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gent. God fees it as both, and fo, as that which until it is, may be, or not be; and when it comes to pafs, he fees the man do it freely; and fo before it be done, it hath no neceffity; but upon fuppofition of forefight; as when it is, it hath upon fuppofition, that it is, as Origen excellently explains it. Foreknowledge is not the caufe of the things that are foreknown; but because the thing is future and fhall be, this is the reason why it is foreknown; for it doth not, because it was known, come to pafs; but because it was to come to pafs, therefore it was foreknown; and bare knowledge is no more the cause of any event, which because it is known must infallibly be, than my feeing a man run, is the caufe of his running, which, because I do fee, is infallibly fo.

2. If God infallibly foreknows what men will do, how can he be ferious in his exhortations to repentance, his expectation of it, and his grieving for the impenitency of men?

Answer. All these are founded in the liberty of our actions. God exhorts to repentance, and expects it, because, by his grace, we may do it: He is faid to grieve for our impenitency, because we may do otherwife, and will not. Exhortations are not in vain themselves, but very proper to their end; though, through our obftinacy and hardness, they may be rendered vain to us, and without effect. If the weight of the objection lies upon ferious, and you ask how God can exhort men feriously to that which he forefees that they will not do; thofe whom he foreknows will be finally impenitent? I anfwer, If his exhortations were not ferious, he could not foresee the final impenitency of men. To foresee mens final impenitency, is to fore-fee their wilful contempt of God's warnings and exhortations, and rejection of his grace. Now mens wilful contempt of his warnings and exhortations cannot be forefeen, unless God foresee that his exhortations are ferious, and in good earnest.

Having answered the objections against God's foreknowing future events, I proceed to fhew, Ff2

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II. That God only knows future events, Ifa. xliv. 6, 7. Thus faith the Lord the King of Ifrael, and his Redeemer the Lord of hofts, I am the first, and I am the laft, and befides me there is no God: And who, as I, fhall call, and fhall declare it, and fet it in order for me, fince I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come? let them fhew unto them. Ifa. xlvi. 9, 10. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none elfe, I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, faying, My counsel fhall ftand, and I will do all my pleasure.

The reafon is evident, becaufe the knowledge of future events is beyond the reach of any finite underftanding; efpecially if we grant it to be beyond our finite understanding, to explain the poffibility of fuch a knowledge; for, to be fure, that is out of the reach of our knowledge, which we cannot fo much as underftand how it is poffible it fhould be known by any understanding.

But it may here be objected? Did not the oracles among the Heathen foretel feveral things, which Chriftians are fatisfied came from the Devil? I have not time at present to examine the business of heathen oracles; I could eafily fhew there was much impofture in them: But grant they were really delivered and given out by a fpirit; yet the darkness and ambiguity, the affected and contrived ambiguity, is fuch, as fhews that the Devil was confcious to himfelf of the uncertainty of his knowledge in those matters and thofe few that came to pafs, and are in any tolerable fenfe faid to be accomplished, were in fuch matters, either wherein prudent conjecture might go far (and I grant the Devil to be a fagacious fpirit); or elfe in disjunctive cafes, as when there are but two ways for a thing to be, it must either be fo, or fo, in which a bold gueffing may often hit right: but gueffing at future things, is far from a knowledge of them, which only can clearly be made out by punctual and particular predictions of things, with circumstances of time and perfon, fuch as we

find in fcripture in many inftances, to the prediction of which, the greatest fagacity, and the utmoft gueffing could do nothing, fuch as thofe predictions of which I gave inftances out of fcripture.

I have now done with the first general head I propofed to be spoken to from these words, viz. To prove that this attribute of knowledge belongs to God. I proceed to the

Second, viz. To confider the perfection and prerogative of the divine knowledge; which I fhall speak to in these following particulars:

1. God's knowledge is prefent and actual, his eye is always open, and every thing is in the view of it. The knowledge of the creature is more power than act it is not much that we are capable of knowing, but there is very little that we do actually know: it is but one thing that we can fix our thoughts upon at once, and apply our minds to; we can remove them to another object, but then we must take off our minds from the former, and quit the actual knowledge of it but the knowledge of God is an actual and steady comprehenfion of things he being every where prefent, and all eye, nothing can efcape his fight, but all the objects are at once in the view of the divine understanding, Heb. iv. 13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his fight: but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do..

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2. God's knowledge is an intimate and thorougly knowledge, whereby he knows the very nature and effence of things. The knowledge which we have of things is but in part, but outward and fuperficial 3 our knowledge glides upon the fuperficies of things, but doth not penetrate into the intimate nature of them, it feldom reacheth further than the skin and outward appearance of things; we do not know things in their realities, but as they appear and are reprefented to us with all their masks and difguifes: but God knows things as they are, 1 Sam. xvi.7. The Lord feeth not as man feeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord lookethe on the heart: God knows things throughout all that

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can be known of them. The quick and piercing eye of God penetrates into every thing; the light of the divine understanding lays all things open and naked, Heb. iv. 13. In which expreffion the Apoftle alludes to the facrifices of beafts, which were flea'd, and cleft down the back-bone, that the Prieft might look into them, and fee whether they were without blemish. To the eye of our understandings moft objects are clofe, and have their skins upon them; but to the eyes of God all things are uncovered and diffected, and ly open to his view.

3. God's knowledge is clear and diftinct. Our understandings in the knowledge of things are liable to great confufion; we are often deceived with the near likeness and resemblance of things, and miftake one thing for another; our knowledge is but a twilight, which doth not fufficiently feparate and diftinguish things from one another; we fee things many times together, and in a heap, and do but know them in grofs: but there is no confufion in the divine understanding, that is a clear light which feparates and diftinguifheth things of the greatest nearness and refemblance. God hath a particular knowledge of the least things: Luke xii. 7. Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered; those things which are of the leaft confideration, and have the greatest likenefs to one another; the very hairs of your head are feverally and distinctly known to God.

4. God's knowledge is certain and infallible. We are fubject to doubt and error in our understanding of things; every thing almoft impofeth upon our understandings, and tinctures our minds, and makes us look on things otherwife than they are; our temper and complexion, our education and prejudice, our intereft and advantage, our humours and diftempers; thefe all mifreprefent things, and darken our minds, and feduce our judgments, and betray us to error and mistake: but the divine understanding is a clear, fixed, conftant, and undisturbed light, a pure mirror that receives no ftain from affection,

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343 or intereft, or any other thing. Men are many times confident, and apt to impofe upon others, as if they were infallible but this is the prerogative of God, the privilege of the divine understanding, that it is fecure from all poffibility of error: it is God only that cannot lie, Tit. i. 2. because he cannot be deceived. The infallibility of God is the foundation of his veracity.

5. The knowledge of God is eafy and without dif ficulty. We must dig deep for knowledge, take a great deal of pains to know a little; we do not attain the knowledge of things without fearch and ftudy, and great intention of mind we strive to comprehend fome things, but they are fo vaft that we cannot other things are at fuch a diftance, that our understanding is too weak to difcern them; 0ther things are fo little, and fmall, and nice, that our understanding cannot lay hold of them, we can not contract our minds to fuch point as to faften upon them; but the understanding of God being infinite, there is nothing at a distance from it, nothing too great and vaft for its comprehenfion; nor is there any thing fo little, that it can efcape his knowledge and animadverfion. The great wifdom of Solomon is compared to the fand on the fea-fhore; the fhore is vaft, but the fands are little, (faith one) to fignify that the vaft mind of Solomon did comprehend the leaft things. It is much more true of God; understanding is a vaft comprehenfion of the least things, as well as the greatest; and and all this God does without difficulty or pain; he knows all things without ftudy, and his understanding is in continual exercife without wearinefs. How many things are there which we cannot find out without fearch, without looking narrowly into, and bending our minds to. understand them? But all things are obvious to God, and ly open to his view.

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He is faid, indeed, in fcripture, to fearch the heart, and to try the reins, and to weigh the Spirits: but thefe expreffions do not fignify the pain fulness, but the perfection of his knowledge thatbe knows thofe things as perfectly as we can do any

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