Reading the great Protestant books

'In this sense, a godly man does not indulge sin. Though sin is in him, he is troubled at it and would gladly get rid of it. There is as much difference between sin in the wicked and the godly as between poisin being in the serpent and in a man. Poison in a serpent is in its natural place and is delightful, but poison in a man's body is offensive and he uses antidotes to expel it. So sin in a child of God is burdensome and he uses all means to expel it. The sin is trimmed off. The will is against it. A godly man enters his protest agaisnt sin: 'What I do I allow not' (Romans 7:15). A child of God, while he commits sin, hates the sin he commits (Romans 7). In particular there are four sorts of sin which a godly man will not allow himself:

1 Secret sins. Some are more modest than to commit gross sin. That would be a stain on their reputation. But they will sit brooding upon sin in a corner: 'Saul secretly practised mischief' (1 Sam. 23:9). All will not sin on a balcony but perhaps they will sin behind the curtain. Rachel did not carry her father's images like a saddle cloth to be exposed to public view, but she put them under her and set on them (Gen. 31:34).

But a godly man dare not sin secretly:
(i) He knows that God sees in secret (Psalm 44:21). As God cannot be decieved by our subtlety, so he cannont be excluded by our secrecy.
(ii) A godly man knows the that secret sins are in some sense worse than others. They reveal more guile and atheism. The curtain-sinner makes himselfe believe that God does not see: 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, for they say, The Lord seeth us not' (Ezek. 8:12). Those who have bad eyes think that the sun is dim. How it provokes God, that man's atheism should give the lie to his omniscience! 'He that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9).
(iii) A godly man knows that secret sins shall not escape God's justice. A judge on the bench can punish no offence but what is proved by witnesses. He cannot punish the treason of the heart, but the sins of the heart are visible to God as if they were written upon the forehead. As God will reward secret duties, so will he revenge secret sins.
p. 146-147

Watson was a puritan preacher. His works are good and should be read. His works are not as hard to read as John Owen's.

God sees all of our sins. Nothing we do is hidden from Him.

Related Tags: God, Thomas Watson, godly man, sin, omniscience, Puritan