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A65297 Gods anatomy upon mans heart. Or, A sermon preached by order of the Honorable House of Commons, at Margarets Westminster, Decemb. 27. Being a day of publick humiliation By Thomas Watson, pastor of Stephens Walbrooke, London. Watson, Thomas, d. 1686. 1654 (1654) Wing W1125A; ESTC R220974 18,171 56

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all written in thy Book 2. Afarre off that is either 1. God knows our thoughts before we our selves know them He knows what designes are in the heart and men would certainly pursue did not he turne the wheele another way God knew what was in Herods minde before Herod himself knew it viz. that he would have destroyed the childe Jesus God knew his thoughts afarre off he sees what blood and venome is in the heart of a sinner though it never comes to have vent he looks at the intention though it be not put in execution Secondly Afarre off that is God knows our thoughts when we have forgotten them they are afarre off to us but they are present with him These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy selfe c. That is that I had a weak memory but I will reprove thee and set thy sinnes in order before thee * Millions of years are but as a short Parenthesis between and that we may not thinke God forgets he keeps a Book of Records Rev. 20. 12. I saw the dead small and great stand before the Lord and the Books were opened God writes down Item such a sinne and if the Book be not discharged there will be an heavy reckoning to every beleever the debt-book is crossed the black lines of sinne are crossed out in the red lines of Christs blood To instance in one Scripture more The night shineth as the day Psal. 39. 12. The Cloudes are no Canopy the night is no Curtain to draw between or intercept his knowledge we cannot write our sinnes in so small or strange a character but God can read he hath a key for them Indeed we know not sometimes what to make of his Providences His way is in the Sanctuary * we cannot read his hand-writing but He understands our Hearts without a commentary He is privy to all our treachery though we think to keep it under lock and key We cannot climb so high but he sees us we cannot dig so low but he takes notice The men of Babel were climbing very high they would make a City and Tower the top whereof should reach to heaven and so indeed it did for God saw them all the while and what became of it He divided their language * Achan digs deep to hide his counsels saying No eye shall see he takes the Babylonish garment and hides it in the earth with the wedge of Gold but God unmasks his theevery * If there be any here that when they should have been doing Gods work have been by stealth hiding the Babylonish garment making themselves rich feathering their own nests instead of driving in nailes into Gods Temple to fasten it have been driving a wedge of gold into their chests God sees it let me tell you all the gaine you get you may put in your eyes nay if you belong to God you must and weep it out againe God hath a window that looks into your hearts Momus complained of Vulcan that he had not set a grate at every mans breast God hath such a grate he is the great Superintendent we come into the world as upon a Theatre every man acts his severall Part or Scene God is both the Spectator and the Judge You have seen the Doctrine proved For the Amplification let us consider what the knowledge of God is it is a most pure act by which he doth at one instant know himselfe in himself and all things without himselfe not only necessary and contingent but which shall never be after a most perfect exquisite and infallible manner Out of this description we may gather two things 1. That there is no Succession in Gods knowledge it is uno intuitu our knowledge is per ●rius posterius from the effect to the cause it is not so in God 2. Things that are not have an objective being in his knowledge Rom. 4. 17. He calls things that are not as if they were even these non entia have an Idea in his knowledge Quest Here a question may be started If there be such perfection in the knowledg of God then he knows sin Resp. The Schools distinguish of a double knowledge in God There is 1. Scientia simplicis intelligentiae a knowledge of pure intelligence and thus he knows evil by a contrary good as the light discovers the darknesse So we say Rectum est index sui obliqui The straight rule shews the crooked 2. There is a knowledge of approbation Thus God doth not know sinne for he hates it he punisheth it Christ was made sinne yet he knew no sinne he did know it so as to hate it not so as to act or approve it I passe to the Reasons 1. Reason From his creation God is the Father of lights therefore must needs see It is his own Argument He that planted the eare shall he not heare he that formed the eye shall he not see He that makes a Watch knows all the pins and wheels in it and though these wheels move crosse one to another he knows the true and perfect motion of the Watch and the spring that sets these wheels a going He that formed the eye shall he not see Man may be compared to a spiritual Watch The affections are the wheels the heart is the spring the motion of this Watch is false the heart is deceitful but God that made this watch knowes the true motion of it be it never so false and the spring that sets the wheels a going God knows us better then we know our selves He is as Ezekiels wheels full of eyes and as Augustin saith he is totus oculus all eye * 2. Reason From his ubiquity He is Omniscient because Omnipresent Ier. 23. 24. Do not I fill heaven and earth He is no where included and yet no where excluded His circumference is every where God hath an eye in Councels in Armies he makes an Heartanatomy he sees what mens designes are and whither they are driving If hatred weares the livery of Friendship if Ambition comes masqued with humility if Religion be made a stirrup to get into the saddle of preferment God sees it And though they dig into hell thence shall my hand take them Amos 9. 2. God can unlock hell Plato saith of the King of Lydia he had a Ring when he turned the head of it to the palme of his hand he could see every one but himself walk invisible Thus God observes all our actings but himselfe is not seene as the Apostle argues 1 Tim. 6. 16. Therefore the Schoolmen say well Deus est in loco repletivè Man may be circumscribed the Angels may be defined but God is in every place by way of repletion His Centre is every where and his eye is ever in his Centre Object 1. But is it not said Gen. 18. 21. I will go down and see whether it be
GODS Anatomy UPON MANS HEART Or A SERMON PREACHED BY ORDER Of the Honourable House of COMMONS At Margarets Westminster Decemb. 27. Being a day of Publick Humiliation By THOMAS WATSON Pastor of Stephens Walbrooke London The Third Impression Doth not he see my wayes and count all my steps Job 31. 4. Propè Deus est tecum est intus est London Printed for Ralph Smith and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Bible in Cornhill neer the Royall Exchange 1654. GODS Anatomy UPON MANS HEART HEB. 4. 12. But all things are naked and open'd unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do WE are met this day to humble our soules and to bring our Censer as once Aaron did and step in that the wrath of the great GOD may be appeased And was there ever need to lie in sackcloth then when the Kingdome almost lies in ashes Or to shed teares then when the Nation hath shed so much blood These dayes are called in Scripture Soul-afflicting dayes Lev. 23. 29. For whatsoever soule it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day he shall be cut off from among his people And certainly that may be one reason why there is so much State-affliction because there is so little Soulaffliction Our condition is low but our hearts are high God sees with what hearts we now come what is our spring what our centre his eye is upon us So saith my Text All things are naked and open I shall wave the Coherence lest I be prevented and handle the words as an entire Proposition We have here a Map of Gods Knowledge But before I extract any thing I will first open the Terms In the Law first the Lamps were lighted before the Incense was burned I may allude First the judgement is to be enlightned by Doctrine before the affections are set on fire Ministers must be first shining and then burning Lamps All things are naked Some Expositors translate the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Excoriata And to this sense Chrysostome inclines It is a Metaphor from the taking off the skin of any beast which doth then appeare naked Thus our hearts are said to be naked they lie open to the eye of God they have no covering there is no vaile over the heart of a sinner but the vaile of unbelief and this covering makes him naked This is not all the Apostle goes higher They are naked and open {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Interpreters render Per spinam dorsi findere It alludes to the cutting up of the Sacrifices under the Law where the Priest did divide the Beast in pieces and so the intestina the inward parts were made visible Or it may allude to an Anatomy where there is a dissection and cutting up of every part the Mesentery the Liver the Arteries Such a kinde of Anatomy doth God make an heart-Anatomy He doth cut up the inwards and makes a difference This is Flesh that is Spirit this is faith that is fancy He makes a dissection as the knife that divides between the flesh and the bones the bones and the marrow the sinews and the veins All things are open {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} They are cut up before him The next word is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} All things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as a Learned Writer upon the words There is nothing scapes his eye and herein Gods knowledge doth infinitely differ from ours We cannot see in the dark nor can we see many things at once but it is not so with him Nihil tam profundum quod non extrahatur in lucem There is nothing so deep but God will bring it above-board Who will bring to light {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the hidden things of darknesse And he sees many things at once nay all are as if they were but one Scientia Dei est infinita in singulis in omnibus tanquam unum esset singulare All things being represented to him in the pure Crystal of his own Essence are but as one individual thing Again unto his eyes Eyes are ascribed to God not properly but Metaphorically Idols have eyes yet they see not God hath no eyes yet he sees the eye of God is put in Scripture for his Knowledge all things are naked to his eye that is they are obvious to his Knowledge We cannot sinne but it must be in the face of our Judge The last word is with whom we have to do {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pro {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Cornel à lapide The sense is cleare To whom we must give an account So some translate it Reddere rationem * And Oecumenius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} To whom we must be responsible The words thus opened fall into these parts 1. Here is the Judge that is God Unto the eyes of Him 2. The matter of fact All things 3. The Evidence given in All things are Naked 4. The clearnesse of the evidence Naked and Open 5. The Witnesses his eyes 6. The persons to be adjudged either for life or death We that is every individual person There is none exempted from this General Assize With whom we have to do The Proposition I shall dilate upon is this That the most secret Cabinet-designes of mans heart are all unlocked and clearely anatomized before the Lord I might produce a whole cloud of witnesses giving in their full vote and suffrage to this truth I shall rest in two or three that in the mouth of three witnesses this great truth may be established He knows the secrets of the heart Psal. 44. 21. in the originall it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the hidden things of the heart those which are most veiled and masked from humane perception And Psal. 139. 2. Thou knowest my thoughts afarre off Here are two words that set out the infinitenesse of Gods knowledge First Thou knowest my thoughts there is nothing can be paralle'ld with a thought First For its subtilty 't is called the imagination of the thought * or as the word may bear the first embryo and forming of the thought that is a thing very subtle and scarce discernable Secondly For its celerity our thoughts are winged like the Cherubims they will in an instant travel over the world they are swifter then Eagles * but he that rides upon the swift cloud can over-take them he can out-march them Thirdly For its incongruity our thoughts are snarl'd and tangled one within another they have no dependance they may be inter anomala yet even these thoughts are knowne to God and set in their proper Sphere what David saith of his members may be said of our thoughts Are they not