(3.) Because we think we may preserve the smaller sins for breed, and that God is more severe in remembering these than we are faulty in committing them. Therefore think of and seriously consider that small sins are the mother of great sins, and the grandmother of great punishments. As little sticks set the great ones on fire, and a wisp of straw often enkindleth a great block of wood, so we are drawn on by the lesser evils to greater, and by the just judgment of God suffered to fall into them, because we made no conscience of lesser. The lesser com- mandments are a rail about the greater, and no man grows downright wicked at first, but rises to it by degrees. So for punishments. Nahab and Abihu for strange fire ; Ananias and Sapphira keeping back part , Uzzah for touching the ark ; the Bethshemites for looking into the ark. We may make little reckoning of sin, but God doth not make little reckoning of sin ; or else why hath he given us these instances ? So that this advantage in the spiritual life we have by this instance, that no sin should be accounted small that is committed against the great God.
[2.] This was a sin committed by stealth : as she followed her hus- band, she would steal a glance, and look towards Sodom ; for it is said, Gen. xix. 26, ' His wife looked back from behind him.' God can find us out in our secret sins ; and therefore we should make conscience, as not to sin openly, so not by stealth. Achan was found out in his sacrilege, how secretly soever he carried it, Josh. vii. 18 ; Ananias
376 A SERMON ON LUKE XVII. 32.
and Sapphira in keeping back part of what was dedicated to God, Acts V, ; Gehazi in affecting a bribe : 2 Kings v. 26, ' Went not my spirit with thee ? ' meaning the light of his prophetic spirit. Lot's wife would lag behind, and look to Sodom, fearing a rebuke from her husband, but she met with a rebuke from the Lord. The apostle saith, Eph. v. 12, ' It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret,' A serious chi'istian is ashamed to speak of what they are not ashamed to practise. Eut though you can hide it from men, you cannot hide it from the all-seeing eye of God. Uncleanness usually afFecteth a veil of secrecy ; therefore it is said, ' Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge,' Heb. xiii. 4. God will judge them, because usually this sin is carried so closely and craftily, that none but God can find them out. Well, then, let no man embolden himself to have his hand in any sin, in hope to hide it ; for nothing can escape God's discovery, to whom all things are naked and open. God knew what the king of Syria spake in his secret chamber : 2 Kings vi. 12, ' Elisha the prophet telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber,' God knew the secret thoughts of Herod's heart, which it is probable he never uttered to his nearest friends, con- cerning the murdering of Christ: Mat. ii. 13, 'Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.' In short, to be an open and bold sinner in some respects is worse than to be a close and private sinner, because of the dishonour done to God, and the scandal to others, and the im- pudence of the sinner himself; but in other respects secret sins have their aggravations.
(1.) Because if open sins be of greater infamy, yet secret sins are more against knowledge and conviction. The man is conscious to him- self that he doth evil, and therefore seeketh a veil and covering, would not have the world know it. It is a sin with a consciousness that we do sin : James iv., ' To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' If you live in secret wickedness, envy, pride, and sensuality, and would fain keep it close, this is to rebel against the light,
(2.) This secret sinning puts far more respect upon men than God ; and this is palliated atheism. They are unjust in secret, unclean in secret, envious in secret, declaim against God's children in secret, sensual in secret. Ah, wicked wretch ! art thou afraid men should know it, and art thou not afraid God should know it ? What ! afraid of the eye of man, and not afraid of the great God? Thou wouldst not have a child see thee to do that which God sees thee do : Jer. ii. 26, ' The thief is ashamed when he is found,' saith the prophet. Can man damn thee, and fill thy conscience with terrors ? Can man bid thee depart into everlasting burnings ? Why art thou afraid of man, and not of God ?
(3.) The more secret any wickedness is, it argueth the heart is more industrious about it, how to bring it to })ass with least shame and damage to ourselves ; as David plotted Uriah's death : 2 Sam. xi. 14, &c., ' David wrote a letter to Joab, saying. Set Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest battle, and retire from him, that he may be smitten, and die.' So Josh, vii, 11, ' They have stolen, and dissembled also, and put it among their stuff,' So Acts v. 9, ' How is it that ye have agreed