1 Timothy 5:24

St. Paul had just before exhorted Timothy to keep himself pure from other men's sins, whether candidates or penitents: here comes in subsequent advice, in order thereunto: as if our apostle had said, "Timothy, if thou beest diligent to observe, and not over hasty either in ordaining candidates, or absolving penitents, thou mayest in some measure perceive who are worthy, and who are unworthy. If thou layest thine hands upon those who are actually faulty, thou partakest with them, by being an occasion of their sinning; but if thou canst not discover their faultiness beforehand, though they afterwards prove wicked, it is not thy fault; God will at length detect them, yea, they will discover themselves; and when their faults are manifest, deal with them according to the discipline of the church."

Learn hence, 1. That how much soever sinners attempt the hiding, yet they cnnot actually hide themselves, or their sinnings, from God's sight and knowledge. They cannot be hid, says St. Paul, though men labour much to hide them.

Oh! sinner, there is no way to hide thyself from God: thou mayest by repentance hide thyself in God, in the love, in the favour, in the mercy of God, but from God thou canst not be hid. As the saints' good works are open and manifest in the sight and to the view of God, so they that are otherwise cannot be hid from him who is every where? Or what thing can be our covering from him, in whose sight all things are open? Lord! what will it avail to hide ourselves from men, when we lie open and manifest to the eye of God? They that are otherwise cannot be hid.