Finally, the Goodness of God takes the name of Patience, or Forbearance, or Longsuffering, when He does not send the punishment justly to be inflicted immediately upon the misdeed: hence, when the Name of Jehovah is proclaimed, He is also said to be in Exodus 34:6, אֶ֥רֶךְ אַפַּ֖יִם, longsuffering, slow to anger, properly long of nose: now, the nose is the seat of anger, which especially shows itself there in vehement breathing and heat. And so He is long of nose, whose nose does not so easily conceive heat and exhale with the heat of an agitated soul; and thus, slow to anger. Indeed, אֶרֶךְ is properly slowness, but is generally taken adjectivally: compare the Most Illustrious VRIEMOET’S Adnotationes ad Dicta Classica Veteris Testamenti, part I, chapter VIII, pages 299, 300. God is not only said to be Longsuffering, but also the πλοῦτος/riches τῆς ἀνοχῆς καὶ τῆς μακροθυμίας, of forbearance and longsuffering, equally as τῆς χρηστότητος, of goodness, are ascribed τῷ Θεῷ, to God, Romans 2:4.
God demonstrated that under the entire Economy of the Old Testament, with Justice because of the sins of those believing in Christ the Surety not yet exercised, Romans 3:25, on which passage carefully consider our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XXXIX, Part III, and below in Chapter XXIV, § 7, number 2. But He also demonstrates it today, for the conviction of Reprobates and the conversion of the Elect; just as with regard to the latter God is also said to make use of Patience, 2 Peter 3:9: compare below, Chapter VII, § 23. Moreover, Patience is able to be said especially to concern Reprobates, as σκεύη ὀργῆς κατηρτισμένα εἰς ἀπώλειαν, vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, which God ἤνεγκεν ἐν πολλῇ μακροθυμίᾳ, endured with much longsuffering: while Mercy especially concerns the Elect, as σκεύη ἐλέους, ἃ προητοίμασεν εἰς δόξαν, vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared for glory, Romans 9:11, 12.
But in no manner does this Patience overthrow divine Justice; for postponement does not imply the taking away of punishment, but rather, as it is despised, an aggravation of punishment, Romans 2:4-6.