Ser. 135. things about which we use the greatest diligence and exactness. 6. The knowledge of God is univerfal, and extends to all objects. We know but a few things, our ignorance is greater than our knowledge; axima pars eorum qua fcimus, eft minima pars eorum que nefcimus: but the divine understanding is vast and comprehenfive, and by an imperious view commands all objects; he is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things; he knows himself, and the excellency and perfection of his own nature, and the fecrets of his will, 1 Cor. ii. 11. The Spirit of God fearcheth the deep things of God; he knows all other things that are not, and all things that are, in all differences of time, their powers and qualities. The knowledge of God is infinite; Pfal. cxlvii. 5. His understanding is infinite: he knows himself, and his own perfections, and all the poffibilities of things, which are all infinite. Now the understanding of God being infinite, is incapable of any addition, or diminution or change. Our finite understandings are liable to alterations; they may grow or decline: but the knowledge of God is a full, conftant light; it is always the fame, not liable to any eclipfe, nor capable of any exaltation or improvement, but remains for ever the fame, Thirdly, I come now to draw fome inferences from the feveral parts of this difcourfe. 1. From the perfection of God's knowledge. 1. The perfection of the divine knowledge calls for our veneration. Every excellency commands reverence, and raiseth our admiration, and none more than knowledge: There is nothing that we value ourfelves or others more by, than this. The higheft knowledge of man, the most glorious understanding, that ever any one of the fons of men were endued with, is, compared to the knowledge of God, but as a glow-worm to the fun. If we admire thefe candles of the Lord, which fhine fo imperfectly in the dark ; if we reverence a little knowledge, compaffed about with ignorance; how fhould we admire the Father of lights, in whom is no darkness at all, that know knowledge which hath nothing of blemish or imperfection in it! 2. We may hence learn humility, and that on this double account, as we have all our knowledge from him: What have we that we have not received? and as our knowledge is very imperfect, when compared with the divine understanding. We are blind and ignorant; it is but a few things that we are capable of knowing; and we know but a few of those things which our natures are capable of knowing; and of those things we do know, our knowledge is very imperfect, it is flight and fuperficial, attended. with much difficulty and uncertainty in the attaining of it, and error and confufion in the use of it; the cleareft reafon, and the brightest understanding of man, hath many flaws and defects in it: fo that the more we know of God, and of ourfelves, the more humble we fhall be. It is an empty knowledge, and falfly fo called, that puffs up; as the empty ears of corn are pert, and raife up themselves ; but those which are big and full, droop and hang down their heads: fo it is only ignorance that is proud, and lifts men up, but true knowledge makes men humble. 3. This is matter of comfort and encouragement: He knows our wants and weakness, and will lay no more upon us than we are able to bear; for he confiders that we are but duft; he knows the rage and malice of our enemies, and can, when he pleafes, put a book in their nose, and his bridle in their lips, as he did to Sennacherib, 2 Kings xix. 28. II. From God's knowing our fecret actions, I infer, 1. If God fees our moft fecret actions, this difcovers and confutes the fecret atheism of many. He that commits the moft fecret fin, denies the omnifcience of God. Thus David defcribes the atheism of fome in his days: He hath faid in his heart, God hath forgot, he hideth his face, he will never fee it: 'The Lord fhall not fee, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. And is not this, in effect, to deny God's being for it is to deny him to be what he is. A man man may as well deny there is a fun, as deny that it fhines and enlightens the world. There are fome relicks of this even in the best men, which do at fome times difcover themselves: Pfal. Ixxiii. 10, 11. Therefore his people return hither; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them: And they fay, how doth God know? is there knowledge in the Moft High? that is, the people of God come to this, when they are come to an afflicted ftate, and fee the profperity of wicked men; they come to this, to question the providence of God, whether he takes knowledge of the affairs of the world. But this atheism reigns in wicked men; while they live in their fins, they live in the denial of God's omnifcience for did men really believe that God fees in fecret, that his eye perceives the darknefs, and lays open and naked all things before it, how durft they lie, and fteal and fwear falfly? Vain man! why doft thou feek darkness and retirement? How art thou alone, if thou believeft that God is every where? How canst thou retire from him? How canft thou fhut him out? If thou believeft that he is the light, what fecurity is darkness to thee? If he look upon thee, who is the greatest and beft perfon in the world, who is thy Sovereign, thy Judge, thy Father, and thy Mafter, and thy beft Friend, (for we use to reverence perfons under thefe notions and relations, and to be ashamed to do any thing that is vile and unfeemly before them) if he, who is all this, look upon thee, why art thou not afhamed? Why does not thy blood rife in thy face? Why fhould not fhame and fear work upon the apprehenfion of God's feeing us, as if men did behold us? For this, that God fees thee, is a greater furprise and difcovery, and threatens thee with more danger, than if the whole world stood by thee. 2. Live as thofe that believe this; be continually under the power of this apprehenfion, that God takes a particular and exact notice of all thy actions. The firm belief of this would have a double influence upon us, it would encourage us in well-doing, and be a restraint upon us as to fin; Sic vivamus tan quam quam in confpectu vivamus, Seneca. but to It were well if men would live as if any body saw them; live as if fome worthy and excellent perfon were always prefent with us, and did obferve us, this will be a far greater curb upon us. There are fome fins of that uglinefs and deformity, that a man would not commit them in the prefence of any one, of a child, or a fool; and there are fome perfons of fuch worth and reverence, quorum interventu perditi quoque homines vitia fupprimerent. Epicurus had this good conceit of himfelf, that he could advise others fo to act as if he food by, Fac omnia tanquam fpectet Epicurus: But Seneca inftanceth much better in Cato, or Scipio, or Lælius; Ut fic tanquam illo fpectante vivamus. and fhall not the prefence of the divine Majefty be an eternal restraint upon us! This was David's courfe to keep himself from fin, Pfal. xxxix. 1. I will take heed to my ways while the wicked is before me; how much more in the prefence of God? I have kept thy precepts and thy teftimonies, for all my ways are before thee, Pfal. cxix. 168. And it was wifely advised by Seneca, That we should fo live when we are among men, as believing God fees us; and when there is none but he fees us, let us behave ourselves before him, as if men did ftare upon us. III. God's knowledge of the heart teacheth us, 1. The folly of hypocrify: How vain it is to make a fhew of that outwardly, which inwardly and in our hearts we are not; to put on a mask of religion, and paint ourselves beautifully without, when inwardly we are full of rottenness and uncleanness ; to honour God with our lips, when our hearts are far from him? If we were to deal with men, this were not a very wife way, for there is danger of dif covery even from them; therefore the best way for a man to seem to be any thing, is really to be what he would appear: but having to deal with God, who knows our thoughts afar off, to whom all our dif guifes are tranfparent, and all our little arts of concealment fignify nothing, it is a madness to hide our iniquity iniquity in our bofom. With this argument our Saviour convinceth the hypocritical Pharifees, Luke xvi. 15 Te are they that justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts. 2. If God know your hearts, then endeavour to approve your hearts to him; charge yourselves with inward purity and holinefs, because of the pure eyes which behold the moft intimate and fecret motions of your fouls; therefore cleanfe your hearts from wickedness: how long shall vain thoughts lodge within you? Fear and fhame from men lay a great reftraint upon our outward actions; but how licentious are we many times in our hearts? What a ftrange freedom do we take within our own breafts? This is an argument of the fecret atheism that lies at the bottom of our hearts. He that allows himself in a wicked thoughts and imaginations, which (out of regard to men) he will not put into practice, this man plainly declares that he reverenceth men more than God; that he either disbelieves a God, or defpifeth him. Therefore keep your hearts with all diligence, becaufe they are peculiarly under God's infpection; and when you are ready to take the liberty of your thoughts, becaufe no eye fees you, ask yourselves, Doth not he that pondereth the heart confider it? And he that keepeth thy foul, doth he not know it ? as the wife man fpeaks, Prov. xxiv. 12. And whatever you do in the fervice of God, do it heartily as to the Lord. Indeed, if we did only worship God, to be seen of men, an external wor fhip would be fufficient; but religion is not intended to please men, but God; he is a fpirit, and fees our fpirits, therefore we muft worship him in fpirit and in truth, 1 Theff. ii. 4. Not as pleafing men, but God, who trieth our hearts. David ufeth this argument to his fon Solomon, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy Father, and ferve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind; for the Lord fearcheth all hearts, and underftandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. Whatever liberty we may take to ourselves now, and how |