Twenty-thirdly , The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord will highly make against all clear, sweet, and standing com- munion with God. Parents use not to smile, nor be familiar with their children, nor to keep up any intimate communion with them, in their neglects and disobedience. It is so here.
Twenty-fourthly , The keeping up, either in heart or life, of any known transgi-ession against the Lord, will fight against the standing joy, peace, comfort, and assurance of the soul. Joy in the Holy Ghost will make its nest nowhere but in a holy soul. So far as the Spirit is grieved he will suspend his consolations, Lam. i. 16. A man will have no more comfort from God than he makes conscience of sinning against God. A conscience good in point of integrity will be good also in point of tranquillity. If our hearts condemn us not, ' then have we confidence towards God' — and I may say also towards men. Acts xxiv. 16 — oh, what comfort and solace hath a clear conscience ! he hath something within to answer accusations without. I shall con- clude this particular with a notable saying of one of the ancients. The joys of a good conscience are the paradise of souls, the delight of angels, the garden of delights, the field of blessing, the temple of Solomon, the court of God, the habitation of the Spirit. [Bernard.]
Twenty-fiftlily , The keeping up of any known transgression, either in heart or life, against the Lord, is a high contempt of the all-seeing eye of God, of the omnipresence of God. It is well known what Ahasuerus, that great monarch, said concerning Haman, when coming in, he found liim cast upon the queen's bed on which she sat ; ' What,' saith he, ' will he force the queen before me, in the house ? ' Esther vii, 8. There was the killing emphasis in the words, ' before me ;' ' will he force the queen before me ? ' What ! will he dare to commit such a villany, and I stand and look on ? 0 sirs ! to do wickedly in the sight of God is a thing that he looks upon as the greatest affront and indignity that can possibly be done unto him. What, saith he, wilt thou be drunk before me, and swear and blaspheme before me, and be wanton and unclean before me, and break my laws before my eyes ! This, then, is the killing aggravation of all sin that is done before the face of God, in the presence of God ; whereas, the very consideration of God's omni- presence, that he stands and looks on, should be as a bar, a remora, to stop the proceedings of all wicked intendments, a dissausive rather from sin than the least encouragement thereunto. 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,' 1 God's eye is the best marshal to keep the soul in a comely order. Let thine eye be ever on him whose eye is ever on thee. ' The eyes of
1 Offic. 1. i., c. 14.
40 SERIOUS AND WEIGHTY QUESTIONS
the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good/ Prov. XV. 9. There is no drawing of a curtain between God and thee. God is totv^ oculus, all eye ; he seeth all things, in all places, and at all times. When thou art in secret, consider conscience is present, which is more than a thousand witnesses ; and God is present, which is more than a thousand consciences. It was a pretty fancy of one that would have his chamber painted full of eyes, that which way soever he looked he might still have some eyes upon him ; and he fancying* according to the moralist's advice, always under the €ye of a keeper, might be the more careful of his carriage. 0 sirs 1 if the eyes of men make even the vilest to forbear their beloved lusts for a while, that the adulterer watcheth for the twilight, and ' they that are drunken are drunken in the night/ how powerful will the eye and presence of God be with those that fear his a^iger and know the sweetness of his favour ! The thought of this omnipresence of God will affrighten thee from sin. Gehazi durst not ask or receive any part of Naaman's presents in his master's presence, but when he had got out of Elisha's sight, then he tells his lie, and gives way to his lusts. Men never sin more freely than when they presume upon secrecy ; ' They break in pieces thy people, 0 Lord, and afflict thy heritage. They slay the widow and stranger, and murder the fatherless/ yet they say, ' The Lord doth not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it,' Ps. xciv. 5-7. They who abounded in abominations said, ' The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth,' Ezek. viii. 9, 12. The wise man dissuadeth from wickedness upon the consideration of God's eye and omniscience. * And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger ; for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings,' Prov. v. 20, 21. Joseph saw God in the room, and therefore durst not yield ; but his mistress saw none but Joseph, and so was impudently alluring and tempting him to folly. 1 have read of two religious men that took contrary courses with two lewd women whom they were desirous to reclaim from their vicious course of hfe. One of the men told one of the women that he was desirous to enjoy her company, so it might be with secrecy, and when she had brought him into a close room, that none could pry into, he told her, ' All the bars and bolts here cannot keep God out.' The other desired the other woman to company with him, openly in the streets, which when she rejected as a mad request, he told her, ' It was better to do it in the eyes of a multitude, than in the eyes of God.' Oh, why shall not the presence of that God who hates sin, and who is resolved to punish it with hell-flames, make us ashamed or afraid to sin, and dare him to his face !
Twenty-sixilily , There have been many a prodigal, who, by one cast of the dice, have lost a fair inheritance. A man may be killed with one stab of a pen-knife, and one hole in a ship may sink it, and one thief may rob a man of kU he has in the world. A man may escape many gross sins, and yet, by living in the allowance of some one sin, be deprived of the glory of heaven for ever. Moses came within the sight of Canaan, but for one sin — not sanctifying God's name — he was shut out. And no less will it be to any man that, for living in any one sin, shall be for ever shut out of the kingdom of heaven ; not but that
CLEARLY AND SATISFACTORILY ANSWERED. 41
there may be some remainders of sin, and yet the heart taken oiF from every sin ; but if there be any secret closing with any one way of sin, all the profession of godliness and leaving all other sins will be to no purpose, nor ever bring a man to happiness.