* In my treatise called ' Apples of Gold,' &c., I have proved by many arguments that the sins of the saints shall not be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery in the great day, pp. 155 to 172, and therefore understand this second particular of such who live and die in their secret sins without repentance and faith in the blood of Christ.
Apples of Gold,' as contained in Vol. I. — G.]
Mat. VI. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 287
manifest; neither an3rthing hid, that shall not be known, and come abroad.* The slanders of the Jews concerning the magical arts of Christ and his apostles, the horrible lies of the pagans concerning the incestuous copulations of the Christians, and their drinking man's blood, were in time discovered what they were : Eccles. xii. 14, ' God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.' Mark, he doth not say some work, but evet^ work ; and not only works, but secrets ; and not only secrets, but every secret ; and not only secret good things but evil too ; whether good works or ill works, whether secret or open, all must be brought to judgment. The books of God's omniscience, and man's conscience, shall then be opened, and then secret sins shall be as legible in thy forehead, as if they were written with the most glittering sun-beams upon a wall of crystal. All men's secret sins are printed in heaven, and God will at last read them aloud in the ears of all the world : 1 Cor. iv. 5, ' Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.' Look, as there are a world of flies and motes in the air, which we never see till the sun shines ; so there are many thousand thousands of proud thoughts, and unclean thoughts, and worldly thoughts, and malicious thoughts, and envious thoughts, and bloody thoughts, &c., which the world sees not, knows not; but in the great day, when the counsels of all hearts shall be manifest, then all shall out, then all shall appear, both to the upper and the lower world. In the great day all masks, vizards, and hoods shall be pulled off, and then all shall out; all that ever thou hast done in the secret chamber, in the dark corner, shall be made known to men and angels, yea, to the whole court of heaven, and to all the world beside. Rom. ii. 16, 'In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.' In this great day, God will judge not only our words but our works, not only our open works, but also our secret works and way.s. When Jehoiakim was dead, there was found the characters, supereti- tious marks, and prints of his sorcery upon his body, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8 ; which shews how deeply idolatry was rooted in his heart, seeing he bare the marks in his flesh during his life. He being a king bore it out bravely, and kept all close ; but when he was dead, then all came out, then the marks of his abominable idolatry appeared upon his body. Though sinners, though the greatest of sinners, may hide and keep close their horrid abominations for a time, yet there will come a time when all shall out, when all their secret marks and secret abomi- nations shall be obvious to all the world.
But sinners may be ready to object and say, ' Let us but alone in our secret sins till that day, and then we shall do well enough.' And there- fore in the,
[3.] Third place, consider. That God many times doth, even in this life, discover and make known to the world men's secret sins, Isa. xli. 21-23.
God loves to act suitable to his own names. Now, to be a revealer of secrets, is one of his names, Dan. ii. 47; and accordingly, even in thi^ world, he often brings to light the most hidden things of darkness. Of all the glorious attributes of God, there is none that suffers so deeply
288 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6.
by secret sins, as the attribute of his omniscience ; and therefore in this world God often stands up to vindicate the honour of that attribute, by unmasking of sinners, and by bringing to the light all those secret paths and ways of wickedness, wherein they have long walked undis- covered. It was for the honour of this blessed attribute of God, that the secret-plotted sin of Ananias and Sapphira, Acts v. 1-12, was so openly discovered; 'And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.' Joseph's brethren for a long time hid their malice, their craft, their cruelty, their envy, their treachery, in selling their brother into Egypt ; but at last by amazing and amusing* providences, all was brought to light. Gen. xlii. 21, 22 ; Chap. 1. 15-22. Conscience, that for a time may seem to be asleep, yet will in time awake, and make the sinner know, that he is as faith- ful in recording, as he is fearful in accusing; and this Joseph's brethren found by sad experience. So Gehazi, he sins secretly, he lies fearfully, and after all he defends it stoutly; but at last all comes out, and instead of being clothed richly, he and his posterity was clothed with a leprosy for ever; and instead of two changes of garments, God hangs them up in chains, as a monument of his wrath to all generations, 2 Kings V. 20, seq. So Achan secretly and sacrilegiously steals a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels' weight, and hides them in the earth in the midst of his tent, and by reason of this, Israel flies before their enemies; but at last Achan is taken, and all comes out, and his golden wedge proved a wedge to cleave him, and his Babylonish garment a garment to shroud him. Joshua makes a bonfire of all that he had secretly and sinfully stolen, and burns him, and his children, and all that he had, in it. Oh how openly, how severely doth God sometimes punish men for their most secret iniquity ! The same you may see in that great instance of David ; 2 Sam. xii. 9-1 2, ' Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight ? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword' (this was done in a secret letter), ' and hast taken his wife to be thy wife. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.' 2 Sam. xvi. 22. David was very studious and very industrious to hide his sin, and to save his credit; but tlie covering made of Uriah's blood was too short, and too narrow to hide his folly with Bathsheba, and therefore when he had done all he could, his sin was tossed like a ball, from man to man, through court, city, and country.