It is certain that the glory of one divine perfection cannot interfere with that of another; as justice and mercy meet together in the work of redemption, so justice and patience do not oppose each other, in any of the divine dispensations. It is true, their demands seem to be various; justice requires that the stroke should be immediately given; but patience insists on a delay hereof, inasmuch as without this it does not appear to be a divine perfection; if therefore patience be a divine attribute, and its glory as necessary to be displayed, as that of any of his other perfections, it must be glorified in this world, and that by delaying the present exercise of vindictive justice in the highest degree, or it cannot be glorified at all: justice will be glorified, throughout all the ages of eternity, in those who are the objects thereof; but patience can then have no glory, since (as has been observed) the greatest degree, either of happiness or misery, is inconsistent with the exercise thereof; therefore this being a perfection, which redounds so much to the divine honour, we must not suppose that there is no expedient for its being glorified, or that the glory of vindictive justice is inconsistent with it. Now this harmony of these two perfections must be a little considered. Justice, it is true, obliges God to punish sin, yet it does not oblige him to do it immediately; but the time, as well as the way, is to be resolved into his sovereign will. In order to make this appear, let us consider, that the design of vindictive justice, in all the punishment it inflicts, is either to secure the glory of the holiness of God; or to assert his rights, as the governor of the world; now if the deferring of punishment doth not interfere with either of these, then the glory of God’s patience is not inconsistent with that of his vindictive justice. But more particularly,