316 SKRMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [Ser. XIV.
eye of man, and not afraid of the great God? Thoii wouldst not have a child see thee to do what God seetli thee do. This is a plain- setting man ahove God. They seek no more than to be hid from the- sight of the world.
3. The more secret any wickedness is, the more studious and pre- meditated ; the more of deliberation there is in a sin, the greater is the sin. As David plotted first to bring about and then to hide his uncleanness from the world, 2 Sara. xi. 8 ; he sendeth for Uriah from the army, maketh him drunk, plotteth his murder. These sins are committed with craft and subtlety. So Job xxiv. 15, 'The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, and saith. No eye shall see me ; and disguiseth his face.' They commit sin with resolution and fore- thought, and are plotting how to go about it without discovery, and so are industrious to espy their advantages. So Josh. vii. 11, ' They have- stolen, and dissembled also, and even put it among their own stuff ; ' Acts V. 9, ' How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of God ? ' In secret sins there is much premeditation, craft, and dissimulation used.
4. Many times it involveth us the more in sin ; and so by seeking^ to cover one sin, we run into many. As Adam, to hide his sin, casts an imputation upon God obliquely : Gen. iii. 12, ' The woman which thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree.' When Sarah had secretly laughed at God's promise of giving a child, she presently covereth it with a gross lie. Gen. xviii. 15. When David had committed adultery with Uriah's wife, he laboureth to cloak it over with a fouler sin, the con- triving of her husband's death. Any sin committed weakens the heart, and leaveth it the more unable to withstand a second assault; as a castle is more easily taken when a breach is once made. And sins are usually fastened one to another, like the links of a chain, so that one draweth on all the rest ; and God is provoked to withdraw his restrain- ing grace, and permit men to fill up the measure of their iniquities. It is a fearful thing when sin hath got a tie upon a man, as it hath when we have secretly done some evil from which we cannot acquit our- selves but with some loss or shame ; then we usually heap up sin upon sin to preserve our credit. There is no remedy ; they are got into the devil's snare, and one sin must help them out of the other. Eudosia, wife to Theodosius junior, having received of the emperor her husband an apple of incredible bigness and beauty, gave it to one Paulinus a learned man, whom she esteemed for his parts. He not knowing from whom the empress had it, presents it as rare and extraordinary to the emperor, who sending for his wife, asketh her what was become of the apple ; she, fearing her husband's displeasure, answered she had eaten it ; afterward she sweareth it, and confirmetli it with oaths and imprecations. Upon this the jealous husband killeth Paulinus, and hateth his faithful wife. If she had told the- truth at first, she had not fallen into the sin of perjury ; but giving way to a little, she is drawn into a greater sin ; her innocent friend loseth his life, she her husband's favour ever afterward.
5. Secret sins indulged often bring great mischiefs and inconveni- ences upon the actors of them. I shall instance only in those two men- tioned in Job, chap. xxiv. 14, 15. The murderer and the adulterer.
VeR. 12.] SEBMONS UPON EFHESIANS V. 317
[1.] For murder secretly plotted, it afterward cometh to light «trangel3\ For the psalmist telleth us, ' God maketh inquisition for blood,' Ps. ix. 12. It is never carried so secretly but it cometh to light, and involveth the actors in a thousand miseries. Murders lie not long unreveoged, especially the slaughters of God's servants. But instances are so frequent, I should never make an end if I should men- tion them. God will hear the cry of blood. Cain gets Abel secretly into the field, and killeth him; but God saith, 'Thy brother's blood orieth to me,' Gen. iv. 10.
[2.] For adultery. Unlawful lusts usually end very tragically, as we may see in the examples of the first world, Sodom, Sichem, Israel with the Moabitish women in the desert, the war between Israel and Benjamin for violating the Levite's concubine ; Samson ; David, the sword departed not from his house ; not to mention common stories. Whoredom is not a light sin, as carnal men take it to be ; sad judg- ments attend it, be it committed never so secretly. This is the first argument.
Secondly, It is folly and madness, because God loveth to discover it. Our Lord telleth us, Luke xii. 2, that ' there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed ; nor hid that shall not be known,' either here or hereafter.
1. Here God discovereth secret sins, and bringeth them to light, as he found out Achan in his sacrilege. So we are bidden to remember Lot's wife, Luke xvii. 32. Her sin was a sin committed by stealth ; «he would steal a glance, and look back to Sodom : Gen. xix. 26, ' She looked back from behind him, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.' Therefore let no man sin secretly. God can find us out in our secret sins. As we should make conscience of not siiming openly, so of not sinning by stealth, though the sin be acted in never so hidden and close a manner. So Num. xxxii. 23, ' Be sure that your sin will find you out' If they hide it from the eye of the world, they think they shall never hear of their sin more : Isa. xxix. 15, ' They say, Who seetli us, and who knoweth us ? ' God seeth and knovveth all our secret counsels and designs; and in time they are discovered, to our shame and confu- sion. Gehazi was found out : 2 Kings v, 26, ' Went not my spirit with thee ? ' meaning his prophetic spirit. Ananias and Sapphira were found out by the spirit of discovery that was in the apostles, Acts v. God delighteth to discover impenitent and false-dealing hypocrites, that carry their wickedness secretly : Prov. xxvi. 26, ' Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be discovered before the congregation.' The Lord loveth to take off their disguise.