hearts. We know by this whither to address ourselves for the search
and discovery of it: perhaps some blessings we want are retarded; some
calamities we understand not the particular cause of, are inflicted;
some petitions we have put up, hang too long for an answer; and the
chariot wheels of Divine goodness move slow, and are long in coming.
Let us beg the aid of this attribute to open to us the remoras, to
discover what base affection there is that retards the mercies we
want, or attracts the affliction we feel, or bars the door against the
return of our supplications. What our dim sight cannot discover, the
clear eye of God can make visible to us (Job x. 2): “Show me wherefore
thou contendest with me.” As in want of pardon, we particularly plead
his mercy, and in our desires for the performance of his promise,
we argue with him from his faithfulness, so in the fear of any
insincerity or hidden corruption we should implore his omniscience:
for as God is a God in covenant, our God, our God in the whole of his
nature, so the perfections of his nature are employed in their several
stations, as assistances of his creatures. This was David’s practice
and comfort, after that large meditation, on the omniscience and
omnipresence of God, he turns his thoughts of it into petitions for
the employment of it in the concerns of his soul, and begs a mercy
suitable to the glory of this perfection (Ps. cxxxix. 23): “Search me,
O God, and try my heart, {a490} try me, and know my thoughts;” dive
to the bottom (ver. 24), “and see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.” His desire is not barely that
God should know him, for it would be senseless to beg of God that
he should have mercy, or faithfulness, or power, or knowledge in
his nature; but he desires the exercise of this attribute, in the
discovery of himself to himself, in order to his sight of any wicked
way, and humiliation for it, and reformation of it, in order to his
conduct to everlasting life. As we may appeal to this perfection to
judge us when the sincerity of our actions is censured by others,
so we may implore it to search us when our sincerity is questioned
by ourselves, that our minds may be enlightened by a beam from his
knowledge, and the little thieves may be pulled out of their dens in
our hearts by the hand of his power. In particular, it is our comfort
that we can, and our necessity that we must address particularly to
this, when we engage solemnly in a work of self‑examination; that
we may have a clearer eye to direct us than our own, that we may not
mistake brass for gold, or counterfeit graces for true; that nothing
that is filthy and fit to be cast out, may escape our sight, and
preserve its station. And we need not question the laying at the
door of this neglect (viz. not calling in this attribute to our aid,
whose proper office it is, as I may so say, to search and inquire)
all the mistakes, ill success, and fruitlessness of our endeavors
in self‑examination, because we would engage in it in the pitiful
strength of our own dimness, and not in the light of God’s countenance,
and the assistance of his eye, which can discern what we cannot see,
and discover that to us which we cannot manifest to ourselves. It is
a comfort to a learner of an art to have a skilful eye to overlook his
work, and inform him of the defects. Beg the help of the eye of God in
all your searches and self‑examinations.
9. The consideration of this attribute is comfortable in our
assurances of, and reflections upon, the pardon of sin, or seeking
of it. As God punishes men for sin according to his knowledge of them,
which is greater than the knowledge their own consciences have of
them, so he pardons according to his knowledge: he pardons not only
according to our knowledge, but according to his own; he is greater
than any man’s heart, to condemn for that which a man is at present
ignorant of; and greater than our hearts, to pardon that which is
not at present visible to us; he knows that which the most watchful
conscience cannot take a survey of: if God had not an infinite
understanding of us, how could we have a perfect and full pardon from
him? It would not stand with his honor to pardon he knew not what. He
knows what crimes we have to be pardoned, when we know not all of them
ourselves, that stand in need of a gracious remission; his omniscience
beholds every sin to charge it upon our Saviour. If he knows our sins
that are black, he knows every mite of Christ’s righteousness which
is pure, and the utmost extent of his merits, as well as the demerit
of our iniquities. As he knows the filth of our sin, he also knows
the covering of our Saviour: he knows the value of the Redeemer’s
sufferings, and exactly understands every plea in the intercession of
our Advocate. {a491} Though God knows our sins _oculo indice_, yet he
doth not see them _oculo judice_, with a judicial eye: his omniscience
stirs not up his justice to revenge, but his mercy to pity. His
infinite understanding of what Christ hath done, directs him to disarm
his justice, and sound an alarm to his bowels. As he understands
better than we what we have committed, so he understands better than
we what our Saviour hath merited; and his eye directs his hand in the
blotting out guilt, and applying the remedy.
_Use III._ shall be to sinners, to humble them, and put them upon
serious consideration. This attribute speaks terrible things to a
profligate sinner. Basil thinks that the ripping open the sins of the
damned to their faces by this perfection of God, is more terrible than
their other torments in hell. God knows the persons of wicked men, not
one is exempted from his eye; he sees all the actions of men, as well
as he knows their persons (Job xi. 11): “He knows vain men, he sees
wickedness also” (Job xxxiv. 21): “His eye is upon all their goings.”
He hears the most private whispers (Ps. cxxxix. 4), the scope, manner,
circumstance of speaking, he knows it altogether: he understands all
our thoughts, the first bubblings of that bitter spring (Ps. cxxxix.
2); the quickest glances of the fancy, the closest musings of the mind,
and the abortive wouldings or wishes of the will, the language of the
heart, as well as the language of the tongue; not a foolish thought,
or an idle word, not a wanton glance, or a dishonest action, not a
negligent service, or a distracting fancy, but is more visible to him,
than the filth of a dunghill can be to any man by the help of a sun
beam. How much better would it be for desperate sinners to have their
crimes known to all the angels in heaven, and men upon earth, and
devils in hell, than that they should be known to their Sovereign,
whose laws they have violated, and to their Judge, whose righteousness
obligeth him to revenge the injury!
1. Consider what a poor refuge is secrecy to a sinner. Not the
mists of a foggy day, nor the obscurity of the darkest night, not
the closest curtains, nor the deepest dungeon, can hide any sin
from the eye of God. Adam is known in his thickets, and Jonah in his
cabin. Achan’s wedge of gold is discerned by him, though buried in the
earth, and hooded with a tent. Shall Sarah be unseen by him, when she
mockingly laughs behind the door? Shall Gehazi tell a lie, and comfort
himself with an imagination of his master’s ignorance, as long as God
knows it? Whatsoever works men do, are not hid from God, whether done
in the darkness or daylight, in the midnight darkness, or the noon‑day
sun: he is all eye to see, and he hath a great wrath to punish. The
wheels of Ezekiel are full of eyes: a piercing eye to behold the
sinner, and a swift wheel of wrath to overtake him. God is light, and
of all things light is most difficultly kept out. The secretest sins
are set in the light of his countenance (Ps. xc. 8), as legible to him,
as if written with a sun‑beam; more visible to him than the greatest
print to the sharpest eye. The fornications of the Samaritan woman,
perhaps known only to her own conscience, were manifest to Christ
(John iv. 16.) There is nothing so secretly done, but there is an
infallible witness to prepare {a492} a charge. Though God be invisible
to us, we must not imagine we are so to him; it is a vanity, therefore,
to think that we can conceal ourselves from God, by concealing the
notions of God from our sense and practice. If men be as close from
the eyes of all men, as from those of the sun, yea, if they could
separate themselves from their own shadow, they could not draw
themselves from God’s understanding: how, then, can darkness shelter
us, or crafty artifices defend us? With what shame will sinners be
filled, when God, who hath traced their steps, and writ their sins in
a book, shall make a repetition of their ways, and unveil the web of
their wickedness!
2. What a dreadful consideration is this to the juggling
hypocrite, that masks himself with an appearance of piety? An infinite
understanding judges not according to veils and shadows, but according
to truth; “He judges not according to appearance” (1 Sam. xvi. 7). The
outward comeliness of a work imposeth not on him, his knowledge, and
therefore his estimations are quite of another nature than those of
men. By this perfection God looks through the veil, and beholds the
litter of abominations in the secrets of the soul; the true quality
and principle of every work, and judges of them as they are, and not
as they appear. Disguised pretexts cannot deceive him; the disguises
are known afar off, before they are weaved; he pierceth into the
depths of the most abstruse wills; all secret ends are dissected
before him; every action is naked in its outside, and open in its
inside; all are as clear to him as if their bodies were of crystal;
so that if there be any secret reserves, he will certainly reprove us
(Job xiii. 10). We are often deceived; we may take wolves for sheep,
and hypocrites for believers; for the eyes of men are no better
than flesh, and dive no further than appearance; but an infinite
understanding, that fathoms the secret depths of the heart, is too
knowing to let a dream pass for a truth, or mistake a shadow for
a body. Though we call God Father all our days, speak the language
of angels, or be endowed with the gifts of miracles, he can discern
whether we have his mark upon us; he can espy the treason of Judas
in a kiss; Herod’s intent of murdering under a specious pretence of
worship; a Pharisee’s fraud under a broad phylactery; a ravenous wolf
under the softness of a sheep’s skin; and the devil in Samuel’s mantle,
or when he would shroud himself among the sons of God (Job i. 6, 7).
All the rooms of the heart, and every atom of dust in the least chink
of it, is clear to his eye; he can strip sin from the fairest excuses,
pierce into the heart with more ease than the sun can through the
thinnest cloud or vapor; and look through all Ephraim’s ingenuous
inventions to excuse his idolatry (Hos. v. 3). Hypocrisy, then,
is a senseless thing, since it cannot escape unmasking, by an
infinite understanding. As all our force cannot stop his arm, when
he is resolved to punish, so all our sophistry cannot blind his
understanding, when he comes to judge. Woe to the hypocrite, for God
sees him; all his juggling is open and naked to infinite understanding.
3. Is it not also a senseless thing to be careless of sins committed
long ago? The old sins forgotten by men, stick fast in an infinite
{a493} understanding: time cannot rase out that which hath been known
from eternity. Why should they be forgotten many years after they
were acted, since they were foreknown in an eternity before they were
committed, or the criminal capable to practise them? Amalek must pay
their arrears of their ancient unkindness to Israel in the time of
Saul, though the generation that committed them were rotten in their
graves (1 Sam. xv. 2). Old sins are written in a book, which lies
always before God; and not only our own sins, but the sins of our
fathers, to be requited upon their posterity.[758] What a vanity
is it then to be regardless of the sins of an age that went before
us! because they are in some measure out of our knowledge, are they
therefore blotted out of God’s remembrance? Sins are bound up with him,
as men do bonds, till they resolve to sue for the debt; the iniquity
of Ephraim is bound up (Hos. xiii. 12). As his foreknowledge extends
to all acts that shall be done, so his remembrance extends to all acts
that have been done. We may as well say, God foreknows nothing that
shall be done to the end of the world, as that he forgets anything
that hath been done from the beginning of the world. The former ages
of the world are no further distant from him than the latter. God hath
a calendar (as it were) or an account book of men’s sins ever since
the beginning of the world, what they did in their childhood, what in
their youth, what in their manhood, and what in their old age: he hath
them in store among his treasures (Deut. xxxii. 34): he hath neither
lost his understanding to know them, nor his resolution to revenge
them: as it follows, “to me vengeance belongs” (ver. 35). He intends
to enrich his justice with a glorious manifestation, by rendering
a due recompense. And it is to be observed, that God doth not only
necessarily remember them, but sometimes binds himself by an oath to
do it (Amos viii. 7); “The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob,
Surely I will never forget any of their works.” Or, in the Hebrew, “If
I ever forget any of their works;” that is, let me not be accounted
a God forever, if I do forget; let me lose my godhead, if I lose
my remembrance. It is not less a misery to the wicked, than it is
a comfort to the godly, that their record is in heaven.
4. Let it be observed, that this infinite understanding doth exactly
know the sins of men; he knows so as to consider. He doth not only
know them, but intently behold them (Ps. xi. 4): “His eyelids try the
children of men,” a metaphor taken from men that contract the eyelids,
when they would wistly and accurately behold a thing; it is not a
transient and careless look (Ps. x. 14): “Thou hast seen it;” thou
hast intently beheld it, as the word properly signifies: he beholds
and knows the actions of every particular man, as if there were none
but he in the world; and doth not only know, but ponder (Prov. v. 21),
and consider their works (Ps. xxxiii. 15); he is not a bare spectator,
but a diligent observer (1 Sam. ii. 3); “By him actions are weighed:”
to see what degree of good or evil there is in them, what there is to
blemish them, what to advantage them, what the quality and quantity of
every action is. Consideration takes in every {a494} circumstance of
the considered object: notice is taken of the place where, the minute
when, the mercy against which it is committed; the number of them is
exact in God’s book: “They have tempted me now these ten times” (Numb.
xiv. 22), against the demonstrations of my glory in Egypt and the
wilderness. The whole guilt in every circumstance is spread before him:
his knowledge of men’s sins is not confused; such an imperfection an
infinite understanding cannot be subject to: it is exact, for iniquity
is marked before him (Jer. ii. 22).
5. God knows men’s miscarriage so as to judge. This use his
omniscience is put to, to maintain his sovereign authority in the
exercise of his justice. His notice of the sins of men is in order to
a just retribution (Ps. x. 14): “Thou hast seen mischief to requite
it with thy hand.” The eye of his knowledge directs the hand of his
justice; and no sinful action that falls under his cognizance, but
will fall under his revenge; they can as little escape his censure as
they can his knowledge: he is a witness in his omniscience, that he
may be a judge in his righteousness; he knows the hearts of the wicked,
so as to hate their works, and testify his abhorrency of that which
is of high value with men (Luke xvi. 15). Sin is not preserved in
his understanding, or written down in his book to be moth‑eaten as
an old manuscript, but to be opened one day, and copied out in the
consciences of men: he writes them to publish them, and sets them
in the light of his countenance, to bring them to the light of their
consciences. What a terrible consideration is it, to think that the
sins of a day are upon record in an infallible understanding, much
more the sins of a week; what a number, then, do the sins of a month,
a year, ten or forty years, arise to! How many actions against charity,
against sincerity! what an infinite number is there of them, all bound
up in the court rolls of God’s omniscience, in order to a trial, to
be brought out before the eyes of men! Who can seriously consider all
those bonds, reserved in the cabinet of God’s knowledge, to be sued
out against the sinner in due time, without an inexpressible horror?
_Use IV._ is of exhortation. Let us have a sense of God’s knowledge
upon our hearts. All wickedness hath a spring from a want of due
consideration and sense of it. David concludes it so (Ps. lxxxvi. 14),
“the proud rose against him, and violent men sought after his soul,
because they did not set God before them.” They think God doth not
know, and therefore care not what, nor how they act. When the fear
of this attribute is removed, a door is opened to all impiety.
What is there so villanous, but the minds of men will attempt to
act? What reverence of a Deity can be left, when the sense of his
infinite understanding is extinguished? What faith could there be in
judgments in witnesses? How would the foundations of human society be
overturned; the pillars upon which commerce stands, be utterly broken
and dissolved! What society can be preserved, if this be not truly
believed, and faithfully stuck to! But how easily would oaths be
swallowed and quickly violated, if the sense of this perfection were
rooted out of the minds of men! What fear could they have of calling
to witness a Being they imagine blind and ignorant? {a495} Men
secretly imagine, that God knows not, or soon forgets, and then make
bold to sin against him (Ezek. viii. 12). How much does it therefore
concern us to cherish and keep alive the sense of this? “If God writes
us upon the palms of his hands,” as the expression is, to remember us,
let us engrave him upon the tables of our hearts to remember him. It
would be a good motto to write upon our minds, God knows all, he is of
infinite understanding.
1. This would give check to much iniquity. Can a man’s conscience
easily and delightfully swallow that which he is sensible falls under
the cognizance of God, when it is hateful to the eyes of his holiness,
and renders the actor odious to him? “Doth he not see my ways, and
count all my steps,” saith Job (xxxi. 4)? To what end doth he fix
this consideration? To keep him from wanton glances; temptations have
no encouragement to come near him, that is constantly armed with the
thoughts that his sin is booked in God’s omniscience. If any impudent
devil hath the face to tempt us, we should not have the impudence to
join issue with him under the sense of an infinite understanding. How
fruitless would his wiles be against this consideration! How easily
would his snares be cracked by one sensible thought of this! This doth
Solomon prescribe to allay the heat of carnal imaginations (Prov. v.
20, 21). It were a useful question to ask, at the appearance of every
temptation, at the entrance upon every action, as the church did in
temptations to idolatry (Ps. xliv. 21): “Shall not God search this out,
for he knows the secrets of the heart?” His understanding comprehends
us more than our consciences can our acts, or our understanding our
thoughts. Who durst speak treason against a prince, if he were sure
he heard him, or that it would come to his knowledge? A sense of God’s
knowledge of wickedness in the first motion, and inward contrivance,
would bar the accomplishment and execution. The consideration of God’s
infinite understanding would cry _stand_ to the first glances of the
heart to sin.
2. It would make us watchful over our hearts and thoughts. Should we
harbor any unworthy thoughts in our cabinet, if our heads and hearts
were possessed with this useful truth, that God knows everything which
comes into our minds (Ezek. xi. 5)? We should as much blush at the
rising of impure thoughts before the understanding of God, as at the
discovery of unworthy actions to the knowledge of men, if we lived
under a sense, that not a thought of all those millions, which flutter
about our minds, can be concealed from him. How watchful and careful
should we be of our hearts and thoughts!
3. It would be a good preparation to every duty. This consideration
should be the preface to every service; the Divine understanding
knows how I now act. This would engage us to serious intention, and
quell wandering and distracting fancies. Who would come before God,
with a careless and ignorant soul, under a sense of his infinite
understanding, and prerogative of searching the heart? “O thou that
sittest in heaven!” was a consideration the psalmist had at the
beginning of his prayer (Ps. cxxiii. 1): whereby he testifies not only
an apprehension of the majesty and power of God, but of his {a496}
omniscience; as one sitting above, beholds all that is below; would we
offer to God such raw and undigested petitions? would there be so much
flatness in our services? should our hearts so often give us the slip?
would any hang down their heads like a bulrush, by an affected or
counterfeit humility, while the heart is filled with pride, if we did
actuate faith in this attribute? No; our prayers would be more sound,
our devotions more vigorous, our hearts more close, our spirits like
the chariots of Aminadab, more swift in their motions: everything
would be done by us with all our might, which would be very feeble
and faint, if we conceived God to be of a finite understanding like
ourselves. Let us therefore, before every duty, not draw, but open the
curtains between God and our souls, and think that we are going before
him that sees us, before him that knows us (Gen. xvi. 12). And the
stronger impressions of the Divine knowledge are upon our minds, the
better would our preparation be for, and the more active our frames in
every service: and certainly we may judge of the suitableness of our
preparations, by the strength of such impressions upon us.
4. This would tend to make us sincere in our whole course. This
prescription David gave to Solomon, to maintain a soundness and
health of spirit in his walk before God (1 Chron. xxviii. 9): “And
thou, Solomon, my son, know the God of thy fathers, and serve him
with a perfect heart, for the Lord understands all the imaginations
of the thoughts.” Josephus gives this reason for Abel’s holiness,
that he believed God was ignorant of nothing.[759] As the doctrine of
omniscience is the foundation of all religion, so the impression of
it would promote the practice of all religion. When all our ways are
imagined by us to be before the Lord, we shall then keep his precepts
(Ps. cxix. 168). And we can never be perfect or sincere till we “walk
before God” (Gen. xvii. 1); as under the eye of God’s knowledge. What
we speak, what we think, what we act, is in his sight; he knows every
place where we are, everything that we do, as well as Christ knew
Nathaniel under the fig‑tree. As he is too powerful to be vanquished,
so he is too understanding to be deceived; the sense of this would
make us walk with as much care, as if the understanding of all men did
comprehend us and our actions.