loves God is sensible of the hatefulness and vileness of sin committed against the being that he loves. And discerning an abundance of this in himself, he abhors himself in his own eyes, as unworthy of any good, and deserving of all evil. Humility is always found connected with long-suffering, as says the apostle, Ephesians iv. 2: "With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." An humble spirit disinclines us to indulge resentment of injuries; for he that is little and unworthy in his own eyes, will not think so much of an

injury offered to him, as he that has high thoughts of himself, for it is deemed a greater and higher enormity to offend one that is great and high, than one that is mean and vile. It is pride or self-conceit, that is very much the foundation of a high and bitter resentment, and of an unforgiving and revengeful spirit. Again,

Fourthly, Love to God disposes men to have regard to the hand of God in the injuries they suffer, and not only to the hand of man, and meekly to submit to his will therein. Love to God disposes men to see his hand in everything; to own him as the governor of the world, and the director of providence; and to acknowledge his disposal in everything that takes place. And the fact that the hand of God is a great deal more concerned in all that happens to us than the treatment of men is, should lead us, in a great measure, not to think of things as from men, but to have respect to them chiefly as from God-as ordered by his love and wisdom, even when their immediate source may be the malice or heedlessness of a fellow-man. And if we indeed consider and feel that they are from the hand of God, then we shall be disposed

meekly to receive and quietly to submit to them, and to own that the greatest injuries received from men are justly and even kindly ordered of God, and so be far from any ruffle or tumult of mind on account of them. It was with this view, that David so meekly and quietly bore the curses of Shimei, when he came forth and cursed and cast stones at him, 2 Samuel xvi. 5, 10; saying that the Lord had bid him do it, and therefore forbidding his followers to avenge it. And once more,

Fifthly, Love to God disposes us meekly to bear injuries from others, because it sets us very much above the injuries of men. And it does so in two respects. In the first place it sets us above the reach of injuries from others, because nothing can ever really hurt those that are the true friends of God. Their life is hid with Christ in God; and he as their protector and friend, will carry them on high as on the wings of eagles; and all things shall work together for their good; Romans viii. 28, and none shall be permitted really to harm them, while they are followers of that which is good, 1 Peter iii. 13. And then, in the next place, as love to God prevails, it tends to set persons above human injuries, in this