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Chapter 274PrecesPriv.1.274

Preces Quotidianae

The Long-Suffering God

God is patient, slow to anger, and merciful, overlooking sins for repentance and bearing with His people for many years.

1. Patient, forbearing, slow to anger, holding himself back for a long time. Wisdom 11. 23. Overlooking people’s sins for the sake of repentance.1 Psalm — Bearing with them for forty whole years. 782 38.✦ Yet he himself was merciful, and he was gracious, quickly calmed, so that he would not destroy them.

Mercy That Spares Us

God's mercy is the reason we are not consumed, as He repeatedly holds back His anger and does not let His indignation blaze up.

How often he applied it to hold back his anger, and he didn't let all his indignation blaze up.3 — Oh, if only you knew it too. (Lam.4 1.✦ This is that mercy5 It is of God that we are not all consumed.✦6

Punishment as Mercy

Even in chastisement, God is gentle; punishment itself is a part of His mercy, as He disciplines with rods but does not withdraw His steadfast love.

2. Gentle even in the chastisement itself—so much so that not even His judgment is without mercy.7 Punishment is a part of mercy. Ps.8 39.9 32. I chastise their sins with rods; I will not take my mercy from him.✦ 101.✦ 10. Do not deal with us according to our sins, and do not repay us according to our iniquities.✦10

A Father's Gentle Discipline

For a great sin, a little punishment is enough for a father, and God hesitates to strike His people, as shown in Hosea 11:8.

For a great sin, a little punishment is enough for a father. Hos. 11. 8. How shall I strike you, Ephraim?11

The God Who Is Easily Appeased

God is placable and easily appeased; He will not be angry forever nor rebuke eternally, as affirmed by Psalm 103:9.

3. Placability.12 Because He is easily appeased.13 Ps. 102.14 9. He is appeased, and will not be angry forever. nor will he rebuke forever.✦15

Read the original Latin

1 Patiens, Longanimis, Tardus ad iram, Diu se continens, Sap. xi. 23. Dissimulans peccata hominum propter poenitentiam. Psal. — Perferens quadraginta totos annos Ixxviii. 38. Ipse autem erat misericors, et propitius erat, cito pacatus, ne disperderet eos.

Quam s:penumero adjecit, ut inhiberet iram, nec passus est omnem indignationem suam accendi. — O si cognoscas et tu. (Thren. i. 397 Hsec est illa misericordia

Dei, quod non omnes absumamur.

2. Lenis in ipsa castigatione, adeo ut nec judicium Ejus sit Expers misericordize. Pena misericordie pars, Psal. ]xxxix. 32, Castigo in virgis peccata eorum, Misericordiam Meam non auferam ab ipso. ci. 10. | Ne secundum peccata nostra fiat nobis, nec secundum iniquitates nostras retribuet nobis.

Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est patri. Hos. xi. 8. Quomodo percutiam te, Ephraim ?

3. Placabilitas. Quia faciliter. Psal. cii. 9. Placatur, nec in perpetuum irascetur,

nec in zeternum increpabit.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.78.38;Ps.78.38 — But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; He often turned away His anger and did not stir up all His wrath. Ps.78.38 — But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; He often turned away His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
  2. ↩Lam.3.22 — The steadfast love of the LORD—it has not ceased; his mercies have not come to an end.
  3. ↩Lam.3.22 — The steadfast love of the LORD—it has not ceased; his mercies have not come to an end.
  4. ↩Ps.89.32-Ps.89.33;2Sam.7.14-2Sam.7.15 — if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, Ps.89.33 — Yet I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 2Sam.7.14 — I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the wounds of the sons of men. 2Sam.7.15 — But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
  5. ↩Ps.103.10;Ps.103.10 — He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities. Ps.103.10 — He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities.
  6. ↩Ps.103.10 — He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities.
  7. ↩Ps.103.9 — He will not always contend with us, nor will he keep his anger forever.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩dissimulans = overlooking / passing over without immediate punishment, not pretending sin is unreal; rendered 'overlooking' to keep that biblical sense.
  2. 2 ↩Source 'Ixxviii' read as OCR corruption of 'lxxviii' (78), almost certainly the psalm number after Psal.
  3. 3 ↩Normalized 's:penumero' as saepenumero ('how often' / 'so often'); the colon is almost certainly a typographic/OCR break of the ae ligature.
  4. 4 ↩Latin citation 'Thren.' = Threni (Lamentations); rendered with the conventional English abbreviation 'Lam.'
  5. 5 ↩Normalized 'Hsec' as Haec ('this'). Leading '397' treated as a page/running number from the printed witness, not as part of the devotional sentence.
  6. 6 ↩Fragment continues the previous section's clause (Hæc est illa misericordia …). Sense is completed from neighboring context as God's mercy that we are not all destroyed.
  7. 7 ↩Source misericordize read as misericordiae (mercy); likely OCR/print corruption of ae/œ.
  8. 8 ↩Pena / misericordie treated as Poena / misericordiae (classical orthography).
  9. 9 ↩Source ]xxxix. treated as Psalm chapter numeral 39 (xxxix); leading bracket is a print/OCR artifact. Neighboring verse-text matches Ps 89 (lxxxix) more closely than Ps 39; possible lost initial L.
  10. 10 ↩Source retribuet is future indicative after Ne…fiat; rendered as parallel petition (as if retribuat) to match the prayer register and nec-pairing. Could also be read as a declarative future about God.
  11. 11 ↩Cited as Hos. xi. 8; the Latin wording here (percutiam) differs from the common Vulgate reading of Hos 11:8 (dabo). Rendered from the supplied Latin as given.
  12. 12 ↩Latin placabilitas names God's readiness to be appeased and reconciled; kept as the traditional English heading term rather than paraphrased away.
  13. 13 ↩Source is the truncated phrase Quia faciliter. Sense completed from the section heading Placabilitas and the following Psalm citation; not a full independent Latin clause in the supplied text.
  14. 14 ↩Vulgate numbering: Psalm 102 corresponds to Hebrew/English Psalm 103; final Moses mapping belongs to a later stage.
  15. 15 ↩Source reading 'zeternum' is almost certainly a typographical corruption of 'aeternum' (forever); translated on that corrected sense.

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