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ment of fecurity, I beseech you remember this trnth, that no place can hide you from the eye of God. He fees all your ways, yea, he sees them with abhorrence; tle fight of them is the greatest exercise of his patience. His fight of them is not a transient glance, but he fees and records your evils; they are fealed up among his treasures: He fees, and will make you fee them too with horror, when he shall fet them in order before you: he fees them, and will make angels and men see them in the great day. O then, never let fecrecy any more encourage you to fin!

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2. Inference What prodigious finners muft they be, that feek no covert for their fin in darknefs, but with an impudent face declare, yea, glory in their fhame; who are not afhamed to fin openly with a bare face, and a whore's forehead? These are finners of the first magnitude. "They declare their fin as Sodem, and hide it not," Ifa.iii. 9. It is as natural to man to endeavour to hide his fin, as Adam, and you fee from the text, guilty finners fain would, if it were poffible, fly to any obfcure corner from the obfervation of God and men; and it is a mercy God hath planted fuch an affection as fhame is, in the foul of man, to be a bridle to restrain his exorbitant lufts. But yet there is a generation of monfirous finners, who have fo far unmanned themfelves," That they are not at all afhamed when "they commit abominations, neither can they blush," jer. vi. 15. If there be any remains of fhame left in them, they exercise it upon a wrong object: they are afhamed of that which would be to their glory, and glory in that which is their fhame; they add impudence to their fin, and blufh not to proclaim that which others ftudy to conceal.

Such a vile temper as this fhews a ma even ripe for wrath; he hath even filled up his meafure, and is come to the very culminating point and top of wickednofs. There be fome men arrived to fuch a degree of holiness, that all that converfe with them judge them even ripe for heaven: they speak the dialect, and have the very favour of heaven upon them. Others are come to fuch a prodigious height of impiety, that understanding men cannot but conclude they are nigh unto damnation; they fpeak the very language, and have the very fcent of hell upon them. Such are they that openly declare their fin as Sodom, and glory in their fhame.

Thus we fee fome drunkards will glory in their firength, to pour down wine and strong drink, and can boaft of the number of their cups: fome adulterers can glory in their acts of wickedness, 'not fufficing themselves to damn their own fouls, but labouring to infect and corrupt as many as they can. by their filthy tongues, that they may draw them into the fame mifery. We can hardly tell how to fcrew up fin one peg higher than this: firft to practife fin, then de fend it, then boaft of it. Sin is firft a man's burden, next his custom, next his delight, and then his excellency. Lord, whither is man fallen! that holinefs fhould ever be his difgrace; and fin, yea, the

vileft of fins, his glory! O the power of Divine patience!

3. Inference. If the eye of God fearches every obscure corner in the world, to behold the evil that is committed there, then certainly the eye of God cannot but look into every fecret place in the world to fee the good that is done there. "The eyes of the Lord are in "every place, 'beholding the evil and the good," Prov. xv. 3. The good as well as the evil; yea, he beholds with delight the good done in fecret.

As fome finners fcek corners to act their wickedness in, and cannot fatisfy themselves to commit fin in the light, (for, as our Saviour faith, John iii. 20. "He that doth evil hateth the light;") fo, on the contrary, a truly godly man feeks corners to pray in, to meditate in, and to examine his own heart in, and thinks these duties of godlinefs can never be managed with too great a privacy, not that he is in the leaft afhamed of his duty; no, that is not the reason, but he is afraid of hypocrify, when duties lie too open, and expofed to the eyes of nien. A finner takes his full liberty to vent his corruptions when he can do it in fecret; and a faint takes his full liberty to vent and exercise his graces, when no eye but the eye of God fees him. "Thou, when thou prayeft (faith our Saviour) enter into thy clofet, "and fhut thy door, and pray to thy Father which is in fecret, and "thy Father (which feeth in fecret) fhall reward thee openly." O how much better is it, both as to your prefent comfort and future account, to get into a corner to pray, than to whore and drink? To pour out your fouls to God graciously, than to pour out your lufts against God fo wickedly? How contrary are the principles of grace and corruption? The study of finners is to hide their evils from the eyes of men: the ftudy of a faint is to hide his duties from the eyes of men: The finner would not have the world fufpect what he hath been about; nor would the faint have all the world know what he hath been about. The way of an adulterer is as the " way of an "eagle in the air, or as a ferpent upon a rock;" i, e. a fecret way, where they leave no prints or tracts behind them. "So is the way of "an adulterous woman; fhe eateth and wipeth her mouth, and "faith, I have done no wickedness," Prov. xxx. 19, 20. By wiping the mouth is there meant preventing all fufpicion; fuffering no fign of the action to remain upon them: So, contrarily, a gracious perfon that hath been with God in fecret prayer, or fafting, when his duty is ended, he labours to avoid all oftentations. And therefore you have the caution from Chrift, Matth. vi. 17, 18. "But thou, when "thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wafh thy face! that thou appear "not unto men to faft, but unto thy father which is in fecret." The meaning is, carry thy private duties fo clofe, that none may know what paffeth between God and thee: When thou haft been entertained in fecret with hidden manna, a feast of fat things, wipe thy mouth in a holy fenfe, i. e. wipe off all fufpicion of hypocrify and vanity by a

prudent and humble concealment. "Religion doth not lay all open, as we fay :" As finners have their fecret pleasures, their ftolen waters which are sweet to them; fo the faints have their secret delights in God, their bidden manna, which no man knows but he that eateth of it. And as the eye of God vindictively beholds the one, fo it delightfully beholds the other; and fo you find it, Cant. ii. 14. "O my dove, (faith Chrift to the church) that art in the clifts of the "rocks, in the fecret places of the ftairs: Let me fee thy counte❝nance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance comely." Let this encourage you to fecret duties; let not others find more pleasure in fecret lufts, than you can do in God and fecret duties.

4. Inference. Doth the eye of God fee all the evil and wickedness that is committed in all the fecret corners of the world! How admirable then is the patience of God towards the world! Who can imagine how much wickedness is fecretly practifed in a town or city every day? Or if all the villanies that are perpetrated in a small circumference in one day were known to us, we fhould admire that God doth not make us like Sodom, for judgment and defolation before the next day. What then are the innumerable fwarms of fin, which are as the fands upon the fea-fhore, from all the parts and corners of the earth! Alas, there is not the ten thousandth part of the groffer fort of wickedneffes committed in the world, that ever comes to our eye or ear; and if it did, we cannot eftimate the evil of fin, as God doth; nor feel with that refentment the burden of it, as he doth and yet the long-fuffering God forbears it with infinite patience. Surely his power was not more discovered in making the world, than it is in forbearing to deftroy it again for the wickednefs that is in it. But the world ftands for the church's fake that is in it. "And were it "not that the Lord of hofts had left us a fmall remnant, we had "been as Sodom, we had been like unto Gomorrha," Ifa. i. 9. There is alfo an elect remnant to be called and gathered by the gospel out of it in their feveral generations: and when that number fball be accomplished, God will fet fire to the four quarters of it, and it fhail lie in white afhes; till then the long-suffering of God waiteth.

5. Inference If God fees all the fecret wickedness that is committed in every corner of the world; how clear is it that there is a judgment to come, and that this judgment will be exact?

That there is a judgment to come, is by this manifeft; and alfo that there is abundance of fin committed in the world, which never comes to light here, nor never will in this world. It is true, men's fins are open; and the judgments of God upon them are as open; but it is not fo with all. The apostle faith, 1 Tim. v. 24. "Some "men's fins are open before-hand, going before-hand to judgment, ❝ and some men's they follow after." Some men's fins are written,

* Non eft religio bi omnia patent.

as it were, in their foreheads, every one fees them; but others follow after, are not discovered till the day of the revelation of the fecrets of all hearts, and then that which is now done in closets shall be proclaimed as upon house-tops: Though they were never put to fhame for their fins, in the places where they committed, them, yet God will fhame them before men and angels. This is the day to judge fecrets, 1 Cor. iv. 5.

And, as it is certain there will be fuch a judgment, fo it is certain this judgment will be exact; for the judge of all hath feen all: Whatever he charges any man with, hath been acted before his face, Pfal. xc. 8. "Thou fetteft our fecret fins in the light of thy countenance." Here can be no mistake, the omnipotent God will judge for what he hath feer; "For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he feeth all his goings, for he will not lay upon man "more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God." The meaning is, he cannot mistake in his judgment, being omniscient, and having feen all the ways of man; fo that there can be no plea offered by any man for a reverse of his fentence.

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O then let us be exact and careful, as well in our fecret as in our public actions; for God fhall bring every work in judgment, with every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, Eccl. xii. ult.

6. Inference. Laftly, If the eye of God be in every place upon us, and all our actions; then let those whofe condition of life hath fent them out of the eyes and obfervations of their parents and masters, keep the fenfe of God's eye upon their hearts, as ever they would escape fin and ruin.

It is no small advantage to young unprincipled perfons, to live under the discipline of pious and careful governors; but it often falls out, that they are early tranfplanted into another foil, fent into foreign countries in order to their education or employment; and as often are there corrupted and debauched by the evil examples of the places where they refide; they learn another language, or drive another trade than what their parents or masters deligned them for. But if the fenfe of this great truth night accompany them where-ever they are, O what a fovereign antidote might it prove against those deadly poisons of temptations! This alone would be a fufficient prefervative. If our children and servants have but the awful fenfe of God's eye upon them, we may turn them loose into the wide world without fear.

If Providence fhall direct this difcourfe to your hands, my heart's defire and prayer for you is, that the Spirit of the Lord would imprint this great truth upon your hearts. And I am the more moved to endeavour your prefervation, upon the confideration of the apparent danger you are in, and the manifold difappointments and mifchiefs that muft unavoidably follow the corrupting of your tender years. The danger you are in is great, whether you confider,

Firft, The infecting, catching nature of fin. No plague is more infectious and infinuating than fin is. Many are the wiles, devices, ftratagems, and baits, Satan lays to draw you into fin, 2 Cor. ii. 11. Or,

Secondly, The proneness that is in your own nature, to clofe with the offers and temptations that you are tried with; it is as great a wonder if you escape, as that one that lives in a peft-houfe thould remain healthy; or that dry tinder should not catch, when thousands of fparks fly about, and light upon it. Or,

Thirdly, The absence of all those means by which you have formerly been preferved from fin. You are now without the ordinances of God, the family duties, the admonitions, counfels, examples, and obfervations of your parents, masters, and friends: All which have been of great ufe to keep you from fin, and reprefs the vanities of youth. Or, Laftly,

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Fourthly, The manifold furtherance or temptations which your age afford; Childhood and youth are vanity. Inconfideratenefs, rafhnefs, injudiciousness, and the want of experience, do all caft you into the very fnare. See how the Holy Ghost hath fignified the danger of perfons at your age, in Prov. vii. 7.

All these things do greatly endanger you. And if any, or all of them together, prevail to the vitiating and corrupting of you, then what a train of fad confequences will follow upon it! For,

1. The great God will be difhonoured and reproached by you, even that God whofe diftinguishing mercies are now before your eyes, and fhould be admired by you; that caufed you to spring up in a better foil, and not from idolaters in a land of darkness.

2. Confcience will be wounded and polluted with guilt; and though, at present, you feel not the remorfe and gnawings of it, yet now you are preparing for it. The fins of youth are complaints and forrows of old age, Job xiii. 26.

3. The hearts of your friends, if godly, will be grieved and greatly troubled to find their expectations and hopes difappointed; and all thofe prayers for you, and counfels bestowed on you to come to nothing. If an unequal match by Efau was fuch a grief of heart to Ifaac and Rebecca, what will profaneness and uncleannefs be to your parents? Gen. xxvi. 34.

4. The ferviceableness and comfort of your whole life, will, in all probability, be deftroyed by the corruption of your youth. If bloffoms be withered, and buds nipt, what fruit can be expected? To conclude,

5. Your precious and immortal fouls are hazarded to all eternity. And what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lofe "his own foul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his foul?" Matth. xvi. 26.

All this mitchief may be happily prevented by the serious confide

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