disposeth all things according to the rules seen; and their testimony, at the utmost, of the most perfect wisdom, justice, and can only relate to outward actions; the goodness. And whatever objections may temper with which they are done, and the arise from a partial view of his adminis-principles from whence they flow, are betration, so that in some cases we may beyond their knowledge: so that no judgtempted to say in our hearts, "How doth ment can pass upon the heart in conseGod know, and is there knowledge in the quence of any human evidence. Where Most High?" yet Reason teacheth us in then shall we go next? Perhaps you will general, that the Lord reigneth, who is say, that every man's own conscience shall wise in heart, and mighty in strength; and witness against him in that day. But that, when clouds and darkness are round what shall oblige conscience to do this? about him, righteousness and judgment will mere authority compel a man to beare the habitation of his throne. But come his own accuser, when he knows that this could not be without the most certain no other evidence can be brought against and unlimited knowledge of all his crea- him? This, I think, is harder to be believed tures, at all times, and in every place and than any thing. In short, I see no way condition. How should he conduct this by which we can extricate ourselves from great family which constantly hangs upon these pressing difficulties, but by ascribing him, without the most intimate acquain- to God that perfect and universal knowtance with every individual? And how ledge which my text, and sundry other strong must our conviction of this truth Scriptures attribute to him. Reason must be, when we consider, that his Providence have recourse to this at last, or deny that extends to the minutest things? that "the God shall judge the world. It is his omvery hairs of our heads are numbered;"niscience that supplies the room of foreign that " a sparrow doth not fall to the witnesses, or makes their testimony valid : ground without him;" and that "when it is his omniscience that overawes conthe lot is cast into the lap, the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” science, and constrains it to be faithful. He alone can tell a man what is in his heart, so that he dare not refuse the charge: and it is this infallible testimony of the Judge himself, who scans all actions, who weighs all thoughts, whose right hand doth ever hold us, and whose eye is constantly upon us, that will stop every mouth in the great day of decision, and convince the whole world that his judgment is true and righteous. But the 4th and most striking argument for the truth of this doctrine arises from this principle, which sober reason hath always admitted, viz., that God is the Judge of the world: for as he is to decide the final state of men, and distribute rewards and punishments according to the strictest equity, so that every mouth shall be stopped, and none shall be able to charge him with rigor or undue severity; Thus have I endeavored to establish the trial must be fair and open, and the your faith of this important truth, that proof absolutely clear, upon which a sen- the eyes of the Lord are in every place, tence, so essentially connected with the beholding the evil and the good. I have honor of the Judge, is to be founded. But argued the cause at the bar of Reason, how shall this proof be obtained? shall and have showed you the intimate conmen be adduced as witnesses against each nection of this doctrine with the most acother? This scheme is encumbered with knowledged dictates of natural religion, two objections; neither of which, I think, to wit, that God is the Creator, the Precan be easily removed. If all are guilty, server, the Governor, and the Judge of would there not be ground to suspect, that the world. It is possible that some may every one's private interest might bring ask, Why bestow so much time and labor them to a general combination and agree-in proving a point which nobody is disment to conceal each other's faults? Or, posed to deny? Let this be my apology: if some are innocent, which for once we I cannot recollect the time when I seriously shall suppose, yet even these may, or questioned the truth of this doctrine; but rather must, be ignorant of many things: I can well remember a time, when it had they can attest no more than they have no more influence upon my own soul than if I had been sure it was false: and, if your belief be of the same kind, as I fear with too many it is, be assured you have heard no more than was needful: nay, if an infinitely greater Teacher do not preach the subject over again to your hearts with power, your present belief shall only heighten your guilt; and the fewer your doubts are, the greater shall your condemnation be. If your hearts do not feel the constant presence of God, your verbal acknowledgments and speculative belief of it, shall only render your case something worse than the infidel's. Satan can spare this tribute to God: so long as your faith dwells in the brain, or in the tongue, he doth not grudge you the possession of it; and if what you have been hearing sink no deeper, I shall readily admit that you have heard too much. In that case, I have no doubt lost my labor, whether it hath been acceptable to you or not. But I shall not close the subject till I have pointed out the practical use we ought to make of it. And, 1st. Let us take occasion from this doctrine to admire, with humble gratitude, the long suffering patience, and tender compassions of our God. Is he the immediate witness of all our sins? Doth he see the rebellious thought rising in our minds? And doth he still look on, and spare, till it be fully formed and executed? How incomprehensible then must his patience be! We find it no easy matter to forgive our fellow-men, even when they are penitent; with what difficulty do we suppress our resentment, though the injury hath been committed at a great distance of time, and our offending brother himself was perhaps the first who informed us of it, by a free and sorrowful confession? What then can we think of the divine mercy and forbearance? It were much in God to forgive the transgressions of such creatures as we are, though he had not seen them done, and knew nothing about them, till he heard them from our selves, in penitent confessions and petitions for pardon; but to bear with us till lust had conceived and brought forth; to see the whole progress of the mind, its plots and contrivances, till the wicked deed be done; to behold the heart full of enmity, without one relenting thought; to spare a creature thus determined to affront him, when by one word he could disarm it of all its power, and render it completely miserable! it is this which sets the patience of God above all human, above all created understanding. O! my brethren, think of this. Should an earthly prince behold one of his subjects, who lived within his palace, and was supported by his bounty, treasonably conspiring against him with his most inveterate enemies; should he, instead of treating him with the severity he deserved, condescend to expostulate with him; and, in the most affectionate manner, entreat him to consult his own safety by returning to his duty, and not to wrest a punishment from him which he was unwilling to inflict; what do you think would be the state of the traitor's mind in such circumstances as these? How would it confound him to know, that his much injured sovereign had all along been privy to his baseness, but, like the most tender father, instead of punishing, had only pitied his folly? We may partly conceive this, but are unable to express it. The most artful description could give but a faint representation of the various feelings of an ingenuous heart, upon such an affecting occasion. And shall not the tender mercy of our God have the same influence upon us? He neither wants power to inflict, nor provocation to justify, the severest punishment our natures are capable of enduring. What shall we say then? He is God, and not man; and therefore it is that we are not consumed. O let his patience, to which we are so infinitely indebted, work upon our ingenuity, that we may not unworthily burden it any more! and particularly let us watch over our hearts at this time, when the subject we are upon necessarily obliges us to set the Lord more immediately before us, as the witness and judge of our present temper and conduct; for surely his eyes are in this place, beholding the evil and the good. 2dly. This doctrine hath an obvious tendency to cherish simplicity and godly sincerity, and to banish all dissimulation and artifice from our hearts. He who realizeth the divine presence will not dare to be a hypocrite; for he knows that his triumphing can be but short, and his joy | third time (John xxi. 17), "Simon, son only for a moment. Man he may deceive, of Jonas, lovest thou me?' Yes, Lord, who sees no farther than the outside; but said he, I love thee I confess indeed the he cannot deceive God, whose eyes are in baseness and treachery of my late conevery place; who "searcheth the hearts, duct; yet still I do, and must protest, and trieth the reins of the children of that I love thee. It is true that I forsook men." And to what purpose should he thee, and impiously denied thee; and labor for the applause of poor dying wert thou not the all-wise God, as well as creatures, if he expose himself to the con- my compassionate Saviour, this reiterated tempt and abhorrence of that infinite question would strike me dumb, and drive Being, upon whom he necessarily depends me from thy presence; for how could I for life, and breath, and all things? es- pretend to love thee, or hope to be creditpecially when he considers, that the masked, after such baseness and perfidy? But he now wears shall ere long be pulled off, and his real character exposed to the view of an assembled world, in that day "when the hidden works of darkness shall be brought to light, and every one receive according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad? This motive to sincerity is plain, and obvious to the weakest understanding. Formality, or mere outward religiousness, must appear a vain, unprofitable thing to the man who believes the doctrine of my text; for what can it avail him to be well thought of by a few, during the short time of his abode on this earth, if at last he shall become the object of everlasting contempt; not to those few only, but to all that ever did or shall exist, till "the mighty angel, setting his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, shall lift up his hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever, That time shall be no more. 3dly. This doctrine affords abundant matter of comfort and joy to the truly godly. Omniscience is the attribute of their Father and their friend; his eyes are continually upon them for good; he knows every thing that befalls them, and is perfectly acquainted both with their wants, and with those supplies which are proper and necessary for them. This qualifies him to be the object of their trust and confidence; upon him they may quietly and cheerfully rely, who is never far from any one of them, and "whose eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards him." But the omniscience of God is still more comfortable upon other accounts. What a stay and support did it prove to Peter, when our Lord said unto him the this is my refuge: "Thou, Lord, knowest port of upright souls. As perfection Once more, what hope and joy must spring up in the soul in its secret addresses to God, when it remembers that his eyes are in every place! He to whom we pray understandeth our very thoughts afar off. "Lord," said the Psalmist, "all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee." A groan, a sigh, cannot escape his notice; nay, "he puts our tears into a bottle, and a book of remembrance is written before him, for them that think upon his name." Though words be a tribute due to God, yet he doth not need the information of language: "for when we know not what we should pray for as we ought, the Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities, making intercession for us with groanings which and from whose sentence there lies no appeal. No craft or policy can evade his justice, neither can any power deliver out of his hands; yet we live as if we had no witness, no judge, nor any cause of importance to be tried. God hath assured us in his word, that "death is the wages of sin; reason condemns it; conscience either remonstrates against it, or rebukes us for it; yet, in defiance of all these, we hug it in our bosom, and refuse to let it go. cannot be uttered. And he that search- | hastening to the tribunal of that Judge, eth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind whose eye has been constantly upon us, of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."-Rom. viii. 26, 27. When the humble supplicant, like a diseased Lazarus, can do little more than lay himself down at the door of mercy, unable to pronounce one articulate word; when, like the publican in the parable, he can only smite upon his breast, to point at the place where the distemper lies; the Holy Spirit puts language into these actions, which God perfectly understands, and graciously accepts, because his eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. 4thly. This doctrine is no less awful to the wicked than it is comfortable to the sincere and good. Wherever they are, whatever they do, God sees and observes them. Men are frequently induced to commit sin by the hope of concealment "The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and disguiseth his face." But this text discovers the folly of such hopes; the Judge himself beholds and knows them; "for there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can iniquit hide themselves from him." O sinners, think of this; none of your ways are hid from the Lord. He not only knows what you do, but he also knows what opposition and restraint you overcome in doing it. You may fein excuses to your neighbors; you may plead the violence of temptation, the want of recollection, or the strength of passion; and by these alleviations extenuate your guilt, and put some sort of color upon your conduct; but God sees through all these thin disguises; he that heard every whispering of conscience within thee; and the complaints of this oppressed, subdued deputy, are all recorded against thee. Brethren, this is a most alarming consideration; may God impress it upon our hearts, and give it that power and influence which it ought to have! This would humble us to purpose, and make us to loathe ourselves in our own sight because of our abominations. Surely the heart of man is with good reason said to be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." We are One of This is such perverse, such unaccountable folly, that were not the whole earth a bedlam, in which all have a tincture of the same disease, it would be regarded with equal surprise and horror. the most probable means for restoring men to their right senses, is the serious belief of this important doctrine, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Which leads me to observe, in the 5th and last place, That an habitual impression of the divine presence would prove at once an effectual restraint from all manner of sin, and the most powerful incitement to every part of our duty. This would deter us even from the most secret sins, and influence us as much in our closest retirement as when we act in the public view of the world. Had we no other spectators than men, it might be sufficient to maintain a fair outside, because that only falls under their observation; but there is no covering so thick as to hide us from God; the most secret deviation of the heart is subject to his cognizance, as much as the most open transgression of the life; and sins committed in the deepest shades of darkness, are as perfectly known to him as those committed in the clearest noonday. None of the springs from whence they proceed can escape his notice, nor the temper of mind. with which they are done; which give the truest light into their nature, and determine the precise degree of their malignity. What reason, then, have we to keep our hearts, as well as our lives, with all diligence; and to dread a sin in privacy no less than when we know that many eyes are upon us? With respect, again, to the practice of our duty, the influence of a realizing faith of the divine omniscience is so apparent that it needs no illustration. "I have I have kept thy statutes and thy testimonies," said David; "for all my ways are before thee." Were God habitually present to our minds, we should think nothing too much to be done, or too hard to be endured, in his service. A holy ambition to approve ourselves to him, by whose final sentence we must stand or fall, would render us superior to every trial, and carry us forward in the way of his commandments with increasing vigor and alacrity. We should never "think that we had already attained, either were already perfect; but, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, we should press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Upon the whole, then, let us earnestly pray God, that he, by his grace, may strengthen our faith of this important truth, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good; and enable us so to set him before us all the days of our pilgrimage on earth, that hereafter we may be admitted into his presence; where, in the happy society of angels and saints, we shall enjoy the unclouded light of his countenance without interruption and without end. Amen. SERMON III. which very often passeth for real holiness, In like manner, the author of this psalm, after a devout contemplation of the divine law, (which he had magnified in the foregoing verses, by a just and animated detail of its amiable properties and salutary effects) turning his eyes inward, is struck with a sense of his own guilt and pollution: "Who," saith he, can understand his errors?" Many indeed, too many, alas! I can soon recollect; for every period of my life hath been stained with sin but besides all these, I now perceive, that in numberless instances, unobserved or forgotten, I must have deviated from so perfect a rule. Upon this he supplicates the mercy of God, and implores the forgiveness of those "errors," or infirmities, which had either escaped his notice or dropped out of his remembrance; "Cleanse thou me from secret faults; MEMORABLE is that saying of the apostle" secret," not only with respect to others, Paul, "I had not known sin but by the but to myself also; hid from mine own law." We can never judge aright of our eyes as well as from the eyes of my fellow temper and practice till we prove them by men. And under this awful impression of this unerring rule. Many objects appear the polluting nature even of his unobserved to have a strong resemblance while we and "secret faults," he views with horror view them apart, and at a distance from the more aggravated guilt of known and each other; which, in almost every fea- wilful sins; and prays with redoubled earture, are found to disagree when they are nestness, in the words of my text, that it brought together and examined with accu- might please God to restrain or keep him racy. Thus there is a seeming conformity back from these: Keep back thy servant to the divine law, an image of sanctity, also from presumptuous sins. PRESUMPTUOUS SINS DEPRECATED. PSALM XIX. 13.-"Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins." |