627 / 652
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
righteousness
of
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 God
who
is
hidden
from
them, and to re-
turn
to
that God from
whom they have
departed.