[14.] Fourteenthly, Consider that God is OTnnipresent} We cannot get into any blind hole, or dark corner, or secret place, but the Lord hath an eye there, the Lord will keep us company there : Mat. vi. 6, ' And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.' So ver. J 8. There is not the darkest, dirtiest hole in the world into which a saint creeps, but God hath a favourable eye there. God never wants an eye to see our secret tears, nor an ear to hear our secret cries and groans, nor a heart to grant our secret requests, and therefore we ought to pour out our souls to him in secret : Ps.'xxxviii. 9, ' Lord ! all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.' Though our private desires are never so confused, though our private requests are never so broken, and though our private groanings are never so much hidden from men, yet God eyes them all, God records them all, and God puts them all upon thefile^ of heaven, and will one day crown them with glorious answers and returns. We cannot sigh out a prayer in secret, but he sees us; we cannot lift up our eyes to him at midnight, but he observes us. The eye that God hath upon his people when they are in secret, is such a special tender eye of love, as opens his ear, his heart, and his hand, for their good : 1 Peter iii. 12, ' For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers ;' or, as the Greek hath it, ' his ears are unto their prayers.' If their prayers are so faint, that they cannot reach up as high as heaven, then God will bow the heavens and come down to their prayers.' God's eye is upon every secret sigh, and every secret groan, and every secret tear, and every secret desire, and every secret pant of love, and every secret breathing of soul, and every secret melting and working of heart ; all which should encourage us to be much in secret duties, in closet services. As a Christian is never out of the reach of God's hand, so he is never out of the view of God's eye. If a Christian cannot hide
^ Jer. xvi. 17 : Job xxxiv. 21 ; ProT. t. 21 ; Jer. xxxii. 19 ; Rev. ii. 23 ; Lam. iii. 56. ' Cf. Sibbes, vol. i. pages 168, 289. — G. » God is totua oeulut, all eye.
192 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6.
himself from the sun, which is God's minister of Hght, how impossible will it be to hide himself from him whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun ? In every private duty, a Christian is still under the eye of God's omnisciency. When we are in the darkest hole, God hath windows into our breasts, and observes all the secret actings of our inward man, 1 Tim. ii. 8. The eye of God is not confined to this place or that, to this company or that; God hath an eye upon his people as well when they are alone, as when they are among a multitude ; as well when they are in a corner, as when they are in a crowd. Diana's temple was burnt down when she was busy at Alexander's birth, and could not be at two places together.^ But God is present both in para- dise and in the wilderness, both in the family aud in the closet, both in public and in private at the same time. God is an omnipresent God ; he is everywhere. Non est ubi, ubi non est Deus. As he is included in no place, so he is excluded from no place : Jer. xxiii. 24», ' Can any man hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord ?' Prov. xv. 3, ' The eyes of the Lord are in every place, behold- ing the evil and the good,' or, ' contemplating the evil and the good,' as the Hebrew may be read. Now, to contemplaie, is more than simply to behold ; for contemplation addeth to a simple apprehension a deeper degree of knowledge, entering into the very inside of a matter ; and so indeed doth God discern the very inward intentions of the heart, and the most secret motions of the spirit. God is an infinite and immense being, whose centre is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere. Now, if our God be omnipresent, then wheresoever we are, our God is present with us : if we are in prison alone with Joseph, our God is pre- sent with us there ; or if we are in exile alone with David, ovir God is present with us there ; or if we are alone in our closets, our God is present with us there.* God seeth us in secret ; and therefore let us seek his face in secret. Though heaven be God's palace, yet it is not his prison. But,
[15.] Fifteenthly, He that willingly neglects private prayer shall certainly be neglected in his public prayer ; he that will not call upon God in secret shall find by sad experience that God will neither hear him nor regard him in public. Want of private duties is the great reason why the hearts of many are so dead and dull, so formal and carnal, so barren and unfruitful under public ordinances. Oh that Christians would seriously lay this to heart ! Certainly, that man or woman's heart is best in public who is most frequent in private. They make most yearnings in public ordinances that are most conscientiously exercised in closet duties. No man's graces rises so high, nor no man's experiences rises so high, nor no man's communion with God rises so high, nor no man's divine enjoyments rises so high, nor no man's springs of comfort rises so high, nor no man's hopes rises so high, nor no man's parts and gifts rises so high, &c., as theirs do, who conscien- tiously wait upon God in their closets before they wait upon him in the assembly of his people ; and who when they return from public or- dinances retire into their closets and look up to heaven for a blessing upon the public means. It is certain that private duties fit the soul
^ A remark assigned to Hegesias the Magnesian ; by Cicero to Timseus of Tauro- menium. Plutarch : Alexander, 3. Cicero, de Nat. Deor, ii. 27. — G-
Mat. VL 6.] the privy key of heaven. 193