child of man : for all are corrupt and abominable in their doings ; " all of which are naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
Let us consider,
I. The information here given us —
Men conceive of God as not noticing their sins : " They say in their hearts, The thick clouds are a covering to him, that he cannot see." But he does see the sins of all mankind : he sees them,
I. In all their extent and variety —
[From infancy to age his eye is upon us. Scarcely do we draw our breath, before we begin to shew what fallen creatures we are ; how irritable, how self-willed, how querulous, how addicted to every evil which we are capable of committing. As our powers of acting are enlarged, our habit of sinning is proportionably increased ; every faculty displaying those corruptions which are most suited to its powers, and to the exercise of which it can most easily contribute. As reason expands, we might hope that it should assume the government of our lives : but it is soon overpowered by passion ; and its voice, if heard at all, is lost amidst the pleasures and vanities of a tempting world. So universal is this, that all expect, as a matter of course, to behold increasing corruptions with increasing years; the exhibition of them varying with the successive periods of life : in the young, the passions pleading for indulgence ; in maturer age, the desire of distinction urging and impelling us ; and, in our latter years, the cares of this life, or the deceitfulness of riches, occupying all our time and thoughts. All this has God beheld ; and not a disposition or desire has been hid from him.
The sins of body and of mind have been alike open to him. Each of these has its appropriate lusts : there is a " filthiness both of the flesh and of the spirit," from which we are alike concerned to " cleanse ourselves." Intemperance, lewdness, sloth, have, in different men, their sway, according as educa- tion or constitutional propensity incline them. And in the mind, what an inconceivable mass of iniquity resides, ever ready to start forth into action, as occasion may require ! Oh the pride, the envy, the malice, the wrath, the revenge, the uncharitableness, which shew themselves in our daily life and conversation ! Add to these the murmuring, and discontent, and covetousness ; the self-confidence and self-dependence ; and the entire devotion to self-gratification in the whole of our conduct. What an accumulation of wickedness must arise