Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/130

126 authority and power prevent them in such cases, from visiting it with summary punishment. But this is an evidence of our weakness. God "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity—Heaven is impure in his sight." Yet he is cognizant of the great mass of human crime, but strikes not. His own inflexible justice and truth call for vengeance against the transgressors; but his long-forbearance, holds back the bolt. Here lies the "thunder of his power" which is beyond human comprehension.

Again, nor does his slowness to anger afford any security to the finally impenitent; for it is further added that

He "will not at all acquit the wicked" Though he bear long with sinners, yet retributive justice will overtake them at last. The fate of several nations as well as individuals may be adduced as illustrative of this. The ante-diluvians, the Sodomites, the Egyptians, the Ninevites,