Gods eye on His Israel, or, A passage of Balaam, out of Numb. 23,…

Hence then it appeareth, that the matter in controversy, as before was said, between us and these men, is not, how far forth sin is removed or abolished in believers, or how far forth it is by justification abandoned, or in what sense God is said to see, or not see sin, or to t•ke notice of it, in believers and justified persons; but whether God do see, and take notice of, and chastise sin in such now, as in times past he did. and you see the point determined directly for the negative, that God doth not, will not cannot, see, or take notice of, any sin in any believer, much less chastise any such (albeit in former times he had wont so to do) for ought that now he doth amiss. in plainer terms, that tho a believer fall never so foully, or live never so loosely, God doth not see it, nor take notice ⟨image 6⟩of it, nor is at all offended with him for the same. For example; suppose a Christian travelling into Turkey, and falling into the hands of Mahometan pirates, who by torture would enforce him to deny Christ and Christianity, if such an one, to escape torment and attain liberty, should with oaths and execrations deny Christ, and abjure his Christian profession; that God would not so much as take any notice of it in him; albeit in Peter, when he offended in somewhat the like case, he did. again, that howsoever, when ^aDavid committed adultery with Bathsheba, and to smother his sin and enjoy her, took away the life of her husband Uriah; God beheld it, took notice of it, was displeased with him, and ^bchastised him very sorely for it: yet in these days, if the like wickedness should by any believing persons be perpetrated, to wit, that a stranger should solicit a mans wife to uncleanness, and she admit him to her husbands bed ^cin his absence, being either about public service, or private employments, abroad; and they should afterward both further complot together, to take away the life of her husband, that they might the more freely enjoy either other; God would not so much as once so see it, as to take any notice at all of such villainy; or be at all angry, either with the one, or the other (supposing them to be such as David was) for so doing; or ever so far forth call them to a reckoning, as to chastise either of them in the least degree, for the same.