WORDS OF CAUTION. 621 not strong enough to hold us. Again, IV. God beholds all our sins at once. We can take cognizance of but a very few of our sins at one time, but God surveys 'with one extensive view, all the ini- quities that we ever were, are, or shall be guilty of ; yet, saith the. Lord, though I behold them all, yet will I heal them : And the reason why God can resolve to heal backsliders, even though he beholds their sins in all their number, in all their evil, and in all their aggrav,a.- Lions, and all at once, is, because at the same time he surveys his own mercy, all his own compassion, all the righteousnessof his own Son ; so that though he has the fullest and most extensive view of all our evils that can be, yet he has a full 'view of his own mercy and com- passion, and of the merits of his own Son ; and he can say without dishonour to himself, that he will heal them. TWO WORDS OF CAUTION. I. That the sins of saints are not less hateful in the eyes of God than the sins of the vilest sinners are, though he resolves to heal them. For sin cannot put off its vile nature any more than God can put off his nature of ho- liness ; and therefore God looks upon all sin with an eye of hatred and displeasure, and sometimes more re- markably punishes his own children for sin, with tem- poral corrections; and I may say, all the sins of his own people are punished more severely than all the sins of others are, or can be, because he has punished them upon his own Son, , and has received a satisfaction equal to the offence. II. That from this discourse Christians can take no encouragement to sin, or to go and proceed in a back- sliding course, because when they are fallen into such circumstances as these are in my text, they can have no reason to look upon themselves as believers, but to esteem themselves unconverted wretches. If they have any true grace in their hearts, yet it is at so low an ebb, that it cannot be discovered either by themselves or others; they are called to use their utmost diligence to seek after that Godwho is hidden from them, and to re- turn to that God fromwhom they have departed.
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