worldly businesses. Many have so much to do on earth that they have no time to look up to heaven. As much earth puts out the fire, so much worldly business puts out the fire of heavenly affections. Look, as the earth swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Num. xxii. 32 ; so much worldly business swallows up so much precious time, that many men have no leisure to be with God in their closets. This business is to be done, and that business cannot be omitted, and the other neces- sary occasion must be attended, so that I have no leisure to step out of my shop into my closet, saith the earthly-minded man, Philip, iii. 19. Thus a crowd of worldly businesses crowds closet-prayer quite out of doors. Many drive so great a trade in their shops, that their private trade to heaven is quite laid by. There is nothing that hath kept men more from Christ and closet-prayer, than the shop, the exchange, the farm, and the oxen, &c., Luke xiv. 16-22. The stars which have least circuit are nearest the pole ; and men that are least perplexed with worldly businesses are commonly nearest to God, to Christ, to heaven, and so the fitter for closet-prayer. It is sad when men grasp so much business, that they can have no leisure for communion with God in a corner. The noise is such in a mill, as hinders all private intercourse between man and man ; and so a multitude of worldly businesses make such a noise, as that it hinders all private intercourse between God and the soul. If a man of much business should now and then slide into his closet, yet his head and his heart will be so filled and distracted with the thoughts of his employments, that God shall have little of him but his bodily presence, or, at most, but bodily exercise, which profits little, 1 Tim. iv. 8. If Christ blamed Martha, Luke x. 40-42, for the multitude of her domestical employments, though they were undertaken for the im- mediate service and entertainment of himself, because they hindered her in her soul-concernments, oh how will he one day blame all those who, by running themselves into a crowd of worldly businesses, do cut themselves off from all opportunities of pouring out their souls before him in secret. But,
(5.) Fifthly, Take heed of secret sins. There is no greater hindrance to secret prayer in all the world than secret sins ; and therefore stand upon your watch, and arm yourselves with all your might against them. There is an antipathy betwixt secret sinning and secret praying, partly from guilt, which makes the soul shy of coming under God's secret eye ; and partly from those fears, doubts, disputes, and disorders, that secret sins raise in the heart. Light is not more opposite to dark- ness, Christ to Belial, nor heaven to hell, than secret prayer is to secret sins ; and therefore, whatever you do, look that you keep clear of secret sins. To that purpose consider these four things :
[1.] First, T/uit God is privy to our most secret sins.^ His eye is as much upon secret sins, as it is upon open sins : Ps. xc. 8, * Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy counte- nance.' God hath an eye upon our inmost evils, he seeth all that is done in the dark : Jer. xxiii. 24, ' Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord : do not I fill heaven and earth ? saith the Lord.' Prov. xv, 3, * The eyes of the Lord are in every
^ Ps. cxxxix. 1-4 ; Jer. xiii. 27, and xxix. 23 ; Ps. xxxix. 1 ; 1 Kings xx. 39 ; Job X. 12.
SS^ THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6.
place, beholding the evil and the good.' To say that God doth not see the most secret sins of the children of men, is not only derogatory to his omniscience, but also to his mercy ; for how can God pardon those sins, which he doth not see to be sins ? There is no cloud, nor curtain, nor moment of darkness, that can stand betwixt the eyes of God and the ways of men : Pro v. v. 21, ' The ways of men are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.' In this scripture Solomon mainly speaks of the ways of the adulterer, which usually are plotted with the most cunning secresy ; yet God'seeth all those ways. Look, as no boldness can exempt the adulterer from the justice of God, so no secresy can hide him from the eye of God. Though men labour to hide their ways from others, and from themselves, yet it is but labour in vain to endeavour to hide them from God. Men that labour to hide God from themselves, can never hide themselves from God.
I have read that Paphnutius converted Thais and Ephron, two famous strumpets, from un cleanness, only with this argument, ' That God seeth all things in the dark, when the doors are fast, the windows shut, and the curtains drawn.'' Heb. iv. 13, ' Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight : but all things are naked and opened (ana- tomised) even to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' It is an allusion to the priests under the law, who, when they killed a beast, all things that were within the beast were laid open and naked before the priest, that he might see what was sound and what was corrupted. Though evil be done out of the eye of all the world, yet it is naked and manifest in his sight with whom we have to do.
Those sins which lie closest and are most secretly lurking in the heart, are as obvious and odious to God as those that are most fairly written upon a man's forehead. God is '^ravoip&aX/iog, all eye ; so that he sees all, the most secret turnings and windings of our hearts. Our most secret sins are as plainly seen by him, as any thing can be by us at noonday : Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12, ' If I say. Surely the darkness shall cover me ; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; but the night shineth as the day : the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.' It is not the thickest clouds that can bar out his observance, whose eyes fill heaven and earth. What is the curtain, or the darkest night, or the double lock, oi- the secret cham- ber, to him who clearly observes all things in a perfect nakedness. God hath an eye upon the most inward intentions of the heart, and the mbst subtle motions of the spirit. Those philosophers were out, that held the eye and ear of God descended no lower than the heavens. Certainly there is not a creature, not a thought, not a thing, but lies open to the all-seeing eye of God. The Lord knows our secret sinnings as exactly as our visible sinnings : Ps. xliv. 21, ' He knoweth the secrets of our hearts.' Would not a malefactor speak truly at the bar, did he know, did he believe that the judge had windows that did look into his breast?
Athenodorus, a heathen, could say, that all men ought to be careful in the actions of their life, because God was everywhere, and beheld all that was done.
Zeno, a wise heathen, aflfirmed that God beheld even the thoughts. ^ See Index foi other refereuces to this. — G.
Mat. VI. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 285