593 / 652
DANGER
OF
CONCEALED SIN.
5$%
enough
in him
for
eternal
condemnation, and
so
Job
himself
owns his sin to
God
"
I
have sinned,
what shall
I
do
unto
thee
?"
He
acknowledges
his
guilt
before
God, though
he
justifies himself
in those
respects
wherein
his
friends condemned
him
;
but there
are
some
particu-
lar
miscarriages
of
the saints
that
God
will
visit with
stripes.
The
reasons
of
this
desire
in
a
saint are
these,
First,
He
longs tó know
what
is
the
sin
for which he
is
afflicted,
because
this seems to
be
the
chief
offence
against
God
his
father,
since
God takes
more notice
of
this
than
of
all
his
other
sins.
Perhaps
it
is
a sin
that
is
not
so
great
in
the
eye
of
the
world,
but
it
is
a
sin
where-
by the
jealous God
is
provoked,
and
for
which he
testi,
fies his
displeasure against
his
children more
than
any
other
sin.
Second,
Because this
is
the
chief hindrance of
his
own
peace and comfort
both
inward and outward. When
a
soul
has
been
under
long sorrows,
he
would
willingly
have
them
removed
;
such as
Job's
were in
the
text:
he was
weary
of
his life,
he
tells
us
in
the
foregoing
verse,
there-
fore
he was
earnest
with
God
to know
what
were
the
reasons
of
such an
affliction
as
this
;
lie
desires to
know
the
'
sin
that
so
the
affliction
might
be
removed
;
when
the
cause
is
destroyed the
effect
will
cease
;
when
the cause
is
gone the effect vanishes
too..
You
find
Joshua
making
strict
enquiry after
this
in
his
camp
(Josh.
vii.
1,
6,
&c.)
Achan's
wedge
of
gold which he covered with
earth,
that
was
taken
away
among the
spoils, which
ought
to
have
been
all
destroyed this
was
a
sin
against
the express
command
of God, and a
sin
for
which
Israel
fled
before
the
Canaanites
:
Joshua
therefore
makes
.
strict enquiry
after
this
sin,
that
so
God
might
return
to
the camp
of
Israel
again,
and
give
them victory and success
as
before.
Third,
That
he
might
see
more
of
the wisdom, justice,
and faithfulness
óf
God, in
his afflictive
providences.
When
God
made a
covenant
with all
his
saints
in
Christ
their
head,
under
the naine
of
David, he assures them,
sometimes he
will
visit
their iniquities
with stripes,
but
will
not
suffer
his
faithfulness
to fail
;
there
is
loving
kindness
and
mercy, says
God,
in
these
very
corrections
that
seem
severe and
are
sometimes uneasy to
my
peo-
ple,:
And when
we
can
discover
that particular
guilt for
which
God
corrects
us,
we
see
then that secret harmony