n patience.
Patience bears evil and injustice; but longsuffering delays
punishment. It does not design to punish; it would not take hasty
revenge. Unlike the revengeful, it wishes no one evil. Many we see,
indeed, who suffer much and are patient but at the same time trust in
a final avenging. The longsuffering Christian, however, is opposed to
revenge, desiring the sinner to amend his ways.

"Forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a
complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye."

15. In this verse all law is abolished among Christians. One is not
permitted to demand, through process of law, the recovery of his
property. He must forgive and yield. Christ's example enjoins this
principle; he has forgiven us. And what is the extent of his
forgiveness? He pardons past sins, but that is not all; as John says
(1 Jn 2, 1-2), "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteousness and he is the propitiation for our
sins."

16. Note, it is the true Christian saints whom Paul describes, but he
looks upon them as infirm to the extent of offending and complaining
against one another. This is a state of affairs by no means becoming
Christians and saints. So I say Christ's kingdom is a mystery obscure
beyond the power of our preaching and teaching sufficiently to
explain. Unbelievers cannot be induced to work, but believers cannot
be withheld from working. Some would not believe and some would not
love.

It is true of Christ's kingdom that his Christians are not perfectly
holy. They have begun to be holy and are in a state of progression.
There are still to be found among them anger, evil desire, unholy
love, worldly care and other deplorable infirmities, remains of the
old Adam. Paul speaks of these things as burdens which one must bear
for a neighbor (Gal 6, 2), and in Romans 15, 1, he admonishes us to
"bear the infirmities of the weak." Likewise Christ loved his apostles
much and suffered much from them, and he still daily bears with his
own.

17. Some, enumerating the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians
5, 22-23, say a Christian should be gentle, meek, longsuffering,
chaste; and they look upon this passage as a law commanding such
fruits. Hence they refuse to recognize as Christians any who fail to
possess the fruits in perfection. Now, such individuals cannot believe
there is a Christ, certain as the fact is. They judge malignantly,
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