As some sinners seek corners to act their w^ickedness in, and cannot satisfy themselves to commit sin in the light, (for, as our Saviour saith, John iii. 20. " He that doth evil hateth the light ;") so, on the contrai'y, a truly godly man seeks corners to pray in, to meditate in, and to examine his own heart in, and thinks these duties of godli- ness can never be managed with too great a privacy ; not that he is in the least ashamed of his duty ; no, that is not the reason, but he is afraid of hypocrisy, when duties lie too open, and exposed to the eyes of men. A sinner takes his full liberty to vent his corruptions when he can do it in secret ; and a saint takes his full liberty to vent and exercise his graces, when no eye but the eye of God sees him. " Thou, when thou prayest (saith our Saviour) enter into thy closet " and shut thy door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret, and *' thv Father (which seeth in secret) shall reward thee openly." O how much better is it, both as to your present comfort and future account, to get into a corner to pray, than to whore and drink "^ To pour out your souls to God graciously, than to pour out your lusts against God so wickedly "^ How contrary are the principles of grace and corruption ? The study of sinners is to hide their evils from the eyes of men : the study of a saint is to hide his duties from the eyes of men : The sinner would not have the world suspect what he hath been about ; nor would the saint have all the world know what he hath been about. The way of an adulterer is as the " way of an '' eagle in the air, or as a serpent upon a rock ;" i. e. a secret way, where they leave no prints or tracts behind them. " So is the way " of an adulterous woman; she eateth and wipeth her mouth, and " saith, I have done no wickedness," Prov. xxx. 19, 20. By wiping the mouth is there meant preventing all suspicion ; suffering no sign of the action to remain upon them : So, contrarily, a gracious person that hath been with God in secret prayer, or fasting, when his duty is ended, he labours to avoid all ostentations. And therefore you have the caution from Christ, Matth. vi. 17, 18. " But thou, when " thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face ! that thou appear " not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret." The meaningis, carry thy private dutiesso close, that none mav know what passeth between God and thee : When thou hast been entertained in secret with hidden mamia, a feast of fat things, wipe thy mouth in a holy sense, i. e. wipe off all suspicion of hypocrisy and vanity by a
382 THE seaman's PllESEKVATlVE
prudent and humble concealment. * " Religion doth not lay all open, as we say :" As sinners have their secret pleasures, their stolen waters which are sweet to them ; so the saints have their secret de- lights in God, their hidden manna^ which no man knows but he that eateth of it. And as the eye of God vindictively beholds the one, so it delightfully beholds the other ; and so you find it, Cant. ii. 14. *' O my dove, (saith Christ to the church) that art in the clefts of '' the rocks, in the secret places of the stairs : Let me see thy coun- *' tenance, let me hear thy voice ; for sweet is thy voice, and thy *' countenance comely." Let this encourage you to secret duties ; let not others find more pleasure in secret lusts, than you can do in God and secret duties.
4. Inference. Doth the eye of God see all the evil and wickedness that is committed in all the secret corners of the world ! How admi- rable then is the patience of God towards the world ! Who can ima- gine how much wickedness is secretly practised in a town or city every day ? Or if all the villanies that are perpetrated in a small circumfe- rence in one day were known to us, we should admire that God doth not make us like Sodom, for judgment and desolation before the next day. What then are the innumerable swarms of sin, which are as the sands upon the sea-shore, from all the parts and corners of the earth ! Alas, there is not the ten thousandth part of the grosser sort of wickednesses committed in the world, that ever comes to our eye or ear ; and if it did, we cannot estimate the evil of sin, as God doth ; nor feel with that resentment the burden of it, as he doth : and yet the long-suffering God forbears it with infinite patience. Surely his power was not more discovered in making the world, than it is in forbearing to destroy it again for the wickedness that is in it. But the world stands for the church's sake that is in it. " And were it *' not that the Lord of hosts had left us a small remnant, we had *' been as Sodom, we had been like unto Gomorrha," Isa. i. 9. There is also an elect remnant to be called and gathered by the gospel out of it in their several generations : and when that number shall be ac- complished, God will set fire to the four quarters of it, and it shall lie in white ashes ; till then the long-suffering of God waiteth.
5. Inference. If God sees all the secret wickedness that is com- mitted in every corner of the world ; how clear is it that there is a judgment to come, and that this judgment will be exact?
That tliere is a judgment to come, is by this manifest ; and also that there is abundance of sin committed in the world, which never comes to light here, nor never will in tliis world. It is true, men's sins are open; and the judgments of God upon them are as open; but it is not so with all. The apostle saith, 1 Tim. v. 24. " Some ♦' men's sins are open before-hand, going before-hand to judgment, <' and some men's they follow after." Some men's sins are written,
* JVtin est religio xibi omnia patent.
IN FOREIGN COUNTCIES. 383
as it were, in their foreheads, evei*y one sees them ; but others fol- low after, are not discovered till the day of the revelation of the secrets of all hearts, and then that which is now done in closets shall be proclaimed as upon house-tops : Though they were never put to shame for their sins, in the places where they committed them, yet God will shame them before men and angels. This is the day to judge secrets, 1 Cor. iv. 5.
And, as it is certain there will be such a judgment, so it is certain this judgment will be exact; for the judge of all hath seen all: Whatever he charges any man with, hath been acted before his face, Psal. xc. 8. " Thou settest our secret sins in the light of thy coun- " tenance." Here can be no mistake, the omnipotent God will judge for what he hath seen ; " For his eyes are upon the ways of *' man, and he seeth all his goings, for he will not lay upon man " more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God." The meaning is, he cannot mistake in his judgment being omniscient, and having seen all the ways of man ; so that there can be no plea offered by any man for the reverse of his sentence.