8. The nearness to us also is an aggravation: it is not a distant evil, but in our bowels, in our very hearts; we are bound so strictly to love ourselves, that it is a great aggravation to do ourselves so great a mischief. 9. The constant inhesion of sin is a great aggravation: that it is ever with us, lying down and rising up, at home and abroad; we are never free from it. 10. That it should poison all our common mercies, and corrupt all our duties, is an aggravation. But we shall take up some of these anon. The special aggravations of the sins of God's own children are these:[103] 1. They sin against a nearer relation than others do; even against that God that is their Father by the new birth, which is more heinous than if a stranger did it. 2. They are Christ's own members: and it is most unnatural for his members to rebel against him, or do him wrong. 3. They sin against more excellent operations of the Spirit than others do, and against a principle of life within them. 4. They sin against the differencing grace, which appeared in their conversion. God took them out of a world of sinners, whom he passed by when he could as well have sanctified them: and should they so quickly thus requite him? 5. They sin against the pardon and justification which they have already received. Did God so lately forgive them all their former debts, so many, so great and heinous sins, and that so freely to them, when the procurement was so dear to Christ? and should they so soon forget, or so ill requite, so great a mercy? 6. They sin against a more serious covenant, which at their conversion they entered into with God, than other men do. 7. They sin against all the heart-breaking or humbling sorrows, which they have tasted of at their conversion, and since. They have known more of the evil of sin than others, in their sad experience of its sting. 8. They sin against more knowledge than other men: they have known more what sin is, and what Christ is, and what the will of God is, than others: and therefore deserve to be beaten with many stripes. 9. They have oftener confessed sin than others, and spoke odiously of it, as the vilest thing, and aggravated it to God and man. 10. Their many prayers against it, and all their labour in hearing, and reading, and sacraments, and other means, do aggravate it. 11. They make a greater profession of strict obedience, and therefore sin against their own profession. 12. They have renewed their promises of obedience to God, in prayer, at sacraments, and at other times, much more than others. 13. They have had more experience than others of the goodness of obedience, and of the comforts and benefits that attend it, in the favour of God, and communion with him therein. 14. Their sins are aggravated by all the reproofs and exhortations which they have used to others, to tell them how unreasonable and bad it is to provoke the Lord.