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RESTORING MERCY IMPROVED.
God, after
they
have been
brought
near
him,
remember
how
far
distant
they were from him once, when they
lay
in
a
state of sin
and
nature, dark
and
dead, cold
and
negligent, and
yet
how
eternal
love has drawn them
?
How everlasting
love has
recovered
them
?
He that
saw
our
ways
and healed
us when
we
were making
haste to
destruction,
and
walking
in
the broad
ways
that
lead to
death
;
this
God
when he
beheld our
backslidings, had
grace enough
to
restore
us.
V..
How
dangerous
will
it
be
to
turn
away from
God
when he
begins to exercise this healing grace
upon
thy
soul
!
I-Iast
thou been
long blinded
and walked
on
in
a
maze
of
errors
;
doth
he begin now
to
discover
to
thee
the
value
of
Christ and
his
salvation
?
Doth
he
begin
to discover
a sight
of
heaven
to
thee
now,.
and
wilt
thou
check these
beginnings
of
recovery
?
Doth
he
now begin
to
touch
thy
tender
part
?
Doth
he begin to awaken thee
to
a sense
of
former
backslidings, and
wilt
thou
still
turn
away
?
O
dread the
thoughts
of
being sealed over for
ever to
judicial
hardness
;
thy face
has been
turned
away
from
the God of
Sion,
and
he begins
to
turn thee
to him
-.
self
again, and
wilt
thou indulge
sin
so
as to cause
thy
soul
to turn
backward
;
what canst thou expect
but
that
God
should
give
thee up
for
ever
?
VI.
How
strong are the
obligations
of
those
that
have
been thus recovered, and
thus healed to stand
afar
off
from all
sin.?
To
avoid all
seasons,
and
all places
of
in-
fection
?
Those
that
have
had such mortal diseases
cured
;
those
that
have
found a
remedy
at
the point
of
death.
God
does
not
work such instances
of
mercy
every
day.
If
ever the
Lord
has
turned
thy soul from
great
backslidings, with
cords
of
such
love as
this is,
how
strongly should this
lie
upon
thy soul to keep thee
close
to
God
?
How
jealous
should thy soul
be
of
every temp-
tation
?
The
sin
of
Solomon
is
aggravated
beyond the
sins
of
many
in
scripture, because
he sinned
after the
Lord
had
twice
manifested himself
to
him.
And
it
will
lie
with
an heavy burden
on thy conscience, O backslider,
if
thou
departest
from thy
God, after
he
has
discovered
himself unto thee
twice
with
enlightening
love and
healing
grace.
I
proceed to speak
to
the
latter
words
of
this
text
;
j
will lead
Ithn
also
Let
us
here consider the
parts
of.