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Observe here, 1. The indulgent carriage of Almighty God towards poor sinners, discovered in the vast expence of the riches of his goodness and bounty upon them, and in the patient exercise of his forbearance and long-suffering towards them.
Observe, 2. The gracious end and design of God in his expense of his goodness, and in the exercise of his patience and forbearance; namely, To lead sinners to repentance. The end of goodness is to oblige and engage persons to love and serve their benefactor; this is the most natural and unconstrained consequence that the mind of man can infer from God's bounty and sparing mercy; The goodness of God leadeth to repentance.
Observe, 3. The unanswerable and undue returns, which sinners make to God for the exercise of so much goodness and forbearance towards them: They despise the riches of his goodness and long-suffering. They despise it by being unthankful for it, by not improving it, and by misimproving or sinning against it: They melt the mercies of God into bullets, and shoot them at the breast of the Almighty.
Observe, 4. The sad and fatal consequence of these undue returns made to God by sinners: Hereby they treasure up wrath, against the day of wrath. As if the apostle had said, "The more patience God expends upon thee, if perverted and abused by thee, the greater wrath is treasured up for thee; which the longer it has been treasured up, will break forth the more fiercely and violently to consume thee."
Observe, 5. The description given by the apostle of the day of judgment; he calls it, A revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The judgment of God is righteous now; but it is not always revealed and openly made manifest now: therefore a time shall come, when there shall be a revelation of his righteous judgment fully.
From the whole, note, 1. That the goodness of God is a natural and genuine motive to repentance.
2. That not to be persuaded by, is in God's account to despise, his goodness.
Note, 3. That this despising of goodness, by delaying our repentance, is a treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath: As sinners have teasures of sin, so God has treasures of wrath for sinners.
Note, lastly, that the day of judgment will be a day of revelation, a day in which the righteousness of God's proceedings shall be universally manifested and magnified; then will all the divine attributes be conspiciously glorified; his wonderful clemency sweetly displayed; his exact justice terribyly demonstrated; his perfect wisdom clearly unfolded; all the knotty intrigues of providence wisely resolved; all the mysterious depth of divine counsels fully discovered, and to the dreadful consternation and confusion of the wicked and impenitent world: Oh how well might the apostle call this day, The revelation of the righteous judgment of God!