the reins; where, by heart and reins, which are the most inward parts of the body, and ly leaft open to difcovery, are fignified the moft fecret thoughts and motions of the foul; thefe God is faid to fearch and try, not as if it were a work of labour and difficulty to the divine knowledge to penetrate the hearts of men, and to dive into their thoughts, but to fignify to us the perfection and exactness of the divine knowledge; as when men would know a thing exactly, they fearch into every part of it, and examine every thing narrowly; fo God is faid to fearch the heart, to fignify to us that he knows the hearts of men as thoroughly as we do any thing upon the ftricteft fearch and moft diligent examination; upon the fame account he is faid elfewhere in fcripture to weigh the fpirits of men, Prov. xvi. 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth his fpirits; that is, he hath as perfect a knowledge of the fecret motions and inclinations of mens hearts, as men have of thofe things which they weigh in a balance, with the greateft exactness. Now that God hath this perfect knowledge of mens hearts, the fcripture frequently declares to us; that he knows the hearts of all men, 1 Kings viii. 39. For thou, even thou, knowest the hearts of all the children of men, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. The Lord fearcheth all hearts, and underftandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. How clofe and referved foever men may be, what difguife foever they may ufe to hide their purposes from men, yet God fees them; the things which are moft dark and fecret are open to his view. Pfal. xliv. 21. He knoweth the fecrets of the hearts. Prov. xv. 11. Hell and deftruction are before him, how much more the hearts of the children of men? Whatever pretences men may make, God fees through them, and difcovers the very intentions of their hearts. Pfal. vii. 9. The righteous Lord trieth the heart and reins. Heb. iv. 13. It is faid there of the word of God, that it is a difcerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart; for all things are naked, and open to the eye of him 325 with whom we have to do, and there is no creature that is not manifeft in his fight; nay, he knows our thoughts at a distance, what they will be, before they actually are. Pfal. cxxxix. 2. Thou knoweft my thoughts afar off. It is true indeed every man is confcious to his own thoughts, and privy to the motions of his own mind, when they are prefent, and when they are past, if he have not forgot them; but no man knows what he fhall think ́ to-morrow; but this God knows; for he knows us more intimately and thoroughly than we do ourfelves; God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things, 1 John iii. 20. And though the fcripture had not revealed this fo plainly, yet we had not been wholly ignorant of it; it is a principle implanted in us, and born with us, as being part of that natural notion which men have of God the reafon of our minds tells us, that God knows our hearts; and the fears and jealoufies of our minds are an evidence of it. First, The reafon of every man's mind tells him, that the fupreme Being whom we call God, is endued with all perfection, and among his other perfections, that he excells in knowledge; and to the perfection of knowledge it is required, that it extend itself to all objects, and that nothing be exempted from it. The knowledge of God, in refpect of all objects, is like the fun in refpect of this lower world; nothing is hid from the light of it. We have naturally this apprehenfion of God, that he is an immenfe Being, every where prefent; that he intimately penetrates all places and things, and confequently that he is present to our fpirits, and fees all the motions of our minds, and difcerns the very fécrets of our hearts; and there can be no fuch thing as fecrecy and retirement from an eye that is every where, and a knowledge that pierceth into all things. And to convince us that these are the dictates of. natural reason, without the help and affiftance of divine revelation, we fhall find that the heathen, who had only the advantage of natural light, were VOL. VI. E e firmly firmly poffeffed with this apprehenfion, that God knows the hearts of men. This may be fufficiently collected from the frequent fayings of the wifer heathens to this purpofe; that the best and most acceptable worship of the Deity is that which is inward, that of the heart and mind. To this fenfe, Tully fpeaks, Cultus autem deorum eft optimus, idemque caftiffimus atque fanctissimus plenissimusque pietatis, ut eos femper pura, integrâ atque incorrupta mente & "The best and holiest worship "of the gods, is to worship them with a pure, and upright, and fincere mind." To the fame purpofe is that known faying of the Poet: voce veneremur ; Compofitum jus fafque animi, fanctofque receffus "Do but offer to God a mind inwardly refolved to "be juft and honeft, and the plaineft facrifice will pleafe him." Now from hence, that they judged the purity of our hearts and thoughts, and an honest difpofition of mind, to be moft acceptable to their gods, we may certainly conclude, that they did most firmly believe that God knows the fecrets of mens hearts, otherwife there had been no need for men to endeavour to recommend themselves this way to the divine acceptance. But we need not argue this by confequence; there are many exprefs paffages in their writings, which do fufficiently fignify their belief of this principle. Thales, one of their most ancient Philofophers, being asked, If an unjust man could conceal himself from God? He answered, he cannot fo much as hide from him the very thoughts and defign of it. Socrates (as Xenophon tells) was wont to inculcate this principle upon his fcholars, That the gods know all things, what we fay, and what we do, and what we think in fi.. lence. To the fame purpose, Arrian in his differtations upon Epictetus, laying down the principles of a virtuous life; First of all, faith he, we must learn this, that there is a God who takes care of the world, and that that there is nothing hid from him, not only what we do, but even what we think and defign. So likewise Tully, in his book of laws; Let every man be firmly perfuaded of this; that the gods fee what every man is, and with what mind and devotion they ferve them. I will add but one teftimony more, and that is of Seneca in his epiftles; Nihil Deo claufum eft, intereft animis noftris, & cogitationibus mediis intervenit; "We can keep nothing clofe from God, for "he is prefent to our minds, and intimate to our thoughts" fo that you fee this principle is deeply rooted in the minds of men, and that men do naturrally reafon themselves into it. (2.) The natural fears of men are likewife a fecret acknowledgment of this; and I take this to be a great truth, that a man's natural actions, and fuch as happen upon furprize, and without deliberation, are a better argument of the intimate fenfe of our minds, and do more truly discover what lies at the bottom of our hearts, aud what notions are natural to us, than our contrived and deliberate difcourfe. If I fee a man, upon the fudden fight of a ferpent, recoil and start back, though he tell me never fo often that he is not afraid, yet I am fufficiently convinced of the contrary, because I fee in his countenance and carriage a natural acknowledgment of fear and danger; fo if men find that upon the defigning of a fecret wickedness, which never went further than their own hearts, their confciences do fting and lafh them; that they have a fenfe of guilt, and feel inward frights and horrors, whatever they may fay to the contrary; this is a natural acknowledgment of an invifible eye that fees them, and difallows their wicked defigns. If that be true which the heathen Poet fays, That Scelus intra fe tacitum qui cogitat ullum, "He that meditates any fecret wickedness in his heart, is guilty to himself, as if he had committed it," this is a plain confeffion, that the man ftands in awe of fome E e 2 thing thing befides himself, and is jealous that there is one that is confcious to what he thinks. (2.) That to have a perfect and thorough knowJedge of mens hearts, is the peculiar prerogative of God. This is implied in the answer to that question, Who can know the heart of man? Jer. xvii. io. I the Lord fearch the heart, and try the reins; this is the prerogative of God, and one of his chief titles, that he is xaprovésns, a knower of the heart, 1 Kings viii. 39. Thou, even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men. Men may make a probable conjecture at the thoughts and defigns of others, from their words and actions; but God only knows them. Men are confcious to their own thoughts and purpofes; the spirit of a man that is in him, knows the things of a man; but they cannot fee into the fecrets of another man's mind; it is God alone that knows the hearts of all men; the heart of a man is a pri vileged place, and the fecret and inward workings of it are not fubject to the cognizance of any but God alone. The limits of human knowledge are the outward appearances of actions, 1 Sam. xvi. 7. The Lord feeth not as man feeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart; our knowledge is but fuperficial, and glides upon the outfide and furface of things, but the divine knowledge pierceth to the very center of every thing. Now the darkest place, the most inward retirement, the privateft clofet in the whole world, is the heart of man, and this God only is privy to; Deus auctor omnium fpeculator omnium, à quo nihil fecretum effe poteft, tenebris intereft, & cogitationibus noftris quafi alteris tenebris, faith Min. Felix. God made all things, and fees all things, and therefore nothing can be fecret from him; he is prefent in darkness, and he is prefent to the thoughts of men, which are as it were another and a thicker darkness. The Devil indeed pretends to this knowledge; he would take upon him to know the integrity of Job's heart better than God himself; and that notwithftanding the testimony which God gave of his integrity; yet if he were but foundly tried by affliction, he |