4. God doth not only see you, but he will also one day make you see yourselves and your ways, and that with horror and consterna- tion. You think you shall taste nothing but the sweet and pleasure of sin ; but how are you deceived ? The days are coming when sin, that is now pleasant, shall be turned into wormwood and gall. You will not see the evil of it ; and because you see it not, you think God doth not. " These things (saith God) hast thou done, and I kept *' silence, and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as " thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before " thine eyes,"" Psal. 1. 91. God sees them now, and he will make you see them too, by opening your eyes in this world graciously, or in that to come judicially.
5. God doth not only see your ways, but he will make all the world see them too : For, " there is nothing hid that shall not be " revealed, nor covered, that shall not be made known," Matth. x. 26. " There is a day when God will make manifest the hidden " counsels of the heart," 2 Cor. iv. 5. " When that which hath been " spoken in darkness shall be heard in light ; and that which ye *' have spoken in the ears in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the *' house tops," I.uke xii. 3. Well then, whenever the occasions and opportunities of sin are presented to you, under this encourage- ment of security, I beseech you remember this truth, that no place
380 THE seaman's PHESERVATIVE
can hide you from the eye of God. He sees all your ways, yea, he sees them with abhorrence ; the sight of them is the greatest exer- cise of his patience. His sight of them is not a transient glance, but he sees and records your evils ; they are sealed up among his trea- sures : He sees, and will make you see them too with horror, when he shall set them in order before you : he sees them, and will make angels and men see them in the great day. O then, never let se- cresy any more encourage you to sin !
2. Lifer ence. What prodigious sinners must they be, that seek no covert from their sin in darkness, but with an impudent face declare, yea, glory in their shame ; who are not ashamed to sin openly with a bare face, and a whore's forehead ? These are sinners of the first magnitude. " They declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not," Isa. iii. 9. It is as natural to man to endeavour to hide his sin, as Adam, and you see from the text, guilty sinners fain would, if it were possible, fly to any obscure corner from the observation of God and men ; and it is a mercy God hath planted such an affection as shame is, in the soul of man, to be a bridle to restrain his exorbitant lusts. But yet there is a generation of monstrous sinners, who have so far unmanned themselves, " That they are not at all ashamed " when they commit abominations, neither can th'^y blush,'' Jer. vi. 15. If there be any remains of shame left in them, they exer- cise it upon a wrong object : they are ashamed of that which would be to their glory, and glory in that which is their shame ; they add impudence to their sin, and blush not to proclaim that which others study to conceal.
Such a vile temper as this shews a man even ripe for wrath ; he hath even filled up his measure, and is come to the very culminating point and top of wickedness. There be some men arrived to such a degree of holiness, that all that converse with them judge them even ripe for heaven : they speak the dialect, and have the very savour of heaven upon them. Others are come to such a prodigious height of impiety, that understanding men cannot but conclude they are, nigh unto damnation ; they speak the very language, and have the very scent of hell upon them. Such are they that openly declare their sin as Sodom, and glory in their shame.
Thus we see some drunkards will glory in their strength, to pour down wine and strong drink, and can boast of the number of their cups : some adulterers can glory in their acts of wickedness, not suf- fering themselves to damn their own souls, but labouring to infect and corrupt as many as they can by their filthy tongues, that they may draw them into the same misery. We can hardly tell how to screw up sin one peg higher than this : first to practise sin, then de- fend it, then boast of it. Sin is first a man's burden, next his custom, next his delight, and then his excellency. Lord^ whither is man fallen ! that holiness should ever be his disgrace ; and sin, yea, the vilest of sins, his glory ! O the power of Divine patience !
IN foueigx countiues. S8l
3. Inference. If the eye of God searches every obscure corner in the world, to behold the evil that is committed there, then certainly the eye of God cannot but look into every secret place in the world to see the good that is done there. " The eyes of the Lord are in " every place, beholding the evil and the good," Prov. y^. %. The good as well as the evil ; yea, he beholds with delight the good done in secret.