that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LordV The whole of the 139th Psalm is written for the confirmation and illustration of this truth ; which Job also was persuaded of in his inmost soul : "I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from theeg." But we have an illustration of it in the New Testament which is worthy of more particular no- tice: " All things," says the Apostle, " are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to doh." Here the writer refers to a fact well known to the Hebrews. When a sacrifice was to be offered, not only was it examined externally, to see whether there were any blemish in it, but it was flayed, and cut down the back-bone, and laid open, that so its inward parts might be inspected by the priest. Thus are the inmost recesses of our soul both naked and opened before our God, and not an " imagination of the thoughts of our heart" con- cealed from him.]
3. From the appointment of a day of judgment to judge the world —
[To what purpose can such an appointment be, if God do not behold every secret of the heart ? The true quality of our actions depends chiefly on the motives and principles from which they spring. But nothing short of omniscience can discover these : and hence God asserts his omniscience in reference to this very day : " I the Lord search the heart ; I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. *"]
Not to multiply proofs of so clear a point, let me proceed to,
II. Suggest a suitable improvement of it —
The subject being as important as any that can occupy the human mind, I will endeavour to im- prove it,
1. In a way of general reflections —
[In the contemplation of God's omniscience, we cannot but be struck with the thought of God's wonderful patience and forbearance. If only the actions of men were discerned by him, there were abundantly sufficient every day and hour to provoke him to wrath, and to bring down on the whole world the judgments which desolated the cities of Sodom and Go- morrah. But he sees all the motives and principles of men,
f Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. s Job xlii. 2.
h Heb. iv. 13. ' Jer. xvii. 10.