It was an excellent saying of Ambrose, 'If thou canst not hide thyself from the sun, which is God's minister of light, how impossible will it be to hide thyself from him, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun.'^ Though a sinner may baffle his conscience, yet he can- not baffle the eye of God's omnisciency. Oh ! that poor souls would remember, that as they are never out of the reach of God's hand, so they are never from under the view of his eye. God is totus oeulus, all eye. Jer. xvi. 17, ' For mine eyes are upon all their ways ; they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.' Job xxxiv. 21, 22, ' For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.' Jer. xxxii. 1 9, ' For thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and the fruit of his doings.' You know what Ahasuerus, that great monarch, said concerning Haman, when coming in he found him cast upon the queen's bed, on which she sat, ' What,' saith he, ' will he force the queen before me in the house V Esth. vii. 8. There was the killing emphasis in the words before me; 'will he force the queen before me t what, will he dare to commit such villany, and I stand and look on ? O sirs ! to sin in the sight of God, to do wickedly under the eye of God, is a thing that he looks upon as the greatest affront, and as the highest indignity that can possibly be done unto him. What, saith he, wilt thou be drunk before me ? Wilt thou swear and blaspheme before me ? Wilt thou be wanton and unclean before me ? Wilt thou be unjust and unrighteous undermine eye? Wilt thou profane mySabbaths, and pollute my ordinances before my face 1 Wilt thou despise and per- secute my servants in my presence ? &c. This, then, is the killing aggravation of all sin, that it is doue before the face of God, that it is committed in the royal presence of the King of kings ; whereas the very consideration of God's omnipresence should bravely arm us against sin and Satan ; the consideration of his aU-seeing eye should make us shun all occasions of sin, and make us shy of all appearances of sin. Shall the eye of the master keep the scholar from blotting his copy ? Shall the eye of the judge keep the malefactor from picking and stealing ? Shall the eye of the master keep the servant from idling and trifling ? Shall the eye of the father keep the child from wandering and gad- ding ? Shall the eye of the husband keep the wife from extravagancies and indecencies ? Shall the sharp eye of wise Cato, or the quick eye of a near neighbour, or the severe eye of a bosom-friend, keep thee from many enormities and vanities ? And shall not the strict, the pure, the jea- lous eye of an all-seeing God, keep thee from sinning in the secret cham- ber, when all curtains are drawn, doors bolted, and every one in the house a-bed or abroad but thee and thy Delilah ? Oh ! what dreadful atheism is bound up in that man's heart, who is more afraid of the eye of his father, his pastor, his child, his servant, than he is of the eye, the presence of the eternal God ? Oh ! that all whom this concerns, would take such serious notice of it, as to judge themselves severely for it, as to mourn bitterly over it, as to strive mightily in prayer with God both for the pardon of it, and for power against it.
The apostle sadly complains of some in his time who wallowed in * Ambrose, Offie. lib. i- cap. xiv.
286 THE PRIVT KEY OF HEAVEN. [MAT. VI. 6.
secret sins. Eph. v. 12, * For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret' He speaks of such as lived in secret fornications and uncleanness. There were many that had put on a form of godliness, who yet did allow themselves in the secret act- ings of abominable wickedness and filthiness, as if there were no God to behold them, nor conscience to accuse them, nor judgment-day to arraign them, nor justice to condemn them, nor hell to torment them. Oh ! how infinitely odious must they be in the eyes of a holy God, who can highly court and compliment him in public, and yet are so bold as to provoke him to his face in private. These are like those whores, who pretend a great deal of affection and respect to their husbands abroad, and yet at home will play the harlots before their husbands' eyes.
Such as perform religious duties only to cloak and colour over their secret filthinesses, their secret wickednesses ; such as pretend to pay their vows, and yet wait for the twilight. Pro v. vii. 13-15, Job xxiv. 15 ; such as commit wickedness in a comer, and yet with the harlot wipe their mouths, and say. What have we done ? such shall at last find the chambers, the stones out of the wall, the beam out of the timber, the seats they sit on, and the beds they lie on, to witness against all their wanton dalliances, and lascivious carriages in secret, Hab, ii. 11. Heb. xiii. 4, * Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.' He will sen- tence them himself ; and why ? but because such sinners carry it so closely and craftily, that oftentimes none but God can find them out. Magistrates often neglect the punishing of such sinners, when their secret wickedness is made known ; and therefore God himself will sit in judgment upon them. Though they may escape the eyes of men, yet they shall never escape the judgment of God. Heart iniquities fall not under any human sentence. Usually whoremongers and adulterers are marvellous close, and secret and'subtle to conceal their abominable filthi- ness ; therefore the harlot is said to be subtle of heart, Prov. vii. 10. The Hebrew by Rabbi Solomon^ is translated w-itm^o corrfe, and having her heart fenced ; * For,' saith he, * as a city is environed with fortifica- tions, so her heart is fortified round about with subtilty.' Or else it may be rendered occlusa corde, ' fast shut up in the heart, even as close as a besieged city,' that is, ' most secret in the subtilty of her heart, how open soever she be in the boldness of her outward carriage.' So the prophet Agur reckoneth the way of a man ^nth a maid, and the way of an adulterous woman, among those things which neither himself nor any other man was possibly able to discover and find out, and compares it to the way of three things, which no wit nor industry of man is able to descry ; but yet God seeth all, and will bring them to the bar for all, Prov. XXX. 19, 20. But,
[2.] Secondly, Consider that secret sins shall be revealed.^ The most hidden works of darkness shall be openly manifested; for though the actings of sin be in the dark, yet the judgings of sin shall be in the light ; Luke viii. 1 7, ' For nothing is secret that shall not be made
• Eab. Sol. in hunc vers.