John Trapp on Malachi 2:17

Verſe 17. Ye have wear[illegible: 1 letter]ed the Lord with your words] Laborare ſc[illegible: 2 letters]ſtis Dommun[illegible: 1 letter], ſo the Vulgar renders it. Ye have put the Lord to pain, as it were; ye have even tired out his patience, whileſt yee have made him to ſerve with your ſinnes, and have wearied him with your iniquities, Eſay 43.24. I have long time holdon my peace, I have been ſtill and refrained my ſelf, ſaith the Lord: Eſay 42.14 Now will I cry like a travailing woman, that hath long time bitten in her pain, I will deſtroy and divour at once. God can bear and forbear as well as any other: Who is a God like unto thee for this, ſaith Micah, chap. 7.17? Were the patienteſt man upon earth in Gods room, but for a very ſhort ſpace, to ſee and hear the provocations, and indignities daily done unto him by the ſinfull ſonnes of men, he would ſoon be weary of it, he would quickly make a ſhort work upon the earth, Rom. 9.28. It would trouble his patience to ſpread out his hands all a day long to a rebellious people, Eſay 65.2. to give forty dayes reſpite to Nineveh that bloody city, full of lies and robbery, Nahum 3.1. to be grieved fourty yeers long with a perverſe people, and to ſuffer their evil manners in the wilderneſſe, Acts 13.18. to bear four hundred years with thoſe wretched Amorites, who had filled the land from one end to the other, Ezek. 4.5, 6 with their abominable uncleanneſſes, Ezra 9.11. In the fourth of Ezekiel God is brought in as lying upon his left ſide for three hundred and ninety years: a long while to lie on one ſide, without turning on the other) and all to ſet forth his long-ſufferance. Our text tells us, that hee is patient even ad defatigationem uſque, toward the wicked: he bears till he can bear no longer. See the like Rom. 9.22. and the reaſon, Rom. 2.4. and the ill uſe that is made of it, Eccleſ. 8.11, 12, 13. till they tire out him that is indefatigable, Jer. 15.6. and make him weary of repenting. But is this a ſafe courſe they take?1 Cor. 10.22 Do they provoke the Lord to wrath? Are they ſtronger then he? Hear ye now, O houſe of David: Is it a ſmall thing for you to weary men, but yee will weary my God alſo? Eſay 7.13. Will he not put an end to his abuſed patience, that juſtice, Deut. 16.20 Ezek. 1. juſtice, (as Moſes hath it) actuall and active juſtice may take place? God in Ezekiel is ſaid to ſit upon a throne, to ſhew his ſlowneſſe: but this throne hath wings, to ſhew his ſwiftneſſe to come, if need require. His patience paſſeth along as a pleaſant river. But if men ſtop the courſe of it by their blaſphemies, and contumelies as here, and preſſe him with their provocations, as a cart that is loaden with ſheaves, Am. 2.13. God will ſurely have his full blow at them, Nah. 1.2, 6. Rom. 2.4. Heb. 12.29

with your words] that is, with your continuall contentions and quiblings: or with thoſe enſuing words, blaſphemous enough, and Atheiſticall: together with your bold juſtification of them: yet ye ſay, wherein, &c.

when ye ſay, every one that doth evil, &c.] As if they ſhould ſay, God puniſheth not but proſpereth the wicked: therefore he loveth and favoureth them above better men. Job, Jeremy, and David were once, for a fit, in the ſame errour, but ſoon recanted it, when once the waters of the Sanctuary had cured their eye-ſight, Pſal. 73.17. for ſuch are ſand-blind, and cannot ſee far off, 2 Pet. 1.9.

or where is the God of judgement?] q. d. No where: either there is no God: or at leaſt,Corn. à Lapid. not a God of that exact, preciſe, impartiall judgement. (ſuch an Emphaſis there is in the Heb.) Diagoras turned Atheiſt, becauſe his adverſary that had robbed him was not preſently thunder-ſtruck. The like is recorded of Porphyry, Lucian, Averroes, and others. See the Notes, on chap. 3.14, 15.