observe all the world : you may take liberty to sin when God is gone or absent from you, and you can get behind his back ; but that can never be, and therefore we must do all things as in his presence.
2. From creation. God hath made our hearts, given us the power to affect, think, purpose, and do, and therefore knoweth what is in us : Ps. xciv. 9, 10, ' He that planted the ear, shall not he hear ? he that formed the eye, shall not he see ? ' God knoweth how the creature will act, for he gave it power to act. Surely he that made man know- eth what is in man ; his knowledge is answerable to his power. He that made the heart of man observeth what they do, what counsels they have in hand. This argument is again used, Ps. cxxxix. 13, ' Thou hast possessed my reins; for thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.' He that made our heart, knoweth our words, woiks, thoughts, and all. Once more : Ps. xxxiii. 13-15, ' The Lord looketh from heaven ; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike, he considereth all their works.' He that formed their souls as well as their bodies is able to judge particularly the operations of their hearts. Every wise agent knoweth what he doeth, and to what end he maketh anything, and how it may be used or employed. The same argument is urged by the prophet Isaiah, chap, xxix. 16, ' Shall the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no understanding ? ' This is brought to confute them that say, Who seeth us, who knoweth us ? or thought they could hide their counsels, so as God should not see them. Alas ! all lieth open to God's eye, as the fashion of the pot of clay doth to the potter : God cannot be igno- rant of anything that is in his own work. You cannot imagine he knoweth not what you think and do ; when he made you, if he had so much wisdom to give you the power, he knoweth the act.
3. From God's government. There is a twofold government of God, and both infer the truth in hand —
[1.] Powerful, and by his effectual providence, as he governeth all creatures.
[2.] Moral, by his laws, as he governeth the reasonable creature.
[1.] The government of his effectual providence, which is necessary to all our actions : ' For in him we live, and move, and have our being,' Acts xvii. 28. All things move as he moveth them in their natural agency. The creature can do nothing without him, and actually doth nothing but by him : his wisdom guideth, his will intendeth and com- mandeth, his power moveth and disposeth all. He is more intimately present with us than we are with ourselves, governing and sustaining all things : ' His hand leadeth us, and his right hand doth still uphold us,' Ps. cxxxix. 10. We cannot do anything, go anywhere, without his gracious supportation. Now doth God support a creature whom he knoweth not, and in any action which he understandeth not ? Christ knew that virtue passed from him when the multitude thronged him, Luke viii. 45, 46. In the great throng of creatures God knoweth who is sustained by him, and to whom the influence of his providence leacheth. Now then, since he is as verily with thee in every place as thou art there thyself, is he present with thee, and regardless of thee, of thy thoughts and words and ways ? It cannot be.
180 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XXVI.
[2.] His moral government. All persons and causes of men are to be judged by liim, and therefore are most eminently and fully discovered to him. Surely he that is to be judged of God must be clearly known to him, both as to his actions and thoughts ; how else can he judge righteously either now or hereafter ? Job xxxiv. 21, 23, ' His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seetli all his goings. Therefore he will not lay upon man more than is right, that he should enter into judg- ment with God ; ' that is, will not excessively and unjustly afflict man : Ps. xciv. 10, ' He that chastiseth tlie heathen, shall not he correct ? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not lie know ? '
III. How this truth is entertained by men.
1. Some atheistically deny it: Job xxii. 13, 14, 'And thou sayest, How doth God know ? can he judge through the thick cloud ? Thick clouds are a. covering to him, that he seeth not, and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.' Atheists have carnal and gross thoughts of God, as if he were confined within the heavens, and had no sense and care of what was done below, or had other business to mind than to look after the sons of men : Ps. Ixxiii. 11, ' How doth God know ? and is there knowledge in the Most High ? ' Many that dare not simply deny a deity, yet deny a providence : they measure God by themselves, their own shallow conceptions ; whereas God is infinitely exalted above what we can comprehend.